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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund
+Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
+
+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: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12)
+
+Author: Edmund Burke
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15700]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURKE VOL 4 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made
+available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France
+(BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WORKS
+
+OF
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
+
+EDMUND BURKE
+
+
+IN TWELVE VOLUMES
+
+VOLUME THE FOURTH
+
+
+[Illustration: Burke Coat of Arms.]
+
+
+LONDON
+JOHN C. NIMMO
+14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.
+MDCCCLXXXVII
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL IV.
+
+
+LETTER TO A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, IN ANSWER TO SOME
+OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS                               1
+
+APPEAL FROM THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS                                  57
+
+LETTER TO A PEER OF IRELAND ON THE PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH
+CATHOLICS                                                            217
+
+LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ROMAN
+CATHOLICS OF IRELAND                                                 241
+
+HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL TO BE DELIVERED TO MONSIEUR DE M.M.             307
+
+THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS                                           313
+
+HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS              379
+
+REMARKS ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE: WITH
+AN APPENDIX                                                          403
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+LETTER
+
+TO
+
+A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY,
+
+IN
+
+ANSWER TO SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
+
+1791.
+
+
+Sir,--I had the honor to receive your letter of the 17th of November
+last, in which, with some exceptions, you are pleased to consider
+favorably the letter I have written on the affairs of France. I shall
+ever accept any mark of approbation attended with instruction with more
+pleasure than general and unqualified praises. The latter can serve only
+to flatter our vanity; the former, whilst it encourages us to proceed,
+may help to improve us in our progress.
+
+Some of the errors you point out to me in my printed letter are really
+such. One only I find to be material. It is corrected in the edition
+which I take the liberty of sending to you. As to the cavils which may
+be made on some part of my remarks with regard to the _gradations_ in
+your new Constitution, you observe justly that they do not affect the
+substance of my objections. Whether there be a round more or less in the
+ladder of representation by which your workmen ascend from their
+parochial tyranny to their federal anarchy, when the whole scale is
+false, appears to me of little or no importance.
+
+I published my thoughts on that Constitution, that my countrymen might
+be enabled to estimate the wisdom of the plans which were held out to
+their imitation. I conceived that the true character of those plans
+would be best collected from the committee appointed to prepare them. I
+thought that the scheme of their building would be better comprehended
+in the design of the architects than in the execution of the masons. It
+was not worth my reader's while to occupy himself with the alterations
+by which bungling practice corrects absurd theory. Such an investigation
+would be endless: because every day's past experience of
+impracticability has driven, and every day's future experience will
+drive, those men to new devices as exceptionable as the old, and which
+are no otherwise worthy of observation than as they give a daily proof
+of the delusion of their promises and the falsehood of their
+professions. Had I followed all these changes, my letter would have been
+only a gazette of their wanderings, a journal of their march from error
+to error, through a dry, dreary desert, unguided by the lights of
+Heaven, or by the contrivance which wisdom has invented to supply their
+place.
+
+I am unalterably persuaded that the attempt to oppress, degrade,
+impoverish, confiscate, and extinguish the original gentlemen and landed
+property of a whole nation cannot be justified under any form it may
+assume. I am satisfied beyond a doubt, that the project of turning a
+great empire into a vestry, or into a collection of vestries, and of
+governing it in the spirit of a parochial administration, is senseless
+and absurd, in any mode or with any qualifications. I can never be
+convinced that the scheme of placing the highest powers of the state in
+church-wardens and constables and other such officers, guided by the
+prudence of litigious attorneys and Jew brokers, and set in action by
+shameless women of the lowest condition, by keepers of hotels, taverns,
+and brothels, by pert apprentices, by clerks, shop-boys, hair-dressers,
+fiddlers, and dancers on the stage, (who, in such a commonwealth as
+yours, will in future overbear, as already they have overborne, the
+sober incapacity of dull, uninstructed men, of useful, but laborious
+occupations,) can never be put into any shape that must not be both
+disgraceful and destructive. The whole of this project, even if it were
+what it pretends to be, and was not in reality the dominion, through
+that disgraceful medium, of half a dozen, or perhaps fewer, intriguing
+politicians, is so mean, so low-minded, so stupid a contrivance, in
+point of wisdom, as well as so perfectly detestable for its wickedness,
+that I must always consider the correctives which might make it in any
+degree practicable to be so many new objections to it.
+
+In that wretched state of things, some are afraid that the authors of
+your miseries may be led to precipitate their further designs by the
+hints they may receive from the very arguments used to expose the
+absurdity of their system, to mark the incongruity of its parts, and its
+inconsistency with their own principles,--and that your masters may be
+led to render their schemes more consistent by rendering them more
+mischievous. Excuse the liberty which your indulgence authorizes me to
+take, when I observe to you that such apprehensions as these would
+prevent all exertion of our faculties in this great cause of mankind.
+
+A rash recourse to _force_ is not to be justified in a state of real
+weakness. Such attempts bring on disgrace, and in their failure
+discountenance and discourage more rational endeavors. But _reason_ is
+to be hazarded, though it may be perverted by craft and sophistry; for
+reason can suffer no loss nor shame, nor can it impede any useful plan
+of future policy. In the unavoidable uncertainty as to the effect,
+which attends on every measure of human prudence, nothing seems a surer
+antidote to the poison of fraud than its detection. It is true, the
+fraud may be swallowed after this discovery, and perhaps even swallowed
+the more greedily for being a detected fraud. Men sometimes make a point
+of honor not to be disabused; and they had rather fall into an hundred
+errors than confess one. But, after all, when neither our principles nor
+our dispositions, nor, perhaps, our talents, enable us to encounter
+delusion with delusion, we must use our best reason to those that ought
+to be reasonable creatures, and to take our chance for the event. We
+cannot act on these anomalies in the minds of men. I do not conceive
+that the persons who have contrived these things can be made much the
+better or the worse for anything which can be said to them. _They_ are
+reason-proof. Here and there, some men, who were at first carried away
+by wild, good intentions, may be led, when their first fervors are
+abated, to join in a sober survey of the schemes into which they had
+been deluded. To those only (and I am sorry to say they are not likely
+to make a large description) we apply with any hope. I may speak it upon
+an assurance almost approaching to absolute knowledge, that nothing has
+been done that has not been contrived from the beginning, even before
+the States had assembled. _Nulla nova mihi res inopinave surgit._ They
+are the same men and the same designs that they were from the first,
+though varied in their appearance. It was the very same animal that at
+first crawled about in the shape of a caterpillar that you now see rise
+into the air and expand his wings to the sun.
+
+Proceeding, therefore, as we are obliged to proceed,--that is, upon an
+hypothesis that we address rational men,--can false political principles
+be more effectually exposed than by demonstrating that they lead to
+consequences directly inconsistent with and subversive of the
+arrangements grounded upon them? If this kind of demonstration is not
+permitted, the process of reasoning called _deductio ad absurdum_, which
+even the severity of geometry does not reject, could not be employed at
+all in legislative discussions. One of our strongest weapons against
+folly acting with authority would be lost.
+
+You know, Sir, that even the virtuous efforts of your patriots to
+prevent the ruin of your country have had this very turn given to them.
+It has been said here, and in France too, that the reigning usurpers
+would not have carried their tyranny to such destructive lengths, if
+they had not been stimulated and provoked to it by the acrimony of your
+opposition. There is a dilemma to which every opposition to successful
+iniquity must, in the nature of things, be liable. If you lie still, you
+are considered as an accomplice in the measures in which you silently
+acquiesce. If you resist, you are accused of provoking irritable power
+to new excesses. The conduct of a losing party never appears right: at
+least, it never can possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to
+vulgar judgments,--success.
+
+The indulgence of a sort of undefined hope, an obscure confidence, that
+some lurking remains of virtue, some degree of shame, might exist in the
+breasts of the oppressors of France, has been among the causes which
+have helped to bring on the common ruin of king and people. There is no
+safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men,
+and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
+I well remember, at every epocha of this wonderful history, in every
+scene of this tragic business, that, when your sophistic usurpers were
+laying down mischievous principles, and even applying them in direct
+resolutions, it was the fashion to say that they never intended to
+execute those declarations in their rigor. This made men careless in
+their opposition, and remiss in early precaution. By holding out this
+fallacious hope, the impostors deluded sometimes one description of men,
+and sometimes another, so that no means of resistance were provided
+against them, when they came to execute in cruelty what they had planned
+in fraud.
+
+There are cases in which a man would be ashamed not to have been imposed
+on. There is a confidence necessary to human intercourse, and without
+which men are often more injured by their own suspicions than they would
+be by the perfidy of others. But when men whom we _know_ to be wicked
+impose upon us, we are something worse than dupes. When we know them,
+their fair pretences become new motives for distrust. There is one case,
+indeed, in which it would be madness not to give the fullest credit to
+the most deceitful of men,--that is, when they make declarations of
+hostility against us.
+
+I find that some persons entertain other hopes, which I confess appear
+more specious than those by which at first so many were deluded and
+disarmed. They flatter themselves that the extreme misery brought upon
+the people by their folly will at last open the eyes of the multitude,
+if not of their leaders. Much the contrary, I fear. As to the leaders in
+this system of imposture,--you know that cheats and deceivers never can
+repent. The fraudulent have no resource but in fraud. They have no other
+goods in their magazine. They have no virtue or wisdom in their minds,
+to which, in a disappointment concerning the profitable effects of fraud
+and cunning, they can retreat. The wearing out of an old serves only to
+put them upon the invention of a new delusion. Unluckily, too, the
+credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as the invention of knaves. They
+never give people possession; but they always keep them in hope. Your
+state doctors do not so much as pretend that any good whatsoever has
+hitherto been derived from their operations, or that the public has
+prospered in any one instance under their management. The nation is
+sick, very sick, by their medicines. But the charlatan tells them that
+what is past cannot be helped;--they have taken the draught, and they
+must wait its operation with patience;--that the first effects, indeed,
+are unpleasant, but that the very sickness is a proof that the dose is
+of no sluggish operation;--that sickness is inevitable in all
+constitutional revolutions;--that the body must pass through pain to
+ease;--that the prescriber is not an empiric who proceeds by vulgar
+experience, but one who grounds his practice[1] on the sure rules of
+art, which cannot possibly fail. You have read, Sir, the last manifesto,
+or mountebank's bill, of the National Assembly. You see their
+presumption in their promises is not lessened by all their failures in
+the performance. Compare this last address of the Assembly and the
+present state of your affairs with the early engagements of that body,
+engagements which, not content with declaring, they solemnly deposed
+upon oath,--swearing lustily, that, if they were supported, they would
+make their country glorious and happy; and then judge whether those who
+can write such things, or those who can bear to read them, are of
+_themselves_ to be brought to any reasonable course of thought or
+action.
+
+As to the people at large, when once these miserable sheep have broken
+the fold, and have got themselves loose, not from the restraint, but
+from the protection, of all the principles of natural authority and
+legitimate subordination, they become the natural prey of impostors.
+When they have once tasted of the flattery of knaves, they can no longer
+endure reason, which appears to them only in the form of censure and
+reproach. Great distress has never hitherto taught, and whilst the world
+lasts it never will teach, wise lessons to any part of mankind. Men are
+as much blinded by the extremes of misery as by the extremes of
+prosperity. Desperate situations produce desperate councils and
+desperate measures. The people of France, almost generally, have been
+taught to look for other resources than those which can be derived from
+order, frugality, and industry. They are generally armed; and they are
+made to expect much from the use of arms. _Nihil non arrogant armis._
+Besides this, the retrograde order of society has something flattering
+to the dispositions of mankind. The life of adventurers, gamesters,
+gypsies, beggars, and robbers is not unpleasant. It requires restraint
+to keep men from falling into that habit. The shifting tides of fear
+and hope, the flight and pursuit, the peril and escape, the alternate
+famine and feast of the savage and the thief, after a time; render all
+course of slow, steady, progressive, unvaried occupation, and the
+prospect only of a limited mediocrity at the end of long labor, to the
+last degree tame, languid, and insipid. Those who have been once
+intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it,
+even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may
+be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look
+to anything but power for their relief. When did distress ever oblige a
+prince to abdicate his authority? And what effect will it have upon
+those who are made to believe themselves a people of princes?
+
+The more active and stirring part of the lower orders having got
+government and the distribution of plunder into their hands, they will
+use its resources in each municipality to form a body of adherents.
+These rulers and their adherents will be strong enough to overpower the
+discontents of those who have not been able to assert their share of the
+spoil. The unfortunate adventurers in the cheating lottery of plunder
+will probably be the least sagacious or the most inactive and irresolute
+of the gang. If, on disappointment, they should dare to stir, they will
+soon be suppressed as rebels and mutineers by their brother rebels.
+Scantily fed for a while with the offal of plunder, they will drop off
+by degrees; they will be driven out of sight and out of thought; and
+they will be left to perish obscurely, like rats, in holes and corners.
+
+From the forced repentance of invalid mutineers and disbanded thieves
+you can hope for no resource. Government itself, which ought to
+constrain the more bold and dexterous of these robbers, is their
+accomplice. Its arms, its treasures, its all are in their hands.
+Judicature, which above all things should awe them, is their creature
+and their instrument. Nothing seems to me to render your internal
+situation more desperate than this one circumstance of the state of your
+judicature. Many days are not passed since we have seen a set of men
+brought forth by your rulers for a most critical function. Your rulers
+brought forth a set of men, steaming from the sweat and drudgery, and
+all black with the smoke and soot, of the forge of confiscation and
+robbery,--_ardentis massæ fuligine lippos_,--a set of men brought forth
+from the trade of hammering arms of proof, offensive and defensive, in
+aid of the enterprises, and for the subsequent protection, of
+housebreakers, murderers, traitors, and malefactors,--men, who had their
+minds seasoned with theories perfectly conformable to their practice,
+and who had always laughed at possession and prescription, and defied
+all the fundamental maxims of jurisprudence. To the horror and
+stupefaction of all the honest part of this nation, and indeed of all
+nations who are spectators, we have seen, on the credit of those very
+practices and principles, and to carry them further into effect, these
+very men placed on the sacred seat of justice in the capital city of
+your late kingdom. We see that in future you are to be destroyed with
+more form and regularity. This is not peace: it is only the introduction
+of a sort of discipline in their hostility. Their tyranny is complete in
+their justice; and their _lanterne_ is not half so dreadful as their
+court.
+
+One would think, that, out of common decency, they would have given you
+men who had not been in the habit of trampling upon law and justice in
+the Assembly, neutral men, or men apparently neutral, for judges, who
+are to dispose of your lives and fortunes.
+
+Cromwell, when he attempted to legalize his power, and to settle his
+conquered country in a state of order, did not look for dispensers of
+justice in the instruments of his usurpation. Quite the contrary. He
+sought out, with great solicitude and selection, and even from the party
+most opposite to his designs, men of weight and decorum of
+character,--men unstained with the violence of the times, and with hands
+not fouled with confiscation and sacrilege: for he chose an Hale for his
+chief justice, though he absolutely refused to take his civic oaths, or
+to make any acknowledgment whatsoever of the legality of his government.
+Cromwell told this great lawyer, that, since he did not approve his
+title, all he required of him was to administer, in a manner agreeable
+to his pure sentiments and unspotted character, that justice without
+which human society cannot subsist,--that it was not his particular
+government, but civil order itself, which, as a judge, he wished him to
+support. Cromwell knew how to separate the institutions expedient to his
+usurpation from the administration of the public justice of his country.
+For Cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not wholly suppressed, but
+only suspended, the sentiments of religion, and the love (as far as it
+could consist with his designs) of fair and honorable reputation.
+Accordingly, we are indebted to this act of his for the preservation of
+our laws, which some senseless assertors of the rights of men were then
+on the point of entirely erasing, as relics of feudality and barbarism.
+Besides, he gave, in the appointment of that man, to that age, and to
+all posterity, the most brilliant example of sincere and fervent piety,
+exact justice, and profound jurisprudence.[2] But these are not the
+things in which your philosophic usurpers choose to follow Cromwell.
+
+One would think, that, after an honest and necessary revolution, (if
+they had a mind that theirs should pass for such,) your masters would
+have imitated the virtuous policy of those who have been at the head of
+revolutions of that glorious character. Burnet tells us, that nothing
+tended to reconcile the English nation to the government of King William
+so much as the care he took to fill the vacant bishoprics with men who
+had attracted the public esteem by their learning, eloquence, and piety,
+and above all, by their known moderation in the state. With you, in your
+purifying revolution, whom have you chosen to regulate the Church? M.
+Mirabeau is a fine speaker, and a fine writer, and a fine--a very fine
+man; but, really, nothing gave more surprise to everybody here than to
+find him the supreme head of your ecclesiastical affairs. The rest is of
+course. Your Assembly addresses a manifesto to France, in which they
+tell the people, with an insulting irony, that they have brought the
+Church to its primitive condition. In one respect their declaration is
+undoubtedly true: for they have brought it to a state of poverty and
+persecution. What can be hoped for after this? Have not men, (if they
+deserve the name,) under this new hope and head of the Church, been made
+bishops for no other merit than having acted as instruments of atheists?
+for no other merit than having thrown the children's bread to dogs? and,
+in order to gorge the whole gang of usurers, peddlers, and itinerant
+Jew discounters at the corners of streets, starved the poor of their
+Christian flocks, and their own brother pastors? Have not such men been
+made bishops to administer in temples in which (if the patriotic
+donations have not already stripped them of their vessels) the
+church-wardens ought to take security for the altar plate, and not so
+much as to trust the chalice in their sacrilegious hands, so long as
+Jews have assignats on ecclesiastic plunder, to exchange for the silver
+stolen from churches?
+
+I am told that the very sons of such Jew jobbers have been made bishops:
+persons not to be suspected of any sort of _Christian_ superstition, fit
+colleagues to the holy prelate of Autun, and bred at the feet of that
+Gamaliel. We know who it was that drove the money-changers out of the
+temple. We see, too, who it is that brings them in again. We have in
+London very respectable persons of the Jewish nation, whom we will keep;
+but we have of the same tribe others of a very different
+description,--housebreakers, and receivers of stolen goods, and forgers
+of paper currency, more than we can conveniently hang. These we can
+spare to France, to fill the new episcopal thrones: men well versed in
+swearing; and who will scruple no oath which the fertile genius of any
+of your reformers can devise.
+
+In matters so ridiculous it is hard to be grave. On a view of their
+consequences, it is almost inhuman to treat them lightly. To what a
+state of savage, stupid, servile insensibility must your people be
+reduced, who can endure such proceedings in their Church, their state,
+and their judicature, even for a moment! But the deluded people of
+France are like other madmen, who, to a miracle, bear hunger, and
+thirst, and cold, and confinement, and the chains and lash of their
+keeper, whilst all the while they support themselves by the imagination
+that they are generals of armies, prophets, kings, and emperors. As to a
+change of mind in those men, who consider infamy as honor, degradation
+as preferment, bondage to low tyrants as liberty, and the practical
+scorn and contumely of their upstart masters as marks of respect and
+homage, I look upon it as absolutely impracticable. These madmen, to be
+cured, must first, like other madmen, be subdued. The sound part of the
+community, which I believe to be large, but by no means the largest
+part, has been taken by surprise, and is disjointed, terrified, and
+disarmed. That sound part of the community must first be put into a
+better condition, before it can do anything in the way of deliberation
+or persuasion. This must be an act of power, as well as of wisdom: of
+power in the hands of firm, determined patriots, who can distinguish the
+misled from traitors, who will regulate the state (if such should be
+their fortune) with a discriminating, manly, and provident mercy; men
+who are purged of the surfeit and indigestion of systems, if ever they
+have been admitted into the habit of their minds; men who will lay the
+foundation of a real reform in effacing every vestige of that philosophy
+which pretends to have made discoveries in the _Terra Australia_ of
+morality; men who will fix the state upon these bases of morals and
+politics, which are our old and immemorial, and, I hope, will be our
+eternal possession.
+
+This power, to such men, must come from _without_. It may be given to
+you in pity: for surely no nation ever called so pathetically on the
+compassion of all its neighbors. It may be given by those neighbors on
+motives of safety to themselves. Never shall I think any country in
+Europe to be secure, whilst there is established in the very centre of
+it a state (if so it may be called) founded on principles of anarchy,
+and which is in reality a college of armed fanatics, for the propagation
+of the principles of assassination, robbery, rebellion, fraud, faction,
+oppression, and impiety. Mahomet, hid, as for a time he was, in the
+bottom of the sands of Arabia, had his spirit and character been
+discovered, would have been an object of precaution to provident minds.
+What if he had erected his fanatic standard for the destruction of the
+Christian religion _in luce Asiæ_, in the midst of the then noonday
+splendor of the then civilized world? The princes of Europe, in the
+beginning of this century, did well not to suffer the monarchy of France
+to swallow up the others. They ought not now, in my opinion, to suffer
+all the monarchies and commonwealths to be swallowed up in the gulf of
+this polluted anarchy. They may be tolerably safe at present, because
+the comparative power of France for the present is little. But times and
+occasions make dangers. Intestine troubles may arise in other countries.
+There is a power always on the watch, qualified and disposed to profit
+of every conjuncture, to establish its own principles and modes of
+mischief, wherever it can hope for success. What mercy would these
+usurpers have on other sovereigns, and on other nations, when they treat
+their own king with such unparalleled indignities, and so cruelly
+oppress their own countrymen?
+
+The king of Prussia, in concurrence with us, nobly interfered to save
+Holland from confusion. The same power, joined with the rescued Holland
+and with Great Britain, has put the Emperor in the possession of the
+Netherlands, and secured, under that prince, from all arbitrary
+innovation, the ancient, hereditary Constitution of those provinces. The
+chamber of Wetzlar has restored the Bishop of Liege, unjustly
+dispossessed by the rebellion of his subjects. The king of Prussia was
+bound by no treaty nor alliance of blood, nor had any particular reasons
+for thinking the Emperor's government would be more mischievous or more
+oppressive to human nature than that of the Turk; yet, on mere motives
+of policy, that prince has interposed, with the threat of all his force,
+to snatch even the Turk from the pounces of the Imperial eagle. If this
+is done in favor of a barbarous nation, with a barbarous neglect of
+police, fatal to the human race,--in favor of a nation by principle in
+eternal enmity with the Christian name, a nation which will not so much
+as give the salutation of peace (_Salam_) to any of us, nor make any
+pact with any Christian nation beyond a truce,--if this be done in favor
+of the Turk, shall it be thought either impolitic or unjust or
+uncharitable to employ the same power to rescue from captivity a
+virtuous monarch, (by the courtesy of Europe considered as Most
+Christian,) who, after an intermission of one hundred and seventy-five
+years, had called together the States of his kingdom to reform abuses,
+to establish a free government, and to strengthen his throne,--a monarch
+who, at the very outset, without force, even without solicitation, had
+given to his people such a Magna Charta of privileges as never was given
+by any king to any subjects? Is it to be tamely borne by kings who love
+their subjects, or by subjects who love their kings, that this monarch,
+in the midst of these gracious acts, was insolently and cruelly torn
+from his palace by a gang of traitors and assassins, and kept in close
+prison to this very hour, whilst his royal name and sacred character
+were used for the total ruin of those whom the laws had appointed him to
+protect?
+
+The only offence of this unhappy monarch towards his people was his
+attempt, under a monarchy, to give them a free Constitution. For this,
+by an example hitherto unheard of in the world, he has been deposed. It
+might well disgrace sovereigns to take part with a deposed tyrant. It
+would suppose in them a vicious sympathy. But not to make a common cause
+with a just prince, dethroned by traitors and rebels, who proscribe,
+plunder, confiscate, and in every way cruelly oppress their
+fellow-citizens, in my opinion is to forget what is due to the honor and
+to the rights of all virtuous and legal government.
+
+I think the king of France to be as much an object both of policy and
+compassion as the Grand Seignior or his states. I do not conceive that
+the total annihilation of France (if that could be effected) is a
+desirable thing to Europe, or even to this its rival nation. Provident
+patriots did not think it good for Rome that even Carthage should be
+quite destroyed; and he was a wise Greek, wise for the general Grecian
+interests, as well as a brave Lacedæmonian enemy and generous conqueror,
+who did not wish, by the destruction of Athens, to pluck out the other
+eye of Greece.
+
+However, Sir, what I have here said of the interference of foreign
+princes is only the opinion of a private individual, who is neither the
+representative of any state nor the organ of any party, but who thinks
+himself bound to express his own sentiments with freedom and energy in a
+crisis of such importance to the whole human race.
+
+I am not apprehensive, that, in speaking freely on the subject of the
+king and queen of France, I shall accelerate (as you fear) the execution
+of traitorous designs against them. You are of opinion, Sir, that the
+usurpers may, and that they will, gladly lay hold of any pretext to
+throw off the very name of a king: assuredly, I do not wish ill to your
+king; but better for him not to live (he does not reign) than to live
+the passive instrument of tyranny and usurpation.
+
+I certainly meant to show, to the best of my power, that the existence
+of such an executive officer in such a system of republic as theirs is
+absurd in the highest degree. But in demonstrating this, to _them_, at
+least, I can have made no discovery. They only held out the royal name
+to catch those Frenchmen to whom the name of king is still venerable.
+They calculate the duration of that sentiment; and when they find it
+nearly expiring, they will not trouble themselves with excuses for
+extinguishing the name, as they have the thing. They used it as a sort
+of navel-string to nourish their unnatural offspring from the bowels of
+royalty itself. Now that the monster can purvey for its own subsistence,
+it will only carry the mark about it, as a token of its having torn the
+womb it came from. Tyrants seldom want pretexts. Fraud is the ready
+minister of injustice; and whilst the currency of false pretence and
+sophistic reasoning was expedient to their designs, they were under no
+necessity of drawing upon me to furnish them with that coin. But
+pretexts and sophisms have had their day, and have done their work. The
+usurpation no longer seeks plausibility: it trusts to power.
+
+Nothing that I can say, or that you can say, will hasten them, by a
+single hour, in the execution of a design which they have long since
+entertained. In spite of their solemn declarations, their soothing
+addresses, and the multiplied oaths which they have taken and forced
+others to take, they will assassinate the king when his name will no
+longer be necessary to their designs,--but not a moment sooner. They
+will probably first assassinate the queen, whenever the renewed menace
+of such an assassination loses its effect upon the anxious mind of an
+affectionate husband. At present, the advantage which they derive from
+the daily threats against her life is her only security for preserving
+it. They keep their sovereign alive for the purpose of exhibiting him,
+like some wild beast at a fair,--as if they had a Bajazet in a cage.
+They choose to make monarchy contemptible by exposing it to derision in
+the person of the most benevolent of their kings.
+
+In my opinion their insolence appears more odious even than their
+crimes. The horrors of the fifth and sixth of October were less
+detestable than the festival of the fourteenth of July. There are
+situations (God forbid I should think that of the 5th and 6th of October
+one of them!) in which the best men may be confounded with the worst,
+and in the darkness and confusion, in the press and medley of such
+extremities, it may not be so easy to discriminate the one from the
+other. Tho necessities created even by ill designs have their excuse.
+They may be forgotten by others, when the guilty themselves do not
+choose to cherish their recollection, and, by ruminating their
+offences, nourish themselves, through the example of their past, to the
+perpetration of future crimes. It is in the relaxation of security, it
+is in the expansion of prosperity, it is in the hour of dilatation of
+the heart, and of its softening into festivity and pleasure, that the
+real character of men is discerned. If there is any good in them, it
+appears then or never. Even wolves and tigers, when gorged with their
+prey, are safe and gentle. It is at such times that noble minds give all
+the reins to their good nature. They indulge their genius even to
+intemperance, in kindness to the afflicted, in generosity to the
+conquered,--forbearing insults, forgiving injuries, overpaying benefits.
+Full of dignity themselves, they respect dignity in all, but they feel
+it sacred in the unhappy. But it is then, and basking in the sunshine of
+unmerited fortune, that low, sordid, ungenerous, and reptile souls swell
+with their hoarded poisons; it is then that they display their odious
+splendor, and shine out in the full lustre of their native villany and
+baseness. It is in that season that no man of sense or honor can be
+mistaken for one of them. It was in such a season, for them of political
+ease and security, though their people were but just emerged from actual
+famine, and were ready to be plunged into a gulf of penury and beggary,
+that your philosophic lords chose, with an ostentatious pomp and luxury,
+to feast an incredible number of idle and thoughtless people, collected
+with art and pains from all quarters of the world. They constructed a
+vast amphitheatre in which they raised a species of pillory.[3] On this
+pillory they set their lawful king and queen, with an insulting figure
+over their heads. There they exposed these objects of pity and respect
+to all good minds to the derision of an unthinking and unprincipled
+multitude, degenerated even from the versatile tenderness which marks
+the irregular and capricious feelings of the populace. That their cruel
+insult might have nothing wanting to complete it, they chose the
+anniversary of that day in which they exposed the life of their prince
+to the most imminent dangers and the vilest indignities, just following
+the instant when the assassins, whom they had hired without owning,
+first openly took up arms against their king, corrupted his guards,
+surprised his castle, butchered some of the poor invalids of his
+garrison, murdered his governor, and, like wild beasts, tore to pieces
+the chief magistrate of his capital city, on account of his fidelity to
+his service.
+
+Till the justice of the world is awakened, such as these will go on,
+without admonition, and without provocation, to every extremity. Those
+who have made the exhibition of the fourteenth of July are capable of
+every evil. They do not commit crimes for their designs; but they form
+designs that they may commit crimes. It is not their necessity, but
+their nature, that impels them. They are modern philosophers, which when
+you say of them, you express everything that is ignoble, savage, and
+hard-hearted.
+
+Besides the sure tokens which are given by the spirit of their
+particular arrangements, there are some characteristic lineaments in the
+general policy of your tumultuous despotism, which, in my opinion,
+indicate, beyond a doubt, that no revolution whatsoever _in their
+disposition_ is to be expected: I mean their scheme of educating the
+rising generation, the principles which they intend to instil and the
+sympathies which they wish to form in the mind at the season in which it
+is the most susceptible. Instead of forming their young minds to that
+docility, to that modesty, which are the grace and charm of youth, to an
+admiration of famous examples, and to an averseness to anything which
+approaches to pride, petulance, and self-conceit, (distempers to which
+that time of life is of itself sufficiently liable,) they artificially
+foment these evil dispositions, and even form them into springs of
+action. Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books
+recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the
+character of the age. Uncertain indeed is the efficacy, limited indeed
+is the extent, of a virtuous institution. But if education takes in
+_vice_ as any part of its system, there is no doubt but that it will
+operate with abundant energy, and to an extent indefinite. The
+magistrate, who in favor of freedom thinks himself obliged to suffer all
+sorts of publications, is under a stricter duty than any other well to
+consider what sort of writers he shall authorize, and shall recommend by
+the strongest of all sanctions, that is, by public honors and rewards.
+He ought to be cautious how he recommends authors of mixed or ambiguous
+morality. He ought to be fearful of putting into the hands of youth
+writers indulgent to the peculiarities of their own complexion, lest
+they should teach the humors of the professor, rather than the
+principles of the science. He ought, above all, to be cautious in
+recommending any writer who has carried marks of a deranged
+understanding: for where there is no sound reason, there can be no real
+virtue; and madness is ever vicious and malignant.
+
+The Assembly proceeds on maxims the very reverse of these. The Assembly
+recommends to its youth a study of the bold experimenters in morality.
+Everybody knows that there is a great dispute amongst their leaders,
+which of them is the best resemblance of Rousseau. In truth, they all
+resemble him. His blood they transfuse into their minds and into their
+manners. Him they study; him they meditate; him they turn over in all
+the time they can spare from the laborious mischief of the day or the
+debauches of the night. Rousseau is their canon of holy writ; in his
+life he is their canon of Polycletus; he is their standard figure of
+perfection. To this man and this writer, as a pattern to authors and to
+Frenchmen, the foundries of Paris are now running for statues, with the
+kettles of their poor and the bells of their churches. If an author had
+written like a great genius on geometry, though his practical and
+speculative morals were vicious in the extreme, it might appear that in
+voting the statue they honored only the geometrician. But Rousseau is a
+moralist or he is nothing. It is impossible, therefore, putting the
+circumstances together, to mistake their design in choosing the author
+with whom they have begun to recommend a course of studies.
+
+Their great problem is, to find a substitute for all the principles
+which hitherto have been employed to regulate the human will and action.
+They find dispositions in the mind of such force and quality as may fit
+men, far better than the old morality, for the purposes of such a state
+as theirs, and may go much further in supporting their power and
+destroying their enemies. They have therefore chosen a selfish,
+flattering, seductive, ostentatious vice, in the place of plain duty.
+True humility, the basis of the Christian system, is the low, but deep
+and firm foundation of all real virtue. But this, as very painful in the
+practice, and little imposing in the appearance, they have totally
+discarded. Their object is to merge all natural and all social sentiment
+in inordinate vanity. In a small degree, and conversant in little
+things, vanity is of little moment. When full-grown, it is the worst of
+vices, and the occasional mimic of them all. It makes the whole man
+false. It leaves nothing sincere or trustworthy about him. His best
+qualities are poisoned and perverted by it, and operate exactly as the
+worst. When your lords had many writers as immoral as the object of
+their statue (such as Voltaire and others) they chose Rousseau, because
+in him that peculiar vice which they wished to erect into ruling virtue
+was by far the most conspicuous.
+
+We have had the great professor and founder of _the philosophy of
+vanity_ in England. As I had good opportunities of knowing his
+proceedings almost from day to day, he left no doubt on my mind that he
+entertained no principle, either to influence his heart or to guide his
+understanding, but _vanity_. With this vice he was possessed to a degree
+little short of madness. It is from the same deranged, eccentric vanity,
+that this, the insane Socrates of the National Assembly, was impelled to
+publish a mad confession of his mad faults, and to attempt a new sort of
+glory from bringing hardily to light the obscure and vulgar vices which
+we know may sometimes be blended with eminent talents. He has not
+observed on the nature of vanity who does not know that it is
+omnivorous,--that it has no choice in its food,--that it is fond to
+talk even of its own faults and vices, as what will excite surprise and
+draw attention, and what will pass at worst for openness and candor.
+
+It was this abuse and perversion, which vanity makes even of hypocrisy,
+which has driven Rousseau to record a life not so much as checkered or
+spotted here and there with virtues, or even distinguished by a single
+good action. It is such a life he chooses to offer to the attention of
+mankind. It is such a life that, with a wild defiance, he flings in the
+face of his Creator, whom he acknowledges only to brave. Your Assembly,
+knowing how much more powerful example is found than precept, has chosen
+this man (by his own account without a single virtue) for a model. To
+him they erect their first statue. From him they commence their series
+of honors and distinctions.
+
+It is that new-invented virtue which your masters canonize that led
+their moral hero constantly to exhaust the stores of his powerful
+rhetoric in the expression of universal benevolence, whilst his heart
+was incapable of harboring one spark of common parental affection.
+Benevolence to the whole species, and want of feeling for every
+individual with whom the professors come in contact, form the character
+of the new philosophy. Setting up for an unsocial independence, this
+their hero of vanity refuses the just price of common labor, as well as
+the tribute which opulence owes to genius, and which, when paid, honors
+the giver and the receiver; and then he pleads his beggary as an excuse
+for his crimes. He melts with tenderness for those only who touch him by
+the remotest relation, and then, without one natural pang, casts away,
+as a sort of offal and excrement, the spawn of his disgustful amours,
+and sends his children to the hospital of foundlings. The bear loves,
+licks, and forms her young: but bears are not philosophers. Vanity,
+however, finds its account in reversing the train of our natural
+feelings. Thousands admire the sentimental-writer; the affectionate
+father is hardly known in his parish.
+
+Under this philosophic instructor in _the ethics of vanity_, they have
+attempted in France a regeneration of the moral constitution of man.
+Statesmen like your present rulers exist by everything which is
+spurious, fictitious, and false,--by everything which takes the man from
+his house, and sets him on a stage,--which makes him up an artificial
+creature, with painted, theatric sentiments, fit to be seen by the glare
+of candle-light, and formed to be contemplated at a due distance. Vanity
+is too apt to prevail in all of us, and in all countries. To the
+improvement of Frenchmen, it seems not absolutely necessary that it
+should be taught upon system. But it is plain that the present rebellion
+was its legitimate offspring, and it is piously fed by that rebellion
+with a daily dole.
+
+If the system of institution recommended by the Assembly is false and
+theatric, it is because their system of government is of the same
+character. To that, and to that alone, it is strictly conformable. To
+understand either, we must connect the morals with the politics of the
+legislators. Your practical philosophers, systematic in everything, have
+wisely began at the source. As the relation between parents and children
+is the first among the elements of vulgar, natural morality,[4] they
+erect statues to a wild, ferocious, low-minded, hard-hearted father, of
+fine general feelings,--a lover of his kind, but a hater of his kindred.
+Your masters reject the duties of this vulgar relation, as contrary to
+liberty, as not founded in the social compact, and not binding according
+to the rights of men; because the relation is not, of course, the result
+of _free election_,--never so on the side of the children, not always on
+the part of the parents.
+
+The next relation which they regenerate by their statues to Rousseau is
+that which is next in sanctity to that of a father. They differ from
+those old-fashioned thinkers who considered pedagogues as sober and
+venerable characters, and allied to the parental. The moralists of the
+dark times _præceptorem sancti voluere parentis esse loco_. In this age
+of light they teach the people that preceptors ought to be in the place
+of gallants. They systematically corrupt a very corruptible race, (for
+some time a growing nuisance amongst you,)--a set of pert, petulant
+literators, to whom, instead of their proper, but severe, unostentatious
+duties, they assign the brilliant part of men of wit and pleasure, of
+gay, young, military sparks, and danglers at toilets. They call on the
+rising generation in France to take a sympathy in the adventures and
+fortunes, and they endeavor to engage their sensibility on the side, of
+pedagogues who betray the most awful family trusts and vitiate their
+female pupils. They teach the people that the debauchers of virgins,
+almost in the arms of their parents, may be safe inmates in their house,
+and even fit guardians of the honor of those husbands who succeed
+legally to the office which the young literators had preoccupied
+without asking leave of law or conscience.
+
+Thus they dispose of all the family relations of parents and children,
+husbands and wives. Through this same instructor, by whom they corrupt
+the morals, they corrupt the taste. Taste and elegance, though they are
+reckoned only among the smaller and secondary morals, yet are of no mean
+importance in the regulation of life. A moral taste is not of force to
+turn vice into virtue; but it recommends virtue with something like the
+blandishments of pleasure, and it infinitely abates the evils of vice.
+Rousseau, a writer of great force and vivacity, is totally destitute of
+taste in any sense of the word. Your masters, who are his scholars,
+conceive that all refinement has an aristocratic character. The last age
+had exhausted all its powers in giving a grace and nobleness to our
+natural appetites, and in raising them into a higher class and order
+than seemed justly to belong to them. Through Rousseau, your masters are
+resolved to destroy these aristocratic prejudices. The passion called
+love has so general and powerful an influence, it makes so much of the
+entertainment, and indeed so much the occupation, of that part of life
+which decides the character forever, that the mode and the principles on
+which it engages the sympathy and strikes the imagination become of the
+utmost importance to the morals and manners of every society. Your
+rulers were well aware of this; and in their system of changing your
+manners to accommodate them to their politics, they found nothing so
+convenient as Rousseau. Through him they teach men to love after the
+fashion of philosophers: that is, they teach to men, to Frenchmen, a
+love without gallantry,--a love without anything of that fine flower of
+youthfulness and gentility which places it, if not among the virtues,
+among the ornaments of life. Instead of this passion, naturally allied
+to grace and manners, they infuse into their youth an unfashioned,
+indelicate, sour, gloomy, ferocious medley of pedantry and lewdness,--of
+metaphysical speculations blended with the coarsest sensuality. Such is
+the general morality of the passions to be found in their famous
+philosopher, in his famous work of philosophic gallantry, the _Nouvelle
+Éloise_.
+
+When the fence from the gallantry of preceptors is broken down, and your
+families are no longer protected by decent pride and salutary domestic
+prejudice, there is but one step to a frightful corruption. The rulers
+in the National Assembly are in good hopes that the females of the first
+families in France may become an easy prey to dancing-masters, fiddlers,
+pattern-drawers, friseurs, and valets-de-chambre, and other active
+citizens of that description, who, having the entry into your houses,
+and being half domesticated by their situation, may be blended with you
+by regular and irregular relations. By a law they have made these people
+their equals. By adopting the sentiments of Rousseau they have made them
+your rivals. In this manner these great legislators complete their plan
+of levelling, and establish their rights of men on a sure foundation.
+
+I am certain that the writings of Rousseau lead directly to this kind of
+shameful evil. I have often wondered how he comes to be so much more
+admired and followed on the Continent than he is here. Perhaps a secret
+charm in the language may have its share in this extraordinary
+difference. We certainly perceive, and to a degree we feel, in this
+writer, a style glowing, animated, enthusiastic, at the same time that
+we find it lax, diffuse, and not in the best taste of composition,--all
+the members of the piece being pretty equally labored and expanded,
+without any due selection or subordination of parts. He is generally too
+much on the stretch, and his manner has little variety. We cannot rest
+upon, any of his works, though they contain observations which
+occasionally discover a considerable insight into human nature. But his
+doctrines, on the whole, are so inapplicable to real life and manners,
+that we never dream of drawing from them any rule for laws or conduct,
+or for fortifying or illustrating anything by a reference to his
+opinions. They have with us the fate of older paradoxes:--
+
+    Cum ventum ad _verum_ est, _sensus moresque_ repugnant,
+    Atque ipsa utilitas, justi prope mater et æqui.
+
+Perhaps bold speculations are more acceptable because more new to you
+than to us, who have been, long since satiated with them. We continue,
+as in the two last ages, to read, more generally than I believe is now
+done on the Continent, the authors of sound antiquity. These occupy our
+minds; they give us another taste and turn; and will not suffer us to be
+more than transiently amused with paradoxical morality. It is not that I
+consider this writer as wholly destitute of just notions. Amongst his
+irregularities, it must be reckoned that he is sometimes moral, and
+moral in a very sublime strain. But the _general spirit and tendency_ of
+his works is mischievous,--and the more mischievous for this mixture:
+for perfect depravity of sentiment is not reconcilable with eloquence;
+and the mind (though corruptible, not complexionally vicious) would
+reject and throw off with disgust a lesson of pure and unmixed evil.
+These writers make even virtue a pander to vice.
+
+However, I less consider the author than the system of the Assembly in
+perverting morality through his means. This I confess makes me nearly
+despair of any attempt upon the minds of their followers, through
+reason, honor, or conscience. The great object of your tyrants is to
+destroy the gentlemen of France; and for that purpose they destroy, to
+the best of their power, all the effect of those relations which may
+render considerable men powerful or even safe. To destroy that order,
+they vitiate the whole community. That no means may exist of
+confederating against their tyranny, by the false sympathies of this
+_Nouvelle Éloise_ they endeavor to subvert those principles of domestic
+trust and fidelity which form the discipline of social life. They
+propagate principles by which every servant may think it, if not his
+duty, at least his privilege, to betray his master. By these principles,
+every considerable father of a family loses the sanctuary of his house.
+_Debet sua cuique domus esse perfugium tutissimum_, says the law, which
+your legislators have taken so much pains first to decry, then to
+repeal. They destroy all the tranquillity and security of domestic life:
+turning the asylum of the house into a gloomy prison, where the father
+of the family must drag out a miserable existence, endangered in
+proportion to the apparent means of his safety,--where he is worse than
+solitary in a crowd of domestics, and more apprehensive from his
+servants and inmates than from the hired, bloodthirsty mob without
+doors who are ready to pull him to the _lanterne_.
+
+It is thus, and for the same end, that they endeavor to destroy that
+tribunal of conscience which exists independently of edicts and decrees.
+Your despots govern by terror. They know that he who fears God fears
+nothing else; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their
+Voltaire, their Helvétius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only
+sort of fear which generates true courage. Their object is, that their
+fellow-citizens may be under the dominion of no awe but that of their
+Committee of Research and of their _lanterne_.
+
+Having found the advantage of assassination in the formation of their
+tyranny, it is the grand resource in which they trust for the support of
+it. Whoever opposes any of their proceedings, or is suspected of a
+design to oppose them, is to answer it with his life, or the lives of
+his wife and children. This infamous, cruel, and cowardly practice of
+assassination they have the impudence to call _merciful_. They boast
+that they operated their usurpation rather by terror than by force, and
+that a few seasonable murders have prevented the bloodshed of many
+battles. There is no doubt they will extend these acts of mercy whenever
+they see an occasion. Dreadful, however, will be the consequences of
+their attempt to avoid the evils of war by the merciful policy of
+murder. If, by effectual punishment of the guilty, they do not wholly
+disavow that practice, and the threat of it too, as any part of their
+policy, if ever a foreign prince enters into France, he must enter it as
+into a country of assassins. The mode of civilized war will not be
+practised: nor are the French who act on the present system entitled to
+expect it. They whose known policy it is to assassinate every citizen
+whom they suspect to be discontented by their tyranny, and to corrupt
+the soldiery of every open enemy, must look for no modified hostility.
+All war, which is not battle, will be military execution. This will
+beget acts of retaliation from you; and every retaliation will beget a
+new revenge. The hell-hounds of war, on all sides, will be uncoupled and
+unmuzzled. The new school of murder and barbarism set up in Paris,
+having destroyed (so far as in it lies) all the other manners and
+principles which have hitherto civilized Europe, will destroy also the
+mode of civilized war, which, more than anything else, has distinguished
+the Christian world. Such is the approaching golden age which the
+Virgil[5] of your Assembly has sung to his Pollios!
+
+In such a situation of your political, your civil, and your social
+morals and manners, how can you be hurt by the freedom of any
+discussion? Caution is for those who have something to lose. What I have
+said, to justify myself in not apprehending any ill consequence from a
+free discussion of the absurd consequences which flow from the relation
+of the lawful king to the usurped Constitution, will apply to my
+vindication with regard to the exposure I have made of the state of the
+army under the same sophistic usurpation. The present tyrants want no
+arguments to prove, what they must daily feel, that no good army can
+exist on their principles. They are in no want of a monitor to suggest
+to them the policy of getting rid of the army, as well as of the king,
+whenever they are in a condition to effect that measure. What hopes may
+be entertained of your army for the restoration of your liberties I know
+not. At present, yielding obedience to the pretended orders of a king
+who, they are perfectly apprised, has no will, and who never can issue a
+mandate which is not intended, in the first operation, or in its certain
+consequences, for his own destruction, your army seems to make one of
+the principal links in the chain of that servitude of anarchy by which a
+cruel usurpation holds an undone people at once in bondage and
+confusion.
+
+You ask me what I think of the conduct of General Monk. How this affects
+your case I cannot tell. I doubt whether you possess in France any
+persons of a capacity to serve the French monarchy in the same manner in
+which Monk served the monarchy of England. The army which Monk commanded
+had been formed by Cromwell to a perfection of discipline which perhaps
+has never been exceeded. That army was besides of an excellent
+composition. The soldiers were men of extraordinary piety after their
+mode; of the greatest regularity, and even severity of manners; brave in
+the field, but modest, quiet, and orderly in their quarters; men who
+abhorred the idea of assassinating their officers or any other persons,
+and who (they at least who served in this island) were firmly attached
+to those generals by whom they were well treated and ably commanded.
+Such an army, once gained, might be depended on. I doubt much, if you
+could now find a Monk, whether a Monk could find in France such an army.
+
+I certainly agree with you, that in all probability we owe our whole
+Constitution to the restoration of the English monarchy. The state of
+things from which Monk relieved England was, however, by no means, at
+that time, so deplorable, in any sense, as yours is now, and under the
+present sway is likely to continue. Cromwell had delivered England from
+anarchy. His government, though military and despotic, had been regular
+and orderly. Under the iron, and under the yoke, the soil yielded its
+produce. After his death the evils of anarchy were rather dreaded than
+felt. Every man was yet safe in his house and in his property. But it
+must be admitted that Monk freed this nation from great and just
+apprehensions both of future anarchy and of probable tyranny in some
+form or other. The king whom he gave us was, indeed, the very reverse of
+your benignant sovereign, who, in reward for his attempt to bestow
+liberty on his subjects, languishes himself in prison. The person given
+to us by Monk was a man without any sense of his duty as a prince,
+without any regard to the dignity of his crown, without any love to his
+people,--dissolute, false, venal, and destitute of any positive good
+quality whatsoever, except a pleasant temper, and the manners of a
+gentleman. Yet the restoration of our monarchy, even in the person of
+such a prince, was everything to us; for without monarchy in England,
+most certainly we never can enjoy either peace or liberty. It was under
+this conviction that the very first regular step which we took, on the
+Revolution of 1688, was to fill the throne with a real king; and even
+before it could be done in due form, the chiefs of the nation did not
+attempt themselves to exercise authority so much as by _interim_. They
+instantly requested the Prince of Orange to take the government on
+himself. The throne was not effectively vacant for an hour.
+
+Your fundamental laws, as well as ours, suppose a monarchy. Your zeal,
+Sir, in standing so firmly for it as you have done, shows not only a
+sacred respect for your honor and fidelity, but a well-informed
+attachment to the real welfare and true liberties of your country. I
+have expressed myself ill, if I have given you cause to imagine that I
+prefer the conduct of those who have retired from this warfare to your
+behavior, who, with a courage and constancy almost supernatural, have
+struggled against tyranny, and kept the field to the last. You see I
+have corrected the exceptionable part in the edition which I now send
+you. Indeed, in such terrible extremities as yours, it is not easy to
+say, in a political view, what line of conduct is the most advisable. In
+that state of things, I cannot bring myself severely to condemn persons
+who are wholly unable to bear so much as the sight of those men in the
+throne of legislation who are only fit to be the objects of criminal
+justice. If fatigue, if disgust, if unsurmountable nausea drive them
+away from such spectacles, _ubi miseriarum pars non minima erat videre
+et aspici_, I cannot blame them. He must have an heart of adamant who
+could hear a set of traitors puffed up with unexpected and undeserved
+power, obtained by an ignoble, unmanly, and perfidious rebellion,
+treating their honest fellow-citizens as _rebels_, because they refused
+to bind them selves through their conscience, against the dictates of
+conscience itself, and had declined to swear an active compliance with
+their own ruin. How could a man of common flesh and blood endure that
+those who but the other day had skulked unobserved in their
+antechambers, scornfully insulting men illustrious in their rank, sacred
+in their function, and venerable in their character, now in decline of
+life, and swimming on the wrecks of their fortunes,--that those
+miscreants should tell such men scornfully and outrageously, after they
+had robbed them of all their property, that it is more than enough, if
+they are allowed what will keep them from absolute famine, and that, for
+the rest, they must let their gray hairs fall over the plough, to make
+out a scanty subsistence with the labor of their hands? Last, and,
+worst, who could endure to hear this unnatural, insolent, and savage
+despotism called liberty? If, at this distance, sitting quietly by my
+fire, I cannot read their decrees and speeches without indignation,
+shall I condemn those who have fled from the actual sight and hearing of
+all these horrors? No, no! mankind has no title to demand that we should
+be slaves to their guilt and insolence, or that we should serve them in
+spite of themselves. Minds sore with the poignant sense of insulted
+virtue, filled with high disdain against the pride of triumphant
+baseness, often have it not in their choice to stand their ground. Their
+complexion (which might defy the rack) cannot go through such a trial.
+Something very high must fortify men to that proof. But when I am driven
+to comparison, surely I cannot hesitate for a moment to prefer to such
+men as are common those heroes who in the midst of despair perform all
+the tasks of hope,--who subdue their feelings to their duties,--who, in
+the cause of humanity, liberty, and honor, abandon all the satisfactions
+of life, and every day incur a fresh risk of life itself. Do me the
+justice to believe that I never can prefer any fastidious virtue (virtue
+still) to the unconquered perseverance, to the affectionate patience, of
+those who watch day and night by the bedside of their delirious
+country,--who, for their love to that dear and venerable name, bear all
+the disgusts and all the buffets they receive from their frantic mother.
+Sir, I do look on you as true martyrs; I regard you as soldiers who act
+far more in the spirit of our Commander-in-Chief and the Captain of our
+Salvation than those who have left you: though I must first bolt myself
+very thoroughly, and know that I could do better, before I can censure
+them. I assure you, Sir, that, when I consider your unconquerable
+fidelity to your sovereign and to your country,--the courage, fortitude,
+magnanimity, and long-suffering of yourself, and the Abbé Maury, and of
+M. Cazalès, and of many worthy persons of all orders in your
+Assembly,--I forget, in the lustre of these great qualities, that on
+your side has been displayed an eloquence so rational, manly, and
+convincing, that no time or country, perhaps, has ever excelled. But
+your talents disappear in my admiration of your virtues.
+
+As to M. Mounier and M. Lally, I have always wished to do justice to
+their parts, and their eloquence, and the general purity of their
+motives. Indeed, I saw very well, from the beginning, the mischiefs
+which, with all these talents and good intentions, they would do their
+country, through their confidence in systems. But their distemper was an
+epidemic malady. They were young and inexperienced; and when will young
+and inexperienced men learn caution and distrust of themselves? And when
+will men, young or old, if suddenly raised to far higher power than that
+which absolute kings and emperors commonly enjoy, learn anything like
+moderation? Monarchs, in general, respect some settled order of things,
+which they find it difficult to move from its basis, and to which they
+are obliged to conform, even when there are no positive limitations to
+their power. These gentlemen conceived that they were chosen to
+new-model the state, and even the whole order of civil society itself.
+No wonder that _they_ entertained dangerous visions, when the king's
+ministers, trustees for the sacred deposit of the monarchy, were so
+infected with the contagion of project and system (I can hardly think it
+black premeditated treachery) that they publicly advertised for plans
+and schemes of government, as if they were to provide for the rebuilding
+of an hospital that had been burned down. What was this, but to unchain
+the fury of rash speculation amongst a people of itself but too apt to
+be guided by a heated imagination and a wild spirit of adventure?
+
+The fault of M. Mounier and M. Lally was very great; but it was very
+general. If those gentlemen stopped, when they came to the brink of the
+gulf of guilt and public misery that yawned before them in the abyss of
+these dark and bottomless speculations, I forgive their first error: in
+that they were involved with many. Their repentance was their own.
+
+They who consider Mounier and Lally as deserters must regard themselves
+as murderers and as traitors: for from what else than murder and treason
+did they desert? For my part, I honor them for not having carried
+mistake into crime. If, indeed, I thought that they were not cured by
+experience, that they were not made sensible that those who would reform
+a state ought to assume some actual constitution of government which is
+to be reformed,--if they are not at length satisfied that it is become a
+necessary preliminary to liberty in France, to commence by the
+reëstablishment of order and property of _every_ kind, and, through the
+reëstablishment of their monarchy, of every one of the old habitual
+distinctions and classes of the state,--if they do not see that these
+classes are not to be confounded in order to be afterwards revived and
+separated,--if they are not convinced that the scheme of parochial and
+club governments takes up the state at the wrong end, and is a low and
+senseless contrivance, (as making the sole constitution of a supreme
+power,)--I should then allow that their early rashness ought to be
+remembered to the last moment of their lives.
+
+You gently reprehend me, because, in holding out the picture of your
+disastrous situation, I suggest no plan for a remedy. Alas! Sir, the
+proposition of plans, without an attention to circumstances, is the very
+cause of all your misfortunes; and never shall you find me aggravating,
+by the infusion of any speculations of mine, the evils which have arisen
+from the speculations of others. Your malady, in this respect, is a
+disorder of repletion. You seem to think that my keeping back my poor
+ideas may arise from an indifference to the welfare of a foreign and
+sometimes an hostile nation. No, Sir, I faithfully assure you, my
+reserve is owing to no such causes. Is this letter, swelled to a second
+book, a mark of national antipathy, or even of national indifference? I
+should act altogether in the spirit of the same caution, in a similar
+state of our own domestic affairs. If I were to venture any advice, in
+any case, it would be my best. The sacred duty of an adviser (one of the
+most inviolable that exists) would lead me, towards a real enemy, to act
+as if my best friend were the party concerned. But I dare not risk a
+speculation with no better view of your affairs than at present I can
+command; my caution is not from disregard, but from solicitude for your
+welfare. It is suggested solely from my dread of becoming the author of
+inconsiderate counsel.
+
+It is not, that, as this strange series of actions has passed before my
+eyes, I have not indulged my mind in a great variety of political
+speculations concerning them; but, compelled by no such positive duty as
+does not permit me to evade an opinion, called upon by no ruling power,
+without authority as I am, and without confidence, I should ill answer
+my own ideas of what would become myself, or what would be serviceable
+to others, if I were, as a volunteer, to obtrude any project of mine
+upon a nation to whose circumstances I could not be sure it might be
+applicable.
+
+Permit me to say, that, if I were as confident as I ought to be
+diffident in my own loose, general ideas, I never should venture to
+broach them, if but at twenty leagues' distance from the centre of your
+affairs. I must see with my own eyes, I must, in a manner, touch with my
+own hands, not only the fixed, but the momentary circumstances, before I
+could venture to suggest any political project whatsoever. I must know
+the power and disposition to accept, to execute, to persevere. I must
+see all the aids and all the obstacles. I must see the means of
+correcting the plan, where correctives would be wanted. I must see the
+things; I must see the men. Without a concurrence and adaptation of
+these to the design, the very best speculative projects might become not
+only useless, but mischievous. Plans must be made for men. We cannot
+think of making men, and binding Nature to our designs. People at a
+distance must judge ill of men. They do not always answer to their
+reputation, when you approach them. Nay, the perspective varies, and
+shows them quite otherwise than you thought them. At a distance, if we
+judge uncertainly of men, we must judge worse of _opportunities_, which
+continually vary their shapes and colors, and pass away like clouds. The
+Eastern politicians never do anything without the opinion of the
+astrologers on _the fortunate moment_. They are in the right, if they
+can do no better; for the opinion of fortune is something towards
+commanding it. Statesmen of a more judicious prescience look for the
+fortunate moment too; but they seek it, not in the conjunctions and
+oppositions of planets, but in the conjunctions and oppositions of men
+and things. These form their almanac.
+
+To illustrate the mischief of a wise plan, without any attention to
+means and circumstances, it is not necessary to go farther than to your
+recent history. In the condition in which France was found three years
+ago, what better system could be proposed, what less even savoring of
+wild theory, what fitter to provide for all the exigencies whilst it
+reformed all the abuses of government, than the convention of the
+States-General? I think nothing better could be imagined. But I have
+censured, and do still presume to censure, your Parliament of Paris for
+not having suggested to the king that this proper measure was of all
+measures the most critical and arduous, one in which the utmost
+circumspection and the greatest number of precautions were the most
+absolutely necessary. The very confession that a government wants either
+amendment in its conformation or relief to great distress causes it to
+lose half its reputation, and as great a proportion of its strength as
+depends upon that reputation. It was therefore necessary first to put
+government out of danger, whilst at its own desire it suffered such an
+operation as a general reform at the hands of those who were much more
+filled with a sense of the disease than provided with rational means of
+a cure.
+
+It may be said that this care and these precautions were more naturally
+the duty of the king's ministers than that of the Parliament. They were
+so: but every man must answer in his estimation for the advice he gives,
+when he puts the conduct of his measure into hands who he does not know
+will execute his plans according to his ideas. Three or four ministers
+were not to be trusted with the being of the French monarchy, of all the
+orders, and of all the distinctions, and all the property of the
+kingdom. What must be the prudence of those who could think, in the then
+known temper of the people of Paris, of assembling the States at a place
+situated as Versailles?
+
+The Parliament of Paris did worse than to inspire this blind confidence
+into the king. For, as if names were things, they took no notice of
+(indeed, they rather countenanced) the deviations, which were manifest
+in the execution, from the true ancient principles of the plan which
+they recommended. These deviations (as guardians of the ancient laws,
+usages, and Constitution of the kingdom) the Parliament of Paris ought
+not to have suffered, without the strongest remonstrances to the throne.
+It ought to have sounded the alarm to the whole nation, as it had often
+done on things of infinitely less importance. Under pretence of
+resuscitating the ancient Constitution, the Parliament saw one of the
+strongest acts of innovation, and the most leading in its consequences,
+carried into effect before their eyes,--and an innovation through the
+medium of despotism: that is, they suffered the king's ministers to
+new-model the whole representation of the _Tiers État_, and, in a great
+measure, that of the clergy too, and to destroy the ancient proportions
+of the orders. These changes, unquestionably, the king had no right to
+make; and here the Parliaments failed in their duty, and, along with
+their country, have perished by this failure.
+
+What a number of faults have led to this multitude of misfortunes, and
+almost all from this one source,--that of considering certain general
+maxims, without attending to circumstances, to times, to places, to
+conjunctures, and to actors! If we do not attend scrupulously to all
+these, the medicine of to-day becomes the poison of to-morrow. If any
+measure was in the abstract better than another, it was to call the
+States: _ea visa salus morientibus una_. Certainly it had the
+appearance. But see the consequences of not attending to critical
+moments, of not regarding the symptoms which discriminate diseases, and
+which distinguish constitutions, complexions, and humors.
+
+    Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio; furiisque refecti
+    Ardebant; ipsique suos, jam morte sub ægra,
+    Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus.
+
+Thus the potion which was given to strengthen the Constitution, to heal
+divisions, and to compose the minds of men, became the source of
+debility, frenzy, discord, and utter dissolution.
+
+In this, perhaps, I have answered, I think, another of your
+questions,--Whether the British Constitution is adapted to your
+circumstances? When I praised the British Constitution, and wished it to
+be well studied, I did not mean that its exterior form and positive
+arrangement should become a model for you or for any people servilely to
+copy. I meant to recommend the _principles_ from which it has grown, and
+the policy on which it has been progressively improved out of elements
+common to you and to us. I am sure it is no visionary theory of mine. It
+is not an advice that subjects you to the hazard of any experiment. I
+believed the ancient principles to be wise in all cases of a large
+empire that would be free. I thought you possessed our principles in
+your old forms in as great a perfection as we did originally. If your
+States agreed (as I think they did) with your circumstances, they were
+best for you. As you had a Constitution formed upon principles similar
+to ours, my idea was, that you might have improved them as we have done,
+conforming them to the state and exigencies of the times, and the
+condition of property in your country,--having the conservation of that
+property, and the substantial basis of your monarchy, as principal
+objects in all your reforms.
+
+I do not advise an House of Lords to you. Your ancient course by
+representatives of the noblesse (in your circumstances) appears to me
+rather a better institution. I know, that, with you, a set of men of
+rank have betrayed their constituents, their honor, their trust, their
+king, and their country, and levelled themselves with their footmen,
+that through this degradation they might afterwards put themselves above
+their natural equals. Some of these persons have entertained a project,
+that, in reward of this their black perfidy and corruption, they may be
+chosen to give rise to a new order, and to establish themselves into an
+House of Lords. Do you think, that, under the name of a British
+Constitution, I mean to recommend to you such Lords, made of such kind
+of stuff? I do not, however, include in this description all of those
+who are fond of this scheme.
+
+If you were now to form such an House of Peers, it would bear, in my
+opinion, but little resemblance to ours, in its origin, character, or
+the purposes which it might answer, at the same time that it would
+destroy your true natural nobility. But if you are not in a condition to
+frame a House of Lords, still less are you capable, in my opinion, of
+framing anything which virtually and substantially could be answerable
+(for the purposes of a stable, regular government) to our House of
+Commons. That House is, within itself, a much more subtle and artificial
+combination of parts and powers than people are generally aware of. What
+knits it to the other members of the Constitution, what fits it to be at
+once the great support and the great control of government, what makes
+it of such admirable service to that monarchy which, if it limits, it
+secures and strengthens, would require a long discourse, belonging to
+the leisure of a contemplative man, not to one whose duty it is to join
+in communicating practically to the people the blessings of such a
+Constitution.
+
+Your _Tiers État_ was not in effect and substance an House of Commons.
+You stood in absolute need of something else to supply the manifest
+defects in such a body as your _Tiers État_. On a sober and
+dispassionate view of your old Constitution, as connected with all the
+present circumstances, I was fully persuaded that the crown, standing as
+things have stood, (and are likely to stand, if you are to have any
+monarchy at all,) was and is incapable, alone and by itself, of holding
+a just balance between the two orders, and at the same time of effecting
+the interior and exterior purposes of a protecting government. I, whose
+leading principle it is, in a reformation of the state, to make use of
+existing materials, am of opinion that the representation of the clergy,
+as a separate order, was an institution which touched all the orders
+more nearly than any of them touched the other; that it was well fitted
+to connect them, and to hold a place in any wise monarchical
+commonwealth. If I refer you to your original Constitution, and think
+it, as I do, substantially a good one, I do not amuse you in this, more
+than in other things, with any inventions of mine. A certain
+intemperance of intellect is the disease of the time, and the source of
+all its other diseases. I will keep myself as untainted by it as I can.
+Your architects build without a foundation. I would readily lend an
+helping hand to any superstructure, when once this is effectually
+secured,--but first I would say, Δός πον στῶ.
+
+You think, Sir, (and you might think rightly, upon the first view of the
+theory,) that to provide for the exigencies of an empire so situated and
+so related as that of France, its king ought to be invested with powers
+very much superior to those which the king of England possesses under
+the letter of our Constitution. Every degree of power necessary to the
+state, and not destructive to the rational and moral freedom of
+individuals, to that personal liberty and personal security which
+contribute so much to the vigor, the prosperity, the happiness, and the
+dignity of a nation,--every degree of power which does not suppose the
+total absence of all control and all responsibility on the part of
+ministers,--a king of France, in common sense, ought to possess. But
+whether the exact measure of authority assigned by the letter of the law
+to the king of Great Britain can answer to the exterior or interior
+purposes of the French monarchy is a point which I cannot venture to
+judge upon. Here, both in the power given, and its limitations, we have
+always cautiously felt our way. The parts of our Constitution have
+gradually, and almost insensibly, in a long course of time, accommodated
+themselves to each other, and to their common as well as to their
+separate purposes. But this adaptation of contending parts, as it has
+not been in ours, so it can never be in yours, or in any country, the
+effect of a single instantaneous regulation, and no sound heads could
+ever think of doing it in that manner.
+
+I believe, Sir, that many on the Continent altogether mistake the
+condition of a king of Great Britain. He is a real king, and not an
+executive officer. If he will not trouble himself with contemptible
+details, nor wish to degrade himself by becoming a party in little
+squabbles, I am far from sure that a king of Great Britain, in whatever
+concerns him as a king, or indeed as a rational man, who combines his
+public interest with his personal satisfaction, does not possess a more
+real, solid, extensive power than the king of France was possessed of
+before this miserable revolution. The direct power of the king of
+England is considerable. His indirect, and far more certain power, is
+great indeed. He stands in need of nothing towards dignity,--of nothing
+towards splendor,--of nothing towards authority,--of nothing at all
+towards consideration abroad. When was it that a king of England wanted
+wherewithal to make him respected, courted, or perhaps even feared, in
+every state in Europe?
+
+I am constantly of opinion that your States, in three orders, on the
+footing on which they stood in 1614, were capable of being brought into
+a proper and harmonious combination with royal authority. This
+constitution by Estates was the natural and only just representation of
+France. It grew out of the habitual conditions, relations, and
+reciprocal claims of men. It grew out of the circumstances of the
+country, and out of the state of property. The wretched scheme of your
+present masters is not to fit the Constitution to the people, but wholly
+to destroy conditions, to dissolve relations, to change the state of the
+nation, and to subvert property, in order to fit their country to their
+theory of a Constitution.
+
+Until you make out practically that great work, a combination of
+opposing forces, "a work of labor long, and endless praise," the utmost
+caution ought to have been used in the reduction of the royal power,
+which alone was capable of holding together the comparatively
+heterogeneous mass of your States. But at this day all these
+considerations are unseasonable. To what end should we discuss the
+limitations of royal power? Your king is in prison. Why speculate on the
+measure and standard of liberty? I doubt much, very much indeed, whether
+France is at all ripe for liberty on any standard. Men are qualified for
+civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral
+chains upon their own appetites,--in proportion as their love to justice
+is above their rapacity,--in proportion as their soundness and sobriety
+of understanding is above their vanity and presumption,--in proportion
+as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and
+good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist,
+unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere;
+and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It
+is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of
+intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
+
+This sentence the prevalent part of your countrymen execute on
+themselves. They possessed not long since what was next to freedom, a
+mild, paternal monarchy. They despised it for its weakness. They were
+offered a well-poised, free Constitution. It did not suit their taste or
+their temper. They carved for themselves: they flew out, murdered,
+robbed, and rebelled. They have succeeded, and put over their country an
+insolent tyranny made up of cruel and inexorable masters, and that, too,
+of a description hitherto not known in the world. The powers and
+policies by which they have succeeded are not those of great statesmen
+or great military commanders, but the practices of incendiaries,
+assassins, housebreakers, robbers, spreaders of false news, forgers of
+false orders from authority, and other delinquencies, of which ordinary
+justice takes cognizance. Accordingly, the spirit of their rule is
+exactly correspondent to the means by which they obtained it. They act
+more in the manner of thieves who have got possession of an house than
+of conquerors who have subdued a nation.
+
+Opposed to these, in appearance, but in appearance only, is another
+band, who call themselves _the Moderate_. These, if I conceive rightly
+of their conduct, are a set of men who approve heartily of the whole
+new Constitution, but wish to lay heavy on the most atrocious of those
+crimes by which this fine Constitution of theirs has been obtained. They
+are a sort of people who affect to proceed as if they thought that men
+may deceive without fraud, rob without injustice, and overturn
+everything without violence. They are men who would usurp the government
+of their country with decency and moderation. In fact, they are nothing
+more or better than men engaged in desperate designs with feeble minds.
+They are not honest; they are only ineffectual and unsystematic in their
+iniquity. They are persons who want not the dispositions, but the energy
+and vigor, that is necessary for great evil machinations. They find that
+in such designs they fall at best into a secondary rank, and others take
+the place and lead in usurpation which they are not qualified to obtain
+or to hold. They envy to their companions the natural fruit of their
+crimes; they join to run them down with the hue and cry of mankind,
+which pursues their common offences; and then hope to mount into their
+places on the credit of the sobriety with which they show themselves
+disposed to carry on what may seem most plausible in the mischievous
+projects they pursue in common. But these men are naturally despised by
+those who have heads to know, and hearts that are able to go through the
+necessary demands of bold, wicked enterprises. They are naturally
+classed below the latter description, and will only be used by them as
+inferior instruments. They will be only the Fairfaxes of your Cromwells.
+If they mean honestly, why do they not strengthen the arms of honest men
+to support their ancient, legal, wise, and free government, given to
+them in the spring of 1788, against the inventions of craft and the
+theories of ignorance and folly? If they do not, they must continue the
+scorn of both parties,--sometimes the tool, sometimes the incumbrance of
+that whose views they approve, whose conduct they decry. These people
+are only made to be the sport of tyrants. They never can obtain or
+communicate freedom.
+
+You ask me, too, whether we have a Committee of Research. No, Sir,--God
+forbid! It is the necessary instrument of tyranny and usurpation; and
+therefore I do not wonder that it has had an early establishment under
+your present lords. We do not want it.
+
+Excuse my length. I have been somewhat occupied since I was honored with
+your letter; and I should not have been able to answer it at all, but
+for the holidays, which have given me means of enjoying the leisure of
+the country. I am called to duties which I am neither able nor willing
+to evade. I must soon return to my old conflict with the corruptions and
+oppressions which have prevailed in our Eastern dominions. I must turn
+myself wholly from those of France.
+
+In England we _cannot_ work so hard as Frenchmen. Frequent relaxation is
+necessary to us. You are naturally more intense in your application. I
+did not know this part of your national character, until I went into
+France in 1773. At present, this your disposition to labor is rather
+increased than lessened. In your Assembly you do not allow yourselves a
+recess even on Sundays. We have two days in the week, besides the
+festivals, and besides five or six months of the summer and autumn. This
+continued, unremitted effort of the members of your Assembly I take to
+be one among the causes of the mischief they have done. They who always
+labor can have no true judgment. You never give yourselves time to cool.
+You can never survey, from its proper point of sight, the work you have
+finished, before you decree its final execution. You can never plan the
+future by the past. You never go into the country, soberly and
+dispassionately to observe the effect of your measures on their objects.
+You cannot feel distinctly how far the people are rendered better and
+improved, or more miserable and depraved, by what you have done. You
+cannot see with your own eyes the sufferings and afflictions you cause.
+You know them but at a distance, on the statements of those who always
+flatter the reigning power, and who, amidst their representations of the
+grievances, inflame your minds against those who are oppressed. These
+are amongst the effects of unremitted labor, when men exhaust their
+attention, burn out their candles, and are left in the dark.--_Malo
+meorum negligentiam, quam istorum obscuram diligentiam_.
+
+I have the honor, &c.,
+
+EDMUND BURKE.
+
+BEACONSFIELD, January 19th, 1791.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] It is said in the last quackish address of the National Assembly to
+the people of France, that they have not formed their arrangements upon
+vulgar practice, but on a theory which cannot fail,--or something to
+that effect.
+
+[2] See Burnet's Life of Hale.
+
+[3] The pillory (_carcan_) in England is generally made very high like
+that raised to exposing the king of France.
+
+[4] "Filiola tua te delectari lætor, et prohari tibi Φυσικὴν
+esse τὴν πρὸς τὰ τεκνα: etenim, si hæc non est, nulla potest
+homini esse ad hominem naturæ adjunctio: qua sublata, vitæ societas
+tollitur. Valete Patron [Rousseau] et tui condiscipuli [L'Assemblée
+Nationale]"--Cic. Ep. ad Atticum.
+
+[5] Mirabeau's speech concerning universal peace.
+
+
+
+
+AN
+
+APPEAL
+
+FROM
+
+THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS,
+
+IN CONSEQUENCE OF SOME LATE
+
+DISCUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT
+
+RELATIVE TO THE
+
+REFLECTIONS ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
+
+1791.
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT
+
+TO THE SECOND EDITION.
+
+
+There are some corrections in this edition, which tend to render the
+sense less obscure in one or two places. The order of the two last
+members is also changed, and I believe for the better. This change was
+made on the suggestion of a very learned person, to the partiality of
+whose friendship I owe much; to the severity of whose judgment I owe
+more.
+
+
+
+
+AN APPEAL
+
+FROM
+
+THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS.
+
+
+At Mr. Burke's time of life, and in his dispositions, _petere honestam
+missionem_ was all he had to do with his political associates. This boon
+they have not chosen to grant him. With many expressions of good-will,
+in effect they tell him he has loaded the stage too long. They conceive
+it, though an harsh, yet a necessary office, in full Parliament to
+declare to the present age, and to as late a posterity as shall take any
+concern in the proceedings of our day, that by one book he has disgraced
+the whole tenor of his life.--Thus they dismiss their old partner of the
+war. He is advised to retire, whilst they continue to serve the public
+upon wiser principles and under better auspices.
+
+Whether Diogenes the Cynic was a true philosopher cannot easily be
+determined. He has written nothing. But the sayings of his which are
+handed down by others are lively, and may be easily and aptly applied on
+many occasions by those whose wit is not so perfect as their memory.
+This Diogenes (as every one will recollect) was citizen of a little
+bleak town situated on the coast of the Euxine, and exposed to all the
+buffets of that inhospitable sea. He lived at a great distance from
+those weather-beaten walls, in ease and indolence, and in the midst of
+literary leisure, when he was informed that his townsmen had condemned
+him to be banished from Sinope; he answered coolly, "And I condemn them
+to live in Sinope."
+
+The gentlemen of the party in which Mr. Burke has always acted, in
+passing upon him the sentence of retirement,[6] have done nothing more
+than to confirm the sentence which he had long before passed upon
+himself. When that retreat was choice, which the tribunal of his peers
+inflict as punishment, it is plain he does not think their sentence
+intolerably severe. Whether they, who are to continue in the Sinope
+which shortly he is to leave, will spend the long years, which I hope
+remain to them, in a manner more to their satisfaction than he shall
+slide down, in silence and obscurity, the slope of his declining days,
+is best known to Him who measures out years, and days, and fortunes.
+
+The quality of the sentence does not, however, decide on the justice of
+it. Angry friendship is sometimes as bad as calm enmity. For this reason
+the cold neutrality of abstract justice is, to a good and clear cause, a
+more desirable thing than an affection liable to be any way disturbed.
+When the trial is by friends, if the decision should happen to be
+favorable, the honor of the acquittal is lessened; if adverse, the
+condemnation is exceedingly embittered. It is aggravated by coming from
+lips professing friendship, and pronouncing judgment with sorrow and
+reluctance. Taking in the whole view of life, it is more safe to live
+under the jurisdiction of severe, but steady reason, than under the
+empire of indulgent, but capricious passion. It is certainly well for
+Mr. Burke that there are impartial men in the world. To them I address
+myself, pending the appeal which on his part is made from the living to
+the dead, from the modern Whigs to the ancient.
+
+The gentlemen, who, in the name of the party, have passed sentence on
+Mr. Burke's book, in the light of literary criticism, are judges above
+all challenge. He did not, indeed, flatter himself that as a writer he
+could claim the approbation of men whose talents, in his judgment and in
+the public judgment, approach to prodigies, if ever such persons should
+be disposed to estimate the merit of a composition upon the standard of
+their own ability.
+
+In their critical censure, though Mr. Burke may find himself humbled by
+it as a writer, as a man, and as an Englishman, he finds matter not only
+of consolation, but of pride. He proposed to convey to a foreign people,
+not his own ideas, but the prevalent opinions and sentiments of a
+nation, renowned for wisdom, and celebrated in all ages for a
+well-understood and well-regulated love of freedom. This was the avowed
+purpose of the far greater part of his work. As that work has not been
+ill received, and as his critics will not only admit, but contend, that
+this reception could not be owing to any excellence in the composition
+capable of perverting the public judgment, it is clear that he is not
+disavowed by the nation whose sentiments he had undertaken to describe.
+His representation is authenticated by the verdict of his country. Had
+his piece, as a work of skill, been thought worthy of commendation, some
+doubt might have been entertained of the cause of his success. But the
+matter stands exactly as he wishes it. He is more happy to have his
+fidelity in representation recognized by the body of the people than if
+he were to be ranked in point of ability (and higher he could not be
+ranked) with those whose critical censure he has had the misfortune to
+incur.
+
+It is not from this part of their decision which the author wishes an
+appeal. There are things which touch him more nearly. To abandon them
+would argue, not diffidence in his abilities, but treachery to his
+cause. Had his work been recognized as a pattern for dexterous argument
+and powerful eloquence, yet, if it tended to establish maxims or to
+inspire sentiments adverse to the wise and free Constitution of this
+kingdom, he would only have cause to lament that it possessed qualities
+fitted to perpetuate the memory of his offence. Oblivion would be the
+only means of his escaping the reproaches of posterity. But, after
+receiving the common allowance due to the common weakness of man, he
+wishes to owe no part of the indulgence of the world to its
+forgetfulness. He is at issue with the party before the present, and,
+if ever he can reach it, before the coming generation.
+
+The author, several months previous to his publication, well knew that
+two gentlemen, both of them possessed of the most distinguished
+abilities, and of a most decisive authority in the party, had differed
+with him in one of the most material points relative to the French
+Revolution: that is, in their opinion of the behavior of the French
+soldiery, and its revolt from its officers. At the time of their public
+declaration on this subject, he did not imagine the opinion of these two
+gentlemen had extended a great way beyond themselves. He was, however,
+well aware of the probability that persons of their just credit and
+influence would at length dispose the greater number to an agreement
+with their sentiments, and perhaps might induce the whole body to a
+tacit acquiescence in their declarations, under a natural and not always
+an improper dislike of showing a difference with those who lead their
+party. I will not deny that in general this conduct in parties is
+defensible; but within what limits the practice is to be circumscribed,
+and with what exceptions the doctrine which supports it is to be
+received, it is not my present purpose to define. The present question
+has nothing to do with their motives; it only regards the public
+expression of their sentiments.
+
+The author is compelled, however reluctantly, to receive the sentence
+pronounced upon him in the House of Commons as that of the party. It
+proceeded from the mouth of him who must be regarded as its authentic
+organ. In a discussion which continued for two days, no one gentleman of
+the opposition interposed a negative, or even a doubt, in favor of him
+or his opinions. If an idea consonant to the doctrine of his book, or
+favorable to his conduct, lurks in the minds of any persons in that
+description, it is to be considered only as a peculiarity which they
+indulge to their own private liberty of thinking. The author cannot
+reckon upon it. It has nothing to do with them as members of a party. In
+their public capacity, in everything that meets the public ear or public
+eye, the body must be considered as unanimous.
+
+They must have been animated with a very warm zeal against those
+opinions, because they were under no _necessity_ of acting as they did,
+from any just cause of apprehension that the errors of this writer
+should be taken for theirs. They might disapprove; it was not necessary
+they should _disavow_ him, as they have done in the whole and in all the
+parts of his book; because neither in the whole nor in any of the parts
+were they directly, or by any implication, involved. The author was
+known, indeed, to have been warmly, strenuously, and affectionately,
+against all allurements of ambition, and all possibility of alienation
+from pride or personal pique or peevish jealousy, attached to the Whig
+party. With one of them he has had a long friendship, which he must ever
+remember with a melancholy pleasure. To the great, real, and amiable
+virtues, and to the unequalled abilities of that gentleman, he shall
+always join with his country in paying a just tribute of applause. There
+are others in that party for whom, without any shade of sorrow, he bears
+as high a degree of love as can enter into the human heart, and as much
+veneration as ought to be paid to human creatures; because he firmly
+believes that they are endowed with as many and as great virtues as the
+nature of man is capable of producing, joined to great clearness of
+intellect, to a just judgment, to a wonderful temper, and to true
+wisdom. His sentiments with regard to them can never vary, without
+subjecting him to the just indignation of mankind, who are bound, and
+are generally disposed, to look up with reverence to the best patterns
+of their species, and such as give a dignity to the nature of which we
+all participate. For the whole of the party he has high respect. Upon a
+view, indeed, of the composition of all parties, he finds great
+satisfaction. It is, that, in leaving the service of his country, he
+leaves Parliament without all comparison richer in abilities than he
+found it. Very solid and very brilliant talents distinguish the
+ministerial benches. The opposite rows are a sort of seminary of genius,
+and have brought forth such and so great talents as never before
+(amongst us at least) have appeared together. If their owners are
+disposed to serve their country, (he trusts they are,) they are in a
+condition to render it services of the highest importance. If, through
+mistake or passion, they are led to contribute to its ruin, we shall at
+least have a consolation denied to the ruined country that adjoins us:
+we shall not be destroyed by men of mean or secondary capacities.
+
+All these considerations of party attachment, of personal regard, and of
+personal admiration rendered the author of the Reflections extremely
+cautious, lest the slightest suspicion should arise of his having
+undertaken to express the sentiments even of a single man of that
+description. His words at the outset of his Reflections are these:--
+
+"In the first letter I had the honor to write to you, and which at
+length I send, I wrote neither _for_ nor _from_ any description of men;
+nor shall I in this. My errors, if any, are _my own_. My reputation
+_alone_ is to answer for them." In another place he says, (p. 126,[7])
+"I have _no man's_ proxy. I speak _only_ from _myself_, when I disclaim,
+as I do with all possible earnestness, all communion with the actors in
+that triumph, or with the admirers of it. When I assert anything else,
+as concerning the people of England, I speak from observation, _not from
+authority_."
+
+To say, then, that the book did not contain the sentiments of their
+party is not to contradict the author or to clear themselves. If the
+party had denied his doctrines to be the current opinions of the
+majority in the nation, they would have put the question on its true
+issue. There, I hope and believe, his censurers will find, on the trial,
+that the author is as faithful a representative of the general sentiment
+of the people of England, as any person amongst them can be of the ideas
+of his own party.
+
+The French Revolution can have no connection with the objects of any
+parties in England formed before the period of that event, unless they
+choose to imitate any of its acts, or to consolidate any principles of
+that Revolution with their own opinions. The French Revolution is no
+part of their original contract. The matter, standing by itself, is an
+open subject of political discussion, like all the other revolutions
+(and there are many) which have been attempted or accomplished in our
+age. But if any considerable number of British subjects, taking a
+factious interest in the proceedings of France, begin publicly to
+incorporate themselves for the subversion of nothing short of the
+_whole_ Constitution of this kingdom,--to incorporate themselves for the
+utter overthrow of the body of its laws, civil and ecclesiastical, and
+with them of the whole system of its manners, in favor of the new
+Constitution and of the modern usages of the French nation,--I think no
+party principle could bind the author not to express his sentiments
+strongly against such a faction. On the contrary, he was perhaps bound
+to mark his dissent, when the leaders of the party were daily going out
+of their way to make public declarations in Parliament, which,
+notwithstanding the purity of their intentions, had a tendency to
+encourage ill-designing men in their practices against our Constitution.
+
+The members of this faction leave no doubt of the nature and the extent
+of the mischief they mean to produce. They declare it openly and
+decisively. Their intentions are not left equivocal. They are put out of
+all dispute by the thanks which, formally and as it were officially,
+they issue, in order to recommend and to promote the circulation of the
+most atrocious and treasonable libels against all the hitherto cherished
+objects of the love and veneration of this people. Is it contrary to the
+duty of a good subject to reprobate such proceedings? Is it alien to the
+office of a good member of Parliament, when such practices increase, and
+when the audacity of the conspirators grows with their impunity, to
+point out in his place their evil tendency to the happy Constitution
+which he is chosen to guard? Is it wrong, in any sense, to render the
+people of England sensible how much they must suffer, if, unfortunately,
+such a wicked faction should become possessed in this country of the
+same power which their allies in the very next to us have so
+perfidiously usurped and so outrageously abused? Is it inhuman to
+prevent, if possible, the spilling _their_ blood, or imprudent to guard
+against the effusion of _our own?_ Is it contrary to any of the honest
+principles of party, or repugnant to any of the known duties of
+friendship, for any senator respectfully and amicably to caution his
+brother members against countenancing, by inconsiderate expressions, a
+sort of proceeding which it is impossible they should deliberately
+approve?
+
+He had undertaken to demonstrate, by arguments which he thought could
+not be refuted, and by documents which he was sure could not be denied,
+that no comparison was to be made between the British government and the
+French usurpation.--That they who endeavored madly to compare them were
+by no means making the comparison of one good system with another good
+system, which varied only in local and circumstantial differences; much
+less that they were holding out to us a superior pattern of legal
+liberty, which we might substitute in the place of our old, and, as they
+describe it, superannuated Constitution. He meant to demonstrate that
+the French scheme was not a comparative good, but a positive evil.--That
+the question did not at all turn, as it had been stated, on a parallel
+between a monarchy and a republic. He denied that the present scheme of
+things in France did at all deserve the respectable name of a republic:
+he had therefore no comparison between monarchies and republics to
+make.--That what was done in France was a wild attempt to methodize
+anarchy, to perpetuate and fix disorder. That it was a foul, impious,
+monstrous thing, wholly out of the course of moral Nature. He undertook
+to prove that it was generated in treachery, fraud, falsehood,
+hypocrisy, and unprovoked murder.--He offered to make out that those who
+have led in that business had conducted themselves with the utmost
+perfidy to their colleagues in function, and with the most flagrant
+perjury both towards their king and their constituents: to the one of
+whom the Assembly had sworn fealty; and to the other, when under no sort
+of violence or constraint, they had sworn a full obedience to
+instructions.--That, by the terror of assassination, they had driven
+away a very great number of the members, so as to produce a false
+appearance of a majority.--That this fictitious majority had fabricated
+a Constitution, which, as now it stands, is a tyranny far beyond any
+example that can be found in the civilized European world of our age;
+that therefore the lovers of it must be lovers, not of liberty, but, if
+they really understand its nature, of the lowest and basest of all
+servitude.
+
+He proposed to prove that the present state of things in France is not a
+transient evil, productive, as some have too favorably represented it,
+of a lasting good; but that the present evil is only the means of
+producing future and (if that were possible) worse evils.--That it is
+not an undigested, imperfect, and crude scheme of liberty, which may
+gradually be mellowed and ripened into an orderly and social freedom;
+but that it is so fundamentally wrong as to be utterly incapable of
+correcting itself by any length of time, or of being formed into any
+mode of polity of which a member of the House of Commons could publicly
+declare his approbation.
+
+If it had been permitted to Mr. Burke, he would have shown distinctly,
+and in detail, that what the Assembly calling itself National had held
+out as a large and liberal toleration is in reality a cruel and
+insidious religious persecution, infinitely more bitter than any which
+had been heard of within this century.--That it had a feature in it
+worse than the old persecutions.--That the old persecutors acted, or
+pretended to act, from zeal towards some system of piety and virtue:
+they gave strong preferences to their own; and if they drove people from
+one religion, they provided for them another, in which men might take
+refuge and expect consolation.--That their new persecution is not
+against a variety in conscience, but against all conscience. That it
+professes contempt towards its object; and whilst it treats all religion
+with scorn, is not so much as neutral about the modes: it unites the
+opposite evils of intolerance and of indifference.
+
+He could have proved that it is so far from rejecting tests, (as
+unaccountably had been asserted,) that the Assembly had imposed tests of
+a peculiar hardship, arising from a cruel and premeditated pecuniary
+fraud: tests against old principles, sanctioned by the laws, and binding
+upon the conscience.--That these tests were not imposed as titles to
+some new honor or some new benefit, but to enable men to hold a poor
+compensation for their legal estates, of which they had been unjustly
+deprived; and as they had before been reduced from affluence to
+indigence, so, on refusal to swear against their conscience, they are
+now driven from indigence to famine, and treated with every possible
+degree of outrage, insult, and inhumanity.--That these tests, which
+their imposers well knew would not be taken, were intended for the very
+purpose of cheating their miserable victims out of the compensation
+which the tyrannic impostors of the Assembly had previously and
+purposely rendered the public unable to pay. That thus their ultimate
+violence arose from their original fraud.
+
+He would have shown that the universal peace and concord amongst
+nations, which these common enemies to mankind had held out with the
+same fraudulent ends and pretences with which they had uniformly
+conducted every part of their proceeding, was a coarse and clumsy
+deception, unworthy to be proposed as an example, by an informed and
+sagacious British senator, to any other country.--That, far from peace
+and good-will to men, they meditated war against all other governments,
+and proposed systematically to excite in them all the very worst kind of
+seditions, in order to lead to their common destruction.--That they had
+discovered, in the few instances in which they have hitherto had the
+power of discovering it, (as at Avignon and in the Comtat, at Cavaillon
+and at Carpentras,) in what a savage manner they mean to conduct the
+seditions and wars they have planned against their neighbors, for the
+sake of putting themselves at the head of a confederation of republics
+as wild and as mischievous as their own. He would have shown in what
+manner that wicked scheme was carried on in those places, without being
+directly either owned or disclaimed, in hopes that the undone people
+should at length be obliged to fly to their tyrannic protection, as some
+sort of refuge from their barbarous and treacherous hostility. He would
+have shown from those examples that neither this nor any other society
+could be in safety as long as such a public enemy was in a condition to
+continue directly or indirectly such practices against its peace.--That
+Great Britain was a principal object of their machinations; and that
+they had begun by establishing correspondences, communications, and a
+sort of federal union with the factious here.--That no practical
+enjoyment of a thing so imperfect and precarious as human happiness must
+be, even under the very best of governments, could be a security for the
+existence of these governments, during the prevalence of the principles
+of France, propagated from that grand school of every disorder and every
+vice.
+
+He was prepared to show the madness of their declaration of the
+pretended rights of man,--the childish, futility of some of their
+maxims, the gross and stupid absurdity and the palpable falsity of
+others, and the mischievous tendency of all such declarations to the
+well-being of men and of citizens and to the safety and prosperity of
+every just commonwealth. He was prepared to show, that, in their
+conduct, the Assembly had directly violated not only every sound
+principle of government, but every one, without exception, of their own
+false or futile maxims, and indeed every rule they had pretended to lay
+down for their own direction.
+
+In a word, he was ready to show that those who could, after such a full
+and fair exposure, continue to countenance the French insanity were not
+mistaken politicians, but bad men; but he thought that in this case, as
+in many others, ignorance had been the cause of admiration.
+
+These are strong assertions. They required strong proofs. The member who
+laid down these positions was and is ready to give, in his place, to
+each position decisive evidence, correspondent to the nature and quality
+of the several allegations.
+
+In order to judge on the propriety of the interruption given to Mr.
+Burke, in his speech in the committee of the Quebec Bill, it is
+necessary to inquire, First, whether, on general principles, he ought to
+have been suffered to prove his allegations? Secondly, whether the time
+he had chosen was so very unseasonable as to make his exercise of a
+parliamentary right productive of ill effects on his friends or his
+country? Thirdly, whether the opinions delivered in his book, and which
+he had begun to expatiate upon that day, were in contradiction to his
+former principles, and inconsistent with the general tenor of his public
+conduct?
+
+They who have made eloquent panegyrics on the French Revolution, and who
+think a free discussion so very advantageous in every case and under
+every circumstance, ought not, in my opinion, to have prevented their
+eulogies from being tried on the test of facts. If their panegyric had
+been answered with an invective, (bating the difference in point of
+eloquence,) the one would have been as good as the other: that is, they
+would both of them have been good for nothing. The panegyric and the
+satire ought to be suffered to go to trial; and that which shrinks from
+if must be contented to stand, at best, as a mere declamation.
+
+I do not think Mr. Burke was wrong in the course he took. That which
+seemed to be recommended to him by Mr. Pitt was rather to extol the
+English Constitution than to attack the French. I do not determine what
+would be best for Mr. Pitt to do in his situation. I do not deny that
+_he_ may have good reasons for his reserve. Perhaps they might have been
+as good for a similar reserve on the part of Mr. Fox, if his zeal had
+suffered him to listen to them. But there were no motives of ministerial
+prudence, or of that prudence which ought to guide a man perhaps on the
+eve of being minister, to restrain the author of the Reflections. He is
+in no office under the crown; he is not the organ of any party.
+
+The excellencies of the British Constitution had already exercised and
+exhausted the talents of the best thinkers and the most eloquent writers
+and speakers that the world ever saw. But in the present case a system
+declared to be far better, and which certainly is much newer, (to
+restless and unstable minds no small recommendation,) was held out to
+the admiration of the good people of England. In that case it was surely
+proper for those who had far other thoughts of the French Constitution
+to scrutinize that plan which has been recommended to our imitation by
+active and zealous factions at home and abroad. Our complexion is such,
+that we are palled with enjoyment, and stimulated with hope,--that we
+become less sensible to a long-possessed benefit from the very
+circumstance that it is become habitual. Specious, untried, ambiguous
+prospects of new advantage recommend themselves to the spirit of
+adventure which more or less prevails in every mind. From this temper,
+men and factions, and nations too, have sacrificed the good of which
+they had been in assured possession, in favor of wild and irrational
+expectations. What should hinder Mr. Burke, if he thought this temper
+likely at one time or other to prevail in our country, from exposing to
+a multitude eager to game the false calculations of this lottery of
+fraud?
+
+I allow, as I ought to do, for the effusions which come from a _general_
+zeal for liberty. This is to be indulged, and even to be encouraged, as
+long as _the question is general_. An orator, above all men, ought to be
+allowed a full and free use of the praise of liberty. A commonplace in
+favor of slavery and tyranny, delivered to a popular assembly, would
+indeed be a bold defiance to all the principles of rhetoric. But in a
+question whether any particular Constitution is or is not a plan of
+rational liberty, this kind of rhetorical flourish in favor of freedom
+in general is surely a little out of its place. It is virtually a
+begging of the question. It is a song of triumph before the battle.
+
+"But Mr. Fox does not make the panegyric of the new Constitution; it is
+the destruction only of the absolute monarchy he commends." When that
+nameless thing which has been lately set up in France was described as
+"the most stupendous and glorious edifice of liberty which had been
+erected on the foundation of human integrity in any time or country," it
+might at first have led the hearer into an opinion that the construction
+of the new fabric was an object of admiration, as well as the demolition
+of the old. Mr. Fox, however, has explained himself; and it would be too
+like that captious and cavilling spirit which I so perfectly detest, if
+I were to pin down the language of an eloquent and ardent mind to the
+punctilious exactness of a pleader. Then Mr. Fox did not mean to applaud
+that monstrous thing which, by the courtesy of France, they call a
+Constitution. I easily believe it. Far from meriting the praises of a
+great genius like Mr. Fox, it cannot be approved by any man of common
+sense or common information. He cannot admire the change of one piece of
+barbarism for another, and a worse. He cannot rejoice at the destruction
+of a monarchy, mitigated by manners, respectful to laws and usages, and
+attentive, perhaps but too attentive, to public opinion, in favor of the
+tyranny of a licentious, ferocious, and savage multitude, without laws,
+manners, or morals, and which, so far from respecting the general sense
+of mankind, insolently endeavors to alter all the principles and
+opinions which have hitherto guided and contained the world, and to
+force them into a conformity to their views and actions. His mind is
+made to better things.
+
+That a man should rejoice and triumph in the destruction of an absolute
+monarchy,--that in such an event he should overlook the captivity,
+disgrace, and degradation of an unfortunate prince, and the continual
+danger to a life which exists only to be endangered,--that he should
+overlook the utter ruin of whole orders and classes of men, extending
+itself directly, or in its nearest consequences, to at least a million
+of our kind, and to at least the temporary wretchedness of a whole
+community,--I do not deny to be in some sort natural; because, when
+people see a political object which they ardently desire but in one
+point of view, they are apt extremely to palliate or underrate the evils
+which may arise in obtaining it. This is no reflection on the humanity
+of those persons. Their good-nature I am the last man in the world to
+dispute. It only shows that they are not sufficiently informed or
+sufficiently considerate. When they come to reflect seriously on the
+transaction, they will think themselves bound to examine what the
+object is that has been acquired by all this havoc. They will hardly
+assert that the destruction of an absolute monarchy is a thing good in
+itself, without any sort of reference to the antecedent state of things,
+or to consequences which result from the change,--without any
+consideration whether under its ancient rule a country was to a
+considerable degree flourishing and populous, highly cultivated and
+highly commercial, and whether, under that domination, though personal
+liberty had been precarious and insecure, property at least was ever
+violated. They cannot take the moral sympathies of the human mind along
+with them, in abstractions separated from the good or evil condition of
+the state, from the quality of actions, and the character of the actors.
+None of us love absolute and uncontrolled monarchy; but we could not
+rejoice at the sufferings of a Marcus Aurelius or a Trajan, who were
+absolute monarchs, as we do when Nero is condemned by the Senate to be
+punished _more majorum_; nor, when that monster was obliged to fly with
+his wife Sporus, and to drink puddle, were men affected in the same
+manner as when the venerable Galba, with all his faults and errors, was
+murdered by a revolted mercenary soldiery. With such things before our
+eyes, our feelings contradict our theories; and when this is the case,
+the feelings are true, and the theory is false. What I contend for is,
+that, in commending the destruction of an absolute monarchy, _all the
+circumstances_ ought not to be wholly overlooked, as "considerations fit
+only for shallow and superficial minds." (The words of Mr. Fox, or to
+that effect.)
+
+The subversion of a government, to deserve any praise, must be
+considered but as a step preparatory to the formation of something
+better, either in the scheme of the government itself, or in the persons
+who administer it, or in both. These events cannot in reason be
+separated. For instance, when we praise our Revolution of 1688, though
+the nation in that act was on the defensive, and was justified in
+incurring all the evils of a defensive war, we do not rest there. We
+always combine with the subversion of the old government the happy
+settlement which followed. When we estimate that Revolution, we mean to
+comprehend in our calculation both the value of the thing parted with
+and the value of the thing received in exchange.
+
+The burden of proof lies heavily on those who tear to pieces the whole
+frame and contexture of their country, that they could find no other way
+of settling a government fit to obtain its rational ends, except that
+which they have pursued by means unfavorable to all the present
+happiness of millions of people, and to the utter ruin of several
+hundreds of thousands. In their political arrangements, men have no
+right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the
+question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands
+is the care of our own time. With regard to futurity, we are to treat it
+like a ward. We are not so to attempt an improvement of his fortune as
+to put the capital of his estate to any hazard.
+
+It is not worth our while to discuss, like sophisters, whether in no
+case some evil for the sake of some benefit is to be tolerated. Nothing
+universal can be rationally affirmed on any moral or any political
+subject. Pure metaphysical abstraction does not belong to these
+matters. The lines of morality are not like the ideal lines of
+mathematics. They are broad and deep as well as long. They admit of
+exceptions; they demand modifications. These exceptions and
+modifications are not made by the process of logic, but by the rules of
+prudence. Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues
+political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the
+standard of them all. Metaphysics cannot live without definition; but
+Prudence is cautious how she defines. Our courts cannot be more fearful
+in suffering fictitious cases to be brought before them for eliciting
+their determination on a point of law than prudent moralists are in
+putting extreme and hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not
+existing. Without attempting, therefore, to define, what never can be
+defined, the case of a revolution in government, this, I think, may be
+safely affirmed,--that a sore and pressing evil is to be removed, and
+that a good, great in its amount and unequivocal in its nature, must be
+probable almost to certainty, before the inestimable price of our own
+morals and the well-being of a number of our fellow-citizens is paid for
+a revolution. If ever we ought to be economists even to parsimony, it is
+in the voluntary production of evil. Every revolution contains in it
+something of evil.
+
+It must always be, to those who are the greatest amateurs, or even
+professors, of revolutions, a matter very hard to prove, that the late
+French government was so bad that nothing worse in the infinite devices
+of men could come in its place. They who have brought France to its
+present condition ought to prove also, by something better than
+prattling about the Bastile, that their subverted government was as
+incapable as the present certainly is of all improvement and
+correction. How dare they to say so who have never made that experiment?
+They are experimenters by their trade. They have made an hundred others,
+infinitely more hazardous.
+
+The English admirers of the forty-eight thousand republics which form
+the French federation praise them not for what they are, but for what
+they are to become. They do not talk as politicians, but as prophets.
+But in whatever character they choose to found panegyric on prediction,
+it will be thought a little singular to praise any work, not for its own
+merits, but for the merits of something else which may succeed to it.
+When any political institution is praised, in spite of great and
+prominent faults of every kind, and in all its parts, it must be
+supposed to have something excellent in its fundamental principles. It
+must be shown that it is right, though imperfect,--that it is not only
+by possibility susceptible of improvement, but that it contains in it a
+principle tending to its melioration.
+
+Before they attempt to show this progression of their favorite work from
+absolute pravity to finished perfection, they will find themselves
+engaged in a civil war with those whose cause they maintain. What! alter
+our sublime Constitution, the glory of France, the envy of the world,
+the pattern for mankind, the masterpiece of legislation, the collected
+and concentrated glory of this enlightened age? Have we not produced it
+ready-made and ready-armed, mature in its birth, a perfect goddess of
+wisdom and of war, hammered by our blacksmith midwives out of the brain
+of Jupiter himself? Have we not sworn our devout, profane, believing,
+infidel people to an allegiance to this goddess, even before she had
+burst the _dura mater_, and as yet existed only in embryo? Have we not
+solemnly declared this Constitution unalterable by any future
+legislature? Have we not bound it on posterity forever, though our
+abettors have declared that no one generation is competent to bind
+another? Have we not obliged the members of every future Assembly to
+qualify themselves for their seats by swearing to its conservation?
+
+Indeed, the French Constitution always must be (if a change is not made
+in all their principles and fundamental arrangements) a government
+wholly by popular representation. It must be this or nothing. The French
+faction considers as an usurpation, as an atrocious violation of the
+indefensible rights of man, every other description of government. Take
+it, or leave it: there is no medium. Let the irrefragable doctors fight
+out their own controversy in their own way and with their own weapons;
+and when they are tired, let them commence a treaty of peace. Let the
+plenipotentiary sophisters of England settle with the diplomatic
+sophisters of France in what manner right is to be corrected by an
+infusion of wrong, and how truth may be rendered more true by a due
+intermixture of falsehood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Having sufficiently proved that nothing could make it _generally_
+improper for Mr. Burke to prove what he had alleged concerning the
+object of this dispute, I pass to the second question, that is, Whether
+he was justified in choosing the committee on the Quebec Bill as the
+field for this discussion? If it were necessary, it might be shown that
+he was not the first to bring these discussions into Parliament, nor the
+first to renew them in this session. The fact is notorious. As to the
+Quebec Bill, they were introduced into the debate upon that subject for
+two plain reasons: First, that, as he thought it _then_ not advisable to
+make the proceedings of the factious societies the subject of a direct
+motion, he had no other way open to him. Nobody has attempted to show
+that it was at all admissible into any other business before the House.
+Here everything was favorable. Here was a bill to form a new
+Constitution for a French province under English dominion. The question
+naturally arose, whether we should settle that constitution upon English
+ideas, or upon French. This furnished an opportunity for examining into
+the value of the French Constitution, either considered as applicable to
+colonial government, or in its own nature. The bill, too, was in a
+committee. By the privilege of speaking as often as he pleased, he hoped
+in some measure to supply the want of support, which he had but too much
+reason to apprehend. In a committee it was always in his power to bring
+the questions from generalities to facts, from declamation to
+discussion. Some benefit he actually received from this privilege. These
+are plain, obvious, natural reasons for his conduct. I believe they are
+the true, and the only true ones.
+
+They who justify the frequent interruptions, which at length wholly
+disabled him from proceeding, attribute their conduct to a very
+different interpretation of his motives. They say, that, through
+corruption, or malice, or folly, he was acting his part in a plot to
+make his friend Mr. Fox pass for a republican, and thereby to prevent
+the gracious intentions of his sovereign from taking effect, which at
+that time had begun to disclose themselves in his favor.[8] This is a
+pretty serious charge. This, on Mr. Burke's part, would be something
+more than mistake, something worse than formal irregularity. Any
+contumely, any outrage, is readily passed over, by the indulgence which
+we all owe to sudden passion. These things are soon forgot upon
+occasions in which all men are so apt to forget themselves. Deliberate
+injuries, to a degree, must be remembered, because they require
+deliberate precautions to be secured against their return.
+
+I am authorized to say for Mr. Burke, that he considers that cause
+assigned for the outrage offered to him as ten times worse than the
+outrage itself. There is such a strange confusion of ideas on this
+subject, that it is far more difficult to understand the nature of the
+charge than to refute it when understood. Mr. Fox's friends were, it
+seems, seized with a sudden panic terror lest he should pass for a
+republican. I do not think they had any ground for this apprehension.
+But let us admit they had. What was there in the Quebec Bill, rather
+than in any other, which could subject him or them to that imputation?
+Nothing in a discussion of the French Constitutions which might arise on
+the Quebec Bill, could tend to make Mr. Fox pass for a republican,
+except he should take occasion to extol that state of things in France
+which affects to be a republic or a confederacy of republics. If such an
+encomium could make any unfavorable impression on the king's mind,
+surely his voluntary panegyrics on that event, not so much introduced as
+intruded into other debates, with which they had little relation, must
+have produced that effect with much more certainty and much greater
+force. The Quebec Bill, at worst, was only one of those opportunities
+carefully sought and industriously improved by himself. Mr. Sheridan had
+already brought forth a panegyric on the French system in a still higher
+strain, with full as little demand from the nature of the business
+before the House, in a speech too good to be speedily forgotten. Mr. Fox
+followed him without any direct call from the subject-matter, and upon
+the same ground. To canvass the merits of the French Constitution on the
+Quebec Bill could not draw forth any opinions which were not brought
+forward before, with no small ostentation, and with very little of
+necessity, or perhaps of propriety. What mode or what time of discussing
+the conduct of the French faction in England would not equally tend to
+kindle this enthusiasm, and afford those occasions for panegyric, which,
+far from shunning, Mr. Fox has always industriously sought? He himself
+said, very truly, in the debate, that no artifices were necessary to
+draw from him his opinions upon that subject. But to fall upon Mr. Burke
+for making an use, at worst not more irregular, of the same liberty, is
+tantamount to a plain declaration that the topic of Franco is _tabooed_
+or forbidden ground to Mr. Burke, and to Mr. Burke alone. But surely
+Mr. Fox is not a republican; and what should hinder him, when such a
+discussion came on, from clearing himself unequivocally (as his friends
+say he had done near a fortnight before) of all such imputations?
+Instead of being a disadvantage to him, he would have defeated all his
+enemies, and Mr. Burke, since he has thought proper to reckon him
+amongst them.
+
+But it seems some newspaper or other had imputed to him republican
+principles, on occasion of his conduct upon the Quebec Bill. Supposing
+Mr. Burke to have seen these newspapers, (which is to suppose more than
+I believe to be true,) I would ask, When did the newspapers forbear to
+charge Mr Fox, or Mr. Burke himself, with republican principles, or any
+other principles which they thought could render both of them odious,
+sometimes to one description of people, sometimes to another? Mr. Burke,
+since the publication of his pamphlet, has been a thousand times charged
+in the newspapers with holding despotic principles. He could not enjoy
+one moment of domestic quiet, he could not perform the least particle of
+public duty, if he did not altogether disregard the language of those
+libels. But, however his sensibility might be affected by such abuse, it
+would in _him_ have been thought a most ridiculous reason for shutting
+up the mouths of Mr. Fox or Mr. Sheridan, so as to prevent their
+delivering their sentiments of the French Revolution, that, forsooth,
+"the newspapers had lately charged Mr. Burke with being an enemy to
+liberty."
+
+I allow that those gentlemen have privileges to which Mr. Burke has no
+claim. But their friends ought to plead those privileges, and not to
+assign bad reasons, on the principle of what is fair between man and
+man, and thereby to put themselves on a level with those who can so
+easily refute them. Let them say at once that his reputation is of no
+value, and that he has no call to assert it,--but that theirs is of
+infinite concern to the party and the public, and to that consideration
+he ought to sacrifice all his opinions and all his feelings.
+
+In that language I should hear a style correspondent to the
+proceeding,--lofty, indeed, but plain and consistent. Admit, however,
+for a moment, and merely for argument, that this gentleman had as good a
+right to continue as they had to begin these discussions; in candor and
+equity they must allow that their voluntary descant in praise of the
+French Constitution was as much an oblique attack on Mr. Burke as Mr.
+Burke's inquiry into the foundation of this encomium could possibly be
+construed into an imputation upon them. They well knew that he felt like
+other men; and of course he would think it mean and unworthy to decline
+asserting in his place, and in the front of able adversaries, the
+principles of what he had penned in his closet and without an opponent
+before him. They could not but be convinced that declamations of this
+kind would rouse him,--that he must think, coming from men of their
+calibre, they were highly mischievous,--that they gave countenance to
+bad men and bad designs; and though he was aware that the handling such
+matters in Parliament was delicate, yet he was a man very likely,
+whenever, much against his will, they were brought there, to resolve
+that there they should be thoroughly sifted. Mr. Fox, early in the
+preceding session, had public notice from Mr. Burke of the light in
+which he considered every attempt to introduce the example of France
+into the politics of this country, and of his resolution to break with
+his host friends and to join with his worst enemies to prevent it. He
+hoped that no such necessity would ever exist; but in case it should,
+his determination was made. The party knew perfectly that he would at
+least defend himself. He never intended to attack Mr. Fox, nor did he
+attack him directly or indirectly. His speech kept to its matter. No
+personality was employed, even in the remotest allusion. He never did
+impute to that gentleman any republican principles, or any other bad
+principles or bad conduct whatsoever. It was far from his words; it was
+far from his heart. It must be remembered, that, notwithstanding the
+attempt of Mr. Fox to fix on Mr. Burke an unjustifiable change of
+opinion, and the foul crime of teaching a set of maxims to a boy, and
+afterwards, when these maxims became adult in his mature age, of
+abandoning both the disciple and the doctrine, Mr. Burke never
+attempted, in any one particular, either to criminate or to recriminate.
+It may be said that he had nothing of the kind in his power. This he
+does not controvert. He certainly had it not in his inclination. That
+gentleman had as little ground for the charges which he was so easily
+provoked to make upon him.
+
+The gentlemen of the party (I include Mr. Fox) have been kind enough to
+consider the dispute brought on by this business, and the consequent
+separation of Mr. Burke from their corps, as a matter of regret and
+uneasiness. I cannot be of opinion that by his exclusion they have had
+any loss at all. A man whose opinions are so very adverse to theirs,
+adverse, as it was expressed, "as pole to pole," so mischievously as
+well as so directly adverse that they found themselves under the
+necessity of solemnly disclaiming them in full Parliament,--such a man
+must ever be to them a most unseemly and unprofitable incumbrance. A
+coöperation with him could only serve to embarrass them in all their
+councils. They have besides publicly represented him as a man capable of
+abusing the docility and confidence of ingenuous youth,--and, for a bad
+reason or for no reason, of disgracing his whole public life by a
+scandalous contradiction of every one of his own acts, writings, and
+declarations. If these charges be true, their exclusion of such a person
+from their body is a circumstance which does equal honor to their
+justice and their prudence. If they express a degree of sensibility in
+being obliged to execute this wise and just sentence, from a
+consideration of some amiable or some pleasant qualities which in his
+private life their former friend may happen to possess, they add to the
+praise of their wisdom and firmness the merit of great tenderness of
+heart and humanity of disposition.
+
+On their ideas, the new Whig party have, in my opinion, acted as became
+them. The author of the Reflections, however, on his part, cannot,
+without great shame to himself, and without entailing everlasting
+disgrace on his posterity, admit the truth or justice of the charges
+which have been made upon him, or allow that he has in those Reflections
+discovered any principles to which honest men are bound to declare, not
+a shade or two of dissent, but a total, fundamental opposition. He must
+believe, if he does not mean wilfully to abandon his cause and his
+reputation, that principles fundamentally at variance with those of his
+book are fundamentally false. What those principles, the antipodes to
+his, really are, he can only discover from their contrariety. He is very
+unwilling to suppose that the doctrines of some books lately circulated
+are the principles of the party; though, from the vehement declarations
+against his opinions, he is at some loss how to judge otherwise.
+
+For the present, my plan does not render it necessary to say anything
+further concerning the merits either of the one set of opinions or the
+other. The author would have discussed the merits of both in his place,
+but he was not permitted to do so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I pass to the next head of charge,--Mr. Burke's inconsistency. It is
+certainly a great aggravation of his fault in embracing false opinions,
+that in doing so he is not supposed to fill up a void, but that he is
+guilty of a dereliction of opinions that are true and laudable. This is
+the great gist of the charge against him. It is not so much that he is
+wrong in his book (that, however, is alleged also) as that he has
+therein belied his whole life. I believe, if he could venture to value
+himself upon anything, it is on the virtue of consistency that he would
+value himself the most. Strip him of this, and you leave him naked
+indeed.
+
+In the case of any man who had written something, and spoken a great
+deal, upon very multifarious matter, during upwards of twenty-five
+years' public service, and in as great a variety of important events as
+perhaps have ever happened in the same number of years, it would appear
+a little hard, in order to charge such a man with inconsistency, to see
+collected by his friend a sort of digest of his sayings, even to such
+as were merely sportive and jocular. This digest, however, has been
+made, with equal pains and partiality, and without bringing out those
+passages of his writings which might tend to show with what restrictions
+any expressions quoted from him ought to have been understood. From a
+great statesman he did not quite expect this mode of inquisition. If it
+only appeared in the works of common pamphleteers, Mr. Burke might
+safely trust to his reputation. When thus urged, he ought, perhaps, to
+do a little more. It shall be as little as possible; for I hope not much
+is wanting. To be totally silent on his charges would not be respectful
+to Mr. Fox. Accusations sometimes derive a weight from the persons who
+make them to which they are not entitled from their matter.
+
+He who thinks that the British Constitution ought to consist of the
+three members, of three very different natures, of which it does
+actually consist, and thinks it his duty to preserve each of those
+members in its proper place and with its proper proportion of power,
+must (as each shall happen to be attacked) vindicate the three several
+parts on the several principles peculiarly belonging to them. He cannot
+assert the democratic part on the principles on which monarchy is
+supported, nor can he support monarchy on the principles of democracy,
+nor can he maintain aristocracy on the grounds of the one or of the
+other or of both. All these he must support on grounds that are totally
+different, though practically they may be, and happily with us they are,
+brought into one harmonious body. A man could not be consistent in
+defending such various, and, at first view, discordant, parts of a
+mixed Constitution, without that sort of inconsistency with which Mr.
+Burke stands charged.
+
+As any one of the great members of this Constitution happens to be
+endangered, he that is a friend to all of them chooses and presses the
+topics necessary for the support of the part attacked, with all the
+strength, the earnestness, the vehemence, with all the power of stating,
+of argument, and of coloring, which he happens to possess, and which the
+case demands. He is not to embarrass the minds of his hearers, or to
+incumber or overlay his speech, by bringing into view at once (as if he
+were reading an academic lecture) all that may and ought, when a just
+occasion presents itself, to be said in favor of the other members. At
+that time they are out of the court; there is no question concerning
+them. Whilst he opposes his defence on the part where the attack is
+made, he presumes that for his regard to the just rights of all the rest
+he has credit in every candid mind. He ought not to apprehend that his
+raising fences about popular privileges this day will infer that he
+ought on the next to concur with those who would pull down the throne;
+because on the next he defends the throne, it ought not to be supposed
+that he has abandoned the rights of the people.
+
+A man, who, among various objects of his equal regard, is secure of
+some, and full of anxiety for the fate of others, is apt to go to much
+greater lengths in his preference of the objects of his immediate
+solicitude than Mr. Burke has ever done. A man so circumstanced often
+seems to undervalue, to vilify, almost to reprobate and disown, those
+that are out of danger. This is the voice of Nature and truth, and not
+of inconsistency and false pretence. The danger of anything very dear
+to us removes, for the moment, every other affection from the mind. When
+Priam had his whole thoughts employed on the body of his Hector, he
+repels with indignation, and drives from him with a thousand reproaches,
+his surviving sons, who with an officious piety crowded about him to
+offer their assistance. A good critic (there is no better than Mr. Fox)
+would say that this is a masterstroke, and marks a deep understanding of
+Nature in the father of poetry. He would despise a Zoïlus who would
+conclude from this passage that Homer meant to represent this man of
+affliction as hating or being indifferent and cold in his affections to
+the poor relics of his house, or that he preferred a dead carcass to his
+living children.
+
+Mr. Burke does not stand in need of an allowance of this kind, which, if
+he did, by candid critics ought to be granted to him. If the principles
+of a mixed Constitution be admitted, he wants no more to justify to
+consistency everything he has said and done during the course of a
+political life just touching to its close. I believe that gentleman has
+kept himself more clear of running into the fashion of wild, visionary
+theories, or of seeking popularity through every means, than any man
+perhaps ever did in the same situation.
+
+He was the first man who, on the hustings, at a popular election,
+rejected the authority of instructions from constituents,--or who, in
+any place, has argued so fully against it. Perhaps the discredit into
+which that doctrine of compulsive instructions under our Constitution is
+since fallen may be due in a great degree to his opposing himself to it
+in that manner and on that occasion.
+
+The reforms in representation, and the bills for shortening the duration
+of Parliaments, he uniformly and steadily opposed for many years
+together, in contradiction to many of his best friends. These friends,
+however, in his better days, when they had more to hope from his service
+and more to fear from his loss than now they have, never chose to find
+any inconsistency between his acts and expressions in favor of liberty
+and his votes on those questions. But there is a time for all things.
+
+Against the opinion of many friends, even against the solicitation of
+some of them, he opposed those of the Church clergy who had petitioned
+the House of Commons to be discharged from the subscription. Although he
+supported the Dissenters in their petition for the indulgence which he
+had refused to the clergy of the Established Church, in this, as he was
+not guilty of it, so he was not reproached with inconsistency. At the
+same time he promoted, and against the wish of several, the clause that
+gave the Dissenting teachers another subscription in the place of that
+which was then taken away. Neither at that time was the reproach of
+inconsistency brought against him. People could then distinguish between
+a difference in conduct under a variation of circumstances and an
+inconsistency in principle. It was not then thought necessary to be
+freed of him as of an incumbrance.
+
+These instances, a few among many, are produced as an answer to the
+insinuation of his having pursued high popular courses which in his late
+book he has abandoned. Perhaps in his whole life he has never omitted a
+fair occasion, with whatever risk to him of obloquy as an individual,
+with whatever detriment to his interest as a member of opposition, to
+assert the very same doctrines which appear in that book. He told the
+House, upon an important occasion, and pretty early in his service,
+that, "being warned by the ill effect of a contrary procedure in great
+examples, he had taken his ideas of liberty very low in order that they
+should stick to him and that he might stick to them to the end of his
+life."
+
+At popular elections the most rigorous casuists will remit a little of
+their severity. They will allow to a candidate some unqualified
+effusions in favor of freedom, without binding him to adhere to them in
+their utmost extent. But Mr. Burke put a more strict rule upon himself
+than most moralists would put upon others. At his first offering himself
+to Bristol, where he was almost sure he should not obtain, on that or
+any occasion, a single Tory vote, (in fact, he did obtain but one,) and
+rested wholly on the Whig interest, he thought himself bound to tell to
+the electors, both before and after his election, exactly what a
+representative they had to expect in him.
+
+"The _distinguishing_ part of our Constitution," he said, "is its
+liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate is the _peculiar_ duty and
+_proper_ trust of a member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the
+_only_ liberty, I mean is a liberty connected with _order;_ and that not
+only exists _with_ order and virtue, but cannot exist at all _without_
+them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in _its substance and
+vital principle_."
+
+The liberty to which Mr. Burke declared himself attached is not French
+liberty. That liberty is nothing but the rein given to vice and
+confusion. Mr. Burke was then, as he was at the writing of his
+Reflections, awfully impressed with the difficulties arising from the
+complex state of our Constitution and our empire, and that it might
+require in different emergencies different sorts of exertions, and the
+successive call upon all the various principles which uphold and justify
+it. This will appear from what he said at the close of the poll.
+
+"To be a good member of Parliament is, let me tell you, no easy
+task,--especially at this time, when there is so strong a disposition to
+run into the perilous extremes of _servile_ compliance or _wild
+popularity_. To unite circumspection with vigor is absolutely necessary,
+but it is extremely difficult. We are now members for a rich commercial
+_city_; this city, however, is but a part of a rich commercial _nation_,
+the interests of which are _various, multiform, and intricate_. We are
+members for that great _nation_, which, however, is itself but part of a
+great _empire_, extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest
+limits of the East and of the West. _All_ these wide-spread interests
+must be _considered_,--must be _compared_,--must be _reconciled_, if
+possible. We are members for a _free_ country; and surely we all know
+that the machine of a free constitution is no _simple_ thing, but as
+_intricate_ and as _delicate_ as it is valuable. We are members in a
+_great and ancient_ MONARCHY_; and we must preserve religiously the
+true, legal rights of the sovereign, which form the key-stone that binds
+together the noble and well-constructed arch of our empire and our
+Constitution_. A constitution made up of _balanced powers_ must ever be
+a critical thing. As such I mean to touch that part of it which comes
+within my reach."
+
+In this manner Mr. Burke spoke to his constituents seventeen years ago.
+He spoke, not like a partisan of one particular member of our
+Constitution, but as a person strongly, and on principle, attached to
+them all. He thought these great and essential members ought to be
+preserved, and preserved each in its place,--and that the monarchy ought
+not only to be secured in its peculiar existence, but in its preeminence
+too, as the presiding and connecting principle of the whole. Let it be
+considered whether the language of his book, printed in 1790, differs
+from his speech at Bristol in 1774.
+
+With equal justice his opinions on the American war are introduced, as
+if in his late work he had belied his conduct and opinions in the
+debates which arose upon that great event. On the American war he never
+had any opinions which he has seen occasion to retract, or which he has
+ever retracted. He, indeed, differs essentially from Mr. Fox as to the
+cause of that war. Mr. Fox has been pleased to say that the Americans
+rebelled "because they thought they had not enjoyed liberty enough."
+This cause of the war, _from him_, I have heard of for the first time.
+It is true that those who stimulated the nation to that measure did
+frequently urge this topic. They contended that the Americans had from
+the beginning aimed at independence,--that from the beginning they meant
+wholly to throw off the authority of the crown, and to break their
+connection with the parent country. This Mr. Burke never believed. When
+he moved his second conciliatory proposition, in the year 1776, he
+entered into the discussion of this point at very great length, and,
+from nine several heads of presumption, endeavored to prove the charge
+upon that people not to be true.
+
+If the principles of all he has said and wrote on the occasion be viewed
+with common temper, the gentlemen of the party will perceive, that, on a
+supposition that the Americans had rebelled merely in order to enlarge
+their liberty, Mr. Burke would have thought very differently of the
+American cause. What might have been in the secret thoughts of some of
+their leaders it is impossible to say. As far as a man so locked up as
+Dr. Franklin could be expected to communicate his ideas, I believe he
+opened them to Mr. Burke. It was, I think, the very day before he set
+out for America that a very long conversation passed between them, and
+with a greater air of openness on the Doctor's side than Mr. Burke had
+observed in him before. In this discourse Dr. Franklin lamented, and
+with apparent sincerity, the separation which he feared was inevitable
+between Great Britain and her colonies. He certainly spoke of it as an
+event which gave him the greatest concern. America, he said, would never
+again see such happy days as she had passed under the protection of
+England. He observed, that ours was the only instance of a great empire
+in which the most distant parts and members had been as well governed as
+the metropolis and its vicinage, but that the Americans were going to
+lose the means which secured to them this rare and precious advantage.
+The question with them was not, whether they were to remain as they had
+been before the troubles,--for better, he allowed, they could not hope
+to be,--but whether they were to give up so happy a situation without a
+struggle. Mr. Burke had several other conversations with him about that
+time, in none of which, soured and exasperated as his mind certainly
+was, did he discover any other wish in favor of America than for a
+security to its _ancient_ condition. Mr. Burke's conversation with other
+Americans was large, indeed, and his inquiries extensive and diligent.
+Trusting to the result of all these means of information, but trusting
+much more in the public presumptive indications I have just referred to,
+and to the reiterated solemn declarations of their Assemblies, he always
+firmly believed that they were purely on the defensive in that
+rebellion. He considered the Americans as standing at that time, and in
+that controversy, in the same relation to England as England did to King
+James the Second in 1688. He believed that they had taken up arms from
+one motive only: that is, our attempting to tax them without their
+consent,--to tax them for the purposes of maintaining civil and military
+establishments. If this attempt of ours could have been practically
+established, he thought, with them, that their Assemblies would become
+totally useless,--that, under the system of policy which was then
+pursued, the Americans could have no sort of security for their laws or
+liberties, or for any part of them,--and that the very circumstance of
+_our_ freedom would have augmented the weight of _their_ slavery.
+
+Considering the Americans on that defensive footing, he thought Great
+Britain ought instantly to have closed with them by the repeal of the
+taxing act. He was of opinion that our general rights over that country
+would have been preserved by this timely concession.[9] When, instead of
+this, a Boston Port Bill, a Massachusetts Charter Bill, a Fishery Bill,
+an Intercourse Bill, I know not how many hostile bills, rushed out like
+so many tempests from all points of the compass, and were accompanied
+first with great fleets and armies of English, and followed afterwards
+with great bodies of foreign troops, he thought that their cause grew
+daily better, because daily more defensive,--and that ours, because
+daily more offensive, grew daily worse. He therefore, in two motions, in
+two successive years, proposed in Parliament many concessions beyond
+what he had reason to think in the beginning of the troubles would ever
+be seriously demanded.
+
+So circumstanced, he certainly never could and never did wish the
+colonists to be subdued by arms. He was fully persuaded, that, if such
+should be the event, they must be held in that subdued state by a great
+body of standing forces, and perhaps of foreign forces. He was strongly
+of opinion that such armies, first victorious over Englishmen, in a
+conflict for English constitutional rights and privileges, and
+afterwards habituated (though in America) to keep an English people in a
+state of abject subjection, would prove fatal in the end to the
+liberties of England itself; that in the mean time this military system
+would lie as an oppressive burden upon the national finances; that it
+would constantly breed and feed new discussions, full of heat and
+acrimony, leading possibly to a new series of wars; and that foreign
+powers, whilst we continued in a state at once burdened and distracted,
+must at length obtain a decided superiority over us. On what part of his
+late publication, or on what expression that might have escaped him in
+that work, is any man authorized to charge Mr. Burke with a
+contradiction to the line of his conduct and to the current of his
+doctrines on the American war? The pamphlet is in the hands of his
+accusers: let them point out the passage, if they can.
+
+Indeed, the author has been well sifted and scrutinized by his friends.
+He is even called to an account for every jocular and light expression.
+A ludicrous picture which he made with regard to a passage in the speech
+of a late minister[10] has been brought up against him. That passage
+contained a lamentation for the loss of monarchy to the Americans, after
+they had separated from Great Britain. He thought it to be unseasonable,
+ill-judged, and ill-sorted with the circumstances of all the parties.
+Mr. Burke, it seems, considered it ridiculous to lament the loss of some
+monarch or other to a rebel people, at the moment they had forever
+quitted their allegiance to theirs and our sovereign, at the time when
+they had broken off all connection with this nation and had allied
+themselves with its enemies. He certainly must have thought it open to
+ridicule; and now that it is recalled to his memory, (he had, I believe,
+wholly forgotten the circumstance,) he recollects that he did treat it
+with some levity. But is it a fair inference from a jest on this
+unseasonable lamentation, that he was then an enemy to monarchy, either
+in this or in any other country? The contrary perhaps ought to be
+inferred,--if anything at all can be argued from pleasantries good or
+bad. Is it for this reason, or for anything he has said or done relative
+to the American war, that he is to enter into an alliance offensive and
+defensive with every rebellion, in every country, under every
+circumstance, and raised upon whatever pretence? Is it because he did
+not wish the Americans to be subdued by arms, that he must be
+inconsistent with himself, if he reprobates the conduct of those
+societies in England, who, alleging no one act of tyranny or oppression,
+and complaining of no hostile attempt against our ancient laws, rights,
+and usages, are now endeavoring to work the destruction of the crown of
+this kingdom, and the whole of its Constitution? Is he obliged, from the
+concessions he wished to be made to the colonies, to keep any terms with
+those clubs and federations who hold out to us, as a pattern for
+imitation, the proceedings in France, in which a king, who had
+voluntarily and formally divested himself of the right of taxation, and
+of all other species of arbitrary power, has been dethroned? Is it
+because Mr. Burke wished to have America rather conciliated than
+vanquished, that he must wish well to the army of republics which are
+set up in France,--a country wherein not the people, but the monarch,
+was wholly on the defensive, (a poor, indeed, and feeble defensive,) to
+preserve _some fragments_ of the royal authority against a determined
+and desperate body of conspirators, whose object it was, with whatever
+certainty of crimes, with whatever hazard of war, and every other
+species of calamity, to annihilate the _whole_ of that authority, to
+level all ranks, orders, and distinctions in the state, and utterly to
+destroy property, not more by their acts than in their principles?
+
+Mr. Burke has been also reproached with an inconsistency between his
+late writings and his former conduct, because he had proposed in
+Parliament several economical, leading to several constitutional
+reforms. Mr. Burke thought, with a majority of the House of Commons,
+that the influence of the crown at one time was too great; but after his
+Majesty had, by a gracious message, and several subsequent acts of
+Parliament, reduced it to a standard which satisfied Mr. Fox himself,
+and, apparently at least, contented whoever wished to go farthest in
+that reduction, is Mr. Burke to allow that it would be right for us to
+proceed to indefinite lengths upon that subject? that it would therefore
+be justifiable in a people owing allegiance to a monarchy, and
+professing to maintain it, not to _reduce_, but wholly to _take away
+all_ prerogative and _all_ influence whatsoever? Must his having made,
+in virtue of a plan of economical regulation, a reduction of the
+influence of the crown compel him to allow that it would be right in the
+French or in us to bring a king to so abject a state as in function not
+to be so respectable as an under-sheriff, but in person not to differ
+from the condition of a mere prisoner? One would think that such a thing
+as a medium had never been heard of in the moral world.
+
+This mode of arguing from your having done _any_ thing in a certain line
+to the necessity of doing _every_ thing has political consequences of
+other moment than those of a logical fallacy. If no man can propose any
+diminution or modification of an invidious or dangerous power or
+influence in government, without entitling friends turned into
+adversaries to argue him into the destruction of all prerogative, and to
+a spoliation of the whole patronage of royalty, I do not know what can
+more effectually deter persons of sober minds from engaging in any
+reform, nor how the worst enemies to the liberty of the subject could
+contrive any method more fit to bring all correctives on the power of
+the crown into suspicion and disrepute.
+
+If, say his accusers, the dread of too great influence in the crown of
+Great Britain could justify the degree of reform which he adopted, the
+dread of a return under the despotism of a monarchy might justify the
+people of France in going much further, and reducing monarchy to its
+present nothing.--Mr. Burke does not allow that a sufficient argument
+_ad hominem_ is inferable from these premises. If the horror of the
+excesses of an absolute monarchy furnishes a reason for abolishing it,
+no monarchy once absolute (all have been so at one period or other)
+could ever be limited. It must be destroyed; otherwise no way could be
+found to quiet the fears of those who were formerly subjected to that
+sway. But the principle of Mr. Burke's proceeding ought to lead him to a
+very different conclusion,--to this conclusion,--that a monarchy is a
+thing perfectly susceptible of reform, perfectly susceptible of a
+balance of power, and that, when reformed and balanced, for a great
+country it is the best of all governments. The example of our country
+might have led France, as it has led him, to perceive that monarchy is
+not only reconcilable to liberty, but that it may be rendered a great
+and stable security to its perpetual enjoyment. No correctives which he
+proposed to the power of the crown could lead him to approve of a plan
+of a republic (if so it may be reputed) which has no correctives, and
+which he believes to be incapable of admitting any. No principle of Mr.
+Burke's conduct or writings obliged him from consistency to become an
+advocate for an exchange of mischiefs; no principle of his could compel
+him to justify the setting up in the place of a mitigated monarchy a new
+and far more despotic power, under which there is no trace of liberty,
+except what appears in confusion and in crime.
+
+Mr. Burke does not admit that the faction predominant in France have
+abolished their monarchy, and the orders of their state, from any dread
+of arbitrary power that lay heavy on the minds of the people. It is not
+very long since he has been in that country. Whilst there he conversed
+with many descriptions of its inhabitants. A few persons of rank did, he
+allows, discover strong and manifest tokens of such a spirit of liberty
+as might be expected one day to break all bounds. Such gentlemen have
+since had more reason to repent of their want of foresight than I hope
+any of the same class will ever have in this country. But this spirit
+was far from general, even amongst the gentlemen. As to the lower
+orders, and those little above them, in whose name the present powers
+domineer, they were far from discovering any sort of dissatisfaction
+with the power and prerogatives of the crown. That vain people were
+rather proud of them: they rather despised the English for not having a
+monarch possessed of such high and perfect authority. _They_ had felt
+nothing from _lettres de cachet_. The Bastile could inspire no horrors
+into _them_. This was a treat for their betters. It was by art and
+impulse, it was by the sinister use made of a season of scarcity, it was
+under an infinitely diversified succession of wicked pretences wholly
+foreign to the question of monarchy or aristocracy, that this light
+people were inspired with their present spirit of levelling. Their old
+vanity was led by art to take another turn: it was dazzled and seduced
+by military liveries, cockades, and epaulets, until the French populace
+was led to become the willing, but still the proud and thoughtless,
+instrument and victim of another domination. Neither did that people
+despise or hate or fear their nobility: on the contrary, they valued
+themselves on the generous qualities which distinguished the chiefs of
+their nation.
+
+So far as to the attack on Mr. Burke in consequence of his reforms.
+
+To show that he has in his last publication abandoned those principles
+of liberty which have given energy to his youth, and in spite of his
+censors will afford repose and consolation to his declining age, those
+who have thought proper in Parliament to declare against his book ought
+to have produced something in it which directly or indirectly militates
+with any rational plan of free government. It is something
+extraordinary, that they whose memories have so well served them with
+regard to light and ludicrous expressions, which years had consigned to
+oblivion, should not have been able to quote a single passage in a piece
+so lately published, which contradicts anything he has formerly ever
+said in a style either ludicrous or serious. They quote his former
+speeches and his former votes, but not one syllable from the book. It is
+only by a collation of the one with the other that the alleged
+inconsistency can be established. But as they are unable to cite any
+such contradictory passage, so neither can they show anything in the
+general tendency and spirit of the whole work unfavorable to a rational
+and generous spirit of liberty; unless a warm opposition to the spirit
+of levelling, to the spirit of impiety, to the spirit of proscription,
+plunder, murder, and cannibalism, be adverse to the true principles of
+freedom.
+
+The author of that book is supposed to have passed from extreme to
+extreme; but he has always kept himself in a medium. This charge is not
+so wonderful. It is in the nature of things, that they who are in the
+centre of a circle should appear directly opposed to those who view them
+from any part of the circumference. In that middle point, however, he
+will still remain, though he may hear people who themselves run beyond
+Aurora and the Ganges cry out that he is at the extremity of the West.
+
+In the same debate Mr. Burke was represented by Mr. Fox as arguing in a
+manner which implied that the British Constitution could not be
+defended, but by abusing all republics ancient and modern. He said
+nothing to give the least ground for such a censure. He never abused all
+republics. He has never professed himself a friend or an enemy to
+republics or to monarchies in the abstract. He thought that the
+circumstances and habits of every country, which it is always perilous
+and productive of the greatest calamities to force, are to decide upon
+the form of its government. There is nothing in his nature, his temper,
+or his faculties which should make him an enemy to any republic, modern
+or ancient. Far from it. He has studied the form and spirit of republics
+very early in life; he has studied them with great attention, and with a
+mind undisturbed by affection or prejudice. He is, indeed, convinced
+that the science of government would be poorly cultivated without that
+study. But the result in his mind from that investigation has been and
+is, that neither England nor France, without infinite detriment to them,
+as well in the event as in the experiment, could be brought into a
+republican form; but that everything republican which can be introduced
+with safety into either of them must be built upon a monarchy,--built
+upon a real, not a nominal monarchy, _as its essential basis_; that all
+such institutions, whether aristocratic or democratic, must originate
+from their crown, and in all their proceedings must refer to it; that by
+the energy of that mainspring alone those republican parts must be set
+in action, and from thence must derive their whole legal effect, (as
+amongst us they actually do,) or the whole will fall into confusion.
+These republican members have no other point but the crown in which they
+can possibly unite.
+
+This is the opinion expressed in Mr. Burke's book. He has never varied
+in that opinion since he came to years of discretion. But surely, if at
+any time of his life he had entertained other notions, (which, however,
+he has never held or professed to hold,) the horrible calamities brought
+upon a great people by the wild attempt to force their country into a
+republic might be more than sufficient to undeceive his understanding,
+and to free it forever from such destructive fancies. He is certain that
+many, even in France, have been made sick of their theories by their
+very success in realizing them.
+
+To fortify the imputation of a desertion from his principles, his
+constant attempts to reform abuses have been brought forward. It is
+true, it has been the business of his strength to reform abuses in
+government, and his last feeble efforts are employed in a struggle
+against them. Politically he has lived in that element; politically he
+will die in it. Before he departs, I will admit for him that he deserves
+to have all his titles of merit brought forth, as they have been, for
+grounds of condemnation, if one word justifying or supporting abuses of
+any sort is to be found in that book which has kindled so much
+indignation in the mind of a great man. On the contrary, it spares no
+existing abuse. Its very purpose is to make war with abuses,--not,
+indeed, to make war with the dead, but with those which live, and
+flourish, and reign.
+
+The _purpose_ for which the abuses of government are brought into view
+forms a very material consideration in the mode of treating them. The
+complaints of a friend are things very different from the invectives of
+an enemy. The charge of abuses on the late monarchy of France was not
+intended to lead to its reformation, but to justify its destruction.
+They who have raked into all history for the faults of kings, and who
+have aggravated every fault they have found, have acted consistently,
+because they acted as enemies. No man can be a friend to a tempered
+monarchy who bears a decided hatred to monarchy itself. He, who, at the
+present time, is favorable or even fair to that system, must act towards
+it as towards a friend with frailties who is under the prosecution of
+implacable foes. I think it a duty, in that case, not to inflame the
+public mind against the obnoxious person by any exaggeration of his
+faults. It is our duty rather to palliate his errors and defects, or to
+cast them into the shade, and industriously to bring forward any good
+qualities that he may happen to possess. But when the man is to be
+amended, and by amendment to be preserved, then the line of duty takes
+another direction. When his safety is effectually provided for, it then
+becomes the office of a friend to urge his faults and vices with all the
+energy of enlightened affection, to paint them in their most vivid
+colors, and to bring the moral patient to a better habit. Thus I think
+with regard to individuals; thus I think with regard to ancient and
+respected governments and orders of men. A spirit of reformation is
+never more consistent with itself than when it refuses to be rendered
+the means of destruction.
+
+I suppose that enough is said upon these heads of accusation. One more I
+had nearly forgotten, but I shall soon dispatch it. The author of the
+Reflections, in the opening of the last Parliament, entered on the
+journals of the House of Commons a motion for a remonstrance to the
+crown, which is substantially a defence of the preceding Parliament,
+that had been dissolved under displeasure. It is a defence of Mr. Fox.
+It is a defence of the Whigs. By what connection of argument, by what
+association of ideas, this apology for Mr. Fox and his party is by him
+and them brought to criminate his and their apologist, I cannot easily
+divine. It is true that Mr. Burke received no previous encouragement
+from Mr. Fox, nor any the least countenance or support, at the time when
+the motion was made, from him or from any gentleman of the party,--one
+only excepted, from whose friendship, on that and on other occasions, he
+derives an honor to which he must be dull indeed to be insensible.[11]
+If that remonstrance, therefore, was a false or feeble defence of the
+measures of the party, they were in no wise affected by it. It stands on
+the journals. This secures to it a permanence which the author cannot
+expect to any other work of his. Let it speak for itself to the present
+age and to all posterity. The party had no concern in it; and it can
+never be quoted against them. But in the late debate it was produced,
+not to clear the party from an improper defence in which they had no
+share, but for the kind purpose of insinuating an inconsistency between
+the principles of Mr. Burke's defence of the dissolved Parliament and
+those on which he proceeded in his late Reflections on France.
+
+It requires great ingenuity to make out such a parallel between the two
+cases as to found a charge of inconsistency in the principles assumed in
+arguing the one and the other. What relation had Mr. Fox's India Bill to
+the Constitution of France? What relation had that Constitution to the
+question of right in an House of Commons to give or to withhold its
+confidence from ministers, and to state that opinion to the crown? What
+had this discussion to do with Mr. Burke's idea in 1784 of the ill
+consequences which must in the end arise to the crown from setting up
+the commons at large as an opposite interest to the commons in
+Parliament? What has this discussion to do with a recorded warning to
+the people of their rashly forming a precipitate judgment against their
+representatives? What had Mr. Burke's opinion of the danger of
+introducing new theoretic language, unknown to the records of the
+kingdom, and calculated to excite vexatious questions, into a
+Parliamentary proceeding, to do with the French Assembly, which defies
+all precedent, and places its whole glory in realizing what had been
+thought the most visionary theories? What had this in common with the
+abolition of the French monarchy, or with the principles upon which the
+English Revolution was justified,--a Revolution in which Parliament, in
+all its acts and all its declarations, religiously adheres to "the form
+of sound words," without excluding from private discussions such terms
+of art as may serve to conduct an inquiry for which none but private
+persons are responsible? These were the topics of Mr. Burke's proposed
+remonstrance; all of which topics suppose the existence and mutual
+relation of our three estates,--as well as the relation of the East
+India Company to the crown, to Parliament, and to the peculiar laws,
+rights, and usages of the people of Hindostan. What reference, I say,
+had these topics to the Constitution of France, in which there is no
+king, no lords, no commons, no India Company to injure or support, no
+Indian empire to govern or oppress? What relation had all or any of
+these, or any question which could arise between the prerogatives of the
+crown and the privileges of Parliament, with the censure of those
+factious persons in Great Britain whom Mr. Burke states to be engaged,
+not in favor of privilege against prerogative, or of prerogative against
+privilege, but in an open attempt against our crown and our Parliament,
+against our Constitution in Church and State, against all the parts and
+orders which compose the one and the other?
+
+No persons were more fiercely active against Mr. Fox, and against the
+measures of the House of Commons dissolved in 1784, which Mr. Burke
+defends in that remonstrance, than several of those revolution-makers
+whom Mr. Burke condemns alike in his remonstrance and in his book. These
+revolutionists, indeed, may be well thought to vary in their conduct. He
+is, however, far from accusing them, in this variation, of the smallest
+degree of inconsistency. He is persuaded that they are totally
+indifferent at which end they begin the demolition of the Constitution.
+Some are for commencing their operations with the destruction of the
+civil powers, in order the better to pull down the ecclesiastical,--some
+wish to begin with the ecclesiastical, in order to facilitate the ruin
+of the civil; some would destroy the House of Commons through the crown,
+some the crown through the House of Commons, and some would overturn
+both the one and the other through what they call the people. But I
+believe that this injured writer will think it not at all inconsistent
+with his present duty or with his former life strenuously to oppose all
+the various partisans of destruction, let them begin where or when or
+how they will. No man would set his face more determinedly against those
+who should attempt to deprive them, or any description of men, of the
+rights they possess. No man would be more steady in preventing them from
+abusing those rights to the destruction of that happy order under which
+they enjoy them. As to their title to anything further, it ought to be
+grounded on the proof they give of the safety with which power may be
+trusted in their hands. When they attempt without disguise, not to win
+it from our affections, but to force it from our fears, they show, in
+the character of their means of obtaining it, the use they would make of
+their dominion. That writer is too well read in men not to know how
+often the desire and design of a tyrannic domination lurks in the claim
+of an extravagant liberty. Perhaps in the beginning it _always_ displays
+itself in that manner. No man has ever affected power which he did not
+hope from the favor of the existing government in any other mode.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The attacks on the author's consistency relative to France are (however
+grievous they may be to his feelings) in a great degree external to him
+and to us, and comparatively of little moment to the people of England.
+The substantial charge upon him is concerning his doctrines relative to
+the Revolution of 1688. Here it is that they who speak in the name of
+the party have thought proper to censure him the most loudly and with
+the greatest asperity. Here they fasten, and, if they are right in their
+fact, with sufficient judgment in their selection. If he be guilty in
+this point, he is equally blamable, whether he is consistent or not. If
+he endeavors to delude his countrymen by a false representation of the
+spirit of that leading event, and of the true nature and tenure of the
+government formed in consequence of it, he is deeply responsible, he is
+an enemy to the free Constitution of the kingdom. But he is not guilty
+in any sense. I maintain that in his Reflections he has stated the
+Revolution and the Settlement upon their true principles of legal reason
+and constitutional policy.
+
+His authorities are the acts and declarations of Parliament, given in
+their proper words. So far as these go, nothing can be added to what he
+has quoted. The question is, whether he has understood them rightly. I
+think they speak plain enough. But we must now see whether he proceeds
+with other authority than his own constructions, and, if he does, on
+what sort of authority he proceeds. In this part, his defence will not
+be made by argument, but by wager of law. He takes his compurgators, his
+vouchers, his guaranties, along with him. I know that he will not be
+satisfied with a justification proceeding on general reasons of policy.
+He must be defended on party grounds, too, or his cause is not so
+tenable as I wish it to appear. It must be made out for him not only
+that in his construction of these public acts and monuments he conforms
+himself to the rules of fair, legal, and logical interpretation, but it
+must be proved that his construction is in perfect harmony with that of
+the ancient Whigs, to whom, against the sentence of the modern, on his
+part, I here appeal.
+
+This July it will be twenty-six years[12] since he became connected with
+a man whose memory will ever be precious to Englishmen of all parties,
+as long as the ideas of honor and virtue, public and private, are
+understood and cherished in this nation. That memory will be kept alive
+with particular veneration by all rational and honorable Whigs. Mr.
+Burke entered into a connection with that party through that man, at an
+age far from raw and immature,--at those years when men are all they are
+ever likely to become,--when he was in the prime and vigor of his
+life,--when the powers of his understanding, according to their
+standard, were at the best, his memory exercised, his judgment formed,
+and his reading much fresher in the recollection and much readier in the
+application than now it is. He was at that time as likely as most men to
+know what were Whig and what were Tory principles. He was in a situation
+to discern what sort of Whig principles they entertained with whom it
+was his wish to form an eternal connection. Foolish he would have been
+at that time of life (more foolish than any man who undertakes a public
+trust would be thought) to adhere to a cause which he, amongst all those
+who were engaged in it, had the least sanguine hopes of as a road to
+power.
+
+There are who remember, that, on the removal of the Whigs in the year
+1766, he was as free to choose another connection as any man in the
+kingdom. To put himself out of the way of the negotiations which were
+then carrying on very eagerly and through many channels with the Earl of
+Chatham, he went to Ireland very soon after the change of ministry, and
+did not return until the meeting of Parliament. He was at that time free
+from anything which looked like an engagement. He was further free at
+the desire of his friends; for, the very day of his return, the Marquis
+of Rockingham wished him to accept an employment under the new system.
+He believes he might have had such a situation; but again he cheerfully
+took his fate with the party.
+
+It would be a serious imputation upon the prudence of my friend, to have
+made even such trivial sacrifices as it was in his power to make for
+principles which he did not truly embrace or did not perfectly
+understand. In either case the folly would have been great. The question
+now is, whether, when he first practically professed Whig principles, he
+understood what principles he professed, and whether in his book he has
+faithfully expressed them.
+
+When he entered into the Whig party, he did not conceive that they
+pretended to any discoveries. They did not affect to be better Whigs
+than those were who lived in the days in which principle was put to the
+test. Some of the Whigs of those days were then living. They were what
+the Whigs had been at the Revolution,--what they had been during the
+reign of Queen Anne,--what they had been at the accession of the present
+royal family.
+
+What they were at those periods is to be seen. It rarely happens to a
+party to have the opportunity of a clear, authentic, recorded
+declaration of their political tenets upon the subject of a great
+constitutional event like that of the Revolution. The Whigs had that
+opportunity,--or to speak more properly, they made it. The impeachment
+of Dr. Sacheverell was undertaken by a Whig ministry and a Whig House of
+Commons, and carried on before a prevalent and steady majority of Whig
+peers. It was carried on for the express purpose of stating the true
+grounds and principles of the Revolution,--what the Commons emphatically
+called their _foundation_. It was carried on for the purpose of
+condemning the principles on which the Revolution was first opposed and
+afterwards calumniated, in order, by a juridical sentence of the highest
+authority, to confirm and fix Whig principles, as they had operated both
+in the resistance to King James and in the subsequent settlement, and to
+fix them in the extent and with the limitations with which it was meant
+they should be understood by posterity. The ministers and managers for
+the Commons were persons who had, many of them, an active share in the
+Revolution. Most of them had seen it at an age capable of reflection.
+The grand event, and all the discussions which led to it and followed
+it, were then alive in the memory and conversation of all men. The
+managers for the Commons must be supposed to have spoken on that subject
+the prevalent ideas of the leading party in the Commons, and of the Whig
+ministry. Undoubtedly they spoke also their own private opinions; and
+the private opinions of such men are not without weight. They were not
+_umbratiles doctores_, men who had studied a free Constitution only in
+its anatomy and upon dead systems. They knew it alive and in action.
+
+In this proceeding the Whig principles, as applied to the Revolution and
+Settlement, are to be found, or they are to be found nowhere. I wish the
+Whig readers of this Appeal first to turn to Mr. Burke's Reflections,
+from page 20 to page 50,[13] and then to attend to the following
+extracts from the trial of Dr. Sacheverell. After this, they will
+consider two things: first, whether the doctrine in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections be consonant to that of the Whigs of that period; and,
+secondly, whether they choose to abandon the principles which belonged
+to the progenitors of some of them, and to the predecessors of them all,
+and to learn new principles of Whiggism, imported from France, and
+disseminated in this country from Dissenting pulpits, from Federation
+societies, and from the pamphlets, which (as containing the political
+creed of those synods) are industriously circulated in all parts of the
+two kingdoms. This is their affair, and they will make their option.
+
+These new Whigs hold that the sovereignty, whether exercised by one or
+many, did not only originate _from_ the people, (a position not denied
+nor worth denying or assenting to,) but that in the people the same
+sovereignty constantly and unalienably resides; that the people may
+lawfully depose kings, not only for misconduct, but without any
+misconduct at all; that they may set up any new fashion of government
+for themselves, or continue without any government, at their pleasure;
+that the people are essentially their own rule, and their will the
+measure of their conduct; that the tenure of magistracy is not a proper
+subject of contract, because magistrates have duties, but no rights;
+and that, if a contract _de facto_ is made with them in one age,
+allowing that it binds at all, it only binds those who are immediately
+concerned in it, but does not pass to posterity. These doctrines
+concerning _the people_ (a term which they are far from accurately
+defining, but by which, from many circumstances, it is plain enough they
+mean their own faction, if they should grow, by early arming, by
+treachery, or violence, into the prevailing force) tend, in my opinion,
+to the utter subversion, not only of all government, in all modes, and
+to all stable securities to rational freedom, but to all the rules and
+principles of morality itself.
+
+I assert that the ancient Whigs held doctrines totally different from
+those I have last mentioned. I assert, that the foundations laid down by
+the Commons, on the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, for justifying the
+Revolution of 1688, are the very same laid down in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections,--that is to say, a breach of the _original contrast_,
+implied and expressed in the Constitution of this country, as a scheme
+of government fundamentally and inviolably fixed in King, Lords, and
+Commons;--that the fundamental subversion of this ancient Constitution,
+by one of its parts, having been attempted, and in effect accomplished,
+justified the Revolution;--that it was justified _only_ upon the
+_necessity_ of the case, as the _only_ means left for the recovery of
+that _ancient_ Constitution formed by the _original contract_ of the
+British state, as well as for the future preservation of the _same_
+government. These are the points to be proved.
+
+A general opening to the charge against Dr. Sacheverell was made by the
+attorney-general, Sir John Montague; but as there is nothing in that
+opening speech which tends very accurately to settle the principle upon
+which the Whigs proceeded in the prosecution, (the plan of the speech
+not requiring it,) I proceed to that of Mr. Lechmere, the manager, who
+spoke next after him. The following are extracts, given, not in the
+exact order in which they stand in the printed trial, but in that which
+is thought most fit to bring the ideas of the Whig Commons distinctly
+under our view.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Lechmere_[14]
+
+"It becomes an _indispensable_ duty upon us, who appear in the name and
+on the behalf of all the commons of Great Britain, not only to demand
+your Lordships' justice on such a criminal, [Dr. Sacheverell,] _but
+clearly and openly to assert our foundations_."
+
+[Sidenote: That the terms of our Constitution imply and express an
+original contract.]
+
+[Sidenote: That the contract is mutual consent, and binding at all times
+upon the parties.]
+
+[Sidenote: The mixed Constitution uniformly preserved for many ages, and
+is a proof of the contract.]
+
+"The nature of our Constitution is that of a _limited monarchy_, wherein
+the supreme power is communicated and divided between Queen, Lords, and
+Commons, though the executive power and administration be wholly in the
+crown. The terms of such a Constitution do not only suppose, but
+express, an original contract between the crown and the people, by which
+that supreme power was (by mutual consent, and not by accident) limited
+and lodged in more hands than one. And _the uniform preservation of such
+a Constitution for so many ages, without any fundamental change,
+demonstrates to your Lordships the continuance of the same contract_.
+
+[Sidenote: Laws the common measure to King and subject.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case of fundamental injury, and breach of original contract.]
+
+"The consequences of such a frame of government are obvious: That the
+_laws_ are the rule to both, the common measure of the power of the
+crown and of the obedience of the subject; and if the executive part
+endeavors the _subversion and total destruction of the government_, the
+original contract is thereby broke, and the right of allegiance ceases
+that part of the government thus _fundamentally_ injured hath a right to
+save or recover _that_ Constitution in which it had an original
+interest."
+
+[Sidenote: Words _necessary means_ selected with caution.]
+
+"_The necessary means_ (which is the phrase used by the Commons in their
+first article) words made choice of by them _with the greatest caution_.
+Those means are described (in the preamble to their charge) to be, that
+glorious enterprise which his late Majesty undertook, with an armed
+force, to deliver this kingdom from Popery and arbitrary power; the
+concurrence of many subjects of the realm, who came over with him in
+that enterprise, and of many others, of _all ranks and orders_, who
+appeared in arms in many parts of the kingdom in aid of that enterprise.
+
+"These were the _means_ that brought about the Revolution; and which the
+act that passed soon after, _declaring the rights and liberties of the
+subject, and settling the succession of the crown_, intends, when his
+late Majesty is therein called _the glorious instrument of delivering
+the kingdom_; and which the Commons, in the last part of their first
+article, express by the word _resistance_.
+
+[Sidenote: Regard of the Commons to their allegiance to the crown, and
+to the ancient Constitution.]
+
+"But the Commons, who will never be unmindful of the _allegiance_ of the
+subjects to the _crown_ of this realm, judged it highly incumbent upon
+them, out of regard to the _safety of her Majesty's person and
+government, and the ancient and legal Constitution of this kingdom_, to
+call that resistance the _necessary_ means; thereby plainly founding
+that power, of right and resistance, which was exercised by the people
+at the time of the happy Revolution, and which the duties of
+_self-preservation_ and religion called them to, _upon the NECESSITY of
+the case, and at the same time effectually securing her Majesty's
+government, and the due allegiance of all her subjects_."
+
+[Sidenote: All ages have the same interest in preservation of the
+contract, and the same Constitution.]
+
+"The nature of such an _original contract_ of government proves that
+there is not only a power in the people, who have _inherited its
+freedom_, to assert their own title to it, but they are bound in duty to
+transmit the _same_ Constitution to their posterity also."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Lechmere made a second speech. Notwithstanding the clear and
+satisfactory manner in which he delivered himself in his first, upon
+this arduous question, he thinks himself bound again distinctly to
+assert the same foundation, and to justify the Revolution on _the case
+of necessity only_, upon principles perfectly coinciding with those laid
+down in Mr. Burke's letter on the French affairs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Lechmere._
+
+[Sidenote: The Commons strictly confine their ideas of a revolution to
+necessity alone and self-defence.]
+
+[Sidenote A: N.B. The remark implies, that allegiance would be insecure
+without this restriction.]
+
+"Your Lordships were acquainted, in opening the charge, with how _great
+caution_, and with what unfeigned regard to her Majesty and her
+government, and to the _duty and allegiance_ of her subjects, the
+Commons made choice of the words _necessary means_ to express the
+resistance that was made use of to bring about the Revolution, and with
+the condemning of which the Doctor is charged by this article: not
+doubting but that the honor and justice of that resistance, _from the
+necessity of that case, and to which alone we have strictly confined
+ourselves_, when duly considered, would confirm and strengthen[A] and be
+understood to be an effectual security of the allegiance of the subject
+to the crown of this realm, _in every other case where there is not the
+same necessity_; and that the right of the people to _self-defence, and
+preservation of their liberties, by resistance as their last remedy, is
+the result of a case of such NECESSITY ONLY, and by which the ORIGINAL
+CONTRACT between king and people is broke. This was the principle laid
+down and carried through all that was said with respect to ALLEGIANCE;
+and on WHICH FOUNDATION, in the name and on the behalf of all the
+commons of Great Britain, we assert and justify that resistance by which
+the late happy Revolution was brought about_."
+
+"It appears to your Lordships and the world, that _breaking the original
+contract between king and people_ were the words made choice of by that
+House of Commons," (the House of Commons which originated the
+Declaration of Right,) "with the _greatest deliberation and judgment_,
+and approved of by your Lordships, in that first and fundamental step
+made towards the _re-establishment of the government_, which had
+received so great a shock from the evil counsels which had been given to
+that unfortunate prince."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir John Hawles, another of the managers, follows the steps of his
+brethren, positively affirming the doctrine of non-resistance to
+government to be the general moral, religious, and political rule for
+the subject, and justifying the Revolution on the same principle with
+Mr. Burke,--that is, as _an exception from necessity_. Indeed, he
+carries the doctrine on the general idea of non-resistance much further
+than Mr. Burke has done, and full as far as it can perhaps be supported
+by any duty of _perfect obligation_, however noble and heroic it may be
+in many cases to suffer death rather than disturb the tranquillity of
+our country.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir John Hawles._[15]
+
+"Certainly it must be granted, that the doctrine that commands obedience
+to the supreme power, _though in things contrary to Nature_, even to
+suffer death, which is the highest injustice that can be done a man,
+rather than make an opposition to the supreme power [is reasonable[16]],
+because the death of one or some few private persons is a less evil than
+_disturbing the whole government_; that law must needs be understood to
+forbid the doing or saying anything to disturb the government, the
+rather because the obeying that law cannot be pretended to be against
+Nature: and the Doctor's refusing to obey that implicit law is the
+reason for which he is now prosecuted; though he would have it believed
+that the reason he is now prosecuted was for the doctrine he asserted of
+obedience to the supreme power; which he might have preached as long as
+he had pleased, and the Commons would have taken no offence at it, if
+he had stopped there, and not have taken upon him, on that pretence or
+occasion, to have cast odious colors upon the Revolution."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+General Stanhope was among the managers. He begins his speech by a
+reference to the opinion of his fellow-managers, which he hoped had put
+beyond all doubt the limits and qualifications that the Commons had
+placed to their doctrines concerning the Revolution; yet, not satisfied
+with this general reference, after condemning the principle of
+non-resistance, which is asserted in the sermon _without any exception_,
+and stating, that, under the specious pretence of preaching a peaceable
+doctrine, Sacheverell and the Jacobites meant, in reality, to excite a
+rebellion in favor of the Pretender, he explicitly limits his ideas of
+resistance with the boundaries laid down by his colleagues, and by Mr.
+Burke.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_General Stanhope._
+
+[Sidenote: Rights of the subject and the crown equally legal.]
+
+"The Constitution of England is founded upon _compact_; and the subjects
+of this kingdom have, in their several public and private capacities,
+_as_ legal a title to what are their rights by law _as_ a prince to the
+possession of his crown.
+
+[Sidenote: Justice of resistance founded on necessity.]
+
+"Your Lordships, and most that hear me, are witnesses, and must remember
+the _necessities_ of those times which brought about the Revolution:
+that _no other_ remedy was left to preserve our religion and liberties;
+_that resistance was_ necessary, _and consequently just_."
+
+"Had the Doctor, in the remaining part of his sermon, preached up peace,
+quietness, and the like, and shown how happy we are under her Majesty's
+administration, and exhorted obedience to it, he had never been called
+to answer a charge at your Lordships' bar. But the tenor of all his
+subsequent discourse is one continued invective against the government."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Walpole (afterwards Sir Robert) was one of the managers on this
+occasion. He was an honorable man and a sound Whig. He was not, as the
+Jacobites and discontented Whigs of his time have represented him, and
+as ill-informed people still represent him, a prodigal and corrupt
+minister. They charged him, in their libels and seditious conversations,
+as having first reduced corruption to a system. Such was their cant. But
+he was far from governing by corruption. He governed by party
+attachments. The charge of systematic corruption is less applicable to
+him, perhaps, than to any minister who ever served the crown for so
+great a length of time. He gained over very few from the opposition.
+Without being a genius of the first class, he was an intelligent,
+prudent, and safe minister. He loved peace, and he helped to communicate
+the same disposition to nations at least as warlike and restless as that
+in which he had the chief direction of affairs. Though he served a
+master who was fond of martial fame, he kept all the establishments very
+low. The land tax continued at two shillings in the pound for the
+greater part of his administration. The other impositions were moderate.
+The profound repose, the equal liberty, the firm protection of just
+laws, during the long period of his power, were the principal causes of
+that prosperity which afterwards took such rapid strides towards
+perfection, and which furnished to this nation ability to acquire the
+military glory which it has since obtained, as well as to bear the
+burdens, the cause and consequence of that warlike reputation. With many
+virtues, public and private, he had his faults; but his faults were
+superficial. A careless, coarse, and over-familiar style of discourse,
+without sufficient regard to persons or occasions, and an almost total
+want of political decorum, were the errors by which he was most hurt in
+the public opinion, and those through which his enemies obtained the
+greatest advantage over him. But justice must be done. The prudence,
+steadiness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the greatest possible
+lenity in his character and his politics, preserved the crown to this
+royal family, and, with it, their laws and liberties to this country.
+Walpole had no other plan of defence for the Revolution than that of the
+other managers, and of Mr. Burke; and he gives full as little
+countenance to any arbitrary attempts, on the part of restless and
+factious men, for framing new governments according to their fancies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Walpole_.
+
+[Sidenote: Case of resistance out of the law, and the highest offence.]
+
+[Sidenote: Utmost necessity justifies it.]
+
+"Resistance is nowhere enacted to be legal, but subjected, by all the
+laws now in being, to the greatest penalties. 'Tis what is not, cannot,
+nor ought ever to be described, or affirmed in any positive law, to be
+excusable; when, and upon what _never-to-be-expected_ occasions, it may
+be exercised, no man can foresee; _and ought never to be thought of, but
+when an utter subversion of the laws of the realm threatens the whole
+frame of a Constitution, and no redress can otherwise be hoped for_. It
+therefore does and _ought forever_ to stand, in the eye and letter of
+the law, as the _highest offence_. But because any man, or party of men,
+may not, out of folly or wantonness, commit treason, or make their own
+discontents, ill principles, or disguised affections to another
+interest, a pretence to resist the supreme power, will it follow from
+thence that the _utmost necessity_ ought not to engage a nation _in its
+own defence for the preservation of the whole_?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Joseph Jekyl was, as I have always heard and believed, as nearly as
+any individual could be, the very standard of Whig principles in his
+age. He was a learned and an able man; full of honor, integrity, and
+public spirit; no lover of innovation; nor disposed to change his solid
+principles for the giddy fashion of the hour. Let us hear this Whig.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: Commons do not state the limits of submission.]
+
+[Sidenote: To secure the laws, the only aim of the Revolution.]
+
+"In clearing up and vindicating the justice of the Revolution, which was
+the second thing proposed, it is far from the intent of the Commons to
+state the _limits and bounds_ of the subject's submission to the
+sovereign. That which the law hath been wisely silent in, the Commons
+desire to be silent in too; nor will they put _any_ case of a
+justifiable resistance, but that of the Revolution only: and _they
+persuade themselves that the doing right to that resistance will be so
+far from promoting popular license or confusion, that it will have a
+contrary effect, and be a means of settling men's minds in the love of
+and veneration for the laws_; to rescue and secure which was the _ONLY
+aim and intention of those concerned in that resistance_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dr. Sacheverell's counsel defended him on this principle, namely,--that,
+whilst he enforced from the pulpit the general doctrine of
+non-resistance, he was not obliged to take notice of the theoretic
+limits which ought to modify that doctrine. Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his
+reply, whilst he controverts its application to the Doctor's defence,
+fully admits and even enforces the principle itself, and supports the
+Revolution of 1688, as he and all the managers had done before, exactly
+upon the same grounds on which Mr. Burke has built, in his Reflections
+on the French Revolution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: Blamable to state the bounds of non-resistance.]
+
+[Sidenote: Resistance lawful only in _case_ of extreme and obvious
+necessity.]
+
+"If the Doctor had pretended to have stated the particular bounds and
+limits of non-resistance, and told the people in what cases they might
+or might not resist, _he would have been much to blame_; nor was one
+word said in the articles, or by the managers, as if that was expected
+from him; but, _on the contrary, we have insisted that in NO case can
+resistance be lawful, but in case of EXTREME NECESSITY, and where the
+Constitution can't otherwise be preserved; and such necessity ought to
+be plain and obvious to the sense and judgment of the whole nation: and
+this was the case at the Revolution_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The counsel for Doctor Sacheverell, in defending their client, were
+driven in reality to abandon the fundamental principles of his doctrine,
+and to confess that an exception to the general doctrine of passive
+obedience and non-resistance did exist in the case of the Revolution.
+This the managers for the Commons considered as having gained their
+cause, as their having obtained _the whole_ of what they contended for.
+They congratulated themselves and the nation on a civil victory as
+glorious and as honorable as any that had obtained in arms during that
+reign of triumphs.
+
+Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his reply to Harcourt, and the other great men who
+conducted the cause for the Tory side, spoke in the following memorable
+terms, distinctly stating the whole of what the Whig House of Commons
+contended for, in the name of all their constituents.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: Necessity creates an exception, and the Revolution a case of
+necessity, the utmost extent of the demand of the Commons.]
+
+"My Lords, the concessions" (the concessions of Sacheverell's counsel)
+"are these: That _necessity_ creates an _exception_ to the general rule
+of submission to the prince; that such exception is understood or
+implied in the laws that require such submission; and that _the case of
+the Revolution was a case of necessity._
+
+"These are concessions _so ample_, and do so _fully_ answer the drift of
+the Commons in this article, and are to _the utmost extent of their
+meaning in it_, that I can't forbear congratulating them upon this
+success of their impeachment,--that in full Parliament, this erroneous
+doctrine of _unlimited_ non-resistance is given up and disclaimed. And
+may it not, in after ages, be an addition to the glories of this bright
+reign, that so many of those who are honored with being in her Majesty's
+service have been at your Lordships' bar thus successfully contending
+for the _national_ rights of her people, and proving they are not
+precarious or remediless?
+
+"But to return to these concessions: I must appeal to your Lordships,
+whether they are not a _total departure_ from the Doctor's answer."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I now proceed to show that the Whig managers for the Commons meant to
+preserve the government on a firm foundation, by asserting the perpetual
+validity of the settlement then made, and its coercive power upon
+posterity. I mean to show that they gave no sort of countenance to any
+doctrine tending to impress the _people_ (taken separately from the
+legislature, which includes the crown) with an idea that _they_ had
+acquired a moral or civil competence to alter, without breach of the
+original compact on the part of the king, the succession to the crown,
+at their pleasure,--much less that they had acquired any right, in the
+case of such an event as caused the Revolution, to set up any new form
+of government. The author of the Reflections, I believe, thought that no
+man of common understanding could oppose to this doctrine the ordinary
+sovereign power as declared in the act of Queen Anne: that is, that the
+kings or queens of the realm, with the consent of Parliament, are
+competent to regulate and to settle the succession of the crown. This
+power is and ever was inherent in the supreme sovereignty, and was not,
+as the political divines vainly talk, acquired by the Revolution. It is
+declared in the old statute of Queen Elizabeth. Such a power must reside
+in the complete sovereignty of every kingdom; and it is in fact
+exercised in all of them. But this right of _competence_ in the
+legislature, not in the people, is by the legislature itself to be
+exercised with _sound discretion_: that is to say, it is to be exercised
+or not, in conformity to the fundamental principles of this government,
+to the rules of moral obligation, and to the faith of pacts, either
+contained in the nature of the transaction or entered into by the body
+corporate of the kingdom,--which body in juridical construction never
+dies, and in fact never loses its members at once by death.
+
+Whether this doctrine is reconcilable to the modern philosophy of
+government I believe the author neither knows nor cares, as he has
+little respect for any of that sort of philosophy. This may be because
+his capacity and knowledge do not reach to it. If such be the case, he
+cannot be blamed, if he acts on the sense of that incapacity; he cannot
+be blamed, if, in the most arduous and critical questions which can
+possibly arise, and which affect to the quick the vital parts of our
+Constitution, he takes the side which leans most to safety and
+settlement; that he is resolved not "to be wise beyond what is written"
+in the legislative record and practice; that, when doubts arise on them,
+he endeavors to interpret one statute by another, and to reconcile them
+all to established, recognized morals, and to the general, ancient,
+known policy of the laws of England. Two things are equally evident: the
+first is, that the legislature possesses the power of regulating the
+succession of the crown; the second, that in the exercise of that right
+it has uniformly acted as if under the _restraints_ which the author has
+stated. That author makes what the ancients call _mos majorum_ not
+indeed his sole, but certainly his principal rule of policy, to guide
+his judgment in whatever regards our laws. Uniformity and analogy can be
+preserved in them by this process only. That point being fixed, and
+laying fast hold of a strong bottom, our speculations may swing in all
+directions without public detriment, because they will ride with sure
+anchorage.
+
+In this manner these things have been always considered by our
+ancestors. There are some, indeed, who have the art of turning the very
+acts of Parliament which were made for securing the hereditary
+succession in the present royal family, by rendering it penal to doubt
+of the validity of those acts of Parliament, into an instrument for
+defeating all their ends and purposes,--but upon grounds so very foolish
+that it is not worth while to take further notice of such sophistry.
+
+To prevent any unnecessary subdivision, I shall here put together what
+may be necessary to show the perfect agreement of the Whigs with Mr.
+Burke in his assertions, that the Revolution made no "essential change
+in the constitution of the monarchy, or in any of its ancient, sound,
+and legal principles; that the succession was settled in the Hanover
+family, upon the idea and in the mode of an hereditary succession
+qualified with Protestantism; that it was not settled upon _elective_
+principles, in any sense of the word _elective_, or under any
+modification or description of _election_ whatsoever; but, on the
+contrary, that the nation, after the Revolution, renewed by a fresh
+compact the spirit of the original compact of the state, binding itself,
+_both in its existing members and all its posterity_, to adhere to the
+settlement of an hereditary succession in the Protestant line, drawn
+from James the First, as the stock of inheritance."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir John Hawles_.
+
+[Sidenote: Necessity of settling the right of the crown, and submission
+to the settlement.]
+
+"If he [Dr. Sacheverell] is of the opinion he pretends, I can't imagine
+how it comes to pass that he that pays that deference to the supreme
+power has preached so directly contrary to the determinations of the
+supreme power in this government, he very well knowing that the
+lawfulness of the Revolution, and of the means whereby it was brought
+about, has already been determined by the aforesaid acts of
+Parliament,--and do it in the worst manner that he could invent. _For
+questioning the right to the crown here in England has procured the
+shedding of more blood and caused more slaughter than all the other
+matters tending to disturbances in the government put together._ If,
+therefore, the doctrine which the Apostles had laid down was only to
+continue the peace of the world, as thinking the death of some few
+particular persons better to be borne with than a civil war, sure it is
+the highest breach of that law to question the first principles of this
+government."
+
+"If the Doctor had been contented with the liberty he took of preaching
+up the duty of passive obedience in the most extensive manner he had
+thought fit, and would have stopped there, your Lordships would not have
+had the trouble in relation to him that you now have; but it is plain
+that he preached up his absolute and unconditional obedience, not _to
+continue the peace and tranquillity of this nation, but to set the
+subjects at strife, and to raise a war in the bowels of this nation_:
+and it is for _this_ that he is now prosecuted; though he would fain
+have it believed that the prosecution was for preaching the peaceable
+doctrine of absolute obedience."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl_.
+
+[Sidenote: Whole frame of government restored unhurt, on the
+Revolution.]
+
+"The whole tenor of the administration then in being was agreed to by
+all to be a _total departure from the Constitution_. The nation was at
+that time united in that opinion, all but the criminal part of it. And
+as the nation joined in the judgment of their disease, so they did in
+the remedy. _They saw there was no remedy left but the last;_ and when
+that remedy took place, _the whole frame of the government was restored
+entire and unhurt_.[17] This showed the excellent temper the nation was
+in at that time, that, after such provocations from an abuse of the
+regal power, and such a convulsion, _no one part of the Constitution was
+altered, or suffered the least damage; but, on the contrary, the whole
+received new life and vigor_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Tory counsel for Dr. Sacheverell having insinuated that a great and
+essential alteration in the Constitution had been wrought by the
+Revolution, Sir Joseph Jekyl is so strong on this point, that he takes
+fire even at the insinuation of his being of such an opinion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: No innovation at the Revolution.]
+
+"If the Doctor instructed his counsel to insinuate that there was _any
+innovation in the Constitution wrought by the Revolution, it is an
+addition to his crime. The Revolution did not introduce any innovation;
+it was a restoration of the ancient fundamental Constitution of the
+kingdom_, and giving it its proper force and energy."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre, distinguishes expressly the case
+of the Revolution, and its principles, from a proceeding at pleasure, on
+the part of the people, to change their ancient Constitution, and to
+frame a new government for themselves. He distinguishes it with the same
+care from the principles of regicide and republicanism, and the sorts of
+resistance condemned by the doctrines of the Church of England, and
+which ought to be condemned by the doctrines of all churches professing
+Christianity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre._
+
+[Sidenote: Revolution no precedent for voluntary cancelling allegiance.]
+
+[Sidenote: Revolution not like the case of Charles the First.]
+
+"The resistance at the Revolution, which was founded in _unavoidable
+necessity_, could be no defence to a man that was attacked _for
+asserting that the people might cancel their allegiance at pleasure, or
+dethrone and murder their sovereign by a judiciary sentence_. For it can
+never be inferred, from the lawfulness of resistance at a time when _a
+total subversion of the government both in Church and State was
+intended_, that a people may take up arms and _call their sovereign to
+account at pleasure_; and therefore, since _the Revolution could be of
+no service in giving the least color for asserting any such wicked
+principle_, the Doctor could never intend to put it into the mouths of
+those new preachers and new politicians for a defence,--unless it be his
+opinion that the resistance at the Revolution can bear any parallel with
+_the execrable murder of the royal martyr, so justly detested by the
+whole nation_."
+
+[Sidenote: Sacheverell's doctrine intended to bring an odium on the
+Revolution.]
+
+[Sidenote: True defence of the Revolution an absolute necessity.]
+
+"'Tis plain that the Doctor is not impeached for preaching a general
+doctrine, and enforcing the general duty of obedience, but for preaching
+against an _excepted case after he has stated the exception_. He is not
+impeached for preaching the general doctrine of obedience, and the utter
+illegality of resistance upon any pretence whatsoever, but because,
+having first laid down the general doctrine as true, without any
+exception, _he states the excepted case_, the Revolution, in express
+terms, as an objection, and then assumes the consideration of that
+excepted case, denies there was any resistance in the Revolution, and
+asserts that to impute resistance to the Revolution would cast black and
+odious colors upon it. This, my Lords, is not preaching the doctrine of
+non-resistance in the _general_ terms used by the Homilies and the
+fathers of the Church, where cases of necessity may be _understood to be
+excepted by a tacit implication, as the counsel have allowed_,--but is
+preaching directly against the resistance at the Revolution, which, in
+the course of this debate, has been all along admitted to _be necessary
+and just_, and can have no other meaning than to bring a dishonor upon
+the Revolution, and an odium upon those great and illustrious persons,
+_those friends to the monarchy and the Church, that assisted in bringing
+it about_. For had the Doctor intended anything else, he would have
+treated the case of the Revolution in a different manner, and have
+given _it the true and fair answer_: he would have said that the
+resistance at the Revolution was _of absolute necessity, and the only
+means left to revive the Constitution, and must be therefore taken as an
+excepted case_, and could never come within the reach or intention of
+the general doctrine of the Church."
+
+"Your Lordships take notice on what grounds the Doctor continues to
+assert the same position in his answer. But is it not most evident that
+the general exhortations to be met with in the Homilies of the Church of
+England, and such like declarations in the statutes of the kingdom, are
+meant only as rules for the civil obedience of the subject to the legal
+administration of the supreme power in _ordinary cases_? And it is
+equally absurd to construe any words in a positive law to authorize the
+destruction of the whole, as to expect that King, Lords, and Commons
+should, in express terms of law, declare _such an ultimate resort as the
+right of resistance, at a time when the case supposes that the force of
+all law is ceased_."[18]
+
+[Sidenote: Commons abhor whatever shakes the submission of posterity to
+the settlement of the crown.]
+
+"The Commons must always resent, with the utmost detestation and
+abhorrence, every position that may shake the authority of that act of
+Parliament whereby the crown is settled upon her Majesty, _and whereby
+the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do, in the name of all the
+people of England, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their
+heirs and posterities, to her Majesty_, which this general principle of
+absolute non-resistance must certainly shake.
+
+"For, if the resistance at the Revolution was illegal, the Revolution
+settled in usurpation, and this act can have no greater force and
+authority than an act passed under a usurper.
+
+"And the Commons take leave to observe, that the authority of this
+Parliamentary settlement is a matter of the greatest consequence to
+maintain, in a case where the hereditary right to the crown is
+contested."
+
+"It appears by the several instances mentioned in the act declaring the
+rights and liberties of the subject and settling the succession of the
+crown, that at the time of the Revolution there was _a total subversion
+of the constitution of government both in Church and State, which is a
+case that the laws of England could never suppose, provide for, or have
+in view._"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Joseph Jekyl, so often quoted, considered the preservation of the
+monarchy, and of the rights and prerogatives of the crown, as essential
+objects with all sound Whigs, and that they were bound not only to
+maintain them, when injured or invaded, but to exert themselves as much
+for their reëstablishment, if they should happen to be overthrown by
+popular fury, as any of their own more immediate and popular rights and
+privileges, if the latter should be at any time subverted by the crown.
+For this reason he puts the cases of the _Revolution_, and the
+_Restoration_ exactly upon the same footing. He plainly marks, that it
+was the object of all honest men not to sacrifice one part of the
+Constitution to another, and much more, not to sacrifice any of them to
+visionary theories of the rights of man, but to preserve our whole
+inheritance in the Constitution, in all its members and all its
+relations, entire and unimpaired, from generation to generation. In this
+Mr. Burke exactly agrees with him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: What are the rights of the people.]
+
+[Sidenote: Restoration and Revolution.]
+
+[Sidenote: People have an equal interest in the legal rights of the
+crown and of their own.]
+
+"Nothing is plainer than that the people have a right to the laws and
+the Constitution. This right the nation hath asserted, and recovered out
+of the hands of those who had dispossessed them of it at several times.
+There are of this _two famous instances_ in the knowledge of the present
+age: I mean that of the _Restoration_, and that of the _Revolution_: in
+both these great events were the _regal power_ and the _rights of the
+people_ recovered. And it is _hard to say in which the people have the
+greatest interest; for the Commons are sensible that there it not one
+legal power belonging to the crown, but they have an interest in it; and
+I doubt not but they will always be as careful to support the rights of
+the crown as their own privileges_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The other Whig managers regarded (as he did) the overturning of the
+monarchy by a republican faction with the very same horror and
+detestation with which they regarded the destruction of the privileges
+of the people by an arbitrary monarch.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Lechmere_,
+
+[Sidenote: Constitution recovered at the Restoration and Revolution.]
+
+Speaking of our Constitution, states it as "a Constitution which happily
+recovered itself, at the Restoration, from the confusions and disorders
+which _the horrid and detestable proceedings of faction and usurpation
+had thrown it into_, and which after many convulsions and struggles was
+providentially saved at the late happy Revolution, and by the many good
+laws passed since that time stands now upon a firmer foundation,
+together with the most comfortable prospect of _security to all
+posterity_ by the settlement of the crown in the Protestant line."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I mean now to show that the Whigs (if Sir Joseph Jekyl was one, and if
+he spoke in conformity to the sense of the Whig House of Commons, and
+the Whig ministry who employed him) did carefully guard against any
+presumption that might arise from the repeal of the non-resistance oath
+of Charles the Second, as if at the Revolution the ancient principles of
+our government were at all changed, or that republican doctrines were
+countenanced, or any sanction given to seditious proceedings upon
+general undefined ideas of misconduct, or for changing the form of
+government, or for resistance upon any other ground than the _necessity_
+so often mentioned for the purpose of self-preservation. It will show
+still more clearly the equal care of the then Whigs to prevent either
+the regal power from being swallowed up on pretence of popular rights,
+or the popular rights from being destroyed on pretence of regal
+prerogatives.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl_.
+
+[Sidenote: Mischief of broaching antimonarchical principles.]
+
+[Sidenote: Two cases of resistance: one to preserve the crown, the other
+the rights of the subject.]
+
+"Further, I desire it may be considered, these legislators" (the
+legislators who framed the non-resistance oath of Charles the Second)
+"were guarding against the consequences of those _pernicious and
+antimonarchical principles which had been broached a little before in
+this nation_, and those large declarations in favor of _non-resistance_
+were made to encounter or obviate the _mischief_ of those
+principles,--as appears by the preamble to the fullest of those acts,
+which is the _Militia Act_, in the 13th and 14th of King Charles the
+Second. The words of that act are these: _And during the late usurped
+governments, many evil and rebellious principles have been instilled
+into the minds of the people of this kingdom, which may break forth,
+unless prevented, to the disturbance of the peace and quiet thereof: Be
+it therefore enacted_, &c. Here your Lordships may see the reason that
+inclined those legislators to express themselves in such a manner
+against resistance. _They had seen the regal rights swallowed up under
+the pretence of popular ones_: and it is no imputation on them, that
+they did not then foresee a _quite different case_, as was that of the
+Revolution, where, under the pretence of regal authority, a total
+subversion of the rights of the subject was advanced, and in a manner
+effected. And this may serve to show that it was not the design of those
+legislators to condemn resistance, in a case _of absolute necessity, for
+preserving the Constitution_, when they were guarding against principles
+which had so lately destroyed it."
+
+[Sidenote: Non-resistance oath not repealed because (with the
+restriction of necessity) it was false, but to prevent false
+interpretations.]
+
+"As to the truth of the doctrine in this declaration which was repealed,
+_I'll admit it to be as true as the Doctor's counsel assert it,--that
+is, with an exception of cases of necessity_: and it was not repealed
+because it was false, _understanding it with that restriction_; but it
+was repealed because it might be interpreted in _an unconfined sense,
+and exclusive of that restriction_, and, being so understood, would
+reflect on the justice of the Revolution: and this the legislature had
+at heart, and were very jealous of, and by this repeal of that
+declaration gave a Parliamentary or legislative admonition against
+asserting this doctrine of non-resistance _in an unlimited sense_."
+
+[Sidenote: General doctrine of non-resistance godly and wholesome; not
+bound to state _explicitly_ the exceptions.]
+
+"Though the general doctrine of non-resistance, the doctrine of the
+Church of England, as stated in her Homilies, or elsewhere delivered, by
+which the general duty of subjects to the higher powers is taught, be
+owned to be, as unquestionably it is, _a godly and wholesome
+doctrine_,--though this general doctrine has been constantly inculcated
+by the reverend fathers of the Church, dead and living, and preached by
+them as a preservative against the Popish doctrine of deposing princes,
+and as the ordinary rule of obedience,--and though the same doctrine has
+been preached, maintained, and avowed by our most orthodox and able
+divines from the time of the Reformation,--and how _innocent a man_
+soever Dr. Sacheverell had been, if, _with an honest and well-meant_
+zeal, he had preached the same doctrine in the same general terms in
+which he found it delivered by the Apostles of Christ, as taught by the
+Homilies and the reverend fathers of our Church, and, in imitation of
+those great examples, had only pressed the general duty of obedience,
+and the illegality of resistance, without taking notice of any
+exception," &c.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another of the managers for the House of Commons, Sir John Holland, was
+not less careful in guarding against a confusion of the principles of
+the Revolution with any loose, general doctrines of a right in the
+individual, or even in the people, to undertake for themselves, on any
+prevalent, temporary opinions of convenience or improvement, any
+fundamental change in the Constitution, or to fabricate a new
+government for themselves, and thereby to disturb the public peace, and
+to unsettle the ancient Constitution of this kingdom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir John Holland_.
+
+[Sidenote: Submission to the sovereign a conscientious duty, except in
+cases of necessity.]
+
+"The Commons would not be understood as if they were pleading for a
+licentious resistance, as if _subjects_ were left to _their_ good-will
+and pleasure when they are to _obey_ and when to _resist_. No, my Lords,
+they know they are _obliged by all the ties of social creatures and
+Christians, for wrath and conscience' sake, to submit to their
+sovereign_. The Commons do not abet _humorsome, factious arms_: they
+aver them to be _rebellions_. But yet they maintain that that resistance
+at the Revolution, which was so _necessary, was lawful and just from
+that necessity_."
+
+[Sidenote: Right of resistance how to be understood.]
+
+"These general rules of obedience may, upon a _real necessity,_ admit a
+lawful _exception_; and such a _necessary exception_ we assert the
+Revolution to be.
+
+"'Tis with this view of _necessity_, only _absolute necessity_ of
+preserving our laws, liberties, and religion,--'tis with _this
+limitation_, that we desire to be understood, when any of us speak of
+resistance in general. The _necessity_ of the resistance at the
+Revolution was at that time obvious to every man."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I shall conclude these extracts with a reference to the Prince of
+Orange's Declaration, in which he gives the nation the fullest assurance
+that in his enterprise he was far from the intention of introducing any
+change whatever in the fundamental law and Constitution of the state. He
+considered the object of his enterprise not to be a precedent for
+further revolutions, but that it was the great end of his expedition to
+make such revolutions, so far as human power and wisdom could provide,
+unnecessary.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Extracts from the Prince of Orange's Declaration_.
+
+"_All magistrates, who have been_ unjustly turned out, shall _forthwith
+resume their former_ employments; as well as all the boroughs of England
+shall return again to _their ancient prescriptions and charters_, and,
+more particularly, that _the ancient_ charter of the great and famous
+city of London shall again be in force; and that the writs for the
+members of Parliament shall be addressed to the _proper officers,
+according to law and custom_."
+
+"And for the doing of all other things which the two Houses of
+Parliament shall find necessary for the peace, honor, and safety of the
+nation, so that there may _be no more danger of the nation's falling, at
+any time hereafter, under arbitrary government_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Extract from the Prince of Oranges Additional Declaration_.
+
+[Sidenote: Principal nobility and gentry well affected to the Church and
+crown, security against the design of innovation.]
+
+"We are confident that no persons can have _such hard thoughts of us_ as
+to imagine that we have any other design in this undertaking than to
+procure a settlement of the _religion and of the liberties and
+properties of the subjects upon so sure a foundation that there may be
+no danger of the nation's relapsing into the like miseries at any time
+hereafter_. And as the forces that we have brought along with us are
+utterly disproportioned to that wicked design of conquering the nation,
+if we were capable of intending it, _so the great numbers of the
+principal nobility and gentry, that are men of eminent quality and
+estates, and persons of known integrity and zeal, both for the religion
+and government of England, many of them, also being distinguished by
+their constant fidelity to the crown_, who do both accompany us in this
+expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it, will cover us from all
+such malicious insinuations."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the spirit, and, upon one occasion, in the words,[19] of this
+Declaration, the statutes passed in that reign made such provisions for
+preventing these dangers, that scarcely anything short of combination of
+King, Lords, and Commons, for the destruction of the liberties of the
+nation, can in any probability make us liable to similar perils. In that
+dreadful, and, I hope, not to be looked-for case, any opinion of a right
+to make revolutions, grounded on this precedent, would be but a poor
+resource. Dreadful, indeed, would be our situation!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These are the doctrines held by _the Whigs of the Revolution_, delivered
+with as much solemnity, and as authentically at least, as any political
+dogmas were ever promulgated from the beginning of the world. If there
+be any difference between their tenets and those of Mr. Burke, it is,
+that the old Whigs oppose themselves still more strongly than he does
+against the doctrines which are now propagated with so much industry by
+those who would be thought their successors.
+
+It will be said, perhaps, that the old Whigs, in order to guard
+themselves against popular odium, pretended to assert tenets contrary
+to those which they secretly held. This, if true, would prove, what Mr.
+Burke has uniformly asserted, that the extravagant doctrines which he
+meant to expose were disagreeable to the body of the people,--who,
+though they perfectly abhor a despotic government, certainly approached
+more nearly to the love of mitigated monarchy than to anything which
+bears the appearance even of the best republic. But if these old Whigs
+deceived the people, their conduct was unaccountable indeed. They
+exposed their power, as every one conversant in history knows, to the
+greatest peril, for the propagation of opinions which, on this
+hypothesis, they did not hold. It is a new kind of martyrdom. This
+supposition does as little credit to their integrity as their wisdom: it
+makes them at once hypocrites and fools. I think of those great men very
+differently. I hold them to have been, what the world thought them, men
+of deep understanding, open sincerity, and clear honor. However, be that
+matter as it may, what these old Whigs pretended to be Mr. Burke is.
+This is enough for him.
+
+I do, indeed, admit, that, though Mr. Burke has proved that his opinions
+were those of the old Whig party, solemnly declared by one House, in
+effect and substance by both Houses of Parliament, this testimony
+standing by itself will form no proper defence for his opinions, if he
+and the old Whigs were both of them in the wrong. But it is his present
+concern, not to vindicate these old Whigs, but to show his agreement
+with them. He appeals to them as judges: he does not vindicate them as
+culprits. It is current that these old politicians knew little of the
+rights of men,--that they lost their way by groping about in the dark,
+and fumbling among rotten parchments and musty records. Great lights,
+they say, are lately obtained in the world; and Mr. Burke, instead of
+shrouding himself in exploded ignorance, ought to have taken advantage
+of the blaze of illumination which has been spread about him. It may be
+so. The enthusiasts of this time, it seems, like their predecessors in
+another faction of fanaticism, deal in lights. Hudibras pleasantly says
+of them, they
+
+    "Have _lights_, where better eyes are blind,--
+     As pigs are said to see the wind."
+
+The author of the Reflections has _heard_ a great deal concerning the
+modern lights, but he has not yet had the good fortune to _see_ much of
+them. He has read more than he can justify to anything but the spirit of
+curiosity, of the works of these illuminators of the world. He has
+learned nothing from the far greater number of them than a full
+certainty of their shallowness, levity, pride, petulance, presumption,
+and ignorance. Where the old authors whom he has read, and the old men
+whom he has conversed with, have left him in the dark, he is in the dark
+still. If others, however, have obtained any of this extraordinary
+light, they will use it to guide them in their researches and their
+conduct. I have only to wish that the nation may be as happy and as
+prosperous under the influence of the new light as it has been in the
+sober shade of the old obscurity. As to the rest, it will be difficult
+for the author of the Reflections to conform to the principles of the
+avowed leaders of the party, until they appear otherwise than
+negatively. All we can gather from them is this,--that their principles
+are diametrically opposite to his. This is all that we know from
+authority. Their negative declaration obliges me to have recourse to
+the books which contain positive doctrines. They are, indeed, to those
+Mr. Burke holds diametrically opposite; and if it be true (as the
+oracles of the party have said, I hope hastily) that their opinions
+differ so widely, it should seem they are the most likely to form the
+creed of the modern Whigs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have stated what were the avowed sentiments of the old Whigs, not in
+the way of argument, but narratively. It is but fair to set before the
+reader, in the same simple manner, the sentiments of the modern, to
+which they spare neither pains nor expense to make proselytes. I choose
+them from the books upon which most of that industry and expenditure in
+circulation have been employed; I choose them, not from those who speak
+with a politic obscurity, not from those who only controvert the
+opinions of the old Whigs, without advancing any of their own, but from
+those who speak plainly and affirmatively. The Whig reader may make his
+choice between the two doctrines.
+
+The doctrine, then, propagated by these societies, which gentlemen think
+they ought to be very tender in discouraging, as nearly as possible in
+their own words, is as follows: That in Great Britain we are not only
+without a good Constitution, but that we have "no Constitution";--that,
+"though it is much talked about, no such thing as a Constitution exists
+or ever did exist, and consequently that _the people have a Constitution
+yet to form_;--that since William the Conqueror the country has never
+yet _regenerated itself_, and is therefore without a Constitution;--that
+where it cannot be produced in a visible form there is none;--that a
+Constitution is a thing antecedent to government; and that the
+Constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of a
+people constituting a government;--that _everything_ in the English
+government is the reverse of what it ought to be, and what it is said to
+be in England;--that the right of war and peace resides in a metaphor
+shown at the Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece;--that it signifies
+not where the right resides, whether in the crown or in Parliament; war
+is the common harvest of those who participate in the division and
+expenditure of public money;--that the portion of liberty enjoyed in
+England is just enough to enslave a country more productively than by
+despotism."
+
+So far as to the general state of the British Constitution.--As to our
+House of Lords, the chief virtual representative of our aristocracy, the
+great ground and pillar of security to the landed interest, and that
+main link by which it is connected with the law and the crown, these
+worthy societies are pleased to tell us, that, "whether we view
+aristocracy before, or behind, or sideways, or any way else,
+domestically or publicly, it is still a _monster_;--that aristocracy in
+France had one feature less in its countenance than what it has in some
+other countries: it did not compose a body of hereditary legislators; it
+was not _a corporation of aristocracy_" (for such, it seems, that
+profound legislator, M. de La Fayette, describes the House of
+Peers);--"that it is kept up by family tyranny and injustice;--that
+there is an unnatural unfitness in aristocracy to be legislators for a
+nation;--that their ideas of distributive justice are corrupted at the
+very source; they begin life by trampling on all their younger brothers
+and sisters, and relations of every kind, and are taught and educated
+so to do;--that the idea of an hereditary legislator is as absurd as an
+hereditary mathematician;--that a body holding themselves unaccountable
+to anybody ought to be trusted by nobody;--that it is continuing the
+uncivilized principles of governments founded in conquest, and the base
+idea of man having a property in man, and governing him by a personal
+right;--that aristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the human
+species," &c., &c.
+
+As to our law of primogeniture, which with few and inconsiderable
+exceptions is the standing law of all our landed inheritance, and which
+without question has a tendency, and I think a most happy tendency, to
+preserve a character of consequence, weight, and prevalent influence
+over others in the whole body of the landed interest, they call loudly
+for its destruction. They do this for political reasons that are very
+manifest. They have the confidence to say, "that it is a law against
+every law of Nature, and Nature herself calls for its destruction.
+Establish family justice, and aristocracy falls. By the aristocratical
+law of primogenitureship, in a family of six children, five are exposed.
+Aristocracy has never but _one_ child. The rest are begotten to be
+devoured. They are thrown to the cannibal for prey, and the natural
+parent prepares the unnatural repast."
+
+As to the House of Commons, they treat it far worse than the House of
+Lords or the crown have been ever treated. Perhaps they thought they had
+a greater right to take this amicable freedom with those of their own
+family. For many years it has been the perpetual theme of their
+invectives. "Mockery, insult, usurpation," are amongst the best names
+they bestow upon it. They damn it in the mass, by declaring "that it
+does not arise out of the inherent rights of the people, as the National
+Assembly does in France, and whose name designates its original."
+
+Of the charters and corporations, to whose rights a few years ago these
+gentlemen were so tremblingly alive, they say, "that, when the people of
+England come to reflect upon them, they will, like France, annihilate
+those badges of oppression, those traces of a conquered nation."
+
+As to our monarchy, they had formerly been more tender of that branch of
+the Constitution, and for a good reason. The laws had guarded against
+all seditious attacks upon it with a greater degree of strictness and
+severity. The tone of these gentlemen is totally altered since the
+French Revolution. They now declaim as vehemently against the monarchy
+as on former occasions they treacherously flattered and soothed it.
+
+"When we survey the wretched condition of man under the monarchical and
+hereditary systems of government, dragged from his home by one power, or
+driven by another, and impoverished by taxes more than by enemies, it
+becomes evident that those systems are bad, and that a general
+revolution in the principle and construction of governments is
+necessary.
+
+"What is government more than the management of the affairs of a nation?
+It is not, and from its nature cannot be, the property of any particular
+man or family, but of the whole community, at whose expense it is
+supported; and though by force or contrivance it has been usurped into
+an inheritance, the usurpation cannot alter the right of things.
+Sovereignty, as a matter of right, appertains to the nation only, and
+not to any individual; and a nation has at all times an inherent
+indefeasible right to abolish any form of government it finds
+inconvenient, and establish such as accords with its interest,
+disposition, and happiness. The romantic and barbarous distinction of
+men into kings and subjects, though it may suit the condition of
+courtiers, cannot that of citizens, and is exploded by the principle
+upon which governments are now founded. Every citizen is a member of the
+sovereignty, and, as such, can acknowledge no personal subjection, and
+his obedience can be only to the laws."
+
+Warmly recommending to us the example of Prance, where they have
+destroyed monarchy, they say,--
+
+"Monarchical sovereignty, the enemy of mankind, and the source of
+misery, is abolished; and sovereignty itself is restored to its natural
+and original place, the nation. Were this the case throughout Europe,
+the cause of wars would be taken away."
+
+"But, after all, what is this metaphor called a crown? or rather, what
+is monarchy? Is it a thing, or is it a name, or is it a fraud? Is it 'a
+contrivance of human wisdom,' or of human craft, to obtain money from a
+nation under specious pretences? Is it a thing necessary to a nation? If
+it is, in what does that necessity consist, what services does it
+perform, what is its business, and what are its merits? Doth the virtue
+consist in the metaphor or in the man? Doth the goldsmith that makes the
+crown make the virtue also? Doth it operate like Fortunatus's
+wishing-cap or Harlequin's wooden sword? Doth it make a man a conjurer?
+In fine, what is it? It appears to be a something going much out of
+fashion, falling into ridicule, and rejected in some countries both as
+unnecessary and expensive. In America it is considered as an absurdity;
+and in France it has so far declined, that the goodness of the man and
+the respect for his personal character are the only things that preserve
+the appearance of its existence."
+
+"Mr. Burke talks about what he calls an hereditary crown, as if it were
+some production of Nature,--or as if, like time, it had a power to
+operate, not only independently, but in spite of man,--or as if it were
+a thing or a subject universally consented to. Alas! it has none of
+those properties, but is the reverse of them all. It is a thing in
+imagination, the propriety of which is more than doubted, and the
+legality of which in a few years will be denied."
+
+"If I ask the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and
+down through all the occupations of life to the common laborer, what
+service monarchy is to him, he can give me no answer. If I ask him what
+monarchy is, he believes it is something like a sinecure."
+
+"The French Constitution says, that the right of war and peace is in the
+nation. Where else should it reside, but in those who are to pay the
+expense?
+
+"In England, this right is said to reside in a _metaphor_, shown at the
+Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece: so are the lions; and it would
+be a step nearer to reason to say it resided in them, for any inanimate
+metaphor is no more than a hat or a cap. We can all see the absurdity of
+worshipping Aaron's molten calf, or Nebuchadnezzar's golden image; but
+why do men continue to practise themselves the absurdities they despise
+in others?"
+
+The Revolution and Hanover succession had been objects of the highest
+veneration to the old Whigs. They thought them not only proofs of the
+sober and steady spirit of liberty which guided their ancestors, but of
+their wisdom and provident care of posterity. The modern Whigs have
+quite other notions of these events and actions. They do not deny that
+Mr. Burke has given truly the words of the acts of Parliament which
+secured the succession, and the just sense of them. They attack not him,
+but the law.
+
+"Mr Burke" (say they) "has done some service, not to his cause, but to
+his country, by bringing those clauses into public view. They serve to
+demonstrate how necessary it is at all times to watch against the
+attempted encroachment of power, and to prevent its running to excess.
+It is somewhat extraordinary, that the offence for which James the
+Second was expelled, that of setting up power by _assumption_, should be
+re-acted, under another shape and form, by the Parliament that expelled
+him. It shows that the rights of man were but imperfectly understood at
+the Revolution; for certain it is, that the right which that Parliament
+set up by _assumption_ (for by delegation it had it not, and could not
+have it, because none could give it) over the persons and freedom of
+posterity forever, was of the same tyrannical unfounded kind which James
+attempted to set up over the Parliament and the nation, and for which he
+was expelled. The only difference is, (for in principle they differ
+not,) that the one was an usurper over the living, and the other over
+the unborn; and as the one has no better authority to stand upon than
+the other, both of them must be equally null and void, and of no
+effect."
+
+"As the estimation of all things is by comparison, the Revolution of
+1688, however from circumstances it may have been exalted beyond its
+value, will find its level. It is already on the wane, eclipsed by the
+enlarging orb of reason and the luminous Revolutions of America and
+France. In less than another century, it will go, as well as Mr. Burke's
+labors, 'to the family vault of all the Capulets.' _Mankind will then
+scarcely believe that a country calling itself free would send to
+Holland for a man and clothe him with power on purpose to put themselves
+in fear of him, and give him almost a million sterling a year for leave
+to submit themselves and their posterity like bondmen and bondwomen
+forever_."
+
+Mr. Burke having said that "the king holds his crown in contempt of the
+choice of the Revolution Society, who individually or collectively have
+not" (as most certainly they have not) "a vote for a king amongst them,"
+they take occasion from thence to infer that the king who does not hold
+his crown by election despises the people.
+
+"'The king of England,' says he, 'holds _his_ crown' (for it does not
+belong to the nation, according to Mr. Burke) 'in _contempt_ of the
+choice of the Revolution Society,'" &c.
+
+"As to who is king in England or elsewhere, or whether there is any king
+at all, or whether the people choose a Cherokee chief or a Hessian
+hussar for a king, it is not a matter that I trouble myself about,--be
+that to themselves; but with respect to the doctrine, so far as it
+relates to the rights of men and nations, it is as abominable as
+anything ever uttered in the most enslaved country under heaven. Whether
+it sounds worse to my ear, by not being accustomed to hear such
+despotism, than what it does to the ear of another person, I am not so
+well a judge of; but of its abominable principle I am at no loss to
+judge."
+
+These societies of modern Whigs push their insolence as far as it can
+go. In order to prepare the minds of the people for treason and
+rebellion, they represent the king as tainted with principles of
+despotism, from the circumstance of his having dominions in Germany. In
+direct defiance of the most notorious truth, they describe his
+government there to be a despotism; whereas it is a free Constitution,
+in which the states of the Electorate have their part in the government:
+and this privilege has never been infringed by the king, or, that I have
+heard of, by any of his predecessors. The Constitution of the Electoral
+dominions has, indeed, a double control, both from the laws of the
+Empire and from the privileges of the country. Whatever rights the king
+enjoys as Elector have been always parentally exercised, and the
+calumnies of these scandalous societies have not been authorized by a
+single complaint of oppression.
+
+"When Mr. Burke says that 'his Majesty's heirs and successors, each in
+their time and order, will come to the crown with the _same contempt_ of
+their choice with which his Majesty has succeeded to that he wears,' it
+is saying too much even to the humblest individual in the country, part
+of whose daily labor goes towards making up the million sterling a year
+which the country gives the person it styles a king. Government with
+insolence is despotism; but when contempt is added, it becomes worse;
+and to pay for contempt is the excess of slavery. This species of
+government comes from Germany, and reminds me of what one of the
+Brunswick soldiers told me, who was taken prisoner by the Americans in
+the late war. 'Ah!' said he, 'America is a fine free country: it is
+worth the people's fighting for. I know the difference by knowing my
+own: in my country, _if the prince says, "Eat straw" we eat straw_.' God
+help that country, thought I, be it England, or elsewhere, whose
+liberties are to be protected by _German principles of government and
+princes of Brunswick_!"
+
+"It is somewhat curious to observe, that, although the people of England
+have been in the habit of talking about kings, it is always a foreign
+house of kings,--hating foreigners, yet governed by them. It is now the
+House of Brunswick, one of the petty tribes of Germany."
+
+"If government be what Mr. Burke describes it, 'a contrivance of human
+wisdom,' I might ask him if wisdom was at such a low ebb in England that
+it was become necessary to import it from Holland and from Hanover? But
+I will do the country the justice to say, that was not the case; and
+even if it was, it mistook the cargo. The wisdom of every country, when
+properly exerted, is sufficient for all its purposes; _and there could
+exist no more real occasion in England to have sent for a Dutch
+Stadtholder or a German Elector_ than there was in America to have done
+a similar thing. If a country does not understand its own affairs, how
+is a foreigner to understand them, who knows neither its laws, its
+manners, nor its language? If there existed a man so transcendently wise
+above all others that his wisdom was necessary to instruct a nation,
+some reason might be offered for monarchy; but when we cast our eyes
+about a country, and observe how every part understands its own
+affairs, and when we look around the world, and see, that, of all men in
+it, the race of kings are the most insignificant in capacity, our reason
+cannot fail to ask us, What are those men kept for?"[20]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These are the notions which, under the idea of Whig principles, several
+persons, and among them persons of no mean mark, have associated
+themselves to propagate. I will not attempt in the smallest degree to
+refute them. This will probably be done (if such writings shall be
+thought to deserve any other than the refutation of criminal justice) by
+others, who may think with Mr. Burke. He has performed his part.
+
+I do not wish to enter very much at large into the discussions which
+diverge and ramify in all ways from this productive subject. But there
+is one topic upon which I hope I shall be excused in going a little
+beyond my design. The factions now so busy amongst us, in order to
+divest men of all love for their country, and to remove from their minds
+all duty with regard to the state, endeavor to propagate an opinion,
+that the _people_, in forming their commonwealth, have by no means
+parted with their power over it. This is an impregnable citadel, to
+which these gentlemen retreat, whenever they are pushed by the battery
+of laws and usages and positive conventions. Indeed, it is such, and of
+so great force, that all they have done in defending their outworks is
+so much time and labor thrown away. Discuss any of their schemes, their
+answer is, It is the act of the _people_, and that is sufficient. Are
+we to deny to a _majority_ of the people the right of altering even the
+whole frame of their society, if such should be their pleasure? They may
+change it, say they, from a monarchy to a republic to-day, and to-morrow
+back again from a republic to a monarchy; and so backward and forward as
+often as they like. They are masters of the commonwealth, because in
+substance they are themselves the commonwealth. The French Revolution,
+say they, was the act of the majority of the people; and if the majority
+of any other people, the people of England, for instance, wish to make
+the same change, they have the same right.
+
+Just the same, undoubtedly. That is, none at all. Neither the few nor
+the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter
+connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation. The Constitution
+of a country being once settled upon some compact, tacit or expressed,
+there is no power existing of force to alter it, without the breach of
+the covenant, or the consent of all the parties. Such is the nature of a
+contract. And the votes of a majority of the people, whatever their
+infamous flatterers may teach in order to corrupt their minds, cannot
+alter the moral any more than they can alter the physical essence of
+things. The people are not to be taught to think lightly of their
+engagements to their governors; else they teach governors to think
+lightly of their engagements towards them. In that kind of game, in the
+end, the people are sure to be losers. To flatter them into a contempt
+of faith, truth, and justice is to ruin them; for in these virtues
+consists their whole safety. To flatter any man, or any part of mankind,
+in any description, by asserting that in engagements he or they are
+free, whilst any other human creature is bound, is ultimately to vest
+the rule of morality in the pleasure of those who ought to be rigidly
+submitted to it,--to subject the sovereign reason of the world to the
+caprices of weak and giddy men.
+
+But, as no one of us men can dispense with public or private faith, or
+with any other tie of moral obligation, so neither can any number of us.
+The number engaged in crimes, instead of turning them into laudable
+acts, only augments the quantity and intensity of the guilt. I am well
+aware that men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme
+disrelish to be told of their duty. This is of course; because every
+duty is a limitation of some power. Indeed, arbitrary power is so much
+to the depraved taste of the vulgar, of the vulgar of every description,
+that almost all the dissensions which lacerate the commonwealth are not
+concerning the manner in which it is to be exercised, but concerning the
+hands in which it is to be placed. Somewhere they are resolved to have
+it. Whether they desire it to be vested in the many or the few depends
+with most men upon the chance which they imagine they themselves may
+have of partaking in the exercise of that arbitrary sway, in the one
+mode or in the other.
+
+It is not necessary to teach men to thirst after power. But it is very
+expedient that by moral instruction they should be taught, and by their
+civil constitutions they should be compelled, to put many restrictions
+upon the immoderate exercise of it, and the inordinate desire. The best
+method of obtaining these two great points forms the important, but at
+the same time the difficult problem to the true statesman. He thinks of
+the place in which political power is to be lodged with no other
+attention than as it may render the more or the less practicable its
+salutary restraint and its prudent direction. For this reason, no
+legislator, at any period of the world, has willingly placed the seat of
+active power in the hands of the multitude; because there it admits of
+no control, no regulation, no steady direction whatsoever. The people
+are the natural control on authority; but to exercise and to control
+together is contradictory and impossible.
+
+As the exorbitant exercise of power cannot, under popular sway, be
+effectually restrained, the other great object of political arrangement,
+the means of abating an excessive desire of it, is in such a state still
+worse provided for. The democratic commonwealth is the foodful nurse of
+ambition. Under the other forms it meets with many restraints. Whenever,
+in states which have had a democratic basis, the legislators have
+endeavored to put restraints upon ambition, their methods were as
+violent as in the end they were ineffectual,--as violent, indeed, as any
+the most jealous despotism could invent. The ostracism could not very
+long save itself, and much less the state which it was meant to guard,
+from the attempts of ambition,--one of the natural, inbred, incurable
+distempers of a powerful democracy.
+
+But to return from this short digression,--which, however, is not wholly
+foreign to the question of the effect of the will of the majority upon
+the form or the existence of their society. I cannot too often recommend
+it to the serious consideration of all men who think civil society to be
+within the province of moral jurisdiction, that, if we owe to it any
+duty, it is not subject to our will. Duties are not voluntary. Duty and
+will are even contradictory terms. Now, though civil society might be at
+first a voluntary act, (which in many cases it undoubtedly was,) its
+continuance is under a permanent standing covenant, coexisting with the
+society; and it attaches upon every individual of that society, without
+any formal act of his own. This is warranted by the general practice,
+arising out of the general sense of mankind. Men without their choice
+derive benefits from that association; without their choice they are
+subjected to duties in consequence of these benefits; and without their
+choice they enter into a virtual obligation as binding as any that is
+actual. Look through the whole of life and the whole system of duties.
+Much the strongest moral obligations are such as were never the results
+of our option. I allow, that, if no Supreme Ruler exists, wise to form,
+and potent to enforce, the moral law, there is no sanction to any
+contract, virtual or even actual, against the will of prevalent power.
+On that hypothesis, let any set of men be strong enough to set their
+duties at defiance, and they cease to be duties any longer. We have but
+this one appeal against irresistible power,--
+
+    Si genus humanum et mortalia temnitis arma,
+    At sperate Deos memores fandi atque nefandi.
+
+Taking it for granted that I do not write to the disciples of the
+Parisian philosophy, I may assume that the awful Author of our being is
+the Author of our place in the order of existence,--and that, having
+disposed and marshalled us by a divine tactic, not according to our
+will, but according to His, He has in and by that disposition virtually
+subjected us to act the part which belongs to the place assigned us. We
+have obligations to mankind at large, which are not in consequence of
+any special voluntary pact. They arise from the relation of man to man,
+and the relation of man to God, which relations are not matters of
+choice. On the contrary, the force of all the pacts which we enter into
+with any particular person or number of persons amongst mankind depends
+upon those prior obligations. In some cases the subordinate relations
+are voluntary, in others they are necessary,--but the duties are all
+compulsive. When we marry, the choice is voluntary, but the duties are
+not matter of choice: they are dictated by the nature of the situation.
+Dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come into the world. The
+instincts which give rise to this mysterious process of Nature are not
+of our making. But out of physical causes, unknown to us, perhaps
+unknowable, arise moral duties, which, as we are able perfectly to
+comprehend, we are bound indispensably to perform. Parents may not be
+consenting to their moral relation; but, consenting or not, they are
+bound to a long train of burdensome duties towards those with whom they
+have never made a convention of any sort. Children are not consenting to
+their relation; but their relation, without their actual consent, binds
+them to its duties,--or rather it implies their consent, because the
+presumed consent of every rational creature is in unison with the
+predisposed order of things. Men come in that manner into a community
+with the social state of their parents, endowed with all the benefits,
+loaded with all the duties of their situation. If the social ties and
+ligaments, spun out of those physical relations which are the elements
+of the commonwealth, in most cases begin, and always continue,
+independently of our will, so, without any stipulation on our own part,
+are we bound by that relation called our country, which comprehends (as
+it has been well said) "all the charities of all."[21] Nor are we left
+without powerful instincts to make this duty as dear and grateful to us
+as it is awful and coercive. Our country is not a thing of mere physical
+locality. It consists, in a great measure, in the ancient order into
+which we are born. We may have the same geographical situation, but
+another country; as we may have the same country in another soil. The
+place that determines our duty to our country is a social, civil
+relation.
+
+These are the opinions of the author whose cause I defend. I lay them
+down, not to enforce them upon others by disputation, but as an account
+of his proceedings. On them he acts; and from them he is convinced that
+neither he, nor any man, or number of men, have a right (except what
+necessity, which is out of and above all rule, rather imposes than
+bestows) to free themselves from that primary engagement into which
+every man born into a community as much contracts by his being born into
+it as he contracts an obligation to certain parents by his having been
+derived from their bodies. The place of every man determines his duty.
+If you ask, _Quem te Deus esse jussit_? you will be answered when you
+resolve this other question, _Humana qua parte locatus es in re_?[22]
+
+I admit, indeed, that in morals, as in all things else, difficulties
+will sometimes occur. Duties will sometimes cross one another. Then
+questions will arise, which of them is to be placed in subordination?
+which of them may be entirely superseded? These doubts give rise to that
+part of moral science called _casuistry_, which though necessary to be
+well studied by those who would become expert in that learning, who aim
+at becoming what I think Cicero somewhere calls _artifices officiorum_,
+it requires a very solid and discriminating judgment, great modesty and
+caution, and much sobriety of mind in the handling; else there is a
+danger that it may totally subvert those offices which it is its object
+only to methodize and reconcile. Duties, at their extreme bounds, are
+drawn very fine, so as to become almost evanescent. In that state some
+shade of doubt will always rest on these questions, when they are
+pursued with great subtilty. But the very habit of stating these extreme
+cases is not very laudable or safe; because, in general, it is not right
+to turn our duties into doubts. They are imposed to govern our conduct,
+not to exercise our ingenuity; and therefore our opinions about them
+ought not to be in a state of fluctuation, but steady, sure, and
+resolved.
+
+Amongst these nice, and therefore dangerous points of casuistry, may be
+reckoned the question so much agitated in the present hour,--Whether,
+after the people have discharged themselves of their original power by
+an habitual delegation, no occasion can possibly occur which may
+justify the resumption of it? This question, in this latitude, is very
+hard to affirm or deny: but I am satisfied that no occasion can justify
+such a resumption, which would not equally authorize a dispensation with
+any other moral duty, perhaps with all of them together. However, if in
+general it be not easy to determine concerning the lawfulness of such
+devious proceedings, which must be ever on the edge of crimes, it is far
+from difficult to foresee the perilous consequences of the resuscitation
+of such a power in the people. The practical consequences of any
+political tenet go a great way in deciding upon its value. Political
+problems do not primarily concern truth or falsehood. They relate to
+good or evil. What in the result is likely to produce evil is
+politically false; that which is productive of good, politically true.
+
+Believing it, therefore, a question at least arduous in the theory, and
+in the practice very critical, it would become us to ascertain as well
+as we can what form it is that our incantations are about to call up
+from darkness and the sleep of ages. When the supreme authority of the
+people is in question, before we attempt to extend or to confine it, we
+ought to fix in our minds, with some degree of distinctness, an idea of
+what it is we mean, when we say, the PEOPLE.
+
+In a state of _rude_ Nature there is no such thing as a people. A number
+of men in themselves have no collective capacity. The idea of a people
+is the idea of a corporation. It is wholly artificial, and made, like
+all other legal fictions, by common agreement. What the particular
+nature of that agreement was is collected from the form into which the
+particular society has been cast. Any other is not _their_ covenant.
+When men, therefore, break up the original compact or agreement which
+gives its corporate form and capacity to a state, they are no longer a
+people,--they have no longer a corporate existence,--they have no longer
+a legal coactive force to bind within, nor a claim to be recognized
+abroad. They are a number of vague, loose individuals, and nothing more.
+With them all is to begin again. Alas! they little know how many a weary
+step is to be taken before they can form themselves into a mass which
+has a true politic personality.
+
+We hear much, from men who have not acquired their hardiness of
+assertion from the profundity of their thinking, about the omnipotence
+of a _majority_, in such a dissolution of an ancient society as hath
+taken place in France. But amongst men so disbanded there can be no such
+thing as majority or minority, or power in any one person to bind
+another. The power of acting by a majority, which the gentlemen
+theorists seem to assume so readily, after they have violated the
+contract out of which it has arisen, (if at all it existed,) must be
+grounded on two assumptions: first, that of an incorporation produced by
+unanimity; and secondly, an unanimous agreement that the act of a mere
+majority (say of one) shall pass with them and with others as the act of
+the whole.
+
+We are so little affected by things which are habitual, that we consider
+this idea of the decision of a _majority_ as if it were a law of our
+original nature. But such constructive whole, residing in a part only,
+is one of the most violent fictions of positive law that ever has been
+or can be made on the principles of artificial incorporation. Out of
+civil society Nature knows nothing of it; nor are men, even when
+arranged according to civil order, otherwise than by very long training,
+brought at all to submit to it. The mind is brought far more easily to
+acquiesce in the proceedings of one man, or a few, who act under a
+general procuration for the state, than in the vote of a victorious
+majority in councils in which every man has his share in the
+deliberation. For there the beaten party are exasperated and soured by
+the previous contention, and mortified by the conclusive defeat. This
+mode of decision, where wills may be so nearly equal, where, according
+to circumstances, the smaller number may be the stronger force, and
+where apparent reason may be all upon one side, and on the other little
+else than impetuous appetite,--all this must be the result of a very
+particular and special convention, confirmed afterwards by long habits
+of obedience, by a sort of discipline in society, and by a strong hand,
+vested with stationary, permanent power to enforce this sort of
+constructive general will. What organ it is that shall declare the
+corporate mind is so much a matter of positive arrangement, that several
+states, for the validity of several of their acts, have required a
+proportion of voices much greater than that of a mere majority. These
+proportions are so entirely governed by convention that in some cases
+the minority decides. The laws in many countries to _condemn_ require
+more than a mere majority; less than an equal number to _acquit_. In our
+judicial trials we require unanimity either to condemn or to absolve. In
+some incorporations one man speaks for the whole; in others, a few.
+Until the other day, in the Constitution of Poland unanimity was
+required to give validity to any act of their great national council or
+diet. This approaches much more nearly to rude Nature than the
+institutions of any other country. Such, indeed, every commonwealth must
+be, without a positive law to recognize in a certain number the will of
+the entire body.
+
+If men dissolve their ancient incorporation in order to regenerate their
+community, in that state of things each man has a right, if he pleases,
+to remain an individual. Any number of individuals, who can agree upon
+it, have an undoubted right to form themselves into a state apart and
+wholly independent. If any of these is forced into the fellowship of
+another, this is conquest and not compact. On every principle which
+supposes society to be in virtue of a free covenant, this compulsive
+incorporation must be null and void.
+
+As a people can have no right to a corporate capacity without universal
+consent, so neither have they a right to hold exclusively any lands in
+the name and title of a corporation. On the scheme of the present rulers
+in our neighboring country, regenerated as they are, they have no more
+right to the territory called France than I have. I have a right to
+pitch my tent in any unoccupied place I can find for it; and I may apply
+to my own maintenance any part of their unoccupied soil. I may purchase
+the house or vineyard of any individual proprietor who refuses his
+consent (and most proprietors have, as far as they dared, refused it) to
+the new incorporation. I stand in his independent place. Who are these
+insolent men, calling themselves the French nation, that would
+monopolize this fair domain of Nature? Is it because they speak a
+certain jargon? Is it their mode of chattering, to me unintelligible,
+that forms their title to my land? Who are they who claim by
+prescription and descent from certain gangs of banditti called Franks,
+and Burgundians, and Visigoths, of whom I may have never heard, and
+ninety-nine out of an hundred of themselves certainly never have heard,
+whilst at the very time they tell me that prescription and long
+possession form no title to property? Who are they that presume to
+assert that the land which I purchased of the individual, a natural
+person, and not a fiction of state, belongs to them, who in the very
+capacity in which they make their claim can exist only as an imaginary
+being, and in virtue of the very prescription which they reject and
+disown? This mode of arguing might be pushed into all the detail, so as
+to leave no sort of doubt, that, on their principles, and on the sort of
+footing on which they have thought proper to place themselves, the crowd
+of men, on the other side of the Channel, who have the impudence to call
+themselves a people, can never be the lawful, exclusive possessors of
+the soil. By what they call reasoning without prejudice, they leave not
+one stone upon another in the fabric of human society. They subvert all
+the authority which they hold, as well as all that which they have
+destroyed.
+
+As in the abstract it is perfectly clear, that, out of a state of civil
+society, majority and minority are relations which can have no
+existence, and that, in civil society, its own specific conventions in
+each corporation determine what it is that constitutes the people, so as
+to make their act the signification of the general will,--to come to
+particulars, it is equally clear that neither in France nor in England
+has the original or any subsequent compact of the state, expressed or
+implied, constituted _a majority of men, told by the head_, to be the
+acting people of their several communities. And I see as little of
+policy or utility as there is of right, in laying down a principle that
+a majority of men told by the head are to be considered as the people,
+and that as such their will is to be law. What policy can there be found
+in arrangements made in defiance of every political principle? To enable
+men to act with the weight and character of a people, and to answer the
+ends for which they are incorporated into that capacity, we must suppose
+them (by means immediate or consequential) to be in that state of
+habitual social discipline in which the wiser, the more expert, and the
+more opulent conduct, and by conducting enlighten and protect, the
+weaker, the less knowing, and the less provided with the goods of
+fortune. When the multitude are not under this discipline, they can
+scarcely be said to be in civil society. Give once a certain
+constitution of things which produces a variety of conditions and
+circumstances in a state, and there is in Nature and reason a principle
+which, for their own benefit, postpones, not the interest, but the
+judgment, of those who are _numero plures_, to those who are _virtute et
+honore majores_. Numbers in a state (supposing, which is not the case in
+France, that a state does exist) are always of consideration,--but they
+are not the whole consideration. It is in things more serious than a
+play, that it may be truly said, _Satis est equitem mihi plaudere_.
+
+A true natural aristocracy is not a separate interest in the state, or
+separable from it. It is an essential integrant part of any large body
+rightly constituted. It is formed out of a class of legitimate
+presumptions, which, taken as generalities, must be admitted for actual
+truths. To be bred in a place of estimation; to see nothing low and
+sordid from one's infancy; to be taught to respect one's self; to be
+habituated to the censorial inspection of the public eye; to look early
+to public opinion; to stand upon such elevated ground as to be enabled
+to take a large view of the wide-spread and infinitely diversified
+combinations of men and affairs in a large society; to have leisure to
+read, to reflect, to converse; to be enabled to draw the court and
+attention of the wise and learned, wherever they are to be found; to be
+habituated in armies to command and to obey; to be taught to despise
+danger in the pursuit of honor and duty; to be formed to the greatest
+degree of vigilance, foresight, and circumspection, in a state of things
+in which no fault is committed with impunity and the slightest mistakes
+draw on the most ruinous consequences; to be led to a guarded and
+regulated conduct, from a sense that you are considered as an instructor
+of your fellow-citizens in their highest concerns, and that you act as a
+reconciler between God and man; to be employed as an administrator of
+law and justice, and to be thereby amongst the first benefactors to
+mankind; to be a professor of high science, or of liberal and ingenuous
+art; to be amongst rich traders, who from their success are presumed to
+have sharp and vigorous understandings, and to possess the virtues of
+diligence, order, constancy, and regularity, and to have cultivated an
+habitual regard to commutative justice: these are the circumstances of
+men that form what I should call a _natural_ aristocracy, without which
+there is no nation.
+
+The state of civil society which necessarily generates this aristocracy
+is a state of Nature,--and much more truly so than a savage and
+incoherent mode of life. For man is by nature reasonable; and he is
+never perfectly in his natural state, but when he is placed where reason
+may be best cultivated and most predominates. Art is man's nature. We
+are as much, at least, in a state of Nature in formed manhood as in
+immature and helpless infancy. Men, qualified in the manner I have just
+described, form in Nature, as she operates in the common modification of
+society, the leading, guiding, and governing part. It is the soul to the
+body, without which the man does not exist. To give, therefore, no more
+importance, in the social order, to such descriptions of men than that
+of so many units is a horrible usurpation.
+
+When great multitudes act together, under that discipline of Nature, I
+recognize the PEOPLE. I acknowledge something that perhaps equals, and
+ought always to guide, the sovereignty of convention. In all things the
+voice of this grand chorus of national harmony ought to have a mighty
+and decisive influence. But when you disturb this harmony,--when you
+break up this beautiful order, this array of truth and Nature, as well
+as of habit and prejudice,--when you separate the common sort of men
+from their proper chieftains, so as to form them into an adverse
+army,--I no longer know that venerable object called the people in such
+a disbanded race of deserters and vagabonds. For a while they may be
+terrible, indeed,--but in such a manner as wild beasts are terrible. The
+mind owes to them no sort of submission. They are, as they have always
+been reputed, rebels. They may lawfully be fought with, and brought
+under, whenever an advantage offers. Those who attempt by outrage and
+violence to deprive men of any advantage which they hold under the
+laws, and to destroy the natural order of life, proclaim war against
+them.
+
+We have read in history of that furious insurrection of the common
+people in France called the _Jacquerie_: for this is not the first time
+that the people have been enlightened into treason, murder, and rapine.
+Its object was to extirpate the gentry. The Captal de Buch, a famous
+soldier of those days, dishonored the name of a gentleman and of a man
+by taking, for their cruelties, a cruel vengeance on these deluded
+wretches: it was, however, his right and his duty to make war upon them,
+and afterwards, in moderation, to bring them to punishment for their
+rebellion; though in the sense of the French Revolution, and of some of
+our clubs, they were the _people_,--and were truly so, if you will call
+by that appellation _any majority of men told by the head_.
+
+At a time not very remote from the same period (for these humors never
+have affected one of the nations without some influence on the other)
+happened several risings of the lower commons in England. These
+insurgents were certainly the majority of the inhabitants of the
+counties in which they resided; and Cade, Ket, and Straw, at the head of
+their national guards, and fomented by certain traitors of high rank,
+did no more than exert, according to the doctrines of ours and the
+Parisian societies, the sovereign power inherent in the majority.
+
+We call the time of those events a dark age. Indeed, we are too
+indulgent to our own proficiency. The Abbé John Ball understood the
+rights of man as well as the Abbé Grégoire. That reverend patriarch of
+sedition, and prototype of our modern preachers, was of opinion, with
+the National Assembly, that all the evils which have fallen upon men had
+been caused by an ignorance of their "having been born and continued
+equal as to their rights." Had the populace been able to repeat that
+profound maxim, all would have gone perfectly well with them. No
+tyranny, no vexation, no oppression, no care, no sorrow, could have
+existed in the world. This would have cured them like a charm for the
+tooth-ache. But the lowest wretches, in their most ignorant state, were
+able at all times to talk such stuff; and yet at all times have they
+suffered many evils and many oppressions, both before and since the
+republication by the National Assembly of this spell of healing potency
+and virtue. The enlightened Dr. Ball, when he wished to rekindle the
+lights and fires of his audience on this point, chose for the test the
+following couplet:--
+
+    When Adam delved and Eve span,
+    Who was then the gentleman?
+
+Of this sapient maxim, however, I do not give him for the inventor. It
+seems to have been handed down by tradition, and had certainly become
+proverbial; but whether then composed or only applied, thus much must be
+admitted, that in learning, sense, energy, and comprehensiveness, it is
+fully equal to all the modern dissertations on the equality of mankind:
+and it has one advantage over them,--that it is in rhyme.[23]
+
+There is no doubt but that this great teacher of the rights of man
+decorated his discourse on this valuable text with lemmas, theorems,
+scholia, corollaries, and all the apparatus of science, which was
+furnished in as great plenty and perfection out of the dogmatic and
+polemic magazines, the old horse-armory of the Schoolmen, among whom the
+Rev. Dr. Ball was bred, as they can be supplied from the new arsenal at
+Hackney. It was, no doubt, disposed with all the adjutancy of
+definition and division, in which (I speak it with submission) the old
+marshals were as able as the modern martinets. Neither can we deny that
+the philosophic auditory, when they had once obtained this knowledge,
+could never return to their former ignorance, or after so instructive a
+lecture be in the same state of mind as if they had never heard it.[24]
+But these poor people, who were not to be envied for their knowledge,
+but pitied for their delusion, were not reasoned, (that was impossible,)
+but beaten, out of their lights. With their teacher they were delivered
+over to the lawyers, who wrote in their blood the statutes of the land,
+as harshly, and in the same sort of ink, as they and their teachers had
+written the rights of man.
+
+Our doctors of the day are not so fond of quoting the opinions of this
+ancient sage as they are of imitating his conduct: first, because it
+might appear that they are not as great inventors as they would be
+thought; and next, because, unfortunately for his fame, he was not
+successful. It is a remark liable to as few exceptions as any generality
+can be, that they who applaud prosperous folly and adore triumphant
+guilt have never been known to succor or even to pity human weakness or
+offence, when they become subject to human vicissitude, and meet with
+punishment instead of obtaining power. Abating for their want of
+sensibility to the sufferings of their associates, they are not so much
+in the wrong; for madness and wickedness are things foul and deformed in
+themselves, and stand in need of all the coverings and trappings of
+fortune to recommend them to the multitude. Nothing can be more
+loathsome in their naked nature.
+
+Aberrations like these, whether ancient or modern, unsuccessful or
+prosperous, are things of passage. They furnish no argument for
+supposing _a multitude told by the head to be the people_. Such a
+multitude can have no sort of title to alter the seat of power in the
+society, in which it ever ought to be the obedient, and not the ruling
+or presiding part. What power may belong to the whole mass, in which
+mass the natural _aristocracy_, or what by convention is appointed to
+represent and strengthen it, acts in its proper place, with its proper
+weight, and without being subjected to violence, is a deeper question.
+But in that case, and with that concurrence, I should have much doubt
+whether any rash or desperate changes in the state, such as we have seen
+in France, could ever be effected.
+
+I have said that in all political questions the consequences of any
+assumed rights are of great moment in deciding upon their validity. In
+this point of view let us a little scrutinize the effects of a right in
+the mere majority of the inhabitants of any country of superseding and
+altering their government _at pleasure_.
+
+The sum total of every people is composed of its units. Every individual
+must have a right to originate what afterwards is to become the act of
+the majority. Whatever he may lawfully originate he may lawfully
+endeavor to accomplish. He has a right, therefore, in his own
+particular, to break the ties and engagements which bind him to the
+country in which he lives; and he has a right to make as many converts
+to his opinions, and to obtain as many associates in his designs, as he
+can procure: for how can you know the dispositions of the majority to
+destroy their government, but by tampering with some part of the body?
+You must begin by a secret conspiracy, that you may end with a national
+confederation. The mere pleasure of the beginner must be the sole guide;
+since the mere pleasure of others must be the sole ultimate sanction, as
+well as the sole actuating principle in every part of the progress.
+Thus, arbitrary will (the last corruption of ruling power) step by step
+poisons the heart of every citizen. If the undertaker fails, he has the
+misfortune of a rebel, but not the guilt. By such doctrines, all love to
+our country, all pious veneration and attachment to its laws and
+customs, are obliterated from our minds; and nothing can result from
+this opinion, when grown into a principle, and animated by discontent,
+ambition, or enthusiasm, but a series of conspiracies and seditions,
+sometimes ruinous to their authors, always noxious to the state. No
+sense of duty can prevent any man from being a leader or a follower in
+such enterprises. Nothing restrains the tempter; nothing guards the
+tempted. Nor is the new state, fabricated by such arts, safer than the
+old. What can prevent the mere will of any person, who hopes to unite
+the wills of others to his own, from an attempt wholly to overturn it?
+It wants nothing but a disposition to trouble the established order, to
+give a title to the enterprise.
+
+When you combine this principle of the right to change a fixed and
+tolerable constitution of things at pleasure with the theory and
+practice of the French Assembly, the political, civil, and moral
+irregularity are, if possible, aggravated. The Assembly have found
+another road, and a far more commodious, to the destruction of an old
+government, and the legitimate formation of a new one, than through the
+previous will of the majority of what they call the people. Get, say
+they, the possession of power by any means you can into your hands; and
+then, a subsequent consent (what they call an _address of adhesion_)
+makes your authority as much the act of the people as if they had
+conferred upon you originally that kind and degree of power which
+without their permission you had seized upon. This is to give a direct
+sanction to fraud, hypocrisy, perjury, and the breach of the most sacred
+trusts that can exist between man and man. What can sound with such
+horrid discordance in the moral ear as this position,--that a delegate
+with limited powers may break his sworn engagements to his constituent,
+assume an authority, never committed to him, to alter all things at his
+pleasure, and then, if he can persuade a large number of men to flatter
+him in the power he has usurped, that he is absolved in his own
+conscience, and ought to stand acquitted in the eyes of mankind? On this
+scheme, the maker of the experiment must begin with a determined
+perjury. That point is certain. He must take his chance for the
+expiatory addresses. This is to make the success of villany the
+standard of innocence.
+
+Without drawing on, therefore, very shocking consequences, neither by
+previous consent, nor by subsequent ratification of a _mere reckoned
+majority_, can any set of men attempt to dissolve the state at their
+pleasure. To apply this to our present subject. When the several orders,
+in their several bailliages, had met in the year 1789, (such of them, I
+mean, as had met peaceably and constitutionally,) to choose and to
+instruct their representatives, so organized and so acting, (because
+they were organized and were acting according to the conventions which
+made them a people,) they were the _people_ of France. They had a legal
+and a natural capacity to be considered as that people. But observe,
+whilst they were in this state, that is, whilst they were a people, in
+no one of their instructions did they charge or even hint at any of
+those things which have drawn upon the usurping Assembly and their
+adherents the detestation of the rational and thinking part of mankind.
+I will venture to affirm, without the least apprehension of being
+contradicted by any person who knows the then state of France, that, if
+any one of the changes were proposed, which form the fundamental parts
+of their Revolution, and compose its most distinguishing acts, it would
+not have had one vote in twenty thousand in any order. Their
+instructions purported the direct contrary to all those famous
+proceedings which are defended as the acts of the people. Had such
+proceedings been expected, the great probability is, that the people
+would then have risen, as to a man, to prevent them. The whole
+organization of the Assembly was altered, the whole frame of the
+kingdom was changed, before these things could be done. It is long to
+tell, by what evil arts of the conspirators, and by what extreme
+weakness and want of steadiness in the lawful government, this equal
+usurpation on the rights of the prince and people, having first cheated,
+and then offered violence to both, has been able to triumph, and to
+employ with success the forged signature of an imprisoned sovereign, and
+the spurious voice of dictated addresses, to a subsequent ratification
+of things that had never received any previous sanction, general or
+particular, expressed or implied, from the nation, (in whatever sense
+that word is taken,) or from any part of it.
+
+After the weighty and respectable part of the people had been murdered,
+or driven by the menaces of murder from their houses, or were dispersed
+in exile into every country in Europe,--after the soldiery had been
+debauched from their officers,--after property had lost its weight and
+consideration, along with its security,--after voluntary clubs and
+associations of factious and unprincipled men were substituted in the
+place of all the legal corporations of the kingdom arbitrarily
+dissolved,--after freedom had been banished from those popular
+meetings[25] whose sole recommendation is freedom,--after it had come to
+that pass that no dissent dared to appear in any of them, but at the
+certain price of life,--after even dissent had been anticipated, and
+assassination became as quick as suspicion,--such pretended ratification
+by addresses could be no act of what any lover of the people would
+choose to call by their name. It is that voice which every successful
+usurpation, as well as this before us, may easily procure, even without
+making (as these tyrants have made) donatives from the spoil of one part
+of the citizens to corrupt the other.
+
+The pretended _rights of man_, which have made this havoc, cannot be the
+rights of the people. For to be a people, and to have these rights, are
+things incompatible. The one supposes the presence, the other the
+absence, of a state of civil society. The very foundation of the French
+commonwealth is false and self-destructive; nor can its principles be
+adopted in any country, without the certainty of bringing it to the very
+same condition in which France is found. Attempts are made to introduce
+them into every nation in Europe. This nation, as possessing the
+greatest influence, they wish most to corrupt, as by that means they are
+assured the contagion must become general. I hope, therefore, I shall be
+excused, if I endeavor to show, as shortly as the matter will admit, the
+danger of giving to them, either avowedly or tacitly, the smallest
+countenance.
+
+There are times and circumstances in which not to speak out is at least
+to connive. Many think it enough for them, that the principles
+propagated by these clubs and societies, enemies to their country and
+its Constitution, are not owned by the _modern Whigs in Parliament_, who
+are so warm in condemnation of Mr. Burke and his book, and of course of
+all the principles of the ancient, constitutional Whigs of this kingdom.
+Certainly they are not owned. But are they condemned with the same zeal
+as Mr. Burke and his book are condemned? Are they condemned at all? Are
+they rejected or discountenanced in any way whatsoever? Is any man who
+would fairly examine into the demeanor and principles of those
+societies, and that too very moderately, and in the way rather of
+admonition than of punishment, is such a man even decently treated? Is
+he not reproached as if in condemning such principles he had belied the
+conduct of his whole life, suggesting that his life had been governed by
+principles similar to those which he now reprobates? The French system
+is in the mean time, by many active agents out of doors, rapturously
+praised; the British Constitution is coldly tolerated. But these
+Constitutions are different both in the foundation and in the whole
+superstructure; and it is plain that you cannot build up the one but on
+the ruins of the other. After all, if the French be a superior system of
+liberty, why should we not adopt it? To what end are our praises? Is
+excellence held out to us only that we should not copy after it? And
+what is there in the manners of the people, or in the climate of France,
+which renders that species of republic fitted for them, and unsuitable
+to us? A strong and marked difference between the two nations ought to
+be shown, before we can admit a constant, affected panegyric, a
+standing, annual commemoration, to be without any tendency to an
+example.
+
+But the leaders of party will not go the length of the doctrines taught
+by the seditious clubs. I am sure they do not mean to do so. God forbid!
+Perhaps even those who are directly carrying on the work of this
+pernicious foreign faction do not all of them intend to produce all the
+mischiefs which must inevitably follow from their having any success in
+their proceedings. As to leaders in parties, nothing is more common than
+to see them blindly led. The world is governed by go-betweens. These
+go-betweens influence the persons with whom they carry on the
+intercourse, by stating their own sense to each of them as the sense of
+the other; and thus they reciprocally master both sides. It is first
+buzzed about the ears of leaders, "that their friends without doors are
+very eager for some measure, or very warm about some opinion,--that you
+must not be too rigid with them. They are useful persons, and zealous in
+the cause. They may be a little wrong, but the spirit of liberty must
+not be damped; and by the influence you obtain from some degree of
+concurrence with them at present, you may be enabled to set them right
+hereafter."
+
+Thus the leaders are at first drawn to a connivance with sentiments and
+proceedings often totally different from their serious and deliberate
+notions. But their acquiescence answers every purpose.
+
+With no better than such powers, the go-betweens assume a new
+representative character. What at best was but an acquiescence is
+magnified into an authority, and thence into a desire on the part of the
+leaders; and it is carried down as such to the subordinate members of
+parties. By this artifice they in their turn are led into measures which
+at first, perhaps, few of them wished at all, or at least did not desire
+vehemently or systematically.
+
+There is in all parties, between the principal leaders in Parliament and
+the lowest followers out of doors, a middle sort of men, a sort of
+equestrian order, who, by the spirit of that middle situation, are the
+fittest for preventing things from running to excess. But indecision,
+though a vice of a totally different character, is the natural
+accomplice of violence. The irresolution and timidity of those who
+compose this middle order often prevents the effect of their
+controlling situation. The fear of differing with the authority of
+leaders on the one hand, and of contradicting the desires of the
+multitude on the other, induces them to give a careless and passive
+assent to measures in which they never were consulted; and thus things
+proceed, by a sort of activity of inertness, until whole bodies,
+leaders, middle-men, and followers, are all hurried, with every
+appearance and with many of the effects of unanimity, into schemes of
+politics, in the substance of which no two of them were ever fully
+agreed, and the origin and authors of which, in this circular mode of
+communication, none of them find it possible to trace. In my experience,
+I have seen much of this in affairs which, though trifling in comparison
+to the present, were yet of some importance to parties; and I have known
+them suffer by it. The sober part give their sanction, at first through
+inattention and levity; at last they give it through necessity. A
+violent spirit is raised, which the presiding minds after a time find it
+impracticable to stop at their pleasure, to control, to regulate, or
+even to direct.
+
+This shows, in my opinion, how very quick and awakened all men ought to
+be, who are looked up to by the public, and who deserve that confidence,
+to prevent a surprise on their opinions, when dogmas are spread and
+projects pursued by which the foundations of society may be affected.
+Before they listen even to moderate alterations in the government of
+their country, they ought to take care that principles are not
+propagated for that purpose which are too big for their object.
+Doctrines limited in their present application, and wide in their
+general principles, are never meant to be confined to what they at
+first pretend. If I were to form a prognostic of the effect of the
+present machinations on the people from their sense of any grievance
+they suffer under this Constitution, my mind would be at ease. But there
+is a wide difference between the multitude, when they act against their
+government from a sense of grievance or from zeal for some opinions.
+When men are thoroughly possessed with that zeal, it is difficult to
+calculate its force. It is certain that its power is by no means in
+exact proportion to its reasonableness. It must always have been
+discoverable by persons of reflection, but it is now obvious to the
+world, that a theory concerning government may become as much a cause of
+fanaticism as a dogma in religion. There is a boundary to men's
+passions, when they act from feeling; none when they are under the
+influence of imagination. Remove a grievance, and, when men act from
+feeling, you go a great way towards quieting a commotion. But the good
+or bad conduct of a government, the protection men have enjoyed or the
+oppression they have suffered under it, are of no sort of moment, when a
+faction, proceeding upon speculative grounds, is thoroughly heated
+against its form. When a man is from system furious against monarchy or
+episcopacy, the good conduct of the monarch or the bishop has no other
+effect than further to irritate the adversary. He is provoked at it as
+furnishing a plea for preserving the thing which he wishes to destroy.
+His mind will be heated as much by the sight of a sceptre, a mace, or a
+verge, as if he had been daily bruised and wounded by these symbols of
+authority. Mere spectacles, mere names, will become sufficient causes to
+stimulate the people to war and tumult.
+
+Some gentlemen are not terrified by the facility with which government
+has been overturned in France. "The people of France," they say, "had
+nothing to lose in the destruction of a bad Constitution; but, though
+not the best possible, we have still a good stake in ours, which will
+hinder us from desperate risks." Is this any security at all against
+those who seem to persuade themselves, and who labor to persuade others,
+that our Constitution is an usurpation in its origin, unwise in its
+contrivance, mischievous in its effects, contrary to the rights of man,
+and in all its parts a perfect nuisance? What motive has any rational
+man, who thinks in that manner, to spill his blood, or even to risk a
+shilling of his fortune, or to waste a moment of his leisure, to
+preserve it? If he has any duty relative to it, his duty is to destroy
+it. A Constitution on sufferance is a Constitution condemned. Sentence
+is already passed upon it. The execution is only delayed. On the
+principles of these gentlemen, it neither has nor ought to have any
+security. So far as regards them, it is left naked, without friends,
+partisans, assertors, or protectors.
+
+Let us examine into the value of this security upon the principles of
+those who are more sober,--of those who think, indeed, the French
+Constitution better, or at least as good as the British, without going
+to all the lengths of the warmer politicians in reprobating their own.
+Their security amounts in reality to nothing more than this,--that the
+difference between their republican system and the British limited
+monarchy is not worth a civil war. This opinion, I admit, will prevent
+people not very enterprising in their nature from an active undertaking
+against the British Constitution. But it is the poorest defensive
+principle that ever was infused into the mind of man against the
+attempts of those who will enterprise. It will tend totally to remove
+from their minds that very terror of a civil war which is held out as
+our sole security. They who think so well of the French Constitution
+certainly will not be the persons to carry on a war to prevent their
+obtaining a great benefit, or at worst a fair exchange. They will not go
+to battle in favor of a cause in which their defeat might be more
+advantageous to the public than their victory. They must at least
+tacitly abet those who endeavor to make converts to a sound opinion;
+they must discountenance those who would oppose its propagation. In
+proportion as by these means the enterprising party is strengthened, the
+dread of a struggle is lessened. See what an encouragement this is to
+the enemies of the Constitution! A few assassinations and a very great
+destruction of property we know they consider as no real obstacles in
+the way of a grand political change. And they will hope, that here, if
+antimonarchical opinions gain ground as they have done in France, they
+may, as in France, accomplish a revolution without a war.
+
+They who think so well of the French Constitution cannot be seriously
+alarmed by any progress made by its partisans. Provisions for security
+are not to be received from those who think that there is no danger. No!
+there is no plan of security to be listened to but from those who
+entertain the same fears with ourselves,--from those who think that the
+thing to be secured is a great blessing, and the thing against which we
+would secure it a great mischief. Every person of a different opinion
+must be careless about security.
+
+I believe the author of the Reflections, whether he fears the designs of
+that set of people with reason or not, cannot prevail on himself to
+despise them. He cannot despise them for their numbers, which, though
+small, compared with the sound part of the community, are not
+inconsiderable: he cannot look with contempt on their influence, their
+activity, or the kind of talents and tempers which they possess, exactly
+calculated for the work they have in hand and the minds they chiefly
+apply to. Do we not see their most considerable and accredited
+ministers, and several of their party of weight and importance, active
+in spreading mischievous opinions, in giving sanction to seditious
+writings, in promoting seditious anniversaries? and what part of their
+description has disowned them or their proceedings? When men,
+circumstanced as these are, publicly declare such admiration of a
+foreign Constitution, and such contempt of our own, it would be, in the
+author of the Reflections, thinking as he does of the French
+Constitution, infamously to cheat the rest of the nation to their ruin
+to say there is no danger.
+
+In estimating danger, we are obliged to take into our calculation the
+character and disposition of the enemy into whose hands we may chance to
+fall. The genius of this faction is easily discerned, by observing with
+what a very different eye they have viewed the late foreign revolutions.
+Two have passed before them: that of France, and that of Poland. The
+state of Poland was such, that there could scarcely exist two opinions,
+but that a reformation of its Constitution, even at some expense of
+blood, might be seen without much disapprobation. No confusion could be
+feared in such an enterprise; because the establishment to be reformed
+was itself a state of confusion. A king without authority; nobles
+without union or subordination; a people without arts, industry,
+commerce, or liberty; no order within, no defence without; no effective
+public force, but a foreign force, which entered, a naked country at
+will, and disposed of everything at pleasure. Here was a state of things
+which seemed to invite, and might perhaps justify, bold enterprise and
+desperate experiment. But in what manner was this chaos brought into
+order? The means were as striking to the imagination as satisfactory to
+the reason and soothing to the moral sentiments. In contemplating that
+change, humanity has everything to rejoice and to glory in,--nothing to
+be ashamed of, nothing to suffer. So far as it has gone, it probably is
+the most pure and defecated public good which ever has been conferred on
+mankind. We have seen anarchy and servitude at once removed; a throne
+strengthened for the protection of the people, without trenching on
+their liberties; all foreign cabal banished, by changing the crown from
+elective to hereditary; and what was a matter of pleasing wonder, we
+have seen a reigning king, from an heroic love to his country, exerting
+himself with all the toil, the dexterity, the management, the intrigue,
+in favor of a family of strangers, with which ambitious men labor for
+the aggrandizement of their own. Ten millions of men in a way of being
+freed gradually, and therefore safely to themselves and the state, not
+from civil or political chains, which, bad as they are, only fetter the
+mind, but from substantial personal bondage. Inhabitants of cities,
+before without privileges, placed in the consideration which belongs to
+that improved and connecting situation of social life. One of the most
+proud, numerous, and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known in
+the world arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous
+citizens. Not one man incurred loss or suffered degradation. All, from
+the king to the day-laborer, were improved in their condition.
+Everything was kept in its place and order; but in that place and order
+everything was bettered. To add to this happy wonder, this unheard-of
+conjunction of wisdom and fortune, not one drop of blood was spilled; no
+treachery; no outrage; no system of slander more cruel than the sword;
+no studied insults on religion, morals, or manners; no spoil; no
+confiscation; no citizen beggared; none imprisoned; none exiled: the
+whole was effected with a policy, a discretion, an unanimity and
+secrecy, such as have never been before known on any occasion; but such
+wonderful conduct was reserved for this glorious conspiracy in favor of
+the true and genuine rights and interests of men. Happy people, if they
+know to proceed as they have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin with
+splendor or to close with glory a race of patriots and of kings, and to
+leave
+
+    A name, which every wind to heaven would bear,
+    Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear!
+
+To finish all,--this great good, as in the instant it is, contains in it
+the seeds of all further improvement, and may be considered as in a
+regular progress, because founded on similar principles, towards the
+stable excellence of a British Constitution.
+
+Here was a matter for congratulation and for festive remembrance through
+ages. Here moralists and divines might indeed relax in their temperance,
+to exhilarate their humanity. But mark the character of our faction.
+All their enthusiasm is kept for the French Revolution. They cannot
+pretend that France had stood so much in need of a change as Poland.
+They cannot pretend that Poland has not obtained a better system of
+liberty or of government than it enjoyed before. They cannot assert that
+the Polish Revolution cost more dearly than that of France to the
+interests and feelings of multitudes of men. But the cold and
+subordinate light in which they look upon the one, and the pains they
+take to preach up the other of these Revolutions, leave us no choice in
+fixing on their motives. Both Revolutions profess liberty as their
+object; but in obtaining this object the one proceeds from anarchy to
+order, the other from order to anarchy. The first secures its liberty by
+establishing its throne; the other builds its freedom on the subversion
+of its monarchy. In the one, their means are unstained by crimes, and
+their settlement favors morality; in the other, vice and confusion are
+in the very essence of their pursuit, and of their enjoyment. The
+circumstances in which these two events differ must cause the difference
+we make in their comparative estimation. These turn the scale with the
+societies in favor of France. _Ferrum est quod amant_. The frauds, the
+violences, the sacrileges, the havoc and ruin of families, the
+dispersion and exile of the pride and flower of a great country, the
+disorder, the confusion, the anarchy, the violation of property, the
+cruel murders, the inhuman confiscations, and in the end the insolent
+domination of bloody, ferocious, and senseless clubs,--these are the
+things which they love and admire. What men admire and love they would
+surely act. Let us see what is done in France; and then let us
+undervalue any the slightest danger of falling into the hands of such a
+merciless and savage faction!
+
+"But the leaders of the factious societies are too wild to succeed in
+this their undertaking." I hope so. But supposing them wild and absurd,
+is there no danger but from wise and reflecting men? Perhaps the
+greatest mischiefs that have happened in the world have happened from
+persons as wild as those we think the wildest. In truth, they are the
+fittest beginners of all great changes. Why encourage men in a
+mischievous proceeding, because their absurdity may disappoint their
+malice?--"But noticing them may give them consequence." Certainly. But
+they are noticed; and they are noticed, not with reproof, but with that
+kind of countenance which is given by an _apparent_ concurrence (not a
+_real_ one, I am convinced) of a great party in the praises of the
+object which they hold out to imitation.
+
+But I hear a language still more extraordinary, and indeed of such a
+nature as must suppose or leave us at their mercy. It is this:--"You
+know their promptitude in writing, and their diligence in caballing; to
+write, speak, or act against them will only stimulate them to new
+efforts." This way of considering the principle of their conduct pays
+but a poor compliment to these gentlemen. They pretend that their
+doctrines are infinitely beneficial to mankind; but it seems they would
+keep them to themselves, if they were not greatly provoked. They are
+benevolent from spite. Their oracles are like those of Proteus, (whom
+some people think they resemble in many particulars,) who never would
+give his responses, unless you used him as ill as possible. These cats,
+it seems, would not give out their electrical light without having
+their backs well rubbed. But this is not to do them perfect justice.
+They are sufficiently communicative. Had they been quiet, the propriety
+of any agitation of topics on the origin and primary rights of
+government, in opposition to their private sentiments, might possibly be
+doubted. But, as it is notorious that they were proceeding as fast and
+as far as time and circumstances would admit, both in their discussions
+and cabals,--as it is not to be denied that they had opened a
+correspondence with a foreign faction the most wicked the world ever
+saw, and established anniversaries to commemorate the most monstrous,
+cruel, and perfidious of all the proceedings of that faction,--the
+question is, whether their conduct was to be regarded in silence, lest
+our interference should render them outrageous. Then let them deal as
+they please with the Constitution. Let the lady be passive, lest the
+ravisher should be driven to force. Resistance will only increase his
+desires. Yes, truly, if the resistance be feigned and feeble. But they
+who are wedded to the Constitution will not act the part of wittols.
+They will drive such seducers from the house on the first appearance of
+their love-letters and offered assignations. But if the author of the
+Reflections, though a vigilant, was not a discreet guardian of the
+Constitution, let them who have the same regard to it show themselves as
+vigilant and more skilful in repelling the attacks of seduction or
+violence. Their freedom from jealousy is equivocal, and may arise as
+well from indifference to the object as from confidence in her virtue.
+
+On their principle, it is the resistance, and not the assault, which
+produces the danger. I admit, indeed, that, if we estimated the danger
+by the value of the writings, it would be little worthy of our
+attention: contemptible these writings are in every sense. But they are
+not the cause, they are the disgusting symptoms of a frightful
+distemper. They are not otherwise of consequence than as they show the
+evil habit of the bodies from whence they come. In that light the
+meanest of them is a serious thing. If, however, I should underrate
+them, and if the truth is, that they are not the result, but the cause,
+of the disorders I speak of, surely those who circulate operative
+poisons, and give to whatever force they have by their nature the
+further operation of their authority and adoption, are to be censured,
+watched, and, if possible, repressed.
+
+At what distance the direct danger from such factions may be it is not
+easy to fix. An adaptation of circumstances to designs and principles is
+necessary. But these cannot be wanting for any long time, in the
+ordinary course of sublunary affairs. Great discontents frequently arise
+in the best constituted governments from causes which no human wisdom
+can foresee and no human power can prevent. They occur at uncertain
+periods, but at periods which are not commonly far asunder. Governments
+of all kinds are administered only by men; and great mistakes, tending
+to inflame these discontents, may concur. The indecision of those who
+happen to rule at the critical time, their supine neglect, or their
+precipitate and ill-judged attention, may aggravate the public
+misfortunes. In such a state of things, the principles, now only sown,
+will shoot out and vegetate in full luxuriance. In such circumstances
+the minds of the people become sore and ulcerated. They are put out of
+humor with all public men and all public parties; they are fatigued
+with their dissensions; they are irritated at their coalitions; they are
+made easily to believe (what much pains are taken to make them believe)
+that all oppositions are factious, and all courtiers base and servile.
+From their disgust at men, they are soon led to quarrel with their frame
+of government, which they presume gives nourishment to the vices, real
+or supposed, of those who administer in it. Mistaking malignity for
+sagacity, they are soon led to cast off all hope from a good
+administration of affairs, and come to think that all reformation
+depends, not on a change of actors, but upon an alteration in the
+machinery. Then will be felt the full effect of encouraging doctrines
+which tend to make the citizens despise their Constitution. Then will be
+felt the plenitude of the mischief of teaching the people to believe
+that all ancient institutions are the results of ignorance, and that all
+prescriptive government is in its nature usurpation. Then will be felt,
+in all its energy, the danger of encouraging a spirit of litigation in
+persons of that immature and imperfect state of knowledge which serves
+to render them susceptible of doubts, but incapable of their solution.
+Then will be felt, in all its aggravation, the pernicious consequence of
+destroying all docility in the minds of those who are not formed for
+finding their own way in the labyrinths of political theory, and are
+made to reject the clew and to disdain the guide. Then will be felt, and
+too late will be acknowledged, the ruin which follows the disjoining of
+religion from the state, the separation of morality from policy, and the
+giving conscience no concern and no coactive or coercive force in the
+most material of all the social ties, the principle of our obligations
+to government.
+
+I know, too, that, besides this vain, contradictory, and
+self-destructive security which some men derive from the habitual
+attachment of the people to this Constitution, whilst they suffer it
+with a sort of sportive acquiescence to be brought into contempt before
+their faces, they have other grounds for removing all apprehension from
+their minds. They are of opinion that there are too many men of great
+hereditary estates and influence in the kingdom to suffer the
+establishment of the levelling system which has taken place in France.
+This is very true, if, in order to guide the power which now attends
+their property, these men possess the wisdom which is involved in early
+fear. But if, through a supine security, to which such fortunes are
+peculiarly liable, they neglect the use of their influence in the season
+of their power, on the first derangement of society the nerves of their
+strength will be cut. Their estates, instead of being the means of their
+security, will become the very causes of their danger. Instead of
+bestowing influence, they will excite rapacity. They will be looked to
+as a prey.
+
+Such will be the impotent condition of those men of great hereditary
+estates, who indeed dislike the designs that are carried on, but whose
+dislike is rather that of spectators than of parties that may be
+concerned in the catastrophe of the piece. But riches do not in all
+cases secure even an inert and passive resistance. There are always in
+that description men whose fortunes, when their minds are once vitiated
+by passion or by evil principle, are by no means a security from their
+actually taking their part against the public tranquillity. We see to
+what low and despicable passions of all kinds many men in that class
+are ready to sacrifice the patrimonial estates which might be
+perpetuated in their families with splendor, and with the fame of
+hereditary benefactors to mankind, from generation to generation. Do we
+not see how lightly people treat their fortunes, when under the
+influence of the passion of gaming? The game of ambition or resentment
+will be played by many of the rich and great as desperately, and with as
+much blindness to the consequences, as any other game. Was he a man of
+no rank or fortune who first set on foot the disturbances which have
+ruined France? Passion blinded him to the consequences, so far as they
+concerned himself; and as to the consequences with regard to others,
+they were no part of his consideration,--nor ever will be with those who
+bear any resemblance to that virtuous patriot and lover of the rights of
+man.
+
+There is also a time of insecurity, when interests of all sorts become
+objects of speculation. Then it is that their very attachment to wealth
+and importance will induce several persons of opulence to list
+themselves and even to take a lead with the party which they think most
+likely to prevail, in order to obtain to themselves consideration in
+some new order or disorder of things. They may be led to act in this
+manner, that they may secure some portion of their own property, and
+perhaps to become partakers of the spoil of their own order. Those who
+speculate on change always make a great number among people of rank and
+fortune, as well as amongst the low and the indigent.
+
+What security against all this?--All human securities are liable to
+uncertainty. But if anything bids fair for the prevention of so great a
+calamity, it must consist in the use of the ordinary means of just
+influence in society, whilst those means continue unimpaired. The public
+judgment ought to receive a proper direction. All weighty men may have
+their share in so good a work. As yet, notwithstanding the strutting and
+lying independence of a braggart philosophy, Nature maintains her
+rights, and great names have great prevalence. Two such men as Mr. Pitt
+and Mr. Fox, adding to their authority in a point in which they concur
+even by their disunion in everything else, might frown these wicked
+opinions out of the kingdom. But if the influence of either of them, or
+the influence of men like them, should, against their serious
+intentions, be otherwise perverted, they may countenance opinions which
+(as I have said before, and could wish over and over again to press)
+they may in vain attempt to control. In their theory, these doctrines
+admit no limit, no qualification whatsoever. No man can say how far he
+will go, who joins with those who are avowedly going to the utmost
+extremities. What security is there for stopping short at all in these
+wild conceits? Why, neither more nor less than this,--that the moral
+sentiments of some few amongst them do put some check on their savage
+theories. But let us take care. The moral sentiments, so nearly
+connected with early prejudice as to be almost one and the same thing,
+will assuredly not live long under a discipline which has for its basis
+the destruction of all prejudices, and the making the mind proof against
+all dread of consequences flowing from the pretended truths that are
+taught by their philosophy.
+
+In this school the moral sentiments must grow weaker and weaker every
+day. The more cautious of these teachers, in laying down their maxims,
+draw as much of the conclusion as suits, not with their premises, but
+with their policy. They trust the rest to the sagacity of their pupils.
+Others, and these are the most vaunted for their spirit, not only lay
+down the same premises, but boldly draw the conclusions, to the
+destruction of our whole Constitution in Church and State. But are these
+conclusions truly drawn? Yes, most certainly. Their principles are wild
+and wicked; but let justice be done even to frenzy and villany. These
+teachers are perfectly systematic. No man who assumes their grounds can
+tolerate the British Constitution in Church or State. These teachers
+profess to scorn all mediocrity,--to engage for perfection,--to proceed
+by the simplest and shortest course. They build their politics, not on
+convenience, but on truth; and they profess to conduct men to certain
+happiness by the assertion of their undoubted rights. With them there is
+no compromise. All other governments are usurpations, which justify and
+even demand resistance.
+
+Their principles always go to the extreme. They who go with the
+principles of the ancient Whigs, which are those contained in Mr.
+Burke's book, never can go too far. They may, indeed, stop short of some
+hazardous and ambiguous excellence, which they will be taught to
+postpone to any reasonable degree of good they may actually possess. The
+opinions maintained in that book never can lead to an extreme, because
+their foundation is laid in an opposition to extremes. The foundation of
+government is there laid, not in imaginary rights of men, (which at best
+is a confusion of judicial with civil principles,) but in political
+convenience, and in human nature,--either as that nature is universal,
+or as it is modified by local habits and social aptitudes. The
+foundation of government (those who have read that book will recollect)
+is laid in a provision for our wants and in a conformity to our duties:
+it is to purvey for the one, it is to enforce the other. These doctrines
+do of themselves gravitate to a middle point, or to some point near a
+middle. They suppose, indeed, a certain portion of liberty to be
+essential to all good government; but they infer that this liberty is to
+be blended into the government, to harmonize with its forms and its
+rules, and to be made subordinate to its end. Those who are not with
+that book are with its opposite; for there is no medium besides the
+medium itself. That medium is not such because it is found there, but it
+is found there because it is conformable to truth and Nature. In this we
+do not follow the author, but we and the author travel together upon the
+same safe and middle path.
+
+The theory contained in his book is not to furnish principles for making
+a new Constitution, but for illustrating the principles of a
+Constitution already made. It is a theory drawn from the _fact_ of our
+government. They who oppose it are bound to show that his theory
+militates with that fact; otherwise, their quarrel is not with his book,
+but with the Constitution of their country. The whole scheme of our
+mixed Constitution is to prevent any one of its principles from being
+carried as far as, taken by itself, and theoretically, it would go.
+Allow that to be the true policy of the British system, then most of the
+faults with which that system stands charged will appear to be, not
+imperfections into which it has inadvertently fallen, but excellencies
+which it has studiously sought. To avoid the perfections of extreme,
+all its several parts are so constituted as not alone to answer their
+own several ends, but also each to limit and control the others;
+insomuch that, take which of the principles you please, you will find
+its operation checked and stopped at a certain point. The whole movement
+stands still rather than that any part should proceed beyond its
+boundary. From thence it results that in the British Constitution there
+is a perpetual treaty and compromise going on, sometimes openly,
+sometimes with less observation. To him who contemplates the British
+Constitution, as to him who contemplates the subordinate material world,
+it will always be a matter of his most curious investigation to discover
+the secret of this mutual limitation.
+
+            _Finita_ potestas denique _cuique_
+    Quanam sit ratione, atque alte terminus hærens?
+
+They who have acted, as in France they have done, upon a scheme wholly
+different, and who aim at the abstract and unlimited perfection of power
+in the popular part, can be of no service to us in any of our political
+arrangements. They who in their headlong career have overpassed the goal
+can furnish no example to those who aim to go no further. The temerity
+of such speculators is no more an example than the timidity of others.
+The one sort scorns the right; the other fears it; both miss it. But
+those who by violence go beyond the barrier are without question the
+most mischievous; because, to go beyond it, they overturn and destroy
+it. To say they have spirit is to say nothing in their praise. The
+untempered spirit of madness, blindness, immorality, and impiety
+deserves no commendation. He that sets his house on fire because his
+fingers are frost-bitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of
+providing our habitations with a cheerful and salutary warmth. We want
+no foreign examples to rekindle in us the flame of liberty. The example
+of our own ancestors is abundantly sufficient to maintain the spirit of
+freedom in its full vigor, and to qualify it in all its exertions. The
+example of a wise, moral, well-natured, and well-tempered spirit of
+freedom is that alone which can be useful to us, or in the least degree
+reputable or safe. Our fabric is so constituted, one part of it bears so
+much on the other, the parts are so made for one another, and for
+nothing else, that to introduce any foreign matter into it is to destroy
+it.
+
+What has been said of the Roman Empire is at least as true of the
+British Constitution:--"_Octingentorum annorum fortuna disciplinaque
+compages hæc coaluit; quæ convelli sine convellentium exitio non
+potest_." This British Constitution has not been struck out at an heat
+by a set of presumptuous men, like the Assembly of pettifoggers run mad
+in Paris.
+
+    "'Tis not the hasty product of a day,
+    But the well-ripened fruit of wise delay."
+
+It is the result of the thoughts of many minds in many ages. It is no
+simple, no superficial thing, nor to be estimated by superficial
+understandings. An ignorant man, who is not fool enough to meddle with
+his clock, is, however, sufficiently confident to think he can safely
+take to pieces and put together, at his pleasure, a moral machine of
+another guise, importance, and complexity, composed of far other wheels
+and springs and balances and counteracting and coöperating powers. Men
+little think how immorally they act in rashly meddling with what they
+do not understand. Their delusive good intention is no sort of excuse
+for their presumption. They who truly mean well must be fearful of
+acting ill. The British Constitution may have its advantages pointed out
+to wise and reflecting minds, but it is of too high an order of
+excellence to be adapted to those which are common. It takes in too many
+views, it makes too many combinations, to be so much as comprehended by
+shallow and superficial understandings. Profound thinkers will know it
+in its reason and spirit. The less inquiring will recognize it in their
+feelings and their experience. They will thank God they have a standard,
+which, in the most essential point of this great concern, will put them
+on a par with the most wise and knowing.
+
+If we do not take to our aid the foregone studies of men reputed
+intelligent and learned, we shall be always beginners. But men must
+learn somewhere; and the new teachers mean no more than what they
+effect, as far as they succeed,--that is, to deprive men of the benefit
+of the collected wisdom of mankind, and to make them blind disciples of
+their own particular presumption. Talk to these deluded creatures (all
+the disciples and most of the masters) who are taught to think
+themselves so newly fitted up and furnished, and you will find nothing
+in their houses but the refuse of _Knaves' Acre_,--nothing but the
+rotten stuff, worn out in the service of delusion and sedition in all
+ages, and which, being newly furbished up, patched, and varnished,
+serves well enough for those who, being unacquainted with the conflict
+which has always been maintained between the sense and the nonsense of
+mankind, know nothing of the former existence and the ancient
+refutation of the same follies. It is near two thousand years since it
+has been observed that these devices of ambition, avarice, and
+turbulence were antiquated. They are, indeed, the most ancient of all
+commonplaces: commonplaces sometimes of good and necessary causes; more
+frequently of the worst, but which decide upon neither. _Eadem semper
+causa, libido et avaritia, et mutandarum rerum amor. Ceterum libertas et
+speciosa nomina pretexuntur; nec quisquam alienum servitium, et
+dominationem sibi concupivit, ut non eadem ista vocabula usurparet_.
+
+Rational and experienced men tolerably well know, and have always known,
+how to distinguish between true and false liberty, and between the
+genuine adherence and the false pretence to what is true. But none,
+except those who are profoundly studied, can comprehend the elaborate
+contrivance of a fabric fitted to unite private and public liberty with
+public force, with order, with peace, with justice, and, above all, with
+the institutions formed for bestowing permanence and stability, through
+ages, upon this invaluable whole.
+
+Place, for instance, before your eyes such a man as Montesquieu. Think
+of a genius not born in every country or every time: a man gifted by
+Nature with a penetrating, aquiline eye,--with a judgment prepared with
+the most extensive erudition,--with an Herculean robustness of mind, and
+nerves not to be broken with labor,--a man who could spend twenty years
+in one pursuit. Think of a man like the universal patriarch in Milton
+(who had drawn up before him in his prophetic vision the whole series of
+the generations which were to issue from his loins): a man capable of
+placing in review, after having brought together from the East, the
+West, the North, and the South, from the coarseness of the rudest
+barbarism to the most refined and subtle civilization, all the schemes
+of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind, weighing,
+measuring, collating, and comparing them all, joining fact with theory,
+and calling into council, upon all this infinite assemblage of things,
+all the speculations which have fatigued the understandings of profound
+reasoners in all times. Let us then consider, that all these were but so
+many preparatory steps to qualify a man, and such a man, tinctured with
+no national prejudice, with no domestic affection, to admire, and to
+hold out to the admiration of mankind, the Constitution of England. And
+shall we Englishmen revoke to such a suit? Shall we, when so much more
+than he has produced remains still to be understood and admired, instead
+of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science, choose for our
+teachers men incapable of being taught,--whose only claim to know is,
+that they have never doubted,--from whom we can learn nothing but their
+own indocility,--who would teach us to scorn what in the silence of our
+hearts we ought to adore?
+
+Different from them are all the great critics. They have taught us one
+essential rule. I think the excellent and philosophic artist, a true
+judge, as well as a perfect follower of Nature, Sir Joshua Reynolds, has
+somewhere applied it, or something like it, in his own profession. It is
+this: that, if ever we should find ourselves disposed not to admire
+those writers or artists (Livy and Virgil, for instance, Raphael or
+Michael Angelo) whom all the learned had admired, not to follow our own
+fancies, but to study them, until we know how and what we ought to
+admire; and if we cannot arrive at this combination of admiration with
+knowledge, rather to believe that we are dull than that the rest of the
+world has been imposed on. It is as good a rule, at least, with regard
+to this admired Constitution. We ought to understand it according to our
+measure, and to venerate where we are not able presently to comprehend.
+
+Such admirers were our fathers, to whom we owe this splendid
+inheritance. Let us improve it with zeal, but with fear. Let us follow
+our ancestors, men not without a rational, though without an exclusive
+confidence in themselves,--who, by respecting the reason of others, who,
+by looking backward as well as forward, by the modesty as well as by the
+energy of their minds, went on insensibly drawing this Constitution
+nearer and nearer to its perfection, by never departing from its
+fundamental principles, nor introducing any amendment which had not a
+subsisting root in the laws, Constitution, and usages of the kingdom.
+Let those who have the trust of political or of natural authority ever
+keep watch against the desperate enterprises of innovation: let even
+their benevolence be fortified and armed. They have before their eyes
+the example of a monarch insulted, degraded, confined, deposed; his
+family dispersed, scattered, imprisoned; his wife insulted to his face,
+like the vilest of the sex, by the vilest of all populace; himself three
+times dragged by these wretches in an infamous triumph; his children
+torn from him, in violation of the first right of Nature, and given into
+the tuition of the most desperate and impious of the leaders of
+desperate and impious clubs; his revenues dilapidated and plundered;
+his magistrates murdered; his clergy proscribed, persecuted, famished;
+his nobility degraded in their rank, undone in their fortunes, fugitives
+in their persons; his armies corrupted and ruined; his whole people
+impoverished, disunited, dissolved; whilst through the bars of his
+prison, and amidst the bayonets of his keepers, he hears the tumult of
+two conflicting factions, equally wicked and abandoned, who agree in
+principles, in dispositions, and in objects, but who tear each other to
+pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining their common end: the
+one contending to preserve for a while his name, and his person, the
+more easily to destroy the royal authority,--the other clamoring to cut
+off the name, the person, and the monarchy together, by one sacrilegious
+execution. All this accumulation of calamity, the greatest that ever
+fell upon one man, has fallen upon his head, because he had left his
+virtues unguarded by caution,--because he was not taught, that, where
+power is concerned, he who will confer benefits must take security
+against ingratitude.
+
+I have stated the calamities which have fallen upon a great prince and
+nation, because they were not alarmed at the approach of danger, and
+because, what commonly happens to men surprised, they lost all resource
+when they were caught in it. When I speak of danger, I certainly mean to
+address myself to those who consider the prevalence of the new Whig
+doctrines as an evil.
+
+The Whigs of this day have before them, in this Appeal, their
+constitutional ancestors; they have the doctors of the modern school.
+They will choose for themselves. The author of the Reflections has
+chosen for himself. If a new order is coming on, and all the political
+opinions must pass away as dreams, which our ancestors have worshipped
+as revelations, I say for him, that he would rather be the last (as
+certainly he is the least) of that race of men than the first and
+greatest of those who have coined to themselves Whig principles from a
+French die, unknown to the impress of our fathers in the Constitution.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] Newspaper intelligence ought always to be received with some degree
+of caution. I do not know that the following paragraph is founded on any
+authority; but it comes with an air of authority. The paper is
+professedly in the interest of the modern Whigs, and under their
+direction. The paragraph is not disclaimed on their part. It professes
+to be the decision of those whom its author calls "the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England." Who are the Whigs of a different
+composition, which the promulgator of the sentence considers as composed
+of fleeting and unsettled particles, I know not, nor whether there be
+any of that description. The definitive sentence of "the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England" (as this paper gives it out) is as
+follows:--
+
+"The great and firm body of the Whigs of England, true to their
+principles, have decided on the dispute between Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke;
+and the former is declared to have maintained the pure doctrines by
+which they are bound together, and upon which they have invariably
+acted. The consequence is, that Mr. Burke retires from
+Parliament."--_Morning Chronicle_, May 12, 1791.
+
+[7] Reflections, &c., 1st ed., London, J. Dodsley, 1790.--Works, Vol.
+III. p. 343, in the present edition.
+
+[8] To explain this, it will be necessary to advert to a paragraph which
+appeared in a paper in the minority interest some time before this
+debate. "A very dark intrigue has lately been discovered, the authors of
+which are well known to us; but until the glorious day shall come when
+it will not be a LIBEL to tell the TRUTH, we must not be so regardless
+of our own safety as to publish their names. We will, however, state the
+fact, leaving it to the ingenuity of our readers to discover what we
+dare not publish.
+
+"Since the business of the armament against Russia has been under
+discussion, a great personage has been heard to say, 'that he was not so
+wedded to Mr. PITT as not to be very willing to give his confidence to
+Mr. FOX, if the latter should be able, in a crisis like the present, to
+conduct the government of the country with greater advantage to the
+public.'
+
+"This patriotic declaration immediately alarmed the swarm of courtly
+insects that live only in the sunshine of ministerial favor. It was
+thought to be the forerunner of the dismission of Mr. Pitt, and every
+engine was set at work for the purpose of preventing such an event. The
+principal engine employed on this occasion was CALUMNY. It was whispered
+in the ear of a great personage, that Mr. Fox was the last man in
+England to be trusted by a KING, because he was by PRINCIPLE a
+REPUBLICAN, and consequently an enemy to MONARCHY.
+
+"In the discussion of the Quebec Bill which stood for yesterday, it was
+the intention of some persons to connect with this subject the French
+Revolution, in hopes that Mr. Fox would be warmed by a collision with
+Mr. Burke, and induced to defend that Revolution, in which so much power
+was taken from, and so little left in the crown.
+
+"Had Mr. Fox fallen into the snare, his speech on the occasion would
+have been laid before a great personage, as a proof that a man who could
+defend such a revolution might be a very good republican, but could not
+possibly be a friend to monarchy.
+
+"But those who laid the snare were disappointed; for Mr. Fox, in the
+short conversation which took place yesterday in the House of Commons,
+said, that he confessedly had thought favorably of the French
+Revolution, but that most certainly he never had, either in Parliament
+or out of Parliament, professed or defended republican
+principles."--_Argus_, April 22d, 1791.
+
+Mr. Burke cannot answer for the truth nor prove the falsehood of the
+story given by the friends of the party in this paper. He only knows
+that an opinion of its being well or ill authenticated had no influence
+on his conduct. He meant only, to the best of his power, to guard the
+public against the ill designs of factions out of doors. What Mr. Burke
+did in Parliament could hardly have been intended to draw Mr. Fox into
+any declarations unfavorable to his principles, since (by the account of
+those who are his friends) he had long before effectually prevented the
+success of any such scandalous designs. Mr. Fox's friends have
+themselves done away that imputation on Mr. Burke.
+
+[9] See his speech on American Taxation, the 19th of April, 1774.
+
+[10] Lord Lansdowne.
+
+[11] Mr. Windham.
+
+[12] July 17th, 1765.
+
+[13] Works, Vol. III. pp. 251-276, present edition.
+
+[14] State Trials, Vol. V. p. 651.
+
+[15] Page 676.
+
+[16] The words necessary to the completion of the sentence are wanting
+in the printed trial--but the construction of the sentence, as well as
+the foregoing part of the speech, justify the insertion of some such
+supplemental words as the above.
+
+[17] "What we did was, in truth and substance, and in a constitutional
+light, a revolution, not made, but prevented. We took solid securities;
+we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies in our law. In the
+stable, fundamental parts of our Constitution we made no
+revolution,--no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the
+monarchy. Perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very
+considerably. The nation kept the same ranks, the same orders, the same
+privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property, the same
+subordinations, the same order in the law, in the revenue, and in the
+magistracy,--the same lords, the same commons, the same corporations,
+the same electors."--_Mr. Burke's Speech in the House of Commons, 9th
+February, 1790._--It appears how exactly he coincides in everything with
+Sir Joseph Jekyl.
+
+[18] See Reflections, pp. 42, 43.--Works, Vol. III. p. 270, present
+edition.
+
+[19] Declaration of Right.
+
+[20] Vindication of the Rights of Man, recommended by the several
+societies.
+
+[21] "Omnes omnium charitates patria una complectitur."--Cic.
+
+[22] A few lines in Persius contain a good summary of all the objects of
+moral investigation, and hint the result of our inquiry: There human
+will has no place.
+
+    Quid _sumus_? et quidnam _victuri gignimur_? ordo
+    Quis _datus_? et _metæ_ quis mollis flexus, et unde?
+    Quis modus argento? Quid _fas optare_? Quid asper
+    Utile nummus habet? _Patriæ charisque propinquis_
+    Quantum elargiri _debet_? Quem te Deus esse
+    _Jussit_? et humana qua parte _locatus es_ in re?
+
+
+
+[23] It is no small loss to the world, that the whole of this
+enlightened and philosophic sermon, preached to _two hundred thousand_
+national guards assembled at Blackheath (a number probably equal to the
+sublime and majestic _Fédération_ of the 14th of July, 1790, in the
+Champ de Mars) is not preserved. A short abstract is, however, to be
+found in Walsingham. I have added it here for the edification of the
+modern Whigs, who may possibly except this precious little fragment from
+their general contempt of ancient learning.
+
+"Ut suâ doctrinâ plures inficeret, ad le Blackheth (ubi ducenta millia
+hominum communium fuere simul congregata) hujuscemodi sermonem est
+exorsus.
+
+    "Whan Adam dalfe and Eve span,
+     Who was than a gentleman?
+
+Continuansque sermonem inceptum, nitebatur per verba proverbii, quod pro
+themate sumpserat, introducere et probare, _ab initio omnes pares
+creatos a naturâ_, servitutem per injustam oppressionem nequam hominum
+introductam contra Dei voluntatem, quia si Deo placuisset servos
+creâsse, utique in principio mundi constituisset, quis servus, quisve
+dominus futurus fuisset. Considerarent igitur jam tempus a Deo datum
+eis, in quo (deposito servitutis jugo diutius) possent, si vellent,
+libertate diu concupitâ gaudere. Quapropter monuit ut essent viri
+cordati, et amore boni patrisfamilias excolentis agrum suum, et
+extirpantis ac resecantis noxia gramina quæ fruges solent opprimere, et
+ipsi in præsenti facere festinarent. Primò _majores regni dominos
+occidendo. Deinde juridicos, justiciarios, et juratores patriæ
+perimendo._ Postremò quoscunque scirent _in posterum communitati
+nocivos_ tollerent de terrâ suâ, sic demum et _pacem_ sibimet _parerent
+et securitatem_ in futurum. _Si sublatis majoribus esset inter eos æqua
+libertas, eadem nobilitas, par dignitas, similisque potestas._"
+
+Here is displayed at once the whole of the grand _arcanum_ pretended to
+be found out by the National Assembly, for securing future happiness,
+peace, and tranquillity. There seems, however, to be some doubt whether
+this venerable protomartyr of philosophy was inclined to carry his own
+declaration of the rights of men more rigidly into practice than the
+National Assembly themselves. He was, like them, only preaching
+licentiousness to the populace to obtain power for himself, if we may
+believe what is subjoined by the historian.
+
+"Cumque hæc et _plura alia deliramenta_" (think of this old fool's
+calling all the wise maxims of the French Academy _deliramenta_!)
+"prædicâsset, commune vulgus cum tanto favore prosequitur, ut
+_exclamarent eum archiepiscopum futurum, et regni cancellarium_."
+Whether he would have taken these situations under these names, or would
+have changed the whole nomenclature of the State and Church, to be
+understood in the sense of the Revolution, is not so certain. It is
+probable that he would have changed the names and kept the substance of
+power.
+
+We find, too, that they had in those days their _society for
+constitutional information_, of which the Reverend John Ball was a
+conspicuous member, sometimes under his own name, sometimes under the
+feigned name of John Schep. Besides him it consisted (as Knyghton tells
+us) of persons who went by the real or fictitious names of Jack Mylner,
+Tom Baker, Jack Straw, Jack Trewman, Jack Carter, and probably of many
+more. Some of the choicest flowers of the publications charitably
+written and circulated by them gratis are upon record in Walsingham and
+Knyghton: and I am inclined to prefer the pithy and sententious brevity
+of these _bulletins_ of ancient rebellion before the loose and confused
+prolixity of the modern advertisements of constitutional information.
+They contain more good morality and less bad politics, they had much
+more foundation in real oppression, and they have the recommendation of
+being much better adapted to the capacities of those for whose
+instruction they were intended. Whatever laudable pains the teachers of
+the present day appear to take, I cannot compliment them so far as to
+allow that they have succeeded in writing down to the level of their
+pupils, _the members of the sovereign_, with half the ability of Jack
+Carter and the Reverend John Ball. That my readers may judge for
+themselves, I shall give them, one or two specimens.
+
+The first is an address from the Reverend John Ball, under his _nom de
+guerre_ of John Schep. I know not against what particular "guyle in
+borough" the writer means to caution the people; it may have been only a
+general cry against "_rotten boroughs_," which it was thought
+convenient, then as now, to make the first pretext, and place at the
+head of the list of grievances.
+
+JOHN SCHEP.
+
+"Iohn Schep sometime seint Mary priest of Yorke, and now of Colchester,
+greeteth well Iohn Namelesse, and Iohn the Miller, and Iohn Carter, and
+_biddeth them that they beware of guyle in borough_, and stand together
+in Gods name, and biddeth Piers Ploweman goe to his werke, and chastise
+well _Hob the robber_, [probably the king,] and take with you Iohn
+Trewman, and all his fellows, and no moe.
+
+    "Iohn the Miller hath yground smal, small, small:
+     The kings sonne of heauen shal pay for all.
+     Beware or ye be woe,
+     Know your frende fro your foe,
+     Haue ynough, and say hoe:
+     And do wel and better, & flee sinne,
+     _And seeke peace and holde you therin,_
+
+& so biddeth Iohn Trewman & all his fellowes."
+
+The reader has perceived, from the last lines of this curious
+state-paper, how well the National Assembly has copied its union of the
+profession of universal peace with the practice of murder and confusion,
+and the blast of the trumpet of sedition in all nations. He will in the
+following constitutional paper observe how well, in their enigmatical
+style, like the Assembly and their abettors, the old philosophers
+proscribe all hereditary distinction, and bestow it only on virtue and
+wisdom, according to their estimation of both. Yet these people are
+supposed never to have heard of "the rights of man"!
+
+JACK MYLNER.
+
+"Jakke Mylner asket help to turne his mylne aright.
+
+    "He hath grounden smal smal,
+     The Kings sone of heven he schal pay for alle.
+
+Loke thy mylne go a rygt, with the fours sayles, and the post stande in
+steadfastnesse.
+
+    "With rygt and with mygt,
+     With skyl and with wylle,
+     Lat mygt helpe rygt,
+     And skyl go before wille,
+     And rygt before mygt:
+     Than goth oure mylne aryght.
+     And if mygt go before ryght,
+     And wylle before skylle;
+     Than is oure mylne mys a dygt."
+
+JACK CARTER understood perfectly the doctrine of looking to the _end_,
+with an indifference to the _means_, and the probability of much good
+arising from great evil.
+
+"Jakke Carter pryes yowe alle that ye make a gode _ende_ of that ye hane
+begunnen, and doth wele and ay bettur and bettur: for at the even men
+heryth the day. _For if the ende be wele, than is alle wele._ Lat Peres
+the Plowman my brother duelle at home and dygt us corne, and I will go
+with yowe and helpe that y may to dygte youre mete and youre drynke,
+that ye none fayle: lokke that Hobbe robbyoure be wele chastysed for
+lesyng of youre grace: for ye have gret nede to take God with yowe in
+alle yours dedes. For nowe is tyme to be war."
+
+[24] See the wise remark on this subject in the Defence of Rights of
+Man, circulated by the societies.
+
+[25] The primary assemblies.
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+LETTER
+
+TO
+
+A PEER OF IRELAND
+
+ON THE
+
+PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICS,
+
+PREVIOUS TO
+
+THE LATE REPEAL OF A PART THEREOF IN THE SESSION OF THE IRISH
+PARLIAMENT, HELD A.D. 1782.
+
+
+CHARLES STREET, LONDON, Feb. 21, 1782
+
+
+My Lord,--I am obliged to your Lordship for your communication of the
+heads of Mr. Gardiner's bill. I had received it, in an earlier stage of
+its progress, from Mr. Braughall; and I am still in that gentleman's
+debt, as I have not made him the proper return for the favor he has done
+me. Business, to which I was more immediately called, and in which my
+sentiments had the weight of one vote, occupied me every moment since I
+received his letter. This first morning which I can call my own I give
+with great cheerfulness to the subject on which your Lordship has done
+me the honor of desiring my opinion.
+
+I have read the heads of the bill, with the amendments. Your Lordship is
+too well acquainted with men, and with affairs, to imagine that any true
+judgment can be formed on the value of a great measure of policy from
+the perusal of a piece of paper. At present I am much in the dark with
+regard to the state of the country which the intended law is to be
+applied to. It is not easy for me to determine whether or no it was wise
+(for the sake of expunging the black letter of laws which, menacing as
+they were in the language, were every day fading into disuse) solemnly
+to reaffirm the principles and to reenact the provisions of a code of
+statutes by which you are totally excluded from THE PRIVILEGES OF THE
+COMMONWEALTH, from the highest to the lowest, from the most material of
+the civil professions, from the army, and even from education, where
+alone education is to be had.[26]
+
+Whether this scheme of indulgence, grounded at once on contempt and
+jealousy, has a tendency gradually to produce something better and more
+liberal, I cannot tell, for want of having the actual map of the
+country. If this should be the case, it was right in you to accept it,
+such as it is. But if this should be one of the experiments which have
+sometimes been made before the temper of the nation was ripe for a real
+reformation, I think it may possibly have ill effects, by disposing the
+penal matter in a more systematic order, and thereby fixing a permanent
+bar against any relief that is truly substantial. The whole merit or
+demerit of the measure depends upon the plans and dispositions of those
+by whom the act was made, concurring with the general temper of the
+Protestants of Ireland, and their aptitude to admit in time of some part
+of that equality without which you never can be FELLOW-CITIZENS. Of all
+this I am wholly ignorant. All my correspondence with men of public
+importance in Ireland has for some time totally ceased. On the first
+bill for the relief of the ROMAN CATHOLICS of Ireland, I was, without
+any call of mine, consulted both on your side of the water and on this.
+On the present occasion, I have not heard a word from any man in office,
+and know as little of the intentions of the British government as I
+know of the temper of the Irish Parliament. I do not find that any
+opposition was made by the principal persons of the minority in the
+House of Commons, or that any is apprehended from them in the House of
+Lords. The whole of the difficulty seems to lie with the principal men
+in government, under whose protection this bill is supposed to be
+brought in. This violent opposition and cordial support, coming from one
+and the same quarter, appears to me something mysterious, and hinders me
+from being able to make any clear judgment of the merit of the present
+measure, as compared with the actual state of the country and the
+general views of government, without which one can say nothing that may
+not be very erroneous.
+
+To look at the bill in the abstract, it is neither more nor less than a
+renewed act of UNIVERSAL, UNMITIGATED, INDISPENSABLE, EXCEPTIONLESS
+DISQUALIFICATION.
+
+One would imagine that a bill inflicting such a multitude of
+incapacities had followed on the heels of a conquest made by a very
+fierce enemy, under the impression of recent animosity and resentment.
+No man, on reading that bill, could imagine he was reading an act of
+amnesty and indulgence, following a recital of the good behavior of
+those who are the objects of it,--which recital stood at the head of the
+bill, as it was first introduced, but, I suppose for its incongruity
+with the body of the piece, was afterwards omitted. This I say on
+memory. It, however, still recites the oath, and that Catholics ought to
+be considered as good and loyal subjects to his Majesty, his crown and
+government. Then follows an universal exclusion of those GOOD and LOYAL
+subjects from every (even the lowest) office of trust and profit,--from
+any vote at an election,--from any privilege in a town corporate,--from
+being even a freeman of such a corporation,--from serving on grand
+juries,--from a vote at a vestry,--from having a gun in his house,--from
+being a barrister, attorney, or solicitor, &c., &c., &c.
+
+This has surely much more the air of a table of proscription than an act
+of grace. What must we suppose the laws concerning those _good_ subjects
+to have been, of which this is a relaxation? I know well that there is a
+cant language current, about the difference between an exclusion from
+employments, even to the most rigorous extent, and an exclusion from the
+natural benefits arising from a man's own industry. I allow, that, under
+some circumstances, the difference is very material in point of justice,
+and that there are considerations which may render it advisable for a
+wise government to keep the leading parts of every branch of civil and
+military administration in hands of the best trust; but a total
+exclusion from the commonwealth is a very different thing. When a
+government subsists (as governments formerly did) on an estate of its
+own, with but few and inconsiderable revenues drawn from the subject,
+then the few officers which existed in such establishments were
+naturally at the disposal of that government, which paid the salaries
+out of its own coffers: there an exclusive preference could hardly merit
+the name of proscription. Almost the whole produce of a man's industry
+at that time remained in his own purse to maintain his family. But times
+alter, and the _whole_ estate of government is from private
+contribution. When a very great portion of the labor of individuals
+goes to the state, and is by the state again refunded to individuals,
+through the medium of offices, and in this circuitous progress from the
+private to the public, and from the public again to the private fund,
+the families from whom the revenue is taken are indemnified, and an
+equitable balance between the government and the subject is established.
+But if a great body of the people who contribute to this state lottery
+are excluded from all the prizes, the stopping the circulation with
+regard to them may be a most cruel hardship, amounting in effect to
+being double and treble taxed; and it will be felt as such to the very
+quick, by all the families, high and low, of those hundreds of thousands
+who are denied their chance in the returned fruits of their own
+industry. This is the thing meant by those who look upon the public
+revenue only as a spoil, and will naturally wish to have as few as
+possible concerned in the division of the booty. If a state should be so
+unhappy as to think it cannot subsist without such a barbarous
+proscription, the persons so proscribed ought to be indemnified by the
+remission of a large part of their taxes, by an immunity from the
+offices of public burden, and by an exemption from being pressed into
+any military or naval service.
+
+Common sense and common justice dictate this at least, as some sort of
+compensation to a people for their slavery. How many families are
+incapable of existing, if the little offices of the revenue and little
+military commissions are denied them! To deny them at home, and to make
+the happiness of acquiring some of them somewhere else felony or high
+treason, is a piece of cruelty, in which, till very lately, I did not
+suppose this age capable of persisting. Formerly a similarity of
+religion made a sort of country for a man in some quarter or other. A
+refugee for religion was a protected character. Now the reception is
+cold indeed; and therefore, as the asylum abroad is destroyed, the
+hardship at home is doubled. This hardship is the more intolerable
+because the professions are shut up. The Church is so of course. Much is
+to be said on that subject, in regard to them, and to the Protestant
+Dissenters. But that is a chapter by itself. I am sure I wish well to
+that Church, and think its ministers among the very best citizens of
+your country. However, such as it is, a great walk in life is forbidden
+ground to seventeen hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Ireland. Why
+are they excluded from the law? Do not they expend money in their suits?
+Why may not they indemnify themselves, by profiting, in the persons of
+some, for the losses incurred by others? Why may not they have persons
+of confidence, whom they may, if they please, employ in the agency of
+their affairs? The exclusion from the law, from grand juries, from
+sheriffships and under-sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any
+corporation, may subject them to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude
+them wholly from all that is beneficial and expose them to all that is
+mischievous in a trial by jury. This was manifestly within my own
+observation, for I was three times in Ireland from the year 1760 to the
+year 1767, where I had sufficient means of information concerning the
+inhuman proceedings (among which were many cruel murders, besides an
+infinity of outrages and oppressions unknown before in a civilized age)
+which prevailed during that period, in consequence of a pretended
+conspiracy among _Roman Catholics_ against the king's government. I
+could dilate upon the mischiefs that may happen, from those which have
+happened, upon this head of disqualification, if it were at all
+necessary.
+
+The head of exclusion from votes for members of Parliament is closely
+connected with the former. When you cast your eye on the statute-book,
+you will see that no _Catholic_, even in the ferocious acts of Queen
+Anne, was disabled from voting on account of his religion. The only
+conditions required for that privilege were the oaths of allegiance and
+abjuration,--both oaths relative to a civil concern. Parliament has
+since added another oath of the same kind; and yet a House of Commons,
+adding to the securities of government in proportion as its danger is
+confessedly lessened, and professing both confidence and indulgence, in
+effect takes away the privilege left by an act full of jealousy and
+professing persecution.
+
+The taking away of a vote is the taking away the shield which the
+subject has, not only against the oppression of power, but that worst of
+all oppressions, the persecution of private society and private manners.
+No candidate for Parliamentary influence is obliged to the least
+attention towards them, either in cities or counties. On the contrary,
+if they should become obnoxious to any bigoted or malignant people
+amongst whom they live, it will become the interest of those who court
+popular favor to use the numberless means which always reside in
+magistracy and influence to oppress them. The proceedings in a certain
+county in Munster, during the unfortunate period I have mentioned, read
+a strong lecture on the cruelty of depriving men of that shield on
+account of their speculative opinions. The Protestants of Ireland feel
+well and naturally on the hardship of being bound by laws in the
+enacting of which they do not directly or indirectly vote. The bounds of
+these matters are nice, and hard to be settled in theory, and perhaps
+they have been pushed too far. But how they can avoid the necessary
+application of the principles they use in their disputes with others to
+their disputes with their fellow-citizens, I know not.
+
+It is true, the words of this act do not create a disability; but they
+clearly and evidently suppose it. There are few _Catholic_ freeholders
+to take the benefit of the privilege, if they were permitted to partake
+it; but the manner in which this very right in freeholders at large is
+defended is not on the idea that the freeholders do really and truly
+represent the people, but that, all people being capable of obtaining
+freeholds, all those who by their industry and sobriety merit this
+privilege have the means of arriving at votes. It is the same with the
+corporations.
+
+The laws against foreign education are clearly the very worst part of
+the old code. Besides your laity, you have the succession of about four
+thousand clergymen to provide for. These, having no lucrative objects in
+prospect, are taken very much out of the lower orders of the people. At
+home they have no means whatsoever provided for their attaining a
+clerical education, or indeed any education at all. When I was in Paris,
+about seven years ago, I looked at everything, and lived with every kind
+of people, as well as my time admitted. I saw there the Irish college of
+the Lombard, which seemed to me a very good place of education, under
+excellent orders and regulations, and under the government of a very
+prudent and learned man (the late Dr. Kelly). This college was possessed
+of an annual fixed revenue of more than a thousand pound a year, the
+greatest part of which had arisen from the legacies and benefactions of
+persons educated in that college, and who had obtained promotions in
+France, from the emolument of which promotions they made this grateful
+return. One in particular I remember, to the amount of ten thousand
+livres annually, as it is recorded on the donor's monument in their
+chapel.
+
+It has been the custom of poor persons in Ireland to pick up such
+knowledge of the Latin tongue as, under the general discouragements, and
+occasional pursuits of magistracy, they were able to acquire; and
+receiving orders at home, were sent abroad to obtain a clerical
+education. By officiating in petty chaplainships, and performing now and
+then certain offices of religion for small gratuities, they received the
+means of maintaining themselves until they were able to complete their
+education. Through such difficulties and discouragements, many of them
+have arrived at a very considerable proficiency, so as to be marked and
+distinguished abroad. These persons afterwards, by being sunk in the
+most abject poverty, despised and ill-treated by the higher orders among
+Protestants, and not much better esteemed or treated even by the few
+persons of fortune of their own persuasion, and contracting the habits
+and ways of thinking of the poor and uneducated, among whom they were
+obliged to live, in a few years retained little or no traces of the
+talents and acquirements which distinguished them in the early periods
+of their lives. Can we with justice cut them off from the use of places
+of education founded for the greater part from the economy of poverty
+and exile, without providing something that is equivalent at home?
+
+Whilst this restraint of foreign and domestic education was part of an
+horrible and impious system of servitude, the members were well fitted
+to the body. To render men patient under a deprivation of all the rights
+of human nature, everything which could give them a knowledge or feeling
+of those rights was rationally forbidden. To render humanity fit to be
+insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded. But when we profess to
+restore men to the capacity for property, it is equally irrational and
+unjust to deny them the power of improving their minds as well as their
+fortunes. Indeed, I have ever thought the prohibition of the means of
+improving our rational nature to be the worst species of tyranny that
+the insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared to exercise. This
+goes to all men, in all situations, to whom education can be denied.
+
+Your Lordship mentions a proposal which came from my friend, the
+Provost, whose benevolence and enlarged spirit I am perfectly convinced
+of,--which is, the proposal of erecting a few sizarships in the college,
+for the education (I suppose) of Roman Catholic clergymen.[27] He
+certainly meant it well; but, coming from such a man as he is, it is a
+strong instance of the danger of suffering any description of men to
+fall into entire contempt. The charities intended for them are not
+perceived to be fresh insults; and the true nature of their wants and
+necessities being unknown, remedies wholly unsuitable to the nature of
+their complaint are provided for them. It is to feed a sick Gentoo with
+beef broth, and to foment his wounds with brandy. If the other parts of
+the university were open to them, as well on the foundation as
+otherwise, the offering of sizarships would be a proportioned part of a
+_general_ kindness. But when everything _liberal_ is withheld, and only
+that which is _servile_ is permitted, it is easy to conceive upon what
+footing they must be in such a place.
+
+Mr. Hutchinson must well know the regard and honor I have for him; and
+he cannot think my dissenting from him in this particular arises from a
+disregard of his opinion: it only shows that I think he has lived in
+Ireland. To have any respect for the character and person of a Popish
+priest there--oh, 'tis an uphill work indeed! But until we come to
+respect what stands in a respectable light with others, we are very
+deficient in the temper which qualifies us to make any laws and
+regulations about them: it even disqualifies us from being charitable to
+them with any effect or judgment.
+
+When we are to provide for the education of any body of men, we ought
+seriously to consider the particular functions they are to perform in
+life. A Roman Catholic clergyman is the minister of a very ritual
+religion, and by his profession subject to many restraints. His life is
+a life full of strict observances; and his duties are of a laborious
+nature towards himself, and of the highest possible trust towards
+others. The duty of confession alone is sufficient to set in the
+strongest light the necessity of his having an appropriated mode of
+education. The theological opinions and peculiar rites of one religion
+never can be properly taught in universities founded for the purposes
+and on the principles of another which in many points are directly
+opposite. If a Roman Catholic clergyman, intended for celibacy and the
+function of confession, is not strictly bred in a seminary where these
+things are respected, inculcated, and enforced, as sacred, and not made
+the subject of derision and obloquy, he will be ill fitted for the
+former, and the latter will be indeed in his hands a terrible
+instrument.
+
+There is a great resemblance between, the whole frame and constitution
+of the Greek and Latin Churches. The secular clergy in the former, by
+being married, living under little restraint, and having no particular
+education suited to their function, are universally fallen into such
+contempt that they are never permitted to aspire to the dignities of
+their own Church. It is not held respectful to call them _Papas_, their
+true and ancient appellation, but those who wish to address them with
+civility always call them _Hieromonachi_. In consequence of this
+disrespect, which I venture to say, in such a Church, must be the
+consequence of a secular life, a very great degeneracy from reputable
+Christian manners has taken place throughout almost the whole of that
+great member of the Christian Church.
+
+It was so with the Latin Church, before the restraint on marriage. Even
+that restraint gave rise to the greatest disorders before the Council of
+Trent, which, together with the emulation raised and the good examples
+given by the Reformed churches, wherever they were in view of each
+other, has brought on that happy amendment which we see in the Latin
+communion, both at home and abroad.
+
+The Council of Trent has wisely introduced the discipline of seminaries,
+by which priests are not trusted for a clerical institution even to the
+severe discipline of their colleges, but, after they pass through them,
+are frequently, if not for the greater part, obliged to pass through
+peculiar methods, having their particular ritual function in view. It is
+in a great measure to this, and to similar methods used in foreign
+education, that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, miserably provided
+for, living among low and ill-regulated people, without any discipline
+of sufficient force to secure good manners, have been prevented from
+becoming an intolerable nuisance to the country, instead of being, as I
+conceive they generally are, a very great service to it.
+
+The ministers of Protestant churches require a different mode of
+education, more liberal, and more fit for the ordinary intercourse of
+life. That religion having little hold on the minds of people by
+external ceremonies and extraordinary observances, or separate habits of
+living, the clergy make up the deficiency by cultivating their minds
+with all kinds of ornamental learning, which the liberal provision made
+in England and Ireland for the parochial clergy, (to say nothing of the
+ample Church preferments, with little or no duties annexed,) and the
+comparative lightness of parochial duties, enables the greater part of
+them in some considerable degree to accomplish.
+
+This learning, which I believe to be pretty general, together with an
+higher situation, and more chastened by the opinion of mankind, forms a
+sufficient security for the morals of the established clergy, and for
+their sustaining their clerical character with dignity. It is not
+necessary to observe, that all these things are, however, collateral to
+their function, and that, except in preaching, which may be and is
+supplied, and often best supplied, out of printed books, little else is
+necessary for a Protestant minister than to be able to read the English
+language,--I mean for the exercise of his function, not to the
+qualification of his admission to it. But a Popish parson in Ireland may
+do very well without any considerable classical erudition, or any
+proficiency in pure or mixed mathematics, or any knowledge of civil
+history. Even if the Catholic clergy should possess those acquisitions,
+as at first many of them do, they soon lose them in the painful course
+of professional and parochial duties: but they must have all the
+knowledge, and, what is to them more important than the knowledge, the
+discipline, necessary to those duties. All modes of education conducted
+by those whose minds are cast in another mould, as I may say, and whose
+original ways of thinking are formed upon the reverse pattern, must be
+to them not only useless, but mischievous. Just as I should suppose the
+education in a Popish ecclesiastical seminary would be ill fitted for a
+Protestant clergyman. To educate a Catholic priest in a Protestant
+seminary would be much worse. The Protestant educated amongst Catholics
+has only something to reject: what he keeps may be useful. But a
+Catholic parish priest learns little for his peculiar purpose and duty
+in a Protestant college.
+
+All this, my Lord, I know very well, will pass for nothing with those
+who wish that the Popish clergy should be illiterate, and in a situation
+to produce contempt and detestation. Their minds are wholly taken up
+with party squabbles, and I have neither leisure nor inclination to
+apply any part of what I have to say to those who never think of
+religion or of the commonwealth in any other light than as they tend to
+the prevalence of some faction in either. I speak on a supposition that
+there is a disposition _to take the state in the condition in which it
+is found_, and to improve it _in that state_ to the best advantage.
+Hitherto the plan for the government of Ireland has been to sacrifice
+the civil prosperity of the nation to its religious improvement. But if
+people in power there are at length come to entertain other ideas, they
+will consider the good order, decorum, virtue, and morality of every
+description of men among them as of infinitely greater importance than
+the struggle (for it is nothing better) to change those descriptions by
+means which put to hazard objects which, in my poor opinion, are of more
+importance to religion and to the state than all the polemical matter
+which has been agitated among men from the beginning of the world to
+this hour.
+
+On this idea, an education fitted _to each order and division of men,
+such as they are found_, will be thought an affair rather to be
+encouraged than discountenanced; and until institutions at home,
+suitable to the occasions and necessities of the people, are
+established, and which are armed, as they are abroad, with authority to
+coerce the young men to be formed in them by a strict and severe
+discipline, the means they have at present of a cheap and effectual
+education in other countries should not continue to be prohibited by
+penalties and modes of inquisition not fit to be mentioned to ears that
+are organized to the chaste sounds of equity and justice.
+
+Before I had written thus far, I heard of a scheme of giving to the
+Castle the patronage of the presiding members of the Catholic clergy. At
+first I could scarcely credit it; for I believe it is the first time
+that the presentation to other people's alms has been desired in any
+country. If the state provides a suitable maintenance and temporality
+for the governing members of the Irish Roman Catholic Church, and for
+the clergy under them, I should think the project, however improper in
+other respects, to be by no means unjust. But to deprive a poor people,
+who maintain a second set of clergy, out of the miserable remains of
+what is left after taxing and tithing, to deprive them of the
+disposition of their own charities among their own communion, would, in
+my opinion, be an intolerable hardship. Never were the members of one
+religious sect fit to appoint the pastors to another. Those who have no
+regard for their welfare, reputation, or internal quiet will not appoint
+such as are proper. The seraglio of Constantinople is as equitable as we
+are, whether Catholics or Protestants,--and where their own sect is
+concerned, full as religious. But the sport which they make of the
+miserable dignities of the Greek Church, the little factions of the
+harem to which they make them subservient, the continual sale to which
+they expose and reëxpose the same dignity, and by which they squeeze all
+the inferior orders of the clergy, is (for I have had particular means
+of being acquainted with it) nearly equal to all the other oppressions
+together, exercised by Mussulmen over the unhappy members of the
+Oriental Church. It is a great deal to suppose that even the present
+Castle would nominate bishops for the Roman Church of Ireland with a
+religious regard for its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they dare
+not do it.
+
+But suppose them to be as well inclined as I know that I am to do the
+Catholics all kind of justice, I declare I would not, if it were in my
+power, take that patronage on myself. I know I ought not to do it. I
+belong to another community, and it would be intolerable usurpation for
+me to affect such authority, where I conferred no benefit, or even if I
+did confer (as in some degree the seraglio does) temporal advantages.
+But allowing that the _present_ Castle finds itself fit to administer
+the government of a church which they solemnly forswear, and forswear
+with very hard words and many evil epithets, and that as often as they
+qualify themselves for the power which is to give this very patronage,
+or to give anything else that they desire,--yet they cannot insure
+themselves that a man like the late Lord Chesterfield will not succeed
+to them. This man, while he was duping the credulity of Papists with
+fine words in private, and commending their good behavior during a
+rebellion in Great Britain, (as it well deserved to be commended and
+rewarded,) was capable of urging penal laws against them in a speech
+from the throne, and of stimulating with provocatives the wearied and
+half-exhausted bigotry of the then Parliament of Ireland. They set to
+work, but they were at a loss what to do; for they had already almost
+gone through every contrivance which could _waste the vigor_ of their
+country: but, after much struggle, they produced a child of their old
+age, the shocking and unnatural act about marriages, which tended to
+finish the scheme for making the people not only two distinct parties
+forever, but keeping them as two distinct species in the same land. Mr.
+Gardiner's humanity was shocked at it, as one of the worst parts of that
+truly barbarous system, if one could well settle the preference, where
+almost all the parts were outrages on the rights of humanity and the
+laws of Nature.
+
+Suppose an atheist, playing the part of a bigot, should be in power
+again in that country, do you believe that he would faithfully and
+religiously administer the trust of appointing pastors to a church
+which, wanting every other support, stands in tenfold need of ministers
+who will be dear to the people committed to their charge, and who will
+exercise a really paternal authority amongst them? But if the superior
+power was always in a disposition to dispense conscientiously, and like
+an upright trustee and guardian of these rights which he holds for those
+with whom he is at variance, has he the capacity and means of doing it?
+How can the Lord-Lieutenant form the least judgment of their merits, so
+as to discern which of the Popish priests is fit to be made a bishop? It
+cannot be: the idea is ridiculous. He will hand them over to
+lords-lieutenant of counties, justices of the peace, and other persons,
+who, for the purpose of vexing and turning to derision this miserable
+people, will pick out the worst and most obnoxious they can find amongst
+the clergy to set over the rest. Whoever is complained against by his
+brother will be considered as persecuted; whoever is censured by his
+superior will be looked upon as oppressed; whoever is careless in his
+opinions and loose in his morals will be called a liberal man, and will
+be supposed to have incurred hatred because he was not a bigot.
+Informers, tale-bearers, perverse and obstinate men, flatterers, who
+turn their back upon their flock and court the Protestant gentlemen of
+the country, will be the objects of preferment. And then I run no risk
+in foretelling that whatever order, quiet, and morality you have in the
+country will be lost. A Popish clergy who are not restrained by the most
+austere subordination will become a nuisance, a real public grievance of
+the heaviest kind, in any country that entertains them; and instead of
+the great benefit which Ireland does and has long derived from them, if
+they are educated without any idea of discipline and obedience, and then
+put under bishops who do not owe their station to their good opinion,
+and whom they cannot respect, that nation will see disorders, of which,
+bad as things are, it has yet no idea. I do not say this, as thinking
+the leading men in Ireland would exercise this trust worse than others.
+Not at all. No man, no set of men living are fit to administer the
+affairs or regulate the interior economy of a church to which they are
+enemies.
+
+As to government, if I might recommend a prudent caution to them, it
+would be, to innovate as little as possible, upon speculation, in
+establishments from which, as they stand, they experience no material
+inconvenience to the repose of the country,--_quieta non movere_.
+
+I could say a great deal more; but I am tired, and am afraid your
+Lordship is tired too. I have not sat to this letter a single quarter of
+an hour without interruption. It has grown long, and probably contains
+many repetitions, from my total want of leisure to digest and
+consolidate my thoughts; and as to my expressions, I could wish to be
+able perhaps to measure them more exactly. But my intentions are fair,
+and I certainly mean to offend nobody.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thinking over this matter more maturely, I see no reason for altering my
+opinion in any part. The act, as far as it goes, is good undoubtedly. It
+amounts, I think, very nearly to a _toleration_, with respect to
+religious ceremonies; but it puts a new bolt on civil rights, and rivets
+it to the old one in such a manner, that neither, I fear, will be easily
+loosened. What I could have wished would be, to see the civil advantages
+take the lead; the other, of a religious toleration, I conceive, would
+follow, (in a manner,) of course. From what I have observed, it is
+pride, arrogance, and a spirit of domination, and not a bigoted spirit
+of religion, that has caused and kept up those oppressive statutes. I am
+sure I have known those who have oppressed Papists in their civil rights
+exceedingly indulgent to them in their religious ceremonies, and who
+really wished them to continue Catholics, in order to furnish pretences
+for oppression. These persons never saw a man (by converting) escape out
+of their power, but with grudging and regret. I have known men to whom I
+am not uncharitable in saying (though they are dead) that they would
+have become Papists in order to oppress Protestants, if, being
+Protestants, it was not in their power to oppress Papists. It is
+injustice, and not a mistaken conscience, that has been the principle of
+persecution,--at least, as far as it has fallen under my
+observation.--However, as I began, so I end. I do not know the map of
+the country. Mr. Gardiner, who conducts this great and difficult work,
+and those who support him, are better judges of the business than I can
+pretend to be, who have not set my foot in Ireland these sixteen years.
+I have been given to understand that I am not considered as a friend to
+that country; and I know that pains have been taken to lessen the credit
+that I might have had there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am so convinced of the weakness of interfering in any business,
+without the opinion of the people in whose business I interfere, that I
+do not know how to acquit myself of what I have now done.
+
+I have the honor to be, with high regard and esteem, my Lord,
+
+Your Lordship's most obedient
+
+And humble servant, &c.
+
+EDMUND BURKE.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] The sketch of the bill sent to Mr. Burke, along with the repeal of
+some acts, reaffirmed many others in the penal code. It was altered
+afterwards, and the clauses reaffirming the incapacities left out; but
+they all still exist, and are in full force.
+
+[27] It appears that Mr. Hutchinson meant this only as one of the means
+for their relief in point of education.
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+LETTER
+
+TO
+
+SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, BART., M.P.,
+
+ON THE SUBJECT OF
+
+THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND,
+
+THE PROPRIETY OF ADMITTING THEM TO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE, CONSISTENTLY
+WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION, AS ESTABLISHED AT THE
+REVOLUTION.
+
+1792.
+
+
+My Dear Sir,--Your remembrance of me, with sentiments of so much
+kindness, has given me the most sincere satisfaction. It perfectly
+agrees with the friendly and hospitable reception which my son and I
+received from you some time since, when, after an absence of twenty-two
+years, I had the happiness of embracing you, among my few surviving
+friends.
+
+I really imagined that I should not again interest myself in any public
+business. I had, to the best of my moderate faculties, paid my club to
+the society which I was born in some way or other to serve; and I
+thought I had a right to put on my night-gown and slippers, and wish a
+cheerful evening to the good company I must leave behind. But if our
+resolutions of vigor and exertion are so often broken or procrastinated
+in the execution, I think we may be excused, if we are not very punctual
+in fulfilling our engagements to indolence and inactivity. I have,
+indeed, no power of action, and am almost a cripple even with regard to
+thinking; but you descend with force into the stagnant pool, and you
+cause such a fermentation as to cure at least one impotent creature of
+his lameness, though it cannot enable him either to run or to wrestle.
+
+You see by the paper[28] I take that I am likely to be long, with malice
+prepense. You have brought under my view a subject always difficult, at
+present critical. It has filled my thoughts, which I wish to lay open to
+you with the clearness and simplicity which your friendship demands from
+me. I thank you for the communication of your ideas. I should be still
+more pleased, if they had been more your own. What you hint I believe to
+be the case: that, if you had not deferred to the judgment of others,
+our opinions would not differ more materially at this day than they did
+when we used to confer on the same subject so many years ago. If I still
+persevere in my old opinions, it is no small comfort to me that it is
+not with regard to doctrines properly yours that I discover my
+indocility.
+
+The case upon which your letter of the 10th of December turns is hardly
+before me with precision enough to enable me to form any very certain
+judgment upon it. It seems to be some plan of further indulgence
+proposed for the Catholics of Ireland. You observe, that your "general
+principles are not changed, but that _times and circumstances are
+altered_." I perfectly agree with you, that times and circumstances,
+considered with reference to the public, ought very much to govern our
+conduct,--though I am far from slighting, when applied with discretion
+to those circumstances, general principles and maxims of policy. I
+cannot help observing, however, that you have said rather less upon the
+inapplicability of your own old principles to the _circumstances_ that
+are likely to influence your conduct against these principles than of
+the _general_ maxims of state, which I can very readily believe not to
+have great weight with you personally.
+
+In my present state of imperfect information, you will pardon the
+errors into which I may easily fall. The principles you lay down are,
+"that the Roman Catholics should enjoy everything _under_ the state, but
+should not be _the state itself_." And you add, "that, when you exclude
+them from being _a part of the state_, you rather conform to the spirit
+of the age than to any abstract doctrine"; but you consider the
+Constitution as already established,--that our state is Protestant. "It
+was declared so at the Revolution. It was so provided in the acts for
+settling the succession of the crown:--the king's coronation oath was
+enjoined in order to keep it so. The king, as first magistrate of the
+state, is obliged to take the oath of abjuration,[29] and to subscribe
+the Declaration; and by laws subsequent, every other magistrate and
+member of the state, legislative and executive, are bound under the same
+obligation."
+
+As to the plan to which these maxims are applied, I cannot speak, as I
+told you, positively about it: because neither from your letter, nor
+from any in formation I have been able to collect, do I find anything
+settled, either on the part of the Roman Catholics themselves, or on
+that of any persons who may wish to conduct their affairs in Parliament.
+But if I have leave to conjecture, something is in agitation towards
+admitting them, under _certain qualifications_, to have _some share_ in
+the election of members of Parliament. This I understand is the scheme
+of those who are entitled to come within your description of persons of
+consideration, property, and character,--and firmly attached to the king
+and Constitution, as by "law established, with a grateful sense of your
+former concessions, and a patient reliance on the benignity of
+Parliament for the further mitigation of the laws that still affect
+them."--As to the low, thoughtless, wild, and profligate, who have
+joined themselves with those of other professions, but of the same
+character, you are not to imagine that for a moment I can suppose them
+to be met with anything else than the manly and enlightened energy of a
+firm government, supported by the united efforts of all virtuous men, if
+ever their proceedings should become so considerable as to demand its
+notice. I really think that such associations should be crushed in their
+very commencement.
+
+Setting, therefore, this case out of the question, it becomes an object
+of very serious consideration, whether, because wicked men of _various_
+descriptions are engaged in seditious courses, the rational, sober, and
+valuable part of _one_ description should not be indulged in their sober
+and rational expectations. You, who have looked deeply into the spirit
+of the Popery laws, must be perfectly sensible that a great part of the
+present mischief which we abhor in common (if it at all exists) has
+arisen from them. Their declared object was, to reduce the Catholics of
+Ireland to a miserable populace, without property, without estimation,
+without education. The professed object was, to deprive the few men,
+who, in spite of those laws, might hold or obtain any property amongst
+them, of all sort of influence or authority over the rest. They divided
+the nation into two distinct bodies, without common interest, sympathy,
+or connection. One of these bodies was to possess _all_ the franchises,
+_all_ the property, _all_ the education: the other was to be composed of
+drawers of water and cutters of turf for them. Are we to be astonished,
+when, by the efforts of so much violence in conquest, and so much policy
+in regulation, continued without intermission for near an hundred years,
+we had reduced them to a mob, that, whenever they came to act at all,
+many of them would act exactly like a mob, without temper, measure, or
+foresight? Surely it might be just now a matter of temperate discussion,
+whether you ought not to apply a remedy to the real cause of the evil.
+If the disorder you speak of be real and considerable, you ought to
+raise an aristocratic interest, that is, an interest of property and
+education, amongst them,--and to strengthen, by every prudent means, the
+authority and influence of men of that description. It will deserve your
+best thoughts, to examine whether this can be done without giving such
+persons the means of demonstrating to the rest that something more is to
+be got by their temperate conduct than can be expected from the wild and
+senseless projects of those who do not belong to their body, who have no
+interest in their well-being, and only wish to make them the dupes of
+their turbulent ambition.
+
+If the absurd persons you mention find no way of providing for liberty,
+but by overturning this happy Constitution, and introducing a frantic
+democracy, let us take care how we prevent better people from any
+rational expectations of partaking in the benefits of that Constitution
+_as it stands_. The maxims you establish cut the matter short. They have
+no sort of connection with the good or the ill behavior of the persons
+who seek relief, or with the proper or improper means by which they seek
+it. They form a perpetual bar to all pleas and to all expectations.
+
+You begin by asserting, that "the Catholics ought to enjoy all things
+_under_ the state, but that they ought not to _be the state_": a
+position which, I believe, in the latter part of it, and in the latitude
+there expressed, no man of common sense has ever thought proper to
+dispute; because the contrary implies that the state ought to be in them
+_exclusively_. But before you have finished the line, you express
+yourself as if the other member of your proposition, namely, that "they
+ought not to be a _part_ of the state," were necessarily included in the
+first,--whereas I conceive it to be as different as a part is from the
+whole, that is, just as different as possible. I know, indeed, that it
+is common with those who talk very differently from you, that is, with
+heat and animosity, to confound those things, and to argue the admission
+of the Catholics into any, however minute and subordinate, parts of the
+state, as a surrender into their hands of the whole government of the
+kingdom. To them I have nothing at all to say.
+
+Wishing to proceed with a deliberative spirit and temper in so very
+serious a question, I shall attempt to analyze, as well as I can, the
+principles you lay down, in order to fit them for the grasp of an
+understanding so little comprehensive as
+mine.--"State,"--"Protestant,"--"Revolution." These are terms which, if
+not well explained, may lead us into many errors. In the word _State_ I
+conceive there is much ambiguity. The state is sometimes used to signify
+_the whole commonwealth_, comprehending all its orders, with the several
+privileges belonging to each. Sometimes it signifies only _the higher
+and ruling part_ of the commonwealth, which we commonly call _the
+Government_. In the first sense, to be under the state, but not the
+state itself, _nor any part of it_, that is, to be nothing at all in the
+commonwealth, is a situation perfectly intelligible,--but to those who
+fill that situation, not very pleasant, when it is understood. It is a
+state of _civil servitude_, by the very force of the definition.
+_Servorum non est respublica_ is a very old and a very true maxim. This
+servitude, which makes men _subject_ to a state without being
+_citizens_, may be more or less tolerable from many circumstances; but
+these circumstances, more or less favorable, do not alter the nature of
+the thing. The mildness by which absolute masters exercise their
+dominion leaves them masters still. We may talk a little presently of
+the manner in which the majority of the people of Ireland (the
+Catholics) are affected by this situation, which at present undoubtedly
+is theirs, and which you are of opinion ought so to continue forever.
+
+In the other sense of the word _State_, by which is understood the
+_Supreme Government_ only, I must observe this upon the question: that
+to exclude whole classes of men entirely from this _part_ of government
+cannot be considered as _absolute slavery_. It only implies a lower and
+degraded state of citizenship: such is (with more or less strictness)
+the condition of all countries in which an hereditary nobility possess
+the exclusive rule. This may be no bad mode of government,--provided
+that the personal authority of individual nobles be kept in due bounds,
+that their cabals and factions are guarded against with a severe
+vigilance, and that the people (who have no share in granting their own
+money) are subjected to but light impositions, and are otherwise treated
+with attention, and with indulgence to their humors and prejudices.
+
+The republic of Venice is one of those which strictly confines all the
+great functions and offices, such as are truly _stale_ functions and
+_state_ offices, to those who by hereditary right or admission are noble
+Venetians. But there are many offices, and some of them not mean nor
+unprofitable, (that of Chancellor is one,) which are reserved for the
+_cittadini_. Of these all citizens of Venice are capable. The
+inhabitants of the _terra firma_, who are mere subjects of conquest,
+that is, as you express it, under the state, but "not a part of it," are
+not, however, subjects in so very rigorous a sense as not to be capable
+of numberless subordinate employments. It is, indeed, one of the
+advantages attending the narrow bottom of their aristocracy, (narrow as
+compared with their acquired dominions, otherwise broad enough,) that an
+exclusion from such employments cannot possibly be made amongst their
+subjects. There are, besides, advantages in states so constituted, by
+which those who are considered as of an inferior race are indemnified
+for their exclusion from the government, and from nobler employments. In
+all these countries, either by express law, or by usage more operative,
+the noble castes are almost universally, in their turn, excluded from
+commerce, manufacture, farming of land, and in general from all
+lucrative civil professions. The nobles have the monopoly of honor; the
+plebeians a monopoly of all the means of acquiring wealth. Thus some
+sort of a balance is formed among conditions; a sort of compensation is
+furnished to those who, in a _limited sense_, are excluded from the
+government of the state.
+
+Between the extreme of _a total exclusion_, to which your maxim goes,
+and _an universal unmodified capacity_, to which the fanatics pretend,
+there are many different degrees and stages, and a great variety of
+temperaments, upon which prudence may give full scope to its exertions.
+For you know that the decisions of prudence (contrary to the system of
+the insane reasoners) differ from those of judicature; and that almost
+all the former are determined on the more or the less, the earlier or
+the later, and on a balance of advantage and inconvenience, of good and
+evil.
+
+In all considerations which turn upon the question of vesting or
+continuing the state solely and exclusively in some one description of
+citizens, prudent legislators will consider how far _the general form
+and principles of their commonwealth render it fit to be cast into an
+oligarchical shape, or to remain always in it_. We know that the
+government of Ireland (the same as the British) is not in its
+constitution _wholly_ aristocratical; and as it is not such in its form,
+so neither is it in its spirit. If it had been inveterately
+aristocratical, exclusions might be more patiently submitted to. The lot
+of one plebeian would be the lot of all; and an habitual reverence and
+admiration of certain families might make the people content to see
+government wholly in hands to whom it seemed naturally to belong. But
+our Constitution has _a plebeian member_, which forms an essential
+integrant part of it. A plebeian oligarchy is a monster; and no people,
+not absolutely domestic or predial slaves, will long endure it. The
+Protestants of Ireland are not _alone_ sufficiently the people to form a
+democracy; and they are _too numerous_ to answer the ends and purposes
+of _an aristocracy_. Admiration, that first source of obedience, can be
+only the claim or the imposture of the few. I hold it to be absolutely
+impossible for two millions of plebeians, composing certainly a very
+clear and decided majority in that class, to become so far in love with
+six or seven hundred thousand of their fellow-citizens (to all outward
+appearance plebeians like themselves, and many of them tradesmen,
+servants, and otherwise inferior to some of them) as to see with
+satisfaction, or even with patience, an exclusive power vested in them,
+by which _constitutionally_ they become the absolute masters, and, by
+the _manners_ derived from their circumstances, must be capable of
+exercising upon them, daily and hourly, an insulting and vexatious
+superiority. Neither are the majority of the Irish indemnified (as in
+some aristocracies) for this state of humiliating vassalage (often
+inverting the nature of things and relations) by having the lower walks
+of industry wholly abandoned to them. They are rivalled, to say the
+least of the matter, in every laborious and lucrative course of life;
+while every franchise, every honor, every trust, every place, down to
+the very lowest and least confidential, (besides whole professions,) is
+reserved for the master caste.
+
+Our Constitution is not made for great, general, and proscriptive
+exclusions; sooner or later it will destroy them, or they will destroy
+the Constitution. In our Constitution there has always been a difference
+between _a franchise_ and _an office_, and between the capacity for the
+one and for the other. Franchises were supposed to belong to the
+_subject_, as _a subject_, and not as _a member of the governing part of
+the state_. The policy of government has considered them as things very
+different; for, whilst Parliament excluded by the test acts (and for a
+while these test acts were not a dead letter, as now they are in
+England) Protestant Dissenters from all civil and military employments,
+they _never touched their right of voting for members of Parliament or
+sitting in either House_: a point I state, not as approving or
+condemning, with regard to them, the measure of exclusion from
+employments, but to prove that the distinction has been admitted in
+legislature, as, in truth, it is founded in reason.
+
+I will not here examine whether the principles of the British [the
+Irish] Constitution be wise or not. I must assume that they are, and
+that those who partake the franchises which make it partake of a
+benefit. They who are excluded from votes (under proper qualifications
+inherent in the Constitution that gives them) are excluded, not from
+_the state_, but from _the British Constitution_. They cannot by any
+possibility, whilst they hear its praises continually rung in their
+ears, and are present at the declaration which is so generally and so
+bravely made by those who possess the privilege, that the best blood in
+their veins ought to be shed to preserve their share in it,--they, the
+disfranchised part, cannot, I say, think themselves in an _happy_ state,
+to be utterly excluded from all its direct and all its consequential
+advantages. The popular part of the Constitution must be to them by far
+the most odious part of it. To them it is not an _actual_, and, if
+possible, still less a _virtual_ representation. It is, indeed, the
+direct contrary. It is power unlimited placed in the hands of _an
+adverse_ description _because it is an adverse description_. And if they
+who compose the privileged body have not an interest, they must but too
+frequently have motives of pride, passion, petulance, peevish jealousy,
+or tyrannic suspicion, to urge them to treat the excluded people with
+contempt and rigor.
+
+This is not a mere theory; though, whilst men are men, it is a theory
+that cannot be false. I do not desire to revive all the particulars in
+my memory; I wish them to sleep forever; but it is impossible I should
+wholly forget what happened in some parts of Ireland, with very few and
+short intermissions, from the year 1761 to the year 1766, both
+inclusive. In a country of miserable police, passing from the extremes
+of laxity to the extremes of rigor, among a neglected and therefore
+disorderly populace, if any disturbance or sedition, from any grievance
+real or imaginary, happened to arise, it was presently perverted from
+its true nature, often criminal enough in itself to draw upon it a
+severe, appropriate punishment: it was metamorphosed into a conspiracy
+against the state, and prosecuted as such. Amongst the Catholics, as
+being by far the most numerous and the most wretched, all sorts of
+offenders against the laws must commonly be found. The punishment of low
+people for the offences usual among low people would warrant no
+inference against any descriptions of religion or of politics. Men of
+consideration from their age, their profession, or their character, men
+of proprietary landed estates, substantial renters, opulent merchants,
+physicians, and titular bishops, could not easily be suspected of riot
+in open day, or of nocturnal assemblies for the purpose of pulling down
+hedges, making breaches in park-walls, firing barns, maiming cattle, and
+outrages of a similar nature, which characterize the disorders of an
+oppressed or a licentious populace. But when the evidence given on the
+trial for such misdemeanors qualified them as overt acts of high
+treason, and when witnesses were found (such witnesses as they were) to
+depose to the taking of oaths of allegiance by the rioters to the king
+of France, to their being paid by his money, and embodied and exercised
+under his officers, to overturn the state for the purposes of that
+potentate,--in that case, the rioters might (if the witness was
+believed) be supposed only the troops, and persons more reputable the
+leaders and commanders, in such a rebellion. All classes in the
+obnoxious description, who could not be suspected of the lower crime of
+riot, might be involved in the odium, in the suspicion, and sometimes in
+the punishment, of a higher and far more criminal species of offence.
+These proceedings did not arise from any one of the Popery laws since
+repealed, but from this circumstance, that, when it answered the
+purposes of an election party or a malevolent person of influence to
+forge such plots, the people had no protection. The people of that
+description have no hold on the gentlemen who aspire to be popular
+representatives. The candidates neither love nor respect nor fear them,
+individually or collectively. I do not think this evil (an evil amongst
+a thousand others) at this day entirely over; for I conceive I have
+lately seen some indication of a disposition perfectly similar to the
+old one,--that is, a disposition to carry the imputation of crimes from
+persons to descriptions, and wholly to alter the character and quality
+of the offences themselves.
+
+This universal exclusion seems to me a serious evil,--because many
+collateral oppressions, besides what I have just now stated, have arisen
+from it. In things of this nature it would not be either easy or proper
+to quote chapter and verse; but I have great reason to believe,
+particularly since the Octennial Act, that several have refused at all
+to let their lands to Roman Catholics, because it would so far disable
+them from promoting such interests in counties as they were inclined to
+favor. They who consider also the state of all sorts of tradesmen,
+shopkeepers, and particularly publicans in towns, must soon discern the
+disadvantages under which those labor who have no votes. It cannot be
+otherwise, whilst the spirit of elections and the tendencies of human
+nature continue as they are. If property be artificially separated from
+franchise, the franchise must in some way or other, and in some
+proportion, naturally attract property to it. Many are the collateral
+disadvantages, amongst a _privileged_ people, which must attend on those
+who have _no_ privileges.
+
+Among the rich, each individual, with or without a franchise, is of
+importance; the poor and the middling are no otherwise so than as they
+obtain some collective capacity, and can be aggregated to some corps. If
+legal ways are not found, illegal will be resorted to; and seditious
+clubs and confederacies, such as no man living holds in greater horror
+than I do, will grow and flourish, in spite, I am afraid, of anything
+which can be done to prevent the evil. Lawful enjoyment is the surest
+method to prevent unlawful gratification. Where there is property, there
+will be less theft; where there is marriage, there will always be less
+fornication.
+
+I have said enough of the question of state, _as it affects the people
+merely as such_. But it is complicated with a political question
+relative to religion, to which it is very necessary I should say
+something,--because the term _Protestant_, which you apply, is too
+general for the conclusions which one of your accurate understanding
+would wish to draw from it, and because a great deal of argument will
+depend on the use that is made of that term.
+
+It is _not_ a fundamental part of the settlement at the Revolution that
+the state should be Protestant _without any qualification of the term_.
+With a qualification it is unquestionably true; not in all its latitude.
+With the qualification, it was true before the Revolution. Our
+predecessors in legislation were not so irrational (not to say impious)
+as to form an operose ecclesiastical establishment, and even to render
+the state itself in some degree subservient to it, when their religion
+(if such it might be called) was nothing but a mere _negation_ of some
+other,--without any positive idea, either of doctrine, discipline,
+worship, or morals, in the scheme which they professed themselves, and
+which they imposed upon others, even under penalties and incapacities.
+No! No! This never could have been done, even by reasonable atheists.
+They who think religion of no importance to the state have abandoned it
+to the conscience or caprice of the individual; they make no provision
+for it whatsoever, but leave every club to make, or not, a voluntary
+contribution towards its support, according to their fancies. This would
+be consistent. The other always appeared to me to be a monster of
+contradiction and absurdity. It was for that reason, that, some years
+ago, I strenuously opposed the clergy who petitioned, to the number of
+about three hundred, to be freed from the subscription to the
+Thirty-Nine Articles, without proposing to substitute any other in their
+place. There never has been a religion of the state (the few years of
+the Parliament only excepted) but that of _the Episcopal Church of
+England_: the Episcopal Church of England, before the Reformation,
+connected with the see of Rome; since then, disconnected, and protesting
+against some of her doctrines, and against the whole of her authority,
+as binding in our national church: nor did the fundamental laws of this
+kingdom (in Ireland it has been the same) ever know, at any period, any
+other church _as an object of establishment_,--or, in that light, any
+other Protestant religion. Nay, our Protestant _toleration_ itself, at
+the Revolution, and until within a few years, required a signature of
+thirty-six, and a part of the thirty-seventh, out of the Thirty-Nine
+Articles. So little idea had they at the Revolution of _establishing_
+Protestantism indefinitely, that they did not indefinitely _tolerate_ it
+under that name. I do not mean to praise that strictness, where nothing
+more than merely religious toleration is concerned. Toleration, being a
+part of moral and political prudence, ought to be tender and large. A
+tolerant government ought not to be too scrupulous in its
+investigations, but may bear without blame, not only very ill-grounded
+doctrines, but even many things that are positively vices, where they
+are _adulta et prævalida_. The good of the commonwealth is the rule
+which rides over the rest; and to this every other must completely
+submit.
+
+The Church of Scotland knows as little of Protestantism _undefined_ as
+the Church of England and Ireland do. She has by the articles of union
+secured to herself the perpetual establishment of _the Confession of
+Faith_, and the _Presbyterian_ Church government. In England, even
+during the troubled interregnum, it was not thought fit to establish a
+_negative_ religion; but the Parliament settled the _Presbyterian_ as
+the Church _discipline_, the _Directory_ as the rule of public
+_worship_, and the _Westminster Catechism_ as the institute of _faith_.
+This is to show that at no time was the Protestant religion,
+_undefined_, established here or anywhere else, as I believe. I am sure,
+that, when the three religions were established in Germany, they were
+expressly characterized and declared to be the _Evangelic_, the
+_Reformed_, and the _Catholic_; each of which has its confession of
+faith and its settled discipline: so that you always may know the best
+and the worst of them, to enable you to make the most of what is good,
+and to correct or to qualify or to guard against whatever may seem evil
+or dangerous.
+
+As to the coronation oath, to which you allude, as opposite to admitting
+a Roman Catholic to the use of any franchise whatsoever, I cannot think
+that the king would be perjured, if he gave his assent to any regulation
+which Parliament might think fit to make with regard to that affair. The
+king is bound by law, as clearly specified in several acts of
+Parliament, to be in communion with the Church of England. It is a part
+of the tenure by which he holds his crown; and though no provision was
+made till the Revolution, which could be called positive and valid in
+law, to ascertain this great principle, I have always considered it as
+in fact fundamental, that the king of England should be of the Christian
+religion, according to the national legal church for the time being. I
+conceive it was so before the Reformation. Since the Reformation it
+became doubly necessary; because the king is the head of that church, in
+some sort an ecclesiastical person,--and it would be incongruous and
+absurd to have the head of the Church of one faith, and the members of
+another. The king may _inherit_ the crown as a _Protestant_; but he
+cannot _hold it_, according to law, without being a Protestant _of the
+Church of England_.
+
+Before we take it for granted that the king is bound by his coronation
+oath not to admit any of his Catholic subjects to the rights and
+liberties which ought to belong to them as Englishmen, (not as
+religionists,) or to settle the conditions or proportions of such
+admission by an act of Parliament, I wish you to place before your eyes
+that oath itself, as it is settled in the act of William and Mary.
+
+"Will you to the utmost of your power maintain
+      1                2                 3
+the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel,
+           4
+and the Protestant Reformed Religion _established by_
+                            5
+_law_? And will you preserve unto the _bishops_ and clergy of this
+realm, and to the churches committed to _their_ charge, all such rights
+and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of
+them?--All this I promise to do."
+
+Here are the coronation engagements of the king. In them I do not find
+one word to preclude his Majesty from consenting to any arrangement
+which Parliament may make with regard to the civil privileges of any
+part of his subjects.
+
+It may not be amiss, on account of the light which it will throw on this
+discussion, to look a little more narrowly into the matter of that
+oath,--in order to discover how far it has hitherto operated, or how far
+in future it ought to operate, as a bar to any proceedings of the crown
+and Parliament in favor of those against whom it may be supposed that
+the king has engaged to support the Protestant Church of England in the
+two kingdoms in which it is established by law. First, the king swears
+he will maintain to the utmost of his power "the laws of God." I suppose
+it means the natural moral laws.--Secondly, he swears to maintain "the
+true profession of the Gospel." By which I suppose is understood
+_affirmatively_ the Christian religion.--Thirdly, that he will maintain
+"the Protestant reformed religion." This leaves me no power of
+supposition or conjecture; for that Protestant reformed religion is
+defined and described by the subsequent words, "established by law"; and
+in this instance, to define it beyond all possibility of doubt, he
+swears to maintain the "bishops and clergy, and the churches committed
+to their charge," in their rights present and future.
+
+The oath as effectually prevents the king from doing anything to the
+prejudice of the Church, in favor of sectaries, Jews, Mahometans, or
+plain avowed infidels, as if he should do the same thing in favor of the
+Catholics. You will see that it is the same Protestant Church, so
+described, that the king is to maintain and communicate with, according
+to the Act of Settlement of the 12th and 13th of William the Third. The
+act of the 5th of Anne, made in prospect of the Union, is entitled, "An
+act for securing the Church of England as by law established." It meant
+to guard the Church implicitly against any other mode of Protestant
+religion which might creep in by means of the Union. It proves beyond
+all doubt, that the legislature did not mean to guard the Church on one
+part only, and to leave it defenceless and exposed upon every other.
+This church, in that act, is declared to be "fundamental and essential"
+forever, in the Constitution of the United Kingdom, so far as England is
+concerned; and I suppose, as the law stands, even since the
+independence, it is so in Ireland.
+
+All this shows that the religion which the king is bound to maintain has
+a positive part in it, as well as a negative,--and that the positive
+part of it (in which we are in perfect agreement with the Catholics and
+with the Church of Scotland) is infinitely the most valuable and
+essential. Such an agreement we had with Protestant Dissenters in
+England, of those descriptions who came under the Toleration Act of King
+William and Queen Mary: an act coeval with the Revolution; and which
+ought, on the principles of the gentlemen who oppose the relief to the
+Catholics, to have been held sacred and unalterable. Whether we agree
+with the present Protestant Dissenters in the points at the Revolution
+held essential and fundamental among Christians, or in any other
+fundamental, at present it is impossible for us to know: because, at
+their own very earnest desire, we have repealed the Toleration Act of
+William and Mary, and discharged them from the signature required by
+that act; and because, for the far greater part, they publicly declare
+against all manner of confessions of faith, even the _Consensus_.
+
+For reasons forcible enough at all times, but at this time particularly
+forcible with me, I dwell a little the longer upon this matter, and take
+the more pains, to put us both in mind that it was not settled at the
+Revolution that the state should be Protestant, in the latitude of the
+term, but in a defined and limited sense only, and that in that sense
+only the king is sworn to maintain it. To suppose that the king has
+sworn with his utmost power to maintain what it is wholly out of his
+power to discover, or which, if he could discover, he might discover to
+consist of things directly contradictory to each other, some of them
+perhaps impious, blasphemous, and seditious upon principle, would be not
+only a gross, but a most mischievous absurdity. If mere dissent from the
+Church of Rome be a merit, he that dissents the most perfectly is the
+most meritorious. In many points we hold strongly with that church. He
+that dissents throughout with that church will dissent with the Church
+of England, and then it will be a part of his merit that he dissents
+with ourselves: a whimsical species of merit for any set of men to
+establish. We quarrel to extremity with those who we know agree with us
+in many things; but we are to be so malicious even in the principle of
+our friendships, that we are to cherish in our bosom those who accord
+with us in nothing, because, whilst they despise ourselves, they abhor,
+even more than we do, those with whom we have some disagreement. A man
+is certainly the most perfect Protestant who protests against the whole
+Christian religion. Whether a person's having no Christian religion be a
+title to favor, in exclusion to the largest description of Christians,
+who hold all the doctrines of Christianity, though holding along with
+them some errors and some superfluities, is rather more than any man,
+who has not become recreant and apostate from his baptism, will, I
+believe, choose to affirm. The countenance given from a spirit of
+controversy to that negative religion may by degrees encourage light and
+unthinking people to a total indifference to everything positive in
+matters of doctrine, and, in the end, of practice too. If continued, it
+would play the game of that sort of active, proselytizing, and
+persecuting atheism which is the disgrace and calamity of our time, and
+which we see to be as capable of subverting a government as any mode can
+be of misguided zeal for better things.
+
+Now let us fairly see what course has been taken relative to those
+against whom, in part at least, the king has sworn to maintain a church,
+_positive in its doctrine and its discipline_. The first thing done,
+even when the oath was fresh in the mouth of the sovereigns, was to give
+a toleration to Protestant Dissenters _whose doctrines they
+ascertained_. As to the mere civil privileges which the Dissenters held
+as subjects before the Revolution, these were not touched at all. The
+laws have fully permitted, in a qualification for all offices, to such
+Dissenters, _an occasional conformity_: a thing I believe singular,
+where tests are admitted. The act, called the Test Act, itself, is, with
+regard to them, grown to be hardly anything more than a dead letter.
+Whenever the Dissenters cease by their conduct to give any alarm to the
+government, in Church and State, I think it very probable that even this
+matter, rather disgustful than inconvenient to them, may be removed, or
+at least so modified as to distinguish the qualification to those
+offices which really _guide the state_ from those which are _merely
+instrumental_, or that some other and better tests may be put in their
+place.
+
+So far as to England. In Ireland you have outran us. Without waiting for
+an English example, you have totally, and without any modification
+whatsoever, repealed the test as to Protestant Dissenters. Not having
+the repealing act by me, I ought not to say positively that there is no
+exception in it; but if it be what I suppose it is, you know very well
+that a Jew in religion, or a Mahometan, or even _a public, declared
+atheist_ and blasphemer, is perfectly qualified to be Lord-Lieutenant, a
+lord-justice, or even keeper of the king's conscience, and by virtue of
+his office (if with you it be as it is with us) administrator to a great
+part of the ecclesiastical patronage of the crown.
+
+Now let us deal a little fairly. We must admit that Protestant Dissent
+was one of the quarters from which danger was apprehended at the
+Revolution, and against which a part of the coronation oath was
+peculiarly directed. By this unqualified repeal you certainly did not
+mean to deny that it was the duty of the crown to preserve the Church
+against Protestant Dissenters; or taking this to be the true sense of
+the two Revolution acts of King William, and of the previous and
+subsequent Union acts of Queen Anne, you did not declare by this most
+unqualified repeal, by which you broke down all the barriers, not
+invented, indeed, but carefully preserved, at the Revolution,--you did
+not then and by that proceeding declare that you had advised the king to
+perjury towards God and perfidy towards the Church. No! far, very far
+from it! You never would have done it, if you did not think it could be
+done with perfect repose to the royal conscience, and perfect safety to
+the national established religion. You did this upon a full
+consideration of the circumstances of your country. Now, if
+circumstances required it, why should it be contrary to the king's oath,
+his Parliament judging on those circumstances, to restore to his
+Catholic people, in such measure and with such modifications as the
+public wisdom shall think proper to add, _some part_ in these franchises
+which they formerly had held without any limitation at all, and which,
+upon no sort of urgent reason at the time, they were deprived of? If
+such means can with any probability be shown, from circumstances, rather
+to add strength to our mixed ecclesiastical and secular Constitution
+than to weaken it, surely they are means infinitely to be preferred to
+penalties, incapacities, and proscriptions, continued from generation to
+generation. They are perfectly consistent with the other parts of the
+coronation oath, in which the king swears to maintain "the laws of God
+and the true profession of the Gospel, and to govern the people
+according to the statutes in Parliament agreed upon, and the laws and
+customs of the realm." In consenting to such a statute, the crown would
+act at least as agreeable to the laws of God, and to the true profession
+of the Gospel, and to the laws and customs of the kingdom, as George the
+First did, when he passed the statute which took from the body of the
+people everything which to that hour, and even after the monstrous acts
+of the 2nd and 8th of Anne, (the objects of our common hatred,) they
+still enjoyed inviolate.
+
+It is hard to distinguish with the last degree of accuracy what laws are
+fundamental, and what not. However, there is a distinction between them,
+authorized by the writers on jurisprudence, and recognized in some of
+our statutes. I admit the acts of King William and Queen Anne to be
+fundamental, but they are not the only fundamental laws. The law called
+_Magna Charta_, by which it is provided that "no man shall be disseised
+of his liberties and free customs but by the judgment of his peers or
+the laws of the land," (meaning clearly, for some proved crime tried and
+adjudged,) I take to be _a fundamental law._ Now, although this Magna
+Charta, or some of the statutes establishing it, provide that that law
+shall be perpetual, and all statutes contrary to it shall be void, yet I
+cannot go so far as to deny the authority of statutes made in defiance
+of Magna Charta and all its principles. This, however, I will say,--that
+it is a very venerable law, made by very wise and learned men, and that
+the legislature, in their attempt to perpetuate it, even against the
+authority of future Parliaments, have shown their judgment that it is
+_fundamental_, on the same grounds and in the same manner that the act
+of the fifth of Anne has considered and declared the establishment of
+the Church of England to be fundamental. Magna Charta, which secured
+these franchises to the subjects, regarded the rights of freeholders in
+counties to be as much a fundamental part of the Constitution as the
+establishment of the Church of England was thought either at that time,
+or in the act of King William, or in the act of Queen Anne.
+
+The churchmen who led in that transaction certainly took care of the
+material interest of which they were the natural guardians. It is the
+first article of Magna Charta, "that the Church of England shall be
+free," &c, &c. But at that period, churchmen and barons and knights took
+care of the franchises and free customs of the people, too. Those
+franchises are part of the Constitution itself, and inseparable from it.
+It would be a very strange thing, if there should not only exist
+anomalies in our laws, a thing not easy to prevent, but that the
+fundamental parts of the Constitution should be perpetually and
+irreconcilably at variance with each other. I cannot persuade myself
+that the lovers of our church are not as able to find effectual ways of
+reconciling its safety with the franchises of the people as the
+ecclesiastics of the thirteenth century were able to do; I cannot
+conceive how anything worse can be said of the Protestant religion of
+the Church of England than this,--that, wherever it is judged proper to
+give it a legal establishment, it becomes necessary to deprive the body
+of the people, if they adhere to their old opinions, of "their liberties
+and of all their free customs," and to reduce them to a state of _civil_
+servitude.
+
+There is no man on earth, I believe, more willing than I am to lay it
+down as a fundamental of the Constitution, that the Church of England
+should be united and even identified with it; but, allowing this, I
+cannot allow that all _laws of regulation_, made from time to time, in
+support of that fundamental law, are of course equally fundamental and
+equally unchangeable. This would be to confound all the branches of
+legislation and of jurisprudence. The _crown_ and the personal safety of
+the monarch are _fundamentals_ in our Constitution: yet I hope that no
+man regrets that the rabble of statutes got together during the reign of
+Henry the Eighth, by which treasons are multiplied with so prolific an
+energy, have been all repealed in a body; although they were all, or
+most of them, made in support of things truly fundamental in our
+Constitution. So were several of the acts by which the crown exercised
+its supremacy: such as the act of Elizabeth for making the _high
+commission courts_, and the like; as well as things made treason in the
+time of Charles the Second. None of this species of _secondary and
+subsidiary laws_ have been held fundamental. They have yielded to
+circumstances; particularly where they were thought, even in their
+consequences, or obliquely, to affect other fundamentals. How much more,
+certainly, ought they to give way, when, as in our case, they affect,
+not here and there, in some particular point, or in their consequence,
+but universally, collectively, and directly, the fundamental franchises
+of a people equal to the whole inhabitants of several respectable
+kingdoms and states: equal to the subjects of the kings of Sardinia or
+of Denmark; equal to those of the United Netherlands; and more than are
+to be found in all the states of Switzerland. This way of proscribing
+men by whole nations, as it were, from all the benefits of the
+Constitution to which they were born, I never can believe to be politic
+or expedient, much less necessary for the existence of any state or
+church in the world. Whenever I shall be convinced, which will be late
+and reluctantly, that the safety of the Church is utterly inconsistent
+with all the civil rights whatsoever of the far larger part of the
+inhabitants of our country, I shall be extremely sorry for it; because I
+shall think the Church to be truly in danger. It is putting things into
+the position of an ugly alternative, into which I hope in God they never
+will be put.
+
+I have said most of what occurs to me on the topics you touch upon,
+relative to the religion of the king, and his coronation oath. I shall
+conclude the observations which I wished to submit to you on this point
+by assuring you that I think you the most remote that can be conceived
+from the metaphysicians of our times, who are the most foolish of men,
+and who, dealing in universals and essences, see no difference between
+more and less,--and who of course would think that the reason of the law
+which obliged the king to be a communicant of the Church of England
+would be as valid to exclude a Catholic from being an exciseman, or to
+deprive a man who has five hundred a year, under that description, from
+voting on a par with a factitious Protestant Dissenting freeholder of
+forty shillings.
+
+Recollect, my dear friend, that it was a fundamental principle in the
+French monarchy, whilst it stood, that the state should be Catholic; yet
+the Edict of Nantes gave, not a full ecclesiastical, but a complete
+civil _establishment_, with places of which only they were capable, to
+the Calvinists of France,--and there were very few employments, indeed,
+of which they were not capable. The world praised the Cardinal de
+Richelieu, who took the first opportunity to strip them of their
+fortified places and cautionary towns. The same world held and does hold
+in execration (so far as that business is concerned) the memory of Louis
+the Fourteenth, for the total repeal of that favorable edict; though the
+talk of "fundamental laws, established religion, religion of the prince,
+safety to the state," &c., &c., was then as largely held, and with as
+bitter a revival of the animosities of the civil confusions during the
+struggles between the parties, as now they can be in Ireland.
+
+Perhaps there are persons who think that the same reason does not hold,
+when the religious relation of the sovereign and subject is changed; but
+they who have their shop full of false weights and measures, and who
+imagine that the adding or taking away the name of Protestant or
+Papist, Guelph or Ghibelline, alters all the principles of equity,
+policy, and prudence, leave us no common data upon which we can reason.
+I therefore pass by all this, which on you will make no impression, to
+come to what seems to be a serious consideration in your mind: I mean
+the dread you express of "reviewing, for the purpose of altering, the
+_principles of the Revolution_." This is an interesting topic, on which
+I will, as fully as your leisure and mine permits, lay before you the
+ideas I have formed.
+
+First, I cannot possibly confound in my mind all the things which were
+done at the Revolution with the _principles_ of the Revolution. As in
+most great changes, many things were done from the necessities of the
+time, well or ill understood, from passion or from vengeance, which were
+not only not perfectly agreeable to its principles, but in the most
+direct contradiction to them. I shall not think that the _deprivation of
+some millions of people of all the rights of citizens, and all interest
+in the Constitution, in and to which they were born_, was a thing
+conformable to the _declared principles_ of the Revolution. This I am
+sure is true relatively to England (where the operation of these
+_anti-principles_ comparatively were of little extent); and some of our
+late laws, in repealing acts made immediately after the Revolution,
+admit that some things then done were not done in the true spirit of the
+Revolution. But the Revolution operated differently in England and
+Ireland, in many, and these essential particulars. Supposing the
+principles to have been altogether the same in both kingdoms, by the
+application of those principles to very different objects the whole
+spirit of the system was changed, not to say reversed. In England it
+was the struggle of the _great body_ of the people for the establishment
+of their liberties, against the efforts of a very _small faction_, who
+would have oppressed them. In Ireland it was the establishment of the
+power of the smaller number, at the expense of the civil liberties and
+properties of the far greater part, and at the expense of the political
+liberties of the whole. It was, to say the truth, not a revolution, but
+a conquest: which is not to say a great deal in its favor. To insist on
+everything done in Ireland at the Revolution would be to insist on the
+severe and jealous policy of a conqueror, in the crude settlement of his
+new acquisition, as _a permanent_ rule for its future government. This
+no power, in no country that ever I heard of, has done or professed to
+do,--except in Ireland; where it is done, and possibly by some people
+will be professed. Time has, by degrees, in all other places and
+periods, blended and coalited the conquered with the conquerors. So,
+after some time, and after one of the most rigid conquests that we read
+of in history, the Normans softened into the English. I wish you to turn
+your recollection to the fine speech of Cerealis to the Gauls, made to
+dissuade them from revolt. Speaking of the Romans,--"_Nos_ quamvis
+toties lacessiti, jure victoriæ id solum vobis addidimus, quo pacem
+tueremur: nam neque quies gentium sine armis, neque arma sine
+stipendiis, neque stipendia sine tributis haberi queant. _Caetera in
+communi sita sunt_: ipsi plerumque nostris exercitibus _praesidetis_:
+ipsi has aliasque provincias _regitis: nil separatum clausumve_. Proinde
+pacem et urbem, quam _victores victique eodem jure obtinemus_, amate,
+colite." You will consider whether the arguments used by that Roman to
+these Gauls would apply to the case in Ireland,--and whether you could
+use so plausible a preamble to any severe warning you might think it
+proper to hold out to those who should resort to sedition, instead of
+supplication, to obtain any object that they may pursue with the
+governing power.
+
+For a much longer period than that which had sufficed to blend the
+Romans with the nation to which of all others they were the most
+adverse, the Protestants settled in Ireland considered themselves in no
+other light than that of a sort of a colonial garrison, to keep the
+natives in subjection to the other state of Great Britain. The whole
+spirit of the Revolution in Ireland was that of not the mildest
+conqueror. In truth, the spirit of those proceedings did not commence at
+that era, nor was religion of any kind their primary object. What was
+done was not in the spirit of a contest between two religious factions,
+but between two adverse nations. The statutes of Kilkenny show that the
+spirit of the Popery laws, and some even of their actual provisions, as
+applied between Englishry and Irishry, had existed in that harassed
+country before the words _Protestant_ and _Papist_ were heard of in the
+world. If we read Baron Finglas, Spenser, and Sir John Davies, we cannot
+miss the true genius and policy of the English government there before
+the Revolution, as well as during the whole reign of Queen Elizabeth.
+Sir John Davies boasts of the benefits received by the natives, by
+extending to them the English law, and turning the whole kingdom into
+shire ground. But the appearance of things alone was changed. The
+original scheme was never deviated from for a single hour. Unheard-of
+confiscations were made in the northern parts, upon grounds of plots and
+conspiracies, never proved upon their supposed authors. The war of
+chicane succeeded to the war of arms and of hostile statutes; and a
+regular series of operations was carried on, particularly from
+Chichester's time, in the ordinary courts of justice, and by special
+commissions and inquisitions,--first under pretence of tenures, and then
+of titles in the crown, for the purpose of the total extirpation of the
+interest of the natives in their own soil,--until this species of subtle
+ravage, being carried to the last excess of oppression and insolence
+under Lord Strafford, it kindled the flames of that rebellion which
+broke out in 1641. By the issue of that war, by the turn which the Earl
+of Clarendon gave to things at the Restoration, and by the total
+reduction of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691, the ruin of the native
+Irish, and, in a great measure, too, of the first races of the English,
+was completely accomplished. The new English interest was settled with
+as solid a stability as anything in human affairs can look for. All the
+penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppression, which were made
+after the last event, were manifestly the effects of national hatred and
+scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample
+upon and were not at all afraid to provoke. They were not the effect of
+their fears, but of their security. They who carried on this system
+looked to the irresistible force of Great Britain for their support in
+their acts of power. They were quite certain that no complaints of the
+natives would be heard on this side of the water with any other
+sentiments than those of contempt and indignation. Their cries served
+only to augment their torture. Machines which could answer their
+purposes so well must be of an excellent contrivance. Indeed, in
+England, the double name of the complainants, Irish and Papists, (it
+would be hard to say which singly was the most odious,) shut up the
+hearts of every one against them. Whilst that temper prevailed, (and it
+prevailed in all its force to a time within our memory,) every measure
+was pleasing and popular just in proportion as it tended to harass and
+ruin a set of people who were looked upon as enemies to God and man,
+and, indeed, as a race of bigoted savages who were a disgrace to human
+nature itself.
+
+However, as the English in Ireland began to be domiciliated, they began
+also to recollect that they had a country. The _English interest_, at
+first by faint and almost insensible degrees, but at length openly and
+avowedly, became an _independent Irish interest_,--full as independent
+as it could ever have been if it had continued in the persons of the
+native Irish; and it was maintained with more skill and more consistency
+than probably it would have been in theirs. With their views, the
+_Anglo-Irish_ changed their maxims: it was necessary to demonstrate to
+the whole people that there was something, at least, of a common
+interest, combined with the independency, which was to become the object
+of common exertions. The mildness of government produced the first
+relaxation towards the Irish; the necessities, and, in part, too, the
+temper that predominated at this great change, produced the second and
+the most important of these relaxations. English government and Irish
+legislature felt jointly the propriety of this measure. The Irish
+Parliament and nation became independent.
+
+The true revolution to you, that which most intrinsically and
+substantially resembled the English Revolution of 1688, was the Irish
+Revolution of 1782. The Irish Parliament of 1782 bore little resemblance
+to that which sat in that kingdom after the period of the first of these
+revolutions. It bore a much nearer resemblance to that which sat under
+King James. The change of the Parliament in 1782 from the character of
+the Parliament which, as a token of its indignation, had burned all the
+journals indiscriminately of the former Parliament in the
+Council-Chamber, was very visible. The address of King William's
+Parliament, the Parliament which assembled after the Revolution, amongst
+other causes of complaint (many of them sufficiently just) complains of
+the repeal by their predecessors of Poynings's law,--no absolute idol
+with the Parliament of 1782.
+
+Great Britain, finding the Anglo-Irish highly animated with a spirit
+which had indeed shown itself before, though with little energy and many
+interruptions, and therefore suffered a multitude of uniform precedents
+to be established against it, acted, in my opinion, with the greatest
+temperance and wisdom. She saw that the disposition of the _leading
+part_ of the nation would not permit them to act any longer the part of
+a _garrison_. She saw that true policy did not require that they ever
+should have appeared in that character; or if it had done so formerly,
+the reasons had now ceased to operate. She saw that the Irish of her
+race were resolved to build their Constitution and their politics upon
+another bottom. With those things under her view, she instantly complied
+with the whole of your demands, without any reservation whatsoever. She
+surrendered that boundless superiority, for the preservation of which,
+and the acquisition, she had supported the English colonies in Ireland
+for so long a time, and at so vast an expense (according to the standard
+of those ages) of her blood and treasure.
+
+When we bring before us the matter which history affords for our
+selection, it is not improper to examine the spirit of the several
+precedents which are candidates for our choice. Might it not be as well
+for your statesmen, on the other side of the water, to take an example
+from this latter and surely more conciliatory revolution, as a pattern
+for your conduct towards your own fellow-citizens, than from that of
+1688, when a paramount sovereignty over both you and them was more
+loftily claimed and more sternly exerted than at any former or at any
+subsequent period? Great Britain in 1782 rose above the vulgar ideas of
+policy, the ordinary jealousies of state, and all the sentiments of
+national pride and national ambition. If she had been more disposed
+(than, I thank God for it, she was) to listen to the suggestions of
+passion than to the dictates of prudence, she might have urged the
+principles, the maxims, the policy, the practice of the Revolution,
+against the demands of the leading description in Ireland, with full as
+much plausibility and full as good a grace as any amongst them can
+possibly do against the supplications of so vast and extensive a
+description of their own people.
+
+A good deal, too, if the spirit of domination and exclusion had
+prevailed in England, might have been excepted against some of the means
+then employed in Ireland, whilst her claims were in agitation. They
+were at least as much out of ordinary course as those which are now
+objected against admitting your people to any of the benefits of an
+English Constitution. Most certainly, neither with you nor here was any
+one ignorant of what was at that time said, written, and done. But on
+all sides we separated the means from the end: and we separated the
+cause of the moderate and rational from the ill-intentioned and
+seditious, which on such occasions are so frequently apt to march
+together. At that time, on your part, you were not afraid to review what
+was done at the Revolution of 1688, and what had been continued during
+the subsequent flourishing period of the British empire. The change then
+made was a great and fundamental alteration. In the execution, it was an
+operose business on both sides of the water. It required the repeal of
+several laws, the modification of many, and a new course to be given to
+an infinite number of legislative, judicial, and official practices and
+usages in both kingdoms. This did not frighten any of us. You are now
+asked to give, in some moderate measure, to your fellow-citizens, what
+Great Britain gave to you without any measure at all. Yet,
+notwithstanding all the difficulties at the time, and the apprehensions
+which some very well-meaning people entertained, through the admirable
+temper in which this revolution (or restoration in the nature of a
+revolution) was conducted in both kingdoms, it has hitherto produced no
+inconvenience to either; and I trust, with the continuance of the same
+temper, that it never will. I think that this small, inconsiderable
+change, (relative to an exclusive statute not made at the Revolution,)
+for restoring the people to the benefits from which the green soreness
+of a civil war had not excluded them, will be productive of no sort of
+mischief whatsoever. Compare what was done in 1782 with what is wished
+in 1792; consider the spirit of what has been done at the several
+periods of reformation; and weigh maturely whether it be exactly true
+that conciliatory concessions are of good policy only in discussions
+between nations, but that among descriptions in the same nation they
+must always be irrational and dangerous. What have you suffered in your
+peace, your prosperity, or, in what ought ever to be dear to a nation,
+your glory, by the last act by which you took the property of that
+people under the protection of the _laws_? What reasons have you to
+dread the consequences of admitting the people possessing that property
+to some share in the protection of the _Constitution_?
+
+I do not mean to trouble you with anything to remove the objections, I
+will not call them arguments, against this measure, taken from a
+ferocious hatred to all that numerous description of Christians. It
+would be to pay a poor compliment to your understanding or your heart.
+Neither _your_ religion nor _your_ politics consist "in odd, perverse
+antipathies." You are not resolved to persevere in proscribing from the
+Constitution so many millions of your countrymen, because, in
+contradiction to experience and to common sense, you think proper to
+imagine that their principles are subversive of common human society. To
+that I shall only say, that whoever has a temper which can be gratified
+by indulging himself in these good-natured fancies ought to do a great
+deal more. For an exclusion from the privileges of British subjects is
+not a cure for so terrible a distemper of the human mind as they are
+pleased to suppose in their countrymen. I rather conceive a
+participation in those privileges to be itself a remedy for some mental
+disorders.
+
+As little shall I detain you with matters that can as little obtain
+admission into a mind like yours: such as the fear, or pretence of fear,
+that, in spite of your own power and the trifling power of Great
+Britain, you may be conquered by the Pope; or that this commodious
+bugbear (who is of infinitely more use to those who pretend to fear than
+to those who love him) will absolve his Majesty's subjects from their
+allegiance, and send over the Cardinal of York to rule you as his
+viceroy; or that, by the plenitude of his power, he will take that
+fierce tyrant, the king of the French, out of his jail, and arm that
+nation (which on all occasions treats his Holiness so very politely)
+with his bulls and pardons, to invade poor old Ireland, to reduce you to
+Popery and slavery, and to force the free-born, naked feet of your
+people into the wooden shoes of that arbitrary monarch. I do not believe
+that discourses of this kind are held, or that anything like them will
+be held, by any who walk about without a keeper. Yet I confess, that, on
+occasions of this nature, I am the most afraid of the weakest
+reasonings, because they discover the strongest passions. These things
+will never be brought out in definite propositions. They would not
+prevent pity towards any persons; they would only cause it for those who
+were capable of talking in such a strain. But I know, and am sure, that
+such ideas as no man will distinctly produce to another, or hardly
+venture to bring in any plain shape to his own mind, he will utter in
+obscure, ill-explained doubts, jealousies, surmises, fears, and
+apprehensions, and that in such a fog they will appear to have a good
+deal of size, and will make an impression, when, if they were clearly
+brought forth and defined, they would meet with nothing but scorn and
+derision.
+
+There is another way of taking an objection to this concession, which I
+admit to be something more plausible, and worthy of a more attentive
+examination. It is, that this numerous class of people is mutinous,
+disorderly, prone to sedition, and easy to be wrought upon by the
+insidious arts of wicked and designing men; that, conscious of this, the
+sober, rational, and wealthy part of that body, who are totally of
+another character, do by no means desire any participation for
+themselves, or for any one else of their description, in the franchises
+of the British Constitution.
+
+I have great doubt of the exactness of any part of this observation. But
+let us admit that the body of the Catholics are prone to sedition, (of
+which, as I have said, I entertain much doubt,) is it possible that any
+fair observer or fair reasoner can think of confining this description
+to them only? I believe it to be possible for men to be mutinous and
+seditious who feel no grievance, but I believe no man will assert
+seriously, that, when people are of a turbulent spirit, the best way to
+keep them in order is to furnish them with something substantial to
+complain of.
+
+You separate, very properly, the sober, rational, and substantial part
+of their description from the rest. You give, as you ought to do, weight
+only to the former. What I have always thought of the matter is
+this,--that the most poor, illiterate, and uninformed creatures upon
+earth are judges of a _practical_ oppression. It is a matter of feeling;
+and as such persons generally have felt most of it, and are not of an
+over-lively sensibility, they are the best judges of it. But for _the
+real cause_, or _the appropriate remedy_, they ought never to be called
+into council about the one or the other. They ought to be totally shut
+out: because their reason is weak; because, when once roused, their
+passions are ungoverned; because they want information; because the
+smallness of the property which individually they possess renders them
+less attentive to the consequence of the measures they adopt in affairs
+of moment. When I find a great cry amongst the people who speculate
+little, I think myself called seriously to examine into it, and to
+separate the real cause from the ill effects of the passion it may
+excite, and the bad use which artful men may make of an irritation of
+the popular mind. Here we must be aided by persons of a contrary
+character; we must not listen to the desperate or the furious: but it is
+therefore necessary for us to distinguish who are the _really_ indigent
+and the _really_ intemperate. As to the persons who desire this part in
+the Constitution, I have no reason to imagine that they are men who have
+nothing to lose and much to look for in public confusion. The popular
+meeting from which apprehensions have been entertained has assembled. I
+have accidentally had conversation with two friends of mine who know
+something of the gentleman who was put into the chair upon that
+occasion: one of them has had money transactions with him; the other,
+from curiosity, has been to see his concerns: they both tell me he is a
+man of some property: but you must be the best judge of this, who by
+your office are likely to know his transactions. Many of the others are
+certainly persons of fortune; and all, or most, fathers of families,
+men in respectable ways of life, and some of them far from contemptible,
+either for their information, or for the abilities which they have shown
+in the discussion of their interests. What such men think it for their
+advantage to acquire ought not, _prima facie_, to be considered as rash
+or heady or incompatible with the public safety or welfare.
+
+I admit, that men of the best fortunes and reputations, and of the best
+talents and education too, may by accident show themselves furious and
+intemperate in their desires. This is a great misfortune, when it
+happens; for the first presumptions are undoubtedly in their favor. We
+have two standards of judging, in this case, of the sanity and sobriety
+of any proceedings,--of unequal certainty, indeed, but neither of them
+to be neglected: the first is by the value of the object sought; the
+next is by the means through which it is pursued.
+
+The object pursued by the Catholics is, I understand, and have all along
+reasoned as if it were so, in some degree or measure to be again
+admitted to the franchises of the Constitution. Men are considered as
+under some derangement of their intellects, when they see good and evil
+in a different light from other men,--when they choose nauseous and
+unwholesome food, and reject such as to the rest of the world seems
+pleasant and is known to be nutritive. I have always considered the
+British Constitution not to be a thing in itself so vicious as that none
+but men of deranged understanding and turbulent tempers could desire a
+share in it: on the contrary, I should think very indifferently of the
+understanding and temper of any body of men who did not wish to partake
+of this great and acknowledged benefit. I cannot think quite so
+favorably either of the sense or temper of those, if any such there are,
+who would voluntarily persuade their brethren that the object is not fit
+for them, or they for the object. Whatever may be my thoughts concerning
+them, I am quite sure that they who hold such language must forfeit all
+credit with the rest. This is infallible,--if they conceive any opinion
+of their judgment, they cannot possibly think them their friends. There
+is, indeed, one supposition which would reconcile the conduct of such
+gentlemen to sound reason, and to the purest affection towards their
+fellow-sufferers: it is, that they act under the impression of a
+well-grounded fear for the general interest. If they should be told, and
+should believe the story, that, if they dare attempt to make their
+condition better, they will infallibly make it worse,--that, if they aim
+at obtaining liberty, they will have their slavery doubled,--that their
+endeavor to put themselves upon anything which approaches towards an
+equitable footing with their fellow-subjects will be considered as an
+indication of a seditious and rebellious disposition,--such a view of
+things ought perfectly to restore the gentlemen, who so anxiously
+dissuade their countrymen from wishing a participation with the
+privileged part of the people, to the good opinion of their fellows. But
+what is to _them_ a very full justification is not quite so honorable to
+that power from whose maxims and temper so good a ground of rational
+terror is furnished. I think arguments of this kind will never be used
+by the friends of a government which I greatly respect, or by any of the
+leaders of an opposition whom I have the honor to know and the sense to
+admire. I remember Polybius tells us, that, during his captivity in
+Italy as a Peloponnesian hostage, he solicited old Cato to intercede
+with the Senate for his release, and that of his countrymen: this old
+politician told him that he had better continue in his present
+condition, however irksome, than apply again to that formidable
+authority for their relief; that he ought to imitate the wisdom of his
+countryman Ulysses, who, when he was once out of the den of the Cyclops,
+had too much sense to venture again into the same cavern. But I conceive
+too high an opinion of the Irish legislature to think that they are to
+their fellow-citizens what the grand oppressors of mankind were to a
+people whom the fortune of war had subjected to their power. For though
+Cato could use such a parallel with regard to his Senate, I should
+really think it nothing short of impious to compare an Irish Parliament
+to a den of Cyclops. I hope the people, both here and with you, will
+always apply to the House of Commons with becoming modesty, but at the
+same time with minds unembarrassed with any sort of terror.
+
+As to the means which the Catholics employ to obtain this object, so
+worthy of sober and rational minds, I do admit that such means may be
+used in the pursuit of it as may make it proper for the legislature, in
+this case, to defer their compliance until the demandants are brought to
+a proper sense of their duty. A concession in which the governing power
+of our country loses its dignity is dearly bought even by him who
+obtains his object. All the people have a deep interest in the dignity
+of Parliament. But as the refusal of franchises which are drawn out of
+the first vital stamina of the British Constitution is a very serious
+thing, we ought to be very sure that the manner and spirit of the
+application is offensive and dangerous indeed, before we ultimately
+reject all applications of this nature. The mode of application, I hear,
+is by petition. It is the manner in which all the sovereign powers of
+the world are approached; and I never heard (except in the case of James
+the Second) that any prince considered this manner of supplication to be
+contrary to the humility of a subject or to the respect due to the
+person or authority of the sovereign. This rule, and a correspondent
+practice, are observed from the Grand Seignior down to the most petty
+prince or republic in Europe.
+
+You have sent me several papers, some in print, some in manuscript. I
+think I had seen all of them, except the formula of association. I
+confess they appear to me to contain matter mischievous, and capable of
+giving alarm, if the spirit in which they are written should be found to
+make any considerable progress. But I am at a loss to know how to apply
+them as objections to the case now before us. When I find that _the
+General Committee_ which acts for the Roman Catholics in Dublin prefers
+the association proposed in the written draught you have sent me to a
+respectful application in Parliament, I shall think the persons who sign
+such a paper to be unworthy of any privilege which may be thought fit to
+be granted, and that such men ought, _by name_, to be excepted from any
+benefit under the Constitution to which they offer this violence. But I
+do not find that this form of a seditious league has been signed by any
+person whatsoever, either on the part of the supposed projectors, or on
+the part of those whom it is calculated to seduce. I do not find, on
+inquiry, that such a thing was mentioned, or even remotely alluded to,
+in the general meeting of the Catholics from which so much violence was
+apprehended. I have considered the other publications, signed by
+individuals on the part of certain societies,--I may mistake, for I have
+not the honor of knowing them personally, but I take Mr. Butler and Mr.
+Tandy not to be Catholics, but members of the Established Church. Not
+_one_ that I recollect of these publications, which you and I equally
+dislike, appears to be written by persons of that persuasion. Now, if,
+whilst a man is dutifully soliciting a favor from Parliament, any person
+should choose in an improper manner to show his inclination towards the
+cause depending, and if that _must_ destroy the cause of the petitioner,
+then, not only the petitioner, but the legislature itself, is in the
+power of any weak friend or artful enemy that the supplicant or that the
+Parliament may have. A man must be judged by his own actions only.
+Certain Protestant Dissenters make seditious propositions to the
+Catholics, which it does not appear that they have yet accepted. It
+would be strange that the tempter should escape all punishment, and that
+he who, under circumstances full of seduction and full of provocation,
+has resisted the temptation should incur the penalty. You know, that,
+with regard to the Dissenters, who are _stated_ to be the chief movers
+in this vile scheme of altering the principles of election to a right of
+voting by the head, you are not able (if you ought even to wish such a
+thing) to deprive them of any part of the franchises and privileges
+which they hold on a footing of perfect equality with yourselves. _They_
+may do what they please with constitutional impunity; but the others
+cannot even listen with civility to an invitation from them to an
+ill-judged scheme of liberty, without forfeiting forever all hopes of
+any of those liberties which we admit to be sober and rational.
+
+It is known, I believe, that the greater as well as the sounder part of
+our excluded countrymen have not adopted the wild ideas and wilder
+engagements which have been held out to them, but have rather chosen to
+hope small and safe concessions from the legal power than boundless
+objects from trouble and confusion. This mode of action seems to me to
+mark men of sobriety, and to distinguish them from those who are
+intemperate, from circumstance or from nature. But why do they not
+instantly disclaim and disavow those who make such advances to them? In
+this, too, in my opinion, they show themselves no less sober and
+circumspect. In the present moment nothing short of insanity could
+induce them to take such a step. Pray consider the circumstances.
+Disclaim, says somebody, all union with the Dissenters;--right.--But
+when this your injunction is obeyed, shall I obtain the object which I
+solicit from _you_?--Oh, no, nothing at all like it!--But, in punishing
+us, by an exclusion from the Constitution through the great gate, for
+having been invited to enter into it by a postern, will you punish by
+deprivation of their privileges, or mulet in any other way, those who
+have tempted us?--Far from it;--we mean to preserve all _their_
+liberties and immunities, as _our_ life-blood. We mean to cultivate
+_them_, as brethren whom we love and respect;--with _you_ we have no
+fellowship. We can bear with patience their enmity to ourselves; but
+their friendship with you we will not endure. But mark it well! All our
+quarrels with _them_ are always to be revenged upon _you_. Formerly, it
+is notorious that we should have resented with the highest indignation
+your presuming to show any ill-will to them. You must not suffer them,
+now, to show any good-will to you. Know--and take it once for all--that
+it is, and ever has been, and ever will be, a fundamental maxim in our
+politics, that you are not to have any part or shadow or name of
+interest whatever in our state; that we look upon you as under an
+irreversible outlawry from our Constitution,--as perpetual and
+unalliable aliens.
+
+Such, my dear Sir, is the plain nature of the argument drawn from the
+Revolution maxims, enforced by a supposed disposition in the Catholics
+to unite with the Dissenters. Such it is, though it were clothed in
+never such bland and civil forms, and wrapped up, as a poet says, in a
+thousand "artful folds of sacred lawn." For my own part, I do not know
+in what manner to shape such arguments, so as to obtain admission for
+them into a rational understanding. Everything of this kind is to be
+reduced at last to threats of power. I cannot say, _Væ victis_! and then
+throw the sword into the scale. I have no sword; and if I had, in this
+case, most certainly, I would not use it as a makeweight in political
+reasoning.
+
+Observe, on these principles, the difference between the procedure of
+the Parliament and the Dissenters towards the people in question. One
+employs courtship, the other force. The Dissenters offer bribes, the
+Parliament nothing but the _front négatif_ of a stern and forbidding
+authority. A man may be very wrong in his ideas of what is good for
+him. But no man affronts me, nor can therefore justify my affronting
+him, by offering to make me as happy as himself, according to his own
+ideas of happiness. This the Dissenters do to the Catholics. You are on
+the different extremes. The Dissenters offer, with regard to
+constitutional rights and civil advantages of all sorts, _everything_;
+you refuse _everything_. With them, there is boundless, though not very
+assured hope; with you, a very sure and very unqualified despair. The
+terms of alliance from the Dissenters offer a representation of the
+commons, chosen out of the people by the head. This is absurdly and
+dangerously large, in my opinion; and that scheme of election is known
+to have been at all times perfectly odious to me. But I cannot think it
+right of course to punish the Irish Roman Catholics by an universal
+exclusion, because others, whom you would not punish at all, propose an
+universal admission. I cannot dissemble to myself, that, in this very
+kingdom, many persons who are not in the situation of the Irish
+Catholics, but who, on the contrary, enjoy the full benefit of the
+Constitution as it stands, and some of whom, from the effect of their
+fortunes, enjoy it in a large measure, had some years ago associated to
+procure great and undefined changes (they considered them as reforms) in
+the popular part of the Constitution. Our friend, the late Mr. Flood,
+(no slight man,) proposed in his place, and in my hearing, a
+representation not much less extensive than this, for England,--in which
+every house was to be inhabited by a voter, _in addition_ to all the
+actual votes by other titles (some of the corporate) which we know do
+not require a house or a shed. Can I forget that a person of the very
+highest rank, of very large fortune, and of the first class of ability,
+brought a bill into the House of Lords, in the head-quarters of
+aristocracy, containing identically the same project for the supposed
+adoption of which by a club or two it is thought right to extinguish all
+hopes in the Roman Catholics of Ireland? I cannot say it was very
+eagerly embraced or very warmly pursued. But the Lords neither did
+disavow the bill, nor treat it with any disregard, nor express any sort
+of disapprobation of its noble author, who has never lost, with king or
+people, the least degree of the respect and consideration which so
+justly belongs to him.
+
+I am not at all enamored, as I have told you, with this plan of
+representation; as little do I relish any bandings or associations for
+procuring it. But if the question was to be put to you and
+me,--_Universal_ popular representation, or _none at all for us and
+ours_,--we should find ourselves in a very awkward position. I do not
+like this kind of dilemmas, especially when they are practical.
+
+Then, since our oldest fundamental laws follow, or rather couple,
+freehold with franchise,--since no principle of the Revolution shakes
+these liberties,--since the oldest and one of the best monuments of the
+Constitution demands for the Irish the privilege which they
+supplicate,--since the principles of the Revolution coincide with the
+declarations of the Great Charter,--since the practice of the
+Revolution, in this point, did not contradict its principles,--since,
+from that event, twenty-five years had elapsed, before a domineering
+party, on a party principle, had ventured to disfranchise, without any
+proof whatsoever of abuse, the greater part of the community,--since the
+king's coronation oath does not stand in his way to the performance of
+his duty to all his subjects,--since you have given to all other
+Dissenters these privileges without limit which are hitherto withheld
+without any limitation whatsoever from the Catholics,--since no nation
+in the world has ever been known to exclude so great a body of men (not
+born slaves) from the civil state, and all the benefits of its
+Constitution,--the whole question comes before Parliament as a matter
+for its prudence. I do not put the thing on a question of right. That
+discretion, which in judicature is well said by Lord Coke to be a
+crooked cord, in legislature is a golden rule. Supplicants ought not to
+appear too much in the character of litigants. If the subject thinks so
+highly and reverently of the sovereign authority as not to claim
+anything of right, so that it may seem to be independent of the power
+and free choice of its government,--and if the sovereign, on his part,
+considers the advantages of the subjects as their right, and all their
+reasonable wishes as so many claims,--in the fortunate conjunction of
+these mutual dispositions are laid the foundations of a happy and
+prosperous commonwealth. For my own part, desiring of all things that
+the authority of the legislature under which I was born, and which I
+cherish, not only with a dutiful awe, but with a partial and cordial
+affection, to be maintained in the utmost possible respect, I never will
+suffer myself to suppose that at bottom their discretion will be found
+to be at variance with their justice.
+
+The whole being at discretion, I beg leave just to suggest some matters
+for your consideration:--Whether the government in Church or State is
+likely to be more secure by continuing causes of grounded discontent to
+a very great number (say two millions) of the subjects? or whether the
+Constitution, combined and balanced as it is, will be rendered more
+solid by depriving so large a part of the people of all concern or
+interest or share in its representation, actual or _virtual_? I here
+mean to lay an emphasis on the word _virtual_. Virtual representation is
+that in which there is a communion of interests and a sympathy in
+feelings and desires between those who act in the name of any
+description of people and the people in whose name they act, though the
+trustees are not actually chosen by them. This is virtual
+representation. Such a representation I think to be in many cases even
+better than the actual. It possesses most of its advantages, and is free
+from many of its inconveniences; it corrects the irregularities in the
+literal representation, when the shifting current of human affairs or
+the acting of public interests in different ways carry it obliquely from
+its first line of direction. The people may err in their choice; but
+common interest and common sentiment are rarely mistaken. But this sort
+of virtual representation cannot have a long or sure existence, if it
+has not a substratum in the actual. The member must have some relation
+to the constituent. As things stand, the Catholic, as a Catholic, and
+belonging to a description, has no _virtual_ relation to the
+representative,--but the _contrary_. There is a relation in mutual
+obligation. Gratitude may not always have a very lasting power; but the
+frequent recurrence of an application for favors will revive and refresh
+it, and will necessarily produce some degree of mutual attention. It
+will produce, at least, acquaintance. The several descriptions of people
+will not be kept so much apart as they now are, as if they were not
+only separate nations, but separate species. The stigma and reproach,
+the hideous mask will be taken off, and men will see each other as they
+are. Sure I am that there have been thousands in Ireland who have never
+conversed with a Roman Catholic in their whole lives, unless they
+happened to talk to their gardener's workmen, or to ask their way, when
+they had lost it in their sports,--or, at best, who had known them only
+as footmen, or other domestics, of the second and third order: and so
+averse were they, some time ago, to have them near their persons, that
+they would not employ even those who could never find their way beyond
+the stable. I well remember a great, and in many respects a good man,
+who advertised for a blacksmith, but at the same time added, he must be
+a Protestant. It is impossible that such a state of things, though
+natural goodness in many persons will undoubtedly make exceptions, must
+not produce alienation on the one side and pride and insolence on the
+other.
+
+Reduced to a question of discretion, and that discretion exercised
+solely upon what will appear best for the conservation of the state on
+its present basis, I should recommend it to your serious thoughts,
+whether the narrowing of the foundation is always the best way to secure
+the building? The body of disfranchised men will not be perfectly
+satisfied to remain always in that state. If they are not satisfied, you
+have two millions of subjects in your bosom full of uneasiness: not that
+they cannot overturn the Act of Settlement, and put themselves and you
+under an arbitrary master; or that they are not permitted to spawn a
+hydra of wild republics, on principles of a pretended natural equality
+in man; but because you will not suffer them to enjoy the ancient,
+fundamental, tried advantages of a British Constitution,--that you will
+not permit them to profit of the protection of a common father or the
+freedom of common citizens, and that the only reason which can be
+assigned for this disfranchisement has a tendency more deeply to
+ulcerate their minds than the act of exclusion itself. What the
+consequence of such feelings must be it is for you to look to. To warn
+is not to menace.
+
+I am far from asserting that men will not excite disturbances without
+just cause. I know that such an assertion is not true. But neither is it
+true that disturbances have never just complaints for their origin. I am
+sure that it is hardly prudent to furnish them with such causes of
+complaint as every man who thinks the British Constitution a benefit may
+think at least colorable and plausible.
+
+Several are in dread of the manœuvres of certain persons among the
+Dissenters, who turn this ill humor to their own ill purposes. You know,
+better than I can, how much these proceedings of certain among the
+Dissenters are to be feared. You are to weigh, with the temper which is
+natural to you, whether it may be for the safety of our establishment
+that the Catholics should be ultimately persuaded that they have no hope
+to enter into the Constitution but through the Dissenters.
+
+Think whether this be the way to prevent or dissolve factious
+combinations against the Church or the State. Reflect seriously on the
+possible consequences of keeping in the heart of your country a bank of
+discontent, every hour accumulating, upon which every description of
+seditious men may draw at pleasure. They whose principles of faction
+will dispose them to the establishment of an arbitrary monarchy will
+find a nation of men who have no sort of interest in freedom, but who
+will have an interest in that equality of justice or favor with which a
+wise despot must view all his subjects who do not attack the foundations
+of his power. Love of liberty itself may, in such men, become the means
+of establishing an arbitrary domination. On the other hand, they who
+wish for a democratic republic will find a set of men who have no choice
+between civil servitude and the entire ruin of a mixed Constitution.
+
+Suppose the people of Ireland divided into three parts. Of these, (I
+speak within compass,) two are Catholic; of the remaining third, one
+half is composed of Dissenters. There is no natural union between those
+descriptions. It may be produced. If the two parts Catholic be driven
+into a close confederacy with half the third part of Protestants, with a
+view to a change in the Constitution in Church or State or both, and you
+rest the whole of their security on a handful of gentlemen, clergy, and
+their dependents,--compute the strength _you have in Ireland_, to oppose
+to grounded discontent, to capricious innovation, to blind popular fury,
+and to ambitious, turbulent intrigue.
+
+You mention that the minds of some gentlemen are a good deal heated, and
+that it is often said, that, rather than submit to such persons, having
+a share in their franchises, they would throw up their independence, and
+precipitate an union with Great Britain. I have heard a discussion
+concerning such an union amongst all sorts of men ever since I remember
+anything. For my own part, I have never been able to bring my mind to
+anything clear and decisive upon the subject. There cannot be a more
+arduous question. As far as I can form an opinion, it would not be for
+the mutual advantage of the two kingdoms. Persons, however, more able
+than I am think otherwise. But whatever the merits of this union may be,
+to make it a _menace_, it must be shown to be an _evil_, and an evil
+more particularly to those who are threatened with it than to those who
+hold it out as a terror. I really do not see how this threat of an union
+can operate, or that the Catholics are more likely to be losers by that
+measure than the churchmen.
+
+The humors of the people, and of politicians too, are so variable in
+themselves, and are so much under the occasional influence of some
+leading men, that it is impossible to know what turn the public mind
+here would take on such an event. There is but one thing certain
+concerning it. Great divisions and vehement passions would precede this
+union, both on the measure itself and on its terms; and particularly,
+this very question of a share in the representation for the Catholics,
+from whence the project of an union originated, would form a principal
+part in the discussion; and in the temper in which some gentlemen seem
+inclined to throw themselves, by a sort of high, indignant passion, into
+the scheme, those points would not be deliberated with all possible
+calmness.
+
+From my best observation, I should greatly doubt, whether, in the end,
+these gentlemen would obtain their object, so as to make the exclusion
+of two millions of their countrymen a fundamental article in the union.
+The demand would be of a nature quite unprecedented. You might obtain
+the union; and yet a gentleman, who, under the new union establishment,
+would aspire to the honor of representing his county, might possibly be
+as much obliged, as he may fear to be under the old separate
+establishment, to the unsupportable mortification of asking his
+neighbors, who have a different opinion concerning the elements in the
+sacrament, for their votes.
+
+I believe, nay, I am sure, that the people of Great Britain, with or
+without an union, might be depended upon, in oases of any real danger,
+to aid the government of Ireland, with the same cordiality as they would
+support their own, against any wicked attempts to shake the security of
+the happy Constitution in Church and State. But before Great Britain
+engages in any quarrel, the _cause of the dispute_ would certainly be a
+part of her consideration. If confusions should arise in that kingdom
+from too steady an attachment to a proscriptive, monopolizing system,
+and from the resolution of regarding the franchise, and in it the
+security of the subject, as belonging rather to religious opinions than
+to civil qualification and civil conduct, I doubt whether you might
+quite certainly reckon on obtaining an aid of force from hence for the
+support of that system. We might extend your distractions to this
+country by taking part in them. England will be indisposed, I suspect,
+to send an army for the conquest of Ireland. What was done in 1782 is a
+decisive proof of her sentiments of justice and moderation. She will not
+be fond of making another American war in Ireland. The principles of
+such a war would but too much resemble the former one. The well-disposed
+and the ill-disposed in England would (for different reasons perhaps)
+be equally averse to such an enterprise. The confiscations, the public
+auctions, the private grants, the plantations, the transplantations,
+which formerly animated so many adventurers, even among sober citizens,
+to such Irish expeditions, and which possibly might have animated some
+of them to the American, can have no existence in the case that we
+suppose.
+
+Let us form a supposition, (no foolish or ungrounded supposition,) that,
+in an age when men are infinitely more disposed to heat themselves with
+political than religious controversies, the former should entirely
+prevail, as we see that in some places they have prevailed, over the
+latter,--and that the Catholics of Ireland, from the courtship paid them
+on the one hand, and the high tone of refusal on the other, should, in
+order to enter into all the rights of subjects, all become Protestant
+Dissenters, and, as the others do, take all your oaths. They would all
+obtain their civil objects; and the change, for anything I know to the
+contrary, (in the dark as I am about the Protestant Dissenting tenets,)
+might be of use to the health of their souls. But what security our
+Constitution, in Church or State, could derive from that event, I cannot
+possibly discern. Depend upon it, it is as true as Nature is true, that,
+if you force them out of the religion of habit, education, or opinion,
+it is not to yours they will ever go. Shaken in their minds, they will
+go to that where the dogmas are fewest,--where they are the most
+uncertain,--where they lead them the least to a consideration of what
+they have abandoned. They will go to that uniformly democratic system to
+whose first movements they owed their emancipation. I recommend you
+seriously to turn this in your mind. Believe that it requires your best
+and maturest thoughts. Take what course you please,--union or no union;
+whether the people remain Catholics or become Protestant Dissenters,
+sure it is that the present state of monopoly _cannot_ continue.
+
+If England were animated, as I think she is not, with her former spirit
+of domination, and with the strong theological hatred which she once
+cherished for that description of her fellow-Christians and
+fellow-subjects, I am yet convinced, that, after the fullest success in
+a ruinous struggle, you would be obliged to abandon that monopoly. We
+were obliged to do this, even when everything promised success, in the
+American business. If you should make this experiment at last, under the
+pressure of any necessity, you never can do it well. But if, instead of
+falling into a passion, the leading gentlemen of the country themselves
+should undertake the business cheerfully, and with hearty affection
+towards it, great advantages would follow. What is forced cannot be
+modified: but here you may measure your concessions.
+
+It is a consideration of great moment, that you make the desired
+admission without altering the system of your representation in the
+smallest degree or in any part. You may leave that deliberation of a
+Parliamentary change or reform, if ever you should think fit to engage
+in it, uncomplicated and unembarrassed with the other question. Whereas,
+if they are mixed and confounded, as some people attempt to mix and
+confound them, no one can answer for the effects on the Constitution
+itself.
+
+There is another advantage in taking up this business singly and by an
+arrangement for the single object. It is that you may proceed by
+_degrees_. We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most
+powerful law of Nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation. All
+we can do, and that human wisdom can do, is to provide that the change
+shall proceed by insensible degrees. This has all the benefits which may
+be in change, without any of the inconveniences of mutation. Everything
+is provided for as it arrives. This mode will, on the one hand, prevent
+the _unfixing old interests at once_: a thing which is apt to breed a
+black and sullen discontent in those who are at once dispossessed of all
+their influence and consideration. This gradual course, on the other
+side, will prevent men long under depression from being intoxicated with
+a large draught of new power, which they always abuse with a licentious
+insolence. But, wishing, as I do, the change to be gradual and cautious,
+I would, in my first steps, lean rather to the side of enlargement than
+restriction.
+
+It is one excellence of our Constitution, that all our rights of
+provincial election regard rather property than person. It is another,
+that the rights which approach more nearly to the personal are most of
+them corporate, and suppose a restrained and strict education of seven
+years in some useful occupation. In both cases the practice may have
+slid from the principle. The standard of qualification in both cases may
+be so low, or not so judiciously chosen, as in some degree to frustrate
+the end. But all this is for your prudence in the case before you. You
+may rise a step or two the qualification of the Catholic voters. But if
+you were to-morrow to put the Catholic freeholder on the footing of the
+most favored forty-shilling Protestant Dissenter, you know, that, such
+is the actual state of Ireland, this would not make a sensible
+alteration in almost any _one_ election in the kingdom. The effect in
+their favor, even defensively, would be infinitely slow. But it would be
+healing; it would be satisfactory and protecting. The stigma would be
+removed. By admitting settled, permanent substance in lieu of the
+numbers, you would avoid the great danger of our time, that of setting
+up number against property. The numbers ought never to be neglected,
+because (besides what is due to them as men) collectively, though not
+individually, they have great property: they ought to have, therefore,
+protection; they ought to have security; they ought to have even
+consideration: but they ought not to predominate.
+
+My dear Sir, I have nearly done. I meant to write you a long letter: I
+have written a long dissertation. I might have done it earlier and
+better. I might have been more forcible and more clear, if I had not
+been interrupted as I have been; and this obliges me not to write to you
+in my own hand. Though my hand but signs it, my heart goes with what I
+have written. Since I could think at all, those have been my thoughts.
+You know that thirty-two years ago they were as fully matured in my mind
+as they are now. A letter of mine to Lord Kenmare, though not by my
+desire, and full of lesser mistakes, has been printed in Dublin. It was
+written ten or twelve years ago, at the time when I began the
+employment, which I have not yet finished, in favor of another
+distressed people, injured by those who have vanquished them, or stolen
+a dominion over them. It contained my sentiments then: you will see how
+far they accord with my sentiments now. Time has more and more confirmed
+me in them all. The present circumstances fix them deeper in my mind.
+
+I voted last session, if a particular vote could be distinguished in
+unanimity, for an establishment of the Church of England _conjointly_
+with the establishment, which was made some years before by act of
+Parliament, of the Roman Catholic, in the French conquered country of
+Canada. At the time of making this English ecclesiastical establishment,
+we did not think it necessary for its safety to destroy the former
+Gallican Church settlement. In our first act we settled a government
+altogether monarchical, or nearly so. In that system, the Canadian
+Catholics were far from being deprived of the advantages or
+distinctions, of any kind, which they enjoyed under their former
+monarchy. It is true that some people, and amongst them one eminent
+divine, predicted at that time that by this step we should lose our
+dominions in America. He foretold that the Pope would send his
+indulgences hither; that the Canadians would fall in with France, would
+declare independence, and draw or force our colonies into the same
+design. The independence happened according to his prediction; but in
+directly the reverse order. All our English Protestant colonies
+revolted. They joined themselves to France; and it so happened that
+Popish Canada was the only place which preserved its fidelity, the only
+place in which France got no footing, the only peopled colony which now
+remains to Great Britain. Vain are all the prognostics taken from ideas
+and passions, which survive the state of things which gave rise to them.
+When last year we gave a popular representation to the same Canada by
+the choice of the landholders, and an aristocratic representation at the
+choice of the crown, neither was the choice of the crown nor the
+election of the landholders limited by a consideration of religion. We
+had no dread for the Protestant Church which we settled there, because
+we permitted the French Catholics, in the utmost latitude of the
+description, to be free subjects. They are good subjects, I have no
+doubt; but I will not allow that any French Canadian Catholics are
+better men or better citizens than the Irish of the same communion.
+Passing from the extremity of the West to the extremity almost of the
+East, I have been many years (now entering into the twelfth) employed in
+supporting the rights, privileges, laws, and immunities of a very remote
+people. I have not as yet been able to finish my task. I have struggled
+through much discouragement and much opposition, much obloquy, much
+calumny, for a people with whom I have no tie but the common bond of
+mankind. In this I have not been left alone. We did not fly from our
+undertaking because the people are Mahometans or Pagans, and that a
+great majority of the Christians amongst them are Papists. Some
+gentlemen in Ireland, I dare say, have good reasons for what they may
+do, which do not occur to me. I do not presume to condemn them; but,
+thinking and acting as I have done towards those remote nations, I
+should not know how to show my face, here or in Ireland, if I should say
+that all the Pagans, all the Mussulmen, and even all the Papists, (since
+they must form the highest stage in the climax of evil,) are worthy of a
+liberal and honorable condition, except those of one of the
+descriptions, which forms the majority of the inhabitants of the
+country in which you and I were born. If such are the Catholics of
+Ireland, ill-natured and unjust people, from our own data, may be
+inclined not to think better of the Protestants of a soil which is
+supposed to infuse into its sects a kind of venom unknown in other
+places.
+
+You hated the old system as early as I did. Your first juvenile lance
+was broken against that giant. I think you were even the first who
+attacked the grim phantom. You have an exceedingly good understanding,
+very good humor, and the best heart in the world. The dictates of that
+temper and that heart, as well as the policy pointed out by that
+understanding, led you to abhor the old code. You abhorred it, as I did,
+for its vicious perfection. For I must do it justice: it was a complete
+system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested and well
+composed in all its parts. It was a machine of wise and elaborate
+contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and
+degradation of a people, and the debasement, in them, of human nature
+itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man. It is a
+thing humiliating enough, that we are doubtful of the effect of the
+medicines we compound,--we are sure of our poisons. My opinion ever was,
+(in which I heartily agree with those that admired the old code,) that
+it was so constructed, that, if there was once a breach in any essential
+part of it, the ruin of the whole, or nearly of the whole, was, at some
+time or other, a certainty. For that reason I honor and shall forever
+honor and love you, and those who first caused it to stagger, crack, and
+gape. Others may finish; the beginners have the glory; and, take what
+part you please at this hour, (I think you will take the best,) your
+first services will never be forgotten by a grateful country. Adieu!
+Present my best regards to those I know,--and as many as I know in our
+country I honor. There never was so much ability, nor, I believe, virtue
+in it. They have a task worthy of both. I doubt not they will perform
+it, for the stability of the Church and State, and for the union and the
+separation of the people: for the union of the honest and peaceable of
+all sects; for their separation from all that is ill-intentioned and
+seditious in any of them.
+
+BEACONSFIELD, JANUARY 3, 1792.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[28] The letter is written on folio sheets.
+
+[29] A small error of fact as to the abjuration oath, but of no
+importance in the argument.
+
+
+
+
+HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL
+
+TO BE DELIVERED TO
+
+MONSIEUR DE M.M.
+
+WRITTEN IN THE EARLY PART OF 1791
+
+
+The King, my master, from his sincere desire of keeping up a good
+correspondence with his Most Christian Majesty and the French nation,
+has for some time beheld with concern the condition into which that
+sovereign and nation have fallen.
+
+Notwithstanding the reality and the warmth of those sentiments, his
+Britannic Majesty has hitherto forborne in any manner to take part in
+their affairs, in hopes that the common interest of king and subjects
+would render all parties sensible of the necessity of settling their
+government and their freedom upon principles of moderation, as the only
+means of securing permanence to both those blessings, as well as
+internal and external tranquillity to the kingdom of France, and to all
+Europe.
+
+His Britannic Majesty finds, to his great regret, that his hopes have
+not been realized. He finds that confusions and disorders have rather
+increased than diminished, and that they now threaten to proceed to
+dangerous extremities.
+
+In this situation of things, the same regard to a neighboring sovereign
+living in friendship with Great Britain, the same spirit of good-will to
+the kingdom of France, the same regard to the general tranquillity,
+which have caused him to view with concern the growth and continuance of
+the present disorders, have induced the King of Great Britain to
+interpose his good offices towards a reconcilement of those unhappy
+differences. This his Majesty does with the most cordial regard to the
+good of all descriptions concerned, and with the most perfect sincerity,
+wholly removing from his royal mind all memory of every circumstance
+which might impede him in the execution of a plan of benevolence which
+he has so much at heart.
+
+His Majesty, having always thought it his greatest glory that he rules
+over a people perfectly and solidly, because soberly, rationally, and
+legally free, can never be supposed to proceed in offering thus his
+royal mediation, but with an unaffected desire and full resolution to
+consider the settlement of a free constitution in France as the very
+basis of any agreement between the sovereign and those of his subjects
+who are unhappily at variance with him,--to guaranty it to them, if it
+should be desired, in the most solemn and authentic manner, and to do
+all that in him lies to procure the like guaranty from other powers.
+
+His Britannic Majesty, in the same manner, assures the Most Christian
+King that he knows too well and values too highly what is due to the
+dignity and rights of crowned heads, and to the implied faith of
+treaties which have always been made with the _crown_ of France, ever to
+listen to any proposition by which that monarchy shall be despoiled of
+all its rights, so essential for the support of the consideration of the
+prince and the concord and welfare of the people.
+
+If, unfortunately, a due attention should not be paid to these his
+Majesty's benevolent and neighborly offers, or if any circumstances
+should prevent the Most Christian King from acceding (as his Majesty
+has no doubt he is well disposed to do) to this healing mediation in
+favor of himself and all his subjects, his Majesty has commanded me to
+take leave of this court, as not conceiving it to be suitable to the
+dignity of his crown, and to what he owes to his faithful people, any
+longer to keep a public minister at the court of a sovereign who is not
+in possession of his own liberty.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS
+
+ON
+
+FRENCH AFFAIRS,
+
+ETC., ETC.
+
+WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 1791.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
+
+
+In all our transactions with France, and at all periods, we have treated
+with that state on the footing of a monarchy. Monarchy was considered in
+all the external relations of that kingdom with every power in Europe as
+its legal and constitutional government, and that in which alone its
+federal capacity was vested.
+
+[Sidenote: Montmorin's Letter.]
+
+It is not yet a year since Monsieur de Montmorin formally, and with as
+little respect as can be imagined to the king, and to all crowned heads,
+announced a total Revolution in that country. He has informed the
+British ministry that its frame of government is wholly altered,--that
+he is one of the ministers of the new system,--and, in effect, that the
+king is no longer his master, (nor does he even call him such,) but the
+"_first of the ministers_," in the new system.
+
+[Sidenote: Acceptance of the Constitution ratified.]
+
+The second notification was that of the king's acceptance of the new
+Constitution, accompanied with fanfaronades in the modern style of the
+French bureaus: things which have much more the air and character of the
+saucy declamations of their clubs than the tone of regular office.
+
+It has not been very usual to notify to foreign courts anything
+concerning the internal arrangements of any state. In the present case,
+the circumstance of these two notifications, with the observations with
+which they are attended, does not leave it in the choice of the
+sovereigns of Christendom to appear ignorant either of this French
+Revolution or (what is more important) of its principles.
+
+We know, that, very soon after this manifesto of Monsieur de Montmorin,
+the king of France, in whose name it was made, found himself obliged to
+fly, with his whole family,--leaving behind him a declaration in which
+he disavows and annuls that Constitution, as having been the effect of
+force on his person and usurpation on his authority. It is equally
+notorious, that this unfortunate prince was, with many circumstances of
+insult and outrage, brought back prisoner by a deputation of the
+pretended National Assembly, and afterwards suspended by their authority
+from his government. Under equally notorious constraint, and under
+menaces of total deposition, he has been compelled to accept what they
+call a Constitution, and to agree to whatever else the usurped power
+which holds him in confinement thinks proper to impose.
+
+His nest brother, who had fled with him, and his third brother, who had
+fled before him, all the princes of his blood who remained faithful to
+him, and the flower of his magistracy, his clergy, and his nobility,
+continue in foreign countries, protesting against all acts done by him
+in his present situation, on the grounds upon which he had himself
+protested against them at the time of his flight,--with this addition,
+that they deny his very competence (as on good grounds they may) to
+abrogate the royalty, or the ancient constitutional orders of the
+kingdom. In this protest they are joined by three hundred of the late
+Assembly itself, and, in effect, by a great part of the French nation.
+The new government (so far as the people dare to disclose their
+sentiments) is disdained, I am persuaded, by the greater number,--who,
+as M. de La Fayette complains, and as the truth is, have declined to
+take any share in the new elections to the National Assembly, either as
+candidates or electors.
+
+In this state of things, (that is, in the case of a _divided_ kingdom,)
+by the law of nations,[30] Great Britain, like every other power, is
+free to take any part she pleases. She may decline, with more or less
+formality, according to her discretion, to acknowledge this new system;
+or she may recognize it as a government _de facto_, setting aside all
+discussion of its original legality, and considering the ancient
+monarchy as at an end. The law of nations leaves our court open to its
+choice. We have no direction but what is found in the well-understood
+policy of the king and kingdom.
+
+This declaration of a _new species_ of government, on new principles,
+(such it professes itself to be,) is a real crisis in the politics of
+Europe. The conduct which prudence ought to dictate to Great Britain
+will not depend (as hitherto our connection or quarrel with other states
+has for some time depended) upon merely _external_ relations, but in a
+great measure also upon the system which we may think it right to adopt
+for the internal government of our own country.
+
+If it be our policy to assimilate our government to that of France, we
+ought to prepare for this change by encouraging the schemes of authority
+established there. We ought to wink at the captivity and deposition of
+a prince with whom, if not in close alliance, we were in friendship. We
+ought to fall in with the ideas of Monsieur Montmorin's circular
+manifesto, and to do business of course with the functionaries who act
+under the new power by which that king to whom his Majesty's minister
+has been sent to reside has been deposed and imprisoned. On that idea we
+ought also to withhold all sorts of direct or indirect countenance from
+those who are treating in Germany for the reëstablishment of the French
+monarchy and the ancient orders of that state. This conduct is suitable
+to this policy.
+
+The question is, whether this policy be suitable to the interests of the
+crown and subjects of Great Britain. Let us, therefore, a little
+consider the true nature and probable effects of the Revolution which,
+in such a very unusual manner, has been twice diplomatically announced
+to his Majesty.
+
+[Sidenote: Difference between this Revolution and others.]
+
+There have been many internal revolutions in the government of
+countries, both as to persons and forms, in which the neighboring states
+have had little or no concern. Whatever the government might be with
+respect to those persons and those forms, the stationary interests of
+the nation concerned have most commonly influenced the new governments
+in the same manner in which they influenced the old; and the revolution,
+turning on matter of local grievance or of local accommodation, did not
+extend beyond its territory.
+
+[Sidenote: Nature of the French Revolution.]
+
+The present Revolution in France seems to me to be quite of another
+character and description, and to bear little resemblance or analogy to
+any of those which have been brought about in Europe, upon principles
+merely political. _It is a Revolution of doctrine and theoretic dogma_.
+It has a much greater resemblance to those changes which have been made
+upon religious grounds, in which a spirit of proselytism makes an
+essential part.
+
+The last revolution of doctrine and theory which has happened in Europe
+is the Reformation. It is not for my purpose to take any notice here of
+the merits of that revolution, but to state one only of its effects.
+
+[Sidenote: Its effects.]
+
+That effect was, _to introduce other interests into all countries than
+those which arose from their locality and natural circumstances_. The
+principle of the Reformation was such as, by its essence, could not be
+local or confined to the country in which it had its origin. For
+instance, the doctrine of "Justification by Faith or by Works," which
+was the original basis of the Reformation, could not have one of its
+alternatives true as to Germany and false as to every other country.
+Neither are questions of theoretic truth and falsehood governed by
+circumstances any more than by places. On that occasion, therefore, the
+spirit of proselytism expanded itself with great elasticity upon all
+sides: and great divisions were everywhere the result.
+
+These divisions, however in appearance merely dogmatic, soon became
+mixed with the political; and their effects were rendered much more
+intense from this combination. Europe was for a long time divided into
+two great factions, under the name of Catholic and Protestant, which not
+only often alienated state from state, but also divided almost every
+state within itself. The warm parties in each state were more
+affectionately attached to those of their own doctrinal interest in
+some other country than to their fellow-citizens or to their natural
+government, when they or either of them happened to be of a different
+persuasion. These factions, wherever they prevailed, if they did not
+absolutely destroy, at least weakened and distracted the locality of
+patriotism. The public affections came to have other motives and other
+ties.
+
+It would be to repeat the history of the two last centuries to exemplify
+the effects of this revolution.
+
+Although the principles to which it gave rise did not operate with a
+perfect regularity and constancy, they never wholly ceased to operate.
+Few wars were made, and few treaties were entered into, in which they
+did not come in for some part. They gave a color, a character, and
+direction to all the politics of Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: New system of politics.]
+
+These principles of internal as well as external division and coalition
+are but just now extinguished. But they who will examine into the true
+character and genius of some late events must be satisfied that other
+sources of faction, combining parties among the inhabitants of different
+countries into one connection, are opened, and that from these sources
+are likely to arise effects full as important as those which had
+formerly arisen from the jarring interests of the religious sects. The
+intention of the several actors in the change in France is not a matter
+of doubt. It is very openly professed.
+
+In the modern world, before this time, there has been no instance of
+this spirit of general political faction, separated from religion,
+pervading several countries, and forming a principle of union between
+the partisans in each. But the thing is not less in human nature. The
+ancient world has furnished a strong and striking instance of such a
+ground for faction, full as powerful and full as mischievous as our
+spirit of religions system had ever been, exciting in all the states of
+Greece (European and Asiatic) the most violent animosities and the most
+cruel and bloody persecutions and proscriptions. These ancient factions
+in each commonwealth of Greece connected themselves with those of the
+same description in some other states; and secret cabals and public
+alliances were carried on and made, not upon a conformity of general
+political interests, but for the support and aggrandizement of the two
+leading states which headed the aristocratic and democratic factions.
+For as, in later times, the king of Spain was at the head of a Catholic,
+and the king of Sweden of a Protestant interest, (France, though
+Catholic, acting subordinately to the latter,) in the like manner the
+Lacedemonians were everywhere at the head of the aristocratic interests,
+and the Athenians of the democratic. The two leading powers kept alive a
+constant cabal and conspiracy in every state, and the political dogmas
+concerning the constitution of a republic were the great instruments by
+which these leading states chose to aggrandize themselves. Their choice
+was not unwise; because the interest in opinions, (merely as opinions,
+and without any experimental reference to their effects,) when once they
+take strong hold of the mind, become the most operative of all
+interests, and indeed very often supersede every other.
+
+I might further exemplify the possibility of a political sentiment
+running through various states, and combining factions in them, from the
+history of the Middle Ages in the Guelfs and Ghibellines. These were
+political factions originally in favor of the Emperor and the Pope, with
+no mixture of religious dogmas: or if anything religiously doctrinal
+they had in them originally, it very soon disappeared; as their first
+political objects disappeared also, though the spirit remained. They
+became no more than names to distinguish factions: but they were not the
+less powerful in their operation, when they had no direct point of
+doctrine, either religious or civil, to assert. For a long time,
+however, those factions gave no small degree of influence to the foreign
+chiefs in every commonwealth in which they existed. I do not mean to
+pursue further the track of these parties. I allude to this part of
+history only as it furnishes an instance of that species of faction
+which broke the locality of public affections, and united descriptions
+of citizens more with strangers than with their countrymen of different
+opinions.
+
+[Sidenote: French fundamental principle.]
+
+The political dogma, which, upon the new French system, is to unite the
+factions of different nations, is this: "That the majority, told by the
+head, of the taxable people in every country, is the perpetual, natural,
+unceasing, indefeasible sovereign; that this majority is perfectly
+master of the form as well as the administration of the state, and that
+the magistrates, under whatever names they are called, are only
+functionaries to obey the orders (general as laws or particular as
+decrees) which that majority may make; that this is the only natural
+government; that all others are tyranny and usurpation."
+
+[Sidenote: Practical project.]
+
+In order to reduce this dogma into practice, the republicans in France,
+and their associates in other countries, make it always their business,
+and often their public profession, to destroy all traces of ancient
+establishments, and to form a new commonwealth in each country, upon the
+basis of the French _Rights of Man_. On the principle of these rights,
+they mean to institute in every country, and as it were the germ of the
+whole, parochial governments, for the purpose of what they call equal
+representation. From them is to grow, by some media, a general council
+and representative of all the parochial governments. In that
+representative is to be vested the whole national power,--totally
+abolishing hereditary name and office, levelling all conditions of men,
+(except where money _must_ make a difference,) breaking all connection
+between territory and dignity, and abolishing every species of nobility,
+gentry, and Church establishments: all their priests and all their
+magistrates being only creatures of election and pensioners at will.
+
+Knowing how opposite a permanent landed interest is to that scheme, they
+have resolved, and it is the great drift of all their regulations, to
+reduce that description of men to a mere peasantry for the sustenance of
+the towns, and to place the true effective government in cities, among
+the tradesmen, bankers, and voluntary clubs of bold, presuming young
+persons,--advocates, attorneys, notaries, managers of newspapers, and
+those cabals of literary men called academies. Their republic is to have
+a first functionary, (as they call him,) under the name of King, or not,
+as they think fit. This officer, when such an officer is permitted, is,
+however, neither in fact nor name to be considered as sovereign, nor the
+people as his subjects. The very use of these appellations is offensive
+to their ears.
+
+[Sidenote: Partisans of the French system.]
+
+This system, as it has first been realized, dogmatically as well as
+practically, in France, makes France the natural head of all factions
+formed on a similar principle, wherever they may prevail, as much as
+Athens was the head and settled ally of all democratic factions,
+wherever they existed. The other system has no head.
+
+This system has very many partisans in every country in Europe, but
+particularly in England, where they are already formed into a body,
+comprehending most of the Dissenters of the three leading denominations.
+To these are readily aggregated all who are Dissenters in character,
+temper, and disposition, though not belonging to any of their
+congregations: that is, all the restless people who resemble them, of
+all ranks and all parties,--Whigs, and even Tories; the whole race of
+half-bred speculators; all the Atheists, Deists, and Socinians; all
+those who hate the clergy and envy the nobility; a good many among the
+moneyed people; the East Indians almost to a man, who cannot bear to
+find that their present importance does not bear a proportion to their
+wealth. These latter have united themselves into one great, and, in my
+opinion, formidable club,[31] which, though now quiet, may be brought
+into action with considerable unanimity and force.
+
+Formerly, few, except the ambitious great or the desperate and indigent,
+were to be feared as instruments in revolutions. What has happened in
+France teaches us, with many other things, that there are more causes
+than have commonly been taken into our consideration, by which
+government may be subverted. The moneyed men, merchants, principal
+tradesmen, and men of letters (hitherto generally thought the peaceable
+and even timid part of society) are the chief actors in the French
+Revolution. But the fact is, that, as money increases and circulates,
+and as the circulation of news in politics and letters becomes more and
+more diffused, the persons who diffuse this money and this intelligence
+become more and more important. This was not long undiscovered. Views of
+ambition were in France, for the first time, presented to these classes
+of men: objects in the state, in the army, in the system of civil
+offices of every kind. Their eyes were dazzled with this new prospect.
+They were, as it were, electrified, and made to lose the natural spirit
+of their situation. A bribe, great without example in the history of the
+world, was held out to them,--the whole government of a very large
+kingdom.
+
+[Sidenote: Grounds of security supposed for England.]
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Interest.]
+
+[Sidenote: Moneyed interest.]
+
+There are several who are persuaded that the same thing cannot happen in
+England, because here (they say) the occupations of merchants,
+tradesmen, and manufacturers are not held as degrading situations. I
+once thought that the low estimation in which commerce was held in
+France might be reckoned among the causes of the late Revolution; and I
+am still of opinion that the exclusive spirit of the French nobility did
+irritate the wealthy of other classes. But I found long since, that
+persons in trade and business were by no means despised in France in the
+manner I had been taught to believe. As to men of letters, they were so
+far from being despised or neglected, that there was no country,
+perhaps, in the universe, in which they were so highly esteemed,
+courted, caressed, and even feared: tradesmen naturally were not so much
+sought in society, (as not furnishing so largely to the fund of
+conversation as they do to the revenues of the state,) but the latter
+description got forward every day. M. Bailly, who made himself the
+popular mayor on the rebellion of the Bastile, and is a principal actor
+in the revolt, before the change possessed a pension or office under the
+crown of six hundred pound English a year,--for that country, no
+contemptible provision; and this he obtained solely as a man of letters,
+and on no other title. As to the moneyed men, whilst the monarchy
+continued, there is no doubt, that, merely as such, they did not enjoy
+the _privileges_ of nobility; but nobility was of so easy an
+acquisition, that it was the fault or neglect of all of that description
+who did not obtain its privileges, for their lives at least, in virtue
+of office. It attached under the royal government to an innumerable
+multitude of places, real and nominal, that were vendible; and such
+nobility were as capable of everything as their degree of influence or
+interest could make them,--that is, as nobility of no considerable rank
+or consequence. M. Necker, so far from being a French gentleman, was not
+so much as a Frenchman born, and yet we all know the rank in which he
+stood on the day of the meeting of the States.
+
+[Sidenote: Mercantile interest.]
+
+As to the mere matter of estimation of the mercantile or any other
+class, this is regulated by opinion and prejudice. In England, a
+security against the envy of men in these classes is not so very
+complete as we may imagine. We must not impose upon ourselves. What
+institutions and manners together had done in France manners alone do
+here. It is the natural operation of things, where there exists a crown,
+a court, splendid orders of knighthood, and an hereditary
+nobility,--where there exists a fixed, permanent, landed gentry,
+continued in greatness and opulence by the law of primogeniture, and by
+a protection given to family settlements,--where there exists a standing
+army and navy,--where there exists a Church establishment, which bestows
+on learning and parts an interest combined with that of religion and the
+state;--in a country where such things exist, wealth, new in its
+acquisition, and precarious in its duration, can never rank first, or
+even near the first: though wealth has its natural weight further than
+as it is balanced and even preponderated amongst us, as amongst other
+nations, by artificial institutions and opinions growing out of them. At
+no period in the history of England have so few peers been taken out of
+trade or from families newly created by commerce. In no period has so
+small a number of noble families entered into the counting-house. I can
+call to mind but one in all England, and his is of near fifty years'
+standing. Be that as it may, it appears plain to me, from my best
+observation, that envy and ambition may, by art, management, and
+disposition, be as much excited amongst these descriptions of men in
+England as in any other country, and that they are just as capable of
+acting a part in any great change.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of the French spirit.--Its course.]
+
+What direction the French spirit of proselytism is likely to take, and
+in what order it is likely to prevail in the several parts of Europe, it
+is not easy to determine. The seeds are sown almost everywhere, chiefly
+by newspaper circulations, infinitely more efficacious and extensive
+than ever they were. And they are a more important instrument than
+generally is imagined. They are a part of the reading of all; they are
+the whole of the reading of the far greater number. There are thirty of
+them in Paris alone. The language diffuses them more widely than the
+English,--though the English, too, are much read. The writers of these
+papers, indeed, for the greater part, are either unknown or in contempt,
+but they are like a battery, in which the stroke of any one ball
+produces no great effect, but the amount of continual repetition is
+decisive. Let us only suffer any person to tell us his story, morning
+and evening, but for one twelvemonth, and he will become our master.
+
+All those countries in which several states are comprehended under some
+general geographical description, and loosely united by some federal
+constitution,--countries of which the members are small, and greatly
+diversified in their forms of government, and in the titles by which
+they are held,--these countries, as it might be well expected, are the
+principal objects of their hopes and machinations. Of these, the chief
+are Germany and Switzerland; after them, Italy has its place, as in
+circumstances somewhat similar.
+
+[Sidenote: Germany.]
+
+As to Germany, (in which, from their relation to the Emperor, I
+comprehend the Belgic Provinces,) it appears to me to be, from several
+circumstances, internal and external, in a very critical situation; and
+the laws and liberties of the Empire are by no means secure from the
+contagion of the French doctrines and the effect of French intrigues, or
+from the use which two of the greater German powers may make of a
+general derangement to the general detriment. I do not say that the
+French do not mean to bestow on these German states liberties, and laws
+too, after their mode; but those are not what have hitherto been
+understood as the laws and liberties of the Empire. These exist and have
+always existed under the principles of feodal tenure and succession,
+under imperial constitutions, grants and concessions of sovereigns,
+family compacts, and public treaties, made under the sanction, and some
+of them guarantied by the sovereign powers of other nations, and
+particularly the old government of France, the author and natural
+support of the Treaty of Westphalia.
+
+[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical state.]
+
+In short, the Germanic body is a vast mass of heterogeneous states, held
+together by that heterogeneous body of old principles which formed the
+public law positive and doctrinal. The modern laws and liberties, which
+the new power in France proposes to introduce into Germany, and to
+support with all its force of intrigue and of arms, is of a very
+different nature, utterly irreconcilable with the first, and indeed
+fundamentally the reverse of it: I mean the _rights and liberties of the
+man_, the _droit de l'homme_. That this doctrine has made an amazing
+progress in Germany there cannot be a shadow of doubt. They are infected
+by it along the whole course of the Rhine, the Maese, the Moselle, and
+in the greater part of Suabia and Franconia. It is particularly
+prevalent amongst all the lower people, churchmen and laity, in the
+dominions of the Ecclesiastical Electors. It is not easy to find or to
+conceive governments more mild and indulgent than these Church
+sovereignties; but good government is as nothing, when the rights of
+man take possession of the mind. Indeed, the loose rein held over the
+people in these provinces must be considered as one cause of the
+facility with which they lend themselves to any schemes of innovation,
+by inducing them to think lightly of their governments, and to judge of
+grievances, not by feeling, but by imagination.
+
+[Sidenote: Balance of Germany.]
+
+It is in these Electorates that the first impressions of France are
+likely to be made; and if they succeed, it is over with the Germanic
+body, as it stands at present. A great revolution is preparing in
+Germany, and a revolution, in my opinion, likely to be more decisive
+upon the general fate of nations than that of France itself,--other than
+as in France is to be found the first source of all the principles which
+are in any way likely to distinguish the troubles and convulsions of our
+age. If Europe does not conceive the independence and the equilibrium of
+the Empire to be in the very essence of the system of balanced power in
+Europe, and if the scheme of public law, or mass of laws, upon which
+that independence and equilibrium are founded, be of no leading
+consequence as they are preserved or destroyed, all the politics of
+Europe for more than two centuries have been miserably erroneous.
+
+[Sidenote: Prussia and Emperor.]
+
+If the two great leading powers of Germany do not regard this danger (as
+apparently they do not) in the light in which it presents itself so
+naturally, it is because they are powers too great to have a social
+interest. That sort of interest belongs only to those whose state of
+weakness or mediocrity is such as to give them greater cause of
+apprehension from what may destroy them than of hope from anything by
+which they may be aggrandized.
+
+As long as those two princes are at variance, so long the liberties of
+Germany are safe. But if ever they should so far understand one another
+as to be persuaded that they have a more direct and more certainly
+defined interest in a proportioned mutual aggrandizement than in a
+reciprocal reduction, that is, if they come to think that they are more
+likely to be enriched by a division of spoil than to be rendered secure
+by keeping to the old policy of preventing others from being spoiled by
+either of them, from that moment the liberties of Germany are no more.
+
+That a junction of two in such a scheme is neither impossible nor
+improbable is evident from the partition of Poland in 1773, which was
+effected by such a junction as made the interposition of other nations
+to prevent it not easy. Their circumstances at that time hindered any
+other three states, or indeed any two, from taking measures in common to
+prevent it, though France was at that time an existing power, and had
+not yet learned to act upon a system of politics of her own invention.
+The geographical position of Poland was a great obstacle to any
+movements of France in opposition to this, at that time, unparalleled
+league. To my certain knowledge, if Great Britain had at that time been
+willing to concur in preventing the execution of a project so dangerous
+in the example, even exhausted as France then was by the preceding war,
+and under a lazy and unenterprising prince, she would have at every risk
+taken an active part in this business. But a languor with regard to so
+remote an interest, and the principles and passions which were then
+strongly at work at home, were the causes why Great Britain would not
+give France any encouragement in such an enterprise. At that time,
+however, and with regard to that object, in my opinion, Great Britain
+and France had a common interest.
+
+[Sidenote: Possible project of the Emperor and king of Prussia.]
+
+But the position of Germany is not like that of Poland, with regard to
+France, either for good or for evil. If a conjunction between Prussia
+and the Emperor should be formed for the purpose of secularizing and
+rendering hereditary the Ecclesiastical Electorates and the Bishopric of
+Münster, for settling two of them on the children of the Emperor, and
+uniting Cologne and Münster to the dominions of the king of Prussia on
+the Rhine, or if any other project of mutual aggrandizement should be in
+prospect, and that, to facilitate such a scheme, the modern French
+should be permitted and encouraged to shake the internal and external
+security of these Ecclesiastical Electorates, Great Britain is so
+situated that she could not with any effect set herself in opposition to
+such a design. Her principal arm, her marine, could here be of no sort
+of use.
+
+[Sidenote: To be resisted only by France.]
+
+France, the author of the Treaty of Westphalia, is the natural guardian
+of the independence and balance of Germany. Great Britain (to say
+nothing of the king's concern as one of that august body) has a serious
+interest in preserving it; but, except through the power of France,
+_acting upon the common old principles of state policy_, in the case we
+have supposed, she has no sort of means of supporting that interest. It
+is always the interest of Great Britain that the power of France should
+be kept within the bounds of moderation. It is not her interest that
+that power should be wholly annihilated in the system of Europe. Though
+at one time through France the independence of Europe was endangered, it
+is, and ever was, through her alone that the common liberty of Germany
+can be secured against the single or the combined ambition of any other
+power. In truth, within this century the aggrandizement of other
+sovereign houses has been such that there has been a great change in the
+whole state of Europe; and other nations as well as France may become
+objects of jealousy and apprehension.
+
+[Sidenote: New principles of alliance.]
+
+In this state of things, a new principle of alliances and wars is
+opened. The Treaty of Westphalia is, with France, an antiquated fable.
+The rights and liberties she was bound to maintain are now a system of
+wrong and tyranny which she is bound to destroy. Her good and ill
+dispositions are shown by the same means. _To communicate peaceably_ the
+rights of men is the true mode of her showing her _friendship_; to force
+sovereigns to _submit_ to those rights is her mode of _hostility_. So
+that, either as friend or foe, her whole scheme has been, and is, to
+throw the Empire into confusion; and those statesmen who follow the old
+routine of politics may see in this general confusion, and in the danger
+of the _lesser_ princes, an occasion, as protectors or enemies, of
+connecting their territories to one or the other of the _two great_
+German powers. They do not take into consideration that the means which
+they encourage, as leading to the event they desire, will with certainty
+not only ravage and destroy the Empire, but, if they should for a moment
+seem to aggrandize the two great houses, will also establish principles
+and confirm tempers amongst the people which will preclude the two
+sovereigns from the possibility of holding what they acquire, or even
+the dominions which they have inherited. It is on the side of the
+Ecclesiastical Electorates that the dikes raised to support the German
+liberty first will give way.
+
+[Sidenote: Geneva.]
+
+[Sidenote: Savoy.]
+
+The French have begun their general operations by seizing upon those
+territories of the Pope the situation of which was the most inviting to
+the enterprise. Their method of doing it was by exciting sedition and
+spreading massacre and desolation through these unfortunate places, and
+then, under an idea of kindness and protection, bringing forward an
+antiquated title of the crown of France, and annexing Avignon and the
+two cities of the Comtat, with their territory, to the French republic.
+They have made an attempt on Geneva, in which they very narrowly failed
+of success. It is known that they hold out from time to time the idea of
+uniting all the other provinces of which Gaul was anciently composed,
+including Savoy on the other side, and on this side bounding themselves
+by the Rhine.
+
+[Sidenote: Switzerland.]
+
+[Sidenote: Old French maxims the security of its independence.]
+
+As to Switzerland, it is a country whose long union, rather than its
+possible division, is the matter of wonder. Here I know they entertain
+very sanguine hopes. The aggregation to France of the democratic Swiss
+republics appears to them to be a work half done by their very form; and
+it might seem to them rather an increase of importance to these little
+commonwealths than a derogation from their independency or a change in
+the manner of their government. Upon any quarrel amongst the Cantons,
+nothing is more likely than such an event. As to the aristocratic
+republics, the general clamor and hatred which the French excite against
+the very name, (and with more facility and success than against
+monarchs,) and the utter impossibility of their government making any
+sort of resistance against an insurrection, where they have no troops,
+and the people are all armed and trained, render their hopes in that
+quarter far indeed from unfounded. It is certain that the republic of
+Bern thinks itself obliged to a vigilance next to hostile, and to
+imprison or expel all the French whom it finds in its territories. But,
+indeed, those aristocracies, which comprehend whatever is considerable,
+wealthy, and valuable in Switzerland, do now so wholly depend upon
+opinion, and the humor of their multitude, that the lightest puff of
+wind is sufficient to blow them down. If France, under its ancient
+regimen, and upon the ancient principles of policy, was the support of
+the Germanic Constitution, it was much more so of that of Switzerland,
+which almost from the very origin of that confederacy rested upon the
+closeness of its connection with France, on which the Swiss Cantons
+wholly reposed themselves for the preservation of the parts of their
+body in their respective rights and permanent forms, as well as for the
+maintenance of all in their general independency.
+
+Switzerland and Germany are the first objects of the new French
+politicians. When I contemplate what they have done at home, which is,
+in effect, little less than an amazing conquest, wrought by a change of
+opinion, in a great part (to be sure far from altogether) very sudden, I
+cannot help letting my thoughts run along with their designs, and,
+without attending to geographical order, to consider the other states of
+Europe, so far as they may be any way affected by this astonishing
+Revolution. If early steps are not taken in some way or other to prevent
+the spreading of this influence, I scarcely think any of them perfectly
+secure.
+
+[Sidenote: Italy.]
+
+[Sidenote: Lombardy.]
+
+Italy is divided, as Germany and Switzerland are, into many smaller
+states, and with some considerable diversity as to forms of government;
+but as these divisions and varieties in Italy are not so considerable,
+so neither do I think the danger altogether so imminent there as in
+Germany and Switzerland. Savoy I know that the French consider as in a
+very hopeful way, and I believe not at all without reason. They view it
+as an old member of the kingdom of France, which may be easily reunited
+in the manner and on the principles of the reunion of Avignon. This
+country communicates with Piedmont; and as the king of Sardinia's
+dominions were long the key of Italy, and as such long regarded by
+France, whilst France acted on her old maxims, and with views on
+Italy,--so, in this new French empire of sedition, if once she gets that
+key into her hands, she can easily lay open the barrier which hinders
+the entrance of her present politics into that inviting region. Milan, I
+am sure, nourishes great disquiets; and if Milan should stir, no part of
+Lombardy is secure to the present possessors,--whether the Venetian or
+the Austrian. Genoa is closely connected with France.
+
+[Sidenote: Bourbon princes in Italy.]
+
+The first prince of the House of Bourbon has been obliged to give
+himself up entirely to the new system, and to pretend even to propagate
+it with all zeal: at least, that club of intriguers who assemble at the
+Feuillants, and whose cabinet meets at Madame de Staël's, and makes and
+directs all the ministers, is the real executive government of France.
+The Emperor is perfectly in concert, and they will not long suffer any
+prince of the House of Bourbon to keep by force the French emissaries
+out of their dominions; nor whilst France has a commerce with them,
+especially through Marseilles, (the hottest focus of sedition in
+France,) will it be long possible to prevent the intercourse or the
+effects.
+
+Naples has an old, inveterate disposition to republicanism, and (however
+for some time past quiet) is as liable to explosion as its own Vesuvius.
+Sicily, I think, has these dispositions in full as strong a degree. In
+neither of these countries exists anything which very well deserves the
+name of government or exact police.
+
+[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical State.]
+
+In the States of the Church, notwithstanding their strictness in
+banishing the French out of that country, there are not wanting the
+seeds of a revolution. The spirit of nepotism prevails there nearly as
+strong as ever. Every Pope of course is to give origin or restoration to
+a great family by the means of large donations. The foreign revenues
+have long been gradually on the decline, and seem now in a manner dried
+up. To supply this defect, the resource of vexatious and impolitic
+jobbing at home, if anything, is rather increased than lessened. Various
+well-intended, but ill-understood practices, some of them existing, in
+their spirit at least, from the time of the old Roman Empire, still
+prevail; and that government is as blindly attached to old abusive
+customs as others are wildly disposed to all sorts of innovations and
+experiments. These abuses were less felt whilst the Pontificate drew
+riches from abroad, which in some measure counterbalanced the evils of
+their remiss and jobbish government at home. But now it can subsist
+only on the resources of domestic management; and abuses in that
+management of course will be more intimately and more severely felt.
+
+In the midst of the apparently torpid languor of the Ecclesiastical
+State, those who have had opportunity of a near observation have seen a
+little rippling in that smooth water, which indicates something alive
+under it. There is in the Ecclesiastical State a personage who seems
+capable of acting (but with more force and steadiness) the part of the
+tribune Rienzi. The people, once inflamed, will not be destitute of a
+leader. They have such an one already in the Cardinal or Archbishop
+Boncompagni. He is, of all men, if I am not ill-informed, the most
+turbulent, seditious, intriguing, bold, and desperate. He is not at all
+made for a Roman of the present day. I think he lately held the first
+office of their state, that of Great Chamberlain, which is equivalent to
+High Treasurer. At present he is out of employment, and in disgrace. If
+he should be elected Pope, or even come to have any weight with a new
+Pope, he will infallibly conjure up a democratic spirit in that country.
+He may, indeed, be able to effect it without these advantages. The nest
+interregnum will probably show more of him. There may be others of the
+same character, who have not come to my knowledge. This much is
+certain,--that the Roman people, if once the blind reverence they bear
+to the sanctity of the Pope, which is their only bridle, should relax,
+are naturally turbulent, ferocious, and headlong, whilst the police is
+defective, and the government feeble and resourceless beyond all
+imagination.
+
+[Sidenote: Spain]
+
+As to Spain, it is a nerveless country. It does not possess the use, it
+only suffers the abuse, of a nobility. For some time, and even before
+the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been systematically
+lowered, and rendered incapable by exclusion, and for incapacity
+excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner
+annihilated; and so little means have they of any weighty exertion
+either to control or to support the crown, that, if they at all
+interfere, it is only by abetting desperate and mobbish insurrections,
+like that at Madrid, which drove Squillace from his place. Florida
+Blanca is a creature of office, and has little connection and no
+sympathy with that body.
+
+As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain that looks like an
+independent order; and they are kept in some respect by the Inquisition,
+the sole, but unhappy resource of public tranquillity and order now
+remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of
+state,--which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars
+no longer with Jews and heretics: it has no such war to carry on. Its
+great object is, to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making
+their way in that kingdom. No French book upon any subject can enter
+there which does not contain such matter. In Spain, the clergy are of
+moment from their influence, but at the same time with the envy and
+jealousy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by
+management with the Pope got a very great share of the ecclesiastical
+revenues into its own hands, much still remains to them. There will
+always be about that court those who look out to a farther division of
+the Church property as a resource, and to be obtained by shorter
+methods than those of negotiations with the clergy and their chief. But
+at present I think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
+should be taken out of their hands,--and lest that body, in which
+remains the only life that exists in Spain, and is not a fever, may with
+their property lose all the influence necessary to preserve the
+monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ whatever influence
+remains to them as active agents in its destruction.
+
+[Sidenote: Castile different from Catalonia and Aragon.]
+
+The Castilians have still remaining a good deal of their old character,
+their _gravedad, lealtad_, and _el temor de Dios_; but that character
+neither is, nor ever was, exactly true, except of the Castilians only.
+The several kingdoms which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
+which run through the whole; but they are in many particulars as
+different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for
+instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of
+the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of an attachment to
+royalty. They are more in the way of trade and intercourse with France,
+and, upon the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let
+loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into
+convulsions.
+
+It is a melancholy reflection, that the spirit of melioration which has
+been going on in that part of Europe, more or less, during this century,
+and the various schemes very lately on foot for further advancement, are
+all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected
+with innovation; and where that latter comes in for too large a share,
+those who undertake to improve their country may risk their own safety.
+In times where the correction, which includes the confession, of an
+abuse, is turned to criminate the authority which has long suffered it,
+rather than to honor those who would amend it, (which is the spirit of
+this malignant French distemper,) every step out of the common course
+becomes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes of
+moderate talents to engage in great undertakings. At present the only
+safety of Spain is the old national hatred to the French. How far that
+can be depended upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is
+impossible to say.
+
+As to Portugal, she is out of the high-road of these politics. I shall,
+therefore, not divert my thoughts that way, but return again to the
+North of Europe, which at present seems the part most interested, and
+there it appears to me that the French speculation on the Northern
+countries may be valued in the following or some such manner.
+
+[Sidenote: Denmark.]
+
+[Sidenote: Sweden.]
+
+Denmark and Norway do not appear to furnish any of the materials of a
+democratic revolution, or the dispositions to it. Denmark can only be
+_consequentially_ affected by anything done in Prance; but of Sweden I
+think quite otherwise. The present power in Sweden is too new a system,
+and too green and too sore from its late Revolution, to be considered as
+perfectly assured. The king, by his astonishing activity, his boldness,
+his decision, his ready versatility, and by rousing and employing the
+old military spirit of Sweden, keeps up the top with continual agitation
+and lashing. The moment it ceases to spin, the royalty is a dead bit of
+box. Whenever Sweden is quiet externally for some time, there is great
+danger that all the republican elements she contains will be animated
+by the new French spirit, and of this I believe the king is very
+sensible.
+
+[Sidenote: Russia.]
+
+The Russian government is of all others the most liable to be subverted
+by military seditions, by court conspiracies, and sometimes by headlong
+rebellions of the people, such as the turbinating movement of Pugatchef.
+It is not quite so probable that in any of these changes the spirit of
+system may mingle, in the manner it has done in France. The Muscovites
+are no great speculators; but I should not much rely on their
+uninquisitive disposition, if any of their ordinary motives to sedition
+should arise. The little catechism of the Rights of Men is soon learned;
+and the inferences are in the passions.
+
+[Sidenote: Poland.]
+
+[Sidenote: Saxony.]
+
+Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet. The new Constitution
+only serves to supply that restless people with new means, at least new
+modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition. The bottom of the
+character is the same. It is a great question, whether the joining that
+crown with the Electorate of Saxony will contribute most to strengthen
+the royal authority of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony. The
+Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six sevenths at the
+very least, Protestants. He _must_ continue a Catholic, according to the
+Polish law, if he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons, formerly
+flattered by having a crown in the house of their prince, though an
+honor which cost them dear,--the German probity, fidelity, and
+loyalty,--the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under the Treaty
+of Westphalia,--the good temper and good-nature of the princes of the
+House of Saxony, had formerly removed from the people all apprehension
+with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient,
+and even affectionate. The Seven Years' War made some change in the
+minds of the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the loss of what
+might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the
+possession of which, by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often
+obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the support of which that
+foreign interest afforded no proportionable strength. In this very
+delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of the
+French and German _Economists_, and the cabals, and the secret, as well
+as public doctrines of the _Illuminatenorden_, and _Freemasons_, have
+made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent spirit,
+under color of religion, but in reality arising from the French rights
+of man, has already shown itself, and is ready on every occasion to
+blaze out.
+
+The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet temper, of great
+prudence and goodness. He knows, that, in the actual state of things,
+not the power and respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very
+existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very certain that
+not one sovereign in Europe can either promise for the continuance of
+his authority in a state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to
+venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning
+wholly the ancient magnificence of his court, the Elector has conducted
+his affairs with infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors,
+so as to restore his finances beyond what was thought possible from the
+state in which the Seven Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
+whole of that dreadful period, having been in the hands of an
+exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity,
+was obliged to bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in the
+intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabitants of that country
+were not better treated.
+
+The moderation and prudence of the present Elector, in my opinion,
+rather, perhaps, respites the troubles than secures the peace of the
+Electorate. The offer of the succession to the crown of Poland is truly
+critical, whether he accepts or whether he declines it. If the States
+will consent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already
+great, of his situation between the king of Prussia and the
+Emperor.--But these thoughts lead me too far, when I mean to speak only
+of the interior condition of these princes. It has always, however, some
+necessary connection with their foreign politics.
+
+[Sidenote: Holland.]
+
+With regard to Holland, and the ruling party there, I do not think it at
+all tainted, or likely to be so, except by fear,--or that it is likely
+to be misled, unless indirectly and circuitously. But the predominant
+party in Holland is not Holland. The suppressed faction, though
+suppressed, exists. Under the ashes, the embers of the late commotions
+are still warm. The anti-Orange party has from the day of its origin
+been French, though alienated in some degree for some time, through the
+pride and folly of Louis the Fourteenth. It will ever hanker after a
+French connection; and now that the internal government in France has
+been assimilated in so considerable a degree to that which the
+immoderate republicans began so very lately to introduce into Holland,
+their connection, as still more natural, will be more desired. I do not
+well understand the present exterior politics of the Stadtholder, nor
+the treaty into which the newspapers say he has entered for the States
+with the Emperor. But the Emperor's own politics with regard to the
+Netherlands seem to me to be exactly calculated to answer the purpose of
+the French Revolutionists. He endeavors to crush the aristocratic party,
+and to nourish one in avowed connection with the most furious
+democratists in France.
+
+These Provinces in which the French game is so well played they consider
+as part of the old French Empire: certainly they were amongst the oldest
+parts of it. These they think very well situated, as their party is well
+disposed to a reunion. As to the greater nations, they do not aim at
+making a direct conquest of them, but, by disturbing them through a
+propagation of their principles, they hope to weaken, as they will
+weaken them, and to keep them in perpetual alarm and agitation, and thus
+render all their efforts against them utterly impracticable, whilst they
+extend the dominion of their sovereign anarchy on all sides.
+
+[Sidenote: England.]
+
+As to England, there may be some apprehension from vicinity, from
+constant communication, and from the very name of liberty, which, as it
+ought to be very dear to us, in its worst abuses carries something
+seductive. It is the abuse of the first and best of the objects which we
+cherish. I know that many, who sufficiently dislike the system of
+France, have yet no apprehensions of its prevalence here. I say nothing
+to the ground of this security in the attachment of the people to their
+Constitution, and their satisfaction in the discreet portion of liberty
+which it measures out to them. Upon this I have said all I have to say,
+in the Appeal I have published. That security is something, and not
+inconsiderable; but if a storm arises, I should not much rely upon it.
+
+[Sidenote: Objection to the stability of the French system.]
+
+There are other views of things which may be used to give us a perfect
+(though in my opinion a delusive) assurance of our own security. The
+first of these is from the weakness and rickety nature of the new system
+in the place of its first formation. It is thought that the monster of a
+commonwealth cannot possibly live,--that at any rate the ill contrivance
+of their fabric will make it fall in pieces of itself,--that the
+Assembly must be bankrupt,--and that this bankruptcy will totally
+destroy that system from the contagion of which apprehensions are
+entertained.
+
+For my part I have long thought that one great cause of the stability of
+this wretched scheme of things in France was an opinion that it could
+not stand, and therefore that all external measures to destroy it were
+wholly useless.
+
+[Sidenote: Bankruptcy.]
+
+As to the bankruptcy, that event has happened long ago, as much as it is
+ever likely to happen. As soon as a nation compels a creditor to take
+paper currency in discharge of his debt, there is a bankruptcy. The
+compulsory paper has in some degree answered,--not because there was a
+surplus from Church lands, but because faith has not been kept with the
+clergy. As to the holders of the old funds, to them the payments will be
+dilatory, but they will be made; and whatever may be the discount on
+paper, whilst paper is taken, paper will be issued.
+
+[Sidenote: Resources.]
+
+As to the rest, they have shot out three branches of revenue to supply
+all those which they have destroyed: that is, _the Universal Register of
+all Transactions_, the heavy and universal _Stamp Duty_, and the new
+_Territorial Impost_, levied chiefly on the reduced estates of the
+gentlemen. These branches of the revenue, especially as they take
+assignats in payment, answer their purpose in a considerable degree, and
+keep up the credit of their paper: for, as they receive it in their
+treasury, it is in reality funded upon all their taxes and future
+resources of all kinds, as well as upon the Church estates. As this
+paper is become in a manner the only visible maintenance of the whole
+people, the dread of a bankruptcy is more apparently connected with the
+delay of a counter-revolution than with the duration of this republic;
+because the interest of the new republic manifestly leans upon it, and,
+in my opinion, the counter-revolution cannot exist along with it. The
+above three projects ruined some ministers under the old government,
+merely for having conceived them. They are the salvation of the present
+rulers.
+
+As the Assembly has laid a most unsparing and cruel hand on all men who
+have lived by the bounty, the justice, or the abuses of the old
+government, they have lessened many expenses. The royal establishment,
+though excessively and ridiculously great for _their_ scheme of things,
+is reduced at least one half; the estates of the king's brothers, which
+under the ancient government had been in truth royal revenues, go to the
+general stock of the confiscation; and as to the crown lands, though
+under the monarchy they never yielded two hundred and fifty thousand a
+year, by many they are thought at least worth three times as much.
+
+As to the ecclesiastical charge, whether as a compensation for losses,
+or a provision for religion, of which they made at first a great parade,
+and entered into a solemn engagement in favor of it, it was estimated at
+a much larger sum than they could expect from the Church property,
+movable or immovable: they are completely bankrupt as to that article.
+It is just what they wish; and it is not productive of any serious
+inconvenience. The non-payment produces discontent and occasional
+sedition; but is only by fits and spasms, and amongst the country
+people, who are of no consequence. These seditions furnish new pretexts
+for non-payment to the Church establishment, and help the Assembly
+wholly to get rid of the clergy, and indeed of any form of religion,
+which is not only their real, but avowed object.
+
+[Sidenote: Want of money how supplied.]
+
+They are embarrassed, indeed, in the highest degree, but not wholly
+resourceless. They are without the species of money. Circulation of
+money is a great convenience, but a substitute for it may be found.
+Whilst the great objects of production and consumption, corn, cattle,
+wine, and the like, exist in a country, the means of giving them
+circulation, with more or less convenience, cannot be _wholly_ wanting.
+The great confiscation of the Church and of the crown lands, and of the
+appanages of the princes, for the purchase of all which their paper is
+always received at par, gives means of continually destroying and
+continually creating; and this perpetual destruction and renovation
+feeds the speculative market, and prevents, and will prevent, till that
+fund of confiscation begins to fail, a _total_ depreciation.
+
+[Sidenote: Moneyed interest not necessary to them.]
+
+But all consideration of public credit in France is of little avail at
+present. The action, indeed, of the moneyed interest was of absolute
+necessity at the beginning of this Revolution; but the French republic
+can stand without any assistance from that description of men, which, as
+things are now circumstanced, rather stands in need of assistance itself
+from the power which alone substantially exists in France: I mean the
+several districts and municipal republics, and the several clubs which
+direct all their affairs and appoint all their magistrates. This is the
+power now paramount to everything, even to the Assembly itself called
+National and that to which tribunals, priesthood, laws, finances, and
+both descriptions of military power are wholly subservient, so far as
+the military power of either description yields obedience to any name of
+authority.
+
+The world of contingency and political combination is much larger than
+we are apt to imagine. We never can say what may or may not happen,
+without a view to all the actual circumstances. Experience, upon other
+data than those, is of all things the most delusive. Prudence in new
+cases can do nothing on grounds of retrospect. A constant vigilance and
+attention to the train of things as they successively emerge, and to act
+on what they direct, are the only sure courses. The physician that let
+blood, and by blood-letting cured one kind of plague, in the next added
+to its ravages. That power goes with property is not universally true,
+and the idea that the operation of it is certain and invariable may
+mislead us very fatally.
+
+[Sidenote: Power separated from property.]
+
+Whoever will take an accurate view of the state of those republics, and
+of the composition of the present Assembly deputed by them, (in which
+Assembly there are not quite fifty persons possessed of an income
+amounting to 100_l._ sterling yearly,) must discern clearly, _that the
+political and civil power of France is wholly separated from its
+property of every description_, and of course that neither the landed
+nor the moneyed interest possesses the smallest weight or consideration
+in the direction of any public concern. The whole kingdom is directed by
+_the refuse of its chicane_, with the aid of the bustling, presumptuous
+young clerks of counting-houses and shops, and some intermixture of
+young gentlemen of the same character in the several towns. The rich
+peasants are bribed with Church lands; and the poorer of that
+description are, and can be, counted for nothing. They may rise in
+ferocious, ill-directed tumults,--but they can only disgrace themselves
+and signalize the triumph of their adversaries.
+
+[Sidenote: Effects of the rota.]
+
+The _truly_ active citizens, that is, the above descriptions, are all
+concerned in intrigue respecting the various objects in their local or
+their general government. The rota, which the French have established
+for their National Assembly, holds out the highest objects of ambition
+to such vast multitudes as in an unexampled measure to widen the bottom
+of a new species of interest merely political, and wholly unconnected
+with birth or property. This scheme of a rota, though it enfeebles the
+state, considered as one solid body, and indeed wholly disables it from
+acting as such, gives a great, an equal, and a diffusive strength to the
+democratic scheme. Seven hundred and fifty people, every two years
+raised to the supreme power, has already produced at least fifteen
+hundred bold, acting politicians: a great number for even so great a
+country as France. These men never will quietly settle in ordinary
+occupations, nor submit to any scheme which must reduce them to an
+entirely private condition, or to the exercise of a steady, peaceful,
+but obscure and unimportant industry. Whilst they sit in the Assembly,
+they are denied offices of trust and profit,--but their short duration
+makes this no restraint: during their probation and apprenticeship they
+are all salaried with an income to the greatest part of them immense;
+and after they have passed the novitiate, those who take any sort of
+lead are placed in very lucrative offices, according to their influence
+and credit, or appoint those who divide their profits with them.
+
+This supply of recruits to the corps of the highest civil ambition goes
+on with a regular progression. In very few years it must amount to many
+thousands. These, however, will be as nothing in comparison to the
+multitude of municipal officers, and officers of district and
+department, of all sorts, who have tasted of power and profit, and who
+hunger for the periodical return of the meal. To these needy agitators,
+the glory of the state, the general wealth and prosperity of the nation,
+and the rise or fall of public credit are as dreams; nor have arguments
+deduced from these topics any sort of weight with them. The indifference
+with which the Assembly regards the state of their colonies, the only
+valuable part of the French commerce, is a full proof how little they
+are likely to be affected by anything but the selfish game of their own
+ambition, now universally diffused.
+
+[Sidenote: Impracticability of resistance.]
+
+It is true, amidst all these turbulent means of security to their
+system, very great discontents everywhere prevail. But they only produce
+misery to those who nurse them at home, or exile, beggary, and in the
+end confiscation, to those who are so impatient as to remove from them.
+Each municipal republic has a _Committee_, or something in the nature of
+a _Committee of Research_. In these petty republics the tyranny is so
+near its object that it becomes instantly acquainted with every act of
+every man. It stifles conspiracy in its very first movements. Their
+power is absolute and uncontrollable. No stand can be made against it.
+These republics are besides so disconnected, that very little
+intelligence of what happens in them is to be obtained beyond their own
+bounds, except by the means of their clubs, who keep up a constant
+correspondence, and who give what color they please to such facts as
+they choose to communicate out of the track of their correspondence.
+They all have some sort of communication, just as much or as little as
+they please, with the centre. By this confinement of all communication
+to the ruling faction, any combination, grounded on the abuses and
+discontents in one, scarcely can reach the other. There is not one man,
+in any one place, to head them. The old government had so much
+abstracted the nobility from the cultivation of provincial interest,
+that no man in France exists, whose power, credit, or consequence
+extends to two districts, or who is capable of uniting them in any
+design, even if any man could assemble ten men together without being
+sure of a speedy lodging in a prison. One must not judge of the state of
+France by what has been observed elsewhere. It does not in the least
+resemble any other country. Analogical reasoning from history or from
+recent experience in other places is wholly delusive.
+
+In my opinion, there never was seen so strong a government internally as
+that of the French municipalities. If ever any rebellion can arise
+against the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which
+gave birth to it did, at the capital. Paris is the only place in which
+there is the least freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many
+servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestic
+enemies.
+
+[Sidenote: Gentlemen are fugitives.]
+
+But that place being the chief seat of the power and intelligence of the
+ruling faction, and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest
+spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have anything to feed
+it. The leaders of the aristocratic party have been drawn out of the
+kingdom by order of the princes, on the hopes held out by the Emperor
+and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the democratic factions in
+Paris, amongst them there are no leaders possessed of an influence for
+any other purpose but that of maintaining the present state of things.
+The moment they are seen to warp, they are reduced to nothing. They have
+no attached army,--no party that is at all personal.
+
+It is not to be imagined, because a political system is, under certain
+aspects, very unwise in its contrivance, and very mischievous in its
+effects, that it therefore can have no long duration. Its very defects
+may tend to its stability, because they are agreeable to its nature. The
+very faults in the Constitution of Poland made it last; the _veto_ which
+destroyed all its energy preserved its life. What can be conceived so
+monstrous as the republic of Algiers, and that no less strange republic
+of the Mamelukes in Egypt? They are of the worst form imaginable, and
+exercised in the worst manner, yet they have existed as a nuisance on
+the earth for several hundred years.
+
+[Sidenote: Conclusions.]
+
+From all these considerations, and many more that crowd upon me, three
+conclusions have long since arisen in my mind.
+
+First, that no counter revolution is to be expected in France from
+internal causes solely.
+
+Secondly, that, the longer the present system exists, the greater will
+be its strength, the greater its power to destroy discontents at home,
+and to resist all foreign attempts in favor of these discontents.
+
+Thirdly, that, as long as it exists in France, it will be the interest
+of the managers there, and it is in the very essence of their plan, to
+disturb and distract all other governments, and their endless succession
+of restless politicians will continually stimulate them to new attempts.
+
+[Sidenote: Proceedings of princes; defensive plans.]
+
+Princes are generally sensible that this is their common cause; and two
+of them have made a public declaration of their opinion to this effect.
+Against this common danger, some of them, such as the king of Spain, the
+king of Sardinia, and the republic of Bern, are very diligent in using
+defensive measures.
+
+If they were to guard against an invasion from France, the merits of
+this plan of a merely defensive resistance might be supported by
+plausible topics; but as the attack does not operate against these
+countries externally, but by an internal corruption, (a sort of dry
+rot,) they who pursue this merely defensive plan against a danger which
+the plan itself supposes to be serious cannot possibly escape it. For
+it is in the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and vigorous
+under the impressions of the first alarm, and to relax by degrees, until
+at length the danger, by not operating instantly, comes to appear as a
+false alarm,--so much so, that the next menacing appearance will look
+less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are
+on the offensive it is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly it is
+more their interest not to be so. For their unforeseen attacks
+contribute to their success.
+
+[Sidenote: The French party how composed.]
+
+In the mean time a system of French conspiracy is gaining ground in
+every country. This system, happening to be founded on principles the
+most delusive indeed, but the most flattering to the natural
+propensities of the unthinking multitude, and to the speculations of all
+those who think, without thinking very profoundly, must daily extend its
+influence. A predominant inclination towards it appears in all those who
+have no religion, when otherwise their disposition leads them to be
+advocates even for despotism. Hence Hume, though I cannot say that he
+does not throw out some expressions of disapprobation on the proceedings
+of the levellers in the reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms that
+the doctrines of John Ball were "conformable to the ideas of primitive
+equality _which are engraven in the hearts of all men_."
+
+Boldness formerly was not the character of atheists as such. They were
+even of a character nearly the reverse; they were formerly like the old
+Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they are grown
+active, designing, turbulent, and seditious. They are sworn enemies to
+kings, nobility, and priesthood. We have seen all the Academicians at
+Paris, with Condorcet, the friend and correspondent of Priestley, at
+their head, the most furious of the extravagant republicans.
+
+[Sidenote: Condorcet.]
+
+The late Assembly, after the last captivity of the king, had actually
+chosen this Condorcet, by a majority on the ballot, for preceptor to the
+Dauphin, who was to be taken out of the hands and direction of his
+parents, and to be delivered over to this fanatic atheist and furious
+democratic republican. His untractability to these leaders, and his
+figure in the club of Jacobins, which at that time they wished to bring
+under, alone prevented that part of the arrangement, and others in the
+same style, from being carried into execution. Whilst he was candidate
+for this office, he produced his title to it by promulgating the
+following ideas of the title of his royal pupil to the crown. In a paper
+written by him, and published with his name, against the reëstablishment
+even of the appearance of monarchy under any qualifications, he says:--
+
+[Sidenote: Doctrine of the French.]
+
+"Jusqu'à ce moment, ils [l'Assemblée Nationale] n'ont rien préjugé
+encore. En se réservant de nommer un gouverneur au Dauphin, ils n'ont
+pas prononcé _que cet enfant dût régner_, mais seulement qu'il _était
+possible_ que la Constitution l'y destinât; ils ont voulu que
+l'éducation effaçât tout ce que _les prestiges du trône_ ont pu lui
+inspirer de préjugés sur les droits prétendus de sa naissance; qu'elle
+lui fît connaître de bonne heure et _l'égalité naturelle des hommes et
+la souveraineté du peuple_; qu'elle lui apprît à ne pas oublier que
+c'est _du peuple_ qu'il tiendra le titre de Roi, et que _le peuple n'a
+pas même le droit de renoncer à celui de l'en dépouiller_.
+
+"Ils ont voulu que cette éducation le rendît également digne, par ses
+lumières et ses vertus, de recevoir _avec résignation_ le fardeau
+dangereux d'une couronne, ou de la _déposer avec joie_ entre les mains
+de ses frères; qu'il sentît que le devoir et la gloire du roi d'un
+peuple libre sont de hâter le moment de n'être plus qu'un citoyen
+ordinaire.
+
+"Ils ont voulu que _l'inutilité d'un roi_, la nécessité de chercher les
+moyens de remplacer _un pouvoir fondé sur des illusions_, fût une des
+premières vérités offertes à sa raison; _l'obligation d'y concourir
+lui-même, un des premiers devoirs de sa morale; et le désir de n'être
+plus affranchi du joug de la loi par une injurieuse inviolabilité, le
+premier sentiment de son cœur_. Ils n'ignorent pas que dans ce moment
+il s'agit bien moins de former un roi que de lui apprendre _à savoir à
+vouloir ne plus l'être_."[32]
+
+Such are the sentiments of the man who has occasionally filled the chair
+of the National Assembly, who is their perpetual secretary, their only
+standing officer, and the most important by far. He leads them to peace
+or war. He is the great theme of the republican faction in England.
+These ideas of M. Condorcet are the principles of those to whom kings
+are to intrust their successors and the interests of their succession.
+This man would be ready to plunge the poniard in the heart of his pupil,
+or to whet the axe for his neck. Of all men, the most dangerous is a
+warm, hot-headed, zealous atheist. This sort of man aims at dominion,
+and his means are the words he always has in his mouth,--"_L'égalité
+naturelle des hommes, et la souveraineté du peuple_."
+
+All former attempts, grounded on these rights of men, had proved
+unfortunate. The success of this last makes a mighty difference in the
+effect of the doctrine. Here is a principle of a nature to the multitude
+the most seductive, always existing before their eyes _as a thing
+feasible in practice_. After so many failures, such an enterprise,
+previous to the French experiment, carried ruin to the contrivers, on
+the face of it; and if any enthusiast was so wild as to wish to engage
+in a scheme of that nature, it was not easy for him to find followers:
+now there is a party almost in all countries, ready-made, animated with
+success, with a sure ally in the very centre of Europe. There is no
+cabal so obscure in any place, that they do not protect, cherish,
+foster, and endeavor to raise it into importance at home and abroad.
+From the lowest, this intrigue will creep up to the highest. Ambition,
+as well as enthusiasm, may find its account in the party and in the
+principle.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of ministers.]
+
+The ministers of other kings, like those of the king of France, (not one
+of whom was perfectly free from this guilt, and some of whom were very
+deep in it,) may themselves be the persons to foment such a disposition
+and such a faction. Hertzberg, the king of Prussia's late minister, is
+so much of what is called a philosopher, that he was of a faction with
+that sort of politicians in everything, and in every place. Even when he
+defends himself from the imputation of giving extravagantly into these
+principles, he still considers the Revolution of France as a great
+public good, by giving credit to their fraudulent declaration of their
+universal benevolence and love of peace. Nor are his Prussian Majesty's
+present ministers at all disinclined to the same system. Their
+ostentatious preamble to certain late edicts demonstrates (if their
+actions had not been sufficiently explanatory of their cast of mind)
+that they are deeply infected with the same distemper of dangerous,
+because plausible, though trivial and shallow, speculation.
+
+Ministers, turning their backs on the reputation which properly belongs
+to them, aspire at the glory of being speculative writers. The duties of
+these two situations are in general directly opposite to each other.
+Speculators ought to be neutral. A minister cannot be so. He is to
+support the interest of the public as connected with that of his master.
+He is his master's trustee, advocate, attorney, and steward,--and he is
+not to indulge in any speculation which contradicts that character, or
+even detracts from its efficacy. Necker had an extreme thirst for this
+sort of glory; so had others; and this pursuit of a misplaced and
+misunderstood reputation was one of the causes of the ruin of these
+ministers, and of their unhappy, master. The Prussian ministers in
+foreign courts have (at least not long since) talked the most democratic
+language with regard to Prance, and in the most unmanaged terms.
+
+[Sidenote: Corps diplomatique.]
+
+The whole _corps diplomatique_, with very few exceptions, leans that
+way. What cause produces in them a turn of mind which at first one would
+think unnatural to their situation it is not impossible to explain. The
+discussion would, however, be somewhat long and somewhat invidious. The
+fact itself is indisputable, however they may disguise it to their
+several courts. This disposition is gone to so very great a length in
+that corps, in itself so important, and so important as _furnishing_ the
+intelligence which sways all cabinets, that, if princes and states do
+not very speedily attend with a vigorous control to that source of
+direction and information, very serious evils are likely to befall them.
+
+[Sidenote: Sovereigns--their dispositions.]
+
+But, indeed, kings are to guard against the same sort of dispositions in
+themselves. They are very easily alienated from all the higher orders of
+their subjects, whether civil or military, laic or ecclesiastical. It is
+with persons of condition that sovereigns chiefly come into contact. It
+is from them that they generally experience opposition to their will. It
+is with _their_ pride and impracticability that princes are most hurt.
+It is with _their_ servility and baseness that they are most commonly
+disgusted. It is from their humors and cabals that they find their
+affairs most frequently troubled and distracted. But of the common
+people, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing;
+and therefore being unacquainted with their faults, (which are as many
+as those of the great, and much more decisive in their effects, when
+accompanied with power,) kings generally regard them with tenderness and
+favor, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects,
+particularly when hurt by opposition from the higher orders. It was thus
+that the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was
+ruined. I have it from very sure information, (and it was, indeed,
+obvious enough, from the measures which were taken previous to the
+assembly of the States and afterwards,) that the king's counsellors had
+filled him with a strong dislike to his nobility, his clergy, and the
+corps of his magistracy. They represented to him, that he had tried them
+all severally, in several ways, and found them all untractable: that he
+had twice called an assembly (the Notables) composed of the first men of
+the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had himself named
+every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he
+had not, in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a
+compliance with his will than they had been separately; that there
+remained for him, with the least prospect of advantage to his authority
+in the States-General, which were to be composed of the same sorts of
+men, but not chosen by him, only the _Tiers État_: in this alone he
+could repose any hope of extricating himself from his difficulties, and
+of settling him in a clear and permanent authority. They represented,
+(these are the words of one of my informants,) "that the royal
+authority, compressed with the weight of these aristocratic bodies, full
+of ambition and of faction, when once unloaded, would rise of itself,
+and occupy its natural place without disturbance or control"; that the
+common people would protect, cherish, and support, instead of crushing
+it. "The people" (it was said) "could entertain no objects of ambition";
+they were out of the road of intrigue and cabal, and could possibly have
+no other view than the support of the mild and parental authority by
+which they were invested, for the first time collectively, with real
+importance in the state, and protected in their peaceable and useful
+employments.
+
+[Sidenote: King of France.]
+
+This unfortunate king (not without a large share of blame to himself)
+was deluded to his ruin by a desire to humble and reduce his nobility,
+clergy, and big corporate magistracy: not that I suppose he meant wholly
+to eradicate these bodies, in the manner since effected by the
+democratic power; I rather believe that even Necker's designs did not go
+to that extent. With his own hand, however, Louis the Sixteenth pulled
+down the pillars which upheld his throne; and this he did, because he
+could not bear the inconveniences which are attached to everything
+human,--because he found himself cooped up, and in durance, by those
+limits which Nature prescribes to desire and imagination, and was taught
+to consider as low and degrading that mutual dependence which Providence
+has ordained that all men should have on one another. He is not at this
+minute, perhaps, cured of the dread of the power and credit like to be
+acquired by those who would save and rescue him. He leaves those who
+suffer in his cause to their fate,--and hopes, by various mean, delusive
+intrigues, in which I am afraid he is encouraged from abroad, to regain,
+among traitors and regicides, the power he has joined to take from his
+own family, whom he quietly sees proscribed before his eyes, and called
+to answer to the lowest of his rebels, as the vilest of all criminals.
+
+[Sidenote: Emperor.]
+
+It is to be hoped that the Emperor may be taught better things by this
+fatal example. But it is sure that he has advisers who endeavor to fill
+him with the ideas which have brought his brother-in-law to his present
+situation. Joseph the Second was far gone in this philosophy, and some,
+if not most, who serve the Emperor, would kindly initiate him into all
+the mysteries of this freemasonry. They would persuade him to look on
+the National Assembly, not with the hatred of an enemy, but the jealousy
+of a rival. They would make him desirous of doing, in his own dominions,
+by a royal despotism, what has been done in France by a democratic.
+Rather than abandon such enterprises, they would persuade him to a
+strange alliance between those extremes. Their grand object being now,
+as in his brother's time, at any rate to destroy the higher orders, they
+think he cannot compass this end, as certainly he cannot, without
+elevating the lower. By depressing the one and by raising the other they
+hope in the first place to increase his treasures and his army; and with
+these common instruments of royal power they flatter him that the
+democracy, which they help in his name to create, will give him but
+little trouble. In defiance of the freshest experience, which might show
+him that old impossibilities are become modern probabilities, and that
+the extent to which evil principles may go, when left to their own
+operation, is beyond the power of calculation, they will endeavor to
+persuade him that such a democracy is a thing which cannot subsist by
+itself; that in whose ever hands the military command is placed, he must
+be, in the necessary course of affairs, sooner or later the master; and
+that, being the master of various unconnected countries, he may keep
+them all in order by employing a military force which to each of them is
+foreign. This maxim, too, however formerly plausible, will not now hold
+water. This scheme is full of intricacy, and may cause him everywhere to
+lose the hearts of his people. These counsellors forget that a corrupted
+army was the very cause of the ruin of his brother-in-law, and that he
+is himself far from secure from a similar corruption.
+
+[Sidenote: Brabant.]
+
+Instead of reconciling himself heartily and _bonâ fide_, according to
+the most obvious rules of policy, to the States of Brabant, _as they are
+constituted_, and who in _the present state of things_ stand on the same
+foundation with the monarchy itself, and who might have been gained with
+the greatest facility, they have advised him to the most unkingly
+proceeding which, either in a good or in a bad light, has ever been
+attempted. Under a pretext taken from the spirit of the lowest chicane,
+they have counselled him wholly to break the public faith, to annul the
+amnesty, as well as the other conditions through which he obtained an
+entrance into the Provinces of the Netherlands under the guaranty of
+Great Britain and Prussia. He is made to declare his adherence to the
+indemnity in a criminal sense, but he is to keep alive in his own name,
+and to encourage in others, a _civil_ process in the nature of an
+action of damages for what has been suffered during the troubles.
+Whilst he keeps up this hopeful lawsuit in view of the damages he may
+recover against individuals, he loses the hearts of a whole people, and
+the vast subsidies which his ancestors had been used to receive from
+them.
+
+[Sidenote: Emperor's conduct with regard to France.]
+
+This design once admitted unriddles the mystery of the whole conduct of
+the Emperor's ministers with regard to France. As soon as they saw the
+life of the king and queen of France no longer, as they thought, in
+danger, they entirely changed their plan with regard to the French
+nation. I believe that the chiefs of the Revolution (those who led the
+constituting Assembly) have contrived, as far as they can do it, to give
+the Emperor satisfaction on this head. He keeps a continual tone and
+posture of menace to secure this his only point. But it must be
+observed, that he all along grounds his departure from the engagement at
+Pilnitz to the princes on the will and actions of _the king_ and the
+majority of the people, without any regard to the natural and
+constitutional orders of the state, or to the opinions of the whole
+House of Bourbon. Though it is manifestly under the constraint of
+imprisonment and the fear of death that this unhappy man has been guilty
+of all those humilities which have astonished mankind, the advisers of
+the Emperor will consider nothing but the _physical_ person of Louis,
+which, even in his present degraded and infamous state, they regard as
+of sufficient authority to give a complete sanction to the persecution
+and utter ruin of all his family, and of every person who has shown any
+degree of attachment or fidelity to him or to his cause, as well as
+competent to destroy the whole ancient constitution and frame of the
+French monarchy.
+
+The present policy, therefore, of the Austrian politicians is, to
+recover despotism through democracy,--or, at least, at any expense,
+everywhere to ruin the description of men who are everywhere the objects
+of their settled and systematic aversion, but more especially in the
+Netherlands. Compare this with the Emperor's refusing at first all
+intercourse with the present powers in France, with his endeavoring to
+excite all Europe against them, and then, his not only withdrawing all
+assistance and all countenance from the fugitives who had been drawn by
+his declarations from their houses, situations, and military
+commissions, many even from the means of their very existence, but
+treating them with every species of insult and outrage.
+
+Combining this unexampled conduct in the Emperor's advisers with the
+timidity (operating as perfidy) of the king of France, a fatal example
+is held out to all subjects, tending to show what little support, or
+even countenance, they are to expect from those for whom their principle
+of fidelity may induce them to risk life and fortune. The Emperor's
+advisers would not for the world rescind one of the acts of this or of
+the late French Assembly; nor do they wish anything better at present
+for their master's brother of France than that he should really be, as
+he is nominally, at the head of the system of persecution of religion
+and good order, and of all descriptions of dignity, natural and
+instituted: they only wish all this done with a little more respect to
+the king's person, and with more appearance of consideration for his new
+subordinate office,--in hopes, that, yielding himself for the present
+to the persons who have effected these changes, he may be able to game
+for the rest hereafter. On no other principles than these can the
+conduct of the court of Vienna be accounted for. The subordinate court
+of Brussels talks the language of a club of Feuillants and Jacobins.
+
+[Sidenote: Moderate party.]
+
+In this state of general rottenness among subjects, and of delusion and
+false politics in princes, comes a new experiment. The king of France is
+in the hands of the chiefs of the regicide faction,--the Barnaves,
+Lameths, Fayettes, Périgords, Duports, Robespierres, Camuses, &c., &c.,
+&c. They who had imprisoned, suspended, and conditionally deposed him
+are his confidential counsellors. The next desperate of the desperate
+rebels call themselves the _moderate_ party. They are the chiefs of the
+first Assembly, who are confederated to support their power during their
+suspension from the present, and to govern the existent body with as
+sovereign a sway as they had done the last. They have, for the greater
+part, succeeded; and they have many advantages towards procuring their
+success in future. Just before the close of their regular power, they
+bestowed some appearance of prerogatives on the king, which in their
+first plans they had refused to him,--particularly the mischievous, and,
+in his situation, dreadful prerogative of a _veto_. This prerogative,
+(which they hold as their bit in the mouth of the National Assembly for
+the time being,) without the direct assistance of their club, it was
+impossible for the king to show even the desire of exerting with the
+smallest effect, or even with safety to his person. However, by playing,
+through this _veto_, the Assembly against the king, and the king
+against the Assembly, they have made themselves masters of both. In this
+situation, having destroyed the old government by their sedition, they
+would preserve as much of order as is necessary for the support of their
+own usurpation.
+
+[Sidenote: French ambassador.]
+
+It is believed that this, by far the worst party of the miscreants of
+France, has received direct encouragement from the counsellors who
+betray the Emperor. Thus strengthened by the possession of the captive
+king, (now captive in his mind as well as in body,) and by a good hope
+of the Emperor, they intend to send their ministers to every court in
+Europe,--having sent before them such a denunciation of terror and
+superiority to every nation without exception as has no example in the
+diplomatic world. Hitherto the ministers to foreign courts had been of
+the appointment of the sovereign of France _previous to the Revolution_;
+and, either from inclination, duty, or decorum, most of them were
+contented with a merely passive obedience to the new power. At present,
+the king, being entirely in the hands of his jailors, and his mind
+broken to his situation, can send none but the enthusiasts of the
+system,--men framed by the secret committee of the Feuillants, who meet
+in the house of Madame de Staël, M. Necker's daughter. Such is every man
+whom they have talked of sending hither. These ministers will be so many
+spies and incendiaries, so many active emissaries of democracy. Their
+houses will become places of rendezvous here, as everywhere else, and
+centres of cabal for whatever is mischievous and malignant in this
+country, particularly among those of rank and fashion. As the minister
+of the National Assembly will be admitted at this court, at least with
+his usual rank, and as entertainments will be naturally given and
+received by the king's own ministers, any attempt to discountenance the
+resort of other people to that minister would be ineffectual, and indeed
+absurd, and full of contradiction. The women who come with these
+ambassadors will assist in fomenting factions amongst ours, which cannot
+fail of extending the evil. Some of them I hear are already arrived.
+There is no doubt they will do as much mischief as they can.
+
+[Sidenote: Connection of clubs.]
+
+Whilst the public ministers are received under the general law of the
+communication between nations, the correspondences between the factious
+clubs in France and ours will be, as they now are, kept up; but this
+pretended embassy will be a closer, more steady, and more effectual link
+between the partisans of the new system on both sides of the water. I do
+not mean that these Anglo-Gallic clubs in London, Manchester, &c., are
+not dangerous in a high degree. The appointment of festive anniversaries
+has ever in the sense of mankind been held the best method of keeping
+alive the spirit of any institution. We have one settled in London; and
+at the last of them, that of the 14th of July, the strong discountenance
+of government, the unfavorable time of the year, and the then
+uncertainty of the disposition of foreign powers, did not hinder the
+meeting of at least nine hundred people, with good coats on their backs,
+who could afford to pay half a guinea a head to show their zeal for the
+new principles. They were with great difficulty, and all possible
+address, hindered from inviting the French ambassador. His real
+indisposition, besides the fear of offending any party, sent him out of
+town. But when our court shall have recognized a government in France
+founded on the principles announced in Montmorin's letter, how can the
+French ambassador be frowned upon for an attendance on those meetings
+wherein the establishment of the government he represents is celebrated?
+An event happened a few days ago, which in many particulars was very
+ridiculous; yet, even from the ridicule and absurdity of the
+proceedings, it marks the more strongly the spirit of the French
+Assembly: I mean the reception they have given to the Frith Street
+Alliance. This, though the delirium of a low, drunken alehouse club,
+they have publicly announced as a formal alliance with the people of
+England, as such ordered it to be presented to their king, and to be
+published in every province in France. This leads, more directly and
+with much greater force than any proceeding with a regular and rational
+appearance, to two very material considerations. First, it shows that
+they are of opinion that the current opinions of the English have the
+greatest influence on the minds of the people in France, and indeed of
+all the people in Europe, since they catch with such astonishing
+eagerness at every the most trifling show of such opinions in their
+favor. Next, and what appears to me to be full as important, it shows
+that they are willing publicly to countenance, and even to adopt, every
+factious conspiracy that can be formed in this nation, however low and
+base in itself, in order to excite in the most miserable wretches here
+an idea of their own sovereign importance, and to encourage them to look
+up to France, whenever they may be matured into something of more force,
+for assistance in the subversion of their domestic government. This
+address of the alehouse club was actually proposed and accepted by the
+Assembly as an _alliance_. The procedure was in my opinion a high
+misdemeanor in those who acted thus in England, if they were not so very
+low and so very base that no acts of theirs can be called high, even as
+a description of criminality; and the Assembly, in accepting,
+proclaiming, and publishing this forged alliance, has been guilty of a
+plain aggression, which would justify our court in demanding a direct
+disavowal, if our policy should not lead us to wink at it.
+
+Whilst I look over this paper to have it copied, I see a manifesto of
+the Assembly, as a preliminary to a declaration of war against the
+German princes on the Rhine. This manifesto contains the whole substance
+of the French politics with regard to foreign states. They have ordered
+it to be circulated amongst the people in every country of Europe,--even
+previously to its acceptance by the king, and his new privy council, the
+club of the Feuillants. Therefore, as a summary of their policy avowed
+by themselves, let us consider some of the circumstances attending that
+piece, as well as the spirit and temper of the piece itself.
+
+[Sidenote: Declaration against the Emperor.]
+
+It was preceded by a speech from Brissot, full of unexampled insolence
+towards all the sovereign states of Germany, if not of Europe. The
+Assembly, to express their satisfaction in the sentiments which it
+contained, ordered it to be printed. This Brissot had been in the lowest
+and basest employ under the deposed monarchy,--a sort of thief-taker, or
+spy of police,--in which character he acted after the manner of persons
+in that description. He had been employed by his master, the
+_Lieutenant de Police_, for a considerable time in London, in the same
+or some such honorable occupation. The Revolution, which has brought
+forward all merit of that kind, raised him, with others of a similar
+class and disposition, to fame and eminence. On the Revolution he became
+a publisher of an infamous newspaper, which he still continues. He is
+charged, and I believe justly, as the first mover of the troubles in
+Hispaniola. There is no wickedness, if I am rightly informed, in which
+he is not versed, and of which he is not perfectly capable. His quality
+of news-writer, now an employment of the first dignity in France, and
+his practices and principles, procured his election into the Assembly,
+where he is one of the leading members. M. Condorcet produced on the
+same day a draught of a declaration to the king, which the Assembly
+published before it was presented.
+
+Condorcet (though no marquis, as he styled himself before the
+Revolution) is a man of another sort of birth, fashion, and occupation
+from Brissot,--but in every principle, and every disposition to the
+lowest as well as the highest and most determined villanies, fully his
+equal. He seconds Brissot in the Assembly, and is at once his coadjutor
+and his rival in a newspaper, which, in his own name, and as successor
+to M. Garat, a member also of the Assembly, he has just set up in that
+empire of gazettes. Condorcet was chosen to draw the first declaration
+presented by the Assembly to the king, as a threat to the Elector of
+Treves, and the other princes on the Rhine. In that piece, in which both
+Feuillants and Jacobins concurred, they declared publicly, and most
+proudly and insolently, the principle on which they mean to proceed in
+their future disputes with any of the sovereigns of Europe; for they
+say, "that it is not with fire and sword they mean to attack their
+territories, but by what will be _more dreadful_ to them, the
+introduction of liberty."--I have not the paper by me, to give the exact
+words, but I believe they are nearly as I state them.--_Dreadful_,
+indeed, will be their hostility, if they should be able to carry it on
+according to the example of _their_ modes of introducing liberty. They
+have shown a perfect model of their whole design, very complete, though
+in little. This gang of murderers and savages have wholly laid waste and
+utterly ruined the beautiful and happy country of the Comtat Venaissin
+and the city of Avignon. This cruel and treacherous outrage the
+sovereigns of Europe, in my opinion, with a great mistake of their honor
+and interest, have permitted, even without a remonstrance, to be carried
+to the desired point, on the principles on which they are now themselves
+threatened in their own states; and this, because, according to the poor
+and narrow spirit now in fashion, their brother sovereign, whose
+subjects have been thus traitorously and inhumanly treated in violation
+of the law of Nature and of nations, has a name somewhat different from
+theirs, and, instead of being styled King, or Duke, or Landgrave, is
+usually called Pope.
+
+[Sidenote: State of the Empire.]
+
+The Electors of Treves and Mentz were frightened with the menace of a
+similar mode of war. The Assembly, however, not thinking that the
+Electors of Treves and Mentz had done enough under their first terror,
+have again brought forward Condorcet, preceded by Brissot, as I have
+just stated. The declaration, which they have ordered now to be
+circulated in all countries, is in substance the same as the first, but
+still more insolent, because more full of detail. There they have the
+impudence to state that they aim at no conquest: insinuating that all
+the old, lawful powers of the world had each made a constant, open
+profession of a design of subduing his neighbors. They add, that, if
+they are provoked, their war will be directed only against those who
+assume to be _masters_; but to the _people_ they will bring peace, law,
+liberty, &c, &c. There is not the least hint that they consider those
+whom they call persons "_assuming to be matters_" to be the lawful
+government of their country, or persons to be treated with the least
+management or respect. They regard them as usurpers and enslavers of the
+people. If I do not mistake, they are described by the name of tyrants
+in Condorcet's first draught. I am sure they are so in Brissot's speech,
+ordered by the Assembly to be printed at the same time and for the same
+purposes. The whole is in the same strain, full of false philosophy and
+false rhetoric,--both, however, calculated to captivate and influence
+the vulgar mind, and to excite sedition in the countries in which it is
+ordered to be circulated. Indeed, it is such, that, if any of the
+lawful, acknowledged sovereigns of Europe had publicly ordered such a
+manifesto to be circulated in the dominions of another, the ambassador
+of that power would instantly be ordered to quit every court without an
+audience.
+
+[Sidenote: Effect of fear on the sovereign powers.]
+
+The powers of Europe have a pretext for concealing their fears, by
+saying that this language is not used by the king; though they well know
+that there is in effect no such person,--that the Assembly is in
+reality, and by that king is acknowledged to be, _the master_,--that
+what he does is but matter of formality,--and that he can neither cause
+nor hinder, accelerate nor retard, any measure whatsoever, nor add to
+nor soften the manifesto which the Assembly has directed to be
+published, with the declared purpose of exciting mutiny and rebellion in
+the several countries governed by these powers. By the generality also
+of the menaces contained in this paper, (though infinitely aggravating
+the outrage,) they hope to remove from each power separately the idea of
+a distinct affront. The persons first pointed at by the menace are
+certainly the princes of Germany, who harbor the persecuted House of
+Bourbon and the nobility of France; the declaration, however, is
+general, and goes to every state with which they may have a cause of
+quarrel. But the terror of France has fallen upon all nations. A few
+months since all sovereigns seemed disposed to unite against her; at
+present they all seem to combine in her favor. At no period has the
+power of France ever appeared with so formidable an aspect. In
+particular the liberties of the Empire can have nothing more than an
+existence the most tottering and precarious, whilst France exists with a
+great power of fomenting rebellion, and the greatest in the
+weakest,--but with neither power nor disposition to support the smaller
+states in their independence against the attempts of the more powerful.
+
+I wind up all in a full conviction within my own breast, and the
+substance of which I must repeat over and over again, that the state of
+France is the first consideration in the politics of Europe, and of each
+state, externally as well as internally considered.
+
+Most of the topics I have used are drawn from fear and apprehension.
+Topics derived from fear or addressed to it are, I well know, of
+doubtful appearance. To be sure, hope is in general the incitement to
+action. Alarm some men,--you do not drive them to provide for their
+security; you put them to a stand; you induce them, not to take measures
+to prevent the approach of danger, but to remove so unpleasant an idea
+from their minds; you persuade them to remain as they are, from a new
+fear that their activity may bring on the apprehended mischief before
+its time. I confess freely that this evil sometimes happens from an
+overdone precaution; but it is when the measures are rash, ill-chosen,
+or ill-combined, and the effects rather of blind terror than of
+enlightened foresight. But the few to whom I wish to submit my thoughts
+are of a character which will enable them to see danger without
+astonishment, and to provide against it without perplexity.
+
+To what lengths this method of circulating mutinous manifestoes, and of
+keeping emissaries of sedition in every court under the name of
+ambassadors, to propagate the same principles and to follow the
+practices, will go, and how soon they will operate, it is hard to say;
+but go on it will, more or less rapidly, according to events, and to the
+humor of the time. The princes menaced with the revolt of their
+subjects, at the same time that they have obsequiously obeyed the
+sovereign mandate of the new Roman senate, have received with
+distinction, in a public character, ambassadors from those who in the
+same act had circulated the manifesto of sedition in their dominions.
+This was the only thing wanting to the degradation and disgrace of the
+Germanic body.
+
+The ambassadors from the rights of man, and their admission into the
+diplomatic system, I hold to be a new era in this business. It will be
+the most important step yet taken to affect the existence of sovereigns,
+and the higher classes of life: I do not mean to exclude its effects
+upon all classes; but the first blow is aimed at the more prominent
+parts in the ancient order of things.
+
+What is to be done?
+
+It would be presumption in me to do more than to make a case. Many
+things occur. But as they, like all political measures, depend on
+dispositions, tempers, means, and external circumstances, for all their
+effect, not being well assured of these, I do not know how to let loose
+any speculations of mine on the subject. The evil is stated, in my
+opinion, as it exists. The remedy must be where power, wisdom, and
+information, I hope, are more united with good intentions than they can
+be with me. I have done with this subject, I believe, forever. It has
+given me many anxious moments for the two last years. If a great change
+is to be made in human affairs, the minds of men will be fitted to it,
+the general opinions and feelings will draw that way. Every fear, every
+hope, will forward it; and then they who persist in opposing this mighty
+current in human affairs will appear rather to resist the decrees of
+Providence itself than the mere designs of men. They will not be
+resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[30] See Vattel, B. II. c. 4, sect 56, and B. III. c 18, sect. 296.
+
+[31] Originally called the Bengal Club; but since opened to persons from
+the other Presidencies, for the purpose of consolidating the whole
+Indian interest.
+
+[32] "Until now, they [the National Assembly] have prejudged nothing.
+Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a preceptor to the Dauphin,
+they did not declare _that this child was to reign_, but only that
+_possibly_ the Constitution _might_ destine him to it: they willed,
+that, while education should efface from his mind all the prejudices
+arising from _the delusions of the throne_ respecting his pretended
+birthright, it should also teach him not to forget that it is _from the
+people_ he is to receive the title of King, and that _the people do not
+even possess the right of giving up their power to take it from him_.
+
+"They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
+knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive _with submission_ the
+dangerous burden of a crown, and _to resign it with pleasure_ into the
+hands of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
+that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the duty
+and the glory of a king of a free people.
+
+"They willed that _the uselessness of a king_, the necessity of seeking
+means to establish something in lieu of _a power founded on illusions_,
+should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; _the obligation
+of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the
+desire of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious
+inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart_. They are not
+ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king
+than to teach him _that he should know how to wish no longer to be
+such_."
+
+
+
+
+HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION
+
+ON THE
+
+PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS.
+
+WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1792.
+
+
+That France by its mere geographical position, independently of every
+other circumstance, must affect every state of Europe: some of them
+immediately, all of them through mediums not very remote.
+
+That the standing policy of this kingdom ever has been to watch over the
+_external_ proceedings of France, (whatever form the _interior_
+government of that kingdom might take,) and to prevent the extension of
+its dominion or its ruling influence over other states.
+
+That there is nothing in the present _internal_ state of things in
+France which alters the national policy with regard to the exterior
+relations of that country.
+
+That there are, on the contrary, many things in the internal
+circumstances of France (and perhaps of this country, too) which tend to
+fortify the principles of that fundamental policy, and which render the
+active assertion of those principles more pressing at this than at any
+former time.
+
+That, by a change effected in about three weeks, France has been able to
+penetrate into the heart of Germany, to make an absolute conquest of
+Savoy, to menace an immediate invasion of the Netherlands, and to awe
+and overbear the whole Helvetic body, which is in a most perilous
+situation: the great aristocratic Cantons having, perhaps, as much or
+more to dread from their own people, whom they arm, but do not choose
+or dare to employ, as from the foreign enemy, which against all public
+faith has butchered their troops serving by treaty in France. To this
+picture it is hardly necessary to add the means by which Prance has been
+enabled to effect all this,--namely, the apparently entire destruction
+of one of the largest and certainly the highest disciplined and best
+appointed army ever seen, headed by the first military sovereign in
+Europe, with a captain under him of the greatest renown; and that
+without a blow given or received on any side. This state of things seems
+to me, even if it went no further, truly serious.
+
+Circumstances have enabled France to do all this by _land_. On the other
+element she has begun to exert herself; and she must succeed in her
+designs, if enemies very different from those she has hitherto had to
+encounter do not resist her.
+
+She has fitted out a naval force, now actually at sea, by which she is
+enabled to give law to the whole Mediterranean. It is known as a fact,
+(and if not so known, it is in the nature of things highly probable,)
+that she proposes the ravage of the Ecclesiastical State and the pillage
+of Rome, as her first object; that nest she means to bombard Naples,--to
+awe, to humble, and thus to command, all Italy,--to force it to a
+nominal neutrality, but to a real dependence,--to compel the Italian
+princes and republics to admit the free entrance of the French commerce,
+an open intercourse, and, the sure concomitant of that intercourse, the
+_affiliated societies_, in a manner similar to those she has established
+at Avignon, the Comtat, Chambéry, London, Manchester, &c, &c., which are
+so many colonies planted in all these countries, for extending the
+influence and securing the dominion of the French republic.
+
+That there never has been hitherto a period in which this kingdom would
+have suffered a French fleet to domineer in the Mediterranean, and to
+force Italy to submit to such terms as France would think fit to
+impose,--to say nothing of what has been done upon land in support of
+the same system. The great object for which we preserved Minorca, whilst
+we could keep it, and for which we still retain Gibraltar, both at a
+great expense, was, and is, to prevent the predominance of France over
+the Mediterranean.
+
+Thus far as to the certain and immediate effect of that armament upon
+the Italian States. The probable effect which that armament, and the
+other armaments preparing at Toulon and other ports, may have upon
+Spain, on the side of the Mediterranean, is worthy of the serious
+attention of the British councils.
+
+That it is most probable, we may say in a manner certain, that, if there
+should be a rupture between France and Spain, France will not confine
+her offensive piratical operations against Spain to her efforts in the
+Mediterranean; on which side, however, she may grievously affect Spain,
+especially if she excites Morocco and Algiers, which undoubtedly she
+will, to fall upon that power.
+
+That she will fit out armaments upon the ocean, by which the flota
+itself may be intercepted, and thus the treasures of all Europe, as well
+as the largest and surest resources of the Spanish monarchy, may be
+conveyed into France, and become powerful instruments for the annoyance
+of all her neighbors.
+
+That she makes no secret of her designs.
+
+That, if the inward and outward bound flota should escape, still France
+has more and better means of dissevering many of the provinces in the
+West and East Indies from the state of Spain than Holland had, when she
+succeeded in the same attempt. The French marine resembles not a little
+the old armaments of the Flibustiers, which about a century back, in
+conjunction with pirates of our nation, brought such calamities upon the
+Spanish colonies. They differ only in this,--that the present piratical
+force is out of all measure and comparison greater: one hundred and
+fifty ships of the line and frigates being ready-built, most of them in
+a manner new, and all applicable in different ways to that service.
+Privateers and Moorish corsairs possess not the best seamanship, and
+very little discipline, and indeed can make no figure in regular
+service; but in desperate adventures, and animated with a lust of
+plunder, they are truly formidable.
+
+That the land forces of France are well adapted to concur with their
+marine in conjunct expeditions of this nature. In such expeditions,
+enterprise supplies the want of discipline, and perhaps more than
+supplies it. Both for this, and for other service, (however contemptible
+their military is in other respects,) one arm is extremely good, the
+engineering and artillery branch. The old officer corps in both being
+composed for the greater part of those who were not gentlemen, or
+gentlemen newly such, few have abandoned the service, and the men are
+veterans, well enough disciplined, and very expert. In this piratical
+way they must make war with good advantage. They must do so, even on the
+side of Flanders, either offensively or defensively. This shows the
+difference between the policy of Louis the Fourteenth, who built a wall
+of brass about his kingdom, and that of Joseph the Second, who
+premeditatedly uncovered his whole frontier.
+
+That Spain, from the actual and expected prevalence of French power, is
+in a most perilous situation,--perfectly dependent on the mercy of that
+republic. If Austria is broken, or even humbled, she will not dare to
+dispute its mandates.
+
+In the present state of things, we have nothing at all to dread from the
+power of Spain by sea or by land, or from any rivalry in commerce.
+
+That we have much to dread from the connections into which Spain may be
+forced.
+
+From the circumstances of her territorial possessions, of her resources,
+and the whole of her civil and political state, we may be authorized
+safely and with undoubted confidence to affirm that
+
+_Spain is not a substantive power_.
+
+That she must lean on France or on England.
+
+That it is as much for the interest of Great Britain to prevent the
+predominancy of a French interest in that kingdom as if Spain were a
+province of the crown of Great Britain, or a state actually dependent on
+it,--full as much so as ever Portugal was reputed to be. This is a
+dependency of much greater value; and its destruction, or its being
+carried to any other dependency, of much more serious misfortune.
+
+One of these two things must happen: either Spain must submit to
+circumstances and take such conditions as France will impose, or she
+must engage in hostilities along with the Emperor and the king of
+Sardinia.
+
+If Spain should be forced or awed into a treaty with the republic of
+France, she must open her ports and her commerce, as well as the land
+communication for the French laborers, who were accustomed annually to
+gather in the harvest in Spain. Indeed, she must grant a free
+communication for travellers and traders through her whole country. In
+that case it is not conjectural, it is certain, the clubs will give law
+in the provinces; Bourgoing, or some such miscreant, will give law at
+Madrid.
+
+In this England may acquiesce, if she pleases; and France will conclude
+a triumphant peace with Spain under her absolute dependence, with a
+broad highway into that, and into every state of Europe. She actually
+invites Great Britain to divide with her the spoils of the New World,
+and to make a partition of the Spanish monarchy. Clearly, it is better
+to do so than to suffer France to possess those spoils and that
+territory alone; which, without doubt, unresisted by us, she is
+altogether as able as she is willing to do.
+
+This plan is proposed by the French in the way in which they propose all
+their plans,--and in the only way in which, indeed, they can propose
+them, where there is no regular communication between his Majesty and
+their republic.
+
+What they propose is _a plan_. It is _a plan_ also to resist their
+predatory project. To remain quiet, and to suffer them to make their own
+use of a naval power before our face, so as to awe and bully Spain into
+a submissive peace, or to drive them into a ruinous war, without any
+measure on our part, I fear is no plan at all.
+
+However, if the plan of coöperation which France desires, and which her
+affiliated societies here ardently wish and are constantly writing up,
+should not be adopted, and the war between the Emperor and France
+should continue, I think it not at all likely that Spain should not be
+drawn into the quarrel. In that case, the neutrality of England will be
+a thing absolutely impossible. The time only is the subject of
+deliberation.
+
+Then the question will be, whether we are to defer putting ourselves
+into a posture for the common defence, either by armament, or
+negotiation, or both, until Spain is actually attacked,--that is,
+whether our court will take a decided part for Spain, whilst Spain, on
+her side, is yet in a condition to act with whatever degree of vigor she
+may have, whilst that vigor is yet unexhausted,--or whether we shall
+connect ourselves with her broken fortunes, after she shall have
+received material blows, and when we shall have the whole slow length of
+that always unwieldy and ill-constructed, and then wounded and crippled
+body, to drag after us, rather than to aid us. Whilst our disposition is
+uncertain, Spain will not dare to put herself in such a state of defence
+as will make her hostility formidable or her neutrality respectable.
+
+If the decision is such as the solution of this question (I take it to
+be the true question) conducts to, no time is to be lost. But the
+measures, though prompt, ought not to be rash and indigested. They ought
+to be well chosen, well combined, and well pursued. The system must be
+general; but it must be executed, not successively, or with
+interruption, but all together, _uno flatu_, in one melting, and one
+mould.
+
+For this purpose we must put Europe before us, which plainly is, just
+now, in all its parts, in a state of dismay, derangement, and confusion,
+and, very possibly amongst all its sovereigns, full of secret
+heartburning, distrust, and mutual accusation. Perhaps it may labor
+under worse evils. There is no vigor anywhere, except the distempered
+vigor and energy of France. That country has but too much life in it,
+when everything around is so disposed to tameness and languor. The very
+vices of the French system at home tend to give force to foreign
+exertions. The generals _must_ join the armies. They must lead them to
+enterprise, or they are likely to perish by their hands. Thus, without
+law or government of her own, France gives law to all the governments in
+Europe.
+
+This great mass of political matter must have been always under the view
+of thinkers for the public, whether they act in office or not. Amongst
+events, even the late calamitous events were in the book of contingency.
+Of course they must have been in design, at least, provided for. A plan
+which takes in as many as possible of the states concerned will rather
+tend to facilitate and simplify a rational scheme for preserving Spain
+(if that were our sole, as I think it ought to be our principal object)
+than to delay and perplex it.
+
+If we should think that a provident policy (perhaps now more than
+provident, urgent and necessary) should lead us to act, we cannot take
+measures as if nothing had been done. We must see the faults, if any,
+which have conducted to the present misfortunes: not for the sake of
+criticism, military or political, or from the common motives of blaming
+persons and counsels which have not been successful, but in order, if we
+can, to administer some remedy to these disasters, by the adoption of
+plans more bottomed in principle, and built on with more discretion.
+Mistakes may be lessons.
+
+There seem, indeed, to have been several mistakes in the political
+principles on which the war was entered into, as well as in the plans
+upon which it was conducted,--some of them very fundamental, and not
+only visibly, but I may say palpably erroneous; and I think him to have
+less than the discernment of a very ordinary statesman, who could not
+foresee, from the very beginning, unpleasant consequences from those
+plans, though not the unparalleled disgraces and disasters which really
+did attend them: for they were, both principles and measures, wholly new
+and out of the common course, without anything apparently very grand in
+the conception to justify this total departure from all rule.
+
+For, in the first place, the united sovereigns very much injured their
+cause by admitting that they had nothing to do with the interior
+arrangements of France,--in contradiction to the whole tenor of the
+public law of Europe, and to the correspondent practice of all its
+states, from the time we have any history of them. In this particular,
+the two German courts seem to have as little consulted the publicists of
+Germany as their own true interests, and those of all the sovereigns of
+Germany and Europe. This admission of a false principle in the law of
+nations brought them into an apparent contradiction, when they insisted
+on the reëstablishment of the royal authority in France. But this
+confused and contradictory proceeding gave rise to a practical error of
+worse consequence. It was derived from one and the same root: namely,
+that the person of the monarch of France was everything; and the
+monarchy, and the intermediate orders of the state, by which the
+monarchy was upheld, were nothing. So that, if the united potentates had
+succeeded so far as to reëstablish the authority of that king, and that
+he should be so ill-advised as to confirm all the confiscations, and to
+recognize as a lawful body and to class himself with that rabble of
+murderers, (and there wanted not persons who would so have advised him,)
+there was nothing in the principle or in the proceeding of the united
+powers to prevent such an arrangement.
+
+An expedition to free a brother sovereign from prison was undoubtedly a
+generous and chivalrous undertaking. But the spirit and generosity would
+not have been less, if the policy had been more profound and more
+comprehensive,--that is, if it had taken in those considerations and
+those persons by whom, and, in some measure, for whom, monarchy exists.
+This would become a bottom for a system of solid and permanent policy,
+and of operations conformable to that system.
+
+The same fruitful error was the cause why nothing was done to impress
+the people of France (so far as we can at all consider the inhabitants
+of France as a people) with an idea that the government was ever to be
+really French, or indeed anything else than the nominal government of a
+monarch, a monarch absolute as over them, but whose sole support was to
+arise from foreign potentates, and who was to be kept on his throne by
+German forces,--in short, that the king of France was to be a viceroy to
+the Emperor and the king of Prussia.
+
+It was the first time that foreign powers, interfering in the concerns
+of a nation divided into parties, have thought proper to thrust wholly
+out of their councils, to postpone, to discountenance, to reject, and,
+in a manner, to disgrace, the party whom those powers came to support.
+The single person of a king cannot be a party. Woe to the king who is
+himself his party! The royal party, with the king or his representatives
+at its head, is the _royal cause_. Foreign powers have hitherto chosen
+to give to such wars as this the appearance of a civil contest, and not
+that of an hostile invasion. When the Spaniards, in the sixteenth
+century, sent aids to the chiefs of the League, they appeared as allies
+to that league, and to the imprisoned king (the Cardinal de Bourbon)
+which that league had set up. When the Germans came to the aid of the
+Protestant princes, in the same series of civil wars, they came as
+allies. When the English came to the aid of Henry the Fourth, they
+appeared as allies to that prince. So did the French always, when they
+intermeddled in the affairs of Germany: they came to aid a party there.
+When the English and Dutch intermeddled in the succession of Spain, they
+appeared as allies to the Emperor, Charles the Sixth. In short, the
+policy has been as uniform as its principles were obvious to an ordinary
+eye.
+
+According to all the old principles of law and policy, a regency ought
+to have been appointed by the French princes of the blood, nobles, and
+parliaments, and then recognized by the combined powers. Fundamental law
+and ancient usage, as well as the clear reason of the thing, have always
+ordained it during an imprisonment of the king of France: as in the case
+of John, and of Francis the First. A monarchy ought not to be left a
+moment without a representative having an interest in the succession.
+The orders of the state ought also to have been recognized in those
+amongst whom alone they existed in freedom, that is, in the emigrants.
+
+Thus, laying down a firm foundation on the recognition of the
+authorities of the kingdom of France, according to Nature and to its
+fundamental laws, and not according to the novel and inconsiderate
+principles of the usurpation which the united powers were come to
+extirpate, the king of Prussia and the Emperor, as allies of the ancient
+kingdom of France, would have proceeded with dignity, first, to free the
+monarch, if possible,--if not, to secure the monarchy as principal in
+the design; and in order to avoid all risks to that great object, (the
+object of other ages than the present, and of other countries than that
+of France,) they would of course avoid proceeding with more haste or in
+a different manner than what the nature of such an object required.
+
+Adopting this, the only rational system, the rational mode of proceeding
+upon it was to commence with an effective siege of Lisle, which the
+French generals must have seen taken before their faces, or be forced to
+fight. A plentiful country of friends, from whence to draw supplies,
+would have been behind them; a plentiful country of enemies, from whence
+to force supplies, would have been before them. Good towns were always
+within reach to deposit their hospitals and magazines. The march from
+Lisle to Paris is through a less defensible country, and the distance is
+hardly so great as from Longwy to Paris.
+
+If the _old_ politic and military ideas had governed, the advanced guard
+would have been formed of those who best knew the country and had some
+interest in it, supported by some of the best light troops and light
+artillery, whilst the grand solid body of an army disciplined to
+perfection proceeded leisurely, and in close connection with all its
+stores, provisions, and heavy cannon, to support the expedite body in
+case of misadventure, or to improve and complete its success.
+
+The direct contrary of all this was put in practice. In consequence of
+the original sin of this project, the army of the French princes was
+everywhere thrown into the rear, and no part of it brought forward to
+the last moment, the time of the commencement of the secret negotiation.
+This naturally made an ill impression on the people, and furnished an
+occasion for the rebels at Paris to give out that the faithful subjects
+of the king were distrusted, despised, and abhorred by his allies. The
+march was directed through a skirt of Lorraine, and thence into a part
+of Champagne, the Duke of Brunswick leaving all the strongest places
+behind him,--leaving also behind him the strength of his artillery,--and
+by this means giving a superiority to the French, in the only way in
+which the present France is able to oppose a German force.
+
+In consequence of the adoption of those false politics, which turned
+everything on the king's sole and single person, the whole plan of the
+war was reduced to nothing but a _coup de main_, in order to set that
+prince at liberty. If that failed, everything was to be given up.
+
+The scheme of a _coup de main_ might (under favorable circumstances) be
+very fit for a partisan at the head of a light corps, by whose failure
+nothing material would be deranged. But for a royal army of eighty
+thousand men, headed by a king in person, who was to march an hundred
+and fifty miles through an enemy's country,--surely, this was a plan
+unheard of.
+
+Although this plan was not well chosen, and proceeded upon principles
+altogether ill-judged and impolitic, the superiority of the military
+force might in a great degree have supplied the defects, and furnished a
+corrective to the mistakes. The greater probability was, that the Duke
+of Brunswick would make his way to Paris over the bellies of the rabble
+of drunkards, robbers, assassins, rioters, mutineers, and half-grown
+boys, under the ill-obeyed command of a theatrical, vaporing, reduced
+captain of cavalry, who opposed that great commander and great army.
+But--_Diis aliter visum_. He began to treat,--the winds blew and the
+rains beat,--the house fell, because it was built upon sand,--and great
+was the fall thereof. This march was not an exact copy of either of the
+two marches made by the Duke of Parma into France.
+
+There is some secret. Sickness and weather may defeat an army pursuing a
+wrong plan: not that I believe the sickness to have been so great as it
+has been reported; but there is a great deal of superfluous humiliation
+in this business, a perfect prodigality of disgrace. Some advantage,
+real or imaginary, must compensate to a great sovereign and to a great
+general for so immense a loss of reputation. Longwy, situated as it is,
+might (one should think) be evacuated without a capitulation with a
+republic just proclaimed by the king of Prussia as an usurping and
+rebellious body. He was not far from Luxembourg. He might have taken
+away the obnoxious French in his flight. It does not appear to have been
+necessary that those magistrates who declared for their own king, on the
+faith and under the immediate protection of the king of Prussia, should
+be delivered over to the gallows. It was not necessary that the
+emigrant nobility and gentry who served with the king of Prussia's army,
+under his immediate command, should be excluded from the cartel, and
+given up to be hanged as rebels. Never was so gross and so cruel a
+breach of the public faith, not with an enemy, but with a friend.
+Dumouriez has dropped very singular hints. Custine has spoken out more
+broadly. These accounts have never been contradicted. They tend to make
+an eternal rupture between the powers. The French have given out, that
+the Duke of Brunswick endeavored to negotiate some name and place for
+the captive king, amongst the murderers and proscribers of those who
+have lost their all for his cause. Even this has not been denied.
+
+It is singular, and, indeed, a thing, under all its circumstances,
+inconceivable, that everything should by the Emperor be abandoned to the
+king of Prussia. That monarch was considered as principal. In the nature
+of things, as well as in his position with regard to the war, he was
+only an ally, and a new ally, with crossing interests in many
+particulars, and of a policy rather uncertain. At best, and supposing
+him to act with the greatest fidelity, the Emperor and the Empire to him
+must be but secondary objects. Countries out of Germany must affect him
+in a still more remote manner. France, other than from the fear of its
+doctrinal principles, can to him be no object at all. Accordingly, the
+Rhine, Sardinia, and the Swiss are left to their fate. The king of
+Prussia has no _direct_ and immediate concern with France;
+_consequentially_, to be sure, a great deal: but the Emperor touches
+France _directly_ in many parts; he is a near neighbor to Sardinia, by
+his Milanese territories; he borders on Switzerland; Cologne, possessed
+by his uncle, is between Mentz, Treves, and the king of Prussia's
+territories on the Lower Rhine. The Emperor is the natural guardian of
+Italy and Germany,--the natural balance against the ambition of France,
+whether republican or monarchical. His ministers and his generals,
+therefore, ought to have had their full share in every material
+consultation,--which I suspect they had not. If he has no minister
+capable of plans of policy which comprehend the superintendency of a
+war, or no general with the least of a political head, things have been
+as they must be. However, in all the parts of this strange proceeding
+there must be a secret.
+
+It is probably known to ministers. I do not mean to penetrate into it.
+My speculations on this head must be only conjectural. If the king of
+Prussia, under the pretext or on the reality of some information
+relative to ill practice on the part of the court of Vienna, takes
+advantage of his being admitted into the heart of the Emperor's
+dominions in the character of an ally, afterwards to join the common
+enemy, and to enable France to seize the Netherlands, and to reduce and
+humble the Empire, I cannot conceive, upon every principle, anything
+more alarming for this country, separately, and as a part of the general
+system. After all, we may be looking in vain in the regions of politics
+for what is only the operation of temper and character upon accidental
+circumstances. But I never knew accidents to decide the _whole_ of any
+great business; and I never knew temper to act, but that some system of
+politics agreeable to its peculiar spirit was blended with it,
+strengthened it, and got strength from it. Therefore the politics can
+hardly be put out of the question.
+
+Great mistakes have been committed: at least I hope so. If there have
+been none, the case in future is desperate. I have endeavored to point
+out some of those which have occurred to me, and most of them very
+early.
+
+Whatever may be the cause of the present state of things, on a full and
+mature view and comparison of the historical matter, of the transactions
+that have passed before our eyes, and of the future prospect, I think I
+am authorized to form an opinion without the least hesitation.
+
+That there never was, nor is, nor ever will be, nor ever can be, the
+least rational hope of making an impression on France by any Continental
+powers, if England is not a part, is not the directing part, is not the
+soul, of the whole confederacy against it.
+
+This, so far as it is an anticipation of future, is grounded on the
+whole tenor of former history. In speculation it is to be accounted for
+on two plain principles.
+
+First, That Great Britain is likely to take a more fair and equal part
+in the alliance than the other powers, as having less of crossing
+interest or perplexed discussion with any of them.
+
+Secondly, Because France cannot have to deal with any of these
+Continental sovereigns, without their feeling that nation, as a maritime
+power, greatly superior to them all put together,--a force which is only
+to be kept in check by England.
+
+England, except during the eccentric aberration of Charles the Second,
+has always considered it as her duty and interest to take her place in
+such a confederacy. Her chief disputes must ever be with France; and if
+England shows herself indifferent and unconcerned, when these powers are
+combined against the enterprises of France, she is to look with
+certainty for the same indifference on the part of these powers, when
+she may be at war with that nation. This will tend totally to disconnect
+this kingdom from the system of Europe, in which if she ought not rashly
+to meddle, she ought never wholly to withdraw herself from it.
+
+If, then, England is put in motion, whether by a consideration of the
+general safety, or of the influence of France upon Spain, or by the
+probable operations of this new system on the Netherlands, it must
+embrace in its project the whole as much as possible, and the part it
+takes ought to be as much as possible a leading and presiding part.
+
+I therefore beg leave to suggest,--
+
+First, That a minister should forthwith be sent to Spain, to encourage
+that court to persevere in the measures they have adopted against
+France,--to make a close alliance and guaranty of possessions, as
+against France, with that power,--and, whilst the formality of the
+treaty is pending, to assure them of our protection, postponing any
+lesser disputes to another occasion.
+
+Secondly, To assure the court of Vienna of our desire to enter into our
+ancient connections with her, and to support her effectually in the war
+which France has declared against her.
+
+Thirdly, To animate the Swiss and the king of Sardinia to take a part,
+as the latter once did on the principles of the Grand Alliance.
+
+Fourthly, To put an end to our disputes with Russia, and mutually to
+forget the past. I believe, if she is satisfied of this oblivion, she
+will return to her old sentiments with regard to this court, and will
+take a more forward part in this business than any other power.
+
+Fifthly, If what has happened to the king of Prussia is only in
+consequence of a sort of panic or of levity, and an indisposition to
+persevere long in one design, the support and concurrence of Russia will
+tend to steady him, and to give him resolution. If he be ill-disposed,
+with that power on his back, and without one ally in Europe, I conceive
+he will not be easily led to derange the plan.
+
+Sixthly, To use the joint influence of our court, and of our then allied
+powers, with Holland, to arm as fully as she can by sea, and to make
+some addition by land.
+
+Seventhly, To acknowledge the king of France's next brother (assisted by
+such a council and such representatives of the kingdom of France as
+shall be thought proper) regent of France, and to send that prince a
+small supply of money, arms, clothing, and artillery.
+
+Eighthly, To give force to these negotiations, an instant naval armament
+ought to be adopted,--one squadron for the Mediterranean, another for
+the Channel. The season is convenient,--most of our trade being, as I
+take it, at home.
+
+After speaking of a plan formed upon the ancient policy and practice of
+Great Britain and of Europe, to which this is exactly conformable in
+every respect, with no deviation whatsoever, and which is, I conceive,
+much more strongly called for by the present circumstances than by any
+former, I must take notice of another, which I hear, but cannot persuade
+myself to believe, is in agitation. This plan is grounded upon the very
+same view of things which is here stated,--namely, the danger to all
+sovereigns, and old republics, from the prevalence of French power and
+influence.
+
+It is, to form a congress of all the European powers for the purpose of
+a general defensive alliance, the objects of which should be,--
+
+First, The recognition of this new republic, (which they well know is
+formed on the principles and for the declared purpose of the destruction
+of all kings,) and, whenever the heads of this new republic shall
+consent to release the royal captives, to make peace with them.
+
+Secondly, To defend themselves with their joint forces against the open
+aggressions, or the secret practices, intrigues, and writings, which are
+used to propagate the French principles.
+
+It is easy to discover from whose shop this commodity comes. It is so
+perfectly absurd, that, if that or anything like it meets with a serious
+entertainment in any cabinet, I should think it the effect of what is
+called a judicial blindness, the certain forerunner of the destruction
+of all crowns and kingdoms.
+
+An _offensive_ alliance, in which union is preserved by common efforts
+in common dangers against a common active enemy, may preserve its
+consistency, and may produce for a given time some considerable effect:
+though this is not easy, and for any very long period can hardly be
+expected. But a _defensive_ alliance, formed of long discordant
+interests, with innumerable discussions existing, having no one pointed
+object to which it is directed, which is to be held together with an
+unremitted vigilance, as watchful in peace as in war, is so evidently
+impossible, is such a chimera, is so contrary to human nature and the
+course of human affairs, that I am persuaded no person in his senses,
+except those whose country, religion, and sovereign are deposited in the
+French funds, could dream of it. There is not the slightest petty
+boundary suit, no difference between a family arrangement, no sort of
+misunderstanding or cross purpose between the pride and etiquette of
+courts, that would not entirely disjoint this sort of alliance, and
+render it as futile in its effects as it is feeble in its principle. But
+when we consider that the main drift of that defensive alliance must be
+to prevent the operation of intrigue, mischievous doctrine, and evil
+example, in the success of unprovoked rebellion, regicide, and
+systematic assassination and massacre, the absurdity of such a scheme
+becomes quite lamentable. Open the communication with France, and the
+rest follows of course.
+
+How far the interior circumstances of this country support what is said
+with regard to its foreign polities must be left to bettor judgments. I
+am sure the French faction here is infinitely strengthened by the
+success of the assassins on the other side of the water. This evil in
+the heart of Europe must be extirpated from that centre, or no part of
+the circumference can be free from the mischief which radiates from it,
+and which will spread, circle beyond circle, in spite of all the little
+defensive precautions which can be employed against it.
+
+I do not put my name to these hints submitted to the consideration of
+reflecting men. It is of too little importance to suppose the name of
+the writer could add any weight to the state of things contained in this
+paper. That state of things presses irresistibly on my judgment, and it
+lies, and has long lain, with a heavy weight upon my mind. I cannot
+think that what is done in France is beneficial to the human race. If it
+were, the English Constitution ought no more to stand against it than
+the ancient Constitution of the kingdom in which the new system
+prevails. I thought it the duty of a man not unconcerned for the public,
+and who is a faithful subject to the king, respectfully to submit this
+state of facts, at this new step in the progress of the French arms and
+politics, to his Majesty, to his confidential servants, and to those
+persons who, though not in office, by their birth, their rank, their
+fortune, their character, and their reputation for wisdom, seem to me to
+have a large stake in the stability of the ancient order of things.
+
+BATH, November 5, 1792.
+
+
+
+
+REMARKS
+
+ON
+
+THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES
+
+WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE.
+
+BEGUN IN OCTOBER, 1793.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES.
+
+
+As the proposed manifesto is, I understand, to promulgate to the world
+the general idea of a plan for the regulation of a great kingdom, and
+through the regulation of that kingdom probably to decide the fate of
+Europe forever, nothing requires a more serious deliberation with regard
+to the time of making it, the circumstances of those to whom it is
+addressed, and the matter it is to contain.
+
+As to the time, (with the due diffidence in my own opinion,) I have some
+doubts whether it is not rather unfavorable to the issuing any manifesto
+with regard to the intended government of France, and for this reason:
+that it is (upon the principal point of our attack) a time of calamity
+and defeat. Manifestoes of this nature are commonly made when the army
+of some sovereign enters into the enemy's country in great force, and
+under the imposing authority of that force employs menaces towards those
+whom he desires to awe, and makes promises to those whom he wishes to
+engage in his favor.
+
+As to a party, what has been done at Toulon leaves no doubt that the
+party for which we declare must be that which substantially declares for
+royalty as the basis of the government.
+
+As to menaces, nothing, in my opinion, can contribute more effectually
+to lower any sovereign in the public estimation, and to turn his
+defeats into disgraces, than to threaten in a moment of impotence. The
+second manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick appeared, therefore, to the
+world to be extremely ill-timed. However, if his menaces in that
+manifesto had been seasonable, they were not without an object. Great
+crimes then apprehended, and great evils then impending, were to be
+prevented. At this time, every act which early menaces might possibly
+have _prevented_ is done. Punishment and vengeance alone remain,--and
+God forbid that they should ever be forgotten! But the punishment of
+enormous offenders will not be the less severe, or the less exemplary,
+when it is not threatened at a moment when we have it not in our power
+to execute our threats. On the other side, to pass by proceedings of
+such a nefarious nature, in all kinds, as have been carried on in
+France, without any signification of resentment, would be in effect to
+ratify them, and thus to become accessaries after the fact in all those
+enormities which it is impossible to repeat or think of without horror.
+An absolute silence appears to me to be at this time the only safe
+course.
+
+The second usual matter of manifestoes is composed of _promises_ to
+those who cooperate with our designs. These promises depend in a great
+measure, if not wholly, on the apparent power of the person who makes
+them to fulfil his engagements. A time of disaster on the part of the
+promiser seems not to add much to the dignity of his person or to the
+effect of his offers. One would hardly wish to seduce any unhappy
+persons to give the last provocation to a merciless tyranny, without
+very effectual means of protecting them.
+
+The time, therefore, seems (as I said) not favorable to a general
+manifesto, on account of the unpleasant situation of our affairs.
+However, I write in a changing scene, when a measure very imprudent
+to-day may be very proper to-morrow. Some great victory may alter the
+whole state of the question, so far as it regards our _power_ of
+fulfilling any engagement we may think fit to make.
+
+But there is another consideration of far greater importance for all the
+purposes of this manifesto. The public, and the parties concerned, will
+look somewhat to the disposition of the promiser indicated by his
+conduct, as well as to his power of fulfilling his engagements.
+
+Speaking of this nation as part of a general combination of powers, are
+we quite sure that others can believe us to be sincere, or that we can
+be even fully assured of our own sincerity, in the protection of those
+who shall risk their lives for the restoration of monarchy in France,
+when the world sees that those who are the natural, legal,
+constitutional representatives of that monarchy, if it has any, have not
+had their names so much as mentioned in any one public act, that in no
+way whatever are their persons brought forward, that their rights have
+not been expressly or implicitly allowed, and that they have not been in
+the least consulted on the important interests they have at stake? On
+the contrary, they are kept in a state of obscurity and contempt, and in
+a degree of indigence at times bordering on beggary. They are, in fact,
+little less prisoners in the village of Hanau than the royal captives
+who are locked up in the tower of the Temple. What is this, according to
+the common indications which guide the judgment of mankind, but, under
+the pretext of protecting the crown of France, in reality to usurp it?
+
+I am also very apprehensive that there are other circumstances which
+must tend to weaken the force of our declarations. No partiality to the
+allied powers can prevent great doubts on the fairness of our intentions
+as supporters of the crown of France, or of the true principles of
+legitimate government in opposition to Jacobinism, when it is visible
+that the two leading orders of the state of France, who are now the
+victims, and who must always be the true and sole supports of monarchy
+in that country, are, at best, in some of their descriptions, considered
+only as objects of charity, and others are, when employed, employed only
+as mercenary soldiers,--that they are thrown back out of all reputable
+service, are in a manner disowned, considered as nothing in their own
+cause, and never once consulted in the concerns of their king, their
+country, their laws, their religion, and their property. We even affect
+to be ashamed of them. In all our proceedings we carefully avoid the
+appearance of being of a party with them. In all our ideas of treaty we
+do not regard them as what they are, the two leading orders of the
+kingdom. If we do not consider them in that light, we must recognize the
+savages by whom they have been ruined, and who have declared war upon
+Europe, whilst they disgrace and persecute human nature, and openly defy
+the God that made them, as real proprietors of France.
+
+I am much afraid, too, that we shall scarcely be believed fair
+supporters of lawful monarchy against Jacobinism, so long as we continue
+to make and to observe cartels with the Jacobins, and on fair terms
+exchange prisoners with them, whilst the Royalists, invited to our
+standard, and employed under our public faith against the Jacobins, if
+taken by that savage faction, are given up to the executioner without
+the least attempt whatsoever at reprisal. For this we are to look at the
+king of Prussia's conduct, compared with his manifestoes about a
+twelvemonth ago. For this we are to look at the capitulations of Mentz
+and Valenciennes, made in the course of the present campaign. By those
+two capitulations the Christian Royalists were excluded from any
+participation in the cause of the combined powers. They were considered
+as the outlaws of Europe. Two armies were in effect sent against them.
+One of those armies (that which surrendered Mentz) was very near
+overpowering the Christians of Poitou, and the other (that which
+surrendered at Valenciennes) has actually crushed the people whom
+oppression and despair had driven to resistance at Lyons, has massacred
+several thousands of them in cold blood, pillaged the whole substance of
+the place, and pursued their rage to the very houses, condemning that
+noble city to desolation, in the unheard-of manner we have seen it
+devoted.
+
+It is, then, plain, by a conduct which overturns a thousand
+declarations, that we take the Royalists of France only as an instrument
+of some convenience in a temporary hostility with the Jacobins, but that
+we regard those atheistic and murderous barbarians as the _bonâ fide_
+possessors of the soil of France. It appears, at least, that we consider
+them as a fair government _de facto_, if not _de jure_, a resistance to
+which, in favor of the king of Prance, by any man who happened to be
+born within that country, might equitably be considered by other
+nations as the crime of treason.
+
+For my part, I would sooner put my hand into the fire than sign an
+invitation to oppressed men to fight under my standard, and then, on
+every sinister event of war, cruelly give them up to be punished as the
+basest of traitors, as long as I had one of the common enemy in my hands
+to be put to death in order to secure those under my protection, and to
+vindicate the common honor of sovereigns. We hear nothing of this kind
+of security in favor of those whom we invite to the support of our
+cause. Without it, I am not a little apprehensive that the proclamations
+of the combined powers might (contrary to their intention, no doubt) be
+looked upon as frauds, and cruel traps laid for their lives.
+
+So far as to the correspondence between our declarations and our
+conduct: let the declaration be worded as it will, the conduct is the
+practical comment by which, and which alone, it can be understood. This
+conduct, acting on the declaration, leaves a monarchy without a monarch,
+and without any representative or trustee for the monarch and the
+monarchy. It supposes a kingdom without states and orders, a territory
+without proprietors, and faithful subjects who are to be left to the
+fate of rebels and traitors.
+
+The affair of the establishment of a government is a very difficult
+undertaking for foreign powers to act in as _principals_; though as
+_auxiliaries and mediators_ it has been not at all unusual, and may be a
+measure full of policy and humanity and true dignity.
+
+The first thing we ought to do, supposing us not giving the law as
+conquerors, but acting as friendly powers applied to for counsel and
+assistance in the settlement of a distracted country, is well to
+consider the composition, nature, and temper of its objects, and
+particularly of those who actually do or who ought to exercise power in
+that state. It is material to know who they are, and how constituted,
+whom we consider as _the people of France_.
+
+The next consideration is, through whom our arrangements are to be made,
+and on what principles the government we propose is to be established.
+
+The first question on the people is this: Whether we are to consider the
+individuals _now actually in France, numerically taken and arranged into
+Jacobin clubs_, as the body politic, constituting the nation of
+France,--or whether we consider the original individual proprietors of
+lands, expelled since the Revolution, and the states and the bodies
+politic, such as the colleges of justice called Parliaments, the
+corporations, noble and not noble, of bailliages and towns and cities,
+the bishops and the clergy, as the true constituent parts of the nation,
+and forming the legally organized parts of the people of France.
+
+In this serious concern it is very necessary that we should have the
+most distinct ideas annexed to the terms we employ; because it is
+evident that an abuse of the term _people_ has been the original,
+fundamental cause of those evils, the cure of which, by war and policy,
+is the present object of all the states of Europe.
+
+If we consider the acting power in Prance, in any legal construction of
+public law, as the people, the question is decided in favor of the
+republic one and indivisible. But we have decided for monarchy. If so,
+we have a king and subjects; and that king and subjects have rights and
+privileges which ought to be supported at home: for I do not suppose
+that the government of that kingdom can or ought to be regulated by the
+arbitrary mandate of a foreign confederacy.
+
+As to the faction exercising power, to suppose that monarchy can be
+supported by principled regicides, religion by professed atheists, order
+by clubs of Jacobins, property by committees of proscription, and
+jurisprudence by revolutionary tribunals, is to be sanguine in a degree
+of which I am incapable. On them I decide, for myself, that these
+persons are not the legal corporation of France, and that it is not with
+them we can (if we would) settle the government of France.
+
+Since, then, we have decided for monarchy in that kingdom, we ought also
+to settle who is to be the monarch, who is to be the guardian of a
+minor, and how the monarch and monarchy is to be modified and supported;
+if the monarch is to be elected, who the electors are to be,--if
+hereditary, what order is established, corresponding with an hereditary
+monarchy, and fitted to maintain it; who are to modify it in its
+exercise; who are to restrain its powers, where they ought to be
+limited, to strengthen them, where they are to be supported, or, to
+enlarge them, where the object, the time, and the circumstances may
+demand their extension. These are things which, in the outline, ought to
+be made distinct and clear; for if they are not, (especially with regard
+to those great points, who are the proprietors of the soil, and what is
+the corporation of the kingdom,) there is nothing to hinder the complete
+establishment of a Jacobin republic, (such as that formed in 1790 and
+1791,) under the name of a _Démocratie Royale_. Jacobinism does not
+consist in the having or not having a certain pageant under the name of
+a king, but "in taking the people as equal individuals, without any
+corporate name or description, without attention to property, without
+division of powers, and forming the government of delegates from a
+number of men so constituted,--in destroying or confiscating property,
+and bribing the public creditors, or the poor, with the spoils, now of
+one part of the community, now of another, without regard to
+prescription or possession."
+
+I hope no one can be so very blind as to imagine that monarchy can be
+acknowledged and supported in France upon any other basis than that of
+its property, _corporate and individual_,--or that it can enjoy a
+moment's permanence or security upon any scheme of things which sets
+aside all the ancient corporate capacities and distinctions of the
+kingdom, and subverts the whole fabric of its ancient laws and usages,
+political, civil, and religious, to introduce a system founded on the
+supposed _rights of man, and the absolute equality of the human race_.
+Unless, therefore, we declare clearly and distinctly in favor of the
+_restoration_ of property, and confide to the hereditary property of the
+kingdom the limitation and qualifications of its hereditary monarchy,
+the blood and treasure of Europe is wasted for the establishment of
+Jacobinism in France. There is no doubt that Danton and Robespierre,
+Chaumette and Barère, that Condorcet, that Thomas Paine, that La
+Fayette, and the ex-Bishop of Autun, the _Abbé Grégoire_, with all the
+gang of the Sieyèses, the Henriots, and the Santerres, if they could
+secure themselves in the fruits of their rebellion and robbery, would
+be perfectly indifferent, whether the most unhappy of all infants, whom
+by the lessons of the shoemaker, his governor and guardian, they are
+training up studiously and methodically to be an idiot, or, what is
+worse, the most wicked and base of mankind, continues to receive his
+civic education in the Temple or the Tuileries, whilst they, and such as
+they, really govern the kingdom.
+
+It cannot be too often and too strongly inculcated, that monarchy and
+property must, in France, go together, or neither can exist. To think of
+the possibility of the existence of a permanent and hereditary royalty,
+_where nothing else is hereditary or permanent in point either of
+personal or corporate dignity_, is a ruinous chimera, worthy of the Abbé
+Sieyès, and those wicked fools, his associates, who usurped power by the
+murders of the 19th of July and the 6th of October, 1789, and who
+brought forth the monster which they called _Démocratie Royale_, or the
+Constitution.
+
+I believe that most thinking men would prefer infinitely some sober and
+sensible form of a republic, in which there was no mention at all of a
+king, but which held out some reasonable security to property, life, and
+personal freedom, to a scheme of tilings like this _Démocratie Royale,_
+founded on impiety, immorality, fraudulent currencies, the confiscation
+of innocent individuals, and the pretended rights of man,--and which, in
+effect, excluding the whole body of the nobility, clergy, and landed
+property of a great nation, threw everything into the hands of a
+desperate set of obscure adventurers, who led to every mischief a blind
+and bloody band of _sans-culottes._ At the head, or rather at the tail,
+of this system was a miserable pageant, as its ostensible instrument,
+who was to be treated with every species of indignity, till the moment
+when he was conveyed from the palace of contempt to the dungeon of
+horror, and thence led by a brewer of his capital, through the applauses
+of an hired, frantic, drunken multitude, to lose his head upon a
+scaffold.
+
+This is the Constitution, or _Démocratie Royale_; and this is what
+infallibly would be again set up in France, to run exactly the same
+round, if the predominant power should so far be forced to submit as to
+receive the name of a king, leaving it to the Jacobins (that is, to
+those who have subverted royalty and destroyed property) to modify the
+one and to distribute the other as spoil. By the Jacobins I mean
+indiscriminately the Brissotins and the Maratists, knowing no sort of
+difference between them. As to any other party, none exists in that
+unhappy country. The Royalists (those in Poitou excepted) are banished
+and extinguished; and as to what they call the Constitutionalists, or
+_Democrates Royaux_, they never had an existence of the smallest degree
+of power, consideration, or authority, nor, if they differ at all from
+the rest of the atheistic banditti, (which from their actions and
+principles I have no reason to think,) were they ever any other than the
+temporary tools and instruments of the more determined, able, and
+systematic regicides. Several attempts have been made to support this
+chimerical _Démocratie Royale_: the first was by La Fayette, the last by
+Dumouriez: they tended only to show that this absurd project had no
+party to support it. The Girondists under Wimpfen, and at Bordeaux, have
+made some struggle. The Constitutionalists never could make any, and
+for a very plain reason: they were _leaders in rebellion_. All their
+principles and their whole scheme of government being republican, they
+could never excite the smallest degree of enthusiasm in favor of the
+unhappy monarch, whom they had rendered contemptible, to make him the
+executive officer in their new commonwealth. They only appeared as
+traitors to their own Jacobin cause, not as faithful adherents to the
+king.
+
+In an address to France, in an attempt to treat with it, or in
+considering any scheme at all relative to it, it is impossible we should
+mean the geographical, we must always mean the moral and political
+country. I believe we shall be in a great error, if we act upon an idea
+that there exists in that country any organized body of men who might be
+willing to treat on equitable terms for the restoration of their
+monarchy, but who are nice in balancing those terms, and who would
+accept such as to them appeared reasonable, but who would quietly submit
+to the predominant power, if they were not gratified in the fashion of
+some constitution which suited with their fancies.
+
+[Sidenote: No individual influence, civil or military.]
+
+I take the state of France to be totally different. I know of no such
+body, and of no such party. So far from a combination of twenty men,
+(always excepting Poitou,) I never yet heard that _a single man_ could
+be named of sufficient force or influence to answer for another man,
+much less for the smallest district in the country, or for the most
+incomplete company of soldiers in the army. We see every man that the
+Jacobins choose to apprehend taken up in his village or in his house,
+and conveyed to prison without the least shadow of resistance,--_and
+this indifferently_, whether he is suspected of Royalism, or Federalism,
+Moderantism, Democracy Royal, or any other of the names of faction which
+they start by the hour. What is much more astonishing, (and, if we did
+not carefully attend to the genius and circumstances of this Revolution,
+must indeed appear incredible,) all their most accredited military men,
+from a generalissimo to a corporal, may be arrested, (each in the midst
+of his camp, and covered with the laurels of accumulated victories,)
+tied neck and heels, thrown into a cart, and sent to Paris to be
+disposed of at the pleasure of the Revolutionary tribunals.
+
+[Sidenote: No corporations of justice, commerce, or police.]
+
+As no individuals have power and influence, so there are no
+corporations, whether of lawyers or burghers, existing. The Assembly
+called Constituent, destroyed all such institutions very early. The
+primary and secondary assemblies, by their original constitution, were
+to be dissolved when they answered the purpose of electing the
+magistrates, and were expressly disqualified from performing any
+corporate act whatsoever. The transient magistrates have been almost all
+removed before the expiration of their terms, and new have been lately
+imposed upon the people without the form or ceremony of an election.
+These magistrates during their existence are put under, as all the
+executive authorities are from first to last, the popular societies
+(called Jacobin clubs) of the several countries, and this by an express
+order of the National Convention: it is even made a case of death to
+oppose or attack those clubs. They, too, have been lately subjected to
+an expurgatory scrutiny, to drive out from them everything savoring of
+what they call the crime of _moderantism_, of which offence, however,
+few were guilty. But as people began to take refuge from their
+persecutions amongst themselves, they have driven them from that last
+asylum.
+
+The state of France is perfectly simple. It consists of but two
+descriptions,--the oppressors and the oppressed.
+
+The first has the whole authority of the state in their hands,--all the
+arms, all the revenues of the public, all the confiscations of
+individuals and corporations. They have taken the lower sort from their
+occupations and have put them into pay, that they may form them into a
+body of janizaries to overrule and awe property. The heads of these
+wretches they never suffer to cool. They supply them with a food for
+fury varied by the day,--besides the sensual state of intoxication, from
+which they are rarely free. They have made the priests and people
+formally abjure the Divinity; they have estranged them from every civil,
+moral, and social, or even natural and instinctive sentiment, habit, and
+practice, and have rendered them systematically savages, to make it
+impossible for them to be the instruments of any sober and virtuous
+arrangement, or to be reconciled to any state of order, under any name
+whatsoever.
+
+The other description--_the oppressed_--are people of some property:
+they are the small relics of the persecuted landed interest; they are
+the burghers and the farmers. By the very circumstance of their being of
+some property, though numerous in some points of view, they cannot be
+very considerable as _a number_. In cities the nature of their
+occupations renders them domestic and feeble; in the country it
+confines them to their farm for subsistence. The national guards are all
+changed and reformed. Everything suspicious in the description of which
+they were composed is rigorously disarmed. Committees, called of
+vigilance and safety, are everywhere formed: a most severe and
+scrutinizing inquisition, far more rigid than anything ever known or
+imagined. Two persons cannot meet and confer without hazard to their
+liberty, and even to their lives. Numbers scarcely credible have been
+executed, and their property confiscated. At Paris, and in most other
+towns, the bread they buy is a daily dole,--which they cannot obtain
+without a daily ticket delivered to them by their masters. Multitudes of
+all ages and sexes are actually imprisoned. I have reason to believe
+that in France there are not, for various state crimes, so few as twenty
+thousand[33] actually in jail,--a large proportion of people of property
+in any state. If a father of a family should show any disposition to
+resist or to withdraw himself from their power, his wife and children
+are cruelly to answer for it. It is by means of these hostages that they
+keep the troops, which they force by masses (as they call it) into the
+field, true to their colors.
+
+Another of their resources is not to be forgotten. They have lately
+found a way of giving a sort of ubiquity to the supreme sovereign
+authority, which no monarch has been able yet to give to any
+representation of his.
+
+The commissioners of the National Convention, who are the members of the
+Convention itself, and really exercise all its powers, make continual
+circuits through every province, and visits to every army. There they
+supersede all the ordinary authorities, civil and military, and change
+and alter everything at their pleasure. So that, in effect, no
+deliberative capacity exists in any portion of the inhabitants.
+
+Toulon, republican in principle, having taken its decision _in a moment
+under the guillotine_, and before the arrival of these
+commissioners,--Toulon, being a place regularly fortified, and having in
+its bosom a navy in part highly discontented, has escaped, though by a
+sort of miracle: and it would not have escaped, if two powerful fleets
+had not been at the door, to give them not only strong, but prompt and
+immediate succor, especially as neither this nor any other seaport town
+in France can be depended on, from the peculiarly savage dispositions,
+manners, and connections among the lower sort of people in those places.
+This I take to be the true state of things in France, _so far as it
+regards any existing bodies, whether of legal or voluntary association,
+capable of acting or of treating in corps_.
+
+As to the oppressed _individuals_, they are many, and as discontented as
+men must be under the monstrous and complicated tyranny of all sorts
+with which they are crushed. They want no stimulus to throw off this
+dreadful yoke; but they do want, not manifestoes, which they have had
+even to surfeit, but real protection, force, and succor.
+
+The disputes and questions of men at their ease do not at all affect
+their minds, or ever can occupy the minds of men in their situation.
+These theories are long since gone by; they have had their day, and have
+done their mischief. The question is not between the rabble of systems,
+Fayettism, Condorcetism, Monarchism, or Democratism, or Federalism, on
+the one side, and the fundamental laws of France on the other,--or
+between all these systems amongst themselves. It is a controversy (weak,
+indeed, and unequal, on the one part) between the proprietor and the
+robber, between the prisoner and the jailer, between the neck and the
+guillotine. Four fifths of the French inhabitants would thankfully take
+protection from the emperor of Morocco, and would never trouble their
+heads about the abstract principles of the power by which they were
+snatched from imprisonment, robbery, and murder. But then these men can
+do little or nothing for themselves. They have no arms, nor magazines,
+nor chiefs, nor union, nor the possibility of these things within
+themselves. On the whole, therefore, I lay it down as a certainty, that
+in the Jacobins no change of mind is to be expected, and that no others
+in the territory of France have an independent and deliberative
+existence.
+
+The truth is, that France is out of itself,--the moral France is
+separated from the geographical. The master of the house is expelled,
+and the robbers are in possession. If we look for the _corporate people_
+of France, existing as corporate in the eye and intention of public law,
+(that corporate people, I mean, who are free to deliberate and to
+decide, and who have a capacity to treat and conclude,) they are in
+Flanders, and Germany, in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and England. There
+are all the princes of the blood, there are all the orders of the state,
+there are all the parliaments of the kingdom.
+
+This being, as I conceive, the true state of France, as it exists
+_territorially_, and as it exists _morally_, the question will be, with
+whom we are to concert our arrangements, and whom we are to use as our
+instruments in the reduction, in the pacification, and in the settlement
+of France. The work to be done must indicate the workmen. Supposing us
+to have national objects, we have two principal and one secondary. The
+first two are so intimately connected as not to be separated even in
+thought: the reëstablishment of royalty, and the reëstablishment of
+property. One would think it requires not a great deal of argument to
+prove that the most serious endeavors to restore royalty will be made by
+Royalists. Property will be most energetically restored by the ancient
+proprietors of that kingdom.
+
+When I speak of Royalists, I wish to be understood of those who were
+always such from principle. Every arm lifted up for royalty from the
+beginning was the arm of a man so principled. I do not think there are
+ten exceptions.
+
+The principled Royalists are certainly not of force to effect these
+objects by themselves. If they were, the operations of the present great
+combination would be wholly unnecessary. What I contend for is, that
+they should be consulted with, treated with, and employed; and that no
+foreigners whatsoever are either in interest so engaged, or in judgment
+and local knowledge so competent to answer all these purposes, as the
+natural proprietors of the country.
+
+Their number, for an exiled party, is also considerable. Almost the
+whole body of the landed proprietors of France, ecclesiastical and
+civil, have been steadily devoted to the monarchy. This body does not
+amount to less than seventy thousand,--a very great number in the
+composition of the respectable classes in any society. I am sure, that,
+if half that number of the same description were taken out of this
+country, it would leave hardly anything that I should call the people of
+England. On the faith of the Emperor and the king of Prussia, a body of
+ten thousand nobility on horseback, with the king's two brothers at
+their head, served with the king of Prussia in the campaign of 1792, and
+equipped themselves with the last shilling of their ruined fortunes and
+exhausted credit.[34] It is not now the question, how that great force
+came to be rendered useless and totally dissipated. I state it now, only
+to remark that a great part of the same force exists, and would act, if
+it were enabled. I am sure everything has shown us that in this war with
+France one Frenchman is worth twenty foreigners. La Vendée is a proof of
+this.
+
+If we wish to make an impression on the minds of any persons in France,
+or to persuade them to join our standard, it is impossible that they
+should not be more easily led, and more readily formed and disciplined,
+(civilly and martially disciplined,) by those who speak their language,
+who are acquainted with their manners, who are conversant with their
+usages and habits of thinking, and who have a local knowledge of their
+country, and some remains of ancient credit and consideration, than with
+a body congregated from all tongues and tribes. Where none of the
+respectable native interests are seen in the transaction, it is
+impossible that any declarations can convince those that are within, or
+those that are without, that anything else than some sort of hostility
+in the style of a conqueror is meant. At best, it will appear to such
+wavering persons, (if such there are,) whom we mean to fix with us, a
+choice whether they are to continue a prey to domestic banditti, or to
+be fought for as a carrion carcass and picked to the bone by all the
+crows and vultures of the sky. They may take protection, (and they
+would, I doubt not,) but they can have neither alacrity nor zeal in such
+a cause. When they see nothing but bands of English, Spaniards,
+Neapolitans, Sardinians, Prussians, Austrians, Hungarians, Bohemians,
+Slavonians, Croatians, _acting as principals_, it is impossible they
+should think we come with a beneficent design. Many of those fierce and
+barbarous people have already given proofs how little they regard any
+French party whatsoever. Some of these nations the people of France are
+jealous of: such are the English and the Spaniards;--others they
+despise: such are the Italians;--others they hate and dread: such are
+the German and Danubian powers. At best, such interposition of ancient
+enemies excites apprehension; but in this case, how can they suppose
+that we come to maintain their legitimate monarchy in a truly paternal
+French government, to protect their privileges, their laws, their
+religion, and their property, when they see us make use of no one person
+who has any interest in them, any knowledge of them, or any the least
+zeal for them? On the contrary, they see that we do not suffer any of
+those who have shown a zeal in that cause which we seem to make our own
+to come freely into any place in which the allies obtain any footing.
+
+If we wish to gain upon any people, it is right to see what it is they
+expect. We have had a proposal from the Royalists of Poitou. They are
+well entitled, after a bloody war maintained for eight months against
+all the powers of anarchy, to speak the sentiments of the Royalists of
+France. Do they desire us to exclude their princes, their clergy, their
+nobility? The direct contrary. They earnestly solicit that men of every
+one of these descriptions should be sent to them. They do not call for
+English, Austrian, or Prussian officers. They call for French emigrant
+officers. They call for the exiled priests. They have demanded the Comte
+d'Artois to appear at their head. These are the demands (quite natural
+demands) of those who are ready to follow the standard of monarchy.
+
+The great means, therefore, of restoring the monarchy, which we have
+made _the main object of the war_, is, to assist the dignity, the
+religion, and the property of France to repossess themselves of the
+means of their natural influence. This ought to be the primary object of
+all our politics and all our military operations. Otherwise everything
+will move in a preposterous order, and nothing but confusion and
+destruction will follow.
+
+I know that misfortune is not made to win respect from ordinary minds. I
+know that there is a leaning to prosperity, however obtained, and a
+prejudice in its favor. I know there is a disposition to hope something
+from the variety and inconstancy of villany, rather than from the
+tiresome uniformity of fixed principle. There have been, I admit,
+situations in which a guiding person or party might be gained over, and
+through him or them the whole body of a nation. For the hope of such a
+conversion, and of deriving advantage from enemies, it might be politic
+for a while to throw your friends into the shade. But examples drawn
+from history in occasions like the present will be found dangerously to
+mislead us. France has no resemblance to other countries which have
+undergone troubles and been purified by them. If France, Jacobinized as
+it has been for four full years, did contain any bodies of authority and
+disposition to treat with you, (most assuredly she does not,) such is
+the levity of those who have expelled everything respectable in their
+country, such their ferocity, their arrogance, their mutinous spirit,
+their habits of defying everything human and divine, that no engagement
+would hold with them for three months; nor, indeed, could they cohere
+together for any purpose of civilized society, if left as they now are.
+There must be a means, not only of breaking their strength within
+themselves, but of _civilizing_ them; and these two things must go
+together, before we can possibly treat with them, not only as a nation,
+but with any division of them. Descriptions of men of their own race,
+but better in rank, superior in property and decorum, of honorable,
+decent, and orderly habits, are absolutely necessary to bring them to
+such a frame as to qualify them so much as to come into contact with a
+civilized nation. A set of those ferocious savages with arms in their
+hands, left to themselves in one part of the country whilst you proceed
+to another, would break forth into outrages at least as bad as their
+former. They must, as fast as gained, (if ever they are gained,) be put
+under the guide, direction, and government of better Frenchmen than
+themselves, or they will instantly relapse into a fever of aggravated
+Jacobinism.
+
+We must not judge of other parts of France by the temporary submission
+of Toulon, with two vast fleets in its harbor, and a garrison far more
+numerous than all the inhabitants able to bear arms. If they were left
+to themselves, I am quite sure they would not retain their attachment to
+monarchy of any name for a single week.
+
+To administer the only cure for the unheard-of disorders of that undone
+country, I think it infinitely happy for us that God has given into our
+hands more effectual remedies than human contrivance could point out. We
+have in our bosom, and in the bosom of other civilized states, nearer
+forty than thirty thousand persons, providentially preserved, not only
+from the cruelty and violence, but from the contagion of the horrid
+practices, sentiments, and language of the Jacobins, and even sacredly
+guarded from the view of such abominable scenes. If we should obtain, in
+any considerable district, a footing in France, we possess an immense
+body of physicians and magistrates of the mind, whom we now know to be
+the most discreet, gentle, well-tempered, conciliatory, virtuous, and
+pious persons who in any order probably existed in the world. You will
+have a missioner of peace and order in every parish. Never was a wiser
+national economy than in the charity of the English and of other
+countries. Never was money better expended than in the maintenance of
+this body of civil troops for reëstablishing order in France, and for
+thus securing its civilization to Europe. This means, if properly used,
+is of value inestimable.
+
+Nor is this corps of instruments of civilization confined to the first
+order of that state,--I mean the clergy. The allied powers possess also
+an exceedingly numerous, well-informed, sensible, ingenious,
+high-principled, and spirited body of cavaliers in the expatriated
+landed interest of France, as well qualified, at least, as I (who have
+been taught by time and experience to moderate my calculation of the
+expectancy of human abilities) ever expected to see in the body of any
+landed gentlemen and soldiers by their birth. France is well winnowed
+and sifted. Its virtuous men are, I believe, amongst the most virtuous,
+as its wicked are amongst the most abandoned upon earth. Whatever in the
+territory of France may be found to be in the middle between these must
+be attracted to the better part. This will be compassed, when every
+gentleman, everywhere being restored to his landed estate, each on his
+patrimonial ground, may join the clergy in reanimating the loyalty,
+fidelity, and religion of the people,--that these gentlemen proprietors
+of land may sort that people according to the trust they severally
+merit, that they may arm the honest and well-affected, and disarm and
+disable the factious and ill-disposed. No foreigner can make this
+discrimination nor these arrangements. The ancient corporations of
+burghers according to their several modes should be restored, and placed
+(as they ought to be) in the hands of men of gravity and property in the
+cities or bailliages, according to the proper constitutions of the
+commons or third estate of France. They will restrain and regulate the
+seditious rabble there, as the gentlemen will on their own estates. In
+this way, and _in this way alone_, the country (once broken in upon by
+foreign force well directed) may be gained and settled. It must be
+gained and settled by _itself_, and through the medium of its _own_
+native dignity and property. It is not honest, it is not decent, still
+less is it politic, for foreign powers themselves to attempt anything in
+this minute, internal, local detail, in which they could show nothing
+but ignorance, imbecility, confusion, and oppression. As to the prince
+who has a just claim to exercise the regency of France, like other men
+he is not without his faults and his defects. But faults or defects
+(always supposing them faults of common human infirmity) are not what in
+any country destroy a legal title to government. These princes are kept
+in a poor, obscure, country town of the king of Prussia's. Their
+reputation is entirely at the mercy of every calumniator. They cannot
+show themselves, they cannot explain themselves, as princes ought to do.
+After being well informed as any man here can be, I do not find that
+these blemishes in this eminent person are at all considerable, or that
+they at all affect a character which is full of probity, honor,
+generosity, and real goodness. In some points he has but too much
+resemblance to his unfortunate brother, who, with all his weaknesses,
+had a good understanding, and many parts of an excellent man and a good
+king. But Monsieur, without supposing the other deficient, (as he was
+not,) excels him in general knowledge, and in a sharp and keen
+observation, with something of a better address, and an happier mode of
+speaking and of writing. His conversation is open, agreeable, and
+informed; his manners gracious and princely. His brother, the Comte
+d'Artois, sustains still better the representation of his place. He is
+eloquent, lively, engaging in the highest degree, of a decided
+character, full of energy and activity. In a word, he is a brave,
+honorable, and accomplished cavalier. Their brethren of royalty, if they
+were true to their own cause and interest, instead of relegating these
+illustrious persons to an obscure town, would bring them forward in
+their courts and camps, and exhibit them to (what they would speedily
+obtain) the esteem, respect, and affection of mankind.
+
+[Sidenote: Objection made to the regent's endeavor to go to Spain.]
+
+As to their knocking at every door, (which seems to give offence,) can
+anything be more natural? Abandoned, despised, rendered in a manner
+outlaws by all the powers of Europe, who have treated their unfortunate
+brethren with all the giddy pride and improvident insolence of blind,
+unfeeling prosperity, who did not even send them a compliment of
+condolence on the murder of their brother and sister, in such a state is
+it to be wondered at, or blamed, that they tried every way, likely or
+unlikely, well or ill chosen, to get out of the horrible pit into which
+they are fallen, and that in particular they tried whether the princes
+of their own blood might at length be brought to think the cause of
+kings, and of kings of their race, wounded in the murder and exile of
+the branch of France, of as much importance as the killing of a brace of
+partridges? If they were absolutely idle, and only eat in sloth their
+bread of sorrow and dependence, they would be forgotten, or at best
+thought of as wretches unworthy of their pretensions, which they had
+done nothing to support. If they err from _our_ interests, what care has
+been taken to keep them in those interests? or what desire has ever
+been shown to employ them in any other way than as instruments of their
+own degradation, shame, and ruin?
+
+The Parliament of Paris, by whom the title of the regent is to be
+recognized, (not made,) according to the laws of the kingdom, is ready
+to recognize it, and to register it, if a place of meeting was given to
+them, which might be within their own jurisdiction, supposing that only
+locality was required for the exercise of their functions: for it is one
+of the advantages of monarchy to have no local seat. It may maintain its
+rights out of the sphere of its territorial jurisdiction, if other
+powers will suffer it.
+
+I am well apprised that the little intriguers, and whisperers, and
+self-conceited, thoughtless babblers, worse than either, run about to
+depreciate the fallen virtue of a great nation. But whilst they talk, we
+must make our choice,--they or the Jacobins. We have no other option. As
+to those who in the pride of a prosperity not obtained by their wisdom,
+valor, or industry, think so well of themselves, and of their own
+abilities and virtues, and so ill of other men, truth obliges me to say
+that they are not founded in their presumption concerning themselves,
+nor in their contempt of the French princes, magistrates, nobility, and
+clergy. Instead of inspiring me with dislike and distrust of the
+unfortunate, engaged with us in a common cause against our Jacobin
+enemy, they take away all my esteem for their own characters, and all my
+deference to their judgment.
+
+There are some few French gentlemen, indeed, who talk a language not
+wholly different from this jargon. Those whom I have in my eye I respect
+as gallant soldiers, as much as any one can do; but on their political
+judgment and prudence I have not the slightest reliance, nor on their
+knowledge of their own country, or of its laws and Constitution. They
+are, if not enemies, at least not friends, to the orders of their own
+state,--not to the princes, the clergy, or the nobility; they possess
+only an attachment to the monarchy, or rather to the persons of the late
+king and queen. In all other respects their conversation is Jacobin. I
+am afraid they, or some of them, go into the closets of ministers, and
+tell them that the affairs of France will be better arranged by the
+allied powers than by the landed proprietors of the kingdom, or by the
+princes who have a right to govern; and that, if any French are at all
+to be employed in the settlement of their country, it ought to be only
+those who have never declared any decided opinion, or taken any active
+part in the Revolution.[35]
+
+I suspect that the authors of this opinion are mere soldiers of fortune,
+who, though men of integrity and honor, would as gladly receive military
+rank from Russia, or Austria, or Prussia, as from the regent of France.
+Perhaps their not having as much importance at his court as they could
+wish may incline them to this strange imagination. Perhaps, having no
+property in old France, they are more indifferent about its restoration.
+Their language is certainly flattering to all ministers in all courts.
+We all are men; we all love to be told of the extent of our own power
+and our own faculties. If we love glory, we are jealous of partners, and
+afraid even of our own instruments. It is of all modes of flattery the
+most effectual, to be told that you can regulate the affairs of another
+kingdom better than its hereditary proprietors. It is formed to flatter
+the principle of conquest so natural to all men. It is this principle
+which is now making the partition of Poland. The powers concerned have
+been told by some perfidious Poles, and perhaps they believe, that their
+usurpation is a great benefit to the people, especially to the common
+people. However this may turn out with regard to Poland, I am quite sure
+that France could not be so well under a foreign direction as under that
+of the representatives of its own king and its own ancient estates.
+
+I think I have myself studied France as much as most of those whom the
+allied courts are likely to employ in such a work. I have likewise of
+myself as partial and as vain an opinion as men commonly have of
+themselves. But if I could command the whole military arm of Europe, I
+am sure that a bribe of the best province in that kingdom would not
+tempt me to intermeddle in their affairs, except in perfect concurrence
+and concert with the natural, legal interests of the country, composed
+of the ecclesiastical, the military, the several corporate bodies of
+justice and of burghership, making under a monarch (I repeat it again
+and again) _the French nation according to its fundamental
+Constitution_. No considerate statesman would undertake to meddle with
+it upon any other condition.
+
+The government of that kingdom is fundamentally monarchical. The public
+law of Europe has never recognized in it any other form of government.
+The potentates of Europe have, by that law, a right, an interest, and a
+duty to know with what government they are to treat, and what they are
+to admit into the federative society,--or, in other words, into the
+diplomatic republic of Europe. This right is clear and indisputable.
+
+What other and further interference they have a right to in the interior
+of the concerns of another people is a matter on which, as on every
+political subject, no very definite or positive rule can well be laid
+down. Our neighbors are men; and who will attempt to dictate the laws
+under which it is allowable or forbidden to take a part in the concerns
+of men, whether they are considered individually or in a collective
+capacity, whenever charity to them, or a care of my own safety, calls
+forth my activity? Circumstances perpetually variable, directing a moral
+prudence and discretion, the _general_ principles of which never vary,
+must alone prescribe a conduct fitting on such occasions. The latest
+casuists of public law are rather of a republican cast, and, in my mind,
+by no means so averse as they ought to be to a right in the people (a
+word which, ill defined, is of the most dangerous use) to make changes
+at their pleasure in the fundamental laws of their country. These
+writers, however, when a country is divided, leave abundant liberty for
+a neighbor to support any of the parties according to his choice.[36]
+This interference must, indeed, always be a right, whilst the privilege
+of doing good to others, and of averting from them every sort of evil,
+is a right: circumstances may render that right a duty. It depends
+wholly on this, whether it be a _bonâ fide_ charity to a party, and a
+prudent precaution with regard to yourself, or whether, under the
+pretence of aiding one of the parties in a nation, you act in such a
+manner as to aggravate its calamities and accomplish its final
+destruction. In truth, it is not the interfering or keeping aloof, but
+iniquitous intermeddling, or treacherous inaction, which is praised or
+blamed by the decision of an equitable judge.
+
+It will be a just and irresistible presumption against the fairness of
+the interposing power, that he takes with him no party or description of
+men in the divided state. It is not probable that these parties should
+all, and all alike, be more adverse to the true interests of their
+country, and less capable of forming a judgment upon them, than those
+who are absolute strangers to their affairs, and to the character of the
+actors in them, and have but a remote, feeble, and secondary sympathy
+with their interest. Sometimes a calm and healing arbiter may be
+necessary; but he is to compose differences, not to give laws. It is
+impossible that any one should not feel the full force of that
+presumption. Even people, whose politics for the supposed good of their
+own country lead them to take advantage of the dissensions of a
+neighboring nation in order to ruin it, will not directly propose to
+exclude the natives, but they will take that mode of consulting and
+employing them which most nearly approaches to an exclusion. In some
+particulars they propose what amounts to that exclusion, in others they
+do much worse. They recommend to ministry, "that no Frenchman who has
+given a decided opinion or acted a decided part in this great
+Revolution, for or against it, should be countenanced, brought forward,
+trusted, or employed, even in the strictest subordination to the
+ministers of the allied powers." Although one would think that this
+advice would stand condemned on the first proposition, yet, as it has
+been made popular, and has been proceeded upon practically, I think it
+right to give it a full consideration.
+
+And first, I have asked myself who these Frenchmen are, that, in the
+state their own country has been in for these last five years, of all
+the people of Europe, have alone not been able to form a decided
+opinion, or have been unwilling to act a decided part?
+
+Looking over all the names I have heard of in this great revolution in
+all human affairs, I find no man of any distinction who has remained in
+that more than Stoical apathy, but the Prince de Conti. This mean,
+stupid, selfish, swinish, and cowardly animal, universally known and
+despised as such, has indeed, except in one abortive attempt to elope,
+been perfectly neutral. However, his neutrality, which it seems would
+qualify him for trust, and on a competition must set aside the Prince de
+Condé, can be of no sort of service. His moderation has not been able to
+keep him from a jail. The allied powers must draw him from that jail,
+before they can have the full advantage of the exertions of this great
+neutralist.
+
+Except him, I do not recollect a man of rank or talents, who by his
+speeches or his votes, by his pen or by his sword, has not been active
+on this scene. The time, indeed, could admit no neutrality in any person
+worthy of the name of man. There were originally two great divisions in
+France: the one is that which overturned the whole of the government in
+Church and State, and erected a republic on the basis of atheism. Their
+grand engine was the Jacobin Club, a sort of secession from which, but
+exactly on the same principles, begat another short-lived one, called
+the Club of Eighty-Nine,[37] which was chiefly guided by the court
+rebels, who, in addition to the crimes of which they were guilty in
+common with the others, had the merit of betraying a gracious master and
+a kind benefactor. Subdivisions of this faction, which since we have
+seen, do not in the least differ from each other in their principles,
+their dispositions, or the means they have employed. Their only quarrel
+has been about power: in that quarrel, like wave succeeding wave, one
+faction has got the better and expelled the other. Thus, La Fayette for
+a while got the better of Orléans; and Orléans afterwards prevailed over
+La Fayette. Brissot overpowered Orléans; Barère and Robespierre, and
+their faction, mastered them both, and cut off their heads. All who were
+not Royalists have been listed in some or other of these divisions. If
+it were of any use to settle a precedence, the elder ought to have his
+rank. The first authors, plotters, and contrivers of this monstrous
+scheme seem to me entitled to the first place in our distrust and
+abhorrence. I have seen some of those who are thought the best amongst
+the original rebels, and I have not neglected the means of being
+informed concerning the others. I can very truly say, that I have not
+found, by observation, or inquiry, that any sense of the evils produced
+by their projects has produced in them, or any _one_ of them, the
+smallest degree of repentance. Disappointment and mortification
+undoubtedly they feel; but to them repentance is a thing impossible.
+They are atheists. This wretched opinion, by which they are possessed
+even to the height of fanaticism, leading them to exclude from their
+ideas of a commonwealth the vital principle of the physical, the moral,
+and the political world engages them in a thousand absurd contrivances
+to fill up this dreadful void. Incapable of innoxious repose or
+honorable action or wise speculation in the lurking-holes of a foreign
+land, into which (in a common ruin) they are driven to hide their heads
+amongst the innocent victims of their madness, they are at this very
+hour as busy in the confection of the dirt-pies of their imaginary
+constitutions as if they had not been quite fresh from destroying, by
+their impious and desperate vagaries, the finest country upon earth.
+
+It is, however, out of these, or of such as these, guilty and
+impenitent, despising the experience of others, and their own, that some
+people talk of choosing their negotiators with those Jacobins who they
+suppose may be recovered to a sounder mind. They flatter themselves, it
+seems, that the friendly habits formed during their original partnership
+of iniquity, a similarity of character, and a conformity in the
+groundwork of their principles, might facilitate their conversion, and
+gain them over to some recognition of royalty. But surely this is to
+read human nature very ill. The several sectaries in this schism of the
+Jacobins are the very last men in the world to trust each other.
+Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence. The last quarrels
+are the sorest; and the injuries received or offered by your own
+associates are ever the most bitterly resented. The people of France, of
+every name and description, would a thousand times sooner listen to the
+Prince de Condé, or to the Archbishop of Aix, or the Bishop of St. Pol,
+or to Monsieur de Cazalès, then to La Fayette, or Dumouriez, or the
+Vicomte de Noailles, or the Bishop of Autun, or Necker, or his disciple
+Lally Tollendal. Against the first description they have not the
+smallest animosity, beyond that of a merely political dissension. The
+others they regard as traitors.
+
+The first description is that of the Christian Royalists, men who as
+earnestly wished for reformation, as they opposed innovation in the
+fundamental parts of their Church and State. _Their_ part has been _very
+decided_. Accordingly, they are to be set aside in the restoration of
+Church and State. It is an odd kind of disqualification, where the
+restoration of religion and monarchy is the question. If England should
+(God forbid it should!) fall into the same misfortune with France, and
+that the court of Vienna should undertake the restoration of our
+monarchy, I think it would be extraordinary to object to the admission
+of Mr. Pitt or Lord Grenville or Mr. Dundas into any share in the
+management of that business, because in a day of trial they have stood
+up firmly and manfully, as I trust they always will do, and with
+distinguished powers, for the monarchy and the legitimate Constitution
+of their country. I am sure, if I were to suppose myself at Vienna at
+such a time, I should, as a man, as an Englishman, and as a Royalist,
+protest in that case, as I do in this, against a weak and ruinous
+principle of proceeding, which can have no other tendency than to make
+those who wish to support the crown meditate too profoundly on the
+consequences of the part they take, and consider whether for their open
+and forward zeal in the royal cause they may not be thrust out from any
+sort of confidence and employment, where the interest of crowned heads
+is concerned.
+
+These are the _parties_. I have said, and said truly, that I know of no
+neutrals. But, as a general observation on this general principle of
+choosing neutrals on such occasions as the present, I have this to say,
+that it amounts to neither more nor less than this shocking
+proposition,--that we ought to exclude men of honor and ability from
+serving theirs and our cause, and to put the dearest interests of
+ourselves and our posterity into the hands of men of no decided
+character, without judgment to choose and without courage to profess any
+principle whatsoever.
+
+Such men can serve no cause, for this plain reason,--they have no cause
+at heart. They can, at best, work only as mere mercenaries. They have
+not been guilty of great crimes; but it is only because they have not
+energy of mind to rise to any height of wickedness. They are not hawks
+or kites: they are only miserable fowls whose flight is not above their
+dunghill or hen-roost. But they tremble before the authors of these
+horrors. They admire them at a safe and respectful distance. There never
+was a mean and abject mind that did not admire an intrepid and dexterous
+villain. In the bottom of their hearts they believe such hardy
+miscreants to be the only men qualified for great affairs. If you set
+them to transact with such persons, they are instantly subdued. They
+dare not so much as look their antagonist in the face. They are made to
+be their subjects, not to be their arbiters or controllers.
+
+These men, to be sure, can look at atrocious acts without indignation,
+and can behold suffering virtue without sympathy. Therefore they are
+considered as sober, dispassionate men. But they have their passions,
+though of another kind, and which are infinitely more likely to carry
+them out of the path of their duty. They are of a tame, timid, languid,
+inert temper, wherever the welfare of _others_ is concerned. In such
+causes, as they have no motives to action, they never possess any real
+ability, and are totally destitute of all resource.
+
+Believe a man who has seen much and observed something. I have seen, in
+the course of my life, a great many of that family of men. They are
+generally chosen because they have no opinion of their own; and as far
+as they can be got in good earnest to embrace any opinion, it is that of
+whoever happens to employ them, (neither longer nor shorter, narrower
+nor broader,) with whom they have no discussion or consultation. The
+only thing which occurs to such a man, when he has got a business for
+others into his hands, is, how to make his own fortune out of it. The
+person he is to treat with is not, with him, an adversary over whom he
+is to prevail, but a new friend he is to gain; therefore he always
+systematically betrays some part of his trust. Instead of thinking how
+he shall defend his ground to the last, and, if forced to retreat, how
+little he shall give up, this kind of man considers how much of the
+interest of his employer he is to sacrifice to his adversary. Having
+nothing but himself in view, he knows, that, in serving his principal
+with zeal, he must probably incur some resentment from the opposite
+party. His object is, to obtain the good-will of the person with whom he
+contends, that, when an agreement is made, he may join in rewarding him.
+I would not take one of these as my arbitrator in a dispute for so much
+as a fish-pond; for, if he reserved the mud to me, he would be sure to
+give the water that fed the pool to my adversary. In a great cause, I
+should certainly wish that my agent should possess conciliating
+qualities: that he should be of a frank, open, and candid disposition,
+soft in his nature, and of a temper to soften animosities and to win
+confidence. He ought not to be a man odious to the person he treats
+with, by personal injury, by violence, or by deceit, or, above all, by
+the dereliction of his cause in any former transactions. But I would be
+sure that my negotiator should be _mine_,--that he should be as earnest
+in the cause as myself, and known to be so,--that he should not be
+looked upon as a stipendiary advocate, but as a principled partisan. In
+all treaty it is a great point that all idea of gaining your agent is
+hopeless. I would not trust the cause of royalty with a man who,
+professing neutrality, is half a republican. The enemy has already a
+great part of his suit without a struggle,--and he contends with
+advantage for all the rest. The common principle allowed between your
+adversary and your agent gives your adversary the advantage in every
+discussion.
+
+Before I shut up this discourse about neutral agency, (which I conceive
+is not to be found, or, if found, ought not to be used,) I have a few
+other remarks to make on the cause which I conceive gives rise to it.
+
+In all that we do, whether in the struggle or after it, it is necessary
+that we should constantly have in our eye the nature and character of
+the enemy we have to contend with. The Jacobin Revolution is carried on
+by men of no rank, of no consideration, of wild, savage minds, full of
+levity, arrogance, and presumption, without morals, without probity,
+without prudence. What have they, then, to supply their innumerable
+defects, and to make them terrible even to the firmest minds? _One_
+thing, and _one_ thing only,--but that one thing is worth a
+thousand;--they have _energy_. In France, all things being put into an
+universal ferment, in the decomposition of society, no man comes forward
+but by his spirit of enterprise and the vigor of his mind. If we meet
+this dreadful and portentous energy, restrained by no consideration of
+God or man, that is always vigilant, always on the attack, that allows
+itself no repose, and suffers none to rest an hour with impunity,--if we
+meet this energy with poor commonplace proceeding, with trivial maxims,
+paltry old saws, with doubts, fears, and suspicions, with a languid,
+uncertain hesitation, with a formal, official spirit, which is turned
+aside by every obstacle from its purpose, and which never sees a
+difficulty but to yield to it, or at best to evade it,--down we go to
+the bottom of the abyss, and nothing short of Omnipotence can save us.
+We must meet a vicious and distempered energy with a manly and rational
+vigor. As virtue is limited in its resources, we are doubly bound to use
+all that in the circle drawn about us by our morals we are able to
+command.
+
+I do not contend against the advantages of distrust. In the world we
+live in it is but too necessary. Some of old called it the very sinews
+of discretion. But what signify commonplaces that always run parallel
+and equal? Distrust is good, or it is bad, according to our position and
+our purpose. Distrust is a defensive principle. They who have much to
+lose have much to fear. But in France we hold nothing. We are to break
+in upon a power in possession; we are to carry everything by storm, or
+by surprise, or by intelligence, or by all. Adventure, therefore, and
+not caution, is our policy. Here to be too presuming is the better
+error.
+
+The world will judge of the spirit of our proceeding in those places of
+France which may fall into our power by our conduct in those that are
+already in our hands. Our wisdom should not be vulgar. Other times,
+perhaps other measures; but in this awful hour our politics ought to be
+made up of nothing but courage, decision, manliness, and rectitude. We
+should have all the magnanimity of good faith. This is a royal and
+commanding policy; and as long as we are true to it, we may give the
+law. Never can we assume this command, if we will not risk the
+consequences. For which reason we ought to be bottomed enough in
+principle not to be carried away upon the first prospect of any sinister
+advantage. For depend upon it, that, if we once give way to a sinister
+dealing, we shall teach others the game, and we shall be outwitted and
+overborne; the Spaniards, the Prussians, God knows who, will put us
+under contribution at their pleasure; and instead of being at the head
+of a great confederacy, and the arbiters of Europe, we shall, by our
+mistakes, break up a great design into a thousand little selfish
+quarrels, the enemy will triumph, and we shall sit down under the terms
+of unsafe and dependent peace, weakened, mortified, and disgraced,
+whilst all Europe, England included, is left open and defenceless on
+every part, to Jacobin principles, intrigues, and arms. In the case of
+the king of France, declared to be our friend and ally, we will still be
+considering ourselves in the contradictory character of an enemy. This
+contradiction, I am afraid, will, in spite of us, give a color of fraud
+to all our transactions, or at least will so complicate our politics
+that we shall ourselves be inextricably entangled in them.
+
+I have Toulon in my eye. It was with infinite sorrow I heard, that, in
+taking the king of France's fleet in trust, we instantly unrigged and
+dismasted the ships, instead of keeping them in a condition to escape in
+case of disaster, and in order to fulfil our trust,--that is, to hold
+them for the use of the owner, and in the mean time to employ them for
+our common service. These ships are now so circumstanced, that, if we
+are forced to evacuate Toulon, they must fall into the hands of the
+enemy or be burnt by ourselves. I know this is by some considered as a
+fine thing for us. But the Athenians ought not to be better than the
+English, or Mr. Pitt less virtuous than Aristides.
+
+Are we, then, so poor in resources that we can do no better with
+eighteen or twenty ships of the line than to burn them? Had we sent for
+French Royalist naval officers, of which some hundreds are to be had,
+and made them select such seamen as they could trust, and filled the
+rest with our own and Mediterranean seamen, which are all over Italy to
+be had by thousands, and put them under judicious English
+commanders-in-chief, and with a judicious mixture of our own
+subordinates, the West Indies would at this day have been ours. It may
+be said that these French officers would take them for the king of
+France, and that they would not be in our power. Be it so. The islands
+would not be ours, but they would not be Jacobinized. This is, however,
+a thing impossible. They must in effect and substance be ours. But all
+is upon that false principle of distrust, which, not confiding in
+strength, can never have the full use of it. They that pay, and feed,
+and equip, must direct. But I must speak plain upon this subject. The
+French islands, if they were all our own, ought not to be all kept. A
+fair partition only ought to be made of those territories. This is a
+subject of policy very serious, which has many relations and aspects.
+Just here I only hint at it as answering an objection, whilst I state
+the mischievous consequences which suffer us to be surprised into a
+virtual breach of faith by confounding our ally with our enemy, because
+they both belong to the same geographical territory.
+
+My clear opinion is, that Toulon ought to be made, what we set out with,
+a royal French city. By the necessity of the case, it must be under the
+influence, civil and military, of the allies. But the only way of
+keeping that jealous and discordant mass from tearing its component
+parts to pieces, and hazarding the loss of the whole, is, to put the
+place into the nominal government of the regent, his officers being
+approved by us. This, I say, is absolutely necessary for a poise amongst
+ourselves. Otherwise is it to be believed that the Spaniards, who hold
+that place with us in a sort of partnership, contrary to our mutual
+interest, will see us absolute masters of the Mediterranean, with
+Gibraltar on one side and Toulon on the other, with a quiet and composed
+mind, whilst we do little less than declare that we are to take the
+whole West Indies into our hands, leaving the vast, unwieldy, and feeble
+body of the Spanish dominions in that part of the world absolutely at
+our mercy, without any power to balance us in the smallest degree?
+Nothing is so fatal to a nation as an extreme of self-partiality, and
+the total want of consideration of what others will naturally hope or
+fear. Spain must think she sees that we are taking advantage of the
+confusions which reign in France to disable that country, and of course
+every country, from affording her protection, and in the end to turn the
+Spanish monarchy into a province. If she saw things in a proper point of
+light, to be sure, she would not consider any other plan of politics as
+of the least moment in comparison of the extinction of Jacobinism. But
+her ministers (to say the best of them) are vulgar politicians. It is no
+wonder that they should postpone this great point, or balance it by
+considerations of the common politics, that is, the questions of power
+between _state and state_. If we manifestly endeavor to destroy the
+balance, especially the maritime and commercial balance, both in Europe
+and the West Indies, (the latter their sore and vulnerable part,) from
+fear of what France may do for Spain hereafter, is it to be wondered
+that Spain, infinitely weaker than we are, (weaker, indeed, than such a
+mass of empire ever was,) should feel the same fears from our
+uncontrolled power that we give way to ourselves from a supposed
+resurrection of the ancient power of France under a monarchy? It
+signifies nothing whether we are wrong or right in the abstract; but in
+respect to our relation to Spain, with such principles followed up in
+practice, it is absolutely impossible that any cordial alliance can
+subsist between the two nations. If Spain goes, Naples will speedily
+follow. Prussia is quite certain, and thinks of nothing but making a
+market of the present confusions. Italy is broken and divided.
+Switzerland is Jacobinized, I am afraid, completely. I have long seen
+with pain the progress of French principles in that country. Things
+cannot go on upon the present bottom. The possession of Toulon, which,
+well managed, might be of the greatest advantage, will be the greatest
+misfortune that ever happened to this nation. The more we multiply
+troops there, the more we shall multiply causes and means of quarrel
+amongst ourselves. I know but one way of avoiding it, which is, to give
+a greater degree of simplicity to our politics. Our situation does
+necessarily render them a good deal involved. And to this evil, instead
+of increasing it, we ought to apply all the remedies in our power.
+
+See what is in that place the consequence (to say nothing of every
+other) of this complexity. Toulon has, as it were, two gates,--an
+English and a Spanish. The English gate is by our policy fast barred
+against the entrance of any Royalists. The Spaniards open theirs, I
+fear, upon no fixed principle, and with very little judgment. By means,
+however, of this foolish, mean, and jealous policy on our side, all the
+Royalists whom the English might select as most practicable, and most
+subservient to honest views, are totally excluded. Of those admitted the
+Spaniards are masters. As to the inhabitants, they are a nest of
+Jacobins, which is delivered into our hands, not from principle, but
+from fear. The inhabitants of Toulon may be described in a few words. It
+is _differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis_. The rest of the
+seaports are of the same description.
+
+Another thing which I cannot account for is, the sending for the Bishop
+of Toulon and afterwards forbidding his entrance. This is as directly
+contrary to the declaration as it is to the practice of the allied
+powers. The king of Prussia did better. When he took Verdun, he actually
+reinstated the bishop and his chapter. When he thought he should be the
+master of Chalons, he called the bishop from Flanders, to put him into
+possession. The Austrians have restored the clergy wherever they
+obtained possession. We have proposed to restore religion as well as
+monarchy; and in Toulon we have restored neither the one nor the other.
+It is very likely that the Jacobin _sans-culottes_, or some of them,
+objected to this measure, who rather choose to have the atheistic
+buffoons of clergy they have got to sport with, till they are ready to
+come forward, with the rest of their worthy brethren, in Paris and other
+places, to declare that they are a set of impostors, that they never
+believed in God, and never will preach any sort of religion. If we give
+way to our Jacobins in this point, it is fully and fairly putting the
+government, civil and ecclesiastical, not in the king of France, to
+whom, as the protector and governor, and in substance the head of the
+Gallican Church, the nomination to the bishoprics belonged, and who made
+the Bishop of Toulon,--it does not leave it with him, or even in the
+hands of the king of England, or the king of Spain,--but in the basest
+Jacobins of a low seaport, to exercise, _pro tempore_, the sovereignty.
+If this point of religion is thus given up, the grand instrument for
+reclaiming France is abandoned. We cannot, if we would, delude ourselves
+about the true state of this dreadful contest. _It is a religious war_.
+It includes in its object, undoubtedly, every other interest of society
+as well as this; but this is the principal and leading feature. It is
+through this destruction of religion that our enemies propose the
+accomplishment of all their other views. The French Revolution, impious
+at once and fanatical, had no other plan for domestic power and foreign
+empire. Look at all the proceedings of the National Assembly, from the
+first day of declaring itself such, in the year 1789, to this very hour,
+and you will find full half of their business to be directly on this
+subject. In fact, it is the spirit of the whole. The religious system,
+called the Constitutional Church, was, on the face of the whole
+proceeding, set up only as a mere temporary amusement to the people, and
+so constantly stated in all their conversations, till the time should
+come when they might with safety cast off the very appearance of all
+religion whatsoever, and persecute Christianity throughout Europe with
+fire and sword. The Constitutional clergy are not the ministers of any
+religion: they are the agents and instruments of this horrible
+conspiracy against all morals. It was from a sense of this, that, in the
+English addition to the articles proposed at St. Domingo, tolerating all
+religions, we very wisely refused to suffer that kind of traitors and
+buffoons.
+
+This religious war is not a controversy between sect and sect, as
+formerly, but a war against all sects and all religions. The question is
+not, whether you are to overturn the Catholic, to set up the Protestant.
+Such an idea, in the present state of the world, is too contemptible.
+Our business is, to leave to the schools the discussion of the
+controverted points, abating as much as we can the acrimony of
+disputants on all sides. It is for Christian statesmen, as the world is
+now circumstanced, to secure their common basis, and not to risk the
+subversion of the whole fabric by pursuing these distinctions with an
+ill-timed zeal. We have in the present grand alliance all modes of
+government, as well as all modes of religion. In government, we mean to
+restore that which, notwithstanding our diversity of forms, we are all
+agreed in as fundamental in government. The same principle ought to
+guide us in the religious part: conforming the mode, not to our
+particular ideas, (for in that point we have no ideas in common,) but to
+what will best promote the great, general ends of the alliance. As
+statesmen, we are to see which of those modes best suits with the
+interests of such a commonwealth as we wish to secure and promote. There
+can be no doubt but that the Catholic religion, which is fundamentally
+the religion of France, must go with the monarchy of France. We know
+that the monarchy did not survive the hierarchy, no, not even in
+appearance, for many months,--in substance, not for a single hour. As
+little can it exist in future, if that pillar is taken away, or even
+shattered and impaired.
+
+If it should please God to give to the allies the means of restoring
+peace and order in that focus of war and confusion, I would, as I said
+in the beginning of this memorial, first replace the whole of the old
+clergy; because we have proof more than sufficient, that, whether they
+err or not in the scholastic disputes with us, they are not tainted with
+atheism, the great political evil of the time. I hope I need not
+apologize for this phrase, as if I thought religion nothing but policy:
+it is far from my thoughts, and I hope it is not to be inferred from my
+expressions. But in the light of policy alone I am here considering the
+question. I speak of policy, too, in a large light; in which large
+light, policy, too, is a sacred thing.
+
+There are many, perhaps half a million or more, calling themselves
+Protestants, in the South of France, and in other of the provinces. Some
+raise them to a much greater number; but I think this nearer to the
+mark. I am sorry to say that they have behaved shockingly since the very
+beginning of this rebellion, and have been uniformly concerned in its
+worst and most atrocious acts. Their clergy are just the same atheists
+with those of the Constitutional Catholics, but still more wicked and
+daring. Three of their number have met from their republican associates
+the reward of their crimes.
+
+As the ancient Catholic religion is to be restored for the body of
+France, the ancient Calvinistic religion ought to be restored for the
+Protestants, with every kind of protection and privilege. But not one
+minister concerned in this rebellion ought to be suffered amongst them.
+If they have not clergy of their own, men well recommended, as untainted
+with Jacobinism, by the synods of those places where Calvinism prevails
+and French is spoken, ought to be sought. Many such there are. The
+Presbyterian discipline ought, in my opinion, to be established in its
+vigor, and the people professing it ought to be bound to its
+maintenance. No man, under the false and hypocritical pretence of
+liberty of conscience, ought to be suffered to have no conscience at
+all. The king's commissioner ought also to sit in their synods, as
+before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I am conscious that this
+discipline disposes men to republicanism: but it is still a discipline,
+and it is a cure (such as it is) for the perverse and undisciplined
+habits which for some time have prevailed. Republicanism repressed may
+have its use in the composition of a state. Inspection may be
+practicable, and responsibility in the teachers and elders may be
+established, in such an hierarchy as the Presbyterian. For a time like
+ours, it is a great point gained, that people should be taught to meet,
+to combine, and to be classed and arrayed in some other way than in
+clubs of Jacobins. If it be not the best mode of Protestantism under a
+monarchy, it is still an orderly Christian church, orthodox in the
+fundamentals, and, what is to our point, capable enough of rendering men
+useful citizens. It was the impolitic abolition of their discipline,
+which exposed them to the wild opinions and conduct that have prevailed
+amongst the Huguenots. The toleration in 1787 was owing to the good
+disposition of the late king; but it was modified by the profligate
+folly of his atheistic minister, the Cardinal de Loménie. This
+mischievous minister did not follow, in the edict of toleration, the
+wisdom of the Edict of Nantes. But his toleration was granted to
+_non-Catholics_,--a dangerous word, which might signify anything, and
+was but too expressive of a fatal indifference with regard to all piety.
+I speak for myself: I do not wish any man to be converted from his sect.
+The distinctions which we have reformed from animosity to emulation may
+be even useful to the cause of religion. By some moderate contention
+they keep alive zeal. Whereas people who change, except under strong
+conviction, (a thing now rather rare,) the religion of their early
+prejudices, especially if the conversion is brought about by any
+political machine, are very apt to degenerate into indifference, laxity,
+and often downright atheism.
+
+Another political question arises about the mode of government which
+ought to be established. I think the proclamation (which I read before I
+had proceeded far in this memorial) puts it on the best footing, by
+postponing that arrangement to a time of peace.
+
+When our politics lead us to enterprise a great and almost total
+political revolution in Europe, we ought to look seriously into the
+consequences of what we are about to do. Some eminent persons discover
+an apprehension that the monarchy, if restored in France, may be
+restored in too great strength for the liberty and happiness of the
+natives, and for the tranquillity of other states. They are therefore of
+opinion that terms ought to be made for the modification of that
+monarchy. They are persons too considerable, from the powers of their
+mind, and from their situation, as well as from the real respect I have
+for them, who seem to entertain these apprehensions, to let me pass them
+by unnoticed.
+
+As to the power of France as a state, and in its exterior relations, I
+confess my fears are on the part of its extreme reduction. There is
+undoubtedly something in the vicinity of France, which makes it
+naturally and properly an object of our watchfulness and jealousy,
+whatever form its government may take. But the difference is great
+between a plan for our own security and a scheme for the utter
+destruction of France. If there were no other countries in the political
+map but these two, I admit that policy might justify a wish to lower our
+neighbor to a standard which would even render her in some measure, if
+not wholly, our dependant. But the system of Europe is extensive and
+extremely complex. However formidable to us, as taken in this one
+relation, France is not equally dreadful to all other states. On the
+contrary, my clear opinion is, that the liberties of Europe cannot
+possibly be preserved but by her remaining a very great and
+preponderating power. The design at present evidently pursued by the
+combined potentates, or of the two who lead, is totally to destroy her
+as such a power. For Great Britain resolves that she shall have no
+colonies, no commerce, and no marine. Austria means to take away the
+whole frontier, from the borders of Switzerland to Dunkirk. It is their
+plan also to render the interior government lax and feeble, by
+prescribing, by force of the arms of rival and jealous nations, and
+without consulting the natural interests of the kingdom, such
+arrangements as, in the actual state of Jacobinism in France, and the
+unsettled state in which property must remain for a long time, will
+inevitably produce such distraction and debility in government as to
+reduce it to nothing, or to throw it back into its old confusion. One
+cannot conceive so frightful a state of a nation. A maritime country
+without a marine and without commerce; a continental country without a
+frontier, and for a thousand miles surrounded with powerful, warlike,
+and ambitious neighbors! It is possible that she might submit to lose
+her commerce and her colonies: her security she never can abandon. If,
+contrary to all expectations, under such a disgraced and impotent
+government, any energy should remain in that country, she will make
+every effort to recover her security, which will involve Europe for a
+century in war and blood. What has it cost to France to make that
+frontier? What will it cost to recover it? Austria thinks that without a
+frontier she cannot secure the _Netherlands_. But without her frontier
+France cannot secure _herself_. Austria has been, however, secure for an
+hundred years in those very Netherlands, and has never been dispossessed
+of them by the chance of war without a moral certainty of receiving them
+again on the restoration of peace. Her late dangers have arisen not from
+the power or ambition of the king of France. They arose from her own ill
+policy, which dismantled all her towns, and discontented all her
+subjects by Jacobinical innovations. She dismantles her own towns, and
+then says, "Give me the frontier of France!" But let us depend upon it,
+whatever tends, under the name of security, to aggrandize Austria, will
+discontent and alarm Prussia. Such a length of frontier on the side of
+France, separated from itself, and separated from the mass of the
+Austrian country, will be weak, unless connected at the expense of the
+Elector of Bavaria (the Elector Palatine) and other lesser princes, or
+by such exchanges as will again convulse the Empire.
+
+Take it the other way, and let us suppose that France so broken in
+spirit as to be content to remain naked and defenceless by sea and by
+land. Is such a country no prey? Have other nations no views? Is Poland
+the only country of which it is worth while to make a partition? We
+cannot be so childish as to imagine that ambition is local, and that no
+others can be infected with it but those who rule within certain
+parallels of latitude and longitude. In this way I hold war equally
+certain. But I can conceive that both these principles may operate:
+ambition on the part of Austria to cut more and more from France; and
+French impatience under her degraded and unsafe condition. In such a
+contest will the other powers stand by? Will not Prussia call for
+indemnity, as well as Austria and England? Is she satisfied with her
+gains in Poland? By no means. Germany must pay; or we shall infallibly
+see Prussia leagued with France and Spain, and possibly with other
+powers, for the reduction of Austria; and such may be the situation of
+things, that it will not be so easy to decide what part England may take
+in such a contest.
+
+I am well aware how invidious a task it is to oppose anything which
+tends to the apparent aggrandizement of our own country. But I think no
+country can be aggrandized whilst France is Jacobinized. This post
+removed, it will be a serious question how far her further reduction
+will contribute to the general safety, which I always consider as
+included. Among precautions against ambition, it may not be amiss to
+take one precaution against our _own_. I must fairly say, I dread our
+_own_ power and our _own_ ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded.
+It is ridiculous to say we are not men, and that, as men, we shall never
+wish to aggrandize ourselves in some way or other. Can we say that even
+at this very hour we are not invidiously aggrandized? We are already in
+possession of almost all the commerce of the world. Our empire in India
+is an awful thing. If we should come to be in a condition not only to
+have all this ascendant in commerce, but to be absolutely able, without
+the least control, to hold the commerce of all other nations totally
+dependent upon our good pleasure, we may say that we shall not abuse
+this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of power. But every other nation
+will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or
+later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which
+may end in our ruin.
+
+As to France, I must observe that for a long time she has been
+stationary. She has, during this whole century, obtained far less by
+conquest or negotiation than any of the three great Continental powers.
+Some part of Lorraine excepted, I recollect nothing she has gained,--no,
+not a village. In truth, this Lorraine acquisition does little more than
+secure her barrier. In effect and substance it was her own before.
+
+However that may be, I consider these things at present chiefly in one
+point of view, as obstructions to the war on Jacobinism, which _must_
+stand as long as the powers think its extirpation but a _secondary_
+object, and think of taking advantage, under the name of _indemnity_ and
+_security_, to make war upon the whole nation of France, royal and
+Jacobin, for the aggrandizement of the allies, on the ordinary
+principles of interest, as if no Jacobinism existed in the world.
+
+So far is France from being formidable to its neighbors for its domestic
+strength, that I conceive it will be as much as all its neighbors can
+do, by a steady guaranty, to keep that monarchy at all upon its basis.
+It will be their business to nurse France, not to exhaust it. France,
+such as it is, is indeed highly formidable: not formidable, however, as
+a great republic; but as the most dreadful gang of robbers and murderers
+that ever was embodied. But this distempered strength of France will be
+the cause of proportionable weakness on its recovery. Never was a
+country so completely ruined; and they who calculate the resurrection of
+her power by former examples have not sufficiently considered what is
+the present state of things. Without detailing the inventory of what
+organs of government have been destroyed, together with the very
+materials of which alone they can be recomposed, I wish it to be
+considered what an operose affair the whole system of taxation is in the
+old states of Europe. It is such as never could be made but in a long
+course of years. In France all taxes are abolished. The present powers
+resort to the capital, and to the capital in kind. But a savage,
+undisciplined people suffer a _robbery_ with more patience than an
+_impost_. The former is in their habits and their dispositions. They
+consider it as transient, and as what, in their turn, they may exercise.
+But the terrors of the present power are such as no regular government
+can possibly employ. They who enter into France do not succeed to
+_their_ resources. They have not a system to reform, but a system to
+begin. The whole estate of government is to be reacquired.
+
+What difficulties this will meet with in a country exhausted by the
+taking of the capital, and among a people in a manner new-principled,
+trained, and actually disciplined to anarchy, rebellion, disorder, and
+impiety, may be conceived by those who know what Jacobin France is, and
+who may have occupied themselves by revolving in their thoughts what
+they were to do, if it fell to their lot to reëstablish the affairs of
+France. What support or what limitations the restored monarchy must have
+may be a doubt, or how it will pitch and settle at last. But one thing I
+conceive to be far beyond a doubt: that the settlement cannot be
+immediate; but that it must be preceded by some sort of power, equal at
+least in vigor, vigilance, promptitude, and decision, to a military
+government. For such a _preparatory_ government, no slow-paced,
+methodical, formal, lawyer-like system, still less that of a showy,
+superficial, trifling, intriguing court, guided by cabals of ladies, or
+of men like ladies, least of all a philosophic, theoretic, disputatious
+school of sophistry,--none of these ever will or ever can lay the
+foundations of an order that can last. Whoever claims a right by birth
+to govern there must find in his breast, or must conjure up in it, an
+energy not to be expected, perhaps not always to be wished for, in
+well-ordered states. The lawful prince must have, in everything but
+crime, the character of an usurper. He is gone, if he imagines himself
+the quiet possessor of a throne. He is to contend for it as much after
+an apparent conquest as before. His task is, to win it: he must leave
+posterity to enjoy and to adorn it. No velvet cushions for him. He is to
+be always (I speak nearly to the letter) on horseback. This opinion is
+the result of much patient thinking on the subject, which I conceive no
+event is likely to alter.
+
+A valuable friend of mine, who I hope will conduct these affairs, so far
+as they fall to his share, with great ability, asked me what I thought
+of acts of general indemnity and oblivion, as a means of settling
+France, and reconciling it to monarchy. Before I venture upon any
+opinion of my own in this matter, I totally disclaim the interference of
+foreign powers in a business that properly belongs to the government
+which we have declared legal. That government is likely to be the best
+judge of what is to be done towards the security of that kingdom, which
+it is their duty and their interest to provide for by such measures of
+justice or of lenity as at the time they should find best. But if we
+weaken it not only by arbitrary limitations of our own, but preserve
+such persons in it as are disposed to disturb its future peace, as they
+have its past, I do not know how a more direct declaration can be made
+of a disposition to perpetual hostility against a government. The
+persons saved from the justice of the native magistrate by foreign
+authority will owe nothing to his clemency. He will, and must, look to
+those to whom he is indebted for the power he has of dispensing it. A
+Jacobin faction, constantly fostered with the nourishment of foreign
+protection, will be kept alive.
+
+This desire of securing the safety of the actors in the present scene is
+owing to more laudable motives. Ministers have been made to consider the
+brothers of the late merciful king, and the nobility of France who have
+been faithful to their honor and duty, as a set of inexorable and
+remorseless tyrants. How this notion has been infused into them I cannot
+be quite certain. I am sure it is not justified by anything they have
+done. Never were the two princes guilty, in the day of their power, of a
+single hard or ill-natured act. No one instance of cruelty on the part
+of the gentlemen ever came to my ears. It is true that the _English_
+Jacobins, (the natives have not thought of it,) as an excuse for their
+infernal system of murder, have so represented them. It is on this
+principle that the massacres in the month of September, 1792, were
+justified by a writer in the Morning Chronicle. _He_ says, indeed, that
+"the whole French nation is to be given up to the hands of an irritated
+and revengeful noblesse";--and, judging of others by himself and his
+brethren, he says, "Whoever succeeds in a civil war will be cruel. But
+here the emigrants, flying to revenge in the cars of military victory,
+will almost insatiably call for their victims and their booty; and a
+body of emigrant traitors were attending the King of Prussia and the
+Duke of Brunswick, to suggest the most sanguinary counsels." So says
+this wicked Jacobin; but so cannot say the King of Prussia nor the Duke
+of Brunswick, who never did receive any sanguinary counsel; nor did the
+king's brothers, or that great body of gentlemen who attended those
+princes, commit one single cruel action, or hurt the person or property
+of one individual. It would be right to quote the instance. It is like
+the military luxury attributed to these unfortunate sufferers in our
+common cause.
+
+If these princes had shown a tyrannic disposition, it would be much to
+be lamented. We have no others to govern France. If we screened the body
+of murderers from their justice, we should only leave the innocent in
+future to the mercy of men of fierce and sanguinary dispositions, of
+which, in spite of all our intermeddling in their Constitution, we could
+not prevent the effects. But as we have much more reason to fear their
+feeble lenity than any blamable rigor, we ought, in my opinion, to leave
+the matter to themselves.
+
+If, however, I were asked to give an advice merely as such, here are my
+ideas. I am not for a total indemnity, nor a general punishment. And
+first, the body and mass of the people never ought to be treated as
+criminal. They may become an object of more or less constant
+watchfulness and suspicion, as their preservation may best require, but
+they can never become an object of punishment. This is one of the few
+fundamental and unalterable principles of politics.
+
+To punish them capitally would be to make massacres. Massacres only
+increase the ferocity of men, and teach them to regard their own lives
+and those of others as of little value; whereas the great policy of
+government is, to teach the people to think both of great importance in
+the eyes of God and the state, and never to be sacrificed or even
+hazarded to gratify their passions, or for anything but the duties
+prescribed by the rules of morality, and under the direction of public
+law and public authority. To punish them with lesser penalties would be
+to debilitate the commonwealth, and make the nation miserable, which it
+is the business of government to render happy and flourishing.
+
+As to crimes, too, I would draw a strong line of limitation. For no one
+offence, _politically an offence of rebellion_, by council, contrivance,
+persuasion, or compulsion, for none properly a _military offence of
+rebellion_, or anything done by open hostility in the field, should any
+man at all be called in question; because such seems to be the proper
+and natural death of civil dissensions. The offences of war are
+obliterated by peace.
+
+Another class will of course be included in the indemnity,--namely, all
+those who by their activity in restoring lawful government shall
+obliterate their offences. The offence previously known, the acceptance
+of service is a pardon for crimes. I fear that this class of men will
+not be very numerous.
+
+So far as to indemnity. But where are the objects of justice, and of
+example, and of future security to the public peace? They are naturally
+pointed out, not by their having outraged political and civil laws, nor
+their having rebelled against the state as a state, but by their having
+rebelled against the law of Nature and outraged man as man. In this
+list, all the regicides in general, all those who laid sacrilegious
+hands on the king, who, without anything in their own rebellious mission
+to the Convention to justify them, brought him to his trial and
+unanimously voted him guilty,--all those who had a share in the cruel
+murder of the queen, and the detestable proceedings with regard to the
+young king and the unhappy princesses,--all those who committed
+cold-blooded murder anywhere, and particularly in their revolutionary
+tribunals, where every idea of natural justice and of their own declared
+rights of man have been trod under foot with the most insolent
+mockery,--all men concerned in the burning and demolition of houses or
+churches, with audacious and marked acts of sacrilege and scorn offered
+to religion,--in general, all the leaders of Jacobin clubs,--not one of
+these should escape a punishment suitable to the nature, quality, and
+degree of their offence, by a steady, but a measured justice.
+
+In the first place, no man ought to be subject to any penalty, from the
+highest to the lowest, but by a trial according to the course of law,
+carried on with all that caution and deliberation which has been used in
+the best times and precedents of the French jurisprudence, the criminal
+law of which country, faulty to be sure in some particulars, was highly
+laudable and tender of the lives of men. In restoring order and justice,
+everything like retaliation ought to be religiously avoided; and an
+example ought to be set of a total alienation from the Jacobin
+proceedings in their accursed revolutionary tribunals. Everything like
+lumping men in masses, and of forming tables of proscription, ought to
+be avoided.
+
+In all these punishments, anything which can be alleged in mitigation of
+the offence should be fully considered. Mercy is not a thing opposed to
+justice. It is an essential part of it,--as necessary in criminal cases
+as in civil affairs equity is to law. It is only for the Jacobins never
+to pardon. They have not done it in a single instance. A council of
+mercy ought therefore to be appointed, with powers to report on each
+case, to soften the penalty, or entirely to remit it, according to
+circumstances.
+
+With these precautions, the very first foundation of settlement must be
+to call to a strict account those bloody and merciless offenders.
+Without it, government cannot stand a year. People little consider the
+utter impossibility of getting those who, having emerged from very low,
+some from the lowest classes of society, have exercised a power so high,
+and with such unrelenting and bloody a rage, quietly to fall back into
+their old ranks, and become humble, peaceable, laborious, and useful
+members of society. It never can be. On the other hand, is it to be
+believed that any worthy and virtuous subject, restored to the ruins of
+his house, will with patience see the cold-blooded murderer of his
+father, mother, wife, or children, or perhaps all of these relations,
+(such things have been,) nose him in his own village, and insult him
+with the riches acquired from the plunder of his goods, ready again to
+head a Jacobin faction to attack his life? He is unworthy of the name of
+man who would suffer it. It is unworthy of the name of a government,
+which, taking justice out of the private hand, will not exercise it for
+the injured by the public arm.
+
+I know it sounds plausible, and is readily adopted by those who have
+little sympathy with the sufferings of others, to wish to jumble the
+innocent and guilty into one mass by a general indemnity. This cruel
+indifference dignifies itself with the name of humanity.
+
+It is extraordinary, that, as the wicked arts of this regicide and
+tyrannous faction increase in number, variety, and atrocity, the desire
+of punishing them becomes more and more faint, and the talk of an
+indemnity towards them every day stronger and stronger. Our ideas of
+justice appear to be fairly conquered and overpowered by guilt, when it
+is grown gigantic. It is not the point of view in which we are in the
+habit of viewing guilt. The crimes we every day punish are really below
+the penalties we inflict. The criminals are obscure and feeble. This is
+the view in which we see ordinary crimes and criminals. But when guilt
+is seen, though but for a time, to be furnished with the arms and to be
+invested with the robes of power, it seems to assume another nature, and
+to get, as it were, out of our jurisdiction. This I fear is the case
+with many. But there is another cause full as powerful towards this
+security to enormous guilt,--the desire which possesses people who have
+once obtained power to enjoy it at their ease. It is not humanity, but
+laziness and inertness of mind, which produces the desire of this kind
+of indemnities. This description of men love general and short methods.
+If they punish, they make a promiscuous massacre; if they spare, they
+make a general act of oblivion. This is a want of disposition to proceed
+laboriously according to the cases, and according to the rules and
+principles of justice on each case: a want of disposition to assort
+criminals, to discriminate the degrees and modes of guilt, to separate
+accomplices from principals, leaders from followers, seducers from the
+seduced, and then, by following the same principles in the same detail,
+to class punishments, and to fit them to the nature and kind of the
+delinquency. If that were once attempted, we should soon see that the
+task was neither infinite nor the execution cruel. There would be
+deaths, but, for the number of criminals and the extent of France, not
+many. There would be cases of transportation, cases of labor to restore
+what has been wickedly destroyed, cases of imprisonment, and cases of
+mere exile. But be this as it may, I am sure, that, if justice is not
+done there, there can be neither peace nor justice there, nor in any
+part of Europe.
+
+History is resorted to for other acts of indemnity in other times. The
+princes are desired to look back to Henry the Fourth. We are desired to
+look to the restoration of King Charles. These things, in my opinion,
+have no resemblance whatsoever. They were cases of a civil war,--in
+France more ferocious, in England more moderate than common. In neither
+country were the orders of society subverted, religion and morality
+destroyed on principle, or property totally annihilated. In England, the
+government of Cromwell was, to be sure, somewhat rigid, but, for a new
+power, no savage tyranny. The country was nearly as well in his hands as
+in those of Charles the Second, and in some points much better. The laws
+in general had their course, and were admirably administered. The king
+did not in reality grant an act of indemnity; the prevailing power, then
+in a manner the nation, in effect granted an indemnity to _him_. The
+idea of a preceding rebellion was not at all admitted in that
+convention and that Parliament. The regicides were a common enemy, and
+as such given up.
+
+Among the ornaments of their place which eminently distinguish them, few
+people are better acquainted with the history of their own country than
+the illustrious princes now in exile; but I caution them not to be led
+into error by that which has been supposed to be the guide of life. I
+would give the same caution to all princes. Not that I derogate from the
+use of history. It is a great improver of the understanding, by showing
+both men and affairs in a great variety of views. From this source much
+political wisdom may be learned,--that is, may be learned as habit, not
+as precept,--and as an exercise to strengthen the mind, as furnishing
+materials to enlarge and enrich it, not as a repertory of cases and
+precedents for a lawyer: if it were, a thousand times better would it be
+that a statesman had never learned to read,--_vellem nescirent literas_.
+This method turns their understanding from the object before them, and
+from the present exigencies of the world, to comparisons with former
+times, of which, after all, we can know very little and very
+imperfectly; and our guides, the historians, who are to give us their
+true interpretation, are often prejudiced, often ignorant, often fonder
+of system than of truth. Whereas, if a man with reasonable good parts
+and natural sagacity, and not in the leading-strings of any master, will
+look steadily on the business before him, without being diverted by
+retrospect and comparison, he may be capable of forming a reasonable
+good judgment of what is to be done. There are some fundamental points
+in which Nature never changes; but they are few and obvious, and belong
+rather to morals than to politics. But so far as regards political
+matter, the human mind and human affairs are susceptible of infinite
+modifications, and of combinations wholly new and unlooked-for. Very
+few, for instance, could have imagined that property, which has been
+taken for natural dominion, should, through the whole of a vast kingdom,
+lose all its importance, and even its influence. This is what history or
+books of speculation could hardly have taught us. How many could have
+thought that the most complete and formidable revolution in a great
+empire should be made by men of letters, not as subordinate instruments
+and trumpeters of sedition, but as the chief contrivers and managers,
+and in a short time as the open administrators and sovereign rulers? Who
+could have imagined that atheism could produce one of the most violently
+operative principles of fanaticism? Who could have imagined, that, in a
+commonwealth in a manner cradled in war, and in an extensive and
+dreadful war, military commanders should be of little or no account,
+--that the Convention should not contain one military man of name,--that
+administrative bodies, in a state of the utmost confusion, and of but a
+momentary duration, and composed of men with not one imposing part of
+character, should be able to govern the country and its armies with an
+authority which the most settled senates and the most respected monarchs
+scarcely ever had in the same degree? This, for one, I confess I did not
+foresee, though all the rest was present to me very early, and not out
+of my apprehension even for several years.
+
+I believe very few were able to enter into the effects of mere _terror_,
+as a principle not only for the support of power in given hands or
+forms, but in those things in which the soundest political speculators
+were of opinion that the least appearance of force would be totally
+destructive,--such is the market, whether of money, provision, or
+commodities of any kind. Yet for four years we have seen loans made,
+treasuries supplied, and armies levied and maintained, more numerous
+than France ever showed in the field, _by the effects of fear alone_.
+
+Here is a state of things of which in its totality if history furnishes
+any examples at all, they are very remote and feeble. I therefore am not
+so ready as some are to tax with folly or cowardice those who were not
+prepared to meet an evil of this nature. Even now, after the events, all
+the causes may be somewhat difficult to ascertain. Very many are,
+however, traceable. But these things history and books of speculation
+(as I have already said) did not teach men to foresee, and of course to
+resist. Now that they are no longer a matter of sagacity, but of
+experience, of recent experience, of our own experience, it would be
+unjustifiable to go back to the records of other times to instruct us to
+manage what they never enabled us to foresee.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[33] Some accounts make them five times as many.
+
+[34] Before the Revolution, the French noblesse were so reduced in
+numbers that they did not much exceed twenty thousand at least of
+full-grown men. As they have been very cruelly formed into entire corps
+of soldiers, it is estimated, that, by the sword, and distempers in the
+field, they have not lost less than five thousand men; and if this
+course is pursued, it is to be feared that the whole body of the French
+nobility may be extinguished. Several hundreds have also perished by
+famine, and various accidents.
+
+[35] This was the language of the Ministerialists.
+
+[36] Vattel.
+
+[37] The first object of this club was the propagation of Jacobin
+principles.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+EXTRACTS FROM VATTEL'S LAW OF NATIONS.
+
+[The Titles, Marginal Abstracts, and Notes are by Mr. BURKE, excepting
+such of the Notes as are here distinguished.]
+
+
+CASES OF INTERFERENCE WITH INDEPENDENT POWERS.
+
+"If, then, there is anywhere a nation of a _restless and mischievous_
+disposition, always ready _to injure others, to traverse their designs,
+and to raise domestic troubles_[38] it is not to be doubted that all
+have a right to join _in order to repress, chastise, and put it ever
+after out of its power_ to injure them. Such should be the just fruits
+of the policy which Machiavel praises in Cæsar Borgia. The conduct
+followed by Philip the Second, King of Spain, _was adapted to unite all
+Europe against him_; and it was from just reasons that Henry the Great
+formed the design of humbling a power _formidable by its forces and
+pernicious by its maxims_."--Book II. ch. iv. § 53.
+
+"Let us apply to the unjust what we have said above (§ 53) of a
+mischievous or maleficent nation. If there be any that makes an open
+profession _of trampling justice under foot, of despising and violating
+the right of others_,[39] whenever it finds an opportunity, _the
+interest of human society will authorize all others to unite in order to
+humble and chastise it_. We do not here forget the maxim established in
+our preliminaries, that it does not belong to nations to usurp the power
+of being judges of each other. In particular cases, liable to the least
+doubt, it ought to be supposed that each of the parties may have some
+right; and the injustice of that which has committed the injury may
+proceed from error, and not from a general contempt of justice. _But if,
+by constant maxims, and by a continued conduct_, one nation shows that
+it has evidently this pernicious disposition, and that it considers no
+right as sacred, the safety of the human race requires that it should be
+suppressed. To form and support an unjust pretension is to do an injury
+_not only to him who is interested in this pretension, but to mock at
+justice in general, and to injure all nations_."--Ibid. ch. v. § 70.
+
+[Sidenote: To succor against tyranny.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case of English Revolution.]
+
+[Sidenote: An odious tyrant.]
+
+[Sidenote: Rebellious people.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case of civil war.]
+
+[Sidenote: Sovereign and his people, when distinct powers.]
+
+"If the prince, attacking the fundamental laws, gives his subjects a
+legal right to resist him, if tyranny, _becoming insupportable_, obliges
+the nation to rise in their defence, every foreign power has a right to
+succor an oppressed people who implore their assistance. The English
+justly complained of James the Second. _The nobility and the most
+distinguished patriots_ resolved to put a check on his enterprises,
+which manifestly tended to overthrow the Constitution and to destroy the
+liberties and the religion of the people, _and therefore applied for
+assistance to the United Provinces_. The authority of the Prince of
+Orange had, doubtless, an influence on the deliberations of the
+States-General; but it did not make them commit injustice: for when a
+people, from good reasons, take up arms against an oppressor, _justice
+and generosity require that brave men should be assisted in the defence
+of their liberties_. Whenever, therefore, a civil war is kindled in a
+state, foreign powers may assist that party which appears to them to
+have justice on their side. _He who assists an odious tyrant, he who
+declares FOR AN UNJUST AND REBELLIOUS PEOPLE, offends against his duty_.
+When the bands of the political society are broken, or at least
+suspended between the sovereign and his people, they may then be
+considered as two distinct powers; and since each is independent of all
+foreign authority, nobody has a right to judge them. Either may be in
+the right, and each of those who grant their assistance may believe that
+he supports a good cause. It follows, then, in virtue of the voluntary
+law of nations, (see Prelim. § 21,) that the two parties may act as
+having an equal right, and behave accordingly, till the decision of the
+affair.
+
+[Sidenote: Not to be pursued to an extreme.]
+
+[Sidenote: Endeavor to persuade subjects to a revolt.]
+
+"But we ought not to abuse this maxim for authorizing odious proceedings
+against the tranquillity of states. It is a violation of the law of
+nations _to persuade those subjects to revolt who actually obey their
+sovereign, though they complain of his government_.
+
+[Sidenote: Attempt to excite subjects to revolt.]
+
+"The practice of nations is conformable to our maxims. When the German
+Protestants came to the assistance of the Reformed in France, the court
+never undertook to treat them otherwise than as common enemies, and
+according to the laws of war. France at the same time assisted the
+Netherlands, which took up arms against Spain, and did not pretend that
+her troops should be considered upon any other footing than as
+auxiliaries in a regular war. _But no power avoids complaining of an
+atrocious injury, if any one attempts by his emissaries to excite his
+subjects to revolt_.
+
+[Sidenote: Tyrants.]
+
+"As to those monsters, who, under the title of sovereigns, render
+themselves the scourges and horror of the human race,--these are savage
+beasts, from which every brave man may justly purge the earth. All
+antiquity has praised Hercules for delivering the world from an Antæus,
+a Busiris, and a Diomedes."--Ibid. ch. iv. § 56.
+
+After stating that nations have no right to interfere in domestic
+concerns, he proceeds,--"But this rule does not preclude them from
+espousing the quarrel of a dethroned king, and assisting him, if he
+appears to have justice on his side. They then declare themselves
+enemies of the nation which has acknowledged his rival; as, when two
+_different nations_ are at war, they are at liberty to assist that whose
+quarrel they shall think has the fairest appearance."--Book IV. ch. ii.
+§ 14.
+
+
+CASE OF ALLIANCES.
+
+[Sidenote: When an alliance to preserve a king takes place.]
+
+[Sidenote: King does not lose his quality by the loss of his kingdom.]
+
+"It is asked if that alliance subsists with the king and the royal
+family when by some revolution they are deprived of their crown. We have
+lately remarked, (§ 194,) that a personal alliance expires with the
+reign of him who contracted it: but that is to be understood of an
+alliance with the state, limited, as to its duration, to the reign of
+the contracting king. This of which we are here speaking is of another
+nature. For though it binds the state, since it is bound by all the
+public acts of its sovereign, it is made directly in favor of the king
+and his family; it would therefore be absurd for it to terminate _at the
+moment when they have need of it, and at an event against which it was
+made_. Besides, the king does not lose his quality merely by the loss of
+his kingdom. _If he is stripped of it unjustly by an usurper, or by
+rebels, he preserves his rights, in the number of which are his
+alliances_.[40]
+
+[Sidenote: Case wherein aid may be given to a deposed king.]
+
+"But who shall judge if the king be dethroned lawfully or by violence?
+An independent nation acknowledges no judge. If the body of the nation
+declares the king deprived of his rights by the abuse he has made of
+them, and deposes him, it may justly do it _when its grievances are well
+founded_, and no other power has a right to censure it. The personal
+ally of this king ought not then to assist him against the nation that
+has made use of its right in deposing him: if he attempts it, he injures
+that nation. England declared war against Louis the Fourteenth, in the
+year 1688, for supporting the interest of James the Second, who was
+deposed in form by the nation. The same country declared war against him
+a second time, at the beginning of the present century, because that
+prince acknowledged the son of the deposed James, under the name of
+James the Third. In doubtful cases, and _when the body of the nation has
+not pronounced, or HAS NOT PRONOUNCED FREELY_, a sovereign may naturally
+support and defend an ally; and it is then that the voluntary law of
+nations subsists between different states. The party that has driven out
+the king pretends to have right on its side; this unhappy king and his
+ally flatter themselves with having the same advantage; and as they have
+no common judge upon earth, they have no other method to take but to
+apply to arms to terminate the dispute; they therefore engage in a
+formal war.
+
+[Sidenote: Not obliged to pursue his right beyond a certain point.]
+
+"In short, when the foreign prince has faithfully fulfilled his
+engagements towards an unfortunate monarch, when he has done in his
+defence, or to procure his restoration, all he was obliged to perform in
+virtue of the alliance, if his efforts are ineffectual, the dethroned
+prince cannot require him to support an endless war in his favor, or
+expect that he will eternally remain the enemy of the nation or of the
+sovereign who has deprived him of the throne. He must think of peace,
+abandon the ally, and consider him as having himself abandoned his right
+through necessity. Thus Louis the Fourteenth was obliged to abandon
+James the Second, and to acknowledge King William, though he had at
+first treated him as an usurper.
+
+[Sidenote: Case of defence against subjects.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case where real alliances may be renounced.]
+
+"The same question presents itself in real alliances, and, in general,
+in all alliances made with the state, and not in particular with a king
+for the defence of his person. An ally ought, doubtless, to be defended
+against every invasion, against every foreign violence, _and even
+against his rebellious subjects: in the same manner a republic ought to
+be defended against the enterprises of one who attempts to destroy the
+public liberty_. But it ought to be remembered that an ally of the state
+or the nation is not its judge. If the nation has deposed its king in
+form,--if the people of a republic have driven out their magistrates and
+set themselves at liberty, or acknowledged the authority of an usurper,
+either expressly or tacitly,--to oppose these domestic regulations, by
+disputing their justice or validity, would be to interfere in the
+government of the nation, and to do it an injury. (See § 54, and
+following, of this Book.) The ally remains the ally of the state,
+notwithstanding the change that has happened in it. _However, when this
+change renders the alliance useless, dangerous, or disagreeable, it may
+renounce it; for it may say, upon a good foundation, that it would not
+have entered into an alliance with that nation, had it been under the
+present form of government._
+
+[Sidenote: Not an eternal war.]
+
+"We may say here, what we have said on a personal alliance: however
+just the cause of that king may be who is driven from the throne either
+by his subjects or by a foreign usurper, his aides are not obliged to
+support _an eternal war_ in his favor. After having made ineffectual
+efforts to restore him, they must at length give peace to their people,
+and come to an accommodation with the usurper, and for that purpose
+treat with him as with a lawful sovereign. Louis the Fourteenth,
+exhausted by a bloody and unsuccessful war, offered at Gertruydenberg to
+abandon his grandson, whom he had placed on the throne of Spain; and
+when affairs had changed their appearance, Charles of Austria, the rival
+of Philip, saw himself, in his turn, abandoned by his allies. They grew
+weary of exhausting their states in order to give him the possession of
+a crown which they believed to be his due, but which, to all appearance,
+they should never be able to procure for him."--Book II. ch. xii. §§
+196, 197.
+
+
+DANGEROUS POWER.
+
+[Sidenote: All nations may join.]
+
+"It is still easier to prove, that, should this formidable power betray
+any unjust and ambitious dispositions by doing the least injustice to
+another, every nation may avail themselves of the occasion, and join
+their forces to those of the party injured, in order to reduce that
+ambitious power, and disable it from so easily oppressing its neighbors,
+or keeping them in continual awe and fear. For an injury gives a nation
+a right to provide for its future safety by taking away from the
+violator the means of oppression. It is lawful, and even praiseworthy,
+to assist those who are oppressed, or unjustly attacked."--Book III. ch.
+iii. § 45.
+
+
+SYSTEM OF EUROPE.
+
+[Sidenote: Europe a republic to preserve order and liberty.]
+
+"Europe forms a political system, a body where the whole is connected by
+the relations and different interests of nations inhabiting this part of
+the world. It is not, as anciently, a confused heap of detached pieces,
+each of which thought itself very little concerned in the fate of
+others, and seldom regarded things which did not immediately relate to
+it. The continual attention of sovereigns to what is on the carpet, the
+constant residence of ministers, and _the perpetual negotiations, make
+Europe a kind of a republic, the members of which, though independent,
+unite, through the ties of common interest, for the maintenance of order
+and liberty_. Hence arose that famous scheme of the political
+equilibrium, or balance of power, by which is understood such a
+disposition of things as no power is able absolutely to predominate or
+to prescribe laws to others."--Book III. ch. iii. § 47.
+
+"Confederacies would be a sure way of preserving the equilibrium, and
+supporting the liberty of nations, did all princes thoroughly understand
+their true interests, and regulate all their steps for the good of the
+state."--Ibid. § 49.
+
+
+CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY.
+
+[Sidenote: To be moderate.]
+
+"Instead of the pillage of the country and defenceless places, a custom
+has been substituted more humane and more advantageous to the sovereign
+making war: I mean that of contributions. Whoever carries on _a just
+war[41] has a right of making the enemy's country contribute to the
+support of the army, and towards defraying all the charges of the war_.
+Thus he obtains a part of what is due to him, and the subjects of the
+enemy, on submitting to this imposition, are secured from pillage, and
+the country is preserved. But a general who would not sully his
+reputation is to moderate his contributions, and proportion them to
+those on whom they are imposed. An excess in this point is not without
+the reproach of cruelty and inhumanity: if it shows less ferocity than
+ravage and destruction, it glares with avarice."--Book III. ch. ix. §
+165.
+
+
+ASYLUM.
+
+"If an exile or banished man is driven from his country for any crime,
+it does _not_ belong to the nation in which he has taken refuge to
+punish him for a fault committed in a foreign country. For Nature gives
+to mankind and to nations the right of punishing only for their defence
+and safety (§ 169): whence it follows that he can only be punished by
+those he has offended.
+
+"But this reason shows, that, if the justice of each nation ought in
+general to be confined to the punishment of crimes committed in its own
+territories, we ought to except from this rule the villains who, by the
+quality and habitual frequency of their crimes, violate all public
+security, and declare themselves the enemies of the human race.
+Poisoners, assassins, and incendiaries by profession may be exterminated
+wherever they are seized; for they attack and injure all nations by
+trampling under foot the foundations of their common safety. Thus
+pirates are brought to the gibbet by the first into whose hands they
+fall. If the sovereign of the country where crimes of that nature have
+been committed reclaims the authors of them in order to bring them to
+punishment, they ought to be restored to him, as to one who is
+_principally_ interested in punishing them in an exemplary manner: and
+it being proper to convict the guilty, and to try them according to some
+form of law, this is a _second_ [not sole] reason why malefactors are
+usually delivered up at the desire of the state where their crimes have
+been committed."--Book I. ch. xix. §§ 232, 233.
+
+"Every nation has a right of refusing to admit a stranger into the
+country, when he cannot enter it without putting it in evident danger,
+or without doing it a remarkable prejudice."[42]--Ibid. § 230.
+
+
+FOREIGN MINISTERS.
+
+"The obligation does not go so far as to suffer at all times perpetual
+ministers, who are desirous of residing with a sovereign, though they
+have nothing to negotiate. It is natural, indeed, and very agreeable to
+the sentiments which nations owe to each other, that these resident
+ministers, _when there it nothing to be feared from their stay_, should
+be friendly received; but if there be any solid reason against this,
+what is for the good of the state ought unquestionably to be preferred:
+and the foreign sovereign cannot take it amiss, if his minister, who has
+concluded the affairs of his commission, and has no other affairs to
+negotiate, be desired to depart.[43] The custom of keeping everywhere
+ministers continually resident is now so strongly established, that the
+refusal of a conformity to it would, without _very good reasons_, give
+offence. These reasons may arise from _particular_ conjunctures; but
+there are also common reasons always subsisting, and such as relate to
+_the constitution of a government and the state of a nation_. The
+republics have often very good reasons of the latter kind to excuse
+themselves from continually suffering foreign ministers who _corrupt the
+citizens in order to gain them over to their masters, to the great
+prejudice of the republic and fomenting of the parties_, &c. And should
+they only diffuse among a nation, formerly plain, frugal, and virtuous,
+a taste for luxury, avidity for money, and the manners of courts, these
+would be more than sufficient for wise and provident rulers to dismiss
+them."--Book IV. ch. v. § 66.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[38] This is the case of France:--Semonville at Turin,--Jacobin
+clubs,--Liegeois meeting,--Flemish meeting,--La Fayette's
+answer,--Clootz's embassy,--Avignon.
+
+[39] The French acknowledge no power not directly emanating from the
+people.
+
+[40] By the seventh article of the Treaty of TRIPLE ALLIANCE, between
+France, England, and Holland, signed at the Hague, in the year 1717, it
+is stipulated, "that, if the kingdoms, countries, or provinces of any of
+the allies are disturbed by intestine quarrels, or _by rebellions, on
+account of the said successions_," (the Protestant succession to the
+throne of Great Britain, and the succession to the throne of France, as
+settled by the Treaty of Utrecht,) "or _under any other pretext
+whatever_, the ally thus in trouble shall have full right to demand of
+his allies the succors above mentioned": that is to say, the same
+succors as in the case of an invasion from any foreign power,--8,000
+foot and 2,000 horse to be furnished by France or England, and 4,000
+foot and 1,000 horse by the States-General.
+
+By the fourth article of the Treaty of QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, between
+England, France, Holland, and the Emperor of Germany, signed in the year
+1718, the contracting powers "promise and oblige themselves that they
+will and ought to maintain, guaranty, and defend the right of succession
+in the kingdom of France, according to the tenor of the treaties made at
+Utrecht the 11th day of April, 1713; ... and this they shall perform
+_against all persons whosoever who may presume to disturb the order of
+the said succession_, in contradiction to the previous acts and treaties
+subsequent thereon."
+
+The above treaties have been revived and confirmed by every subsequent
+treaty of peace between Great Britain and France.--EDIT.
+
+[41] Contributions raised by the Duke of Brunswick in France. Compare
+these with the contributions raised by the French in the
+Netherlands.--EDIT.
+
+[42] The third article of the Treaty of Triple Alliance and the latter
+part of the fourth article of the Treaty of Quadruple Alliance
+stipulate, that no kind of refuge or protection shall be given to
+rebellious subjects of the contracting powers.--EDIT.
+
+[43] Dismission of M. Chauvelin.--EDIT.
+
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. IV.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable
+Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund
+Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
+
+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: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12)
+
+Author: Edmund Burke
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15700]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURKE VOL 4 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made
+available by the Biblioth�que nationale de France
+(BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WORKS
+
+OF
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
+
+EDMUND BURKE
+
+
+IN TWELVE VOLUMES
+
+VOLUME THE FOURTH
+
+
+[Illustration: Burke Coat of Arms.]
+
+
+LONDON
+JOHN C. NIMMO
+14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.
+MDCCCLXXXVII
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL IV.
+
+
+LETTER TO A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, IN ANSWER TO SOME
+OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS                               1
+
+APPEAL FROM THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS                                  57
+
+LETTER TO A PEER OF IRELAND ON THE PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH
+CATHOLICS                                                            217
+
+LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ROMAN
+CATHOLICS OF IRELAND                                                 241
+
+HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL TO BE DELIVERED TO MONSIEUR DE M.M.             307
+
+THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS                                           313
+
+HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS              379
+
+REMARKS ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE: WITH
+AN APPENDIX                                                          403
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+LETTER
+
+TO
+
+A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY,
+
+IN
+
+ANSWER TO SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
+
+1791.
+
+
+Sir,--I had the honor to receive your letter of the 17th of November
+last, in which, with some exceptions, you are pleased to consider
+favorably the letter I have written on the affairs of France. I shall
+ever accept any mark of approbation attended with instruction with more
+pleasure than general and unqualified praises. The latter can serve only
+to flatter our vanity; the former, whilst it encourages us to proceed,
+may help to improve us in our progress.
+
+Some of the errors you point out to me in my printed letter are really
+such. One only I find to be material. It is corrected in the edition
+which I take the liberty of sending to you. As to the cavils which may
+be made on some part of my remarks with regard to the _gradations_ in
+your new Constitution, you observe justly that they do not affect the
+substance of my objections. Whether there be a round more or less in the
+ladder of representation by which your workmen ascend from their
+parochial tyranny to their federal anarchy, when the whole scale is
+false, appears to me of little or no importance.
+
+I published my thoughts on that Constitution, that my countrymen might
+be enabled to estimate the wisdom of the plans which were held out to
+their imitation. I conceived that the true character of those plans
+would be best collected from the committee appointed to prepare them. I
+thought that the scheme of their building would be better comprehended
+in the design of the architects than in the execution of the masons. It
+was not worth my reader's while to occupy himself with the alterations
+by which bungling practice corrects absurd theory. Such an investigation
+would be endless: because every day's past experience of
+impracticability has driven, and every day's future experience will
+drive, those men to new devices as exceptionable as the old, and which
+are no otherwise worthy of observation than as they give a daily proof
+of the delusion of their promises and the falsehood of their
+professions. Had I followed all these changes, my letter would have been
+only a gazette of their wanderings, a journal of their march from error
+to error, through a dry, dreary desert, unguided by the lights of
+Heaven, or by the contrivance which wisdom has invented to supply their
+place.
+
+I am unalterably persuaded that the attempt to oppress, degrade,
+impoverish, confiscate, and extinguish the original gentlemen and landed
+property of a whole nation cannot be justified under any form it may
+assume. I am satisfied beyond a doubt, that the project of turning a
+great empire into a vestry, or into a collection of vestries, and of
+governing it in the spirit of a parochial administration, is senseless
+and absurd, in any mode or with any qualifications. I can never be
+convinced that the scheme of placing the highest powers of the state in
+church-wardens and constables and other such officers, guided by the
+prudence of litigious attorneys and Jew brokers, and set in action by
+shameless women of the lowest condition, by keepers of hotels, taverns,
+and brothels, by pert apprentices, by clerks, shop-boys, hair-dressers,
+fiddlers, and dancers on the stage, (who, in such a commonwealth as
+yours, will in future overbear, as already they have overborne, the
+sober incapacity of dull, uninstructed men, of useful, but laborious
+occupations,) can never be put into any shape that must not be both
+disgraceful and destructive. The whole of this project, even if it were
+what it pretends to be, and was not in reality the dominion, through
+that disgraceful medium, of half a dozen, or perhaps fewer, intriguing
+politicians, is so mean, so low-minded, so stupid a contrivance, in
+point of wisdom, as well as so perfectly detestable for its wickedness,
+that I must always consider the correctives which might make it in any
+degree practicable to be so many new objections to it.
+
+In that wretched state of things, some are afraid that the authors of
+your miseries may be led to precipitate their further designs by the
+hints they may receive from the very arguments used to expose the
+absurdity of their system, to mark the incongruity of its parts, and its
+inconsistency with their own principles,--and that your masters may be
+led to render their schemes more consistent by rendering them more
+mischievous. Excuse the liberty which your indulgence authorizes me to
+take, when I observe to you that such apprehensions as these would
+prevent all exertion of our faculties in this great cause of mankind.
+
+A rash recourse to _force_ is not to be justified in a state of real
+weakness. Such attempts bring on disgrace, and in their failure
+discountenance and discourage more rational endeavors. But _reason_ is
+to be hazarded, though it may be perverted by craft and sophistry; for
+reason can suffer no loss nor shame, nor can it impede any useful plan
+of future policy. In the unavoidable uncertainty as to the effect,
+which attends on every measure of human prudence, nothing seems a surer
+antidote to the poison of fraud than its detection. It is true, the
+fraud may be swallowed after this discovery, and perhaps even swallowed
+the more greedily for being a detected fraud. Men sometimes make a point
+of honor not to be disabused; and they had rather fall into an hundred
+errors than confess one. But, after all, when neither our principles nor
+our dispositions, nor, perhaps, our talents, enable us to encounter
+delusion with delusion, we must use our best reason to those that ought
+to be reasonable creatures, and to take our chance for the event. We
+cannot act on these anomalies in the minds of men. I do not conceive
+that the persons who have contrived these things can be made much the
+better or the worse for anything which can be said to them. _They_ are
+reason-proof. Here and there, some men, who were at first carried away
+by wild, good intentions, may be led, when their first fervors are
+abated, to join in a sober survey of the schemes into which they had
+been deluded. To those only (and I am sorry to say they are not likely
+to make a large description) we apply with any hope. I may speak it upon
+an assurance almost approaching to absolute knowledge, that nothing has
+been done that has not been contrived from the beginning, even before
+the States had assembled. _Nulla nova mihi res inopinave surgit._ They
+are the same men and the same designs that they were from the first,
+though varied in their appearance. It was the very same animal that at
+first crawled about in the shape of a caterpillar that you now see rise
+into the air and expand his wings to the sun.
+
+Proceeding, therefore, as we are obliged to proceed,--that is, upon an
+hypothesis that we address rational men,--can false political principles
+be more effectually exposed than by demonstrating that they lead to
+consequences directly inconsistent with and subversive of the
+arrangements grounded upon them? If this kind of demonstration is not
+permitted, the process of reasoning called _deductio ad absurdum_, which
+even the severity of geometry does not reject, could not be employed at
+all in legislative discussions. One of our strongest weapons against
+folly acting with authority would be lost.
+
+You know, Sir, that even the virtuous efforts of your patriots to
+prevent the ruin of your country have had this very turn given to them.
+It has been said here, and in France too, that the reigning usurpers
+would not have carried their tyranny to such destructive lengths, if
+they had not been stimulated and provoked to it by the acrimony of your
+opposition. There is a dilemma to which every opposition to successful
+iniquity must, in the nature of things, be liable. If you lie still, you
+are considered as an accomplice in the measures in which you silently
+acquiesce. If you resist, you are accused of provoking irritable power
+to new excesses. The conduct of a losing party never appears right: at
+least, it never can possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to
+vulgar judgments,--success.
+
+The indulgence of a sort of undefined hope, an obscure confidence, that
+some lurking remains of virtue, some degree of shame, might exist in the
+breasts of the oppressors of France, has been among the causes which
+have helped to bring on the common ruin of king and people. There is no
+safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men,
+and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
+I well remember, at every epocha of this wonderful history, in every
+scene of this tragic business, that, when your sophistic usurpers were
+laying down mischievous principles, and even applying them in direct
+resolutions, it was the fashion to say that they never intended to
+execute those declarations in their rigor. This made men careless in
+their opposition, and remiss in early precaution. By holding out this
+fallacious hope, the impostors deluded sometimes one description of men,
+and sometimes another, so that no means of resistance were provided
+against them, when they came to execute in cruelty what they had planned
+in fraud.
+
+There are cases in which a man would be ashamed not to have been imposed
+on. There is a confidence necessary to human intercourse, and without
+which men are often more injured by their own suspicions than they would
+be by the perfidy of others. But when men whom we _know_ to be wicked
+impose upon us, we are something worse than dupes. When we know them,
+their fair pretences become new motives for distrust. There is one case,
+indeed, in which it would be madness not to give the fullest credit to
+the most deceitful of men,--that is, when they make declarations of
+hostility against us.
+
+I find that some persons entertain other hopes, which I confess appear
+more specious than those by which at first so many were deluded and
+disarmed. They flatter themselves that the extreme misery brought upon
+the people by their folly will at last open the eyes of the multitude,
+if not of their leaders. Much the contrary, I fear. As to the leaders in
+this system of imposture,--you know that cheats and deceivers never can
+repent. The fraudulent have no resource but in fraud. They have no other
+goods in their magazine. They have no virtue or wisdom in their minds,
+to which, in a disappointment concerning the profitable effects of fraud
+and cunning, they can retreat. The wearing out of an old serves only to
+put them upon the invention of a new delusion. Unluckily, too, the
+credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as the invention of knaves. They
+never give people possession; but they always keep them in hope. Your
+state doctors do not so much as pretend that any good whatsoever has
+hitherto been derived from their operations, or that the public has
+prospered in any one instance under their management. The nation is
+sick, very sick, by their medicines. But the charlatan tells them that
+what is past cannot be helped;--they have taken the draught, and they
+must wait its operation with patience;--that the first effects, indeed,
+are unpleasant, but that the very sickness is a proof that the dose is
+of no sluggish operation;--that sickness is inevitable in all
+constitutional revolutions;--that the body must pass through pain to
+ease;--that the prescriber is not an empiric who proceeds by vulgar
+experience, but one who grounds his practice[1] on the sure rules of
+art, which cannot possibly fail. You have read, Sir, the last manifesto,
+or mountebank's bill, of the National Assembly. You see their
+presumption in their promises is not lessened by all their failures in
+the performance. Compare this last address of the Assembly and the
+present state of your affairs with the early engagements of that body,
+engagements which, not content with declaring, they solemnly deposed
+upon oath,--swearing lustily, that, if they were supported, they would
+make their country glorious and happy; and then judge whether those who
+can write such things, or those who can bear to read them, are of
+_themselves_ to be brought to any reasonable course of thought or
+action.
+
+As to the people at large, when once these miserable sheep have broken
+the fold, and have got themselves loose, not from the restraint, but
+from the protection, of all the principles of natural authority and
+legitimate subordination, they become the natural prey of impostors.
+When they have once tasted of the flattery of knaves, they can no longer
+endure reason, which appears to them only in the form of censure and
+reproach. Great distress has never hitherto taught, and whilst the world
+lasts it never will teach, wise lessons to any part of mankind. Men are
+as much blinded by the extremes of misery as by the extremes of
+prosperity. Desperate situations produce desperate councils and
+desperate measures. The people of France, almost generally, have been
+taught to look for other resources than those which can be derived from
+order, frugality, and industry. They are generally armed; and they are
+made to expect much from the use of arms. _Nihil non arrogant armis._
+Besides this, the retrograde order of society has something flattering
+to the dispositions of mankind. The life of adventurers, gamesters,
+gypsies, beggars, and robbers is not unpleasant. It requires restraint
+to keep men from falling into that habit. The shifting tides of fear
+and hope, the flight and pursuit, the peril and escape, the alternate
+famine and feast of the savage and the thief, after a time; render all
+course of slow, steady, progressive, unvaried occupation, and the
+prospect only of a limited mediocrity at the end of long labor, to the
+last degree tame, languid, and insipid. Those who have been once
+intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it,
+even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may
+be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look
+to anything but power for their relief. When did distress ever oblige a
+prince to abdicate his authority? And what effect will it have upon
+those who are made to believe themselves a people of princes?
+
+The more active and stirring part of the lower orders having got
+government and the distribution of plunder into their hands, they will
+use its resources in each municipality to form a body of adherents.
+These rulers and their adherents will be strong enough to overpower the
+discontents of those who have not been able to assert their share of the
+spoil. The unfortunate adventurers in the cheating lottery of plunder
+will probably be the least sagacious or the most inactive and irresolute
+of the gang. If, on disappointment, they should dare to stir, they will
+soon be suppressed as rebels and mutineers by their brother rebels.
+Scantily fed for a while with the offal of plunder, they will drop off
+by degrees; they will be driven out of sight and out of thought; and
+they will be left to perish obscurely, like rats, in holes and corners.
+
+From the forced repentance of invalid mutineers and disbanded thieves
+you can hope for no resource. Government itself, which ought to
+constrain the more bold and dexterous of these robbers, is their
+accomplice. Its arms, its treasures, its all are in their hands.
+Judicature, which above all things should awe them, is their creature
+and their instrument. Nothing seems to me to render your internal
+situation more desperate than this one circumstance of the state of your
+judicature. Many days are not passed since we have seen a set of men
+brought forth by your rulers for a most critical function. Your rulers
+brought forth a set of men, steaming from the sweat and drudgery, and
+all black with the smoke and soot, of the forge of confiscation and
+robbery,--_ardentis mass� fuligine lippos_,--a set of men brought forth
+from the trade of hammering arms of proof, offensive and defensive, in
+aid of the enterprises, and for the subsequent protection, of
+housebreakers, murderers, traitors, and malefactors,--men, who had their
+minds seasoned with theories perfectly conformable to their practice,
+and who had always laughed at possession and prescription, and defied
+all the fundamental maxims of jurisprudence. To the horror and
+stupefaction of all the honest part of this nation, and indeed of all
+nations who are spectators, we have seen, on the credit of those very
+practices and principles, and to carry them further into effect, these
+very men placed on the sacred seat of justice in the capital city of
+your late kingdom. We see that in future you are to be destroyed with
+more form and regularity. This is not peace: it is only the introduction
+of a sort of discipline in their hostility. Their tyranny is complete in
+their justice; and their _lanterne_ is not half so dreadful as their
+court.
+
+One would think, that, out of common decency, they would have given you
+men who had not been in the habit of trampling upon law and justice in
+the Assembly, neutral men, or men apparently neutral, for judges, who
+are to dispose of your lives and fortunes.
+
+Cromwell, when he attempted to legalize his power, and to settle his
+conquered country in a state of order, did not look for dispensers of
+justice in the instruments of his usurpation. Quite the contrary. He
+sought out, with great solicitude and selection, and even from the party
+most opposite to his designs, men of weight and decorum of
+character,--men unstained with the violence of the times, and with hands
+not fouled with confiscation and sacrilege: for he chose an Hale for his
+chief justice, though he absolutely refused to take his civic oaths, or
+to make any acknowledgment whatsoever of the legality of his government.
+Cromwell told this great lawyer, that, since he did not approve his
+title, all he required of him was to administer, in a manner agreeable
+to his pure sentiments and unspotted character, that justice without
+which human society cannot subsist,--that it was not his particular
+government, but civil order itself, which, as a judge, he wished him to
+support. Cromwell knew how to separate the institutions expedient to his
+usurpation from the administration of the public justice of his country.
+For Cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not wholly suppressed, but
+only suspended, the sentiments of religion, and the love (as far as it
+could consist with his designs) of fair and honorable reputation.
+Accordingly, we are indebted to this act of his for the preservation of
+our laws, which some senseless assertors of the rights of men were then
+on the point of entirely erasing, as relics of feudality and barbarism.
+Besides, he gave, in the appointment of that man, to that age, and to
+all posterity, the most brilliant example of sincere and fervent piety,
+exact justice, and profound jurisprudence.[2] But these are not the
+things in which your philosophic usurpers choose to follow Cromwell.
+
+One would think, that, after an honest and necessary revolution, (if
+they had a mind that theirs should pass for such,) your masters would
+have imitated the virtuous policy of those who have been at the head of
+revolutions of that glorious character. Burnet tells us, that nothing
+tended to reconcile the English nation to the government of King William
+so much as the care he took to fill the vacant bishoprics with men who
+had attracted the public esteem by their learning, eloquence, and piety,
+and above all, by their known moderation in the state. With you, in your
+purifying revolution, whom have you chosen to regulate the Church? M.
+Mirabeau is a fine speaker, and a fine writer, and a fine--a very fine
+man; but, really, nothing gave more surprise to everybody here than to
+find him the supreme head of your ecclesiastical affairs. The rest is of
+course. Your Assembly addresses a manifesto to France, in which they
+tell the people, with an insulting irony, that they have brought the
+Church to its primitive condition. In one respect their declaration is
+undoubtedly true: for they have brought it to a state of poverty and
+persecution. What can be hoped for after this? Have not men, (if they
+deserve the name,) under this new hope and head of the Church, been made
+bishops for no other merit than having acted as instruments of atheists?
+for no other merit than having thrown the children's bread to dogs? and,
+in order to gorge the whole gang of usurers, peddlers, and itinerant
+Jew discounters at the corners of streets, starved the poor of their
+Christian flocks, and their own brother pastors? Have not such men been
+made bishops to administer in temples in which (if the patriotic
+donations have not already stripped them of their vessels) the
+church-wardens ought to take security for the altar plate, and not so
+much as to trust the chalice in their sacrilegious hands, so long as
+Jews have assignats on ecclesiastic plunder, to exchange for the silver
+stolen from churches?
+
+I am told that the very sons of such Jew jobbers have been made bishops:
+persons not to be suspected of any sort of _Christian_ superstition, fit
+colleagues to the holy prelate of Autun, and bred at the feet of that
+Gamaliel. We know who it was that drove the money-changers out of the
+temple. We see, too, who it is that brings them in again. We have in
+London very respectable persons of the Jewish nation, whom we will keep;
+but we have of the same tribe others of a very different
+description,--housebreakers, and receivers of stolen goods, and forgers
+of paper currency, more than we can conveniently hang. These we can
+spare to France, to fill the new episcopal thrones: men well versed in
+swearing; and who will scruple no oath which the fertile genius of any
+of your reformers can devise.
+
+In matters so ridiculous it is hard to be grave. On a view of their
+consequences, it is almost inhuman to treat them lightly. To what a
+state of savage, stupid, servile insensibility must your people be
+reduced, who can endure such proceedings in their Church, their state,
+and their judicature, even for a moment! But the deluded people of
+France are like other madmen, who, to a miracle, bear hunger, and
+thirst, and cold, and confinement, and the chains and lash of their
+keeper, whilst all the while they support themselves by the imagination
+that they are generals of armies, prophets, kings, and emperors. As to a
+change of mind in those men, who consider infamy as honor, degradation
+as preferment, bondage to low tyrants as liberty, and the practical
+scorn and contumely of their upstart masters as marks of respect and
+homage, I look upon it as absolutely impracticable. These madmen, to be
+cured, must first, like other madmen, be subdued. The sound part of the
+community, which I believe to be large, but by no means the largest
+part, has been taken by surprise, and is disjointed, terrified, and
+disarmed. That sound part of the community must first be put into a
+better condition, before it can do anything in the way of deliberation
+or persuasion. This must be an act of power, as well as of wisdom: of
+power in the hands of firm, determined patriots, who can distinguish the
+misled from traitors, who will regulate the state (if such should be
+their fortune) with a discriminating, manly, and provident mercy; men
+who are purged of the surfeit and indigestion of systems, if ever they
+have been admitted into the habit of their minds; men who will lay the
+foundation of a real reform in effacing every vestige of that philosophy
+which pretends to have made discoveries in the _Terra Australia_ of
+morality; men who will fix the state upon these bases of morals and
+politics, which are our old and immemorial, and, I hope, will be our
+eternal possession.
+
+This power, to such men, must come from _without_. It may be given to
+you in pity: for surely no nation ever called so pathetically on the
+compassion of all its neighbors. It may be given by those neighbors on
+motives of safety to themselves. Never shall I think any country in
+Europe to be secure, whilst there is established in the very centre of
+it a state (if so it may be called) founded on principles of anarchy,
+and which is in reality a college of armed fanatics, for the propagation
+of the principles of assassination, robbery, rebellion, fraud, faction,
+oppression, and impiety. Mahomet, hid, as for a time he was, in the
+bottom of the sands of Arabia, had his spirit and character been
+discovered, would have been an object of precaution to provident minds.
+What if he had erected his fanatic standard for the destruction of the
+Christian religion _in luce Asi�_, in the midst of the then noonday
+splendor of the then civilized world? The princes of Europe, in the
+beginning of this century, did well not to suffer the monarchy of France
+to swallow up the others. They ought not now, in my opinion, to suffer
+all the monarchies and commonwealths to be swallowed up in the gulf of
+this polluted anarchy. They may be tolerably safe at present, because
+the comparative power of France for the present is little. But times and
+occasions make dangers. Intestine troubles may arise in other countries.
+There is a power always on the watch, qualified and disposed to profit
+of every conjuncture, to establish its own principles and modes of
+mischief, wherever it can hope for success. What mercy would these
+usurpers have on other sovereigns, and on other nations, when they treat
+their own king with such unparalleled indignities, and so cruelly
+oppress their own countrymen?
+
+The king of Prussia, in concurrence with us, nobly interfered to save
+Holland from confusion. The same power, joined with the rescued Holland
+and with Great Britain, has put the Emperor in the possession of the
+Netherlands, and secured, under that prince, from all arbitrary
+innovation, the ancient, hereditary Constitution of those provinces. The
+chamber of Wetzlar has restored the Bishop of Liege, unjustly
+dispossessed by the rebellion of his subjects. The king of Prussia was
+bound by no treaty nor alliance of blood, nor had any particular reasons
+for thinking the Emperor's government would be more mischievous or more
+oppressive to human nature than that of the Turk; yet, on mere motives
+of policy, that prince has interposed, with the threat of all his force,
+to snatch even the Turk from the pounces of the Imperial eagle. If this
+is done in favor of a barbarous nation, with a barbarous neglect of
+police, fatal to the human race,--in favor of a nation by principle in
+eternal enmity with the Christian name, a nation which will not so much
+as give the salutation of peace (_Salam_) to any of us, nor make any
+pact with any Christian nation beyond a truce,--if this be done in favor
+of the Turk, shall it be thought either impolitic or unjust or
+uncharitable to employ the same power to rescue from captivity a
+virtuous monarch, (by the courtesy of Europe considered as Most
+Christian,) who, after an intermission of one hundred and seventy-five
+years, had called together the States of his kingdom to reform abuses,
+to establish a free government, and to strengthen his throne,--a monarch
+who, at the very outset, without force, even without solicitation, had
+given to his people such a Magna Charta of privileges as never was given
+by any king to any subjects? Is it to be tamely borne by kings who love
+their subjects, or by subjects who love their kings, that this monarch,
+in the midst of these gracious acts, was insolently and cruelly torn
+from his palace by a gang of traitors and assassins, and kept in close
+prison to this very hour, whilst his royal name and sacred character
+were used for the total ruin of those whom the laws had appointed him to
+protect?
+
+The only offence of this unhappy monarch towards his people was his
+attempt, under a monarchy, to give them a free Constitution. For this,
+by an example hitherto unheard of in the world, he has been deposed. It
+might well disgrace sovereigns to take part with a deposed tyrant. It
+would suppose in them a vicious sympathy. But not to make a common cause
+with a just prince, dethroned by traitors and rebels, who proscribe,
+plunder, confiscate, and in every way cruelly oppress their
+fellow-citizens, in my opinion is to forget what is due to the honor and
+to the rights of all virtuous and legal government.
+
+I think the king of France to be as much an object both of policy and
+compassion as the Grand Seignior or his states. I do not conceive that
+the total annihilation of France (if that could be effected) is a
+desirable thing to Europe, or even to this its rival nation. Provident
+patriots did not think it good for Rome that even Carthage should be
+quite destroyed; and he was a wise Greek, wise for the general Grecian
+interests, as well as a brave Laced�monian enemy and generous conqueror,
+who did not wish, by the destruction of Athens, to pluck out the other
+eye of Greece.
+
+However, Sir, what I have here said of the interference of foreign
+princes is only the opinion of a private individual, who is neither the
+representative of any state nor the organ of any party, but who thinks
+himself bound to express his own sentiments with freedom and energy in a
+crisis of such importance to the whole human race.
+
+I am not apprehensive, that, in speaking freely on the subject of the
+king and queen of France, I shall accelerate (as you fear) the execution
+of traitorous designs against them. You are of opinion, Sir, that the
+usurpers may, and that they will, gladly lay hold of any pretext to
+throw off the very name of a king: assuredly, I do not wish ill to your
+king; but better for him not to live (he does not reign) than to live
+the passive instrument of tyranny and usurpation.
+
+I certainly meant to show, to the best of my power, that the existence
+of such an executive officer in such a system of republic as theirs is
+absurd in the highest degree. But in demonstrating this, to _them_, at
+least, I can have made no discovery. They only held out the royal name
+to catch those Frenchmen to whom the name of king is still venerable.
+They calculate the duration of that sentiment; and when they find it
+nearly expiring, they will not trouble themselves with excuses for
+extinguishing the name, as they have the thing. They used it as a sort
+of navel-string to nourish their unnatural offspring from the bowels of
+royalty itself. Now that the monster can purvey for its own subsistence,
+it will only carry the mark about it, as a token of its having torn the
+womb it came from. Tyrants seldom want pretexts. Fraud is the ready
+minister of injustice; and whilst the currency of false pretence and
+sophistic reasoning was expedient to their designs, they were under no
+necessity of drawing upon me to furnish them with that coin. But
+pretexts and sophisms have had their day, and have done their work. The
+usurpation no longer seeks plausibility: it trusts to power.
+
+Nothing that I can say, or that you can say, will hasten them, by a
+single hour, in the execution of a design which they have long since
+entertained. In spite of their solemn declarations, their soothing
+addresses, and the multiplied oaths which they have taken and forced
+others to take, they will assassinate the king when his name will no
+longer be necessary to their designs,--but not a moment sooner. They
+will probably first assassinate the queen, whenever the renewed menace
+of such an assassination loses its effect upon the anxious mind of an
+affectionate husband. At present, the advantage which they derive from
+the daily threats against her life is her only security for preserving
+it. They keep their sovereign alive for the purpose of exhibiting him,
+like some wild beast at a fair,--as if they had a Bajazet in a cage.
+They choose to make monarchy contemptible by exposing it to derision in
+the person of the most benevolent of their kings.
+
+In my opinion their insolence appears more odious even than their
+crimes. The horrors of the fifth and sixth of October were less
+detestable than the festival of the fourteenth of July. There are
+situations (God forbid I should think that of the 5th and 6th of October
+one of them!) in which the best men may be confounded with the worst,
+and in the darkness and confusion, in the press and medley of such
+extremities, it may not be so easy to discriminate the one from the
+other. Tho necessities created even by ill designs have their excuse.
+They may be forgotten by others, when the guilty themselves do not
+choose to cherish their recollection, and, by ruminating their
+offences, nourish themselves, through the example of their past, to the
+perpetration of future crimes. It is in the relaxation of security, it
+is in the expansion of prosperity, it is in the hour of dilatation of
+the heart, and of its softening into festivity and pleasure, that the
+real character of men is discerned. If there is any good in them, it
+appears then or never. Even wolves and tigers, when gorged with their
+prey, are safe and gentle. It is at such times that noble minds give all
+the reins to their good nature. They indulge their genius even to
+intemperance, in kindness to the afflicted, in generosity to the
+conquered,--forbearing insults, forgiving injuries, overpaying benefits.
+Full of dignity themselves, they respect dignity in all, but they feel
+it sacred in the unhappy. But it is then, and basking in the sunshine of
+unmerited fortune, that low, sordid, ungenerous, and reptile souls swell
+with their hoarded poisons; it is then that they display their odious
+splendor, and shine out in the full lustre of their native villany and
+baseness. It is in that season that no man of sense or honor can be
+mistaken for one of them. It was in such a season, for them of political
+ease and security, though their people were but just emerged from actual
+famine, and were ready to be plunged into a gulf of penury and beggary,
+that your philosophic lords chose, with an ostentatious pomp and luxury,
+to feast an incredible number of idle and thoughtless people, collected
+with art and pains from all quarters of the world. They constructed a
+vast amphitheatre in which they raised a species of pillory.[3] On this
+pillory they set their lawful king and queen, with an insulting figure
+over their heads. There they exposed these objects of pity and respect
+to all good minds to the derision of an unthinking and unprincipled
+multitude, degenerated even from the versatile tenderness which marks
+the irregular and capricious feelings of the populace. That their cruel
+insult might have nothing wanting to complete it, they chose the
+anniversary of that day in which they exposed the life of their prince
+to the most imminent dangers and the vilest indignities, just following
+the instant when the assassins, whom they had hired without owning,
+first openly took up arms against their king, corrupted his guards,
+surprised his castle, butchered some of the poor invalids of his
+garrison, murdered his governor, and, like wild beasts, tore to pieces
+the chief magistrate of his capital city, on account of his fidelity to
+his service.
+
+Till the justice of the world is awakened, such as these will go on,
+without admonition, and without provocation, to every extremity. Those
+who have made the exhibition of the fourteenth of July are capable of
+every evil. They do not commit crimes for their designs; but they form
+designs that they may commit crimes. It is not their necessity, but
+their nature, that impels them. They are modern philosophers, which when
+you say of them, you express everything that is ignoble, savage, and
+hard-hearted.
+
+Besides the sure tokens which are given by the spirit of their
+particular arrangements, there are some characteristic lineaments in the
+general policy of your tumultuous despotism, which, in my opinion,
+indicate, beyond a doubt, that no revolution whatsoever _in their
+disposition_ is to be expected: I mean their scheme of educating the
+rising generation, the principles which they intend to instil and the
+sympathies which they wish to form in the mind at the season in which it
+is the most susceptible. Instead of forming their young minds to that
+docility, to that modesty, which are the grace and charm of youth, to an
+admiration of famous examples, and to an averseness to anything which
+approaches to pride, petulance, and self-conceit, (distempers to which
+that time of life is of itself sufficiently liable,) they artificially
+foment these evil dispositions, and even form them into springs of
+action. Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books
+recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the
+character of the age. Uncertain indeed is the efficacy, limited indeed
+is the extent, of a virtuous institution. But if education takes in
+_vice_ as any part of its system, there is no doubt but that it will
+operate with abundant energy, and to an extent indefinite. The
+magistrate, who in favor of freedom thinks himself obliged to suffer all
+sorts of publications, is under a stricter duty than any other well to
+consider what sort of writers he shall authorize, and shall recommend by
+the strongest of all sanctions, that is, by public honors and rewards.
+He ought to be cautious how he recommends authors of mixed or ambiguous
+morality. He ought to be fearful of putting into the hands of youth
+writers indulgent to the peculiarities of their own complexion, lest
+they should teach the humors of the professor, rather than the
+principles of the science. He ought, above all, to be cautious in
+recommending any writer who has carried marks of a deranged
+understanding: for where there is no sound reason, there can be no real
+virtue; and madness is ever vicious and malignant.
+
+The Assembly proceeds on maxims the very reverse of these. The Assembly
+recommends to its youth a study of the bold experimenters in morality.
+Everybody knows that there is a great dispute amongst their leaders,
+which of them is the best resemblance of Rousseau. In truth, they all
+resemble him. His blood they transfuse into their minds and into their
+manners. Him they study; him they meditate; him they turn over in all
+the time they can spare from the laborious mischief of the day or the
+debauches of the night. Rousseau is their canon of holy writ; in his
+life he is their canon of Polycletus; he is their standard figure of
+perfection. To this man and this writer, as a pattern to authors and to
+Frenchmen, the foundries of Paris are now running for statues, with the
+kettles of their poor and the bells of their churches. If an author had
+written like a great genius on geometry, though his practical and
+speculative morals were vicious in the extreme, it might appear that in
+voting the statue they honored only the geometrician. But Rousseau is a
+moralist or he is nothing. It is impossible, therefore, putting the
+circumstances together, to mistake their design in choosing the author
+with whom they have begun to recommend a course of studies.
+
+Their great problem is, to find a substitute for all the principles
+which hitherto have been employed to regulate the human will and action.
+They find dispositions in the mind of such force and quality as may fit
+men, far better than the old morality, for the purposes of such a state
+as theirs, and may go much further in supporting their power and
+destroying their enemies. They have therefore chosen a selfish,
+flattering, seductive, ostentatious vice, in the place of plain duty.
+True humility, the basis of the Christian system, is the low, but deep
+and firm foundation of all real virtue. But this, as very painful in the
+practice, and little imposing in the appearance, they have totally
+discarded. Their object is to merge all natural and all social sentiment
+in inordinate vanity. In a small degree, and conversant in little
+things, vanity is of little moment. When full-grown, it is the worst of
+vices, and the occasional mimic of them all. It makes the whole man
+false. It leaves nothing sincere or trustworthy about him. His best
+qualities are poisoned and perverted by it, and operate exactly as the
+worst. When your lords had many writers as immoral as the object of
+their statue (such as Voltaire and others) they chose Rousseau, because
+in him that peculiar vice which they wished to erect into ruling virtue
+was by far the most conspicuous.
+
+We have had the great professor and founder of _the philosophy of
+vanity_ in England. As I had good opportunities of knowing his
+proceedings almost from day to day, he left no doubt on my mind that he
+entertained no principle, either to influence his heart or to guide his
+understanding, but _vanity_. With this vice he was possessed to a degree
+little short of madness. It is from the same deranged, eccentric vanity,
+that this, the insane Socrates of the National Assembly, was impelled to
+publish a mad confession of his mad faults, and to attempt a new sort of
+glory from bringing hardily to light the obscure and vulgar vices which
+we know may sometimes be blended with eminent talents. He has not
+observed on the nature of vanity who does not know that it is
+omnivorous,--that it has no choice in its food,--that it is fond to
+talk even of its own faults and vices, as what will excite surprise and
+draw attention, and what will pass at worst for openness and candor.
+
+It was this abuse and perversion, which vanity makes even of hypocrisy,
+which has driven Rousseau to record a life not so much as checkered or
+spotted here and there with virtues, or even distinguished by a single
+good action. It is such a life he chooses to offer to the attention of
+mankind. It is such a life that, with a wild defiance, he flings in the
+face of his Creator, whom he acknowledges only to brave. Your Assembly,
+knowing how much more powerful example is found than precept, has chosen
+this man (by his own account without a single virtue) for a model. To
+him they erect their first statue. From him they commence their series
+of honors and distinctions.
+
+It is that new-invented virtue which your masters canonize that led
+their moral hero constantly to exhaust the stores of his powerful
+rhetoric in the expression of universal benevolence, whilst his heart
+was incapable of harboring one spark of common parental affection.
+Benevolence to the whole species, and want of feeling for every
+individual with whom the professors come in contact, form the character
+of the new philosophy. Setting up for an unsocial independence, this
+their hero of vanity refuses the just price of common labor, as well as
+the tribute which opulence owes to genius, and which, when paid, honors
+the giver and the receiver; and then he pleads his beggary as an excuse
+for his crimes. He melts with tenderness for those only who touch him by
+the remotest relation, and then, without one natural pang, casts away,
+as a sort of offal and excrement, the spawn of his disgustful amours,
+and sends his children to the hospital of foundlings. The bear loves,
+licks, and forms her young: but bears are not philosophers. Vanity,
+however, finds its account in reversing the train of our natural
+feelings. Thousands admire the sentimental-writer; the affectionate
+father is hardly known in his parish.
+
+Under this philosophic instructor in _the ethics of vanity_, they have
+attempted in France a regeneration of the moral constitution of man.
+Statesmen like your present rulers exist by everything which is
+spurious, fictitious, and false,--by everything which takes the man from
+his house, and sets him on a stage,--which makes him up an artificial
+creature, with painted, theatric sentiments, fit to be seen by the glare
+of candle-light, and formed to be contemplated at a due distance. Vanity
+is too apt to prevail in all of us, and in all countries. To the
+improvement of Frenchmen, it seems not absolutely necessary that it
+should be taught upon system. But it is plain that the present rebellion
+was its legitimate offspring, and it is piously fed by that rebellion
+with a daily dole.
+
+If the system of institution recommended by the Assembly is false and
+theatric, it is because their system of government is of the same
+character. To that, and to that alone, it is strictly conformable. To
+understand either, we must connect the morals with the politics of the
+legislators. Your practical philosophers, systematic in everything, have
+wisely began at the source. As the relation between parents and children
+is the first among the elements of vulgar, natural morality,[4] they
+erect statues to a wild, ferocious, low-minded, hard-hearted father, of
+fine general feelings,--a lover of his kind, but a hater of his kindred.
+Your masters reject the duties of this vulgar relation, as contrary to
+liberty, as not founded in the social compact, and not binding according
+to the rights of men; because the relation is not, of course, the result
+of _free election_,--never so on the side of the children, not always on
+the part of the parents.
+
+The next relation which they regenerate by their statues to Rousseau is
+that which is next in sanctity to that of a father. They differ from
+those old-fashioned thinkers who considered pedagogues as sober and
+venerable characters, and allied to the parental. The moralists of the
+dark times _pr�ceptorem sancti voluere parentis esse loco_. In this age
+of light they teach the people that preceptors ought to be in the place
+of gallants. They systematically corrupt a very corruptible race, (for
+some time a growing nuisance amongst you,)--a set of pert, petulant
+literators, to whom, instead of their proper, but severe, unostentatious
+duties, they assign the brilliant part of men of wit and pleasure, of
+gay, young, military sparks, and danglers at toilets. They call on the
+rising generation in France to take a sympathy in the adventures and
+fortunes, and they endeavor to engage their sensibility on the side, of
+pedagogues who betray the most awful family trusts and vitiate their
+female pupils. They teach the people that the debauchers of virgins,
+almost in the arms of their parents, may be safe inmates in their house,
+and even fit guardians of the honor of those husbands who succeed
+legally to the office which the young literators had preoccupied
+without asking leave of law or conscience.
+
+Thus they dispose of all the family relations of parents and children,
+husbands and wives. Through this same instructor, by whom they corrupt
+the morals, they corrupt the taste. Taste and elegance, though they are
+reckoned only among the smaller and secondary morals, yet are of no mean
+importance in the regulation of life. A moral taste is not of force to
+turn vice into virtue; but it recommends virtue with something like the
+blandishments of pleasure, and it infinitely abates the evils of vice.
+Rousseau, a writer of great force and vivacity, is totally destitute of
+taste in any sense of the word. Your masters, who are his scholars,
+conceive that all refinement has an aristocratic character. The last age
+had exhausted all its powers in giving a grace and nobleness to our
+natural appetites, and in raising them into a higher class and order
+than seemed justly to belong to them. Through Rousseau, your masters are
+resolved to destroy these aristocratic prejudices. The passion called
+love has so general and powerful an influence, it makes so much of the
+entertainment, and indeed so much the occupation, of that part of life
+which decides the character forever, that the mode and the principles on
+which it engages the sympathy and strikes the imagination become of the
+utmost importance to the morals and manners of every society. Your
+rulers were well aware of this; and in their system of changing your
+manners to accommodate them to their politics, they found nothing so
+convenient as Rousseau. Through him they teach men to love after the
+fashion of philosophers: that is, they teach to men, to Frenchmen, a
+love without gallantry,--a love without anything of that fine flower of
+youthfulness and gentility which places it, if not among the virtues,
+among the ornaments of life. Instead of this passion, naturally allied
+to grace and manners, they infuse into their youth an unfashioned,
+indelicate, sour, gloomy, ferocious medley of pedantry and lewdness,--of
+metaphysical speculations blended with the coarsest sensuality. Such is
+the general morality of the passions to be found in their famous
+philosopher, in his famous work of philosophic gallantry, the _Nouvelle
+�loise_.
+
+When the fence from the gallantry of preceptors is broken down, and your
+families are no longer protected by decent pride and salutary domestic
+prejudice, there is but one step to a frightful corruption. The rulers
+in the National Assembly are in good hopes that the females of the first
+families in France may become an easy prey to dancing-masters, fiddlers,
+pattern-drawers, friseurs, and valets-de-chambre, and other active
+citizens of that description, who, having the entry into your houses,
+and being half domesticated by their situation, may be blended with you
+by regular and irregular relations. By a law they have made these people
+their equals. By adopting the sentiments of Rousseau they have made them
+your rivals. In this manner these great legislators complete their plan
+of levelling, and establish their rights of men on a sure foundation.
+
+I am certain that the writings of Rousseau lead directly to this kind of
+shameful evil. I have often wondered how he comes to be so much more
+admired and followed on the Continent than he is here. Perhaps a secret
+charm in the language may have its share in this extraordinary
+difference. We certainly perceive, and to a degree we feel, in this
+writer, a style glowing, animated, enthusiastic, at the same time that
+we find it lax, diffuse, and not in the best taste of composition,--all
+the members of the piece being pretty equally labored and expanded,
+without any due selection or subordination of parts. He is generally too
+much on the stretch, and his manner has little variety. We cannot rest
+upon, any of his works, though they contain observations which
+occasionally discover a considerable insight into human nature. But his
+doctrines, on the whole, are so inapplicable to real life and manners,
+that we never dream of drawing from them any rule for laws or conduct,
+or for fortifying or illustrating anything by a reference to his
+opinions. They have with us the fate of older paradoxes:--
+
+    Cum ventum ad _verum_ est, _sensus moresque_ repugnant,
+    Atque ipsa utilitas, justi prope mater et �qui.
+
+Perhaps bold speculations are more acceptable because more new to you
+than to us, who have been, long since satiated with them. We continue,
+as in the two last ages, to read, more generally than I believe is now
+done on the Continent, the authors of sound antiquity. These occupy our
+minds; they give us another taste and turn; and will not suffer us to be
+more than transiently amused with paradoxical morality. It is not that I
+consider this writer as wholly destitute of just notions. Amongst his
+irregularities, it must be reckoned that he is sometimes moral, and
+moral in a very sublime strain. But the _general spirit and tendency_ of
+his works is mischievous,--and the more mischievous for this mixture:
+for perfect depravity of sentiment is not reconcilable with eloquence;
+and the mind (though corruptible, not complexionally vicious) would
+reject and throw off with disgust a lesson of pure and unmixed evil.
+These writers make even virtue a pander to vice.
+
+However, I less consider the author than the system of the Assembly in
+perverting morality through his means. This I confess makes me nearly
+despair of any attempt upon the minds of their followers, through
+reason, honor, or conscience. The great object of your tyrants is to
+destroy the gentlemen of France; and for that purpose they destroy, to
+the best of their power, all the effect of those relations which may
+render considerable men powerful or even safe. To destroy that order,
+they vitiate the whole community. That no means may exist of
+confederating against their tyranny, by the false sympathies of this
+_Nouvelle �loise_ they endeavor to subvert those principles of domestic
+trust and fidelity which form the discipline of social life. They
+propagate principles by which every servant may think it, if not his
+duty, at least his privilege, to betray his master. By these principles,
+every considerable father of a family loses the sanctuary of his house.
+_Debet sua cuique domus esse perfugium tutissimum_, says the law, which
+your legislators have taken so much pains first to decry, then to
+repeal. They destroy all the tranquillity and security of domestic life:
+turning the asylum of the house into a gloomy prison, where the father
+of the family must drag out a miserable existence, endangered in
+proportion to the apparent means of his safety,--where he is worse than
+solitary in a crowd of domestics, and more apprehensive from his
+servants and inmates than from the hired, bloodthirsty mob without
+doors who are ready to pull him to the _lanterne_.
+
+It is thus, and for the same end, that they endeavor to destroy that
+tribunal of conscience which exists independently of edicts and decrees.
+Your despots govern by terror. They know that he who fears God fears
+nothing else; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their
+Voltaire, their Helv�tius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only
+sort of fear which generates true courage. Their object is, that their
+fellow-citizens may be under the dominion of no awe but that of their
+Committee of Research and of their _lanterne_.
+
+Having found the advantage of assassination in the formation of their
+tyranny, it is the grand resource in which they trust for the support of
+it. Whoever opposes any of their proceedings, or is suspected of a
+design to oppose them, is to answer it with his life, or the lives of
+his wife and children. This infamous, cruel, and cowardly practice of
+assassination they have the impudence to call _merciful_. They boast
+that they operated their usurpation rather by terror than by force, and
+that a few seasonable murders have prevented the bloodshed of many
+battles. There is no doubt they will extend these acts of mercy whenever
+they see an occasion. Dreadful, however, will be the consequences of
+their attempt to avoid the evils of war by the merciful policy of
+murder. If, by effectual punishment of the guilty, they do not wholly
+disavow that practice, and the threat of it too, as any part of their
+policy, if ever a foreign prince enters into France, he must enter it as
+into a country of assassins. The mode of civilized war will not be
+practised: nor are the French who act on the present system entitled to
+expect it. They whose known policy it is to assassinate every citizen
+whom they suspect to be discontented by their tyranny, and to corrupt
+the soldiery of every open enemy, must look for no modified hostility.
+All war, which is not battle, will be military execution. This will
+beget acts of retaliation from you; and every retaliation will beget a
+new revenge. The hell-hounds of war, on all sides, will be uncoupled and
+unmuzzled. The new school of murder and barbarism set up in Paris,
+having destroyed (so far as in it lies) all the other manners and
+principles which have hitherto civilized Europe, will destroy also the
+mode of civilized war, which, more than anything else, has distinguished
+the Christian world. Such is the approaching golden age which the
+Virgil[5] of your Assembly has sung to his Pollios!
+
+In such a situation of your political, your civil, and your social
+morals and manners, how can you be hurt by the freedom of any
+discussion? Caution is for those who have something to lose. What I have
+said, to justify myself in not apprehending any ill consequence from a
+free discussion of the absurd consequences which flow from the relation
+of the lawful king to the usurped Constitution, will apply to my
+vindication with regard to the exposure I have made of the state of the
+army under the same sophistic usurpation. The present tyrants want no
+arguments to prove, what they must daily feel, that no good army can
+exist on their principles. They are in no want of a monitor to suggest
+to them the policy of getting rid of the army, as well as of the king,
+whenever they are in a condition to effect that measure. What hopes may
+be entertained of your army for the restoration of your liberties I know
+not. At present, yielding obedience to the pretended orders of a king
+who, they are perfectly apprised, has no will, and who never can issue a
+mandate which is not intended, in the first operation, or in its certain
+consequences, for his own destruction, your army seems to make one of
+the principal links in the chain of that servitude of anarchy by which a
+cruel usurpation holds an undone people at once in bondage and
+confusion.
+
+You ask me what I think of the conduct of General Monk. How this affects
+your case I cannot tell. I doubt whether you possess in France any
+persons of a capacity to serve the French monarchy in the same manner in
+which Monk served the monarchy of England. The army which Monk commanded
+had been formed by Cromwell to a perfection of discipline which perhaps
+has never been exceeded. That army was besides of an excellent
+composition. The soldiers were men of extraordinary piety after their
+mode; of the greatest regularity, and even severity of manners; brave in
+the field, but modest, quiet, and orderly in their quarters; men who
+abhorred the idea of assassinating their officers or any other persons,
+and who (they at least who served in this island) were firmly attached
+to those generals by whom they were well treated and ably commanded.
+Such an army, once gained, might be depended on. I doubt much, if you
+could now find a Monk, whether a Monk could find in France such an army.
+
+I certainly agree with you, that in all probability we owe our whole
+Constitution to the restoration of the English monarchy. The state of
+things from which Monk relieved England was, however, by no means, at
+that time, so deplorable, in any sense, as yours is now, and under the
+present sway is likely to continue. Cromwell had delivered England from
+anarchy. His government, though military and despotic, had been regular
+and orderly. Under the iron, and under the yoke, the soil yielded its
+produce. After his death the evils of anarchy were rather dreaded than
+felt. Every man was yet safe in his house and in his property. But it
+must be admitted that Monk freed this nation from great and just
+apprehensions both of future anarchy and of probable tyranny in some
+form or other. The king whom he gave us was, indeed, the very reverse of
+your benignant sovereign, who, in reward for his attempt to bestow
+liberty on his subjects, languishes himself in prison. The person given
+to us by Monk was a man without any sense of his duty as a prince,
+without any regard to the dignity of his crown, without any love to his
+people,--dissolute, false, venal, and destitute of any positive good
+quality whatsoever, except a pleasant temper, and the manners of a
+gentleman. Yet the restoration of our monarchy, even in the person of
+such a prince, was everything to us; for without monarchy in England,
+most certainly we never can enjoy either peace or liberty. It was under
+this conviction that the very first regular step which we took, on the
+Revolution of 1688, was to fill the throne with a real king; and even
+before it could be done in due form, the chiefs of the nation did not
+attempt themselves to exercise authority so much as by _interim_. They
+instantly requested the Prince of Orange to take the government on
+himself. The throne was not effectively vacant for an hour.
+
+Your fundamental laws, as well as ours, suppose a monarchy. Your zeal,
+Sir, in standing so firmly for it as you have done, shows not only a
+sacred respect for your honor and fidelity, but a well-informed
+attachment to the real welfare and true liberties of your country. I
+have expressed myself ill, if I have given you cause to imagine that I
+prefer the conduct of those who have retired from this warfare to your
+behavior, who, with a courage and constancy almost supernatural, have
+struggled against tyranny, and kept the field to the last. You see I
+have corrected the exceptionable part in the edition which I now send
+you. Indeed, in such terrible extremities as yours, it is not easy to
+say, in a political view, what line of conduct is the most advisable. In
+that state of things, I cannot bring myself severely to condemn persons
+who are wholly unable to bear so much as the sight of those men in the
+throne of legislation who are only fit to be the objects of criminal
+justice. If fatigue, if disgust, if unsurmountable nausea drive them
+away from such spectacles, _ubi miseriarum pars non minima erat videre
+et aspici_, I cannot blame them. He must have an heart of adamant who
+could hear a set of traitors puffed up with unexpected and undeserved
+power, obtained by an ignoble, unmanly, and perfidious rebellion,
+treating their honest fellow-citizens as _rebels_, because they refused
+to bind them selves through their conscience, against the dictates of
+conscience itself, and had declined to swear an active compliance with
+their own ruin. How could a man of common flesh and blood endure that
+those who but the other day had skulked unobserved in their
+antechambers, scornfully insulting men illustrious in their rank, sacred
+in their function, and venerable in their character, now in decline of
+life, and swimming on the wrecks of their fortunes,--that those
+miscreants should tell such men scornfully and outrageously, after they
+had robbed them of all their property, that it is more than enough, if
+they are allowed what will keep them from absolute famine, and that, for
+the rest, they must let their gray hairs fall over the plough, to make
+out a scanty subsistence with the labor of their hands? Last, and,
+worst, who could endure to hear this unnatural, insolent, and savage
+despotism called liberty? If, at this distance, sitting quietly by my
+fire, I cannot read their decrees and speeches without indignation,
+shall I condemn those who have fled from the actual sight and hearing of
+all these horrors? No, no! mankind has no title to demand that we should
+be slaves to their guilt and insolence, or that we should serve them in
+spite of themselves. Minds sore with the poignant sense of insulted
+virtue, filled with high disdain against the pride of triumphant
+baseness, often have it not in their choice to stand their ground. Their
+complexion (which might defy the rack) cannot go through such a trial.
+Something very high must fortify men to that proof. But when I am driven
+to comparison, surely I cannot hesitate for a moment to prefer to such
+men as are common those heroes who in the midst of despair perform all
+the tasks of hope,--who subdue their feelings to their duties,--who, in
+the cause of humanity, liberty, and honor, abandon all the satisfactions
+of life, and every day incur a fresh risk of life itself. Do me the
+justice to believe that I never can prefer any fastidious virtue (virtue
+still) to the unconquered perseverance, to the affectionate patience, of
+those who watch day and night by the bedside of their delirious
+country,--who, for their love to that dear and venerable name, bear all
+the disgusts and all the buffets they receive from their frantic mother.
+Sir, I do look on you as true martyrs; I regard you as soldiers who act
+far more in the spirit of our Commander-in-Chief and the Captain of our
+Salvation than those who have left you: though I must first bolt myself
+very thoroughly, and know that I could do better, before I can censure
+them. I assure you, Sir, that, when I consider your unconquerable
+fidelity to your sovereign and to your country,--the courage, fortitude,
+magnanimity, and long-suffering of yourself, and the Abb� Maury, and of
+M. Cazal�s, and of many worthy persons of all orders in your
+Assembly,--I forget, in the lustre of these great qualities, that on
+your side has been displayed an eloquence so rational, manly, and
+convincing, that no time or country, perhaps, has ever excelled. But
+your talents disappear in my admiration of your virtues.
+
+As to M. Mounier and M. Lally, I have always wished to do justice to
+their parts, and their eloquence, and the general purity of their
+motives. Indeed, I saw very well, from the beginning, the mischiefs
+which, with all these talents and good intentions, they would do their
+country, through their confidence in systems. But their distemper was an
+epidemic malady. They were young and inexperienced; and when will young
+and inexperienced men learn caution and distrust of themselves? And when
+will men, young or old, if suddenly raised to far higher power than that
+which absolute kings and emperors commonly enjoy, learn anything like
+moderation? Monarchs, in general, respect some settled order of things,
+which they find it difficult to move from its basis, and to which they
+are obliged to conform, even when there are no positive limitations to
+their power. These gentlemen conceived that they were chosen to
+new-model the state, and even the whole order of civil society itself.
+No wonder that _they_ entertained dangerous visions, when the king's
+ministers, trustees for the sacred deposit of the monarchy, were so
+infected with the contagion of project and system (I can hardly think it
+black premeditated treachery) that they publicly advertised for plans
+and schemes of government, as if they were to provide for the rebuilding
+of an hospital that had been burned down. What was this, but to unchain
+the fury of rash speculation amongst a people of itself but too apt to
+be guided by a heated imagination and a wild spirit of adventure?
+
+The fault of M. Mounier and M. Lally was very great; but it was very
+general. If those gentlemen stopped, when they came to the brink of the
+gulf of guilt and public misery that yawned before them in the abyss of
+these dark and bottomless speculations, I forgive their first error: in
+that they were involved with many. Their repentance was their own.
+
+They who consider Mounier and Lally as deserters must regard themselves
+as murderers and as traitors: for from what else than murder and treason
+did they desert? For my part, I honor them for not having carried
+mistake into crime. If, indeed, I thought that they were not cured by
+experience, that they were not made sensible that those who would reform
+a state ought to assume some actual constitution of government which is
+to be reformed,--if they are not at length satisfied that it is become a
+necessary preliminary to liberty in France, to commence by the
+re�stablishment of order and property of _every_ kind, and, through the
+re�stablishment of their monarchy, of every one of the old habitual
+distinctions and classes of the state,--if they do not see that these
+classes are not to be confounded in order to be afterwards revived and
+separated,--if they are not convinced that the scheme of parochial and
+club governments takes up the state at the wrong end, and is a low and
+senseless contrivance, (as making the sole constitution of a supreme
+power,)--I should then allow that their early rashness ought to be
+remembered to the last moment of their lives.
+
+You gently reprehend me, because, in holding out the picture of your
+disastrous situation, I suggest no plan for a remedy. Alas! Sir, the
+proposition of plans, without an attention to circumstances, is the very
+cause of all your misfortunes; and never shall you find me aggravating,
+by the infusion of any speculations of mine, the evils which have arisen
+from the speculations of others. Your malady, in this respect, is a
+disorder of repletion. You seem to think that my keeping back my poor
+ideas may arise from an indifference to the welfare of a foreign and
+sometimes an hostile nation. No, Sir, I faithfully assure you, my
+reserve is owing to no such causes. Is this letter, swelled to a second
+book, a mark of national antipathy, or even of national indifference? I
+should act altogether in the spirit of the same caution, in a similar
+state of our own domestic affairs. If I were to venture any advice, in
+any case, it would be my best. The sacred duty of an adviser (one of the
+most inviolable that exists) would lead me, towards a real enemy, to act
+as if my best friend were the party concerned. But I dare not risk a
+speculation with no better view of your affairs than at present I can
+command; my caution is not from disregard, but from solicitude for your
+welfare. It is suggested solely from my dread of becoming the author of
+inconsiderate counsel.
+
+It is not, that, as this strange series of actions has passed before my
+eyes, I have not indulged my mind in a great variety of political
+speculations concerning them; but, compelled by no such positive duty as
+does not permit me to evade an opinion, called upon by no ruling power,
+without authority as I am, and without confidence, I should ill answer
+my own ideas of what would become myself, or what would be serviceable
+to others, if I were, as a volunteer, to obtrude any project of mine
+upon a nation to whose circumstances I could not be sure it might be
+applicable.
+
+Permit me to say, that, if I were as confident as I ought to be
+diffident in my own loose, general ideas, I never should venture to
+broach them, if but at twenty leagues' distance from the centre of your
+affairs. I must see with my own eyes, I must, in a manner, touch with my
+own hands, not only the fixed, but the momentary circumstances, before I
+could venture to suggest any political project whatsoever. I must know
+the power and disposition to accept, to execute, to persevere. I must
+see all the aids and all the obstacles. I must see the means of
+correcting the plan, where correctives would be wanted. I must see the
+things; I must see the men. Without a concurrence and adaptation of
+these to the design, the very best speculative projects might become not
+only useless, but mischievous. Plans must be made for men. We cannot
+think of making men, and binding Nature to our designs. People at a
+distance must judge ill of men. They do not always answer to their
+reputation, when you approach them. Nay, the perspective varies, and
+shows them quite otherwise than you thought them. At a distance, if we
+judge uncertainly of men, we must judge worse of _opportunities_, which
+continually vary their shapes and colors, and pass away like clouds. The
+Eastern politicians never do anything without the opinion of the
+astrologers on _the fortunate moment_. They are in the right, if they
+can do no better; for the opinion of fortune is something towards
+commanding it. Statesmen of a more judicious prescience look for the
+fortunate moment too; but they seek it, not in the conjunctions and
+oppositions of planets, but in the conjunctions and oppositions of men
+and things. These form their almanac.
+
+To illustrate the mischief of a wise plan, without any attention to
+means and circumstances, it is not necessary to go farther than to your
+recent history. In the condition in which France was found three years
+ago, what better system could be proposed, what less even savoring of
+wild theory, what fitter to provide for all the exigencies whilst it
+reformed all the abuses of government, than the convention of the
+States-General? I think nothing better could be imagined. But I have
+censured, and do still presume to censure, your Parliament of Paris for
+not having suggested to the king that this proper measure was of all
+measures the most critical and arduous, one in which the utmost
+circumspection and the greatest number of precautions were the most
+absolutely necessary. The very confession that a government wants either
+amendment in its conformation or relief to great distress causes it to
+lose half its reputation, and as great a proportion of its strength as
+depends upon that reputation. It was therefore necessary first to put
+government out of danger, whilst at its own desire it suffered such an
+operation as a general reform at the hands of those who were much more
+filled with a sense of the disease than provided with rational means of
+a cure.
+
+It may be said that this care and these precautions were more naturally
+the duty of the king's ministers than that of the Parliament. They were
+so: but every man must answer in his estimation for the advice he gives,
+when he puts the conduct of his measure into hands who he does not know
+will execute his plans according to his ideas. Three or four ministers
+were not to be trusted with the being of the French monarchy, of all the
+orders, and of all the distinctions, and all the property of the
+kingdom. What must be the prudence of those who could think, in the then
+known temper of the people of Paris, of assembling the States at a place
+situated as Versailles?
+
+The Parliament of Paris did worse than to inspire this blind confidence
+into the king. For, as if names were things, they took no notice of
+(indeed, they rather countenanced) the deviations, which were manifest
+in the execution, from the true ancient principles of the plan which
+they recommended. These deviations (as guardians of the ancient laws,
+usages, and Constitution of the kingdom) the Parliament of Paris ought
+not to have suffered, without the strongest remonstrances to the throne.
+It ought to have sounded the alarm to the whole nation, as it had often
+done on things of infinitely less importance. Under pretence of
+resuscitating the ancient Constitution, the Parliament saw one of the
+strongest acts of innovation, and the most leading in its consequences,
+carried into effect before their eyes,--and an innovation through the
+medium of despotism: that is, they suffered the king's ministers to
+new-model the whole representation of the _Tiers �tat_, and, in a great
+measure, that of the clergy too, and to destroy the ancient proportions
+of the orders. These changes, unquestionably, the king had no right to
+make; and here the Parliaments failed in their duty, and, along with
+their country, have perished by this failure.
+
+What a number of faults have led to this multitude of misfortunes, and
+almost all from this one source,--that of considering certain general
+maxims, without attending to circumstances, to times, to places, to
+conjunctures, and to actors! If we do not attend scrupulously to all
+these, the medicine of to-day becomes the poison of to-morrow. If any
+measure was in the abstract better than another, it was to call the
+States: _ea visa salus morientibus una_. Certainly it had the
+appearance. But see the consequences of not attending to critical
+moments, of not regarding the symptoms which discriminate diseases, and
+which distinguish constitutions, complexions, and humors.
+
+    Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio; furiisque refecti
+    Ardebant; ipsique suos, jam morte sub �gra,
+    Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus.
+
+Thus the potion which was given to strengthen the Constitution, to heal
+divisions, and to compose the minds of men, became the source of
+debility, frenzy, discord, and utter dissolution.
+
+In this, perhaps, I have answered, I think, another of your
+questions,--Whether the British Constitution is adapted to your
+circumstances? When I praised the British Constitution, and wished it to
+be well studied, I did not mean that its exterior form and positive
+arrangement should become a model for you or for any people servilely to
+copy. I meant to recommend the _principles_ from which it has grown, and
+the policy on which it has been progressively improved out of elements
+common to you and to us. I am sure it is no visionary theory of mine. It
+is not an advice that subjects you to the hazard of any experiment. I
+believed the ancient principles to be wise in all cases of a large
+empire that would be free. I thought you possessed our principles in
+your old forms in as great a perfection as we did originally. If your
+States agreed (as I think they did) with your circumstances, they were
+best for you. As you had a Constitution formed upon principles similar
+to ours, my idea was, that you might have improved them as we have done,
+conforming them to the state and exigencies of the times, and the
+condition of property in your country,--having the conservation of that
+property, and the substantial basis of your monarchy, as principal
+objects in all your reforms.
+
+I do not advise an House of Lords to you. Your ancient course by
+representatives of the noblesse (in your circumstances) appears to me
+rather a better institution. I know, that, with you, a set of men of
+rank have betrayed their constituents, their honor, their trust, their
+king, and their country, and levelled themselves with their footmen,
+that through this degradation they might afterwards put themselves above
+their natural equals. Some of these persons have entertained a project,
+that, in reward of this their black perfidy and corruption, they may be
+chosen to give rise to a new order, and to establish themselves into an
+House of Lords. Do you think, that, under the name of a British
+Constitution, I mean to recommend to you such Lords, made of such kind
+of stuff? I do not, however, include in this description all of those
+who are fond of this scheme.
+
+If you were now to form such an House of Peers, it would bear, in my
+opinion, but little resemblance to ours, in its origin, character, or
+the purposes which it might answer, at the same time that it would
+destroy your true natural nobility. But if you are not in a condition to
+frame a House of Lords, still less are you capable, in my opinion, of
+framing anything which virtually and substantially could be answerable
+(for the purposes of a stable, regular government) to our House of
+Commons. That House is, within itself, a much more subtle and artificial
+combination of parts and powers than people are generally aware of. What
+knits it to the other members of the Constitution, what fits it to be at
+once the great support and the great control of government, what makes
+it of such admirable service to that monarchy which, if it limits, it
+secures and strengthens, would require a long discourse, belonging to
+the leisure of a contemplative man, not to one whose duty it is to join
+in communicating practically to the people the blessings of such a
+Constitution.
+
+Your _Tiers �tat_ was not in effect and substance an House of Commons.
+You stood in absolute need of something else to supply the manifest
+defects in such a body as your _Tiers �tat_. On a sober and
+dispassionate view of your old Constitution, as connected with all the
+present circumstances, I was fully persuaded that the crown, standing as
+things have stood, (and are likely to stand, if you are to have any
+monarchy at all,) was and is incapable, alone and by itself, of holding
+a just balance between the two orders, and at the same time of effecting
+the interior and exterior purposes of a protecting government. I, whose
+leading principle it is, in a reformation of the state, to make use of
+existing materials, am of opinion that the representation of the clergy,
+as a separate order, was an institution which touched all the orders
+more nearly than any of them touched the other; that it was well fitted
+to connect them, and to hold a place in any wise monarchical
+commonwealth. If I refer you to your original Constitution, and think
+it, as I do, substantially a good one, I do not amuse you in this, more
+than in other things, with any inventions of mine. A certain
+intemperance of intellect is the disease of the time, and the source of
+all its other diseases. I will keep myself as untainted by it as I can.
+Your architects build without a foundation. I would readily lend an
+helping hand to any superstructure, when once this is effectually
+secured,--but first I would say, [Greek: Dos pou st�].
+
+You think, Sir, (and you might think rightly, upon the first view of the
+theory,) that to provide for the exigencies of an empire so situated and
+so related as that of France, its king ought to be invested with powers
+very much superior to those which the king of England possesses under
+the letter of our Constitution. Every degree of power necessary to the
+state, and not destructive to the rational and moral freedom of
+individuals, to that personal liberty and personal security which
+contribute so much to the vigor, the prosperity, the happiness, and the
+dignity of a nation,--every degree of power which does not suppose the
+total absence of all control and all responsibility on the part of
+ministers,--a king of France, in common sense, ought to possess. But
+whether the exact measure of authority assigned by the letter of the law
+to the king of Great Britain can answer to the exterior or interior
+purposes of the French monarchy is a point which I cannot venture to
+judge upon. Here, both in the power given, and its limitations, we have
+always cautiously felt our way. The parts of our Constitution have
+gradually, and almost insensibly, in a long course of time, accommodated
+themselves to each other, and to their common as well as to their
+separate purposes. But this adaptation of contending parts, as it has
+not been in ours, so it can never be in yours, or in any country, the
+effect of a single instantaneous regulation, and no sound heads could
+ever think of doing it in that manner.
+
+I believe, Sir, that many on the Continent altogether mistake the
+condition of a king of Great Britain. He is a real king, and not an
+executive officer. If he will not trouble himself with contemptible
+details, nor wish to degrade himself by becoming a party in little
+squabbles, I am far from sure that a king of Great Britain, in whatever
+concerns him as a king, or indeed as a rational man, who combines his
+public interest with his personal satisfaction, does not possess a more
+real, solid, extensive power than the king of France was possessed of
+before this miserable revolution. The direct power of the king of
+England is considerable. His indirect, and far more certain power, is
+great indeed. He stands in need of nothing towards dignity,--of nothing
+towards splendor,--of nothing towards authority,--of nothing at all
+towards consideration abroad. When was it that a king of England wanted
+wherewithal to make him respected, courted, or perhaps even feared, in
+every state in Europe?
+
+I am constantly of opinion that your States, in three orders, on the
+footing on which they stood in 1614, were capable of being brought into
+a proper and harmonious combination with royal authority. This
+constitution by Estates was the natural and only just representation of
+France. It grew out of the habitual conditions, relations, and
+reciprocal claims of men. It grew out of the circumstances of the
+country, and out of the state of property. The wretched scheme of your
+present masters is not to fit the Constitution to the people, but wholly
+to destroy conditions, to dissolve relations, to change the state of the
+nation, and to subvert property, in order to fit their country to their
+theory of a Constitution.
+
+Until you make out practically that great work, a combination of
+opposing forces, "a work of labor long, and endless praise," the utmost
+caution ought to have been used in the reduction of the royal power,
+which alone was capable of holding together the comparatively
+heterogeneous mass of your States. But at this day all these
+considerations are unseasonable. To what end should we discuss the
+limitations of royal power? Your king is in prison. Why speculate on the
+measure and standard of liberty? I doubt much, very much indeed, whether
+France is at all ripe for liberty on any standard. Men are qualified for
+civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral
+chains upon their own appetites,--in proportion as their love to justice
+is above their rapacity,--in proportion as their soundness and sobriety
+of understanding is above their vanity and presumption,--in proportion
+as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and
+good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist,
+unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere;
+and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It
+is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of
+intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
+
+This sentence the prevalent part of your countrymen execute on
+themselves. They possessed not long since what was next to freedom, a
+mild, paternal monarchy. They despised it for its weakness. They were
+offered a well-poised, free Constitution. It did not suit their taste or
+their temper. They carved for themselves: they flew out, murdered,
+robbed, and rebelled. They have succeeded, and put over their country an
+insolent tyranny made up of cruel and inexorable masters, and that, too,
+of a description hitherto not known in the world. The powers and
+policies by which they have succeeded are not those of great statesmen
+or great military commanders, but the practices of incendiaries,
+assassins, housebreakers, robbers, spreaders of false news, forgers of
+false orders from authority, and other delinquencies, of which ordinary
+justice takes cognizance. Accordingly, the spirit of their rule is
+exactly correspondent to the means by which they obtained it. They act
+more in the manner of thieves who have got possession of an house than
+of conquerors who have subdued a nation.
+
+Opposed to these, in appearance, but in appearance only, is another
+band, who call themselves _the Moderate_. These, if I conceive rightly
+of their conduct, are a set of men who approve heartily of the whole
+new Constitution, but wish to lay heavy on the most atrocious of those
+crimes by which this fine Constitution of theirs has been obtained. They
+are a sort of people who affect to proceed as if they thought that men
+may deceive without fraud, rob without injustice, and overturn
+everything without violence. They are men who would usurp the government
+of their country with decency and moderation. In fact, they are nothing
+more or better than men engaged in desperate designs with feeble minds.
+They are not honest; they are only ineffectual and unsystematic in their
+iniquity. They are persons who want not the dispositions, but the energy
+and vigor, that is necessary for great evil machinations. They find that
+in such designs they fall at best into a secondary rank, and others take
+the place and lead in usurpation which they are not qualified to obtain
+or to hold. They envy to their companions the natural fruit of their
+crimes; they join to run them down with the hue and cry of mankind,
+which pursues their common offences; and then hope to mount into their
+places on the credit of the sobriety with which they show themselves
+disposed to carry on what may seem most plausible in the mischievous
+projects they pursue in common. But these men are naturally despised by
+those who have heads to know, and hearts that are able to go through the
+necessary demands of bold, wicked enterprises. They are naturally
+classed below the latter description, and will only be used by them as
+inferior instruments. They will be only the Fairfaxes of your Cromwells.
+If they mean honestly, why do they not strengthen the arms of honest men
+to support their ancient, legal, wise, and free government, given to
+them in the spring of 1788, against the inventions of craft and the
+theories of ignorance and folly? If they do not, they must continue the
+scorn of both parties,--sometimes the tool, sometimes the incumbrance of
+that whose views they approve, whose conduct they decry. These people
+are only made to be the sport of tyrants. They never can obtain or
+communicate freedom.
+
+You ask me, too, whether we have a Committee of Research. No, Sir,--God
+forbid! It is the necessary instrument of tyranny and usurpation; and
+therefore I do not wonder that it has had an early establishment under
+your present lords. We do not want it.
+
+Excuse my length. I have been somewhat occupied since I was honored with
+your letter; and I should not have been able to answer it at all, but
+for the holidays, which have given me means of enjoying the leisure of
+the country. I am called to duties which I am neither able nor willing
+to evade. I must soon return to my old conflict with the corruptions and
+oppressions which have prevailed in our Eastern dominions. I must turn
+myself wholly from those of France.
+
+In England we _cannot_ work so hard as Frenchmen. Frequent relaxation is
+necessary to us. You are naturally more intense in your application. I
+did not know this part of your national character, until I went into
+France in 1773. At present, this your disposition to labor is rather
+increased than lessened. In your Assembly you do not allow yourselves a
+recess even on Sundays. We have two days in the week, besides the
+festivals, and besides five or six months of the summer and autumn. This
+continued, unremitted effort of the members of your Assembly I take to
+be one among the causes of the mischief they have done. They who always
+labor can have no true judgment. You never give yourselves time to cool.
+You can never survey, from its proper point of sight, the work you have
+finished, before you decree its final execution. You can never plan the
+future by the past. You never go into the country, soberly and
+dispassionately to observe the effect of your measures on their objects.
+You cannot feel distinctly how far the people are rendered better and
+improved, or more miserable and depraved, by what you have done. You
+cannot see with your own eyes the sufferings and afflictions you cause.
+You know them but at a distance, on the statements of those who always
+flatter the reigning power, and who, amidst their representations of the
+grievances, inflame your minds against those who are oppressed. These
+are amongst the effects of unremitted labor, when men exhaust their
+attention, burn out their candles, and are left in the dark.--_Malo
+meorum negligentiam, quam istorum obscuram diligentiam_.
+
+I have the honor, &c.,
+
+EDMUND BURKE.
+
+BEACONSFIELD, January 19th, 1791.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] It is said in the last quackish address of the National Assembly to
+the people of France, that they have not formed their arrangements upon
+vulgar practice, but on a theory which cannot fail,--or something to
+that effect.
+
+[2] See Burnet's Life of Hale.
+
+[3] The pillory (_carcan_) in England is generally made very high like
+that raised to exposing the king of France.
+
+[4] "Filiola tua te delectari l�tor, et prohari tibi [Greek: Phusik�n]
+esse [Greek: t�n pros ta tekna]: etenim, si h�c non est, nulla potest
+homini esse ad hominem natur� adjunctio: qua sublata, vit� societas
+tollitur. Valete Patron [Rousseau] et tui condiscipuli [L'Assembl�e
+Nationale]"--Cic. Ep. ad Atticum.
+
+[5] Mirabeau's speech concerning universal peace.
+
+
+
+
+AN
+
+APPEAL
+
+FROM
+
+THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS,
+
+IN CONSEQUENCE OF SOME LATE
+
+DISCUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT
+
+RELATIVE TO THE
+
+REFLECTIONS ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
+
+1791.
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT
+
+TO THE SECOND EDITION.
+
+
+There are some corrections in this edition, which tend to render the
+sense less obscure in one or two places. The order of the two last
+members is also changed, and I believe for the better. This change was
+made on the suggestion of a very learned person, to the partiality of
+whose friendship I owe much; to the severity of whose judgment I owe
+more.
+
+
+
+
+AN APPEAL
+
+FROM
+
+THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS.
+
+
+At Mr. Burke's time of life, and in his dispositions, _petere honestam
+missionem_ was all he had to do with his political associates. This boon
+they have not chosen to grant him. With many expressions of good-will,
+in effect they tell him he has loaded the stage too long. They conceive
+it, though an harsh, yet a necessary office, in full Parliament to
+declare to the present age, and to as late a posterity as shall take any
+concern in the proceedings of our day, that by one book he has disgraced
+the whole tenor of his life.--Thus they dismiss their old partner of the
+war. He is advised to retire, whilst they continue to serve the public
+upon wiser principles and under better auspices.
+
+Whether Diogenes the Cynic was a true philosopher cannot easily be
+determined. He has written nothing. But the sayings of his which are
+handed down by others are lively, and may be easily and aptly applied on
+many occasions by those whose wit is not so perfect as their memory.
+This Diogenes (as every one will recollect) was citizen of a little
+bleak town situated on the coast of the Euxine, and exposed to all the
+buffets of that inhospitable sea. He lived at a great distance from
+those weather-beaten walls, in ease and indolence, and in the midst of
+literary leisure, when he was informed that his townsmen had condemned
+him to be banished from Sinope; he answered coolly, "And I condemn them
+to live in Sinope."
+
+The gentlemen of the party in which Mr. Burke has always acted, in
+passing upon him the sentence of retirement,[6] have done nothing more
+than to confirm the sentence which he had long before passed upon
+himself. When that retreat was choice, which the tribunal of his peers
+inflict as punishment, it is plain he does not think their sentence
+intolerably severe. Whether they, who are to continue in the Sinope
+which shortly he is to leave, will spend the long years, which I hope
+remain to them, in a manner more to their satisfaction than he shall
+slide down, in silence and obscurity, the slope of his declining days,
+is best known to Him who measures out years, and days, and fortunes.
+
+The quality of the sentence does not, however, decide on the justice of
+it. Angry friendship is sometimes as bad as calm enmity. For this reason
+the cold neutrality of abstract justice is, to a good and clear cause, a
+more desirable thing than an affection liable to be any way disturbed.
+When the trial is by friends, if the decision should happen to be
+favorable, the honor of the acquittal is lessened; if adverse, the
+condemnation is exceedingly embittered. It is aggravated by coming from
+lips professing friendship, and pronouncing judgment with sorrow and
+reluctance. Taking in the whole view of life, it is more safe to live
+under the jurisdiction of severe, but steady reason, than under the
+empire of indulgent, but capricious passion. It is certainly well for
+Mr. Burke that there are impartial men in the world. To them I address
+myself, pending the appeal which on his part is made from the living to
+the dead, from the modern Whigs to the ancient.
+
+The gentlemen, who, in the name of the party, have passed sentence on
+Mr. Burke's book, in the light of literary criticism, are judges above
+all challenge. He did not, indeed, flatter himself that as a writer he
+could claim the approbation of men whose talents, in his judgment and in
+the public judgment, approach to prodigies, if ever such persons should
+be disposed to estimate the merit of a composition upon the standard of
+their own ability.
+
+In their critical censure, though Mr. Burke may find himself humbled by
+it as a writer, as a man, and as an Englishman, he finds matter not only
+of consolation, but of pride. He proposed to convey to a foreign people,
+not his own ideas, but the prevalent opinions and sentiments of a
+nation, renowned for wisdom, and celebrated in all ages for a
+well-understood and well-regulated love of freedom. This was the avowed
+purpose of the far greater part of his work. As that work has not been
+ill received, and as his critics will not only admit, but contend, that
+this reception could not be owing to any excellence in the composition
+capable of perverting the public judgment, it is clear that he is not
+disavowed by the nation whose sentiments he had undertaken to describe.
+His representation is authenticated by the verdict of his country. Had
+his piece, as a work of skill, been thought worthy of commendation, some
+doubt might have been entertained of the cause of his success. But the
+matter stands exactly as he wishes it. He is more happy to have his
+fidelity in representation recognized by the body of the people than if
+he were to be ranked in point of ability (and higher he could not be
+ranked) with those whose critical censure he has had the misfortune to
+incur.
+
+It is not from this part of their decision which the author wishes an
+appeal. There are things which touch him more nearly. To abandon them
+would argue, not diffidence in his abilities, but treachery to his
+cause. Had his work been recognized as a pattern for dexterous argument
+and powerful eloquence, yet, if it tended to establish maxims or to
+inspire sentiments adverse to the wise and free Constitution of this
+kingdom, he would only have cause to lament that it possessed qualities
+fitted to perpetuate the memory of his offence. Oblivion would be the
+only means of his escaping the reproaches of posterity. But, after
+receiving the common allowance due to the common weakness of man, he
+wishes to owe no part of the indulgence of the world to its
+forgetfulness. He is at issue with the party before the present, and,
+if ever he can reach it, before the coming generation.
+
+The author, several months previous to his publication, well knew that
+two gentlemen, both of them possessed of the most distinguished
+abilities, and of a most decisive authority in the party, had differed
+with him in one of the most material points relative to the French
+Revolution: that is, in their opinion of the behavior of the French
+soldiery, and its revolt from its officers. At the time of their public
+declaration on this subject, he did not imagine the opinion of these two
+gentlemen had extended a great way beyond themselves. He was, however,
+well aware of the probability that persons of their just credit and
+influence would at length dispose the greater number to an agreement
+with their sentiments, and perhaps might induce the whole body to a
+tacit acquiescence in their declarations, under a natural and not always
+an improper dislike of showing a difference with those who lead their
+party. I will not deny that in general this conduct in parties is
+defensible; but within what limits the practice is to be circumscribed,
+and with what exceptions the doctrine which supports it is to be
+received, it is not my present purpose to define. The present question
+has nothing to do with their motives; it only regards the public
+expression of their sentiments.
+
+The author is compelled, however reluctantly, to receive the sentence
+pronounced upon him in the House of Commons as that of the party. It
+proceeded from the mouth of him who must be regarded as its authentic
+organ. In a discussion which continued for two days, no one gentleman of
+the opposition interposed a negative, or even a doubt, in favor of him
+or his opinions. If an idea consonant to the doctrine of his book, or
+favorable to his conduct, lurks in the minds of any persons in that
+description, it is to be considered only as a peculiarity which they
+indulge to their own private liberty of thinking. The author cannot
+reckon upon it. It has nothing to do with them as members of a party. In
+their public capacity, in everything that meets the public ear or public
+eye, the body must be considered as unanimous.
+
+They must have been animated with a very warm zeal against those
+opinions, because they were under no _necessity_ of acting as they did,
+from any just cause of apprehension that the errors of this writer
+should be taken for theirs. They might disapprove; it was not necessary
+they should _disavow_ him, as they have done in the whole and in all the
+parts of his book; because neither in the whole nor in any of the parts
+were they directly, or by any implication, involved. The author was
+known, indeed, to have been warmly, strenuously, and affectionately,
+against all allurements of ambition, and all possibility of alienation
+from pride or personal pique or peevish jealousy, attached to the Whig
+party. With one of them he has had a long friendship, which he must ever
+remember with a melancholy pleasure. To the great, real, and amiable
+virtues, and to the unequalled abilities of that gentleman, he shall
+always join with his country in paying a just tribute of applause. There
+are others in that party for whom, without any shade of sorrow, he bears
+as high a degree of love as can enter into the human heart, and as much
+veneration as ought to be paid to human creatures; because he firmly
+believes that they are endowed with as many and as great virtues as the
+nature of man is capable of producing, joined to great clearness of
+intellect, to a just judgment, to a wonderful temper, and to true
+wisdom. His sentiments with regard to them can never vary, without
+subjecting him to the just indignation of mankind, who are bound, and
+are generally disposed, to look up with reverence to the best patterns
+of their species, and such as give a dignity to the nature of which we
+all participate. For the whole of the party he has high respect. Upon a
+view, indeed, of the composition of all parties, he finds great
+satisfaction. It is, that, in leaving the service of his country, he
+leaves Parliament without all comparison richer in abilities than he
+found it. Very solid and very brilliant talents distinguish the
+ministerial benches. The opposite rows are a sort of seminary of genius,
+and have brought forth such and so great talents as never before
+(amongst us at least) have appeared together. If their owners are
+disposed to serve their country, (he trusts they are,) they are in a
+condition to render it services of the highest importance. If, through
+mistake or passion, they are led to contribute to its ruin, we shall at
+least have a consolation denied to the ruined country that adjoins us:
+we shall not be destroyed by men of mean or secondary capacities.
+
+All these considerations of party attachment, of personal regard, and of
+personal admiration rendered the author of the Reflections extremely
+cautious, lest the slightest suspicion should arise of his having
+undertaken to express the sentiments even of a single man of that
+description. His words at the outset of his Reflections are these:--
+
+"In the first letter I had the honor to write to you, and which at
+length I send, I wrote neither _for_ nor _from_ any description of men;
+nor shall I in this. My errors, if any, are _my own_. My reputation
+_alone_ is to answer for them." In another place he says, (p. 126,[7])
+"I have _no man's_ proxy. I speak _only_ from _myself_, when I disclaim,
+as I do with all possible earnestness, all communion with the actors in
+that triumph, or with the admirers of it. When I assert anything else,
+as concerning the people of England, I speak from observation, _not from
+authority_."
+
+To say, then, that the book did not contain the sentiments of their
+party is not to contradict the author or to clear themselves. If the
+party had denied his doctrines to be the current opinions of the
+majority in the nation, they would have put the question on its true
+issue. There, I hope and believe, his censurers will find, on the trial,
+that the author is as faithful a representative of the general sentiment
+of the people of England, as any person amongst them can be of the ideas
+of his own party.
+
+The French Revolution can have no connection with the objects of any
+parties in England formed before the period of that event, unless they
+choose to imitate any of its acts, or to consolidate any principles of
+that Revolution with their own opinions. The French Revolution is no
+part of their original contract. The matter, standing by itself, is an
+open subject of political discussion, like all the other revolutions
+(and there are many) which have been attempted or accomplished in our
+age. But if any considerable number of British subjects, taking a
+factious interest in the proceedings of France, begin publicly to
+incorporate themselves for the subversion of nothing short of the
+_whole_ Constitution of this kingdom,--to incorporate themselves for the
+utter overthrow of the body of its laws, civil and ecclesiastical, and
+with them of the whole system of its manners, in favor of the new
+Constitution and of the modern usages of the French nation,--I think no
+party principle could bind the author not to express his sentiments
+strongly against such a faction. On the contrary, he was perhaps bound
+to mark his dissent, when the leaders of the party were daily going out
+of their way to make public declarations in Parliament, which,
+notwithstanding the purity of their intentions, had a tendency to
+encourage ill-designing men in their practices against our Constitution.
+
+The members of this faction leave no doubt of the nature and the extent
+of the mischief they mean to produce. They declare it openly and
+decisively. Their intentions are not left equivocal. They are put out of
+all dispute by the thanks which, formally and as it were officially,
+they issue, in order to recommend and to promote the circulation of the
+most atrocious and treasonable libels against all the hitherto cherished
+objects of the love and veneration of this people. Is it contrary to the
+duty of a good subject to reprobate such proceedings? Is it alien to the
+office of a good member of Parliament, when such practices increase, and
+when the audacity of the conspirators grows with their impunity, to
+point out in his place their evil tendency to the happy Constitution
+which he is chosen to guard? Is it wrong, in any sense, to render the
+people of England sensible how much they must suffer, if, unfortunately,
+such a wicked faction should become possessed in this country of the
+same power which their allies in the very next to us have so
+perfidiously usurped and so outrageously abused? Is it inhuman to
+prevent, if possible, the spilling _their_ blood, or imprudent to guard
+against the effusion of _our own?_ Is it contrary to any of the honest
+principles of party, or repugnant to any of the known duties of
+friendship, for any senator respectfully and amicably to caution his
+brother members against countenancing, by inconsiderate expressions, a
+sort of proceeding which it is impossible they should deliberately
+approve?
+
+He had undertaken to demonstrate, by arguments which he thought could
+not be refuted, and by documents which he was sure could not be denied,
+that no comparison was to be made between the British government and the
+French usurpation.--That they who endeavored madly to compare them were
+by no means making the comparison of one good system with another good
+system, which varied only in local and circumstantial differences; much
+less that they were holding out to us a superior pattern of legal
+liberty, which we might substitute in the place of our old, and, as they
+describe it, superannuated Constitution. He meant to demonstrate that
+the French scheme was not a comparative good, but a positive evil.--That
+the question did not at all turn, as it had been stated, on a parallel
+between a monarchy and a republic. He denied that the present scheme of
+things in France did at all deserve the respectable name of a republic:
+he had therefore no comparison between monarchies and republics to
+make.--That what was done in France was a wild attempt to methodize
+anarchy, to perpetuate and fix disorder. That it was a foul, impious,
+monstrous thing, wholly out of the course of moral Nature. He undertook
+to prove that it was generated in treachery, fraud, falsehood,
+hypocrisy, and unprovoked murder.--He offered to make out that those who
+have led in that business had conducted themselves with the utmost
+perfidy to their colleagues in function, and with the most flagrant
+perjury both towards their king and their constituents: to the one of
+whom the Assembly had sworn fealty; and to the other, when under no sort
+of violence or constraint, they had sworn a full obedience to
+instructions.--That, by the terror of assassination, they had driven
+away a very great number of the members, so as to produce a false
+appearance of a majority.--That this fictitious majority had fabricated
+a Constitution, which, as now it stands, is a tyranny far beyond any
+example that can be found in the civilized European world of our age;
+that therefore the lovers of it must be lovers, not of liberty, but, if
+they really understand its nature, of the lowest and basest of all
+servitude.
+
+He proposed to prove that the present state of things in France is not a
+transient evil, productive, as some have too favorably represented it,
+of a lasting good; but that the present evil is only the means of
+producing future and (if that were possible) worse evils.--That it is
+not an undigested, imperfect, and crude scheme of liberty, which may
+gradually be mellowed and ripened into an orderly and social freedom;
+but that it is so fundamentally wrong as to be utterly incapable of
+correcting itself by any length of time, or of being formed into any
+mode of polity of which a member of the House of Commons could publicly
+declare his approbation.
+
+If it had been permitted to Mr. Burke, he would have shown distinctly,
+and in detail, that what the Assembly calling itself National had held
+out as a large and liberal toleration is in reality a cruel and
+insidious religious persecution, infinitely more bitter than any which
+had been heard of within this century.--That it had a feature in it
+worse than the old persecutions.--That the old persecutors acted, or
+pretended to act, from zeal towards some system of piety and virtue:
+they gave strong preferences to their own; and if they drove people from
+one religion, they provided for them another, in which men might take
+refuge and expect consolation.--That their new persecution is not
+against a variety in conscience, but against all conscience. That it
+professes contempt towards its object; and whilst it treats all religion
+with scorn, is not so much as neutral about the modes: it unites the
+opposite evils of intolerance and of indifference.
+
+He could have proved that it is so far from rejecting tests, (as
+unaccountably had been asserted,) that the Assembly had imposed tests of
+a peculiar hardship, arising from a cruel and premeditated pecuniary
+fraud: tests against old principles, sanctioned by the laws, and binding
+upon the conscience.--That these tests were not imposed as titles to
+some new honor or some new benefit, but to enable men to hold a poor
+compensation for their legal estates, of which they had been unjustly
+deprived; and as they had before been reduced from affluence to
+indigence, so, on refusal to swear against their conscience, they are
+now driven from indigence to famine, and treated with every possible
+degree of outrage, insult, and inhumanity.--That these tests, which
+their imposers well knew would not be taken, were intended for the very
+purpose of cheating their miserable victims out of the compensation
+which the tyrannic impostors of the Assembly had previously and
+purposely rendered the public unable to pay. That thus their ultimate
+violence arose from their original fraud.
+
+He would have shown that the universal peace and concord amongst
+nations, which these common enemies to mankind had held out with the
+same fraudulent ends and pretences with which they had uniformly
+conducted every part of their proceeding, was a coarse and clumsy
+deception, unworthy to be proposed as an example, by an informed and
+sagacious British senator, to any other country.--That, far from peace
+and good-will to men, they meditated war against all other governments,
+and proposed systematically to excite in them all the very worst kind of
+seditions, in order to lead to their common destruction.--That they had
+discovered, in the few instances in which they have hitherto had the
+power of discovering it, (as at Avignon and in the Comtat, at Cavaillon
+and at Carpentras,) in what a savage manner they mean to conduct the
+seditions and wars they have planned against their neighbors, for the
+sake of putting themselves at the head of a confederation of republics
+as wild and as mischievous as their own. He would have shown in what
+manner that wicked scheme was carried on in those places, without being
+directly either owned or disclaimed, in hopes that the undone people
+should at length be obliged to fly to their tyrannic protection, as some
+sort of refuge from their barbarous and treacherous hostility. He would
+have shown from those examples that neither this nor any other society
+could be in safety as long as such a public enemy was in a condition to
+continue directly or indirectly such practices against its peace.--That
+Great Britain was a principal object of their machinations; and that
+they had begun by establishing correspondences, communications, and a
+sort of federal union with the factious here.--That no practical
+enjoyment of a thing so imperfect and precarious as human happiness must
+be, even under the very best of governments, could be a security for the
+existence of these governments, during the prevalence of the principles
+of France, propagated from that grand school of every disorder and every
+vice.
+
+He was prepared to show the madness of their declaration of the
+pretended rights of man,--the childish, futility of some of their
+maxims, the gross and stupid absurdity and the palpable falsity of
+others, and the mischievous tendency of all such declarations to the
+well-being of men and of citizens and to the safety and prosperity of
+every just commonwealth. He was prepared to show, that, in their
+conduct, the Assembly had directly violated not only every sound
+principle of government, but every one, without exception, of their own
+false or futile maxims, and indeed every rule they had pretended to lay
+down for their own direction.
+
+In a word, he was ready to show that those who could, after such a full
+and fair exposure, continue to countenance the French insanity were not
+mistaken politicians, but bad men; but he thought that in this case, as
+in many others, ignorance had been the cause of admiration.
+
+These are strong assertions. They required strong proofs. The member who
+laid down these positions was and is ready to give, in his place, to
+each position decisive evidence, correspondent to the nature and quality
+of the several allegations.
+
+In order to judge on the propriety of the interruption given to Mr.
+Burke, in his speech in the committee of the Quebec Bill, it is
+necessary to inquire, First, whether, on general principles, he ought to
+have been suffered to prove his allegations? Secondly, whether the time
+he had chosen was so very unseasonable as to make his exercise of a
+parliamentary right productive of ill effects on his friends or his
+country? Thirdly, whether the opinions delivered in his book, and which
+he had begun to expatiate upon that day, were in contradiction to his
+former principles, and inconsistent with the general tenor of his public
+conduct?
+
+They who have made eloquent panegyrics on the French Revolution, and who
+think a free discussion so very advantageous in every case and under
+every circumstance, ought not, in my opinion, to have prevented their
+eulogies from being tried on the test of facts. If their panegyric had
+been answered with an invective, (bating the difference in point of
+eloquence,) the one would have been as good as the other: that is, they
+would both of them have been good for nothing. The panegyric and the
+satire ought to be suffered to go to trial; and that which shrinks from
+if must be contented to stand, at best, as a mere declamation.
+
+I do not think Mr. Burke was wrong in the course he took. That which
+seemed to be recommended to him by Mr. Pitt was rather to extol the
+English Constitution than to attack the French. I do not determine what
+would be best for Mr. Pitt to do in his situation. I do not deny that
+_he_ may have good reasons for his reserve. Perhaps they might have been
+as good for a similar reserve on the part of Mr. Fox, if his zeal had
+suffered him to listen to them. But there were no motives of ministerial
+prudence, or of that prudence which ought to guide a man perhaps on the
+eve of being minister, to restrain the author of the Reflections. He is
+in no office under the crown; he is not the organ of any party.
+
+The excellencies of the British Constitution had already exercised and
+exhausted the talents of the best thinkers and the most eloquent writers
+and speakers that the world ever saw. But in the present case a system
+declared to be far better, and which certainly is much newer, (to
+restless and unstable minds no small recommendation,) was held out to
+the admiration of the good people of England. In that case it was surely
+proper for those who had far other thoughts of the French Constitution
+to scrutinize that plan which has been recommended to our imitation by
+active and zealous factions at home and abroad. Our complexion is such,
+that we are palled with enjoyment, and stimulated with hope,--that we
+become less sensible to a long-possessed benefit from the very
+circumstance that it is become habitual. Specious, untried, ambiguous
+prospects of new advantage recommend themselves to the spirit of
+adventure which more or less prevails in every mind. From this temper,
+men and factions, and nations too, have sacrificed the good of which
+they had been in assured possession, in favor of wild and irrational
+expectations. What should hinder Mr. Burke, if he thought this temper
+likely at one time or other to prevail in our country, from exposing to
+a multitude eager to game the false calculations of this lottery of
+fraud?
+
+I allow, as I ought to do, for the effusions which come from a _general_
+zeal for liberty. This is to be indulged, and even to be encouraged, as
+long as _the question is general_. An orator, above all men, ought to be
+allowed a full and free use of the praise of liberty. A commonplace in
+favor of slavery and tyranny, delivered to a popular assembly, would
+indeed be a bold defiance to all the principles of rhetoric. But in a
+question whether any particular Constitution is or is not a plan of
+rational liberty, this kind of rhetorical flourish in favor of freedom
+in general is surely a little out of its place. It is virtually a
+begging of the question. It is a song of triumph before the battle.
+
+"But Mr. Fox does not make the panegyric of the new Constitution; it is
+the destruction only of the absolute monarchy he commends." When that
+nameless thing which has been lately set up in France was described as
+"the most stupendous and glorious edifice of liberty which had been
+erected on the foundation of human integrity in any time or country," it
+might at first have led the hearer into an opinion that the construction
+of the new fabric was an object of admiration, as well as the demolition
+of the old. Mr. Fox, however, has explained himself; and it would be too
+like that captious and cavilling spirit which I so perfectly detest, if
+I were to pin down the language of an eloquent and ardent mind to the
+punctilious exactness of a pleader. Then Mr. Fox did not mean to applaud
+that monstrous thing which, by the courtesy of France, they call a
+Constitution. I easily believe it. Far from meriting the praises of a
+great genius like Mr. Fox, it cannot be approved by any man of common
+sense or common information. He cannot admire the change of one piece of
+barbarism for another, and a worse. He cannot rejoice at the destruction
+of a monarchy, mitigated by manners, respectful to laws and usages, and
+attentive, perhaps but too attentive, to public opinion, in favor of the
+tyranny of a licentious, ferocious, and savage multitude, without laws,
+manners, or morals, and which, so far from respecting the general sense
+of mankind, insolently endeavors to alter all the principles and
+opinions which have hitherto guided and contained the world, and to
+force them into a conformity to their views and actions. His mind is
+made to better things.
+
+That a man should rejoice and triumph in the destruction of an absolute
+monarchy,--that in such an event he should overlook the captivity,
+disgrace, and degradation of an unfortunate prince, and the continual
+danger to a life which exists only to be endangered,--that he should
+overlook the utter ruin of whole orders and classes of men, extending
+itself directly, or in its nearest consequences, to at least a million
+of our kind, and to at least the temporary wretchedness of a whole
+community,--I do not deny to be in some sort natural; because, when
+people see a political object which they ardently desire but in one
+point of view, they are apt extremely to palliate or underrate the evils
+which may arise in obtaining it. This is no reflection on the humanity
+of those persons. Their good-nature I am the last man in the world to
+dispute. It only shows that they are not sufficiently informed or
+sufficiently considerate. When they come to reflect seriously on the
+transaction, they will think themselves bound to examine what the
+object is that has been acquired by all this havoc. They will hardly
+assert that the destruction of an absolute monarchy is a thing good in
+itself, without any sort of reference to the antecedent state of things,
+or to consequences which result from the change,--without any
+consideration whether under its ancient rule a country was to a
+considerable degree flourishing and populous, highly cultivated and
+highly commercial, and whether, under that domination, though personal
+liberty had been precarious and insecure, property at least was ever
+violated. They cannot take the moral sympathies of the human mind along
+with them, in abstractions separated from the good or evil condition of
+the state, from the quality of actions, and the character of the actors.
+None of us love absolute and uncontrolled monarchy; but we could not
+rejoice at the sufferings of a Marcus Aurelius or a Trajan, who were
+absolute monarchs, as we do when Nero is condemned by the Senate to be
+punished _more majorum_; nor, when that monster was obliged to fly with
+his wife Sporus, and to drink puddle, were men affected in the same
+manner as when the venerable Galba, with all his faults and errors, was
+murdered by a revolted mercenary soldiery. With such things before our
+eyes, our feelings contradict our theories; and when this is the case,
+the feelings are true, and the theory is false. What I contend for is,
+that, in commending the destruction of an absolute monarchy, _all the
+circumstances_ ought not to be wholly overlooked, as "considerations fit
+only for shallow and superficial minds." (The words of Mr. Fox, or to
+that effect.)
+
+The subversion of a government, to deserve any praise, must be
+considered but as a step preparatory to the formation of something
+better, either in the scheme of the government itself, or in the persons
+who administer it, or in both. These events cannot in reason be
+separated. For instance, when we praise our Revolution of 1688, though
+the nation in that act was on the defensive, and was justified in
+incurring all the evils of a defensive war, we do not rest there. We
+always combine with the subversion of the old government the happy
+settlement which followed. When we estimate that Revolution, we mean to
+comprehend in our calculation both the value of the thing parted with
+and the value of the thing received in exchange.
+
+The burden of proof lies heavily on those who tear to pieces the whole
+frame and contexture of their country, that they could find no other way
+of settling a government fit to obtain its rational ends, except that
+which they have pursued by means unfavorable to all the present
+happiness of millions of people, and to the utter ruin of several
+hundreds of thousands. In their political arrangements, men have no
+right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the
+question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands
+is the care of our own time. With regard to futurity, we are to treat it
+like a ward. We are not so to attempt an improvement of his fortune as
+to put the capital of his estate to any hazard.
+
+It is not worth our while to discuss, like sophisters, whether in no
+case some evil for the sake of some benefit is to be tolerated. Nothing
+universal can be rationally affirmed on any moral or any political
+subject. Pure metaphysical abstraction does not belong to these
+matters. The lines of morality are not like the ideal lines of
+mathematics. They are broad and deep as well as long. They admit of
+exceptions; they demand modifications. These exceptions and
+modifications are not made by the process of logic, but by the rules of
+prudence. Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues
+political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the
+standard of them all. Metaphysics cannot live without definition; but
+Prudence is cautious how she defines. Our courts cannot be more fearful
+in suffering fictitious cases to be brought before them for eliciting
+their determination on a point of law than prudent moralists are in
+putting extreme and hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not
+existing. Without attempting, therefore, to define, what never can be
+defined, the case of a revolution in government, this, I think, may be
+safely affirmed,--that a sore and pressing evil is to be removed, and
+that a good, great in its amount and unequivocal in its nature, must be
+probable almost to certainty, before the inestimable price of our own
+morals and the well-being of a number of our fellow-citizens is paid for
+a revolution. If ever we ought to be economists even to parsimony, it is
+in the voluntary production of evil. Every revolution contains in it
+something of evil.
+
+It must always be, to those who are the greatest amateurs, or even
+professors, of revolutions, a matter very hard to prove, that the late
+French government was so bad that nothing worse in the infinite devices
+of men could come in its place. They who have brought France to its
+present condition ought to prove also, by something better than
+prattling about the Bastile, that their subverted government was as
+incapable as the present certainly is of all improvement and
+correction. How dare they to say so who have never made that experiment?
+They are experimenters by their trade. They have made an hundred others,
+infinitely more hazardous.
+
+The English admirers of the forty-eight thousand republics which form
+the French federation praise them not for what they are, but for what
+they are to become. They do not talk as politicians, but as prophets.
+But in whatever character they choose to found panegyric on prediction,
+it will be thought a little singular to praise any work, not for its own
+merits, but for the merits of something else which may succeed to it.
+When any political institution is praised, in spite of great and
+prominent faults of every kind, and in all its parts, it must be
+supposed to have something excellent in its fundamental principles. It
+must be shown that it is right, though imperfect,--that it is not only
+by possibility susceptible of improvement, but that it contains in it a
+principle tending to its melioration.
+
+Before they attempt to show this progression of their favorite work from
+absolute pravity to finished perfection, they will find themselves
+engaged in a civil war with those whose cause they maintain. What! alter
+our sublime Constitution, the glory of France, the envy of the world,
+the pattern for mankind, the masterpiece of legislation, the collected
+and concentrated glory of this enlightened age? Have we not produced it
+ready-made and ready-armed, mature in its birth, a perfect goddess of
+wisdom and of war, hammered by our blacksmith midwives out of the brain
+of Jupiter himself? Have we not sworn our devout, profane, believing,
+infidel people to an allegiance to this goddess, even before she had
+burst the _dura mater_, and as yet existed only in embryo? Have we not
+solemnly declared this Constitution unalterable by any future
+legislature? Have we not bound it on posterity forever, though our
+abettors have declared that no one generation is competent to bind
+another? Have we not obliged the members of every future Assembly to
+qualify themselves for their seats by swearing to its conservation?
+
+Indeed, the French Constitution always must be (if a change is not made
+in all their principles and fundamental arrangements) a government
+wholly by popular representation. It must be this or nothing. The French
+faction considers as an usurpation, as an atrocious violation of the
+indefensible rights of man, every other description of government. Take
+it, or leave it: there is no medium. Let the irrefragable doctors fight
+out their own controversy in their own way and with their own weapons;
+and when they are tired, let them commence a treaty of peace. Let the
+plenipotentiary sophisters of England settle with the diplomatic
+sophisters of France in what manner right is to be corrected by an
+infusion of wrong, and how truth may be rendered more true by a due
+intermixture of falsehood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Having sufficiently proved that nothing could make it _generally_
+improper for Mr. Burke to prove what he had alleged concerning the
+object of this dispute, I pass to the second question, that is, Whether
+he was justified in choosing the committee on the Quebec Bill as the
+field for this discussion? If it were necessary, it might be shown that
+he was not the first to bring these discussions into Parliament, nor the
+first to renew them in this session. The fact is notorious. As to the
+Quebec Bill, they were introduced into the debate upon that subject for
+two plain reasons: First, that, as he thought it _then_ not advisable to
+make the proceedings of the factious societies the subject of a direct
+motion, he had no other way open to him. Nobody has attempted to show
+that it was at all admissible into any other business before the House.
+Here everything was favorable. Here was a bill to form a new
+Constitution for a French province under English dominion. The question
+naturally arose, whether we should settle that constitution upon English
+ideas, or upon French. This furnished an opportunity for examining into
+the value of the French Constitution, either considered as applicable to
+colonial government, or in its own nature. The bill, too, was in a
+committee. By the privilege of speaking as often as he pleased, he hoped
+in some measure to supply the want of support, which he had but too much
+reason to apprehend. In a committee it was always in his power to bring
+the questions from generalities to facts, from declamation to
+discussion. Some benefit he actually received from this privilege. These
+are plain, obvious, natural reasons for his conduct. I believe they are
+the true, and the only true ones.
+
+They who justify the frequent interruptions, which at length wholly
+disabled him from proceeding, attribute their conduct to a very
+different interpretation of his motives. They say, that, through
+corruption, or malice, or folly, he was acting his part in a plot to
+make his friend Mr. Fox pass for a republican, and thereby to prevent
+the gracious intentions of his sovereign from taking effect, which at
+that time had begun to disclose themselves in his favor.[8] This is a
+pretty serious charge. This, on Mr. Burke's part, would be something
+more than mistake, something worse than formal irregularity. Any
+contumely, any outrage, is readily passed over, by the indulgence which
+we all owe to sudden passion. These things are soon forgot upon
+occasions in which all men are so apt to forget themselves. Deliberate
+injuries, to a degree, must be remembered, because they require
+deliberate precautions to be secured against their return.
+
+I am authorized to say for Mr. Burke, that he considers that cause
+assigned for the outrage offered to him as ten times worse than the
+outrage itself. There is such a strange confusion of ideas on this
+subject, that it is far more difficult to understand the nature of the
+charge than to refute it when understood. Mr. Fox's friends were, it
+seems, seized with a sudden panic terror lest he should pass for a
+republican. I do not think they had any ground for this apprehension.
+But let us admit they had. What was there in the Quebec Bill, rather
+than in any other, which could subject him or them to that imputation?
+Nothing in a discussion of the French Constitutions which might arise on
+the Quebec Bill, could tend to make Mr. Fox pass for a republican,
+except he should take occasion to extol that state of things in France
+which affects to be a republic or a confederacy of republics. If such an
+encomium could make any unfavorable impression on the king's mind,
+surely his voluntary panegyrics on that event, not so much introduced as
+intruded into other debates, with which they had little relation, must
+have produced that effect with much more certainty and much greater
+force. The Quebec Bill, at worst, was only one of those opportunities
+carefully sought and industriously improved by himself. Mr. Sheridan had
+already brought forth a panegyric on the French system in a still higher
+strain, with full as little demand from the nature of the business
+before the House, in a speech too good to be speedily forgotten. Mr. Fox
+followed him without any direct call from the subject-matter, and upon
+the same ground. To canvass the merits of the French Constitution on the
+Quebec Bill could not draw forth any opinions which were not brought
+forward before, with no small ostentation, and with very little of
+necessity, or perhaps of propriety. What mode or what time of discussing
+the conduct of the French faction in England would not equally tend to
+kindle this enthusiasm, and afford those occasions for panegyric, which,
+far from shunning, Mr. Fox has always industriously sought? He himself
+said, very truly, in the debate, that no artifices were necessary to
+draw from him his opinions upon that subject. But to fall upon Mr. Burke
+for making an use, at worst not more irregular, of the same liberty, is
+tantamount to a plain declaration that the topic of Franco is _tabooed_
+or forbidden ground to Mr. Burke, and to Mr. Burke alone. But surely
+Mr. Fox is not a republican; and what should hinder him, when such a
+discussion came on, from clearing himself unequivocally (as his friends
+say he had done near a fortnight before) of all such imputations?
+Instead of being a disadvantage to him, he would have defeated all his
+enemies, and Mr. Burke, since he has thought proper to reckon him
+amongst them.
+
+But it seems some newspaper or other had imputed to him republican
+principles, on occasion of his conduct upon the Quebec Bill. Supposing
+Mr. Burke to have seen these newspapers, (which is to suppose more than
+I believe to be true,) I would ask, When did the newspapers forbear to
+charge Mr Fox, or Mr. Burke himself, with republican principles, or any
+other principles which they thought could render both of them odious,
+sometimes to one description of people, sometimes to another? Mr. Burke,
+since the publication of his pamphlet, has been a thousand times charged
+in the newspapers with holding despotic principles. He could not enjoy
+one moment of domestic quiet, he could not perform the least particle of
+public duty, if he did not altogether disregard the language of those
+libels. But, however his sensibility might be affected by such abuse, it
+would in _him_ have been thought a most ridiculous reason for shutting
+up the mouths of Mr. Fox or Mr. Sheridan, so as to prevent their
+delivering their sentiments of the French Revolution, that, forsooth,
+"the newspapers had lately charged Mr. Burke with being an enemy to
+liberty."
+
+I allow that those gentlemen have privileges to which Mr. Burke has no
+claim. But their friends ought to plead those privileges, and not to
+assign bad reasons, on the principle of what is fair between man and
+man, and thereby to put themselves on a level with those who can so
+easily refute them. Let them say at once that his reputation is of no
+value, and that he has no call to assert it,--but that theirs is of
+infinite concern to the party and the public, and to that consideration
+he ought to sacrifice all his opinions and all his feelings.
+
+In that language I should hear a style correspondent to the
+proceeding,--lofty, indeed, but plain and consistent. Admit, however,
+for a moment, and merely for argument, that this gentleman had as good a
+right to continue as they had to begin these discussions; in candor and
+equity they must allow that their voluntary descant in praise of the
+French Constitution was as much an oblique attack on Mr. Burke as Mr.
+Burke's inquiry into the foundation of this encomium could possibly be
+construed into an imputation upon them. They well knew that he felt like
+other men; and of course he would think it mean and unworthy to decline
+asserting in his place, and in the front of able adversaries, the
+principles of what he had penned in his closet and without an opponent
+before him. They could not but be convinced that declamations of this
+kind would rouse him,--that he must think, coming from men of their
+calibre, they were highly mischievous,--that they gave countenance to
+bad men and bad designs; and though he was aware that the handling such
+matters in Parliament was delicate, yet he was a man very likely,
+whenever, much against his will, they were brought there, to resolve
+that there they should be thoroughly sifted. Mr. Fox, early in the
+preceding session, had public notice from Mr. Burke of the light in
+which he considered every attempt to introduce the example of France
+into the politics of this country, and of his resolution to break with
+his host friends and to join with his worst enemies to prevent it. He
+hoped that no such necessity would ever exist; but in case it should,
+his determination was made. The party knew perfectly that he would at
+least defend himself. He never intended to attack Mr. Fox, nor did he
+attack him directly or indirectly. His speech kept to its matter. No
+personality was employed, even in the remotest allusion. He never did
+impute to that gentleman any republican principles, or any other bad
+principles or bad conduct whatsoever. It was far from his words; it was
+far from his heart. It must be remembered, that, notwithstanding the
+attempt of Mr. Fox to fix on Mr. Burke an unjustifiable change of
+opinion, and the foul crime of teaching a set of maxims to a boy, and
+afterwards, when these maxims became adult in his mature age, of
+abandoning both the disciple and the doctrine, Mr. Burke never
+attempted, in any one particular, either to criminate or to recriminate.
+It may be said that he had nothing of the kind in his power. This he
+does not controvert. He certainly had it not in his inclination. That
+gentleman had as little ground for the charges which he was so easily
+provoked to make upon him.
+
+The gentlemen of the party (I include Mr. Fox) have been kind enough to
+consider the dispute brought on by this business, and the consequent
+separation of Mr. Burke from their corps, as a matter of regret and
+uneasiness. I cannot be of opinion that by his exclusion they have had
+any loss at all. A man whose opinions are so very adverse to theirs,
+adverse, as it was expressed, "as pole to pole," so mischievously as
+well as so directly adverse that they found themselves under the
+necessity of solemnly disclaiming them in full Parliament,--such a man
+must ever be to them a most unseemly and unprofitable incumbrance. A
+co�peration with him could only serve to embarrass them in all their
+councils. They have besides publicly represented him as a man capable of
+abusing the docility and confidence of ingenuous youth,--and, for a bad
+reason or for no reason, of disgracing his whole public life by a
+scandalous contradiction of every one of his own acts, writings, and
+declarations. If these charges be true, their exclusion of such a person
+from their body is a circumstance which does equal honor to their
+justice and their prudence. If they express a degree of sensibility in
+being obliged to execute this wise and just sentence, from a
+consideration of some amiable or some pleasant qualities which in his
+private life their former friend may happen to possess, they add to the
+praise of their wisdom and firmness the merit of great tenderness of
+heart and humanity of disposition.
+
+On their ideas, the new Whig party have, in my opinion, acted as became
+them. The author of the Reflections, however, on his part, cannot,
+without great shame to himself, and without entailing everlasting
+disgrace on his posterity, admit the truth or justice of the charges
+which have been made upon him, or allow that he has in those Reflections
+discovered any principles to which honest men are bound to declare, not
+a shade or two of dissent, but a total, fundamental opposition. He must
+believe, if he does not mean wilfully to abandon his cause and his
+reputation, that principles fundamentally at variance with those of his
+book are fundamentally false. What those principles, the antipodes to
+his, really are, he can only discover from their contrariety. He is very
+unwilling to suppose that the doctrines of some books lately circulated
+are the principles of the party; though, from the vehement declarations
+against his opinions, he is at some loss how to judge otherwise.
+
+For the present, my plan does not render it necessary to say anything
+further concerning the merits either of the one set of opinions or the
+other. The author would have discussed the merits of both in his place,
+but he was not permitted to do so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I pass to the next head of charge,--Mr. Burke's inconsistency. It is
+certainly a great aggravation of his fault in embracing false opinions,
+that in doing so he is not supposed to fill up a void, but that he is
+guilty of a dereliction of opinions that are true and laudable. This is
+the great gist of the charge against him. It is not so much that he is
+wrong in his book (that, however, is alleged also) as that he has
+therein belied his whole life. I believe, if he could venture to value
+himself upon anything, it is on the virtue of consistency that he would
+value himself the most. Strip him of this, and you leave him naked
+indeed.
+
+In the case of any man who had written something, and spoken a great
+deal, upon very multifarious matter, during upwards of twenty-five
+years' public service, and in as great a variety of important events as
+perhaps have ever happened in the same number of years, it would appear
+a little hard, in order to charge such a man with inconsistency, to see
+collected by his friend a sort of digest of his sayings, even to such
+as were merely sportive and jocular. This digest, however, has been
+made, with equal pains and partiality, and without bringing out those
+passages of his writings which might tend to show with what restrictions
+any expressions quoted from him ought to have been understood. From a
+great statesman he did not quite expect this mode of inquisition. If it
+only appeared in the works of common pamphleteers, Mr. Burke might
+safely trust to his reputation. When thus urged, he ought, perhaps, to
+do a little more. It shall be as little as possible; for I hope not much
+is wanting. To be totally silent on his charges would not be respectful
+to Mr. Fox. Accusations sometimes derive a weight from the persons who
+make them to which they are not entitled from their matter.
+
+He who thinks that the British Constitution ought to consist of the
+three members, of three very different natures, of which it does
+actually consist, and thinks it his duty to preserve each of those
+members in its proper place and with its proper proportion of power,
+must (as each shall happen to be attacked) vindicate the three several
+parts on the several principles peculiarly belonging to them. He cannot
+assert the democratic part on the principles on which monarchy is
+supported, nor can he support monarchy on the principles of democracy,
+nor can he maintain aristocracy on the grounds of the one or of the
+other or of both. All these he must support on grounds that are totally
+different, though practically they may be, and happily with us they are,
+brought into one harmonious body. A man could not be consistent in
+defending such various, and, at first view, discordant, parts of a
+mixed Constitution, without that sort of inconsistency with which Mr.
+Burke stands charged.
+
+As any one of the great members of this Constitution happens to be
+endangered, he that is a friend to all of them chooses and presses the
+topics necessary for the support of the part attacked, with all the
+strength, the earnestness, the vehemence, with all the power of stating,
+of argument, and of coloring, which he happens to possess, and which the
+case demands. He is not to embarrass the minds of his hearers, or to
+incumber or overlay his speech, by bringing into view at once (as if he
+were reading an academic lecture) all that may and ought, when a just
+occasion presents itself, to be said in favor of the other members. At
+that time they are out of the court; there is no question concerning
+them. Whilst he opposes his defence on the part where the attack is
+made, he presumes that for his regard to the just rights of all the rest
+he has credit in every candid mind. He ought not to apprehend that his
+raising fences about popular privileges this day will infer that he
+ought on the next to concur with those who would pull down the throne;
+because on the next he defends the throne, it ought not to be supposed
+that he has abandoned the rights of the people.
+
+A man, who, among various objects of his equal regard, is secure of
+some, and full of anxiety for the fate of others, is apt to go to much
+greater lengths in his preference of the objects of his immediate
+solicitude than Mr. Burke has ever done. A man so circumstanced often
+seems to undervalue, to vilify, almost to reprobate and disown, those
+that are out of danger. This is the voice of Nature and truth, and not
+of inconsistency and false pretence. The danger of anything very dear
+to us removes, for the moment, every other affection from the mind. When
+Priam had his whole thoughts employed on the body of his Hector, he
+repels with indignation, and drives from him with a thousand reproaches,
+his surviving sons, who with an officious piety crowded about him to
+offer their assistance. A good critic (there is no better than Mr. Fox)
+would say that this is a masterstroke, and marks a deep understanding of
+Nature in the father of poetry. He would despise a Zo�lus who would
+conclude from this passage that Homer meant to represent this man of
+affliction as hating or being indifferent and cold in his affections to
+the poor relics of his house, or that he preferred a dead carcass to his
+living children.
+
+Mr. Burke does not stand in need of an allowance of this kind, which, if
+he did, by candid critics ought to be granted to him. If the principles
+of a mixed Constitution be admitted, he wants no more to justify to
+consistency everything he has said and done during the course of a
+political life just touching to its close. I believe that gentleman has
+kept himself more clear of running into the fashion of wild, visionary
+theories, or of seeking popularity through every means, than any man
+perhaps ever did in the same situation.
+
+He was the first man who, on the hustings, at a popular election,
+rejected the authority of instructions from constituents,--or who, in
+any place, has argued so fully against it. Perhaps the discredit into
+which that doctrine of compulsive instructions under our Constitution is
+since fallen may be due in a great degree to his opposing himself to it
+in that manner and on that occasion.
+
+The reforms in representation, and the bills for shortening the duration
+of Parliaments, he uniformly and steadily opposed for many years
+together, in contradiction to many of his best friends. These friends,
+however, in his better days, when they had more to hope from his service
+and more to fear from his loss than now they have, never chose to find
+any inconsistency between his acts and expressions in favor of liberty
+and his votes on those questions. But there is a time for all things.
+
+Against the opinion of many friends, even against the solicitation of
+some of them, he opposed those of the Church clergy who had petitioned
+the House of Commons to be discharged from the subscription. Although he
+supported the Dissenters in their petition for the indulgence which he
+had refused to the clergy of the Established Church, in this, as he was
+not guilty of it, so he was not reproached with inconsistency. At the
+same time he promoted, and against the wish of several, the clause that
+gave the Dissenting teachers another subscription in the place of that
+which was then taken away. Neither at that time was the reproach of
+inconsistency brought against him. People could then distinguish between
+a difference in conduct under a variation of circumstances and an
+inconsistency in principle. It was not then thought necessary to be
+freed of him as of an incumbrance.
+
+These instances, a few among many, are produced as an answer to the
+insinuation of his having pursued high popular courses which in his late
+book he has abandoned. Perhaps in his whole life he has never omitted a
+fair occasion, with whatever risk to him of obloquy as an individual,
+with whatever detriment to his interest as a member of opposition, to
+assert the very same doctrines which appear in that book. He told the
+House, upon an important occasion, and pretty early in his service,
+that, "being warned by the ill effect of a contrary procedure in great
+examples, he had taken his ideas of liberty very low in order that they
+should stick to him and that he might stick to them to the end of his
+life."
+
+At popular elections the most rigorous casuists will remit a little of
+their severity. They will allow to a candidate some unqualified
+effusions in favor of freedom, without binding him to adhere to them in
+their utmost extent. But Mr. Burke put a more strict rule upon himself
+than most moralists would put upon others. At his first offering himself
+to Bristol, where he was almost sure he should not obtain, on that or
+any occasion, a single Tory vote, (in fact, he did obtain but one,) and
+rested wholly on the Whig interest, he thought himself bound to tell to
+the electors, both before and after his election, exactly what a
+representative they had to expect in him.
+
+"The _distinguishing_ part of our Constitution," he said, "is its
+liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate is the _peculiar_ duty and
+_proper_ trust of a member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the
+_only_ liberty, I mean is a liberty connected with _order;_ and that not
+only exists _with_ order and virtue, but cannot exist at all _without_
+them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in _its substance and
+vital principle_."
+
+The liberty to which Mr. Burke declared himself attached is not French
+liberty. That liberty is nothing but the rein given to vice and
+confusion. Mr. Burke was then, as he was at the writing of his
+Reflections, awfully impressed with the difficulties arising from the
+complex state of our Constitution and our empire, and that it might
+require in different emergencies different sorts of exertions, and the
+successive call upon all the various principles which uphold and justify
+it. This will appear from what he said at the close of the poll.
+
+"To be a good member of Parliament is, let me tell you, no easy
+task,--especially at this time, when there is so strong a disposition to
+run into the perilous extremes of _servile_ compliance or _wild
+popularity_. To unite circumspection with vigor is absolutely necessary,
+but it is extremely difficult. We are now members for a rich commercial
+_city_; this city, however, is but a part of a rich commercial _nation_,
+the interests of which are _various, multiform, and intricate_. We are
+members for that great _nation_, which, however, is itself but part of a
+great _empire_, extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest
+limits of the East and of the West. _All_ these wide-spread interests
+must be _considered_,--must be _compared_,--must be _reconciled_, if
+possible. We are members for a _free_ country; and surely we all know
+that the machine of a free constitution is no _simple_ thing, but as
+_intricate_ and as _delicate_ as it is valuable. We are members in a
+_great and ancient_ MONARCHY_; and we must preserve religiously the
+true, legal rights of the sovereign, which form the key-stone that binds
+together the noble and well-constructed arch of our empire and our
+Constitution_. A constitution made up of _balanced powers_ must ever be
+a critical thing. As such I mean to touch that part of it which comes
+within my reach."
+
+In this manner Mr. Burke spoke to his constituents seventeen years ago.
+He spoke, not like a partisan of one particular member of our
+Constitution, but as a person strongly, and on principle, attached to
+them all. He thought these great and essential members ought to be
+preserved, and preserved each in its place,--and that the monarchy ought
+not only to be secured in its peculiar existence, but in its preeminence
+too, as the presiding and connecting principle of the whole. Let it be
+considered whether the language of his book, printed in 1790, differs
+from his speech at Bristol in 1774.
+
+With equal justice his opinions on the American war are introduced, as
+if in his late work he had belied his conduct and opinions in the
+debates which arose upon that great event. On the American war he never
+had any opinions which he has seen occasion to retract, or which he has
+ever retracted. He, indeed, differs essentially from Mr. Fox as to the
+cause of that war. Mr. Fox has been pleased to say that the Americans
+rebelled "because they thought they had not enjoyed liberty enough."
+This cause of the war, _from him_, I have heard of for the first time.
+It is true that those who stimulated the nation to that measure did
+frequently urge this topic. They contended that the Americans had from
+the beginning aimed at independence,--that from the beginning they meant
+wholly to throw off the authority of the crown, and to break their
+connection with the parent country. This Mr. Burke never believed. When
+he moved his second conciliatory proposition, in the year 1776, he
+entered into the discussion of this point at very great length, and,
+from nine several heads of presumption, endeavored to prove the charge
+upon that people not to be true.
+
+If the principles of all he has said and wrote on the occasion be viewed
+with common temper, the gentlemen of the party will perceive, that, on a
+supposition that the Americans had rebelled merely in order to enlarge
+their liberty, Mr. Burke would have thought very differently of the
+American cause. What might have been in the secret thoughts of some of
+their leaders it is impossible to say. As far as a man so locked up as
+Dr. Franklin could be expected to communicate his ideas, I believe he
+opened them to Mr. Burke. It was, I think, the very day before he set
+out for America that a very long conversation passed between them, and
+with a greater air of openness on the Doctor's side than Mr. Burke had
+observed in him before. In this discourse Dr. Franklin lamented, and
+with apparent sincerity, the separation which he feared was inevitable
+between Great Britain and her colonies. He certainly spoke of it as an
+event which gave him the greatest concern. America, he said, would never
+again see such happy days as she had passed under the protection of
+England. He observed, that ours was the only instance of a great empire
+in which the most distant parts and members had been as well governed as
+the metropolis and its vicinage, but that the Americans were going to
+lose the means which secured to them this rare and precious advantage.
+The question with them was not, whether they were to remain as they had
+been before the troubles,--for better, he allowed, they could not hope
+to be,--but whether they were to give up so happy a situation without a
+struggle. Mr. Burke had several other conversations with him about that
+time, in none of which, soured and exasperated as his mind certainly
+was, did he discover any other wish in favor of America than for a
+security to its _ancient_ condition. Mr. Burke's conversation with other
+Americans was large, indeed, and his inquiries extensive and diligent.
+Trusting to the result of all these means of information, but trusting
+much more in the public presumptive indications I have just referred to,
+and to the reiterated solemn declarations of their Assemblies, he always
+firmly believed that they were purely on the defensive in that
+rebellion. He considered the Americans as standing at that time, and in
+that controversy, in the same relation to England as England did to King
+James the Second in 1688. He believed that they had taken up arms from
+one motive only: that is, our attempting to tax them without their
+consent,--to tax them for the purposes of maintaining civil and military
+establishments. If this attempt of ours could have been practically
+established, he thought, with them, that their Assemblies would become
+totally useless,--that, under the system of policy which was then
+pursued, the Americans could have no sort of security for their laws or
+liberties, or for any part of them,--and that the very circumstance of
+_our_ freedom would have augmented the weight of _their_ slavery.
+
+Considering the Americans on that defensive footing, he thought Great
+Britain ought instantly to have closed with them by the repeal of the
+taxing act. He was of opinion that our general rights over that country
+would have been preserved by this timely concession.[9] When, instead of
+this, a Boston Port Bill, a Massachusetts Charter Bill, a Fishery Bill,
+an Intercourse Bill, I know not how many hostile bills, rushed out like
+so many tempests from all points of the compass, and were accompanied
+first with great fleets and armies of English, and followed afterwards
+with great bodies of foreign troops, he thought that their cause grew
+daily better, because daily more defensive,--and that ours, because
+daily more offensive, grew daily worse. He therefore, in two motions, in
+two successive years, proposed in Parliament many concessions beyond
+what he had reason to think in the beginning of the troubles would ever
+be seriously demanded.
+
+So circumstanced, he certainly never could and never did wish the
+colonists to be subdued by arms. He was fully persuaded, that, if such
+should be the event, they must be held in that subdued state by a great
+body of standing forces, and perhaps of foreign forces. He was strongly
+of opinion that such armies, first victorious over Englishmen, in a
+conflict for English constitutional rights and privileges, and
+afterwards habituated (though in America) to keep an English people in a
+state of abject subjection, would prove fatal in the end to the
+liberties of England itself; that in the mean time this military system
+would lie as an oppressive burden upon the national finances; that it
+would constantly breed and feed new discussions, full of heat and
+acrimony, leading possibly to a new series of wars; and that foreign
+powers, whilst we continued in a state at once burdened and distracted,
+must at length obtain a decided superiority over us. On what part of his
+late publication, or on what expression that might have escaped him in
+that work, is any man authorized to charge Mr. Burke with a
+contradiction to the line of his conduct and to the current of his
+doctrines on the American war? The pamphlet is in the hands of his
+accusers: let them point out the passage, if they can.
+
+Indeed, the author has been well sifted and scrutinized by his friends.
+He is even called to an account for every jocular and light expression.
+A ludicrous picture which he made with regard to a passage in the speech
+of a late minister[10] has been brought up against him. That passage
+contained a lamentation for the loss of monarchy to the Americans, after
+they had separated from Great Britain. He thought it to be unseasonable,
+ill-judged, and ill-sorted with the circumstances of all the parties.
+Mr. Burke, it seems, considered it ridiculous to lament the loss of some
+monarch or other to a rebel people, at the moment they had forever
+quitted their allegiance to theirs and our sovereign, at the time when
+they had broken off all connection with this nation and had allied
+themselves with its enemies. He certainly must have thought it open to
+ridicule; and now that it is recalled to his memory, (he had, I believe,
+wholly forgotten the circumstance,) he recollects that he did treat it
+with some levity. But is it a fair inference from a jest on this
+unseasonable lamentation, that he was then an enemy to monarchy, either
+in this or in any other country? The contrary perhaps ought to be
+inferred,--if anything at all can be argued from pleasantries good or
+bad. Is it for this reason, or for anything he has said or done relative
+to the American war, that he is to enter into an alliance offensive and
+defensive with every rebellion, in every country, under every
+circumstance, and raised upon whatever pretence? Is it because he did
+not wish the Americans to be subdued by arms, that he must be
+inconsistent with himself, if he reprobates the conduct of those
+societies in England, who, alleging no one act of tyranny or oppression,
+and complaining of no hostile attempt against our ancient laws, rights,
+and usages, are now endeavoring to work the destruction of the crown of
+this kingdom, and the whole of its Constitution? Is he obliged, from the
+concessions he wished to be made to the colonies, to keep any terms with
+those clubs and federations who hold out to us, as a pattern for
+imitation, the proceedings in France, in which a king, who had
+voluntarily and formally divested himself of the right of taxation, and
+of all other species of arbitrary power, has been dethroned? Is it
+because Mr. Burke wished to have America rather conciliated than
+vanquished, that he must wish well to the army of republics which are
+set up in France,--a country wherein not the people, but the monarch,
+was wholly on the defensive, (a poor, indeed, and feeble defensive,) to
+preserve _some fragments_ of the royal authority against a determined
+and desperate body of conspirators, whose object it was, with whatever
+certainty of crimes, with whatever hazard of war, and every other
+species of calamity, to annihilate the _whole_ of that authority, to
+level all ranks, orders, and distinctions in the state, and utterly to
+destroy property, not more by their acts than in their principles?
+
+Mr. Burke has been also reproached with an inconsistency between his
+late writings and his former conduct, because he had proposed in
+Parliament several economical, leading to several constitutional
+reforms. Mr. Burke thought, with a majority of the House of Commons,
+that the influence of the crown at one time was too great; but after his
+Majesty had, by a gracious message, and several subsequent acts of
+Parliament, reduced it to a standard which satisfied Mr. Fox himself,
+and, apparently at least, contented whoever wished to go farthest in
+that reduction, is Mr. Burke to allow that it would be right for us to
+proceed to indefinite lengths upon that subject? that it would therefore
+be justifiable in a people owing allegiance to a monarchy, and
+professing to maintain it, not to _reduce_, but wholly to _take away
+all_ prerogative and _all_ influence whatsoever? Must his having made,
+in virtue of a plan of economical regulation, a reduction of the
+influence of the crown compel him to allow that it would be right in the
+French or in us to bring a king to so abject a state as in function not
+to be so respectable as an under-sheriff, but in person not to differ
+from the condition of a mere prisoner? One would think that such a thing
+as a medium had never been heard of in the moral world.
+
+This mode of arguing from your having done _any_ thing in a certain line
+to the necessity of doing _every_ thing has political consequences of
+other moment than those of a logical fallacy. If no man can propose any
+diminution or modification of an invidious or dangerous power or
+influence in government, without entitling friends turned into
+adversaries to argue him into the destruction of all prerogative, and to
+a spoliation of the whole patronage of royalty, I do not know what can
+more effectually deter persons of sober minds from engaging in any
+reform, nor how the worst enemies to the liberty of the subject could
+contrive any method more fit to bring all correctives on the power of
+the crown into suspicion and disrepute.
+
+If, say his accusers, the dread of too great influence in the crown of
+Great Britain could justify the degree of reform which he adopted, the
+dread of a return under the despotism of a monarchy might justify the
+people of France in going much further, and reducing monarchy to its
+present nothing.--Mr. Burke does not allow that a sufficient argument
+_ad hominem_ is inferable from these premises. If the horror of the
+excesses of an absolute monarchy furnishes a reason for abolishing it,
+no monarchy once absolute (all have been so at one period or other)
+could ever be limited. It must be destroyed; otherwise no way could be
+found to quiet the fears of those who were formerly subjected to that
+sway. But the principle of Mr. Burke's proceeding ought to lead him to a
+very different conclusion,--to this conclusion,--that a monarchy is a
+thing perfectly susceptible of reform, perfectly susceptible of a
+balance of power, and that, when reformed and balanced, for a great
+country it is the best of all governments. The example of our country
+might have led France, as it has led him, to perceive that monarchy is
+not only reconcilable to liberty, but that it may be rendered a great
+and stable security to its perpetual enjoyment. No correctives which he
+proposed to the power of the crown could lead him to approve of a plan
+of a republic (if so it may be reputed) which has no correctives, and
+which he believes to be incapable of admitting any. No principle of Mr.
+Burke's conduct or writings obliged him from consistency to become an
+advocate for an exchange of mischiefs; no principle of his could compel
+him to justify the setting up in the place of a mitigated monarchy a new
+and far more despotic power, under which there is no trace of liberty,
+except what appears in confusion and in crime.
+
+Mr. Burke does not admit that the faction predominant in France have
+abolished their monarchy, and the orders of their state, from any dread
+of arbitrary power that lay heavy on the minds of the people. It is not
+very long since he has been in that country. Whilst there he conversed
+with many descriptions of its inhabitants. A few persons of rank did, he
+allows, discover strong and manifest tokens of such a spirit of liberty
+as might be expected one day to break all bounds. Such gentlemen have
+since had more reason to repent of their want of foresight than I hope
+any of the same class will ever have in this country. But this spirit
+was far from general, even amongst the gentlemen. As to the lower
+orders, and those little above them, in whose name the present powers
+domineer, they were far from discovering any sort of dissatisfaction
+with the power and prerogatives of the crown. That vain people were
+rather proud of them: they rather despised the English for not having a
+monarch possessed of such high and perfect authority. _They_ had felt
+nothing from _lettres de cachet_. The Bastile could inspire no horrors
+into _them_. This was a treat for their betters. It was by art and
+impulse, it was by the sinister use made of a season of scarcity, it was
+under an infinitely diversified succession of wicked pretences wholly
+foreign to the question of monarchy or aristocracy, that this light
+people were inspired with their present spirit of levelling. Their old
+vanity was led by art to take another turn: it was dazzled and seduced
+by military liveries, cockades, and epaulets, until the French populace
+was led to become the willing, but still the proud and thoughtless,
+instrument and victim of another domination. Neither did that people
+despise or hate or fear their nobility: on the contrary, they valued
+themselves on the generous qualities which distinguished the chiefs of
+their nation.
+
+So far as to the attack on Mr. Burke in consequence of his reforms.
+
+To show that he has in his last publication abandoned those principles
+of liberty which have given energy to his youth, and in spite of his
+censors will afford repose and consolation to his declining age, those
+who have thought proper in Parliament to declare against his book ought
+to have produced something in it which directly or indirectly militates
+with any rational plan of free government. It is something
+extraordinary, that they whose memories have so well served them with
+regard to light and ludicrous expressions, which years had consigned to
+oblivion, should not have been able to quote a single passage in a piece
+so lately published, which contradicts anything he has formerly ever
+said in a style either ludicrous or serious. They quote his former
+speeches and his former votes, but not one syllable from the book. It is
+only by a collation of the one with the other that the alleged
+inconsistency can be established. But as they are unable to cite any
+such contradictory passage, so neither can they show anything in the
+general tendency and spirit of the whole work unfavorable to a rational
+and generous spirit of liberty; unless a warm opposition to the spirit
+of levelling, to the spirit of impiety, to the spirit of proscription,
+plunder, murder, and cannibalism, be adverse to the true principles of
+freedom.
+
+The author of that book is supposed to have passed from extreme to
+extreme; but he has always kept himself in a medium. This charge is not
+so wonderful. It is in the nature of things, that they who are in the
+centre of a circle should appear directly opposed to those who view them
+from any part of the circumference. In that middle point, however, he
+will still remain, though he may hear people who themselves run beyond
+Aurora and the Ganges cry out that he is at the extremity of the West.
+
+In the same debate Mr. Burke was represented by Mr. Fox as arguing in a
+manner which implied that the British Constitution could not be
+defended, but by abusing all republics ancient and modern. He said
+nothing to give the least ground for such a censure. He never abused all
+republics. He has never professed himself a friend or an enemy to
+republics or to monarchies in the abstract. He thought that the
+circumstances and habits of every country, which it is always perilous
+and productive of the greatest calamities to force, are to decide upon
+the form of its government. There is nothing in his nature, his temper,
+or his faculties which should make him an enemy to any republic, modern
+or ancient. Far from it. He has studied the form and spirit of republics
+very early in life; he has studied them with great attention, and with a
+mind undisturbed by affection or prejudice. He is, indeed, convinced
+that the science of government would be poorly cultivated without that
+study. But the result in his mind from that investigation has been and
+is, that neither England nor France, without infinite detriment to them,
+as well in the event as in the experiment, could be brought into a
+republican form; but that everything republican which can be introduced
+with safety into either of them must be built upon a monarchy,--built
+upon a real, not a nominal monarchy, _as its essential basis_; that all
+such institutions, whether aristocratic or democratic, must originate
+from their crown, and in all their proceedings must refer to it; that by
+the energy of that mainspring alone those republican parts must be set
+in action, and from thence must derive their whole legal effect, (as
+amongst us they actually do,) or the whole will fall into confusion.
+These republican members have no other point but the crown in which they
+can possibly unite.
+
+This is the opinion expressed in Mr. Burke's book. He has never varied
+in that opinion since he came to years of discretion. But surely, if at
+any time of his life he had entertained other notions, (which, however,
+he has never held or professed to hold,) the horrible calamities brought
+upon a great people by the wild attempt to force their country into a
+republic might be more than sufficient to undeceive his understanding,
+and to free it forever from such destructive fancies. He is certain that
+many, even in France, have been made sick of their theories by their
+very success in realizing them.
+
+To fortify the imputation of a desertion from his principles, his
+constant attempts to reform abuses have been brought forward. It is
+true, it has been the business of his strength to reform abuses in
+government, and his last feeble efforts are employed in a struggle
+against them. Politically he has lived in that element; politically he
+will die in it. Before he departs, I will admit for him that he deserves
+to have all his titles of merit brought forth, as they have been, for
+grounds of condemnation, if one word justifying or supporting abuses of
+any sort is to be found in that book which has kindled so much
+indignation in the mind of a great man. On the contrary, it spares no
+existing abuse. Its very purpose is to make war with abuses,--not,
+indeed, to make war with the dead, but with those which live, and
+flourish, and reign.
+
+The _purpose_ for which the abuses of government are brought into view
+forms a very material consideration in the mode of treating them. The
+complaints of a friend are things very different from the invectives of
+an enemy. The charge of abuses on the late monarchy of France was not
+intended to lead to its reformation, but to justify its destruction.
+They who have raked into all history for the faults of kings, and who
+have aggravated every fault they have found, have acted consistently,
+because they acted as enemies. No man can be a friend to a tempered
+monarchy who bears a decided hatred to monarchy itself. He, who, at the
+present time, is favorable or even fair to that system, must act towards
+it as towards a friend with frailties who is under the prosecution of
+implacable foes. I think it a duty, in that case, not to inflame the
+public mind against the obnoxious person by any exaggeration of his
+faults. It is our duty rather to palliate his errors and defects, or to
+cast them into the shade, and industriously to bring forward any good
+qualities that he may happen to possess. But when the man is to be
+amended, and by amendment to be preserved, then the line of duty takes
+another direction. When his safety is effectually provided for, it then
+becomes the office of a friend to urge his faults and vices with all the
+energy of enlightened affection, to paint them in their most vivid
+colors, and to bring the moral patient to a better habit. Thus I think
+with regard to individuals; thus I think with regard to ancient and
+respected governments and orders of men. A spirit of reformation is
+never more consistent with itself than when it refuses to be rendered
+the means of destruction.
+
+I suppose that enough is said upon these heads of accusation. One more I
+had nearly forgotten, but I shall soon dispatch it. The author of the
+Reflections, in the opening of the last Parliament, entered on the
+journals of the House of Commons a motion for a remonstrance to the
+crown, which is substantially a defence of the preceding Parliament,
+that had been dissolved under displeasure. It is a defence of Mr. Fox.
+It is a defence of the Whigs. By what connection of argument, by what
+association of ideas, this apology for Mr. Fox and his party is by him
+and them brought to criminate his and their apologist, I cannot easily
+divine. It is true that Mr. Burke received no previous encouragement
+from Mr. Fox, nor any the least countenance or support, at the time when
+the motion was made, from him or from any gentleman of the party,--one
+only excepted, from whose friendship, on that and on other occasions, he
+derives an honor to which he must be dull indeed to be insensible.[11]
+If that remonstrance, therefore, was a false or feeble defence of the
+measures of the party, they were in no wise affected by it. It stands on
+the journals. This secures to it a permanence which the author cannot
+expect to any other work of his. Let it speak for itself to the present
+age and to all posterity. The party had no concern in it; and it can
+never be quoted against them. But in the late debate it was produced,
+not to clear the party from an improper defence in which they had no
+share, but for the kind purpose of insinuating an inconsistency between
+the principles of Mr. Burke's defence of the dissolved Parliament and
+those on which he proceeded in his late Reflections on France.
+
+It requires great ingenuity to make out such a parallel between the two
+cases as to found a charge of inconsistency in the principles assumed in
+arguing the one and the other. What relation had Mr. Fox's India Bill to
+the Constitution of France? What relation had that Constitution to the
+question of right in an House of Commons to give or to withhold its
+confidence from ministers, and to state that opinion to the crown? What
+had this discussion to do with Mr. Burke's idea in 1784 of the ill
+consequences which must in the end arise to the crown from setting up
+the commons at large as an opposite interest to the commons in
+Parliament? What has this discussion to do with a recorded warning to
+the people of their rashly forming a precipitate judgment against their
+representatives? What had Mr. Burke's opinion of the danger of
+introducing new theoretic language, unknown to the records of the
+kingdom, and calculated to excite vexatious questions, into a
+Parliamentary proceeding, to do with the French Assembly, which defies
+all precedent, and places its whole glory in realizing what had been
+thought the most visionary theories? What had this in common with the
+abolition of the French monarchy, or with the principles upon which the
+English Revolution was justified,--a Revolution in which Parliament, in
+all its acts and all its declarations, religiously adheres to "the form
+of sound words," without excluding from private discussions such terms
+of art as may serve to conduct an inquiry for which none but private
+persons are responsible? These were the topics of Mr. Burke's proposed
+remonstrance; all of which topics suppose the existence and mutual
+relation of our three estates,--as well as the relation of the East
+India Company to the crown, to Parliament, and to the peculiar laws,
+rights, and usages of the people of Hindostan. What reference, I say,
+had these topics to the Constitution of France, in which there is no
+king, no lords, no commons, no India Company to injure or support, no
+Indian empire to govern or oppress? What relation had all or any of
+these, or any question which could arise between the prerogatives of the
+crown and the privileges of Parliament, with the censure of those
+factious persons in Great Britain whom Mr. Burke states to be engaged,
+not in favor of privilege against prerogative, or of prerogative against
+privilege, but in an open attempt against our crown and our Parliament,
+against our Constitution in Church and State, against all the parts and
+orders which compose the one and the other?
+
+No persons were more fiercely active against Mr. Fox, and against the
+measures of the House of Commons dissolved in 1784, which Mr. Burke
+defends in that remonstrance, than several of those revolution-makers
+whom Mr. Burke condemns alike in his remonstrance and in his book. These
+revolutionists, indeed, may be well thought to vary in their conduct. He
+is, however, far from accusing them, in this variation, of the smallest
+degree of inconsistency. He is persuaded that they are totally
+indifferent at which end they begin the demolition of the Constitution.
+Some are for commencing their operations with the destruction of the
+civil powers, in order the better to pull down the ecclesiastical,--some
+wish to begin with the ecclesiastical, in order to facilitate the ruin
+of the civil; some would destroy the House of Commons through the crown,
+some the crown through the House of Commons, and some would overturn
+both the one and the other through what they call the people. But I
+believe that this injured writer will think it not at all inconsistent
+with his present duty or with his former life strenuously to oppose all
+the various partisans of destruction, let them begin where or when or
+how they will. No man would set his face more determinedly against those
+who should attempt to deprive them, or any description of men, of the
+rights they possess. No man would be more steady in preventing them from
+abusing those rights to the destruction of that happy order under which
+they enjoy them. As to their title to anything further, it ought to be
+grounded on the proof they give of the safety with which power may be
+trusted in their hands. When they attempt without disguise, not to win
+it from our affections, but to force it from our fears, they show, in
+the character of their means of obtaining it, the use they would make of
+their dominion. That writer is too well read in men not to know how
+often the desire and design of a tyrannic domination lurks in the claim
+of an extravagant liberty. Perhaps in the beginning it _always_ displays
+itself in that manner. No man has ever affected power which he did not
+hope from the favor of the existing government in any other mode.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The attacks on the author's consistency relative to France are (however
+grievous they may be to his feelings) in a great degree external to him
+and to us, and comparatively of little moment to the people of England.
+The substantial charge upon him is concerning his doctrines relative to
+the Revolution of 1688. Here it is that they who speak in the name of
+the party have thought proper to censure him the most loudly and with
+the greatest asperity. Here they fasten, and, if they are right in their
+fact, with sufficient judgment in their selection. If he be guilty in
+this point, he is equally blamable, whether he is consistent or not. If
+he endeavors to delude his countrymen by a false representation of the
+spirit of that leading event, and of the true nature and tenure of the
+government formed in consequence of it, he is deeply responsible, he is
+an enemy to the free Constitution of the kingdom. But he is not guilty
+in any sense. I maintain that in his Reflections he has stated the
+Revolution and the Settlement upon their true principles of legal reason
+and constitutional policy.
+
+His authorities are the acts and declarations of Parliament, given in
+their proper words. So far as these go, nothing can be added to what he
+has quoted. The question is, whether he has understood them rightly. I
+think they speak plain enough. But we must now see whether he proceeds
+with other authority than his own constructions, and, if he does, on
+what sort of authority he proceeds. In this part, his defence will not
+be made by argument, but by wager of law. He takes his compurgators, his
+vouchers, his guaranties, along with him. I know that he will not be
+satisfied with a justification proceeding on general reasons of policy.
+He must be defended on party grounds, too, or his cause is not so
+tenable as I wish it to appear. It must be made out for him not only
+that in his construction of these public acts and monuments he conforms
+himself to the rules of fair, legal, and logical interpretation, but it
+must be proved that his construction is in perfect harmony with that of
+the ancient Whigs, to whom, against the sentence of the modern, on his
+part, I here appeal.
+
+This July it will be twenty-six years[12] since he became connected with
+a man whose memory will ever be precious to Englishmen of all parties,
+as long as the ideas of honor and virtue, public and private, are
+understood and cherished in this nation. That memory will be kept alive
+with particular veneration by all rational and honorable Whigs. Mr.
+Burke entered into a connection with that party through that man, at an
+age far from raw and immature,--at those years when men are all they are
+ever likely to become,--when he was in the prime and vigor of his
+life,--when the powers of his understanding, according to their
+standard, were at the best, his memory exercised, his judgment formed,
+and his reading much fresher in the recollection and much readier in the
+application than now it is. He was at that time as likely as most men to
+know what were Whig and what were Tory principles. He was in a situation
+to discern what sort of Whig principles they entertained with whom it
+was his wish to form an eternal connection. Foolish he would have been
+at that time of life (more foolish than any man who undertakes a public
+trust would be thought) to adhere to a cause which he, amongst all those
+who were engaged in it, had the least sanguine hopes of as a road to
+power.
+
+There are who remember, that, on the removal of the Whigs in the year
+1766, he was as free to choose another connection as any man in the
+kingdom. To put himself out of the way of the negotiations which were
+then carrying on very eagerly and through many channels with the Earl of
+Chatham, he went to Ireland very soon after the change of ministry, and
+did not return until the meeting of Parliament. He was at that time free
+from anything which looked like an engagement. He was further free at
+the desire of his friends; for, the very day of his return, the Marquis
+of Rockingham wished him to accept an employment under the new system.
+He believes he might have had such a situation; but again he cheerfully
+took his fate with the party.
+
+It would be a serious imputation upon the prudence of my friend, to have
+made even such trivial sacrifices as it was in his power to make for
+principles which he did not truly embrace or did not perfectly
+understand. In either case the folly would have been great. The question
+now is, whether, when he first practically professed Whig principles, he
+understood what principles he professed, and whether in his book he has
+faithfully expressed them.
+
+When he entered into the Whig party, he did not conceive that they
+pretended to any discoveries. They did not affect to be better Whigs
+than those were who lived in the days in which principle was put to the
+test. Some of the Whigs of those days were then living. They were what
+the Whigs had been at the Revolution,--what they had been during the
+reign of Queen Anne,--what they had been at the accession of the present
+royal family.
+
+What they were at those periods is to be seen. It rarely happens to a
+party to have the opportunity of a clear, authentic, recorded
+declaration of their political tenets upon the subject of a great
+constitutional event like that of the Revolution. The Whigs had that
+opportunity,--or to speak more properly, they made it. The impeachment
+of Dr. Sacheverell was undertaken by a Whig ministry and a Whig House of
+Commons, and carried on before a prevalent and steady majority of Whig
+peers. It was carried on for the express purpose of stating the true
+grounds and principles of the Revolution,--what the Commons emphatically
+called their _foundation_. It was carried on for the purpose of
+condemning the principles on which the Revolution was first opposed and
+afterwards calumniated, in order, by a juridical sentence of the highest
+authority, to confirm and fix Whig principles, as they had operated both
+in the resistance to King James and in the subsequent settlement, and to
+fix them in the extent and with the limitations with which it was meant
+they should be understood by posterity. The ministers and managers for
+the Commons were persons who had, many of them, an active share in the
+Revolution. Most of them had seen it at an age capable of reflection.
+The grand event, and all the discussions which led to it and followed
+it, were then alive in the memory and conversation of all men. The
+managers for the Commons must be supposed to have spoken on that subject
+the prevalent ideas of the leading party in the Commons, and of the Whig
+ministry. Undoubtedly they spoke also their own private opinions; and
+the private opinions of such men are not without weight. They were not
+_umbratiles doctores_, men who had studied a free Constitution only in
+its anatomy and upon dead systems. They knew it alive and in action.
+
+In this proceeding the Whig principles, as applied to the Revolution and
+Settlement, are to be found, or they are to be found nowhere. I wish the
+Whig readers of this Appeal first to turn to Mr. Burke's Reflections,
+from page 20 to page 50,[13] and then to attend to the following
+extracts from the trial of Dr. Sacheverell. After this, they will
+consider two things: first, whether the doctrine in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections be consonant to that of the Whigs of that period; and,
+secondly, whether they choose to abandon the principles which belonged
+to the progenitors of some of them, and to the predecessors of them all,
+and to learn new principles of Whiggism, imported from France, and
+disseminated in this country from Dissenting pulpits, from Federation
+societies, and from the pamphlets, which (as containing the political
+creed of those synods) are industriously circulated in all parts of the
+two kingdoms. This is their affair, and they will make their option.
+
+These new Whigs hold that the sovereignty, whether exercised by one or
+many, did not only originate _from_ the people, (a position not denied
+nor worth denying or assenting to,) but that in the people the same
+sovereignty constantly and unalienably resides; that the people may
+lawfully depose kings, not only for misconduct, but without any
+misconduct at all; that they may set up any new fashion of government
+for themselves, or continue without any government, at their pleasure;
+that the people are essentially their own rule, and their will the
+measure of their conduct; that the tenure of magistracy is not a proper
+subject of contract, because magistrates have duties, but no rights;
+and that, if a contract _de facto_ is made with them in one age,
+allowing that it binds at all, it only binds those who are immediately
+concerned in it, but does not pass to posterity. These doctrines
+concerning _the people_ (a term which they are far from accurately
+defining, but by which, from many circumstances, it is plain enough they
+mean their own faction, if they should grow, by early arming, by
+treachery, or violence, into the prevailing force) tend, in my opinion,
+to the utter subversion, not only of all government, in all modes, and
+to all stable securities to rational freedom, but to all the rules and
+principles of morality itself.
+
+I assert that the ancient Whigs held doctrines totally different from
+those I have last mentioned. I assert, that the foundations laid down by
+the Commons, on the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, for justifying the
+Revolution of 1688, are the very same laid down in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections,--that is to say, a breach of the _original contrast_,
+implied and expressed in the Constitution of this country, as a scheme
+of government fundamentally and inviolably fixed in King, Lords, and
+Commons;--that the fundamental subversion of this ancient Constitution,
+by one of its parts, having been attempted, and in effect accomplished,
+justified the Revolution;--that it was justified _only_ upon the
+_necessity_ of the case, as the _only_ means left for the recovery of
+that _ancient_ Constitution formed by the _original contract_ of the
+British state, as well as for the future preservation of the _same_
+government. These are the points to be proved.
+
+A general opening to the charge against Dr. Sacheverell was made by the
+attorney-general, Sir John Montague; but as there is nothing in that
+opening speech which tends very accurately to settle the principle upon
+which the Whigs proceeded in the prosecution, (the plan of the speech
+not requiring it,) I proceed to that of Mr. Lechmere, the manager, who
+spoke next after him. The following are extracts, given, not in the
+exact order in which they stand in the printed trial, but in that which
+is thought most fit to bring the ideas of the Whig Commons distinctly
+under our view.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Lechmere_[14]
+
+"It becomes an _indispensable_ duty upon us, who appear in the name and
+on the behalf of all the commons of Great Britain, not only to demand
+your Lordships' justice on such a criminal, [Dr. Sacheverell,] _but
+clearly and openly to assert our foundations_."
+
+[Sidenote: That the terms of our Constitution imply and express an
+original contract.]
+
+[Sidenote: That the contract is mutual consent, and binding at all times
+upon the parties.]
+
+[Sidenote: The mixed Constitution uniformly preserved for many ages, and
+is a proof of the contract.]
+
+"The nature of our Constitution is that of a _limited monarchy_, wherein
+the supreme power is communicated and divided between Queen, Lords, and
+Commons, though the executive power and administration be wholly in the
+crown. The terms of such a Constitution do not only suppose, but
+express, an original contract between the crown and the people, by which
+that supreme power was (by mutual consent, and not by accident) limited
+and lodged in more hands than one. And _the uniform preservation of such
+a Constitution for so many ages, without any fundamental change,
+demonstrates to your Lordships the continuance of the same contract_.
+
+[Sidenote: Laws the common measure to King and subject.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case of fundamental injury, and breach of original contract.]
+
+"The consequences of such a frame of government are obvious: That the
+_laws_ are the rule to both, the common measure of the power of the
+crown and of the obedience of the subject; and if the executive part
+endeavors the _subversion and total destruction of the government_, the
+original contract is thereby broke, and the right of allegiance ceases
+that part of the government thus _fundamentally_ injured hath a right to
+save or recover _that_ Constitution in which it had an original
+interest."
+
+[Sidenote: Words _necessary means_ selected with caution.]
+
+"_The necessary means_ (which is the phrase used by the Commons in their
+first article) words made choice of by them _with the greatest caution_.
+Those means are described (in the preamble to their charge) to be, that
+glorious enterprise which his late Majesty undertook, with an armed
+force, to deliver this kingdom from Popery and arbitrary power; the
+concurrence of many subjects of the realm, who came over with him in
+that enterprise, and of many others, of _all ranks and orders_, who
+appeared in arms in many parts of the kingdom in aid of that enterprise.
+
+"These were the _means_ that brought about the Revolution; and which the
+act that passed soon after, _declaring the rights and liberties of the
+subject, and settling the succession of the crown_, intends, when his
+late Majesty is therein called _the glorious instrument of delivering
+the kingdom_; and which the Commons, in the last part of their first
+article, express by the word _resistance_.
+
+[Sidenote: Regard of the Commons to their allegiance to the crown, and
+to the ancient Constitution.]
+
+"But the Commons, who will never be unmindful of the _allegiance_ of the
+subjects to the _crown_ of this realm, judged it highly incumbent upon
+them, out of regard to the _safety of her Majesty's person and
+government, and the ancient and legal Constitution of this kingdom_, to
+call that resistance the _necessary_ means; thereby plainly founding
+that power, of right and resistance, which was exercised by the people
+at the time of the happy Revolution, and which the duties of
+_self-preservation_ and religion called them to, _upon the NECESSITY of
+the case, and at the same time effectually securing her Majesty's
+government, and the due allegiance of all her subjects_."
+
+[Sidenote: All ages have the same interest in preservation of the
+contract, and the same Constitution.]
+
+"The nature of such an _original contract_ of government proves that
+there is not only a power in the people, who have _inherited its
+freedom_, to assert their own title to it, but they are bound in duty to
+transmit the _same_ Constitution to their posterity also."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Lechmere made a second speech. Notwithstanding the clear and
+satisfactory manner in which he delivered himself in his first, upon
+this arduous question, he thinks himself bound again distinctly to
+assert the same foundation, and to justify the Revolution on _the case
+of necessity only_, upon principles perfectly coinciding with those laid
+down in Mr. Burke's letter on the French affairs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Lechmere._
+
+[Sidenote: The Commons strictly confine their ideas of a revolution to
+necessity alone and self-defence.]
+
+[Sidenote A: N.B. The remark implies, that allegiance would be insecure
+without this restriction.]
+
+"Your Lordships were acquainted, in opening the charge, with how _great
+caution_, and with what unfeigned regard to her Majesty and her
+government, and to the _duty and allegiance_ of her subjects, the
+Commons made choice of the words _necessary means_ to express the
+resistance that was made use of to bring about the Revolution, and with
+the condemning of which the Doctor is charged by this article: not
+doubting but that the honor and justice of that resistance, _from the
+necessity of that case, and to which alone we have strictly confined
+ourselves_, when duly considered, would confirm and strengthen[A] and be
+understood to be an effectual security of the allegiance of the subject
+to the crown of this realm, _in every other case where there is not the
+same necessity_; and that the right of the people to _self-defence, and
+preservation of their liberties, by resistance as their last remedy, is
+the result of a case of such NECESSITY ONLY, and by which the ORIGINAL
+CONTRACT between king and people is broke. This was the principle laid
+down and carried through all that was said with respect to ALLEGIANCE;
+and on WHICH FOUNDATION, in the name and on the behalf of all the
+commons of Great Britain, we assert and justify that resistance by which
+the late happy Revolution was brought about_."
+
+"It appears to your Lordships and the world, that _breaking the original
+contract between king and people_ were the words made choice of by that
+House of Commons," (the House of Commons which originated the
+Declaration of Right,) "with the _greatest deliberation and judgment_,
+and approved of by your Lordships, in that first and fundamental step
+made towards the _re-establishment of the government_, which had
+received so great a shock from the evil counsels which had been given to
+that unfortunate prince."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir John Hawles, another of the managers, follows the steps of his
+brethren, positively affirming the doctrine of non-resistance to
+government to be the general moral, religious, and political rule for
+the subject, and justifying the Revolution on the same principle with
+Mr. Burke,--that is, as _an exception from necessity_. Indeed, he
+carries the doctrine on the general idea of non-resistance much further
+than Mr. Burke has done, and full as far as it can perhaps be supported
+by any duty of _perfect obligation_, however noble and heroic it may be
+in many cases to suffer death rather than disturb the tranquillity of
+our country.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir John Hawles._[15]
+
+"Certainly it must be granted, that the doctrine that commands obedience
+to the supreme power, _though in things contrary to Nature_, even to
+suffer death, which is the highest injustice that can be done a man,
+rather than make an opposition to the supreme power [is reasonable[16]],
+because the death of one or some few private persons is a less evil than
+_disturbing the whole government_; that law must needs be understood to
+forbid the doing or saying anything to disturb the government, the
+rather because the obeying that law cannot be pretended to be against
+Nature: and the Doctor's refusing to obey that implicit law is the
+reason for which he is now prosecuted; though he would have it believed
+that the reason he is now prosecuted was for the doctrine he asserted of
+obedience to the supreme power; which he might have preached as long as
+he had pleased, and the Commons would have taken no offence at it, if
+he had stopped there, and not have taken upon him, on that pretence or
+occasion, to have cast odious colors upon the Revolution."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+General Stanhope was among the managers. He begins his speech by a
+reference to the opinion of his fellow-managers, which he hoped had put
+beyond all doubt the limits and qualifications that the Commons had
+placed to their doctrines concerning the Revolution; yet, not satisfied
+with this general reference, after condemning the principle of
+non-resistance, which is asserted in the sermon _without any exception_,
+and stating, that, under the specious pretence of preaching a peaceable
+doctrine, Sacheverell and the Jacobites meant, in reality, to excite a
+rebellion in favor of the Pretender, he explicitly limits his ideas of
+resistance with the boundaries laid down by his colleagues, and by Mr.
+Burke.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_General Stanhope._
+
+[Sidenote: Rights of the subject and the crown equally legal.]
+
+"The Constitution of England is founded upon _compact_; and the subjects
+of this kingdom have, in their several public and private capacities,
+_as_ legal a title to what are their rights by law _as_ a prince to the
+possession of his crown.
+
+[Sidenote: Justice of resistance founded on necessity.]
+
+"Your Lordships, and most that hear me, are witnesses, and must remember
+the _necessities_ of those times which brought about the Revolution:
+that _no other_ remedy was left to preserve our religion and liberties;
+_that resistance was_ necessary, _and consequently just_."
+
+"Had the Doctor, in the remaining part of his sermon, preached up peace,
+quietness, and the like, and shown how happy we are under her Majesty's
+administration, and exhorted obedience to it, he had never been called
+to answer a charge at your Lordships' bar. But the tenor of all his
+subsequent discourse is one continued invective against the government."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Walpole (afterwards Sir Robert) was one of the managers on this
+occasion. He was an honorable man and a sound Whig. He was not, as the
+Jacobites and discontented Whigs of his time have represented him, and
+as ill-informed people still represent him, a prodigal and corrupt
+minister. They charged him, in their libels and seditious conversations,
+as having first reduced corruption to a system. Such was their cant. But
+he was far from governing by corruption. He governed by party
+attachments. The charge of systematic corruption is less applicable to
+him, perhaps, than to any minister who ever served the crown for so
+great a length of time. He gained over very few from the opposition.
+Without being a genius of the first class, he was an intelligent,
+prudent, and safe minister. He loved peace, and he helped to communicate
+the same disposition to nations at least as warlike and restless as that
+in which he had the chief direction of affairs. Though he served a
+master who was fond of martial fame, he kept all the establishments very
+low. The land tax continued at two shillings in the pound for the
+greater part of his administration. The other impositions were moderate.
+The profound repose, the equal liberty, the firm protection of just
+laws, during the long period of his power, were the principal causes of
+that prosperity which afterwards took such rapid strides towards
+perfection, and which furnished to this nation ability to acquire the
+military glory which it has since obtained, as well as to bear the
+burdens, the cause and consequence of that warlike reputation. With many
+virtues, public and private, he had his faults; but his faults were
+superficial. A careless, coarse, and over-familiar style of discourse,
+without sufficient regard to persons or occasions, and an almost total
+want of political decorum, were the errors by which he was most hurt in
+the public opinion, and those through which his enemies obtained the
+greatest advantage over him. But justice must be done. The prudence,
+steadiness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the greatest possible
+lenity in his character and his politics, preserved the crown to this
+royal family, and, with it, their laws and liberties to this country.
+Walpole had no other plan of defence for the Revolution than that of the
+other managers, and of Mr. Burke; and he gives full as little
+countenance to any arbitrary attempts, on the part of restless and
+factious men, for framing new governments according to their fancies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Walpole_.
+
+[Sidenote: Case of resistance out of the law, and the highest offence.]
+
+[Sidenote: Utmost necessity justifies it.]
+
+"Resistance is nowhere enacted to be legal, but subjected, by all the
+laws now in being, to the greatest penalties. 'Tis what is not, cannot,
+nor ought ever to be described, or affirmed in any positive law, to be
+excusable; when, and upon what _never-to-be-expected_ occasions, it may
+be exercised, no man can foresee; _and ought never to be thought of, but
+when an utter subversion of the laws of the realm threatens the whole
+frame of a Constitution, and no redress can otherwise be hoped for_. It
+therefore does and _ought forever_ to stand, in the eye and letter of
+the law, as the _highest offence_. But because any man, or party of men,
+may not, out of folly or wantonness, commit treason, or make their own
+discontents, ill principles, or disguised affections to another
+interest, a pretence to resist the supreme power, will it follow from
+thence that the _utmost necessity_ ought not to engage a nation _in its
+own defence for the preservation of the whole_?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Joseph Jekyl was, as I have always heard and believed, as nearly as
+any individual could be, the very standard of Whig principles in his
+age. He was a learned and an able man; full of honor, integrity, and
+public spirit; no lover of innovation; nor disposed to change his solid
+principles for the giddy fashion of the hour. Let us hear this Whig.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: Commons do not state the limits of submission.]
+
+[Sidenote: To secure the laws, the only aim of the Revolution.]
+
+"In clearing up and vindicating the justice of the Revolution, which was
+the second thing proposed, it is far from the intent of the Commons to
+state the _limits and bounds_ of the subject's submission to the
+sovereign. That which the law hath been wisely silent in, the Commons
+desire to be silent in too; nor will they put _any_ case of a
+justifiable resistance, but that of the Revolution only: and _they
+persuade themselves that the doing right to that resistance will be so
+far from promoting popular license or confusion, that it will have a
+contrary effect, and be a means of settling men's minds in the love of
+and veneration for the laws_; to rescue and secure which was the _ONLY
+aim and intention of those concerned in that resistance_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dr. Sacheverell's counsel defended him on this principle, namely,--that,
+whilst he enforced from the pulpit the general doctrine of
+non-resistance, he was not obliged to take notice of the theoretic
+limits which ought to modify that doctrine. Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his
+reply, whilst he controverts its application to the Doctor's defence,
+fully admits and even enforces the principle itself, and supports the
+Revolution of 1688, as he and all the managers had done before, exactly
+upon the same grounds on which Mr. Burke has built, in his Reflections
+on the French Revolution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: Blamable to state the bounds of non-resistance.]
+
+[Sidenote: Resistance lawful only in _case_ of extreme and obvious
+necessity.]
+
+"If the Doctor had pretended to have stated the particular bounds and
+limits of non-resistance, and told the people in what cases they might
+or might not resist, _he would have been much to blame_; nor was one
+word said in the articles, or by the managers, as if that was expected
+from him; but, _on the contrary, we have insisted that in NO case can
+resistance be lawful, but in case of EXTREME NECESSITY, and where the
+Constitution can't otherwise be preserved; and such necessity ought to
+be plain and obvious to the sense and judgment of the whole nation: and
+this was the case at the Revolution_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The counsel for Doctor Sacheverell, in defending their client, were
+driven in reality to abandon the fundamental principles of his doctrine,
+and to confess that an exception to the general doctrine of passive
+obedience and non-resistance did exist in the case of the Revolution.
+This the managers for the Commons considered as having gained their
+cause, as their having obtained _the whole_ of what they contended for.
+They congratulated themselves and the nation on a civil victory as
+glorious and as honorable as any that had obtained in arms during that
+reign of triumphs.
+
+Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his reply to Harcourt, and the other great men who
+conducted the cause for the Tory side, spoke in the following memorable
+terms, distinctly stating the whole of what the Whig House of Commons
+contended for, in the name of all their constituents.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: Necessity creates an exception, and the Revolution a case of
+necessity, the utmost extent of the demand of the Commons.]
+
+"My Lords, the concessions" (the concessions of Sacheverell's counsel)
+"are these: That _necessity_ creates an _exception_ to the general rule
+of submission to the prince; that such exception is understood or
+implied in the laws that require such submission; and that _the case of
+the Revolution was a case of necessity._
+
+"These are concessions _so ample_, and do so _fully_ answer the drift of
+the Commons in this article, and are to _the utmost extent of their
+meaning in it_, that I can't forbear congratulating them upon this
+success of their impeachment,--that in full Parliament, this erroneous
+doctrine of _unlimited_ non-resistance is given up and disclaimed. And
+may it not, in after ages, be an addition to the glories of this bright
+reign, that so many of those who are honored with being in her Majesty's
+service have been at your Lordships' bar thus successfully contending
+for the _national_ rights of her people, and proving they are not
+precarious or remediless?
+
+"But to return to these concessions: I must appeal to your Lordships,
+whether they are not a _total departure_ from the Doctor's answer."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I now proceed to show that the Whig managers for the Commons meant to
+preserve the government on a firm foundation, by asserting the perpetual
+validity of the settlement then made, and its coercive power upon
+posterity. I mean to show that they gave no sort of countenance to any
+doctrine tending to impress the _people_ (taken separately from the
+legislature, which includes the crown) with an idea that _they_ had
+acquired a moral or civil competence to alter, without breach of the
+original compact on the part of the king, the succession to the crown,
+at their pleasure,--much less that they had acquired any right, in the
+case of such an event as caused the Revolution, to set up any new form
+of government. The author of the Reflections, I believe, thought that no
+man of common understanding could oppose to this doctrine the ordinary
+sovereign power as declared in the act of Queen Anne: that is, that the
+kings or queens of the realm, with the consent of Parliament, are
+competent to regulate and to settle the succession of the crown. This
+power is and ever was inherent in the supreme sovereignty, and was not,
+as the political divines vainly talk, acquired by the Revolution. It is
+declared in the old statute of Queen Elizabeth. Such a power must reside
+in the complete sovereignty of every kingdom; and it is in fact
+exercised in all of them. But this right of _competence_ in the
+legislature, not in the people, is by the legislature itself to be
+exercised with _sound discretion_: that is to say, it is to be exercised
+or not, in conformity to the fundamental principles of this government,
+to the rules of moral obligation, and to the faith of pacts, either
+contained in the nature of the transaction or entered into by the body
+corporate of the kingdom,--which body in juridical construction never
+dies, and in fact never loses its members at once by death.
+
+Whether this doctrine is reconcilable to the modern philosophy of
+government I believe the author neither knows nor cares, as he has
+little respect for any of that sort of philosophy. This may be because
+his capacity and knowledge do not reach to it. If such be the case, he
+cannot be blamed, if he acts on the sense of that incapacity; he cannot
+be blamed, if, in the most arduous and critical questions which can
+possibly arise, and which affect to the quick the vital parts of our
+Constitution, he takes the side which leans most to safety and
+settlement; that he is resolved not "to be wise beyond what is written"
+in the legislative record and practice; that, when doubts arise on them,
+he endeavors to interpret one statute by another, and to reconcile them
+all to established, recognized morals, and to the general, ancient,
+known policy of the laws of England. Two things are equally evident: the
+first is, that the legislature possesses the power of regulating the
+succession of the crown; the second, that in the exercise of that right
+it has uniformly acted as if under the _restraints_ which the author has
+stated. That author makes what the ancients call _mos majorum_ not
+indeed his sole, but certainly his principal rule of policy, to guide
+his judgment in whatever regards our laws. Uniformity and analogy can be
+preserved in them by this process only. That point being fixed, and
+laying fast hold of a strong bottom, our speculations may swing in all
+directions without public detriment, because they will ride with sure
+anchorage.
+
+In this manner these things have been always considered by our
+ancestors. There are some, indeed, who have the art of turning the very
+acts of Parliament which were made for securing the hereditary
+succession in the present royal family, by rendering it penal to doubt
+of the validity of those acts of Parliament, into an instrument for
+defeating all their ends and purposes,--but upon grounds so very foolish
+that it is not worth while to take further notice of such sophistry.
+
+To prevent any unnecessary subdivision, I shall here put together what
+may be necessary to show the perfect agreement of the Whigs with Mr.
+Burke in his assertions, that the Revolution made no "essential change
+in the constitution of the monarchy, or in any of its ancient, sound,
+and legal principles; that the succession was settled in the Hanover
+family, upon the idea and in the mode of an hereditary succession
+qualified with Protestantism; that it was not settled upon _elective_
+principles, in any sense of the word _elective_, or under any
+modification or description of _election_ whatsoever; but, on the
+contrary, that the nation, after the Revolution, renewed by a fresh
+compact the spirit of the original compact of the state, binding itself,
+_both in its existing members and all its posterity_, to adhere to the
+settlement of an hereditary succession in the Protestant line, drawn
+from James the First, as the stock of inheritance."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir John Hawles_.
+
+[Sidenote: Necessity of settling the right of the crown, and submission
+to the settlement.]
+
+"If he [Dr. Sacheverell] is of the opinion he pretends, I can't imagine
+how it comes to pass that he that pays that deference to the supreme
+power has preached so directly contrary to the determinations of the
+supreme power in this government, he very well knowing that the
+lawfulness of the Revolution, and of the means whereby it was brought
+about, has already been determined by the aforesaid acts of
+Parliament,--and do it in the worst manner that he could invent. _For
+questioning the right to the crown here in England has procured the
+shedding of more blood and caused more slaughter than all the other
+matters tending to disturbances in the government put together._ If,
+therefore, the doctrine which the Apostles had laid down was only to
+continue the peace of the world, as thinking the death of some few
+particular persons better to be borne with than a civil war, sure it is
+the highest breach of that law to question the first principles of this
+government."
+
+"If the Doctor had been contented with the liberty he took of preaching
+up the duty of passive obedience in the most extensive manner he had
+thought fit, and would have stopped there, your Lordships would not have
+had the trouble in relation to him that you now have; but it is plain
+that he preached up his absolute and unconditional obedience, not _to
+continue the peace and tranquillity of this nation, but to set the
+subjects at strife, and to raise a war in the bowels of this nation_:
+and it is for _this_ that he is now prosecuted; though he would fain
+have it believed that the prosecution was for preaching the peaceable
+doctrine of absolute obedience."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl_.
+
+[Sidenote: Whole frame of government restored unhurt, on the
+Revolution.]
+
+"The whole tenor of the administration then in being was agreed to by
+all to be a _total departure from the Constitution_. The nation was at
+that time united in that opinion, all but the criminal part of it. And
+as the nation joined in the judgment of their disease, so they did in
+the remedy. _They saw there was no remedy left but the last;_ and when
+that remedy took place, _the whole frame of the government was restored
+entire and unhurt_.[17] This showed the excellent temper the nation was
+in at that time, that, after such provocations from an abuse of the
+regal power, and such a convulsion, _no one part of the Constitution was
+altered, or suffered the least damage; but, on the contrary, the whole
+received new life and vigor_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Tory counsel for Dr. Sacheverell having insinuated that a great and
+essential alteration in the Constitution had been wrought by the
+Revolution, Sir Joseph Jekyl is so strong on this point, that he takes
+fire even at the insinuation of his being of such an opinion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: No innovation at the Revolution.]
+
+"If the Doctor instructed his counsel to insinuate that there was _any
+innovation in the Constitution wrought by the Revolution, it is an
+addition to his crime. The Revolution did not introduce any innovation;
+it was a restoration of the ancient fundamental Constitution of the
+kingdom_, and giving it its proper force and energy."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre, distinguishes expressly the case
+of the Revolution, and its principles, from a proceeding at pleasure, on
+the part of the people, to change their ancient Constitution, and to
+frame a new government for themselves. He distinguishes it with the same
+care from the principles of regicide and republicanism, and the sorts of
+resistance condemned by the doctrines of the Church of England, and
+which ought to be condemned by the doctrines of all churches professing
+Christianity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre._
+
+[Sidenote: Revolution no precedent for voluntary cancelling allegiance.]
+
+[Sidenote: Revolution not like the case of Charles the First.]
+
+"The resistance at the Revolution, which was founded in _unavoidable
+necessity_, could be no defence to a man that was attacked _for
+asserting that the people might cancel their allegiance at pleasure, or
+dethrone and murder their sovereign by a judiciary sentence_. For it can
+never be inferred, from the lawfulness of resistance at a time when _a
+total subversion of the government both in Church and State was
+intended_, that a people may take up arms and _call their sovereign to
+account at pleasure_; and therefore, since _the Revolution could be of
+no service in giving the least color for asserting any such wicked
+principle_, the Doctor could never intend to put it into the mouths of
+those new preachers and new politicians for a defence,--unless it be his
+opinion that the resistance at the Revolution can bear any parallel with
+_the execrable murder of the royal martyr, so justly detested by the
+whole nation_."
+
+[Sidenote: Sacheverell's doctrine intended to bring an odium on the
+Revolution.]
+
+[Sidenote: True defence of the Revolution an absolute necessity.]
+
+"'Tis plain that the Doctor is not impeached for preaching a general
+doctrine, and enforcing the general duty of obedience, but for preaching
+against an _excepted case after he has stated the exception_. He is not
+impeached for preaching the general doctrine of obedience, and the utter
+illegality of resistance upon any pretence whatsoever, but because,
+having first laid down the general doctrine as true, without any
+exception, _he states the excepted case_, the Revolution, in express
+terms, as an objection, and then assumes the consideration of that
+excepted case, denies there was any resistance in the Revolution, and
+asserts that to impute resistance to the Revolution would cast black and
+odious colors upon it. This, my Lords, is not preaching the doctrine of
+non-resistance in the _general_ terms used by the Homilies and the
+fathers of the Church, where cases of necessity may be _understood to be
+excepted by a tacit implication, as the counsel have allowed_,--but is
+preaching directly against the resistance at the Revolution, which, in
+the course of this debate, has been all along admitted to _be necessary
+and just_, and can have no other meaning than to bring a dishonor upon
+the Revolution, and an odium upon those great and illustrious persons,
+_those friends to the monarchy and the Church, that assisted in bringing
+it about_. For had the Doctor intended anything else, he would have
+treated the case of the Revolution in a different manner, and have
+given _it the true and fair answer_: he would have said that the
+resistance at the Revolution was _of absolute necessity, and the only
+means left to revive the Constitution, and must be therefore taken as an
+excepted case_, and could never come within the reach or intention of
+the general doctrine of the Church."
+
+"Your Lordships take notice on what grounds the Doctor continues to
+assert the same position in his answer. But is it not most evident that
+the general exhortations to be met with in the Homilies of the Church of
+England, and such like declarations in the statutes of the kingdom, are
+meant only as rules for the civil obedience of the subject to the legal
+administration of the supreme power in _ordinary cases_? And it is
+equally absurd to construe any words in a positive law to authorize the
+destruction of the whole, as to expect that King, Lords, and Commons
+should, in express terms of law, declare _such an ultimate resort as the
+right of resistance, at a time when the case supposes that the force of
+all law is ceased_."[18]
+
+[Sidenote: Commons abhor whatever shakes the submission of posterity to
+the settlement of the crown.]
+
+"The Commons must always resent, with the utmost detestation and
+abhorrence, every position that may shake the authority of that act of
+Parliament whereby the crown is settled upon her Majesty, _and whereby
+the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do, in the name of all the
+people of England, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their
+heirs and posterities, to her Majesty_, which this general principle of
+absolute non-resistance must certainly shake.
+
+"For, if the resistance at the Revolution was illegal, the Revolution
+settled in usurpation, and this act can have no greater force and
+authority than an act passed under a usurper.
+
+"And the Commons take leave to observe, that the authority of this
+Parliamentary settlement is a matter of the greatest consequence to
+maintain, in a case where the hereditary right to the crown is
+contested."
+
+"It appears by the several instances mentioned in the act declaring the
+rights and liberties of the subject and settling the succession of the
+crown, that at the time of the Revolution there was _a total subversion
+of the constitution of government both in Church and State, which is a
+case that the laws of England could never suppose, provide for, or have
+in view._"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Joseph Jekyl, so often quoted, considered the preservation of the
+monarchy, and of the rights and prerogatives of the crown, as essential
+objects with all sound Whigs, and that they were bound not only to
+maintain them, when injured or invaded, but to exert themselves as much
+for their re�stablishment, if they should happen to be overthrown by
+popular fury, as any of their own more immediate and popular rights and
+privileges, if the latter should be at any time subverted by the crown.
+For this reason he puts the cases of the _Revolution_, and the
+_Restoration_ exactly upon the same footing. He plainly marks, that it
+was the object of all honest men not to sacrifice one part of the
+Constitution to another, and much more, not to sacrifice any of them to
+visionary theories of the rights of man, but to preserve our whole
+inheritance in the Constitution, in all its members and all its
+relations, entire and unimpaired, from generation to generation. In this
+Mr. Burke exactly agrees with him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: What are the rights of the people.]
+
+[Sidenote: Restoration and Revolution.]
+
+[Sidenote: People have an equal interest in the legal rights of the
+crown and of their own.]
+
+"Nothing is plainer than that the people have a right to the laws and
+the Constitution. This right the nation hath asserted, and recovered out
+of the hands of those who had dispossessed them of it at several times.
+There are of this _two famous instances_ in the knowledge of the present
+age: I mean that of the _Restoration_, and that of the _Revolution_: in
+both these great events were the _regal power_ and the _rights of the
+people_ recovered. And it is _hard to say in which the people have the
+greatest interest; for the Commons are sensible that there it not one
+legal power belonging to the crown, but they have an interest in it; and
+I doubt not but they will always be as careful to support the rights of
+the crown as their own privileges_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The other Whig managers regarded (as he did) the overturning of the
+monarchy by a republican faction with the very same horror and
+detestation with which they regarded the destruction of the privileges
+of the people by an arbitrary monarch.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Lechmere_,
+
+[Sidenote: Constitution recovered at the Restoration and Revolution.]
+
+Speaking of our Constitution, states it as "a Constitution which happily
+recovered itself, at the Restoration, from the confusions and disorders
+which _the horrid and detestable proceedings of faction and usurpation
+had thrown it into_, and which after many convulsions and struggles was
+providentially saved at the late happy Revolution, and by the many good
+laws passed since that time stands now upon a firmer foundation,
+together with the most comfortable prospect of _security to all
+posterity_ by the settlement of the crown in the Protestant line."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I mean now to show that the Whigs (if Sir Joseph Jekyl was one, and if
+he spoke in conformity to the sense of the Whig House of Commons, and
+the Whig ministry who employed him) did carefully guard against any
+presumption that might arise from the repeal of the non-resistance oath
+of Charles the Second, as if at the Revolution the ancient principles of
+our government were at all changed, or that republican doctrines were
+countenanced, or any sanction given to seditious proceedings upon
+general undefined ideas of misconduct, or for changing the form of
+government, or for resistance upon any other ground than the _necessity_
+so often mentioned for the purpose of self-preservation. It will show
+still more clearly the equal care of the then Whigs to prevent either
+the regal power from being swallowed up on pretence of popular rights,
+or the popular rights from being destroyed on pretence of regal
+prerogatives.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl_.
+
+[Sidenote: Mischief of broaching antimonarchical principles.]
+
+[Sidenote: Two cases of resistance: one to preserve the crown, the other
+the rights of the subject.]
+
+"Further, I desire it may be considered, these legislators" (the
+legislators who framed the non-resistance oath of Charles the Second)
+"were guarding against the consequences of those _pernicious and
+antimonarchical principles which had been broached a little before in
+this nation_, and those large declarations in favor of _non-resistance_
+were made to encounter or obviate the _mischief_ of those
+principles,--as appears by the preamble to the fullest of those acts,
+which is the _Militia Act_, in the 13th and 14th of King Charles the
+Second. The words of that act are these: _And during the late usurped
+governments, many evil and rebellious principles have been instilled
+into the minds of the people of this kingdom, which may break forth,
+unless prevented, to the disturbance of the peace and quiet thereof: Be
+it therefore enacted_, &c. Here your Lordships may see the reason that
+inclined those legislators to express themselves in such a manner
+against resistance. _They had seen the regal rights swallowed up under
+the pretence of popular ones_: and it is no imputation on them, that
+they did not then foresee a _quite different case_, as was that of the
+Revolution, where, under the pretence of regal authority, a total
+subversion of the rights of the subject was advanced, and in a manner
+effected. And this may serve to show that it was not the design of those
+legislators to condemn resistance, in a case _of absolute necessity, for
+preserving the Constitution_, when they were guarding against principles
+which had so lately destroyed it."
+
+[Sidenote: Non-resistance oath not repealed because (with the
+restriction of necessity) it was false, but to prevent false
+interpretations.]
+
+"As to the truth of the doctrine in this declaration which was repealed,
+_I'll admit it to be as true as the Doctor's counsel assert it,--that
+is, with an exception of cases of necessity_: and it was not repealed
+because it was false, _understanding it with that restriction_; but it
+was repealed because it might be interpreted in _an unconfined sense,
+and exclusive of that restriction_, and, being so understood, would
+reflect on the justice of the Revolution: and this the legislature had
+at heart, and were very jealous of, and by this repeal of that
+declaration gave a Parliamentary or legislative admonition against
+asserting this doctrine of non-resistance _in an unlimited sense_."
+
+[Sidenote: General doctrine of non-resistance godly and wholesome; not
+bound to state _explicitly_ the exceptions.]
+
+"Though the general doctrine of non-resistance, the doctrine of the
+Church of England, as stated in her Homilies, or elsewhere delivered, by
+which the general duty of subjects to the higher powers is taught, be
+owned to be, as unquestionably it is, _a godly and wholesome
+doctrine_,--though this general doctrine has been constantly inculcated
+by the reverend fathers of the Church, dead and living, and preached by
+them as a preservative against the Popish doctrine of deposing princes,
+and as the ordinary rule of obedience,--and though the same doctrine has
+been preached, maintained, and avowed by our most orthodox and able
+divines from the time of the Reformation,--and how _innocent a man_
+soever Dr. Sacheverell had been, if, _with an honest and well-meant_
+zeal, he had preached the same doctrine in the same general terms in
+which he found it delivered by the Apostles of Christ, as taught by the
+Homilies and the reverend fathers of our Church, and, in imitation of
+those great examples, had only pressed the general duty of obedience,
+and the illegality of resistance, without taking notice of any
+exception," &c.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another of the managers for the House of Commons, Sir John Holland, was
+not less careful in guarding against a confusion of the principles of
+the Revolution with any loose, general doctrines of a right in the
+individual, or even in the people, to undertake for themselves, on any
+prevalent, temporary opinions of convenience or improvement, any
+fundamental change in the Constitution, or to fabricate a new
+government for themselves, and thereby to disturb the public peace, and
+to unsettle the ancient Constitution of this kingdom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir John Holland_.
+
+[Sidenote: Submission to the sovereign a conscientious duty, except in
+cases of necessity.]
+
+"The Commons would not be understood as if they were pleading for a
+licentious resistance, as if _subjects_ were left to _their_ good-will
+and pleasure when they are to _obey_ and when to _resist_. No, my Lords,
+they know they are _obliged by all the ties of social creatures and
+Christians, for wrath and conscience' sake, to submit to their
+sovereign_. The Commons do not abet _humorsome, factious arms_: they
+aver them to be _rebellions_. But yet they maintain that that resistance
+at the Revolution, which was so _necessary, was lawful and just from
+that necessity_."
+
+[Sidenote: Right of resistance how to be understood.]
+
+"These general rules of obedience may, upon a _real necessity,_ admit a
+lawful _exception_; and such a _necessary exception_ we assert the
+Revolution to be.
+
+"'Tis with this view of _necessity_, only _absolute necessity_ of
+preserving our laws, liberties, and religion,--'tis with _this
+limitation_, that we desire to be understood, when any of us speak of
+resistance in general. The _necessity_ of the resistance at the
+Revolution was at that time obvious to every man."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I shall conclude these extracts with a reference to the Prince of
+Orange's Declaration, in which he gives the nation the fullest assurance
+that in his enterprise he was far from the intention of introducing any
+change whatever in the fundamental law and Constitution of the state. He
+considered the object of his enterprise not to be a precedent for
+further revolutions, but that it was the great end of his expedition to
+make such revolutions, so far as human power and wisdom could provide,
+unnecessary.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Extracts from the Prince of Orange's Declaration_.
+
+"_All magistrates, who have been_ unjustly turned out, shall _forthwith
+resume their former_ employments; as well as all the boroughs of England
+shall return again to _their ancient prescriptions and charters_, and,
+more particularly, that _the ancient_ charter of the great and famous
+city of London shall again be in force; and that the writs for the
+members of Parliament shall be addressed to the _proper officers,
+according to law and custom_."
+
+"And for the doing of all other things which the two Houses of
+Parliament shall find necessary for the peace, honor, and safety of the
+nation, so that there may _be no more danger of the nation's falling, at
+any time hereafter, under arbitrary government_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Extract from the Prince of Oranges Additional Declaration_.
+
+[Sidenote: Principal nobility and gentry well affected to the Church and
+crown, security against the design of innovation.]
+
+"We are confident that no persons can have _such hard thoughts of us_ as
+to imagine that we have any other design in this undertaking than to
+procure a settlement of the _religion and of the liberties and
+properties of the subjects upon so sure a foundation that there may be
+no danger of the nation's relapsing into the like miseries at any time
+hereafter_. And as the forces that we have brought along with us are
+utterly disproportioned to that wicked design of conquering the nation,
+if we were capable of intending it, _so the great numbers of the
+principal nobility and gentry, that are men of eminent quality and
+estates, and persons of known integrity and zeal, both for the religion
+and government of England, many of them, also being distinguished by
+their constant fidelity to the crown_, who do both accompany us in this
+expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it, will cover us from all
+such malicious insinuations."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the spirit, and, upon one occasion, in the words,[19] of this
+Declaration, the statutes passed in that reign made such provisions for
+preventing these dangers, that scarcely anything short of combination of
+King, Lords, and Commons, for the destruction of the liberties of the
+nation, can in any probability make us liable to similar perils. In that
+dreadful, and, I hope, not to be looked-for case, any opinion of a right
+to make revolutions, grounded on this precedent, would be but a poor
+resource. Dreadful, indeed, would be our situation!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These are the doctrines held by _the Whigs of the Revolution_, delivered
+with as much solemnity, and as authentically at least, as any political
+dogmas were ever promulgated from the beginning of the world. If there
+be any difference between their tenets and those of Mr. Burke, it is,
+that the old Whigs oppose themselves still more strongly than he does
+against the doctrines which are now propagated with so much industry by
+those who would be thought their successors.
+
+It will be said, perhaps, that the old Whigs, in order to guard
+themselves against popular odium, pretended to assert tenets contrary
+to those which they secretly held. This, if true, would prove, what Mr.
+Burke has uniformly asserted, that the extravagant doctrines which he
+meant to expose were disagreeable to the body of the people,--who,
+though they perfectly abhor a despotic government, certainly approached
+more nearly to the love of mitigated monarchy than to anything which
+bears the appearance even of the best republic. But if these old Whigs
+deceived the people, their conduct was unaccountable indeed. They
+exposed their power, as every one conversant in history knows, to the
+greatest peril, for the propagation of opinions which, on this
+hypothesis, they did not hold. It is a new kind of martyrdom. This
+supposition does as little credit to their integrity as their wisdom: it
+makes them at once hypocrites and fools. I think of those great men very
+differently. I hold them to have been, what the world thought them, men
+of deep understanding, open sincerity, and clear honor. However, be that
+matter as it may, what these old Whigs pretended to be Mr. Burke is.
+This is enough for him.
+
+I do, indeed, admit, that, though Mr. Burke has proved that his opinions
+were those of the old Whig party, solemnly declared by one House, in
+effect and substance by both Houses of Parliament, this testimony
+standing by itself will form no proper defence for his opinions, if he
+and the old Whigs were both of them in the wrong. But it is his present
+concern, not to vindicate these old Whigs, but to show his agreement
+with them. He appeals to them as judges: he does not vindicate them as
+culprits. It is current that these old politicians knew little of the
+rights of men,--that they lost their way by groping about in the dark,
+and fumbling among rotten parchments and musty records. Great lights,
+they say, are lately obtained in the world; and Mr. Burke, instead of
+shrouding himself in exploded ignorance, ought to have taken advantage
+of the blaze of illumination which has been spread about him. It may be
+so. The enthusiasts of this time, it seems, like their predecessors in
+another faction of fanaticism, deal in lights. Hudibras pleasantly says
+of them, they
+
+    "Have _lights_, where better eyes are blind,--
+     As pigs are said to see the wind."
+
+The author of the Reflections has _heard_ a great deal concerning the
+modern lights, but he has not yet had the good fortune to _see_ much of
+them. He has read more than he can justify to anything but the spirit of
+curiosity, of the works of these illuminators of the world. He has
+learned nothing from the far greater number of them than a full
+certainty of their shallowness, levity, pride, petulance, presumption,
+and ignorance. Where the old authors whom he has read, and the old men
+whom he has conversed with, have left him in the dark, he is in the dark
+still. If others, however, have obtained any of this extraordinary
+light, they will use it to guide them in their researches and their
+conduct. I have only to wish that the nation may be as happy and as
+prosperous under the influence of the new light as it has been in the
+sober shade of the old obscurity. As to the rest, it will be difficult
+for the author of the Reflections to conform to the principles of the
+avowed leaders of the party, until they appear otherwise than
+negatively. All we can gather from them is this,--that their principles
+are diametrically opposite to his. This is all that we know from
+authority. Their negative declaration obliges me to have recourse to
+the books which contain positive doctrines. They are, indeed, to those
+Mr. Burke holds diametrically opposite; and if it be true (as the
+oracles of the party have said, I hope hastily) that their opinions
+differ so widely, it should seem they are the most likely to form the
+creed of the modern Whigs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have stated what were the avowed sentiments of the old Whigs, not in
+the way of argument, but narratively. It is but fair to set before the
+reader, in the same simple manner, the sentiments of the modern, to
+which they spare neither pains nor expense to make proselytes. I choose
+them from the books upon which most of that industry and expenditure in
+circulation have been employed; I choose them, not from those who speak
+with a politic obscurity, not from those who only controvert the
+opinions of the old Whigs, without advancing any of their own, but from
+those who speak plainly and affirmatively. The Whig reader may make his
+choice between the two doctrines.
+
+The doctrine, then, propagated by these societies, which gentlemen think
+they ought to be very tender in discouraging, as nearly as possible in
+their own words, is as follows: That in Great Britain we are not only
+without a good Constitution, but that we have "no Constitution";--that,
+"though it is much talked about, no such thing as a Constitution exists
+or ever did exist, and consequently that _the people have a Constitution
+yet to form_;--that since William the Conqueror the country has never
+yet _regenerated itself_, and is therefore without a Constitution;--that
+where it cannot be produced in a visible form there is none;--that a
+Constitution is a thing antecedent to government; and that the
+Constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of a
+people constituting a government;--that _everything_ in the English
+government is the reverse of what it ought to be, and what it is said to
+be in England;--that the right of war and peace resides in a metaphor
+shown at the Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece;--that it signifies
+not where the right resides, whether in the crown or in Parliament; war
+is the common harvest of those who participate in the division and
+expenditure of public money;--that the portion of liberty enjoyed in
+England is just enough to enslave a country more productively than by
+despotism."
+
+So far as to the general state of the British Constitution.--As to our
+House of Lords, the chief virtual representative of our aristocracy, the
+great ground and pillar of security to the landed interest, and that
+main link by which it is connected with the law and the crown, these
+worthy societies are pleased to tell us, that, "whether we view
+aristocracy before, or behind, or sideways, or any way else,
+domestically or publicly, it is still a _monster_;--that aristocracy in
+France had one feature less in its countenance than what it has in some
+other countries: it did not compose a body of hereditary legislators; it
+was not _a corporation of aristocracy_" (for such, it seems, that
+profound legislator, M. de La Fayette, describes the House of
+Peers);--"that it is kept up by family tyranny and injustice;--that
+there is an unnatural unfitness in aristocracy to be legislators for a
+nation;--that their ideas of distributive justice are corrupted at the
+very source; they begin life by trampling on all their younger brothers
+and sisters, and relations of every kind, and are taught and educated
+so to do;--that the idea of an hereditary legislator is as absurd as an
+hereditary mathematician;--that a body holding themselves unaccountable
+to anybody ought to be trusted by nobody;--that it is continuing the
+uncivilized principles of governments founded in conquest, and the base
+idea of man having a property in man, and governing him by a personal
+right;--that aristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the human
+species," &c., &c.
+
+As to our law of primogeniture, which with few and inconsiderable
+exceptions is the standing law of all our landed inheritance, and which
+without question has a tendency, and I think a most happy tendency, to
+preserve a character of consequence, weight, and prevalent influence
+over others in the whole body of the landed interest, they call loudly
+for its destruction. They do this for political reasons that are very
+manifest. They have the confidence to say, "that it is a law against
+every law of Nature, and Nature herself calls for its destruction.
+Establish family justice, and aristocracy falls. By the aristocratical
+law of primogenitureship, in a family of six children, five are exposed.
+Aristocracy has never but _one_ child. The rest are begotten to be
+devoured. They are thrown to the cannibal for prey, and the natural
+parent prepares the unnatural repast."
+
+As to the House of Commons, they treat it far worse than the House of
+Lords or the crown have been ever treated. Perhaps they thought they had
+a greater right to take this amicable freedom with those of their own
+family. For many years it has been the perpetual theme of their
+invectives. "Mockery, insult, usurpation," are amongst the best names
+they bestow upon it. They damn it in the mass, by declaring "that it
+does not arise out of the inherent rights of the people, as the National
+Assembly does in France, and whose name designates its original."
+
+Of the charters and corporations, to whose rights a few years ago these
+gentlemen were so tremblingly alive, they say, "that, when the people of
+England come to reflect upon them, they will, like France, annihilate
+those badges of oppression, those traces of a conquered nation."
+
+As to our monarchy, they had formerly been more tender of that branch of
+the Constitution, and for a good reason. The laws had guarded against
+all seditious attacks upon it with a greater degree of strictness and
+severity. The tone of these gentlemen is totally altered since the
+French Revolution. They now declaim as vehemently against the monarchy
+as on former occasions they treacherously flattered and soothed it.
+
+"When we survey the wretched condition of man under the monarchical and
+hereditary systems of government, dragged from his home by one power, or
+driven by another, and impoverished by taxes more than by enemies, it
+becomes evident that those systems are bad, and that a general
+revolution in the principle and construction of governments is
+necessary.
+
+"What is government more than the management of the affairs of a nation?
+It is not, and from its nature cannot be, the property of any particular
+man or family, but of the whole community, at whose expense it is
+supported; and though by force or contrivance it has been usurped into
+an inheritance, the usurpation cannot alter the right of things.
+Sovereignty, as a matter of right, appertains to the nation only, and
+not to any individual; and a nation has at all times an inherent
+indefeasible right to abolish any form of government it finds
+inconvenient, and establish such as accords with its interest,
+disposition, and happiness. The romantic and barbarous distinction of
+men into kings and subjects, though it may suit the condition of
+courtiers, cannot that of citizens, and is exploded by the principle
+upon which governments are now founded. Every citizen is a member of the
+sovereignty, and, as such, can acknowledge no personal subjection, and
+his obedience can be only to the laws."
+
+Warmly recommending to us the example of Prance, where they have
+destroyed monarchy, they say,--
+
+"Monarchical sovereignty, the enemy of mankind, and the source of
+misery, is abolished; and sovereignty itself is restored to its natural
+and original place, the nation. Were this the case throughout Europe,
+the cause of wars would be taken away."
+
+"But, after all, what is this metaphor called a crown? or rather, what
+is monarchy? Is it a thing, or is it a name, or is it a fraud? Is it 'a
+contrivance of human wisdom,' or of human craft, to obtain money from a
+nation under specious pretences? Is it a thing necessary to a nation? If
+it is, in what does that necessity consist, what services does it
+perform, what is its business, and what are its merits? Doth the virtue
+consist in the metaphor or in the man? Doth the goldsmith that makes the
+crown make the virtue also? Doth it operate like Fortunatus's
+wishing-cap or Harlequin's wooden sword? Doth it make a man a conjurer?
+In fine, what is it? It appears to be a something going much out of
+fashion, falling into ridicule, and rejected in some countries both as
+unnecessary and expensive. In America it is considered as an absurdity;
+and in France it has so far declined, that the goodness of the man and
+the respect for his personal character are the only things that preserve
+the appearance of its existence."
+
+"Mr. Burke talks about what he calls an hereditary crown, as if it were
+some production of Nature,--or as if, like time, it had a power to
+operate, not only independently, but in spite of man,--or as if it were
+a thing or a subject universally consented to. Alas! it has none of
+those properties, but is the reverse of them all. It is a thing in
+imagination, the propriety of which is more than doubted, and the
+legality of which in a few years will be denied."
+
+"If I ask the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and
+down through all the occupations of life to the common laborer, what
+service monarchy is to him, he can give me no answer. If I ask him what
+monarchy is, he believes it is something like a sinecure."
+
+"The French Constitution says, that the right of war and peace is in the
+nation. Where else should it reside, but in those who are to pay the
+expense?
+
+"In England, this right is said to reside in a _metaphor_, shown at the
+Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece: so are the lions; and it would
+be a step nearer to reason to say it resided in them, for any inanimate
+metaphor is no more than a hat or a cap. We can all see the absurdity of
+worshipping Aaron's molten calf, or Nebuchadnezzar's golden image; but
+why do men continue to practise themselves the absurdities they despise
+in others?"
+
+The Revolution and Hanover succession had been objects of the highest
+veneration to the old Whigs. They thought them not only proofs of the
+sober and steady spirit of liberty which guided their ancestors, but of
+their wisdom and provident care of posterity. The modern Whigs have
+quite other notions of these events and actions. They do not deny that
+Mr. Burke has given truly the words of the acts of Parliament which
+secured the succession, and the just sense of them. They attack not him,
+but the law.
+
+"Mr Burke" (say they) "has done some service, not to his cause, but to
+his country, by bringing those clauses into public view. They serve to
+demonstrate how necessary it is at all times to watch against the
+attempted encroachment of power, and to prevent its running to excess.
+It is somewhat extraordinary, that the offence for which James the
+Second was expelled, that of setting up power by _assumption_, should be
+re-acted, under another shape and form, by the Parliament that expelled
+him. It shows that the rights of man were but imperfectly understood at
+the Revolution; for certain it is, that the right which that Parliament
+set up by _assumption_ (for by delegation it had it not, and could not
+have it, because none could give it) over the persons and freedom of
+posterity forever, was of the same tyrannical unfounded kind which James
+attempted to set up over the Parliament and the nation, and for which he
+was expelled. The only difference is, (for in principle they differ
+not,) that the one was an usurper over the living, and the other over
+the unborn; and as the one has no better authority to stand upon than
+the other, both of them must be equally null and void, and of no
+effect."
+
+"As the estimation of all things is by comparison, the Revolution of
+1688, however from circumstances it may have been exalted beyond its
+value, will find its level. It is already on the wane, eclipsed by the
+enlarging orb of reason and the luminous Revolutions of America and
+France. In less than another century, it will go, as well as Mr. Burke's
+labors, 'to the family vault of all the Capulets.' _Mankind will then
+scarcely believe that a country calling itself free would send to
+Holland for a man and clothe him with power on purpose to put themselves
+in fear of him, and give him almost a million sterling a year for leave
+to submit themselves and their posterity like bondmen and bondwomen
+forever_."
+
+Mr. Burke having said that "the king holds his crown in contempt of the
+choice of the Revolution Society, who individually or collectively have
+not" (as most certainly they have not) "a vote for a king amongst them,"
+they take occasion from thence to infer that the king who does not hold
+his crown by election despises the people.
+
+"'The king of England,' says he, 'holds _his_ crown' (for it does not
+belong to the nation, according to Mr. Burke) 'in _contempt_ of the
+choice of the Revolution Society,'" &c.
+
+"As to who is king in England or elsewhere, or whether there is any king
+at all, or whether the people choose a Cherokee chief or a Hessian
+hussar for a king, it is not a matter that I trouble myself about,--be
+that to themselves; but with respect to the doctrine, so far as it
+relates to the rights of men and nations, it is as abominable as
+anything ever uttered in the most enslaved country under heaven. Whether
+it sounds worse to my ear, by not being accustomed to hear such
+despotism, than what it does to the ear of another person, I am not so
+well a judge of; but of its abominable principle I am at no loss to
+judge."
+
+These societies of modern Whigs push their insolence as far as it can
+go. In order to prepare the minds of the people for treason and
+rebellion, they represent the king as tainted with principles of
+despotism, from the circumstance of his having dominions in Germany. In
+direct defiance of the most notorious truth, they describe his
+government there to be a despotism; whereas it is a free Constitution,
+in which the states of the Electorate have their part in the government:
+and this privilege has never been infringed by the king, or, that I have
+heard of, by any of his predecessors. The Constitution of the Electoral
+dominions has, indeed, a double control, both from the laws of the
+Empire and from the privileges of the country. Whatever rights the king
+enjoys as Elector have been always parentally exercised, and the
+calumnies of these scandalous societies have not been authorized by a
+single complaint of oppression.
+
+"When Mr. Burke says that 'his Majesty's heirs and successors, each in
+their time and order, will come to the crown with the _same contempt_ of
+their choice with which his Majesty has succeeded to that he wears,' it
+is saying too much even to the humblest individual in the country, part
+of whose daily labor goes towards making up the million sterling a year
+which the country gives the person it styles a king. Government with
+insolence is despotism; but when contempt is added, it becomes worse;
+and to pay for contempt is the excess of slavery. This species of
+government comes from Germany, and reminds me of what one of the
+Brunswick soldiers told me, who was taken prisoner by the Americans in
+the late war. 'Ah!' said he, 'America is a fine free country: it is
+worth the people's fighting for. I know the difference by knowing my
+own: in my country, _if the prince says, "Eat straw" we eat straw_.' God
+help that country, thought I, be it England, or elsewhere, whose
+liberties are to be protected by _German principles of government and
+princes of Brunswick_!"
+
+"It is somewhat curious to observe, that, although the people of England
+have been in the habit of talking about kings, it is always a foreign
+house of kings,--hating foreigners, yet governed by them. It is now the
+House of Brunswick, one of the petty tribes of Germany."
+
+"If government be what Mr. Burke describes it, 'a contrivance of human
+wisdom,' I might ask him if wisdom was at such a low ebb in England that
+it was become necessary to import it from Holland and from Hanover? But
+I will do the country the justice to say, that was not the case; and
+even if it was, it mistook the cargo. The wisdom of every country, when
+properly exerted, is sufficient for all its purposes; _and there could
+exist no more real occasion in England to have sent for a Dutch
+Stadtholder or a German Elector_ than there was in America to have done
+a similar thing. If a country does not understand its own affairs, how
+is a foreigner to understand them, who knows neither its laws, its
+manners, nor its language? If there existed a man so transcendently wise
+above all others that his wisdom was necessary to instruct a nation,
+some reason might be offered for monarchy; but when we cast our eyes
+about a country, and observe how every part understands its own
+affairs, and when we look around the world, and see, that, of all men in
+it, the race of kings are the most insignificant in capacity, our reason
+cannot fail to ask us, What are those men kept for?"[20]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These are the notions which, under the idea of Whig principles, several
+persons, and among them persons of no mean mark, have associated
+themselves to propagate. I will not attempt in the smallest degree to
+refute them. This will probably be done (if such writings shall be
+thought to deserve any other than the refutation of criminal justice) by
+others, who may think with Mr. Burke. He has performed his part.
+
+I do not wish to enter very much at large into the discussions which
+diverge and ramify in all ways from this productive subject. But there
+is one topic upon which I hope I shall be excused in going a little
+beyond my design. The factions now so busy amongst us, in order to
+divest men of all love for their country, and to remove from their minds
+all duty with regard to the state, endeavor to propagate an opinion,
+that the _people_, in forming their commonwealth, have by no means
+parted with their power over it. This is an impregnable citadel, to
+which these gentlemen retreat, whenever they are pushed by the battery
+of laws and usages and positive conventions. Indeed, it is such, and of
+so great force, that all they have done in defending their outworks is
+so much time and labor thrown away. Discuss any of their schemes, their
+answer is, It is the act of the _people_, and that is sufficient. Are
+we to deny to a _majority_ of the people the right of altering even the
+whole frame of their society, if such should be their pleasure? They may
+change it, say they, from a monarchy to a republic to-day, and to-morrow
+back again from a republic to a monarchy; and so backward and forward as
+often as they like. They are masters of the commonwealth, because in
+substance they are themselves the commonwealth. The French Revolution,
+say they, was the act of the majority of the people; and if the majority
+of any other people, the people of England, for instance, wish to make
+the same change, they have the same right.
+
+Just the same, undoubtedly. That is, none at all. Neither the few nor
+the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter
+connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation. The Constitution
+of a country being once settled upon some compact, tacit or expressed,
+there is no power existing of force to alter it, without the breach of
+the covenant, or the consent of all the parties. Such is the nature of a
+contract. And the votes of a majority of the people, whatever their
+infamous flatterers may teach in order to corrupt their minds, cannot
+alter the moral any more than they can alter the physical essence of
+things. The people are not to be taught to think lightly of their
+engagements to their governors; else they teach governors to think
+lightly of their engagements towards them. In that kind of game, in the
+end, the people are sure to be losers. To flatter them into a contempt
+of faith, truth, and justice is to ruin them; for in these virtues
+consists their whole safety. To flatter any man, or any part of mankind,
+in any description, by asserting that in engagements he or they are
+free, whilst any other human creature is bound, is ultimately to vest
+the rule of morality in the pleasure of those who ought to be rigidly
+submitted to it,--to subject the sovereign reason of the world to the
+caprices of weak and giddy men.
+
+But, as no one of us men can dispense with public or private faith, or
+with any other tie of moral obligation, so neither can any number of us.
+The number engaged in crimes, instead of turning them into laudable
+acts, only augments the quantity and intensity of the guilt. I am well
+aware that men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme
+disrelish to be told of their duty. This is of course; because every
+duty is a limitation of some power. Indeed, arbitrary power is so much
+to the depraved taste of the vulgar, of the vulgar of every description,
+that almost all the dissensions which lacerate the commonwealth are not
+concerning the manner in which it is to be exercised, but concerning the
+hands in which it is to be placed. Somewhere they are resolved to have
+it. Whether they desire it to be vested in the many or the few depends
+with most men upon the chance which they imagine they themselves may
+have of partaking in the exercise of that arbitrary sway, in the one
+mode or in the other.
+
+It is not necessary to teach men to thirst after power. But it is very
+expedient that by moral instruction they should be taught, and by their
+civil constitutions they should be compelled, to put many restrictions
+upon the immoderate exercise of it, and the inordinate desire. The best
+method of obtaining these two great points forms the important, but at
+the same time the difficult problem to the true statesman. He thinks of
+the place in which political power is to be lodged with no other
+attention than as it may render the more or the less practicable its
+salutary restraint and its prudent direction. For this reason, no
+legislator, at any period of the world, has willingly placed the seat of
+active power in the hands of the multitude; because there it admits of
+no control, no regulation, no steady direction whatsoever. The people
+are the natural control on authority; but to exercise and to control
+together is contradictory and impossible.
+
+As the exorbitant exercise of power cannot, under popular sway, be
+effectually restrained, the other great object of political arrangement,
+the means of abating an excessive desire of it, is in such a state still
+worse provided for. The democratic commonwealth is the foodful nurse of
+ambition. Under the other forms it meets with many restraints. Whenever,
+in states which have had a democratic basis, the legislators have
+endeavored to put restraints upon ambition, their methods were as
+violent as in the end they were ineffectual,--as violent, indeed, as any
+the most jealous despotism could invent. The ostracism could not very
+long save itself, and much less the state which it was meant to guard,
+from the attempts of ambition,--one of the natural, inbred, incurable
+distempers of a powerful democracy.
+
+But to return from this short digression,--which, however, is not wholly
+foreign to the question of the effect of the will of the majority upon
+the form or the existence of their society. I cannot too often recommend
+it to the serious consideration of all men who think civil society to be
+within the province of moral jurisdiction, that, if we owe to it any
+duty, it is not subject to our will. Duties are not voluntary. Duty and
+will are even contradictory terms. Now, though civil society might be at
+first a voluntary act, (which in many cases it undoubtedly was,) its
+continuance is under a permanent standing covenant, coexisting with the
+society; and it attaches upon every individual of that society, without
+any formal act of his own. This is warranted by the general practice,
+arising out of the general sense of mankind. Men without their choice
+derive benefits from that association; without their choice they are
+subjected to duties in consequence of these benefits; and without their
+choice they enter into a virtual obligation as binding as any that is
+actual. Look through the whole of life and the whole system of duties.
+Much the strongest moral obligations are such as were never the results
+of our option. I allow, that, if no Supreme Ruler exists, wise to form,
+and potent to enforce, the moral law, there is no sanction to any
+contract, virtual or even actual, against the will of prevalent power.
+On that hypothesis, let any set of men be strong enough to set their
+duties at defiance, and they cease to be duties any longer. We have but
+this one appeal against irresistible power,--
+
+    Si genus humanum et mortalia temnitis arma,
+    At sperate Deos memores fandi atque nefandi.
+
+Taking it for granted that I do not write to the disciples of the
+Parisian philosophy, I may assume that the awful Author of our being is
+the Author of our place in the order of existence,--and that, having
+disposed and marshalled us by a divine tactic, not according to our
+will, but according to His, He has in and by that disposition virtually
+subjected us to act the part which belongs to the place assigned us. We
+have obligations to mankind at large, which are not in consequence of
+any special voluntary pact. They arise from the relation of man to man,
+and the relation of man to God, which relations are not matters of
+choice. On the contrary, the force of all the pacts which we enter into
+with any particular person or number of persons amongst mankind depends
+upon those prior obligations. In some cases the subordinate relations
+are voluntary, in others they are necessary,--but the duties are all
+compulsive. When we marry, the choice is voluntary, but the duties are
+not matter of choice: they are dictated by the nature of the situation.
+Dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come into the world. The
+instincts which give rise to this mysterious process of Nature are not
+of our making. But out of physical causes, unknown to us, perhaps
+unknowable, arise moral duties, which, as we are able perfectly to
+comprehend, we are bound indispensably to perform. Parents may not be
+consenting to their moral relation; but, consenting or not, they are
+bound to a long train of burdensome duties towards those with whom they
+have never made a convention of any sort. Children are not consenting to
+their relation; but their relation, without their actual consent, binds
+them to its duties,--or rather it implies their consent, because the
+presumed consent of every rational creature is in unison with the
+predisposed order of things. Men come in that manner into a community
+with the social state of their parents, endowed with all the benefits,
+loaded with all the duties of their situation. If the social ties and
+ligaments, spun out of those physical relations which are the elements
+of the commonwealth, in most cases begin, and always continue,
+independently of our will, so, without any stipulation on our own part,
+are we bound by that relation called our country, which comprehends (as
+it has been well said) "all the charities of all."[21] Nor are we left
+without powerful instincts to make this duty as dear and grateful to us
+as it is awful and coercive. Our country is not a thing of mere physical
+locality. It consists, in a great measure, in the ancient order into
+which we are born. We may have the same geographical situation, but
+another country; as we may have the same country in another soil. The
+place that determines our duty to our country is a social, civil
+relation.
+
+These are the opinions of the author whose cause I defend. I lay them
+down, not to enforce them upon others by disputation, but as an account
+of his proceedings. On them he acts; and from them he is convinced that
+neither he, nor any man, or number of men, have a right (except what
+necessity, which is out of and above all rule, rather imposes than
+bestows) to free themselves from that primary engagement into which
+every man born into a community as much contracts by his being born into
+it as he contracts an obligation to certain parents by his having been
+derived from their bodies. The place of every man determines his duty.
+If you ask, _Quem te Deus esse jussit_? you will be answered when you
+resolve this other question, _Humana qua parte locatus es in re_?[22]
+
+I admit, indeed, that in morals, as in all things else, difficulties
+will sometimes occur. Duties will sometimes cross one another. Then
+questions will arise, which of them is to be placed in subordination?
+which of them may be entirely superseded? These doubts give rise to that
+part of moral science called _casuistry_, which though necessary to be
+well studied by those who would become expert in that learning, who aim
+at becoming what I think Cicero somewhere calls _artifices officiorum_,
+it requires a very solid and discriminating judgment, great modesty and
+caution, and much sobriety of mind in the handling; else there is a
+danger that it may totally subvert those offices which it is its object
+only to methodize and reconcile. Duties, at their extreme bounds, are
+drawn very fine, so as to become almost evanescent. In that state some
+shade of doubt will always rest on these questions, when they are
+pursued with great subtilty. But the very habit of stating these extreme
+cases is not very laudable or safe; because, in general, it is not right
+to turn our duties into doubts. They are imposed to govern our conduct,
+not to exercise our ingenuity; and therefore our opinions about them
+ought not to be in a state of fluctuation, but steady, sure, and
+resolved.
+
+Amongst these nice, and therefore dangerous points of casuistry, may be
+reckoned the question so much agitated in the present hour,--Whether,
+after the people have discharged themselves of their original power by
+an habitual delegation, no occasion can possibly occur which may
+justify the resumption of it? This question, in this latitude, is very
+hard to affirm or deny: but I am satisfied that no occasion can justify
+such a resumption, which would not equally authorize a dispensation with
+any other moral duty, perhaps with all of them together. However, if in
+general it be not easy to determine concerning the lawfulness of such
+devious proceedings, which must be ever on the edge of crimes, it is far
+from difficult to foresee the perilous consequences of the resuscitation
+of such a power in the people. The practical consequences of any
+political tenet go a great way in deciding upon its value. Political
+problems do not primarily concern truth or falsehood. They relate to
+good or evil. What in the result is likely to produce evil is
+politically false; that which is productive of good, politically true.
+
+Believing it, therefore, a question at least arduous in the theory, and
+in the practice very critical, it would become us to ascertain as well
+as we can what form it is that our incantations are about to call up
+from darkness and the sleep of ages. When the supreme authority of the
+people is in question, before we attempt to extend or to confine it, we
+ought to fix in our minds, with some degree of distinctness, an idea of
+what it is we mean, when we say, the PEOPLE.
+
+In a state of _rude_ Nature there is no such thing as a people. A number
+of men in themselves have no collective capacity. The idea of a people
+is the idea of a corporation. It is wholly artificial, and made, like
+all other legal fictions, by common agreement. What the particular
+nature of that agreement was is collected from the form into which the
+particular society has been cast. Any other is not _their_ covenant.
+When men, therefore, break up the original compact or agreement which
+gives its corporate form and capacity to a state, they are no longer a
+people,--they have no longer a corporate existence,--they have no longer
+a legal coactive force to bind within, nor a claim to be recognized
+abroad. They are a number of vague, loose individuals, and nothing more.
+With them all is to begin again. Alas! they little know how many a weary
+step is to be taken before they can form themselves into a mass which
+has a true politic personality.
+
+We hear much, from men who have not acquired their hardiness of
+assertion from the profundity of their thinking, about the omnipotence
+of a _majority_, in such a dissolution of an ancient society as hath
+taken place in France. But amongst men so disbanded there can be no such
+thing as majority or minority, or power in any one person to bind
+another. The power of acting by a majority, which the gentlemen
+theorists seem to assume so readily, after they have violated the
+contract out of which it has arisen, (if at all it existed,) must be
+grounded on two assumptions: first, that of an incorporation produced by
+unanimity; and secondly, an unanimous agreement that the act of a mere
+majority (say of one) shall pass with them and with others as the act of
+the whole.
+
+We are so little affected by things which are habitual, that we consider
+this idea of the decision of a _majority_ as if it were a law of our
+original nature. But such constructive whole, residing in a part only,
+is one of the most violent fictions of positive law that ever has been
+or can be made on the principles of artificial incorporation. Out of
+civil society Nature knows nothing of it; nor are men, even when
+arranged according to civil order, otherwise than by very long training,
+brought at all to submit to it. The mind is brought far more easily to
+acquiesce in the proceedings of one man, or a few, who act under a
+general procuration for the state, than in the vote of a victorious
+majority in councils in which every man has his share in the
+deliberation. For there the beaten party are exasperated and soured by
+the previous contention, and mortified by the conclusive defeat. This
+mode of decision, where wills may be so nearly equal, where, according
+to circumstances, the smaller number may be the stronger force, and
+where apparent reason may be all upon one side, and on the other little
+else than impetuous appetite,--all this must be the result of a very
+particular and special convention, confirmed afterwards by long habits
+of obedience, by a sort of discipline in society, and by a strong hand,
+vested with stationary, permanent power to enforce this sort of
+constructive general will. What organ it is that shall declare the
+corporate mind is so much a matter of positive arrangement, that several
+states, for the validity of several of their acts, have required a
+proportion of voices much greater than that of a mere majority. These
+proportions are so entirely governed by convention that in some cases
+the minority decides. The laws in many countries to _condemn_ require
+more than a mere majority; less than an equal number to _acquit_. In our
+judicial trials we require unanimity either to condemn or to absolve. In
+some incorporations one man speaks for the whole; in others, a few.
+Until the other day, in the Constitution of Poland unanimity was
+required to give validity to any act of their great national council or
+diet. This approaches much more nearly to rude Nature than the
+institutions of any other country. Such, indeed, every commonwealth must
+be, without a positive law to recognize in a certain number the will of
+the entire body.
+
+If men dissolve their ancient incorporation in order to regenerate their
+community, in that state of things each man has a right, if he pleases,
+to remain an individual. Any number of individuals, who can agree upon
+it, have an undoubted right to form themselves into a state apart and
+wholly independent. If any of these is forced into the fellowship of
+another, this is conquest and not compact. On every principle which
+supposes society to be in virtue of a free covenant, this compulsive
+incorporation must be null and void.
+
+As a people can have no right to a corporate capacity without universal
+consent, so neither have they a right to hold exclusively any lands in
+the name and title of a corporation. On the scheme of the present rulers
+in our neighboring country, regenerated as they are, they have no more
+right to the territory called France than I have. I have a right to
+pitch my tent in any unoccupied place I can find for it; and I may apply
+to my own maintenance any part of their unoccupied soil. I may purchase
+the house or vineyard of any individual proprietor who refuses his
+consent (and most proprietors have, as far as they dared, refused it) to
+the new incorporation. I stand in his independent place. Who are these
+insolent men, calling themselves the French nation, that would
+monopolize this fair domain of Nature? Is it because they speak a
+certain jargon? Is it their mode of chattering, to me unintelligible,
+that forms their title to my land? Who are they who claim by
+prescription and descent from certain gangs of banditti called Franks,
+and Burgundians, and Visigoths, of whom I may have never heard, and
+ninety-nine out of an hundred of themselves certainly never have heard,
+whilst at the very time they tell me that prescription and long
+possession form no title to property? Who are they that presume to
+assert that the land which I purchased of the individual, a natural
+person, and not a fiction of state, belongs to them, who in the very
+capacity in which they make their claim can exist only as an imaginary
+being, and in virtue of the very prescription which they reject and
+disown? This mode of arguing might be pushed into all the detail, so as
+to leave no sort of doubt, that, on their principles, and on the sort of
+footing on which they have thought proper to place themselves, the crowd
+of men, on the other side of the Channel, who have the impudence to call
+themselves a people, can never be the lawful, exclusive possessors of
+the soil. By what they call reasoning without prejudice, they leave not
+one stone upon another in the fabric of human society. They subvert all
+the authority which they hold, as well as all that which they have
+destroyed.
+
+As in the abstract it is perfectly clear, that, out of a state of civil
+society, majority and minority are relations which can have no
+existence, and that, in civil society, its own specific conventions in
+each corporation determine what it is that constitutes the people, so as
+to make their act the signification of the general will,--to come to
+particulars, it is equally clear that neither in France nor in England
+has the original or any subsequent compact of the state, expressed or
+implied, constituted _a majority of men, told by the head_, to be the
+acting people of their several communities. And I see as little of
+policy or utility as there is of right, in laying down a principle that
+a majority of men told by the head are to be considered as the people,
+and that as such their will is to be law. What policy can there be found
+in arrangements made in defiance of every political principle? To enable
+men to act with the weight and character of a people, and to answer the
+ends for which they are incorporated into that capacity, we must suppose
+them (by means immediate or consequential) to be in that state of
+habitual social discipline in which the wiser, the more expert, and the
+more opulent conduct, and by conducting enlighten and protect, the
+weaker, the less knowing, and the less provided with the goods of
+fortune. When the multitude are not under this discipline, they can
+scarcely be said to be in civil society. Give once a certain
+constitution of things which produces a variety of conditions and
+circumstances in a state, and there is in Nature and reason a principle
+which, for their own benefit, postpones, not the interest, but the
+judgment, of those who are _numero plures_, to those who are _virtute et
+honore majores_. Numbers in a state (supposing, which is not the case in
+France, that a state does exist) are always of consideration,--but they
+are not the whole consideration. It is in things more serious than a
+play, that it may be truly said, _Satis est equitem mihi plaudere_.
+
+A true natural aristocracy is not a separate interest in the state, or
+separable from it. It is an essential integrant part of any large body
+rightly constituted. It is formed out of a class of legitimate
+presumptions, which, taken as generalities, must be admitted for actual
+truths. To be bred in a place of estimation; to see nothing low and
+sordid from one's infancy; to be taught to respect one's self; to be
+habituated to the censorial inspection of the public eye; to look early
+to public opinion; to stand upon such elevated ground as to be enabled
+to take a large view of the wide-spread and infinitely diversified
+combinations of men and affairs in a large society; to have leisure to
+read, to reflect, to converse; to be enabled to draw the court and
+attention of the wise and learned, wherever they are to be found; to be
+habituated in armies to command and to obey; to be taught to despise
+danger in the pursuit of honor and duty; to be formed to the greatest
+degree of vigilance, foresight, and circumspection, in a state of things
+in which no fault is committed with impunity and the slightest mistakes
+draw on the most ruinous consequences; to be led to a guarded and
+regulated conduct, from a sense that you are considered as an instructor
+of your fellow-citizens in their highest concerns, and that you act as a
+reconciler between God and man; to be employed as an administrator of
+law and justice, and to be thereby amongst the first benefactors to
+mankind; to be a professor of high science, or of liberal and ingenuous
+art; to be amongst rich traders, who from their success are presumed to
+have sharp and vigorous understandings, and to possess the virtues of
+diligence, order, constancy, and regularity, and to have cultivated an
+habitual regard to commutative justice: these are the circumstances of
+men that form what I should call a _natural_ aristocracy, without which
+there is no nation.
+
+The state of civil society which necessarily generates this aristocracy
+is a state of Nature,--and much more truly so than a savage and
+incoherent mode of life. For man is by nature reasonable; and he is
+never perfectly in his natural state, but when he is placed where reason
+may be best cultivated and most predominates. Art is man's nature. We
+are as much, at least, in a state of Nature in formed manhood as in
+immature and helpless infancy. Men, qualified in the manner I have just
+described, form in Nature, as she operates in the common modification of
+society, the leading, guiding, and governing part. It is the soul to the
+body, without which the man does not exist. To give, therefore, no more
+importance, in the social order, to such descriptions of men than that
+of so many units is a horrible usurpation.
+
+When great multitudes act together, under that discipline of Nature, I
+recognize the PEOPLE. I acknowledge something that perhaps equals, and
+ought always to guide, the sovereignty of convention. In all things the
+voice of this grand chorus of national harmony ought to have a mighty
+and decisive influence. But when you disturb this harmony,--when you
+break up this beautiful order, this array of truth and Nature, as well
+as of habit and prejudice,--when you separate the common sort of men
+from their proper chieftains, so as to form them into an adverse
+army,--I no longer know that venerable object called the people in such
+a disbanded race of deserters and vagabonds. For a while they may be
+terrible, indeed,--but in such a manner as wild beasts are terrible. The
+mind owes to them no sort of submission. They are, as they have always
+been reputed, rebels. They may lawfully be fought with, and brought
+under, whenever an advantage offers. Those who attempt by outrage and
+violence to deprive men of any advantage which they hold under the
+laws, and to destroy the natural order of life, proclaim war against
+them.
+
+We have read in history of that furious insurrection of the common
+people in France called the _Jacquerie_: for this is not the first time
+that the people have been enlightened into treason, murder, and rapine.
+Its object was to extirpate the gentry. The Captal de Buch, a famous
+soldier of those days, dishonored the name of a gentleman and of a man
+by taking, for their cruelties, a cruel vengeance on these deluded
+wretches: it was, however, his right and his duty to make war upon them,
+and afterwards, in moderation, to bring them to punishment for their
+rebellion; though in the sense of the French Revolution, and of some of
+our clubs, they were the _people_,--and were truly so, if you will call
+by that appellation _any majority of men told by the head_.
+
+At a time not very remote from the same period (for these humors never
+have affected one of the nations without some influence on the other)
+happened several risings of the lower commons in England. These
+insurgents were certainly the majority of the inhabitants of the
+counties in which they resided; and Cade, Ket, and Straw, at the head of
+their national guards, and fomented by certain traitors of high rank,
+did no more than exert, according to the doctrines of ours and the
+Parisian societies, the sovereign power inherent in the majority.
+
+We call the time of those events a dark age. Indeed, we are too
+indulgent to our own proficiency. The Abb� John Ball understood the
+rights of man as well as the Abb� Gr�goire. That reverend patriarch of
+sedition, and prototype of our modern preachers, was of opinion, with
+the National Assembly, that all the evils which have fallen upon men had
+been caused by an ignorance of their "having been born and continued
+equal as to their rights." Had the populace been able to repeat that
+profound maxim, all would have gone perfectly well with them. No
+tyranny, no vexation, no oppression, no care, no sorrow, could have
+existed in the world. This would have cured them like a charm for the
+tooth-ache. But the lowest wretches, in their most ignorant state, were
+able at all times to talk such stuff; and yet at all times have they
+suffered many evils and many oppressions, both before and since the
+republication by the National Assembly of this spell of healing potency
+and virtue. The enlightened Dr. Ball, when he wished to rekindle the
+lights and fires of his audience on this point, chose for the test the
+following couplet:--
+
+    When Adam delved and Eve span,
+    Who was then the gentleman?
+
+Of this sapient maxim, however, I do not give him for the inventor. It
+seems to have been handed down by tradition, and had certainly become
+proverbial; but whether then composed or only applied, thus much must be
+admitted, that in learning, sense, energy, and comprehensiveness, it is
+fully equal to all the modern dissertations on the equality of mankind:
+and it has one advantage over them,--that it is in rhyme.[23]
+
+There is no doubt but that this great teacher of the rights of man
+decorated his discourse on this valuable text with lemmas, theorems,
+scholia, corollaries, and all the apparatus of science, which was
+furnished in as great plenty and perfection out of the dogmatic and
+polemic magazines, the old horse-armory of the Schoolmen, among whom the
+Rev. Dr. Ball was bred, as they can be supplied from the new arsenal at
+Hackney. It was, no doubt, disposed with all the adjutancy of
+definition and division, in which (I speak it with submission) the old
+marshals were as able as the modern martinets. Neither can we deny that
+the philosophic auditory, when they had once obtained this knowledge,
+could never return to their former ignorance, or after so instructive a
+lecture be in the same state of mind as if they had never heard it.[24]
+But these poor people, who were not to be envied for their knowledge,
+but pitied for their delusion, were not reasoned, (that was impossible,)
+but beaten, out of their lights. With their teacher they were delivered
+over to the lawyers, who wrote in their blood the statutes of the land,
+as harshly, and in the same sort of ink, as they and their teachers had
+written the rights of man.
+
+Our doctors of the day are not so fond of quoting the opinions of this
+ancient sage as they are of imitating his conduct: first, because it
+might appear that they are not as great inventors as they would be
+thought; and next, because, unfortunately for his fame, he was not
+successful. It is a remark liable to as few exceptions as any generality
+can be, that they who applaud prosperous folly and adore triumphant
+guilt have never been known to succor or even to pity human weakness or
+offence, when they become subject to human vicissitude, and meet with
+punishment instead of obtaining power. Abating for their want of
+sensibility to the sufferings of their associates, they are not so much
+in the wrong; for madness and wickedness are things foul and deformed in
+themselves, and stand in need of all the coverings and trappings of
+fortune to recommend them to the multitude. Nothing can be more
+loathsome in their naked nature.
+
+Aberrations like these, whether ancient or modern, unsuccessful or
+prosperous, are things of passage. They furnish no argument for
+supposing _a multitude told by the head to be the people_. Such a
+multitude can have no sort of title to alter the seat of power in the
+society, in which it ever ought to be the obedient, and not the ruling
+or presiding part. What power may belong to the whole mass, in which
+mass the natural _aristocracy_, or what by convention is appointed to
+represent and strengthen it, acts in its proper place, with its proper
+weight, and without being subjected to violence, is a deeper question.
+But in that case, and with that concurrence, I should have much doubt
+whether any rash or desperate changes in the state, such as we have seen
+in France, could ever be effected.
+
+I have said that in all political questions the consequences of any
+assumed rights are of great moment in deciding upon their validity. In
+this point of view let us a little scrutinize the effects of a right in
+the mere majority of the inhabitants of any country of superseding and
+altering their government _at pleasure_.
+
+The sum total of every people is composed of its units. Every individual
+must have a right to originate what afterwards is to become the act of
+the majority. Whatever he may lawfully originate he may lawfully
+endeavor to accomplish. He has a right, therefore, in his own
+particular, to break the ties and engagements which bind him to the
+country in which he lives; and he has a right to make as many converts
+to his opinions, and to obtain as many associates in his designs, as he
+can procure: for how can you know the dispositions of the majority to
+destroy their government, but by tampering with some part of the body?
+You must begin by a secret conspiracy, that you may end with a national
+confederation. The mere pleasure of the beginner must be the sole guide;
+since the mere pleasure of others must be the sole ultimate sanction, as
+well as the sole actuating principle in every part of the progress.
+Thus, arbitrary will (the last corruption of ruling power) step by step
+poisons the heart of every citizen. If the undertaker fails, he has the
+misfortune of a rebel, but not the guilt. By such doctrines, all love to
+our country, all pious veneration and attachment to its laws and
+customs, are obliterated from our minds; and nothing can result from
+this opinion, when grown into a principle, and animated by discontent,
+ambition, or enthusiasm, but a series of conspiracies and seditions,
+sometimes ruinous to their authors, always noxious to the state. No
+sense of duty can prevent any man from being a leader or a follower in
+such enterprises. Nothing restrains the tempter; nothing guards the
+tempted. Nor is the new state, fabricated by such arts, safer than the
+old. What can prevent the mere will of any person, who hopes to unite
+the wills of others to his own, from an attempt wholly to overturn it?
+It wants nothing but a disposition to trouble the established order, to
+give a title to the enterprise.
+
+When you combine this principle of the right to change a fixed and
+tolerable constitution of things at pleasure with the theory and
+practice of the French Assembly, the political, civil, and moral
+irregularity are, if possible, aggravated. The Assembly have found
+another road, and a far more commodious, to the destruction of an old
+government, and the legitimate formation of a new one, than through the
+previous will of the majority of what they call the people. Get, say
+they, the possession of power by any means you can into your hands; and
+then, a subsequent consent (what they call an _address of adhesion_)
+makes your authority as much the act of the people as if they had
+conferred upon you originally that kind and degree of power which
+without their permission you had seized upon. This is to give a direct
+sanction to fraud, hypocrisy, perjury, and the breach of the most sacred
+trusts that can exist between man and man. What can sound with such
+horrid discordance in the moral ear as this position,--that a delegate
+with limited powers may break his sworn engagements to his constituent,
+assume an authority, never committed to him, to alter all things at his
+pleasure, and then, if he can persuade a large number of men to flatter
+him in the power he has usurped, that he is absolved in his own
+conscience, and ought to stand acquitted in the eyes of mankind? On this
+scheme, the maker of the experiment must begin with a determined
+perjury. That point is certain. He must take his chance for the
+expiatory addresses. This is to make the success of villany the
+standard of innocence.
+
+Without drawing on, therefore, very shocking consequences, neither by
+previous consent, nor by subsequent ratification of a _mere reckoned
+majority_, can any set of men attempt to dissolve the state at their
+pleasure. To apply this to our present subject. When the several orders,
+in their several bailliages, had met in the year 1789, (such of them, I
+mean, as had met peaceably and constitutionally,) to choose and to
+instruct their representatives, so organized and so acting, (because
+they were organized and were acting according to the conventions which
+made them a people,) they were the _people_ of France. They had a legal
+and a natural capacity to be considered as that people. But observe,
+whilst they were in this state, that is, whilst they were a people, in
+no one of their instructions did they charge or even hint at any of
+those things which have drawn upon the usurping Assembly and their
+adherents the detestation of the rational and thinking part of mankind.
+I will venture to affirm, without the least apprehension of being
+contradicted by any person who knows the then state of France, that, if
+any one of the changes were proposed, which form the fundamental parts
+of their Revolution, and compose its most distinguishing acts, it would
+not have had one vote in twenty thousand in any order. Their
+instructions purported the direct contrary to all those famous
+proceedings which are defended as the acts of the people. Had such
+proceedings been expected, the great probability is, that the people
+would then have risen, as to a man, to prevent them. The whole
+organization of the Assembly was altered, the whole frame of the
+kingdom was changed, before these things could be done. It is long to
+tell, by what evil arts of the conspirators, and by what extreme
+weakness and want of steadiness in the lawful government, this equal
+usurpation on the rights of the prince and people, having first cheated,
+and then offered violence to both, has been able to triumph, and to
+employ with success the forged signature of an imprisoned sovereign, and
+the spurious voice of dictated addresses, to a subsequent ratification
+of things that had never received any previous sanction, general or
+particular, expressed or implied, from the nation, (in whatever sense
+that word is taken,) or from any part of it.
+
+After the weighty and respectable part of the people had been murdered,
+or driven by the menaces of murder from their houses, or were dispersed
+in exile into every country in Europe,--after the soldiery had been
+debauched from their officers,--after property had lost its weight and
+consideration, along with its security,--after voluntary clubs and
+associations of factious and unprincipled men were substituted in the
+place of all the legal corporations of the kingdom arbitrarily
+dissolved,--after freedom had been banished from those popular
+meetings[25] whose sole recommendation is freedom,--after it had come to
+that pass that no dissent dared to appear in any of them, but at the
+certain price of life,--after even dissent had been anticipated, and
+assassination became as quick as suspicion,--such pretended ratification
+by addresses could be no act of what any lover of the people would
+choose to call by their name. It is that voice which every successful
+usurpation, as well as this before us, may easily procure, even without
+making (as these tyrants have made) donatives from the spoil of one part
+of the citizens to corrupt the other.
+
+The pretended _rights of man_, which have made this havoc, cannot be the
+rights of the people. For to be a people, and to have these rights, are
+things incompatible. The one supposes the presence, the other the
+absence, of a state of civil society. The very foundation of the French
+commonwealth is false and self-destructive; nor can its principles be
+adopted in any country, without the certainty of bringing it to the very
+same condition in which France is found. Attempts are made to introduce
+them into every nation in Europe. This nation, as possessing the
+greatest influence, they wish most to corrupt, as by that means they are
+assured the contagion must become general. I hope, therefore, I shall be
+excused, if I endeavor to show, as shortly as the matter will admit, the
+danger of giving to them, either avowedly or tacitly, the smallest
+countenance.
+
+There are times and circumstances in which not to speak out is at least
+to connive. Many think it enough for them, that the principles
+propagated by these clubs and societies, enemies to their country and
+its Constitution, are not owned by the _modern Whigs in Parliament_, who
+are so warm in condemnation of Mr. Burke and his book, and of course of
+all the principles of the ancient, constitutional Whigs of this kingdom.
+Certainly they are not owned. But are they condemned with the same zeal
+as Mr. Burke and his book are condemned? Are they condemned at all? Are
+they rejected or discountenanced in any way whatsoever? Is any man who
+would fairly examine into the demeanor and principles of those
+societies, and that too very moderately, and in the way rather of
+admonition than of punishment, is such a man even decently treated? Is
+he not reproached as if in condemning such principles he had belied the
+conduct of his whole life, suggesting that his life had been governed by
+principles similar to those which he now reprobates? The French system
+is in the mean time, by many active agents out of doors, rapturously
+praised; the British Constitution is coldly tolerated. But these
+Constitutions are different both in the foundation and in the whole
+superstructure; and it is plain that you cannot build up the one but on
+the ruins of the other. After all, if the French be a superior system of
+liberty, why should we not adopt it? To what end are our praises? Is
+excellence held out to us only that we should not copy after it? And
+what is there in the manners of the people, or in the climate of France,
+which renders that species of republic fitted for them, and unsuitable
+to us? A strong and marked difference between the two nations ought to
+be shown, before we can admit a constant, affected panegyric, a
+standing, annual commemoration, to be without any tendency to an
+example.
+
+But the leaders of party will not go the length of the doctrines taught
+by the seditious clubs. I am sure they do not mean to do so. God forbid!
+Perhaps even those who are directly carrying on the work of this
+pernicious foreign faction do not all of them intend to produce all the
+mischiefs which must inevitably follow from their having any success in
+their proceedings. As to leaders in parties, nothing is more common than
+to see them blindly led. The world is governed by go-betweens. These
+go-betweens influence the persons with whom they carry on the
+intercourse, by stating their own sense to each of them as the sense of
+the other; and thus they reciprocally master both sides. It is first
+buzzed about the ears of leaders, "that their friends without doors are
+very eager for some measure, or very warm about some opinion,--that you
+must not be too rigid with them. They are useful persons, and zealous in
+the cause. They may be a little wrong, but the spirit of liberty must
+not be damped; and by the influence you obtain from some degree of
+concurrence with them at present, you may be enabled to set them right
+hereafter."
+
+Thus the leaders are at first drawn to a connivance with sentiments and
+proceedings often totally different from their serious and deliberate
+notions. But their acquiescence answers every purpose.
+
+With no better than such powers, the go-betweens assume a new
+representative character. What at best was but an acquiescence is
+magnified into an authority, and thence into a desire on the part of the
+leaders; and it is carried down as such to the subordinate members of
+parties. By this artifice they in their turn are led into measures which
+at first, perhaps, few of them wished at all, or at least did not desire
+vehemently or systematically.
+
+There is in all parties, between the principal leaders in Parliament and
+the lowest followers out of doors, a middle sort of men, a sort of
+equestrian order, who, by the spirit of that middle situation, are the
+fittest for preventing things from running to excess. But indecision,
+though a vice of a totally different character, is the natural
+accomplice of violence. The irresolution and timidity of those who
+compose this middle order often prevents the effect of their
+controlling situation. The fear of differing with the authority of
+leaders on the one hand, and of contradicting the desires of the
+multitude on the other, induces them to give a careless and passive
+assent to measures in which they never were consulted; and thus things
+proceed, by a sort of activity of inertness, until whole bodies,
+leaders, middle-men, and followers, are all hurried, with every
+appearance and with many of the effects of unanimity, into schemes of
+politics, in the substance of which no two of them were ever fully
+agreed, and the origin and authors of which, in this circular mode of
+communication, none of them find it possible to trace. In my experience,
+I have seen much of this in affairs which, though trifling in comparison
+to the present, were yet of some importance to parties; and I have known
+them suffer by it. The sober part give their sanction, at first through
+inattention and levity; at last they give it through necessity. A
+violent spirit is raised, which the presiding minds after a time find it
+impracticable to stop at their pleasure, to control, to regulate, or
+even to direct.
+
+This shows, in my opinion, how very quick and awakened all men ought to
+be, who are looked up to by the public, and who deserve that confidence,
+to prevent a surprise on their opinions, when dogmas are spread and
+projects pursued by which the foundations of society may be affected.
+Before they listen even to moderate alterations in the government of
+their country, they ought to take care that principles are not
+propagated for that purpose which are too big for their object.
+Doctrines limited in their present application, and wide in their
+general principles, are never meant to be confined to what they at
+first pretend. If I were to form a prognostic of the effect of the
+present machinations on the people from their sense of any grievance
+they suffer under this Constitution, my mind would be at ease. But there
+is a wide difference between the multitude, when they act against their
+government from a sense of grievance or from zeal for some opinions.
+When men are thoroughly possessed with that zeal, it is difficult to
+calculate its force. It is certain that its power is by no means in
+exact proportion to its reasonableness. It must always have been
+discoverable by persons of reflection, but it is now obvious to the
+world, that a theory concerning government may become as much a cause of
+fanaticism as a dogma in religion. There is a boundary to men's
+passions, when they act from feeling; none when they are under the
+influence of imagination. Remove a grievance, and, when men act from
+feeling, you go a great way towards quieting a commotion. But the good
+or bad conduct of a government, the protection men have enjoyed or the
+oppression they have suffered under it, are of no sort of moment, when a
+faction, proceeding upon speculative grounds, is thoroughly heated
+against its form. When a man is from system furious against monarchy or
+episcopacy, the good conduct of the monarch or the bishop has no other
+effect than further to irritate the adversary. He is provoked at it as
+furnishing a plea for preserving the thing which he wishes to destroy.
+His mind will be heated as much by the sight of a sceptre, a mace, or a
+verge, as if he had been daily bruised and wounded by these symbols of
+authority. Mere spectacles, mere names, will become sufficient causes to
+stimulate the people to war and tumult.
+
+Some gentlemen are not terrified by the facility with which government
+has been overturned in France. "The people of France," they say, "had
+nothing to lose in the destruction of a bad Constitution; but, though
+not the best possible, we have still a good stake in ours, which will
+hinder us from desperate risks." Is this any security at all against
+those who seem to persuade themselves, and who labor to persuade others,
+that our Constitution is an usurpation in its origin, unwise in its
+contrivance, mischievous in its effects, contrary to the rights of man,
+and in all its parts a perfect nuisance? What motive has any rational
+man, who thinks in that manner, to spill his blood, or even to risk a
+shilling of his fortune, or to waste a moment of his leisure, to
+preserve it? If he has any duty relative to it, his duty is to destroy
+it. A Constitution on sufferance is a Constitution condemned. Sentence
+is already passed upon it. The execution is only delayed. On the
+principles of these gentlemen, it neither has nor ought to have any
+security. So far as regards them, it is left naked, without friends,
+partisans, assertors, or protectors.
+
+Let us examine into the value of this security upon the principles of
+those who are more sober,--of those who think, indeed, the French
+Constitution better, or at least as good as the British, without going
+to all the lengths of the warmer politicians in reprobating their own.
+Their security amounts in reality to nothing more than this,--that the
+difference between their republican system and the British limited
+monarchy is not worth a civil war. This opinion, I admit, will prevent
+people not very enterprising in their nature from an active undertaking
+against the British Constitution. But it is the poorest defensive
+principle that ever was infused into the mind of man against the
+attempts of those who will enterprise. It will tend totally to remove
+from their minds that very terror of a civil war which is held out as
+our sole security. They who think so well of the French Constitution
+certainly will not be the persons to carry on a war to prevent their
+obtaining a great benefit, or at worst a fair exchange. They will not go
+to battle in favor of a cause in which their defeat might be more
+advantageous to the public than their victory. They must at least
+tacitly abet those who endeavor to make converts to a sound opinion;
+they must discountenance those who would oppose its propagation. In
+proportion as by these means the enterprising party is strengthened, the
+dread of a struggle is lessened. See what an encouragement this is to
+the enemies of the Constitution! A few assassinations and a very great
+destruction of property we know they consider as no real obstacles in
+the way of a grand political change. And they will hope, that here, if
+antimonarchical opinions gain ground as they have done in France, they
+may, as in France, accomplish a revolution without a war.
+
+They who think so well of the French Constitution cannot be seriously
+alarmed by any progress made by its partisans. Provisions for security
+are not to be received from those who think that there is no danger. No!
+there is no plan of security to be listened to but from those who
+entertain the same fears with ourselves,--from those who think that the
+thing to be secured is a great blessing, and the thing against which we
+would secure it a great mischief. Every person of a different opinion
+must be careless about security.
+
+I believe the author of the Reflections, whether he fears the designs of
+that set of people with reason or not, cannot prevail on himself to
+despise them. He cannot despise them for their numbers, which, though
+small, compared with the sound part of the community, are not
+inconsiderable: he cannot look with contempt on their influence, their
+activity, or the kind of talents and tempers which they possess, exactly
+calculated for the work they have in hand and the minds they chiefly
+apply to. Do we not see their most considerable and accredited
+ministers, and several of their party of weight and importance, active
+in spreading mischievous opinions, in giving sanction to seditious
+writings, in promoting seditious anniversaries? and what part of their
+description has disowned them or their proceedings? When men,
+circumstanced as these are, publicly declare such admiration of a
+foreign Constitution, and such contempt of our own, it would be, in the
+author of the Reflections, thinking as he does of the French
+Constitution, infamously to cheat the rest of the nation to their ruin
+to say there is no danger.
+
+In estimating danger, we are obliged to take into our calculation the
+character and disposition of the enemy into whose hands we may chance to
+fall. The genius of this faction is easily discerned, by observing with
+what a very different eye they have viewed the late foreign revolutions.
+Two have passed before them: that of France, and that of Poland. The
+state of Poland was such, that there could scarcely exist two opinions,
+but that a reformation of its Constitution, even at some expense of
+blood, might be seen without much disapprobation. No confusion could be
+feared in such an enterprise; because the establishment to be reformed
+was itself a state of confusion. A king without authority; nobles
+without union or subordination; a people without arts, industry,
+commerce, or liberty; no order within, no defence without; no effective
+public force, but a foreign force, which entered, a naked country at
+will, and disposed of everything at pleasure. Here was a state of things
+which seemed to invite, and might perhaps justify, bold enterprise and
+desperate experiment. But in what manner was this chaos brought into
+order? The means were as striking to the imagination as satisfactory to
+the reason and soothing to the moral sentiments. In contemplating that
+change, humanity has everything to rejoice and to glory in,--nothing to
+be ashamed of, nothing to suffer. So far as it has gone, it probably is
+the most pure and defecated public good which ever has been conferred on
+mankind. We have seen anarchy and servitude at once removed; a throne
+strengthened for the protection of the people, without trenching on
+their liberties; all foreign cabal banished, by changing the crown from
+elective to hereditary; and what was a matter of pleasing wonder, we
+have seen a reigning king, from an heroic love to his country, exerting
+himself with all the toil, the dexterity, the management, the intrigue,
+in favor of a family of strangers, with which ambitious men labor for
+the aggrandizement of their own. Ten millions of men in a way of being
+freed gradually, and therefore safely to themselves and the state, not
+from civil or political chains, which, bad as they are, only fetter the
+mind, but from substantial personal bondage. Inhabitants of cities,
+before without privileges, placed in the consideration which belongs to
+that improved and connecting situation of social life. One of the most
+proud, numerous, and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known in
+the world arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous
+citizens. Not one man incurred loss or suffered degradation. All, from
+the king to the day-laborer, were improved in their condition.
+Everything was kept in its place and order; but in that place and order
+everything was bettered. To add to this happy wonder, this unheard-of
+conjunction of wisdom and fortune, not one drop of blood was spilled; no
+treachery; no outrage; no system of slander more cruel than the sword;
+no studied insults on religion, morals, or manners; no spoil; no
+confiscation; no citizen beggared; none imprisoned; none exiled: the
+whole was effected with a policy, a discretion, an unanimity and
+secrecy, such as have never been before known on any occasion; but such
+wonderful conduct was reserved for this glorious conspiracy in favor of
+the true and genuine rights and interests of men. Happy people, if they
+know to proceed as they have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin with
+splendor or to close with glory a race of patriots and of kings, and to
+leave
+
+    A name, which every wind to heaven would bear,
+    Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear!
+
+To finish all,--this great good, as in the instant it is, contains in it
+the seeds of all further improvement, and may be considered as in a
+regular progress, because founded on similar principles, towards the
+stable excellence of a British Constitution.
+
+Here was a matter for congratulation and for festive remembrance through
+ages. Here moralists and divines might indeed relax in their temperance,
+to exhilarate their humanity. But mark the character of our faction.
+All their enthusiasm is kept for the French Revolution. They cannot
+pretend that France had stood so much in need of a change as Poland.
+They cannot pretend that Poland has not obtained a better system of
+liberty or of government than it enjoyed before. They cannot assert that
+the Polish Revolution cost more dearly than that of France to the
+interests and feelings of multitudes of men. But the cold and
+subordinate light in which they look upon the one, and the pains they
+take to preach up the other of these Revolutions, leave us no choice in
+fixing on their motives. Both Revolutions profess liberty as their
+object; but in obtaining this object the one proceeds from anarchy to
+order, the other from order to anarchy. The first secures its liberty by
+establishing its throne; the other builds its freedom on the subversion
+of its monarchy. In the one, their means are unstained by crimes, and
+their settlement favors morality; in the other, vice and confusion are
+in the very essence of their pursuit, and of their enjoyment. The
+circumstances in which these two events differ must cause the difference
+we make in their comparative estimation. These turn the scale with the
+societies in favor of France. _Ferrum est quod amant_. The frauds, the
+violences, the sacrileges, the havoc and ruin of families, the
+dispersion and exile of the pride and flower of a great country, the
+disorder, the confusion, the anarchy, the violation of property, the
+cruel murders, the inhuman confiscations, and in the end the insolent
+domination of bloody, ferocious, and senseless clubs,--these are the
+things which they love and admire. What men admire and love they would
+surely act. Let us see what is done in France; and then let us
+undervalue any the slightest danger of falling into the hands of such a
+merciless and savage faction!
+
+"But the leaders of the factious societies are too wild to succeed in
+this their undertaking." I hope so. But supposing them wild and absurd,
+is there no danger but from wise and reflecting men? Perhaps the
+greatest mischiefs that have happened in the world have happened from
+persons as wild as those we think the wildest. In truth, they are the
+fittest beginners of all great changes. Why encourage men in a
+mischievous proceeding, because their absurdity may disappoint their
+malice?--"But noticing them may give them consequence." Certainly. But
+they are noticed; and they are noticed, not with reproof, but with that
+kind of countenance which is given by an _apparent_ concurrence (not a
+_real_ one, I am convinced) of a great party in the praises of the
+object which they hold out to imitation.
+
+But I hear a language still more extraordinary, and indeed of such a
+nature as must suppose or leave us at their mercy. It is this:--"You
+know their promptitude in writing, and their diligence in caballing; to
+write, speak, or act against them will only stimulate them to new
+efforts." This way of considering the principle of their conduct pays
+but a poor compliment to these gentlemen. They pretend that their
+doctrines are infinitely beneficial to mankind; but it seems they would
+keep them to themselves, if they were not greatly provoked. They are
+benevolent from spite. Their oracles are like those of Proteus, (whom
+some people think they resemble in many particulars,) who never would
+give his responses, unless you used him as ill as possible. These cats,
+it seems, would not give out their electrical light without having
+their backs well rubbed. But this is not to do them perfect justice.
+They are sufficiently communicative. Had they been quiet, the propriety
+of any agitation of topics on the origin and primary rights of
+government, in opposition to their private sentiments, might possibly be
+doubted. But, as it is notorious that they were proceeding as fast and
+as far as time and circumstances would admit, both in their discussions
+and cabals,--as it is not to be denied that they had opened a
+correspondence with a foreign faction the most wicked the world ever
+saw, and established anniversaries to commemorate the most monstrous,
+cruel, and perfidious of all the proceedings of that faction,--the
+question is, whether their conduct was to be regarded in silence, lest
+our interference should render them outrageous. Then let them deal as
+they please with the Constitution. Let the lady be passive, lest the
+ravisher should be driven to force. Resistance will only increase his
+desires. Yes, truly, if the resistance be feigned and feeble. But they
+who are wedded to the Constitution will not act the part of wittols.
+They will drive such seducers from the house on the first appearance of
+their love-letters and offered assignations. But if the author of the
+Reflections, though a vigilant, was not a discreet guardian of the
+Constitution, let them who have the same regard to it show themselves as
+vigilant and more skilful in repelling the attacks of seduction or
+violence. Their freedom from jealousy is equivocal, and may arise as
+well from indifference to the object as from confidence in her virtue.
+
+On their principle, it is the resistance, and not the assault, which
+produces the danger. I admit, indeed, that, if we estimated the danger
+by the value of the writings, it would be little worthy of our
+attention: contemptible these writings are in every sense. But they are
+not the cause, they are the disgusting symptoms of a frightful
+distemper. They are not otherwise of consequence than as they show the
+evil habit of the bodies from whence they come. In that light the
+meanest of them is a serious thing. If, however, I should underrate
+them, and if the truth is, that they are not the result, but the cause,
+of the disorders I speak of, surely those who circulate operative
+poisons, and give to whatever force they have by their nature the
+further operation of their authority and adoption, are to be censured,
+watched, and, if possible, repressed.
+
+At what distance the direct danger from such factions may be it is not
+easy to fix. An adaptation of circumstances to designs and principles is
+necessary. But these cannot be wanting for any long time, in the
+ordinary course of sublunary affairs. Great discontents frequently arise
+in the best constituted governments from causes which no human wisdom
+can foresee and no human power can prevent. They occur at uncertain
+periods, but at periods which are not commonly far asunder. Governments
+of all kinds are administered only by men; and great mistakes, tending
+to inflame these discontents, may concur. The indecision of those who
+happen to rule at the critical time, their supine neglect, or their
+precipitate and ill-judged attention, may aggravate the public
+misfortunes. In such a state of things, the principles, now only sown,
+will shoot out and vegetate in full luxuriance. In such circumstances
+the minds of the people become sore and ulcerated. They are put out of
+humor with all public men and all public parties; they are fatigued
+with their dissensions; they are irritated at their coalitions; they are
+made easily to believe (what much pains are taken to make them believe)
+that all oppositions are factious, and all courtiers base and servile.
+From their disgust at men, they are soon led to quarrel with their frame
+of government, which they presume gives nourishment to the vices, real
+or supposed, of those who administer in it. Mistaking malignity for
+sagacity, they are soon led to cast off all hope from a good
+administration of affairs, and come to think that all reformation
+depends, not on a change of actors, but upon an alteration in the
+machinery. Then will be felt the full effect of encouraging doctrines
+which tend to make the citizens despise their Constitution. Then will be
+felt the plenitude of the mischief of teaching the people to believe
+that all ancient institutions are the results of ignorance, and that all
+prescriptive government is in its nature usurpation. Then will be felt,
+in all its energy, the danger of encouraging a spirit of litigation in
+persons of that immature and imperfect state of knowledge which serves
+to render them susceptible of doubts, but incapable of their solution.
+Then will be felt, in all its aggravation, the pernicious consequence of
+destroying all docility in the minds of those who are not formed for
+finding their own way in the labyrinths of political theory, and are
+made to reject the clew and to disdain the guide. Then will be felt, and
+too late will be acknowledged, the ruin which follows the disjoining of
+religion from the state, the separation of morality from policy, and the
+giving conscience no concern and no coactive or coercive force in the
+most material of all the social ties, the principle of our obligations
+to government.
+
+I know, too, that, besides this vain, contradictory, and
+self-destructive security which some men derive from the habitual
+attachment of the people to this Constitution, whilst they suffer it
+with a sort of sportive acquiescence to be brought into contempt before
+their faces, they have other grounds for removing all apprehension from
+their minds. They are of opinion that there are too many men of great
+hereditary estates and influence in the kingdom to suffer the
+establishment of the levelling system which has taken place in France.
+This is very true, if, in order to guide the power which now attends
+their property, these men possess the wisdom which is involved in early
+fear. But if, through a supine security, to which such fortunes are
+peculiarly liable, they neglect the use of their influence in the season
+of their power, on the first derangement of society the nerves of their
+strength will be cut. Their estates, instead of being the means of their
+security, will become the very causes of their danger. Instead of
+bestowing influence, they will excite rapacity. They will be looked to
+as a prey.
+
+Such will be the impotent condition of those men of great hereditary
+estates, who indeed dislike the designs that are carried on, but whose
+dislike is rather that of spectators than of parties that may be
+concerned in the catastrophe of the piece. But riches do not in all
+cases secure even an inert and passive resistance. There are always in
+that description men whose fortunes, when their minds are once vitiated
+by passion or by evil principle, are by no means a security from their
+actually taking their part against the public tranquillity. We see to
+what low and despicable passions of all kinds many men in that class
+are ready to sacrifice the patrimonial estates which might be
+perpetuated in their families with splendor, and with the fame of
+hereditary benefactors to mankind, from generation to generation. Do we
+not see how lightly people treat their fortunes, when under the
+influence of the passion of gaming? The game of ambition or resentment
+will be played by many of the rich and great as desperately, and with as
+much blindness to the consequences, as any other game. Was he a man of
+no rank or fortune who first set on foot the disturbances which have
+ruined France? Passion blinded him to the consequences, so far as they
+concerned himself; and as to the consequences with regard to others,
+they were no part of his consideration,--nor ever will be with those who
+bear any resemblance to that virtuous patriot and lover of the rights of
+man.
+
+There is also a time of insecurity, when interests of all sorts become
+objects of speculation. Then it is that their very attachment to wealth
+and importance will induce several persons of opulence to list
+themselves and even to take a lead with the party which they think most
+likely to prevail, in order to obtain to themselves consideration in
+some new order or disorder of things. They may be led to act in this
+manner, that they may secure some portion of their own property, and
+perhaps to become partakers of the spoil of their own order. Those who
+speculate on change always make a great number among people of rank and
+fortune, as well as amongst the low and the indigent.
+
+What security against all this?--All human securities are liable to
+uncertainty. But if anything bids fair for the prevention of so great a
+calamity, it must consist in the use of the ordinary means of just
+influence in society, whilst those means continue unimpaired. The public
+judgment ought to receive a proper direction. All weighty men may have
+their share in so good a work. As yet, notwithstanding the strutting and
+lying independence of a braggart philosophy, Nature maintains her
+rights, and great names have great prevalence. Two such men as Mr. Pitt
+and Mr. Fox, adding to their authority in a point in which they concur
+even by their disunion in everything else, might frown these wicked
+opinions out of the kingdom. But if the influence of either of them, or
+the influence of men like them, should, against their serious
+intentions, be otherwise perverted, they may countenance opinions which
+(as I have said before, and could wish over and over again to press)
+they may in vain attempt to control. In their theory, these doctrines
+admit no limit, no qualification whatsoever. No man can say how far he
+will go, who joins with those who are avowedly going to the utmost
+extremities. What security is there for stopping short at all in these
+wild conceits? Why, neither more nor less than this,--that the moral
+sentiments of some few amongst them do put some check on their savage
+theories. But let us take care. The moral sentiments, so nearly
+connected with early prejudice as to be almost one and the same thing,
+will assuredly not live long under a discipline which has for its basis
+the destruction of all prejudices, and the making the mind proof against
+all dread of consequences flowing from the pretended truths that are
+taught by their philosophy.
+
+In this school the moral sentiments must grow weaker and weaker every
+day. The more cautious of these teachers, in laying down their maxims,
+draw as much of the conclusion as suits, not with their premises, but
+with their policy. They trust the rest to the sagacity of their pupils.
+Others, and these are the most vaunted for their spirit, not only lay
+down the same premises, but boldly draw the conclusions, to the
+destruction of our whole Constitution in Church and State. But are these
+conclusions truly drawn? Yes, most certainly. Their principles are wild
+and wicked; but let justice be done even to frenzy and villany. These
+teachers are perfectly systematic. No man who assumes their grounds can
+tolerate the British Constitution in Church or State. These teachers
+profess to scorn all mediocrity,--to engage for perfection,--to proceed
+by the simplest and shortest course. They build their politics, not on
+convenience, but on truth; and they profess to conduct men to certain
+happiness by the assertion of their undoubted rights. With them there is
+no compromise. All other governments are usurpations, which justify and
+even demand resistance.
+
+Their principles always go to the extreme. They who go with the
+principles of the ancient Whigs, which are those contained in Mr.
+Burke's book, never can go too far. They may, indeed, stop short of some
+hazardous and ambiguous excellence, which they will be taught to
+postpone to any reasonable degree of good they may actually possess. The
+opinions maintained in that book never can lead to an extreme, because
+their foundation is laid in an opposition to extremes. The foundation of
+government is there laid, not in imaginary rights of men, (which at best
+is a confusion of judicial with civil principles,) but in political
+convenience, and in human nature,--either as that nature is universal,
+or as it is modified by local habits and social aptitudes. The
+foundation of government (those who have read that book will recollect)
+is laid in a provision for our wants and in a conformity to our duties:
+it is to purvey for the one, it is to enforce the other. These doctrines
+do of themselves gravitate to a middle point, or to some point near a
+middle. They suppose, indeed, a certain portion of liberty to be
+essential to all good government; but they infer that this liberty is to
+be blended into the government, to harmonize with its forms and its
+rules, and to be made subordinate to its end. Those who are not with
+that book are with its opposite; for there is no medium besides the
+medium itself. That medium is not such because it is found there, but it
+is found there because it is conformable to truth and Nature. In this we
+do not follow the author, but we and the author travel together upon the
+same safe and middle path.
+
+The theory contained in his book is not to furnish principles for making
+a new Constitution, but for illustrating the principles of a
+Constitution already made. It is a theory drawn from the _fact_ of our
+government. They who oppose it are bound to show that his theory
+militates with that fact; otherwise, their quarrel is not with his book,
+but with the Constitution of their country. The whole scheme of our
+mixed Constitution is to prevent any one of its principles from being
+carried as far as, taken by itself, and theoretically, it would go.
+Allow that to be the true policy of the British system, then most of the
+faults with which that system stands charged will appear to be, not
+imperfections into which it has inadvertently fallen, but excellencies
+which it has studiously sought. To avoid the perfections of extreme,
+all its several parts are so constituted as not alone to answer their
+own several ends, but also each to limit and control the others;
+insomuch that, take which of the principles you please, you will find
+its operation checked and stopped at a certain point. The whole movement
+stands still rather than that any part should proceed beyond its
+boundary. From thence it results that in the British Constitution there
+is a perpetual treaty and compromise going on, sometimes openly,
+sometimes with less observation. To him who contemplates the British
+Constitution, as to him who contemplates the subordinate material world,
+it will always be a matter of his most curious investigation to discover
+the secret of this mutual limitation.
+
+            _Finita_ potestas denique _cuique_
+    Quanam sit ratione, atque alte terminus h�rens?
+
+They who have acted, as in France they have done, upon a scheme wholly
+different, and who aim at the abstract and unlimited perfection of power
+in the popular part, can be of no service to us in any of our political
+arrangements. They who in their headlong career have overpassed the goal
+can furnish no example to those who aim to go no further. The temerity
+of such speculators is no more an example than the timidity of others.
+The one sort scorns the right; the other fears it; both miss it. But
+those who by violence go beyond the barrier are without question the
+most mischievous; because, to go beyond it, they overturn and destroy
+it. To say they have spirit is to say nothing in their praise. The
+untempered spirit of madness, blindness, immorality, and impiety
+deserves no commendation. He that sets his house on fire because his
+fingers are frost-bitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of
+providing our habitations with a cheerful and salutary warmth. We want
+no foreign examples to rekindle in us the flame of liberty. The example
+of our own ancestors is abundantly sufficient to maintain the spirit of
+freedom in its full vigor, and to qualify it in all its exertions. The
+example of a wise, moral, well-natured, and well-tempered spirit of
+freedom is that alone which can be useful to us, or in the least degree
+reputable or safe. Our fabric is so constituted, one part of it bears so
+much on the other, the parts are so made for one another, and for
+nothing else, that to introduce any foreign matter into it is to destroy
+it.
+
+What has been said of the Roman Empire is at least as true of the
+British Constitution:--"_Octingentorum annorum fortuna disciplinaque
+compages h�c coaluit; qu� convelli sine convellentium exitio non
+potest_." This British Constitution has not been struck out at an heat
+by a set of presumptuous men, like the Assembly of pettifoggers run mad
+in Paris.
+
+    "'Tis not the hasty product of a day,
+    But the well-ripened fruit of wise delay."
+
+It is the result of the thoughts of many minds in many ages. It is no
+simple, no superficial thing, nor to be estimated by superficial
+understandings. An ignorant man, who is not fool enough to meddle with
+his clock, is, however, sufficiently confident to think he can safely
+take to pieces and put together, at his pleasure, a moral machine of
+another guise, importance, and complexity, composed of far other wheels
+and springs and balances and counteracting and co�perating powers. Men
+little think how immorally they act in rashly meddling with what they
+do not understand. Their delusive good intention is no sort of excuse
+for their presumption. They who truly mean well must be fearful of
+acting ill. The British Constitution may have its advantages pointed out
+to wise and reflecting minds, but it is of too high an order of
+excellence to be adapted to those which are common. It takes in too many
+views, it makes too many combinations, to be so much as comprehended by
+shallow and superficial understandings. Profound thinkers will know it
+in its reason and spirit. The less inquiring will recognize it in their
+feelings and their experience. They will thank God they have a standard,
+which, in the most essential point of this great concern, will put them
+on a par with the most wise and knowing.
+
+If we do not take to our aid the foregone studies of men reputed
+intelligent and learned, we shall be always beginners. But men must
+learn somewhere; and the new teachers mean no more than what they
+effect, as far as they succeed,--that is, to deprive men of the benefit
+of the collected wisdom of mankind, and to make them blind disciples of
+their own particular presumption. Talk to these deluded creatures (all
+the disciples and most of the masters) who are taught to think
+themselves so newly fitted up and furnished, and you will find nothing
+in their houses but the refuse of _Knaves' Acre_,--nothing but the
+rotten stuff, worn out in the service of delusion and sedition in all
+ages, and which, being newly furbished up, patched, and varnished,
+serves well enough for those who, being unacquainted with the conflict
+which has always been maintained between the sense and the nonsense of
+mankind, know nothing of the former existence and the ancient
+refutation of the same follies. It is near two thousand years since it
+has been observed that these devices of ambition, avarice, and
+turbulence were antiquated. They are, indeed, the most ancient of all
+commonplaces: commonplaces sometimes of good and necessary causes; more
+frequently of the worst, but which decide upon neither. _Eadem semper
+causa, libido et avaritia, et mutandarum rerum amor. Ceterum libertas et
+speciosa nomina pretexuntur; nec quisquam alienum servitium, et
+dominationem sibi concupivit, ut non eadem ista vocabula usurparet_.
+
+Rational and experienced men tolerably well know, and have always known,
+how to distinguish between true and false liberty, and between the
+genuine adherence and the false pretence to what is true. But none,
+except those who are profoundly studied, can comprehend the elaborate
+contrivance of a fabric fitted to unite private and public liberty with
+public force, with order, with peace, with justice, and, above all, with
+the institutions formed for bestowing permanence and stability, through
+ages, upon this invaluable whole.
+
+Place, for instance, before your eyes such a man as Montesquieu. Think
+of a genius not born in every country or every time: a man gifted by
+Nature with a penetrating, aquiline eye,--with a judgment prepared with
+the most extensive erudition,--with an Herculean robustness of mind, and
+nerves not to be broken with labor,--a man who could spend twenty years
+in one pursuit. Think of a man like the universal patriarch in Milton
+(who had drawn up before him in his prophetic vision the whole series of
+the generations which were to issue from his loins): a man capable of
+placing in review, after having brought together from the East, the
+West, the North, and the South, from the coarseness of the rudest
+barbarism to the most refined and subtle civilization, all the schemes
+of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind, weighing,
+measuring, collating, and comparing them all, joining fact with theory,
+and calling into council, upon all this infinite assemblage of things,
+all the speculations which have fatigued the understandings of profound
+reasoners in all times. Let us then consider, that all these were but so
+many preparatory steps to qualify a man, and such a man, tinctured with
+no national prejudice, with no domestic affection, to admire, and to
+hold out to the admiration of mankind, the Constitution of England. And
+shall we Englishmen revoke to such a suit? Shall we, when so much more
+than he has produced remains still to be understood and admired, instead
+of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science, choose for our
+teachers men incapable of being taught,--whose only claim to know is,
+that they have never doubted,--from whom we can learn nothing but their
+own indocility,--who would teach us to scorn what in the silence of our
+hearts we ought to adore?
+
+Different from them are all the great critics. They have taught us one
+essential rule. I think the excellent and philosophic artist, a true
+judge, as well as a perfect follower of Nature, Sir Joshua Reynolds, has
+somewhere applied it, or something like it, in his own profession. It is
+this: that, if ever we should find ourselves disposed not to admire
+those writers or artists (Livy and Virgil, for instance, Raphael or
+Michael Angelo) whom all the learned had admired, not to follow our own
+fancies, but to study them, until we know how and what we ought to
+admire; and if we cannot arrive at this combination of admiration with
+knowledge, rather to believe that we are dull than that the rest of the
+world has been imposed on. It is as good a rule, at least, with regard
+to this admired Constitution. We ought to understand it according to our
+measure, and to venerate where we are not able presently to comprehend.
+
+Such admirers were our fathers, to whom we owe this splendid
+inheritance. Let us improve it with zeal, but with fear. Let us follow
+our ancestors, men not without a rational, though without an exclusive
+confidence in themselves,--who, by respecting the reason of others, who,
+by looking backward as well as forward, by the modesty as well as by the
+energy of their minds, went on insensibly drawing this Constitution
+nearer and nearer to its perfection, by never departing from its
+fundamental principles, nor introducing any amendment which had not a
+subsisting root in the laws, Constitution, and usages of the kingdom.
+Let those who have the trust of political or of natural authority ever
+keep watch against the desperate enterprises of innovation: let even
+their benevolence be fortified and armed. They have before their eyes
+the example of a monarch insulted, degraded, confined, deposed; his
+family dispersed, scattered, imprisoned; his wife insulted to his face,
+like the vilest of the sex, by the vilest of all populace; himself three
+times dragged by these wretches in an infamous triumph; his children
+torn from him, in violation of the first right of Nature, and given into
+the tuition of the most desperate and impious of the leaders of
+desperate and impious clubs; his revenues dilapidated and plundered;
+his magistrates murdered; his clergy proscribed, persecuted, famished;
+his nobility degraded in their rank, undone in their fortunes, fugitives
+in their persons; his armies corrupted and ruined; his whole people
+impoverished, disunited, dissolved; whilst through the bars of his
+prison, and amidst the bayonets of his keepers, he hears the tumult of
+two conflicting factions, equally wicked and abandoned, who agree in
+principles, in dispositions, and in objects, but who tear each other to
+pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining their common end: the
+one contending to preserve for a while his name, and his person, the
+more easily to destroy the royal authority,--the other clamoring to cut
+off the name, the person, and the monarchy together, by one sacrilegious
+execution. All this accumulation of calamity, the greatest that ever
+fell upon one man, has fallen upon his head, because he had left his
+virtues unguarded by caution,--because he was not taught, that, where
+power is concerned, he who will confer benefits must take security
+against ingratitude.
+
+I have stated the calamities which have fallen upon a great prince and
+nation, because they were not alarmed at the approach of danger, and
+because, what commonly happens to men surprised, they lost all resource
+when they were caught in it. When I speak of danger, I certainly mean to
+address myself to those who consider the prevalence of the new Whig
+doctrines as an evil.
+
+The Whigs of this day have before them, in this Appeal, their
+constitutional ancestors; they have the doctors of the modern school.
+They will choose for themselves. The author of the Reflections has
+chosen for himself. If a new order is coming on, and all the political
+opinions must pass away as dreams, which our ancestors have worshipped
+as revelations, I say for him, that he would rather be the last (as
+certainly he is the least) of that race of men than the first and
+greatest of those who have coined to themselves Whig principles from a
+French die, unknown to the impress of our fathers in the Constitution.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] Newspaper intelligence ought always to be received with some degree
+of caution. I do not know that the following paragraph is founded on any
+authority; but it comes with an air of authority. The paper is
+professedly in the interest of the modern Whigs, and under their
+direction. The paragraph is not disclaimed on their part. It professes
+to be the decision of those whom its author calls "the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England." Who are the Whigs of a different
+composition, which the promulgator of the sentence considers as composed
+of fleeting and unsettled particles, I know not, nor whether there be
+any of that description. The definitive sentence of "the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England" (as this paper gives it out) is as
+follows:--
+
+"The great and firm body of the Whigs of England, true to their
+principles, have decided on the dispute between Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke;
+and the former is declared to have maintained the pure doctrines by
+which they are bound together, and upon which they have invariably
+acted. The consequence is, that Mr. Burke retires from
+Parliament."--_Morning Chronicle_, May 12, 1791.
+
+[7] Reflections, &c., 1st ed., London, J. Dodsley, 1790.--Works, Vol.
+III. p. 343, in the present edition.
+
+[8] To explain this, it will be necessary to advert to a paragraph which
+appeared in a paper in the minority interest some time before this
+debate. "A very dark intrigue has lately been discovered, the authors of
+which are well known to us; but until the glorious day shall come when
+it will not be a LIBEL to tell the TRUTH, we must not be so regardless
+of our own safety as to publish their names. We will, however, state the
+fact, leaving it to the ingenuity of our readers to discover what we
+dare not publish.
+
+"Since the business of the armament against Russia has been under
+discussion, a great personage has been heard to say, 'that he was not so
+wedded to Mr. PITT as not to be very willing to give his confidence to
+Mr. FOX, if the latter should be able, in a crisis like the present, to
+conduct the government of the country with greater advantage to the
+public.'
+
+"This patriotic declaration immediately alarmed the swarm of courtly
+insects that live only in the sunshine of ministerial favor. It was
+thought to be the forerunner of the dismission of Mr. Pitt, and every
+engine was set at work for the purpose of preventing such an event. The
+principal engine employed on this occasion was CALUMNY. It was whispered
+in the ear of a great personage, that Mr. Fox was the last man in
+England to be trusted by a KING, because he was by PRINCIPLE a
+REPUBLICAN, and consequently an enemy to MONARCHY.
+
+"In the discussion of the Quebec Bill which stood for yesterday, it was
+the intention of some persons to connect with this subject the French
+Revolution, in hopes that Mr. Fox would be warmed by a collision with
+Mr. Burke, and induced to defend that Revolution, in which so much power
+was taken from, and so little left in the crown.
+
+"Had Mr. Fox fallen into the snare, his speech on the occasion would
+have been laid before a great personage, as a proof that a man who could
+defend such a revolution might be a very good republican, but could not
+possibly be a friend to monarchy.
+
+"But those who laid the snare were disappointed; for Mr. Fox, in the
+short conversation which took place yesterday in the House of Commons,
+said, that he confessedly had thought favorably of the French
+Revolution, but that most certainly he never had, either in Parliament
+or out of Parliament, professed or defended republican
+principles."--_Argus_, April 22d, 1791.
+
+Mr. Burke cannot answer for the truth nor prove the falsehood of the
+story given by the friends of the party in this paper. He only knows
+that an opinion of its being well or ill authenticated had no influence
+on his conduct. He meant only, to the best of his power, to guard the
+public against the ill designs of factions out of doors. What Mr. Burke
+did in Parliament could hardly have been intended to draw Mr. Fox into
+any declarations unfavorable to his principles, since (by the account of
+those who are his friends) he had long before effectually prevented the
+success of any such scandalous designs. Mr. Fox's friends have
+themselves done away that imputation on Mr. Burke.
+
+[9] See his speech on American Taxation, the 19th of April, 1774.
+
+[10] Lord Lansdowne.
+
+[11] Mr. Windham.
+
+[12] July 17th, 1765.
+
+[13] Works, Vol. III. pp. 251-276, present edition.
+
+[14] State Trials, Vol. V. p. 651.
+
+[15] Page 676.
+
+[16] The words necessary to the completion of the sentence are wanting
+in the printed trial--but the construction of the sentence, as well as
+the foregoing part of the speech, justify the insertion of some such
+supplemental words as the above.
+
+[17] "What we did was, in truth and substance, and in a constitutional
+light, a revolution, not made, but prevented. We took solid securities;
+we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies in our law. In the
+stable, fundamental parts of our Constitution we made no
+revolution,--no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the
+monarchy. Perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very
+considerably. The nation kept the same ranks, the same orders, the same
+privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property, the same
+subordinations, the same order in the law, in the revenue, and in the
+magistracy,--the same lords, the same commons, the same corporations,
+the same electors."--_Mr. Burke's Speech in the House of Commons, 9th
+February, 1790._--It appears how exactly he coincides in everything with
+Sir Joseph Jekyl.
+
+[18] See Reflections, pp. 42, 43.--Works, Vol. III. p. 270, present
+edition.
+
+[19] Declaration of Right.
+
+[20] Vindication of the Rights of Man, recommended by the several
+societies.
+
+[21] "Omnes omnium charitates patria una complectitur."--Cic.
+
+[22] A few lines in Persius contain a good summary of all the objects of
+moral investigation, and hint the result of our inquiry: There human
+will has no place.
+
+    Quid _sumus_? et quidnam _victuri gignimur_? ordo
+    Quis _datus_? et _met�_ quis mollis flexus, et unde?
+    Quis modus argento? Quid _fas optare_? Quid asper
+    Utile nummus habet? _Patri� charisque propinquis_
+    Quantum elargiri _debet_? Quem te Deus esse
+    _Jussit_? et humana qua parte _locatus es_ in re?
+
+
+
+[23] It is no small loss to the world, that the whole of this
+enlightened and philosophic sermon, preached to _two hundred thousand_
+national guards assembled at Blackheath (a number probably equal to the
+sublime and majestic _F�d�ration_ of the 14th of July, 1790, in the
+Champ de Mars) is not preserved. A short abstract is, however, to be
+found in Walsingham. I have added it here for the edification of the
+modern Whigs, who may possibly except this precious little fragment from
+their general contempt of ancient learning.
+
+"Ut su� doctrin� plures inficeret, ad le Blackheth (ubi ducenta millia
+hominum communium fuere simul congregata) hujuscemodi sermonem est
+exorsus.
+
+    "Whan Adam dalfe and Eve span,
+     Who was than a gentleman?
+
+Continuansque sermonem inceptum, nitebatur per verba proverbii, quod pro
+themate sumpserat, introducere et probare, _ab initio omnes pares
+creatos a natur�_, servitutem per injustam oppressionem nequam hominum
+introductam contra Dei voluntatem, quia si Deo placuisset servos
+cre�sse, utique in principio mundi constituisset, quis servus, quisve
+dominus futurus fuisset. Considerarent igitur jam tempus a Deo datum
+eis, in quo (deposito servitutis jugo diutius) possent, si vellent,
+libertate diu concupit� gaudere. Quapropter monuit ut essent viri
+cordati, et amore boni patrisfamilias excolentis agrum suum, et
+extirpantis ac resecantis noxia gramina qu� fruges solent opprimere, et
+ipsi in pr�senti facere festinarent. Prim� _majores regni dominos
+occidendo. Deinde juridicos, justiciarios, et juratores patri�
+perimendo._ Postrem� quoscunque scirent _in posterum communitati
+nocivos_ tollerent de terr� su�, sic demum et _pacem_ sibimet _parerent
+et securitatem_ in futurum. _Si sublatis majoribus esset inter eos �qua
+libertas, eadem nobilitas, par dignitas, similisque potestas._"
+
+Here is displayed at once the whole of the grand _arcanum_ pretended to
+be found out by the National Assembly, for securing future happiness,
+peace, and tranquillity. There seems, however, to be some doubt whether
+this venerable protomartyr of philosophy was inclined to carry his own
+declaration of the rights of men more rigidly into practice than the
+National Assembly themselves. He was, like them, only preaching
+licentiousness to the populace to obtain power for himself, if we may
+believe what is subjoined by the historian.
+
+"Cumque h�c et _plura alia deliramenta_" (think of this old fool's
+calling all the wise maxims of the French Academy _deliramenta_!)
+"pr�dic�sset, commune vulgus cum tanto favore prosequitur, ut
+_exclamarent eum archiepiscopum futurum, et regni cancellarium_."
+Whether he would have taken these situations under these names, or would
+have changed the whole nomenclature of the State and Church, to be
+understood in the sense of the Revolution, is not so certain. It is
+probable that he would have changed the names and kept the substance of
+power.
+
+We find, too, that they had in those days their _society for
+constitutional information_, of which the Reverend John Ball was a
+conspicuous member, sometimes under his own name, sometimes under the
+feigned name of John Schep. Besides him it consisted (as Knyghton tells
+us) of persons who went by the real or fictitious names of Jack Mylner,
+Tom Baker, Jack Straw, Jack Trewman, Jack Carter, and probably of many
+more. Some of the choicest flowers of the publications charitably
+written and circulated by them gratis are upon record in Walsingham and
+Knyghton: and I am inclined to prefer the pithy and sententious brevity
+of these _bulletins_ of ancient rebellion before the loose and confused
+prolixity of the modern advertisements of constitutional information.
+They contain more good morality and less bad politics, they had much
+more foundation in real oppression, and they have the recommendation of
+being much better adapted to the capacities of those for whose
+instruction they were intended. Whatever laudable pains the teachers of
+the present day appear to take, I cannot compliment them so far as to
+allow that they have succeeded in writing down to the level of their
+pupils, _the members of the sovereign_, with half the ability of Jack
+Carter and the Reverend John Ball. That my readers may judge for
+themselves, I shall give them, one or two specimens.
+
+The first is an address from the Reverend John Ball, under his _nom de
+guerre_ of John Schep. I know not against what particular "guyle in
+borough" the writer means to caution the people; it may have been only a
+general cry against "_rotten boroughs_," which it was thought
+convenient, then as now, to make the first pretext, and place at the
+head of the list of grievances.
+
+JOHN SCHEP.
+
+"Iohn Schep sometime seint Mary priest of Yorke, and now of Colchester,
+greeteth well Iohn Namelesse, and Iohn the Miller, and Iohn Carter, and
+_biddeth them that they beware of guyle in borough_, and stand together
+in Gods name, and biddeth Piers Ploweman goe to his werke, and chastise
+well _Hob the robber_, [probably the king,] and take with you Iohn
+Trewman, and all his fellows, and no moe.
+
+    "Iohn the Miller hath yground smal, small, small:
+     The kings sonne of heauen shal pay for all.
+     Beware or ye be woe,
+     Know your frende fro your foe,
+     Haue ynough, and say hoe:
+     And do wel and better, & flee sinne,
+     _And seeke peace and holde you therin,_
+
+& so biddeth Iohn Trewman & all his fellowes."
+
+The reader has perceived, from the last lines of this curious
+state-paper, how well the National Assembly has copied its union of the
+profession of universal peace with the practice of murder and confusion,
+and the blast of the trumpet of sedition in all nations. He will in the
+following constitutional paper observe how well, in their enigmatical
+style, like the Assembly and their abettors, the old philosophers
+proscribe all hereditary distinction, and bestow it only on virtue and
+wisdom, according to their estimation of both. Yet these people are
+supposed never to have heard of "the rights of man"!
+
+JACK MYLNER.
+
+"Jakke Mylner asket help to turne his mylne aright.
+
+    "He hath grounden smal smal,
+     The Kings sone of heven he schal pay for alle.
+
+Loke thy mylne go a rygt, with the fours sayles, and the post stande in
+steadfastnesse.
+
+    "With rygt and with mygt,
+     With skyl and with wylle,
+     Lat mygt helpe rygt,
+     And skyl go before wille,
+     And rygt before mygt:
+     Than goth oure mylne aryght.
+     And if mygt go before ryght,
+     And wylle before skylle;
+     Than is oure mylne mys a dygt."
+
+JACK CARTER understood perfectly the doctrine of looking to the _end_,
+with an indifference to the _means_, and the probability of much good
+arising from great evil.
+
+"Jakke Carter pryes yowe alle that ye make a gode _ende_ of that ye hane
+begunnen, and doth wele and ay bettur and bettur: for at the even men
+heryth the day. _For if the ende be wele, than is alle wele._ Lat Peres
+the Plowman my brother duelle at home and dygt us corne, and I will go
+with yowe and helpe that y may to dygte youre mete and youre drynke,
+that ye none fayle: lokke that Hobbe robbyoure be wele chastysed for
+lesyng of youre grace: for ye have gret nede to take God with yowe in
+alle yours dedes. For nowe is tyme to be war."
+
+[24] See the wise remark on this subject in the Defence of Rights of
+Man, circulated by the societies.
+
+[25] The primary assemblies.
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+LETTER
+
+TO
+
+A PEER OF IRELAND
+
+ON THE
+
+PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICS,
+
+PREVIOUS TO
+
+THE LATE REPEAL OF A PART THEREOF IN THE SESSION OF THE IRISH
+PARLIAMENT, HELD A.D. 1782.
+
+
+CHARLES STREET, LONDON, Feb. 21, 1782
+
+
+My Lord,--I am obliged to your Lordship for your communication of the
+heads of Mr. Gardiner's bill. I had received it, in an earlier stage of
+its progress, from Mr. Braughall; and I am still in that gentleman's
+debt, as I have not made him the proper return for the favor he has done
+me. Business, to which I was more immediately called, and in which my
+sentiments had the weight of one vote, occupied me every moment since I
+received his letter. This first morning which I can call my own I give
+with great cheerfulness to the subject on which your Lordship has done
+me the honor of desiring my opinion.
+
+I have read the heads of the bill, with the amendments. Your Lordship is
+too well acquainted with men, and with affairs, to imagine that any true
+judgment can be formed on the value of a great measure of policy from
+the perusal of a piece of paper. At present I am much in the dark with
+regard to the state of the country which the intended law is to be
+applied to. It is not easy for me to determine whether or no it was wise
+(for the sake of expunging the black letter of laws which, menacing as
+they were in the language, were every day fading into disuse) solemnly
+to reaffirm the principles and to reenact the provisions of a code of
+statutes by which you are totally excluded from THE PRIVILEGES OF THE
+COMMONWEALTH, from the highest to the lowest, from the most material of
+the civil professions, from the army, and even from education, where
+alone education is to be had.[26]
+
+Whether this scheme of indulgence, grounded at once on contempt and
+jealousy, has a tendency gradually to produce something better and more
+liberal, I cannot tell, for want of having the actual map of the
+country. If this should be the case, it was right in you to accept it,
+such as it is. But if this should be one of the experiments which have
+sometimes been made before the temper of the nation was ripe for a real
+reformation, I think it may possibly have ill effects, by disposing the
+penal matter in a more systematic order, and thereby fixing a permanent
+bar against any relief that is truly substantial. The whole merit or
+demerit of the measure depends upon the plans and dispositions of those
+by whom the act was made, concurring with the general temper of the
+Protestants of Ireland, and their aptitude to admit in time of some part
+of that equality without which you never can be FELLOW-CITIZENS. Of all
+this I am wholly ignorant. All my correspondence with men of public
+importance in Ireland has for some time totally ceased. On the first
+bill for the relief of the ROMAN CATHOLICS of Ireland, I was, without
+any call of mine, consulted both on your side of the water and on this.
+On the present occasion, I have not heard a word from any man in office,
+and know as little of the intentions of the British government as I
+know of the temper of the Irish Parliament. I do not find that any
+opposition was made by the principal persons of the minority in the
+House of Commons, or that any is apprehended from them in the House of
+Lords. The whole of the difficulty seems to lie with the principal men
+in government, under whose protection this bill is supposed to be
+brought in. This violent opposition and cordial support, coming from one
+and the same quarter, appears to me something mysterious, and hinders me
+from being able to make any clear judgment of the merit of the present
+measure, as compared with the actual state of the country and the
+general views of government, without which one can say nothing that may
+not be very erroneous.
+
+To look at the bill in the abstract, it is neither more nor less than a
+renewed act of UNIVERSAL, UNMITIGATED, INDISPENSABLE, EXCEPTIONLESS
+DISQUALIFICATION.
+
+One would imagine that a bill inflicting such a multitude of
+incapacities had followed on the heels of a conquest made by a very
+fierce enemy, under the impression of recent animosity and resentment.
+No man, on reading that bill, could imagine he was reading an act of
+amnesty and indulgence, following a recital of the good behavior of
+those who are the objects of it,--which recital stood at the head of the
+bill, as it was first introduced, but, I suppose for its incongruity
+with the body of the piece, was afterwards omitted. This I say on
+memory. It, however, still recites the oath, and that Catholics ought to
+be considered as good and loyal subjects to his Majesty, his crown and
+government. Then follows an universal exclusion of those GOOD and LOYAL
+subjects from every (even the lowest) office of trust and profit,--from
+any vote at an election,--from any privilege in a town corporate,--from
+being even a freeman of such a corporation,--from serving on grand
+juries,--from a vote at a vestry,--from having a gun in his house,--from
+being a barrister, attorney, or solicitor, &c., &c., &c.
+
+This has surely much more the air of a table of proscription than an act
+of grace. What must we suppose the laws concerning those _good_ subjects
+to have been, of which this is a relaxation? I know well that there is a
+cant language current, about the difference between an exclusion from
+employments, even to the most rigorous extent, and an exclusion from the
+natural benefits arising from a man's own industry. I allow, that, under
+some circumstances, the difference is very material in point of justice,
+and that there are considerations which may render it advisable for a
+wise government to keep the leading parts of every branch of civil and
+military administration in hands of the best trust; but a total
+exclusion from the commonwealth is a very different thing. When a
+government subsists (as governments formerly did) on an estate of its
+own, with but few and inconsiderable revenues drawn from the subject,
+then the few officers which existed in such establishments were
+naturally at the disposal of that government, which paid the salaries
+out of its own coffers: there an exclusive preference could hardly merit
+the name of proscription. Almost the whole produce of a man's industry
+at that time remained in his own purse to maintain his family. But times
+alter, and the _whole_ estate of government is from private
+contribution. When a very great portion of the labor of individuals
+goes to the state, and is by the state again refunded to individuals,
+through the medium of offices, and in this circuitous progress from the
+private to the public, and from the public again to the private fund,
+the families from whom the revenue is taken are indemnified, and an
+equitable balance between the government and the subject is established.
+But if a great body of the people who contribute to this state lottery
+are excluded from all the prizes, the stopping the circulation with
+regard to them may be a most cruel hardship, amounting in effect to
+being double and treble taxed; and it will be felt as such to the very
+quick, by all the families, high and low, of those hundreds of thousands
+who are denied their chance in the returned fruits of their own
+industry. This is the thing meant by those who look upon the public
+revenue only as a spoil, and will naturally wish to have as few as
+possible concerned in the division of the booty. If a state should be so
+unhappy as to think it cannot subsist without such a barbarous
+proscription, the persons so proscribed ought to be indemnified by the
+remission of a large part of their taxes, by an immunity from the
+offices of public burden, and by an exemption from being pressed into
+any military or naval service.
+
+Common sense and common justice dictate this at least, as some sort of
+compensation to a people for their slavery. How many families are
+incapable of existing, if the little offices of the revenue and little
+military commissions are denied them! To deny them at home, and to make
+the happiness of acquiring some of them somewhere else felony or high
+treason, is a piece of cruelty, in which, till very lately, I did not
+suppose this age capable of persisting. Formerly a similarity of
+religion made a sort of country for a man in some quarter or other. A
+refugee for religion was a protected character. Now the reception is
+cold indeed; and therefore, as the asylum abroad is destroyed, the
+hardship at home is doubled. This hardship is the more intolerable
+because the professions are shut up. The Church is so of course. Much is
+to be said on that subject, in regard to them, and to the Protestant
+Dissenters. But that is a chapter by itself. I am sure I wish well to
+that Church, and think its ministers among the very best citizens of
+your country. However, such as it is, a great walk in life is forbidden
+ground to seventeen hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Ireland. Why
+are they excluded from the law? Do not they expend money in their suits?
+Why may not they indemnify themselves, by profiting, in the persons of
+some, for the losses incurred by others? Why may not they have persons
+of confidence, whom they may, if they please, employ in the agency of
+their affairs? The exclusion from the law, from grand juries, from
+sheriffships and under-sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any
+corporation, may subject them to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude
+them wholly from all that is beneficial and expose them to all that is
+mischievous in a trial by jury. This was manifestly within my own
+observation, for I was three times in Ireland from the year 1760 to the
+year 1767, where I had sufficient means of information concerning the
+inhuman proceedings (among which were many cruel murders, besides an
+infinity of outrages and oppressions unknown before in a civilized age)
+which prevailed during that period, in consequence of a pretended
+conspiracy among _Roman Catholics_ against the king's government. I
+could dilate upon the mischiefs that may happen, from those which have
+happened, upon this head of disqualification, if it were at all
+necessary.
+
+The head of exclusion from votes for members of Parliament is closely
+connected with the former. When you cast your eye on the statute-book,
+you will see that no _Catholic_, even in the ferocious acts of Queen
+Anne, was disabled from voting on account of his religion. The only
+conditions required for that privilege were the oaths of allegiance and
+abjuration,--both oaths relative to a civil concern. Parliament has
+since added another oath of the same kind; and yet a House of Commons,
+adding to the securities of government in proportion as its danger is
+confessedly lessened, and professing both confidence and indulgence, in
+effect takes away the privilege left by an act full of jealousy and
+professing persecution.
+
+The taking away of a vote is the taking away the shield which the
+subject has, not only against the oppression of power, but that worst of
+all oppressions, the persecution of private society and private manners.
+No candidate for Parliamentary influence is obliged to the least
+attention towards them, either in cities or counties. On the contrary,
+if they should become obnoxious to any bigoted or malignant people
+amongst whom they live, it will become the interest of those who court
+popular favor to use the numberless means which always reside in
+magistracy and influence to oppress them. The proceedings in a certain
+county in Munster, during the unfortunate period I have mentioned, read
+a strong lecture on the cruelty of depriving men of that shield on
+account of their speculative opinions. The Protestants of Ireland feel
+well and naturally on the hardship of being bound by laws in the
+enacting of which they do not directly or indirectly vote. The bounds of
+these matters are nice, and hard to be settled in theory, and perhaps
+they have been pushed too far. But how they can avoid the necessary
+application of the principles they use in their disputes with others to
+their disputes with their fellow-citizens, I know not.
+
+It is true, the words of this act do not create a disability; but they
+clearly and evidently suppose it. There are few _Catholic_ freeholders
+to take the benefit of the privilege, if they were permitted to partake
+it; but the manner in which this very right in freeholders at large is
+defended is not on the idea that the freeholders do really and truly
+represent the people, but that, all people being capable of obtaining
+freeholds, all those who by their industry and sobriety merit this
+privilege have the means of arriving at votes. It is the same with the
+corporations.
+
+The laws against foreign education are clearly the very worst part of
+the old code. Besides your laity, you have the succession of about four
+thousand clergymen to provide for. These, having no lucrative objects in
+prospect, are taken very much out of the lower orders of the people. At
+home they have no means whatsoever provided for their attaining a
+clerical education, or indeed any education at all. When I was in Paris,
+about seven years ago, I looked at everything, and lived with every kind
+of people, as well as my time admitted. I saw there the Irish college of
+the Lombard, which seemed to me a very good place of education, under
+excellent orders and regulations, and under the government of a very
+prudent and learned man (the late Dr. Kelly). This college was possessed
+of an annual fixed revenue of more than a thousand pound a year, the
+greatest part of which had arisen from the legacies and benefactions of
+persons educated in that college, and who had obtained promotions in
+France, from the emolument of which promotions they made this grateful
+return. One in particular I remember, to the amount of ten thousand
+livres annually, as it is recorded on the donor's monument in their
+chapel.
+
+It has been the custom of poor persons in Ireland to pick up such
+knowledge of the Latin tongue as, under the general discouragements, and
+occasional pursuits of magistracy, they were able to acquire; and
+receiving orders at home, were sent abroad to obtain a clerical
+education. By officiating in petty chaplainships, and performing now and
+then certain offices of religion for small gratuities, they received the
+means of maintaining themselves until they were able to complete their
+education. Through such difficulties and discouragements, many of them
+have arrived at a very considerable proficiency, so as to be marked and
+distinguished abroad. These persons afterwards, by being sunk in the
+most abject poverty, despised and ill-treated by the higher orders among
+Protestants, and not much better esteemed or treated even by the few
+persons of fortune of their own persuasion, and contracting the habits
+and ways of thinking of the poor and uneducated, among whom they were
+obliged to live, in a few years retained little or no traces of the
+talents and acquirements which distinguished them in the early periods
+of their lives. Can we with justice cut them off from the use of places
+of education founded for the greater part from the economy of poverty
+and exile, without providing something that is equivalent at home?
+
+Whilst this restraint of foreign and domestic education was part of an
+horrible and impious system of servitude, the members were well fitted
+to the body. To render men patient under a deprivation of all the rights
+of human nature, everything which could give them a knowledge or feeling
+of those rights was rationally forbidden. To render humanity fit to be
+insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded. But when we profess to
+restore men to the capacity for property, it is equally irrational and
+unjust to deny them the power of improving their minds as well as their
+fortunes. Indeed, I have ever thought the prohibition of the means of
+improving our rational nature to be the worst species of tyranny that
+the insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared to exercise. This
+goes to all men, in all situations, to whom education can be denied.
+
+Your Lordship mentions a proposal which came from my friend, the
+Provost, whose benevolence and enlarged spirit I am perfectly convinced
+of,--which is, the proposal of erecting a few sizarships in the college,
+for the education (I suppose) of Roman Catholic clergymen.[27] He
+certainly meant it well; but, coming from such a man as he is, it is a
+strong instance of the danger of suffering any description of men to
+fall into entire contempt. The charities intended for them are not
+perceived to be fresh insults; and the true nature of their wants and
+necessities being unknown, remedies wholly unsuitable to the nature of
+their complaint are provided for them. It is to feed a sick Gentoo with
+beef broth, and to foment his wounds with brandy. If the other parts of
+the university were open to them, as well on the foundation as
+otherwise, the offering of sizarships would be a proportioned part of a
+_general_ kindness. But when everything _liberal_ is withheld, and only
+that which is _servile_ is permitted, it is easy to conceive upon what
+footing they must be in such a place.
+
+Mr. Hutchinson must well know the regard and honor I have for him; and
+he cannot think my dissenting from him in this particular arises from a
+disregard of his opinion: it only shows that I think he has lived in
+Ireland. To have any respect for the character and person of a Popish
+priest there--oh, 'tis an uphill work indeed! But until we come to
+respect what stands in a respectable light with others, we are very
+deficient in the temper which qualifies us to make any laws and
+regulations about them: it even disqualifies us from being charitable to
+them with any effect or judgment.
+
+When we are to provide for the education of any body of men, we ought
+seriously to consider the particular functions they are to perform in
+life. A Roman Catholic clergyman is the minister of a very ritual
+religion, and by his profession subject to many restraints. His life is
+a life full of strict observances; and his duties are of a laborious
+nature towards himself, and of the highest possible trust towards
+others. The duty of confession alone is sufficient to set in the
+strongest light the necessity of his having an appropriated mode of
+education. The theological opinions and peculiar rites of one religion
+never can be properly taught in universities founded for the purposes
+and on the principles of another which in many points are directly
+opposite. If a Roman Catholic clergyman, intended for celibacy and the
+function of confession, is not strictly bred in a seminary where these
+things are respected, inculcated, and enforced, as sacred, and not made
+the subject of derision and obloquy, he will be ill fitted for the
+former, and the latter will be indeed in his hands a terrible
+instrument.
+
+There is a great resemblance between, the whole frame and constitution
+of the Greek and Latin Churches. The secular clergy in the former, by
+being married, living under little restraint, and having no particular
+education suited to their function, are universally fallen into such
+contempt that they are never permitted to aspire to the dignities of
+their own Church. It is not held respectful to call them _Papas_, their
+true and ancient appellation, but those who wish to address them with
+civility always call them _Hieromonachi_. In consequence of this
+disrespect, which I venture to say, in such a Church, must be the
+consequence of a secular life, a very great degeneracy from reputable
+Christian manners has taken place throughout almost the whole of that
+great member of the Christian Church.
+
+It was so with the Latin Church, before the restraint on marriage. Even
+that restraint gave rise to the greatest disorders before the Council of
+Trent, which, together with the emulation raised and the good examples
+given by the Reformed churches, wherever they were in view of each
+other, has brought on that happy amendment which we see in the Latin
+communion, both at home and abroad.
+
+The Council of Trent has wisely introduced the discipline of seminaries,
+by which priests are not trusted for a clerical institution even to the
+severe discipline of their colleges, but, after they pass through them,
+are frequently, if not for the greater part, obliged to pass through
+peculiar methods, having their particular ritual function in view. It is
+in a great measure to this, and to similar methods used in foreign
+education, that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, miserably provided
+for, living among low and ill-regulated people, without any discipline
+of sufficient force to secure good manners, have been prevented from
+becoming an intolerable nuisance to the country, instead of being, as I
+conceive they generally are, a very great service to it.
+
+The ministers of Protestant churches require a different mode of
+education, more liberal, and more fit for the ordinary intercourse of
+life. That religion having little hold on the minds of people by
+external ceremonies and extraordinary observances, or separate habits of
+living, the clergy make up the deficiency by cultivating their minds
+with all kinds of ornamental learning, which the liberal provision made
+in England and Ireland for the parochial clergy, (to say nothing of the
+ample Church preferments, with little or no duties annexed,) and the
+comparative lightness of parochial duties, enables the greater part of
+them in some considerable degree to accomplish.
+
+This learning, which I believe to be pretty general, together with an
+higher situation, and more chastened by the opinion of mankind, forms a
+sufficient security for the morals of the established clergy, and for
+their sustaining their clerical character with dignity. It is not
+necessary to observe, that all these things are, however, collateral to
+their function, and that, except in preaching, which may be and is
+supplied, and often best supplied, out of printed books, little else is
+necessary for a Protestant minister than to be able to read the English
+language,--I mean for the exercise of his function, not to the
+qualification of his admission to it. But a Popish parson in Ireland may
+do very well without any considerable classical erudition, or any
+proficiency in pure or mixed mathematics, or any knowledge of civil
+history. Even if the Catholic clergy should possess those acquisitions,
+as at first many of them do, they soon lose them in the painful course
+of professional and parochial duties: but they must have all the
+knowledge, and, what is to them more important than the knowledge, the
+discipline, necessary to those duties. All modes of education conducted
+by those whose minds are cast in another mould, as I may say, and whose
+original ways of thinking are formed upon the reverse pattern, must be
+to them not only useless, but mischievous. Just as I should suppose the
+education in a Popish ecclesiastical seminary would be ill fitted for a
+Protestant clergyman. To educate a Catholic priest in a Protestant
+seminary would be much worse. The Protestant educated amongst Catholics
+has only something to reject: what he keeps may be useful. But a
+Catholic parish priest learns little for his peculiar purpose and duty
+in a Protestant college.
+
+All this, my Lord, I know very well, will pass for nothing with those
+who wish that the Popish clergy should be illiterate, and in a situation
+to produce contempt and detestation. Their minds are wholly taken up
+with party squabbles, and I have neither leisure nor inclination to
+apply any part of what I have to say to those who never think of
+religion or of the commonwealth in any other light than as they tend to
+the prevalence of some faction in either. I speak on a supposition that
+there is a disposition _to take the state in the condition in which it
+is found_, and to improve it _in that state_ to the best advantage.
+Hitherto the plan for the government of Ireland has been to sacrifice
+the civil prosperity of the nation to its religious improvement. But if
+people in power there are at length come to entertain other ideas, they
+will consider the good order, decorum, virtue, and morality of every
+description of men among them as of infinitely greater importance than
+the struggle (for it is nothing better) to change those descriptions by
+means which put to hazard objects which, in my poor opinion, are of more
+importance to religion and to the state than all the polemical matter
+which has been agitated among men from the beginning of the world to
+this hour.
+
+On this idea, an education fitted _to each order and division of men,
+such as they are found_, will be thought an affair rather to be
+encouraged than discountenanced; and until institutions at home,
+suitable to the occasions and necessities of the people, are
+established, and which are armed, as they are abroad, with authority to
+coerce the young men to be formed in them by a strict and severe
+discipline, the means they have at present of a cheap and effectual
+education in other countries should not continue to be prohibited by
+penalties and modes of inquisition not fit to be mentioned to ears that
+are organized to the chaste sounds of equity and justice.
+
+Before I had written thus far, I heard of a scheme of giving to the
+Castle the patronage of the presiding members of the Catholic clergy. At
+first I could scarcely credit it; for I believe it is the first time
+that the presentation to other people's alms has been desired in any
+country. If the state provides a suitable maintenance and temporality
+for the governing members of the Irish Roman Catholic Church, and for
+the clergy under them, I should think the project, however improper in
+other respects, to be by no means unjust. But to deprive a poor people,
+who maintain a second set of clergy, out of the miserable remains of
+what is left after taxing and tithing, to deprive them of the
+disposition of their own charities among their own communion, would, in
+my opinion, be an intolerable hardship. Never were the members of one
+religious sect fit to appoint the pastors to another. Those who have no
+regard for their welfare, reputation, or internal quiet will not appoint
+such as are proper. The seraglio of Constantinople is as equitable as we
+are, whether Catholics or Protestants,--and where their own sect is
+concerned, full as religious. But the sport which they make of the
+miserable dignities of the Greek Church, the little factions of the
+harem to which they make them subservient, the continual sale to which
+they expose and re�xpose the same dignity, and by which they squeeze all
+the inferior orders of the clergy, is (for I have had particular means
+of being acquainted with it) nearly equal to all the other oppressions
+together, exercised by Mussulmen over the unhappy members of the
+Oriental Church. It is a great deal to suppose that even the present
+Castle would nominate bishops for the Roman Church of Ireland with a
+religious regard for its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they dare
+not do it.
+
+But suppose them to be as well inclined as I know that I am to do the
+Catholics all kind of justice, I declare I would not, if it were in my
+power, take that patronage on myself. I know I ought not to do it. I
+belong to another community, and it would be intolerable usurpation for
+me to affect such authority, where I conferred no benefit, or even if I
+did confer (as in some degree the seraglio does) temporal advantages.
+But allowing that the _present_ Castle finds itself fit to administer
+the government of a church which they solemnly forswear, and forswear
+with very hard words and many evil epithets, and that as often as they
+qualify themselves for the power which is to give this very patronage,
+or to give anything else that they desire,--yet they cannot insure
+themselves that a man like the late Lord Chesterfield will not succeed
+to them. This man, while he was duping the credulity of Papists with
+fine words in private, and commending their good behavior during a
+rebellion in Great Britain, (as it well deserved to be commended and
+rewarded,) was capable of urging penal laws against them in a speech
+from the throne, and of stimulating with provocatives the wearied and
+half-exhausted bigotry of the then Parliament of Ireland. They set to
+work, but they were at a loss what to do; for they had already almost
+gone through every contrivance which could _waste the vigor_ of their
+country: but, after much struggle, they produced a child of their old
+age, the shocking and unnatural act about marriages, which tended to
+finish the scheme for making the people not only two distinct parties
+forever, but keeping them as two distinct species in the same land. Mr.
+Gardiner's humanity was shocked at it, as one of the worst parts of that
+truly barbarous system, if one could well settle the preference, where
+almost all the parts were outrages on the rights of humanity and the
+laws of Nature.
+
+Suppose an atheist, playing the part of a bigot, should be in power
+again in that country, do you believe that he would faithfully and
+religiously administer the trust of appointing pastors to a church
+which, wanting every other support, stands in tenfold need of ministers
+who will be dear to the people committed to their charge, and who will
+exercise a really paternal authority amongst them? But if the superior
+power was always in a disposition to dispense conscientiously, and like
+an upright trustee and guardian of these rights which he holds for those
+with whom he is at variance, has he the capacity and means of doing it?
+How can the Lord-Lieutenant form the least judgment of their merits, so
+as to discern which of the Popish priests is fit to be made a bishop? It
+cannot be: the idea is ridiculous. He will hand them over to
+lords-lieutenant of counties, justices of the peace, and other persons,
+who, for the purpose of vexing and turning to derision this miserable
+people, will pick out the worst and most obnoxious they can find amongst
+the clergy to set over the rest. Whoever is complained against by his
+brother will be considered as persecuted; whoever is censured by his
+superior will be looked upon as oppressed; whoever is careless in his
+opinions and loose in his morals will be called a liberal man, and will
+be supposed to have incurred hatred because he was not a bigot.
+Informers, tale-bearers, perverse and obstinate men, flatterers, who
+turn their back upon their flock and court the Protestant gentlemen of
+the country, will be the objects of preferment. And then I run no risk
+in foretelling that whatever order, quiet, and morality you have in the
+country will be lost. A Popish clergy who are not restrained by the most
+austere subordination will become a nuisance, a real public grievance of
+the heaviest kind, in any country that entertains them; and instead of
+the great benefit which Ireland does and has long derived from them, if
+they are educated without any idea of discipline and obedience, and then
+put under bishops who do not owe their station to their good opinion,
+and whom they cannot respect, that nation will see disorders, of which,
+bad as things are, it has yet no idea. I do not say this, as thinking
+the leading men in Ireland would exercise this trust worse than others.
+Not at all. No man, no set of men living are fit to administer the
+affairs or regulate the interior economy of a church to which they are
+enemies.
+
+As to government, if I might recommend a prudent caution to them, it
+would be, to innovate as little as possible, upon speculation, in
+establishments from which, as they stand, they experience no material
+inconvenience to the repose of the country,--_quieta non movere_.
+
+I could say a great deal more; but I am tired, and am afraid your
+Lordship is tired too. I have not sat to this letter a single quarter of
+an hour without interruption. It has grown long, and probably contains
+many repetitions, from my total want of leisure to digest and
+consolidate my thoughts; and as to my expressions, I could wish to be
+able perhaps to measure them more exactly. But my intentions are fair,
+and I certainly mean to offend nobody.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thinking over this matter more maturely, I see no reason for altering my
+opinion in any part. The act, as far as it goes, is good undoubtedly. It
+amounts, I think, very nearly to a _toleration_, with respect to
+religious ceremonies; but it puts a new bolt on civil rights, and rivets
+it to the old one in such a manner, that neither, I fear, will be easily
+loosened. What I could have wished would be, to see the civil advantages
+take the lead; the other, of a religious toleration, I conceive, would
+follow, (in a manner,) of course. From what I have observed, it is
+pride, arrogance, and a spirit of domination, and not a bigoted spirit
+of religion, that has caused and kept up those oppressive statutes. I am
+sure I have known those who have oppressed Papists in their civil rights
+exceedingly indulgent to them in their religious ceremonies, and who
+really wished them to continue Catholics, in order to furnish pretences
+for oppression. These persons never saw a man (by converting) escape out
+of their power, but with grudging and regret. I have known men to whom I
+am not uncharitable in saying (though they are dead) that they would
+have become Papists in order to oppress Protestants, if, being
+Protestants, it was not in their power to oppress Papists. It is
+injustice, and not a mistaken conscience, that has been the principle of
+persecution,--at least, as far as it has fallen under my
+observation.--However, as I began, so I end. I do not know the map of
+the country. Mr. Gardiner, who conducts this great and difficult work,
+and those who support him, are better judges of the business than I can
+pretend to be, who have not set my foot in Ireland these sixteen years.
+I have been given to understand that I am not considered as a friend to
+that country; and I know that pains have been taken to lessen the credit
+that I might have had there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am so convinced of the weakness of interfering in any business,
+without the opinion of the people in whose business I interfere, that I
+do not know how to acquit myself of what I have now done.
+
+I have the honor to be, with high regard and esteem, my Lord,
+
+Your Lordship's most obedient
+
+And humble servant, &c.
+
+EDMUND BURKE.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] The sketch of the bill sent to Mr. Burke, along with the repeal of
+some acts, reaffirmed many others in the penal code. It was altered
+afterwards, and the clauses reaffirming the incapacities left out; but
+they all still exist, and are in full force.
+
+[27] It appears that Mr. Hutchinson meant this only as one of the means
+for their relief in point of education.
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+LETTER
+
+TO
+
+SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, BART., M.P.,
+
+ON THE SUBJECT OF
+
+THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND,
+
+THE PROPRIETY OF ADMITTING THEM TO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE, CONSISTENTLY
+WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION, AS ESTABLISHED AT THE
+REVOLUTION.
+
+1792.
+
+
+My Dear Sir,--Your remembrance of me, with sentiments of so much
+kindness, has given me the most sincere satisfaction. It perfectly
+agrees with the friendly and hospitable reception which my son and I
+received from you some time since, when, after an absence of twenty-two
+years, I had the happiness of embracing you, among my few surviving
+friends.
+
+I really imagined that I should not again interest myself in any public
+business. I had, to the best of my moderate faculties, paid my club to
+the society which I was born in some way or other to serve; and I
+thought I had a right to put on my night-gown and slippers, and wish a
+cheerful evening to the good company I must leave behind. But if our
+resolutions of vigor and exertion are so often broken or procrastinated
+in the execution, I think we may be excused, if we are not very punctual
+in fulfilling our engagements to indolence and inactivity. I have,
+indeed, no power of action, and am almost a cripple even with regard to
+thinking; but you descend with force into the stagnant pool, and you
+cause such a fermentation as to cure at least one impotent creature of
+his lameness, though it cannot enable him either to run or to wrestle.
+
+You see by the paper[28] I take that I am likely to be long, with malice
+prepense. You have brought under my view a subject always difficult, at
+present critical. It has filled my thoughts, which I wish to lay open to
+you with the clearness and simplicity which your friendship demands from
+me. I thank you for the communication of your ideas. I should be still
+more pleased, if they had been more your own. What you hint I believe to
+be the case: that, if you had not deferred to the judgment of others,
+our opinions would not differ more materially at this day than they did
+when we used to confer on the same subject so many years ago. If I still
+persevere in my old opinions, it is no small comfort to me that it is
+not with regard to doctrines properly yours that I discover my
+indocility.
+
+The case upon which your letter of the 10th of December turns is hardly
+before me with precision enough to enable me to form any very certain
+judgment upon it. It seems to be some plan of further indulgence
+proposed for the Catholics of Ireland. You observe, that your "general
+principles are not changed, but that _times and circumstances are
+altered_." I perfectly agree with you, that times and circumstances,
+considered with reference to the public, ought very much to govern our
+conduct,--though I am far from slighting, when applied with discretion
+to those circumstances, general principles and maxims of policy. I
+cannot help observing, however, that you have said rather less upon the
+inapplicability of your own old principles to the _circumstances_ that
+are likely to influence your conduct against these principles than of
+the _general_ maxims of state, which I can very readily believe not to
+have great weight with you personally.
+
+In my present state of imperfect information, you will pardon the
+errors into which I may easily fall. The principles you lay down are,
+"that the Roman Catholics should enjoy everything _under_ the state, but
+should not be _the state itself_." And you add, "that, when you exclude
+them from being _a part of the state_, you rather conform to the spirit
+of the age than to any abstract doctrine"; but you consider the
+Constitution as already established,--that our state is Protestant. "It
+was declared so at the Revolution. It was so provided in the acts for
+settling the succession of the crown:--the king's coronation oath was
+enjoined in order to keep it so. The king, as first magistrate of the
+state, is obliged to take the oath of abjuration,[29] and to subscribe
+the Declaration; and by laws subsequent, every other magistrate and
+member of the state, legislative and executive, are bound under the same
+obligation."
+
+As to the plan to which these maxims are applied, I cannot speak, as I
+told you, positively about it: because neither from your letter, nor
+from any in formation I have been able to collect, do I find anything
+settled, either on the part of the Roman Catholics themselves, or on
+that of any persons who may wish to conduct their affairs in Parliament.
+But if I have leave to conjecture, something is in agitation towards
+admitting them, under _certain qualifications_, to have _some share_ in
+the election of members of Parliament. This I understand is the scheme
+of those who are entitled to come within your description of persons of
+consideration, property, and character,--and firmly attached to the king
+and Constitution, as by "law established, with a grateful sense of your
+former concessions, and a patient reliance on the benignity of
+Parliament for the further mitigation of the laws that still affect
+them."--As to the low, thoughtless, wild, and profligate, who have
+joined themselves with those of other professions, but of the same
+character, you are not to imagine that for a moment I can suppose them
+to be met with anything else than the manly and enlightened energy of a
+firm government, supported by the united efforts of all virtuous men, if
+ever their proceedings should become so considerable as to demand its
+notice. I really think that such associations should be crushed in their
+very commencement.
+
+Setting, therefore, this case out of the question, it becomes an object
+of very serious consideration, whether, because wicked men of _various_
+descriptions are engaged in seditious courses, the rational, sober, and
+valuable part of _one_ description should not be indulged in their sober
+and rational expectations. You, who have looked deeply into the spirit
+of the Popery laws, must be perfectly sensible that a great part of the
+present mischief which we abhor in common (if it at all exists) has
+arisen from them. Their declared object was, to reduce the Catholics of
+Ireland to a miserable populace, without property, without estimation,
+without education. The professed object was, to deprive the few men,
+who, in spite of those laws, might hold or obtain any property amongst
+them, of all sort of influence or authority over the rest. They divided
+the nation into two distinct bodies, without common interest, sympathy,
+or connection. One of these bodies was to possess _all_ the franchises,
+_all_ the property, _all_ the education: the other was to be composed of
+drawers of water and cutters of turf for them. Are we to be astonished,
+when, by the efforts of so much violence in conquest, and so much policy
+in regulation, continued without intermission for near an hundred years,
+we had reduced them to a mob, that, whenever they came to act at all,
+many of them would act exactly like a mob, without temper, measure, or
+foresight? Surely it might be just now a matter of temperate discussion,
+whether you ought not to apply a remedy to the real cause of the evil.
+If the disorder you speak of be real and considerable, you ought to
+raise an aristocratic interest, that is, an interest of property and
+education, amongst them,--and to strengthen, by every prudent means, the
+authority and influence of men of that description. It will deserve your
+best thoughts, to examine whether this can be done without giving such
+persons the means of demonstrating to the rest that something more is to
+be got by their temperate conduct than can be expected from the wild and
+senseless projects of those who do not belong to their body, who have no
+interest in their well-being, and only wish to make them the dupes of
+their turbulent ambition.
+
+If the absurd persons you mention find no way of providing for liberty,
+but by overturning this happy Constitution, and introducing a frantic
+democracy, let us take care how we prevent better people from any
+rational expectations of partaking in the benefits of that Constitution
+_as it stands_. The maxims you establish cut the matter short. They have
+no sort of connection with the good or the ill behavior of the persons
+who seek relief, or with the proper or improper means by which they seek
+it. They form a perpetual bar to all pleas and to all expectations.
+
+You begin by asserting, that "the Catholics ought to enjoy all things
+_under_ the state, but that they ought not to _be the state_": a
+position which, I believe, in the latter part of it, and in the latitude
+there expressed, no man of common sense has ever thought proper to
+dispute; because the contrary implies that the state ought to be in them
+_exclusively_. But before you have finished the line, you express
+yourself as if the other member of your proposition, namely, that "they
+ought not to be a _part_ of the state," were necessarily included in the
+first,--whereas I conceive it to be as different as a part is from the
+whole, that is, just as different as possible. I know, indeed, that it
+is common with those who talk very differently from you, that is, with
+heat and animosity, to confound those things, and to argue the admission
+of the Catholics into any, however minute and subordinate, parts of the
+state, as a surrender into their hands of the whole government of the
+kingdom. To them I have nothing at all to say.
+
+Wishing to proceed with a deliberative spirit and temper in so very
+serious a question, I shall attempt to analyze, as well as I can, the
+principles you lay down, in order to fit them for the grasp of an
+understanding so little comprehensive as
+mine.--"State,"--"Protestant,"--"Revolution." These are terms which, if
+not well explained, may lead us into many errors. In the word _State_ I
+conceive there is much ambiguity. The state is sometimes used to signify
+_the whole commonwealth_, comprehending all its orders, with the several
+privileges belonging to each. Sometimes it signifies only _the higher
+and ruling part_ of the commonwealth, which we commonly call _the
+Government_. In the first sense, to be under the state, but not the
+state itself, _nor any part of it_, that is, to be nothing at all in the
+commonwealth, is a situation perfectly intelligible,--but to those who
+fill that situation, not very pleasant, when it is understood. It is a
+state of _civil servitude_, by the very force of the definition.
+_Servorum non est respublica_ is a very old and a very true maxim. This
+servitude, which makes men _subject_ to a state without being
+_citizens_, may be more or less tolerable from many circumstances; but
+these circumstances, more or less favorable, do not alter the nature of
+the thing. The mildness by which absolute masters exercise their
+dominion leaves them masters still. We may talk a little presently of
+the manner in which the majority of the people of Ireland (the
+Catholics) are affected by this situation, which at present undoubtedly
+is theirs, and which you are of opinion ought so to continue forever.
+
+In the other sense of the word _State_, by which is understood the
+_Supreme Government_ only, I must observe this upon the question: that
+to exclude whole classes of men entirely from this _part_ of government
+cannot be considered as _absolute slavery_. It only implies a lower and
+degraded state of citizenship: such is (with more or less strictness)
+the condition of all countries in which an hereditary nobility possess
+the exclusive rule. This may be no bad mode of government,--provided
+that the personal authority of individual nobles be kept in due bounds,
+that their cabals and factions are guarded against with a severe
+vigilance, and that the people (who have no share in granting their own
+money) are subjected to but light impositions, and are otherwise treated
+with attention, and with indulgence to their humors and prejudices.
+
+The republic of Venice is one of those which strictly confines all the
+great functions and offices, such as are truly _stale_ functions and
+_state_ offices, to those who by hereditary right or admission are noble
+Venetians. But there are many offices, and some of them not mean nor
+unprofitable, (that of Chancellor is one,) which are reserved for the
+_cittadini_. Of these all citizens of Venice are capable. The
+inhabitants of the _terra firma_, who are mere subjects of conquest,
+that is, as you express it, under the state, but "not a part of it," are
+not, however, subjects in so very rigorous a sense as not to be capable
+of numberless subordinate employments. It is, indeed, one of the
+advantages attending the narrow bottom of their aristocracy, (narrow as
+compared with their acquired dominions, otherwise broad enough,) that an
+exclusion from such employments cannot possibly be made amongst their
+subjects. There are, besides, advantages in states so constituted, by
+which those who are considered as of an inferior race are indemnified
+for their exclusion from the government, and from nobler employments. In
+all these countries, either by express law, or by usage more operative,
+the noble castes are almost universally, in their turn, excluded from
+commerce, manufacture, farming of land, and in general from all
+lucrative civil professions. The nobles have the monopoly of honor; the
+plebeians a monopoly of all the means of acquiring wealth. Thus some
+sort of a balance is formed among conditions; a sort of compensation is
+furnished to those who, in a _limited sense_, are excluded from the
+government of the state.
+
+Between the extreme of _a total exclusion_, to which your maxim goes,
+and _an universal unmodified capacity_, to which the fanatics pretend,
+there are many different degrees and stages, and a great variety of
+temperaments, upon which prudence may give full scope to its exertions.
+For you know that the decisions of prudence (contrary to the system of
+the insane reasoners) differ from those of judicature; and that almost
+all the former are determined on the more or the less, the earlier or
+the later, and on a balance of advantage and inconvenience, of good and
+evil.
+
+In all considerations which turn upon the question of vesting or
+continuing the state solely and exclusively in some one description of
+citizens, prudent legislators will consider how far _the general form
+and principles of their commonwealth render it fit to be cast into an
+oligarchical shape, or to remain always in it_. We know that the
+government of Ireland (the same as the British) is not in its
+constitution _wholly_ aristocratical; and as it is not such in its form,
+so neither is it in its spirit. If it had been inveterately
+aristocratical, exclusions might be more patiently submitted to. The lot
+of one plebeian would be the lot of all; and an habitual reverence and
+admiration of certain families might make the people content to see
+government wholly in hands to whom it seemed naturally to belong. But
+our Constitution has _a plebeian member_, which forms an essential
+integrant part of it. A plebeian oligarchy is a monster; and no people,
+not absolutely domestic or predial slaves, will long endure it. The
+Protestants of Ireland are not _alone_ sufficiently the people to form a
+democracy; and they are _too numerous_ to answer the ends and purposes
+of _an aristocracy_. Admiration, that first source of obedience, can be
+only the claim or the imposture of the few. I hold it to be absolutely
+impossible for two millions of plebeians, composing certainly a very
+clear and decided majority in that class, to become so far in love with
+six or seven hundred thousand of their fellow-citizens (to all outward
+appearance plebeians like themselves, and many of them tradesmen,
+servants, and otherwise inferior to some of them) as to see with
+satisfaction, or even with patience, an exclusive power vested in them,
+by which _constitutionally_ they become the absolute masters, and, by
+the _manners_ derived from their circumstances, must be capable of
+exercising upon them, daily and hourly, an insulting and vexatious
+superiority. Neither are the majority of the Irish indemnified (as in
+some aristocracies) for this state of humiliating vassalage (often
+inverting the nature of things and relations) by having the lower walks
+of industry wholly abandoned to them. They are rivalled, to say the
+least of the matter, in every laborious and lucrative course of life;
+while every franchise, every honor, every trust, every place, down to
+the very lowest and least confidential, (besides whole professions,) is
+reserved for the master caste.
+
+Our Constitution is not made for great, general, and proscriptive
+exclusions; sooner or later it will destroy them, or they will destroy
+the Constitution. In our Constitution there has always been a difference
+between _a franchise_ and _an office_, and between the capacity for the
+one and for the other. Franchises were supposed to belong to the
+_subject_, as _a subject_, and not as _a member of the governing part of
+the state_. The policy of government has considered them as things very
+different; for, whilst Parliament excluded by the test acts (and for a
+while these test acts were not a dead letter, as now they are in
+England) Protestant Dissenters from all civil and military employments,
+they _never touched their right of voting for members of Parliament or
+sitting in either House_: a point I state, not as approving or
+condemning, with regard to them, the measure of exclusion from
+employments, but to prove that the distinction has been admitted in
+legislature, as, in truth, it is founded in reason.
+
+I will not here examine whether the principles of the British [the
+Irish] Constitution be wise or not. I must assume that they are, and
+that those who partake the franchises which make it partake of a
+benefit. They who are excluded from votes (under proper qualifications
+inherent in the Constitution that gives them) are excluded, not from
+_the state_, but from _the British Constitution_. They cannot by any
+possibility, whilst they hear its praises continually rung in their
+ears, and are present at the declaration which is so generally and so
+bravely made by those who possess the privilege, that the best blood in
+their veins ought to be shed to preserve their share in it,--they, the
+disfranchised part, cannot, I say, think themselves in an _happy_ state,
+to be utterly excluded from all its direct and all its consequential
+advantages. The popular part of the Constitution must be to them by far
+the most odious part of it. To them it is not an _actual_, and, if
+possible, still less a _virtual_ representation. It is, indeed, the
+direct contrary. It is power unlimited placed in the hands of _an
+adverse_ description _because it is an adverse description_. And if they
+who compose the privileged body have not an interest, they must but too
+frequently have motives of pride, passion, petulance, peevish jealousy,
+or tyrannic suspicion, to urge them to treat the excluded people with
+contempt and rigor.
+
+This is not a mere theory; though, whilst men are men, it is a theory
+that cannot be false. I do not desire to revive all the particulars in
+my memory; I wish them to sleep forever; but it is impossible I should
+wholly forget what happened in some parts of Ireland, with very few and
+short intermissions, from the year 1761 to the year 1766, both
+inclusive. In a country of miserable police, passing from the extremes
+of laxity to the extremes of rigor, among a neglected and therefore
+disorderly populace, if any disturbance or sedition, from any grievance
+real or imaginary, happened to arise, it was presently perverted from
+its true nature, often criminal enough in itself to draw upon it a
+severe, appropriate punishment: it was metamorphosed into a conspiracy
+against the state, and prosecuted as such. Amongst the Catholics, as
+being by far the most numerous and the most wretched, all sorts of
+offenders against the laws must commonly be found. The punishment of low
+people for the offences usual among low people would warrant no
+inference against any descriptions of religion or of politics. Men of
+consideration from their age, their profession, or their character, men
+of proprietary landed estates, substantial renters, opulent merchants,
+physicians, and titular bishops, could not easily be suspected of riot
+in open day, or of nocturnal assemblies for the purpose of pulling down
+hedges, making breaches in park-walls, firing barns, maiming cattle, and
+outrages of a similar nature, which characterize the disorders of an
+oppressed or a licentious populace. But when the evidence given on the
+trial for such misdemeanors qualified them as overt acts of high
+treason, and when witnesses were found (such witnesses as they were) to
+depose to the taking of oaths of allegiance by the rioters to the king
+of France, to their being paid by his money, and embodied and exercised
+under his officers, to overturn the state for the purposes of that
+potentate,--in that case, the rioters might (if the witness was
+believed) be supposed only the troops, and persons more reputable the
+leaders and commanders, in such a rebellion. All classes in the
+obnoxious description, who could not be suspected of the lower crime of
+riot, might be involved in the odium, in the suspicion, and sometimes in
+the punishment, of a higher and far more criminal species of offence.
+These proceedings did not arise from any one of the Popery laws since
+repealed, but from this circumstance, that, when it answered the
+purposes of an election party or a malevolent person of influence to
+forge such plots, the people had no protection. The people of that
+description have no hold on the gentlemen who aspire to be popular
+representatives. The candidates neither love nor respect nor fear them,
+individually or collectively. I do not think this evil (an evil amongst
+a thousand others) at this day entirely over; for I conceive I have
+lately seen some indication of a disposition perfectly similar to the
+old one,--that is, a disposition to carry the imputation of crimes from
+persons to descriptions, and wholly to alter the character and quality
+of the offences themselves.
+
+This universal exclusion seems to me a serious evil,--because many
+collateral oppressions, besides what I have just now stated, have arisen
+from it. In things of this nature it would not be either easy or proper
+to quote chapter and verse; but I have great reason to believe,
+particularly since the Octennial Act, that several have refused at all
+to let their lands to Roman Catholics, because it would so far disable
+them from promoting such interests in counties as they were inclined to
+favor. They who consider also the state of all sorts of tradesmen,
+shopkeepers, and particularly publicans in towns, must soon discern the
+disadvantages under which those labor who have no votes. It cannot be
+otherwise, whilst the spirit of elections and the tendencies of human
+nature continue as they are. If property be artificially separated from
+franchise, the franchise must in some way or other, and in some
+proportion, naturally attract property to it. Many are the collateral
+disadvantages, amongst a _privileged_ people, which must attend on those
+who have _no_ privileges.
+
+Among the rich, each individual, with or without a franchise, is of
+importance; the poor and the middling are no otherwise so than as they
+obtain some collective capacity, and can be aggregated to some corps. If
+legal ways are not found, illegal will be resorted to; and seditious
+clubs and confederacies, such as no man living holds in greater horror
+than I do, will grow and flourish, in spite, I am afraid, of anything
+which can be done to prevent the evil. Lawful enjoyment is the surest
+method to prevent unlawful gratification. Where there is property, there
+will be less theft; where there is marriage, there will always be less
+fornication.
+
+I have said enough of the question of state, _as it affects the people
+merely as such_. But it is complicated with a political question
+relative to religion, to which it is very necessary I should say
+something,--because the term _Protestant_, which you apply, is too
+general for the conclusions which one of your accurate understanding
+would wish to draw from it, and because a great deal of argument will
+depend on the use that is made of that term.
+
+It is _not_ a fundamental part of the settlement at the Revolution that
+the state should be Protestant _without any qualification of the term_.
+With a qualification it is unquestionably true; not in all its latitude.
+With the qualification, it was true before the Revolution. Our
+predecessors in legislation were not so irrational (not to say impious)
+as to form an operose ecclesiastical establishment, and even to render
+the state itself in some degree subservient to it, when their religion
+(if such it might be called) was nothing but a mere _negation_ of some
+other,--without any positive idea, either of doctrine, discipline,
+worship, or morals, in the scheme which they professed themselves, and
+which they imposed upon others, even under penalties and incapacities.
+No! No! This never could have been done, even by reasonable atheists.
+They who think religion of no importance to the state have abandoned it
+to the conscience or caprice of the individual; they make no provision
+for it whatsoever, but leave every club to make, or not, a voluntary
+contribution towards its support, according to their fancies. This would
+be consistent. The other always appeared to me to be a monster of
+contradiction and absurdity. It was for that reason, that, some years
+ago, I strenuously opposed the clergy who petitioned, to the number of
+about three hundred, to be freed from the subscription to the
+Thirty-Nine Articles, without proposing to substitute any other in their
+place. There never has been a religion of the state (the few years of
+the Parliament only excepted) but that of _the Episcopal Church of
+England_: the Episcopal Church of England, before the Reformation,
+connected with the see of Rome; since then, disconnected, and protesting
+against some of her doctrines, and against the whole of her authority,
+as binding in our national church: nor did the fundamental laws of this
+kingdom (in Ireland it has been the same) ever know, at any period, any
+other church _as an object of establishment_,--or, in that light, any
+other Protestant religion. Nay, our Protestant _toleration_ itself, at
+the Revolution, and until within a few years, required a signature of
+thirty-six, and a part of the thirty-seventh, out of the Thirty-Nine
+Articles. So little idea had they at the Revolution of _establishing_
+Protestantism indefinitely, that they did not indefinitely _tolerate_ it
+under that name. I do not mean to praise that strictness, where nothing
+more than merely religious toleration is concerned. Toleration, being a
+part of moral and political prudence, ought to be tender and large. A
+tolerant government ought not to be too scrupulous in its
+investigations, but may bear without blame, not only very ill-grounded
+doctrines, but even many things that are positively vices, where they
+are _adulta et pr�valida_. The good of the commonwealth is the rule
+which rides over the rest; and to this every other must completely
+submit.
+
+The Church of Scotland knows as little of Protestantism _undefined_ as
+the Church of England and Ireland do. She has by the articles of union
+secured to herself the perpetual establishment of _the Confession of
+Faith_, and the _Presbyterian_ Church government. In England, even
+during the troubled interregnum, it was not thought fit to establish a
+_negative_ religion; but the Parliament settled the _Presbyterian_ as
+the Church _discipline_, the _Directory_ as the rule of public
+_worship_, and the _Westminster Catechism_ as the institute of _faith_.
+This is to show that at no time was the Protestant religion,
+_undefined_, established here or anywhere else, as I believe. I am sure,
+that, when the three religions were established in Germany, they were
+expressly characterized and declared to be the _Evangelic_, the
+_Reformed_, and the _Catholic_; each of which has its confession of
+faith and its settled discipline: so that you always may know the best
+and the worst of them, to enable you to make the most of what is good,
+and to correct or to qualify or to guard against whatever may seem evil
+or dangerous.
+
+As to the coronation oath, to which you allude, as opposite to admitting
+a Roman Catholic to the use of any franchise whatsoever, I cannot think
+that the king would be perjured, if he gave his assent to any regulation
+which Parliament might think fit to make with regard to that affair. The
+king is bound by law, as clearly specified in several acts of
+Parliament, to be in communion with the Church of England. It is a part
+of the tenure by which he holds his crown; and though no provision was
+made till the Revolution, which could be called positive and valid in
+law, to ascertain this great principle, I have always considered it as
+in fact fundamental, that the king of England should be of the Christian
+religion, according to the national legal church for the time being. I
+conceive it was so before the Reformation. Since the Reformation it
+became doubly necessary; because the king is the head of that church, in
+some sort an ecclesiastical person,--and it would be incongruous and
+absurd to have the head of the Church of one faith, and the members of
+another. The king may _inherit_ the crown as a _Protestant_; but he
+cannot _hold it_, according to law, without being a Protestant _of the
+Church of England_.
+
+Before we take it for granted that the king is bound by his coronation
+oath not to admit any of his Catholic subjects to the rights and
+liberties which ought to belong to them as Englishmen, (not as
+religionists,) or to settle the conditions or proportions of such
+admission by an act of Parliament, I wish you to place before your eyes
+that oath itself, as it is settled in the act of William and Mary.
+
+"Will you to the utmost of your power maintain
+      1                2                 3
+the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel,
+           4
+and the Protestant Reformed Religion _established by_
+                            5
+_law_? And will you preserve unto the _bishops_ and clergy of this
+realm, and to the churches committed to _their_ charge, all such rights
+and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of
+them?--All this I promise to do."
+
+Here are the coronation engagements of the king. In them I do not find
+one word to preclude his Majesty from consenting to any arrangement
+which Parliament may make with regard to the civil privileges of any
+part of his subjects.
+
+It may not be amiss, on account of the light which it will throw on this
+discussion, to look a little more narrowly into the matter of that
+oath,--in order to discover how far it has hitherto operated, or how far
+in future it ought to operate, as a bar to any proceedings of the crown
+and Parliament in favor of those against whom it may be supposed that
+the king has engaged to support the Protestant Church of England in the
+two kingdoms in which it is established by law. First, the king swears
+he will maintain to the utmost of his power "the laws of God." I suppose
+it means the natural moral laws.--Secondly, he swears to maintain "the
+true profession of the Gospel." By which I suppose is understood
+_affirmatively_ the Christian religion.--Thirdly, that he will maintain
+"the Protestant reformed religion." This leaves me no power of
+supposition or conjecture; for that Protestant reformed religion is
+defined and described by the subsequent words, "established by law"; and
+in this instance, to define it beyond all possibility of doubt, he
+swears to maintain the "bishops and clergy, and the churches committed
+to their charge," in their rights present and future.
+
+The oath as effectually prevents the king from doing anything to the
+prejudice of the Church, in favor of sectaries, Jews, Mahometans, or
+plain avowed infidels, as if he should do the same thing in favor of the
+Catholics. You will see that it is the same Protestant Church, so
+described, that the king is to maintain and communicate with, according
+to the Act of Settlement of the 12th and 13th of William the Third. The
+act of the 5th of Anne, made in prospect of the Union, is entitled, "An
+act for securing the Church of England as by law established." It meant
+to guard the Church implicitly against any other mode of Protestant
+religion which might creep in by means of the Union. It proves beyond
+all doubt, that the legislature did not mean to guard the Church on one
+part only, and to leave it defenceless and exposed upon every other.
+This church, in that act, is declared to be "fundamental and essential"
+forever, in the Constitution of the United Kingdom, so far as England is
+concerned; and I suppose, as the law stands, even since the
+independence, it is so in Ireland.
+
+All this shows that the religion which the king is bound to maintain has
+a positive part in it, as well as a negative,--and that the positive
+part of it (in which we are in perfect agreement with the Catholics and
+with the Church of Scotland) is infinitely the most valuable and
+essential. Such an agreement we had with Protestant Dissenters in
+England, of those descriptions who came under the Toleration Act of King
+William and Queen Mary: an act coeval with the Revolution; and which
+ought, on the principles of the gentlemen who oppose the relief to the
+Catholics, to have been held sacred and unalterable. Whether we agree
+with the present Protestant Dissenters in the points at the Revolution
+held essential and fundamental among Christians, or in any other
+fundamental, at present it is impossible for us to know: because, at
+their own very earnest desire, we have repealed the Toleration Act of
+William and Mary, and discharged them from the signature required by
+that act; and because, for the far greater part, they publicly declare
+against all manner of confessions of faith, even the _Consensus_.
+
+For reasons forcible enough at all times, but at this time particularly
+forcible with me, I dwell a little the longer upon this matter, and take
+the more pains, to put us both in mind that it was not settled at the
+Revolution that the state should be Protestant, in the latitude of the
+term, but in a defined and limited sense only, and that in that sense
+only the king is sworn to maintain it. To suppose that the king has
+sworn with his utmost power to maintain what it is wholly out of his
+power to discover, or which, if he could discover, he might discover to
+consist of things directly contradictory to each other, some of them
+perhaps impious, blasphemous, and seditious upon principle, would be not
+only a gross, but a most mischievous absurdity. If mere dissent from the
+Church of Rome be a merit, he that dissents the most perfectly is the
+most meritorious. In many points we hold strongly with that church. He
+that dissents throughout with that church will dissent with the Church
+of England, and then it will be a part of his merit that he dissents
+with ourselves: a whimsical species of merit for any set of men to
+establish. We quarrel to extremity with those who we know agree with us
+in many things; but we are to be so malicious even in the principle of
+our friendships, that we are to cherish in our bosom those who accord
+with us in nothing, because, whilst they despise ourselves, they abhor,
+even more than we do, those with whom we have some disagreement. A man
+is certainly the most perfect Protestant who protests against the whole
+Christian religion. Whether a person's having no Christian religion be a
+title to favor, in exclusion to the largest description of Christians,
+who hold all the doctrines of Christianity, though holding along with
+them some errors and some superfluities, is rather more than any man,
+who has not become recreant and apostate from his baptism, will, I
+believe, choose to affirm. The countenance given from a spirit of
+controversy to that negative religion may by degrees encourage light and
+unthinking people to a total indifference to everything positive in
+matters of doctrine, and, in the end, of practice too. If continued, it
+would play the game of that sort of active, proselytizing, and
+persecuting atheism which is the disgrace and calamity of our time, and
+which we see to be as capable of subverting a government as any mode can
+be of misguided zeal for better things.
+
+Now let us fairly see what course has been taken relative to those
+against whom, in part at least, the king has sworn to maintain a church,
+_positive in its doctrine and its discipline_. The first thing done,
+even when the oath was fresh in the mouth of the sovereigns, was to give
+a toleration to Protestant Dissenters _whose doctrines they
+ascertained_. As to the mere civil privileges which the Dissenters held
+as subjects before the Revolution, these were not touched at all. The
+laws have fully permitted, in a qualification for all offices, to such
+Dissenters, _an occasional conformity_: a thing I believe singular,
+where tests are admitted. The act, called the Test Act, itself, is, with
+regard to them, grown to be hardly anything more than a dead letter.
+Whenever the Dissenters cease by their conduct to give any alarm to the
+government, in Church and State, I think it very probable that even this
+matter, rather disgustful than inconvenient to them, may be removed, or
+at least so modified as to distinguish the qualification to those
+offices which really _guide the state_ from those which are _merely
+instrumental_, or that some other and better tests may be put in their
+place.
+
+So far as to England. In Ireland you have outran us. Without waiting for
+an English example, you have totally, and without any modification
+whatsoever, repealed the test as to Protestant Dissenters. Not having
+the repealing act by me, I ought not to say positively that there is no
+exception in it; but if it be what I suppose it is, you know very well
+that a Jew in religion, or a Mahometan, or even _a public, declared
+atheist_ and blasphemer, is perfectly qualified to be Lord-Lieutenant, a
+lord-justice, or even keeper of the king's conscience, and by virtue of
+his office (if with you it be as it is with us) administrator to a great
+part of the ecclesiastical patronage of the crown.
+
+Now let us deal a little fairly. We must admit that Protestant Dissent
+was one of the quarters from which danger was apprehended at the
+Revolution, and against which a part of the coronation oath was
+peculiarly directed. By this unqualified repeal you certainly did not
+mean to deny that it was the duty of the crown to preserve the Church
+against Protestant Dissenters; or taking this to be the true sense of
+the two Revolution acts of King William, and of the previous and
+subsequent Union acts of Queen Anne, you did not declare by this most
+unqualified repeal, by which you broke down all the barriers, not
+invented, indeed, but carefully preserved, at the Revolution,--you did
+not then and by that proceeding declare that you had advised the king to
+perjury towards God and perfidy towards the Church. No! far, very far
+from it! You never would have done it, if you did not think it could be
+done with perfect repose to the royal conscience, and perfect safety to
+the national established religion. You did this upon a full
+consideration of the circumstances of your country. Now, if
+circumstances required it, why should it be contrary to the king's oath,
+his Parliament judging on those circumstances, to restore to his
+Catholic people, in such measure and with such modifications as the
+public wisdom shall think proper to add, _some part_ in these franchises
+which they formerly had held without any limitation at all, and which,
+upon no sort of urgent reason at the time, they were deprived of? If
+such means can with any probability be shown, from circumstances, rather
+to add strength to our mixed ecclesiastical and secular Constitution
+than to weaken it, surely they are means infinitely to be preferred to
+penalties, incapacities, and proscriptions, continued from generation to
+generation. They are perfectly consistent with the other parts of the
+coronation oath, in which the king swears to maintain "the laws of God
+and the true profession of the Gospel, and to govern the people
+according to the statutes in Parliament agreed upon, and the laws and
+customs of the realm." In consenting to such a statute, the crown would
+act at least as agreeable to the laws of God, and to the true profession
+of the Gospel, and to the laws and customs of the kingdom, as George the
+First did, when he passed the statute which took from the body of the
+people everything which to that hour, and even after the monstrous acts
+of the 2nd and 8th of Anne, (the objects of our common hatred,) they
+still enjoyed inviolate.
+
+It is hard to distinguish with the last degree of accuracy what laws are
+fundamental, and what not. However, there is a distinction between them,
+authorized by the writers on jurisprudence, and recognized in some of
+our statutes. I admit the acts of King William and Queen Anne to be
+fundamental, but they are not the only fundamental laws. The law called
+_Magna Charta_, by which it is provided that "no man shall be disseised
+of his liberties and free customs but by the judgment of his peers or
+the laws of the land," (meaning clearly, for some proved crime tried and
+adjudged,) I take to be _a fundamental law._ Now, although this Magna
+Charta, or some of the statutes establishing it, provide that that law
+shall be perpetual, and all statutes contrary to it shall be void, yet I
+cannot go so far as to deny the authority of statutes made in defiance
+of Magna Charta and all its principles. This, however, I will say,--that
+it is a very venerable law, made by very wise and learned men, and that
+the legislature, in their attempt to perpetuate it, even against the
+authority of future Parliaments, have shown their judgment that it is
+_fundamental_, on the same grounds and in the same manner that the act
+of the fifth of Anne has considered and declared the establishment of
+the Church of England to be fundamental. Magna Charta, which secured
+these franchises to the subjects, regarded the rights of freeholders in
+counties to be as much a fundamental part of the Constitution as the
+establishment of the Church of England was thought either at that time,
+or in the act of King William, or in the act of Queen Anne.
+
+The churchmen who led in that transaction certainly took care of the
+material interest of which they were the natural guardians. It is the
+first article of Magna Charta, "that the Church of England shall be
+free," &c, &c. But at that period, churchmen and barons and knights took
+care of the franchises and free customs of the people, too. Those
+franchises are part of the Constitution itself, and inseparable from it.
+It would be a very strange thing, if there should not only exist
+anomalies in our laws, a thing not easy to prevent, but that the
+fundamental parts of the Constitution should be perpetually and
+irreconcilably at variance with each other. I cannot persuade myself
+that the lovers of our church are not as able to find effectual ways of
+reconciling its safety with the franchises of the people as the
+ecclesiastics of the thirteenth century were able to do; I cannot
+conceive how anything worse can be said of the Protestant religion of
+the Church of England than this,--that, wherever it is judged proper to
+give it a legal establishment, it becomes necessary to deprive the body
+of the people, if they adhere to their old opinions, of "their liberties
+and of all their free customs," and to reduce them to a state of _civil_
+servitude.
+
+There is no man on earth, I believe, more willing than I am to lay it
+down as a fundamental of the Constitution, that the Church of England
+should be united and even identified with it; but, allowing this, I
+cannot allow that all _laws of regulation_, made from time to time, in
+support of that fundamental law, are of course equally fundamental and
+equally unchangeable. This would be to confound all the branches of
+legislation and of jurisprudence. The _crown_ and the personal safety of
+the monarch are _fundamentals_ in our Constitution: yet I hope that no
+man regrets that the rabble of statutes got together during the reign of
+Henry the Eighth, by which treasons are multiplied with so prolific an
+energy, have been all repealed in a body; although they were all, or
+most of them, made in support of things truly fundamental in our
+Constitution. So were several of the acts by which the crown exercised
+its supremacy: such as the act of Elizabeth for making the _high
+commission courts_, and the like; as well as things made treason in the
+time of Charles the Second. None of this species of _secondary and
+subsidiary laws_ have been held fundamental. They have yielded to
+circumstances; particularly where they were thought, even in their
+consequences, or obliquely, to affect other fundamentals. How much more,
+certainly, ought they to give way, when, as in our case, they affect,
+not here and there, in some particular point, or in their consequence,
+but universally, collectively, and directly, the fundamental franchises
+of a people equal to the whole inhabitants of several respectable
+kingdoms and states: equal to the subjects of the kings of Sardinia or
+of Denmark; equal to those of the United Netherlands; and more than are
+to be found in all the states of Switzerland. This way of proscribing
+men by whole nations, as it were, from all the benefits of the
+Constitution to which they were born, I never can believe to be politic
+or expedient, much less necessary for the existence of any state or
+church in the world. Whenever I shall be convinced, which will be late
+and reluctantly, that the safety of the Church is utterly inconsistent
+with all the civil rights whatsoever of the far larger part of the
+inhabitants of our country, I shall be extremely sorry for it; because I
+shall think the Church to be truly in danger. It is putting things into
+the position of an ugly alternative, into which I hope in God they never
+will be put.
+
+I have said most of what occurs to me on the topics you touch upon,
+relative to the religion of the king, and his coronation oath. I shall
+conclude the observations which I wished to submit to you on this point
+by assuring you that I think you the most remote that can be conceived
+from the metaphysicians of our times, who are the most foolish of men,
+and who, dealing in universals and essences, see no difference between
+more and less,--and who of course would think that the reason of the law
+which obliged the king to be a communicant of the Church of England
+would be as valid to exclude a Catholic from being an exciseman, or to
+deprive a man who has five hundred a year, under that description, from
+voting on a par with a factitious Protestant Dissenting freeholder of
+forty shillings.
+
+Recollect, my dear friend, that it was a fundamental principle in the
+French monarchy, whilst it stood, that the state should be Catholic; yet
+the Edict of Nantes gave, not a full ecclesiastical, but a complete
+civil _establishment_, with places of which only they were capable, to
+the Calvinists of France,--and there were very few employments, indeed,
+of which they were not capable. The world praised the Cardinal de
+Richelieu, who took the first opportunity to strip them of their
+fortified places and cautionary towns. The same world held and does hold
+in execration (so far as that business is concerned) the memory of Louis
+the Fourteenth, for the total repeal of that favorable edict; though the
+talk of "fundamental laws, established religion, religion of the prince,
+safety to the state," &c., &c., was then as largely held, and with as
+bitter a revival of the animosities of the civil confusions during the
+struggles between the parties, as now they can be in Ireland.
+
+Perhaps there are persons who think that the same reason does not hold,
+when the religious relation of the sovereign and subject is changed; but
+they who have their shop full of false weights and measures, and who
+imagine that the adding or taking away the name of Protestant or
+Papist, Guelph or Ghibelline, alters all the principles of equity,
+policy, and prudence, leave us no common data upon which we can reason.
+I therefore pass by all this, which on you will make no impression, to
+come to what seems to be a serious consideration in your mind: I mean
+the dread you express of "reviewing, for the purpose of altering, the
+_principles of the Revolution_." This is an interesting topic, on which
+I will, as fully as your leisure and mine permits, lay before you the
+ideas I have formed.
+
+First, I cannot possibly confound in my mind all the things which were
+done at the Revolution with the _principles_ of the Revolution. As in
+most great changes, many things were done from the necessities of the
+time, well or ill understood, from passion or from vengeance, which were
+not only not perfectly agreeable to its principles, but in the most
+direct contradiction to them. I shall not think that the _deprivation of
+some millions of people of all the rights of citizens, and all interest
+in the Constitution, in and to which they were born_, was a thing
+conformable to the _declared principles_ of the Revolution. This I am
+sure is true relatively to England (where the operation of these
+_anti-principles_ comparatively were of little extent); and some of our
+late laws, in repealing acts made immediately after the Revolution,
+admit that some things then done were not done in the true spirit of the
+Revolution. But the Revolution operated differently in England and
+Ireland, in many, and these essential particulars. Supposing the
+principles to have been altogether the same in both kingdoms, by the
+application of those principles to very different objects the whole
+spirit of the system was changed, not to say reversed. In England it
+was the struggle of the _great body_ of the people for the establishment
+of their liberties, against the efforts of a very _small faction_, who
+would have oppressed them. In Ireland it was the establishment of the
+power of the smaller number, at the expense of the civil liberties and
+properties of the far greater part, and at the expense of the political
+liberties of the whole. It was, to say the truth, not a revolution, but
+a conquest: which is not to say a great deal in its favor. To insist on
+everything done in Ireland at the Revolution would be to insist on the
+severe and jealous policy of a conqueror, in the crude settlement of his
+new acquisition, as _a permanent_ rule for its future government. This
+no power, in no country that ever I heard of, has done or professed to
+do,--except in Ireland; where it is done, and possibly by some people
+will be professed. Time has, by degrees, in all other places and
+periods, blended and coalited the conquered with the conquerors. So,
+after some time, and after one of the most rigid conquests that we read
+of in history, the Normans softened into the English. I wish you to turn
+your recollection to the fine speech of Cerealis to the Gauls, made to
+dissuade them from revolt. Speaking of the Romans,--"_Nos_ quamvis
+toties lacessiti, jure victori� id solum vobis addidimus, quo pacem
+tueremur: nam neque quies gentium sine armis, neque arma sine
+stipendiis, neque stipendia sine tributis haberi queant. _Caetera in
+communi sita sunt_: ipsi plerumque nostris exercitibus _praesidetis_:
+ipsi has aliasque provincias _regitis: nil separatum clausumve_. Proinde
+pacem et urbem, quam _victores victique eodem jure obtinemus_, amate,
+colite." You will consider whether the arguments used by that Roman to
+these Gauls would apply to the case in Ireland,--and whether you could
+use so plausible a preamble to any severe warning you might think it
+proper to hold out to those who should resort to sedition, instead of
+supplication, to obtain any object that they may pursue with the
+governing power.
+
+For a much longer period than that which had sufficed to blend the
+Romans with the nation to which of all others they were the most
+adverse, the Protestants settled in Ireland considered themselves in no
+other light than that of a sort of a colonial garrison, to keep the
+natives in subjection to the other state of Great Britain. The whole
+spirit of the Revolution in Ireland was that of not the mildest
+conqueror. In truth, the spirit of those proceedings did not commence at
+that era, nor was religion of any kind their primary object. What was
+done was not in the spirit of a contest between two religious factions,
+but between two adverse nations. The statutes of Kilkenny show that the
+spirit of the Popery laws, and some even of their actual provisions, as
+applied between Englishry and Irishry, had existed in that harassed
+country before the words _Protestant_ and _Papist_ were heard of in the
+world. If we read Baron Finglas, Spenser, and Sir John Davies, we cannot
+miss the true genius and policy of the English government there before
+the Revolution, as well as during the whole reign of Queen Elizabeth.
+Sir John Davies boasts of the benefits received by the natives, by
+extending to them the English law, and turning the whole kingdom into
+shire ground. But the appearance of things alone was changed. The
+original scheme was never deviated from for a single hour. Unheard-of
+confiscations were made in the northern parts, upon grounds of plots and
+conspiracies, never proved upon their supposed authors. The war of
+chicane succeeded to the war of arms and of hostile statutes; and a
+regular series of operations was carried on, particularly from
+Chichester's time, in the ordinary courts of justice, and by special
+commissions and inquisitions,--first under pretence of tenures, and then
+of titles in the crown, for the purpose of the total extirpation of the
+interest of the natives in their own soil,--until this species of subtle
+ravage, being carried to the last excess of oppression and insolence
+under Lord Strafford, it kindled the flames of that rebellion which
+broke out in 1641. By the issue of that war, by the turn which the Earl
+of Clarendon gave to things at the Restoration, and by the total
+reduction of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691, the ruin of the native
+Irish, and, in a great measure, too, of the first races of the English,
+was completely accomplished. The new English interest was settled with
+as solid a stability as anything in human affairs can look for. All the
+penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppression, which were made
+after the last event, were manifestly the effects of national hatred and
+scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample
+upon and were not at all afraid to provoke. They were not the effect of
+their fears, but of their security. They who carried on this system
+looked to the irresistible force of Great Britain for their support in
+their acts of power. They were quite certain that no complaints of the
+natives would be heard on this side of the water with any other
+sentiments than those of contempt and indignation. Their cries served
+only to augment their torture. Machines which could answer their
+purposes so well must be of an excellent contrivance. Indeed, in
+England, the double name of the complainants, Irish and Papists, (it
+would be hard to say which singly was the most odious,) shut up the
+hearts of every one against them. Whilst that temper prevailed, (and it
+prevailed in all its force to a time within our memory,) every measure
+was pleasing and popular just in proportion as it tended to harass and
+ruin a set of people who were looked upon as enemies to God and man,
+and, indeed, as a race of bigoted savages who were a disgrace to human
+nature itself.
+
+However, as the English in Ireland began to be domiciliated, they began
+also to recollect that they had a country. The _English interest_, at
+first by faint and almost insensible degrees, but at length openly and
+avowedly, became an _independent Irish interest_,--full as independent
+as it could ever have been if it had continued in the persons of the
+native Irish; and it was maintained with more skill and more consistency
+than probably it would have been in theirs. With their views, the
+_Anglo-Irish_ changed their maxims: it was necessary to demonstrate to
+the whole people that there was something, at least, of a common
+interest, combined with the independency, which was to become the object
+of common exertions. The mildness of government produced the first
+relaxation towards the Irish; the necessities, and, in part, too, the
+temper that predominated at this great change, produced the second and
+the most important of these relaxations. English government and Irish
+legislature felt jointly the propriety of this measure. The Irish
+Parliament and nation became independent.
+
+The true revolution to you, that which most intrinsically and
+substantially resembled the English Revolution of 1688, was the Irish
+Revolution of 1782. The Irish Parliament of 1782 bore little resemblance
+to that which sat in that kingdom after the period of the first of these
+revolutions. It bore a much nearer resemblance to that which sat under
+King James. The change of the Parliament in 1782 from the character of
+the Parliament which, as a token of its indignation, had burned all the
+journals indiscriminately of the former Parliament in the
+Council-Chamber, was very visible. The address of King William's
+Parliament, the Parliament which assembled after the Revolution, amongst
+other causes of complaint (many of them sufficiently just) complains of
+the repeal by their predecessors of Poynings's law,--no absolute idol
+with the Parliament of 1782.
+
+Great Britain, finding the Anglo-Irish highly animated with a spirit
+which had indeed shown itself before, though with little energy and many
+interruptions, and therefore suffered a multitude of uniform precedents
+to be established against it, acted, in my opinion, with the greatest
+temperance and wisdom. She saw that the disposition of the _leading
+part_ of the nation would not permit them to act any longer the part of
+a _garrison_. She saw that true policy did not require that they ever
+should have appeared in that character; or if it had done so formerly,
+the reasons had now ceased to operate. She saw that the Irish of her
+race were resolved to build their Constitution and their politics upon
+another bottom. With those things under her view, she instantly complied
+with the whole of your demands, without any reservation whatsoever. She
+surrendered that boundless superiority, for the preservation of which,
+and the acquisition, she had supported the English colonies in Ireland
+for so long a time, and at so vast an expense (according to the standard
+of those ages) of her blood and treasure.
+
+When we bring before us the matter which history affords for our
+selection, it is not improper to examine the spirit of the several
+precedents which are candidates for our choice. Might it not be as well
+for your statesmen, on the other side of the water, to take an example
+from this latter and surely more conciliatory revolution, as a pattern
+for your conduct towards your own fellow-citizens, than from that of
+1688, when a paramount sovereignty over both you and them was more
+loftily claimed and more sternly exerted than at any former or at any
+subsequent period? Great Britain in 1782 rose above the vulgar ideas of
+policy, the ordinary jealousies of state, and all the sentiments of
+national pride and national ambition. If she had been more disposed
+(than, I thank God for it, she was) to listen to the suggestions of
+passion than to the dictates of prudence, she might have urged the
+principles, the maxims, the policy, the practice of the Revolution,
+against the demands of the leading description in Ireland, with full as
+much plausibility and full as good a grace as any amongst them can
+possibly do against the supplications of so vast and extensive a
+description of their own people.
+
+A good deal, too, if the spirit of domination and exclusion had
+prevailed in England, might have been excepted against some of the means
+then employed in Ireland, whilst her claims were in agitation. They
+were at least as much out of ordinary course as those which are now
+objected against admitting your people to any of the benefits of an
+English Constitution. Most certainly, neither with you nor here was any
+one ignorant of what was at that time said, written, and done. But on
+all sides we separated the means from the end: and we separated the
+cause of the moderate and rational from the ill-intentioned and
+seditious, which on such occasions are so frequently apt to march
+together. At that time, on your part, you were not afraid to review what
+was done at the Revolution of 1688, and what had been continued during
+the subsequent flourishing period of the British empire. The change then
+made was a great and fundamental alteration. In the execution, it was an
+operose business on both sides of the water. It required the repeal of
+several laws, the modification of many, and a new course to be given to
+an infinite number of legislative, judicial, and official practices and
+usages in both kingdoms. This did not frighten any of us. You are now
+asked to give, in some moderate measure, to your fellow-citizens, what
+Great Britain gave to you without any measure at all. Yet,
+notwithstanding all the difficulties at the time, and the apprehensions
+which some very well-meaning people entertained, through the admirable
+temper in which this revolution (or restoration in the nature of a
+revolution) was conducted in both kingdoms, it has hitherto produced no
+inconvenience to either; and I trust, with the continuance of the same
+temper, that it never will. I think that this small, inconsiderable
+change, (relative to an exclusive statute not made at the Revolution,)
+for restoring the people to the benefits from which the green soreness
+of a civil war had not excluded them, will be productive of no sort of
+mischief whatsoever. Compare what was done in 1782 with what is wished
+in 1792; consider the spirit of what has been done at the several
+periods of reformation; and weigh maturely whether it be exactly true
+that conciliatory concessions are of good policy only in discussions
+between nations, but that among descriptions in the same nation they
+must always be irrational and dangerous. What have you suffered in your
+peace, your prosperity, or, in what ought ever to be dear to a nation,
+your glory, by the last act by which you took the property of that
+people under the protection of the _laws_? What reasons have you to
+dread the consequences of admitting the people possessing that property
+to some share in the protection of the _Constitution_?
+
+I do not mean to trouble you with anything to remove the objections, I
+will not call them arguments, against this measure, taken from a
+ferocious hatred to all that numerous description of Christians. It
+would be to pay a poor compliment to your understanding or your heart.
+Neither _your_ religion nor _your_ politics consist "in odd, perverse
+antipathies." You are not resolved to persevere in proscribing from the
+Constitution so many millions of your countrymen, because, in
+contradiction to experience and to common sense, you think proper to
+imagine that their principles are subversive of common human society. To
+that I shall only say, that whoever has a temper which can be gratified
+by indulging himself in these good-natured fancies ought to do a great
+deal more. For an exclusion from the privileges of British subjects is
+not a cure for so terrible a distemper of the human mind as they are
+pleased to suppose in their countrymen. I rather conceive a
+participation in those privileges to be itself a remedy for some mental
+disorders.
+
+As little shall I detain you with matters that can as little obtain
+admission into a mind like yours: such as the fear, or pretence of fear,
+that, in spite of your own power and the trifling power of Great
+Britain, you may be conquered by the Pope; or that this commodious
+bugbear (who is of infinitely more use to those who pretend to fear than
+to those who love him) will absolve his Majesty's subjects from their
+allegiance, and send over the Cardinal of York to rule you as his
+viceroy; or that, by the plenitude of his power, he will take that
+fierce tyrant, the king of the French, out of his jail, and arm that
+nation (which on all occasions treats his Holiness so very politely)
+with his bulls and pardons, to invade poor old Ireland, to reduce you to
+Popery and slavery, and to force the free-born, naked feet of your
+people into the wooden shoes of that arbitrary monarch. I do not believe
+that discourses of this kind are held, or that anything like them will
+be held, by any who walk about without a keeper. Yet I confess, that, on
+occasions of this nature, I am the most afraid of the weakest
+reasonings, because they discover the strongest passions. These things
+will never be brought out in definite propositions. They would not
+prevent pity towards any persons; they would only cause it for those who
+were capable of talking in such a strain. But I know, and am sure, that
+such ideas as no man will distinctly produce to another, or hardly
+venture to bring in any plain shape to his own mind, he will utter in
+obscure, ill-explained doubts, jealousies, surmises, fears, and
+apprehensions, and that in such a fog they will appear to have a good
+deal of size, and will make an impression, when, if they were clearly
+brought forth and defined, they would meet with nothing but scorn and
+derision.
+
+There is another way of taking an objection to this concession, which I
+admit to be something more plausible, and worthy of a more attentive
+examination. It is, that this numerous class of people is mutinous,
+disorderly, prone to sedition, and easy to be wrought upon by the
+insidious arts of wicked and designing men; that, conscious of this, the
+sober, rational, and wealthy part of that body, who are totally of
+another character, do by no means desire any participation for
+themselves, or for any one else of their description, in the franchises
+of the British Constitution.
+
+I have great doubt of the exactness of any part of this observation. But
+let us admit that the body of the Catholics are prone to sedition, (of
+which, as I have said, I entertain much doubt,) is it possible that any
+fair observer or fair reasoner can think of confining this description
+to them only? I believe it to be possible for men to be mutinous and
+seditious who feel no grievance, but I believe no man will assert
+seriously, that, when people are of a turbulent spirit, the best way to
+keep them in order is to furnish them with something substantial to
+complain of.
+
+You separate, very properly, the sober, rational, and substantial part
+of their description from the rest. You give, as you ought to do, weight
+only to the former. What I have always thought of the matter is
+this,--that the most poor, illiterate, and uninformed creatures upon
+earth are judges of a _practical_ oppression. It is a matter of feeling;
+and as such persons generally have felt most of it, and are not of an
+over-lively sensibility, they are the best judges of it. But for _the
+real cause_, or _the appropriate remedy_, they ought never to be called
+into council about the one or the other. They ought to be totally shut
+out: because their reason is weak; because, when once roused, their
+passions are ungoverned; because they want information; because the
+smallness of the property which individually they possess renders them
+less attentive to the consequence of the measures they adopt in affairs
+of moment. When I find a great cry amongst the people who speculate
+little, I think myself called seriously to examine into it, and to
+separate the real cause from the ill effects of the passion it may
+excite, and the bad use which artful men may make of an irritation of
+the popular mind. Here we must be aided by persons of a contrary
+character; we must not listen to the desperate or the furious: but it is
+therefore necessary for us to distinguish who are the _really_ indigent
+and the _really_ intemperate. As to the persons who desire this part in
+the Constitution, I have no reason to imagine that they are men who have
+nothing to lose and much to look for in public confusion. The popular
+meeting from which apprehensions have been entertained has assembled. I
+have accidentally had conversation with two friends of mine who know
+something of the gentleman who was put into the chair upon that
+occasion: one of them has had money transactions with him; the other,
+from curiosity, has been to see his concerns: they both tell me he is a
+man of some property: but you must be the best judge of this, who by
+your office are likely to know his transactions. Many of the others are
+certainly persons of fortune; and all, or most, fathers of families,
+men in respectable ways of life, and some of them far from contemptible,
+either for their information, or for the abilities which they have shown
+in the discussion of their interests. What such men think it for their
+advantage to acquire ought not, _prima facie_, to be considered as rash
+or heady or incompatible with the public safety or welfare.
+
+I admit, that men of the best fortunes and reputations, and of the best
+talents and education too, may by accident show themselves furious and
+intemperate in their desires. This is a great misfortune, when it
+happens; for the first presumptions are undoubtedly in their favor. We
+have two standards of judging, in this case, of the sanity and sobriety
+of any proceedings,--of unequal certainty, indeed, but neither of them
+to be neglected: the first is by the value of the object sought; the
+next is by the means through which it is pursued.
+
+The object pursued by the Catholics is, I understand, and have all along
+reasoned as if it were so, in some degree or measure to be again
+admitted to the franchises of the Constitution. Men are considered as
+under some derangement of their intellects, when they see good and evil
+in a different light from other men,--when they choose nauseous and
+unwholesome food, and reject such as to the rest of the world seems
+pleasant and is known to be nutritive. I have always considered the
+British Constitution not to be a thing in itself so vicious as that none
+but men of deranged understanding and turbulent tempers could desire a
+share in it: on the contrary, I should think very indifferently of the
+understanding and temper of any body of men who did not wish to partake
+of this great and acknowledged benefit. I cannot think quite so
+favorably either of the sense or temper of those, if any such there are,
+who would voluntarily persuade their brethren that the object is not fit
+for them, or they for the object. Whatever may be my thoughts concerning
+them, I am quite sure that they who hold such language must forfeit all
+credit with the rest. This is infallible,--if they conceive any opinion
+of their judgment, they cannot possibly think them their friends. There
+is, indeed, one supposition which would reconcile the conduct of such
+gentlemen to sound reason, and to the purest affection towards their
+fellow-sufferers: it is, that they act under the impression of a
+well-grounded fear for the general interest. If they should be told, and
+should believe the story, that, if they dare attempt to make their
+condition better, they will infallibly make it worse,--that, if they aim
+at obtaining liberty, they will have their slavery doubled,--that their
+endeavor to put themselves upon anything which approaches towards an
+equitable footing with their fellow-subjects will be considered as an
+indication of a seditious and rebellious disposition,--such a view of
+things ought perfectly to restore the gentlemen, who so anxiously
+dissuade their countrymen from wishing a participation with the
+privileged part of the people, to the good opinion of their fellows. But
+what is to _them_ a very full justification is not quite so honorable to
+that power from whose maxims and temper so good a ground of rational
+terror is furnished. I think arguments of this kind will never be used
+by the friends of a government which I greatly respect, or by any of the
+leaders of an opposition whom I have the honor to know and the sense to
+admire. I remember Polybius tells us, that, during his captivity in
+Italy as a Peloponnesian hostage, he solicited old Cato to intercede
+with the Senate for his release, and that of his countrymen: this old
+politician told him that he had better continue in his present
+condition, however irksome, than apply again to that formidable
+authority for their relief; that he ought to imitate the wisdom of his
+countryman Ulysses, who, when he was once out of the den of the Cyclops,
+had too much sense to venture again into the same cavern. But I conceive
+too high an opinion of the Irish legislature to think that they are to
+their fellow-citizens what the grand oppressors of mankind were to a
+people whom the fortune of war had subjected to their power. For though
+Cato could use such a parallel with regard to his Senate, I should
+really think it nothing short of impious to compare an Irish Parliament
+to a den of Cyclops. I hope the people, both here and with you, will
+always apply to the House of Commons with becoming modesty, but at the
+same time with minds unembarrassed with any sort of terror.
+
+As to the means which the Catholics employ to obtain this object, so
+worthy of sober and rational minds, I do admit that such means may be
+used in the pursuit of it as may make it proper for the legislature, in
+this case, to defer their compliance until the demandants are brought to
+a proper sense of their duty. A concession in which the governing power
+of our country loses its dignity is dearly bought even by him who
+obtains his object. All the people have a deep interest in the dignity
+of Parliament. But as the refusal of franchises which are drawn out of
+the first vital stamina of the British Constitution is a very serious
+thing, we ought to be very sure that the manner and spirit of the
+application is offensive and dangerous indeed, before we ultimately
+reject all applications of this nature. The mode of application, I hear,
+is by petition. It is the manner in which all the sovereign powers of
+the world are approached; and I never heard (except in the case of James
+the Second) that any prince considered this manner of supplication to be
+contrary to the humility of a subject or to the respect due to the
+person or authority of the sovereign. This rule, and a correspondent
+practice, are observed from the Grand Seignior down to the most petty
+prince or republic in Europe.
+
+You have sent me several papers, some in print, some in manuscript. I
+think I had seen all of them, except the formula of association. I
+confess they appear to me to contain matter mischievous, and capable of
+giving alarm, if the spirit in which they are written should be found to
+make any considerable progress. But I am at a loss to know how to apply
+them as objections to the case now before us. When I find that _the
+General Committee_ which acts for the Roman Catholics in Dublin prefers
+the association proposed in the written draught you have sent me to a
+respectful application in Parliament, I shall think the persons who sign
+such a paper to be unworthy of any privilege which may be thought fit to
+be granted, and that such men ought, _by name_, to be excepted from any
+benefit under the Constitution to which they offer this violence. But I
+do not find that this form of a seditious league has been signed by any
+person whatsoever, either on the part of the supposed projectors, or on
+the part of those whom it is calculated to seduce. I do not find, on
+inquiry, that such a thing was mentioned, or even remotely alluded to,
+in the general meeting of the Catholics from which so much violence was
+apprehended. I have considered the other publications, signed by
+individuals on the part of certain societies,--I may mistake, for I have
+not the honor of knowing them personally, but I take Mr. Butler and Mr.
+Tandy not to be Catholics, but members of the Established Church. Not
+_one_ that I recollect of these publications, which you and I equally
+dislike, appears to be written by persons of that persuasion. Now, if,
+whilst a man is dutifully soliciting a favor from Parliament, any person
+should choose in an improper manner to show his inclination towards the
+cause depending, and if that _must_ destroy the cause of the petitioner,
+then, not only the petitioner, but the legislature itself, is in the
+power of any weak friend or artful enemy that the supplicant or that the
+Parliament may have. A man must be judged by his own actions only.
+Certain Protestant Dissenters make seditious propositions to the
+Catholics, which it does not appear that they have yet accepted. It
+would be strange that the tempter should escape all punishment, and that
+he who, under circumstances full of seduction and full of provocation,
+has resisted the temptation should incur the penalty. You know, that,
+with regard to the Dissenters, who are _stated_ to be the chief movers
+in this vile scheme of altering the principles of election to a right of
+voting by the head, you are not able (if you ought even to wish such a
+thing) to deprive them of any part of the franchises and privileges
+which they hold on a footing of perfect equality with yourselves. _They_
+may do what they please with constitutional impunity; but the others
+cannot even listen with civility to an invitation from them to an
+ill-judged scheme of liberty, without forfeiting forever all hopes of
+any of those liberties which we admit to be sober and rational.
+
+It is known, I believe, that the greater as well as the sounder part of
+our excluded countrymen have not adopted the wild ideas and wilder
+engagements which have been held out to them, but have rather chosen to
+hope small and safe concessions from the legal power than boundless
+objects from trouble and confusion. This mode of action seems to me to
+mark men of sobriety, and to distinguish them from those who are
+intemperate, from circumstance or from nature. But why do they not
+instantly disclaim and disavow those who make such advances to them? In
+this, too, in my opinion, they show themselves no less sober and
+circumspect. In the present moment nothing short of insanity could
+induce them to take such a step. Pray consider the circumstances.
+Disclaim, says somebody, all union with the Dissenters;--right.--But
+when this your injunction is obeyed, shall I obtain the object which I
+solicit from _you_?--Oh, no, nothing at all like it!--But, in punishing
+us, by an exclusion from the Constitution through the great gate, for
+having been invited to enter into it by a postern, will you punish by
+deprivation of their privileges, or mulet in any other way, those who
+have tempted us?--Far from it;--we mean to preserve all _their_
+liberties and immunities, as _our_ life-blood. We mean to cultivate
+_them_, as brethren whom we love and respect;--with _you_ we have no
+fellowship. We can bear with patience their enmity to ourselves; but
+their friendship with you we will not endure. But mark it well! All our
+quarrels with _them_ are always to be revenged upon _you_. Formerly, it
+is notorious that we should have resented with the highest indignation
+your presuming to show any ill-will to them. You must not suffer them,
+now, to show any good-will to you. Know--and take it once for all--that
+it is, and ever has been, and ever will be, a fundamental maxim in our
+politics, that you are not to have any part or shadow or name of
+interest whatever in our state; that we look upon you as under an
+irreversible outlawry from our Constitution,--as perpetual and
+unalliable aliens.
+
+Such, my dear Sir, is the plain nature of the argument drawn from the
+Revolution maxims, enforced by a supposed disposition in the Catholics
+to unite with the Dissenters. Such it is, though it were clothed in
+never such bland and civil forms, and wrapped up, as a poet says, in a
+thousand "artful folds of sacred lawn." For my own part, I do not know
+in what manner to shape such arguments, so as to obtain admission for
+them into a rational understanding. Everything of this kind is to be
+reduced at last to threats of power. I cannot say, _V� victis_! and then
+throw the sword into the scale. I have no sword; and if I had, in this
+case, most certainly, I would not use it as a makeweight in political
+reasoning.
+
+Observe, on these principles, the difference between the procedure of
+the Parliament and the Dissenters towards the people in question. One
+employs courtship, the other force. The Dissenters offer bribes, the
+Parliament nothing but the _front n�gatif_ of a stern and forbidding
+authority. A man may be very wrong in his ideas of what is good for
+him. But no man affronts me, nor can therefore justify my affronting
+him, by offering to make me as happy as himself, according to his own
+ideas of happiness. This the Dissenters do to the Catholics. You are on
+the different extremes. The Dissenters offer, with regard to
+constitutional rights and civil advantages of all sorts, _everything_;
+you refuse _everything_. With them, there is boundless, though not very
+assured hope; with you, a very sure and very unqualified despair. The
+terms of alliance from the Dissenters offer a representation of the
+commons, chosen out of the people by the head. This is absurdly and
+dangerously large, in my opinion; and that scheme of election is known
+to have been at all times perfectly odious to me. But I cannot think it
+right of course to punish the Irish Roman Catholics by an universal
+exclusion, because others, whom you would not punish at all, propose an
+universal admission. I cannot dissemble to myself, that, in this very
+kingdom, many persons who are not in the situation of the Irish
+Catholics, but who, on the contrary, enjoy the full benefit of the
+Constitution as it stands, and some of whom, from the effect of their
+fortunes, enjoy it in a large measure, had some years ago associated to
+procure great and undefined changes (they considered them as reforms) in
+the popular part of the Constitution. Our friend, the late Mr. Flood,
+(no slight man,) proposed in his place, and in my hearing, a
+representation not much less extensive than this, for England,--in which
+every house was to be inhabited by a voter, _in addition_ to all the
+actual votes by other titles (some of the corporate) which we know do
+not require a house or a shed. Can I forget that a person of the very
+highest rank, of very large fortune, and of the first class of ability,
+brought a bill into the House of Lords, in the head-quarters of
+aristocracy, containing identically the same project for the supposed
+adoption of which by a club or two it is thought right to extinguish all
+hopes in the Roman Catholics of Ireland? I cannot say it was very
+eagerly embraced or very warmly pursued. But the Lords neither did
+disavow the bill, nor treat it with any disregard, nor express any sort
+of disapprobation of its noble author, who has never lost, with king or
+people, the least degree of the respect and consideration which so
+justly belongs to him.
+
+I am not at all enamored, as I have told you, with this plan of
+representation; as little do I relish any bandings or associations for
+procuring it. But if the question was to be put to you and
+me,--_Universal_ popular representation, or _none at all for us and
+ours_,--we should find ourselves in a very awkward position. I do not
+like this kind of dilemmas, especially when they are practical.
+
+Then, since our oldest fundamental laws follow, or rather couple,
+freehold with franchise,--since no principle of the Revolution shakes
+these liberties,--since the oldest and one of the best monuments of the
+Constitution demands for the Irish the privilege which they
+supplicate,--since the principles of the Revolution coincide with the
+declarations of the Great Charter,--since the practice of the
+Revolution, in this point, did not contradict its principles,--since,
+from that event, twenty-five years had elapsed, before a domineering
+party, on a party principle, had ventured to disfranchise, without any
+proof whatsoever of abuse, the greater part of the community,--since the
+king's coronation oath does not stand in his way to the performance of
+his duty to all his subjects,--since you have given to all other
+Dissenters these privileges without limit which are hitherto withheld
+without any limitation whatsoever from the Catholics,--since no nation
+in the world has ever been known to exclude so great a body of men (not
+born slaves) from the civil state, and all the benefits of its
+Constitution,--the whole question comes before Parliament as a matter
+for its prudence. I do not put the thing on a question of right. That
+discretion, which in judicature is well said by Lord Coke to be a
+crooked cord, in legislature is a golden rule. Supplicants ought not to
+appear too much in the character of litigants. If the subject thinks so
+highly and reverently of the sovereign authority as not to claim
+anything of right, so that it may seem to be independent of the power
+and free choice of its government,--and if the sovereign, on his part,
+considers the advantages of the subjects as their right, and all their
+reasonable wishes as so many claims,--in the fortunate conjunction of
+these mutual dispositions are laid the foundations of a happy and
+prosperous commonwealth. For my own part, desiring of all things that
+the authority of the legislature under which I was born, and which I
+cherish, not only with a dutiful awe, but with a partial and cordial
+affection, to be maintained in the utmost possible respect, I never will
+suffer myself to suppose that at bottom their discretion will be found
+to be at variance with their justice.
+
+The whole being at discretion, I beg leave just to suggest some matters
+for your consideration:--Whether the government in Church or State is
+likely to be more secure by continuing causes of grounded discontent to
+a very great number (say two millions) of the subjects? or whether the
+Constitution, combined and balanced as it is, will be rendered more
+solid by depriving so large a part of the people of all concern or
+interest or share in its representation, actual or _virtual_? I here
+mean to lay an emphasis on the word _virtual_. Virtual representation is
+that in which there is a communion of interests and a sympathy in
+feelings and desires between those who act in the name of any
+description of people and the people in whose name they act, though the
+trustees are not actually chosen by them. This is virtual
+representation. Such a representation I think to be in many cases even
+better than the actual. It possesses most of its advantages, and is free
+from many of its inconveniences; it corrects the irregularities in the
+literal representation, when the shifting current of human affairs or
+the acting of public interests in different ways carry it obliquely from
+its first line of direction. The people may err in their choice; but
+common interest and common sentiment are rarely mistaken. But this sort
+of virtual representation cannot have a long or sure existence, if it
+has not a substratum in the actual. The member must have some relation
+to the constituent. As things stand, the Catholic, as a Catholic, and
+belonging to a description, has no _virtual_ relation to the
+representative,--but the _contrary_. There is a relation in mutual
+obligation. Gratitude may not always have a very lasting power; but the
+frequent recurrence of an application for favors will revive and refresh
+it, and will necessarily produce some degree of mutual attention. It
+will produce, at least, acquaintance. The several descriptions of people
+will not be kept so much apart as they now are, as if they were not
+only separate nations, but separate species. The stigma and reproach,
+the hideous mask will be taken off, and men will see each other as they
+are. Sure I am that there have been thousands in Ireland who have never
+conversed with a Roman Catholic in their whole lives, unless they
+happened to talk to their gardener's workmen, or to ask their way, when
+they had lost it in their sports,--or, at best, who had known them only
+as footmen, or other domestics, of the second and third order: and so
+averse were they, some time ago, to have them near their persons, that
+they would not employ even those who could never find their way beyond
+the stable. I well remember a great, and in many respects a good man,
+who advertised for a blacksmith, but at the same time added, he must be
+a Protestant. It is impossible that such a state of things, though
+natural goodness in many persons will undoubtedly make exceptions, must
+not produce alienation on the one side and pride and insolence on the
+other.
+
+Reduced to a question of discretion, and that discretion exercised
+solely upon what will appear best for the conservation of the state on
+its present basis, I should recommend it to your serious thoughts,
+whether the narrowing of the foundation is always the best way to secure
+the building? The body of disfranchised men will not be perfectly
+satisfied to remain always in that state. If they are not satisfied, you
+have two millions of subjects in your bosom full of uneasiness: not that
+they cannot overturn the Act of Settlement, and put themselves and you
+under an arbitrary master; or that they are not permitted to spawn a
+hydra of wild republics, on principles of a pretended natural equality
+in man; but because you will not suffer them to enjoy the ancient,
+fundamental, tried advantages of a British Constitution,--that you will
+not permit them to profit of the protection of a common father or the
+freedom of common citizens, and that the only reason which can be
+assigned for this disfranchisement has a tendency more deeply to
+ulcerate their minds than the act of exclusion itself. What the
+consequence of such feelings must be it is for you to look to. To warn
+is not to menace.
+
+I am far from asserting that men will not excite disturbances without
+just cause. I know that such an assertion is not true. But neither is it
+true that disturbances have never just complaints for their origin. I am
+sure that it is hardly prudent to furnish them with such causes of
+complaint as every man who thinks the British Constitution a benefit may
+think at least colorable and plausible.
+
+Several are in dread of the manoeuvres of certain persons among the
+Dissenters, who turn this ill humor to their own ill purposes. You know,
+better than I can, how much these proceedings of certain among the
+Dissenters are to be feared. You are to weigh, with the temper which is
+natural to you, whether it may be for the safety of our establishment
+that the Catholics should be ultimately persuaded that they have no hope
+to enter into the Constitution but through the Dissenters.
+
+Think whether this be the way to prevent or dissolve factious
+combinations against the Church or the State. Reflect seriously on the
+possible consequences of keeping in the heart of your country a bank of
+discontent, every hour accumulating, upon which every description of
+seditious men may draw at pleasure. They whose principles of faction
+will dispose them to the establishment of an arbitrary monarchy will
+find a nation of men who have no sort of interest in freedom, but who
+will have an interest in that equality of justice or favor with which a
+wise despot must view all his subjects who do not attack the foundations
+of his power. Love of liberty itself may, in such men, become the means
+of establishing an arbitrary domination. On the other hand, they who
+wish for a democratic republic will find a set of men who have no choice
+between civil servitude and the entire ruin of a mixed Constitution.
+
+Suppose the people of Ireland divided into three parts. Of these, (I
+speak within compass,) two are Catholic; of the remaining third, one
+half is composed of Dissenters. There is no natural union between those
+descriptions. It may be produced. If the two parts Catholic be driven
+into a close confederacy with half the third part of Protestants, with a
+view to a change in the Constitution in Church or State or both, and you
+rest the whole of their security on a handful of gentlemen, clergy, and
+their dependents,--compute the strength _you have in Ireland_, to oppose
+to grounded discontent, to capricious innovation, to blind popular fury,
+and to ambitious, turbulent intrigue.
+
+You mention that the minds of some gentlemen are a good deal heated, and
+that it is often said, that, rather than submit to such persons, having
+a share in their franchises, they would throw up their independence, and
+precipitate an union with Great Britain. I have heard a discussion
+concerning such an union amongst all sorts of men ever since I remember
+anything. For my own part, I have never been able to bring my mind to
+anything clear and decisive upon the subject. There cannot be a more
+arduous question. As far as I can form an opinion, it would not be for
+the mutual advantage of the two kingdoms. Persons, however, more able
+than I am think otherwise. But whatever the merits of this union may be,
+to make it a _menace_, it must be shown to be an _evil_, and an evil
+more particularly to those who are threatened with it than to those who
+hold it out as a terror. I really do not see how this threat of an union
+can operate, or that the Catholics are more likely to be losers by that
+measure than the churchmen.
+
+The humors of the people, and of politicians too, are so variable in
+themselves, and are so much under the occasional influence of some
+leading men, that it is impossible to know what turn the public mind
+here would take on such an event. There is but one thing certain
+concerning it. Great divisions and vehement passions would precede this
+union, both on the measure itself and on its terms; and particularly,
+this very question of a share in the representation for the Catholics,
+from whence the project of an union originated, would form a principal
+part in the discussion; and in the temper in which some gentlemen seem
+inclined to throw themselves, by a sort of high, indignant passion, into
+the scheme, those points would not be deliberated with all possible
+calmness.
+
+From my best observation, I should greatly doubt, whether, in the end,
+these gentlemen would obtain their object, so as to make the exclusion
+of two millions of their countrymen a fundamental article in the union.
+The demand would be of a nature quite unprecedented. You might obtain
+the union; and yet a gentleman, who, under the new union establishment,
+would aspire to the honor of representing his county, might possibly be
+as much obliged, as he may fear to be under the old separate
+establishment, to the unsupportable mortification of asking his
+neighbors, who have a different opinion concerning the elements in the
+sacrament, for their votes.
+
+I believe, nay, I am sure, that the people of Great Britain, with or
+without an union, might be depended upon, in oases of any real danger,
+to aid the government of Ireland, with the same cordiality as they would
+support their own, against any wicked attempts to shake the security of
+the happy Constitution in Church and State. But before Great Britain
+engages in any quarrel, the _cause of the dispute_ would certainly be a
+part of her consideration. If confusions should arise in that kingdom
+from too steady an attachment to a proscriptive, monopolizing system,
+and from the resolution of regarding the franchise, and in it the
+security of the subject, as belonging rather to religious opinions than
+to civil qualification and civil conduct, I doubt whether you might
+quite certainly reckon on obtaining an aid of force from hence for the
+support of that system. We might extend your distractions to this
+country by taking part in them. England will be indisposed, I suspect,
+to send an army for the conquest of Ireland. What was done in 1782 is a
+decisive proof of her sentiments of justice and moderation. She will not
+be fond of making another American war in Ireland. The principles of
+such a war would but too much resemble the former one. The well-disposed
+and the ill-disposed in England would (for different reasons perhaps)
+be equally averse to such an enterprise. The confiscations, the public
+auctions, the private grants, the plantations, the transplantations,
+which formerly animated so many adventurers, even among sober citizens,
+to such Irish expeditions, and which possibly might have animated some
+of them to the American, can have no existence in the case that we
+suppose.
+
+Let us form a supposition, (no foolish or ungrounded supposition,) that,
+in an age when men are infinitely more disposed to heat themselves with
+political than religious controversies, the former should entirely
+prevail, as we see that in some places they have prevailed, over the
+latter,--and that the Catholics of Ireland, from the courtship paid them
+on the one hand, and the high tone of refusal on the other, should, in
+order to enter into all the rights of subjects, all become Protestant
+Dissenters, and, as the others do, take all your oaths. They would all
+obtain their civil objects; and the change, for anything I know to the
+contrary, (in the dark as I am about the Protestant Dissenting tenets,)
+might be of use to the health of their souls. But what security our
+Constitution, in Church or State, could derive from that event, I cannot
+possibly discern. Depend upon it, it is as true as Nature is true, that,
+if you force them out of the religion of habit, education, or opinion,
+it is not to yours they will ever go. Shaken in their minds, they will
+go to that where the dogmas are fewest,--where they are the most
+uncertain,--where they lead them the least to a consideration of what
+they have abandoned. They will go to that uniformly democratic system to
+whose first movements they owed their emancipation. I recommend you
+seriously to turn this in your mind. Believe that it requires your best
+and maturest thoughts. Take what course you please,--union or no union;
+whether the people remain Catholics or become Protestant Dissenters,
+sure it is that the present state of monopoly _cannot_ continue.
+
+If England were animated, as I think she is not, with her former spirit
+of domination, and with the strong theological hatred which she once
+cherished for that description of her fellow-Christians and
+fellow-subjects, I am yet convinced, that, after the fullest success in
+a ruinous struggle, you would be obliged to abandon that monopoly. We
+were obliged to do this, even when everything promised success, in the
+American business. If you should make this experiment at last, under the
+pressure of any necessity, you never can do it well. But if, instead of
+falling into a passion, the leading gentlemen of the country themselves
+should undertake the business cheerfully, and with hearty affection
+towards it, great advantages would follow. What is forced cannot be
+modified: but here you may measure your concessions.
+
+It is a consideration of great moment, that you make the desired
+admission without altering the system of your representation in the
+smallest degree or in any part. You may leave that deliberation of a
+Parliamentary change or reform, if ever you should think fit to engage
+in it, uncomplicated and unembarrassed with the other question. Whereas,
+if they are mixed and confounded, as some people attempt to mix and
+confound them, no one can answer for the effects on the Constitution
+itself.
+
+There is another advantage in taking up this business singly and by an
+arrangement for the single object. It is that you may proceed by
+_degrees_. We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most
+powerful law of Nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation. All
+we can do, and that human wisdom can do, is to provide that the change
+shall proceed by insensible degrees. This has all the benefits which may
+be in change, without any of the inconveniences of mutation. Everything
+is provided for as it arrives. This mode will, on the one hand, prevent
+the _unfixing old interests at once_: a thing which is apt to breed a
+black and sullen discontent in those who are at once dispossessed of all
+their influence and consideration. This gradual course, on the other
+side, will prevent men long under depression from being intoxicated with
+a large draught of new power, which they always abuse with a licentious
+insolence. But, wishing, as I do, the change to be gradual and cautious,
+I would, in my first steps, lean rather to the side of enlargement than
+restriction.
+
+It is one excellence of our Constitution, that all our rights of
+provincial election regard rather property than person. It is another,
+that the rights which approach more nearly to the personal are most of
+them corporate, and suppose a restrained and strict education of seven
+years in some useful occupation. In both cases the practice may have
+slid from the principle. The standard of qualification in both cases may
+be so low, or not so judiciously chosen, as in some degree to frustrate
+the end. But all this is for your prudence in the case before you. You
+may rise a step or two the qualification of the Catholic voters. But if
+you were to-morrow to put the Catholic freeholder on the footing of the
+most favored forty-shilling Protestant Dissenter, you know, that, such
+is the actual state of Ireland, this would not make a sensible
+alteration in almost any _one_ election in the kingdom. The effect in
+their favor, even defensively, would be infinitely slow. But it would be
+healing; it would be satisfactory and protecting. The stigma would be
+removed. By admitting settled, permanent substance in lieu of the
+numbers, you would avoid the great danger of our time, that of setting
+up number against property. The numbers ought never to be neglected,
+because (besides what is due to them as men) collectively, though not
+individually, they have great property: they ought to have, therefore,
+protection; they ought to have security; they ought to have even
+consideration: but they ought not to predominate.
+
+My dear Sir, I have nearly done. I meant to write you a long letter: I
+have written a long dissertation. I might have done it earlier and
+better. I might have been more forcible and more clear, if I had not
+been interrupted as I have been; and this obliges me not to write to you
+in my own hand. Though my hand but signs it, my heart goes with what I
+have written. Since I could think at all, those have been my thoughts.
+You know that thirty-two years ago they were as fully matured in my mind
+as they are now. A letter of mine to Lord Kenmare, though not by my
+desire, and full of lesser mistakes, has been printed in Dublin. It was
+written ten or twelve years ago, at the time when I began the
+employment, which I have not yet finished, in favor of another
+distressed people, injured by those who have vanquished them, or stolen
+a dominion over them. It contained my sentiments then: you will see how
+far they accord with my sentiments now. Time has more and more confirmed
+me in them all. The present circumstances fix them deeper in my mind.
+
+I voted last session, if a particular vote could be distinguished in
+unanimity, for an establishment of the Church of England _conjointly_
+with the establishment, which was made some years before by act of
+Parliament, of the Roman Catholic, in the French conquered country of
+Canada. At the time of making this English ecclesiastical establishment,
+we did not think it necessary for its safety to destroy the former
+Gallican Church settlement. In our first act we settled a government
+altogether monarchical, or nearly so. In that system, the Canadian
+Catholics were far from being deprived of the advantages or
+distinctions, of any kind, which they enjoyed under their former
+monarchy. It is true that some people, and amongst them one eminent
+divine, predicted at that time that by this step we should lose our
+dominions in America. He foretold that the Pope would send his
+indulgences hither; that the Canadians would fall in with France, would
+declare independence, and draw or force our colonies into the same
+design. The independence happened according to his prediction; but in
+directly the reverse order. All our English Protestant colonies
+revolted. They joined themselves to France; and it so happened that
+Popish Canada was the only place which preserved its fidelity, the only
+place in which France got no footing, the only peopled colony which now
+remains to Great Britain. Vain are all the prognostics taken from ideas
+and passions, which survive the state of things which gave rise to them.
+When last year we gave a popular representation to the same Canada by
+the choice of the landholders, and an aristocratic representation at the
+choice of the crown, neither was the choice of the crown nor the
+election of the landholders limited by a consideration of religion. We
+had no dread for the Protestant Church which we settled there, because
+we permitted the French Catholics, in the utmost latitude of the
+description, to be free subjects. They are good subjects, I have no
+doubt; but I will not allow that any French Canadian Catholics are
+better men or better citizens than the Irish of the same communion.
+Passing from the extremity of the West to the extremity almost of the
+East, I have been many years (now entering into the twelfth) employed in
+supporting the rights, privileges, laws, and immunities of a very remote
+people. I have not as yet been able to finish my task. I have struggled
+through much discouragement and much opposition, much obloquy, much
+calumny, for a people with whom I have no tie but the common bond of
+mankind. In this I have not been left alone. We did not fly from our
+undertaking because the people are Mahometans or Pagans, and that a
+great majority of the Christians amongst them are Papists. Some
+gentlemen in Ireland, I dare say, have good reasons for what they may
+do, which do not occur to me. I do not presume to condemn them; but,
+thinking and acting as I have done towards those remote nations, I
+should not know how to show my face, here or in Ireland, if I should say
+that all the Pagans, all the Mussulmen, and even all the Papists, (since
+they must form the highest stage in the climax of evil,) are worthy of a
+liberal and honorable condition, except those of one of the
+descriptions, which forms the majority of the inhabitants of the
+country in which you and I were born. If such are the Catholics of
+Ireland, ill-natured and unjust people, from our own data, may be
+inclined not to think better of the Protestants of a soil which is
+supposed to infuse into its sects a kind of venom unknown in other
+places.
+
+You hated the old system as early as I did. Your first juvenile lance
+was broken against that giant. I think you were even the first who
+attacked the grim phantom. You have an exceedingly good understanding,
+very good humor, and the best heart in the world. The dictates of that
+temper and that heart, as well as the policy pointed out by that
+understanding, led you to abhor the old code. You abhorred it, as I did,
+for its vicious perfection. For I must do it justice: it was a complete
+system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested and well
+composed in all its parts. It was a machine of wise and elaborate
+contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and
+degradation of a people, and the debasement, in them, of human nature
+itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man. It is a
+thing humiliating enough, that we are doubtful of the effect of the
+medicines we compound,--we are sure of our poisons. My opinion ever was,
+(in which I heartily agree with those that admired the old code,) that
+it was so constructed, that, if there was once a breach in any essential
+part of it, the ruin of the whole, or nearly of the whole, was, at some
+time or other, a certainty. For that reason I honor and shall forever
+honor and love you, and those who first caused it to stagger, crack, and
+gape. Others may finish; the beginners have the glory; and, take what
+part you please at this hour, (I think you will take the best,) your
+first services will never be forgotten by a grateful country. Adieu!
+Present my best regards to those I know,--and as many as I know in our
+country I honor. There never was so much ability, nor, I believe, virtue
+in it. They have a task worthy of both. I doubt not they will perform
+it, for the stability of the Church and State, and for the union and the
+separation of the people: for the union of the honest and peaceable of
+all sects; for their separation from all that is ill-intentioned and
+seditious in any of them.
+
+BEACONSFIELD, JANUARY 3, 1792.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[28] The letter is written on folio sheets.
+
+[29] A small error of fact as to the abjuration oath, but of no
+importance in the argument.
+
+
+
+
+HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL
+
+TO BE DELIVERED TO
+
+MONSIEUR DE M.M.
+
+WRITTEN IN THE EARLY PART OF 1791
+
+
+The King, my master, from his sincere desire of keeping up a good
+correspondence with his Most Christian Majesty and the French nation,
+has for some time beheld with concern the condition into which that
+sovereign and nation have fallen.
+
+Notwithstanding the reality and the warmth of those sentiments, his
+Britannic Majesty has hitherto forborne in any manner to take part in
+their affairs, in hopes that the common interest of king and subjects
+would render all parties sensible of the necessity of settling their
+government and their freedom upon principles of moderation, as the only
+means of securing permanence to both those blessings, as well as
+internal and external tranquillity to the kingdom of France, and to all
+Europe.
+
+His Britannic Majesty finds, to his great regret, that his hopes have
+not been realized. He finds that confusions and disorders have rather
+increased than diminished, and that they now threaten to proceed to
+dangerous extremities.
+
+In this situation of things, the same regard to a neighboring sovereign
+living in friendship with Great Britain, the same spirit of good-will to
+the kingdom of France, the same regard to the general tranquillity,
+which have caused him to view with concern the growth and continuance of
+the present disorders, have induced the King of Great Britain to
+interpose his good offices towards a reconcilement of those unhappy
+differences. This his Majesty does with the most cordial regard to the
+good of all descriptions concerned, and with the most perfect sincerity,
+wholly removing from his royal mind all memory of every circumstance
+which might impede him in the execution of a plan of benevolence which
+he has so much at heart.
+
+His Majesty, having always thought it his greatest glory that he rules
+over a people perfectly and solidly, because soberly, rationally, and
+legally free, can never be supposed to proceed in offering thus his
+royal mediation, but with an unaffected desire and full resolution to
+consider the settlement of a free constitution in France as the very
+basis of any agreement between the sovereign and those of his subjects
+who are unhappily at variance with him,--to guaranty it to them, if it
+should be desired, in the most solemn and authentic manner, and to do
+all that in him lies to procure the like guaranty from other powers.
+
+His Britannic Majesty, in the same manner, assures the Most Christian
+King that he knows too well and values too highly what is due to the
+dignity and rights of crowned heads, and to the implied faith of
+treaties which have always been made with the _crown_ of France, ever to
+listen to any proposition by which that monarchy shall be despoiled of
+all its rights, so essential for the support of the consideration of the
+prince and the concord and welfare of the people.
+
+If, unfortunately, a due attention should not be paid to these his
+Majesty's benevolent and neighborly offers, or if any circumstances
+should prevent the Most Christian King from acceding (as his Majesty
+has no doubt he is well disposed to do) to this healing mediation in
+favor of himself and all his subjects, his Majesty has commanded me to
+take leave of this court, as not conceiving it to be suitable to the
+dignity of his crown, and to what he owes to his faithful people, any
+longer to keep a public minister at the court of a sovereign who is not
+in possession of his own liberty.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS
+
+ON
+
+FRENCH AFFAIRS,
+
+ETC., ETC.
+
+WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 1791.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
+
+
+In all our transactions with France, and at all periods, we have treated
+with that state on the footing of a monarchy. Monarchy was considered in
+all the external relations of that kingdom with every power in Europe as
+its legal and constitutional government, and that in which alone its
+federal capacity was vested.
+
+[Sidenote: Montmorin's Letter.]
+
+It is not yet a year since Monsieur de Montmorin formally, and with as
+little respect as can be imagined to the king, and to all crowned heads,
+announced a total Revolution in that country. He has informed the
+British ministry that its frame of government is wholly altered,--that
+he is one of the ministers of the new system,--and, in effect, that the
+king is no longer his master, (nor does he even call him such,) but the
+"_first of the ministers_," in the new system.
+
+[Sidenote: Acceptance of the Constitution ratified.]
+
+The second notification was that of the king's acceptance of the new
+Constitution, accompanied with fanfaronades in the modern style of the
+French bureaus: things which have much more the air and character of the
+saucy declamations of their clubs than the tone of regular office.
+
+It has not been very usual to notify to foreign courts anything
+concerning the internal arrangements of any state. In the present case,
+the circumstance of these two notifications, with the observations with
+which they are attended, does not leave it in the choice of the
+sovereigns of Christendom to appear ignorant either of this French
+Revolution or (what is more important) of its principles.
+
+We know, that, very soon after this manifesto of Monsieur de Montmorin,
+the king of France, in whose name it was made, found himself obliged to
+fly, with his whole family,--leaving behind him a declaration in which
+he disavows and annuls that Constitution, as having been the effect of
+force on his person and usurpation on his authority. It is equally
+notorious, that this unfortunate prince was, with many circumstances of
+insult and outrage, brought back prisoner by a deputation of the
+pretended National Assembly, and afterwards suspended by their authority
+from his government. Under equally notorious constraint, and under
+menaces of total deposition, he has been compelled to accept what they
+call a Constitution, and to agree to whatever else the usurped power
+which holds him in confinement thinks proper to impose.
+
+His nest brother, who had fled with him, and his third brother, who had
+fled before him, all the princes of his blood who remained faithful to
+him, and the flower of his magistracy, his clergy, and his nobility,
+continue in foreign countries, protesting against all acts done by him
+in his present situation, on the grounds upon which he had himself
+protested against them at the time of his flight,--with this addition,
+that they deny his very competence (as on good grounds they may) to
+abrogate the royalty, or the ancient constitutional orders of the
+kingdom. In this protest they are joined by three hundred of the late
+Assembly itself, and, in effect, by a great part of the French nation.
+The new government (so far as the people dare to disclose their
+sentiments) is disdained, I am persuaded, by the greater number,--who,
+as M. de La Fayette complains, and as the truth is, have declined to
+take any share in the new elections to the National Assembly, either as
+candidates or electors.
+
+In this state of things, (that is, in the case of a _divided_ kingdom,)
+by the law of nations,[30] Great Britain, like every other power, is
+free to take any part she pleases. She may decline, with more or less
+formality, according to her discretion, to acknowledge this new system;
+or she may recognize it as a government _de facto_, setting aside all
+discussion of its original legality, and considering the ancient
+monarchy as at an end. The law of nations leaves our court open to its
+choice. We have no direction but what is found in the well-understood
+policy of the king and kingdom.
+
+This declaration of a _new species_ of government, on new principles,
+(such it professes itself to be,) is a real crisis in the politics of
+Europe. The conduct which prudence ought to dictate to Great Britain
+will not depend (as hitherto our connection or quarrel with other states
+has for some time depended) upon merely _external_ relations, but in a
+great measure also upon the system which we may think it right to adopt
+for the internal government of our own country.
+
+If it be our policy to assimilate our government to that of France, we
+ought to prepare for this change by encouraging the schemes of authority
+established there. We ought to wink at the captivity and deposition of
+a prince with whom, if not in close alliance, we were in friendship. We
+ought to fall in with the ideas of Monsieur Montmorin's circular
+manifesto, and to do business of course with the functionaries who act
+under the new power by which that king to whom his Majesty's minister
+has been sent to reside has been deposed and imprisoned. On that idea we
+ought also to withhold all sorts of direct or indirect countenance from
+those who are treating in Germany for the re�stablishment of the French
+monarchy and the ancient orders of that state. This conduct is suitable
+to this policy.
+
+The question is, whether this policy be suitable to the interests of the
+crown and subjects of Great Britain. Let us, therefore, a little
+consider the true nature and probable effects of the Revolution which,
+in such a very unusual manner, has been twice diplomatically announced
+to his Majesty.
+
+[Sidenote: Difference between this Revolution and others.]
+
+There have been many internal revolutions in the government of
+countries, both as to persons and forms, in which the neighboring states
+have had little or no concern. Whatever the government might be with
+respect to those persons and those forms, the stationary interests of
+the nation concerned have most commonly influenced the new governments
+in the same manner in which they influenced the old; and the revolution,
+turning on matter of local grievance or of local accommodation, did not
+extend beyond its territory.
+
+[Sidenote: Nature of the French Revolution.]
+
+The present Revolution in France seems to me to be quite of another
+character and description, and to bear little resemblance or analogy to
+any of those which have been brought about in Europe, upon principles
+merely political. _It is a Revolution of doctrine and theoretic dogma_.
+It has a much greater resemblance to those changes which have been made
+upon religious grounds, in which a spirit of proselytism makes an
+essential part.
+
+The last revolution of doctrine and theory which has happened in Europe
+is the Reformation. It is not for my purpose to take any notice here of
+the merits of that revolution, but to state one only of its effects.
+
+[Sidenote: Its effects.]
+
+That effect was, _to introduce other interests into all countries than
+those which arose from their locality and natural circumstances_. The
+principle of the Reformation was such as, by its essence, could not be
+local or confined to the country in which it had its origin. For
+instance, the doctrine of "Justification by Faith or by Works," which
+was the original basis of the Reformation, could not have one of its
+alternatives true as to Germany and false as to every other country.
+Neither are questions of theoretic truth and falsehood governed by
+circumstances any more than by places. On that occasion, therefore, the
+spirit of proselytism expanded itself with great elasticity upon all
+sides: and great divisions were everywhere the result.
+
+These divisions, however in appearance merely dogmatic, soon became
+mixed with the political; and their effects were rendered much more
+intense from this combination. Europe was for a long time divided into
+two great factions, under the name of Catholic and Protestant, which not
+only often alienated state from state, but also divided almost every
+state within itself. The warm parties in each state were more
+affectionately attached to those of their own doctrinal interest in
+some other country than to their fellow-citizens or to their natural
+government, when they or either of them happened to be of a different
+persuasion. These factions, wherever they prevailed, if they did not
+absolutely destroy, at least weakened and distracted the locality of
+patriotism. The public affections came to have other motives and other
+ties.
+
+It would be to repeat the history of the two last centuries to exemplify
+the effects of this revolution.
+
+Although the principles to which it gave rise did not operate with a
+perfect regularity and constancy, they never wholly ceased to operate.
+Few wars were made, and few treaties were entered into, in which they
+did not come in for some part. They gave a color, a character, and
+direction to all the politics of Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: New system of politics.]
+
+These principles of internal as well as external division and coalition
+are but just now extinguished. But they who will examine into the true
+character and genius of some late events must be satisfied that other
+sources of faction, combining parties among the inhabitants of different
+countries into one connection, are opened, and that from these sources
+are likely to arise effects full as important as those which had
+formerly arisen from the jarring interests of the religious sects. The
+intention of the several actors in the change in France is not a matter
+of doubt. It is very openly professed.
+
+In the modern world, before this time, there has been no instance of
+this spirit of general political faction, separated from religion,
+pervading several countries, and forming a principle of union between
+the partisans in each. But the thing is not less in human nature. The
+ancient world has furnished a strong and striking instance of such a
+ground for faction, full as powerful and full as mischievous as our
+spirit of religions system had ever been, exciting in all the states of
+Greece (European and Asiatic) the most violent animosities and the most
+cruel and bloody persecutions and proscriptions. These ancient factions
+in each commonwealth of Greece connected themselves with those of the
+same description in some other states; and secret cabals and public
+alliances were carried on and made, not upon a conformity of general
+political interests, but for the support and aggrandizement of the two
+leading states which headed the aristocratic and democratic factions.
+For as, in later times, the king of Spain was at the head of a Catholic,
+and the king of Sweden of a Protestant interest, (France, though
+Catholic, acting subordinately to the latter,) in the like manner the
+Lacedemonians were everywhere at the head of the aristocratic interests,
+and the Athenians of the democratic. The two leading powers kept alive a
+constant cabal and conspiracy in every state, and the political dogmas
+concerning the constitution of a republic were the great instruments by
+which these leading states chose to aggrandize themselves. Their choice
+was not unwise; because the interest in opinions, (merely as opinions,
+and without any experimental reference to their effects,) when once they
+take strong hold of the mind, become the most operative of all
+interests, and indeed very often supersede every other.
+
+I might further exemplify the possibility of a political sentiment
+running through various states, and combining factions in them, from the
+history of the Middle Ages in the Guelfs and Ghibellines. These were
+political factions originally in favor of the Emperor and the Pope, with
+no mixture of religious dogmas: or if anything religiously doctrinal
+they had in them originally, it very soon disappeared; as their first
+political objects disappeared also, though the spirit remained. They
+became no more than names to distinguish factions: but they were not the
+less powerful in their operation, when they had no direct point of
+doctrine, either religious or civil, to assert. For a long time,
+however, those factions gave no small degree of influence to the foreign
+chiefs in every commonwealth in which they existed. I do not mean to
+pursue further the track of these parties. I allude to this part of
+history only as it furnishes an instance of that species of faction
+which broke the locality of public affections, and united descriptions
+of citizens more with strangers than with their countrymen of different
+opinions.
+
+[Sidenote: French fundamental principle.]
+
+The political dogma, which, upon the new French system, is to unite the
+factions of different nations, is this: "That the majority, told by the
+head, of the taxable people in every country, is the perpetual, natural,
+unceasing, indefeasible sovereign; that this majority is perfectly
+master of the form as well as the administration of the state, and that
+the magistrates, under whatever names they are called, are only
+functionaries to obey the orders (general as laws or particular as
+decrees) which that majority may make; that this is the only natural
+government; that all others are tyranny and usurpation."
+
+[Sidenote: Practical project.]
+
+In order to reduce this dogma into practice, the republicans in France,
+and their associates in other countries, make it always their business,
+and often their public profession, to destroy all traces of ancient
+establishments, and to form a new commonwealth in each country, upon the
+basis of the French _Rights of Man_. On the principle of these rights,
+they mean to institute in every country, and as it were the germ of the
+whole, parochial governments, for the purpose of what they call equal
+representation. From them is to grow, by some media, a general council
+and representative of all the parochial governments. In that
+representative is to be vested the whole national power,--totally
+abolishing hereditary name and office, levelling all conditions of men,
+(except where money _must_ make a difference,) breaking all connection
+between territory and dignity, and abolishing every species of nobility,
+gentry, and Church establishments: all their priests and all their
+magistrates being only creatures of election and pensioners at will.
+
+Knowing how opposite a permanent landed interest is to that scheme, they
+have resolved, and it is the great drift of all their regulations, to
+reduce that description of men to a mere peasantry for the sustenance of
+the towns, and to place the true effective government in cities, among
+the tradesmen, bankers, and voluntary clubs of bold, presuming young
+persons,--advocates, attorneys, notaries, managers of newspapers, and
+those cabals of literary men called academies. Their republic is to have
+a first functionary, (as they call him,) under the name of King, or not,
+as they think fit. This officer, when such an officer is permitted, is,
+however, neither in fact nor name to be considered as sovereign, nor the
+people as his subjects. The very use of these appellations is offensive
+to their ears.
+
+[Sidenote: Partisans of the French system.]
+
+This system, as it has first been realized, dogmatically as well as
+practically, in France, makes France the natural head of all factions
+formed on a similar principle, wherever they may prevail, as much as
+Athens was the head and settled ally of all democratic factions,
+wherever they existed. The other system has no head.
+
+This system has very many partisans in every country in Europe, but
+particularly in England, where they are already formed into a body,
+comprehending most of the Dissenters of the three leading denominations.
+To these are readily aggregated all who are Dissenters in character,
+temper, and disposition, though not belonging to any of their
+congregations: that is, all the restless people who resemble them, of
+all ranks and all parties,--Whigs, and even Tories; the whole race of
+half-bred speculators; all the Atheists, Deists, and Socinians; all
+those who hate the clergy and envy the nobility; a good many among the
+moneyed people; the East Indians almost to a man, who cannot bear to
+find that their present importance does not bear a proportion to their
+wealth. These latter have united themselves into one great, and, in my
+opinion, formidable club,[31] which, though now quiet, may be brought
+into action with considerable unanimity and force.
+
+Formerly, few, except the ambitious great or the desperate and indigent,
+were to be feared as instruments in revolutions. What has happened in
+France teaches us, with many other things, that there are more causes
+than have commonly been taken into our consideration, by which
+government may be subverted. The moneyed men, merchants, principal
+tradesmen, and men of letters (hitherto generally thought the peaceable
+and even timid part of society) are the chief actors in the French
+Revolution. But the fact is, that, as money increases and circulates,
+and as the circulation of news in politics and letters becomes more and
+more diffused, the persons who diffuse this money and this intelligence
+become more and more important. This was not long undiscovered. Views of
+ambition were in France, for the first time, presented to these classes
+of men: objects in the state, in the army, in the system of civil
+offices of every kind. Their eyes were dazzled with this new prospect.
+They were, as it were, electrified, and made to lose the natural spirit
+of their situation. A bribe, great without example in the history of the
+world, was held out to them,--the whole government of a very large
+kingdom.
+
+[Sidenote: Grounds of security supposed for England.]
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Interest.]
+
+[Sidenote: Moneyed interest.]
+
+There are several who are persuaded that the same thing cannot happen in
+England, because here (they say) the occupations of merchants,
+tradesmen, and manufacturers are not held as degrading situations. I
+once thought that the low estimation in which commerce was held in
+France might be reckoned among the causes of the late Revolution; and I
+am still of opinion that the exclusive spirit of the French nobility did
+irritate the wealthy of other classes. But I found long since, that
+persons in trade and business were by no means despised in France in the
+manner I had been taught to believe. As to men of letters, they were so
+far from being despised or neglected, that there was no country,
+perhaps, in the universe, in which they were so highly esteemed,
+courted, caressed, and even feared: tradesmen naturally were not so much
+sought in society, (as not furnishing so largely to the fund of
+conversation as they do to the revenues of the state,) but the latter
+description got forward every day. M. Bailly, who made himself the
+popular mayor on the rebellion of the Bastile, and is a principal actor
+in the revolt, before the change possessed a pension or office under the
+crown of six hundred pound English a year,--for that country, no
+contemptible provision; and this he obtained solely as a man of letters,
+and on no other title. As to the moneyed men, whilst the monarchy
+continued, there is no doubt, that, merely as such, they did not enjoy
+the _privileges_ of nobility; but nobility was of so easy an
+acquisition, that it was the fault or neglect of all of that description
+who did not obtain its privileges, for their lives at least, in virtue
+of office. It attached under the royal government to an innumerable
+multitude of places, real and nominal, that were vendible; and such
+nobility were as capable of everything as their degree of influence or
+interest could make them,--that is, as nobility of no considerable rank
+or consequence. M. Necker, so far from being a French gentleman, was not
+so much as a Frenchman born, and yet we all know the rank in which he
+stood on the day of the meeting of the States.
+
+[Sidenote: Mercantile interest.]
+
+As to the mere matter of estimation of the mercantile or any other
+class, this is regulated by opinion and prejudice. In England, a
+security against the envy of men in these classes is not so very
+complete as we may imagine. We must not impose upon ourselves. What
+institutions and manners together had done in France manners alone do
+here. It is the natural operation of things, where there exists a crown,
+a court, splendid orders of knighthood, and an hereditary
+nobility,--where there exists a fixed, permanent, landed gentry,
+continued in greatness and opulence by the law of primogeniture, and by
+a protection given to family settlements,--where there exists a standing
+army and navy,--where there exists a Church establishment, which bestows
+on learning and parts an interest combined with that of religion and the
+state;--in a country where such things exist, wealth, new in its
+acquisition, and precarious in its duration, can never rank first, or
+even near the first: though wealth has its natural weight further than
+as it is balanced and even preponderated amongst us, as amongst other
+nations, by artificial institutions and opinions growing out of them. At
+no period in the history of England have so few peers been taken out of
+trade or from families newly created by commerce. In no period has so
+small a number of noble families entered into the counting-house. I can
+call to mind but one in all England, and his is of near fifty years'
+standing. Be that as it may, it appears plain to me, from my best
+observation, that envy and ambition may, by art, management, and
+disposition, be as much excited amongst these descriptions of men in
+England as in any other country, and that they are just as capable of
+acting a part in any great change.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of the French spirit.--Its course.]
+
+What direction the French spirit of proselytism is likely to take, and
+in what order it is likely to prevail in the several parts of Europe, it
+is not easy to determine. The seeds are sown almost everywhere, chiefly
+by newspaper circulations, infinitely more efficacious and extensive
+than ever they were. And they are a more important instrument than
+generally is imagined. They are a part of the reading of all; they are
+the whole of the reading of the far greater number. There are thirty of
+them in Paris alone. The language diffuses them more widely than the
+English,--though the English, too, are much read. The writers of these
+papers, indeed, for the greater part, are either unknown or in contempt,
+but they are like a battery, in which the stroke of any one ball
+produces no great effect, but the amount of continual repetition is
+decisive. Let us only suffer any person to tell us his story, morning
+and evening, but for one twelvemonth, and he will become our master.
+
+All those countries in which several states are comprehended under some
+general geographical description, and loosely united by some federal
+constitution,--countries of which the members are small, and greatly
+diversified in their forms of government, and in the titles by which
+they are held,--these countries, as it might be well expected, are the
+principal objects of their hopes and machinations. Of these, the chief
+are Germany and Switzerland; after them, Italy has its place, as in
+circumstances somewhat similar.
+
+[Sidenote: Germany.]
+
+As to Germany, (in which, from their relation to the Emperor, I
+comprehend the Belgic Provinces,) it appears to me to be, from several
+circumstances, internal and external, in a very critical situation; and
+the laws and liberties of the Empire are by no means secure from the
+contagion of the French doctrines and the effect of French intrigues, or
+from the use which two of the greater German powers may make of a
+general derangement to the general detriment. I do not say that the
+French do not mean to bestow on these German states liberties, and laws
+too, after their mode; but those are not what have hitherto been
+understood as the laws and liberties of the Empire. These exist and have
+always existed under the principles of feodal tenure and succession,
+under imperial constitutions, grants and concessions of sovereigns,
+family compacts, and public treaties, made under the sanction, and some
+of them guarantied by the sovereign powers of other nations, and
+particularly the old government of France, the author and natural
+support of the Treaty of Westphalia.
+
+[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical state.]
+
+In short, the Germanic body is a vast mass of heterogeneous states, held
+together by that heterogeneous body of old principles which formed the
+public law positive and doctrinal. The modern laws and liberties, which
+the new power in France proposes to introduce into Germany, and to
+support with all its force of intrigue and of arms, is of a very
+different nature, utterly irreconcilable with the first, and indeed
+fundamentally the reverse of it: I mean the _rights and liberties of the
+man_, the _droit de l'homme_. That this doctrine has made an amazing
+progress in Germany there cannot be a shadow of doubt. They are infected
+by it along the whole course of the Rhine, the Maese, the Moselle, and
+in the greater part of Suabia and Franconia. It is particularly
+prevalent amongst all the lower people, churchmen and laity, in the
+dominions of the Ecclesiastical Electors. It is not easy to find or to
+conceive governments more mild and indulgent than these Church
+sovereignties; but good government is as nothing, when the rights of
+man take possession of the mind. Indeed, the loose rein held over the
+people in these provinces must be considered as one cause of the
+facility with which they lend themselves to any schemes of innovation,
+by inducing them to think lightly of their governments, and to judge of
+grievances, not by feeling, but by imagination.
+
+[Sidenote: Balance of Germany.]
+
+It is in these Electorates that the first impressions of France are
+likely to be made; and if they succeed, it is over with the Germanic
+body, as it stands at present. A great revolution is preparing in
+Germany, and a revolution, in my opinion, likely to be more decisive
+upon the general fate of nations than that of France itself,--other than
+as in France is to be found the first source of all the principles which
+are in any way likely to distinguish the troubles and convulsions of our
+age. If Europe does not conceive the independence and the equilibrium of
+the Empire to be in the very essence of the system of balanced power in
+Europe, and if the scheme of public law, or mass of laws, upon which
+that independence and equilibrium are founded, be of no leading
+consequence as they are preserved or destroyed, all the politics of
+Europe for more than two centuries have been miserably erroneous.
+
+[Sidenote: Prussia and Emperor.]
+
+If the two great leading powers of Germany do not regard this danger (as
+apparently they do not) in the light in which it presents itself so
+naturally, it is because they are powers too great to have a social
+interest. That sort of interest belongs only to those whose state of
+weakness or mediocrity is such as to give them greater cause of
+apprehension from what may destroy them than of hope from anything by
+which they may be aggrandized.
+
+As long as those two princes are at variance, so long the liberties of
+Germany are safe. But if ever they should so far understand one another
+as to be persuaded that they have a more direct and more certainly
+defined interest in a proportioned mutual aggrandizement than in a
+reciprocal reduction, that is, if they come to think that they are more
+likely to be enriched by a division of spoil than to be rendered secure
+by keeping to the old policy of preventing others from being spoiled by
+either of them, from that moment the liberties of Germany are no more.
+
+That a junction of two in such a scheme is neither impossible nor
+improbable is evident from the partition of Poland in 1773, which was
+effected by such a junction as made the interposition of other nations
+to prevent it not easy. Their circumstances at that time hindered any
+other three states, or indeed any two, from taking measures in common to
+prevent it, though France was at that time an existing power, and had
+not yet learned to act upon a system of politics of her own invention.
+The geographical position of Poland was a great obstacle to any
+movements of France in opposition to this, at that time, unparalleled
+league. To my certain knowledge, if Great Britain had at that time been
+willing to concur in preventing the execution of a project so dangerous
+in the example, even exhausted as France then was by the preceding war,
+and under a lazy and unenterprising prince, she would have at every risk
+taken an active part in this business. But a languor with regard to so
+remote an interest, and the principles and passions which were then
+strongly at work at home, were the causes why Great Britain would not
+give France any encouragement in such an enterprise. At that time,
+however, and with regard to that object, in my opinion, Great Britain
+and France had a common interest.
+
+[Sidenote: Possible project of the Emperor and king of Prussia.]
+
+But the position of Germany is not like that of Poland, with regard to
+France, either for good or for evil. If a conjunction between Prussia
+and the Emperor should be formed for the purpose of secularizing and
+rendering hereditary the Ecclesiastical Electorates and the Bishopric of
+M�nster, for settling two of them on the children of the Emperor, and
+uniting Cologne and M�nster to the dominions of the king of Prussia on
+the Rhine, or if any other project of mutual aggrandizement should be in
+prospect, and that, to facilitate such a scheme, the modern French
+should be permitted and encouraged to shake the internal and external
+security of these Ecclesiastical Electorates, Great Britain is so
+situated that she could not with any effect set herself in opposition to
+such a design. Her principal arm, her marine, could here be of no sort
+of use.
+
+[Sidenote: To be resisted only by France.]
+
+France, the author of the Treaty of Westphalia, is the natural guardian
+of the independence and balance of Germany. Great Britain (to say
+nothing of the king's concern as one of that august body) has a serious
+interest in preserving it; but, except through the power of France,
+_acting upon the common old principles of state policy_, in the case we
+have supposed, she has no sort of means of supporting that interest. It
+is always the interest of Great Britain that the power of France should
+be kept within the bounds of moderation. It is not her interest that
+that power should be wholly annihilated in the system of Europe. Though
+at one time through France the independence of Europe was endangered, it
+is, and ever was, through her alone that the common liberty of Germany
+can be secured against the single or the combined ambition of any other
+power. In truth, within this century the aggrandizement of other
+sovereign houses has been such that there has been a great change in the
+whole state of Europe; and other nations as well as France may become
+objects of jealousy and apprehension.
+
+[Sidenote: New principles of alliance.]
+
+In this state of things, a new principle of alliances and wars is
+opened. The Treaty of Westphalia is, with France, an antiquated fable.
+The rights and liberties she was bound to maintain are now a system of
+wrong and tyranny which she is bound to destroy. Her good and ill
+dispositions are shown by the same means. _To communicate peaceably_ the
+rights of men is the true mode of her showing her _friendship_; to force
+sovereigns to _submit_ to those rights is her mode of _hostility_. So
+that, either as friend or foe, her whole scheme has been, and is, to
+throw the Empire into confusion; and those statesmen who follow the old
+routine of politics may see in this general confusion, and in the danger
+of the _lesser_ princes, an occasion, as protectors or enemies, of
+connecting their territories to one or the other of the _two great_
+German powers. They do not take into consideration that the means which
+they encourage, as leading to the event they desire, will with certainty
+not only ravage and destroy the Empire, but, if they should for a moment
+seem to aggrandize the two great houses, will also establish principles
+and confirm tempers amongst the people which will preclude the two
+sovereigns from the possibility of holding what they acquire, or even
+the dominions which they have inherited. It is on the side of the
+Ecclesiastical Electorates that the dikes raised to support the German
+liberty first will give way.
+
+[Sidenote: Geneva.]
+
+[Sidenote: Savoy.]
+
+The French have begun their general operations by seizing upon those
+territories of the Pope the situation of which was the most inviting to
+the enterprise. Their method of doing it was by exciting sedition and
+spreading massacre and desolation through these unfortunate places, and
+then, under an idea of kindness and protection, bringing forward an
+antiquated title of the crown of France, and annexing Avignon and the
+two cities of the Comtat, with their territory, to the French republic.
+They have made an attempt on Geneva, in which they very narrowly failed
+of success. It is known that they hold out from time to time the idea of
+uniting all the other provinces of which Gaul was anciently composed,
+including Savoy on the other side, and on this side bounding themselves
+by the Rhine.
+
+[Sidenote: Switzerland.]
+
+[Sidenote: Old French maxims the security of its independence.]
+
+As to Switzerland, it is a country whose long union, rather than its
+possible division, is the matter of wonder. Here I know they entertain
+very sanguine hopes. The aggregation to France of the democratic Swiss
+republics appears to them to be a work half done by their very form; and
+it might seem to them rather an increase of importance to these little
+commonwealths than a derogation from their independency or a change in
+the manner of their government. Upon any quarrel amongst the Cantons,
+nothing is more likely than such an event. As to the aristocratic
+republics, the general clamor and hatred which the French excite against
+the very name, (and with more facility and success than against
+monarchs,) and the utter impossibility of their government making any
+sort of resistance against an insurrection, where they have no troops,
+and the people are all armed and trained, render their hopes in that
+quarter far indeed from unfounded. It is certain that the republic of
+Bern thinks itself obliged to a vigilance next to hostile, and to
+imprison or expel all the French whom it finds in its territories. But,
+indeed, those aristocracies, which comprehend whatever is considerable,
+wealthy, and valuable in Switzerland, do now so wholly depend upon
+opinion, and the humor of their multitude, that the lightest puff of
+wind is sufficient to blow them down. If France, under its ancient
+regimen, and upon the ancient principles of policy, was the support of
+the Germanic Constitution, it was much more so of that of Switzerland,
+which almost from the very origin of that confederacy rested upon the
+closeness of its connection with France, on which the Swiss Cantons
+wholly reposed themselves for the preservation of the parts of their
+body in their respective rights and permanent forms, as well as for the
+maintenance of all in their general independency.
+
+Switzerland and Germany are the first objects of the new French
+politicians. When I contemplate what they have done at home, which is,
+in effect, little less than an amazing conquest, wrought by a change of
+opinion, in a great part (to be sure far from altogether) very sudden, I
+cannot help letting my thoughts run along with their designs, and,
+without attending to geographical order, to consider the other states of
+Europe, so far as they may be any way affected by this astonishing
+Revolution. If early steps are not taken in some way or other to prevent
+the spreading of this influence, I scarcely think any of them perfectly
+secure.
+
+[Sidenote: Italy.]
+
+[Sidenote: Lombardy.]
+
+Italy is divided, as Germany and Switzerland are, into many smaller
+states, and with some considerable diversity as to forms of government;
+but as these divisions and varieties in Italy are not so considerable,
+so neither do I think the danger altogether so imminent there as in
+Germany and Switzerland. Savoy I know that the French consider as in a
+very hopeful way, and I believe not at all without reason. They view it
+as an old member of the kingdom of France, which may be easily reunited
+in the manner and on the principles of the reunion of Avignon. This
+country communicates with Piedmont; and as the king of Sardinia's
+dominions were long the key of Italy, and as such long regarded by
+France, whilst France acted on her old maxims, and with views on
+Italy,--so, in this new French empire of sedition, if once she gets that
+key into her hands, she can easily lay open the barrier which hinders
+the entrance of her present politics into that inviting region. Milan, I
+am sure, nourishes great disquiets; and if Milan should stir, no part of
+Lombardy is secure to the present possessors,--whether the Venetian or
+the Austrian. Genoa is closely connected with France.
+
+[Sidenote: Bourbon princes in Italy.]
+
+The first prince of the House of Bourbon has been obliged to give
+himself up entirely to the new system, and to pretend even to propagate
+it with all zeal: at least, that club of intriguers who assemble at the
+Feuillants, and whose cabinet meets at Madame de Sta�l's, and makes and
+directs all the ministers, is the real executive government of France.
+The Emperor is perfectly in concert, and they will not long suffer any
+prince of the House of Bourbon to keep by force the French emissaries
+out of their dominions; nor whilst France has a commerce with them,
+especially through Marseilles, (the hottest focus of sedition in
+France,) will it be long possible to prevent the intercourse or the
+effects.
+
+Naples has an old, inveterate disposition to republicanism, and (however
+for some time past quiet) is as liable to explosion as its own Vesuvius.
+Sicily, I think, has these dispositions in full as strong a degree. In
+neither of these countries exists anything which very well deserves the
+name of government or exact police.
+
+[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical State.]
+
+In the States of the Church, notwithstanding their strictness in
+banishing the French out of that country, there are not wanting the
+seeds of a revolution. The spirit of nepotism prevails there nearly as
+strong as ever. Every Pope of course is to give origin or restoration to
+a great family by the means of large donations. The foreign revenues
+have long been gradually on the decline, and seem now in a manner dried
+up. To supply this defect, the resource of vexatious and impolitic
+jobbing at home, if anything, is rather increased than lessened. Various
+well-intended, but ill-understood practices, some of them existing, in
+their spirit at least, from the time of the old Roman Empire, still
+prevail; and that government is as blindly attached to old abusive
+customs as others are wildly disposed to all sorts of innovations and
+experiments. These abuses were less felt whilst the Pontificate drew
+riches from abroad, which in some measure counterbalanced the evils of
+their remiss and jobbish government at home. But now it can subsist
+only on the resources of domestic management; and abuses in that
+management of course will be more intimately and more severely felt.
+
+In the midst of the apparently torpid languor of the Ecclesiastical
+State, those who have had opportunity of a near observation have seen a
+little rippling in that smooth water, which indicates something alive
+under it. There is in the Ecclesiastical State a personage who seems
+capable of acting (but with more force and steadiness) the part of the
+tribune Rienzi. The people, once inflamed, will not be destitute of a
+leader. They have such an one already in the Cardinal or Archbishop
+Boncompagni. He is, of all men, if I am not ill-informed, the most
+turbulent, seditious, intriguing, bold, and desperate. He is not at all
+made for a Roman of the present day. I think he lately held the first
+office of their state, that of Great Chamberlain, which is equivalent to
+High Treasurer. At present he is out of employment, and in disgrace. If
+he should be elected Pope, or even come to have any weight with a new
+Pope, he will infallibly conjure up a democratic spirit in that country.
+He may, indeed, be able to effect it without these advantages. The nest
+interregnum will probably show more of him. There may be others of the
+same character, who have not come to my knowledge. This much is
+certain,--that the Roman people, if once the blind reverence they bear
+to the sanctity of the Pope, which is their only bridle, should relax,
+are naturally turbulent, ferocious, and headlong, whilst the police is
+defective, and the government feeble and resourceless beyond all
+imagination.
+
+[Sidenote: Spain]
+
+As to Spain, it is a nerveless country. It does not possess the use, it
+only suffers the abuse, of a nobility. For some time, and even before
+the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been systematically
+lowered, and rendered incapable by exclusion, and for incapacity
+excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner
+annihilated; and so little means have they of any weighty exertion
+either to control or to support the crown, that, if they at all
+interfere, it is only by abetting desperate and mobbish insurrections,
+like that at Madrid, which drove Squillace from his place. Florida
+Blanca is a creature of office, and has little connection and no
+sympathy with that body.
+
+As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain that looks like an
+independent order; and they are kept in some respect by the Inquisition,
+the sole, but unhappy resource of public tranquillity and order now
+remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of
+state,--which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars
+no longer with Jews and heretics: it has no such war to carry on. Its
+great object is, to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making
+their way in that kingdom. No French book upon any subject can enter
+there which does not contain such matter. In Spain, the clergy are of
+moment from their influence, but at the same time with the envy and
+jealousy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by
+management with the Pope got a very great share of the ecclesiastical
+revenues into its own hands, much still remains to them. There will
+always be about that court those who look out to a farther division of
+the Church property as a resource, and to be obtained by shorter
+methods than those of negotiations with the clergy and their chief. But
+at present I think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
+should be taken out of their hands,--and lest that body, in which
+remains the only life that exists in Spain, and is not a fever, may with
+their property lose all the influence necessary to preserve the
+monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ whatever influence
+remains to them as active agents in its destruction.
+
+[Sidenote: Castile different from Catalonia and Aragon.]
+
+The Castilians have still remaining a good deal of their old character,
+their _gravedad, lealtad_, and _el temor de Dios_; but that character
+neither is, nor ever was, exactly true, except of the Castilians only.
+The several kingdoms which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
+which run through the whole; but they are in many particulars as
+different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for
+instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of
+the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of an attachment to
+royalty. They are more in the way of trade and intercourse with France,
+and, upon the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let
+loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into
+convulsions.
+
+It is a melancholy reflection, that the spirit of melioration which has
+been going on in that part of Europe, more or less, during this century,
+and the various schemes very lately on foot for further advancement, are
+all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected
+with innovation; and where that latter comes in for too large a share,
+those who undertake to improve their country may risk their own safety.
+In times where the correction, which includes the confession, of an
+abuse, is turned to criminate the authority which has long suffered it,
+rather than to honor those who would amend it, (which is the spirit of
+this malignant French distemper,) every step out of the common course
+becomes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes of
+moderate talents to engage in great undertakings. At present the only
+safety of Spain is the old national hatred to the French. How far that
+can be depended upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is
+impossible to say.
+
+As to Portugal, she is out of the high-road of these politics. I shall,
+therefore, not divert my thoughts that way, but return again to the
+North of Europe, which at present seems the part most interested, and
+there it appears to me that the French speculation on the Northern
+countries may be valued in the following or some such manner.
+
+[Sidenote: Denmark.]
+
+[Sidenote: Sweden.]
+
+Denmark and Norway do not appear to furnish any of the materials of a
+democratic revolution, or the dispositions to it. Denmark can only be
+_consequentially_ affected by anything done in Prance; but of Sweden I
+think quite otherwise. The present power in Sweden is too new a system,
+and too green and too sore from its late Revolution, to be considered as
+perfectly assured. The king, by his astonishing activity, his boldness,
+his decision, his ready versatility, and by rousing and employing the
+old military spirit of Sweden, keeps up the top with continual agitation
+and lashing. The moment it ceases to spin, the royalty is a dead bit of
+box. Whenever Sweden is quiet externally for some time, there is great
+danger that all the republican elements she contains will be animated
+by the new French spirit, and of this I believe the king is very
+sensible.
+
+[Sidenote: Russia.]
+
+The Russian government is of all others the most liable to be subverted
+by military seditions, by court conspiracies, and sometimes by headlong
+rebellions of the people, such as the turbinating movement of Pugatchef.
+It is not quite so probable that in any of these changes the spirit of
+system may mingle, in the manner it has done in France. The Muscovites
+are no great speculators; but I should not much rely on their
+uninquisitive disposition, if any of their ordinary motives to sedition
+should arise. The little catechism of the Rights of Men is soon learned;
+and the inferences are in the passions.
+
+[Sidenote: Poland.]
+
+[Sidenote: Saxony.]
+
+Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet. The new Constitution
+only serves to supply that restless people with new means, at least new
+modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition. The bottom of the
+character is the same. It is a great question, whether the joining that
+crown with the Electorate of Saxony will contribute most to strengthen
+the royal authority of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony. The
+Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six sevenths at the
+very least, Protestants. He _must_ continue a Catholic, according to the
+Polish law, if he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons, formerly
+flattered by having a crown in the house of their prince, though an
+honor which cost them dear,--the German probity, fidelity, and
+loyalty,--the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under the Treaty
+of Westphalia,--the good temper and good-nature of the princes of the
+House of Saxony, had formerly removed from the people all apprehension
+with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient,
+and even affectionate. The Seven Years' War made some change in the
+minds of the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the loss of what
+might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the
+possession of which, by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often
+obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the support of which that
+foreign interest afforded no proportionable strength. In this very
+delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of the
+French and German _Economists_, and the cabals, and the secret, as well
+as public doctrines of the _Illuminatenorden_, and _Freemasons_, have
+made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent spirit,
+under color of religion, but in reality arising from the French rights
+of man, has already shown itself, and is ready on every occasion to
+blaze out.
+
+The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet temper, of great
+prudence and goodness. He knows, that, in the actual state of things,
+not the power and respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very
+existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very certain that
+not one sovereign in Europe can either promise for the continuance of
+his authority in a state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to
+venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning
+wholly the ancient magnificence of his court, the Elector has conducted
+his affairs with infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors,
+so as to restore his finances beyond what was thought possible from the
+state in which the Seven Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
+whole of that dreadful period, having been in the hands of an
+exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity,
+was obliged to bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in the
+intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabitants of that country
+were not better treated.
+
+The moderation and prudence of the present Elector, in my opinion,
+rather, perhaps, respites the troubles than secures the peace of the
+Electorate. The offer of the succession to the crown of Poland is truly
+critical, whether he accepts or whether he declines it. If the States
+will consent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already
+great, of his situation between the king of Prussia and the
+Emperor.--But these thoughts lead me too far, when I mean to speak only
+of the interior condition of these princes. It has always, however, some
+necessary connection with their foreign politics.
+
+[Sidenote: Holland.]
+
+With regard to Holland, and the ruling party there, I do not think it at
+all tainted, or likely to be so, except by fear,--or that it is likely
+to be misled, unless indirectly and circuitously. But the predominant
+party in Holland is not Holland. The suppressed faction, though
+suppressed, exists. Under the ashes, the embers of the late commotions
+are still warm. The anti-Orange party has from the day of its origin
+been French, though alienated in some degree for some time, through the
+pride and folly of Louis the Fourteenth. It will ever hanker after a
+French connection; and now that the internal government in France has
+been assimilated in so considerable a degree to that which the
+immoderate republicans began so very lately to introduce into Holland,
+their connection, as still more natural, will be more desired. I do not
+well understand the present exterior politics of the Stadtholder, nor
+the treaty into which the newspapers say he has entered for the States
+with the Emperor. But the Emperor's own politics with regard to the
+Netherlands seem to me to be exactly calculated to answer the purpose of
+the French Revolutionists. He endeavors to crush the aristocratic party,
+and to nourish one in avowed connection with the most furious
+democratists in France.
+
+These Provinces in which the French game is so well played they consider
+as part of the old French Empire: certainly they were amongst the oldest
+parts of it. These they think very well situated, as their party is well
+disposed to a reunion. As to the greater nations, they do not aim at
+making a direct conquest of them, but, by disturbing them through a
+propagation of their principles, they hope to weaken, as they will
+weaken them, and to keep them in perpetual alarm and agitation, and thus
+render all their efforts against them utterly impracticable, whilst they
+extend the dominion of their sovereign anarchy on all sides.
+
+[Sidenote: England.]
+
+As to England, there may be some apprehension from vicinity, from
+constant communication, and from the very name of liberty, which, as it
+ought to be very dear to us, in its worst abuses carries something
+seductive. It is the abuse of the first and best of the objects which we
+cherish. I know that many, who sufficiently dislike the system of
+France, have yet no apprehensions of its prevalence here. I say nothing
+to the ground of this security in the attachment of the people to their
+Constitution, and their satisfaction in the discreet portion of liberty
+which it measures out to them. Upon this I have said all I have to say,
+in the Appeal I have published. That security is something, and not
+inconsiderable; but if a storm arises, I should not much rely upon it.
+
+[Sidenote: Objection to the stability of the French system.]
+
+There are other views of things which may be used to give us a perfect
+(though in my opinion a delusive) assurance of our own security. The
+first of these is from the weakness and rickety nature of the new system
+in the place of its first formation. It is thought that the monster of a
+commonwealth cannot possibly live,--that at any rate the ill contrivance
+of their fabric will make it fall in pieces of itself,--that the
+Assembly must be bankrupt,--and that this bankruptcy will totally
+destroy that system from the contagion of which apprehensions are
+entertained.
+
+For my part I have long thought that one great cause of the stability of
+this wretched scheme of things in France was an opinion that it could
+not stand, and therefore that all external measures to destroy it were
+wholly useless.
+
+[Sidenote: Bankruptcy.]
+
+As to the bankruptcy, that event has happened long ago, as much as it is
+ever likely to happen. As soon as a nation compels a creditor to take
+paper currency in discharge of his debt, there is a bankruptcy. The
+compulsory paper has in some degree answered,--not because there was a
+surplus from Church lands, but because faith has not been kept with the
+clergy. As to the holders of the old funds, to them the payments will be
+dilatory, but they will be made; and whatever may be the discount on
+paper, whilst paper is taken, paper will be issued.
+
+[Sidenote: Resources.]
+
+As to the rest, they have shot out three branches of revenue to supply
+all those which they have destroyed: that is, _the Universal Register of
+all Transactions_, the heavy and universal _Stamp Duty_, and the new
+_Territorial Impost_, levied chiefly on the reduced estates of the
+gentlemen. These branches of the revenue, especially as they take
+assignats in payment, answer their purpose in a considerable degree, and
+keep up the credit of their paper: for, as they receive it in their
+treasury, it is in reality funded upon all their taxes and future
+resources of all kinds, as well as upon the Church estates. As this
+paper is become in a manner the only visible maintenance of the whole
+people, the dread of a bankruptcy is more apparently connected with the
+delay of a counter-revolution than with the duration of this republic;
+because the interest of the new republic manifestly leans upon it, and,
+in my opinion, the counter-revolution cannot exist along with it. The
+above three projects ruined some ministers under the old government,
+merely for having conceived them. They are the salvation of the present
+rulers.
+
+As the Assembly has laid a most unsparing and cruel hand on all men who
+have lived by the bounty, the justice, or the abuses of the old
+government, they have lessened many expenses. The royal establishment,
+though excessively and ridiculously great for _their_ scheme of things,
+is reduced at least one half; the estates of the king's brothers, which
+under the ancient government had been in truth royal revenues, go to the
+general stock of the confiscation; and as to the crown lands, though
+under the monarchy they never yielded two hundred and fifty thousand a
+year, by many they are thought at least worth three times as much.
+
+As to the ecclesiastical charge, whether as a compensation for losses,
+or a provision for religion, of which they made at first a great parade,
+and entered into a solemn engagement in favor of it, it was estimated at
+a much larger sum than they could expect from the Church property,
+movable or immovable: they are completely bankrupt as to that article.
+It is just what they wish; and it is not productive of any serious
+inconvenience. The non-payment produces discontent and occasional
+sedition; but is only by fits and spasms, and amongst the country
+people, who are of no consequence. These seditions furnish new pretexts
+for non-payment to the Church establishment, and help the Assembly
+wholly to get rid of the clergy, and indeed of any form of religion,
+which is not only their real, but avowed object.
+
+[Sidenote: Want of money how supplied.]
+
+They are embarrassed, indeed, in the highest degree, but not wholly
+resourceless. They are without the species of money. Circulation of
+money is a great convenience, but a substitute for it may be found.
+Whilst the great objects of production and consumption, corn, cattle,
+wine, and the like, exist in a country, the means of giving them
+circulation, with more or less convenience, cannot be _wholly_ wanting.
+The great confiscation of the Church and of the crown lands, and of the
+appanages of the princes, for the purchase of all which their paper is
+always received at par, gives means of continually destroying and
+continually creating; and this perpetual destruction and renovation
+feeds the speculative market, and prevents, and will prevent, till that
+fund of confiscation begins to fail, a _total_ depreciation.
+
+[Sidenote: Moneyed interest not necessary to them.]
+
+But all consideration of public credit in France is of little avail at
+present. The action, indeed, of the moneyed interest was of absolute
+necessity at the beginning of this Revolution; but the French republic
+can stand without any assistance from that description of men, which, as
+things are now circumstanced, rather stands in need of assistance itself
+from the power which alone substantially exists in France: I mean the
+several districts and municipal republics, and the several clubs which
+direct all their affairs and appoint all their magistrates. This is the
+power now paramount to everything, even to the Assembly itself called
+National and that to which tribunals, priesthood, laws, finances, and
+both descriptions of military power are wholly subservient, so far as
+the military power of either description yields obedience to any name of
+authority.
+
+The world of contingency and political combination is much larger than
+we are apt to imagine. We never can say what may or may not happen,
+without a view to all the actual circumstances. Experience, upon other
+data than those, is of all things the most delusive. Prudence in new
+cases can do nothing on grounds of retrospect. A constant vigilance and
+attention to the train of things as they successively emerge, and to act
+on what they direct, are the only sure courses. The physician that let
+blood, and by blood-letting cured one kind of plague, in the next added
+to its ravages. That power goes with property is not universally true,
+and the idea that the operation of it is certain and invariable may
+mislead us very fatally.
+
+[Sidenote: Power separated from property.]
+
+Whoever will take an accurate view of the state of those republics, and
+of the composition of the present Assembly deputed by them, (in which
+Assembly there are not quite fifty persons possessed of an income
+amounting to 100_l._ sterling yearly,) must discern clearly, _that the
+political and civil power of France is wholly separated from its
+property of every description_, and of course that neither the landed
+nor the moneyed interest possesses the smallest weight or consideration
+in the direction of any public concern. The whole kingdom is directed by
+_the refuse of its chicane_, with the aid of the bustling, presumptuous
+young clerks of counting-houses and shops, and some intermixture of
+young gentlemen of the same character in the several towns. The rich
+peasants are bribed with Church lands; and the poorer of that
+description are, and can be, counted for nothing. They may rise in
+ferocious, ill-directed tumults,--but they can only disgrace themselves
+and signalize the triumph of their adversaries.
+
+[Sidenote: Effects of the rota.]
+
+The _truly_ active citizens, that is, the above descriptions, are all
+concerned in intrigue respecting the various objects in their local or
+their general government. The rota, which the French have established
+for their National Assembly, holds out the highest objects of ambition
+to such vast multitudes as in an unexampled measure to widen the bottom
+of a new species of interest merely political, and wholly unconnected
+with birth or property. This scheme of a rota, though it enfeebles the
+state, considered as one solid body, and indeed wholly disables it from
+acting as such, gives a great, an equal, and a diffusive strength to the
+democratic scheme. Seven hundred and fifty people, every two years
+raised to the supreme power, has already produced at least fifteen
+hundred bold, acting politicians: a great number for even so great a
+country as France. These men never will quietly settle in ordinary
+occupations, nor submit to any scheme which must reduce them to an
+entirely private condition, or to the exercise of a steady, peaceful,
+but obscure and unimportant industry. Whilst they sit in the Assembly,
+they are denied offices of trust and profit,--but their short duration
+makes this no restraint: during their probation and apprenticeship they
+are all salaried with an income to the greatest part of them immense;
+and after they have passed the novitiate, those who take any sort of
+lead are placed in very lucrative offices, according to their influence
+and credit, or appoint those who divide their profits with them.
+
+This supply of recruits to the corps of the highest civil ambition goes
+on with a regular progression. In very few years it must amount to many
+thousands. These, however, will be as nothing in comparison to the
+multitude of municipal officers, and officers of district and
+department, of all sorts, who have tasted of power and profit, and who
+hunger for the periodical return of the meal. To these needy agitators,
+the glory of the state, the general wealth and prosperity of the nation,
+and the rise or fall of public credit are as dreams; nor have arguments
+deduced from these topics any sort of weight with them. The indifference
+with which the Assembly regards the state of their colonies, the only
+valuable part of the French commerce, is a full proof how little they
+are likely to be affected by anything but the selfish game of their own
+ambition, now universally diffused.
+
+[Sidenote: Impracticability of resistance.]
+
+It is true, amidst all these turbulent means of security to their
+system, very great discontents everywhere prevail. But they only produce
+misery to those who nurse them at home, or exile, beggary, and in the
+end confiscation, to those who are so impatient as to remove from them.
+Each municipal republic has a _Committee_, or something in the nature of
+a _Committee of Research_. In these petty republics the tyranny is so
+near its object that it becomes instantly acquainted with every act of
+every man. It stifles conspiracy in its very first movements. Their
+power is absolute and uncontrollable. No stand can be made against it.
+These republics are besides so disconnected, that very little
+intelligence of what happens in them is to be obtained beyond their own
+bounds, except by the means of their clubs, who keep up a constant
+correspondence, and who give what color they please to such facts as
+they choose to communicate out of the track of their correspondence.
+They all have some sort of communication, just as much or as little as
+they please, with the centre. By this confinement of all communication
+to the ruling faction, any combination, grounded on the abuses and
+discontents in one, scarcely can reach the other. There is not one man,
+in any one place, to head them. The old government had so much
+abstracted the nobility from the cultivation of provincial interest,
+that no man in France exists, whose power, credit, or consequence
+extends to two districts, or who is capable of uniting them in any
+design, even if any man could assemble ten men together without being
+sure of a speedy lodging in a prison. One must not judge of the state of
+France by what has been observed elsewhere. It does not in the least
+resemble any other country. Analogical reasoning from history or from
+recent experience in other places is wholly delusive.
+
+In my opinion, there never was seen so strong a government internally as
+that of the French municipalities. If ever any rebellion can arise
+against the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which
+gave birth to it did, at the capital. Paris is the only place in which
+there is the least freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many
+servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestic
+enemies.
+
+[Sidenote: Gentlemen are fugitives.]
+
+But that place being the chief seat of the power and intelligence of the
+ruling faction, and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest
+spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have anything to feed
+it. The leaders of the aristocratic party have been drawn out of the
+kingdom by order of the princes, on the hopes held out by the Emperor
+and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the democratic factions in
+Paris, amongst them there are no leaders possessed of an influence for
+any other purpose but that of maintaining the present state of things.
+The moment they are seen to warp, they are reduced to nothing. They have
+no attached army,--no party that is at all personal.
+
+It is not to be imagined, because a political system is, under certain
+aspects, very unwise in its contrivance, and very mischievous in its
+effects, that it therefore can have no long duration. Its very defects
+may tend to its stability, because they are agreeable to its nature. The
+very faults in the Constitution of Poland made it last; the _veto_ which
+destroyed all its energy preserved its life. What can be conceived so
+monstrous as the republic of Algiers, and that no less strange republic
+of the Mamelukes in Egypt? They are of the worst form imaginable, and
+exercised in the worst manner, yet they have existed as a nuisance on
+the earth for several hundred years.
+
+[Sidenote: Conclusions.]
+
+From all these considerations, and many more that crowd upon me, three
+conclusions have long since arisen in my mind.
+
+First, that no counter revolution is to be expected in France from
+internal causes solely.
+
+Secondly, that, the longer the present system exists, the greater will
+be its strength, the greater its power to destroy discontents at home,
+and to resist all foreign attempts in favor of these discontents.
+
+Thirdly, that, as long as it exists in France, it will be the interest
+of the managers there, and it is in the very essence of their plan, to
+disturb and distract all other governments, and their endless succession
+of restless politicians will continually stimulate them to new attempts.
+
+[Sidenote: Proceedings of princes; defensive plans.]
+
+Princes are generally sensible that this is their common cause; and two
+of them have made a public declaration of their opinion to this effect.
+Against this common danger, some of them, such as the king of Spain, the
+king of Sardinia, and the republic of Bern, are very diligent in using
+defensive measures.
+
+If they were to guard against an invasion from France, the merits of
+this plan of a merely defensive resistance might be supported by
+plausible topics; but as the attack does not operate against these
+countries externally, but by an internal corruption, (a sort of dry
+rot,) they who pursue this merely defensive plan against a danger which
+the plan itself supposes to be serious cannot possibly escape it. For
+it is in the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and vigorous
+under the impressions of the first alarm, and to relax by degrees, until
+at length the danger, by not operating instantly, comes to appear as a
+false alarm,--so much so, that the next menacing appearance will look
+less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are
+on the offensive it is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly it is
+more their interest not to be so. For their unforeseen attacks
+contribute to their success.
+
+[Sidenote: The French party how composed.]
+
+In the mean time a system of French conspiracy is gaining ground in
+every country. This system, happening to be founded on principles the
+most delusive indeed, but the most flattering to the natural
+propensities of the unthinking multitude, and to the speculations of all
+those who think, without thinking very profoundly, must daily extend its
+influence. A predominant inclination towards it appears in all those who
+have no religion, when otherwise their disposition leads them to be
+advocates even for despotism. Hence Hume, though I cannot say that he
+does not throw out some expressions of disapprobation on the proceedings
+of the levellers in the reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms that
+the doctrines of John Ball were "conformable to the ideas of primitive
+equality _which are engraven in the hearts of all men_."
+
+Boldness formerly was not the character of atheists as such. They were
+even of a character nearly the reverse; they were formerly like the old
+Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they are grown
+active, designing, turbulent, and seditious. They are sworn enemies to
+kings, nobility, and priesthood. We have seen all the Academicians at
+Paris, with Condorcet, the friend and correspondent of Priestley, at
+their head, the most furious of the extravagant republicans.
+
+[Sidenote: Condorcet.]
+
+The late Assembly, after the last captivity of the king, had actually
+chosen this Condorcet, by a majority on the ballot, for preceptor to the
+Dauphin, who was to be taken out of the hands and direction of his
+parents, and to be delivered over to this fanatic atheist and furious
+democratic republican. His untractability to these leaders, and his
+figure in the club of Jacobins, which at that time they wished to bring
+under, alone prevented that part of the arrangement, and others in the
+same style, from being carried into execution. Whilst he was candidate
+for this office, he produced his title to it by promulgating the
+following ideas of the title of his royal pupil to the crown. In a paper
+written by him, and published with his name, against the re�stablishment
+even of the appearance of monarchy under any qualifications, he says:--
+
+[Sidenote: Doctrine of the French.]
+
+"Jusqu'� ce moment, ils [l'Assembl�e Nationale] n'ont rien pr�jug�
+encore. En se r�servant de nommer un gouverneur au Dauphin, ils n'ont
+pas prononc� _que cet enfant d�t r�gner_, mais seulement qu'il _�tait
+possible_ que la Constitution l'y destin�t; ils ont voulu que
+l'�ducation effa��t tout ce que _les prestiges du tr�ne_ ont pu lui
+inspirer de pr�jug�s sur les droits pr�tendus de sa naissance; qu'elle
+lui f�t conna�tre de bonne heure et _l'�galit� naturelle des hommes et
+la souverainet� du peuple_; qu'elle lui appr�t � ne pas oublier que
+c'est _du peuple_ qu'il tiendra le titre de Roi, et que _le peuple n'a
+pas m�me le droit de renoncer � celui de l'en d�pouiller_.
+
+"Ils ont voulu que cette �ducation le rend�t �galement digne, par ses
+lumi�res et ses vertus, de recevoir _avec r�signation_ le fardeau
+dangereux d'une couronne, ou de la _d�poser avec joie_ entre les mains
+de ses fr�res; qu'il sent�t que le devoir et la gloire du roi d'un
+peuple libre sont de h�ter le moment de n'�tre plus qu'un citoyen
+ordinaire.
+
+"Ils ont voulu que _l'inutilit� d'un roi_, la n�cessit� de chercher les
+moyens de remplacer _un pouvoir fond� sur des illusions_, f�t une des
+premi�res v�rit�s offertes � sa raison; _l'obligation d'y concourir
+lui-m�me, un des premiers devoirs de sa morale; et le d�sir de n'�tre
+plus affranchi du joug de la loi par une injurieuse inviolabilit�, le
+premier sentiment de son coeur_. Ils n'ignorent pas que dans ce moment
+il s'agit bien moins de former un roi que de lui apprendre _� savoir �
+vouloir ne plus l'�tre_."[32]
+
+Such are the sentiments of the man who has occasionally filled the chair
+of the National Assembly, who is their perpetual secretary, their only
+standing officer, and the most important by far. He leads them to peace
+or war. He is the great theme of the republican faction in England.
+These ideas of M. Condorcet are the principles of those to whom kings
+are to intrust their successors and the interests of their succession.
+This man would be ready to plunge the poniard in the heart of his pupil,
+or to whet the axe for his neck. Of all men, the most dangerous is a
+warm, hot-headed, zealous atheist. This sort of man aims at dominion,
+and his means are the words he always has in his mouth,--"_L'�galit�
+naturelle des hommes, et la souverainet� du peuple_."
+
+All former attempts, grounded on these rights of men, had proved
+unfortunate. The success of this last makes a mighty difference in the
+effect of the doctrine. Here is a principle of a nature to the multitude
+the most seductive, always existing before their eyes _as a thing
+feasible in practice_. After so many failures, such an enterprise,
+previous to the French experiment, carried ruin to the contrivers, on
+the face of it; and if any enthusiast was so wild as to wish to engage
+in a scheme of that nature, it was not easy for him to find followers:
+now there is a party almost in all countries, ready-made, animated with
+success, with a sure ally in the very centre of Europe. There is no
+cabal so obscure in any place, that they do not protect, cherish,
+foster, and endeavor to raise it into importance at home and abroad.
+From the lowest, this intrigue will creep up to the highest. Ambition,
+as well as enthusiasm, may find its account in the party and in the
+principle.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of ministers.]
+
+The ministers of other kings, like those of the king of France, (not one
+of whom was perfectly free from this guilt, and some of whom were very
+deep in it,) may themselves be the persons to foment such a disposition
+and such a faction. Hertzberg, the king of Prussia's late minister, is
+so much of what is called a philosopher, that he was of a faction with
+that sort of politicians in everything, and in every place. Even when he
+defends himself from the imputation of giving extravagantly into these
+principles, he still considers the Revolution of France as a great
+public good, by giving credit to their fraudulent declaration of their
+universal benevolence and love of peace. Nor are his Prussian Majesty's
+present ministers at all disinclined to the same system. Their
+ostentatious preamble to certain late edicts demonstrates (if their
+actions had not been sufficiently explanatory of their cast of mind)
+that they are deeply infected with the same distemper of dangerous,
+because plausible, though trivial and shallow, speculation.
+
+Ministers, turning their backs on the reputation which properly belongs
+to them, aspire at the glory of being speculative writers. The duties of
+these two situations are in general directly opposite to each other.
+Speculators ought to be neutral. A minister cannot be so. He is to
+support the interest of the public as connected with that of his master.
+He is his master's trustee, advocate, attorney, and steward,--and he is
+not to indulge in any speculation which contradicts that character, or
+even detracts from its efficacy. Necker had an extreme thirst for this
+sort of glory; so had others; and this pursuit of a misplaced and
+misunderstood reputation was one of the causes of the ruin of these
+ministers, and of their unhappy, master. The Prussian ministers in
+foreign courts have (at least not long since) talked the most democratic
+language with regard to Prance, and in the most unmanaged terms.
+
+[Sidenote: Corps diplomatique.]
+
+The whole _corps diplomatique_, with very few exceptions, leans that
+way. What cause produces in them a turn of mind which at first one would
+think unnatural to their situation it is not impossible to explain. The
+discussion would, however, be somewhat long and somewhat invidious. The
+fact itself is indisputable, however they may disguise it to their
+several courts. This disposition is gone to so very great a length in
+that corps, in itself so important, and so important as _furnishing_ the
+intelligence which sways all cabinets, that, if princes and states do
+not very speedily attend with a vigorous control to that source of
+direction and information, very serious evils are likely to befall them.
+
+[Sidenote: Sovereigns--their dispositions.]
+
+But, indeed, kings are to guard against the same sort of dispositions in
+themselves. They are very easily alienated from all the higher orders of
+their subjects, whether civil or military, laic or ecclesiastical. It is
+with persons of condition that sovereigns chiefly come into contact. It
+is from them that they generally experience opposition to their will. It
+is with _their_ pride and impracticability that princes are most hurt.
+It is with _their_ servility and baseness that they are most commonly
+disgusted. It is from their humors and cabals that they find their
+affairs most frequently troubled and distracted. But of the common
+people, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing;
+and therefore being unacquainted with their faults, (which are as many
+as those of the great, and much more decisive in their effects, when
+accompanied with power,) kings generally regard them with tenderness and
+favor, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects,
+particularly when hurt by opposition from the higher orders. It was thus
+that the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was
+ruined. I have it from very sure information, (and it was, indeed,
+obvious enough, from the measures which were taken previous to the
+assembly of the States and afterwards,) that the king's counsellors had
+filled him with a strong dislike to his nobility, his clergy, and the
+corps of his magistracy. They represented to him, that he had tried them
+all severally, in several ways, and found them all untractable: that he
+had twice called an assembly (the Notables) composed of the first men of
+the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had himself named
+every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he
+had not, in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a
+compliance with his will than they had been separately; that there
+remained for him, with the least prospect of advantage to his authority
+in the States-General, which were to be composed of the same sorts of
+men, but not chosen by him, only the _Tiers �tat_: in this alone he
+could repose any hope of extricating himself from his difficulties, and
+of settling him in a clear and permanent authority. They represented,
+(these are the words of one of my informants,) "that the royal
+authority, compressed with the weight of these aristocratic bodies, full
+of ambition and of faction, when once unloaded, would rise of itself,
+and occupy its natural place without disturbance or control"; that the
+common people would protect, cherish, and support, instead of crushing
+it. "The people" (it was said) "could entertain no objects of ambition";
+they were out of the road of intrigue and cabal, and could possibly have
+no other view than the support of the mild and parental authority by
+which they were invested, for the first time collectively, with real
+importance in the state, and protected in their peaceable and useful
+employments.
+
+[Sidenote: King of France.]
+
+This unfortunate king (not without a large share of blame to himself)
+was deluded to his ruin by a desire to humble and reduce his nobility,
+clergy, and big corporate magistracy: not that I suppose he meant wholly
+to eradicate these bodies, in the manner since effected by the
+democratic power; I rather believe that even Necker's designs did not go
+to that extent. With his own hand, however, Louis the Sixteenth pulled
+down the pillars which upheld his throne; and this he did, because he
+could not bear the inconveniences which are attached to everything
+human,--because he found himself cooped up, and in durance, by those
+limits which Nature prescribes to desire and imagination, and was taught
+to consider as low and degrading that mutual dependence which Providence
+has ordained that all men should have on one another. He is not at this
+minute, perhaps, cured of the dread of the power and credit like to be
+acquired by those who would save and rescue him. He leaves those who
+suffer in his cause to their fate,--and hopes, by various mean, delusive
+intrigues, in which I am afraid he is encouraged from abroad, to regain,
+among traitors and regicides, the power he has joined to take from his
+own family, whom he quietly sees proscribed before his eyes, and called
+to answer to the lowest of his rebels, as the vilest of all criminals.
+
+[Sidenote: Emperor.]
+
+It is to be hoped that the Emperor may be taught better things by this
+fatal example. But it is sure that he has advisers who endeavor to fill
+him with the ideas which have brought his brother-in-law to his present
+situation. Joseph the Second was far gone in this philosophy, and some,
+if not most, who serve the Emperor, would kindly initiate him into all
+the mysteries of this freemasonry. They would persuade him to look on
+the National Assembly, not with the hatred of an enemy, but the jealousy
+of a rival. They would make him desirous of doing, in his own dominions,
+by a royal despotism, what has been done in France by a democratic.
+Rather than abandon such enterprises, they would persuade him to a
+strange alliance between those extremes. Their grand object being now,
+as in his brother's time, at any rate to destroy the higher orders, they
+think he cannot compass this end, as certainly he cannot, without
+elevating the lower. By depressing the one and by raising the other they
+hope in the first place to increase his treasures and his army; and with
+these common instruments of royal power they flatter him that the
+democracy, which they help in his name to create, will give him but
+little trouble. In defiance of the freshest experience, which might show
+him that old impossibilities are become modern probabilities, and that
+the extent to which evil principles may go, when left to their own
+operation, is beyond the power of calculation, they will endeavor to
+persuade him that such a democracy is a thing which cannot subsist by
+itself; that in whose ever hands the military command is placed, he must
+be, in the necessary course of affairs, sooner or later the master; and
+that, being the master of various unconnected countries, he may keep
+them all in order by employing a military force which to each of them is
+foreign. This maxim, too, however formerly plausible, will not now hold
+water. This scheme is full of intricacy, and may cause him everywhere to
+lose the hearts of his people. These counsellors forget that a corrupted
+army was the very cause of the ruin of his brother-in-law, and that he
+is himself far from secure from a similar corruption.
+
+[Sidenote: Brabant.]
+
+Instead of reconciling himself heartily and _bon� fide_, according to
+the most obvious rules of policy, to the States of Brabant, _as they are
+constituted_, and who in _the present state of things_ stand on the same
+foundation with the monarchy itself, and who might have been gained with
+the greatest facility, they have advised him to the most unkingly
+proceeding which, either in a good or in a bad light, has ever been
+attempted. Under a pretext taken from the spirit of the lowest chicane,
+they have counselled him wholly to break the public faith, to annul the
+amnesty, as well as the other conditions through which he obtained an
+entrance into the Provinces of the Netherlands under the guaranty of
+Great Britain and Prussia. He is made to declare his adherence to the
+indemnity in a criminal sense, but he is to keep alive in his own name,
+and to encourage in others, a _civil_ process in the nature of an
+action of damages for what has been suffered during the troubles.
+Whilst he keeps up this hopeful lawsuit in view of the damages he may
+recover against individuals, he loses the hearts of a whole people, and
+the vast subsidies which his ancestors had been used to receive from
+them.
+
+[Sidenote: Emperor's conduct with regard to France.]
+
+This design once admitted unriddles the mystery of the whole conduct of
+the Emperor's ministers with regard to France. As soon as they saw the
+life of the king and queen of France no longer, as they thought, in
+danger, they entirely changed their plan with regard to the French
+nation. I believe that the chiefs of the Revolution (those who led the
+constituting Assembly) have contrived, as far as they can do it, to give
+the Emperor satisfaction on this head. He keeps a continual tone and
+posture of menace to secure this his only point. But it must be
+observed, that he all along grounds his departure from the engagement at
+Pilnitz to the princes on the will and actions of _the king_ and the
+majority of the people, without any regard to the natural and
+constitutional orders of the state, or to the opinions of the whole
+House of Bourbon. Though it is manifestly under the constraint of
+imprisonment and the fear of death that this unhappy man has been guilty
+of all those humilities which have astonished mankind, the advisers of
+the Emperor will consider nothing but the _physical_ person of Louis,
+which, even in his present degraded and infamous state, they regard as
+of sufficient authority to give a complete sanction to the persecution
+and utter ruin of all his family, and of every person who has shown any
+degree of attachment or fidelity to him or to his cause, as well as
+competent to destroy the whole ancient constitution and frame of the
+French monarchy.
+
+The present policy, therefore, of the Austrian politicians is, to
+recover despotism through democracy,--or, at least, at any expense,
+everywhere to ruin the description of men who are everywhere the objects
+of their settled and systematic aversion, but more especially in the
+Netherlands. Compare this with the Emperor's refusing at first all
+intercourse with the present powers in France, with his endeavoring to
+excite all Europe against them, and then, his not only withdrawing all
+assistance and all countenance from the fugitives who had been drawn by
+his declarations from their houses, situations, and military
+commissions, many even from the means of their very existence, but
+treating them with every species of insult and outrage.
+
+Combining this unexampled conduct in the Emperor's advisers with the
+timidity (operating as perfidy) of the king of France, a fatal example
+is held out to all subjects, tending to show what little support, or
+even countenance, they are to expect from those for whom their principle
+of fidelity may induce them to risk life and fortune. The Emperor's
+advisers would not for the world rescind one of the acts of this or of
+the late French Assembly; nor do they wish anything better at present
+for their master's brother of France than that he should really be, as
+he is nominally, at the head of the system of persecution of religion
+and good order, and of all descriptions of dignity, natural and
+instituted: they only wish all this done with a little more respect to
+the king's person, and with more appearance of consideration for his new
+subordinate office,--in hopes, that, yielding himself for the present
+to the persons who have effected these changes, he may be able to game
+for the rest hereafter. On no other principles than these can the
+conduct of the court of Vienna be accounted for. The subordinate court
+of Brussels talks the language of a club of Feuillants and Jacobins.
+
+[Sidenote: Moderate party.]
+
+In this state of general rottenness among subjects, and of delusion and
+false politics in princes, comes a new experiment. The king of France is
+in the hands of the chiefs of the regicide faction,--the Barnaves,
+Lameths, Fayettes, P�rigords, Duports, Robespierres, Camuses, &c., &c.,
+&c. They who had imprisoned, suspended, and conditionally deposed him
+are his confidential counsellors. The next desperate of the desperate
+rebels call themselves the _moderate_ party. They are the chiefs of the
+first Assembly, who are confederated to support their power during their
+suspension from the present, and to govern the existent body with as
+sovereign a sway as they had done the last. They have, for the greater
+part, succeeded; and they have many advantages towards procuring their
+success in future. Just before the close of their regular power, they
+bestowed some appearance of prerogatives on the king, which in their
+first plans they had refused to him,--particularly the mischievous, and,
+in his situation, dreadful prerogative of a _veto_. This prerogative,
+(which they hold as their bit in the mouth of the National Assembly for
+the time being,) without the direct assistance of their club, it was
+impossible for the king to show even the desire of exerting with the
+smallest effect, or even with safety to his person. However, by playing,
+through this _veto_, the Assembly against the king, and the king
+against the Assembly, they have made themselves masters of both. In this
+situation, having destroyed the old government by their sedition, they
+would preserve as much of order as is necessary for the support of their
+own usurpation.
+
+[Sidenote: French ambassador.]
+
+It is believed that this, by far the worst party of the miscreants of
+France, has received direct encouragement from the counsellors who
+betray the Emperor. Thus strengthened by the possession of the captive
+king, (now captive in his mind as well as in body,) and by a good hope
+of the Emperor, they intend to send their ministers to every court in
+Europe,--having sent before them such a denunciation of terror and
+superiority to every nation without exception as has no example in the
+diplomatic world. Hitherto the ministers to foreign courts had been of
+the appointment of the sovereign of France _previous to the Revolution_;
+and, either from inclination, duty, or decorum, most of them were
+contented with a merely passive obedience to the new power. At present,
+the king, being entirely in the hands of his jailors, and his mind
+broken to his situation, can send none but the enthusiasts of the
+system,--men framed by the secret committee of the Feuillants, who meet
+in the house of Madame de Sta�l, M. Necker's daughter. Such is every man
+whom they have talked of sending hither. These ministers will be so many
+spies and incendiaries, so many active emissaries of democracy. Their
+houses will become places of rendezvous here, as everywhere else, and
+centres of cabal for whatever is mischievous and malignant in this
+country, particularly among those of rank and fashion. As the minister
+of the National Assembly will be admitted at this court, at least with
+his usual rank, and as entertainments will be naturally given and
+received by the king's own ministers, any attempt to discountenance the
+resort of other people to that minister would be ineffectual, and indeed
+absurd, and full of contradiction. The women who come with these
+ambassadors will assist in fomenting factions amongst ours, which cannot
+fail of extending the evil. Some of them I hear are already arrived.
+There is no doubt they will do as much mischief as they can.
+
+[Sidenote: Connection of clubs.]
+
+Whilst the public ministers are received under the general law of the
+communication between nations, the correspondences between the factious
+clubs in France and ours will be, as they now are, kept up; but this
+pretended embassy will be a closer, more steady, and more effectual link
+between the partisans of the new system on both sides of the water. I do
+not mean that these Anglo-Gallic clubs in London, Manchester, &c., are
+not dangerous in a high degree. The appointment of festive anniversaries
+has ever in the sense of mankind been held the best method of keeping
+alive the spirit of any institution. We have one settled in London; and
+at the last of them, that of the 14th of July, the strong discountenance
+of government, the unfavorable time of the year, and the then
+uncertainty of the disposition of foreign powers, did not hinder the
+meeting of at least nine hundred people, with good coats on their backs,
+who could afford to pay half a guinea a head to show their zeal for the
+new principles. They were with great difficulty, and all possible
+address, hindered from inviting the French ambassador. His real
+indisposition, besides the fear of offending any party, sent him out of
+town. But when our court shall have recognized a government in France
+founded on the principles announced in Montmorin's letter, how can the
+French ambassador be frowned upon for an attendance on those meetings
+wherein the establishment of the government he represents is celebrated?
+An event happened a few days ago, which in many particulars was very
+ridiculous; yet, even from the ridicule and absurdity of the
+proceedings, it marks the more strongly the spirit of the French
+Assembly: I mean the reception they have given to the Frith Street
+Alliance. This, though the delirium of a low, drunken alehouse club,
+they have publicly announced as a formal alliance with the people of
+England, as such ordered it to be presented to their king, and to be
+published in every province in France. This leads, more directly and
+with much greater force than any proceeding with a regular and rational
+appearance, to two very material considerations. First, it shows that
+they are of opinion that the current opinions of the English have the
+greatest influence on the minds of the people in France, and indeed of
+all the people in Europe, since they catch with such astonishing
+eagerness at every the most trifling show of such opinions in their
+favor. Next, and what appears to me to be full as important, it shows
+that they are willing publicly to countenance, and even to adopt, every
+factious conspiracy that can be formed in this nation, however low and
+base in itself, in order to excite in the most miserable wretches here
+an idea of their own sovereign importance, and to encourage them to look
+up to France, whenever they may be matured into something of more force,
+for assistance in the subversion of their domestic government. This
+address of the alehouse club was actually proposed and accepted by the
+Assembly as an _alliance_. The procedure was in my opinion a high
+misdemeanor in those who acted thus in England, if they were not so very
+low and so very base that no acts of theirs can be called high, even as
+a description of criminality; and the Assembly, in accepting,
+proclaiming, and publishing this forged alliance, has been guilty of a
+plain aggression, which would justify our court in demanding a direct
+disavowal, if our policy should not lead us to wink at it.
+
+Whilst I look over this paper to have it copied, I see a manifesto of
+the Assembly, as a preliminary to a declaration of war against the
+German princes on the Rhine. This manifesto contains the whole substance
+of the French politics with regard to foreign states. They have ordered
+it to be circulated amongst the people in every country of Europe,--even
+previously to its acceptance by the king, and his new privy council, the
+club of the Feuillants. Therefore, as a summary of their policy avowed
+by themselves, let us consider some of the circumstances attending that
+piece, as well as the spirit and temper of the piece itself.
+
+[Sidenote: Declaration against the Emperor.]
+
+It was preceded by a speech from Brissot, full of unexampled insolence
+towards all the sovereign states of Germany, if not of Europe. The
+Assembly, to express their satisfaction in the sentiments which it
+contained, ordered it to be printed. This Brissot had been in the lowest
+and basest employ under the deposed monarchy,--a sort of thief-taker, or
+spy of police,--in which character he acted after the manner of persons
+in that description. He had been employed by his master, the
+_Lieutenant de Police_, for a considerable time in London, in the same
+or some such honorable occupation. The Revolution, which has brought
+forward all merit of that kind, raised him, with others of a similar
+class and disposition, to fame and eminence. On the Revolution he became
+a publisher of an infamous newspaper, which he still continues. He is
+charged, and I believe justly, as the first mover of the troubles in
+Hispaniola. There is no wickedness, if I am rightly informed, in which
+he is not versed, and of which he is not perfectly capable. His quality
+of news-writer, now an employment of the first dignity in France, and
+his practices and principles, procured his election into the Assembly,
+where he is one of the leading members. M. Condorcet produced on the
+same day a draught of a declaration to the king, which the Assembly
+published before it was presented.
+
+Condorcet (though no marquis, as he styled himself before the
+Revolution) is a man of another sort of birth, fashion, and occupation
+from Brissot,--but in every principle, and every disposition to the
+lowest as well as the highest and most determined villanies, fully his
+equal. He seconds Brissot in the Assembly, and is at once his coadjutor
+and his rival in a newspaper, which, in his own name, and as successor
+to M. Garat, a member also of the Assembly, he has just set up in that
+empire of gazettes. Condorcet was chosen to draw the first declaration
+presented by the Assembly to the king, as a threat to the Elector of
+Treves, and the other princes on the Rhine. In that piece, in which both
+Feuillants and Jacobins concurred, they declared publicly, and most
+proudly and insolently, the principle on which they mean to proceed in
+their future disputes with any of the sovereigns of Europe; for they
+say, "that it is not with fire and sword they mean to attack their
+territories, but by what will be _more dreadful_ to them, the
+introduction of liberty."--I have not the paper by me, to give the exact
+words, but I believe they are nearly as I state them.--_Dreadful_,
+indeed, will be their hostility, if they should be able to carry it on
+according to the example of _their_ modes of introducing liberty. They
+have shown a perfect model of their whole design, very complete, though
+in little. This gang of murderers and savages have wholly laid waste and
+utterly ruined the beautiful and happy country of the Comtat Venaissin
+and the city of Avignon. This cruel and treacherous outrage the
+sovereigns of Europe, in my opinion, with a great mistake of their honor
+and interest, have permitted, even without a remonstrance, to be carried
+to the desired point, on the principles on which they are now themselves
+threatened in their own states; and this, because, according to the poor
+and narrow spirit now in fashion, their brother sovereign, whose
+subjects have been thus traitorously and inhumanly treated in violation
+of the law of Nature and of nations, has a name somewhat different from
+theirs, and, instead of being styled King, or Duke, or Landgrave, is
+usually called Pope.
+
+[Sidenote: State of the Empire.]
+
+The Electors of Treves and Mentz were frightened with the menace of a
+similar mode of war. The Assembly, however, not thinking that the
+Electors of Treves and Mentz had done enough under their first terror,
+have again brought forward Condorcet, preceded by Brissot, as I have
+just stated. The declaration, which they have ordered now to be
+circulated in all countries, is in substance the same as the first, but
+still more insolent, because more full of detail. There they have the
+impudence to state that they aim at no conquest: insinuating that all
+the old, lawful powers of the world had each made a constant, open
+profession of a design of subduing his neighbors. They add, that, if
+they are provoked, their war will be directed only against those who
+assume to be _masters_; but to the _people_ they will bring peace, law,
+liberty, &c, &c. There is not the least hint that they consider those
+whom they call persons "_assuming to be matters_" to be the lawful
+government of their country, or persons to be treated with the least
+management or respect. They regard them as usurpers and enslavers of the
+people. If I do not mistake, they are described by the name of tyrants
+in Condorcet's first draught. I am sure they are so in Brissot's speech,
+ordered by the Assembly to be printed at the same time and for the same
+purposes. The whole is in the same strain, full of false philosophy and
+false rhetoric,--both, however, calculated to captivate and influence
+the vulgar mind, and to excite sedition in the countries in which it is
+ordered to be circulated. Indeed, it is such, that, if any of the
+lawful, acknowledged sovereigns of Europe had publicly ordered such a
+manifesto to be circulated in the dominions of another, the ambassador
+of that power would instantly be ordered to quit every court without an
+audience.
+
+[Sidenote: Effect of fear on the sovereign powers.]
+
+The powers of Europe have a pretext for concealing their fears, by
+saying that this language is not used by the king; though they well know
+that there is in effect no such person,--that the Assembly is in
+reality, and by that king is acknowledged to be, _the master_,--that
+what he does is but matter of formality,--and that he can neither cause
+nor hinder, accelerate nor retard, any measure whatsoever, nor add to
+nor soften the manifesto which the Assembly has directed to be
+published, with the declared purpose of exciting mutiny and rebellion in
+the several countries governed by these powers. By the generality also
+of the menaces contained in this paper, (though infinitely aggravating
+the outrage,) they hope to remove from each power separately the idea of
+a distinct affront. The persons first pointed at by the menace are
+certainly the princes of Germany, who harbor the persecuted House of
+Bourbon and the nobility of France; the declaration, however, is
+general, and goes to every state with which they may have a cause of
+quarrel. But the terror of France has fallen upon all nations. A few
+months since all sovereigns seemed disposed to unite against her; at
+present they all seem to combine in her favor. At no period has the
+power of France ever appeared with so formidable an aspect. In
+particular the liberties of the Empire can have nothing more than an
+existence the most tottering and precarious, whilst France exists with a
+great power of fomenting rebellion, and the greatest in the
+weakest,--but with neither power nor disposition to support the smaller
+states in their independence against the attempts of the more powerful.
+
+I wind up all in a full conviction within my own breast, and the
+substance of which I must repeat over and over again, that the state of
+France is the first consideration in the politics of Europe, and of each
+state, externally as well as internally considered.
+
+Most of the topics I have used are drawn from fear and apprehension.
+Topics derived from fear or addressed to it are, I well know, of
+doubtful appearance. To be sure, hope is in general the incitement to
+action. Alarm some men,--you do not drive them to provide for their
+security; you put them to a stand; you induce them, not to take measures
+to prevent the approach of danger, but to remove so unpleasant an idea
+from their minds; you persuade them to remain as they are, from a new
+fear that their activity may bring on the apprehended mischief before
+its time. I confess freely that this evil sometimes happens from an
+overdone precaution; but it is when the measures are rash, ill-chosen,
+or ill-combined, and the effects rather of blind terror than of
+enlightened foresight. But the few to whom I wish to submit my thoughts
+are of a character which will enable them to see danger without
+astonishment, and to provide against it without perplexity.
+
+To what lengths this method of circulating mutinous manifestoes, and of
+keeping emissaries of sedition in every court under the name of
+ambassadors, to propagate the same principles and to follow the
+practices, will go, and how soon they will operate, it is hard to say;
+but go on it will, more or less rapidly, according to events, and to the
+humor of the time. The princes menaced with the revolt of their
+subjects, at the same time that they have obsequiously obeyed the
+sovereign mandate of the new Roman senate, have received with
+distinction, in a public character, ambassadors from those who in the
+same act had circulated the manifesto of sedition in their dominions.
+This was the only thing wanting to the degradation and disgrace of the
+Germanic body.
+
+The ambassadors from the rights of man, and their admission into the
+diplomatic system, I hold to be a new era in this business. It will be
+the most important step yet taken to affect the existence of sovereigns,
+and the higher classes of life: I do not mean to exclude its effects
+upon all classes; but the first blow is aimed at the more prominent
+parts in the ancient order of things.
+
+What is to be done?
+
+It would be presumption in me to do more than to make a case. Many
+things occur. But as they, like all political measures, depend on
+dispositions, tempers, means, and external circumstances, for all their
+effect, not being well assured of these, I do not know how to let loose
+any speculations of mine on the subject. The evil is stated, in my
+opinion, as it exists. The remedy must be where power, wisdom, and
+information, I hope, are more united with good intentions than they can
+be with me. I have done with this subject, I believe, forever. It has
+given me many anxious moments for the two last years. If a great change
+is to be made in human affairs, the minds of men will be fitted to it,
+the general opinions and feelings will draw that way. Every fear, every
+hope, will forward it; and then they who persist in opposing this mighty
+current in human affairs will appear rather to resist the decrees of
+Providence itself than the mere designs of men. They will not be
+resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[30] See Vattel, B. II. c. 4, sect 56, and B. III. c 18, sect. 296.
+
+[31] Originally called the Bengal Club; but since opened to persons from
+the other Presidencies, for the purpose of consolidating the whole
+Indian interest.
+
+[32] "Until now, they [the National Assembly] have prejudged nothing.
+Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a preceptor to the Dauphin,
+they did not declare _that this child was to reign_, but only that
+_possibly_ the Constitution _might_ destine him to it: they willed,
+that, while education should efface from his mind all the prejudices
+arising from _the delusions of the throne_ respecting his pretended
+birthright, it should also teach him not to forget that it is _from the
+people_ he is to receive the title of King, and that _the people do not
+even possess the right of giving up their power to take it from him_.
+
+"They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
+knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive _with submission_ the
+dangerous burden of a crown, and _to resign it with pleasure_ into the
+hands of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
+that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the duty
+and the glory of a king of a free people.
+
+"They willed that _the uselessness of a king_, the necessity of seeking
+means to establish something in lieu of _a power founded on illusions_,
+should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; _the obligation
+of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the
+desire of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious
+inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart_. They are not
+ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king
+than to teach him _that he should know how to wish no longer to be
+such_."
+
+
+
+
+HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION
+
+ON THE
+
+PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS.
+
+WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1792.
+
+
+That France by its mere geographical position, independently of every
+other circumstance, must affect every state of Europe: some of them
+immediately, all of them through mediums not very remote.
+
+That the standing policy of this kingdom ever has been to watch over the
+_external_ proceedings of France, (whatever form the _interior_
+government of that kingdom might take,) and to prevent the extension of
+its dominion or its ruling influence over other states.
+
+That there is nothing in the present _internal_ state of things in
+France which alters the national policy with regard to the exterior
+relations of that country.
+
+That there are, on the contrary, many things in the internal
+circumstances of France (and perhaps of this country, too) which tend to
+fortify the principles of that fundamental policy, and which render the
+active assertion of those principles more pressing at this than at any
+former time.
+
+That, by a change effected in about three weeks, France has been able to
+penetrate into the heart of Germany, to make an absolute conquest of
+Savoy, to menace an immediate invasion of the Netherlands, and to awe
+and overbear the whole Helvetic body, which is in a most perilous
+situation: the great aristocratic Cantons having, perhaps, as much or
+more to dread from their own people, whom they arm, but do not choose
+or dare to employ, as from the foreign enemy, which against all public
+faith has butchered their troops serving by treaty in France. To this
+picture it is hardly necessary to add the means by which Prance has been
+enabled to effect all this,--namely, the apparently entire destruction
+of one of the largest and certainly the highest disciplined and best
+appointed army ever seen, headed by the first military sovereign in
+Europe, with a captain under him of the greatest renown; and that
+without a blow given or received on any side. This state of things seems
+to me, even if it went no further, truly serious.
+
+Circumstances have enabled France to do all this by _land_. On the other
+element she has begun to exert herself; and she must succeed in her
+designs, if enemies very different from those she has hitherto had to
+encounter do not resist her.
+
+She has fitted out a naval force, now actually at sea, by which she is
+enabled to give law to the whole Mediterranean. It is known as a fact,
+(and if not so known, it is in the nature of things highly probable,)
+that she proposes the ravage of the Ecclesiastical State and the pillage
+of Rome, as her first object; that nest she means to bombard Naples,--to
+awe, to humble, and thus to command, all Italy,--to force it to a
+nominal neutrality, but to a real dependence,--to compel the Italian
+princes and republics to admit the free entrance of the French commerce,
+an open intercourse, and, the sure concomitant of that intercourse, the
+_affiliated societies_, in a manner similar to those she has established
+at Avignon, the Comtat, Chamb�ry, London, Manchester, &c, &c., which are
+so many colonies planted in all these countries, for extending the
+influence and securing the dominion of the French republic.
+
+That there never has been hitherto a period in which this kingdom would
+have suffered a French fleet to domineer in the Mediterranean, and to
+force Italy to submit to such terms as France would think fit to
+impose,--to say nothing of what has been done upon land in support of
+the same system. The great object for which we preserved Minorca, whilst
+we could keep it, and for which we still retain Gibraltar, both at a
+great expense, was, and is, to prevent the predominance of France over
+the Mediterranean.
+
+Thus far as to the certain and immediate effect of that armament upon
+the Italian States. The probable effect which that armament, and the
+other armaments preparing at Toulon and other ports, may have upon
+Spain, on the side of the Mediterranean, is worthy of the serious
+attention of the British councils.
+
+That it is most probable, we may say in a manner certain, that, if there
+should be a rupture between France and Spain, France will not confine
+her offensive piratical operations against Spain to her efforts in the
+Mediterranean; on which side, however, she may grievously affect Spain,
+especially if she excites Morocco and Algiers, which undoubtedly she
+will, to fall upon that power.
+
+That she will fit out armaments upon the ocean, by which the flota
+itself may be intercepted, and thus the treasures of all Europe, as well
+as the largest and surest resources of the Spanish monarchy, may be
+conveyed into France, and become powerful instruments for the annoyance
+of all her neighbors.
+
+That she makes no secret of her designs.
+
+That, if the inward and outward bound flota should escape, still France
+has more and better means of dissevering many of the provinces in the
+West and East Indies from the state of Spain than Holland had, when she
+succeeded in the same attempt. The French marine resembles not a little
+the old armaments of the Flibustiers, which about a century back, in
+conjunction with pirates of our nation, brought such calamities upon the
+Spanish colonies. They differ only in this,--that the present piratical
+force is out of all measure and comparison greater: one hundred and
+fifty ships of the line and frigates being ready-built, most of them in
+a manner new, and all applicable in different ways to that service.
+Privateers and Moorish corsairs possess not the best seamanship, and
+very little discipline, and indeed can make no figure in regular
+service; but in desperate adventures, and animated with a lust of
+plunder, they are truly formidable.
+
+That the land forces of France are well adapted to concur with their
+marine in conjunct expeditions of this nature. In such expeditions,
+enterprise supplies the want of discipline, and perhaps more than
+supplies it. Both for this, and for other service, (however contemptible
+their military is in other respects,) one arm is extremely good, the
+engineering and artillery branch. The old officer corps in both being
+composed for the greater part of those who were not gentlemen, or
+gentlemen newly such, few have abandoned the service, and the men are
+veterans, well enough disciplined, and very expert. In this piratical
+way they must make war with good advantage. They must do so, even on the
+side of Flanders, either offensively or defensively. This shows the
+difference between the policy of Louis the Fourteenth, who built a wall
+of brass about his kingdom, and that of Joseph the Second, who
+premeditatedly uncovered his whole frontier.
+
+That Spain, from the actual and expected prevalence of French power, is
+in a most perilous situation,--perfectly dependent on the mercy of that
+republic. If Austria is broken, or even humbled, she will not dare to
+dispute its mandates.
+
+In the present state of things, we have nothing at all to dread from the
+power of Spain by sea or by land, or from any rivalry in commerce.
+
+That we have much to dread from the connections into which Spain may be
+forced.
+
+From the circumstances of her territorial possessions, of her resources,
+and the whole of her civil and political state, we may be authorized
+safely and with undoubted confidence to affirm that
+
+_Spain is not a substantive power_.
+
+That she must lean on France or on England.
+
+That it is as much for the interest of Great Britain to prevent the
+predominancy of a French interest in that kingdom as if Spain were a
+province of the crown of Great Britain, or a state actually dependent on
+it,--full as much so as ever Portugal was reputed to be. This is a
+dependency of much greater value; and its destruction, or its being
+carried to any other dependency, of much more serious misfortune.
+
+One of these two things must happen: either Spain must submit to
+circumstances and take such conditions as France will impose, or she
+must engage in hostilities along with the Emperor and the king of
+Sardinia.
+
+If Spain should be forced or awed into a treaty with the republic of
+France, she must open her ports and her commerce, as well as the land
+communication for the French laborers, who were accustomed annually to
+gather in the harvest in Spain. Indeed, she must grant a free
+communication for travellers and traders through her whole country. In
+that case it is not conjectural, it is certain, the clubs will give law
+in the provinces; Bourgoing, or some such miscreant, will give law at
+Madrid.
+
+In this England may acquiesce, if she pleases; and France will conclude
+a triumphant peace with Spain under her absolute dependence, with a
+broad highway into that, and into every state of Europe. She actually
+invites Great Britain to divide with her the spoils of the New World,
+and to make a partition of the Spanish monarchy. Clearly, it is better
+to do so than to suffer France to possess those spoils and that
+territory alone; which, without doubt, unresisted by us, she is
+altogether as able as she is willing to do.
+
+This plan is proposed by the French in the way in which they propose all
+their plans,--and in the only way in which, indeed, they can propose
+them, where there is no regular communication between his Majesty and
+their republic.
+
+What they propose is _a plan_. It is _a plan_ also to resist their
+predatory project. To remain quiet, and to suffer them to make their own
+use of a naval power before our face, so as to awe and bully Spain into
+a submissive peace, or to drive them into a ruinous war, without any
+measure on our part, I fear is no plan at all.
+
+However, if the plan of co�peration which France desires, and which her
+affiliated societies here ardently wish and are constantly writing up,
+should not be adopted, and the war between the Emperor and France
+should continue, I think it not at all likely that Spain should not be
+drawn into the quarrel. In that case, the neutrality of England will be
+a thing absolutely impossible. The time only is the subject of
+deliberation.
+
+Then the question will be, whether we are to defer putting ourselves
+into a posture for the common defence, either by armament, or
+negotiation, or both, until Spain is actually attacked,--that is,
+whether our court will take a decided part for Spain, whilst Spain, on
+her side, is yet in a condition to act with whatever degree of vigor she
+may have, whilst that vigor is yet unexhausted,--or whether we shall
+connect ourselves with her broken fortunes, after she shall have
+received material blows, and when we shall have the whole slow length of
+that always unwieldy and ill-constructed, and then wounded and crippled
+body, to drag after us, rather than to aid us. Whilst our disposition is
+uncertain, Spain will not dare to put herself in such a state of defence
+as will make her hostility formidable or her neutrality respectable.
+
+If the decision is such as the solution of this question (I take it to
+be the true question) conducts to, no time is to be lost. But the
+measures, though prompt, ought not to be rash and indigested. They ought
+to be well chosen, well combined, and well pursued. The system must be
+general; but it must be executed, not successively, or with
+interruption, but all together, _uno flatu_, in one melting, and one
+mould.
+
+For this purpose we must put Europe before us, which plainly is, just
+now, in all its parts, in a state of dismay, derangement, and confusion,
+and, very possibly amongst all its sovereigns, full of secret
+heartburning, distrust, and mutual accusation. Perhaps it may labor
+under worse evils. There is no vigor anywhere, except the distempered
+vigor and energy of France. That country has but too much life in it,
+when everything around is so disposed to tameness and languor. The very
+vices of the French system at home tend to give force to foreign
+exertions. The generals _must_ join the armies. They must lead them to
+enterprise, or they are likely to perish by their hands. Thus, without
+law or government of her own, France gives law to all the governments in
+Europe.
+
+This great mass of political matter must have been always under the view
+of thinkers for the public, whether they act in office or not. Amongst
+events, even the late calamitous events were in the book of contingency.
+Of course they must have been in design, at least, provided for. A plan
+which takes in as many as possible of the states concerned will rather
+tend to facilitate and simplify a rational scheme for preserving Spain
+(if that were our sole, as I think it ought to be our principal object)
+than to delay and perplex it.
+
+If we should think that a provident policy (perhaps now more than
+provident, urgent and necessary) should lead us to act, we cannot take
+measures as if nothing had been done. We must see the faults, if any,
+which have conducted to the present misfortunes: not for the sake of
+criticism, military or political, or from the common motives of blaming
+persons and counsels which have not been successful, but in order, if we
+can, to administer some remedy to these disasters, by the adoption of
+plans more bottomed in principle, and built on with more discretion.
+Mistakes may be lessons.
+
+There seem, indeed, to have been several mistakes in the political
+principles on which the war was entered into, as well as in the plans
+upon which it was conducted,--some of them very fundamental, and not
+only visibly, but I may say palpably erroneous; and I think him to have
+less than the discernment of a very ordinary statesman, who could not
+foresee, from the very beginning, unpleasant consequences from those
+plans, though not the unparalleled disgraces and disasters which really
+did attend them: for they were, both principles and measures, wholly new
+and out of the common course, without anything apparently very grand in
+the conception to justify this total departure from all rule.
+
+For, in the first place, the united sovereigns very much injured their
+cause by admitting that they had nothing to do with the interior
+arrangements of France,--in contradiction to the whole tenor of the
+public law of Europe, and to the correspondent practice of all its
+states, from the time we have any history of them. In this particular,
+the two German courts seem to have as little consulted the publicists of
+Germany as their own true interests, and those of all the sovereigns of
+Germany and Europe. This admission of a false principle in the law of
+nations brought them into an apparent contradiction, when they insisted
+on the re�stablishment of the royal authority in France. But this
+confused and contradictory proceeding gave rise to a practical error of
+worse consequence. It was derived from one and the same root: namely,
+that the person of the monarch of France was everything; and the
+monarchy, and the intermediate orders of the state, by which the
+monarchy was upheld, were nothing. So that, if the united potentates had
+succeeded so far as to re�stablish the authority of that king, and that
+he should be so ill-advised as to confirm all the confiscations, and to
+recognize as a lawful body and to class himself with that rabble of
+murderers, (and there wanted not persons who would so have advised him,)
+there was nothing in the principle or in the proceeding of the united
+powers to prevent such an arrangement.
+
+An expedition to free a brother sovereign from prison was undoubtedly a
+generous and chivalrous undertaking. But the spirit and generosity would
+not have been less, if the policy had been more profound and more
+comprehensive,--that is, if it had taken in those considerations and
+those persons by whom, and, in some measure, for whom, monarchy exists.
+This would become a bottom for a system of solid and permanent policy,
+and of operations conformable to that system.
+
+The same fruitful error was the cause why nothing was done to impress
+the people of France (so far as we can at all consider the inhabitants
+of France as a people) with an idea that the government was ever to be
+really French, or indeed anything else than the nominal government of a
+monarch, a monarch absolute as over them, but whose sole support was to
+arise from foreign potentates, and who was to be kept on his throne by
+German forces,--in short, that the king of France was to be a viceroy to
+the Emperor and the king of Prussia.
+
+It was the first time that foreign powers, interfering in the concerns
+of a nation divided into parties, have thought proper to thrust wholly
+out of their councils, to postpone, to discountenance, to reject, and,
+in a manner, to disgrace, the party whom those powers came to support.
+The single person of a king cannot be a party. Woe to the king who is
+himself his party! The royal party, with the king or his representatives
+at its head, is the _royal cause_. Foreign powers have hitherto chosen
+to give to such wars as this the appearance of a civil contest, and not
+that of an hostile invasion. When the Spaniards, in the sixteenth
+century, sent aids to the chiefs of the League, they appeared as allies
+to that league, and to the imprisoned king (the Cardinal de Bourbon)
+which that league had set up. When the Germans came to the aid of the
+Protestant princes, in the same series of civil wars, they came as
+allies. When the English came to the aid of Henry the Fourth, they
+appeared as allies to that prince. So did the French always, when they
+intermeddled in the affairs of Germany: they came to aid a party there.
+When the English and Dutch intermeddled in the succession of Spain, they
+appeared as allies to the Emperor, Charles the Sixth. In short, the
+policy has been as uniform as its principles were obvious to an ordinary
+eye.
+
+According to all the old principles of law and policy, a regency ought
+to have been appointed by the French princes of the blood, nobles, and
+parliaments, and then recognized by the combined powers. Fundamental law
+and ancient usage, as well as the clear reason of the thing, have always
+ordained it during an imprisonment of the king of France: as in the case
+of John, and of Francis the First. A monarchy ought not to be left a
+moment without a representative having an interest in the succession.
+The orders of the state ought also to have been recognized in those
+amongst whom alone they existed in freedom, that is, in the emigrants.
+
+Thus, laying down a firm foundation on the recognition of the
+authorities of the kingdom of France, according to Nature and to its
+fundamental laws, and not according to the novel and inconsiderate
+principles of the usurpation which the united powers were come to
+extirpate, the king of Prussia and the Emperor, as allies of the ancient
+kingdom of France, would have proceeded with dignity, first, to free the
+monarch, if possible,--if not, to secure the monarchy as principal in
+the design; and in order to avoid all risks to that great object, (the
+object of other ages than the present, and of other countries than that
+of France,) they would of course avoid proceeding with more haste or in
+a different manner than what the nature of such an object required.
+
+Adopting this, the only rational system, the rational mode of proceeding
+upon it was to commence with an effective siege of Lisle, which the
+French generals must have seen taken before their faces, or be forced to
+fight. A plentiful country of friends, from whence to draw supplies,
+would have been behind them; a plentiful country of enemies, from whence
+to force supplies, would have been before them. Good towns were always
+within reach to deposit their hospitals and magazines. The march from
+Lisle to Paris is through a less defensible country, and the distance is
+hardly so great as from Longwy to Paris.
+
+If the _old_ politic and military ideas had governed, the advanced guard
+would have been formed of those who best knew the country and had some
+interest in it, supported by some of the best light troops and light
+artillery, whilst the grand solid body of an army disciplined to
+perfection proceeded leisurely, and in close connection with all its
+stores, provisions, and heavy cannon, to support the expedite body in
+case of misadventure, or to improve and complete its success.
+
+The direct contrary of all this was put in practice. In consequence of
+the original sin of this project, the army of the French princes was
+everywhere thrown into the rear, and no part of it brought forward to
+the last moment, the time of the commencement of the secret negotiation.
+This naturally made an ill impression on the people, and furnished an
+occasion for the rebels at Paris to give out that the faithful subjects
+of the king were distrusted, despised, and abhorred by his allies. The
+march was directed through a skirt of Lorraine, and thence into a part
+of Champagne, the Duke of Brunswick leaving all the strongest places
+behind him,--leaving also behind him the strength of his artillery,--and
+by this means giving a superiority to the French, in the only way in
+which the present France is able to oppose a German force.
+
+In consequence of the adoption of those false politics, which turned
+everything on the king's sole and single person, the whole plan of the
+war was reduced to nothing but a _coup de main_, in order to set that
+prince at liberty. If that failed, everything was to be given up.
+
+The scheme of a _coup de main_ might (under favorable circumstances) be
+very fit for a partisan at the head of a light corps, by whose failure
+nothing material would be deranged. But for a royal army of eighty
+thousand men, headed by a king in person, who was to march an hundred
+and fifty miles through an enemy's country,--surely, this was a plan
+unheard of.
+
+Although this plan was not well chosen, and proceeded upon principles
+altogether ill-judged and impolitic, the superiority of the military
+force might in a great degree have supplied the defects, and furnished a
+corrective to the mistakes. The greater probability was, that the Duke
+of Brunswick would make his way to Paris over the bellies of the rabble
+of drunkards, robbers, assassins, rioters, mutineers, and half-grown
+boys, under the ill-obeyed command of a theatrical, vaporing, reduced
+captain of cavalry, who opposed that great commander and great army.
+But--_Diis aliter visum_. He began to treat,--the winds blew and the
+rains beat,--the house fell, because it was built upon sand,--and great
+was the fall thereof. This march was not an exact copy of either of the
+two marches made by the Duke of Parma into France.
+
+There is some secret. Sickness and weather may defeat an army pursuing a
+wrong plan: not that I believe the sickness to have been so great as it
+has been reported; but there is a great deal of superfluous humiliation
+in this business, a perfect prodigality of disgrace. Some advantage,
+real or imaginary, must compensate to a great sovereign and to a great
+general for so immense a loss of reputation. Longwy, situated as it is,
+might (one should think) be evacuated without a capitulation with a
+republic just proclaimed by the king of Prussia as an usurping and
+rebellious body. He was not far from Luxembourg. He might have taken
+away the obnoxious French in his flight. It does not appear to have been
+necessary that those magistrates who declared for their own king, on the
+faith and under the immediate protection of the king of Prussia, should
+be delivered over to the gallows. It was not necessary that the
+emigrant nobility and gentry who served with the king of Prussia's army,
+under his immediate command, should be excluded from the cartel, and
+given up to be hanged as rebels. Never was so gross and so cruel a
+breach of the public faith, not with an enemy, but with a friend.
+Dumouriez has dropped very singular hints. Custine has spoken out more
+broadly. These accounts have never been contradicted. They tend to make
+an eternal rupture between the powers. The French have given out, that
+the Duke of Brunswick endeavored to negotiate some name and place for
+the captive king, amongst the murderers and proscribers of those who
+have lost their all for his cause. Even this has not been denied.
+
+It is singular, and, indeed, a thing, under all its circumstances,
+inconceivable, that everything should by the Emperor be abandoned to the
+king of Prussia. That monarch was considered as principal. In the nature
+of things, as well as in his position with regard to the war, he was
+only an ally, and a new ally, with crossing interests in many
+particulars, and of a policy rather uncertain. At best, and supposing
+him to act with the greatest fidelity, the Emperor and the Empire to him
+must be but secondary objects. Countries out of Germany must affect him
+in a still more remote manner. France, other than from the fear of its
+doctrinal principles, can to him be no object at all. Accordingly, the
+Rhine, Sardinia, and the Swiss are left to their fate. The king of
+Prussia has no _direct_ and immediate concern with France;
+_consequentially_, to be sure, a great deal: but the Emperor touches
+France _directly_ in many parts; he is a near neighbor to Sardinia, by
+his Milanese territories; he borders on Switzerland; Cologne, possessed
+by his uncle, is between Mentz, Treves, and the king of Prussia's
+territories on the Lower Rhine. The Emperor is the natural guardian of
+Italy and Germany,--the natural balance against the ambition of France,
+whether republican or monarchical. His ministers and his generals,
+therefore, ought to have had their full share in every material
+consultation,--which I suspect they had not. If he has no minister
+capable of plans of policy which comprehend the superintendency of a
+war, or no general with the least of a political head, things have been
+as they must be. However, in all the parts of this strange proceeding
+there must be a secret.
+
+It is probably known to ministers. I do not mean to penetrate into it.
+My speculations on this head must be only conjectural. If the king of
+Prussia, under the pretext or on the reality of some information
+relative to ill practice on the part of the court of Vienna, takes
+advantage of his being admitted into the heart of the Emperor's
+dominions in the character of an ally, afterwards to join the common
+enemy, and to enable France to seize the Netherlands, and to reduce and
+humble the Empire, I cannot conceive, upon every principle, anything
+more alarming for this country, separately, and as a part of the general
+system. After all, we may be looking in vain in the regions of politics
+for what is only the operation of temper and character upon accidental
+circumstances. But I never knew accidents to decide the _whole_ of any
+great business; and I never knew temper to act, but that some system of
+politics agreeable to its peculiar spirit was blended with it,
+strengthened it, and got strength from it. Therefore the politics can
+hardly be put out of the question.
+
+Great mistakes have been committed: at least I hope so. If there have
+been none, the case in future is desperate. I have endeavored to point
+out some of those which have occurred to me, and most of them very
+early.
+
+Whatever may be the cause of the present state of things, on a full and
+mature view and comparison of the historical matter, of the transactions
+that have passed before our eyes, and of the future prospect, I think I
+am authorized to form an opinion without the least hesitation.
+
+That there never was, nor is, nor ever will be, nor ever can be, the
+least rational hope of making an impression on France by any Continental
+powers, if England is not a part, is not the directing part, is not the
+soul, of the whole confederacy against it.
+
+This, so far as it is an anticipation of future, is grounded on the
+whole tenor of former history. In speculation it is to be accounted for
+on two plain principles.
+
+First, That Great Britain is likely to take a more fair and equal part
+in the alliance than the other powers, as having less of crossing
+interest or perplexed discussion with any of them.
+
+Secondly, Because France cannot have to deal with any of these
+Continental sovereigns, without their feeling that nation, as a maritime
+power, greatly superior to them all put together,--a force which is only
+to be kept in check by England.
+
+England, except during the eccentric aberration of Charles the Second,
+has always considered it as her duty and interest to take her place in
+such a confederacy. Her chief disputes must ever be with France; and if
+England shows herself indifferent and unconcerned, when these powers are
+combined against the enterprises of France, she is to look with
+certainty for the same indifference on the part of these powers, when
+she may be at war with that nation. This will tend totally to disconnect
+this kingdom from the system of Europe, in which if she ought not rashly
+to meddle, she ought never wholly to withdraw herself from it.
+
+If, then, England is put in motion, whether by a consideration of the
+general safety, or of the influence of France upon Spain, or by the
+probable operations of this new system on the Netherlands, it must
+embrace in its project the whole as much as possible, and the part it
+takes ought to be as much as possible a leading and presiding part.
+
+I therefore beg leave to suggest,--
+
+First, That a minister should forthwith be sent to Spain, to encourage
+that court to persevere in the measures they have adopted against
+France,--to make a close alliance and guaranty of possessions, as
+against France, with that power,--and, whilst the formality of the
+treaty is pending, to assure them of our protection, postponing any
+lesser disputes to another occasion.
+
+Secondly, To assure the court of Vienna of our desire to enter into our
+ancient connections with her, and to support her effectually in the war
+which France has declared against her.
+
+Thirdly, To animate the Swiss and the king of Sardinia to take a part,
+as the latter once did on the principles of the Grand Alliance.
+
+Fourthly, To put an end to our disputes with Russia, and mutually to
+forget the past. I believe, if she is satisfied of this oblivion, she
+will return to her old sentiments with regard to this court, and will
+take a more forward part in this business than any other power.
+
+Fifthly, If what has happened to the king of Prussia is only in
+consequence of a sort of panic or of levity, and an indisposition to
+persevere long in one design, the support and concurrence of Russia will
+tend to steady him, and to give him resolution. If he be ill-disposed,
+with that power on his back, and without one ally in Europe, I conceive
+he will not be easily led to derange the plan.
+
+Sixthly, To use the joint influence of our court, and of our then allied
+powers, with Holland, to arm as fully as she can by sea, and to make
+some addition by land.
+
+Seventhly, To acknowledge the king of France's next brother (assisted by
+such a council and such representatives of the kingdom of France as
+shall be thought proper) regent of France, and to send that prince a
+small supply of money, arms, clothing, and artillery.
+
+Eighthly, To give force to these negotiations, an instant naval armament
+ought to be adopted,--one squadron for the Mediterranean, another for
+the Channel. The season is convenient,--most of our trade being, as I
+take it, at home.
+
+After speaking of a plan formed upon the ancient policy and practice of
+Great Britain and of Europe, to which this is exactly conformable in
+every respect, with no deviation whatsoever, and which is, I conceive,
+much more strongly called for by the present circumstances than by any
+former, I must take notice of another, which I hear, but cannot persuade
+myself to believe, is in agitation. This plan is grounded upon the very
+same view of things which is here stated,--namely, the danger to all
+sovereigns, and old republics, from the prevalence of French power and
+influence.
+
+It is, to form a congress of all the European powers for the purpose of
+a general defensive alliance, the objects of which should be,--
+
+First, The recognition of this new republic, (which they well know is
+formed on the principles and for the declared purpose of the destruction
+of all kings,) and, whenever the heads of this new republic shall
+consent to release the royal captives, to make peace with them.
+
+Secondly, To defend themselves with their joint forces against the open
+aggressions, or the secret practices, intrigues, and writings, which are
+used to propagate the French principles.
+
+It is easy to discover from whose shop this commodity comes. It is so
+perfectly absurd, that, if that or anything like it meets with a serious
+entertainment in any cabinet, I should think it the effect of what is
+called a judicial blindness, the certain forerunner of the destruction
+of all crowns and kingdoms.
+
+An _offensive_ alliance, in which union is preserved by common efforts
+in common dangers against a common active enemy, may preserve its
+consistency, and may produce for a given time some considerable effect:
+though this is not easy, and for any very long period can hardly be
+expected. But a _defensive_ alliance, formed of long discordant
+interests, with innumerable discussions existing, having no one pointed
+object to which it is directed, which is to be held together with an
+unremitted vigilance, as watchful in peace as in war, is so evidently
+impossible, is such a chimera, is so contrary to human nature and the
+course of human affairs, that I am persuaded no person in his senses,
+except those whose country, religion, and sovereign are deposited in the
+French funds, could dream of it. There is not the slightest petty
+boundary suit, no difference between a family arrangement, no sort of
+misunderstanding or cross purpose between the pride and etiquette of
+courts, that would not entirely disjoint this sort of alliance, and
+render it as futile in its effects as it is feeble in its principle. But
+when we consider that the main drift of that defensive alliance must be
+to prevent the operation of intrigue, mischievous doctrine, and evil
+example, in the success of unprovoked rebellion, regicide, and
+systematic assassination and massacre, the absurdity of such a scheme
+becomes quite lamentable. Open the communication with France, and the
+rest follows of course.
+
+How far the interior circumstances of this country support what is said
+with regard to its foreign polities must be left to bettor judgments. I
+am sure the French faction here is infinitely strengthened by the
+success of the assassins on the other side of the water. This evil in
+the heart of Europe must be extirpated from that centre, or no part of
+the circumference can be free from the mischief which radiates from it,
+and which will spread, circle beyond circle, in spite of all the little
+defensive precautions which can be employed against it.
+
+I do not put my name to these hints submitted to the consideration of
+reflecting men. It is of too little importance to suppose the name of
+the writer could add any weight to the state of things contained in this
+paper. That state of things presses irresistibly on my judgment, and it
+lies, and has long lain, with a heavy weight upon my mind. I cannot
+think that what is done in France is beneficial to the human race. If it
+were, the English Constitution ought no more to stand against it than
+the ancient Constitution of the kingdom in which the new system
+prevails. I thought it the duty of a man not unconcerned for the public,
+and who is a faithful subject to the king, respectfully to submit this
+state of facts, at this new step in the progress of the French arms and
+politics, to his Majesty, to his confidential servants, and to those
+persons who, though not in office, by their birth, their rank, their
+fortune, their character, and their reputation for wisdom, seem to me to
+have a large stake in the stability of the ancient order of things.
+
+BATH, November 5, 1792.
+
+
+
+
+REMARKS
+
+ON
+
+THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES
+
+WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE.
+
+BEGUN IN OCTOBER, 1793.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES.
+
+
+As the proposed manifesto is, I understand, to promulgate to the world
+the general idea of a plan for the regulation of a great kingdom, and
+through the regulation of that kingdom probably to decide the fate of
+Europe forever, nothing requires a more serious deliberation with regard
+to the time of making it, the circumstances of those to whom it is
+addressed, and the matter it is to contain.
+
+As to the time, (with the due diffidence in my own opinion,) I have some
+doubts whether it is not rather unfavorable to the issuing any manifesto
+with regard to the intended government of France, and for this reason:
+that it is (upon the principal point of our attack) a time of calamity
+and defeat. Manifestoes of this nature are commonly made when the army
+of some sovereign enters into the enemy's country in great force, and
+under the imposing authority of that force employs menaces towards those
+whom he desires to awe, and makes promises to those whom he wishes to
+engage in his favor.
+
+As to a party, what has been done at Toulon leaves no doubt that the
+party for which we declare must be that which substantially declares for
+royalty as the basis of the government.
+
+As to menaces, nothing, in my opinion, can contribute more effectually
+to lower any sovereign in the public estimation, and to turn his
+defeats into disgraces, than to threaten in a moment of impotence. The
+second manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick appeared, therefore, to the
+world to be extremely ill-timed. However, if his menaces in that
+manifesto had been seasonable, they were not without an object. Great
+crimes then apprehended, and great evils then impending, were to be
+prevented. At this time, every act which early menaces might possibly
+have _prevented_ is done. Punishment and vengeance alone remain,--and
+God forbid that they should ever be forgotten! But the punishment of
+enormous offenders will not be the less severe, or the less exemplary,
+when it is not threatened at a moment when we have it not in our power
+to execute our threats. On the other side, to pass by proceedings of
+such a nefarious nature, in all kinds, as have been carried on in
+France, without any signification of resentment, would be in effect to
+ratify them, and thus to become accessaries after the fact in all those
+enormities which it is impossible to repeat or think of without horror.
+An absolute silence appears to me to be at this time the only safe
+course.
+
+The second usual matter of manifestoes is composed of _promises_ to
+those who cooperate with our designs. These promises depend in a great
+measure, if not wholly, on the apparent power of the person who makes
+them to fulfil his engagements. A time of disaster on the part of the
+promiser seems not to add much to the dignity of his person or to the
+effect of his offers. One would hardly wish to seduce any unhappy
+persons to give the last provocation to a merciless tyranny, without
+very effectual means of protecting them.
+
+The time, therefore, seems (as I said) not favorable to a general
+manifesto, on account of the unpleasant situation of our affairs.
+However, I write in a changing scene, when a measure very imprudent
+to-day may be very proper to-morrow. Some great victory may alter the
+whole state of the question, so far as it regards our _power_ of
+fulfilling any engagement we may think fit to make.
+
+But there is another consideration of far greater importance for all the
+purposes of this manifesto. The public, and the parties concerned, will
+look somewhat to the disposition of the promiser indicated by his
+conduct, as well as to his power of fulfilling his engagements.
+
+Speaking of this nation as part of a general combination of powers, are
+we quite sure that others can believe us to be sincere, or that we can
+be even fully assured of our own sincerity, in the protection of those
+who shall risk their lives for the restoration of monarchy in France,
+when the world sees that those who are the natural, legal,
+constitutional representatives of that monarchy, if it has any, have not
+had their names so much as mentioned in any one public act, that in no
+way whatever are their persons brought forward, that their rights have
+not been expressly or implicitly allowed, and that they have not been in
+the least consulted on the important interests they have at stake? On
+the contrary, they are kept in a state of obscurity and contempt, and in
+a degree of indigence at times bordering on beggary. They are, in fact,
+little less prisoners in the village of Hanau than the royal captives
+who are locked up in the tower of the Temple. What is this, according to
+the common indications which guide the judgment of mankind, but, under
+the pretext of protecting the crown of France, in reality to usurp it?
+
+I am also very apprehensive that there are other circumstances which
+must tend to weaken the force of our declarations. No partiality to the
+allied powers can prevent great doubts on the fairness of our intentions
+as supporters of the crown of France, or of the true principles of
+legitimate government in opposition to Jacobinism, when it is visible
+that the two leading orders of the state of France, who are now the
+victims, and who must always be the true and sole supports of monarchy
+in that country, are, at best, in some of their descriptions, considered
+only as objects of charity, and others are, when employed, employed only
+as mercenary soldiers,--that they are thrown back out of all reputable
+service, are in a manner disowned, considered as nothing in their own
+cause, and never once consulted in the concerns of their king, their
+country, their laws, their religion, and their property. We even affect
+to be ashamed of them. In all our proceedings we carefully avoid the
+appearance of being of a party with them. In all our ideas of treaty we
+do not regard them as what they are, the two leading orders of the
+kingdom. If we do not consider them in that light, we must recognize the
+savages by whom they have been ruined, and who have declared war upon
+Europe, whilst they disgrace and persecute human nature, and openly defy
+the God that made them, as real proprietors of France.
+
+I am much afraid, too, that we shall scarcely be believed fair
+supporters of lawful monarchy against Jacobinism, so long as we continue
+to make and to observe cartels with the Jacobins, and on fair terms
+exchange prisoners with them, whilst the Royalists, invited to our
+standard, and employed under our public faith against the Jacobins, if
+taken by that savage faction, are given up to the executioner without
+the least attempt whatsoever at reprisal. For this we are to look at the
+king of Prussia's conduct, compared with his manifestoes about a
+twelvemonth ago. For this we are to look at the capitulations of Mentz
+and Valenciennes, made in the course of the present campaign. By those
+two capitulations the Christian Royalists were excluded from any
+participation in the cause of the combined powers. They were considered
+as the outlaws of Europe. Two armies were in effect sent against them.
+One of those armies (that which surrendered Mentz) was very near
+overpowering the Christians of Poitou, and the other (that which
+surrendered at Valenciennes) has actually crushed the people whom
+oppression and despair had driven to resistance at Lyons, has massacred
+several thousands of them in cold blood, pillaged the whole substance of
+the place, and pursued their rage to the very houses, condemning that
+noble city to desolation, in the unheard-of manner we have seen it
+devoted.
+
+It is, then, plain, by a conduct which overturns a thousand
+declarations, that we take the Royalists of France only as an instrument
+of some convenience in a temporary hostility with the Jacobins, but that
+we regard those atheistic and murderous barbarians as the _bon� fide_
+possessors of the soil of France. It appears, at least, that we consider
+them as a fair government _de facto_, if not _de jure_, a resistance to
+which, in favor of the king of Prance, by any man who happened to be
+born within that country, might equitably be considered by other
+nations as the crime of treason.
+
+For my part, I would sooner put my hand into the fire than sign an
+invitation to oppressed men to fight under my standard, and then, on
+every sinister event of war, cruelly give them up to be punished as the
+basest of traitors, as long as I had one of the common enemy in my hands
+to be put to death in order to secure those under my protection, and to
+vindicate the common honor of sovereigns. We hear nothing of this kind
+of security in favor of those whom we invite to the support of our
+cause. Without it, I am not a little apprehensive that the proclamations
+of the combined powers might (contrary to their intention, no doubt) be
+looked upon as frauds, and cruel traps laid for their lives.
+
+So far as to the correspondence between our declarations and our
+conduct: let the declaration be worded as it will, the conduct is the
+practical comment by which, and which alone, it can be understood. This
+conduct, acting on the declaration, leaves a monarchy without a monarch,
+and without any representative or trustee for the monarch and the
+monarchy. It supposes a kingdom without states and orders, a territory
+without proprietors, and faithful subjects who are to be left to the
+fate of rebels and traitors.
+
+The affair of the establishment of a government is a very difficult
+undertaking for foreign powers to act in as _principals_; though as
+_auxiliaries and mediators_ it has been not at all unusual, and may be a
+measure full of policy and humanity and true dignity.
+
+The first thing we ought to do, supposing us not giving the law as
+conquerors, but acting as friendly powers applied to for counsel and
+assistance in the settlement of a distracted country, is well to
+consider the composition, nature, and temper of its objects, and
+particularly of those who actually do or who ought to exercise power in
+that state. It is material to know who they are, and how constituted,
+whom we consider as _the people of France_.
+
+The next consideration is, through whom our arrangements are to be made,
+and on what principles the government we propose is to be established.
+
+The first question on the people is this: Whether we are to consider the
+individuals _now actually in France, numerically taken and arranged into
+Jacobin clubs_, as the body politic, constituting the nation of
+France,--or whether we consider the original individual proprietors of
+lands, expelled since the Revolution, and the states and the bodies
+politic, such as the colleges of justice called Parliaments, the
+corporations, noble and not noble, of bailliages and towns and cities,
+the bishops and the clergy, as the true constituent parts of the nation,
+and forming the legally organized parts of the people of France.
+
+In this serious concern it is very necessary that we should have the
+most distinct ideas annexed to the terms we employ; because it is
+evident that an abuse of the term _people_ has been the original,
+fundamental cause of those evils, the cure of which, by war and policy,
+is the present object of all the states of Europe.
+
+If we consider the acting power in Prance, in any legal construction of
+public law, as the people, the question is decided in favor of the
+republic one and indivisible. But we have decided for monarchy. If so,
+we have a king and subjects; and that king and subjects have rights and
+privileges which ought to be supported at home: for I do not suppose
+that the government of that kingdom can or ought to be regulated by the
+arbitrary mandate of a foreign confederacy.
+
+As to the faction exercising power, to suppose that monarchy can be
+supported by principled regicides, religion by professed atheists, order
+by clubs of Jacobins, property by committees of proscription, and
+jurisprudence by revolutionary tribunals, is to be sanguine in a degree
+of which I am incapable. On them I decide, for myself, that these
+persons are not the legal corporation of France, and that it is not with
+them we can (if we would) settle the government of France.
+
+Since, then, we have decided for monarchy in that kingdom, we ought also
+to settle who is to be the monarch, who is to be the guardian of a
+minor, and how the monarch and monarchy is to be modified and supported;
+if the monarch is to be elected, who the electors are to be,--if
+hereditary, what order is established, corresponding with an hereditary
+monarchy, and fitted to maintain it; who are to modify it in its
+exercise; who are to restrain its powers, where they ought to be
+limited, to strengthen them, where they are to be supported, or, to
+enlarge them, where the object, the time, and the circumstances may
+demand their extension. These are things which, in the outline, ought to
+be made distinct and clear; for if they are not, (especially with regard
+to those great points, who are the proprietors of the soil, and what is
+the corporation of the kingdom,) there is nothing to hinder the complete
+establishment of a Jacobin republic, (such as that formed in 1790 and
+1791,) under the name of a _D�mocratie Royale_. Jacobinism does not
+consist in the having or not having a certain pageant under the name of
+a king, but "in taking the people as equal individuals, without any
+corporate name or description, without attention to property, without
+division of powers, and forming the government of delegates from a
+number of men so constituted,--in destroying or confiscating property,
+and bribing the public creditors, or the poor, with the spoils, now of
+one part of the community, now of another, without regard to
+prescription or possession."
+
+I hope no one can be so very blind as to imagine that monarchy can be
+acknowledged and supported in France upon any other basis than that of
+its property, _corporate and individual_,--or that it can enjoy a
+moment's permanence or security upon any scheme of things which sets
+aside all the ancient corporate capacities and distinctions of the
+kingdom, and subverts the whole fabric of its ancient laws and usages,
+political, civil, and religious, to introduce a system founded on the
+supposed _rights of man, and the absolute equality of the human race_.
+Unless, therefore, we declare clearly and distinctly in favor of the
+_restoration_ of property, and confide to the hereditary property of the
+kingdom the limitation and qualifications of its hereditary monarchy,
+the blood and treasure of Europe is wasted for the establishment of
+Jacobinism in France. There is no doubt that Danton and Robespierre,
+Chaumette and Bar�re, that Condorcet, that Thomas Paine, that La
+Fayette, and the ex-Bishop of Autun, the _Abb� Gr�goire_, with all the
+gang of the Siey�ses, the Henriots, and the Santerres, if they could
+secure themselves in the fruits of their rebellion and robbery, would
+be perfectly indifferent, whether the most unhappy of all infants, whom
+by the lessons of the shoemaker, his governor and guardian, they are
+training up studiously and methodically to be an idiot, or, what is
+worse, the most wicked and base of mankind, continues to receive his
+civic education in the Temple or the Tuileries, whilst they, and such as
+they, really govern the kingdom.
+
+It cannot be too often and too strongly inculcated, that monarchy and
+property must, in France, go together, or neither can exist. To think of
+the possibility of the existence of a permanent and hereditary royalty,
+_where nothing else is hereditary or permanent in point either of
+personal or corporate dignity_, is a ruinous chimera, worthy of the Abb�
+Siey�s, and those wicked fools, his associates, who usurped power by the
+murders of the 19th of July and the 6th of October, 1789, and who
+brought forth the monster which they called _D�mocratie Royale_, or the
+Constitution.
+
+I believe that most thinking men would prefer infinitely some sober and
+sensible form of a republic, in which there was no mention at all of a
+king, but which held out some reasonable security to property, life, and
+personal freedom, to a scheme of tilings like this _D�mocratie Royale,_
+founded on impiety, immorality, fraudulent currencies, the confiscation
+of innocent individuals, and the pretended rights of man,--and which, in
+effect, excluding the whole body of the nobility, clergy, and landed
+property of a great nation, threw everything into the hands of a
+desperate set of obscure adventurers, who led to every mischief a blind
+and bloody band of _sans-culottes._ At the head, or rather at the tail,
+of this system was a miserable pageant, as its ostensible instrument,
+who was to be treated with every species of indignity, till the moment
+when he was conveyed from the palace of contempt to the dungeon of
+horror, and thence led by a brewer of his capital, through the applauses
+of an hired, frantic, drunken multitude, to lose his head upon a
+scaffold.
+
+This is the Constitution, or _D�mocratie Royale_; and this is what
+infallibly would be again set up in France, to run exactly the same
+round, if the predominant power should so far be forced to submit as to
+receive the name of a king, leaving it to the Jacobins (that is, to
+those who have subverted royalty and destroyed property) to modify the
+one and to distribute the other as spoil. By the Jacobins I mean
+indiscriminately the Brissotins and the Maratists, knowing no sort of
+difference between them. As to any other party, none exists in that
+unhappy country. The Royalists (those in Poitou excepted) are banished
+and extinguished; and as to what they call the Constitutionalists, or
+_Democrates Royaux_, they never had an existence of the smallest degree
+of power, consideration, or authority, nor, if they differ at all from
+the rest of the atheistic banditti, (which from their actions and
+principles I have no reason to think,) were they ever any other than the
+temporary tools and instruments of the more determined, able, and
+systematic regicides. Several attempts have been made to support this
+chimerical _D�mocratie Royale_: the first was by La Fayette, the last by
+Dumouriez: they tended only to show that this absurd project had no
+party to support it. The Girondists under Wimpfen, and at Bordeaux, have
+made some struggle. The Constitutionalists never could make any, and
+for a very plain reason: they were _leaders in rebellion_. All their
+principles and their whole scheme of government being republican, they
+could never excite the smallest degree of enthusiasm in favor of the
+unhappy monarch, whom they had rendered contemptible, to make him the
+executive officer in their new commonwealth. They only appeared as
+traitors to their own Jacobin cause, not as faithful adherents to the
+king.
+
+In an address to France, in an attempt to treat with it, or in
+considering any scheme at all relative to it, it is impossible we should
+mean the geographical, we must always mean the moral and political
+country. I believe we shall be in a great error, if we act upon an idea
+that there exists in that country any organized body of men who might be
+willing to treat on equitable terms for the restoration of their
+monarchy, but who are nice in balancing those terms, and who would
+accept such as to them appeared reasonable, but who would quietly submit
+to the predominant power, if they were not gratified in the fashion of
+some constitution which suited with their fancies.
+
+[Sidenote: No individual influence, civil or military.]
+
+I take the state of France to be totally different. I know of no such
+body, and of no such party. So far from a combination of twenty men,
+(always excepting Poitou,) I never yet heard that _a single man_ could
+be named of sufficient force or influence to answer for another man,
+much less for the smallest district in the country, or for the most
+incomplete company of soldiers in the army. We see every man that the
+Jacobins choose to apprehend taken up in his village or in his house,
+and conveyed to prison without the least shadow of resistance,--_and
+this indifferently_, whether he is suspected of Royalism, or Federalism,
+Moderantism, Democracy Royal, or any other of the names of faction which
+they start by the hour. What is much more astonishing, (and, if we did
+not carefully attend to the genius and circumstances of this Revolution,
+must indeed appear incredible,) all their most accredited military men,
+from a generalissimo to a corporal, may be arrested, (each in the midst
+of his camp, and covered with the laurels of accumulated victories,)
+tied neck and heels, thrown into a cart, and sent to Paris to be
+disposed of at the pleasure of the Revolutionary tribunals.
+
+[Sidenote: No corporations of justice, commerce, or police.]
+
+As no individuals have power and influence, so there are no
+corporations, whether of lawyers or burghers, existing. The Assembly
+called Constituent, destroyed all such institutions very early. The
+primary and secondary assemblies, by their original constitution, were
+to be dissolved when they answered the purpose of electing the
+magistrates, and were expressly disqualified from performing any
+corporate act whatsoever. The transient magistrates have been almost all
+removed before the expiration of their terms, and new have been lately
+imposed upon the people without the form or ceremony of an election.
+These magistrates during their existence are put under, as all the
+executive authorities are from first to last, the popular societies
+(called Jacobin clubs) of the several countries, and this by an express
+order of the National Convention: it is even made a case of death to
+oppose or attack those clubs. They, too, have been lately subjected to
+an expurgatory scrutiny, to drive out from them everything savoring of
+what they call the crime of _moderantism_, of which offence, however,
+few were guilty. But as people began to take refuge from their
+persecutions amongst themselves, they have driven them from that last
+asylum.
+
+The state of France is perfectly simple. It consists of but two
+descriptions,--the oppressors and the oppressed.
+
+The first has the whole authority of the state in their hands,--all the
+arms, all the revenues of the public, all the confiscations of
+individuals and corporations. They have taken the lower sort from their
+occupations and have put them into pay, that they may form them into a
+body of janizaries to overrule and awe property. The heads of these
+wretches they never suffer to cool. They supply them with a food for
+fury varied by the day,--besides the sensual state of intoxication, from
+which they are rarely free. They have made the priests and people
+formally abjure the Divinity; they have estranged them from every civil,
+moral, and social, or even natural and instinctive sentiment, habit, and
+practice, and have rendered them systematically savages, to make it
+impossible for them to be the instruments of any sober and virtuous
+arrangement, or to be reconciled to any state of order, under any name
+whatsoever.
+
+The other description--_the oppressed_--are people of some property:
+they are the small relics of the persecuted landed interest; they are
+the burghers and the farmers. By the very circumstance of their being of
+some property, though numerous in some points of view, they cannot be
+very considerable as _a number_. In cities the nature of their
+occupations renders them domestic and feeble; in the country it
+confines them to their farm for subsistence. The national guards are all
+changed and reformed. Everything suspicious in the description of which
+they were composed is rigorously disarmed. Committees, called of
+vigilance and safety, are everywhere formed: a most severe and
+scrutinizing inquisition, far more rigid than anything ever known or
+imagined. Two persons cannot meet and confer without hazard to their
+liberty, and even to their lives. Numbers scarcely credible have been
+executed, and their property confiscated. At Paris, and in most other
+towns, the bread they buy is a daily dole,--which they cannot obtain
+without a daily ticket delivered to them by their masters. Multitudes of
+all ages and sexes are actually imprisoned. I have reason to believe
+that in France there are not, for various state crimes, so few as twenty
+thousand[33] actually in jail,--a large proportion of people of property
+in any state. If a father of a family should show any disposition to
+resist or to withdraw himself from their power, his wife and children
+are cruelly to answer for it. It is by means of these hostages that they
+keep the troops, which they force by masses (as they call it) into the
+field, true to their colors.
+
+Another of their resources is not to be forgotten. They have lately
+found a way of giving a sort of ubiquity to the supreme sovereign
+authority, which no monarch has been able yet to give to any
+representation of his.
+
+The commissioners of the National Convention, who are the members of the
+Convention itself, and really exercise all its powers, make continual
+circuits through every province, and visits to every army. There they
+supersede all the ordinary authorities, civil and military, and change
+and alter everything at their pleasure. So that, in effect, no
+deliberative capacity exists in any portion of the inhabitants.
+
+Toulon, republican in principle, having taken its decision _in a moment
+under the guillotine_, and before the arrival of these
+commissioners,--Toulon, being a place regularly fortified, and having in
+its bosom a navy in part highly discontented, has escaped, though by a
+sort of miracle: and it would not have escaped, if two powerful fleets
+had not been at the door, to give them not only strong, but prompt and
+immediate succor, especially as neither this nor any other seaport town
+in France can be depended on, from the peculiarly savage dispositions,
+manners, and connections among the lower sort of people in those places.
+This I take to be the true state of things in France, _so far as it
+regards any existing bodies, whether of legal or voluntary association,
+capable of acting or of treating in corps_.
+
+As to the oppressed _individuals_, they are many, and as discontented as
+men must be under the monstrous and complicated tyranny of all sorts
+with which they are crushed. They want no stimulus to throw off this
+dreadful yoke; but they do want, not manifestoes, which they have had
+even to surfeit, but real protection, force, and succor.
+
+The disputes and questions of men at their ease do not at all affect
+their minds, or ever can occupy the minds of men in their situation.
+These theories are long since gone by; they have had their day, and have
+done their mischief. The question is not between the rabble of systems,
+Fayettism, Condorcetism, Monarchism, or Democratism, or Federalism, on
+the one side, and the fundamental laws of France on the other,--or
+between all these systems amongst themselves. It is a controversy (weak,
+indeed, and unequal, on the one part) between the proprietor and the
+robber, between the prisoner and the jailer, between the neck and the
+guillotine. Four fifths of the French inhabitants would thankfully take
+protection from the emperor of Morocco, and would never trouble their
+heads about the abstract principles of the power by which they were
+snatched from imprisonment, robbery, and murder. But then these men can
+do little or nothing for themselves. They have no arms, nor magazines,
+nor chiefs, nor union, nor the possibility of these things within
+themselves. On the whole, therefore, I lay it down as a certainty, that
+in the Jacobins no change of mind is to be expected, and that no others
+in the territory of France have an independent and deliberative
+existence.
+
+The truth is, that France is out of itself,--the moral France is
+separated from the geographical. The master of the house is expelled,
+and the robbers are in possession. If we look for the _corporate people_
+of France, existing as corporate in the eye and intention of public law,
+(that corporate people, I mean, who are free to deliberate and to
+decide, and who have a capacity to treat and conclude,) they are in
+Flanders, and Germany, in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and England. There
+are all the princes of the blood, there are all the orders of the state,
+there are all the parliaments of the kingdom.
+
+This being, as I conceive, the true state of France, as it exists
+_territorially_, and as it exists _morally_, the question will be, with
+whom we are to concert our arrangements, and whom we are to use as our
+instruments in the reduction, in the pacification, and in the settlement
+of France. The work to be done must indicate the workmen. Supposing us
+to have national objects, we have two principal and one secondary. The
+first two are so intimately connected as not to be separated even in
+thought: the re�stablishment of royalty, and the re�stablishment of
+property. One would think it requires not a great deal of argument to
+prove that the most serious endeavors to restore royalty will be made by
+Royalists. Property will be most energetically restored by the ancient
+proprietors of that kingdom.
+
+When I speak of Royalists, I wish to be understood of those who were
+always such from principle. Every arm lifted up for royalty from the
+beginning was the arm of a man so principled. I do not think there are
+ten exceptions.
+
+The principled Royalists are certainly not of force to effect these
+objects by themselves. If they were, the operations of the present great
+combination would be wholly unnecessary. What I contend for is, that
+they should be consulted with, treated with, and employed; and that no
+foreigners whatsoever are either in interest so engaged, or in judgment
+and local knowledge so competent to answer all these purposes, as the
+natural proprietors of the country.
+
+Their number, for an exiled party, is also considerable. Almost the
+whole body of the landed proprietors of France, ecclesiastical and
+civil, have been steadily devoted to the monarchy. This body does not
+amount to less than seventy thousand,--a very great number in the
+composition of the respectable classes in any society. I am sure, that,
+if half that number of the same description were taken out of this
+country, it would leave hardly anything that I should call the people of
+England. On the faith of the Emperor and the king of Prussia, a body of
+ten thousand nobility on horseback, with the king's two brothers at
+their head, served with the king of Prussia in the campaign of 1792, and
+equipped themselves with the last shilling of their ruined fortunes and
+exhausted credit.[34] It is not now the question, how that great force
+came to be rendered useless and totally dissipated. I state it now, only
+to remark that a great part of the same force exists, and would act, if
+it were enabled. I am sure everything has shown us that in this war with
+France one Frenchman is worth twenty foreigners. La Vend�e is a proof of
+this.
+
+If we wish to make an impression on the minds of any persons in France,
+or to persuade them to join our standard, it is impossible that they
+should not be more easily led, and more readily formed and disciplined,
+(civilly and martially disciplined,) by those who speak their language,
+who are acquainted with their manners, who are conversant with their
+usages and habits of thinking, and who have a local knowledge of their
+country, and some remains of ancient credit and consideration, than with
+a body congregated from all tongues and tribes. Where none of the
+respectable native interests are seen in the transaction, it is
+impossible that any declarations can convince those that are within, or
+those that are without, that anything else than some sort of hostility
+in the style of a conqueror is meant. At best, it will appear to such
+wavering persons, (if such there are,) whom we mean to fix with us, a
+choice whether they are to continue a prey to domestic banditti, or to
+be fought for as a carrion carcass and picked to the bone by all the
+crows and vultures of the sky. They may take protection, (and they
+would, I doubt not,) but they can have neither alacrity nor zeal in such
+a cause. When they see nothing but bands of English, Spaniards,
+Neapolitans, Sardinians, Prussians, Austrians, Hungarians, Bohemians,
+Slavonians, Croatians, _acting as principals_, it is impossible they
+should think we come with a beneficent design. Many of those fierce and
+barbarous people have already given proofs how little they regard any
+French party whatsoever. Some of these nations the people of France are
+jealous of: such are the English and the Spaniards;--others they
+despise: such are the Italians;--others they hate and dread: such are
+the German and Danubian powers. At best, such interposition of ancient
+enemies excites apprehension; but in this case, how can they suppose
+that we come to maintain their legitimate monarchy in a truly paternal
+French government, to protect their privileges, their laws, their
+religion, and their property, when they see us make use of no one person
+who has any interest in them, any knowledge of them, or any the least
+zeal for them? On the contrary, they see that we do not suffer any of
+those who have shown a zeal in that cause which we seem to make our own
+to come freely into any place in which the allies obtain any footing.
+
+If we wish to gain upon any people, it is right to see what it is they
+expect. We have had a proposal from the Royalists of Poitou. They are
+well entitled, after a bloody war maintained for eight months against
+all the powers of anarchy, to speak the sentiments of the Royalists of
+France. Do they desire us to exclude their princes, their clergy, their
+nobility? The direct contrary. They earnestly solicit that men of every
+one of these descriptions should be sent to them. They do not call for
+English, Austrian, or Prussian officers. They call for French emigrant
+officers. They call for the exiled priests. They have demanded the Comte
+d'Artois to appear at their head. These are the demands (quite natural
+demands) of those who are ready to follow the standard of monarchy.
+
+The great means, therefore, of restoring the monarchy, which we have
+made _the main object of the war_, is, to assist the dignity, the
+religion, and the property of France to repossess themselves of the
+means of their natural influence. This ought to be the primary object of
+all our politics and all our military operations. Otherwise everything
+will move in a preposterous order, and nothing but confusion and
+destruction will follow.
+
+I know that misfortune is not made to win respect from ordinary minds. I
+know that there is a leaning to prosperity, however obtained, and a
+prejudice in its favor. I know there is a disposition to hope something
+from the variety and inconstancy of villany, rather than from the
+tiresome uniformity of fixed principle. There have been, I admit,
+situations in which a guiding person or party might be gained over, and
+through him or them the whole body of a nation. For the hope of such a
+conversion, and of deriving advantage from enemies, it might be politic
+for a while to throw your friends into the shade. But examples drawn
+from history in occasions like the present will be found dangerously to
+mislead us. France has no resemblance to other countries which have
+undergone troubles and been purified by them. If France, Jacobinized as
+it has been for four full years, did contain any bodies of authority and
+disposition to treat with you, (most assuredly she does not,) such is
+the levity of those who have expelled everything respectable in their
+country, such their ferocity, their arrogance, their mutinous spirit,
+their habits of defying everything human and divine, that no engagement
+would hold with them for three months; nor, indeed, could they cohere
+together for any purpose of civilized society, if left as they now are.
+There must be a means, not only of breaking their strength within
+themselves, but of _civilizing_ them; and these two things must go
+together, before we can possibly treat with them, not only as a nation,
+but with any division of them. Descriptions of men of their own race,
+but better in rank, superior in property and decorum, of honorable,
+decent, and orderly habits, are absolutely necessary to bring them to
+such a frame as to qualify them so much as to come into contact with a
+civilized nation. A set of those ferocious savages with arms in their
+hands, left to themselves in one part of the country whilst you proceed
+to another, would break forth into outrages at least as bad as their
+former. They must, as fast as gained, (if ever they are gained,) be put
+under the guide, direction, and government of better Frenchmen than
+themselves, or they will instantly relapse into a fever of aggravated
+Jacobinism.
+
+We must not judge of other parts of France by the temporary submission
+of Toulon, with two vast fleets in its harbor, and a garrison far more
+numerous than all the inhabitants able to bear arms. If they were left
+to themselves, I am quite sure they would not retain their attachment to
+monarchy of any name for a single week.
+
+To administer the only cure for the unheard-of disorders of that undone
+country, I think it infinitely happy for us that God has given into our
+hands more effectual remedies than human contrivance could point out. We
+have in our bosom, and in the bosom of other civilized states, nearer
+forty than thirty thousand persons, providentially preserved, not only
+from the cruelty and violence, but from the contagion of the horrid
+practices, sentiments, and language of the Jacobins, and even sacredly
+guarded from the view of such abominable scenes. If we should obtain, in
+any considerable district, a footing in France, we possess an immense
+body of physicians and magistrates of the mind, whom we now know to be
+the most discreet, gentle, well-tempered, conciliatory, virtuous, and
+pious persons who in any order probably existed in the world. You will
+have a missioner of peace and order in every parish. Never was a wiser
+national economy than in the charity of the English and of other
+countries. Never was money better expended than in the maintenance of
+this body of civil troops for re�stablishing order in France, and for
+thus securing its civilization to Europe. This means, if properly used,
+is of value inestimable.
+
+Nor is this corps of instruments of civilization confined to the first
+order of that state,--I mean the clergy. The allied powers possess also
+an exceedingly numerous, well-informed, sensible, ingenious,
+high-principled, and spirited body of cavaliers in the expatriated
+landed interest of France, as well qualified, at least, as I (who have
+been taught by time and experience to moderate my calculation of the
+expectancy of human abilities) ever expected to see in the body of any
+landed gentlemen and soldiers by their birth. France is well winnowed
+and sifted. Its virtuous men are, I believe, amongst the most virtuous,
+as its wicked are amongst the most abandoned upon earth. Whatever in the
+territory of France may be found to be in the middle between these must
+be attracted to the better part. This will be compassed, when every
+gentleman, everywhere being restored to his landed estate, each on his
+patrimonial ground, may join the clergy in reanimating the loyalty,
+fidelity, and religion of the people,--that these gentlemen proprietors
+of land may sort that people according to the trust they severally
+merit, that they may arm the honest and well-affected, and disarm and
+disable the factious and ill-disposed. No foreigner can make this
+discrimination nor these arrangements. The ancient corporations of
+burghers according to their several modes should be restored, and placed
+(as they ought to be) in the hands of men of gravity and property in the
+cities or bailliages, according to the proper constitutions of the
+commons or third estate of France. They will restrain and regulate the
+seditious rabble there, as the gentlemen will on their own estates. In
+this way, and _in this way alone_, the country (once broken in upon by
+foreign force well directed) may be gained and settled. It must be
+gained and settled by _itself_, and through the medium of its _own_
+native dignity and property. It is not honest, it is not decent, still
+less is it politic, for foreign powers themselves to attempt anything in
+this minute, internal, local detail, in which they could show nothing
+but ignorance, imbecility, confusion, and oppression. As to the prince
+who has a just claim to exercise the regency of France, like other men
+he is not without his faults and his defects. But faults or defects
+(always supposing them faults of common human infirmity) are not what in
+any country destroy a legal title to government. These princes are kept
+in a poor, obscure, country town of the king of Prussia's. Their
+reputation is entirely at the mercy of every calumniator. They cannot
+show themselves, they cannot explain themselves, as princes ought to do.
+After being well informed as any man here can be, I do not find that
+these blemishes in this eminent person are at all considerable, or that
+they at all affect a character which is full of probity, honor,
+generosity, and real goodness. In some points he has but too much
+resemblance to his unfortunate brother, who, with all his weaknesses,
+had a good understanding, and many parts of an excellent man and a good
+king. But Monsieur, without supposing the other deficient, (as he was
+not,) excels him in general knowledge, and in a sharp and keen
+observation, with something of a better address, and an happier mode of
+speaking and of writing. His conversation is open, agreeable, and
+informed; his manners gracious and princely. His brother, the Comte
+d'Artois, sustains still better the representation of his place. He is
+eloquent, lively, engaging in the highest degree, of a decided
+character, full of energy and activity. In a word, he is a brave,
+honorable, and accomplished cavalier. Their brethren of royalty, if they
+were true to their own cause and interest, instead of relegating these
+illustrious persons to an obscure town, would bring them forward in
+their courts and camps, and exhibit them to (what they would speedily
+obtain) the esteem, respect, and affection of mankind.
+
+[Sidenote: Objection made to the regent's endeavor to go to Spain.]
+
+As to their knocking at every door, (which seems to give offence,) can
+anything be more natural? Abandoned, despised, rendered in a manner
+outlaws by all the powers of Europe, who have treated their unfortunate
+brethren with all the giddy pride and improvident insolence of blind,
+unfeeling prosperity, who did not even send them a compliment of
+condolence on the murder of their brother and sister, in such a state is
+it to be wondered at, or blamed, that they tried every way, likely or
+unlikely, well or ill chosen, to get out of the horrible pit into which
+they are fallen, and that in particular they tried whether the princes
+of their own blood might at length be brought to think the cause of
+kings, and of kings of their race, wounded in the murder and exile of
+the branch of France, of as much importance as the killing of a brace of
+partridges? If they were absolutely idle, and only eat in sloth their
+bread of sorrow and dependence, they would be forgotten, or at best
+thought of as wretches unworthy of their pretensions, which they had
+done nothing to support. If they err from _our_ interests, what care has
+been taken to keep them in those interests? or what desire has ever
+been shown to employ them in any other way than as instruments of their
+own degradation, shame, and ruin?
+
+The Parliament of Paris, by whom the title of the regent is to be
+recognized, (not made,) according to the laws of the kingdom, is ready
+to recognize it, and to register it, if a place of meeting was given to
+them, which might be within their own jurisdiction, supposing that only
+locality was required for the exercise of their functions: for it is one
+of the advantages of monarchy to have no local seat. It may maintain its
+rights out of the sphere of its territorial jurisdiction, if other
+powers will suffer it.
+
+I am well apprised that the little intriguers, and whisperers, and
+self-conceited, thoughtless babblers, worse than either, run about to
+depreciate the fallen virtue of a great nation. But whilst they talk, we
+must make our choice,--they or the Jacobins. We have no other option. As
+to those who in the pride of a prosperity not obtained by their wisdom,
+valor, or industry, think so well of themselves, and of their own
+abilities and virtues, and so ill of other men, truth obliges me to say
+that they are not founded in their presumption concerning themselves,
+nor in their contempt of the French princes, magistrates, nobility, and
+clergy. Instead of inspiring me with dislike and distrust of the
+unfortunate, engaged with us in a common cause against our Jacobin
+enemy, they take away all my esteem for their own characters, and all my
+deference to their judgment.
+
+There are some few French gentlemen, indeed, who talk a language not
+wholly different from this jargon. Those whom I have in my eye I respect
+as gallant soldiers, as much as any one can do; but on their political
+judgment and prudence I have not the slightest reliance, nor on their
+knowledge of their own country, or of its laws and Constitution. They
+are, if not enemies, at least not friends, to the orders of their own
+state,--not to the princes, the clergy, or the nobility; they possess
+only an attachment to the monarchy, or rather to the persons of the late
+king and queen. In all other respects their conversation is Jacobin. I
+am afraid they, or some of them, go into the closets of ministers, and
+tell them that the affairs of France will be better arranged by the
+allied powers than by the landed proprietors of the kingdom, or by the
+princes who have a right to govern; and that, if any French are at all
+to be employed in the settlement of their country, it ought to be only
+those who have never declared any decided opinion, or taken any active
+part in the Revolution.[35]
+
+I suspect that the authors of this opinion are mere soldiers of fortune,
+who, though men of integrity and honor, would as gladly receive military
+rank from Russia, or Austria, or Prussia, as from the regent of France.
+Perhaps their not having as much importance at his court as they could
+wish may incline them to this strange imagination. Perhaps, having no
+property in old France, they are more indifferent about its restoration.
+Their language is certainly flattering to all ministers in all courts.
+We all are men; we all love to be told of the extent of our own power
+and our own faculties. If we love glory, we are jealous of partners, and
+afraid even of our own instruments. It is of all modes of flattery the
+most effectual, to be told that you can regulate the affairs of another
+kingdom better than its hereditary proprietors. It is formed to flatter
+the principle of conquest so natural to all men. It is this principle
+which is now making the partition of Poland. The powers concerned have
+been told by some perfidious Poles, and perhaps they believe, that their
+usurpation is a great benefit to the people, especially to the common
+people. However this may turn out with regard to Poland, I am quite sure
+that France could not be so well under a foreign direction as under that
+of the representatives of its own king and its own ancient estates.
+
+I think I have myself studied France as much as most of those whom the
+allied courts are likely to employ in such a work. I have likewise of
+myself as partial and as vain an opinion as men commonly have of
+themselves. But if I could command the whole military arm of Europe, I
+am sure that a bribe of the best province in that kingdom would not
+tempt me to intermeddle in their affairs, except in perfect concurrence
+and concert with the natural, legal interests of the country, composed
+of the ecclesiastical, the military, the several corporate bodies of
+justice and of burghership, making under a monarch (I repeat it again
+and again) _the French nation according to its fundamental
+Constitution_. No considerate statesman would undertake to meddle with
+it upon any other condition.
+
+The government of that kingdom is fundamentally monarchical. The public
+law of Europe has never recognized in it any other form of government.
+The potentates of Europe have, by that law, a right, an interest, and a
+duty to know with what government they are to treat, and what they are
+to admit into the federative society,--or, in other words, into the
+diplomatic republic of Europe. This right is clear and indisputable.
+
+What other and further interference they have a right to in the interior
+of the concerns of another people is a matter on which, as on every
+political subject, no very definite or positive rule can well be laid
+down. Our neighbors are men; and who will attempt to dictate the laws
+under which it is allowable or forbidden to take a part in the concerns
+of men, whether they are considered individually or in a collective
+capacity, whenever charity to them, or a care of my own safety, calls
+forth my activity? Circumstances perpetually variable, directing a moral
+prudence and discretion, the _general_ principles of which never vary,
+must alone prescribe a conduct fitting on such occasions. The latest
+casuists of public law are rather of a republican cast, and, in my mind,
+by no means so averse as they ought to be to a right in the people (a
+word which, ill defined, is of the most dangerous use) to make changes
+at their pleasure in the fundamental laws of their country. These
+writers, however, when a country is divided, leave abundant liberty for
+a neighbor to support any of the parties according to his choice.[36]
+This interference must, indeed, always be a right, whilst the privilege
+of doing good to others, and of averting from them every sort of evil,
+is a right: circumstances may render that right a duty. It depends
+wholly on this, whether it be a _bon� fide_ charity to a party, and a
+prudent precaution with regard to yourself, or whether, under the
+pretence of aiding one of the parties in a nation, you act in such a
+manner as to aggravate its calamities and accomplish its final
+destruction. In truth, it is not the interfering or keeping aloof, but
+iniquitous intermeddling, or treacherous inaction, which is praised or
+blamed by the decision of an equitable judge.
+
+It will be a just and irresistible presumption against the fairness of
+the interposing power, that he takes with him no party or description of
+men in the divided state. It is not probable that these parties should
+all, and all alike, be more adverse to the true interests of their
+country, and less capable of forming a judgment upon them, than those
+who are absolute strangers to their affairs, and to the character of the
+actors in them, and have but a remote, feeble, and secondary sympathy
+with their interest. Sometimes a calm and healing arbiter may be
+necessary; but he is to compose differences, not to give laws. It is
+impossible that any one should not feel the full force of that
+presumption. Even people, whose politics for the supposed good of their
+own country lead them to take advantage of the dissensions of a
+neighboring nation in order to ruin it, will not directly propose to
+exclude the natives, but they will take that mode of consulting and
+employing them which most nearly approaches to an exclusion. In some
+particulars they propose what amounts to that exclusion, in others they
+do much worse. They recommend to ministry, "that no Frenchman who has
+given a decided opinion or acted a decided part in this great
+Revolution, for or against it, should be countenanced, brought forward,
+trusted, or employed, even in the strictest subordination to the
+ministers of the allied powers." Although one would think that this
+advice would stand condemned on the first proposition, yet, as it has
+been made popular, and has been proceeded upon practically, I think it
+right to give it a full consideration.
+
+And first, I have asked myself who these Frenchmen are, that, in the
+state their own country has been in for these last five years, of all
+the people of Europe, have alone not been able to form a decided
+opinion, or have been unwilling to act a decided part?
+
+Looking over all the names I have heard of in this great revolution in
+all human affairs, I find no man of any distinction who has remained in
+that more than Stoical apathy, but the Prince de Conti. This mean,
+stupid, selfish, swinish, and cowardly animal, universally known and
+despised as such, has indeed, except in one abortive attempt to elope,
+been perfectly neutral. However, his neutrality, which it seems would
+qualify him for trust, and on a competition must set aside the Prince de
+Cond�, can be of no sort of service. His moderation has not been able to
+keep him from a jail. The allied powers must draw him from that jail,
+before they can have the full advantage of the exertions of this great
+neutralist.
+
+Except him, I do not recollect a man of rank or talents, who by his
+speeches or his votes, by his pen or by his sword, has not been active
+on this scene. The time, indeed, could admit no neutrality in any person
+worthy of the name of man. There were originally two great divisions in
+France: the one is that which overturned the whole of the government in
+Church and State, and erected a republic on the basis of atheism. Their
+grand engine was the Jacobin Club, a sort of secession from which, but
+exactly on the same principles, begat another short-lived one, called
+the Club of Eighty-Nine,[37] which was chiefly guided by the court
+rebels, who, in addition to the crimes of which they were guilty in
+common with the others, had the merit of betraying a gracious master and
+a kind benefactor. Subdivisions of this faction, which since we have
+seen, do not in the least differ from each other in their principles,
+their dispositions, or the means they have employed. Their only quarrel
+has been about power: in that quarrel, like wave succeeding wave, one
+faction has got the better and expelled the other. Thus, La Fayette for
+a while got the better of Orl�ans; and Orl�ans afterwards prevailed over
+La Fayette. Brissot overpowered Orl�ans; Bar�re and Robespierre, and
+their faction, mastered them both, and cut off their heads. All who were
+not Royalists have been listed in some or other of these divisions. If
+it were of any use to settle a precedence, the elder ought to have his
+rank. The first authors, plotters, and contrivers of this monstrous
+scheme seem to me entitled to the first place in our distrust and
+abhorrence. I have seen some of those who are thought the best amongst
+the original rebels, and I have not neglected the means of being
+informed concerning the others. I can very truly say, that I have not
+found, by observation, or inquiry, that any sense of the evils produced
+by their projects has produced in them, or any _one_ of them, the
+smallest degree of repentance. Disappointment and mortification
+undoubtedly they feel; but to them repentance is a thing impossible.
+They are atheists. This wretched opinion, by which they are possessed
+even to the height of fanaticism, leading them to exclude from their
+ideas of a commonwealth the vital principle of the physical, the moral,
+and the political world engages them in a thousand absurd contrivances
+to fill up this dreadful void. Incapable of innoxious repose or
+honorable action or wise speculation in the lurking-holes of a foreign
+land, into which (in a common ruin) they are driven to hide their heads
+amongst the innocent victims of their madness, they are at this very
+hour as busy in the confection of the dirt-pies of their imaginary
+constitutions as if they had not been quite fresh from destroying, by
+their impious and desperate vagaries, the finest country upon earth.
+
+It is, however, out of these, or of such as these, guilty and
+impenitent, despising the experience of others, and their own, that some
+people talk of choosing their negotiators with those Jacobins who they
+suppose may be recovered to a sounder mind. They flatter themselves, it
+seems, that the friendly habits formed during their original partnership
+of iniquity, a similarity of character, and a conformity in the
+groundwork of their principles, might facilitate their conversion, and
+gain them over to some recognition of royalty. But surely this is to
+read human nature very ill. The several sectaries in this schism of the
+Jacobins are the very last men in the world to trust each other.
+Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence. The last quarrels
+are the sorest; and the injuries received or offered by your own
+associates are ever the most bitterly resented. The people of France, of
+every name and description, would a thousand times sooner listen to the
+Prince de Cond�, or to the Archbishop of Aix, or the Bishop of St. Pol,
+or to Monsieur de Cazal�s, then to La Fayette, or Dumouriez, or the
+Vicomte de Noailles, or the Bishop of Autun, or Necker, or his disciple
+Lally Tollendal. Against the first description they have not the
+smallest animosity, beyond that of a merely political dissension. The
+others they regard as traitors.
+
+The first description is that of the Christian Royalists, men who as
+earnestly wished for reformation, as they opposed innovation in the
+fundamental parts of their Church and State. _Their_ part has been _very
+decided_. Accordingly, they are to be set aside in the restoration of
+Church and State. It is an odd kind of disqualification, where the
+restoration of religion and monarchy is the question. If England should
+(God forbid it should!) fall into the same misfortune with France, and
+that the court of Vienna should undertake the restoration of our
+monarchy, I think it would be extraordinary to object to the admission
+of Mr. Pitt or Lord Grenville or Mr. Dundas into any share in the
+management of that business, because in a day of trial they have stood
+up firmly and manfully, as I trust they always will do, and with
+distinguished powers, for the monarchy and the legitimate Constitution
+of their country. I am sure, if I were to suppose myself at Vienna at
+such a time, I should, as a man, as an Englishman, and as a Royalist,
+protest in that case, as I do in this, against a weak and ruinous
+principle of proceeding, which can have no other tendency than to make
+those who wish to support the crown meditate too profoundly on the
+consequences of the part they take, and consider whether for their open
+and forward zeal in the royal cause they may not be thrust out from any
+sort of confidence and employment, where the interest of crowned heads
+is concerned.
+
+These are the _parties_. I have said, and said truly, that I know of no
+neutrals. But, as a general observation on this general principle of
+choosing neutrals on such occasions as the present, I have this to say,
+that it amounts to neither more nor less than this shocking
+proposition,--that we ought to exclude men of honor and ability from
+serving theirs and our cause, and to put the dearest interests of
+ourselves and our posterity into the hands of men of no decided
+character, without judgment to choose and without courage to profess any
+principle whatsoever.
+
+Such men can serve no cause, for this plain reason,--they have no cause
+at heart. They can, at best, work only as mere mercenaries. They have
+not been guilty of great crimes; but it is only because they have not
+energy of mind to rise to any height of wickedness. They are not hawks
+or kites: they are only miserable fowls whose flight is not above their
+dunghill or hen-roost. But they tremble before the authors of these
+horrors. They admire them at a safe and respectful distance. There never
+was a mean and abject mind that did not admire an intrepid and dexterous
+villain. In the bottom of their hearts they believe such hardy
+miscreants to be the only men qualified for great affairs. If you set
+them to transact with such persons, they are instantly subdued. They
+dare not so much as look their antagonist in the face. They are made to
+be their subjects, not to be their arbiters or controllers.
+
+These men, to be sure, can look at atrocious acts without indignation,
+and can behold suffering virtue without sympathy. Therefore they are
+considered as sober, dispassionate men. But they have their passions,
+though of another kind, and which are infinitely more likely to carry
+them out of the path of their duty. They are of a tame, timid, languid,
+inert temper, wherever the welfare of _others_ is concerned. In such
+causes, as they have no motives to action, they never possess any real
+ability, and are totally destitute of all resource.
+
+Believe a man who has seen much and observed something. I have seen, in
+the course of my life, a great many of that family of men. They are
+generally chosen because they have no opinion of their own; and as far
+as they can be got in good earnest to embrace any opinion, it is that of
+whoever happens to employ them, (neither longer nor shorter, narrower
+nor broader,) with whom they have no discussion or consultation. The
+only thing which occurs to such a man, when he has got a business for
+others into his hands, is, how to make his own fortune out of it. The
+person he is to treat with is not, with him, an adversary over whom he
+is to prevail, but a new friend he is to gain; therefore he always
+systematically betrays some part of his trust. Instead of thinking how
+he shall defend his ground to the last, and, if forced to retreat, how
+little he shall give up, this kind of man considers how much of the
+interest of his employer he is to sacrifice to his adversary. Having
+nothing but himself in view, he knows, that, in serving his principal
+with zeal, he must probably incur some resentment from the opposite
+party. His object is, to obtain the good-will of the person with whom he
+contends, that, when an agreement is made, he may join in rewarding him.
+I would not take one of these as my arbitrator in a dispute for so much
+as a fish-pond; for, if he reserved the mud to me, he would be sure to
+give the water that fed the pool to my adversary. In a great cause, I
+should certainly wish that my agent should possess conciliating
+qualities: that he should be of a frank, open, and candid disposition,
+soft in his nature, and of a temper to soften animosities and to win
+confidence. He ought not to be a man odious to the person he treats
+with, by personal injury, by violence, or by deceit, or, above all, by
+the dereliction of his cause in any former transactions. But I would be
+sure that my negotiator should be _mine_,--that he should be as earnest
+in the cause as myself, and known to be so,--that he should not be
+looked upon as a stipendiary advocate, but as a principled partisan. In
+all treaty it is a great point that all idea of gaining your agent is
+hopeless. I would not trust the cause of royalty with a man who,
+professing neutrality, is half a republican. The enemy has already a
+great part of his suit without a struggle,--and he contends with
+advantage for all the rest. The common principle allowed between your
+adversary and your agent gives your adversary the advantage in every
+discussion.
+
+Before I shut up this discourse about neutral agency, (which I conceive
+is not to be found, or, if found, ought not to be used,) I have a few
+other remarks to make on the cause which I conceive gives rise to it.
+
+In all that we do, whether in the struggle or after it, it is necessary
+that we should constantly have in our eye the nature and character of
+the enemy we have to contend with. The Jacobin Revolution is carried on
+by men of no rank, of no consideration, of wild, savage minds, full of
+levity, arrogance, and presumption, without morals, without probity,
+without prudence. What have they, then, to supply their innumerable
+defects, and to make them terrible even to the firmest minds? _One_
+thing, and _one_ thing only,--but that one thing is worth a
+thousand;--they have _energy_. In France, all things being put into an
+universal ferment, in the decomposition of society, no man comes forward
+but by his spirit of enterprise and the vigor of his mind. If we meet
+this dreadful and portentous energy, restrained by no consideration of
+God or man, that is always vigilant, always on the attack, that allows
+itself no repose, and suffers none to rest an hour with impunity,--if we
+meet this energy with poor commonplace proceeding, with trivial maxims,
+paltry old saws, with doubts, fears, and suspicions, with a languid,
+uncertain hesitation, with a formal, official spirit, which is turned
+aside by every obstacle from its purpose, and which never sees a
+difficulty but to yield to it, or at best to evade it,--down we go to
+the bottom of the abyss, and nothing short of Omnipotence can save us.
+We must meet a vicious and distempered energy with a manly and rational
+vigor. As virtue is limited in its resources, we are doubly bound to use
+all that in the circle drawn about us by our morals we are able to
+command.
+
+I do not contend against the advantages of distrust. In the world we
+live in it is but too necessary. Some of old called it the very sinews
+of discretion. But what signify commonplaces that always run parallel
+and equal? Distrust is good, or it is bad, according to our position and
+our purpose. Distrust is a defensive principle. They who have much to
+lose have much to fear. But in France we hold nothing. We are to break
+in upon a power in possession; we are to carry everything by storm, or
+by surprise, or by intelligence, or by all. Adventure, therefore, and
+not caution, is our policy. Here to be too presuming is the better
+error.
+
+The world will judge of the spirit of our proceeding in those places of
+France which may fall into our power by our conduct in those that are
+already in our hands. Our wisdom should not be vulgar. Other times,
+perhaps other measures; but in this awful hour our politics ought to be
+made up of nothing but courage, decision, manliness, and rectitude. We
+should have all the magnanimity of good faith. This is a royal and
+commanding policy; and as long as we are true to it, we may give the
+law. Never can we assume this command, if we will not risk the
+consequences. For which reason we ought to be bottomed enough in
+principle not to be carried away upon the first prospect of any sinister
+advantage. For depend upon it, that, if we once give way to a sinister
+dealing, we shall teach others the game, and we shall be outwitted and
+overborne; the Spaniards, the Prussians, God knows who, will put us
+under contribution at their pleasure; and instead of being at the head
+of a great confederacy, and the arbiters of Europe, we shall, by our
+mistakes, break up a great design into a thousand little selfish
+quarrels, the enemy will triumph, and we shall sit down under the terms
+of unsafe and dependent peace, weakened, mortified, and disgraced,
+whilst all Europe, England included, is left open and defenceless on
+every part, to Jacobin principles, intrigues, and arms. In the case of
+the king of France, declared to be our friend and ally, we will still be
+considering ourselves in the contradictory character of an enemy. This
+contradiction, I am afraid, will, in spite of us, give a color of fraud
+to all our transactions, or at least will so complicate our politics
+that we shall ourselves be inextricably entangled in them.
+
+I have Toulon in my eye. It was with infinite sorrow I heard, that, in
+taking the king of France's fleet in trust, we instantly unrigged and
+dismasted the ships, instead of keeping them in a condition to escape in
+case of disaster, and in order to fulfil our trust,--that is, to hold
+them for the use of the owner, and in the mean time to employ them for
+our common service. These ships are now so circumstanced, that, if we
+are forced to evacuate Toulon, they must fall into the hands of the
+enemy or be burnt by ourselves. I know this is by some considered as a
+fine thing for us. But the Athenians ought not to be better than the
+English, or Mr. Pitt less virtuous than Aristides.
+
+Are we, then, so poor in resources that we can do no better with
+eighteen or twenty ships of the line than to burn them? Had we sent for
+French Royalist naval officers, of which some hundreds are to be had,
+and made them select such seamen as they could trust, and filled the
+rest with our own and Mediterranean seamen, which are all over Italy to
+be had by thousands, and put them under judicious English
+commanders-in-chief, and with a judicious mixture of our own
+subordinates, the West Indies would at this day have been ours. It may
+be said that these French officers would take them for the king of
+France, and that they would not be in our power. Be it so. The islands
+would not be ours, but they would not be Jacobinized. This is, however,
+a thing impossible. They must in effect and substance be ours. But all
+is upon that false principle of distrust, which, not confiding in
+strength, can never have the full use of it. They that pay, and feed,
+and equip, must direct. But I must speak plain upon this subject. The
+French islands, if they were all our own, ought not to be all kept. A
+fair partition only ought to be made of those territories. This is a
+subject of policy very serious, which has many relations and aspects.
+Just here I only hint at it as answering an objection, whilst I state
+the mischievous consequences which suffer us to be surprised into a
+virtual breach of faith by confounding our ally with our enemy, because
+they both belong to the same geographical territory.
+
+My clear opinion is, that Toulon ought to be made, what we set out with,
+a royal French city. By the necessity of the case, it must be under the
+influence, civil and military, of the allies. But the only way of
+keeping that jealous and discordant mass from tearing its component
+parts to pieces, and hazarding the loss of the whole, is, to put the
+place into the nominal government of the regent, his officers being
+approved by us. This, I say, is absolutely necessary for a poise amongst
+ourselves. Otherwise is it to be believed that the Spaniards, who hold
+that place with us in a sort of partnership, contrary to our mutual
+interest, will see us absolute masters of the Mediterranean, with
+Gibraltar on one side and Toulon on the other, with a quiet and composed
+mind, whilst we do little less than declare that we are to take the
+whole West Indies into our hands, leaving the vast, unwieldy, and feeble
+body of the Spanish dominions in that part of the world absolutely at
+our mercy, without any power to balance us in the smallest degree?
+Nothing is so fatal to a nation as an extreme of self-partiality, and
+the total want of consideration of what others will naturally hope or
+fear. Spain must think she sees that we are taking advantage of the
+confusions which reign in France to disable that country, and of course
+every country, from affording her protection, and in the end to turn the
+Spanish monarchy into a province. If she saw things in a proper point of
+light, to be sure, she would not consider any other plan of politics as
+of the least moment in comparison of the extinction of Jacobinism. But
+her ministers (to say the best of them) are vulgar politicians. It is no
+wonder that they should postpone this great point, or balance it by
+considerations of the common politics, that is, the questions of power
+between _state and state_. If we manifestly endeavor to destroy the
+balance, especially the maritime and commercial balance, both in Europe
+and the West Indies, (the latter their sore and vulnerable part,) from
+fear of what France may do for Spain hereafter, is it to be wondered
+that Spain, infinitely weaker than we are, (weaker, indeed, than such a
+mass of empire ever was,) should feel the same fears from our
+uncontrolled power that we give way to ourselves from a supposed
+resurrection of the ancient power of France under a monarchy? It
+signifies nothing whether we are wrong or right in the abstract; but in
+respect to our relation to Spain, with such principles followed up in
+practice, it is absolutely impossible that any cordial alliance can
+subsist between the two nations. If Spain goes, Naples will speedily
+follow. Prussia is quite certain, and thinks of nothing but making a
+market of the present confusions. Italy is broken and divided.
+Switzerland is Jacobinized, I am afraid, completely. I have long seen
+with pain the progress of French principles in that country. Things
+cannot go on upon the present bottom. The possession of Toulon, which,
+well managed, might be of the greatest advantage, will be the greatest
+misfortune that ever happened to this nation. The more we multiply
+troops there, the more we shall multiply causes and means of quarrel
+amongst ourselves. I know but one way of avoiding it, which is, to give
+a greater degree of simplicity to our politics. Our situation does
+necessarily render them a good deal involved. And to this evil, instead
+of increasing it, we ought to apply all the remedies in our power.
+
+See what is in that place the consequence (to say nothing of every
+other) of this complexity. Toulon has, as it were, two gates,--an
+English and a Spanish. The English gate is by our policy fast barred
+against the entrance of any Royalists. The Spaniards open theirs, I
+fear, upon no fixed principle, and with very little judgment. By means,
+however, of this foolish, mean, and jealous policy on our side, all the
+Royalists whom the English might select as most practicable, and most
+subservient to honest views, are totally excluded. Of those admitted the
+Spaniards are masters. As to the inhabitants, they are a nest of
+Jacobins, which is delivered into our hands, not from principle, but
+from fear. The inhabitants of Toulon may be described in a few words. It
+is _differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis_. The rest of the
+seaports are of the same description.
+
+Another thing which I cannot account for is, the sending for the Bishop
+of Toulon and afterwards forbidding his entrance. This is as directly
+contrary to the declaration as it is to the practice of the allied
+powers. The king of Prussia did better. When he took Verdun, he actually
+reinstated the bishop and his chapter. When he thought he should be the
+master of Chalons, he called the bishop from Flanders, to put him into
+possession. The Austrians have restored the clergy wherever they
+obtained possession. We have proposed to restore religion as well as
+monarchy; and in Toulon we have restored neither the one nor the other.
+It is very likely that the Jacobin _sans-culottes_, or some of them,
+objected to this measure, who rather choose to have the atheistic
+buffoons of clergy they have got to sport with, till they are ready to
+come forward, with the rest of their worthy brethren, in Paris and other
+places, to declare that they are a set of impostors, that they never
+believed in God, and never will preach any sort of religion. If we give
+way to our Jacobins in this point, it is fully and fairly putting the
+government, civil and ecclesiastical, not in the king of France, to
+whom, as the protector and governor, and in substance the head of the
+Gallican Church, the nomination to the bishoprics belonged, and who made
+the Bishop of Toulon,--it does not leave it with him, or even in the
+hands of the king of England, or the king of Spain,--but in the basest
+Jacobins of a low seaport, to exercise, _pro tempore_, the sovereignty.
+If this point of religion is thus given up, the grand instrument for
+reclaiming France is abandoned. We cannot, if we would, delude ourselves
+about the true state of this dreadful contest. _It is a religious war_.
+It includes in its object, undoubtedly, every other interest of society
+as well as this; but this is the principal and leading feature. It is
+through this destruction of religion that our enemies propose the
+accomplishment of all their other views. The French Revolution, impious
+at once and fanatical, had no other plan for domestic power and foreign
+empire. Look at all the proceedings of the National Assembly, from the
+first day of declaring itself such, in the year 1789, to this very hour,
+and you will find full half of their business to be directly on this
+subject. In fact, it is the spirit of the whole. The religious system,
+called the Constitutional Church, was, on the face of the whole
+proceeding, set up only as a mere temporary amusement to the people, and
+so constantly stated in all their conversations, till the time should
+come when they might with safety cast off the very appearance of all
+religion whatsoever, and persecute Christianity throughout Europe with
+fire and sword. The Constitutional clergy are not the ministers of any
+religion: they are the agents and instruments of this horrible
+conspiracy against all morals. It was from a sense of this, that, in the
+English addition to the articles proposed at St. Domingo, tolerating all
+religions, we very wisely refused to suffer that kind of traitors and
+buffoons.
+
+This religious war is not a controversy between sect and sect, as
+formerly, but a war against all sects and all religions. The question is
+not, whether you are to overturn the Catholic, to set up the Protestant.
+Such an idea, in the present state of the world, is too contemptible.
+Our business is, to leave to the schools the discussion of the
+controverted points, abating as much as we can the acrimony of
+disputants on all sides. It is for Christian statesmen, as the world is
+now circumstanced, to secure their common basis, and not to risk the
+subversion of the whole fabric by pursuing these distinctions with an
+ill-timed zeal. We have in the present grand alliance all modes of
+government, as well as all modes of religion. In government, we mean to
+restore that which, notwithstanding our diversity of forms, we are all
+agreed in as fundamental in government. The same principle ought to
+guide us in the religious part: conforming the mode, not to our
+particular ideas, (for in that point we have no ideas in common,) but to
+what will best promote the great, general ends of the alliance. As
+statesmen, we are to see which of those modes best suits with the
+interests of such a commonwealth as we wish to secure and promote. There
+can be no doubt but that the Catholic religion, which is fundamentally
+the religion of France, must go with the monarchy of France. We know
+that the monarchy did not survive the hierarchy, no, not even in
+appearance, for many months,--in substance, not for a single hour. As
+little can it exist in future, if that pillar is taken away, or even
+shattered and impaired.
+
+If it should please God to give to the allies the means of restoring
+peace and order in that focus of war and confusion, I would, as I said
+in the beginning of this memorial, first replace the whole of the old
+clergy; because we have proof more than sufficient, that, whether they
+err or not in the scholastic disputes with us, they are not tainted with
+atheism, the great political evil of the time. I hope I need not
+apologize for this phrase, as if I thought religion nothing but policy:
+it is far from my thoughts, and I hope it is not to be inferred from my
+expressions. But in the light of policy alone I am here considering the
+question. I speak of policy, too, in a large light; in which large
+light, policy, too, is a sacred thing.
+
+There are many, perhaps half a million or more, calling themselves
+Protestants, in the South of France, and in other of the provinces. Some
+raise them to a much greater number; but I think this nearer to the
+mark. I am sorry to say that they have behaved shockingly since the very
+beginning of this rebellion, and have been uniformly concerned in its
+worst and most atrocious acts. Their clergy are just the same atheists
+with those of the Constitutional Catholics, but still more wicked and
+daring. Three of their number have met from their republican associates
+the reward of their crimes.
+
+As the ancient Catholic religion is to be restored for the body of
+France, the ancient Calvinistic religion ought to be restored for the
+Protestants, with every kind of protection and privilege. But not one
+minister concerned in this rebellion ought to be suffered amongst them.
+If they have not clergy of their own, men well recommended, as untainted
+with Jacobinism, by the synods of those places where Calvinism prevails
+and French is spoken, ought to be sought. Many such there are. The
+Presbyterian discipline ought, in my opinion, to be established in its
+vigor, and the people professing it ought to be bound to its
+maintenance. No man, under the false and hypocritical pretence of
+liberty of conscience, ought to be suffered to have no conscience at
+all. The king's commissioner ought also to sit in their synods, as
+before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I am conscious that this
+discipline disposes men to republicanism: but it is still a discipline,
+and it is a cure (such as it is) for the perverse and undisciplined
+habits which for some time have prevailed. Republicanism repressed may
+have its use in the composition of a state. Inspection may be
+practicable, and responsibility in the teachers and elders may be
+established, in such an hierarchy as the Presbyterian. For a time like
+ours, it is a great point gained, that people should be taught to meet,
+to combine, and to be classed and arrayed in some other way than in
+clubs of Jacobins. If it be not the best mode of Protestantism under a
+monarchy, it is still an orderly Christian church, orthodox in the
+fundamentals, and, what is to our point, capable enough of rendering men
+useful citizens. It was the impolitic abolition of their discipline,
+which exposed them to the wild opinions and conduct that have prevailed
+amongst the Huguenots. The toleration in 1787 was owing to the good
+disposition of the late king; but it was modified by the profligate
+folly of his atheistic minister, the Cardinal de Lom�nie. This
+mischievous minister did not follow, in the edict of toleration, the
+wisdom of the Edict of Nantes. But his toleration was granted to
+_non-Catholics_,--a dangerous word, which might signify anything, and
+was but too expressive of a fatal indifference with regard to all piety.
+I speak for myself: I do not wish any man to be converted from his sect.
+The distinctions which we have reformed from animosity to emulation may
+be even useful to the cause of religion. By some moderate contention
+they keep alive zeal. Whereas people who change, except under strong
+conviction, (a thing now rather rare,) the religion of their early
+prejudices, especially if the conversion is brought about by any
+political machine, are very apt to degenerate into indifference, laxity,
+and often downright atheism.
+
+Another political question arises about the mode of government which
+ought to be established. I think the proclamation (which I read before I
+had proceeded far in this memorial) puts it on the best footing, by
+postponing that arrangement to a time of peace.
+
+When our politics lead us to enterprise a great and almost total
+political revolution in Europe, we ought to look seriously into the
+consequences of what we are about to do. Some eminent persons discover
+an apprehension that the monarchy, if restored in France, may be
+restored in too great strength for the liberty and happiness of the
+natives, and for the tranquillity of other states. They are therefore of
+opinion that terms ought to be made for the modification of that
+monarchy. They are persons too considerable, from the powers of their
+mind, and from their situation, as well as from the real respect I have
+for them, who seem to entertain these apprehensions, to let me pass them
+by unnoticed.
+
+As to the power of France as a state, and in its exterior relations, I
+confess my fears are on the part of its extreme reduction. There is
+undoubtedly something in the vicinity of France, which makes it
+naturally and properly an object of our watchfulness and jealousy,
+whatever form its government may take. But the difference is great
+between a plan for our own security and a scheme for the utter
+destruction of France. If there were no other countries in the political
+map but these two, I admit that policy might justify a wish to lower our
+neighbor to a standard which would even render her in some measure, if
+not wholly, our dependant. But the system of Europe is extensive and
+extremely complex. However formidable to us, as taken in this one
+relation, France is not equally dreadful to all other states. On the
+contrary, my clear opinion is, that the liberties of Europe cannot
+possibly be preserved but by her remaining a very great and
+preponderating power. The design at present evidently pursued by the
+combined potentates, or of the two who lead, is totally to destroy her
+as such a power. For Great Britain resolves that she shall have no
+colonies, no commerce, and no marine. Austria means to take away the
+whole frontier, from the borders of Switzerland to Dunkirk. It is their
+plan also to render the interior government lax and feeble, by
+prescribing, by force of the arms of rival and jealous nations, and
+without consulting the natural interests of the kingdom, such
+arrangements as, in the actual state of Jacobinism in France, and the
+unsettled state in which property must remain for a long time, will
+inevitably produce such distraction and debility in government as to
+reduce it to nothing, or to throw it back into its old confusion. One
+cannot conceive so frightful a state of a nation. A maritime country
+without a marine and without commerce; a continental country without a
+frontier, and for a thousand miles surrounded with powerful, warlike,
+and ambitious neighbors! It is possible that she might submit to lose
+her commerce and her colonies: her security she never can abandon. If,
+contrary to all expectations, under such a disgraced and impotent
+government, any energy should remain in that country, she will make
+every effort to recover her security, which will involve Europe for a
+century in war and blood. What has it cost to France to make that
+frontier? What will it cost to recover it? Austria thinks that without a
+frontier she cannot secure the _Netherlands_. But without her frontier
+France cannot secure _herself_. Austria has been, however, secure for an
+hundred years in those very Netherlands, and has never been dispossessed
+of them by the chance of war without a moral certainty of receiving them
+again on the restoration of peace. Her late dangers have arisen not from
+the power or ambition of the king of France. They arose from her own ill
+policy, which dismantled all her towns, and discontented all her
+subjects by Jacobinical innovations. She dismantles her own towns, and
+then says, "Give me the frontier of France!" But let us depend upon it,
+whatever tends, under the name of security, to aggrandize Austria, will
+discontent and alarm Prussia. Such a length of frontier on the side of
+France, separated from itself, and separated from the mass of the
+Austrian country, will be weak, unless connected at the expense of the
+Elector of Bavaria (the Elector Palatine) and other lesser princes, or
+by such exchanges as will again convulse the Empire.
+
+Take it the other way, and let us suppose that France so broken in
+spirit as to be content to remain naked and defenceless by sea and by
+land. Is such a country no prey? Have other nations no views? Is Poland
+the only country of which it is worth while to make a partition? We
+cannot be so childish as to imagine that ambition is local, and that no
+others can be infected with it but those who rule within certain
+parallels of latitude and longitude. In this way I hold war equally
+certain. But I can conceive that both these principles may operate:
+ambition on the part of Austria to cut more and more from France; and
+French impatience under her degraded and unsafe condition. In such a
+contest will the other powers stand by? Will not Prussia call for
+indemnity, as well as Austria and England? Is she satisfied with her
+gains in Poland? By no means. Germany must pay; or we shall infallibly
+see Prussia leagued with France and Spain, and possibly with other
+powers, for the reduction of Austria; and such may be the situation of
+things, that it will not be so easy to decide what part England may take
+in such a contest.
+
+I am well aware how invidious a task it is to oppose anything which
+tends to the apparent aggrandizement of our own country. But I think no
+country can be aggrandized whilst France is Jacobinized. This post
+removed, it will be a serious question how far her further reduction
+will contribute to the general safety, which I always consider as
+included. Among precautions against ambition, it may not be amiss to
+take one precaution against our _own_. I must fairly say, I dread our
+_own_ power and our _own_ ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded.
+It is ridiculous to say we are not men, and that, as men, we shall never
+wish to aggrandize ourselves in some way or other. Can we say that even
+at this very hour we are not invidiously aggrandized? We are already in
+possession of almost all the commerce of the world. Our empire in India
+is an awful thing. If we should come to be in a condition not only to
+have all this ascendant in commerce, but to be absolutely able, without
+the least control, to hold the commerce of all other nations totally
+dependent upon our good pleasure, we may say that we shall not abuse
+this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of power. But every other nation
+will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or
+later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which
+may end in our ruin.
+
+As to France, I must observe that for a long time she has been
+stationary. She has, during this whole century, obtained far less by
+conquest or negotiation than any of the three great Continental powers.
+Some part of Lorraine excepted, I recollect nothing she has gained,--no,
+not a village. In truth, this Lorraine acquisition does little more than
+secure her barrier. In effect and substance it was her own before.
+
+However that may be, I consider these things at present chiefly in one
+point of view, as obstructions to the war on Jacobinism, which _must_
+stand as long as the powers think its extirpation but a _secondary_
+object, and think of taking advantage, under the name of _indemnity_ and
+_security_, to make war upon the whole nation of France, royal and
+Jacobin, for the aggrandizement of the allies, on the ordinary
+principles of interest, as if no Jacobinism existed in the world.
+
+So far is France from being formidable to its neighbors for its domestic
+strength, that I conceive it will be as much as all its neighbors can
+do, by a steady guaranty, to keep that monarchy at all upon its basis.
+It will be their business to nurse France, not to exhaust it. France,
+such as it is, is indeed highly formidable: not formidable, however, as
+a great republic; but as the most dreadful gang of robbers and murderers
+that ever was embodied. But this distempered strength of France will be
+the cause of proportionable weakness on its recovery. Never was a
+country so completely ruined; and they who calculate the resurrection of
+her power by former examples have not sufficiently considered what is
+the present state of things. Without detailing the inventory of what
+organs of government have been destroyed, together with the very
+materials of which alone they can be recomposed, I wish it to be
+considered what an operose affair the whole system of taxation is in the
+old states of Europe. It is such as never could be made but in a long
+course of years. In France all taxes are abolished. The present powers
+resort to the capital, and to the capital in kind. But a savage,
+undisciplined people suffer a _robbery_ with more patience than an
+_impost_. The former is in their habits and their dispositions. They
+consider it as transient, and as what, in their turn, they may exercise.
+But the terrors of the present power are such as no regular government
+can possibly employ. They who enter into France do not succeed to
+_their_ resources. They have not a system to reform, but a system to
+begin. The whole estate of government is to be reacquired.
+
+What difficulties this will meet with in a country exhausted by the
+taking of the capital, and among a people in a manner new-principled,
+trained, and actually disciplined to anarchy, rebellion, disorder, and
+impiety, may be conceived by those who know what Jacobin France is, and
+who may have occupied themselves by revolving in their thoughts what
+they were to do, if it fell to their lot to re�stablish the affairs of
+France. What support or what limitations the restored monarchy must have
+may be a doubt, or how it will pitch and settle at last. But one thing I
+conceive to be far beyond a doubt: that the settlement cannot be
+immediate; but that it must be preceded by some sort of power, equal at
+least in vigor, vigilance, promptitude, and decision, to a military
+government. For such a _preparatory_ government, no slow-paced,
+methodical, formal, lawyer-like system, still less that of a showy,
+superficial, trifling, intriguing court, guided by cabals of ladies, or
+of men like ladies, least of all a philosophic, theoretic, disputatious
+school of sophistry,--none of these ever will or ever can lay the
+foundations of an order that can last. Whoever claims a right by birth
+to govern there must find in his breast, or must conjure up in it, an
+energy not to be expected, perhaps not always to be wished for, in
+well-ordered states. The lawful prince must have, in everything but
+crime, the character of an usurper. He is gone, if he imagines himself
+the quiet possessor of a throne. He is to contend for it as much after
+an apparent conquest as before. His task is, to win it: he must leave
+posterity to enjoy and to adorn it. No velvet cushions for him. He is to
+be always (I speak nearly to the letter) on horseback. This opinion is
+the result of much patient thinking on the subject, which I conceive no
+event is likely to alter.
+
+A valuable friend of mine, who I hope will conduct these affairs, so far
+as they fall to his share, with great ability, asked me what I thought
+of acts of general indemnity and oblivion, as a means of settling
+France, and reconciling it to monarchy. Before I venture upon any
+opinion of my own in this matter, I totally disclaim the interference of
+foreign powers in a business that properly belongs to the government
+which we have declared legal. That government is likely to be the best
+judge of what is to be done towards the security of that kingdom, which
+it is their duty and their interest to provide for by such measures of
+justice or of lenity as at the time they should find best. But if we
+weaken it not only by arbitrary limitations of our own, but preserve
+such persons in it as are disposed to disturb its future peace, as they
+have its past, I do not know how a more direct declaration can be made
+of a disposition to perpetual hostility against a government. The
+persons saved from the justice of the native magistrate by foreign
+authority will owe nothing to his clemency. He will, and must, look to
+those to whom he is indebted for the power he has of dispensing it. A
+Jacobin faction, constantly fostered with the nourishment of foreign
+protection, will be kept alive.
+
+This desire of securing the safety of the actors in the present scene is
+owing to more laudable motives. Ministers have been made to consider the
+brothers of the late merciful king, and the nobility of France who have
+been faithful to their honor and duty, as a set of inexorable and
+remorseless tyrants. How this notion has been infused into them I cannot
+be quite certain. I am sure it is not justified by anything they have
+done. Never were the two princes guilty, in the day of their power, of a
+single hard or ill-natured act. No one instance of cruelty on the part
+of the gentlemen ever came to my ears. It is true that the _English_
+Jacobins, (the natives have not thought of it,) as an excuse for their
+infernal system of murder, have so represented them. It is on this
+principle that the massacres in the month of September, 1792, were
+justified by a writer in the Morning Chronicle. _He_ says, indeed, that
+"the whole French nation is to be given up to the hands of an irritated
+and revengeful noblesse";--and, judging of others by himself and his
+brethren, he says, "Whoever succeeds in a civil war will be cruel. But
+here the emigrants, flying to revenge in the cars of military victory,
+will almost insatiably call for their victims and their booty; and a
+body of emigrant traitors were attending the King of Prussia and the
+Duke of Brunswick, to suggest the most sanguinary counsels." So says
+this wicked Jacobin; but so cannot say the King of Prussia nor the Duke
+of Brunswick, who never did receive any sanguinary counsel; nor did the
+king's brothers, or that great body of gentlemen who attended those
+princes, commit one single cruel action, or hurt the person or property
+of one individual. It would be right to quote the instance. It is like
+the military luxury attributed to these unfortunate sufferers in our
+common cause.
+
+If these princes had shown a tyrannic disposition, it would be much to
+be lamented. We have no others to govern France. If we screened the body
+of murderers from their justice, we should only leave the innocent in
+future to the mercy of men of fierce and sanguinary dispositions, of
+which, in spite of all our intermeddling in their Constitution, we could
+not prevent the effects. But as we have much more reason to fear their
+feeble lenity than any blamable rigor, we ought, in my opinion, to leave
+the matter to themselves.
+
+If, however, I were asked to give an advice merely as such, here are my
+ideas. I am not for a total indemnity, nor a general punishment. And
+first, the body and mass of the people never ought to be treated as
+criminal. They may become an object of more or less constant
+watchfulness and suspicion, as their preservation may best require, but
+they can never become an object of punishment. This is one of the few
+fundamental and unalterable principles of politics.
+
+To punish them capitally would be to make massacres. Massacres only
+increase the ferocity of men, and teach them to regard their own lives
+and those of others as of little value; whereas the great policy of
+government is, to teach the people to think both of great importance in
+the eyes of God and the state, and never to be sacrificed or even
+hazarded to gratify their passions, or for anything but the duties
+prescribed by the rules of morality, and under the direction of public
+law and public authority. To punish them with lesser penalties would be
+to debilitate the commonwealth, and make the nation miserable, which it
+is the business of government to render happy and flourishing.
+
+As to crimes, too, I would draw a strong line of limitation. For no one
+offence, _politically an offence of rebellion_, by council, contrivance,
+persuasion, or compulsion, for none properly a _military offence of
+rebellion_, or anything done by open hostility in the field, should any
+man at all be called in question; because such seems to be the proper
+and natural death of civil dissensions. The offences of war are
+obliterated by peace.
+
+Another class will of course be included in the indemnity,--namely, all
+those who by their activity in restoring lawful government shall
+obliterate their offences. The offence previously known, the acceptance
+of service is a pardon for crimes. I fear that this class of men will
+not be very numerous.
+
+So far as to indemnity. But where are the objects of justice, and of
+example, and of future security to the public peace? They are naturally
+pointed out, not by their having outraged political and civil laws, nor
+their having rebelled against the state as a state, but by their having
+rebelled against the law of Nature and outraged man as man. In this
+list, all the regicides in general, all those who laid sacrilegious
+hands on the king, who, without anything in their own rebellious mission
+to the Convention to justify them, brought him to his trial and
+unanimously voted him guilty,--all those who had a share in the cruel
+murder of the queen, and the detestable proceedings with regard to the
+young king and the unhappy princesses,--all those who committed
+cold-blooded murder anywhere, and particularly in their revolutionary
+tribunals, where every idea of natural justice and of their own declared
+rights of man have been trod under foot with the most insolent
+mockery,--all men concerned in the burning and demolition of houses or
+churches, with audacious and marked acts of sacrilege and scorn offered
+to religion,--in general, all the leaders of Jacobin clubs,--not one of
+these should escape a punishment suitable to the nature, quality, and
+degree of their offence, by a steady, but a measured justice.
+
+In the first place, no man ought to be subject to any penalty, from the
+highest to the lowest, but by a trial according to the course of law,
+carried on with all that caution and deliberation which has been used in
+the best times and precedents of the French jurisprudence, the criminal
+law of which country, faulty to be sure in some particulars, was highly
+laudable and tender of the lives of men. In restoring order and justice,
+everything like retaliation ought to be religiously avoided; and an
+example ought to be set of a total alienation from the Jacobin
+proceedings in their accursed revolutionary tribunals. Everything like
+lumping men in masses, and of forming tables of proscription, ought to
+be avoided.
+
+In all these punishments, anything which can be alleged in mitigation of
+the offence should be fully considered. Mercy is not a thing opposed to
+justice. It is an essential part of it,--as necessary in criminal cases
+as in civil affairs equity is to law. It is only for the Jacobins never
+to pardon. They have not done it in a single instance. A council of
+mercy ought therefore to be appointed, with powers to report on each
+case, to soften the penalty, or entirely to remit it, according to
+circumstances.
+
+With these precautions, the very first foundation of settlement must be
+to call to a strict account those bloody and merciless offenders.
+Without it, government cannot stand a year. People little consider the
+utter impossibility of getting those who, having emerged from very low,
+some from the lowest classes of society, have exercised a power so high,
+and with such unrelenting and bloody a rage, quietly to fall back into
+their old ranks, and become humble, peaceable, laborious, and useful
+members of society. It never can be. On the other hand, is it to be
+believed that any worthy and virtuous subject, restored to the ruins of
+his house, will with patience see the cold-blooded murderer of his
+father, mother, wife, or children, or perhaps all of these relations,
+(such things have been,) nose him in his own village, and insult him
+with the riches acquired from the plunder of his goods, ready again to
+head a Jacobin faction to attack his life? He is unworthy of the name of
+man who would suffer it. It is unworthy of the name of a government,
+which, taking justice out of the private hand, will not exercise it for
+the injured by the public arm.
+
+I know it sounds plausible, and is readily adopted by those who have
+little sympathy with the sufferings of others, to wish to jumble the
+innocent and guilty into one mass by a general indemnity. This cruel
+indifference dignifies itself with the name of humanity.
+
+It is extraordinary, that, as the wicked arts of this regicide and
+tyrannous faction increase in number, variety, and atrocity, the desire
+of punishing them becomes more and more faint, and the talk of an
+indemnity towards them every day stronger and stronger. Our ideas of
+justice appear to be fairly conquered and overpowered by guilt, when it
+is grown gigantic. It is not the point of view in which we are in the
+habit of viewing guilt. The crimes we every day punish are really below
+the penalties we inflict. The criminals are obscure and feeble. This is
+the view in which we see ordinary crimes and criminals. But when guilt
+is seen, though but for a time, to be furnished with the arms and to be
+invested with the robes of power, it seems to assume another nature, and
+to get, as it were, out of our jurisdiction. This I fear is the case
+with many. But there is another cause full as powerful towards this
+security to enormous guilt,--the desire which possesses people who have
+once obtained power to enjoy it at their ease. It is not humanity, but
+laziness and inertness of mind, which produces the desire of this kind
+of indemnities. This description of men love general and short methods.
+If they punish, they make a promiscuous massacre; if they spare, they
+make a general act of oblivion. This is a want of disposition to proceed
+laboriously according to the cases, and according to the rules and
+principles of justice on each case: a want of disposition to assort
+criminals, to discriminate the degrees and modes of guilt, to separate
+accomplices from principals, leaders from followers, seducers from the
+seduced, and then, by following the same principles in the same detail,
+to class punishments, and to fit them to the nature and kind of the
+delinquency. If that were once attempted, we should soon see that the
+task was neither infinite nor the execution cruel. There would be
+deaths, but, for the number of criminals and the extent of France, not
+many. There would be cases of transportation, cases of labor to restore
+what has been wickedly destroyed, cases of imprisonment, and cases of
+mere exile. But be this as it may, I am sure, that, if justice is not
+done there, there can be neither peace nor justice there, nor in any
+part of Europe.
+
+History is resorted to for other acts of indemnity in other times. The
+princes are desired to look back to Henry the Fourth. We are desired to
+look to the restoration of King Charles. These things, in my opinion,
+have no resemblance whatsoever. They were cases of a civil war,--in
+France more ferocious, in England more moderate than common. In neither
+country were the orders of society subverted, religion and morality
+destroyed on principle, or property totally annihilated. In England, the
+government of Cromwell was, to be sure, somewhat rigid, but, for a new
+power, no savage tyranny. The country was nearly as well in his hands as
+in those of Charles the Second, and in some points much better. The laws
+in general had their course, and were admirably administered. The king
+did not in reality grant an act of indemnity; the prevailing power, then
+in a manner the nation, in effect granted an indemnity to _him_. The
+idea of a preceding rebellion was not at all admitted in that
+convention and that Parliament. The regicides were a common enemy, and
+as such given up.
+
+Among the ornaments of their place which eminently distinguish them, few
+people are better acquainted with the history of their own country than
+the illustrious princes now in exile; but I caution them not to be led
+into error by that which has been supposed to be the guide of life. I
+would give the same caution to all princes. Not that I derogate from the
+use of history. It is a great improver of the understanding, by showing
+both men and affairs in a great variety of views. From this source much
+political wisdom may be learned,--that is, may be learned as habit, not
+as precept,--and as an exercise to strengthen the mind, as furnishing
+materials to enlarge and enrich it, not as a repertory of cases and
+precedents for a lawyer: if it were, a thousand times better would it be
+that a statesman had never learned to read,--_vellem nescirent literas_.
+This method turns their understanding from the object before them, and
+from the present exigencies of the world, to comparisons with former
+times, of which, after all, we can know very little and very
+imperfectly; and our guides, the historians, who are to give us their
+true interpretation, are often prejudiced, often ignorant, often fonder
+of system than of truth. Whereas, if a man with reasonable good parts
+and natural sagacity, and not in the leading-strings of any master, will
+look steadily on the business before him, without being diverted by
+retrospect and comparison, he may be capable of forming a reasonable
+good judgment of what is to be done. There are some fundamental points
+in which Nature never changes; but they are few and obvious, and belong
+rather to morals than to politics. But so far as regards political
+matter, the human mind and human affairs are susceptible of infinite
+modifications, and of combinations wholly new and unlooked-for. Very
+few, for instance, could have imagined that property, which has been
+taken for natural dominion, should, through the whole of a vast kingdom,
+lose all its importance, and even its influence. This is what history or
+books of speculation could hardly have taught us. How many could have
+thought that the most complete and formidable revolution in a great
+empire should be made by men of letters, not as subordinate instruments
+and trumpeters of sedition, but as the chief contrivers and managers,
+and in a short time as the open administrators and sovereign rulers? Who
+could have imagined that atheism could produce one of the most violently
+operative principles of fanaticism? Who could have imagined, that, in a
+commonwealth in a manner cradled in war, and in an extensive and
+dreadful war, military commanders should be of little or no account,
+--that the Convention should not contain one military man of name,--that
+administrative bodies, in a state of the utmost confusion, and of but a
+momentary duration, and composed of men with not one imposing part of
+character, should be able to govern the country and its armies with an
+authority which the most settled senates and the most respected monarchs
+scarcely ever had in the same degree? This, for one, I confess I did not
+foresee, though all the rest was present to me very early, and not out
+of my apprehension even for several years.
+
+I believe very few were able to enter into the effects of mere _terror_,
+as a principle not only for the support of power in given hands or
+forms, but in those things in which the soundest political speculators
+were of opinion that the least appearance of force would be totally
+destructive,--such is the market, whether of money, provision, or
+commodities of any kind. Yet for four years we have seen loans made,
+treasuries supplied, and armies levied and maintained, more numerous
+than France ever showed in the field, _by the effects of fear alone_.
+
+Here is a state of things of which in its totality if history furnishes
+any examples at all, they are very remote and feeble. I therefore am not
+so ready as some are to tax with folly or cowardice those who were not
+prepared to meet an evil of this nature. Even now, after the events, all
+the causes may be somewhat difficult to ascertain. Very many are,
+however, traceable. But these things history and books of speculation
+(as I have already said) did not teach men to foresee, and of course to
+resist. Now that they are no longer a matter of sagacity, but of
+experience, of recent experience, of our own experience, it would be
+unjustifiable to go back to the records of other times to instruct us to
+manage what they never enabled us to foresee.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[33] Some accounts make them five times as many.
+
+[34] Before the Revolution, the French noblesse were so reduced in
+numbers that they did not much exceed twenty thousand at least of
+full-grown men. As they have been very cruelly formed into entire corps
+of soldiers, it is estimated, that, by the sword, and distempers in the
+field, they have not lost less than five thousand men; and if this
+course is pursued, it is to be feared that the whole body of the French
+nobility may be extinguished. Several hundreds have also perished by
+famine, and various accidents.
+
+[35] This was the language of the Ministerialists.
+
+[36] Vattel.
+
+[37] The first object of this club was the propagation of Jacobin
+principles.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+EXTRACTS FROM VATTEL'S LAW OF NATIONS.
+
+[The Titles, Marginal Abstracts, and Notes are by Mr. BURKE, excepting
+such of the Notes as are here distinguished.]
+
+
+CASES OF INTERFERENCE WITH INDEPENDENT POWERS.
+
+"If, then, there is anywhere a nation of a _restless and mischievous_
+disposition, always ready _to injure others, to traverse their designs,
+and to raise domestic troubles_[38] it is not to be doubted that all
+have a right to join _in order to repress, chastise, and put it ever
+after out of its power_ to injure them. Such should be the just fruits
+of the policy which Machiavel praises in C�sar Borgia. The conduct
+followed by Philip the Second, King of Spain, _was adapted to unite all
+Europe against him_; and it was from just reasons that Henry the Great
+formed the design of humbling a power _formidable by its forces and
+pernicious by its maxims_."--Book II. ch. iv. � 53.
+
+"Let us apply to the unjust what we have said above (� 53) of a
+mischievous or maleficent nation. If there be any that makes an open
+profession _of trampling justice under foot, of despising and violating
+the right of others_,[39] whenever it finds an opportunity, _the
+interest of human society will authorize all others to unite in order to
+humble and chastise it_. We do not here forget the maxim established in
+our preliminaries, that it does not belong to nations to usurp the power
+of being judges of each other. In particular cases, liable to the least
+doubt, it ought to be supposed that each of the parties may have some
+right; and the injustice of that which has committed the injury may
+proceed from error, and not from a general contempt of justice. _But if,
+by constant maxims, and by a continued conduct_, one nation shows that
+it has evidently this pernicious disposition, and that it considers no
+right as sacred, the safety of the human race requires that it should be
+suppressed. To form and support an unjust pretension is to do an injury
+_not only to him who is interested in this pretension, but to mock at
+justice in general, and to injure all nations_."--Ibid. ch. v. � 70.
+
+[Sidenote: To succor against tyranny.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case of English Revolution.]
+
+[Sidenote: An odious tyrant.]
+
+[Sidenote: Rebellious people.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case of civil war.]
+
+[Sidenote: Sovereign and his people, when distinct powers.]
+
+"If the prince, attacking the fundamental laws, gives his subjects a
+legal right to resist him, if tyranny, _becoming insupportable_, obliges
+the nation to rise in their defence, every foreign power has a right to
+succor an oppressed people who implore their assistance. The English
+justly complained of James the Second. _The nobility and the most
+distinguished patriots_ resolved to put a check on his enterprises,
+which manifestly tended to overthrow the Constitution and to destroy the
+liberties and the religion of the people, _and therefore applied for
+assistance to the United Provinces_. The authority of the Prince of
+Orange had, doubtless, an influence on the deliberations of the
+States-General; but it did not make them commit injustice: for when a
+people, from good reasons, take up arms against an oppressor, _justice
+and generosity require that brave men should be assisted in the defence
+of their liberties_. Whenever, therefore, a civil war is kindled in a
+state, foreign powers may assist that party which appears to them to
+have justice on their side. _He who assists an odious tyrant, he who
+declares FOR AN UNJUST AND REBELLIOUS PEOPLE, offends against his duty_.
+When the bands of the political society are broken, or at least
+suspended between the sovereign and his people, they may then be
+considered as two distinct powers; and since each is independent of all
+foreign authority, nobody has a right to judge them. Either may be in
+the right, and each of those who grant their assistance may believe that
+he supports a good cause. It follows, then, in virtue of the voluntary
+law of nations, (see Prelim. � 21,) that the two parties may act as
+having an equal right, and behave accordingly, till the decision of the
+affair.
+
+[Sidenote: Not to be pursued to an extreme.]
+
+[Sidenote: Endeavor to persuade subjects to a revolt.]
+
+"But we ought not to abuse this maxim for authorizing odious proceedings
+against the tranquillity of states. It is a violation of the law of
+nations _to persuade those subjects to revolt who actually obey their
+sovereign, though they complain of his government_.
+
+[Sidenote: Attempt to excite subjects to revolt.]
+
+"The practice of nations is conformable to our maxims. When the German
+Protestants came to the assistance of the Reformed in France, the court
+never undertook to treat them otherwise than as common enemies, and
+according to the laws of war. France at the same time assisted the
+Netherlands, which took up arms against Spain, and did not pretend that
+her troops should be considered upon any other footing than as
+auxiliaries in a regular war. _But no power avoids complaining of an
+atrocious injury, if any one attempts by his emissaries to excite his
+subjects to revolt_.
+
+[Sidenote: Tyrants.]
+
+"As to those monsters, who, under the title of sovereigns, render
+themselves the scourges and horror of the human race,--these are savage
+beasts, from which every brave man may justly purge the earth. All
+antiquity has praised Hercules for delivering the world from an Ant�us,
+a Busiris, and a Diomedes."--Ibid. ch. iv. � 56.
+
+After stating that nations have no right to interfere in domestic
+concerns, he proceeds,--"But this rule does not preclude them from
+espousing the quarrel of a dethroned king, and assisting him, if he
+appears to have justice on his side. They then declare themselves
+enemies of the nation which has acknowledged his rival; as, when two
+_different nations_ are at war, they are at liberty to assist that whose
+quarrel they shall think has the fairest appearance."--Book IV. ch. ii.
+� 14.
+
+
+CASE OF ALLIANCES.
+
+[Sidenote: When an alliance to preserve a king takes place.]
+
+[Sidenote: King does not lose his quality by the loss of his kingdom.]
+
+"It is asked if that alliance subsists with the king and the royal
+family when by some revolution they are deprived of their crown. We have
+lately remarked, (� 194,) that a personal alliance expires with the
+reign of him who contracted it: but that is to be understood of an
+alliance with the state, limited, as to its duration, to the reign of
+the contracting king. This of which we are here speaking is of another
+nature. For though it binds the state, since it is bound by all the
+public acts of its sovereign, it is made directly in favor of the king
+and his family; it would therefore be absurd for it to terminate _at the
+moment when they have need of it, and at an event against which it was
+made_. Besides, the king does not lose his quality merely by the loss of
+his kingdom. _If he is stripped of it unjustly by an usurper, or by
+rebels, he preserves his rights, in the number of which are his
+alliances_.[40]
+
+[Sidenote: Case wherein aid may be given to a deposed king.]
+
+"But who shall judge if the king be dethroned lawfully or by violence?
+An independent nation acknowledges no judge. If the body of the nation
+declares the king deprived of his rights by the abuse he has made of
+them, and deposes him, it may justly do it _when its grievances are well
+founded_, and no other power has a right to censure it. The personal
+ally of this king ought not then to assist him against the nation that
+has made use of its right in deposing him: if he attempts it, he injures
+that nation. England declared war against Louis the Fourteenth, in the
+year 1688, for supporting the interest of James the Second, who was
+deposed in form by the nation. The same country declared war against him
+a second time, at the beginning of the present century, because that
+prince acknowledged the son of the deposed James, under the name of
+James the Third. In doubtful cases, and _when the body of the nation has
+not pronounced, or HAS NOT PRONOUNCED FREELY_, a sovereign may naturally
+support and defend an ally; and it is then that the voluntary law of
+nations subsists between different states. The party that has driven out
+the king pretends to have right on its side; this unhappy king and his
+ally flatter themselves with having the same advantage; and as they have
+no common judge upon earth, they have no other method to take but to
+apply to arms to terminate the dispute; they therefore engage in a
+formal war.
+
+[Sidenote: Not obliged to pursue his right beyond a certain point.]
+
+"In short, when the foreign prince has faithfully fulfilled his
+engagements towards an unfortunate monarch, when he has done in his
+defence, or to procure his restoration, all he was obliged to perform in
+virtue of the alliance, if his efforts are ineffectual, the dethroned
+prince cannot require him to support an endless war in his favor, or
+expect that he will eternally remain the enemy of the nation or of the
+sovereign who has deprived him of the throne. He must think of peace,
+abandon the ally, and consider him as having himself abandoned his right
+through necessity. Thus Louis the Fourteenth was obliged to abandon
+James the Second, and to acknowledge King William, though he had at
+first treated him as an usurper.
+
+[Sidenote: Case of defence against subjects.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case where real alliances may be renounced.]
+
+"The same question presents itself in real alliances, and, in general,
+in all alliances made with the state, and not in particular with a king
+for the defence of his person. An ally ought, doubtless, to be defended
+against every invasion, against every foreign violence, _and even
+against his rebellious subjects: in the same manner a republic ought to
+be defended against the enterprises of one who attempts to destroy the
+public liberty_. But it ought to be remembered that an ally of the state
+or the nation is not its judge. If the nation has deposed its king in
+form,--if the people of a republic have driven out their magistrates and
+set themselves at liberty, or acknowledged the authority of an usurper,
+either expressly or tacitly,--to oppose these domestic regulations, by
+disputing their justice or validity, would be to interfere in the
+government of the nation, and to do it an injury. (See � 54, and
+following, of this Book.) The ally remains the ally of the state,
+notwithstanding the change that has happened in it. _However, when this
+change renders the alliance useless, dangerous, or disagreeable, it may
+renounce it; for it may say, upon a good foundation, that it would not
+have entered into an alliance with that nation, had it been under the
+present form of government._
+
+[Sidenote: Not an eternal war.]
+
+"We may say here, what we have said on a personal alliance: however
+just the cause of that king may be who is driven from the throne either
+by his subjects or by a foreign usurper, his aides are not obliged to
+support _an eternal war_ in his favor. After having made ineffectual
+efforts to restore him, they must at length give peace to their people,
+and come to an accommodation with the usurper, and for that purpose
+treat with him as with a lawful sovereign. Louis the Fourteenth,
+exhausted by a bloody and unsuccessful war, offered at Gertruydenberg to
+abandon his grandson, whom he had placed on the throne of Spain; and
+when affairs had changed their appearance, Charles of Austria, the rival
+of Philip, saw himself, in his turn, abandoned by his allies. They grew
+weary of exhausting their states in order to give him the possession of
+a crown which they believed to be his due, but which, to all appearance,
+they should never be able to procure for him."--Book II. ch. xii. ��
+196, 197.
+
+
+DANGEROUS POWER.
+
+[Sidenote: All nations may join.]
+
+"It is still easier to prove, that, should this formidable power betray
+any unjust and ambitious dispositions by doing the least injustice to
+another, every nation may avail themselves of the occasion, and join
+their forces to those of the party injured, in order to reduce that
+ambitious power, and disable it from so easily oppressing its neighbors,
+or keeping them in continual awe and fear. For an injury gives a nation
+a right to provide for its future safety by taking away from the
+violator the means of oppression. It is lawful, and even praiseworthy,
+to assist those who are oppressed, or unjustly attacked."--Book III. ch.
+iii. � 45.
+
+
+SYSTEM OF EUROPE.
+
+[Sidenote: Europe a republic to preserve order and liberty.]
+
+"Europe forms a political system, a body where the whole is connected by
+the relations and different interests of nations inhabiting this part of
+the world. It is not, as anciently, a confused heap of detached pieces,
+each of which thought itself very little concerned in the fate of
+others, and seldom regarded things which did not immediately relate to
+it. The continual attention of sovereigns to what is on the carpet, the
+constant residence of ministers, and _the perpetual negotiations, make
+Europe a kind of a republic, the members of which, though independent,
+unite, through the ties of common interest, for the maintenance of order
+and liberty_. Hence arose that famous scheme of the political
+equilibrium, or balance of power, by which is understood such a
+disposition of things as no power is able absolutely to predominate or
+to prescribe laws to others."--Book III. ch. iii. � 47.
+
+"Confederacies would be a sure way of preserving the equilibrium, and
+supporting the liberty of nations, did all princes thoroughly understand
+their true interests, and regulate all their steps for the good of the
+state."--Ibid. � 49.
+
+
+CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY.
+
+[Sidenote: To be moderate.]
+
+"Instead of the pillage of the country and defenceless places, a custom
+has been substituted more humane and more advantageous to the sovereign
+making war: I mean that of contributions. Whoever carries on _a just
+war[41] has a right of making the enemy's country contribute to the
+support of the army, and towards defraying all the charges of the war_.
+Thus he obtains a part of what is due to him, and the subjects of the
+enemy, on submitting to this imposition, are secured from pillage, and
+the country is preserved. But a general who would not sully his
+reputation is to moderate his contributions, and proportion them to
+those on whom they are imposed. An excess in this point is not without
+the reproach of cruelty and inhumanity: if it shows less ferocity than
+ravage and destruction, it glares with avarice."--Book III. ch. ix. �
+165.
+
+
+ASYLUM.
+
+"If an exile or banished man is driven from his country for any crime,
+it does _not_ belong to the nation in which he has taken refuge to
+punish him for a fault committed in a foreign country. For Nature gives
+to mankind and to nations the right of punishing only for their defence
+and safety (� 169): whence it follows that he can only be punished by
+those he has offended.
+
+"But this reason shows, that, if the justice of each nation ought in
+general to be confined to the punishment of crimes committed in its own
+territories, we ought to except from this rule the villains who, by the
+quality and habitual frequency of their crimes, violate all public
+security, and declare themselves the enemies of the human race.
+Poisoners, assassins, and incendiaries by profession may be exterminated
+wherever they are seized; for they attack and injure all nations by
+trampling under foot the foundations of their common safety. Thus
+pirates are brought to the gibbet by the first into whose hands they
+fall. If the sovereign of the country where crimes of that nature have
+been committed reclaims the authors of them in order to bring them to
+punishment, they ought to be restored to him, as to one who is
+_principally_ interested in punishing them in an exemplary manner: and
+it being proper to convict the guilty, and to try them according to some
+form of law, this is a _second_ [not sole] reason why malefactors are
+usually delivered up at the desire of the state where their crimes have
+been committed."--Book I. ch. xix. �� 232, 233.
+
+"Every nation has a right of refusing to admit a stranger into the
+country, when he cannot enter it without putting it in evident danger,
+or without doing it a remarkable prejudice."[42]--Ibid. � 230.
+
+
+FOREIGN MINISTERS.
+
+"The obligation does not go so far as to suffer at all times perpetual
+ministers, who are desirous of residing with a sovereign, though they
+have nothing to negotiate. It is natural, indeed, and very agreeable to
+the sentiments which nations owe to each other, that these resident
+ministers, _when there it nothing to be feared from their stay_, should
+be friendly received; but if there be any solid reason against this,
+what is for the good of the state ought unquestionably to be preferred:
+and the foreign sovereign cannot take it amiss, if his minister, who has
+concluded the affairs of his commission, and has no other affairs to
+negotiate, be desired to depart.[43] The custom of keeping everywhere
+ministers continually resident is now so strongly established, that the
+refusal of a conformity to it would, without _very good reasons_, give
+offence. These reasons may arise from _particular_ conjunctures; but
+there are also common reasons always subsisting, and such as relate to
+_the constitution of a government and the state of a nation_. The
+republics have often very good reasons of the latter kind to excuse
+themselves from continually suffering foreign ministers who _corrupt the
+citizens in order to gain them over to their masters, to the great
+prejudice of the republic and fomenting of the parties_, &c. And should
+they only diffuse among a nation, formerly plain, frugal, and virtuous,
+a taste for luxury, avidity for money, and the manners of courts, these
+would be more than sufficient for wise and provident rulers to dismiss
+them."--Book IV. ch. v. � 66.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[38] This is the case of France:--Semonville at Turin,--Jacobin
+clubs,--Liegeois meeting,--Flemish meeting,--La Fayette's
+answer,--Clootz's embassy,--Avignon.
+
+[39] The French acknowledge no power not directly emanating from the
+people.
+
+[40] By the seventh article of the Treaty of TRIPLE ALLIANCE, between
+France, England, and Holland, signed at the Hague, in the year 1717, it
+is stipulated, "that, if the kingdoms, countries, or provinces of any of
+the allies are disturbed by intestine quarrels, or _by rebellions, on
+account of the said successions_," (the Protestant succession to the
+throne of Great Britain, and the succession to the throne of France, as
+settled by the Treaty of Utrecht,) "or _under any other pretext
+whatever_, the ally thus in trouble shall have full right to demand of
+his allies the succors above mentioned": that is to say, the same
+succors as in the case of an invasion from any foreign power,--8,000
+foot and 2,000 horse to be furnished by France or England, and 4,000
+foot and 1,000 horse by the States-General.
+
+By the fourth article of the Treaty of QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, between
+England, France, Holland, and the Emperor of Germany, signed in the year
+1718, the contracting powers "promise and oblige themselves that they
+will and ought to maintain, guaranty, and defend the right of succession
+in the kingdom of France, according to the tenor of the treaties made at
+Utrecht the 11th day of April, 1713; ... and this they shall perform
+_against all persons whosoever who may presume to disturb the order of
+the said succession_, in contradiction to the previous acts and treaties
+subsequent thereon."
+
+The above treaties have been revived and confirmed by every subsequent
+treaty of peace between Great Britain and France.--EDIT.
+
+[41] Contributions raised by the Duke of Brunswick in France. Compare
+these with the contributions raised by the French in the
+Netherlands.--EDIT.
+
+[42] The third article of the Treaty of Triple Alliance and the latter
+part of the fourth article of the Treaty of Quadruple Alliance
+stipulate, that no kind of refuge or protection shall be given to
+rebellious subjects of the contracting powers.--EDIT.
+
+[43] Dismission of M. Chauvelin.--EDIT.
+
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. IV.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable
+Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
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+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+
diff --git a/15700-8.zip b/15700-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5de9e3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15700-8.zip
diff --git a/15700-h.zip b/15700-h.zip
new file mode 100644
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diff --git a/15700-h/15700-h.htm b/15700-h/15700-h.htm
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund
+Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
+
+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: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12)
+
+Author: Edmund Burke
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15700]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURKE VOL 4 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made
+available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France
+(BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p><a name="Page_-3" id="Page_-3" /></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>THE WORKS
+<br /><br />
+<span style="font-size: 71%">OF</span>
+<br /><br />
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE<br />
+
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 200%">EDMUND BURKE</span></h2>
+
+<h3>IN TWELVE VOLUMES<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: smaller">VOLUME THE FOURTH</span></h3>
+<p />
+<div style="text-align: center">
+<img src="images/001.png" alt="BURKE COAT OF ARMS." title="BURKE COAT OF ARMS" />
+</div>
+<p />
+<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0"><b>London</b><br />
+<br />
+
+JOHN C. NIMMO<br />
+<br />
+14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.<br />
+
+MDCCCLXXXVII<br /></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_IV" id="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_IV" />CONTENTS OF VOL IV.</h2>
+<p><a name="Page_-2" id="Page_-2"></a><a name="Page_-1" id="Page_-1"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<ul class="TOC"><li><a href="#MEMBER_OF_THE_NATIONAL_ASSEMBLY">LETTER TO A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, IN ANSWER TO SOME
+OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS</a>                               <span class="tocright">1</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#APPEAL">APPEAL FROM THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS</a>                                  <span class="tocright">57</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#PEER_OF_IRELAND">LETTER TO A PEER OF IRELAND ON THE PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH
+CATHOLICS</a>                                                            <span class="tocright">217</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#SIR_HERCULES_LANGRISHE">LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ROMAN
+CATHOLICS OF IRELAND</a>                                                 <span class="tocright">241</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#HINTS_FOR_A_MEMORIAL">HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL TO BE DELIVERED TO MONSIEUR DE M.M.</a>             <span class="tocright">307</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#THOUGHTS">THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS</a>                                           <span class="tocright">313</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#HEADS_FOR_CONSIDERATION">HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS</a>              <span class="tocright">379</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#REMARKS">REMARKS ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE: WITH
+AN APPENDIX</a>                                                          <span class="tocright">403</span></li></ul>
+
+<p><a name="Page_-0" id="Page_-0"></a><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" title="1" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="MEMBER_OF_THE_NATIONAL_ASSEMBLY" id="MEMBER_OF_THE_NATIONAL_ASSEMBLY" /></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span style="font-size: 60%">A</span><br />
+<br />
+LETTER<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">TO</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">IN</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">ANSWER TO SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">1791.</span></h2>
+<p><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" title="2" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" title="3" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Sir,&mdash;I had the honor to receive your letter of the 17th of November
+last, in which, with some exceptions, you are pleased to consider
+favorably the letter I have written on the affairs of France. I shall
+ever accept any mark of approbation attended with instruction with more
+pleasure than general and unqualified praises. The latter can serve only
+to flatter our vanity; the former, whilst it encourages us to proceed,
+may help to improve us in our progress.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the errors you point out to me in my printed letter are really
+such. One only I find to be material. It is corrected in the edition
+which I take the liberty of sending to you. As to the cavils which may
+be made on some part of my remarks with regard to the <i>gradations</i> in
+your new Constitution, you observe justly that they do not affect the
+substance of my objections. Whether there be a round more or less in the
+ladder of representation by which your workmen ascend from their
+parochial tyranny to their federal anarchy, when the whole scale is
+false, appears to me of little or no importance.</p>
+
+<p>I published my thoughts on that Constitution, that my countrymen might
+be enabled to estimate the wisdom of the plans which were held out to
+their imitation. I conceived that the true character of those plans
+would be best collected from the committee appointed to prepare them. I
+thought that the scheme of their building would be better comprehended<a name="Page_4" id="Page_4" title="4" class="pagenum"></a>
+in the design of the architects than in the execution of the masons. It
+was not worth my reader's while to occupy himself with the alterations
+by which bungling practice corrects absurd theory. Such an investigation
+would be endless: because every day's past experience of
+impracticability has driven, and every day's future experience will
+drive, those men to new devices as exceptionable as the old, and which
+are no otherwise worthy of observation than as they give a daily proof
+of the delusion of their promises and the falsehood of their
+professions. Had I followed all these changes, my letter would have been
+only a gazette of their wanderings, a journal of their march from error
+to error, through a dry, dreary desert, unguided by the lights of
+Heaven, or by the contrivance which wisdom has invented to supply their
+place.</p>
+
+<p>I am unalterably persuaded that the attempt to oppress, degrade,
+impoverish, confiscate, and extinguish the original gentlemen and landed
+property of a whole nation cannot be justified under any form it may
+assume. I am satisfied beyond a doubt, that the project of turning a
+great empire into a vestry, or into a collection of vestries, and of
+governing it in the spirit of a parochial administration, is senseless
+and absurd, in any mode or with any qualifications. I can never be
+convinced that the scheme of placing the highest powers of the state in
+church-wardens and constables and other such officers, guided by the
+prudence of litigious attorneys and Jew brokers, and set in action by
+shameless women of the lowest condition, by keepers of hotels, taverns,
+and brothels, by pert apprentices, by clerks, shop-boys, hair-dressers,
+fiddlers, and dancers on the stage,<a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" title="5" class="pagenum"></a> (who, in such a commonwealth as
+yours, will in future overbear, as already they have overborne, the
+sober incapacity of dull, uninstructed men, of useful, but laborious
+occupations,) can never be put into any shape that must not be both
+disgraceful and destructive. The whole of this project, even if it were
+what it pretends to be, and was not in reality the dominion, through
+that disgraceful medium, of half a dozen, or perhaps fewer, intriguing
+politicians, is so mean, so low-minded, so stupid a contrivance, in
+point of wisdom, as well as so perfectly detestable for its wickedness,
+that I must always consider the correctives which might make it in any
+degree practicable to be so many new objections to it.</p>
+
+<p>In that wretched state of things, some are afraid that the authors of
+your miseries may be led to precipitate their further designs by the
+hints they may receive from the very arguments used to expose the
+absurdity of their system, to mark the incongruity of its parts, and its
+inconsistency with their own principles,&mdash;and that your masters may be
+led to render their schemes more consistent by rendering them more
+mischievous. Excuse the liberty which your indulgence authorizes me to
+take, when I observe to you that such apprehensions as these would
+prevent all exertion of our faculties in this great cause of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>A rash recourse to <i>force</i> is not to be justified in a state of real
+weakness. Such attempts bring on disgrace, and in their failure
+discountenance and discourage more rational endeavors. But <i>reason</i> is
+to be hazarded, though it may be perverted by craft and sophistry; for
+reason can suffer no loss nor shame, nor can it impede any useful plan
+of future policy.<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" title="6" class="pagenum"></a> In the unavoidable uncertainty as to the effect,
+which attends on every measure of human prudence, nothing seems a surer
+antidote to the poison of fraud than its detection. It is true, the
+fraud may be swallowed after this discovery, and perhaps even swallowed
+the more greedily for being a detected fraud. Men sometimes make a point
+of honor not to be disabused; and they had rather fall into an hundred
+errors than confess one. But, after all, when neither our principles nor
+our dispositions, nor, perhaps, our talents, enable us to encounter
+delusion with delusion, we must use our best reason to those that ought
+to be reasonable creatures, and to take our chance for the event. We
+cannot act on these anomalies in the minds of men. I do not conceive
+that the persons who have contrived these things can be made much the
+better or the worse for anything which can be said to them. <i>They</i> are
+reason-proof. Here and there, some men, who were at first carried away
+by wild, good intentions, may be led, when their first fervors are
+abated, to join in a sober survey of the schemes into which they had
+been deluded. To those only (and I am sorry to say they are not likely
+to make a large description) we apply with any hope. I may speak it upon
+an assurance almost approaching to absolute knowledge, that nothing has
+been done that has not been contrived from the beginning, even before
+the States had assembled. <i>Nulla nova mihi res inopinave surgit.</i> They
+are the same men and the same designs that they were from the first,
+though varied in their appearance. It was the very same animal that at
+first crawled about in the shape of a caterpillar that you now see rise
+into the air and expand his wings to the sun.<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" title="7" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Proceeding, therefore, as we are obliged to proceed,&mdash;that is, upon an
+hypothesis that we address rational men,&mdash;can false political principles
+be more effectually exposed than by demonstrating that they lead to
+consequences directly inconsistent with and subversive of the
+arrangements grounded upon them? If this kind of demonstration is not
+permitted, the process of reasoning called <i>deductio ad absurdum</i>, which
+even the severity of geometry does not reject, could not be employed at
+all in legislative discussions. One of our strongest weapons against
+folly acting with authority would be lost.</p>
+
+<p>You know, Sir, that even the virtuous efforts of your patriots to
+prevent the ruin of your country have had this very turn given to them.
+It has been said here, and in France too, that the reigning usurpers
+would not have carried their tyranny to such destructive lengths, if
+they had not been stimulated and provoked to it by the acrimony of your
+opposition. There is a dilemma to which every opposition to successful
+iniquity must, in the nature of things, be liable. If you lie still, you
+are considered as an accomplice in the measures in which you silently
+acquiesce. If you resist, you are accused of provoking irritable power
+to new excesses. The conduct of a losing party never appears right: at
+least, it never can possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to
+vulgar judgments,&mdash;success.</p>
+
+<p>The indulgence of a sort of undefined hope, an obscure confidence, that
+some lurking remains of virtue, some degree of shame, might exist in the
+breasts of the oppressors of France, has been among the causes which
+have helped to bring on the common ruin of king and people. There is no
+safety for hon<a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" title="8" class="pagenum"></a>est men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men,
+and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
+I well remember, at every epocha of this wonderful history, in every
+scene of this tragic business, that, when your sophistic usurpers were
+laying down mischievous principles, and even applying them in direct
+resolutions, it was the fashion to say that they never intended to
+execute those declarations in their rigor. This made men careless in
+their opposition, and remiss in early precaution. By holding out this
+fallacious hope, the impostors deluded sometimes one description of men,
+and sometimes another, so that no means of resistance were provided
+against them, when they came to execute in cruelty what they had planned
+in fraud.</p>
+
+<p>There are cases in which a man would be ashamed not to have been imposed
+on. There is a confidence necessary to human intercourse, and without
+which men are often more injured by their own suspicions than they would
+be by the perfidy of others. But when men whom we <i>know</i> to be wicked
+impose upon us, we are something worse than dupes. When we know them,
+their fair pretences become new motives for distrust. There is one case,
+indeed, in which it would be madness not to give the fullest credit to
+the most deceitful of men,&mdash;that is, when they make declarations of
+hostility against us.</p>
+
+<p>I find that some persons entertain other hopes, which I confess appear
+more specious than those by which at first so many were deluded and
+disarmed. They flatter themselves that the extreme misery brought upon
+the people by their folly will at last open the eyes of the multitude,
+if not of their leaders. Much the contrary, I fear. As to the leaders in
+this <a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" title="9" class="pagenum"></a>system of imposture,&mdash;you know that cheats and deceivers never can
+repent. The fraudulent have no resource but in fraud. They have no other
+goods in their magazine. They have no virtue or wisdom in their minds,
+to which, in a disappointment concerning the profitable effects of fraud
+and cunning, they can retreat. The wearing out of an old serves only to
+put them upon the invention of a new delusion. Unluckily, too, the
+credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as the invention of knaves. They
+never give people possession; but they always keep them in hope. Your
+state doctors do not so much as pretend that any good whatsoever has
+hitherto been derived from their operations, or that the public has
+prospered in any one instance under their management. The nation is
+sick, very sick, by their medicines. But the charlatan tells them that
+what is past cannot be helped;&mdash;they have taken the draught, and they
+must wait its operation with patience;&mdash;that the first effects, indeed,
+are unpleasant, but that the very sickness is a proof that the dose is
+of no sluggish operation;&mdash;that sickness is inevitable in all
+constitutional revolutions;&mdash;that the body must pass through pain to
+ease;&mdash;that the prescriber is not an empiric who proceeds by vulgar
+experience, but one who grounds his practice<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor" title=" It is said in the last quackish address of the National
+Assembly to the people of France, that they have not formed their
+arrangements upon vulgar practice, but on a theory which cannot
+fail,&mdash;or something to that effect.">[1]</a> on the sure rules of
+art, which cannot possibly fail. You have read, Sir, the last manifesto,
+or mountebank's bill, of the National Assembly. You see their
+presumption in their promises is not lessened by all their failures in
+the per<a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" title="10" class="pagenum"></a>formance. Compare this last address of the Assembly and the
+present state of your affairs with the early engagements of that body,
+engagements which, not content with declaring, they solemnly deposed
+upon oath,&mdash;swearing lustily, that, if they were supported, they would
+make their country glorious and happy; and then judge whether those who
+can write such things, or those who can bear to read them, are of
+<i>themselves</i> to be brought to any reasonable course of thought or
+action.</p>
+
+<p>As to the people at large, when once these miserable sheep have broken
+the fold, and have got themselves loose, not from the restraint, but
+from the protection, of all the principles of natural authority and
+legitimate subordination, they become the natural prey of impostors.
+When they have once tasted of the flattery of knaves, they can no longer
+endure reason, which appears to them only in the form of censure and
+reproach. Great distress has never hitherto taught, and whilst the world
+lasts it never will teach, wise lessons to any part of mankind. Men are
+as much blinded by the extremes of misery as by the extremes of
+prosperity. Desperate situations produce desperate councils and
+desperate measures. The people of France, almost generally, have been
+taught to look for other resources than those which can be derived from
+order, frugality, and industry. They are generally armed; and they are
+made to expect much from the use of arms. <i>Nihil non arrogant armis.</i>
+Besides this, the retrograde order of society has something flattering
+to the dispositions of mankind. The life of adventurers, gamesters,
+gypsies, beggars, and robbers is not unpleasant. It requires restraint
+to keep men from falling into that habit. The shifting <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" title="11" class="pagenum"></a>tides of fear
+and hope, the flight and pursuit, the peril and escape, the alternate
+famine and feast of the savage and the thief, after a time; render all
+course of slow, steady, progressive, unvaried occupation, and the
+prospect only of a limited mediocrity at the end of long labor, to the
+last degree tame, languid, and insipid. Those who have been once
+intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it,
+even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may
+be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look
+to anything but power for their relief. When did distress ever oblige a
+prince to abdicate his authority? And what effect will it have upon
+those who are made to believe themselves a people of princes?</p>
+
+<p>The more active and stirring part of the lower orders having got
+government and the distribution of plunder into their hands, they will
+use its resources in each municipality to form a body of adherents.
+These rulers and their adherents will be strong enough to overpower the
+discontents of those who have not been able to assert their share of the
+spoil. The unfortunate adventurers in the cheating lottery of plunder
+will probably be the least sagacious or the most inactive and irresolute
+of the gang. If, on disappointment, they should dare to stir, they will
+soon be suppressed as rebels and mutineers by their brother rebels.
+Scantily fed for a while with the offal of plunder, they will drop off
+by degrees; they will be driven out of sight and out of thought; and
+they will be left to perish obscurely, like rats, in holes and corners.</p>
+
+<p>From the forced repentance of invalid mutineers and disbanded thieves
+you can hope for no resource. Government itself, which ought to
+constrain the more <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" title="12" class="pagenum"></a>bold and dexterous of these robbers, is their
+accomplice. Its arms, its treasures, its all are in their hands.
+Judicature, which above all things should awe them, is their creature
+and their instrument. Nothing seems to me to render your internal
+situation more desperate than this one circumstance of the state of your
+judicature. Many days are not passed since we have seen a set of men
+brought forth by your rulers for a most critical function. Your rulers
+brought forth a set of men, steaming from the sweat and drudgery, and
+all black with the smoke and soot, of the forge of confiscation and
+robbery,&mdash;<i>ardentis mass&aelig; fuligine lippos</i>,&mdash;a set of men brought forth
+from the trade of hammering arms of proof, offensive and defensive, in
+aid of the enterprises, and for the subsequent protection, of
+housebreakers, murderers, traitors, and malefactors,&mdash;men, who had their
+minds seasoned with theories perfectly conformable to their practice,
+and who had always laughed at possession and prescription, and defied
+all the fundamental maxims of jurisprudence. To the horror and
+stupefaction of all the honest part of this nation, and indeed of all
+nations who are spectators, we have seen, on the credit of those very
+practices and principles, and to carry them further into effect, these
+very men placed on the sacred seat of justice in the capital city of
+your late kingdom. We see that in future you are to be destroyed with
+more form and regularity. This is not peace: it is only the introduction
+of a sort of discipline in their hostility. Their tyranny is complete in
+their justice; and their <i>lanterne</i> is not half so dreadful as their
+court.</p>
+
+<p>One would think, that, out of common decency, they would have given you
+men who had not been in the <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" title="13" class="pagenum"></a>habit of trampling upon law and justice in
+the Assembly, neutral men, or men apparently neutral, for judges, who
+are to dispose of your lives and fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell, when he attempted to legalize his power, and to settle his
+conquered country in a state of order, did not look for dispensers of
+justice in the instruments of his usurpation. Quite the contrary. He
+sought out, with great solicitude and selection, and even from the party
+most opposite to his designs, men of weight and decorum of
+character,&mdash;men unstained with the violence of the times, and with hands
+not fouled with confiscation and sacrilege: for he chose an Hale for his
+chief justice, though he absolutely refused to take his civic oaths, or
+to make any acknowledgment whatsoever of the legality of his government.
+Cromwell told this great lawyer, that, since he did not approve his
+title, all he required of him was to administer, in a manner agreeable
+to his pure sentiments and unspotted character, that justice without
+which human society cannot subsist,&mdash;that it was not his particular
+government, but civil order itself, which, as a judge, he wished him to
+support. Cromwell knew how to separate the institutions expedient to his
+usurpation from the administration of the public justice of his country.
+For Cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not wholly suppressed, but
+only suspended, the sentiments of religion, and the love (as far as it
+could consist with his designs) of fair and honorable reputation.
+Accordingly, we are indebted to this act of his for the preservation of
+our laws, which some senseless assertors of the rights of men were then
+on the point of entirely erasing, as relics of feudality and barbarism.
+Besides, he gave, in the appointment of that man, to that age, and to
+<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" title="14" class="pagenum"></a>all posterity, the most brilliant example of sincere and fervent piety,
+exact justice, and profound jurisprudence.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor" title=" See Burnet's Life of Hale.">[2]</a> But these are not the
+things in which your philosophic usurpers choose to follow Cromwell.</p>
+
+<p>One would think, that, after an honest and necessary revolution, (if
+they had a mind that theirs should pass for such,) your masters would
+have imitated the virtuous policy of those who have been at the head of
+revolutions of that glorious character. Burnet tells us, that nothing
+tended to reconcile the English nation to the government of King William
+so much as the care he took to fill the vacant bishoprics with men who
+had attracted the public esteem by their learning, eloquence, and piety,
+and above all, by their known moderation in the state. With you, in your
+purifying revolution, whom have you chosen to regulate the Church? M.
+Mirabeau is a fine speaker, and a fine writer, and a fine&mdash;a very fine
+man; but, really, nothing gave more surprise to everybody here than to
+find him the supreme head of your ecclesiastical affairs. The rest is of
+course. Your Assembly addresses a manifesto to France, in which they
+tell the people, with an insulting irony, that they have brought the
+Church to its primitive condition. In one respect their declaration is
+undoubtedly true: for they have brought it to a state of poverty and
+persecution. What can be hoped for after this? Have not men, (if they
+deserve the name,) under this new hope and head of the Church, been made
+bishops for no other merit than having acted as instruments of atheists?
+for no other merit than having thrown the children's bread to dogs? and,
+in order to gorge the whole gang of usurers, <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" title="15" class="pagenum"></a>peddlers, and itinerant
+Jew discounters at the corners of streets, starved the poor of their
+Christian flocks, and their own brother pastors? Have not such men been
+made bishops to administer in temples in which (if the patriotic
+donations have not already stripped them of their vessels) the
+church-wardens ought to take security for the altar plate, and not so
+much as to trust the chalice in their sacrilegious hands, so long as
+Jews have assignats on ecclesiastic plunder, to exchange for the silver
+stolen from churches?</p>
+
+<p>I am told that the very sons of such Jew jobbers have been made bishops:
+persons not to be suspected of any sort of <i>Christian</i> superstition, fit
+colleagues to the holy prelate of Autun, and bred at the feet of that
+Gamaliel. We know who it was that drove the money-changers out of the
+temple. We see, too, who it is that brings them in again. We have in
+London very respectable persons of the Jewish nation, whom we will keep;
+but we have of the same tribe others of a very different
+description,&mdash;housebreakers, and receivers of stolen goods, and forgers
+of paper currency, more than we can conveniently hang. These we can
+spare to France, to fill the new episcopal thrones: men well versed in
+swearing; and who will scruple no oath which the fertile genius of any
+of your reformers can devise.</p>
+
+<p>In matters so ridiculous it is hard to be grave. On a view of their
+consequences, it is almost inhuman to treat them lightly. To what a
+state of savage, stupid, servile insensibility must your people be
+reduced, who can endure such proceedings in their Church, their state,
+and their judicature, even for a moment! But the deluded people of
+France are like other madmen, who, to a miracle, bear hunger, and
+<a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" title="16" class="pagenum"></a>thirst, and cold, and confinement, and the chains and lash of their
+keeper, whilst all the while they support themselves by the imagination
+that they are generals of armies, prophets, kings, and emperors. As to a
+change of mind in those men, who consider infamy as honor, degradation
+as preferment, bondage to low tyrants as liberty, and the practical
+scorn and contumely of their upstart masters as marks of respect and
+homage, I look upon it as absolutely impracticable. These madmen, to be
+cured, must first, like other madmen, be subdued. The sound part of the
+community, which I believe to be large, but by no means the largest
+part, has been taken by surprise, and is disjointed, terrified, and
+disarmed. That sound part of the community must first be put into a
+better condition, before it can do anything in the way of deliberation
+or persuasion. This must be an act of power, as well as of wisdom: of
+power in the hands of firm, determined patriots, who can distinguish the
+misled from traitors, who will regulate the state (if such should be
+their fortune) with a discriminating, manly, and provident mercy; men
+who are purged of the surfeit and indigestion of systems, if ever they
+have been admitted into the habit of their minds; men who will lay the
+foundation of a real reform in effacing every vestige of that philosophy
+which pretends to have made discoveries in the <i>Terra Australia</i> of
+morality; men who will fix the state upon these bases of morals and
+politics, which are our old and immemorial, and, I hope, will be our
+eternal possession.</p>
+
+<p>This power, to such men, must come from <i>without</i>. It may be given to
+you in pity: for surely no nation ever called so pathetically on the
+compassion <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" title="17" class="pagenum"></a>of all its neighbors. It may be given by those neighbors on
+motives of safety to themselves. Never shall I think any country in
+Europe to be secure, whilst there is established in the very centre of
+it a state (if so it may be called) founded on principles of anarchy,
+and which is in reality a college of armed fanatics, for the propagation
+of the principles of assassination, robbery, rebellion, fraud, faction,
+oppression, and impiety. Mahomet, hid, as for a time he was, in the
+bottom of the sands of Arabia, had his spirit and character been
+discovered, would have been an object of precaution to provident minds.
+What if he had erected his fanatic standard for the destruction of the
+Christian religion <i>in luce Asi&aelig;</i>, in the midst of the then noonday
+splendor of the then civilized world? The princes of Europe, in the
+beginning of this century, did well not to suffer the monarchy of France
+to swallow up the others. They ought not now, in my opinion, to suffer
+all the monarchies and commonwealths to be swallowed up in the gulf of
+this polluted anarchy. They may be tolerably safe at present, because
+the comparative power of France for the present is little. But times and
+occasions make dangers. Intestine troubles may arise in other countries.
+There is a power always on the watch, qualified and disposed to profit
+of every conjuncture, to establish its own principles and modes of
+mischief, wherever it can hope for success. What mercy would these
+usurpers have on other sovereigns, and on other nations, when they treat
+their own king with such unparalleled indignities, and so cruelly
+oppress their own countrymen?</p>
+
+<p>The king of Prussia, in concurrence with us, nobly interfered to save
+Holland from confusion. The <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" title="18" class="pagenum"></a>same power, joined with the rescued Holland
+and with Great Britain, has put the Emperor in the possession of the
+Netherlands, and secured, under that prince, from all arbitrary
+innovation, the ancient, hereditary Constitution of those provinces. The
+chamber of Wetzlar has restored the Bishop of Liege, unjustly
+dispossessed by the rebellion of his subjects. The king of Prussia was
+bound by no treaty nor alliance of blood, nor had any particular reasons
+for thinking the Emperor's government would be more mischievous or more
+oppressive to human nature than that of the Turk; yet, on mere motives
+of policy, that prince has interposed, with the threat of all his force,
+to snatch even the Turk from the pounces of the Imperial eagle. If this
+is done in favor of a barbarous nation, with a barbarous neglect of
+police, fatal to the human race,&mdash;in favor of a nation by principle in
+eternal enmity with the Christian name, a nation which will not so much
+as give the salutation of peace (<i>Salam</i>) to any of us, nor make any
+pact with any Christian nation beyond a truce,&mdash;if this be done in favor
+of the Turk, shall it be thought either impolitic or unjust or
+uncharitable to employ the same power to rescue from captivity a
+virtuous monarch, (by the courtesy of Europe considered as Most
+Christian,) who, after an intermission of one hundred and seventy-five
+years, had called together the States of his kingdom to reform abuses,
+to establish a free government, and to strengthen his throne,&mdash;a monarch
+who, at the very outset, without force, even without solicitation, had
+given to his people such a Magna Charta of privileges as never was given
+by any king to any subjects? Is it to be tamely borne by kings who love
+their subjects, or by subjects who love their <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" title="19" class="pagenum"></a>kings, that this monarch,
+in the midst of these gracious acts, was insolently and cruelly torn
+from his palace by a gang of traitors and assassins, and kept in close
+prison to this very hour, whilst his royal name and sacred character
+were used for the total ruin of those whom the laws had appointed him to
+protect?</p>
+
+<p>The only offence of this unhappy monarch towards his people was his
+attempt, under a monarchy, to give them a free Constitution. For this,
+by an example hitherto unheard of in the world, he has been deposed. It
+might well disgrace sovereigns to take part with a deposed tyrant. It
+would suppose in them a vicious sympathy. But not to make a common cause
+with a just prince, dethroned by traitors and rebels, who proscribe,
+plunder, confiscate, and in every way cruelly oppress their
+fellow-citizens, in my opinion is to forget what is due to the honor and
+to the rights of all virtuous and legal government.</p>
+
+<p>I think the king of France to be as much an object both of policy and
+compassion as the Grand Seignior or his states. I do not conceive that
+the total annihilation of France (if that could be effected) is a
+desirable thing to Europe, or even to this its rival nation. Provident
+patriots did not think it good for Rome that even Carthage should be
+quite destroyed; and he was a wise Greek, wise for the general Grecian
+interests, as well as a brave Laced&aelig;monian enemy and generous conqueror,
+who did not wish, by the destruction of Athens, to pluck out the other
+eye of Greece.</p>
+
+<p>However, Sir, what I have here said of the interference of foreign
+princes is only the opinion of a private individual, who is neither the
+representative of <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" title="20" class="pagenum"></a>any state nor the organ of any party, but who thinks
+himself bound to express his own sentiments with freedom and energy in a
+crisis of such importance to the whole human race.</p>
+
+<p>I am not apprehensive, that, in speaking freely on the subject of the
+king and queen of France, I shall accelerate (as you fear) the execution
+of traitorous designs against them. You are of opinion, Sir, that the
+usurpers may, and that they will, gladly lay hold of any pretext to
+throw off the very name of a king: assuredly, I do not wish ill to your
+king; but better for him not to live (he does not reign) than to live
+the passive instrument of tyranny and usurpation.</p>
+
+<p>I certainly meant to show, to the best of my power, that the existence
+of such an executive officer in such a system of republic as theirs is
+absurd in the highest degree. But in demonstrating this, to <i>them</i>, at
+least, I can have made no discovery. They only held out the royal name
+to catch those Frenchmen to whom the name of king is still venerable.
+They calculate the duration of that sentiment; and when they find it
+nearly expiring, they will not trouble themselves with excuses for
+extinguishing the name, as they have the thing. They used it as a sort
+of navel-string to nourish their unnatural offspring from the bowels of
+royalty itself. Now that the monster can purvey for its own subsistence,
+it will only carry the mark about it, as a token of its having torn the
+womb it came from. Tyrants seldom want pretexts. Fraud is the ready
+minister of injustice; and whilst the currency of false pretence and
+sophistic reasoning was expedient to their designs, they were under no
+necessity of drawing upon me to furnish them with that coin. But
+pretexts and sophisms have had their <a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" title="21" class="pagenum"></a>day, and have done their work. The
+usurpation no longer seeks plausibility: it trusts to power.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing that I can say, or that you can say, will hasten them, by a
+single hour, in the execution of a design which they have long since
+entertained. In spite of their solemn declarations, their soothing
+addresses, and the multiplied oaths which they have taken and forced
+others to take, they will assassinate the king when his name will no
+longer be necessary to their designs,&mdash;but not a moment sooner. They
+will probably first assassinate the queen, whenever the renewed menace
+of such an assassination loses its effect upon the anxious mind of an
+affectionate husband. At present, the advantage which they derive from
+the daily threats against her life is her only security for preserving
+it. They keep their sovereign alive for the purpose of exhibiting him,
+like some wild beast at a fair,&mdash;as if they had a Bajazet in a cage.
+They choose to make monarchy contemptible by exposing it to derision in
+the person of the most benevolent of their kings.</p>
+
+<p>In my opinion their insolence appears more odious even than their
+crimes. The horrors of the fifth and sixth of October were less
+detestable than the festival of the fourteenth of July. There are
+situations (God forbid I should think that of the 5th and 6th of October
+one of them!) in which the best men may be confounded with the worst,
+and in the darkness and confusion, in the press and medley of such
+extremities, it may not be so easy to discriminate the one from the
+other. Tho necessities created even by ill designs have their excuse.
+They may be forgotten by others, when the guilty themselves do not
+choose to cherish their recollection, and, by ruminating their
+<a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" title="22" class="pagenum"></a>offences, nourish themselves, through the example of their past, to the
+perpetration of future crimes. It is in the relaxation of security, it
+is in the expansion of prosperity, it is in the hour of dilatation of
+the heart, and of its softening into festivity and pleasure, that the
+real character of men is discerned. If there is any good in them, it
+appears then or never. Even wolves and tigers, when gorged with their
+prey, are safe and gentle. It is at such times that noble minds give all
+the reins to their good nature. They indulge their genius even to
+intemperance, in kindness to the afflicted, in generosity to the
+conquered,&mdash;forbearing insults, forgiving injuries, overpaying benefits.
+Full of dignity themselves, they respect dignity in all, but they feel
+it sacred in the unhappy. But it is then, and basking in the sunshine of
+unmerited fortune, that low, sordid, ungenerous, and reptile souls swell
+with their hoarded poisons; it is then that they display their odious
+splendor, and shine out in the full lustre of their native villany and
+baseness. It is in that season that no man of sense or honor can be
+mistaken for one of them. It was in such a season, for them of political
+ease and security, though their people were but just emerged from actual
+famine, and were ready to be plunged into a gulf of penury and beggary,
+that your philosophic lords chose, with an ostentatious pomp and luxury,
+to feast an incredible number of idle and thoughtless people, collected
+with art and pains from all quarters of the world. They constructed a
+vast amphitheatre in which they raised a species of pillory.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor" title=" The pillory (_carcan_) in England is generally made very
+high like that raised to exposing the king of France.">[3]</a> On this
+pillory they set their lawful king and queen, with an insulting figure
+<a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" title="23" class="pagenum"></a>over their heads. There they exposed these objects of pity and respect
+to all good minds to the derision of an unthinking and unprincipled
+multitude, degenerated even from the versatile tenderness which marks
+the irregular and capricious feelings of the populace. That their cruel
+insult might have nothing wanting to complete it, they chose the
+anniversary of that day in which they exposed the life of their prince
+to the most imminent dangers and the vilest indignities, just following
+the instant when the assassins, whom they had hired without owning,
+first openly took up arms against their king, corrupted his guards,
+surprised his castle, butchered some of the poor invalids of his
+garrison, murdered his governor, and, like wild beasts, tore to pieces
+the chief magistrate of his capital city, on account of his fidelity to
+his service.</p>
+
+<p>Till the justice of the world is awakened, such as these will go on,
+without admonition, and without provocation, to every extremity. Those
+who have made the exhibition of the fourteenth of July are capable of
+every evil. They do not commit crimes for their designs; but they form
+designs that they may commit crimes. It is not their necessity, but
+their nature, that impels them. They are modern philosophers, which when
+you say of them, you express everything that is ignoble, savage, and
+hard-hearted.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the sure tokens which are given by the spirit of their
+particular arrangements, there are some characteristic lineaments in the
+general policy of your tumultuous despotism, which, in my opinion,
+indicate, beyond a doubt, that no revolution whatsoever <i>in their
+disposition</i> is to be expected: I mean their scheme of educating the
+rising generation, the <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" title="24" class="pagenum"></a>principles which they intend to instil and the
+sympathies which they wish to form in the mind at the season in which it
+is the most susceptible. Instead of forming their young minds to that
+docility, to that modesty, which are the grace and charm of youth, to an
+admiration of famous examples, and to an averseness to anything which
+approaches to pride, petulance, and self-conceit, (distempers to which
+that time of life is of itself sufficiently liable,) they artificially
+foment these evil dispositions, and even form them into springs of
+action. Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books
+recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the
+character of the age. Uncertain indeed is the efficacy, limited indeed
+is the extent, of a virtuous institution. But if education takes in
+<i>vice</i> as any part of its system, there is no doubt but that it will
+operate with abundant energy, and to an extent indefinite. The
+magistrate, who in favor of freedom thinks himself obliged to suffer all
+sorts of publications, is under a stricter duty than any other well to
+consider what sort of writers he shall authorize, and shall recommend by
+the strongest of all sanctions, that is, by public honors and rewards.
+He ought to be cautious how he recommends authors of mixed or ambiguous
+morality. He ought to be fearful of putting into the hands of youth
+writers indulgent to the peculiarities of their own complexion, lest
+they should teach the humors of the professor, rather than the
+principles of the science. He ought, above all, to be cautious in
+recommending any writer who has carried marks of a deranged
+understanding: for where there is no sound reason, there can be no real
+virtue; and madness is ever vicious and malignant.<a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" title="25" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The Assembly proceeds on maxims the very reverse of these. The Assembly
+recommends to its youth a study of the bold experimenters in morality.
+Everybody knows that there is a great dispute amongst their leaders,
+which of them is the best resemblance of Rousseau. In truth, they all
+resemble him. His blood they transfuse into their minds and into their
+manners. Him they study; him they meditate; him they turn over in all
+the time they can spare from the laborious mischief of the day or the
+debauches of the night. Rousseau is their canon of holy writ; in his
+life he is their canon of Polycletus; he is their standard figure of
+perfection. To this man and this writer, as a pattern to authors and to
+Frenchmen, the foundries of Paris are now running for statues, with the
+kettles of their poor and the bells of their churches. If an author had
+written like a great genius on geometry, though his practical and
+speculative morals were vicious in the extreme, it might appear that in
+voting the statue they honored only the geometrician. But Rousseau is a
+moralist or he is nothing. It is impossible, therefore, putting the
+circumstances together, to mistake their design in choosing the author
+with whom they have begun to recommend a course of studies.</p>
+
+<p>Their great problem is, to find a substitute for all the principles
+which hitherto have been employed to regulate the human will and action.
+They find dispositions in the mind of such force and quality as may fit
+men, far better than the old morality, for the purposes of such a state
+as theirs, and may go much further in supporting their power and
+destroying their enemies. They have therefore chosen a selfish,
+flattering, seductive, ostentatious vice, in the <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" title="26" class="pagenum"></a>place of plain duty.
+True humility, the basis of the Christian system, is the low, but deep
+and firm foundation of all real virtue. But this, as very painful in the
+practice, and little imposing in the appearance, they have totally
+discarded. Their object is to merge all natural and all social sentiment
+in inordinate vanity. In a small degree, and conversant in little
+things, vanity is of little moment. When full-grown, it is the worst of
+vices, and the occasional mimic of them all. It makes the whole man
+false. It leaves nothing sincere or trustworthy about him. His best
+qualities are poisoned and perverted by it, and operate exactly as the
+worst. When your lords had many writers as immoral as the object of
+their statue (such as Voltaire and others) they chose Rousseau, because
+in him that peculiar vice which they wished to erect into ruling virtue
+was by far the most conspicuous.</p>
+
+<p>We have had the great professor and founder of <i>the philosophy of
+vanity</i> in England. As I had good opportunities of knowing his
+proceedings almost from day to day, he left no doubt on my mind that he
+entertained no principle, either to influence his heart or to guide his
+understanding, but <i>vanity</i>. With this vice he was possessed to a degree
+little short of madness. It is from the same deranged, eccentric vanity,
+that this, the insane Socrates of the National Assembly, was impelled to
+publish a mad confession of his mad faults, and to attempt a new sort of
+glory from bringing hardily to light the obscure and vulgar vices which
+we know may sometimes be blended with eminent talents. He has not
+observed on the nature of vanity who does not know that it is
+omnivorous,&mdash;that it has no choice in its food,&mdash;that it is fond to
+<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" title="27" class="pagenum"></a>talk even of its own faults and vices, as what will excite surprise and
+draw attention, and what will pass at worst for openness and candor.</p>
+
+<p>It was this abuse and perversion, which vanity makes even of hypocrisy,
+which has driven Rousseau to record a life not so much as checkered or
+spotted here and there with virtues, or even distinguished by a single
+good action. It is such a life he chooses to offer to the attention of
+mankind. It is such a life that, with a wild defiance, he flings in the
+face of his Creator, whom he acknowledges only to brave. Your Assembly,
+knowing how much more powerful example is found than precept, has chosen
+this man (by his own account without a single virtue) for a model. To
+him they erect their first statue. From him they commence their series
+of honors and distinctions.</p>
+
+<p>It is that new-invented virtue which your masters canonize that led
+their moral hero constantly to exhaust the stores of his powerful
+rhetoric in the expression of universal benevolence, whilst his heart
+was incapable of harboring one spark of common parental affection.
+Benevolence to the whole species, and want of feeling for every
+individual with whom the professors come in contact, form the character
+of the new philosophy. Setting up for an unsocial independence, this
+their hero of vanity refuses the just price of common labor, as well as
+the tribute which opulence owes to genius, and which, when paid, honors
+the giver and the receiver; and then he pleads his beggary as an excuse
+for his crimes. He melts with tenderness for those only who touch him by
+the remotest relation, and then, without one natural pang, casts away,
+as a sort of offal and excrement, the spawn of his disgustful amours,
+and sends his chil<a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" title="28" class="pagenum"></a>dren to the hospital of foundlings. The bear loves,
+licks, and forms her young: but bears are not philosophers. Vanity,
+however, finds its account in reversing the train of our natural
+feelings. Thousands admire the sentimental-writer; the affectionate
+father is hardly known in his parish.</p>
+
+<p>Under this philosophic instructor in <i>the ethics of vanity</i>, they have
+attempted in France a regeneration of the moral constitution of man.
+Statesmen like your present rulers exist by everything which is
+spurious, fictitious, and false,&mdash;by everything which takes the man from
+his house, and sets him on a stage,&mdash;which makes him up an artificial
+creature, with painted, theatric sentiments, fit to be seen by the glare
+of candle-light, and formed to be contemplated at a due distance. Vanity
+is too apt to prevail in all of us, and in all countries. To the
+improvement of Frenchmen, it seems not absolutely necessary that it
+should be taught upon system. But it is plain that the present rebellion
+was its legitimate offspring, and it is piously fed by that rebellion
+with a daily dole.</p>
+
+<p>If the system of institution recommended by the Assembly is false and
+theatric, it is because their system of government is of the same
+character. To that, and to that alone, it is strictly conformable. To
+understand either, we must connect the morals with the politics of the
+legislators. Your practical philosophers, systematic in everything, have
+wisely began at the source. As the relation between parents and children
+is the first among the elements of vulgar, natural morality,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor" title=" &quot;Filiola tua te delectari l&aelig;tor, et prohari tibi
+Φυσικὴν esse τὴν πρὸς τὰ τεκνα: etenim, si h&aelig;c non est, nulla
+potest homini esse ad hominem natur&aelig; adjunctio: qua sublata, vit&aelig;
+societas tollitur. Valete Patron [Rousseau] et tui condiscipuli
+[L'Assembl&eacute;e Nationale]&quot;&mdash;Cic. Ep. ad Atticum.">[4]</a> they
+erect statues to a wild, <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" title="29" class="pagenum"></a>ferocious, low-minded, hard-hearted father, of
+fine general feelings,&mdash;a lover of his kind, but a hater of his kindred.
+Your masters reject the duties of this vulgar relation, as contrary to
+liberty, as not founded in the social compact, and not binding according
+to the rights of men; because the relation is not, of course, the result
+of <i>free election</i>,&mdash;never so on the side of the children, not always on
+the part of the parents.</p>
+
+<p>The next relation which they regenerate by their statues to Rousseau is
+that which is next in sanctity to that of a father. They differ from
+those old-fashioned thinkers who considered pedagogues as sober and
+venerable characters, and allied to the parental. The moralists of the
+dark times <i>pr&aelig;ceptorem sancti voluere parentis esse loco</i>. In this age
+of light they teach the people that preceptors ought to be in the place
+of gallants. They systematically corrupt a very corruptible race, (for
+some time a growing nuisance amongst you,)&mdash;a set of pert, petulant
+literators, to whom, instead of their proper, but severe, unostentatious
+duties, they assign the brilliant part of men of wit and pleasure, of
+gay, young, military sparks, and danglers at toilets. They call on the
+rising generation in France to take a sympathy in the adventures and
+fortunes, and they endeavor to engage their sensibility on the side, of
+pedagogues who betray the most awful family trusts and vitiate their
+female pupils. They teach the people that the debauchers of virgins,
+almost in the arms of their parents, may be safe inmates in their house,
+and even fit guardians of the honor of those husbands who succeed
+<a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" title="30" class="pagenum"></a>legally to the office which the young literators had preoccupied
+without asking leave of law or conscience.</p>
+
+<p>Thus they dispose of all the family relations of parents and children,
+husbands and wives. Through this same instructor, by whom they corrupt
+the morals, they corrupt the taste. Taste and elegance, though they are
+reckoned only among the smaller and secondary morals, yet are of no mean
+importance in the regulation of life. A moral taste is not of force to
+turn vice into virtue; but it recommends virtue with something like the
+blandishments of pleasure, and it infinitely abates the evils of vice.
+Rousseau, a writer of great force and vivacity, is totally destitute of
+taste in any sense of the word. Your masters, who are his scholars,
+conceive that all refinement has an aristocratic character. The last age
+had exhausted all its powers in giving a grace and nobleness to our
+natural appetites, and in raising them into a higher class and order
+than seemed justly to belong to them. Through Rousseau, your masters are
+resolved to destroy these aristocratic prejudices. The passion called
+love has so general and powerful an influence, it makes so much of the
+entertainment, and indeed so much the occupation, of that part of life
+which decides the character forever, that the mode and the principles on
+which it engages the sympathy and strikes the imagination become of the
+utmost importance to the morals and manners of every society. Your
+rulers were well aware of this; and in their system of changing your
+manners to accommodate them to their politics, they found nothing so
+convenient as Rousseau. Through him they teach men to love after the
+fashion of philoso<a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" title="31" class="pagenum"></a>phers: that is, they teach to men, to Frenchmen, a
+love without gallantry,&mdash;a love without anything of that fine flower of
+youthfulness and gentility which places it, if not among the virtues,
+among the ornaments of life. Instead of this passion, naturally allied
+to grace and manners, they infuse into their youth an unfashioned,
+indelicate, sour, gloomy, ferocious medley of pedantry and lewdness,&mdash;of
+metaphysical speculations blended with the coarsest sensuality. Such is
+the general morality of the passions to be found in their famous
+philosopher, in his famous work of philosophic gallantry, the <i>Nouvelle
+&Eacute;loise</i>.</p>
+
+<p>When the fence from the gallantry of preceptors is broken down, and your
+families are no longer protected by decent pride and salutary domestic
+prejudice, there is but one step to a frightful corruption. The rulers
+in the National Assembly are in good hopes that the females of the first
+families in France may become an easy prey to dancing-masters, fiddlers,
+pattern-drawers, friseurs, and valets-de-chambre, and other active
+citizens of that description, who, having the entry into your houses,
+and being half domesticated by their situation, may be blended with you
+by regular and irregular relations. By a law they have made these people
+their equals. By adopting the sentiments of Rousseau they have made them
+your rivals. In this manner these great legislators complete their plan
+of levelling, and establish their rights of men on a sure foundation.</p>
+
+<p>I am certain that the writings of Rousseau lead directly to this kind of
+shameful evil. I have often wondered how he comes to be so much more
+admired and followed on the Continent than he is here. Per<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" title="32" class="pagenum"></a>haps a secret
+charm in the language may have its share in this extraordinary
+difference. We certainly perceive, and to a degree we feel, in this
+writer, a style glowing, animated, enthusiastic, at the same time that
+we find it lax, diffuse, and not in the best taste of composition,&mdash;all
+the members of the piece being pretty equally labored and expanded,
+without any due selection or subordination of parts. He is generally too
+much on the stretch, and his manner has little variety. We cannot rest
+upon, any of his works, though they contain observations which
+occasionally discover a considerable insight into human nature. But his
+doctrines, on the whole, are so inapplicable to real life and manners,
+that we never dream of drawing from them any rule for laws or conduct,
+or for fortifying or illustrating anything by a reference to his
+opinions. They have with us the fate of older paradoxes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Cum ventum ad <i>verum</i> est, <i>sensus moresque</i> repugnant,<br /></span>
+<span>Atque ipsa utilitas, justi prope mater et &aelig;qui.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Perhaps bold speculations are more acceptable because more new to you
+than to us, who have been, long since satiated with them. We continue,
+as in the two last ages, to read, more generally than I believe is now
+done on the Continent, the authors of sound antiquity. These occupy our
+minds; they give us another taste and turn; and will not suffer us to be
+more than transiently amused with paradoxical morality. It is not that I
+consider this writer as wholly destitute of just notions. Amongst his
+irregularities, it must be reckoned that he is sometimes moral, and
+moral in a very sublime strain. But the <i>general spirit and tendency</i> of
+his works is mischievous,&mdash;and the more mischievous for this mixture:<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" title="33" class="pagenum"></a>
+for perfect depravity of sentiment is not reconcilable with eloquence;
+and the mind (though corruptible, not complexionally vicious) would
+reject and throw off with disgust a lesson of pure and unmixed evil.
+These writers make even virtue a pander to vice.</p>
+
+<p>However, I less consider the author than the system of the Assembly in
+perverting morality through his means. This I confess makes me nearly
+despair of any attempt upon the minds of their followers, through
+reason, honor, or conscience. The great object of your tyrants is to
+destroy the gentlemen of France; and for that purpose they destroy, to
+the best of their power, all the effect of those relations which may
+render considerable men powerful or even safe. To destroy that order,
+they vitiate the whole community. That no means may exist of
+confederating against their tyranny, by the false sympathies of this
+<i>Nouvelle &Eacute;loise</i> they endeavor to subvert those principles of domestic
+trust and fidelity which form the discipline of social life. They
+propagate principles by which every servant may think it, if not his
+duty, at least his privilege, to betray his master. By these principles,
+every considerable father of a family loses the sanctuary of his house.
+<i>Debet sua cuique domus esse perfugium tutissimum</i>, says the law, which
+your legislators have taken so much pains first to decry, then to
+repeal. They destroy all the tranquillity and security of domestic life:
+turning the asylum of the house into a gloomy prison, where the father
+of the family must drag out a miserable existence, endangered in
+proportion to the apparent means of his safety,&mdash;where he is worse than
+solitary in a crowd of domestics, and more apprehensive from his
+servants and inmates than from the hired, bloodthirsty mob <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" title="34" class="pagenum"></a>without
+doors who are ready to pull him to the <i>lanterne</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus, and for the same end, that they endeavor to destroy that
+tribunal of conscience which exists independently of edicts and decrees.
+Your despots govern by terror. They know that he who fears God fears
+nothing else; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their
+Voltaire, their Helv&eacute;tius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only
+sort of fear which generates true courage. Their object is, that their
+fellow-citizens may be under the dominion of no awe but that of their
+Committee of Research and of their <i>lanterne</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Having found the advantage of assassination in the formation of their
+tyranny, it is the grand resource in which they trust for the support of
+it. Whoever opposes any of their proceedings, or is suspected of a
+design to oppose them, is to answer it with his life, or the lives of
+his wife and children. This infamous, cruel, and cowardly practice of
+assassination they have the impudence to call <i>merciful</i>. They boast
+that they operated their usurpation rather by terror than by force, and
+that a few seasonable murders have prevented the bloodshed of many
+battles. There is no doubt they will extend these acts of mercy whenever
+they see an occasion. Dreadful, however, will be the consequences of
+their attempt to avoid the evils of war by the merciful policy of
+murder. If, by effectual punishment of the guilty, they do not wholly
+disavow that practice, and the threat of it too, as any part of their
+policy, if ever a foreign prince enters into France, he must enter it as
+into a country of assassins. The mode of civilized war will not be
+practised: nor are the French who act on the present <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" title="35" class="pagenum"></a>system entitled to
+expect it. They whose known policy it is to assassinate every citizen
+whom they suspect to be discontented by their tyranny, and to corrupt
+the soldiery of every open enemy, must look for no modified hostility.
+All war, which is not battle, will be military execution. This will
+beget acts of retaliation from you; and every retaliation will beget a
+new revenge. The hell-hounds of war, on all sides, will be uncoupled and
+unmuzzled. The new school of murder and barbarism set up in Paris,
+having destroyed (so far as in it lies) all the other manners and
+principles which have hitherto civilized Europe, will destroy also the
+mode of civilized war, which, more than anything else, has distinguished
+the Christian world. Such is the approaching golden age which the
+Virgil<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor" title=" Mirabeau's speech concerning universal peace.">[5]</a> of your Assembly has sung to his Pollios!</p>
+
+<p>In such a situation of your political, your civil, and your social
+morals and manners, how can you be hurt by the freedom of any
+discussion? Caution is for those who have something to lose. What I have
+said, to justify myself in not apprehending any ill consequence from a
+free discussion of the absurd consequences which flow from the relation
+of the lawful king to the usurped Constitution, will apply to my
+vindication with regard to the exposure I have made of the state of the
+army under the same sophistic usurpation. The present tyrants want no
+arguments to prove, what they must daily feel, that no good army can
+exist on their principles. They are in no want of a monitor to suggest
+to them the policy of getting rid of the army, as well as of the king,
+whenever they are in a condition to effect that measure.<a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" title="36" class="pagenum"></a> What hopes may
+be entertained of your army for the restoration of your liberties I know
+not. At present, yielding obedience to the pretended orders of a king
+who, they are perfectly apprised, has no will, and who never can issue a
+mandate which is not intended, in the first operation, or in its certain
+consequences, for his own destruction, your army seems to make one of
+the principal links in the chain of that servitude of anarchy by which a
+cruel usurpation holds an undone people at once in bondage and
+confusion.</p>
+
+<p>You ask me what I think of the conduct of General Monk. How this affects
+your case I cannot tell. I doubt whether you possess in France any
+persons of a capacity to serve the French monarchy in the same manner in
+which Monk served the monarchy of England. The army which Monk commanded
+had been formed by Cromwell to a perfection of discipline which perhaps
+has never been exceeded. That army was besides of an excellent
+composition. The soldiers were men of extraordinary piety after their
+mode; of the greatest regularity, and even severity of manners; brave in
+the field, but modest, quiet, and orderly in their quarters; men who
+abhorred the idea of assassinating their officers or any other persons,
+and who (they at least who served in this island) were firmly attached
+to those generals by whom they were well treated and ably commanded.
+Such an army, once gained, might be depended on. I doubt much, if you
+could now find a Monk, whether a Monk could find in France such an army.</p>
+
+<p>I certainly agree with you, that in all probability we owe our whole
+Constitution to the restoration of the English monarchy. The state of
+things from <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" title="37" class="pagenum"></a>which Monk relieved England was, however, by no means, at
+that time, so deplorable, in any sense, as yours is now, and under the
+present sway is likely to continue. Cromwell had delivered England from
+anarchy. His government, though military and despotic, had been regular
+and orderly. Under the iron, and under the yoke, the soil yielded its
+produce. After his death the evils of anarchy were rather dreaded than
+felt. Every man was yet safe in his house and in his property. But it
+must be admitted that Monk freed this nation from great and just
+apprehensions both of future anarchy and of probable tyranny in some
+form or other. The king whom he gave us was, indeed, the very reverse of
+your benignant sovereign, who, in reward for his attempt to bestow
+liberty on his subjects, languishes himself in prison. The person given
+to us by Monk was a man without any sense of his duty as a prince,
+without any regard to the dignity of his crown, without any love to his
+people,&mdash;dissolute, false, venal, and destitute of any positive good
+quality whatsoever, except a pleasant temper, and the manners of a
+gentleman. Yet the restoration of our monarchy, even in the person of
+such a prince, was everything to us; for without monarchy in England,
+most certainly we never can enjoy either peace or liberty. It was under
+this conviction that the very first regular step which we took, on the
+Revolution of 1688, was to fill the throne with a real king; and even
+before it could be done in due form, the chiefs of the nation did not
+attempt themselves to exercise authority so much as by <i>interim</i>. They
+instantly requested the Prince of Orange to take the government on
+himself. The throne was not effectively vacant for an hour.<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" title="38" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Your fundamental laws, as well as ours, suppose a monarchy. Your zeal,
+Sir, in standing so firmly for it as you have done, shows not only a
+sacred respect for your honor and fidelity, but a well-informed
+attachment to the real welfare and true liberties of your country. I
+have expressed myself ill, if I have given you cause to imagine that I
+prefer the conduct of those who have retired from this warfare to your
+behavior, who, with a courage and constancy almost supernatural, have
+struggled against tyranny, and kept the field to the last. You see I
+have corrected the exceptionable part in the edition which I now send
+you. Indeed, in such terrible extremities as yours, it is not easy to
+say, in a political view, what line of conduct is the most advisable. In
+that state of things, I cannot bring myself severely to condemn persons
+who are wholly unable to bear so much as the sight of those men in the
+throne of legislation who are only fit to be the objects of criminal
+justice. If fatigue, if disgust, if unsurmountable nausea drive them
+away from such spectacles, <i>ubi miseriarum pars non minima erat videre
+et aspici</i>, I cannot blame them. He must have an heart of adamant who
+could hear a set of traitors puffed up with unexpected and undeserved
+power, obtained by an ignoble, unmanly, and perfidious rebellion,
+treating their honest fellow-citizens as <i>rebels</i>, because they refused
+to bind them selves through their conscience, against the dictates of
+conscience itself, and had declined to swear an active compliance with
+their own ruin. How could a man of common flesh and blood endure that
+those who but the other day had skulked unobserved in their
+antechambers, scornfully insulting men illustrious in their rank, sacred
+in their function, and ven<a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" title="39" class="pagenum"></a>erable in their character, now in decline of
+life, and swimming on the wrecks of their fortunes,&mdash;that those
+miscreants should tell such men scornfully and outrageously, after they
+had robbed them of all their property, that it is more than enough, if
+they are allowed what will keep them from absolute famine, and that, for
+the rest, they must let their gray hairs fall over the plough, to make
+out a scanty subsistence with the labor of their hands? Last, and,
+worst, who could endure to hear this unnatural, insolent, and savage
+despotism called liberty? If, at this distance, sitting quietly by my
+fire, I cannot read their decrees and speeches without indignation,
+shall I condemn those who have fled from the actual sight and hearing of
+all these horrors? No, no! mankind has no title to demand that we should
+be slaves to their guilt and insolence, or that we should serve them in
+spite of themselves. Minds sore with the poignant sense of insulted
+virtue, filled with high disdain against the pride of triumphant
+baseness, often have it not in their choice to stand their ground. Their
+complexion (which might defy the rack) cannot go through such a trial.
+Something very high must fortify men to that proof. But when I am driven
+to comparison, surely I cannot hesitate for a moment to prefer to such
+men as are common those heroes who in the midst of despair perform all
+the tasks of hope,&mdash;who subdue their feelings to their duties,&mdash;who, in
+the cause of humanity, liberty, and honor, abandon all the satisfactions
+of life, and every day incur a fresh risk of life itself. Do me the
+justice to believe that I never can prefer any fastidious virtue (virtue
+still) to the unconquered perseverance, to the affectionate patience, of
+those who watch day and <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" title="40" class="pagenum"></a>night by the bedside of their delirious
+country,&mdash;who, for their love to that dear and venerable name, bear all
+the disgusts and all the buffets they receive from their frantic mother.
+Sir, I do look on you as true martyrs; I regard you as soldiers who act
+far more in the spirit of our Commander-in-Chief and the Captain of our
+Salvation than those who have left you: though I must first bolt myself
+very thoroughly, and know that I could do better, before I can censure
+them. I assure you, Sir, that, when I consider your unconquerable
+fidelity to your sovereign and to your country,&mdash;the courage, fortitude,
+magnanimity, and long-suffering of yourself, and the Abb&eacute; Maury, and of
+M. Cazal&egrave;s, and of many worthy persons of all orders in your
+Assembly,&mdash;I forget, in the lustre of these great qualities, that on
+your side has been displayed an eloquence so rational, manly, and
+convincing, that no time or country, perhaps, has ever excelled. But
+your talents disappear in my admiration of your virtues.</p>
+
+<p>As to M. Mounier and M. Lally, I have always wished to do justice to
+their parts, and their eloquence, and the general purity of their
+motives. Indeed, I saw very well, from the beginning, the mischiefs
+which, with all these talents and good intentions, they would do their
+country, through their confidence in systems. But their distemper was an
+epidemic malady. They were young and inexperienced; and when will young
+and inexperienced men learn caution and distrust of themselves? And when
+will men, young or old, if suddenly raised to far higher power than that
+which absolute kings and emperors commonly enjoy, learn anything like
+moderation? Monarchs, in general, respect some <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" title="41" class="pagenum"></a>settled order of things,
+which they find it difficult to move from its basis, and to which they
+are obliged to conform, even when there are no positive limitations to
+their power. These gentlemen conceived that they were chosen to
+new-model the state, and even the whole order of civil society itself.
+No wonder that <i>they</i> entertained dangerous visions, when the king's
+ministers, trustees for the sacred deposit of the monarchy, were so
+infected with the contagion of project and system (I can hardly think it
+black premeditated treachery) that they publicly advertised for plans
+and schemes of government, as if they were to provide for the rebuilding
+of an hospital that had been burned down. What was this, but to unchain
+the fury of rash speculation amongst a people of itself but too apt to
+be guided by a heated imagination and a wild spirit of adventure?</p>
+
+<p>The fault of M. Mounier and M. Lally was very great; but it was very
+general. If those gentlemen stopped, when they came to the brink of the
+gulf of guilt and public misery that yawned before them in the abyss of
+these dark and bottomless speculations, I forgive their first error: in
+that they were involved with many. Their repentance was their own.</p>
+
+<p>They who consider Mounier and Lally as deserters must regard themselves
+as murderers and as traitors: for from what else than murder and treason
+did they desert? For my part, I honor them for not having carried
+mistake into crime. If, indeed, I thought that they were not cured by
+experience, that they were not made sensible that those who would reform
+a state ought to assume some actual constitution of government which is
+to be reformed,&mdash;if they are not at length satisfied that it is become a
+necessary pre<a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" title="42" class="pagenum"></a>liminary to liberty in France, to commence by the
+re&euml;stablishment of order and property of <i>every</i> kind, and, through the
+re&euml;stablishment of their monarchy, of every one of the old habitual
+distinctions and classes of the state,&mdash;if they do not see that these
+classes are not to be confounded in order to be afterwards revived and
+separated,&mdash;if they are not convinced that the scheme of parochial and
+club governments takes up the state at the wrong end, and is a low and
+senseless contrivance, (as making the sole constitution of a supreme
+power,)&mdash;I should then allow that their early rashness ought to be
+remembered to the last moment of their lives.</p>
+
+<p>You gently reprehend me, because, in holding out the picture of your
+disastrous situation, I suggest no plan for a remedy. Alas! Sir, the
+proposition of plans, without an attention to circumstances, is the very
+cause of all your misfortunes; and never shall you find me aggravating,
+by the infusion of any speculations of mine, the evils which have arisen
+from the speculations of others. Your malady, in this respect, is a
+disorder of repletion. You seem to think that my keeping back my poor
+ideas may arise from an indifference to the welfare of a foreign and
+sometimes an hostile nation. No, Sir, I faithfully assure you, my
+reserve is owing to no such causes. Is this letter, swelled to a second
+book, a mark of national antipathy, or even of national indifference? I
+should act altogether in the spirit of the same caution, in a similar
+state of our own domestic affairs. If I were to venture any advice, in
+any case, it would be my best. The sacred duty of an adviser (one of the
+most inviolable that exists) would lead me, towards a real enemy, to act
+as if my best friend were the party con<a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" title="43" class="pagenum"></a>cerned. But I dare not risk a
+speculation with no better view of your affairs than at present I can
+command; my caution is not from disregard, but from solicitude for your
+welfare. It is suggested solely from my dread of becoming the author of
+inconsiderate counsel.</p>
+
+<p>It is not, that, as this strange series of actions has passed before my
+eyes, I have not indulged my mind in a great variety of political
+speculations concerning them; but, compelled by no such positive duty as
+does not permit me to evade an opinion, called upon by no ruling power,
+without authority as I am, and without confidence, I should ill answer
+my own ideas of what would become myself, or what would be serviceable
+to others, if I were, as a volunteer, to obtrude any project of mine
+upon a nation to whose circumstances I could not be sure it might be
+applicable.</p>
+
+<p>Permit me to say, that, if I were as confident as I ought to be
+diffident in my own loose, general ideas, I never should venture to
+broach them, if but at twenty leagues' distance from the centre of your
+affairs. I must see with my own eyes, I must, in a manner, touch with my
+own hands, not only the fixed, but the momentary circumstances, before I
+could venture to suggest any political project whatsoever. I must know
+the power and disposition to accept, to execute, to persevere. I must
+see all the aids and all the obstacles. I must see the means of
+correcting the plan, where correctives would be wanted. I must see the
+things; I must see the men. Without a concurrence and adaptation of
+these to the design, the very best speculative projects might become not
+only useless, but mischievous. Plans must be made for men. We cannot
+think of making men, and binding<a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" title="44" class="pagenum"></a> Nature to our designs. People at a
+distance must judge ill of men. They do not always answer to their
+reputation, when you approach them. Nay, the perspective varies, and
+shows them quite otherwise than you thought them. At a distance, if we
+judge uncertainly of men, we must judge worse of <i>opportunities</i>, which
+continually vary their shapes and colors, and pass away like clouds. The
+Eastern politicians never do anything without the opinion of the
+astrologers on <i>the fortunate moment</i>. They are in the right, if they
+can do no better; for the opinion of fortune is something towards
+commanding it. Statesmen of a more judicious prescience look for the
+fortunate moment too; but they seek it, not in the conjunctions and
+oppositions of planets, but in the conjunctions and oppositions of men
+and things. These form their almanac.</p>
+
+<p>To illustrate the mischief of a wise plan, without any attention to
+means and circumstances, it is not necessary to go farther than to your
+recent history. In the condition in which France was found three years
+ago, what better system could be proposed, what less even savoring of
+wild theory, what fitter to provide for all the exigencies whilst it
+reformed all the abuses of government, than the convention of the
+States-General? I think nothing better could be imagined. But I have
+censured, and do still presume to censure, your Parliament of Paris for
+not having suggested to the king that this proper measure was of all
+measures the most critical and arduous, one in which the utmost
+circumspection and the greatest number of precautions were the most
+absolutely necessary. The very confession that a government wants either
+amendment in its conformation or relief to <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" title="45" class="pagenum"></a>great distress causes it to
+lose half its reputation, and as great a proportion of its strength as
+depends upon that reputation. It was therefore necessary first to put
+government out of danger, whilst at its own desire it suffered such an
+operation as a general reform at the hands of those who were much more
+filled with a sense of the disease than provided with rational means of
+a cure.</p>
+
+<p>It may be said that this care and these precautions were more naturally
+the duty of the king's ministers than that of the Parliament. They were
+so: but every man must answer in his estimation for the advice he gives,
+when he puts the conduct of his measure into hands who he does not know
+will execute his plans according to his ideas. Three or four ministers
+were not to be trusted with the being of the French monarchy, of all the
+orders, and of all the distinctions, and all the property of the
+kingdom. What must be the prudence of those who could think, in the then
+known temper of the people of Paris, of assembling the States at a place
+situated as Versailles?</p>
+
+<p>The Parliament of Paris did worse than to inspire this blind confidence
+into the king. For, as if names were things, they took no notice of
+(indeed, they rather countenanced) the deviations, which were manifest
+in the execution, from the true ancient principles of the plan which
+they recommended. These deviations (as guardians of the ancient laws,
+usages, and Constitution of the kingdom) the Parliament of Paris ought
+not to have suffered, without the strongest remonstrances to the throne.
+It ought to have sounded the alarm to the whole nation, as it had often
+done on things of infinitely less importance. Under pre<a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" title="46" class="pagenum"></a>tence of
+resuscitating the ancient Constitution, the Parliament saw one of the
+strongest acts of innovation, and the most leading in its consequences,
+carried into effect before their eyes,&mdash;and an innovation through the
+medium of despotism: that is, they suffered the king's ministers to
+new-model the whole representation of the <i>Tiers &Eacute;tat</i>, and, in a great
+measure, that of the clergy too, and to destroy the ancient proportions
+of the orders. These changes, unquestionably, the king had no right to
+make; and here the Parliaments failed in their duty, and, along with
+their country, have perished by this failure.</p>
+
+<p>What a number of faults have led to this multitude of misfortunes, and
+almost all from this one source,&mdash;that of considering certain general
+maxims, without attending to circumstances, to times, to places, to
+conjunctures, and to actors! If we do not attend scrupulously to all
+these, the medicine of to-day becomes the poison of to-morrow. If any
+measure was in the abstract better than another, it was to call the
+States: <i>ea visa salus morientibus una</i>. Certainly it had the
+appearance. But see the consequences of not attending to critical
+moments, of not regarding the symptoms which discriminate diseases, and
+which distinguish constitutions, complexions, and humors.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio; furiisque refecti<br /></span>
+<span>Ardebant; ipsique suos, jam morte sub &aelig;gra,<br /></span>
+<span>Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Thus the potion which was given to strengthen the Constitution, to heal
+divisions, and to compose the minds of men, became the source of
+debility, frenzy, discord, and utter dissolution.</p>
+
+<p>In this, perhaps, I have answered, I think, another of your
+questions,&mdash;Whether the British Constitu<a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" title="47" class="pagenum"></a>tion is adapted to your
+circumstances? When I praised the British Constitution, and wished it to
+be well studied, I did not mean that its exterior form and positive
+arrangement should become a model for you or for any people servilely to
+copy. I meant to recommend the <i>principles</i> from which it has grown, and
+the policy on which it has been progressively improved out of elements
+common to you and to us. I am sure it is no visionary theory of mine. It
+is not an advice that subjects you to the hazard of any experiment. I
+believed the ancient principles to be wise in all cases of a large
+empire that would be free. I thought you possessed our principles in
+your old forms in as great a perfection as we did originally. If your
+States agreed (as I think they did) with your circumstances, they were
+best for you. As you had a Constitution formed upon principles similar
+to ours, my idea was, that you might have improved them as we have done,
+conforming them to the state and exigencies of the times, and the
+condition of property in your country,&mdash;having the conservation of that
+property, and the substantial basis of your monarchy, as principal
+objects in all your reforms.</p>
+
+<p>I do not advise an House of Lords to you. Your ancient course by
+representatives of the noblesse (in your circumstances) appears to me
+rather a better institution. I know, that, with you, a set of men of
+rank have betrayed their constituents, their honor, their trust, their
+king, and their country, and levelled themselves with their footmen,
+that through this degradation they might afterwards put themselves above
+their natural equals. Some of these persons have entertained a project,
+that, in reward of this their black perfidy and corruption, they may be
+<a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" title="48" class="pagenum"></a>chosen to give rise to a new order, and to establish themselves into an
+House of Lords. Do you think, that, under the name of a British
+Constitution, I mean to recommend to you such Lords, made of such kind
+of stuff? I do not, however, include in this description all of those
+who are fond of this scheme.</p>
+
+<p>If you were now to form such an House of Peers, it would bear, in my
+opinion, but little resemblance to ours, in its origin, character, or
+the purposes which it might answer, at the same time that it would
+destroy your true natural nobility. But if you are not in a condition to
+frame a House of Lords, still less are you capable, in my opinion, of
+framing anything which virtually and substantially could be answerable
+(for the purposes of a stable, regular government) to our House of
+Commons. That House is, within itself, a much more subtle and artificial
+combination of parts and powers than people are generally aware of. What
+knits it to the other members of the Constitution, what fits it to be at
+once the great support and the great control of government, what makes
+it of such admirable service to that monarchy which, if it limits, it
+secures and strengthens, would require a long discourse, belonging to
+the leisure of a contemplative man, not to one whose duty it is to join
+in communicating practically to the people the blessings of such a
+Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>Your <i>Tiers &Eacute;tat</i> was not in effect and substance an House of Commons.
+You stood in absolute need of something else to supply the manifest
+defects in such a body as your <i>Tiers &Eacute;tat</i>. On a sober and
+dispassionate view of your old Constitution, as connected with all the
+present circumstances, I was fully persuaded that the crown, standing as
+things have stood, (and <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" title="49" class="pagenum"></a>are likely to stand, if you are to have any
+monarchy at all,) was and is incapable, alone and by itself, of holding
+a just balance between the two orders, and at the same time of effecting
+the interior and exterior purposes of a protecting government. I, whose
+leading principle it is, in a reformation of the state, to make use of
+existing materials, am of opinion that the representation of the clergy,
+as a separate order, was an institution which touched all the orders
+more nearly than any of them touched the other; that it was well fitted
+to connect them, and to hold a place in any wise monarchical
+commonwealth. If I refer you to your original Constitution, and think
+it, as I do, substantially a good one, I do not amuse you in this, more
+than in other things, with any inventions of mine. A certain
+intemperance of intellect is the disease of the time, and the source of
+all its other diseases. I will keep myself as untainted by it as I can.
+Your architects build without a foundation. I would readily lend an
+helping hand to any superstructure, when once this is effectually
+secured,&mdash;but first I would say, <span title="[Greek: Dos pou st&ocirc;]">Δός πον στῶ</span>.</p>
+
+<p>You think, Sir, (and you might think rightly, upon the first view of the
+theory,) that to provide for the exigencies of an empire so situated and
+so related as that of France, its king ought to be invested with powers
+very much superior to those which the king of England possesses under
+the letter of our Constitution. Every degree of power necessary to the
+state, and not destructive to the rational and moral freedom of
+individuals, to that personal liberty and personal security which
+contribute so much to the vigor, the prosperity, the happiness, and the
+dignity of a nation,&mdash;every degree of power which does not suppose the
+<a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" title="50" class="pagenum"></a>total absence of all control and all responsibility on the part of
+ministers,&mdash;a king of France, in common sense, ought to possess. But
+whether the exact measure of authority assigned by the letter of the law
+to the king of Great Britain can answer to the exterior or interior
+purposes of the French monarchy is a point which I cannot venture to
+judge upon. Here, both in the power given, and its limitations, we have
+always cautiously felt our way. The parts of our Constitution have
+gradually, and almost insensibly, in a long course of time, accommodated
+themselves to each other, and to their common as well as to their
+separate purposes. But this adaptation of contending parts, as it has
+not been in ours, so it can never be in yours, or in any country, the
+effect of a single instantaneous regulation, and no sound heads could
+ever think of doing it in that manner.</p>
+
+<p>I believe, Sir, that many on the Continent altogether mistake the
+condition of a king of Great Britain. He is a real king, and not an
+executive officer. If he will not trouble himself with contemptible
+details, nor wish to degrade himself by becoming a party in little
+squabbles, I am far from sure that a king of Great Britain, in whatever
+concerns him as a king, or indeed as a rational man, who combines his
+public interest with his personal satisfaction, does not possess a more
+real, solid, extensive power than the king of France was possessed of
+before this miserable revolution. The direct power of the king of
+England is considerable. His indirect, and far more certain power, is
+great indeed. He stands in need of nothing towards dignity,&mdash;of nothing
+towards splendor,&mdash;of nothing towards authority,&mdash;of nothing at all
+towards consideration abroad. When was it that a king of<a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" title="51" class="pagenum"></a> England wanted
+wherewithal to make him respected, courted, or perhaps even feared, in
+every state in Europe?</p>
+
+<p>I am constantly of opinion that your States, in three orders, on the
+footing on which they stood in 1614, were capable of being brought into
+a proper and harmonious combination with royal authority. This
+constitution by Estates was the natural and only just representation of
+France. It grew out of the habitual conditions, relations, and
+reciprocal claims of men. It grew out of the circumstances of the
+country, and out of the state of property. The wretched scheme of your
+present masters is not to fit the Constitution to the people, but wholly
+to destroy conditions, to dissolve relations, to change the state of the
+nation, and to subvert property, in order to fit their country to their
+theory of a Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>Until you make out practically that great work, a combination of
+opposing forces, &quot;a work of labor long, and endless praise,&quot; the utmost
+caution ought to have been used in the reduction of the royal power,
+which alone was capable of holding together the comparatively
+heterogeneous mass of your States. But at this day all these
+considerations are unseasonable. To what end should we discuss the
+limitations of royal power? Your king is in prison. Why speculate on the
+measure and standard of liberty? I doubt much, very much indeed, whether
+France is at all ripe for liberty on any standard. Men are qualified for
+civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral
+chains upon their own appetites,&mdash;in proportion as their love to justice
+is above their rapacity,&mdash;in proportion as their soundness and sobriety
+of understanding is above their vanity <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" title="52" class="pagenum"></a>and presumption,&mdash;in proportion
+as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and
+good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist,
+unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere;
+and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It
+is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of
+intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.</p>
+
+<p>This sentence the prevalent part of your countrymen execute on
+themselves. They possessed not long since what was next to freedom, a
+mild, paternal monarchy. They despised it for its weakness. They were
+offered a well-poised, free Constitution. It did not suit their taste or
+their temper. They carved for themselves: they flew out, murdered,
+robbed, and rebelled. They have succeeded, and put over their country an
+insolent tyranny made up of cruel and inexorable masters, and that, too,
+of a description hitherto not known in the world. The powers and
+policies by which they have succeeded are not those of great statesmen
+or great military commanders, but the practices of incendiaries,
+assassins, housebreakers, robbers, spreaders of false news, forgers of
+false orders from authority, and other delinquencies, of which ordinary
+justice takes cognizance. Accordingly, the spirit of their rule is
+exactly correspondent to the means by which they obtained it. They act
+more in the manner of thieves who have got possession of an house than
+of conquerors who have subdued a nation.</p>
+
+<p>Opposed to these, in appearance, but in appearance only, is another
+band, who call themselves <i>the Moderate</i>. These, if I conceive rightly
+of their con<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" title="53" class="pagenum"></a>duct, are a set of men who approve heartily of the whole
+new Constitution, but wish to lay heavy on the most atrocious of those
+crimes by which this fine Constitution of theirs has been obtained. They
+are a sort of people who affect to proceed as if they thought that men
+may deceive without fraud, rob without injustice, and overturn
+everything without violence. They are men who would usurp the government
+of their country with decency and moderation. In fact, they are nothing
+more or better than men engaged in desperate designs with feeble minds.
+They are not honest; they are only ineffectual and unsystematic in their
+iniquity. They are persons who want not the dispositions, but the energy
+and vigor, that is necessary for great evil machinations. They find that
+in such designs they fall at best into a secondary rank, and others take
+the place and lead in usurpation which they are not qualified to obtain
+or to hold. They envy to their companions the natural fruit of their
+crimes; they join to run them down with the hue and cry of mankind,
+which pursues their common offences; and then hope to mount into their
+places on the credit of the sobriety with which they show themselves
+disposed to carry on what may seem most plausible in the mischievous
+projects they pursue in common. But these men are naturally despised by
+those who have heads to know, and hearts that are able to go through the
+necessary demands of bold, wicked enterprises. They are naturally
+classed below the latter description, and will only be used by them as
+inferior instruments. They will be only the Fairfaxes of your Cromwells.
+If they mean honestly, why do they not strengthen the arms of honest men
+to support their ancient, legal, <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" title="54" class="pagenum"></a>wise, and free government, given to
+them in the spring of 1788, against the inventions of craft and the
+theories of ignorance and folly? If they do not, they must continue the
+scorn of both parties,&mdash;sometimes the tool, sometimes the incumbrance of
+that whose views they approve, whose conduct they decry. These people
+are only made to be the sport of tyrants. They never can obtain or
+communicate freedom.</p>
+
+<p>You ask me, too, whether we have a Committee of Research. No, Sir,&mdash;God
+forbid! It is the necessary instrument of tyranny and usurpation; and
+therefore I do not wonder that it has had an early establishment under
+your present lords. We do not want it.</p>
+
+<p>Excuse my length. I have been somewhat occupied since I was honored with
+your letter; and I should not have been able to answer it at all, but
+for the holidays, which have given me means of enjoying the leisure of
+the country. I am called to duties which I am neither able nor willing
+to evade. I must soon return to my old conflict with the corruptions and
+oppressions which have prevailed in our Eastern dominions. I must turn
+myself wholly from those of France.</p>
+
+<p>In England we <i>cannot</i> work so hard as Frenchmen. Frequent relaxation is
+necessary to us. You are naturally more intense in your application. I
+did not know this part of your national character, until I went into
+France in 1773. At present, this your disposition to labor is rather
+increased than lessened. In your Assembly you do not allow yourselves a
+recess even on Sundays. We have two days in the week, besides the
+festivals, and besides five or six months of the summer and autumn. This
+contin<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" title="55" class="pagenum"></a>ued, unremitted effort of the members of your Assembly I take to
+be one among the causes of the mischief they have done. They who always
+labor can have no true judgment. You never give yourselves time to cool.
+You can never survey, from its proper point of sight, the work you have
+finished, before you decree its final execution. You can never plan the
+future by the past. You never go into the country, soberly and
+dispassionately to observe the effect of your measures on their objects.
+You cannot feel distinctly how far the people are rendered better and
+improved, or more miserable and depraved, by what you have done. You
+cannot see with your own eyes the sufferings and afflictions you cause.
+You know them but at a distance, on the statements of those who always
+flatter the reigning power, and who, amidst their representations of the
+grievances, inflame your minds against those who are oppressed. These
+are amongst the effects of unremitted labor, when men exhaust their
+attention, burn out their candles, and are left in the dark.&mdash;<i>Malo
+meorum negligentiam, quam istorum obscuram diligentiam</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I have the honor, &amp;c.,</p>
+
+<p>EDMUND BURKE.</p>
+
+<p>BEACONSFIELD, January 19th, 1791.<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" title="56" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> It is said in the last quackish address of the National
+Assembly to the people of France, that they have not formed their
+arrangements upon vulgar practice, but on a theory which cannot
+fail,&mdash;or something to that effect.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See Burnet's Life of Hale.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The pillory (<i>carcan</i>) in England is generally made very
+high like that raised to exposing the king of France.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> &quot;Filiola tua te delectari l&aelig;tor, et prohari tibi
+<span title="[Greek: Phusik&ecirc;n]">Φυσικὴν</span> esse <span title="[Greek: t&ecirc;n pros ta tekna]">τὴν πρὸς τὰ τεκνα</span>: etenim, si h&aelig;c non est, nulla
+potest homini esse ad hominem natur&aelig; adjunctio: qua sublata, vit&aelig;
+societas tollitur. Valete Patron [Rousseau] et tui condiscipuli
+[L'Assembl&eacute;e Nationale]&quot;&mdash;Cic. Ep. ad Atticum.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Mirabeau's speech concerning universal peace.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" title="57" class="pagenum"></a>
+<a name="APPEAL" id="APPEAL" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span style="font-size: 60%">AN</span><br />
+<br />
+APPEAL<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">FROM</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">IN CONSEQUENCE OF SOME LATE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">DISCUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">RELATIVE TO THE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">REFLECTIONS ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">1791.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" title="58" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"  title="59" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ADVERTISEMENT<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">TO THE SECOND EDITION.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>There are some corrections in this edition, which tend to render the
+sense less obscure in one or two places. The order of the two last
+members is also changed, and I believe for the better. This change was
+made on the suggestion of a very learned person, to the partiality of
+whose friendship I owe much; to the severity of whose judgment I owe
+more.<a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" title="60" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+<p><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" title="61" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>AN APPEAL<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">FROM</span><br />
+<br />
+THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>At Mr. Burke's time of life, and in his dispositions, <i>petere honestam
+missionem</i> was all he had to do with his political associates. This boon
+they have not chosen to grant him. With many expressions of good-will,
+in effect they tell him he has loaded the stage too long. They conceive
+it, though an harsh, yet a necessary office, in full Parliament to
+declare to the present age, and to as late a posterity as shall take any
+concern in the proceedings of our day, that by one book he has disgraced
+the whole tenor of his life.&mdash;Thus they dismiss their old partner of the
+war. He is advised to retire, whilst they continue to serve the public
+upon wiser principles and under better auspices.</p>
+
+<p>Whether Diogenes the Cynic was a true philosopher cannot easily be
+determined. He has written nothing. But the sayings of his which are
+handed down by others are lively, and may be easily and aptly applied on
+many occasions by those whose wit is not so perfect as their memory.
+This Diogenes (as every one will recollect) was citizen of a little
+bleak town situated on the coast of the Euxine, and exposed to all the
+buffets of that inhospitable sea. He lived at a great distance from
+those weather-<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" title="62" class="pagenum"></a>beaten walls, in ease and indolence, and in the midst of
+literary leisure, when he was informed that his townsmen had condemned
+him to be banished from Sinope; he answered coolly, &quot;And I condemn them
+to live in Sinope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen of the party in which Mr. Burke has always acted, in
+passing upon him the sentence of retirement,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor" title=" Newspaper intelligence ought always to be received with
+some degree of caution. I do not know that the following paragraph is
+founded on any authority; but it comes with an air of authority. The
+paper is professedly in the interest of the modern Whigs, and under
+their direction. The paragraph is not disclaimed on their part. It
+professes to be the decision of those whom its author calls &quot;the great
+and firm body of the Whigs of England.&quot; Who are the Whigs of a different
+composition, which the promulgator of the sentence considers as composed
+of fleeting and unsettled particles, I know not, nor whether there be
+any of that description. The definitive sentence of &quot;the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England&quot; (as this paper gives it out) is as
+follows:&mdash;
+
+&quot;The great and firm body of the Whigs of England, true to their
+principles, have decided on the dispute between Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke;
+and the former is declared to have maintained the pure doctrines by
+which they are bound together, and upon which they have invariably
+acted. The consequence is, that Mr. Burke retires from
+Parliament.&quot;&mdash;_Morning Chronicle_, May 12, 1791.">[6]</a> have done nothing more
+than to confirm the sentence which he had long before passed upon
+himself. When that retreat was choice, which the tribunal of his peers
+inflict as punishment, it is plain he does not think their sentence
+intolerably severe. Whether they, who are to continue in the Sinope
+which shortly he is to leave, will spend the long years, which I hope
+remain to them, in a manner more to their satisfaction than he shall
+slide down, in silence and obscurity, the slope of his declining days,
+is best known to Him who measures out years, and days, and fortunes.<a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" title="63" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The quality of the sentence does not, however, decide on the justice of
+it. Angry friendship is sometimes as bad as calm enmity. For this reason
+the cold neutrality of abstract justice is, to a good and clear cause, a
+more desirable thing than an affection liable to be any way disturbed.
+When the trial is by friends, if the decision should happen to be
+favorable, the honor of the acquittal is lessened; if adverse, the
+condemnation is exceedingly embittered. It is aggravated by coming from
+lips professing friendship, and pronouncing judgment with sorrow and
+reluctance. Taking in the whole view of life, it is more safe to live
+under the jurisdiction of severe, but steady reason, than under the
+empire of indulgent, but capricious passion. It is certainly well for
+Mr. Burke that there are impartial men in the world. To them I address
+myself, pending the appeal which on his part is made from the living to
+the dead, from the modern Whigs to the ancient.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen, who, in the name of the party, have passed sentence on
+Mr. Burke's book, in the light of literary criticism, are judges above
+all challenge. He did not, indeed, flatter himself that as a writer he
+could claim the approbation of men whose talents, in his judgment and in
+the public judgment, approach to prodigies, if ever such persons should
+be disposed to estimate the merit of a composition upon the standard of
+their own ability.</p>
+
+<p>In their critical censure, though Mr. Burke may find himself humbled by
+it as a writer, as a man, and as an Englishman, he finds matter not only
+of consolation, but of pride. He proposed to convey to a foreign people,
+not his own ideas, but the prevalent opinions and sentiments of a
+nation, renowned for <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" title="64" class="pagenum"></a>wisdom, and celebrated in all ages for a
+well-understood and well-regulated love of freedom. This was the avowed
+purpose of the far greater part of his work. As that work has not been
+ill received, and as his critics will not only admit, but contend, that
+this reception could not be owing to any excellence in the composition
+capable of perverting the public judgment, it is clear that he is not
+disavowed by the nation whose sentiments he had undertaken to describe.
+His representation is authenticated by the verdict of his country. Had
+his piece, as a work of skill, been thought worthy of commendation, some
+doubt might have been entertained of the cause of his success. But the
+matter stands exactly as he wishes it. He is more happy to have his
+fidelity in representation recognized by the body of the people than if
+he were to be ranked in point of ability (and higher he could not be
+ranked) with those whose critical censure he has had the misfortune to
+incur.</p>
+
+<p>It is not from this part of their decision which the author wishes an
+appeal. There are things which touch him more nearly. To abandon them
+would argue, not diffidence in his abilities, but treachery to his
+cause. Had his work been recognized as a pattern for dexterous argument
+and powerful eloquence, yet, if it tended to establish maxims or to
+inspire sentiments adverse to the wise and free Constitution of this
+kingdom, he would only have cause to lament that it possessed qualities
+fitted to perpetuate the memory of his offence. Oblivion would be the
+only means of his escaping the reproaches of posterity. But, after
+receiving the common allowance due to the common weakness of man, he
+wishes to owe no part of the indulgence of the world to its
+for<a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" title="65" class="pagenum"></a>getfulness. He is at issue with the party before the present, and,
+if ever he can reach it, before the coming generation.</p>
+
+<p>The author, several months previous to his publication, well knew that
+two gentlemen, both of them possessed of the most distinguished
+abilities, and of a most decisive authority in the party, had differed
+with him in one of the most material points relative to the French
+Revolution: that is, in their opinion of the behavior of the French
+soldiery, and its revolt from its officers. At the time of their public
+declaration on this subject, he did not imagine the opinion of these two
+gentlemen had extended a great way beyond themselves. He was, however,
+well aware of the probability that persons of their just credit and
+influence would at length dispose the greater number to an agreement
+with their sentiments, and perhaps might induce the whole body to a
+tacit acquiescence in their declarations, under a natural and not always
+an improper dislike of showing a difference with those who lead their
+party. I will not deny that in general this conduct in parties is
+defensible; but within what limits the practice is to be circumscribed,
+and with what exceptions the doctrine which supports it is to be
+received, it is not my present purpose to define. The present question
+has nothing to do with their motives; it only regards the public
+expression of their sentiments.</p>
+
+<p>The author is compelled, however reluctantly, to receive the sentence
+pronounced upon him in the House of Commons as that of the party. It
+proceeded from the mouth of him who must be regarded as its authentic
+organ. In a discussion which continued for two days, no one gentleman of
+the <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" title="66" class="pagenum"></a>opposition interposed a negative, or even a doubt, in favor of him
+or his opinions. If an idea consonant to the doctrine of his book, or
+favorable to his conduct, lurks in the minds of any persons in that
+description, it is to be considered only as a peculiarity which they
+indulge to their own private liberty of thinking. The author cannot
+reckon upon it. It has nothing to do with them as members of a party. In
+their public capacity, in everything that meets the public ear or public
+eye, the body must be considered as unanimous.</p>
+
+<p>They must have been animated with a very warm zeal against those
+opinions, because they were under no <i>necessity</i> of acting as they did,
+from any just cause of apprehension that the errors of this writer
+should be taken for theirs. They might disapprove; it was not necessary
+they should <i>disavow</i> him, as they have done in the whole and in all the
+parts of his book; because neither in the whole nor in any of the parts
+were they directly, or by any implication, involved. The author was
+known, indeed, to have been warmly, strenuously, and affectionately,
+against all allurements of ambition, and all possibility of alienation
+from pride or personal pique or peevish jealousy, attached to the Whig
+party. With one of them he has had a long friendship, which he must ever
+remember with a melancholy pleasure. To the great, real, and amiable
+virtues, and to the unequalled abilities of that gentleman, he shall
+always join with his country in paying a just tribute of applause. There
+are others in that party for whom, without any shade of sorrow, he bears
+as high a degree of love as can enter into the human heart, and as much
+veneration as ought to be paid to human creatures; because he <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" title="67" class="pagenum"></a>firmly
+believes that they are endowed with as many and as great virtues as the
+nature of man is capable of producing, joined to great clearness of
+intellect, to a just judgment, to a wonderful temper, and to true
+wisdom. His sentiments with regard to them can never vary, without
+subjecting him to the just indignation of mankind, who are bound, and
+are generally disposed, to look up with reverence to the best patterns
+of their species, and such as give a dignity to the nature of which we
+all participate. For the whole of the party he has high respect. Upon a
+view, indeed, of the composition of all parties, he finds great
+satisfaction. It is, that, in leaving the service of his country, he
+leaves Parliament without all comparison richer in abilities than he
+found it. Very solid and very brilliant talents distinguish the
+ministerial benches. The opposite rows are a sort of seminary of genius,
+and have brought forth such and so great talents as never before
+(amongst us at least) have appeared together. If their owners are
+disposed to serve their country, (he trusts they are,) they are in a
+condition to render it services of the highest importance. If, through
+mistake or passion, they are led to contribute to its ruin, we shall at
+least have a consolation denied to the ruined country that adjoins us:
+we shall not be destroyed by men of mean or secondary capacities.</p>
+
+<p>All these considerations of party attachment, of personal regard, and of
+personal admiration rendered the author of the Reflections extremely
+cautious, lest the slightest suspicion should arise of his having
+undertaken to express the sentiments even of a single man of that
+description. His words at the outset of his Reflections are these:&mdash;<a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" title="68" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first letter I had the honor to write to you, and which at
+length I send, I wrote neither <i>for</i> nor <i>from</i> any description of men;
+nor shall I in this. My errors, if any, are <i>my own</i>. My reputation
+<i>alone</i> is to answer for them.&quot; In another place he says, (p. 126,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor" title=" Reflections, &amp;c., 1st ed., London, J. Dodsley,
+1790.&mdash;Works, Vol. III. p. 343, in the present edition.">[7]</a>)
+&quot;I have <i>no man's</i> proxy. I speak <i>only</i> from <i>myself</i>, when I disclaim,
+as I do with all possible earnestness, all communion with the actors in
+that triumph, or with the admirers of it. When I assert anything else,
+as concerning the people of England, I speak from observation, <i>not from
+authority</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To say, then, that the book did not contain the sentiments of their
+party is not to contradict the author or to clear themselves. If the
+party had denied his doctrines to be the current opinions of the
+majority in the nation, they would have put the question on its true
+issue. There, I hope and believe, his censurers will find, on the trial,
+that the author is as faithful a representative of the general sentiment
+of the people of England, as any person amongst them can be of the ideas
+of his own party.</p>
+
+<p>The French Revolution can have no connection with the objects of any
+parties in England formed before the period of that event, unless they
+choose to imitate any of its acts, or to consolidate any principles of
+that Revolution with their own opinions. The French Revolution is no
+part of their original contract. The matter, standing by itself, is an
+open subject of political discussion, like all the other revolutions
+(and there are many) which have been attempted or accomplished in our
+age. But if any considerable number of British subjects, taking a
+factious interest in <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" title="69" class="pagenum"></a>the proceedings of France, begin publicly to
+incorporate themselves for the subversion of nothing short of the
+<i>whole</i> Constitution of this kingdom,&mdash;to incorporate themselves for the
+utter overthrow of the body of its laws, civil and ecclesiastical, and
+with them of the whole system of its manners, in favor of the new
+Constitution and of the modern usages of the French nation,&mdash;I think no
+party principle could bind the author not to express his sentiments
+strongly against such a faction. On the contrary, he was perhaps bound
+to mark his dissent, when the leaders of the party were daily going out
+of their way to make public declarations in Parliament, which,
+notwithstanding the purity of their intentions, had a tendency to
+encourage ill-designing men in their practices against our Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>The members of this faction leave no doubt of the nature and the extent
+of the mischief they mean to produce. They declare it openly and
+decisively. Their intentions are not left equivocal. They are put out of
+all dispute by the thanks which, formally and as it were officially,
+they issue, in order to recommend and to promote the circulation of the
+most atrocious and treasonable libels against all the hitherto cherished
+objects of the love and veneration of this people. Is it contrary to the
+duty of a good subject to reprobate such proceedings? Is it alien to the
+office of a good member of Parliament, when such practices increase, and
+when the audacity of the conspirators grows with their impunity, to
+point out in his place their evil tendency to the happy Constitution
+which he is chosen to guard? Is it wrong, in any sense, to render the
+people of England sensible how much they must suffer, if, unfortunately,
+such <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" title="70" class="pagenum"></a>a wicked faction should become possessed in this country of the
+same power which their allies in the very next to us have so
+perfidiously usurped and so outrageously abused? Is it inhuman to
+prevent, if possible, the spilling <i>their</i> blood, or imprudent to guard
+against the effusion of <i>our own?</i> Is it contrary to any of the honest
+principles of party, or repugnant to any of the known duties of
+friendship, for any senator respectfully and amicably to caution his
+brother members against countenancing, by inconsiderate expressions, a
+sort of proceeding which it is impossible they should deliberately
+approve?</p>
+
+<p>He had undertaken to demonstrate, by arguments which he thought could
+not be refuted, and by documents which he was sure could not be denied,
+that no comparison was to be made between the British government and the
+French usurpation.&mdash;That they who endeavored madly to compare them were
+by no means making the comparison of one good system with another good
+system, which varied only in local and circumstantial differences; much
+less that they were holding out to us a superior pattern of legal
+liberty, which we might substitute in the place of our old, and, as they
+describe it, superannuated Constitution. He meant to demonstrate that
+the French scheme was not a comparative good, but a positive evil.&mdash;That
+the question did not at all turn, as it had been stated, on a parallel
+between a monarchy and a republic. He denied that the present scheme of
+things in France did at all deserve the respectable name of a republic:
+he had therefore no comparison between monarchies and republics to
+make.&mdash;That what was done in France was a wild attempt to methodize
+anarchy, to perpetuate and fix disorder.<a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" title="71" class="pagenum"></a> That it was a foul, impious,
+monstrous thing, wholly out of the course of moral Nature. He undertook
+to prove that it was generated in treachery, fraud, falsehood,
+hypocrisy, and unprovoked murder.&mdash;He offered to make out that those who
+have led in that business had conducted themselves with the utmost
+perfidy to their colleagues in function, and with the most flagrant
+perjury both towards their king and their constituents: to the one of
+whom the Assembly had sworn fealty; and to the other, when under no sort
+of violence or constraint, they had sworn a full obedience to
+instructions.&mdash;That, by the terror of assassination, they had driven
+away a very great number of the members, so as to produce a false
+appearance of a majority.&mdash;That this fictitious majority had fabricated
+a Constitution, which, as now it stands, is a tyranny far beyond any
+example that can be found in the civilized European world of our age;
+that therefore the lovers of it must be lovers, not of liberty, but, if
+they really understand its nature, of the lowest and basest of all
+servitude.</p>
+
+<p>He proposed to prove that the present state of things in France is not a
+transient evil, productive, as some have too favorably represented it,
+of a lasting good; but that the present evil is only the means of
+producing future and (if that were possible) worse evils.&mdash;That it is
+not an undigested, imperfect, and crude scheme of liberty, which may
+gradually be mellowed and ripened into an orderly and social freedom;
+but that it is so fundamentally wrong as to be utterly incapable of
+correcting itself by any length of time, or of being formed into any
+mode of polity of which a member of the House of Commons could publicly
+declare his approbation.<a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" title="72" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>If it had been permitted to Mr. Burke, he would have shown distinctly,
+and in detail, that what the Assembly calling itself National had held
+out as a large and liberal toleration is in reality a cruel and
+insidious religious persecution, infinitely more bitter than any which
+had been heard of within this century.&mdash;That it had a feature in it
+worse than the old persecutions.&mdash;That the old persecutors acted, or
+pretended to act, from zeal towards some system of piety and virtue:
+they gave strong preferences to their own; and if they drove people from
+one religion, they provided for them another, in which men might take
+refuge and expect consolation.&mdash;That their new persecution is not
+against a variety in conscience, but against all conscience. That it
+professes contempt towards its object; and whilst it treats all religion
+with scorn, is not so much as neutral about the modes: it unites the
+opposite evils of intolerance and of indifference.</p>
+
+<p>He could have proved that it is so far from rejecting tests, (as
+unaccountably had been asserted,) that the Assembly had imposed tests of
+a peculiar hardship, arising from a cruel and premeditated pecuniary
+fraud: tests against old principles, sanctioned by the laws, and binding
+upon the conscience.&mdash;That these tests were not imposed as titles to
+some new honor or some new benefit, but to enable men to hold a poor
+compensation for their legal estates, of which they had been unjustly
+deprived; and as they had before been reduced from affluence to
+indigence, so, on refusal to swear against their conscience, they are
+now driven from indigence to famine, and treated with every possible
+degree of outrage, insult, and inhumanity.&mdash;That these tests, which
+their impos<a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" title="73" class="pagenum"></a>ers well knew would not be taken, were intended for the very
+purpose of cheating their miserable victims out of the compensation
+which the tyrannic impostors of the Assembly had previously and
+purposely rendered the public unable to pay. That thus their ultimate
+violence arose from their original fraud.</p>
+
+<p>He would have shown that the universal peace and concord amongst
+nations, which these common enemies to mankind had held out with the
+same fraudulent ends and pretences with which they had uniformly
+conducted every part of their proceeding, was a coarse and clumsy
+deception, unworthy to be proposed as an example, by an informed and
+sagacious British senator, to any other country.&mdash;That, far from peace
+and good-will to men, they meditated war against all other governments,
+and proposed systematically to excite in them all the very worst kind of
+seditions, in order to lead to their common destruction.&mdash;That they had
+discovered, in the few instances in which they have hitherto had the
+power of discovering it, (as at Avignon and in the Comtat, at Cavaillon
+and at Carpentras,) in what a savage manner they mean to conduct the
+seditions and wars they have planned against their neighbors, for the
+sake of putting themselves at the head of a confederation of republics
+as wild and as mischievous as their own. He would have shown in what
+manner that wicked scheme was carried on in those places, without being
+directly either owned or disclaimed, in hopes that the undone people
+should at length be obliged to fly to their tyrannic protection, as some
+sort of refuge from their barbarous and treacherous hostility. He would
+have shown from those examples that neither this nor any other society
+could be <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" title="74" class="pagenum"></a>in safety as long as such a public enemy was in a condition to
+continue directly or indirectly such practices against its peace.&mdash;That
+Great Britain was a principal object of their machinations; and that
+they had begun by establishing correspondences, communications, and a
+sort of federal union with the factious here.&mdash;That no practical
+enjoyment of a thing so imperfect and precarious as human happiness must
+be, even under the very best of governments, could be a security for the
+existence of these governments, during the prevalence of the principles
+of France, propagated from that grand school of every disorder and every
+vice.</p>
+
+<p>He was prepared to show the madness of their declaration of the
+pretended rights of man,&mdash;the childish, futility of some of their
+maxims, the gross and stupid absurdity and the palpable falsity of
+others, and the mischievous tendency of all such declarations to the
+well-being of men and of citizens and to the safety and prosperity of
+every just commonwealth. He was prepared to show, that, in their
+conduct, the Assembly had directly violated not only every sound
+principle of government, but every one, without exception, of their own
+false or futile maxims, and indeed every rule they had pretended to lay
+down for their own direction.</p>
+
+<p>In a word, he was ready to show that those who could, after such a full
+and fair exposure, continue to countenance the French insanity were not
+mistaken politicians, but bad men; but he thought that in this case, as
+in many others, ignorance had been the cause of admiration.</p>
+
+<p>These are strong assertions. They required strong proofs. The member who
+laid down these positions <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" title="75" class="pagenum"></a>was and is ready to give, in his place, to
+each position decisive evidence, correspondent to the nature and quality
+of the several allegations.</p>
+
+<p>In order to judge on the propriety of the interruption given to Mr.
+Burke, in his speech in the committee of the Quebec Bill, it is
+necessary to inquire, First, whether, on general principles, he ought to
+have been suffered to prove his allegations? Secondly, whether the time
+he had chosen was so very unseasonable as to make his exercise of a
+parliamentary right productive of ill effects on his friends or his
+country? Thirdly, whether the opinions delivered in his book, and which
+he had begun to expatiate upon that day, were in contradiction to his
+former principles, and inconsistent with the general tenor of his public
+conduct?</p>
+
+<p>They who have made eloquent panegyrics on the French Revolution, and who
+think a free discussion so very advantageous in every case and under
+every circumstance, ought not, in my opinion, to have prevented their
+eulogies from being tried on the test of facts. If their panegyric had
+been answered with an invective, (bating the difference in point of
+eloquence,) the one would have been as good as the other: that is, they
+would both of them have been good for nothing. The panegyric and the
+satire ought to be suffered to go to trial; and that which shrinks from
+if must be contented to stand, at best, as a mere declamation.</p>
+
+<p>I do not think Mr. Burke was wrong in the course he took. That which
+seemed to be recommended to him by Mr. Pitt was rather to extol the
+English Constitution than to attack the French. I do not determine what
+would be best for Mr. Pitt to do in his <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" title="76" class="pagenum"></a>situation. I do not deny that
+<i>he</i> may have good reasons for his reserve. Perhaps they might have been
+as good for a similar reserve on the part of Mr. Fox, if his zeal had
+suffered him to listen to them. But there were no motives of ministerial
+prudence, or of that prudence which ought to guide a man perhaps on the
+eve of being minister, to restrain the author of the Reflections. He is
+in no office under the crown; he is not the organ of any party.</p>
+
+<p>The excellencies of the British Constitution had already exercised and
+exhausted the talents of the best thinkers and the most eloquent writers
+and speakers that the world ever saw. But in the present case a system
+declared to be far better, and which certainly is much newer, (to
+restless and unstable minds no small recommendation,) was held out to
+the admiration of the good people of England. In that case it was surely
+proper for those who had far other thoughts of the French Constitution
+to scrutinize that plan which has been recommended to our imitation by
+active and zealous factions at home and abroad. Our complexion is such,
+that we are palled with enjoyment, and stimulated with hope,&mdash;that we
+become less sensible to a long-possessed benefit from the very
+circumstance that it is become habitual. Specious, untried, ambiguous
+prospects of new advantage recommend themselves to the spirit of
+adventure which more or less prevails in every mind. From this temper,
+men and factions, and nations too, have sacrificed the good of which
+they had been in assured possession, in favor of wild and irrational
+expectations. What should hinder Mr. Burke, if he thought this temper
+likely at one time or other to prevail in our country, from exposing to
+a multitude <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" title="77" class="pagenum"></a>eager to game the false calculations of this lottery of
+fraud?</p>
+
+<p>I allow, as I ought to do, for the effusions which come from a <i>general</i>
+zeal for liberty. This is to be indulged, and even to be encouraged, as
+long as <i>the question is general</i>. An orator, above all men, ought to be
+allowed a full and free use of the praise of liberty. A commonplace in
+favor of slavery and tyranny, delivered to a popular assembly, would
+indeed be a bold defiance to all the principles of rhetoric. But in a
+question whether any particular Constitution is or is not a plan of
+rational liberty, this kind of rhetorical flourish in favor of freedom
+in general is surely a little out of its place. It is virtually a
+begging of the question. It is a song of triumph before the battle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Mr. Fox does not make the panegyric of the new Constitution; it is
+the destruction only of the absolute monarchy he commends.&quot; When that
+nameless thing which has been lately set up in France was described as
+&quot;the most stupendous and glorious edifice of liberty which had been
+erected on the foundation of human integrity in any time or country,&quot; it
+might at first have led the hearer into an opinion that the construction
+of the new fabric was an object of admiration, as well as the demolition
+of the old. Mr. Fox, however, has explained himself; and it would be too
+like that captious and cavilling spirit which I so perfectly detest, if
+I were to pin down the language of an eloquent and ardent mind to the
+punctilious exactness of a pleader. Then Mr. Fox did not mean to applaud
+that monstrous thing which, by the courtesy of France, they call a
+Constitution. I easily believe it. Far from <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" title="78" class="pagenum"></a>meriting the praises of a
+great genius like Mr. Fox, it cannot be approved by any man of common
+sense or common information. He cannot admire the change of one piece of
+barbarism for another, and a worse. He cannot rejoice at the destruction
+of a monarchy, mitigated by manners, respectful to laws and usages, and
+attentive, perhaps but too attentive, to public opinion, in favor of the
+tyranny of a licentious, ferocious, and savage multitude, without laws,
+manners, or morals, and which, so far from respecting the general sense
+of mankind, insolently endeavors to alter all the principles and
+opinions which have hitherto guided and contained the world, and to
+force them into a conformity to their views and actions. His mind is
+made to better things.</p>
+
+<p>That a man should rejoice and triumph in the destruction of an absolute
+monarchy,&mdash;that in such an event he should overlook the captivity,
+disgrace, and degradation of an unfortunate prince, and the continual
+danger to a life which exists only to be endangered,&mdash;that he should
+overlook the utter ruin of whole orders and classes of men, extending
+itself directly, or in its nearest consequences, to at least a million
+of our kind, and to at least the temporary wretchedness of a whole
+community,&mdash;I do not deny to be in some sort natural; because, when
+people see a political object which they ardently desire but in one
+point of view, they are apt extremely to palliate or underrate the evils
+which may arise in obtaining it. This is no reflection on the humanity
+of those persons. Their good-nature I am the last man in the world to
+dispute. It only shows that they are not sufficiently informed or
+sufficiently considerate. When they come to reflect seriously on the
+trans<a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" title="79" class="pagenum"></a>action, they will think themselves bound to examine what the
+object is that has been acquired by all this havoc. They will hardly
+assert that the destruction of an absolute monarchy is a thing good in
+itself, without any sort of reference to the antecedent state of things,
+or to consequences which result from the change,&mdash;without any
+consideration whether under its ancient rule a country was to a
+considerable degree flourishing and populous, highly cultivated and
+highly commercial, and whether, under that domination, though personal
+liberty had been precarious and insecure, property at least was ever
+violated. They cannot take the moral sympathies of the human mind along
+with them, in abstractions separated from the good or evil condition of
+the state, from the quality of actions, and the character of the actors.
+None of us love absolute and uncontrolled monarchy; but we could not
+rejoice at the sufferings of a Marcus Aurelius or a Trajan, who were
+absolute monarchs, as we do when Nero is condemned by the Senate to be
+punished <i>more majorum</i>; nor, when that monster was obliged to fly with
+his wife Sporus, and to drink puddle, were men affected in the same
+manner as when the venerable Galba, with all his faults and errors, was
+murdered by a revolted mercenary soldiery. With such things before our
+eyes, our feelings contradict our theories; and when this is the case,
+the feelings are true, and the theory is false. What I contend for is,
+that, in commending the destruction of an absolute monarchy, <i>all the
+circumstances</i> ought not to be wholly overlooked, as &quot;considerations fit
+only for shallow and superficial minds.&quot; (The words of Mr. Fox, or to
+that effect.)</p>
+
+<p>The subversion of a government, to deserve any <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" title="80" class="pagenum"></a>praise, must be
+considered but as a step preparatory to the formation of something
+better, either in the scheme of the government itself, or in the persons
+who administer it, or in both. These events cannot in reason be
+separated. For instance, when we praise our Revolution of 1688, though
+the nation in that act was on the defensive, and was justified in
+incurring all the evils of a defensive war, we do not rest there. We
+always combine with the subversion of the old government the happy
+settlement which followed. When we estimate that Revolution, we mean to
+comprehend in our calculation both the value of the thing parted with
+and the value of the thing received in exchange.</p>
+
+<p>The burden of proof lies heavily on those who tear to pieces the whole
+frame and contexture of their country, that they could find no other way
+of settling a government fit to obtain its rational ends, except that
+which they have pursued by means unfavorable to all the present
+happiness of millions of people, and to the utter ruin of several
+hundreds of thousands. In their political arrangements, men have no
+right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the
+question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands
+is the care of our own time. With regard to futurity, we are to treat it
+like a ward. We are not so to attempt an improvement of his fortune as
+to put the capital of his estate to any hazard.</p>
+
+<p>It is not worth our while to discuss, like sophisters, whether in no
+case some evil for the sake of some benefit is to be tolerated. Nothing
+universal can be rationally affirmed on any moral or any political
+subject. Pure metaphysical abstraction does not <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" title="81" class="pagenum"></a>belong to these
+matters. The lines of morality are not like the ideal lines of
+mathematics. They are broad and deep as well as long. They admit of
+exceptions; they demand modifications. These exceptions and
+modifications are not made by the process of logic, but by the rules of
+prudence. Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues
+political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the
+standard of them all. Metaphysics cannot live without definition; but
+Prudence is cautious how she defines. Our courts cannot be more fearful
+in suffering fictitious cases to be brought before them for eliciting
+their determination on a point of law than prudent moralists are in
+putting extreme and hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not
+existing. Without attempting, therefore, to define, what never can be
+defined, the case of a revolution in government, this, I think, may be
+safely affirmed,&mdash;that a sore and pressing evil is to be removed, and
+that a good, great in its amount and unequivocal in its nature, must be
+probable almost to certainty, before the inestimable price of our own
+morals and the well-being of a number of our fellow-citizens is paid for
+a revolution. If ever we ought to be economists even to parsimony, it is
+in the voluntary production of evil. Every revolution contains in it
+something of evil.</p>
+
+<p>It must always be, to those who are the greatest amateurs, or even
+professors, of revolutions, a matter very hard to prove, that the late
+French government was so bad that nothing worse in the infinite devices
+of men could come in its place. They who have brought France to its
+present condition ought to prove also, by something better than
+prattling about the Bastile, that their subverted government was as
+<a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" title="82" class="pagenum"></a>incapable as the present certainly is of all improvement and
+correction. How dare they to say so who have never made that experiment?
+They are experimenters by their trade. They have made an hundred others,
+infinitely more hazardous.</p>
+
+<p>The English admirers of the forty-eight thousand republics which form
+the French federation praise them not for what they are, but for what
+they are to become. They do not talk as politicians, but as prophets.
+But in whatever character they choose to found panegyric on prediction,
+it will be thought a little singular to praise any work, not for its own
+merits, but for the merits of something else which may succeed to it.
+When any political institution is praised, in spite of great and
+prominent faults of every kind, and in all its parts, it must be
+supposed to have something excellent in its fundamental principles. It
+must be shown that it is right, though imperfect,&mdash;that it is not only
+by possibility susceptible of improvement, but that it contains in it a
+principle tending to its melioration.</p>
+
+<p>Before they attempt to show this progression of their favorite work from
+absolute pravity to finished perfection, they will find themselves
+engaged in a civil war with those whose cause they maintain. What! alter
+our sublime Constitution, the glory of France, the envy of the world,
+the pattern for mankind, the masterpiece of legislation, the collected
+and concentrated glory of this enlightened age? Have we not produced it
+ready-made and ready-armed, mature in its birth, a perfect goddess of
+wisdom and of war, hammered by our blacksmith midwives out of the brain
+of Jupiter himself? Have we not sworn our devout, profane, believing,
+infidel people to an <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" title="83" class="pagenum"></a>allegiance to this goddess, even before she had
+burst the <i>dura mater</i>, and as yet existed only in embryo? Have we not
+solemnly declared this Constitution unalterable by any future
+legislature? Have we not bound it on posterity forever, though our
+abettors have declared that no one generation is competent to bind
+another? Have we not obliged the members of every future Assembly to
+qualify themselves for their seats by swearing to its conservation?</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the French Constitution always must be (if a change is not made
+in all their principles and fundamental arrangements) a government
+wholly by popular representation. It must be this or nothing. The French
+faction considers as an usurpation, as an atrocious violation of the
+indefensible rights of man, every other description of government. Take
+it, or leave it: there is no medium. Let the irrefragable doctors fight
+out their own controversy in their own way and with their own weapons;
+and when they are tired, let them commence a treaty of peace. Let the
+plenipotentiary sophisters of England settle with the diplomatic
+sophisters of France in what manner right is to be corrected by an
+infusion of wrong, and how truth may be rendered more true by a due
+intermixture of falsehood.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Having sufficiently proved that nothing could make it <i>generally</i>
+improper for Mr. Burke to prove what he had alleged concerning the
+object of this dispute, I pass to the second question, that is, Whether
+he was justified in choosing the committee on the Quebec Bill as the
+field for this discussion? If it were necessary, it might be shown that
+he was not the first to bring these discussions into Parliament, nor the
+first <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" title="84" class="pagenum"></a>to renew them in this session. The fact is notorious. As to the
+Quebec Bill, they were introduced into the debate upon that subject for
+two plain reasons: First, that, as he thought it <i>then</i> not advisable to
+make the proceedings of the factious societies the subject of a direct
+motion, he had no other way open to him. Nobody has attempted to show
+that it was at all admissible into any other business before the House.
+Here everything was favorable. Here was a bill to form a new
+Constitution for a French province under English dominion. The question
+naturally arose, whether we should settle that constitution upon English
+ideas, or upon French. This furnished an opportunity for examining into
+the value of the French Constitution, either considered as applicable to
+colonial government, or in its own nature. The bill, too, was in a
+committee. By the privilege of speaking as often as he pleased, he hoped
+in some measure to supply the want of support, which he had but too much
+reason to apprehend. In a committee it was always in his power to bring
+the questions from generalities to facts, from declamation to
+discussion. Some benefit he actually received from this privilege. These
+are plain, obvious, natural reasons for his conduct. I believe they are
+the true, and the only true ones.</p>
+
+<p>They who justify the frequent interruptions, which at length wholly
+disabled him from proceeding, attribute their conduct to a very
+different interpretation of his motives. They say, that, through
+corruption, or malice, or folly, he was acting his part in a plot to
+make his friend Mr. Fox pass for a republican, and thereby to prevent
+the gracious intentions of his sovereign from taking effect, which at
+that time had <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" title="85" class="pagenum"></a>begun to disclose themselves in his favor.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor" title=" To explain this, it will be necessary to advert to a
+paragraph which appeared in a paper in the minority interest some time
+before this debate. &quot;A very dark intrigue has lately been discovered,
+the authors of which are well known to us; but until the glorious day
+shall come when it will not be a LIBEL to tell the TRUTH, we must not be
+so regardless of our own safety as to publish their names. We will,
+however, state the fact, leaving it to the ingenuity of our readers to
+discover what we dare not publish.
+
+&quot;Since the business of the armament against Russia has been under
+discussion, a great personage has been heard to say, 'that he was not so
+wedded to Mr. PITT as not to be very willing to give his confidence to
+Mr. FOX, if the latter should be able, in a crisis like the present, to
+conduct the government of the country with greater advantage to the
+public.'
+
+&quot;This patriotic declaration immediately alarmed the swarm of courtly
+insects that live only in the sunshine of ministerial favor. It was
+thought to be the forerunner of the dismission of Mr. Pitt, and every
+engine was set at work for the purpose of preventing such an event. The
+principal engine employed on this occasion was CALUMNY. It was whispered
+in the ear of a great personage, that Mr. Fox was the last man in
+England to be trusted by a KING, because he was by PRINCIPLE a
+REPUBLICAN, and consequently an enemy to MONARCHY.
+
+&quot;In the discussion of the Quebec Bill which stood for yesterday, it was
+the intention of some persons to connect with this subject the French
+Revolution, in hopes that Mr. Fox would be warmed by a collision with
+Mr. Burke, and induced to defend that Revolution, in which so much power
+was taken from, and so little left in the crown.
+
+&quot;Had Mr. Fox fallen into the snare, his speech on the occasion would
+have been laid before a great personage, as a proof that a man who could
+defend such a revolution might be a very good republican, but could not
+possibly be a friend to monarchy.
+
+&quot;But those who laid the snare were disappointed; for Mr. Fox, in the
+short conversation which took place yesterday in the House of Commons,
+said, that he confessedly had thought favorably of the French
+Revolution, but that most certainly he never had, either in Parliament
+or out of Parliament, professed or defended republican
+principles.&quot;&mdash;_Argus_, April 22d, 1791.
+
+Mr. Burke cannot answer for the truth nor prove the falsehood of the
+story given by the friends of the party in this paper. He only knows
+that an opinion of its being well or ill authenticated had no influence
+on his conduct. He meant only, to the best of his power, to guard the
+public against the ill designs of factions out of doors. What Mr. Burke
+did in Parliament could hardly have been intended to draw Mr. Fox into
+any declarations unfavorable to his principles, since (by the account of
+those who are his friends) he had long before effectually prevented the
+success of any such scandalous designs. Mr. Fox's friends have
+themselves done away that imputation on Mr. Burke.">[8]</a> This is a
+pretty serious charge. This, on Mr. Burke's part, would be something
+more than mistake, something worse than formal irregularity. Any
+contumely, any outrage, is readily passed over, by the indulgence which
+we all owe to sudden passion. These things are soon forgot upon
+occasions in which all men are so apt to forget themselves. Deliberate
+injuries, to a degree, must be remembered, because they require
+deliberate precautions to be secured against their return.</p>
+
+<p>I am authorized to say for Mr. Burke, that he <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" title="86" class="pagenum"></a>considers that cause
+assigned for the outrage offered to him as ten times worse than the
+outrage itself. There is such a strange confusion of ideas on this
+subject, that it is far more difficult to understand the nature of the
+charge than to refute it when understood. Mr. Fox's friends were, it
+seems, seized with a sudden panic terror lest he should pass for a
+republican. I do not think they had any ground for this apprehension.
+But let us admit they had. What was there in the Quebec Bill, rather
+than in any other, which could subject him or them to that imputation?
+Nothing in a discussion of the French Constitutions which might arise on
+the Quebec Bill, <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" title="87" class="pagenum"></a>could tend to make Mr. Fox pass for a republican,
+except he should take occasion to extol that state of things in France
+which affects to be a republic or a confederacy of republics. If such an
+encomium could make any unfavorable impression on the king's mind,
+surely his voluntary panegyrics on that event, not so much introduced as
+intruded into other debates, with which they had little relation, must
+have produced that effect with much more certainty and much greater
+force. The Quebec Bill, at worst, was only one of those opportunities
+carefully sought and industriously improved by himself. Mr. Sheridan had
+already brought forth a panegyric on the French system in a still higher
+strain, with full as little demand from the nature of the business
+before the House, in a speech too good to be speedily forgotten. Mr. Fox
+followed him without any direct call from the subject-matter, and upon
+the same ground. To canvass the merits of the French Constitution on the
+Quebec Bill could not draw forth any opinions which were not brought
+forward before, with no small ostentation, and with very little of
+necessity, or perhaps of propriety. What mode or what time of discussing
+the conduct of the French faction in England would not equally tend to
+kindle this enthusiasm, and afford those occasions for panegyric, which,
+far from shunning, Mr. Fox has always industriously sought? He himself
+said, very truly, in the debate, that no artifices were necessary to
+draw from him his opinions upon that subject. But to fall upon Mr. Burke
+for making an use, at worst not more irregular, of the same liberty, is
+tantamount to a plain declaration that the topic of Franco is <i>tabooed</i>
+or forbidden ground to Mr. Burke, and to Mr. Burke alone. But <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" title="88" class="pagenum"></a>surely
+Mr. Fox is not a republican; and what should hinder him, when such a
+discussion came on, from clearing himself unequivocally (as his friends
+say he had done near a fortnight before) of all such imputations?
+Instead of being a disadvantage to him, he would have defeated all his
+enemies, and Mr. Burke, since he has thought proper to reckon him
+amongst them.</p>
+
+<p>But it seems some newspaper or other had imputed to him republican
+principles, on occasion of his conduct upon the Quebec Bill. Supposing
+Mr. Burke to have seen these newspapers, (which is to suppose more than
+I believe to be true,) I would ask, When did the newspapers forbear to
+charge Mr Fox, or Mr. Burke himself, with republican principles, or any
+other principles which they thought could render both of them odious,
+sometimes to one description of people, sometimes to another? Mr. Burke,
+since the publication of his pamphlet, has been a thousand times charged
+in the newspapers with holding despotic principles. He could not enjoy
+one moment of domestic quiet, he could not perform the least particle of
+public duty, if he did not altogether disregard the language of those
+libels. But, however his sensibility might be affected by such abuse, it
+would in <i>him</i> have been thought a most ridiculous reason for shutting
+up the mouths of Mr. Fox or Mr. Sheridan, so as to prevent their
+delivering their sentiments of the French Revolution, that, forsooth,
+&quot;the newspapers had lately charged Mr. Burke with being an enemy to
+liberty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I allow that those gentlemen have privileges to which Mr. Burke has no
+claim. But their friends ought to plead those privileges, and not to
+assign <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" title="89" class="pagenum"></a>bad reasons, on the principle of what is fair between man and
+man, and thereby to put themselves on a level with those who can so
+easily refute them. Let them say at once that his reputation is of no
+value, and that he has no call to assert it,&mdash;but that theirs is of
+infinite concern to the party and the public, and to that consideration
+he ought to sacrifice all his opinions and all his feelings.</p>
+
+<p>In that language I should hear a style correspondent to the
+proceeding,&mdash;lofty, indeed, but plain and consistent. Admit, however,
+for a moment, and merely for argument, that this gentleman had as good a
+right to continue as they had to begin these discussions; in candor and
+equity they must allow that their voluntary descant in praise of the
+French Constitution was as much an oblique attack on Mr. Burke as Mr.
+Burke's inquiry into the foundation of this encomium could possibly be
+construed into an imputation upon them. They well knew that he felt like
+other men; and of course he would think it mean and unworthy to decline
+asserting in his place, and in the front of able adversaries, the
+principles of what he had penned in his closet and without an opponent
+before him. They could not but be convinced that declamations of this
+kind would rouse him,&mdash;that he must think, coming from men of their
+calibre, they were highly mischievous,&mdash;that they gave countenance to
+bad men and bad designs; and though he was aware that the handling such
+matters in Parliament was delicate, yet he was a man very likely,
+whenever, much against his will, they were brought there, to resolve
+that there they should be thoroughly sifted. Mr. Fox, early in the
+preceding session, had public notice from Mr. Burke of the light <a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" title="90" class="pagenum"></a>in
+which he considered every attempt to introduce the example of France
+into the politics of this country, and of his resolution to break with
+his host friends and to join with his worst enemies to prevent it. He
+hoped that no such necessity would ever exist; but in case it should,
+his determination was made. The party knew perfectly that he would at
+least defend himself. He never intended to attack Mr. Fox, nor did he
+attack him directly or indirectly. His speech kept to its matter. No
+personality was employed, even in the remotest allusion. He never did
+impute to that gentleman any republican principles, or any other bad
+principles or bad conduct whatsoever. It was far from his words; it was
+far from his heart. It must be remembered, that, notwithstanding the
+attempt of Mr. Fox to fix on Mr. Burke an unjustifiable change of
+opinion, and the foul crime of teaching a set of maxims to a boy, and
+afterwards, when these maxims became adult in his mature age, of
+abandoning both the disciple and the doctrine, Mr. Burke never
+attempted, in any one particular, either to criminate or to recriminate.
+It may be said that he had nothing of the kind in his power. This he
+does not controvert. He certainly had it not in his inclination. That
+gentleman had as little ground for the charges which he was so easily
+provoked to make upon him.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen of the party (I include Mr. Fox) have been kind enough to
+consider the dispute brought on by this business, and the consequent
+separation of Mr. Burke from their corps, as a matter of regret and
+uneasiness. I cannot be of opinion that by his exclusion they have had
+any loss at all. A man whose opinions are so very adverse to theirs,
+<a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" title="91" class="pagenum"></a>adverse, as it was expressed, &quot;as pole to pole,&quot; so mischievously as
+well as so directly adverse that they found themselves under the
+necessity of solemnly disclaiming them in full Parliament,&mdash;such a man
+must ever be to them a most unseemly and unprofitable incumbrance. A
+co&ouml;peration with him could only serve to embarrass them in all their
+councils. They have besides publicly represented him as a man capable of
+abusing the docility and confidence of ingenuous youth,&mdash;and, for a bad
+reason or for no reason, of disgracing his whole public life by a
+scandalous contradiction of every one of his own acts, writings, and
+declarations. If these charges be true, their exclusion of such a person
+from their body is a circumstance which does equal honor to their
+justice and their prudence. If they express a degree of sensibility in
+being obliged to execute this wise and just sentence, from a
+consideration of some amiable or some pleasant qualities which in his
+private life their former friend may happen to possess, they add to the
+praise of their wisdom and firmness the merit of great tenderness of
+heart and humanity of disposition.</p>
+
+<p>On their ideas, the new Whig party have, in my opinion, acted as became
+them. The author of the Reflections, however, on his part, cannot,
+without great shame to himself, and without entailing everlasting
+disgrace on his posterity, admit the truth or justice of the charges
+which have been made upon him, or allow that he has in those Reflections
+discovered any principles to which honest men are bound to declare, not
+a shade or two of dissent, but a total, fundamental opposition. He must
+believe, if he does not mean wilfully to abandon his <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" title="92" class="pagenum"></a>cause and his
+reputation, that principles fundamentally at variance with those of his
+book are fundamentally false. What those principles, the antipodes to
+his, really are, he can only discover from their contrariety. He is very
+unwilling to suppose that the doctrines of some books lately circulated
+are the principles of the party; though, from the vehement declarations
+against his opinions, he is at some loss how to judge otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>For the present, my plan does not render it necessary to say anything
+further concerning the merits either of the one set of opinions or the
+other. The author would have discussed the merits of both in his place,
+but he was not permitted to do so.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I pass to the next head of charge,&mdash;Mr. Burke's inconsistency. It is
+certainly a great aggravation of his fault in embracing false opinions,
+that in doing so he is not supposed to fill up a void, but that he is
+guilty of a dereliction of opinions that are true and laudable. This is
+the great gist of the charge against him. It is not so much that he is
+wrong in his book (that, however, is alleged also) as that he has
+therein belied his whole life. I believe, if he could venture to value
+himself upon anything, it is on the virtue of consistency that he would
+value himself the most. Strip him of this, and you leave him naked
+indeed.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of any man who had written something, and spoken a great
+deal, upon very multifarious matter, during upwards of twenty-five
+years' public service, and in as great a variety of important events as
+perhaps have ever happened in the same number of years, it would appear
+a little hard, in order to charge such a man with inconsistency, to see
+collected by his <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" title="93" class="pagenum"></a>friend a sort of digest of his sayings, even to such
+as were merely sportive and jocular. This digest, however, has been
+made, with equal pains and partiality, and without bringing out those
+passages of his writings which might tend to show with what restrictions
+any expressions quoted from him ought to have been understood. From a
+great statesman he did not quite expect this mode of inquisition. If it
+only appeared in the works of common pamphleteers, Mr. Burke might
+safely trust to his reputation. When thus urged, he ought, perhaps, to
+do a little more. It shall be as little as possible; for I hope not much
+is wanting. To be totally silent on his charges would not be respectful
+to Mr. Fox. Accusations sometimes derive a weight from the persons who
+make them to which they are not entitled from their matter.</p>
+
+<p>He who thinks that the British Constitution ought to consist of the
+three members, of three very different natures, of which it does
+actually consist, and thinks it his duty to preserve each of those
+members in its proper place and with its proper proportion of power,
+must (as each shall happen to be attacked) vindicate the three several
+parts on the several principles peculiarly belonging to them. He cannot
+assert the democratic part on the principles on which monarchy is
+supported, nor can he support monarchy on the principles of democracy,
+nor can he maintain aristocracy on the grounds of the one or of the
+other or of both. All these he must support on grounds that are totally
+different, though practically they may be, and happily with us they are,
+brought into one harmonious body. A man could not be consistent in
+defending such various, and, at first view, discordant, parts of a
+mixed<a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" title="94" class="pagenum"></a> Constitution, without that sort of inconsistency with which Mr.
+Burke stands charged.</p>
+
+<p>As any one of the great members of this Constitution happens to be
+endangered, he that is a friend to all of them chooses and presses the
+topics necessary for the support of the part attacked, with all the
+strength, the earnestness, the vehemence, with all the power of stating,
+of argument, and of coloring, which he happens to possess, and which the
+case demands. He is not to embarrass the minds of his hearers, or to
+incumber or overlay his speech, by bringing into view at once (as if he
+were reading an academic lecture) all that may and ought, when a just
+occasion presents itself, to be said in favor of the other members. At
+that time they are out of the court; there is no question concerning
+them. Whilst he opposes his defence on the part where the attack is
+made, he presumes that for his regard to the just rights of all the rest
+he has credit in every candid mind. He ought not to apprehend that his
+raising fences about popular privileges this day will infer that he
+ought on the next to concur with those who would pull down the throne;
+because on the next he defends the throne, it ought not to be supposed
+that he has abandoned the rights of the people.</p>
+
+<p>A man, who, among various objects of his equal regard, is secure of
+some, and full of anxiety for the fate of others, is apt to go to much
+greater lengths in his preference of the objects of his immediate
+solicitude than Mr. Burke has ever done. A man so circumstanced often
+seems to undervalue, to vilify, almost to reprobate and disown, those
+that are out of danger. This is the voice of Nature and truth, and not
+of inconsistency and false pretence. The <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" title="95" class="pagenum"></a>danger of anything very dear
+to us removes, for the moment, every other affection from the mind. When
+Priam had his whole thoughts employed on the body of his Hector, he
+repels with indignation, and drives from him with a thousand reproaches,
+his surviving sons, who with an officious piety crowded about him to
+offer their assistance. A good critic (there is no better than Mr. Fox)
+would say that this is a masterstroke, and marks a deep understanding of
+Nature in the father of poetry. He would despise a Zo&iuml;lus who would
+conclude from this passage that Homer meant to represent this man of
+affliction as hating or being indifferent and cold in his affections to
+the poor relics of his house, or that he preferred a dead carcass to his
+living children.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burke does not stand in need of an allowance of this kind, which, if
+he did, by candid critics ought to be granted to him. If the principles
+of a mixed Constitution be admitted, he wants no more to justify to
+consistency everything he has said and done during the course of a
+political life just touching to its close. I believe that gentleman has
+kept himself more clear of running into the fashion of wild, visionary
+theories, or of seeking popularity through every means, than any man
+perhaps ever did in the same situation.</p>
+
+<p>He was the first man who, on the hustings, at a popular election,
+rejected the authority of instructions from constituents,&mdash;or who, in
+any place, has argued so fully against it. Perhaps the discredit into
+which that doctrine of compulsive instructions under our Constitution is
+since fallen may be due in a great degree to his opposing himself to it
+in that manner and on that occasion.<a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" title="96" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The reforms in representation, and the bills for shortening the duration
+of Parliaments, he uniformly and steadily opposed for many years
+together, in contradiction to many of his best friends. These friends,
+however, in his better days, when they had more to hope from his service
+and more to fear from his loss than now they have, never chose to find
+any inconsistency between his acts and expressions in favor of liberty
+and his votes on those questions. But there is a time for all things.</p>
+
+<p>Against the opinion of many friends, even against the solicitation of
+some of them, he opposed those of the Church clergy who had petitioned
+the House of Commons to be discharged from the subscription. Although he
+supported the Dissenters in their petition for the indulgence which he
+had refused to the clergy of the Established Church, in this, as he was
+not guilty of it, so he was not reproached with inconsistency. At the
+same time he promoted, and against the wish of several, the clause that
+gave the Dissenting teachers another subscription in the place of that
+which was then taken away. Neither at that time was the reproach of
+inconsistency brought against him. People could then distinguish between
+a difference in conduct under a variation of circumstances and an
+inconsistency in principle. It was not then thought necessary to be
+freed of him as of an incumbrance.</p>
+
+<p>These instances, a few among many, are produced as an answer to the
+insinuation of his having pursued high popular courses which in his late
+book he has abandoned. Perhaps in his whole life he has never omitted a
+fair occasion, with whatever risk to him of obloquy as an individual,
+with what<a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" title="97" class="pagenum"></a>ever detriment to his interest as a member of opposition, to
+assert the very same doctrines which appear in that book. He told the
+House, upon an important occasion, and pretty early in his service,
+that, &quot;being warned by the ill effect of a contrary procedure in great
+examples, he had taken his ideas of liberty very low in order that they
+should stick to him and that he might stick to them to the end of his
+life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At popular elections the most rigorous casuists will remit a little of
+their severity. They will allow to a candidate some unqualified
+effusions in favor of freedom, without binding him to adhere to them in
+their utmost extent. But Mr. Burke put a more strict rule upon himself
+than most moralists would put upon others. At his first offering himself
+to Bristol, where he was almost sure he should not obtain, on that or
+any occasion, a single Tory vote, (in fact, he did obtain but one,) and
+rested wholly on the Whig interest, he thought himself bound to tell to
+the electors, both before and after his election, exactly what a
+representative they had to expect in him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The <i>distinguishing</i> part of our Constitution,&quot; he said, &quot;is its
+liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate is the <i>peculiar</i> duty and
+<i>proper</i> trust of a member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the
+<i>only</i> liberty, I mean is a liberty connected with <i>order;</i> and that not
+only exists <i>with</i> order and virtue, but cannot exist at all <i>without</i>
+them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in <i>its substance and
+vital principle</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The liberty to which Mr. Burke declared himself attached is not French
+liberty. That liberty is nothing but the rein given to vice and
+confusion. Mr. Burke was then, as he was at the writing of his
+Re<a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" title="98" class="pagenum"></a>flections, awfully impressed with the difficulties arising from the
+complex state of our Constitution and our empire, and that it might
+require in different emergencies different sorts of exertions, and the
+successive call upon all the various principles which uphold and justify
+it. This will appear from what he said at the close of the poll.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be a good member of Parliament is, let me tell you, no easy
+task,&mdash;especially at this time, when there is so strong a disposition to
+run into the perilous extremes of <i>servile</i> compliance or <i>wild
+popularity</i>. To unite circumspection with vigor is absolutely necessary,
+but it is extremely difficult. We are now members for a rich commercial
+<i>city</i>; this city, however, is but a part of a rich commercial <i>nation</i>,
+the interests of which are <i>various, multiform, and intricate</i>. We are
+members for that great <i>nation</i>, which, however, is itself but part of a
+great <i>empire</i>, extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest
+limits of the East and of the West. <i>All</i> these wide-spread interests
+must be <i>considered</i>,&mdash;must be <i>compared</i>,&mdash;must be <i>reconciled</i>, if
+possible. We are members for a <i>free</i> country; and surely we all know
+that the machine of a free constitution is no <i>simple</i> thing, but as
+<i>intricate</i> and as <i>delicate</i> as it is valuable. We are members in a
+<i>great and ancient</i> MONARCHY<i>; and we must preserve religiously the
+true, legal rights of the sovereign, which form the key-stone that binds
+together the noble and well-constructed arch of our empire and our
+Constitution</i>. A constitution made up of <i>balanced powers</i> must ever be
+a critical thing. As such I mean to touch that part of it which comes
+within my reach.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In this manner Mr. Burke spoke to his constitu<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" title="99" class="pagenum"></a>ents seventeen years ago.
+He spoke, not like a partisan of one particular member of our
+Constitution, but as a person strongly, and on principle, attached to
+them all. He thought these great and essential members ought to be
+preserved, and preserved each in its place,&mdash;and that the monarchy ought
+not only to be secured in its peculiar existence, but in its preeminence
+too, as the presiding and connecting principle of the whole. Let it be
+considered whether the language of his book, printed in 1790, differs
+from his speech at Bristol in 1774.</p>
+
+<p>With equal justice his opinions on the American war are introduced, as
+if in his late work he had belied his conduct and opinions in the
+debates which arose upon that great event. On the American war he never
+had any opinions which he has seen occasion to retract, or which he has
+ever retracted. He, indeed, differs essentially from Mr. Fox as to the
+cause of that war. Mr. Fox has been pleased to say that the Americans
+rebelled &quot;because they thought they had not enjoyed liberty enough.&quot;
+This cause of the war, <i>from him</i>, I have heard of for the first time.
+It is true that those who stimulated the nation to that measure did
+frequently urge this topic. They contended that the Americans had from
+the beginning aimed at independence,&mdash;that from the beginning they meant
+wholly to throw off the authority of the crown, and to break their
+connection with the parent country. This Mr. Burke never believed. When
+he moved his second conciliatory proposition, in the year 1776, he
+entered into the discussion of this point at very great length, and,
+from nine several heads of presumption, endeavored to prove the charge
+upon that people not to be true.<a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" title="100" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>If the principles of all he has said and wrote on the occasion be viewed
+with common temper, the gentlemen of the party will perceive, that, on a
+supposition that the Americans had rebelled merely in order to enlarge
+their liberty, Mr. Burke would have thought very differently of the
+American cause. What might have been in the secret thoughts of some of
+their leaders it is impossible to say. As far as a man so locked up as
+Dr. Franklin could be expected to communicate his ideas, I believe he
+opened them to Mr. Burke. It was, I think, the very day before he set
+out for America that a very long conversation passed between them, and
+with a greater air of openness on the Doctor's side than Mr. Burke had
+observed in him before. In this discourse Dr. Franklin lamented, and
+with apparent sincerity, the separation which he feared was inevitable
+between Great Britain and her colonies. He certainly spoke of it as an
+event which gave him the greatest concern. America, he said, would never
+again see such happy days as she had passed under the protection of
+England. He observed, that ours was the only instance of a great empire
+in which the most distant parts and members had been as well governed as
+the metropolis and its vicinage, but that the Americans were going to
+lose the means which secured to them this rare and precious advantage.
+The question with them was not, whether they were to remain as they had
+been before the troubles,&mdash;for better, he allowed, they could not hope
+to be,&mdash;but whether they were to give up so happy a situation without a
+struggle. Mr. Burke had several other conversations with him about that
+time, in none of which, soured and exasperated as his mind certainly
+was, did he discover any other wish <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" title="101" class="pagenum"></a>in favor of America than for a
+security to its <i>ancient</i> condition. Mr. Burke's conversation with other
+Americans was large, indeed, and his inquiries extensive and diligent.
+Trusting to the result of all these means of information, but trusting
+much more in the public presumptive indications I have just referred to,
+and to the reiterated solemn declarations of their Assemblies, he always
+firmly believed that they were purely on the defensive in that
+rebellion. He considered the Americans as standing at that time, and in
+that controversy, in the same relation to England as England did to King
+James the Second in 1688. He believed that they had taken up arms from
+one motive only: that is, our attempting to tax them without their
+consent,&mdash;to tax them for the purposes of maintaining civil and military
+establishments. If this attempt of ours could have been practically
+established, he thought, with them, that their Assemblies would become
+totally useless,&mdash;that, under the system of policy which was then
+pursued, the Americans could have no sort of security for their laws or
+liberties, or for any part of them,&mdash;and that the very circumstance of
+<i>our</i> freedom would have augmented the weight of <i>their</i> slavery.</p>
+
+<p>Considering the Americans on that defensive footing, he thought Great
+Britain ought instantly to have closed with them by the repeal of the
+taxing act. He was of opinion that our general rights over that country
+would have been preserved by this timely concession.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor" title=" See his speech on American Taxation, the 19th of April,
+1774.">[9]</a> When, instead of
+this, a Boston Port Bill, a Massachusetts Charter Bill, a Fishery Bill,
+an Intercourse Bill, I know not how many hostile bills, rushed out like
+so many tempests from all points of <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" title="102" class="pagenum"></a>the compass, and were accompanied
+first with great fleets and armies of English, and followed afterwards
+with great bodies of foreign troops, he thought that their cause grew
+daily better, because daily more defensive,&mdash;and that ours, because
+daily more offensive, grew daily worse. He therefore, in two motions, in
+two successive years, proposed in Parliament many concessions beyond
+what he had reason to think in the beginning of the troubles would ever
+be seriously demanded.</p>
+
+<p>So circumstanced, he certainly never could and never did wish the
+colonists to be subdued by arms. He was fully persuaded, that, if such
+should be the event, they must be held in that subdued state by a great
+body of standing forces, and perhaps of foreign forces. He was strongly
+of opinion that such armies, first victorious over Englishmen, in a
+conflict for English constitutional rights and privileges, and
+afterwards habituated (though in America) to keep an English people in a
+state of abject subjection, would prove fatal in the end to the
+liberties of England itself; that in the mean time this military system
+would lie as an oppressive burden upon the national finances; that it
+would constantly breed and feed new discussions, full of heat and
+acrimony, leading possibly to a new series of wars; and that foreign
+powers, whilst we continued in a state at once burdened and distracted,
+must at length obtain a decided superiority over us. On what part of his
+late publication, or on what expression that might have escaped him in
+that work, is any man authorized to charge Mr. Burke with a
+contradiction to the line of his conduct and to the current of his
+doctrines on the American war? The pamphlet is in the hands of <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" title="103" class="pagenum"></a>his
+accusers: let them point out the passage, if they can.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the author has been well sifted and scrutinized by his friends.
+He is even called to an account for every jocular and light expression.
+A ludicrous picture which he made with regard to a passage in the speech
+of a late minister<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor" title=" Lord Lansdowne.">[10]</a> has been brought up against him. That passage
+contained a lamentation for the loss of monarchy to the Americans, after
+they had separated from Great Britain. He thought it to be unseasonable,
+ill-judged, and ill-sorted with the circumstances of all the parties.
+Mr. Burke, it seems, considered it ridiculous to lament the loss of some
+monarch or other to a rebel people, at the moment they had forever
+quitted their allegiance to theirs and our sovereign, at the time when
+they had broken off all connection with this nation and had allied
+themselves with its enemies. He certainly must have thought it open to
+ridicule; and now that it is recalled to his memory, (he had, I believe,
+wholly forgotten the circumstance,) he recollects that he did treat it
+with some levity. But is it a fair inference from a jest on this
+unseasonable lamentation, that he was then an enemy to monarchy, either
+in this or in any other country? The contrary perhaps ought to be
+inferred,&mdash;if anything at all can be argued from pleasantries good or
+bad. Is it for this reason, or for anything he has said or done relative
+to the American war, that he is to enter into an alliance offensive and
+defensive with every rebellion, in every country, under every
+circumstance, and raised upon whatever pretence? Is it because he did
+not wish the Americans to be subdued by <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" title="104" class="pagenum"></a>arms, that he must be
+inconsistent with himself, if he reprobates the conduct of those
+societies in England, who, alleging no one act of tyranny or oppression,
+and complaining of no hostile attempt against our ancient laws, rights,
+and usages, are now endeavoring to work the destruction of the crown of
+this kingdom, and the whole of its Constitution? Is he obliged, from the
+concessions he wished to be made to the colonies, to keep any terms with
+those clubs and federations who hold out to us, as a pattern for
+imitation, the proceedings in France, in which a king, who had
+voluntarily and formally divested himself of the right of taxation, and
+of all other species of arbitrary power, has been dethroned? Is it
+because Mr. Burke wished to have America rather conciliated than
+vanquished, that he must wish well to the army of republics which are
+set up in France,&mdash;a country wherein not the people, but the monarch,
+was wholly on the defensive, (a poor, indeed, and feeble defensive,) to
+preserve <i>some fragments</i> of the royal authority against a determined
+and desperate body of conspirators, whose object it was, with whatever
+certainty of crimes, with whatever hazard of war, and every other
+species of calamity, to annihilate the <i>whole</i> of that authority, to
+level all ranks, orders, and distinctions in the state, and utterly to
+destroy property, not more by their acts than in their principles?</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burke has been also reproached with an inconsistency between his
+late writings and his former conduct, because he had proposed in
+Parliament several economical, leading to several constitutional
+reforms. Mr. Burke thought, with a majority of the House of Commons,
+that the influence of the crown at one time was too great; but after his
+Majesty <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" title="105" class="pagenum"></a>had, by a gracious message, and several subsequent acts of
+Parliament, reduced it to a standard which satisfied Mr. Fox himself,
+and, apparently at least, contented whoever wished to go farthest in
+that reduction, is Mr. Burke to allow that it would be right for us to
+proceed to indefinite lengths upon that subject? that it would therefore
+be justifiable in a people owing allegiance to a monarchy, and
+professing to maintain it, not to <i>reduce</i>, but wholly to <i>take away
+all</i> prerogative and <i>all</i> influence whatsoever? Must his having made,
+in virtue of a plan of economical regulation, a reduction of the
+influence of the crown compel him to allow that it would be right in the
+French or in us to bring a king to so abject a state as in function not
+to be so respectable as an under-sheriff, but in person not to differ
+from the condition of a mere prisoner? One would think that such a thing
+as a medium had never been heard of in the moral world.</p>
+
+<p>This mode of arguing from your having done <i>any</i> thing in a certain line
+to the necessity of doing <i>every</i> thing has political consequences of
+other moment than those of a logical fallacy. If no man can propose any
+diminution or modification of an invidious or dangerous power or
+influence in government, without entitling friends turned into
+adversaries to argue him into the destruction of all prerogative, and to
+a spoliation of the whole patronage of royalty, I do not know what can
+more effectually deter persons of sober minds from engaging in any
+reform, nor how the worst enemies to the liberty of the subject could
+contrive any method more fit to bring all correctives on the power of
+the crown into suspicion and disrepute.<a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" title="106" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>If, say his accusers, the dread of too great influence in the crown of
+Great Britain could justify the degree of reform which he adopted, the
+dread of a return under the despotism of a monarchy might justify the
+people of France in going much further, and reducing monarchy to its
+present nothing.&mdash;Mr. Burke does not allow that a sufficient argument
+<i>ad hominem</i> is inferable from these premises. If the horror of the
+excesses of an absolute monarchy furnishes a reason for abolishing it,
+no monarchy once absolute (all have been so at one period or other)
+could ever be limited. It must be destroyed; otherwise no way could be
+found to quiet the fears of those who were formerly subjected to that
+sway. But the principle of Mr. Burke's proceeding ought to lead him to a
+very different conclusion,&mdash;to this conclusion,&mdash;that a monarchy is a
+thing perfectly susceptible of reform, perfectly susceptible of a
+balance of power, and that, when reformed and balanced, for a great
+country it is the best of all governments. The example of our country
+might have led France, as it has led him, to perceive that monarchy is
+not only reconcilable to liberty, but that it may be rendered a great
+and stable security to its perpetual enjoyment. No correctives which he
+proposed to the power of the crown could lead him to approve of a plan
+of a republic (if so it may be reputed) which has no correctives, and
+which he believes to be incapable of admitting any. No principle of Mr.
+Burke's conduct or writings obliged him from consistency to become an
+advocate for an exchange of mischiefs; no principle of his could compel
+him to justify the setting up in the place of a mitigated monarchy a new
+and far more despotic power, under which there is no trace <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" title="107" class="pagenum"></a>of liberty,
+except what appears in confusion and in crime.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burke does not admit that the faction predominant in France have
+abolished their monarchy, and the orders of their state, from any dread
+of arbitrary power that lay heavy on the minds of the people. It is not
+very long since he has been in that country. Whilst there he conversed
+with many descriptions of its inhabitants. A few persons of rank did, he
+allows, discover strong and manifest tokens of such a spirit of liberty
+as might be expected one day to break all bounds. Such gentlemen have
+since had more reason to repent of their want of foresight than I hope
+any of the same class will ever have in this country. But this spirit
+was far from general, even amongst the gentlemen. As to the lower
+orders, and those little above them, in whose name the present powers
+domineer, they were far from discovering any sort of dissatisfaction
+with the power and prerogatives of the crown. That vain people were
+rather proud of them: they rather despised the English for not having a
+monarch possessed of such high and perfect authority. <i>They</i> had felt
+nothing from <i>lettres de cachet</i>. The Bastile could inspire no horrors
+into <i>them</i>. This was a treat for their betters. It was by art and
+impulse, it was by the sinister use made of a season of scarcity, it was
+under an infinitely diversified succession of wicked pretences wholly
+foreign to the question of monarchy or aristocracy, that this light
+people were inspired with their present spirit of levelling. Their old
+vanity was led by art to take another turn: it was dazzled and seduced
+by military liveries, cockades, and epaulets, until the French populace
+was led to become the willing, but still the proud and thought<a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" title="108" class="pagenum"></a>less,
+instrument and victim of another domination. Neither did that people
+despise or hate or fear their nobility: on the contrary, they valued
+themselves on the generous qualities which distinguished the chiefs of
+their nation.</p>
+
+<p>So far as to the attack on Mr. Burke in consequence of his reforms.</p>
+
+<p>To show that he has in his last publication abandoned those principles
+of liberty which have given energy to his youth, and in spite of his
+censors will afford repose and consolation to his declining age, those
+who have thought proper in Parliament to declare against his book ought
+to have produced something in it which directly or indirectly militates
+with any rational plan of free government. It is something
+extraordinary, that they whose memories have so well served them with
+regard to light and ludicrous expressions, which years had consigned to
+oblivion, should not have been able to quote a single passage in a piece
+so lately published, which contradicts anything he has formerly ever
+said in a style either ludicrous or serious. They quote his former
+speeches and his former votes, but not one syllable from the book. It is
+only by a collation of the one with the other that the alleged
+inconsistency can be established. But as they are unable to cite any
+such contradictory passage, so neither can they show anything in the
+general tendency and spirit of the whole work unfavorable to a rational
+and generous spirit of liberty; unless a warm opposition to the spirit
+of levelling, to the spirit of impiety, to the spirit of proscription,
+plunder, murder, and cannibalism, be adverse to the true principles of
+freedom.</p>
+
+<p>The author of that book is supposed to have passed <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" title="109" class="pagenum"></a>from extreme to
+extreme; but he has always kept himself in a medium. This charge is not
+so wonderful. It is in the nature of things, that they who are in the
+centre of a circle should appear directly opposed to those who view them
+from any part of the circumference. In that middle point, however, he
+will still remain, though he may hear people who themselves run beyond
+Aurora and the Ganges cry out that he is at the extremity of the West.</p>
+
+<p>In the same debate Mr. Burke was represented by Mr. Fox as arguing in a
+manner which implied that the British Constitution could not be
+defended, but by abusing all republics ancient and modern. He said
+nothing to give the least ground for such a censure. He never abused all
+republics. He has never professed himself a friend or an enemy to
+republics or to monarchies in the abstract. He thought that the
+circumstances and habits of every country, which it is always perilous
+and productive of the greatest calamities to force, are to decide upon
+the form of its government. There is nothing in his nature, his temper,
+or his faculties which should make him an enemy to any republic, modern
+or ancient. Far from it. He has studied the form and spirit of republics
+very early in life; he has studied them with great attention, and with a
+mind undisturbed by affection or prejudice. He is, indeed, convinced
+that the science of government would be poorly cultivated without that
+study. But the result in his mind from that investigation has been and
+is, that neither England nor France, without infinite detriment to them,
+as well in the event as in the experiment, could be brought into a
+republican form; but that everything republican which can be introduced
+with safety into either of them must be <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" title="110" class="pagenum"></a>built upon a monarchy,&mdash;built
+upon a real, not a nominal monarchy, <i>as its essential basis</i>; that all
+such institutions, whether aristocratic or democratic, must originate
+from their crown, and in all their proceedings must refer to it; that by
+the energy of that mainspring alone those republican parts must be set
+in action, and from thence must derive their whole legal effect, (as
+amongst us they actually do,) or the whole will fall into confusion.
+These republican members have no other point but the crown in which they
+can possibly unite.</p>
+
+<p>This is the opinion expressed in Mr. Burke's book. He has never varied
+in that opinion since he came to years of discretion. But surely, if at
+any time of his life he had entertained other notions, (which, however,
+he has never held or professed to hold,) the horrible calamities brought
+upon a great people by the wild attempt to force their country into a
+republic might be more than sufficient to undeceive his understanding,
+and to free it forever from such destructive fancies. He is certain that
+many, even in France, have been made sick of their theories by their
+very success in realizing them.</p>
+
+<p>To fortify the imputation of a desertion from his principles, his
+constant attempts to reform abuses have been brought forward. It is
+true, it has been the business of his strength to reform abuses in
+government, and his last feeble efforts are employed in a struggle
+against them. Politically he has lived in that element; politically he
+will die in it. Before he departs, I will admit for him that he deserves
+to have all his titles of merit brought forth, as they have been, for
+grounds of condemnation, if one word justifying or supporting abuses of
+any sort is to be found in <a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" title="111" class="pagenum"></a>that book which has kindled so much
+indignation in the mind of a great man. On the contrary, it spares no
+existing abuse. Its very purpose is to make war with abuses,&mdash;not,
+indeed, to make war with the dead, but with those which live, and
+flourish, and reign.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>purpose</i> for which the abuses of government are brought into view
+forms a very material consideration in the mode of treating them. The
+complaints of a friend are things very different from the invectives of
+an enemy. The charge of abuses on the late monarchy of France was not
+intended to lead to its reformation, but to justify its destruction.
+They who have raked into all history for the faults of kings, and who
+have aggravated every fault they have found, have acted consistently,
+because they acted as enemies. No man can be a friend to a tempered
+monarchy who bears a decided hatred to monarchy itself. He, who, at the
+present time, is favorable or even fair to that system, must act towards
+it as towards a friend with frailties who is under the prosecution of
+implacable foes. I think it a duty, in that case, not to inflame the
+public mind against the obnoxious person by any exaggeration of his
+faults. It is our duty rather to palliate his errors and defects, or to
+cast them into the shade, and industriously to bring forward any good
+qualities that he may happen to possess. But when the man is to be
+amended, and by amendment to be preserved, then the line of duty takes
+another direction. When his safety is effectually provided for, it then
+becomes the office of a friend to urge his faults and vices with all the
+energy of enlightened affection, to paint them in their most vivid
+colors, and to bring the moral patient to a better habit. Thus I think
+with regard to individu<a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" title="112" class="pagenum"></a>als; thus I think with regard to ancient and
+respected governments and orders of men. A spirit of reformation is
+never more consistent with itself than when it refuses to be rendered
+the means of destruction.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose that enough is said upon these heads of accusation. One more I
+had nearly forgotten, but I shall soon dispatch it. The author of the
+Reflections, in the opening of the last Parliament, entered on the
+journals of the House of Commons a motion for a remonstrance to the
+crown, which is substantially a defence of the preceding Parliament,
+that had been dissolved under displeasure. It is a defence of Mr. Fox.
+It is a defence of the Whigs. By what connection of argument, by what
+association of ideas, this apology for Mr. Fox and his party is by him
+and them brought to criminate his and their apologist, I cannot easily
+divine. It is true that Mr. Burke received no previous encouragement
+from Mr. Fox, nor any the least countenance or support, at the time when
+the motion was made, from him or from any gentleman of the party,&mdash;one
+only excepted, from whose friendship, on that and on other occasions, he
+derives an honor to which he must be dull indeed to be insensible.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor" title=" Mr. Windham.">[11]</a>
+If that remonstrance, therefore, was a false or feeble defence of the
+measures of the party, they were in no wise affected by it. It stands on
+the journals. This secures to it a permanence which the author cannot
+expect to any other work of his. Let it speak for itself to the present
+age and to all posterity. The party had no concern in it; and it can
+never be quoted against them. But in the late debate it was produced,
+not to clear the party from an improper defence in which they had no
+share, but <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" title="113" class="pagenum"></a>for the kind purpose of insinuating an inconsistency between
+the principles of Mr. Burke's defence of the dissolved Parliament and
+those on which he proceeded in his late Reflections on France.</p>
+
+<p>It requires great ingenuity to make out such a parallel between the two
+cases as to found a charge of inconsistency in the principles assumed in
+arguing the one and the other. What relation had Mr. Fox's India Bill to
+the Constitution of France? What relation had that Constitution to the
+question of right in an House of Commons to give or to withhold its
+confidence from ministers, and to state that opinion to the crown? What
+had this discussion to do with Mr. Burke's idea in 1784 of the ill
+consequences which must in the end arise to the crown from setting up
+the commons at large as an opposite interest to the commons in
+Parliament? What has this discussion to do with a recorded warning to
+the people of their rashly forming a precipitate judgment against their
+representatives? What had Mr. Burke's opinion of the danger of
+introducing new theoretic language, unknown to the records of the
+kingdom, and calculated to excite vexatious questions, into a
+Parliamentary proceeding, to do with the French Assembly, which defies
+all precedent, and places its whole glory in realizing what had been
+thought the most visionary theories? What had this in common with the
+abolition of the French monarchy, or with the principles upon which the
+English Revolution was justified,&mdash;a Revolution in which Parliament, in
+all its acts and all its declarations, religiously adheres to &quot;the form
+of sound words,&quot; without excluding from private discussions such terms
+of art as may serve to conduct an inquiry for which none but private
+per<a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" title="114" class="pagenum"></a>sons are responsible? These were the topics of Mr. Burke's proposed
+remonstrance; all of which topics suppose the existence and mutual
+relation of our three estates,&mdash;as well as the relation of the East
+India Company to the crown, to Parliament, and to the peculiar laws,
+rights, and usages of the people of Hindostan. What reference, I say,
+had these topics to the Constitution of France, in which there is no
+king, no lords, no commons, no India Company to injure or support, no
+Indian empire to govern or oppress? What relation had all or any of
+these, or any question which could arise between the prerogatives of the
+crown and the privileges of Parliament, with the censure of those
+factious persons in Great Britain whom Mr. Burke states to be engaged,
+not in favor of privilege against prerogative, or of prerogative against
+privilege, but in an open attempt against our crown and our Parliament,
+against our Constitution in Church and State, against all the parts and
+orders which compose the one and the other?</p>
+
+<p>No persons were more fiercely active against Mr. Fox, and against the
+measures of the House of Commons dissolved in 1784, which Mr. Burke
+defends in that remonstrance, than several of those revolution-makers
+whom Mr. Burke condemns alike in his remonstrance and in his book. These
+revolutionists, indeed, may be well thought to vary in their conduct. He
+is, however, far from accusing them, in this variation, of the smallest
+degree of inconsistency. He is persuaded that they are totally
+indifferent at which end they begin the demolition of the Constitution.
+Some are for commencing their operations with the destruction of the
+civil powers, in order the better to pull down the ecclesiastical,&mdash;some
+wish to begin <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" title="115" class="pagenum"></a>with the ecclesiastical, in order to facilitate the ruin
+of the civil; some would destroy the House of Commons through the crown,
+some the crown through the House of Commons, and some would overturn
+both the one and the other through what they call the people. But I
+believe that this injured writer will think it not at all inconsistent
+with his present duty or with his former life strenuously to oppose all
+the various partisans of destruction, let them begin where or when or
+how they will. No man would set his face more determinedly against those
+who should attempt to deprive them, or any description of men, of the
+rights they possess. No man would be more steady in preventing them from
+abusing those rights to the destruction of that happy order under which
+they enjoy them. As to their title to anything further, it ought to be
+grounded on the proof they give of the safety with which power may be
+trusted in their hands. When they attempt without disguise, not to win
+it from our affections, but to force it from our fears, they show, in
+the character of their means of obtaining it, the use they would make of
+their dominion. That writer is too well read in men not to know how
+often the desire and design of a tyrannic domination lurks in the claim
+of an extravagant liberty. Perhaps in the beginning it <i>always</i> displays
+itself in that manner. No man has ever affected power which he did not
+hope from the favor of the existing government in any other mode.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The attacks on the author's consistency relative to France are (however
+grievous they may be to his feelings) in a great degree external to him
+and to us, and comparatively of little moment to the people <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" title="116" class="pagenum"></a>of England.
+The substantial charge upon him is concerning his doctrines relative to
+the Revolution of 1688. Here it is that they who speak in the name of
+the party have thought proper to censure him the most loudly and with
+the greatest asperity. Here they fasten, and, if they are right in their
+fact, with sufficient judgment in their selection. If he be guilty in
+this point, he is equally blamable, whether he is consistent or not. If
+he endeavors to delude his countrymen by a false representation of the
+spirit of that leading event, and of the true nature and tenure of the
+government formed in consequence of it, he is deeply responsible, he is
+an enemy to the free Constitution of the kingdom. But he is not guilty
+in any sense. I maintain that in his Reflections he has stated the
+Revolution and the Settlement upon their true principles of legal reason
+and constitutional policy.</p>
+
+<p>His authorities are the acts and declarations of Parliament, given in
+their proper words. So far as these go, nothing can be added to what he
+has quoted. The question is, whether he has understood them rightly. I
+think they speak plain enough. But we must now see whether he proceeds
+with other authority than his own constructions, and, if he does, on
+what sort of authority he proceeds. In this part, his defence will not
+be made by argument, but by wager of law. He takes his compurgators, his
+vouchers, his guaranties, along with him. I know that he will not be
+satisfied with a justification proceeding on general reasons of policy.
+He must be defended on party grounds, too, or his cause is not so
+tenable as I wish it to appear. It must be made out for him not only
+that in his construction of these public acts <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" title="117" class="pagenum"></a>and monuments he conforms
+himself to the rules of fair, legal, and logical interpretation, but it
+must be proved that his construction is in perfect harmony with that of
+the ancient Whigs, to whom, against the sentence of the modern, on his
+part, I here appeal.</p>
+
+<p>This July it will be twenty-six years<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor" title=" July 17th, 1765.">[12]</a> since he became connected with
+a man whose memory will ever be precious to Englishmen of all parties,
+as long as the ideas of honor and virtue, public and private, are
+understood and cherished in this nation. That memory will be kept alive
+with particular veneration by all rational and honorable Whigs. Mr.
+Burke entered into a connection with that party through that man, at an
+age far from raw and immature,&mdash;at those years when men are all they are
+ever likely to become,&mdash;when he was in the prime and vigor of his
+life,&mdash;when the powers of his understanding, according to their
+standard, were at the best, his memory exercised, his judgment formed,
+and his reading much fresher in the recollection and much readier in the
+application than now it is. He was at that time as likely as most men to
+know what were Whig and what were Tory principles. He was in a situation
+to discern what sort of Whig principles they entertained with whom it
+was his wish to form an eternal connection. Foolish he would have been
+at that time of life (more foolish than any man who undertakes a public
+trust would be thought) to adhere to a cause which he, amongst all those
+who were engaged in it, had the least sanguine hopes of as a road to
+power.</p>
+
+<p>There are who remember, that, on the removal of <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" title="118" class="pagenum"></a>the Whigs in the year
+1766, he was as free to choose another connection as any man in the
+kingdom. To put himself out of the way of the negotiations which were
+then carrying on very eagerly and through many channels with the Earl of
+Chatham, he went to Ireland very soon after the change of ministry, and
+did not return until the meeting of Parliament. He was at that time free
+from anything which looked like an engagement. He was further free at
+the desire of his friends; for, the very day of his return, the Marquis
+of Rockingham wished him to accept an employment under the new system.
+He believes he might have had such a situation; but again he cheerfully
+took his fate with the party.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a serious imputation upon the prudence of my friend, to have
+made even such trivial sacrifices as it was in his power to make for
+principles which he did not truly embrace or did not perfectly
+understand. In either case the folly would have been great. The question
+now is, whether, when he first practically professed Whig principles, he
+understood what principles he professed, and whether in his book he has
+faithfully expressed them.</p>
+
+<p>When he entered into the Whig party, he did not conceive that they
+pretended to any discoveries. They did not affect to be better Whigs
+than those were who lived in the days in which principle was put to the
+test. Some of the Whigs of those days were then living. They were what
+the Whigs had been at the Revolution,&mdash;what they had been during the
+reign of Queen Anne,&mdash;what they had been at the accession of the present
+royal family.</p>
+
+<p>What they were at those periods is to be seen. It <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" title="119" class="pagenum"></a>rarely happens to a
+party to have the opportunity of a clear, authentic, recorded
+declaration of their political tenets upon the subject of a great
+constitutional event like that of the Revolution. The Whigs had that
+opportunity,&mdash;or to speak more properly, they made it. The impeachment
+of Dr. Sacheverell was undertaken by a Whig ministry and a Whig House of
+Commons, and carried on before a prevalent and steady majority of Whig
+peers. It was carried on for the express purpose of stating the true
+grounds and principles of the Revolution,&mdash;what the Commons emphatically
+called their <i>foundation</i>. It was carried on for the purpose of
+condemning the principles on which the Revolution was first opposed and
+afterwards calumniated, in order, by a juridical sentence of the highest
+authority, to confirm and fix Whig principles, as they had operated both
+in the resistance to King James and in the subsequent settlement, and to
+fix them in the extent and with the limitations with which it was meant
+they should be understood by posterity. The ministers and managers for
+the Commons were persons who had, many of them, an active share in the
+Revolution. Most of them had seen it at an age capable of reflection.
+The grand event, and all the discussions which led to it and followed
+it, were then alive in the memory and conversation of all men. The
+managers for the Commons must be supposed to have spoken on that subject
+the prevalent ideas of the leading party in the Commons, and of the Whig
+ministry. Undoubtedly they spoke also their own private opinions; and
+the private opinions of such men are not without weight. They were not
+<i>umbratiles doctores</i>, men who had studied a free Constitution only in
+its anatomy <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" title="120" class="pagenum"></a>and upon dead systems. They knew it alive and in action.</p>
+
+<p>In this proceeding the Whig principles, as applied to the Revolution and
+Settlement, are to be found, or they are to be found nowhere. I wish the
+Whig readers of this Appeal first to turn to Mr. Burke's Reflections,
+from page 20 to page 50,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor" title=" Works, Vol. III. pp. 251-276, present edition.">[13]</a> and then to attend to the following
+extracts from the trial of Dr. Sacheverell. After this, they will
+consider two things: first, whether the doctrine in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections be consonant to that of the Whigs of that period; and,
+secondly, whether they choose to abandon the principles which belonged
+to the progenitors of some of them, and to the predecessors of them all,
+and to learn new principles of Whiggism, imported from France, and
+disseminated in this country from Dissenting pulpits, from Federation
+societies, and from the pamphlets, which (as containing the political
+creed of those synods) are industriously circulated in all parts of the
+two kingdoms. This is their affair, and they will make their option.</p>
+
+<p>These new Whigs hold that the sovereignty, whether exercised by one or
+many, did not only originate <i>from</i> the people, (a position not denied
+nor worth denying or assenting to,) but that in the people the same
+sovereignty constantly and unalienably resides; that the people may
+lawfully depose kings, not only for misconduct, but without any
+misconduct at all; that they may set up any new fashion of government
+for themselves, or continue without any government, at their pleasure;
+that the people are essentially their own rule, and their will the
+measure of their conduct; that the tenure of magistracy is not a proper
+subject <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" title="121" class="pagenum"></a>of contract, because magistrates have duties, but no rights;
+and that, if a contract <i>de facto</i> is made with them in one age,
+allowing that it binds at all, it only binds those who are immediately
+concerned in it, but does not pass to posterity. These doctrines
+concerning <i>the people</i> (a term which they are far from accurately
+defining, but by which, from many circumstances, it is plain enough they
+mean their own faction, if they should grow, by early arming, by
+treachery, or violence, into the prevailing force) tend, in my opinion,
+to the utter subversion, not only of all government, in all modes, and
+to all stable securities to rational freedom, but to all the rules and
+principles of morality itself.</p>
+
+<p>I assert that the ancient Whigs held doctrines totally different from
+those I have last mentioned. I assert, that the foundations laid down by
+the Commons, on the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, for justifying the
+Revolution of 1688, are the very same laid down in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections,&mdash;that is to say, a breach of the <i>original contrast</i>,
+implied and expressed in the Constitution of this country, as a scheme
+of government fundamentally and inviolably fixed in King, Lords, and
+Commons;&mdash;that the fundamental subversion of this ancient Constitution,
+by one of its parts, having been attempted, and in effect accomplished,
+justified the Revolution;&mdash;that it was justified <i>only</i> upon the
+<i>necessity</i> of the case, as the <i>only</i> means left for the recovery of
+that <i>ancient</i> Constitution formed by the <i>original contract</i> of the
+British state, as well as for the future preservation of the <i>same</i>
+government. These are the points to be proved.</p>
+
+<p>A general opening to the charge against Dr. Sacheverell was made by the
+attorney-general, Sir John<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" title="122" class="pagenum"></a> Montague; but as there is nothing in that
+opening speech which tends very accurately to settle the principle upon
+which the Whigs proceeded in the prosecution, (the plan of the speech
+not requiring it,) I proceed to that of Mr. Lechmere, the manager, who
+spoke next after him. The following are extracts, given, not in the
+exact order in which they stand in the printed trial, but in that which
+is thought most fit to bring the ideas of the Whig Commons distinctly
+under our view.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Lechmere</i><a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor" title=" State Trials, Vol. V. p. 651.">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;It becomes an <i>indispensable</i> duty upon us, who appear in the name and
+on the behalf of all the commons of Great Britain, not only to demand
+your Lordships' justice on such a criminal, [Dr. Sacheverell,] <i>but
+clearly and openly to assert our foundations</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">That the terms of our Constitution imply and express an
+original contract.<br />
+That the contract is mutual consent, and binding at all times
+upon the parties.<br />
+The mixed Constitution uniformly preserved for many ages, and
+is a proof of the contract.</span>
+
+&quot;The nature of our Constitution is that of a <i>limited monarchy</i>, wherein
+the supreme power is communicated and divided between Queen, Lords, and
+Commons, though the executive power and administration be wholly in the
+crown. The terms of such a Constitution do not only suppose, but
+express, an original contract between the crown and the people, by which
+that supreme power was (by mutual consent, and not by accident) limited
+and lodged in more hands than one. And <i>the uniform preservation of such
+a Constitution for so many ages, without any fundamental change,
+demonstrates to your Lordships the continuance of the same contract</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Laws the common measure to King and subject.<br />
+Case of fundamental injury, and breach of original contract.</span>&quot;The consequences of such a frame of <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" title="123" class="pagenum"></a>government are obvious: That the
+<i>laws</i> are the rule to both, the common measure of the power of the
+crown and of the obedience of the subject; and if the executive part
+endeavors the <i>subversion and total destruction of the government</i>, the
+original contract is thereby broke, and the right of allegiance ceases
+that part of the government thus <i>fundamentally</i> injured hath a right to
+save or recover <i>that</i> Constitution in which it had an original
+interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Words <i>necessary means</i> selected with caution.</span>&quot;<i>The necessary means</i> (which is the phrase used by the Commons in their
+first article) words made choice of by them <i>with the greatest caution</i>.
+Those means are described (in the preamble to their charge) to be, that
+glorious enterprise which his late Majesty undertook, with an armed
+force, to deliver this kingdom from Popery and arbitrary power; the
+concurrence of many subjects of the realm, who came over with him in
+that enterprise, and of many others, of <i>all ranks and orders</i>, who
+appeared in arms in many parts of the kingdom in aid of that enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These were the <i>means</i> that brought about the Revolution; and which the
+act that passed soon after, <i>declaring the rights and liberties of the
+subject, and settling the succession of the crown</i>, intends, when his
+late Majesty is therein called <i>the glorious instrument of delivering
+the kingdom</i>; and which the Commons, in the last part of their first
+article, express by the word <i>resistance</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Regard of the Commons to their allegiance to the crown, and
+to the ancient Constitution.</span>&quot;But the Commons, who will never be unmindful of the <i>allegiance</i> of the
+subjects to the <i>crown</i> of this realm, judged it highly incumbent upon
+them, out of regard to the<a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" title="124" class="pagenum"></a> <i>safety of her Majesty's person and
+government, and the ancient and legal Constitution of this kingdom</i>, to
+call that resistance the <i>necessary</i> means; thereby plainly founding
+that power, of right and resistance, which was exercised by the people
+at the time of the happy Revolution, and which the duties of
+<i>self-preservation</i> and religion called them to, <i>upon the NECESSITY of
+the case, and at the same time effectually securing her Majesty's
+government, and the due allegiance of all her subjects</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">All ages have the same interest in preservation of the
+contract, and the same Constitution.</span>&quot;The nature of such an <i>original contract</i> of government proves that
+there is not only a power in the people, who have <i>inherited its
+freedom</i>, to assert their own title to it, but they are bound in duty to
+transmit the <i>same</i> Constitution to their posterity also.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Mr. Lechmere made a second speech. Notwithstanding the clear and
+satisfactory manner in which he delivered himself in his first, upon
+this arduous question, he thinks himself bound again distinctly to
+assert the same foundation, and to justify the Revolution on <i>the case
+of necessity only</i>, upon principles perfectly coinciding with those laid
+down in Mr. Burke's letter on the French affairs.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Lechmere.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">The Commons strictly confine their ideas of a revolution to
+necessity alone and self-defence.</span>&quot;Your Lordships were acquainted, in opening the charge, with how <i>great
+caution</i>, and with what unfeigned regard to her Majesty and her
+government, and to the <i>duty and allegiance</i> of her subjects, the
+Commons made choice of the words <i>necessary means</i> to express the
+resistance that was made use of to bring about the Rev<a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" title="125" class="pagenum"></a>olution, and with
+the condemning of which the Doctor is charged by this article: not
+doubting but that the honor and justice of that resistance, <i>from the
+necessity of that case, and to which alone we have strictly confined
+ourselves</i>, when duly considered, would confirm and strengthen[A]<span class="sidenote">[A] N.B. The remark implies, that allegiance would be insecure
+without this restriction.</span> and be
+understood to be an effectual security of the allegiance of the subject
+to the crown of this realm, <i>in every other case where there is not the
+same necessity</i>; and that the right of the people to <i>self-defence, and
+preservation of their liberties, by resistance as their last remedy, is
+the result of a case of such NECESSITY ONLY, and by which the ORIGINAL
+CONTRACT between king and people is broke. This was the principle laid
+down and carried through all that was said with respect to ALLEGIANCE;
+and on WHICH FOUNDATION, in the name and on the behalf of all the
+commons of Great Britain, we assert and justify that resistance by which
+the late happy Revolution was brought about</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It appears to your Lordships and the world, that <i>breaking the original
+contract between king and people</i> were the words made choice of by that
+House of Commons,&quot; (the House of Commons which originated the
+Declaration of Right,) &quot;with the <i>greatest deliberation and judgment</i>,
+and approved of by your Lordships, in that first and fundamental step
+made towards the <i>re-establishment of the government</i>, which had
+received so great a shock from the evil counsels which had been given to
+that unfortunate prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Sir John Hawles, another of the managers, follows the steps of his
+brethren, positively affirming the doctrine of non-resistance to
+government to be the <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" title="126" class="pagenum"></a>general moral, religious, and political rule for
+the subject, and justifying the Revolution on the same principle with
+Mr. Burke,&mdash;that is, as <i>an exception from necessity</i>. Indeed, he
+carries the doctrine on the general idea of non-resistance much further
+than Mr. Burke has done, and full as far as it can perhaps be supported
+by any duty of <i>perfect obligation</i>, however noble and heroic it may be
+in many cases to suffer death rather than disturb the tranquillity of
+our country.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir John Hawles.</i><a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor" title=" Page 676.">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly it must be granted, that the doctrine that commands obedience
+to the supreme power, <i>though in things contrary to Nature</i>, even to
+suffer death, which is the highest injustice that can be done a man,
+rather than make an opposition to the supreme power [is reasonable<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor" title=" The words necessary to the completion of the sentence are
+wanting in the printed trial&mdash;but the construction of the sentence, as
+well as the foregoing part of the speech, justify the insertion of some
+such supplemental words as the above.">[16]</a>],
+because the death of one or some few private persons is a less evil than
+<i>disturbing the whole government</i>; that law must needs be understood to
+forbid the doing or saying anything to disturb the government, the
+rather because the obeying that law cannot be pretended to be against
+Nature: and the Doctor's refusing to obey that implicit law is the
+reason for which he is now prosecuted; though he would have it believed
+that the reason he is now prosecuted was for the doctrine he asserted of
+obedience to the supreme power; which he might have preached as long as
+he had pleased, and the Commons would have taken no offence at it, <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" title="127" class="pagenum"></a>if
+he had stopped there, and not have taken upon him, on that pretence or
+occasion, to have cast odious colors upon the Revolution.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>General Stanhope was among the managers. He begins his speech by a
+reference to the opinion of his fellow-managers, which he hoped had put
+beyond all doubt the limits and qualifications that the Commons had
+placed to their doctrines concerning the Revolution; yet, not satisfied
+with this general reference, after condemning the principle of
+non-resistance, which is asserted in the sermon <i>without any exception</i>,
+and stating, that, under the specious pretence of preaching a peaceable
+doctrine, Sacheverell and the Jacobites meant, in reality, to excite a
+rebellion in favor of the Pretender, he explicitly limits his ideas of
+resistance with the boundaries laid down by his colleagues, and by Mr.
+Burke.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>General Stanhope.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Rights of the subject and the crown equally legal.</span>&quot;The Constitution of England is founded upon <i>compact</i>; and the subjects
+of this kingdom have, in their several public and private capacities,
+<i>as</i> legal a title to what are their rights by law <i>as</i> a prince to the
+possession of his crown.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Justice of resistance founded on necessity.</span>&quot;Your Lordships, and most that hear me, are witnesses, and must remember
+the <i>necessities</i> of those times which brought about the Revolution:
+that <i>no other</i> remedy was left to preserve our religion and liberties;
+<i>that resistance was</i> necessary, <i>and consequently just</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had the Doctor, in the remaining part of his sermon, preached up peace,
+quietness, and the like, <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" title="128" class="pagenum"></a>and shown how happy we are under her Majesty's
+administration, and exhorted obedience to it, he had never been called
+to answer a charge at your Lordships' bar. But the tenor of all his
+subsequent discourse is one continued invective against the government.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Mr. Walpole (afterwards Sir Robert) was one of the managers on this
+occasion. He was an honorable man and a sound Whig. He was not, as the
+Jacobites and discontented Whigs of his time have represented him, and
+as ill-informed people still represent him, a prodigal and corrupt
+minister. They charged him, in their libels and seditious conversations,
+as having first reduced corruption to a system. Such was their cant. But
+he was far from governing by corruption. He governed by party
+attachments. The charge of systematic corruption is less applicable to
+him, perhaps, than to any minister who ever served the crown for so
+great a length of time. He gained over very few from the opposition.
+Without being a genius of the first class, he was an intelligent,
+prudent, and safe minister. He loved peace, and he helped to communicate
+the same disposition to nations at least as warlike and restless as that
+in which he had the chief direction of affairs. Though he served a
+master who was fond of martial fame, he kept all the establishments very
+low. The land tax continued at two shillings in the pound for the
+greater part of his administration. The other impositions were moderate.
+The profound repose, the equal liberty, the firm protection of just
+laws, during the long period of his power, were the principal causes of
+that prosperity which afterwards took such rapid strides <a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" title="129" class="pagenum"></a>towards
+perfection, and which furnished to this nation ability to acquire the
+military glory which it has since obtained, as well as to bear the
+burdens, the cause and consequence of that warlike reputation. With many
+virtues, public and private, he had his faults; but his faults were
+superficial. A careless, coarse, and over-familiar style of discourse,
+without sufficient regard to persons or occasions, and an almost total
+want of political decorum, were the errors by which he was most hurt in
+the public opinion, and those through which his enemies obtained the
+greatest advantage over him. But justice must be done. The prudence,
+steadiness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the greatest possible
+lenity in his character and his politics, preserved the crown to this
+royal family, and, with it, their laws and liberties to this country.
+Walpole had no other plan of defence for the Revolution than that of the
+other managers, and of Mr. Burke; and he gives full as little
+countenance to any arbitrary attempts, on the part of restless and
+factious men, for framing new governments according to their fancies.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Walpole</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Case of resistance out of the law, and the highest offence.<br />
+Utmost necessity justifies it.</span>&quot;Resistance is nowhere enacted to be legal, but subjected, by all the
+laws now in being, to the greatest penalties. 'Tis what is not, cannot,
+nor ought ever to be described, or affirmed in any positive law, to be
+excusable; when, and upon what <i>never-to-be-expected</i> occasions, it may
+be exercised, no man can foresee; <i>and ought never to be thought of, but
+when an utter subversion of the laws of the realm threatens the whole
+frame of a Constitution, and no redress can otherwise<a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" title="130" class="pagenum"></a> be hoped for</i>. It
+therefore does and <i>ought forever</i> to stand, in the eye and letter of
+the law, as the <i>highest offence</i>. But because any man, or party of men,
+may not, out of folly or wantonness, commit treason, or make their own
+discontents, ill principles, or disguised affections to another
+interest, a pretence to resist the supreme power, will it follow from
+thence that the <i>utmost necessity</i> ought not to engage a nation <i>in its
+own defence for the preservation of the whole</i>?&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Sir Joseph Jekyl was, as I have always heard and believed, as nearly as
+any individual could be, the very standard of Whig principles in his
+age. He was a learned and an able man; full of honor, integrity, and
+public spirit; no lover of innovation; nor disposed to change his solid
+principles for the giddy fashion of the hour. Let us hear this Whig.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Commons do not state the limits of submission.<br />
+To secure the laws, the only aim of the Revolution.</span>
+&quot;In clearing up and vindicating the justice of the Revolution, which was
+the second thing proposed, it is far from the intent of the Commons to
+state the <i>limits and bounds</i> of the subject's submission to the
+sovereign. That which the law hath been wisely silent in, the Commons
+desire to be silent in too; nor will they put <i>any</i> case of a
+justifiable resistance, but that of the Revolution only: and <i>they
+persuade themselves that the doing right to that resistance will be so
+far from promoting popular license or confusion, that it will have a
+contrary effect, and be a means of settling men's minds in the love of
+and veneration for the laws</i>; to rescue and secure which was the <i>ONLY
+aim and intention of those concerned in that resistance</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' /><p><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" title="131" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Sacheverell's counsel defended him on this principle, namely,&mdash;that,
+whilst he enforced from the pulpit the general doctrine of
+non-resistance, he was not obliged to take notice of the theoretic
+limits which ought to modify that doctrine. Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his
+reply, whilst he controverts its application to the Doctor's defence,
+fully admits and even enforces the principle itself, and supports the
+Revolution of 1688, as he and all the managers had done before, exactly
+upon the same grounds on which Mr. Burke has built, in his Reflections
+on the French Revolution.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Blamable to state the bounds of non-resistance.<br />
+Resistance lawful only in <i>case</i> of extreme and obvious
+necessity.</span>&quot;If the Doctor had pretended to have stated the particular bounds and
+limits of non-resistance, and told the people in what cases they might
+or might not resist, <i>he would have been much to blame</i>; nor was one
+word said in the articles, or by the managers, as if that was expected
+from him; but, <i>on the contrary, we have insisted that in NO case can
+resistance be lawful, but in case of EXTREME NECESSITY, and where the
+Constitution can't otherwise be preserved; and such necessity ought to
+be plain and obvious to the sense and judgment of the whole nation: and
+this was the case at the Revolution</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The counsel for Doctor Sacheverell, in defending their client, were
+driven in reality to abandon the fundamental principles of his doctrine,
+and to confess that an exception to the general doctrine of passive
+obedience and non-resistance did exist in the case of the Revolution.
+This the managers for the<a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" title="132" class="pagenum"></a> Commons considered as having gained their
+cause, as their having obtained <i>the whole</i> of what they contended for.
+They congratulated themselves and the nation on a civil victory as
+glorious and as honorable as any that had obtained in arms during that
+reign of triumphs.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his reply to Harcourt, and the other great men who
+conducted the cause for the Tory side, spoke in the following memorable
+terms, distinctly stating the whole of what the Whig House of Commons
+contended for, in the name of all their constituents.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Necessity creates an exception, and the Revolution a case of
+necessity, the utmost extent of the demand of the Commons.</span>&quot;My Lords, the concessions&quot; (the concessions of Sacheverell's counsel)
+&quot;are these: That <i>necessity</i> creates an <i>exception</i> to the general rule
+of submission to the prince; that such exception is understood or
+implied in the laws that require such submission; and that <i>the case of
+the Revolution was a case of necessity.</i></p>
+
+<p>&quot;These are concessions <i>so ample</i>, and do so <i>fully</i> answer the drift of
+the Commons in this article, and are to <i>the utmost extent of their
+meaning in it</i>, that I can't forbear congratulating them upon this
+success of their impeachment,&mdash;that in full Parliament, this erroneous
+doctrine of <i>unlimited</i> non-resistance is given up and disclaimed. And
+may it not, in after ages, be an addition to the glories of this bright
+reign, that so many of those who are honored with being in her Majesty's
+service have been at your Lordships' bar thus successfully contending
+for the <i>national</i> rights of her people, and proving they are not
+precarious or remediless?<a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" title="133" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;But to return to these concessions: I must appeal to your Lordships,
+whether they are not a <i>total departure</i> from the Doctor's answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I now proceed to show that the Whig managers for the Commons meant to
+preserve the government on a firm foundation, by asserting the perpetual
+validity of the settlement then made, and its coercive power upon
+posterity. I mean to show that they gave no sort of countenance to any
+doctrine tending to impress the <i>people</i> (taken separately from the
+legislature, which includes the crown) with an idea that <i>they</i> had
+acquired a moral or civil competence to alter, without breach of the
+original compact on the part of the king, the succession to the crown,
+at their pleasure,&mdash;much less that they had acquired any right, in the
+case of such an event as caused the Revolution, to set up any new form
+of government. The author of the Reflections, I believe, thought that no
+man of common understanding could oppose to this doctrine the ordinary
+sovereign power as declared in the act of Queen Anne: that is, that the
+kings or queens of the realm, with the consent of Parliament, are
+competent to regulate and to settle the succession of the crown. This
+power is and ever was inherent in the supreme sovereignty, and was not,
+as the political divines vainly talk, acquired by the Revolution. It is
+declared in the old statute of Queen Elizabeth. Such a power must reside
+in the complete sovereignty of every kingdom; and it is in fact
+exercised in all of them. But this right of <i>competence</i> in the
+legislature, not in the people, is by the legislature itself to be
+exercised with <i>sound discretion</i>: that is to say, it is to be exercised
+or not, in conformity to the fun<a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" title="134" class="pagenum"></a>damental principles of this government,
+to the rules of moral obligation, and to the faith of pacts, either
+contained in the nature of the transaction or entered into by the body
+corporate of the kingdom,&mdash;which body in juridical construction never
+dies, and in fact never loses its members at once by death.</p>
+
+<p>Whether this doctrine is reconcilable to the modern philosophy of
+government I believe the author neither knows nor cares, as he has
+little respect for any of that sort of philosophy. This may be because
+his capacity and knowledge do not reach to it. If such be the case, he
+cannot be blamed, if he acts on the sense of that incapacity; he cannot
+be blamed, if, in the most arduous and critical questions which can
+possibly arise, and which affect to the quick the vital parts of our
+Constitution, he takes the side which leans most to safety and
+settlement; that he is resolved not &quot;to be wise beyond what is written&quot;
+in the legislative record and practice; that, when doubts arise on them,
+he endeavors to interpret one statute by another, and to reconcile them
+all to established, recognized morals, and to the general, ancient,
+known policy of the laws of England. Two things are equally evident: the
+first is, that the legislature possesses the power of regulating the
+succession of the crown; the second, that in the exercise of that right
+it has uniformly acted as if under the <i>restraints</i> which the author has
+stated. That author makes what the ancients call <i>mos majorum</i> not
+indeed his sole, but certainly his principal rule of policy, to guide
+his judgment in whatever regards our laws. Uniformity and analogy can be
+preserved in them by this process only. That point being fixed, and
+laying fast hold of a strong bottom, our speculations may swing in all
+<a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" title="135" class="pagenum"></a>directions without public detriment, because they will ride with sure
+anchorage.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner these things have been always considered by our
+ancestors. There are some, indeed, who have the art of turning the very
+acts of Parliament which were made for securing the hereditary
+succession in the present royal family, by rendering it penal to doubt
+of the validity of those acts of Parliament, into an instrument for
+defeating all their ends and purposes,&mdash;but upon grounds so very foolish
+that it is not worth while to take further notice of such sophistry.</p>
+
+<p>To prevent any unnecessary subdivision, I shall here put together what
+may be necessary to show the perfect agreement of the Whigs with Mr.
+Burke in his assertions, that the Revolution made no &quot;essential change
+in the constitution of the monarchy, or in any of its ancient, sound,
+and legal principles; that the succession was settled in the Hanover
+family, upon the idea and in the mode of an hereditary succession
+qualified with Protestantism; that it was not settled upon <i>elective</i>
+principles, in any sense of the word <i>elective</i>, or under any
+modification or description of <i>election</i> whatsoever; but, on the
+contrary, that the nation, after the Revolution, renewed by a fresh
+compact the spirit of the original compact of the state, binding itself,
+<i>both in its existing members and all its posterity</i>, to adhere to the
+settlement of an hereditary succession in the Protestant line, drawn
+from James the First, as the stock of inheritance.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir John Hawles</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Necessity of settling the right of the crown, and submission
+to the settlement.</span>&quot;If he [Dr. Sacheverell] is of the opinion he pretends, I can't imagine
+how it comes <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" title="136" class="pagenum"></a>to pass that he that pays that deference to the supreme
+power has preached so directly contrary to the determinations of the
+supreme power in this government, he very well knowing that the
+lawfulness of the Revolution, and of the means whereby it was brought
+about, has already been determined by the aforesaid acts of
+Parliament,&mdash;and do it in the worst manner that he could invent. <i>For
+questioning the right to the crown here in England has procured the
+shedding of more blood and caused more slaughter than all the other
+matters tending to disturbances in the government put together.</i> If,
+therefore, the doctrine which the Apostles had laid down was only to
+continue the peace of the world, as thinking the death of some few
+particular persons better to be borne with than a civil war, sure it is
+the highest breach of that law to question the first principles of this
+government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the Doctor had been contented with the liberty he took of preaching
+up the duty of passive obedience in the most extensive manner he had
+thought fit, and would have stopped there, your Lordships would not have
+had the trouble in relation to him that you now have; but it is plain
+that he preached up his absolute and unconditional obedience, not <i>to
+continue the peace and tranquillity of this nation, but to set the
+subjects at strife, and to raise a war in the bowels of this nation</i>:
+and it is for <i>this</i> that he is now prosecuted; though he would fain
+have it believed that the prosecution was for preaching the peaceable
+doctrine of absolute obedience.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Whole frame of government restored unhurt, on the
+Revolution.</span>&quot;The whole tenor of the administration then in being was agreed to by
+all to be a <i>total <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" title="137" class="pagenum"></a>departure from the Constitution</i>. The nation was at
+that time united in that opinion, all but the criminal part of it. And
+as the nation joined in the judgment of their disease, so they did in
+the remedy. <i>They saw there was no remedy left but the last;</i> and when
+that remedy took place, <i>the whole frame of the government was restored
+entire and unhurt</i>.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor" title=" &quot;What we did was, in truth and substance, and in a
+constitutional light, a revolution, not made, but prevented. We took
+solid securities; we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies
+in our law. In the stable, fundamental parts of our Constitution we made
+no revolution,&mdash;no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the
+monarchy. Perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very
+considerably. The nation kept the same ranks, the same orders, the same
+privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property, the same
+subordinations, the same order in the law, in the revenue, and in the
+magistracy,&mdash;the same lords, the same commons, the same corporations,
+the same electors.&quot;&mdash;_Mr. Burke's Speech in the House of Commons, 9th
+February, 1790._&mdash;It appears how exactly he coincides in everything with
+Sir Joseph Jekyl.">[17]</a> This showed the excellent temper the nation was
+in at that time, that, after such provocations from an abuse of the
+regal power, and such a convulsion, <i>no one part of the Constitution was
+altered, or suffered the least damage; but, on the contrary, the whole
+received new life and vigor</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The Tory counsel for Dr. Sacheverell having insinuated that a great and
+essential alteration in the Constitution had been wrought by the
+Revolution, Sir Joseph Jekyl is so strong on this point, that he takes
+fire even at the insinuation of his being of such an opinion.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">No innovation at the Revolution.</span>&quot;If the Doctor instructed his counsel to insinuate that there was <i>any
+innovation in the Constitution wrought by the Revolution, it is an
+addition to his crime. The Revolution did not introduce any innovation;
+it was a restoration of the ancient fun<a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" title="138" class="pagenum"></a>damental Constitution of the
+kingdom</i>, and giving it its proper force and energy.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre, distinguishes expressly the case
+of the Revolution, and its principles, from a proceeding at pleasure, on
+the part of the people, to change their ancient Constitution, and to
+frame a new government for themselves. He distinguishes it with the same
+care from the principles of regicide and republicanism, and the sorts of
+resistance condemned by the doctrines of the Church of England, and
+which ought to be condemned by the doctrines of all churches professing
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Revolution no precedent for voluntary cancelling allegiance.<br />
+Revolution not like the case of Charles the First.</span>&quot;The resistance at the Revolution, which was founded in <i>unavoidable
+necessity</i>, could be no defence to a man that was attacked <i>for
+asserting that the people might cancel their allegiance at pleasure, or
+dethrone and murder their sovereign by a judiciary sentence</i>. For it can
+never be inferred, from the lawfulness of resistance at a time when <i>a
+total subversion of the government both in Church and State was
+intended</i>, that a people may take up arms and <i>call their sovereign to
+account at pleasure</i>; and therefore, since <i>the Revolution could be of
+no service in giving the least color for asserting any such wicked
+principle</i>, the Doctor could never in<a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" title="139" class="pagenum"></a>tend to put it into the mouths of
+those new preachers and new politicians for a defence,&mdash;unless it be his
+opinion that the resistance at the Revolution can bear any parallel with
+<i>the execrable murder of the royal martyr, so justly detested by the
+whole nation</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Sacheverell's doctrine intended to bring an odium on the
+Revolution.<br />
+True defence of the Revolution an absolute necessity.</span>&quot;'Tis plain that the Doctor is not impeached for preaching a general
+doctrine, and enforcing the general duty of obedience, but for preaching
+against an <i>excepted case after he has stated the exception</i>. He is not
+impeached for preaching the general doctrine of obedience, and the utter
+illegality of resistance upon any pretence whatsoever, but because,
+having first laid down the general doctrine as true, without any
+exception, <i>he states the excepted case</i>, the Revolution, in express
+terms, as an objection, and then assumes the consideration of that
+excepted case, denies there was any resistance in the Revolution, and
+asserts that to impute resistance to the Revolution would cast black and
+odious colors upon it. This, my Lords, is not preaching the doctrine of
+non-resistance in the <i>general</i> terms used by the Homilies and the
+fathers of the Church, where cases of necessity may be <i>understood to be
+excepted by a tacit implication, as the counsel have allowed</i>,&mdash;but is
+preaching directly against the resistance at the Revolution, which, in
+the course of this debate, has been all along admitted to <i>be necessary
+and just</i>, and can have no other meaning than to bring a dishonor upon
+the Revolution, and an odium upon those great and illustrious persons,
+<i>those friends to the monarchy and the Church, that assisted in bringing
+it about</i>. For had the Doctor intended anything else, he would have
+treated the case of the Revolution in a <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" title="140" class="pagenum"></a>different manner, and have
+given <i>it the true and fair answer</i>: he would have said that the
+resistance at the Revolution was <i>of absolute necessity, and the only
+means left to revive the Constitution, and must be therefore taken as an
+excepted case</i>, and could never come within the reach or intention of
+the general doctrine of the Church.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your Lordships take notice on what grounds the Doctor continues to
+assert the same position in his answer. But is it not most evident that
+the general exhortations to be met with in the Homilies of the Church of
+England, and such like declarations in the statutes of the kingdom, are
+meant only as rules for the civil obedience of the subject to the legal
+administration of the supreme power in <i>ordinary cases</i>? And it is
+equally absurd to construe any words in a positive law to authorize the
+destruction of the whole, as to expect that King, Lords, and Commons
+should, in express terms of law, declare <i>such an ultimate resort as the
+right of resistance, at a time when the case supposes that the force of
+all law is ceased</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor" title=" See Reflections, pp. 42, 43.&mdash;Works, Vol. III. p. 270,
+present edition.">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Commons abhor whatever shakes the submission of posterity to
+the settlement of the crown.</span>&quot;The Commons must always resent, with the utmost detestation and
+abhorrence, every position that may shake the authority of that act of
+Parliament whereby the crown is settled upon her Majesty, <i>and whereby
+the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do, in the name of all the
+people of England, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their
+heirs and posterities, to her Majesty</i>, which this general principle of
+absolute non-resistance must certainly shake.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For, if the resistance at the Revolution was ille<a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" title="141" class="pagenum"></a>gal, the Revolution
+settled in usurpation, and this act can have no greater force and
+authority than an act passed under a usurper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the Commons take leave to observe, that the authority of this
+Parliamentary settlement is a matter of the greatest consequence to
+maintain, in a case where the hereditary right to the crown is
+contested.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It appears by the several instances mentioned in the act declaring the
+rights and liberties of the subject and settling the succession of the
+crown, that at the time of the Revolution there was <i>a total subversion
+of the constitution of government both in Church and State, which is a
+case that the laws of England could never suppose, provide for, or have
+in view.</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Sir Joseph Jekyl, so often quoted, considered the preservation of the
+monarchy, and of the rights and prerogatives of the crown, as essential
+objects with all sound Whigs, and that they were bound not only to
+maintain them, when injured or invaded, but to exert themselves as much
+for their re&euml;stablishment, if they should happen to be overthrown by
+popular fury, as any of their own more immediate and popular rights and
+privileges, if the latter should be at any time subverted by the crown.
+For this reason he puts the cases of the <i>Revolution</i>, and the
+<i>Restoration</i> exactly upon the same footing. He plainly marks, that it
+was the object of all honest men not to sacrifice one part of the
+Constitution to another, and much more, not to sacrifice any of them to
+visionary theories of the rights of man, but to preserve our whole
+inheritance in the Constitution, in all its members and all its
+relations, entire and unimpaired, from generation to generation. In this
+Mr. Burke exactly agrees with him.<a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" title="142" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">What are the rights of the people.<br />
+Restoration and Revolution.<br />
+People have an equal interest in the legal rights of the
+crown and of their own.</span>&quot;Nothing is plainer than that the people have a right to the laws and
+the Constitution. This right the nation hath asserted, and recovered out
+of the hands of those who had dispossessed them of it at several times.
+There are of this <i>two famous instances</i> in the knowledge of the present
+age: I mean that of the <i>Restoration</i>, and that of the <i>Revolution</i>: in
+both these great events were the <i>regal power</i> and the <i>rights of the
+people</i> recovered. And it is <i>hard to say in which the people have the
+greatest interest; for the Commons are sensible that there it not one
+legal power belonging to the crown, but they have an interest in it; and
+I doubt not but they will always be as careful to support the rights of
+the crown as their own privileges</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The other Whig managers regarded (as he did) the overturning of the
+monarchy by a republican faction with the very same horror and
+detestation with which they regarded the destruction of the privileges
+of the people by an arbitrary monarch.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Lechmere</i>,</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Constitution recovered at the Restoration and Revolution.</span>Speaking of our Constitution, states it as &quot;a Constitution which happily
+recovered itself, at the Restoration, from the confusions and disorders
+which <i>the horrid and detestable proceedings of faction and usurpation
+had thrown it into</i>, and which after many convulsions and struggles was
+providentially saved at the late happy Revolution, and by the many good
+laws passed since that time stands now upon a firmer foundation,
+together with <a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" title="143" class="pagenum"></a>the most comfortable prospect of <i>security to all
+posterity</i> by the settlement of the crown in the Protestant line.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I mean now to show that the Whigs (if Sir Joseph Jekyl was one, and if
+he spoke in conformity to the sense of the Whig House of Commons, and
+the Whig ministry who employed him) did carefully guard against any
+presumption that might arise from the repeal of the non-resistance oath
+of Charles the Second, as if at the Revolution the ancient principles of
+our government were at all changed, or that republican doctrines were
+countenanced, or any sanction given to seditious proceedings upon
+general undefined ideas of misconduct, or for changing the form of
+government, or for resistance upon any other ground than the <i>necessity</i>
+so often mentioned for the purpose of self-preservation. It will show
+still more clearly the equal care of the then Whigs to prevent either
+the regal power from being swallowed up on pretence of popular rights,
+or the popular rights from being destroyed on pretence of regal
+prerogatives.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Mischief of broaching antimonarchical principles.<br />
+Two cases of resistance: one to preserve the crown, the other
+the rights of the subject.</span>&quot;Further, I desire it may be considered, these legislators&quot; (the
+legislators who framed the non-resistance oath of Charles the Second)
+&quot;were guarding against the consequences of those <i>pernicious and
+antimonarchical principles which had been broached a little before in
+this nation</i>, and those large declarations in favor of <i>non-resistance</i>
+were made to encounter or obviate the <i>mischief</i> of those
+principles,&mdash;as appears by the preamble to the fullest of those acts,
+which is the <i>Militia Act</i>, in the<a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" title="144" class="pagenum"></a> 13th and 14th of King Charles the
+Second. The words of that act are these: <i>And during the late usurped
+governments, many evil and rebellious principles have been instilled
+into the minds of the people of this kingdom, which may break forth,
+unless prevented, to the disturbance of the peace and quiet thereof: Be
+it therefore enacted</i>, &amp;c. Here your Lordships may see the reason that
+inclined those legislators to express themselves in such a manner
+against resistance. <i>They had seen the regal rights swallowed up under
+the pretence of popular ones</i>: and it is no imputation on them, that
+they did not then foresee a <i>quite different case</i>, as was that of the
+Revolution, where, under the pretence of regal authority, a total
+subversion of the rights of the subject was advanced, and in a manner
+effected. And this may serve to show that it was not the design of those
+legislators to condemn resistance, in a case <i>of absolute necessity, for
+preserving the Constitution</i>, when they were guarding against principles
+which had so lately destroyed it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Non-resistance oath not repealed because (with the
+restriction of necessity) it was false, but to prevent false
+interpretations.</span>&quot;As to the truth of the doctrine in this declaration which was repealed,
+<i>I'll admit it to be as true as the Doctor's counsel assert it,&mdash;that
+is, with an exception of cases of necessity</i>: and it was not repealed
+because it was false, <i>understanding it with that restriction</i>; but it
+was repealed because it might be interpreted in <i>an unconfined sense,
+and exclusive of that restriction</i>, and, being so understood, would
+reflect on the justice of the Revolution: and this the legislature had
+at heart, and were very jealous of, and by this repeal of that
+declaration gave a Parliamentary or legislative ad<a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" title="145" class="pagenum"></a>monition against
+asserting this doctrine of non-resistance <i>in an unlimited sense</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">General doctrine of non-resistance godly and wholesome; not
+bound to state <i>explicitly</i> the exceptions.</span>&quot;Though the general doctrine of non-resistance, the doctrine of the
+Church of England, as stated in her Homilies, or elsewhere delivered, by
+which the general duty of subjects to the higher powers is taught, be
+owned to be, as unquestionably it is, <i>a godly and wholesome
+doctrine</i>,&mdash;though this general doctrine has been constantly inculcated
+by the reverend fathers of the Church, dead and living, and preached by
+them as a preservative against the Popish doctrine of deposing princes,
+and as the ordinary rule of obedience,&mdash;and though the same doctrine has
+been preached, maintained, and avowed by our most orthodox and able
+divines from the time of the Reformation,&mdash;and how <i>innocent a man</i>
+soever Dr. Sacheverell had been, if, <i>with an honest and well-meant</i>
+zeal, he had preached the same doctrine in the same general terms in
+which he found it delivered by the Apostles of Christ, as taught by the
+Homilies and the reverend fathers of our Church, and, in imitation of
+those great examples, had only pressed the general duty of obedience,
+and the illegality of resistance, without taking notice of any
+exception,&quot; &amp;c.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Another of the managers for the House of Commons, Sir John Holland, was
+not less careful in guarding against a confusion of the principles of
+the Revolution with any loose, general doctrines of a right in the
+individual, or even in the people, to undertake for themselves, on any
+prevalent, temporary opinions of convenience or improvement, any
+fundamental change in the Constitution, or to fabricate a <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" title="146" class="pagenum"></a>new
+government for themselves, and thereby to disturb the public peace, and
+to unsettle the ancient Constitution of this kingdom.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir John Holland</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Submission to the sovereign a conscientious duty, except in
+cases of necessity.</span>&quot;The Commons would not be understood as if they were pleading for a
+licentious resistance, as if <i>subjects</i> were left to <i>their</i> good-will
+and pleasure when they are to <i>obey</i> and when to <i>resist</i>. No, my Lords,
+they know they are <i>obliged by all the ties of social creatures and
+Christians, for wrath and conscience' sake, to submit to their
+sovereign</i>. The Commons do not abet <i>humorsome, factious arms</i>: they
+aver them to be <i>rebellions</i>. But yet they maintain that that resistance
+at the Revolution, which was so <i>necessary, was lawful and just from
+that necessity</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Right of resistance how to be understood.</span>&quot;These general rules of obedience may, upon a <i>real necessity,</i> admit a
+lawful <i>exception</i>; and such a <i>necessary exception</i> we assert the
+Revolution to be.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis with this view of <i>necessity</i>, only <i>absolute necessity</i> of
+preserving our laws, liberties, and religion,&mdash;'tis with <i>this
+limitation</i>, that we desire to be understood, when any of us speak of
+resistance in general. The <i>necessity</i> of the resistance at the
+Revolution was at that time obvious to every man.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I shall conclude these extracts with a reference to the Prince of
+Orange's Declaration, in which he gives the nation the fullest assurance
+that in his enterprise he was far from the intention of introducing any
+change whatever in the fundamental law and Constitution of the state. He
+considered the object <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" title="147" class="pagenum"></a>of his enterprise not to be a precedent for
+further revolutions, but that it was the great end of his expedition to
+make such revolutions, so far as human power and wisdom could provide,
+unnecessary.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Extracts from the Prince of Orange's Declaration</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>All magistrates, who have been</i> unjustly turned out, shall <i>forthwith
+resume their former</i> employments; as well as all the boroughs of England
+shall return again to <i>their ancient prescriptions and charters</i>, and,
+more particularly, that <i>the ancient</i> charter of the great and famous
+city of London shall again be in force; and that the writs for the
+members of Parliament shall be addressed to the <i>proper officers,
+according to law and custom</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And for the doing of all other things which the two Houses of
+Parliament shall find necessary for the peace, honor, and safety of the
+nation, so that there may <i>be no more danger of the nation's falling, at
+any time hereafter, under arbitrary government</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Extract from the Prince of Oranges Additional Declaration</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Principal nobility and gentry well affected to the Church and
+crown, security against the design of innovation.</span>&quot;We are confident that no persons can have <i>such hard thoughts of us</i> as
+to imagine that we have any other design in this undertaking than to
+procure a settlement of the <i>religion and of the liberties and
+properties of the subjects upon so sure a foundation that there may be
+no danger of the nation's relapsing into the like miseries at any time
+hereafter</i>. And as the forces that we have brought along with us are
+utterly disproportioned to that wicked design of conquering the nation,
+if we were capable of intending it, <i>so the great numbers of the
+principal nobility and <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" title="148" class="pagenum"></a>gentry, that are men of eminent quality and
+estates, and persons of known integrity and zeal, both for the religion
+and government of England, many of them, also being distinguished by
+their constant fidelity to the crown</i>, who do both accompany us in this
+expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it, will cover us from all
+such malicious insinuations.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the spirit, and, upon one occasion, in the words,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor" title=" Declaration of Right.">[19]</a> of this
+Declaration, the statutes passed in that reign made such provisions for
+preventing these dangers, that scarcely anything short of combination of
+King, Lords, and Commons, for the destruction of the liberties of the
+nation, can in any probability make us liable to similar perils. In that
+dreadful, and, I hope, not to be looked-for case, any opinion of a right
+to make revolutions, grounded on this precedent, would be but a poor
+resource. Dreadful, indeed, would be our situation!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>These are the doctrines held by <i>the Whigs of the Revolution</i>, delivered
+with as much solemnity, and as authentically at least, as any political
+dogmas were ever promulgated from the beginning of the world. If there
+be any difference between their tenets and those of Mr. Burke, it is,
+that the old Whigs oppose themselves still more strongly than he does
+against the doctrines which are now propagated with so much industry by
+those who would be thought their successors.</p>
+
+<p>It will be said, perhaps, that the old Whigs, in order to guard
+themselves against popular odium, <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" title="149" class="pagenum"></a>pretended to assert tenets contrary
+to those which they secretly held. This, if true, would prove, what Mr.
+Burke has uniformly asserted, that the extravagant doctrines which he
+meant to expose were disagreeable to the body of the people,&mdash;who,
+though they perfectly abhor a despotic government, certainly approached
+more nearly to the love of mitigated monarchy than to anything which
+bears the appearance even of the best republic. But if these old Whigs
+deceived the people, their conduct was unaccountable indeed. They
+exposed their power, as every one conversant in history knows, to the
+greatest peril, for the propagation of opinions which, on this
+hypothesis, they did not hold. It is a new kind of martyrdom. This
+supposition does as little credit to their integrity as their wisdom: it
+makes them at once hypocrites and fools. I think of those great men very
+differently. I hold them to have been, what the world thought them, men
+of deep understanding, open sincerity, and clear honor. However, be that
+matter as it may, what these old Whigs pretended to be Mr. Burke is.
+This is enough for him.</p>
+
+<p>I do, indeed, admit, that, though Mr. Burke has proved that his opinions
+were those of the old Whig party, solemnly declared by one House, in
+effect and substance by both Houses of Parliament, this testimony
+standing by itself will form no proper defence for his opinions, if he
+and the old Whigs were both of them in the wrong. But it is his present
+concern, not to vindicate these old Whigs, but to show his agreement
+with them. He appeals to them as judges: he does not vindicate them as
+culprits. It is current that these old politicians knew little of the
+rights of men,&mdash;that they lost their way by groping about in <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" title="150" class="pagenum"></a>the dark,
+and fumbling among rotten parchments and musty records. Great lights,
+they say, are lately obtained in the world; and Mr. Burke, instead of
+shrouding himself in exploded ignorance, ought to have taken advantage
+of the blaze of illumination which has been spread about him. It may be
+so. The enthusiasts of this time, it seems, like their predecessors in
+another faction of fanaticism, deal in lights. Hudibras pleasantly says
+of them, they</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;Have <i>lights</i>, where better eyes are blind,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>As pigs are said to see the wind.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The author of the Reflections has <i>heard</i> a great deal concerning the
+modern lights, but he has not yet had the good fortune to <i>see</i> much of
+them. He has read more than he can justify to anything but the spirit of
+curiosity, of the works of these illuminators of the world. He has
+learned nothing from the far greater number of them than a full
+certainty of their shallowness, levity, pride, petulance, presumption,
+and ignorance. Where the old authors whom he has read, and the old men
+whom he has conversed with, have left him in the dark, he is in the dark
+still. If others, however, have obtained any of this extraordinary
+light, they will use it to guide them in their researches and their
+conduct. I have only to wish that the nation may be as happy and as
+prosperous under the influence of the new light as it has been in the
+sober shade of the old obscurity. As to the rest, it will be difficult
+for the author of the Reflections to conform to the principles of the
+avowed leaders of the party, until they appear otherwise than
+negatively. All we can gather from them is this,&mdash;that their principles
+are diametrically opposite to his. This is all that we know from
+authority. Their neg<a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" title="151" class="pagenum"></a>ative declaration obliges me to have recourse to
+the books which contain positive doctrines. They are, indeed, to those
+Mr. Burke holds diametrically opposite; and if it be true (as the
+oracles of the party have said, I hope hastily) that their opinions
+differ so widely, it should seem they are the most likely to form the
+creed of the modern Whigs.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I have stated what were the avowed sentiments of the old Whigs, not in
+the way of argument, but narratively. It is but fair to set before the
+reader, in the same simple manner, the sentiments of the modern, to
+which they spare neither pains nor expense to make proselytes. I choose
+them from the books upon which most of that industry and expenditure in
+circulation have been employed; I choose them, not from those who speak
+with a politic obscurity, not from those who only controvert the
+opinions of the old Whigs, without advancing any of their own, but from
+those who speak plainly and affirmatively. The Whig reader may make his
+choice between the two doctrines.</p>
+
+<p>The doctrine, then, propagated by these societies, which gentlemen think
+they ought to be very tender in discouraging, as nearly as possible in
+their own words, is as follows: That in Great Britain we are not only
+without a good Constitution, but that we have &quot;no Constitution&quot;;&mdash;that,
+&quot;though it is much talked about, no such thing as a Constitution exists
+or ever did exist, and consequently that <i>the people have a Constitution
+yet to form</i>;&mdash;that since William the Conqueror the country has never
+yet <i>regenerated itself</i>, and is therefore without a Constitution;&mdash;that
+where it cannot be produced in a visible form there <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" title="152" class="pagenum"></a>is none;&mdash;that a
+Constitution is a thing antecedent to government; and that the
+Constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of a
+people constituting a government;&mdash;that <i>everything</i> in the English
+government is the reverse of what it ought to be, and what it is said to
+be in England;&mdash;that the right of war and peace resides in a metaphor
+shown at the Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece;&mdash;that it signifies
+not where the right resides, whether in the crown or in Parliament; war
+is the common harvest of those who participate in the division and
+expenditure of public money;&mdash;that the portion of liberty enjoyed in
+England is just enough to enslave a country more productively than by
+despotism.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So far as to the general state of the British Constitution.&mdash;As to our
+House of Lords, the chief virtual representative of our aristocracy, the
+great ground and pillar of security to the landed interest, and that
+main link by which it is connected with the law and the crown, these
+worthy societies are pleased to tell us, that, &quot;whether we view
+aristocracy before, or behind, or sideways, or any way else,
+domestically or publicly, it is still a <i>monster</i>;&mdash;that aristocracy in
+France had one feature less in its countenance than what it has in some
+other countries: it did not compose a body of hereditary legislators; it
+was not <i>a corporation of aristocracy</i>&quot; (for such, it seems, that
+profound legislator, M. de La Fayette, describes the House of
+Peers);&mdash;&quot;that it is kept up by family tyranny and injustice;&mdash;that
+there is an unnatural unfitness in aristocracy to be legislators for a
+nation;&mdash;that their ideas of distributive justice are corrupted at the
+very source; they begin life by trampling on all their younger brothers
+and sisters, and relations <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" title="153" class="pagenum"></a>of every kind, and are taught and educated
+so to do;&mdash;that the idea of an hereditary legislator is as absurd as an
+hereditary mathematician;&mdash;that a body holding themselves unaccountable
+to anybody ought to be trusted by nobody;&mdash;that it is continuing the
+uncivilized principles of governments founded in conquest, and the base
+idea of man having a property in man, and governing him by a personal
+right;&mdash;that aristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the human
+species,&quot; &amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>As to our law of primogeniture, which with few and inconsiderable
+exceptions is the standing law of all our landed inheritance, and which
+without question has a tendency, and I think a most happy tendency, to
+preserve a character of consequence, weight, and prevalent influence
+over others in the whole body of the landed interest, they call loudly
+for its destruction. They do this for political reasons that are very
+manifest. They have the confidence to say, &quot;that it is a law against
+every law of Nature, and Nature herself calls for its destruction.
+Establish family justice, and aristocracy falls. By the aristocratical
+law of primogenitureship, in a family of six children, five are exposed.
+Aristocracy has never but <i>one</i> child. The rest are begotten to be
+devoured. They are thrown to the cannibal for prey, and the natural
+parent prepares the unnatural repast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As to the House of Commons, they treat it far worse than the House of
+Lords or the crown have been ever treated. Perhaps they thought they had
+a greater right to take this amicable freedom with those of their own
+family. For many years it has been the perpetual theme of their
+invectives. &quot;Mockery, insult, usurpation,&quot; are amongst the best names
+<a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" title="154" class="pagenum"></a>they bestow upon it. They damn it in the mass, by declaring &quot;that it
+does not arise out of the inherent rights of the people, as the National
+Assembly does in France, and whose name designates its original.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Of the charters and corporations, to whose rights a few years ago these
+gentlemen were so tremblingly alive, they say, &quot;that, when the people of
+England come to reflect upon them, they will, like France, annihilate
+those badges of oppression, those traces of a conquered nation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As to our monarchy, they had formerly been more tender of that branch of
+the Constitution, and for a good reason. The laws had guarded against
+all seditious attacks upon it with a greater degree of strictness and
+severity. The tone of these gentlemen is totally altered since the
+French Revolution. They now declaim as vehemently against the monarchy
+as on former occasions they treacherously flattered and soothed it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When we survey the wretched condition of man under the monarchical and
+hereditary systems of government, dragged from his home by one power, or
+driven by another, and impoverished by taxes more than by enemies, it
+becomes evident that those systems are bad, and that a general
+revolution in the principle and construction of governments is
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is government more than the management of the affairs of a nation?
+It is not, and from its nature cannot be, the property of any particular
+man or family, but of the whole community, at whose expense it is
+supported; and though by force or contrivance it has been usurped into
+an inheritance, the usurpa<a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" title="155" class="pagenum"></a>tion cannot alter the right of things.
+Sovereignty, as a matter of right, appertains to the nation only, and
+not to any individual; and a nation has at all times an inherent
+indefeasible right to abolish any form of government it finds
+inconvenient, and establish such as accords with its interest,
+disposition, and happiness. The romantic and barbarous distinction of
+men into kings and subjects, though it may suit the condition of
+courtiers, cannot that of citizens, and is exploded by the principle
+upon which governments are now founded. Every citizen is a member of the
+sovereignty, and, as such, can acknowledge no personal subjection, and
+his obedience can be only to the laws.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Warmly recommending to us the example of Prance, where they have
+destroyed monarchy, they say,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Monarchical sovereignty, the enemy of mankind, and the source of
+misery, is abolished; and sovereignty itself is restored to its natural
+and original place, the nation. Were this the case throughout Europe,
+the cause of wars would be taken away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, after all, what is this metaphor called a crown? or rather, what
+is monarchy? Is it a thing, or is it a name, or is it a fraud? Is it 'a
+contrivance of human wisdom,' or of human craft, to obtain money from a
+nation under specious pretences? Is it a thing necessary to a nation? If
+it is, in what does that necessity consist, what services does it
+perform, what is its business, and what are its merits? Doth the virtue
+consist in the metaphor or in the man? Doth the goldsmith that makes the
+crown make the virtue also? Doth it operate like Fortunatus's
+wishing-cap or Harlequin's wooden sword? Doth <a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" title="156" class="pagenum"></a>it make a man a conjurer?
+In fine, what is it? It appears to be a something going much out of
+fashion, falling into ridicule, and rejected in some countries both as
+unnecessary and expensive. In America it is considered as an absurdity;
+and in France it has so far declined, that the goodness of the man and
+the respect for his personal character are the only things that preserve
+the appearance of its existence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Burke talks about what he calls an hereditary crown, as if it were
+some production of Nature,&mdash;or as if, like time, it had a power to
+operate, not only independently, but in spite of man,&mdash;or as if it were
+a thing or a subject universally consented to. Alas! it has none of
+those properties, but is the reverse of them all. It is a thing in
+imagination, the propriety of which is more than doubted, and the
+legality of which in a few years will be denied.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I ask the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and
+down through all the occupations of life to the common laborer, what
+service monarchy is to him, he can give me no answer. If I ask him what
+monarchy is, he believes it is something like a sinecure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The French Constitution says, that the right of war and peace is in the
+nation. Where else should it reside, but in those who are to pay the
+expense?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In England, this right is said to reside in a <i>metaphor</i>, shown at the
+Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece: so are the lions; and it would
+be a step nearer to reason to say it resided in them, for any inanimate
+metaphor is no more than a hat or a cap. We can all see the absurdity of
+worshipping Aaron's molten calf, or Nebuchadnezzar's golden image; but
+why do men continue to practise themselves the absurdities they despise
+in others?&quot;<a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" title="157" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The Revolution and Hanover succession had been objects of the highest
+veneration to the old Whigs. They thought them not only proofs of the
+sober and steady spirit of liberty which guided their ancestors, but of
+their wisdom and provident care of posterity. The modern Whigs have
+quite other notions of these events and actions. They do not deny that
+Mr. Burke has given truly the words of the acts of Parliament which
+secured the succession, and the just sense of them. They attack not him,
+but the law.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr Burke&quot; (say they) &quot;has done some service, not to his cause, but to
+his country, by bringing those clauses into public view. They serve to
+demonstrate how necessary it is at all times to watch against the
+attempted encroachment of power, and to prevent its running to excess.
+It is somewhat extraordinary, that the offence for which James the
+Second was expelled, that of setting up power by <i>assumption</i>, should be
+re-acted, under another shape and form, by the Parliament that expelled
+him. It shows that the rights of man were but imperfectly understood at
+the Revolution; for certain it is, that the right which that Parliament
+set up by <i>assumption</i> (for by delegation it had it not, and could not
+have it, because none could give it) over the persons and freedom of
+posterity forever, was of the same tyrannical unfounded kind which James
+attempted to set up over the Parliament and the nation, and for which he
+was expelled. The only difference is, (for in principle they differ
+not,) that the one was an usurper over the living, and the other over
+the unborn; and as the one has no better authority to stand upon than
+the other, both of them must be equally null and void, and of no
+effect.&quot;<a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" title="158" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;As the estimation of all things is by comparison, the Revolution of
+1688, however from circumstances it may have been exalted beyond its
+value, will find its level. It is already on the wane, eclipsed by the
+enlarging orb of reason and the luminous Revolutions of America and
+France. In less than another century, it will go, as well as Mr. Burke's
+labors, 'to the family vault of all the Capulets.' <i>Mankind will then
+scarcely believe that a country calling itself free would send to
+Holland for a man and clothe him with power on purpose to put themselves
+in fear of him, and give him almost a million sterling a year for leave
+to submit themselves and their posterity like bondmen and bondwomen
+forever</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burke having said that &quot;the king holds his crown in contempt of the
+choice of the Revolution Society, who individually or collectively have
+not&quot; (as most certainly they have not) &quot;a vote for a king amongst them,&quot;
+they take occasion from thence to infer that the king who does not hold
+his crown by election despises the people.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'The king of England,' says he, 'holds <i>his</i> crown' (for it does not
+belong to the nation, according to Mr. Burke) 'in <i>contempt</i> of the
+choice of the Revolution Society,'&quot; &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As to who is king in England or elsewhere, or whether there is any king
+at all, or whether the people choose a Cherokee chief or a Hessian
+hussar for a king, it is not a matter that I trouble myself about,&mdash;be
+that to themselves; but with respect to the doctrine, so far as it
+relates to the rights of men and nations, it is as abominable as
+anything ever uttered in the most enslaved country under heaven. Whether
+it sounds worse to my ear, by not being accus<a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" title="159" class="pagenum"></a>tomed to hear such
+despotism, than what it does to the ear of another person, I am not so
+well a judge of; but of its abominable principle I am at no loss to
+judge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These societies of modern Whigs push their insolence as far as it can
+go. In order to prepare the minds of the people for treason and
+rebellion, they represent the king as tainted with principles of
+despotism, from the circumstance of his having dominions in Germany. In
+direct defiance of the most notorious truth, they describe his
+government there to be a despotism; whereas it is a free Constitution,
+in which the states of the Electorate have their part in the government:
+and this privilege has never been infringed by the king, or, that I have
+heard of, by any of his predecessors. The Constitution of the Electoral
+dominions has, indeed, a double control, both from the laws of the
+Empire and from the privileges of the country. Whatever rights the king
+enjoys as Elector have been always parentally exercised, and the
+calumnies of these scandalous societies have not been authorized by a
+single complaint of oppression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When Mr. Burke says that 'his Majesty's heirs and successors, each in
+their time and order, will come to the crown with the <i>same contempt</i> of
+their choice with which his Majesty has succeeded to that he wears,' it
+is saying too much even to the humblest individual in the country, part
+of whose daily labor goes towards making up the million sterling a year
+which the country gives the person it styles a king. Government with
+insolence is despotism; but when contempt is added, it becomes worse;
+and to pay for contempt is the excess of slavery. This species of
+<a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" title="160" class="pagenum"></a>government comes from Germany, and reminds me of what one of the
+Brunswick soldiers told me, who was taken prisoner by the Americans in
+the late war. 'Ah!' said he, 'America is a fine free country: it is
+worth the people's fighting for. I know the difference by knowing my
+own: in my country, <i>if the prince says, &quot;Eat straw&quot; we eat straw</i>.' God
+help that country, thought I, be it England, or elsewhere, whose
+liberties are to be protected by <i>German principles of government and
+princes of Brunswick</i>!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is somewhat curious to observe, that, although the people of England
+have been in the habit of talking about kings, it is always a foreign
+house of kings,&mdash;hating foreigners, yet governed by them. It is now the
+House of Brunswick, one of the petty tribes of Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If government be what Mr. Burke describes it, 'a contrivance of human
+wisdom,' I might ask him if wisdom was at such a low ebb in England that
+it was become necessary to import it from Holland and from Hanover? But
+I will do the country the justice to say, that was not the case; and
+even if it was, it mistook the cargo. The wisdom of every country, when
+properly exerted, is sufficient for all its purposes; <i>and there could
+exist no more real occasion in England to have sent for a Dutch
+Stadtholder or a German Elector</i> than there was in America to have done
+a similar thing. If a country does not understand its own affairs, how
+is a foreigner to understand them, who knows neither its laws, its
+manners, nor its language? If there existed a man so transcendently wise
+above all others that his wisdom was necessary to instruct a nation,
+some reason might be offered for monarchy; but when we cast our eyes
+about a coun<a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" title="161" class="pagenum"></a>try, and observe how every part understands its own
+affairs, and when we look around the world, and see, that, of all men in
+it, the race of kings are the most insignificant in capacity, our reason
+cannot fail to ask us, What are those men kept for?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor" title=" Vindication of the Rights of Man, recommended by the
+several societies.">[20]</a></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>These are the notions which, under the idea of Whig principles, several
+persons, and among them persons of no mean mark, have associated
+themselves to propagate. I will not attempt in the smallest degree to
+refute them. This will probably be done (if such writings shall be
+thought to deserve any other than the refutation of criminal justice) by
+others, who may think with Mr. Burke. He has performed his part.</p>
+
+<p>I do not wish to enter very much at large into the discussions which
+diverge and ramify in all ways from this productive subject. But there
+is one topic upon which I hope I shall be excused in going a little
+beyond my design. The factions now so busy amongst us, in order to
+divest men of all love for their country, and to remove from their minds
+all duty with regard to the state, endeavor to propagate an opinion,
+that the <i>people</i>, in forming their commonwealth, have by no means
+parted with their power over it. This is an impregnable citadel, to
+which these gentlemen retreat, whenever they are pushed by the battery
+of laws and usages and positive conventions. Indeed, it is such, and of
+so great force, that all they have done in defending their outworks is
+so much time and labor thrown away. Discuss any of their schemes, their
+answer is, It is the act of the<a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" title="162" class="pagenum"></a> <i>people</i>, and that is sufficient. Are
+we to deny to a <i>majority</i> of the people the right of altering even the
+whole frame of their society, if such should be their pleasure? They may
+change it, say they, from a monarchy to a republic to-day, and to-morrow
+back again from a republic to a monarchy; and so backward and forward as
+often as they like. They are masters of the commonwealth, because in
+substance they are themselves the commonwealth. The French Revolution,
+say they, was the act of the majority of the people; and if the majority
+of any other people, the people of England, for instance, wish to make
+the same change, they have the same right.</p>
+
+<p>Just the same, undoubtedly. That is, none at all. Neither the few nor
+the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter
+connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation. The Constitution
+of a country being once settled upon some compact, tacit or expressed,
+there is no power existing of force to alter it, without the breach of
+the covenant, or the consent of all the parties. Such is the nature of a
+contract. And the votes of a majority of the people, whatever their
+infamous flatterers may teach in order to corrupt their minds, cannot
+alter the moral any more than they can alter the physical essence of
+things. The people are not to be taught to think lightly of their
+engagements to their governors; else they teach governors to think
+lightly of their engagements towards them. In that kind of game, in the
+end, the people are sure to be losers. To flatter them into a contempt
+of faith, truth, and justice is to ruin them; for in these virtues
+consists their whole safety. To flatter any man, or any part of mankind,
+in any description, by asserting that in <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" title="163" class="pagenum"></a>engagements he or they are
+free, whilst any other human creature is bound, is ultimately to vest
+the rule of morality in the pleasure of those who ought to be rigidly
+submitted to it,&mdash;to subject the sovereign reason of the world to the
+caprices of weak and giddy men.</p>
+
+<p>But, as no one of us men can dispense with public or private faith, or
+with any other tie of moral obligation, so neither can any number of us.
+The number engaged in crimes, instead of turning them into laudable
+acts, only augments the quantity and intensity of the guilt. I am well
+aware that men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme
+disrelish to be told of their duty. This is of course; because every
+duty is a limitation of some power. Indeed, arbitrary power is so much
+to the depraved taste of the vulgar, of the vulgar of every description,
+that almost all the dissensions which lacerate the commonwealth are not
+concerning the manner in which it is to be exercised, but concerning the
+hands in which it is to be placed. Somewhere they are resolved to have
+it. Whether they desire it to be vested in the many or the few depends
+with most men upon the chance which they imagine they themselves may
+have of partaking in the exercise of that arbitrary sway, in the one
+mode or in the other.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary to teach men to thirst after power. But it is very
+expedient that by moral instruction they should be taught, and by their
+civil constitutions they should be compelled, to put many restrictions
+upon the immoderate exercise of it, and the inordinate desire. The best
+method of obtaining these two great points forms the important, but at
+the same time the difficult problem to the true states<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" title="164" class="pagenum"></a>man. He thinks of
+the place in which political power is to be lodged with no other
+attention than as it may render the more or the less practicable its
+salutary restraint and its prudent direction. For this reason, no
+legislator, at any period of the world, has willingly placed the seat of
+active power in the hands of the multitude; because there it admits of
+no control, no regulation, no steady direction whatsoever. The people
+are the natural control on authority; but to exercise and to control
+together is contradictory and impossible.</p>
+
+<p>As the exorbitant exercise of power cannot, under popular sway, be
+effectually restrained, the other great object of political arrangement,
+the means of abating an excessive desire of it, is in such a state still
+worse provided for. The democratic commonwealth is the foodful nurse of
+ambition. Under the other forms it meets with many restraints. Whenever,
+in states which have had a democratic basis, the legislators have
+endeavored to put restraints upon ambition, their methods were as
+violent as in the end they were ineffectual,&mdash;as violent, indeed, as any
+the most jealous despotism could invent. The ostracism could not very
+long save itself, and much less the state which it was meant to guard,
+from the attempts of ambition,&mdash;one of the natural, inbred, incurable
+distempers of a powerful democracy.</p>
+
+<p>But to return from this short digression,&mdash;which, however, is not wholly
+foreign to the question of the effect of the will of the majority upon
+the form or the existence of their society. I cannot too often recommend
+it to the serious consideration of all men who think civil society to be
+within the province of moral jurisdiction, that, if we owe to it any
+duty, it is not <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" title="165" class="pagenum"></a>subject to our will. Duties are not voluntary. Duty and
+will are even contradictory terms. Now, though civil society might be at
+first a voluntary act, (which in many cases it undoubtedly was,) its
+continuance is under a permanent standing covenant, coexisting with the
+society; and it attaches upon every individual of that society, without
+any formal act of his own. This is warranted by the general practice,
+arising out of the general sense of mankind. Men without their choice
+derive benefits from that association; without their choice they are
+subjected to duties in consequence of these benefits; and without their
+choice they enter into a virtual obligation as binding as any that is
+actual. Look through the whole of life and the whole system of duties.
+Much the strongest moral obligations are such as were never the results
+of our option. I allow, that, if no Supreme Ruler exists, wise to form,
+and potent to enforce, the moral law, there is no sanction to any
+contract, virtual or even actual, against the will of prevalent power.
+On that hypothesis, let any set of men be strong enough to set their
+duties at defiance, and they cease to be duties any longer. We have but
+this one appeal against irresistible power,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Si genus humanum et mortalia temnitis arma,<br /></span>
+<span>At sperate Deos memores fandi atque nefandi.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Taking it for granted that I do not write to the disciples of the
+Parisian philosophy, I may assume that the awful Author of our being is
+the Author of our place in the order of existence,&mdash;and that, having
+disposed and marshalled us by a divine tactic, not according to our
+will, but according to His, He has in and by that disposition virtually
+subjected us to act the part which belongs to the place assigned <a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" title="166" class="pagenum"></a>us. We
+have obligations to mankind at large, which are not in consequence of
+any special voluntary pact. They arise from the relation of man to man,
+and the relation of man to God, which relations are not matters of
+choice. On the contrary, the force of all the pacts which we enter into
+with any particular person or number of persons amongst mankind depends
+upon those prior obligations. In some cases the subordinate relations
+are voluntary, in others they are necessary,&mdash;but the duties are all
+compulsive. When we marry, the choice is voluntary, but the duties are
+not matter of choice: they are dictated by the nature of the situation.
+Dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come into the world. The
+instincts which give rise to this mysterious process of Nature are not
+of our making. But out of physical causes, unknown to us, perhaps
+unknowable, arise moral duties, which, as we are able perfectly to
+comprehend, we are bound indispensably to perform. Parents may not be
+consenting to their moral relation; but, consenting or not, they are
+bound to a long train of burdensome duties towards those with whom they
+have never made a convention of any sort. Children are not consenting to
+their relation; but their relation, without their actual consent, binds
+them to its duties,&mdash;or rather it implies their consent, because the
+presumed consent of every rational creature is in unison with the
+predisposed order of things. Men come in that manner into a community
+with the social state of their parents, endowed with all the benefits,
+loaded with all the duties of their situation. If the social ties and
+ligaments, spun out of those physical relations which are the elements
+of the commonwealth, in most cases begin, and always continue,
+<a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" title="167" class="pagenum"></a>independently of our will, so, without any stipulation on our own part,
+are we bound by that relation called our country, which comprehends (as
+it has been well said) &quot;all the charities of all.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor" title=" &quot;Omnes omnium charitates patria una complectitur.&quot;&mdash;Cic.">[21]</a> Nor are we left
+without powerful instincts to make this duty as dear and grateful to us
+as it is awful and coercive. Our country is not a thing of mere physical
+locality. It consists, in a great measure, in the ancient order into
+which we are born. We may have the same geographical situation, but
+another country; as we may have the same country in another soil. The
+place that determines our duty to our country is a social, civil
+relation.</p>
+
+<p>These are the opinions of the author whose cause I defend. I lay them
+down, not to enforce them upon others by disputation, but as an account
+of his proceedings. On them he acts; and from them he is convinced that
+neither he, nor any man, or number of men, have a right (except what
+necessity, which is out of and above all rule, rather imposes than
+bestows) to free themselves from that primary engagement into which
+every man born into a community as much contracts by his being born into
+it as he contracts an obligation to certain parents by his having been
+derived from their bodies. The place of every man determines his duty.
+If you ask, <i>Quem te Deus esse jussit</i>? you will be answered when you
+resolve this other question, <i>Humana qua parte locatus es in re</i>?<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor" title=" A few lines in Persius contain a good summary of all the
+objects of moral investigation, and hint the result of our inquiry:
+There human will has no place.
+
+
+Quid _sumus_? et quidnam _victuri gignimur_? ordo
+Quis _datus_? et _met&aelig;_ quis mollis flexus, et unde?
+Quis modus argento? Quid _fas optare_? Quid asper
+Utile nummus habet? _Patri&aelig; charisque propinquis_
+Quantum elargiri _debet_? Quem te Deus esse
+_Jussit_? et humana qua parte _locatus es_ in re?
+
+
+">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>I admit, indeed, that in morals, as in all things else, difficulties
+will sometimes occur. Duties will sometimes cross one another. Then
+questions will <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" title="168" class="pagenum"></a>arise, which of them is to be placed in subordination?
+which of them may be entirely superseded? These doubts give rise to that
+part of moral science called <i>casuistry</i>, which though necessary to be
+well studied by those who would become expert in that learning, who aim
+at becoming what I think Cicero somewhere calls <i>artifices officiorum</i>,
+it requires a very solid and discriminating judgment, great modesty and
+caution, and much sobriety of mind in the handling; else there is a
+danger that it may totally subvert those offices which it is its object
+only to methodize and reconcile. Duties, at their extreme bounds, are
+drawn very fine, so as to become almost evanescent. In that state some
+shade of doubt will always rest on these questions, when they are
+pursued with great subtilty. But the very habit of stating these extreme
+cases is not very laudable or safe; because, in general, it is not right
+to turn our duties into doubts. They are imposed to govern our conduct,
+not to exercise our ingenuity; and therefore our opinions about them
+ought not to be in a state of fluctuation, but steady, sure, and
+resolved.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst these nice, and therefore dangerous points of casuistry, may be
+reckoned the question so much agitated in the present hour,&mdash;Whether,
+after the people have discharged themselves of their original power by
+an habitual delegation, no occasion can <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" title="169" class="pagenum"></a>possibly occur which may
+justify the resumption of it? This question, in this latitude, is very
+hard to affirm or deny: but I am satisfied that no occasion can justify
+such a resumption, which would not equally authorize a dispensation with
+any other moral duty, perhaps with all of them together. However, if in
+general it be not easy to determine concerning the lawfulness of such
+devious proceedings, which must be ever on the edge of crimes, it is far
+from difficult to foresee the perilous consequences of the resuscitation
+of such a power in the people. The practical consequences of any
+political tenet go a great way in deciding upon its value. Political
+problems do not primarily concern truth or falsehood. They relate to
+good or evil. What in the result is likely to produce evil is
+politically false; that which is productive of good, politically true.</p>
+
+<p>Believing it, therefore, a question at least arduous in the theory, and
+in the practice very critical, it would become us to ascertain as well
+as we can what form it is that our incantations are about to call up
+from darkness and the sleep of ages. When the supreme authority of the
+people is in question, before we attempt to extend or to confine it, we
+ought to fix in our minds, with some degree of distinctness, an idea of
+what it is we mean, when we say, the PEOPLE.</p>
+
+<p>In a state of <i>rude</i> Nature there is no such thing as a people. A number
+of men in themselves have no collective capacity. The idea of a people
+is the idea of a corporation. It is wholly artificial, and made, like
+all other legal fictions, by common agreement. What the particular
+nature of that agreement was is collected from the form into which the
+particular <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" title="170" class="pagenum"></a>society has been cast. Any other is not <i>their</i> covenant.
+When men, therefore, break up the original compact or agreement which
+gives its corporate form and capacity to a state, they are no longer a
+people,&mdash;they have no longer a corporate existence,&mdash;they have no longer
+a legal coactive force to bind within, nor a claim to be recognized
+abroad. They are a number of vague, loose individuals, and nothing more.
+With them all is to begin again. Alas! they little know how many a weary
+step is to be taken before they can form themselves into a mass which
+has a true politic personality.</p>
+
+<p>We hear much, from men who have not acquired their hardiness of
+assertion from the profundity of their thinking, about the omnipotence
+of a <i>majority</i>, in such a dissolution of an ancient society as hath
+taken place in France. But amongst men so disbanded there can be no such
+thing as majority or minority, or power in any one person to bind
+another. The power of acting by a majority, which the gentlemen
+theorists seem to assume so readily, after they have violated the
+contract out of which it has arisen, (if at all it existed,) must be
+grounded on two assumptions: first, that of an incorporation produced by
+unanimity; and secondly, an unanimous agreement that the act of a mere
+majority (say of one) shall pass with them and with others as the act of
+the whole.</p>
+
+<p>We are so little affected by things which are habitual, that we consider
+this idea of the decision of a <i>majority</i> as if it were a law of our
+original nature. But such constructive whole, residing in a part only,
+is one of the most violent fictions of positive law that ever has been
+or can be made on the principles of artificial incorporation. Out of
+civil society Nature <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" title="171" class="pagenum"></a>knows nothing of it; nor are men, even when
+arranged according to civil order, otherwise than by very long training,
+brought at all to submit to it. The mind is brought far more easily to
+acquiesce in the proceedings of one man, or a few, who act under a
+general procuration for the state, than in the vote of a victorious
+majority in councils in which every man has his share in the
+deliberation. For there the beaten party are exasperated and soured by
+the previous contention, and mortified by the conclusive defeat. This
+mode of decision, where wills may be so nearly equal, where, according
+to circumstances, the smaller number may be the stronger force, and
+where apparent reason may be all upon one side, and on the other little
+else than impetuous appetite,&mdash;all this must be the result of a very
+particular and special convention, confirmed afterwards by long habits
+of obedience, by a sort of discipline in society, and by a strong hand,
+vested with stationary, permanent power to enforce this sort of
+constructive general will. What organ it is that shall declare the
+corporate mind is so much a matter of positive arrangement, that several
+states, for the validity of several of their acts, have required a
+proportion of voices much greater than that of a mere majority. These
+proportions are so entirely governed by convention that in some cases
+the minority decides. The laws in many countries to <i>condemn</i> require
+more than a mere majority; less than an equal number to <i>acquit</i>. In our
+judicial trials we require unanimity either to condemn or to absolve. In
+some incorporations one man speaks for the whole; in others, a few.
+Until the other day, in the Constitution of Poland unanimity was
+required to give validity to any act of their great <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" title="172" class="pagenum"></a>national council or
+diet. This approaches much more nearly to rude Nature than the
+institutions of any other country. Such, indeed, every commonwealth must
+be, without a positive law to recognize in a certain number the will of
+the entire body.</p>
+
+<p>If men dissolve their ancient incorporation in order to regenerate their
+community, in that state of things each man has a right, if he pleases,
+to remain an individual. Any number of individuals, who can agree upon
+it, have an undoubted right to form themselves into a state apart and
+wholly independent. If any of these is forced into the fellowship of
+another, this is conquest and not compact. On every principle which
+supposes society to be in virtue of a free covenant, this compulsive
+incorporation must be null and void.</p>
+
+<p>As a people can have no right to a corporate capacity without universal
+consent, so neither have they a right to hold exclusively any lands in
+the name and title of a corporation. On the scheme of the present rulers
+in our neighboring country, regenerated as they are, they have no more
+right to the territory called France than I have. I have a right to
+pitch my tent in any unoccupied place I can find for it; and I may apply
+to my own maintenance any part of their unoccupied soil. I may purchase
+the house or vineyard of any individual proprietor who refuses his
+consent (and most proprietors have, as far as they dared, refused it) to
+the new incorporation. I stand in his independent place. Who are these
+insolent men, calling themselves the French nation, that would
+monopolize this fair domain of Nature? Is it because they speak a
+certain jargon? Is it their mode of chattering, to me unintelligible,
+that forms their title to <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" title="173" class="pagenum"></a>my land? Who are they who claim by
+prescription and descent from certain gangs of banditti called Franks,
+and Burgundians, and Visigoths, of whom I may have never heard, and
+ninety-nine out of an hundred of themselves certainly never have heard,
+whilst at the very time they tell me that prescription and long
+possession form no title to property? Who are they that presume to
+assert that the land which I purchased of the individual, a natural
+person, and not a fiction of state, belongs to them, who in the very
+capacity in which they make their claim can exist only as an imaginary
+being, and in virtue of the very prescription which they reject and
+disown? This mode of arguing might be pushed into all the detail, so as
+to leave no sort of doubt, that, on their principles, and on the sort of
+footing on which they have thought proper to place themselves, the crowd
+of men, on the other side of the Channel, who have the impudence to call
+themselves a people, can never be the lawful, exclusive possessors of
+the soil. By what they call reasoning without prejudice, they leave not
+one stone upon another in the fabric of human society. They subvert all
+the authority which they hold, as well as all that which they have
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>As in the abstract it is perfectly clear, that, out of a state of civil
+society, majority and minority are relations which can have no
+existence, and that, in civil society, its own specific conventions in
+each corporation determine what it is that constitutes the people, so as
+to make their act the signification of the general will,&mdash;to come to
+particulars, it is equally clear that neither in France nor in England
+has the original or any subsequent compact of the state, expressed or
+implied, constituted <i>a majority of men, told <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" title="174" class="pagenum"></a>by the head</i>, to be the
+acting people of their several communities. And I see as little of
+policy or utility as there is of right, in laying down a principle that
+a majority of men told by the head are to be considered as the people,
+and that as such their will is to be law. What policy can there be found
+in arrangements made in defiance of every political principle? To enable
+men to act with the weight and character of a people, and to answer the
+ends for which they are incorporated into that capacity, we must suppose
+them (by means immediate or consequential) to be in that state of
+habitual social discipline in which the wiser, the more expert, and the
+more opulent conduct, and by conducting enlighten and protect, the
+weaker, the less knowing, and the less provided with the goods of
+fortune. When the multitude are not under this discipline, they can
+scarcely be said to be in civil society. Give once a certain
+constitution of things which produces a variety of conditions and
+circumstances in a state, and there is in Nature and reason a principle
+which, for their own benefit, postpones, not the interest, but the
+judgment, of those who are <i>numero plures</i>, to those who are <i>virtute et
+honore majores</i>. Numbers in a state (supposing, which is not the case in
+France, that a state does exist) are always of consideration,&mdash;but they
+are not the whole consideration. It is in things more serious than a
+play, that it may be truly said, <i>Satis est equitem mihi plaudere</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A true natural aristocracy is not a separate interest in the state, or
+separable from it. It is an essential integrant part of any large body
+rightly constituted. It is formed out of a class of legitimate
+presumptions, which, taken as generalities, must be admitted for <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" title="175" class="pagenum"></a>actual
+truths. To be bred in a place of estimation; to see nothing low and
+sordid from one's infancy; to be taught to respect one's self; to be
+habituated to the censorial inspection of the public eye; to look early
+to public opinion; to stand upon such elevated ground as to be enabled
+to take a large view of the wide-spread and infinitely diversified
+combinations of men and affairs in a large society; to have leisure to
+read, to reflect, to converse; to be enabled to draw the court and
+attention of the wise and learned, wherever they are to be found; to be
+habituated in armies to command and to obey; to be taught to despise
+danger in the pursuit of honor and duty; to be formed to the greatest
+degree of vigilance, foresight, and circumspection, in a state of things
+in which no fault is committed with impunity and the slightest mistakes
+draw on the most ruinous consequences; to be led to a guarded and
+regulated conduct, from a sense that you are considered as an instructor
+of your fellow-citizens in their highest concerns, and that you act as a
+reconciler between God and man; to be employed as an administrator of
+law and justice, and to be thereby amongst the first benefactors to
+mankind; to be a professor of high science, or of liberal and ingenuous
+art; to be amongst rich traders, who from their success are presumed to
+have sharp and vigorous understandings, and to possess the virtues of
+diligence, order, constancy, and regularity, and to have cultivated an
+habitual regard to commutative justice: these are the circumstances of
+men that form what I should call a <i>natural</i> aristocracy, without which
+there is no nation.</p>
+
+<p>The state of civil society which necessarily generates this aristocracy
+is a state of Nature,&mdash;and much <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" title="176" class="pagenum"></a>more truly so than a savage and
+incoherent mode of life. For man is by nature reasonable; and he is
+never perfectly in his natural state, but when he is placed where reason
+may be best cultivated and most predominates. Art is man's nature. We
+are as much, at least, in a state of Nature in formed manhood as in
+immature and helpless infancy. Men, qualified in the manner I have just
+described, form in Nature, as she operates in the common modification of
+society, the leading, guiding, and governing part. It is the soul to the
+body, without which the man does not exist. To give, therefore, no more
+importance, in the social order, to such descriptions of men than that
+of so many units is a horrible usurpation.</p>
+
+<p>When great multitudes act together, under that discipline of Nature, I
+recognize the PEOPLE. I acknowledge something that perhaps equals, and
+ought always to guide, the sovereignty of convention. In all things the
+voice of this grand chorus of national harmony ought to have a mighty
+and decisive influence. But when you disturb this harmony,&mdash;when you
+break up this beautiful order, this array of truth and Nature, as well
+as of habit and prejudice,&mdash;when you separate the common sort of men
+from their proper chieftains, so as to form them into an adverse
+army,&mdash;I no longer know that venerable object called the people in such
+a disbanded race of deserters and vagabonds. For a while they may be
+terrible, indeed,&mdash;but in such a manner as wild beasts are terrible. The
+mind owes to them no sort of submission. They are, as they have always
+been reputed, rebels. They may lawfully be fought with, and brought
+under, whenever an advantage offers. Those who attempt by outrage and
+violence to de<a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" title="177" class="pagenum"></a>prive men of any advantage which they hold under the
+laws, and to destroy the natural order of life, proclaim war against
+them.</p>
+
+<p>We have read in history of that furious insurrection of the common
+people in France called the <i>Jacquerie</i>: for this is not the first time
+that the people have been enlightened into treason, murder, and rapine.
+Its object was to extirpate the gentry. The Captal de Buch, a famous
+soldier of those days, dishonored the name of a gentleman and of a man
+by taking, for their cruelties, a cruel vengeance on these deluded
+wretches: it was, however, his right and his duty to make war upon them,
+and afterwards, in moderation, to bring them to punishment for their
+rebellion; though in the sense of the French Revolution, and of some of
+our clubs, they were the <i>people</i>,&mdash;and were truly so, if you will call
+by that appellation <i>any majority of men told by the head</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At a time not very remote from the same period (for these humors never
+have affected one of the nations without some influence on the other)
+happened several risings of the lower commons in England. These
+insurgents were certainly the majority of the inhabitants of the
+counties in which they resided; and Cade, Ket, and Straw, at the head of
+their national guards, and fomented by certain traitors of high rank,
+did no more than exert, according to the doctrines of ours and the
+Parisian societies, the sovereign power inherent in the majority.</p>
+
+<p>We call the time of those events a dark age. Indeed, we are too
+indulgent to our own proficiency. The Abb&eacute; John Ball understood the
+rights of man as well as the Abb&eacute; Gr&eacute;goire. That reverend patriarch of
+sedition, and prototype of our modern preach<a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" title="178" class="pagenum"></a>ers, was of opinion, with
+the National Assembly, that all the evils which have fallen upon men had
+been caused by an ignorance of their &quot;having been born and continued
+equal as to their rights.&quot; Had the populace been able to repeat that
+profound maxim, all would have gone perfectly well with them. No
+tyranny, no vexation, no oppression, no care, no sorrow, could have
+existed in the world. This would have cured them like a charm for the
+tooth-ache. But the lowest wretches, in their most ignorant state, were
+able at all times to talk such stuff; and yet at all times have they
+suffered many evils and many oppressions, both before and since the
+republication by the National Assembly of this spell of healing potency
+and virtue. The enlightened Dr. Ball, when he wished to rekindle the
+lights and fires of his audience on this point, chose for the test the
+following couplet:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>When Adam delved and Eve span,<br /></span>
+<span>Who was then the gentleman?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Of this sapient maxim, however, I do not give him for the inventor. It
+seems to have been handed down by tradition, and had certainly become
+proverbial; but whether then composed or only applied, thus much must be
+admitted, that in learning, sense, energy, and comprehensiveness, it is
+fully equal to all the modern dissertations on the equality of mankind:
+and it has one advantage over them,&mdash;that it is in rhyme.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor" title=" It is no small loss to the world, that the whole of this
+enlightened and philosophic sermon, preached to _two hundred thousand_
+national guards assembled at Blackheath (a number probably equal to the
+sublime and majestic _F&eacute;d&eacute;ration_ of the 14th of July, 1790, in the
+Champ de Mars) is not preserved. A short abstract is, however, to be
+found in Walsingham. I have added it here for the edification of the
+modern Whigs, who may possibly except this precious little fragment from
+their general contempt of ancient learning.
+
+&quot;Ut su&acirc; doctrin&acirc; plures inficeret, ad le Blackheth (ubi ducenta millia
+hominum communium fuere simul congregata) hujuscemodi sermonem est
+exorsus.
+
+
+&quot;Whan Adam dalfe and Eve span,
+Who was than a gentleman?
+
+
+Continuansque sermonem inceptum, nitebatur per verba proverbii, quod pro
+themate sumpserat, introducere et probare, _ab initio omnes pares
+creatos a natur&acirc;_, servitutem per injustam oppressionem nequam hominum
+introductam contra Dei voluntatem, quia si Deo placuisset servos
+cre&acirc;sse, utique in principio mundi constituisset, quis servus, quisve
+dominus futurus fuisset. Considerarent igitur jam tempus a Deo datum
+eis, in quo (deposito servitutis jugo diutius) possent, si vellent,
+libertate diu concupit&acirc; gaudere. Quapropter monuit ut essent viri
+cordati, et amore boni patrisfamilias excolentis agrum suum, et
+extirpantis ac resecantis noxia gramina qu&aelig; fruges solent opprimere, et
+ipsi in pr&aelig;senti facere festinarent. Prim&ograve; _majores regni dominos
+occidendo. Deinde juridicos, justiciarios, et juratores patri&aelig;
+perimendo._ Postrem&ograve; quoscunque scirent _in posterum communitati
+nocivos_ tollerent de terr&acirc; su&acirc;, sic demum et _pacem_ sibimet _parerent
+et securitatem_ in futurum. _Si sublatis majoribus esset inter eos &aelig;qua
+libertas, eadem nobilitas, par dignitas, similisque potestas._&quot;
+
+Here is displayed at once the whole of the grand _arcanum_ pretended to
+be found out by the National Assembly, for securing future happiness,
+peace, and tranquillity. There seems, however, to be some doubt whether
+this venerable protomartyr of philosophy was inclined to carry his own
+declaration of the rights of men more rigidly into practice than the
+National Assembly themselves. He was, like them, only preaching
+licentiousness to the populace to obtain power for himself, if we may
+believe what is subjoined by the historian.
+
+&quot;Cumque h&aelig;c et _plura alia deliramenta_&quot; (think of this old fool's
+calling all the wise maxims of the French Academy _deliramenta_!)
+&quot;pr&aelig;dic&acirc;sset, commune vulgus cum tanto favore prosequitur, ut
+_exclamarent eum archiepiscopum futurum, et regni cancellarium_.&quot;
+Whether he would have taken these situations under these names, or would
+have changed the whole nomenclature of the State and Church, to be
+understood in the sense of the Revolution, is not so certain. It is
+probable that he would have changed the names and kept the substance of
+power.
+
+We find, too, that they had in those days their _society for
+constitutional information_, of which the Reverend John Ball was a
+conspicuous member, sometimes under his own name, sometimes under the
+feigned name of John Schep. Besides him it consisted (as Knyghton tells
+us) of persons who went by the real or fictitious names of Jack Mylner,
+Tom Baker, Jack Straw, Jack Trewman, Jack Carter, and probably of many
+more. Some of the choicest flowers of the publications charitably
+written and circulated by them gratis are upon record in Walsingham and
+Knyghton: and I am inclined to prefer the pithy and sententious brevity
+of these _bulletins_ of ancient rebellion before the loose and confused
+prolixity of the modern advertisements of constitutional information.
+They contain more good morality and less bad politics, they had much
+more foundation in real oppression, and they have the recommendation of
+being much better adapted to the capacities of those for whose
+instruction they were intended. Whatever laudable pains the teachers of
+the present day appear to take, I cannot compliment them so far as to
+allow that they have succeeded in writing down to the level of their
+pupils, _the members of the sovereign_, with half the ability of Jack
+Carter and the Reverend John Ball. That my readers may judge for
+themselves, I shall give them, one or two specimens.
+
+The first is an address from the Reverend John Ball, under his _nom de
+guerre_ of John Schep. I know not against what particular &quot;guyle in
+borough&quot; the writer means to caution the people; it may have been only a
+general cry against &quot;_rotten boroughs_,&quot; which it was thought
+convenient, then as now, to make the first pretext, and place at the
+head of the list of grievances.
+
+JOHN SCHEP.
+
+&quot;Iohn Schep sometime seint Mary priest of Yorke, and now of Colchester,
+greeteth well Iohn Namelesse, and Iohn the Miller, and Iohn Carter, and
+_biddeth them that they beware of guyle in borough_, and stand together
+in Gods name, and biddeth Piers Ploweman goe to his werke, and chastise
+well _Hob the robber_, [probably the king,] and take with you Iohn
+Trewman, and all his fellows, and no moe.
+
+
+&quot;Iohn the Miller hath yground smal, small, small:
+The kings sonne of heauen shal pay for all.
+Beware or ye be woe,
+Know your frende fro your foe,
+Haue ynough, and say hoe:
+And do wel and better, &amp; flee sinne,
+_And seeke peace and holde you therin,_
+
+
+&amp; so biddeth Iohn Trewman &amp; all his fellowes.&quot;
+
+The reader has perceived, from the last lines of this curious
+state-paper, how well the National Assembly has copied its union of the
+profession of universal peace with the practice of murder and confusion,
+and the blast of the trumpet of sedition in all nations. He will in the
+following constitutional paper observe how well, in their enigmatical
+style, like the Assembly and their abettors, the old philosophers
+proscribe all hereditary distinction, and bestow it only on virtue and
+wisdom, according to their estimation of both. Yet these people are
+supposed never to have heard of &quot;the rights of man&quot;!
+
+JACK MYLNER.
+
+&quot;Jakke Mylner asket help to turne his mylne aright.
+
+
+&quot;He hath grounden smal smal,
+The Kings sone of heven he schal pay for alle.
+
+
+Loke thy mylne go a rygt, with the fours sayles, and the post stande in
+steadfastnesse.
+
+
+&quot;With rygt and with mygt,
+With skyl and with wylle,
+Lat mygt helpe rygt,
+And skyl go before wille,
+And rygt before mygt:
+Than goth oure mylne aryght.
+And if mygt go before ryght,
+And wylle before skylle;
+Than is oure mylne mys a dygt.&quot;
+
+
+JACK CARTER understood perfectly the doctrine of looking to the _end_,
+with an indifference to the _means_, and the probability of much good
+arising from great evil.
+
+&quot;Jakke Carter pryes yowe alle that ye make a gode _ende_ of that ye hane
+begunnen, and doth wele and ay bettur and bettur: for at the even men
+heryth the day. _For if the ende be wele, than is alle wele._ Lat Peres
+the Plowman my brother duelle at home and dygt us corne, and I will go
+with yowe and helpe that y may to dygte youre mete and youre drynke,
+that ye none fayle: lokke that Hobbe robbyoure be wele chastysed for
+lesyng of youre grace: for ye have gret nede to take God with yowe in
+alle yours dedes. For nowe is tyme to be war.&quot;">[23]</a><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" title="179" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt but that this great teacher of the rights of man
+decorated his discourse on this valuable text with lemmas, theorems,
+scholia, corollaries, and all the apparatus of science, which was
+furnished in <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" title="180" class="pagenum"></a>as great plenty and perfection out of the dogmatic and
+polemic magazines, the old horse-armory of the Schoolmen, among whom the
+Rev. Dr. Ball was bred, as they can be supplied from the new arsenal at
+Hack<a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" title="181" class="pagenum"></a>ney. It was, no doubt, disposed with all the adjutancy of
+definition and division, in which (I speak it with submission) the old
+marshals were as able as the modern martinets. Neither can we deny that
+the <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" title="182" class="pagenum"></a>philosophic auditory, when they had once obtained this knowledge,
+could never return to their former ignorance, or after so instructive a
+lecture be in the same state of mind as if they had never heard it.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor" title=" See the wise remark on this subject in the Defence of
+Rights of Man, circulated by the societies.">[24]</a>
+But these poor people, who were not to be envied for their knowledge,
+but pitied for their delusion, were not reasoned, (that was impossible,)
+but beaten, out of their lights. With their teacher they were delivered
+over to the lawyers, who wrote in their blood the statutes of the land,
+as harshly, and in the same sort of ink, as they and their teachers had
+written the rights of man.</p>
+
+<p>Our doctors of the day are not so fond of quoting the opinions of this
+ancient sage as they are of imitating his conduct: first, because it
+might appear that they are not as great inventors as they would be
+thought; and next, because, unfortunately for his fame, he was not
+successful. It is a remark liable to as few exceptions as any generality
+can be, that they who applaud prosperous folly and adore trium<a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" title="183" class="pagenum"></a>phant
+guilt have never been known to succor or even to pity human weakness or
+offence, when they become subject to human vicissitude, and meet with
+punishment instead of obtaining power. Abating for their want of
+sensibility to the sufferings of their associates, they are not so much
+in the wrong; for madness and wickedness are things foul and deformed in
+themselves, and stand in need of all the coverings and trappings of
+fortune to recommend them to the multitude. Nothing can be more
+loathsome in their naked nature.</p>
+
+<p>Aberrations like these, whether ancient or modern, unsuccessful or
+prosperous, are things of passage. They furnish no argument for
+supposing <i>a multitude told by the head to be the people</i>. Such a
+multitude can have no sort of title to alter the seat of power in the
+society, in which it ever ought to be the obedient, and not the ruling
+or presiding part. What power may belong to the whole mass, in which
+mass the natural <i>aristocracy</i>, or what by convention is appointed to
+represent and strengthen it, acts in its proper place, with its proper
+weight, and without being subjected to violence, is a deeper question.
+But in that case, and with that concurrence, I should have much doubt
+whether any rash or desperate changes in the state, such as we have seen
+in France, could ever be effected.</p>
+
+<p>I have said that in all political questions the consequences of any
+assumed rights are of great moment in deciding upon their validity. In
+this point of view let us a little scrutinize the effects of a right in
+the mere majority of the inhabitants of any country of superseding and
+altering their government <i>at pleasure</i>.<a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" title="184" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The sum total of every people is composed of its units. Every individual
+must have a right to originate what afterwards is to become the act of
+the majority. Whatever he may lawfully originate he may lawfully
+endeavor to accomplish. He has a right, therefore, in his own
+particular, to break the ties and engagements which bind him to the
+country in which he lives; and he has a right to make as many converts
+to his opinions, and to obtain as many associates in his designs, as he
+can procure: for how can you know the dispositions of the majority to
+destroy their government, but by tampering with some part of the body?
+You must begin by a secret conspiracy, that you may end with a national
+confederation. The mere pleasure of the beginner must be the sole guide;
+since the mere pleasure of others must be the sole ultimate sanction, as
+well as the sole actuating principle in every part of the progress.
+Thus, arbitrary will (the last corruption of ruling power) step by step
+poisons the heart of every citizen. If the undertaker fails, he has the
+misfortune of a rebel, but not the guilt. By such doctrines, all love to
+our country, all pious veneration and attachment to its laws and
+customs, are obliterated from our minds; and nothing can result from
+this opinion, when grown into a principle, and animated by discontent,
+ambition, or enthusiasm, but a series of conspiracies and seditions,
+sometimes ruinous to their authors, always noxious to the state. No
+sense of duty can prevent any man from being a leader or a follower in
+such enterprises. Nothing restrains the tempter; nothing guards the
+tempted. Nor is the new state, fabricated by such arts, safer than the
+old. What can prevent the mere will of any person, who hopes <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" title="185" class="pagenum"></a>to unite
+the wills of others to his own, from an attempt wholly to overturn it?
+It wants nothing but a disposition to trouble the established order, to
+give a title to the enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>When you combine this principle of the right to change a fixed and
+tolerable constitution of things at pleasure with the theory and
+practice of the French Assembly, the political, civil, and moral
+irregularity are, if possible, aggravated. The Assembly have found
+another road, and a far more commodious, to the destruction of an old
+government, and the legitimate formation of a new one, than through the
+previous will of the majority of what they call the people. Get, say
+they, the possession of power by any means you can into your hands; and
+then, a subsequent consent (what they call an <i>address of adhesion</i>)
+makes your authority as much the act of the people as if they had
+conferred upon you originally that kind and degree of power which
+without their permission you had seized upon. This is to give a direct
+sanction to fraud, hypocrisy, perjury, and the breach of the most sacred
+trusts that can exist between man and man. What can sound with such
+horrid discordance in the moral ear as this position,&mdash;that a delegate
+with limited powers may break his sworn engagements to his constituent,
+assume an authority, never committed to him, to alter all things at his
+pleasure, and then, if he can persuade a large number of men to flatter
+him in the power he has usurped, that he is absolved in his own
+conscience, and ought to stand acquitted in the eyes of mankind? On this
+scheme, the maker of the experiment must begin with a determined
+perjury. That point is certain. He must take his chance for the
+expiatory <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" title="186" class="pagenum"></a>addresses. This is to make the success of villany the
+standard of innocence.</p>
+
+<p>Without drawing on, therefore, very shocking consequences, neither by
+previous consent, nor by subsequent ratification of a <i>mere reckoned
+majority</i>, can any set of men attempt to dissolve the state at their
+pleasure. To apply this to our present subject. When the several orders,
+in their several bailliages, had met in the year 1789, (such of them, I
+mean, as had met peaceably and constitutionally,) to choose and to
+instruct their representatives, so organized and so acting, (because
+they were organized and were acting according to the conventions which
+made them a people,) they were the <i>people</i> of France. They had a legal
+and a natural capacity to be considered as that people. But observe,
+whilst they were in this state, that is, whilst they were a people, in
+no one of their instructions did they charge or even hint at any of
+those things which have drawn upon the usurping Assembly and their
+adherents the detestation of the rational and thinking part of mankind.
+I will venture to affirm, without the least apprehension of being
+contradicted by any person who knows the then state of France, that, if
+any one of the changes were proposed, which form the fundamental parts
+of their Revolution, and compose its most distinguishing acts, it would
+not have had one vote in twenty thousand in any order. Their
+instructions purported the direct contrary to all those famous
+proceedings which are defended as the acts of the people. Had such
+proceedings been expected, the great probability is, that the people
+would then have risen, as to a man, to prevent them. The whole
+organization of the Assembly was altered, the <a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" title="187" class="pagenum"></a>whole frame of the
+kingdom was changed, before these things could be done. It is long to
+tell, by what evil arts of the conspirators, and by what extreme
+weakness and want of steadiness in the lawful government, this equal
+usurpation on the rights of the prince and people, having first cheated,
+and then offered violence to both, has been able to triumph, and to
+employ with success the forged signature of an imprisoned sovereign, and
+the spurious voice of dictated addresses, to a subsequent ratification
+of things that had never received any previous sanction, general or
+particular, expressed or implied, from the nation, (in whatever sense
+that word is taken,) or from any part of it.</p>
+
+<p>After the weighty and respectable part of the people had been murdered,
+or driven by the menaces of murder from their houses, or were dispersed
+in exile into every country in Europe,&mdash;after the soldiery had been
+debauched from their officers,&mdash;after property had lost its weight and
+consideration, along with its security,&mdash;after voluntary clubs and
+associations of factious and unprincipled men were substituted in the
+place of all the legal corporations of the kingdom arbitrarily
+dissolved,&mdash;after freedom had been banished from those popular
+meetings<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor" title=" The primary assemblies.">[25]</a> whose sole recommendation is freedom,&mdash;after it had come to
+that pass that no dissent dared to appear in any of them, but at the
+certain price of life,&mdash;after even dissent had been anticipated, and
+assassination became as quick as suspicion,&mdash;such pretended ratification
+by addresses could be no act of what any lover of the people would
+choose to call by their name. It is that voice which every successful
+usurpation, as well as <a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" title="188" class="pagenum"></a>this before us, may easily procure, even without
+making (as these tyrants have made) donatives from the spoil of one part
+of the citizens to corrupt the other.</p>
+
+<p>The pretended <i>rights of man</i>, which have made this havoc, cannot be the
+rights of the people. For to be a people, and to have these rights, are
+things incompatible. The one supposes the presence, the other the
+absence, of a state of civil society. The very foundation of the French
+commonwealth is false and self-destructive; nor can its principles be
+adopted in any country, without the certainty of bringing it to the very
+same condition in which France is found. Attempts are made to introduce
+them into every nation in Europe. This nation, as possessing the
+greatest influence, they wish most to corrupt, as by that means they are
+assured the contagion must become general. I hope, therefore, I shall be
+excused, if I endeavor to show, as shortly as the matter will admit, the
+danger of giving to them, either avowedly or tacitly, the smallest
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>There are times and circumstances in which not to speak out is at least
+to connive. Many think it enough for them, that the principles
+propagated by these clubs and societies, enemies to their country and
+its Constitution, are not owned by the <i>modern Whigs in Parliament</i>, who
+are so warm in condemnation of Mr. Burke and his book, and of course of
+all the principles of the ancient, constitutional Whigs of this kingdom.
+Certainly they are not owned. But are they condemned with the same zeal
+as Mr. Burke and his book are condemned? Are they condemned at all? Are
+they rejected or discountenanced in any way whatsoever? Is any man who
+would fairly examine into the demeanor and prin<a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" title="189" class="pagenum"></a>ciples of those
+societies, and that too very moderately, and in the way rather of
+admonition than of punishment, is such a man even decently treated? Is
+he not reproached as if in condemning such principles he had belied the
+conduct of his whole life, suggesting that his life had been governed by
+principles similar to those which he now reprobates? The French system
+is in the mean time, by many active agents out of doors, rapturously
+praised; the British Constitution is coldly tolerated. But these
+Constitutions are different both in the foundation and in the whole
+superstructure; and it is plain that you cannot build up the one but on
+the ruins of the other. After all, if the French be a superior system of
+liberty, why should we not adopt it? To what end are our praises? Is
+excellence held out to us only that we should not copy after it? And
+what is there in the manners of the people, or in the climate of France,
+which renders that species of republic fitted for them, and unsuitable
+to us? A strong and marked difference between the two nations ought to
+be shown, before we can admit a constant, affected panegyric, a
+standing, annual commemoration, to be without any tendency to an
+example.</p>
+
+<p>But the leaders of party will not go the length of the doctrines taught
+by the seditious clubs. I am sure they do not mean to do so. God forbid!
+Perhaps even those who are directly carrying on the work of this
+pernicious foreign faction do not all of them intend to produce all the
+mischiefs which must inevitably follow from their having any success in
+their proceedings. As to leaders in parties, nothing is more common than
+to see them blindly led. The world is governed by go-betweens. These
+<a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" title="190" class="pagenum"></a>go-betweens influence the persons with whom they carry on the
+intercourse, by stating their own sense to each of them as the sense of
+the other; and thus they reciprocally master both sides. It is first
+buzzed about the ears of leaders, &quot;that their friends without doors are
+very eager for some measure, or very warm about some opinion,&mdash;that you
+must not be too rigid with them. They are useful persons, and zealous in
+the cause. They may be a little wrong, but the spirit of liberty must
+not be damped; and by the influence you obtain from some degree of
+concurrence with them at present, you may be enabled to set them right
+hereafter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus the leaders are at first drawn to a connivance with sentiments and
+proceedings often totally different from their serious and deliberate
+notions. But their acquiescence answers every purpose.</p>
+
+<p>With no better than such powers, the go-betweens assume a new
+representative character. What at best was but an acquiescence is
+magnified into an authority, and thence into a desire on the part of the
+leaders; and it is carried down as such to the subordinate members of
+parties. By this artifice they in their turn are led into measures which
+at first, perhaps, few of them wished at all, or at least did not desire
+vehemently or systematically.</p>
+
+<p>There is in all parties, between the principal leaders in Parliament and
+the lowest followers out of doors, a middle sort of men, a sort of
+equestrian order, who, by the spirit of that middle situation, are the
+fittest for preventing things from running to excess. But indecision,
+though a vice of a totally different character, is the natural
+accomplice of violence. The irresolution and timidity of those who
+<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" title="191" class="pagenum"></a>compose this middle order often prevents the effect of their
+controlling situation. The fear of differing with the authority of
+leaders on the one hand, and of contradicting the desires of the
+multitude on the other, induces them to give a careless and passive
+assent to measures in which they never were consulted; and thus things
+proceed, by a sort of activity of inertness, until whole bodies,
+leaders, middle-men, and followers, are all hurried, with every
+appearance and with many of the effects of unanimity, into schemes of
+politics, in the substance of which no two of them were ever fully
+agreed, and the origin and authors of which, in this circular mode of
+communication, none of them find it possible to trace. In my experience,
+I have seen much of this in affairs which, though trifling in comparison
+to the present, were yet of some importance to parties; and I have known
+them suffer by it. The sober part give their sanction, at first through
+inattention and levity; at last they give it through necessity. A
+violent spirit is raised, which the presiding minds after a time find it
+impracticable to stop at their pleasure, to control, to regulate, or
+even to direct.</p>
+
+<p>This shows, in my opinion, how very quick and awakened all men ought to
+be, who are looked up to by the public, and who deserve that confidence,
+to prevent a surprise on their opinions, when dogmas are spread and
+projects pursued by which the foundations of society may be affected.
+Before they listen even to moderate alterations in the government of
+their country, they ought to take care that principles are not
+propagated for that purpose which are too big for their object.
+Doctrines limited in their present application, and wide in their
+general principles, <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" title="192" class="pagenum"></a>are never meant to be confined to what they at
+first pretend. If I were to form a prognostic of the effect of the
+present machinations on the people from their sense of any grievance
+they suffer under this Constitution, my mind would be at ease. But there
+is a wide difference between the multitude, when they act against their
+government from a sense of grievance or from zeal for some opinions.
+When men are thoroughly possessed with that zeal, it is difficult to
+calculate its force. It is certain that its power is by no means in
+exact proportion to its reasonableness. It must always have been
+discoverable by persons of reflection, but it is now obvious to the
+world, that a theory concerning government may become as much a cause of
+fanaticism as a dogma in religion. There is a boundary to men's
+passions, when they act from feeling; none when they are under the
+influence of imagination. Remove a grievance, and, when men act from
+feeling, you go a great way towards quieting a commotion. But the good
+or bad conduct of a government, the protection men have enjoyed or the
+oppression they have suffered under it, are of no sort of moment, when a
+faction, proceeding upon speculative grounds, is thoroughly heated
+against its form. When a man is from system furious against monarchy or
+episcopacy, the good conduct of the monarch or the bishop has no other
+effect than further to irritate the adversary. He is provoked at it as
+furnishing a plea for preserving the thing which he wishes to destroy.
+His mind will be heated as much by the sight of a sceptre, a mace, or a
+verge, as if he had been daily bruised and wounded by these symbols of
+authority. Mere spectacles, mere names, will become sufficient causes to
+stimulate the people to war and tumult.<a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" title="193" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Some gentlemen are not terrified by the facility with which government
+has been overturned in France. &quot;The people of France,&quot; they say, &quot;had
+nothing to lose in the destruction of a bad Constitution; but, though
+not the best possible, we have still a good stake in ours, which will
+hinder us from desperate risks.&quot; Is this any security at all against
+those who seem to persuade themselves, and who labor to persuade others,
+that our Constitution is an usurpation in its origin, unwise in its
+contrivance, mischievous in its effects, contrary to the rights of man,
+and in all its parts a perfect nuisance? What motive has any rational
+man, who thinks in that manner, to spill his blood, or even to risk a
+shilling of his fortune, or to waste a moment of his leisure, to
+preserve it? If he has any duty relative to it, his duty is to destroy
+it. A Constitution on sufferance is a Constitution condemned. Sentence
+is already passed upon it. The execution is only delayed. On the
+principles of these gentlemen, it neither has nor ought to have any
+security. So far as regards them, it is left naked, without friends,
+partisans, assertors, or protectors.</p>
+
+<p>Let us examine into the value of this security upon the principles of
+those who are more sober,&mdash;of those who think, indeed, the French
+Constitution better, or at least as good as the British, without going
+to all the lengths of the warmer politicians in reprobating their own.
+Their security amounts in reality to nothing more than this,&mdash;that the
+difference between their republican system and the British limited
+monarchy is not worth a civil war. This opinion, I admit, will prevent
+people not very enterprising in their nature from an active undertaking
+against the Brit<a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" title="194" class="pagenum"></a>ish Constitution. But it is the poorest defensive
+principle that ever was infused into the mind of man against the
+attempts of those who will enterprise. It will tend totally to remove
+from their minds that very terror of a civil war which is held out as
+our sole security. They who think so well of the French Constitution
+certainly will not be the persons to carry on a war to prevent their
+obtaining a great benefit, or at worst a fair exchange. They will not go
+to battle in favor of a cause in which their defeat might be more
+advantageous to the public than their victory. They must at least
+tacitly abet those who endeavor to make converts to a sound opinion;
+they must discountenance those who would oppose its propagation. In
+proportion as by these means the enterprising party is strengthened, the
+dread of a struggle is lessened. See what an encouragement this is to
+the enemies of the Constitution! A few assassinations and a very great
+destruction of property we know they consider as no real obstacles in
+the way of a grand political change. And they will hope, that here, if
+antimonarchical opinions gain ground as they have done in France, they
+may, as in France, accomplish a revolution without a war.</p>
+
+<p>They who think so well of the French Constitution cannot be seriously
+alarmed by any progress made by its partisans. Provisions for security
+are not to be received from those who think that there is no danger. No!
+there is no plan of security to be listened to but from those who
+entertain the same fears with ourselves,&mdash;from those who think that the
+thing to be secured is a great blessing, and the thing against which we
+would secure it a great mischief. Every person of a different opinion
+must be careless about security.<a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" title="195" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>I believe the author of the Reflections, whether he fears the designs of
+that set of people with reason or not, cannot prevail on himself to
+despise them. He cannot despise them for their numbers, which, though
+small, compared with the sound part of the community, are not
+inconsiderable: he cannot look with contempt on their influence, their
+activity, or the kind of talents and tempers which they possess, exactly
+calculated for the work they have in hand and the minds they chiefly
+apply to. Do we not see their most considerable and accredited
+ministers, and several of their party of weight and importance, active
+in spreading mischievous opinions, in giving sanction to seditious
+writings, in promoting seditious anniversaries? and what part of their
+description has disowned them or their proceedings? When men,
+circumstanced as these are, publicly declare such admiration of a
+foreign Constitution, and such contempt of our own, it would be, in the
+author of the Reflections, thinking as he does of the French
+Constitution, infamously to cheat the rest of the nation to their ruin
+to say there is no danger.</p>
+
+<p>In estimating danger, we are obliged to take into our calculation the
+character and disposition of the enemy into whose hands we may chance to
+fall. The genius of this faction is easily discerned, by observing with
+what a very different eye they have viewed the late foreign revolutions.
+Two have passed before them: that of France, and that of Poland. The
+state of Poland was such, that there could scarcely exist two opinions,
+but that a reformation of its Constitution, even at some expense of
+blood, might be seen without much disapprobation. No confusion could be
+feared in such an enterprise; because the establishment to <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" title="196" class="pagenum"></a>be reformed
+was itself a state of confusion. A king without authority; nobles
+without union or subordination; a people without arts, industry,
+commerce, or liberty; no order within, no defence without; no effective
+public force, but a foreign force, which entered, a naked country at
+will, and disposed of everything at pleasure. Here was a state of things
+which seemed to invite, and might perhaps justify, bold enterprise and
+desperate experiment. But in what manner was this chaos brought into
+order? The means were as striking to the imagination as satisfactory to
+the reason and soothing to the moral sentiments. In contemplating that
+change, humanity has everything to rejoice and to glory in,&mdash;nothing to
+be ashamed of, nothing to suffer. So far as it has gone, it probably is
+the most pure and defecated public good which ever has been conferred on
+mankind. We have seen anarchy and servitude at once removed; a throne
+strengthened for the protection of the people, without trenching on
+their liberties; all foreign cabal banished, by changing the crown from
+elective to hereditary; and what was a matter of pleasing wonder, we
+have seen a reigning king, from an heroic love to his country, exerting
+himself with all the toil, the dexterity, the management, the intrigue,
+in favor of a family of strangers, with which ambitious men labor for
+the aggrandizement of their own. Ten millions of men in a way of being
+freed gradually, and therefore safely to themselves and the state, not
+from civil or political chains, which, bad as they are, only fetter the
+mind, but from substantial personal bondage. Inhabitants of cities,
+before without privileges, placed in the consideration which belongs to
+that improved and connecting situation of <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" title="197" class="pagenum"></a>social life. One of the most
+proud, numerous, and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known in
+the world arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous
+citizens. Not one man incurred loss or suffered degradation. All, from
+the king to the day-laborer, were improved in their condition.
+Everything was kept in its place and order; but in that place and order
+everything was bettered. To add to this happy wonder, this unheard-of
+conjunction of wisdom and fortune, not one drop of blood was spilled; no
+treachery; no outrage; no system of slander more cruel than the sword;
+no studied insults on religion, morals, or manners; no spoil; no
+confiscation; no citizen beggared; none imprisoned; none exiled: the
+whole was effected with a policy, a discretion, an unanimity and
+secrecy, such as have never been before known on any occasion; but such
+wonderful conduct was reserved for this glorious conspiracy in favor of
+the true and genuine rights and interests of men. Happy people, if they
+know to proceed as they have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin with
+splendor or to close with glory a race of patriots and of kings, and to
+leave</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>A name, which every wind to heaven would bear,<br /></span>
+<span>Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">To finish all,&mdash;this great good, as in the instant it is, contains in it
+the seeds of all further improvement, and may be considered as in a
+regular progress, because founded on similar principles, towards the
+stable excellence of a British Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a matter for congratulation and for festive remembrance through
+ages. Here moralists and divines might indeed relax in their temperance,
+to exhilarate their humanity. But mark the character <a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" title="198" class="pagenum"></a>of our faction.
+All their enthusiasm is kept for the French Revolution. They cannot
+pretend that France had stood so much in need of a change as Poland.
+They cannot pretend that Poland has not obtained a better system of
+liberty or of government than it enjoyed before. They cannot assert that
+the Polish Revolution cost more dearly than that of France to the
+interests and feelings of multitudes of men. But the cold and
+subordinate light in which they look upon the one, and the pains they
+take to preach up the other of these Revolutions, leave us no choice in
+fixing on their motives. Both Revolutions profess liberty as their
+object; but in obtaining this object the one proceeds from anarchy to
+order, the other from order to anarchy. The first secures its liberty by
+establishing its throne; the other builds its freedom on the subversion
+of its monarchy. In the one, their means are unstained by crimes, and
+their settlement favors morality; in the other, vice and confusion are
+in the very essence of their pursuit, and of their enjoyment. The
+circumstances in which these two events differ must cause the difference
+we make in their comparative estimation. These turn the scale with the
+societies in favor of France. <i>Ferrum est quod amant</i>. The frauds, the
+violences, the sacrileges, the havoc and ruin of families, the
+dispersion and exile of the pride and flower of a great country, the
+disorder, the confusion, the anarchy, the violation of property, the
+cruel murders, the inhuman confiscations, and in the end the insolent
+domination of bloody, ferocious, and senseless clubs,&mdash;these are the
+things which they love and admire. What men admire and love they would
+surely act. Let us see what is done in France; and then let us
+undervalue any the slightest danger <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" title="199" class="pagenum"></a>of falling into the hands of such a
+merciless and savage faction!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the leaders of the factious societies are too wild to succeed in
+this their undertaking.&quot; I hope so. But supposing them wild and absurd,
+is there no danger but from wise and reflecting men? Perhaps the
+greatest mischiefs that have happened in the world have happened from
+persons as wild as those we think the wildest. In truth, they are the
+fittest beginners of all great changes. Why encourage men in a
+mischievous proceeding, because their absurdity may disappoint their
+malice?&mdash;&quot;But noticing them may give them consequence.&quot; Certainly. But
+they are noticed; and they are noticed, not with reproof, but with that
+kind of countenance which is given by an <i>apparent</i> concurrence (not a
+<i>real</i> one, I am convinced) of a great party in the praises of the
+object which they hold out to imitation.</p>
+
+<p>But I hear a language still more extraordinary, and indeed of such a
+nature as must suppose or leave us at their mercy. It is this:&mdash;&quot;You
+know their promptitude in writing, and their diligence in caballing; to
+write, speak, or act against them will only stimulate them to new
+efforts.&quot; This way of considering the principle of their conduct pays
+but a poor compliment to these gentlemen. They pretend that their
+doctrines are infinitely beneficial to mankind; but it seems they would
+keep them to themselves, if they were not greatly provoked. They are
+benevolent from spite. Their oracles are like those of Proteus, (whom
+some people think they resemble in many particulars,) who never would
+give his responses, unless you used him as ill as possible. These cats,
+it seems, would not give out their electrical light without having
+<a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" title="200" class="pagenum"></a>their backs well rubbed. But this is not to do them perfect justice.
+They are sufficiently communicative. Had they been quiet, the propriety
+of any agitation of topics on the origin and primary rights of
+government, in opposition to their private sentiments, might possibly be
+doubted. But, as it is notorious that they were proceeding as fast and
+as far as time and circumstances would admit, both in their discussions
+and cabals,&mdash;as it is not to be denied that they had opened a
+correspondence with a foreign faction the most wicked the world ever
+saw, and established anniversaries to commemorate the most monstrous,
+cruel, and perfidious of all the proceedings of that faction,&mdash;the
+question is, whether their conduct was to be regarded in silence, lest
+our interference should render them outrageous. Then let them deal as
+they please with the Constitution. Let the lady be passive, lest the
+ravisher should be driven to force. Resistance will only increase his
+desires. Yes, truly, if the resistance be feigned and feeble. But they
+who are wedded to the Constitution will not act the part of wittols.
+They will drive such seducers from the house on the first appearance of
+their love-letters and offered assignations. But if the author of the
+Reflections, though a vigilant, was not a discreet guardian of the
+Constitution, let them who have the same regard to it show themselves as
+vigilant and more skilful in repelling the attacks of seduction or
+violence. Their freedom from jealousy is equivocal, and may arise as
+well from indifference to the object as from confidence in her virtue.</p>
+
+<p>On their principle, it is the resistance, and not the assault, which
+produces the danger. I admit, indeed, that, if we estimated the danger
+by the value of the <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" title="201" class="pagenum"></a>writings, it would be little worthy of our
+attention: contemptible these writings are in every sense. But they are
+not the cause, they are the disgusting symptoms of a frightful
+distemper. They are not otherwise of consequence than as they show the
+evil habit of the bodies from whence they come. In that light the
+meanest of them is a serious thing. If, however, I should underrate
+them, and if the truth is, that they are not the result, but the cause,
+of the disorders I speak of, surely those who circulate operative
+poisons, and give to whatever force they have by their nature the
+further operation of their authority and adoption, are to be censured,
+watched, and, if possible, repressed.</p>
+
+<p>At what distance the direct danger from such factions may be it is not
+easy to fix. An adaptation of circumstances to designs and principles is
+necessary. But these cannot be wanting for any long time, in the
+ordinary course of sublunary affairs. Great discontents frequently arise
+in the best constituted governments from causes which no human wisdom
+can foresee and no human power can prevent. They occur at uncertain
+periods, but at periods which are not commonly far asunder. Governments
+of all kinds are administered only by men; and great mistakes, tending
+to inflame these discontents, may concur. The indecision of those who
+happen to rule at the critical time, their supine neglect, or their
+precipitate and ill-judged attention, may aggravate the public
+misfortunes. In such a state of things, the principles, now only sown,
+will shoot out and vegetate in full luxuriance. In such circumstances
+the minds of the people become sore and ulcerated. They are put out of
+humor with all public men and all public <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" title="202" class="pagenum"></a>parties; they are fatigued
+with their dissensions; they are irritated at their coalitions; they are
+made easily to believe (what much pains are taken to make them believe)
+that all oppositions are factious, and all courtiers base and servile.
+From their disgust at men, they are soon led to quarrel with their frame
+of government, which they presume gives nourishment to the vices, real
+or supposed, of those who administer in it. Mistaking malignity for
+sagacity, they are soon led to cast off all hope from a good
+administration of affairs, and come to think that all reformation
+depends, not on a change of actors, but upon an alteration in the
+machinery. Then will be felt the full effect of encouraging doctrines
+which tend to make the citizens despise their Constitution. Then will be
+felt the plenitude of the mischief of teaching the people to believe
+that all ancient institutions are the results of ignorance, and that all
+prescriptive government is in its nature usurpation. Then will be felt,
+in all its energy, the danger of encouraging a spirit of litigation in
+persons of that immature and imperfect state of knowledge which serves
+to render them susceptible of doubts, but incapable of their solution.
+Then will be felt, in all its aggravation, the pernicious consequence of
+destroying all docility in the minds of those who are not formed for
+finding their own way in the labyrinths of political theory, and are
+made to reject the clew and to disdain the guide. Then will be felt, and
+too late will be acknowledged, the ruin which follows the disjoining of
+religion from the state, the separation of morality from policy, and the
+giving conscience no concern and no coactive or coercive force in the
+most material of all the social ties, the principle of our obligations
+to government.<a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" title="203" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>I know, too, that, besides this vain, contradictory, and
+self-destructive security which some men derive from the habitual
+attachment of the people to this Constitution, whilst they suffer it
+with a sort of sportive acquiescence to be brought into contempt before
+their faces, they have other grounds for removing all apprehension from
+their minds. They are of opinion that there are too many men of great
+hereditary estates and influence in the kingdom to suffer the
+establishment of the levelling system which has taken place in France.
+This is very true, if, in order to guide the power which now attends
+their property, these men possess the wisdom which is involved in early
+fear. But if, through a supine security, to which such fortunes are
+peculiarly liable, they neglect the use of their influence in the season
+of their power, on the first derangement of society the nerves of their
+strength will be cut. Their estates, instead of being the means of their
+security, will become the very causes of their danger. Instead of
+bestowing influence, they will excite rapacity. They will be looked to
+as a prey.</p>
+
+<p>Such will be the impotent condition of those men of great hereditary
+estates, who indeed dislike the designs that are carried on, but whose
+dislike is rather that of spectators than of parties that may be
+concerned in the catastrophe of the piece. But riches do not in all
+cases secure even an inert and passive resistance. There are always in
+that description men whose fortunes, when their minds are once vitiated
+by passion or by evil principle, are by no means a security from their
+actually taking their part against the public tranquillity. We see to
+what low and despicable passions of all kinds many men in that class
+<a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" title="204" class="pagenum"></a>are ready to sacrifice the patrimonial estates which might be
+perpetuated in their families with splendor, and with the fame of
+hereditary benefactors to mankind, from generation to generation. Do we
+not see how lightly people treat their fortunes, when under the
+influence of the passion of gaming? The game of ambition or resentment
+will be played by many of the rich and great as desperately, and with as
+much blindness to the consequences, as any other game. Was he a man of
+no rank or fortune who first set on foot the disturbances which have
+ruined France? Passion blinded him to the consequences, so far as they
+concerned himself; and as to the consequences with regard to others,
+they were no part of his consideration,&mdash;nor ever will be with those who
+bear any resemblance to that virtuous patriot and lover of the rights of
+man.</p>
+
+<p>There is also a time of insecurity, when interests of all sorts become
+objects of speculation. Then it is that their very attachment to wealth
+and importance will induce several persons of opulence to list
+themselves and even to take a lead with the party which they think most
+likely to prevail, in order to obtain to themselves consideration in
+some new order or disorder of things. They may be led to act in this
+manner, that they may secure some portion of their own property, and
+perhaps to become partakers of the spoil of their own order. Those who
+speculate on change always make a great number among people of rank and
+fortune, as well as amongst the low and the indigent.</p>
+
+<p>What security against all this?&mdash;All human securities are liable to
+uncertainty. But if anything bids fair for the prevention of so great a
+calamity, <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" title="205" class="pagenum"></a>it must consist in the use of the ordinary means of just
+influence in society, whilst those means continue unimpaired. The public
+judgment ought to receive a proper direction. All weighty men may have
+their share in so good a work. As yet, notwithstanding the strutting and
+lying independence of a braggart philosophy, Nature maintains her
+rights, and great names have great prevalence. Two such men as Mr. Pitt
+and Mr. Fox, adding to their authority in a point in which they concur
+even by their disunion in everything else, might frown these wicked
+opinions out of the kingdom. But if the influence of either of them, or
+the influence of men like them, should, against their serious
+intentions, be otherwise perverted, they may countenance opinions which
+(as I have said before, and could wish over and over again to press)
+they may in vain attempt to control. In their theory, these doctrines
+admit no limit, no qualification whatsoever. No man can say how far he
+will go, who joins with those who are avowedly going to the utmost
+extremities. What security is there for stopping short at all in these
+wild conceits? Why, neither more nor less than this,&mdash;that the moral
+sentiments of some few amongst them do put some check on their savage
+theories. But let us take care. The moral sentiments, so nearly
+connected with early prejudice as to be almost one and the same thing,
+will assuredly not live long under a discipline which has for its basis
+the destruction of all prejudices, and the making the mind proof against
+all dread of consequences flowing from the pretended truths that are
+taught by their philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>In this school the moral sentiments must grow weaker and weaker every
+day. The more cautious <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" title="206" class="pagenum"></a>of these teachers, in laying down their maxims,
+draw as much of the conclusion as suits, not with their premises, but
+with their policy. They trust the rest to the sagacity of their pupils.
+Others, and these are the most vaunted for their spirit, not only lay
+down the same premises, but boldly draw the conclusions, to the
+destruction of our whole Constitution in Church and State. But are these
+conclusions truly drawn? Yes, most certainly. Their principles are wild
+and wicked; but let justice be done even to frenzy and villany. These
+teachers are perfectly systematic. No man who assumes their grounds can
+tolerate the British Constitution in Church or State. These teachers
+profess to scorn all mediocrity,&mdash;to engage for perfection,&mdash;to proceed
+by the simplest and shortest course. They build their politics, not on
+convenience, but on truth; and they profess to conduct men to certain
+happiness by the assertion of their undoubted rights. With them there is
+no compromise. All other governments are usurpations, which justify and
+even demand resistance.</p>
+
+<p>Their principles always go to the extreme. They who go with the
+principles of the ancient Whigs, which are those contained in Mr.
+Burke's book, never can go too far. They may, indeed, stop short of some
+hazardous and ambiguous excellence, which they will be taught to
+postpone to any reasonable degree of good they may actually possess. The
+opinions maintained in that book never can lead to an extreme, because
+their foundation is laid in an opposition to extremes. The foundation of
+government is there laid, not in imaginary rights of men, (which at best
+is a confusion of judicial with civil principles,) but in political
+convenience, and in hu<a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" title="207" class="pagenum"></a>man nature,&mdash;either as that nature is universal,
+or as it is modified by local habits and social aptitudes. The
+foundation of government (those who have read that book will recollect)
+is laid in a provision for our wants and in a conformity to our duties:
+it is to purvey for the one, it is to enforce the other. These doctrines
+do of themselves gravitate to a middle point, or to some point near a
+middle. They suppose, indeed, a certain portion of liberty to be
+essential to all good government; but they infer that this liberty is to
+be blended into the government, to harmonize with its forms and its
+rules, and to be made subordinate to its end. Those who are not with
+that book are with its opposite; for there is no medium besides the
+medium itself. That medium is not such because it is found there, but it
+is found there because it is conformable to truth and Nature. In this we
+do not follow the author, but we and the author travel together upon the
+same safe and middle path.</p>
+
+<p>The theory contained in his book is not to furnish principles for making
+a new Constitution, but for illustrating the principles of a
+Constitution already made. It is a theory drawn from the <i>fact</i> of our
+government. They who oppose it are bound to show that his theory
+militates with that fact; otherwise, their quarrel is not with his book,
+but with the Constitution of their country. The whole scheme of our
+mixed Constitution is to prevent any one of its principles from being
+carried as far as, taken by itself, and theoretically, it would go.
+Allow that to be the true policy of the British system, then most of the
+faults with which that system stands charged will appear to be, not
+imperfections into which it has inadvertently fallen, but excellencies
+which it has <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" title="208" class="pagenum"></a>studiously sought. To avoid the perfections of extreme,
+all its several parts are so constituted as not alone to answer their
+own several ends, but also each to limit and control the others;
+insomuch that, take which of the principles you please, you will find
+its operation checked and stopped at a certain point. The whole movement
+stands still rather than that any part should proceed beyond its
+boundary. From thence it results that in the British Constitution there
+is a perpetual treaty and compromise going on, sometimes openly,
+sometimes with less observation. To him who contemplates the British
+Constitution, as to him who contemplates the subordinate material world,
+it will always be a matter of his most curious investigation to discover
+the secret of this mutual limitation.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8"><i>Finita</i> potestas denique <i>cuique</i><br /></span>
+<span>Quanam sit ratione, atque alte terminus h&aelig;rens?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>They who have acted, as in France they have done, upon a scheme wholly
+different, and who aim at the abstract and unlimited perfection of power
+in the popular part, can be of no service to us in any of our political
+arrangements. They who in their headlong career have overpassed the goal
+can furnish no example to those who aim to go no further. The temerity
+of such speculators is no more an example than the timidity of others.
+The one sort scorns the right; the other fears it; both miss it. But
+those who by violence go beyond the barrier are without question the
+most mischievous; because, to go beyond it, they overturn and destroy
+it. To say they have spirit is to say nothing in their praise. The
+untempered spirit of madness, blindness, immorality, and impiety
+deserves no commendation. He that sets his <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" title="209" class="pagenum"></a>house on fire because his
+fingers are frost-bitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of
+providing our habitations with a cheerful and salutary warmth. We want
+no foreign examples to rekindle in us the flame of liberty. The example
+of our own ancestors is abundantly sufficient to maintain the spirit of
+freedom in its full vigor, and to qualify it in all its exertions. The
+example of a wise, moral, well-natured, and well-tempered spirit of
+freedom is that alone which can be useful to us, or in the least degree
+reputable or safe. Our fabric is so constituted, one part of it bears so
+much on the other, the parts are so made for one another, and for
+nothing else, that to introduce any foreign matter into it is to destroy
+it.</p>
+
+<p>What has been said of the Roman Empire is at least as true of the
+British Constitution:&mdash;&quot;<i>Octingentorum annorum fortuna disciplinaque
+compages h&aelig;c coaluit; qu&aelig; convelli sine convellentium exitio non
+potest</i>.&quot; This British Constitution has not been struck out at an heat
+by a set of presumptuous men, like the Assembly of pettifoggers run mad
+in Paris.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;'Tis not the hasty product of a day,<br /></span>
+<span>But the well-ripened fruit of wise delay.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">It is the result of the thoughts of many minds in many ages. It is no
+simple, no superficial thing, nor to be estimated by superficial
+understandings. An ignorant man, who is not fool enough to meddle with
+his clock, is, however, sufficiently confident to think he can safely
+take to pieces and put together, at his pleasure, a moral machine of
+another guise, importance, and complexity, composed of far other wheels
+and springs and balances and counteracting and co&ouml;perating powers. Men
+little think how im<a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" title="210" class="pagenum"></a>morally they act in rashly meddling with what they
+do not understand. Their delusive good intention is no sort of excuse
+for their presumption. They who truly mean well must be fearful of
+acting ill. The British Constitution may have its advantages pointed out
+to wise and reflecting minds, but it is of too high an order of
+excellence to be adapted to those which are common. It takes in too many
+views, it makes too many combinations, to be so much as comprehended by
+shallow and superficial understandings. Profound thinkers will know it
+in its reason and spirit. The less inquiring will recognize it in their
+feelings and their experience. They will thank God they have a standard,
+which, in the most essential point of this great concern, will put them
+on a par with the most wise and knowing.</p>
+
+<p>If we do not take to our aid the foregone studies of men reputed
+intelligent and learned, we shall be always beginners. But men must
+learn somewhere; and the new teachers mean no more than what they
+effect, as far as they succeed,&mdash;that is, to deprive men of the benefit
+of the collected wisdom of mankind, and to make them blind disciples of
+their own particular presumption. Talk to these deluded creatures (all
+the disciples and most of the masters) who are taught to think
+themselves so newly fitted up and furnished, and you will find nothing
+in their houses but the refuse of <i>Knaves' Acre</i>,&mdash;nothing but the
+rotten stuff, worn out in the service of delusion and sedition in all
+ages, and which, being newly furbished up, patched, and varnished,
+serves well enough for those who, being unacquainted with the conflict
+which has always been maintained between the sense and the nonsense of
+mankind, know noth<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" title="211" class="pagenum"></a>ing of the former existence and the ancient
+refutation of the same follies. It is near two thousand years since it
+has been observed that these devices of ambition, avarice, and
+turbulence were antiquated. They are, indeed, the most ancient of all
+commonplaces: commonplaces sometimes of good and necessary causes; more
+frequently of the worst, but which decide upon neither. <i>Eadem semper
+causa, libido et avaritia, et mutandarum rerum amor. Ceterum libertas et
+speciosa nomina pretexuntur; nec quisquam alienum servitium, et
+dominationem sibi concupivit, ut non eadem ista vocabula usurparet</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Rational and experienced men tolerably well know, and have always known,
+how to distinguish between true and false liberty, and between the
+genuine adherence and the false pretence to what is true. But none,
+except those who are profoundly studied, can comprehend the elaborate
+contrivance of a fabric fitted to unite private and public liberty with
+public force, with order, with peace, with justice, and, above all, with
+the institutions formed for bestowing permanence and stability, through
+ages, upon this invaluable whole.</p>
+
+<p>Place, for instance, before your eyes such a man as Montesquieu. Think
+of a genius not born in every country or every time: a man gifted by
+Nature with a penetrating, aquiline eye,&mdash;with a judgment prepared with
+the most extensive erudition,&mdash;with an Herculean robustness of mind, and
+nerves not to be broken with labor,&mdash;a man who could spend twenty years
+in one pursuit. Think of a man like the universal patriarch in Milton
+(who had drawn up before him in his prophetic vision the whole series of
+the generations which were to issue from his loins):<a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" title="212" class="pagenum"></a> a man capable of
+placing in review, after having brought together from the East, the
+West, the North, and the South, from the coarseness of the rudest
+barbarism to the most refined and subtle civilization, all the schemes
+of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind, weighing,
+measuring, collating, and comparing them all, joining fact with theory,
+and calling into council, upon all this infinite assemblage of things,
+all the speculations which have fatigued the understandings of profound
+reasoners in all times. Let us then consider, that all these were but so
+many preparatory steps to qualify a man, and such a man, tinctured with
+no national prejudice, with no domestic affection, to admire, and to
+hold out to the admiration of mankind, the Constitution of England. And
+shall we Englishmen revoke to such a suit? Shall we, when so much more
+than he has produced remains still to be understood and admired, instead
+of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science, choose for our
+teachers men incapable of being taught,&mdash;whose only claim to know is,
+that they have never doubted,&mdash;from whom we can learn nothing but their
+own indocility,&mdash;who would teach us to scorn what in the silence of our
+hearts we ought to adore?</p>
+
+<p>Different from them are all the great critics. They have taught us one
+essential rule. I think the excellent and philosophic artist, a true
+judge, as well as a perfect follower of Nature, Sir Joshua Reynolds, has
+somewhere applied it, or something like it, in his own profession. It is
+this: that, if ever we should find ourselves disposed not to admire
+those writers or artists (Livy and Virgil, for instance, Raphael or
+Michael Angelo) whom all the learned had admired, <a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" title="213" class="pagenum"></a>not to follow our own
+fancies, but to study them, until we know how and what we ought to
+admire; and if we cannot arrive at this combination of admiration with
+knowledge, rather to believe that we are dull than that the rest of the
+world has been imposed on. It is as good a rule, at least, with regard
+to this admired Constitution. We ought to understand it according to our
+measure, and to venerate where we are not able presently to comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>Such admirers were our fathers, to whom we owe this splendid
+inheritance. Let us improve it with zeal, but with fear. Let us follow
+our ancestors, men not without a rational, though without an exclusive
+confidence in themselves,&mdash;who, by respecting the reason of others, who,
+by looking backward as well as forward, by the modesty as well as by the
+energy of their minds, went on insensibly drawing this Constitution
+nearer and nearer to its perfection, by never departing from its
+fundamental principles, nor introducing any amendment which had not a
+subsisting root in the laws, Constitution, and usages of the kingdom.
+Let those who have the trust of political or of natural authority ever
+keep watch against the desperate enterprises of innovation: let even
+their benevolence be fortified and armed. They have before their eyes
+the example of a monarch insulted, degraded, confined, deposed; his
+family dispersed, scattered, imprisoned; his wife insulted to his face,
+like the vilest of the sex, by the vilest of all populace; himself three
+times dragged by these wretches in an infamous triumph; his children
+torn from him, in violation of the first right of Nature, and given into
+the tuition of the most desperate and impious of the leaders of
+desperate and impious clubs; <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" title="214" class="pagenum"></a>his revenues dilapidated and plundered;
+his magistrates murdered; his clergy proscribed, persecuted, famished;
+his nobility degraded in their rank, undone in their fortunes, fugitives
+in their persons; his armies corrupted and ruined; his whole people
+impoverished, disunited, dissolved; whilst through the bars of his
+prison, and amidst the bayonets of his keepers, he hears the tumult of
+two conflicting factions, equally wicked and abandoned, who agree in
+principles, in dispositions, and in objects, but who tear each other to
+pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining their common end: the
+one contending to preserve for a while his name, and his person, the
+more easily to destroy the royal authority,&mdash;the other clamoring to cut
+off the name, the person, and the monarchy together, by one sacrilegious
+execution. All this accumulation of calamity, the greatest that ever
+fell upon one man, has fallen upon his head, because he had left his
+virtues unguarded by caution,&mdash;because he was not taught, that, where
+power is concerned, he who will confer benefits must take security
+against ingratitude.</p>
+
+<p>I have stated the calamities which have fallen upon a great prince and
+nation, because they were not alarmed at the approach of danger, and
+because, what commonly happens to men surprised, they lost all resource
+when they were caught in it. When I speak of danger, I certainly mean to
+address myself to those who consider the prevalence of the new Whig
+doctrines as an evil.</p>
+
+<p>The Whigs of this day have before them, in this Appeal, their
+constitutional ancestors; they have the doctors of the modern school.
+They will choose for themselves. The author of the Reflections has
+chosen <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" title="215" class="pagenum"></a>for himself. If a new order is coming on, and all the political
+opinions must pass away as dreams, which our ancestors have worshipped
+as revelations, I say for him, that he would rather be the last (as
+certainly he is the least) of that race of men than the first and
+greatest of those who have coined to themselves Whig principles from a
+French die, unknown to the impress of our fathers in the Constitution.<a name="Page_216" id="Page_216" title="216" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Newspaper intelligence ought always to be received with
+some degree of caution. I do not know that the following paragraph is
+founded on any authority; but it comes with an air of authority. The
+paper is professedly in the interest of the modern Whigs, and under
+their direction. The paragraph is not disclaimed on their part. It
+professes to be the decision of those whom its author calls &quot;the great
+and firm body of the Whigs of England.&quot; Who are the Whigs of a different
+composition, which the promulgator of the sentence considers as composed
+of fleeting and unsettled particles, I know not, nor whether there be
+any of that description. The definitive sentence of &quot;the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England&quot; (as this paper gives it out) is as
+follows:&mdash;
+</p><p>
+&quot;The great and firm body of the Whigs of England, true to their
+principles, have decided on the dispute between Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke;
+and the former is declared to have maintained the pure doctrines by
+which they are bound together, and upon which they have invariably
+acted. The consequence is, that Mr. Burke retires from
+Parliament.&quot;&mdash;<i>Morning Chronicle</i>, May 12, 1791.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Reflections, &amp;c., 1st ed., London, J. Dodsley,
+1790.&mdash;Works, Vol. III. p. 343, in the present edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> To explain this, it will be necessary to advert to a
+paragraph which appeared in a paper in the minority interest some time
+before this debate. &quot;A very dark intrigue has lately been discovered,
+the authors of which are well known to us; but until the glorious day
+shall come when it will not be a LIBEL to tell the TRUTH, we must not be
+so regardless of our own safety as to publish their names. We will,
+however, state the fact, leaving it to the ingenuity of our readers to
+discover what we dare not publish.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Since the business of the armament against Russia has been under
+discussion, a great personage has been heard to say, 'that he was not so
+wedded to Mr. PITT as not to be very willing to give his confidence to
+Mr. FOX, if the latter should be able, in a crisis like the present, to
+conduct the government of the country with greater advantage to the
+public.'
+</p><p>
+&quot;This patriotic declaration immediately alarmed the swarm of courtly
+insects that live only in the sunshine of ministerial favor. It was
+thought to be the forerunner of the dismission of Mr. Pitt, and every
+engine was set at work for the purpose of preventing such an event. The
+principal engine employed on this occasion was CALUMNY. It was whispered
+in the ear of a great personage, that Mr. Fox was the last man in
+England to be trusted by a KING, because he was by PRINCIPLE a
+REPUBLICAN, and consequently an enemy to MONARCHY.
+</p><p>
+&quot;In the discussion of the Quebec Bill which stood for yesterday, it was
+the intention of some persons to connect with this subject the French
+Revolution, in hopes that Mr. Fox would be warmed by a collision with
+Mr. Burke, and induced to defend that Revolution, in which so much power
+was taken from, and so little left in the crown.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Had Mr. Fox fallen into the snare, his speech on the occasion would
+have been laid before a great personage, as a proof that a man who could
+defend such a revolution might be a very good republican, but could not
+possibly be a friend to monarchy.
+</p><p>
+&quot;But those who laid the snare were disappointed; for Mr. Fox, in the
+short conversation which took place yesterday in the House of Commons,
+said, that he confessedly had thought favorably of the French
+Revolution, but that most certainly he never had, either in Parliament
+or out of Parliament, professed or defended republican
+principles.&quot;&mdash;<i>Argus</i>, April 22d, 1791.
+</p><p>
+Mr. Burke cannot answer for the truth nor prove the falsehood of the
+story given by the friends of the party in this paper. He only knows
+that an opinion of its being well or ill authenticated had no influence
+on his conduct. He meant only, to the best of his power, to guard the
+public against the ill designs of factions out of doors. What Mr. Burke
+did in Parliament could hardly have been intended to draw Mr. Fox into
+any declarations unfavorable to his principles, since (by the account of
+those who are his friends) he had long before effectually prevented the
+success of any such scandalous designs. Mr. Fox's friends have
+themselves done away that imputation on Mr. Burke.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See his speech on American Taxation, the 19th of April,
+1774.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Lord Lansdowne.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Mr. Windham.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> July 17th, 1765.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Works, Vol. III. pp. 251-276, present edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> State Trials, Vol. V. p. 651.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Page 676.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The words necessary to the completion of the sentence are
+wanting in the printed trial&mdash;but the construction of the sentence, as
+well as the foregoing part of the speech, justify the insertion of some
+such supplemental words as the above.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> &quot;What we did was, in truth and substance, and in a
+constitutional light, a revolution, not made, but prevented. We took
+solid securities; we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies
+in our law. In the stable, fundamental parts of our Constitution we made
+no revolution,&mdash;no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the
+monarchy. Perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very
+considerably. The nation kept the same ranks, the same orders, the same
+privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property, the same
+subordinations, the same order in the law, in the revenue, and in the
+magistracy,&mdash;the same lords, the same commons, the same corporations,
+the same electors.&quot;&mdash;<i>Mr. Burke's Speech in the House of Commons, 9th
+February, 1790.</i>&mdash;It appears how exactly he coincides in everything with
+Sir Joseph Jekyl.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> See Reflections, pp. 42, 43.&mdash;Works, Vol. III. p. 270,
+present edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Declaration of Right.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Vindication of the Rights of Man, recommended by the
+several societies.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> &quot;Omnes omnium charitates patria una complectitur.&quot;&mdash;Cic.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> A few lines in Persius contain a good summary of all the
+objects of moral investigation, and hint the result of our inquiry:
+There human will has no place.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Quid <i>sumus</i>? et quidnam <i>victuri gignimur</i>? ordo<br /></span>
+<span>Quis <i>datus</i>? et <i>met&aelig;</i> quis mollis flexus, et unde?<br /></span>
+<span>Quis modus argento? Quid <i>fas optare</i>? Quid asper<br /></span>
+<span>Utile nummus habet? <i>Patri&aelig; charisque propinquis</i><br /></span>
+<span>Quantum elargiri <i>debet</i>? Quem te Deus esse<br /></span>
+<span><i>Jussit</i>? et humana qua parte <i>locatus es</i> in re?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> It is no small loss to the world, that the whole of this
+enlightened and philosophic sermon, preached to <i>two hundred thousand</i>
+national guards assembled at Blackheath (a number probably equal to the
+sublime and majestic <i>F&eacute;d&eacute;ration</i> of the 14th of July, 1790, in the
+Champ de Mars) is not preserved. A short abstract is, however, to be
+found in Walsingham. I have added it here for the edification of the
+modern Whigs, who may possibly except this precious little fragment from
+their general contempt of ancient learning.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Ut su&acirc; doctrin&acirc; plures inficeret, ad le Blackheth (ubi ducenta millia
+hominum communium fuere simul congregata) hujuscemodi sermonem est
+exorsus.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;Whan Adam dalfe and Eve span,<br /></span>
+<span>Who was than a gentleman?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p class="noindent">
+Continuansque sermonem inceptum, nitebatur per verba proverbii, quod pro
+themate sumpserat, introducere et probare, <i>ab initio omnes pares
+creatos a natur&acirc;</i>, servitutem per injustam oppressionem nequam hominum
+introductam contra Dei voluntatem, quia si Deo placuisset servos
+cre&acirc;sse, utique in principio mundi constituisset, quis servus, quisve
+dominus futurus fuisset. Considerarent igitur jam tempus a Deo datum
+eis, in quo (deposito servitutis jugo diutius) possent, si vellent,
+libertate diu concupit&acirc; gaudere. Quapropter monuit ut essent viri
+cordati, et amore boni patrisfamilias excolentis agrum suum, et
+extirpantis ac resecantis noxia gramina qu&aelig; fruges solent opprimere, et
+ipsi in pr&aelig;senti facere festinarent. Prim&ograve; <i>majores regni dominos
+occidendo. Deinde juridicos, justiciarios, et juratores patri&aelig;
+perimendo.</i> Postrem&ograve; quoscunque scirent <i>in posterum communitati
+nocivos</i> tollerent de terr&acirc; su&acirc;, sic demum et <i>pacem</i> sibimet <i>parerent
+et securitatem</i> in futurum. <i>Si sublatis majoribus esset inter eos &aelig;qua
+libertas, eadem nobilitas, par dignitas, similisque potestas.</i>&quot;
+</p><p>
+Here is displayed at once the whole of the grand <i>arcanum</i> pretended to
+be found out by the National Assembly, for securing future happiness,
+peace, and tranquillity. There seems, however, to be some doubt whether
+this venerable protomartyr of philosophy was inclined to carry his own
+declaration of the rights of men more rigidly into practice than the
+National Assembly themselves. He was, like them, only preaching
+licentiousness to the populace to obtain power for himself, if we may
+believe what is subjoined by the historian.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Cumque h&aelig;c et <i>plura alia deliramenta</i>&quot; (think of this old fool's
+calling all the wise maxims of the French Academy <i>deliramenta</i>!)
+&quot;pr&aelig;dic&acirc;sset, commune vulgus cum tanto favore prosequitur, ut
+<i>exclamarent eum archiepiscopum futurum, et regni cancellarium</i>.&quot;
+Whether he would have taken these situations under these names, or would
+have changed the whole nomenclature of the State and Church, to be
+understood in the sense of the Revolution, is not so certain. It is
+probable that he would have changed the names and kept the substance of
+power.
+</p><p>
+We find, too, that they had in those days their <i>society for
+constitutional information</i>, of which the Reverend John Ball was a
+conspicuous member, sometimes under his own name, sometimes under the
+feigned name of John Schep. Besides him it consisted (as Knyghton tells
+us) of persons who went by the real or fictitious names of Jack Mylner,
+Tom Baker, Jack Straw, Jack Trewman, Jack Carter, and probably of many
+more. Some of the choicest flowers of the publications charitably
+written and circulated by them gratis are upon record in Walsingham and
+Knyghton: and I am inclined to prefer the pithy and sententious brevity
+of these <i>bulletins</i> of ancient rebellion before the loose and confused
+prolixity of the modern advertisements of constitutional information.
+They contain more good morality and less bad politics, they had much
+more foundation in real oppression, and they have the recommendation of
+being much better adapted to the capacities of those for whose
+instruction they were intended. Whatever laudable pains the teachers of
+the present day appear to take, I cannot compliment them so far as to
+allow that they have succeeded in writing down to the level of their
+pupils, <i>the members of the sovereign</i>, with half the ability of Jack
+Carter and the Reverend John Ball. That my readers may judge for
+themselves, I shall give them, one or two specimens.
+</p><p>
+The first is an address from the Reverend John Ball, under his <i>nom de
+guerre</i> of John Schep. I know not against what particular &quot;guyle in
+borough&quot; the writer means to caution the people; it may have been only a
+general cry against &quot;<i>rotten boroughs</i>,&quot; which it was thought
+convenient, then as now, to make the first pretext, and place at the
+head of the list of grievances.
+</p><p>
+JOHN SCHEP.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Iohn Schep sometime seint Mary priest of Yorke, and now of Colchester,
+greeteth well Iohn Namelesse, and Iohn the Miller, and Iohn Carter, and
+<i>biddeth them that they beware of guyle in borough</i>, and stand together
+in Gods name, and biddeth Piers Ploweman goe to his werke, and chastise
+well <i>Hob the robber</i>, [probably the king,] and take with you Iohn
+Trewman, and all his fellows, and no moe.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;Iohn the Miller hath yground smal, small, small:<br /></span>
+<span>The kings sonne of heauen shal pay for all.<br /></span>
+<span>Beware or ye be woe,<br /></span>
+<span>Know your frende fro your foe,<br /></span>
+<span>Haue ynough, and say hoe:<br /></span>
+<span>And do wel and better, &amp; flee sinne,<br /></span>
+<span><i>And seeke peace and holde you therin,</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p class="noindent">
+&amp; so biddeth Iohn Trewman &amp; all his fellowes.&quot;
+</p><p>
+The reader has perceived, from the last lines of this curious
+state-paper, how well the National Assembly has copied its union of the
+profession of universal peace with the practice of murder and confusion,
+and the blast of the trumpet of sedition in all nations. He will in the
+following constitutional paper observe how well, in their enigmatical
+style, like the Assembly and their abettors, the old philosophers
+proscribe all hereditary distinction, and bestow it only on virtue and
+wisdom, according to their estimation of both. Yet these people are
+supposed never to have heard of &quot;the rights of man&quot;!
+</p><p>
+JACK MYLNER.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Jakke Mylner asket help to turne his mylne aright.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;He hath grounden smal smal,<br /></span>
+<span>The Kings sone of heven he schal pay for alle.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p class="noindent">
+Loke thy mylne go a rygt, with the fours sayles, and the post stande in
+steadfastnesse.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;With rygt and with mygt,<br /></span>
+<span>With skyl and with wylle,<br /></span>
+<span>Lat mygt helpe rygt,<br /></span>
+<span>And skyl go before wille,<br /></span>
+<span>And rygt before mygt:<br /></span>
+<span>Than goth oure mylne aryght.<br /></span>
+<span>And if mygt go before ryght,<br /></span>
+<span>And wylle before skylle;<br /></span>
+<span>Than is oure mylne mys a dygt.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p>
+JACK CARTER understood perfectly the doctrine of looking to the <i>end</i>,
+with an indifference to the <i>means</i>, and the probability of much good
+arising from great evil.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Jakke Carter pryes yowe alle that ye make a gode <i>ende</i> of that ye hane
+begunnen, and doth wele and ay bettur and bettur: for at the even men
+heryth the day. <i>For if the ende be wele, than is alle wele.</i> Lat Peres
+the Plowman my brother duelle at home and dygt us corne, and I will go
+with yowe and helpe that y may to dygte youre mete and youre drynke,
+that ye none fayle: lokke that Hobbe robbyoure be wele chastysed for
+lesyng of youre grace: for ye have gret nede to take God with yowe in
+alle yours dedes. For nowe is tyme to be war.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See the wise remark on this subject in the Defence of
+Rights of Man, circulated by the societies.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> The primary assemblies.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217" title="217" class="pagenum"></a><a name="PEER_OF_IRELAND" id="PEER_OF_IRELAND" /></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span style="font-size: 60%">A</span><br />
+<br />
+LETTER<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">TO</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">A PEER OF IRELAND</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON THE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICS,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">PREVIOUS TO</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 75%">THE LATE REPEAL OF A PART THEREOF IN THE SESSION OF THE IRISH
+PARLIAMENT, HELD A.D. 1782.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218" title="218" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219" title="219" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="quotdate">CHARLES STREET, LONDON, Feb. 21, 1782</p>
+
+
+<p>My Lord,&mdash;I am obliged to your Lordship for your communication of the
+heads of Mr. Gardiner's bill. I had received it, in an earlier stage of
+its progress, from Mr. Braughall; and I am still in that gentleman's
+debt, as I have not made him the proper return for the favor he has done
+me. Business, to which I was more immediately called, and in which my
+sentiments had the weight of one vote, occupied me every moment since I
+received his letter. This first morning which I can call my own I give
+with great cheerfulness to the subject on which your Lordship has done
+me the honor of desiring my opinion.</p>
+
+<p>I have read the heads of the bill, with the amendments. Your Lordship is
+too well acquainted with men, and with affairs, to imagine that any true
+judgment can be formed on the value of a great measure of policy from
+the perusal of a piece of paper. At present I am much in the dark with
+regard to the state of the country which the intended law is to be
+applied to. It is not easy for me to determine whether or no it was wise
+(for the sake of expunging the black letter of laws which, menacing as
+they were in the language, were every day fading into disuse) solemnly
+to reaffirm the principles and to reenact the provisions of a code of
+statutes by which <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220" title="220" class="pagenum"></a>you are totally excluded from THE PRIVILEGES OF THE
+COMMONWEALTH, from the highest to the lowest, from the most material of
+the civil professions, from the army, and even from education, where
+alone education is to be had.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor" title=" The sketch of the bill sent to Mr. Burke, along with the
+repeal of some acts, reaffirmed many others in the penal code. It was
+altered afterwards, and the clauses reaffirming the incapacities left
+out; but they all still exist, and are in full force.">[26]</a></p>
+
+<p>Whether this scheme of indulgence, grounded at once on contempt and
+jealousy, has a tendency gradually to produce something better and more
+liberal, I cannot tell, for want of having the actual map of the
+country. If this should be the case, it was right in you to accept it,
+such as it is. But if this should be one of the experiments which have
+sometimes been made before the temper of the nation was ripe for a real
+reformation, I think it may possibly have ill effects, by disposing the
+penal matter in a more systematic order, and thereby fixing a permanent
+bar against any relief that is truly substantial. The whole merit or
+demerit of the measure depends upon the plans and dispositions of those
+by whom the act was made, concurring with the general temper of the
+Protestants of Ireland, and their aptitude to admit in time of some part
+of that equality without which you never can be FELLOW-CITIZENS. Of all
+this I am wholly ignorant. All my correspondence with men of public
+importance in Ireland has for some time totally ceased. On the first
+bill for the relief of the ROMAN CATHOLICS of Ireland, I was, without
+any call of mine, consulted both on your side of the water and on this.
+On the present occasion, I have not heard a word from any man in office,
+and know as <a name="Page_221" id="Page_221" title="221" class="pagenum"></a>little of the intentions of the British government as I
+know of the temper of the Irish Parliament. I do not find that any
+opposition was made by the principal persons of the minority in the
+House of Commons, or that any is apprehended from them in the House of
+Lords. The whole of the difficulty seems to lie with the principal men
+in government, under whose protection this bill is supposed to be
+brought in. This violent opposition and cordial support, coming from one
+and the same quarter, appears to me something mysterious, and hinders me
+from being able to make any clear judgment of the merit of the present
+measure, as compared with the actual state of the country and the
+general views of government, without which one can say nothing that may
+not be very erroneous.</p>
+
+<p>To look at the bill in the abstract, it is neither more nor less than a
+renewed act of UNIVERSAL, UNMITIGATED, INDISPENSABLE, EXCEPTIONLESS
+DISQUALIFICATION.</p>
+
+<p>One would imagine that a bill inflicting such a multitude of
+incapacities had followed on the heels of a conquest made by a very
+fierce enemy, under the impression of recent animosity and resentment.
+No man, on reading that bill, could imagine he was reading an act of
+amnesty and indulgence, following a recital of the good behavior of
+those who are the objects of it,&mdash;which recital stood at the head of the
+bill, as it was first introduced, but, I suppose for its incongruity
+with the body of the piece, was afterwards omitted. This I say on
+memory. It, however, still recites the oath, and that Catholics ought to
+be considered as good and loyal subjects to his Majesty, his crown and
+government. Then follows an universal <a name="Page_222" id="Page_222" title="222" class="pagenum"></a>exclusion of those GOOD and LOYAL
+subjects from every (even the lowest) office of trust and profit,&mdash;from
+any vote at an election,&mdash;from any privilege in a town corporate,&mdash;from
+being even a freeman of such a corporation,&mdash;from serving on grand
+juries,&mdash;from a vote at a vestry,&mdash;from having a gun in his house,&mdash;from
+being a barrister, attorney, or solicitor, &amp;c., &amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>This has surely much more the air of a table of proscription than an act
+of grace. What must we suppose the laws concerning those <i>good</i> subjects
+to have been, of which this is a relaxation? I know well that there is a
+cant language current, about the difference between an exclusion from
+employments, even to the most rigorous extent, and an exclusion from the
+natural benefits arising from a man's own industry. I allow, that, under
+some circumstances, the difference is very material in point of justice,
+and that there are considerations which may render it advisable for a
+wise government to keep the leading parts of every branch of civil and
+military administration in hands of the best trust; but a total
+exclusion from the commonwealth is a very different thing. When a
+government subsists (as governments formerly did) on an estate of its
+own, with but few and inconsiderable revenues drawn from the subject,
+then the few officers which existed in such establishments were
+naturally at the disposal of that government, which paid the salaries
+out of its own coffers: there an exclusive preference could hardly merit
+the name of proscription. Almost the whole produce of a man's industry
+at that time remained in his own purse to maintain his family. But times
+alter, and the <i>whole</i> estate of government is from private
+contribution.<a name="Page_223" id="Page_223" title="223" class="pagenum"></a> When a very great portion of the labor of individuals
+goes to the state, and is by the state again refunded to individuals,
+through the medium of offices, and in this circuitous progress from the
+private to the public, and from the public again to the private fund,
+the families from whom the revenue is taken are indemnified, and an
+equitable balance between the government and the subject is established.
+But if a great body of the people who contribute to this state lottery
+are excluded from all the prizes, the stopping the circulation with
+regard to them may be a most cruel hardship, amounting in effect to
+being double and treble taxed; and it will be felt as such to the very
+quick, by all the families, high and low, of those hundreds of thousands
+who are denied their chance in the returned fruits of their own
+industry. This is the thing meant by those who look upon the public
+revenue only as a spoil, and will naturally wish to have as few as
+possible concerned in the division of the booty. If a state should be so
+unhappy as to think it cannot subsist without such a barbarous
+proscription, the persons so proscribed ought to be indemnified by the
+remission of a large part of their taxes, by an immunity from the
+offices of public burden, and by an exemption from being pressed into
+any military or naval service.</p>
+
+<p>Common sense and common justice dictate this at least, as some sort of
+compensation to a people for their slavery. How many families are
+incapable of existing, if the little offices of the revenue and little
+military commissions are denied them! To deny them at home, and to make
+the happiness of acquiring some of them somewhere else felony or high
+treason, is a piece of cruelty, in which, till very late<a name="Page_224" id="Page_224" title="224" class="pagenum"></a>ly, I did not
+suppose this age capable of persisting. Formerly a similarity of
+religion made a sort of country for a man in some quarter or other. A
+refugee for religion was a protected character. Now the reception is
+cold indeed; and therefore, as the asylum abroad is destroyed, the
+hardship at home is doubled. This hardship is the more intolerable
+because the professions are shut up. The Church is so of course. Much is
+to be said on that subject, in regard to them, and to the Protestant
+Dissenters. But that is a chapter by itself. I am sure I wish well to
+that Church, and think its ministers among the very best citizens of
+your country. However, such as it is, a great walk in life is forbidden
+ground to seventeen hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Ireland. Why
+are they excluded from the law? Do not they expend money in their suits?
+Why may not they indemnify themselves, by profiting, in the persons of
+some, for the losses incurred by others? Why may not they have persons
+of confidence, whom they may, if they please, employ in the agency of
+their affairs? The exclusion from the law, from grand juries, from
+sheriffships and under-sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any
+corporation, may subject them to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude
+them wholly from all that is beneficial and expose them to all that is
+mischievous in a trial by jury. This was manifestly within my own
+observation, for I was three times in Ireland from the year 1760 to the
+year 1767, where I had sufficient means of information concerning the
+inhuman proceedings (among which were many cruel murders, besides an
+infinity of outrages and oppressions unknown before in a civilized age)
+which prevailed during that period, in consequence of a pre<a name="Page_225" id="Page_225" title="225" class="pagenum"></a>tended
+conspiracy among <i>Roman Catholics</i> against the king's government. I
+could dilate upon the mischiefs that may happen, from those which have
+happened, upon this head of disqualification, if it were at all
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The head of exclusion from votes for members of Parliament is closely
+connected with the former. When you cast your eye on the statute-book,
+you will see that no <i>Catholic</i>, even in the ferocious acts of Queen
+Anne, was disabled from voting on account of his religion. The only
+conditions required for that privilege were the oaths of allegiance and
+abjuration,&mdash;both oaths relative to a civil concern. Parliament has
+since added another oath of the same kind; and yet a House of Commons,
+adding to the securities of government in proportion as its danger is
+confessedly lessened, and professing both confidence and indulgence, in
+effect takes away the privilege left by an act full of jealousy and
+professing persecution.</p>
+
+<p>The taking away of a vote is the taking away the shield which the
+subject has, not only against the oppression of power, but that worst of
+all oppressions, the persecution of private society and private manners.
+No candidate for Parliamentary influence is obliged to the least
+attention towards them, either in cities or counties. On the contrary,
+if they should become obnoxious to any bigoted or malignant people
+amongst whom they live, it will become the interest of those who court
+popular favor to use the numberless means which always reside in
+magistracy and influence to oppress them. The proceedings in a certain
+county in Munster, during the unfortunate period I have mentioned, read
+a strong lecture on <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226" title="226" class="pagenum"></a>the cruelty of depriving men of that shield on
+account of their speculative opinions. The Protestants of Ireland feel
+well and naturally on the hardship of being bound by laws in the
+enacting of which they do not directly or indirectly vote. The bounds of
+these matters are nice, and hard to be settled in theory, and perhaps
+they have been pushed too far. But how they can avoid the necessary
+application of the principles they use in their disputes with others to
+their disputes with their fellow-citizens, I know not.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, the words of this act do not create a disability; but they
+clearly and evidently suppose it. There are few <i>Catholic</i> freeholders
+to take the benefit of the privilege, if they were permitted to partake
+it; but the manner in which this very right in freeholders at large is
+defended is not on the idea that the freeholders do really and truly
+represent the people, but that, all people being capable of obtaining
+freeholds, all those who by their industry and sobriety merit this
+privilege have the means of arriving at votes. It is the same with the
+corporations.</p>
+
+<p>The laws against foreign education are clearly the very worst part of
+the old code. Besides your laity, you have the succession of about four
+thousand clergymen to provide for. These, having no lucrative objects in
+prospect, are taken very much out of the lower orders of the people. At
+home they have no means whatsoever provided for their attaining a
+clerical education, or indeed any education at all. When I was in Paris,
+about seven years ago, I looked at everything, and lived with every kind
+of people, as well as my time admitted. I saw there the Irish college of
+the Lombard, which seemed to me a very good place of education, under
+excellent orders and regula<a name="Page_227" id="Page_227" title="227" class="pagenum"></a>tions, and under the government of a very
+prudent and learned man (the late Dr. Kelly). This college was possessed
+of an annual fixed revenue of more than a thousand pound a year, the
+greatest part of which had arisen from the legacies and benefactions of
+persons educated in that college, and who had obtained promotions in
+France, from the emolument of which promotions they made this grateful
+return. One in particular I remember, to the amount of ten thousand
+livres annually, as it is recorded on the donor's monument in their
+chapel.</p>
+
+<p>It has been the custom of poor persons in Ireland to pick up such
+knowledge of the Latin tongue as, under the general discouragements, and
+occasional pursuits of magistracy, they were able to acquire; and
+receiving orders at home, were sent abroad to obtain a clerical
+education. By officiating in petty chaplainships, and performing now and
+then certain offices of religion for small gratuities, they received the
+means of maintaining themselves until they were able to complete their
+education. Through such difficulties and discouragements, many of them
+have arrived at a very considerable proficiency, so as to be marked and
+distinguished abroad. These persons afterwards, by being sunk in the
+most abject poverty, despised and ill-treated by the higher orders among
+Protestants, and not much better esteemed or treated even by the few
+persons of fortune of their own persuasion, and contracting the habits
+and ways of thinking of the poor and uneducated, among whom they were
+obliged to live, in a few years retained little or no traces of the
+talents and acquirements which distinguished them in the early periods
+of their lives. Can we with justice cut them off from <a name="Page_228" id="Page_228" title="228" class="pagenum"></a>the use of places
+of education founded for the greater part from the economy of poverty
+and exile, without providing something that is equivalent at home?</p>
+
+<p>Whilst this restraint of foreign and domestic education was part of an
+horrible and impious system of servitude, the members were well fitted
+to the body. To render men patient under a deprivation of all the rights
+of human nature, everything which could give them a knowledge or feeling
+of those rights was rationally forbidden. To render humanity fit to be
+insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded. But when we profess to
+restore men to the capacity for property, it is equally irrational and
+unjust to deny them the power of improving their minds as well as their
+fortunes. Indeed, I have ever thought the prohibition of the means of
+improving our rational nature to be the worst species of tyranny that
+the insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared to exercise. This
+goes to all men, in all situations, to whom education can be denied.</p>
+
+<p>Your Lordship mentions a proposal which came from my friend, the
+Provost, whose benevolence and enlarged spirit I am perfectly convinced
+of,&mdash;which is, the proposal of erecting a few sizarships in the college,
+for the education (I suppose) of Roman Catholic clergymen.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor" title=" It appears that Mr. Hutchinson meant this only as one of
+the means for their relief in point of education.">[27]</a> He
+certainly meant it well; but, coming from such a man as he is, it is a
+strong instance of the danger of suffering any description of men to
+fall into entire contempt. The charities intended for them are not
+perceived to be fresh insults; and the true nature of their wants and
+necessities being unknown, remedies wholly unsuitable to <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229" title="229" class="pagenum"></a>the nature of
+their complaint are provided for them. It is to feed a sick Gentoo with
+beef broth, and to foment his wounds with brandy. If the other parts of
+the university were open to them, as well on the foundation as
+otherwise, the offering of sizarships would be a proportioned part of a
+<i>general</i> kindness. But when everything <i>liberal</i> is withheld, and only
+that which is <i>servile</i> is permitted, it is easy to conceive upon what
+footing they must be in such a place.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hutchinson must well know the regard and honor I have for him; and
+he cannot think my dissenting from him in this particular arises from a
+disregard of his opinion: it only shows that I think he has lived in
+Ireland. To have any respect for the character and person of a Popish
+priest there&mdash;oh, 'tis an uphill work indeed! But until we come to
+respect what stands in a respectable light with others, we are very
+deficient in the temper which qualifies us to make any laws and
+regulations about them: it even disqualifies us from being charitable to
+them with any effect or judgment.</p>
+
+<p>When we are to provide for the education of any body of men, we ought
+seriously to consider the particular functions they are to perform in
+life. A Roman Catholic clergyman is the minister of a very ritual
+religion, and by his profession subject to many restraints. His life is
+a life full of strict observances; and his duties are of a laborious
+nature towards himself, and of the highest possible trust towards
+others. The duty of confession alone is sufficient to set in the
+strongest light the necessity of his having an appropriated mode of
+education. The theological opinions and peculiar rites of one religion
+<a name="Page_230" id="Page_230" title="230" class="pagenum"></a>never can be properly taught in universities founded for the purposes
+and on the principles of another which in many points are directly
+opposite. If a Roman Catholic clergyman, intended for celibacy and the
+function of confession, is not strictly bred in a seminary where these
+things are respected, inculcated, and enforced, as sacred, and not made
+the subject of derision and obloquy, he will be ill fitted for the
+former, and the latter will be indeed in his hands a terrible
+instrument.</p>
+
+<p>There is a great resemblance between, the whole frame and constitution
+of the Greek and Latin Churches. The secular clergy in the former, by
+being married, living under little restraint, and having no particular
+education suited to their function, are universally fallen into such
+contempt that they are never permitted to aspire to the dignities of
+their own Church. It is not held respectful to call them <i>Papas</i>, their
+true and ancient appellation, but those who wish to address them with
+civility always call them <i>Hieromonachi</i>. In consequence of this
+disrespect, which I venture to say, in such a Church, must be the
+consequence of a secular life, a very great degeneracy from reputable
+Christian manners has taken place throughout almost the whole of that
+great member of the Christian Church.</p>
+
+<p>It was so with the Latin Church, before the restraint on marriage. Even
+that restraint gave rise to the greatest disorders before the Council of
+Trent, which, together with the emulation raised and the good examples
+given by the Reformed churches, wherever they were in view of each
+other, has brought on that happy amendment which we see in the Latin
+communion, both at home and abroad.<a name="Page_231" id="Page_231" title="231" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The Council of Trent has wisely introduced the discipline of seminaries,
+by which priests are not trusted for a clerical institution even to the
+severe discipline of their colleges, but, after they pass through them,
+are frequently, if not for the greater part, obliged to pass through
+peculiar methods, having their particular ritual function in view. It is
+in a great measure to this, and to similar methods used in foreign
+education, that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, miserably provided
+for, living among low and ill-regulated people, without any discipline
+of sufficient force to secure good manners, have been prevented from
+becoming an intolerable nuisance to the country, instead of being, as I
+conceive they generally are, a very great service to it.</p>
+
+<p>The ministers of Protestant churches require a different mode of
+education, more liberal, and more fit for the ordinary intercourse of
+life. That religion having little hold on the minds of people by
+external ceremonies and extraordinary observances, or separate habits of
+living, the clergy make up the deficiency by cultivating their minds
+with all kinds of ornamental learning, which the liberal provision made
+in England and Ireland for the parochial clergy, (to say nothing of the
+ample Church preferments, with little or no duties annexed,) and the
+comparative lightness of parochial duties, enables the greater part of
+them in some considerable degree to accomplish.</p>
+
+<p>This learning, which I believe to be pretty general, together with an
+higher situation, and more chastened by the opinion of mankind, forms a
+sufficient security for the morals of the established clergy, and for
+their sustaining their clerical character with dignity. It <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232" title="232" class="pagenum"></a>is not
+necessary to observe, that all these things are, however, collateral to
+their function, and that, except in preaching, which may be and is
+supplied, and often best supplied, out of printed books, little else is
+necessary for a Protestant minister than to be able to read the English
+language,&mdash;I mean for the exercise of his function, not to the
+qualification of his admission to it. But a Popish parson in Ireland may
+do very well without any considerable classical erudition, or any
+proficiency in pure or mixed mathematics, or any knowledge of civil
+history. Even if the Catholic clergy should possess those acquisitions,
+as at first many of them do, they soon lose them in the painful course
+of professional and parochial duties: but they must have all the
+knowledge, and, what is to them more important than the knowledge, the
+discipline, necessary to those duties. All modes of education conducted
+by those whose minds are cast in another mould, as I may say, and whose
+original ways of thinking are formed upon the reverse pattern, must be
+to them not only useless, but mischievous. Just as I should suppose the
+education in a Popish ecclesiastical seminary would be ill fitted for a
+Protestant clergyman. To educate a Catholic priest in a Protestant
+seminary would be much worse. The Protestant educated amongst Catholics
+has only something to reject: what he keeps may be useful. But a
+Catholic parish priest learns little for his peculiar purpose and duty
+in a Protestant college.</p>
+
+<p>All this, my Lord, I know very well, will pass for nothing with those
+who wish that the Popish clergy should be illiterate, and in a situation
+to produce contempt and detestation. Their minds are wholly <a name="Page_233" id="Page_233" title="233" class="pagenum"></a>taken up
+with party squabbles, and I have neither leisure nor inclination to
+apply any part of what I have to say to those who never think of
+religion or of the commonwealth in any other light than as they tend to
+the prevalence of some faction in either. I speak on a supposition that
+there is a disposition <i>to take the state in the condition in which it
+is found</i>, and to improve it <i>in that state</i> to the best advantage.
+Hitherto the plan for the government of Ireland has been to sacrifice
+the civil prosperity of the nation to its religious improvement. But if
+people in power there are at length come to entertain other ideas, they
+will consider the good order, decorum, virtue, and morality of every
+description of men among them as of infinitely greater importance than
+the struggle (for it is nothing better) to change those descriptions by
+means which put to hazard objects which, in my poor opinion, are of more
+importance to religion and to the state than all the polemical matter
+which has been agitated among men from the beginning of the world to
+this hour.</p>
+
+<p>On this idea, an education fitted <i>to each order and division of men,
+such as they are found</i>, will be thought an affair rather to be
+encouraged than discountenanced; and until institutions at home,
+suitable to the occasions and necessities of the people, are
+established, and which are armed, as they are abroad, with authority to
+coerce the young men to be formed in them by a strict and severe
+discipline, the means they have at present of a cheap and effectual
+education in other countries should not continue to be prohibited by
+penalties and modes of inquisition not fit to be mentioned to ears that
+<a name="Page_234" id="Page_234" title="234" class="pagenum"></a>are organized to the chaste sounds of equity and justice.</p>
+
+<p>Before I had written thus far, I heard of a scheme of giving to the
+Castle the patronage of the presiding members of the Catholic clergy. At
+first I could scarcely credit it; for I believe it is the first time
+that the presentation to other people's alms has been desired in any
+country. If the state provides a suitable maintenance and temporality
+for the governing members of the Irish Roman Catholic Church, and for
+the clergy under them, I should think the project, however improper in
+other respects, to be by no means unjust. But to deprive a poor people,
+who maintain a second set of clergy, out of the miserable remains of
+what is left after taxing and tithing, to deprive them of the
+disposition of their own charities among their own communion, would, in
+my opinion, be an intolerable hardship. Never were the members of one
+religious sect fit to appoint the pastors to another. Those who have no
+regard for their welfare, reputation, or internal quiet will not appoint
+such as are proper. The seraglio of Constantinople is as equitable as we
+are, whether Catholics or Protestants,&mdash;and where their own sect is
+concerned, full as religious. But the sport which they make of the
+miserable dignities of the Greek Church, the little factions of the
+harem to which they make them subservient, the continual sale to which
+they expose and re&euml;xpose the same dignity, and by which they squeeze all
+the inferior orders of the clergy, is (for I have had particular means
+of being acquainted with it) nearly equal to all the other oppressions
+together, exercised by Mussulmen over the unhappy members of the
+Oriental<a name="Page_235" id="Page_235" title="235" class="pagenum"></a> Church. It is a great deal to suppose that even the present
+Castle would nominate bishops for the Roman Church of Ireland with a
+religious regard for its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they dare
+not do it.</p>
+
+<p>But suppose them to be as well inclined as I know that I am to do the
+Catholics all kind of justice, I declare I would not, if it were in my
+power, take that patronage on myself. I know I ought not to do it. I
+belong to another community, and it would be intolerable usurpation for
+me to affect such authority, where I conferred no benefit, or even if I
+did confer (as in some degree the seraglio does) temporal advantages.
+But allowing that the <i>present</i> Castle finds itself fit to administer
+the government of a church which they solemnly forswear, and forswear
+with very hard words and many evil epithets, and that as often as they
+qualify themselves for the power which is to give this very patronage,
+or to give anything else that they desire,&mdash;yet they cannot insure
+themselves that a man like the late Lord Chesterfield will not succeed
+to them. This man, while he was duping the credulity of Papists with
+fine words in private, and commending their good behavior during a
+rebellion in Great Britain, (as it well deserved to be commended and
+rewarded,) was capable of urging penal laws against them in a speech
+from the throne, and of stimulating with provocatives the wearied and
+half-exhausted bigotry of the then Parliament of Ireland. They set to
+work, but they were at a loss what to do; for they had already almost
+gone through every contrivance which could <i>waste the vigor</i> of their
+country: but, after much struggle, they produced a child of their old
+age, the shocking and unnatural act about <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236" title="236" class="pagenum"></a>marriages, which tended to
+finish the scheme for making the people not only two distinct parties
+forever, but keeping them as two distinct species in the same land. Mr.
+Gardiner's humanity was shocked at it, as one of the worst parts of that
+truly barbarous system, if one could well settle the preference, where
+almost all the parts were outrages on the rights of humanity and the
+laws of Nature.</p>
+
+<p>Suppose an atheist, playing the part of a bigot, should be in power
+again in that country, do you believe that he would faithfully and
+religiously administer the trust of appointing pastors to a church
+which, wanting every other support, stands in tenfold need of ministers
+who will be dear to the people committed to their charge, and who will
+exercise a really paternal authority amongst them? But if the superior
+power was always in a disposition to dispense conscientiously, and like
+an upright trustee and guardian of these rights which he holds for those
+with whom he is at variance, has he the capacity and means of doing it?
+How can the Lord-Lieutenant form the least judgment of their merits, so
+as to discern which of the Popish priests is fit to be made a bishop? It
+cannot be: the idea is ridiculous. He will hand them over to
+lords-lieutenant of counties, justices of the peace, and other persons,
+who, for the purpose of vexing and turning to derision this miserable
+people, will pick out the worst and most obnoxious they can find amongst
+the clergy to set over the rest. Whoever is complained against by his
+brother will be considered as persecuted; whoever is censured by his
+superior will be looked upon as oppressed; whoever is careless in his
+opinions and loose in his morals will be called a liberal man, and <a name="Page_237" id="Page_237" title="237" class="pagenum"></a>will
+be supposed to have incurred hatred because he was not a bigot.
+Informers, tale-bearers, perverse and obstinate men, flatterers, who
+turn their back upon their flock and court the Protestant gentlemen of
+the country, will be the objects of preferment. And then I run no risk
+in foretelling that whatever order, quiet, and morality you have in the
+country will be lost. A Popish clergy who are not restrained by the most
+austere subordination will become a nuisance, a real public grievance of
+the heaviest kind, in any country that entertains them; and instead of
+the great benefit which Ireland does and has long derived from them, if
+they are educated without any idea of discipline and obedience, and then
+put under bishops who do not owe their station to their good opinion,
+and whom they cannot respect, that nation will see disorders, of which,
+bad as things are, it has yet no idea. I do not say this, as thinking
+the leading men in Ireland would exercise this trust worse than others.
+Not at all. No man, no set of men living are fit to administer the
+affairs or regulate the interior economy of a church to which they are
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>As to government, if I might recommend a prudent caution to them, it
+would be, to innovate as little as possible, upon speculation, in
+establishments from which, as they stand, they experience no material
+inconvenience to the repose of the country,&mdash;<i>quieta non movere</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I could say a great deal more; but I am tired, and am afraid your
+Lordship is tired too. I have not sat to this letter a single quarter of
+an hour without interruption. It has grown long, and probably contains
+many repetitions, from my total want of leisure <a name="Page_238" id="Page_238" title="238" class="pagenum"></a>to digest and
+consolidate my thoughts; and as to my expressions, I could wish to be
+able perhaps to measure them more exactly. But my intentions are fair,
+and I certainly mean to offend nobody.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Thinking over this matter more maturely, I see no reason for altering my
+opinion in any part. The act, as far as it goes, is good undoubtedly. It
+amounts, I think, very nearly to a <i>toleration</i>, with respect to
+religious ceremonies; but it puts a new bolt on civil rights, and rivets
+it to the old one in such a manner, that neither, I fear, will be easily
+loosened. What I could have wished would be, to see the civil advantages
+take the lead; the other, of a religious toleration, I conceive, would
+follow, (in a manner,) of course. From what I have observed, it is
+pride, arrogance, and a spirit of domination, and not a bigoted spirit
+of religion, that has caused and kept up those oppressive statutes. I am
+sure I have known those who have oppressed Papists in their civil rights
+exceedingly indulgent to them in their religious ceremonies, and who
+really wished them to continue Catholics, in order to furnish pretences
+for oppression. These persons never saw a man (by converting) escape out
+of their power, but with grudging and regret. I have known men to whom I
+am not uncharitable in saying (though they are dead) that they would
+have become Papists in order to oppress Protestants, if, being
+Protestants, it was not in their power to oppress Papists. It is
+injustice, and not a mistaken conscience, that has been the principle of
+persecution,&mdash;at least, as far as it has fallen under my
+observation.&mdash;However, as I began, so I end. I <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239" title="239" class="pagenum"></a>do not know the map of
+the country. Mr. Gardiner, who conducts this great and difficult work,
+and those who support him, are better judges of the business than I can
+pretend to be, who have not set my foot in Ireland these sixteen years.
+I have been given to understand that I am not considered as a friend to
+that country; and I know that pains have been taken to lessen the credit
+that I might have had there.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I am so convinced of the weakness of interfering in any business,
+without the opinion of the people in whose business I interfere, that I
+do not know how to acquit myself of what I have now done.</p>
+
+<p>I have the honor to be, with high regard and esteem, my Lord,</p>
+
+<p>Your Lordship's most obedient</p>
+
+<p>And humble servant, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>EDMUND BURKE.<a name="Page_240" id="Page_240" title="240" class="pagenum"></a><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> The sketch of the bill sent to Mr. Burke, along with the
+repeal of some acts, reaffirmed many others in the penal code. It was
+altered afterwards, and the clauses reaffirming the incapacities left
+out; but they all still exist, and are in full force.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> It appears that Mr. Hutchinson meant this only as one of
+the means for their relief in point of education.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="SIR_HERCULES_LANGRISHE" id="SIR_HERCULES_LANGRISHE" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span style="font-size: 60%">A</span><br />
+<br />
+LETTER<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">TO</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, BART., M.P.,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON THE SUBJECT OF</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 75%">THE PROPRIETY OF ADMITTING THEM TO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE, CONSISTENTLY
+WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION, AS ESTABLISHED AT THE
+REVOLUTION.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">1792.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242" title="242" class="pagenum"></a><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>My Dear Sir,&mdash;Your remembrance of me, with sentiments of so much
+kindness, has given me the most sincere satisfaction. It perfectly
+agrees with the friendly and hospitable reception which my son and I
+received from you some time since, when, after an absence of twenty-two
+years, I had the happiness of embracing you, among my few surviving
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>I really imagined that I should not again interest myself in any public
+business. I had, to the best of my moderate faculties, paid my club to
+the society which I was born in some way or other to serve; and I
+thought I had a right to put on my night-gown and slippers, and wish a
+cheerful evening to the good company I must leave behind. But if our
+resolutions of vigor and exertion are so often broken or procrastinated
+in the execution, I think we may be excused, if we are not very punctual
+in fulfilling our engagements to indolence and inactivity. I have,
+indeed, no power of action, and am almost a cripple even with regard to
+thinking; but you descend with force into the stagnant pool, and you
+cause such a fermentation as to cure at least one impotent creature of
+his lameness, though it cannot enable him either to run or to wrestle.</p>
+
+<p>You see by the paper<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor" title=" The letter is written on folio sheets.">[28]</a> I take that I am likely to be long, with malice
+prepense. You have brought <a name="Page_244" id="Page_244" title="244" class="pagenum"></a>under my view a subject always difficult, at
+present critical. It has filled my thoughts, which I wish to lay open to
+you with the clearness and simplicity which your friendship demands from
+me. I thank you for the communication of your ideas. I should be still
+more pleased, if they had been more your own. What you hint I believe to
+be the case: that, if you had not deferred to the judgment of others,
+our opinions would not differ more materially at this day than they did
+when we used to confer on the same subject so many years ago. If I still
+persevere in my old opinions, it is no small comfort to me that it is
+not with regard to doctrines properly yours that I discover my
+indocility.</p>
+
+<p>The case upon which your letter of the 10th of December turns is hardly
+before me with precision enough to enable me to form any very certain
+judgment upon it. It seems to be some plan of further indulgence
+proposed for the Catholics of Ireland. You observe, that your &quot;general
+principles are not changed, but that <i>times and circumstances are
+altered</i>.&quot; I perfectly agree with you, that times and circumstances,
+considered with reference to the public, ought very much to govern our
+conduct,&mdash;though I am far from slighting, when applied with discretion
+to those circumstances, general principles and maxims of policy. I
+cannot help observing, however, that you have said rather less upon the
+inapplicability of your own old principles to the <i>circumstances</i> that
+are likely to influence your conduct against these principles than of
+the <i>general</i> maxims of state, which I can very readily believe not to
+have great weight with you personally.</p>
+
+<p>In my present state of imperfect information, you <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245" title="245" class="pagenum"></a>will pardon the
+errors into which I may easily fall. The principles you lay down are,
+&quot;that the Roman Catholics should enjoy everything <i>under</i> the state, but
+should not be <i>the state itself</i>.&quot; And you add, &quot;that, when you exclude
+them from being <i>a part of the state</i>, you rather conform to the spirit
+of the age than to any abstract doctrine&quot;; but you consider the
+Constitution as already established,&mdash;that our state is Protestant. &quot;It
+was declared so at the Revolution. It was so provided in the acts for
+settling the succession of the crown:&mdash;the king's coronation oath was
+enjoined in order to keep it so. The king, as first magistrate of the
+state, is obliged to take the oath of abjuration,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor" title=" A small error of fact as to the abjuration oath, but of no
+importance in the argument.">[29]</a> and to subscribe
+the Declaration; and by laws subsequent, every other magistrate and
+member of the state, legislative and executive, are bound under the same
+obligation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As to the plan to which these maxims are applied, I cannot speak, as I
+told you, positively about it: because neither from your letter, nor
+from any in formation I have been able to collect, do I find anything
+settled, either on the part of the Roman Catholics themselves, or on
+that of any persons who may wish to conduct their affairs in Parliament.
+But if I have leave to conjecture, something is in agitation towards
+admitting them, under <i>certain qualifications</i>, to have <i>some share</i> in
+the election of members of Parliament. This I understand is the scheme
+of those who are entitled to come within your description of persons of
+consideration, property, and character,&mdash;and firmly attached to the king
+and Constitution, as by &quot;law established, with a grateful sense of your
+<a name="Page_246" id="Page_246" title="246" class="pagenum"></a>former concessions, and a patient reliance on the benignity of
+Parliament for the further mitigation of the laws that still affect
+them.&quot;&mdash;As to the low, thoughtless, wild, and profligate, who have
+joined themselves with those of other professions, but of the same
+character, you are not to imagine that for a moment I can suppose them
+to be met with anything else than the manly and enlightened energy of a
+firm government, supported by the united efforts of all virtuous men, if
+ever their proceedings should become so considerable as to demand its
+notice. I really think that such associations should be crushed in their
+very commencement.</p>
+
+<p>Setting, therefore, this case out of the question, it becomes an object
+of very serious consideration, whether, because wicked men of <i>various</i>
+descriptions are engaged in seditious courses, the rational, sober, and
+valuable part of <i>one</i> description should not be indulged in their sober
+and rational expectations. You, who have looked deeply into the spirit
+of the Popery laws, must be perfectly sensible that a great part of the
+present mischief which we abhor in common (if it at all exists) has
+arisen from them. Their declared object was, to reduce the Catholics of
+Ireland to a miserable populace, without property, without estimation,
+without education. The professed object was, to deprive the few men,
+who, in spite of those laws, might hold or obtain any property amongst
+them, of all sort of influence or authority over the rest. They divided
+the nation into two distinct bodies, without common interest, sympathy,
+or connection. One of these bodies was to possess <i>all</i> the franchises,
+<i>all</i> the property, <i>all</i> the education: the other was to be composed of
+drawers of water and <a name="Page_247" id="Page_247" title="247" class="pagenum"></a>cutters of turf for them. Are we to be astonished,
+when, by the efforts of so much violence in conquest, and so much policy
+in regulation, continued without intermission for near an hundred years,
+we had reduced them to a mob, that, whenever they came to act at all,
+many of them would act exactly like a mob, without temper, measure, or
+foresight? Surely it might be just now a matter of temperate discussion,
+whether you ought not to apply a remedy to the real cause of the evil.
+If the disorder you speak of be real and considerable, you ought to
+raise an aristocratic interest, that is, an interest of property and
+education, amongst them,&mdash;and to strengthen, by every prudent means, the
+authority and influence of men of that description. It will deserve your
+best thoughts, to examine whether this can be done without giving such
+persons the means of demonstrating to the rest that something more is to
+be got by their temperate conduct than can be expected from the wild and
+senseless projects of those who do not belong to their body, who have no
+interest in their well-being, and only wish to make them the dupes of
+their turbulent ambition.</p>
+
+<p>If the absurd persons you mention find no way of providing for liberty,
+but by overturning this happy Constitution, and introducing a frantic
+democracy, let us take care how we prevent better people from any
+rational expectations of partaking in the benefits of that Constitution
+<i>as it stands</i>. The maxims you establish cut the matter short. They have
+no sort of connection with the good or the ill behavior of the persons
+who seek relief, or with the proper or improper means by which they seek
+it. They form a perpetual bar to all pleas and to all expectations.<a name="Page_248" id="Page_248" title="248" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>You begin by asserting, that &quot;the Catholics ought to enjoy all things
+<i>under</i> the state, but that they ought not to <i>be the state</i>&quot;: a
+position which, I believe, in the latter part of it, and in the latitude
+there expressed, no man of common sense has ever thought proper to
+dispute; because the contrary implies that the state ought to be in them
+<i>exclusively</i>. But before you have finished the line, you express
+yourself as if the other member of your proposition, namely, that &quot;they
+ought not to be a <i>part</i> of the state,&quot; were necessarily included in the
+first,&mdash;whereas I conceive it to be as different as a part is from the
+whole, that is, just as different as possible. I know, indeed, that it
+is common with those who talk very differently from you, that is, with
+heat and animosity, to confound those things, and to argue the admission
+of the Catholics into any, however minute and subordinate, parts of the
+state, as a surrender into their hands of the whole government of the
+kingdom. To them I have nothing at all to say.</p>
+
+<p>Wishing to proceed with a deliberative spirit and temper in so very
+serious a question, I shall attempt to analyze, as well as I can, the
+principles you lay down, in order to fit them for the grasp of an
+understanding so little comprehensive as
+mine.&mdash;&quot;State,&quot;&mdash;&quot;Protestant,&quot;&mdash;&quot;Revolution.&quot; These are terms which, if
+not well explained, may lead us into many errors. In the word <i>State</i> I
+conceive there is much ambiguity. The state is sometimes used to signify
+<i>the whole commonwealth</i>, comprehending all its orders, with the several
+privileges belonging to each. Sometimes it signifies only <i>the higher
+and ruling part</i> of the commonwealth, which we commonly call <i>the
+Government</i>. In the first sense, to be under the state, <a name="Page_249" id="Page_249" title="249" class="pagenum"></a>but not the
+state itself, <i>nor any part of it</i>, that is, to be nothing at all in the
+commonwealth, is a situation perfectly intelligible,&mdash;but to those who
+fill that situation, not very pleasant, when it is understood. It is a
+state of <i>civil servitude</i>, by the very force of the definition.
+<i>Servorum non est respublica</i> is a very old and a very true maxim. This
+servitude, which makes men <i>subject</i> to a state without being
+<i>citizens</i>, may be more or less tolerable from many circumstances; but
+these circumstances, more or less favorable, do not alter the nature of
+the thing. The mildness by which absolute masters exercise their
+dominion leaves them masters still. We may talk a little presently of
+the manner in which the majority of the people of Ireland (the
+Catholics) are affected by this situation, which at present undoubtedly
+is theirs, and which you are of opinion ought so to continue forever.</p>
+
+<p>In the other sense of the word <i>State</i>, by which is understood the
+<i>Supreme Government</i> only, I must observe this upon the question: that
+to exclude whole classes of men entirely from this <i>part</i> of government
+cannot be considered as <i>absolute slavery</i>. It only implies a lower and
+degraded state of citizenship: such is (with more or less strictness)
+the condition of all countries in which an hereditary nobility possess
+the exclusive rule. This may be no bad mode of government,&mdash;provided
+that the personal authority of individual nobles be kept in due bounds,
+that their cabals and factions are guarded against with a severe
+vigilance, and that the people (who have no share in granting their own
+money) are subjected to but light impositions, and are otherwise treated
+with attention, and with indulgence to their humors and prejudices.</p>
+
+<p>The republic of Venice is one of those which strictly <a name="Page_250" id="Page_250" title="250" class="pagenum"></a>confines all the
+great functions and offices, such as are truly <i>stale</i> functions and
+<i>state</i> offices, to those who by hereditary right or admission are noble
+Venetians. But there are many offices, and some of them not mean nor
+unprofitable, (that of Chancellor is one,) which are reserved for the
+<i>cittadini</i>. Of these all citizens of Venice are capable. The
+inhabitants of the <i>terra firma</i>, who are mere subjects of conquest,
+that is, as you express it, under the state, but &quot;not a part of it,&quot; are
+not, however, subjects in so very rigorous a sense as not to be capable
+of numberless subordinate employments. It is, indeed, one of the
+advantages attending the narrow bottom of their aristocracy, (narrow as
+compared with their acquired dominions, otherwise broad enough,) that an
+exclusion from such employments cannot possibly be made amongst their
+subjects. There are, besides, advantages in states so constituted, by
+which those who are considered as of an inferior race are indemnified
+for their exclusion from the government, and from nobler employments. In
+all these countries, either by express law, or by usage more operative,
+the noble castes are almost universally, in their turn, excluded from
+commerce, manufacture, farming of land, and in general from all
+lucrative civil professions. The nobles have the monopoly of honor; the
+plebeians a monopoly of all the means of acquiring wealth. Thus some
+sort of a balance is formed among conditions; a sort of compensation is
+furnished to those who, in a <i>limited sense</i>, are excluded from the
+government of the state.</p>
+
+<p>Between the extreme of <i>a total exclusion</i>, to which your maxim goes,
+and <i>an universal unmodified capacity</i>, to which the fanatics pretend,
+there are many <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251" title="251" class="pagenum"></a>different degrees and stages, and a great variety of
+temperaments, upon which prudence may give full scope to its exertions.
+For you know that the decisions of prudence (contrary to the system of
+the insane reasoners) differ from those of judicature; and that almost
+all the former are determined on the more or the less, the earlier or
+the later, and on a balance of advantage and inconvenience, of good and
+evil.</p>
+
+<p>In all considerations which turn upon the question of vesting or
+continuing the state solely and exclusively in some one description of
+citizens, prudent legislators will consider how far <i>the general form
+and principles of their commonwealth render it fit to be cast into an
+oligarchical shape, or to remain always in it</i>. We know that the
+government of Ireland (the same as the British) is not in its
+constitution <i>wholly</i> aristocratical; and as it is not such in its form,
+so neither is it in its spirit. If it had been inveterately
+aristocratical, exclusions might be more patiently submitted to. The lot
+of one plebeian would be the lot of all; and an habitual reverence and
+admiration of certain families might make the people content to see
+government wholly in hands to whom it seemed naturally to belong. But
+our Constitution has <i>a plebeian member</i>, which forms an essential
+integrant part of it. A plebeian oligarchy is a monster; and no people,
+not absolutely domestic or predial slaves, will long endure it. The
+Protestants of Ireland are not <i>alone</i> sufficiently the people to form a
+democracy; and they are <i>too numerous</i> to answer the ends and purposes
+of <i>an aristocracy</i>. Admiration, that first source of obedience, can be
+only the claim or the imposture of the few. I hold it to be absolutely
+<a name="Page_252" id="Page_252" title="252" class="pagenum"></a>impossible for two millions of plebeians, composing certainly a very
+clear and decided majority in that class, to become so far in love with
+six or seven hundred thousand of their fellow-citizens (to all outward
+appearance plebeians like themselves, and many of them tradesmen,
+servants, and otherwise inferior to some of them) as to see with
+satisfaction, or even with patience, an exclusive power vested in them,
+by which <i>constitutionally</i> they become the absolute masters, and, by
+the <i>manners</i> derived from their circumstances, must be capable of
+exercising upon them, daily and hourly, an insulting and vexatious
+superiority. Neither are the majority of the Irish indemnified (as in
+some aristocracies) for this state of humiliating vassalage (often
+inverting the nature of things and relations) by having the lower walks
+of industry wholly abandoned to them. They are rivalled, to say the
+least of the matter, in every laborious and lucrative course of life;
+while every franchise, every honor, every trust, every place, down to
+the very lowest and least confidential, (besides whole professions,) is
+reserved for the master caste.</p>
+
+<p>Our Constitution is not made for great, general, and proscriptive
+exclusions; sooner or later it will destroy them, or they will destroy
+the Constitution. In our Constitution there has always been a difference
+between <i>a franchise</i> and <i>an office</i>, and between the capacity for the
+one and for the other. Franchises were supposed to belong to the
+<i>subject</i>, as <i>a subject</i>, and not as <i>a member of the governing part of
+the state</i>. The policy of government has considered them as things very
+different; for, whilst Parliament excluded by the test acts (and for a
+while these test acts were not a dead letter, as now they are in
+Eng<a name="Page_253" id="Page_253" title="253" class="pagenum"></a>land) Protestant Dissenters from all civil and military employments,
+they <i>never touched their right of voting for members of Parliament or
+sitting in either House</i>: a point I state, not as approving or
+condemning, with regard to them, the measure of exclusion from
+employments, but to prove that the distinction has been admitted in
+legislature, as, in truth, it is founded in reason.</p>
+
+<p>I will not here examine whether the principles of the British [the
+Irish] Constitution be wise or not. I must assume that they are, and
+that those who partake the franchises which make it partake of a
+benefit. They who are excluded from votes (under proper qualifications
+inherent in the Constitution that gives them) are excluded, not from
+<i>the state</i>, but from <i>the British Constitution</i>. They cannot by any
+possibility, whilst they hear its praises continually rung in their
+ears, and are present at the declaration which is so generally and so
+bravely made by those who possess the privilege, that the best blood in
+their veins ought to be shed to preserve their share in it,&mdash;they, the
+disfranchised part, cannot, I say, think themselves in an <i>happy</i> state,
+to be utterly excluded from all its direct and all its consequential
+advantages. The popular part of the Constitution must be to them by far
+the most odious part of it. To them it is not an <i>actual</i>, and, if
+possible, still less a <i>virtual</i> representation. It is, indeed, the
+direct contrary. It is power unlimited placed in the hands of <i>an
+adverse</i> description <i>because it is an adverse description</i>. And if they
+who compose the privileged body have not an interest, they must but too
+frequently have motives of pride, passion, petulance, peevish jealousy,
+or tyrannic suspi<a name="Page_254" id="Page_254" title="254" class="pagenum"></a>cion, to urge them to treat the excluded people with
+contempt and rigor.</p>
+
+<p>This is not a mere theory; though, whilst men are men, it is a theory
+that cannot be false. I do not desire to revive all the particulars in
+my memory; I wish them to sleep forever; but it is impossible I should
+wholly forget what happened in some parts of Ireland, with very few and
+short intermissions, from the year 1761 to the year 1766, both
+inclusive. In a country of miserable police, passing from the extremes
+of laxity to the extremes of rigor, among a neglected and therefore
+disorderly populace, if any disturbance or sedition, from any grievance
+real or imaginary, happened to arise, it was presently perverted from
+its true nature, often criminal enough in itself to draw upon it a
+severe, appropriate punishment: it was metamorphosed into a conspiracy
+against the state, and prosecuted as such. Amongst the Catholics, as
+being by far the most numerous and the most wretched, all sorts of
+offenders against the laws must commonly be found. The punishment of low
+people for the offences usual among low people would warrant no
+inference against any descriptions of religion or of politics. Men of
+consideration from their age, their profession, or their character, men
+of proprietary landed estates, substantial renters, opulent merchants,
+physicians, and titular bishops, could not easily be suspected of riot
+in open day, or of nocturnal assemblies for the purpose of pulling down
+hedges, making breaches in park-walls, firing barns, maiming cattle, and
+outrages of a similar nature, which characterize the disorders of an
+oppressed or a licentious populace. But when the evidence given on the
+trial for such misdemeanors qualified them as <a name="Page_255" id="Page_255" title="255" class="pagenum"></a>overt acts of high
+treason, and when witnesses were found (such witnesses as they were) to
+depose to the taking of oaths of allegiance by the rioters to the king
+of France, to their being paid by his money, and embodied and exercised
+under his officers, to overturn the state for the purposes of that
+potentate,&mdash;in that case, the rioters might (if the witness was
+believed) be supposed only the troops, and persons more reputable the
+leaders and commanders, in such a rebellion. All classes in the
+obnoxious description, who could not be suspected of the lower crime of
+riot, might be involved in the odium, in the suspicion, and sometimes in
+the punishment, of a higher and far more criminal species of offence.
+These proceedings did not arise from any one of the Popery laws since
+repealed, but from this circumstance, that, when it answered the
+purposes of an election party or a malevolent person of influence to
+forge such plots, the people had no protection. The people of that
+description have no hold on the gentlemen who aspire to be popular
+representatives. The candidates neither love nor respect nor fear them,
+individually or collectively. I do not think this evil (an evil amongst
+a thousand others) at this day entirely over; for I conceive I have
+lately seen some indication of a disposition perfectly similar to the
+old one,&mdash;that is, a disposition to carry the imputation of crimes from
+persons to descriptions, and wholly to alter the character and quality
+of the offences themselves.</p>
+
+<p>This universal exclusion seems to me a serious evil,&mdash;because many
+collateral oppressions, besides what I have just now stated, have arisen
+from it. In things of this nature it would not be either easy or proper
+to quote chapter and verse; but I have great reason <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256" title="256" class="pagenum"></a>to believe,
+particularly since the Octennial Act, that several have refused at all
+to let their lands to Roman Catholics, because it would so far disable
+them from promoting such interests in counties as they were inclined to
+favor. They who consider also the state of all sorts of tradesmen,
+shopkeepers, and particularly publicans in towns, must soon discern the
+disadvantages under which those labor who have no votes. It cannot be
+otherwise, whilst the spirit of elections and the tendencies of human
+nature continue as they are. If property be artificially separated from
+franchise, the franchise must in some way or other, and in some
+proportion, naturally attract property to it. Many are the collateral
+disadvantages, amongst a <i>privileged</i> people, which must attend on those
+who have <i>no</i> privileges.</p>
+
+<p>Among the rich, each individual, with or without a franchise, is of
+importance; the poor and the middling are no otherwise so than as they
+obtain some collective capacity, and can be aggregated to some corps. If
+legal ways are not found, illegal will be resorted to; and seditious
+clubs and confederacies, such as no man living holds in greater horror
+than I do, will grow and flourish, in spite, I am afraid, of anything
+which can be done to prevent the evil. Lawful enjoyment is the surest
+method to prevent unlawful gratification. Where there is property, there
+will be less theft; where there is marriage, there will always be less
+fornication.</p>
+
+<p>I have said enough of the question of state, <i>as it affects the people
+merely as such</i>. But it is complicated with a political question
+relative to religion, to which it is very necessary I should say
+something,&mdash;because the term <i>Protestant</i>, which you apply, is too
+<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257" title="257" class="pagenum"></a>general for the conclusions which one of your accurate understanding
+would wish to draw from it, and because a great deal of argument will
+depend on the use that is made of that term.</p>
+
+<p>It is <i>not</i> a fundamental part of the settlement at the Revolution that
+the state should be Protestant <i>without any qualification of the term</i>.
+With a qualification it is unquestionably true; not in all its latitude.
+With the qualification, it was true before the Revolution. Our
+predecessors in legislation were not so irrational (not to say impious)
+as to form an operose ecclesiastical establishment, and even to render
+the state itself in some degree subservient to it, when their religion
+(if such it might be called) was nothing but a mere <i>negation</i> of some
+other,&mdash;without any positive idea, either of doctrine, discipline,
+worship, or morals, in the scheme which they professed themselves, and
+which they imposed upon others, even under penalties and incapacities.
+No! No! This never could have been done, even by reasonable atheists.
+They who think religion of no importance to the state have abandoned it
+to the conscience or caprice of the individual; they make no provision
+for it whatsoever, but leave every club to make, or not, a voluntary
+contribution towards its support, according to their fancies. This would
+be consistent. The other always appeared to me to be a monster of
+contradiction and absurdity. It was for that reason, that, some years
+ago, I strenuously opposed the clergy who petitioned, to the number of
+about three hundred, to be freed from the subscription to the
+Thirty-Nine Articles, without proposing to substitute any other in their
+place. There never has been a religion of the state (the few years of
+the Parliament <a name="Page_258" id="Page_258" title="258" class="pagenum"></a>only excepted) but that of <i>the Episcopal Church of
+England</i>: the Episcopal Church of England, before the Reformation,
+connected with the see of Rome; since then, disconnected, and protesting
+against some of her doctrines, and against the whole of her authority,
+as binding in our national church: nor did the fundamental laws of this
+kingdom (in Ireland it has been the same) ever know, at any period, any
+other church <i>as an object of establishment</i>,&mdash;or, in that light, any
+other Protestant religion. Nay, our Protestant <i>toleration</i> itself, at
+the Revolution, and until within a few years, required a signature of
+thirty-six, and a part of the thirty-seventh, out of the Thirty-Nine
+Articles. So little idea had they at the Revolution of <i>establishing</i>
+Protestantism indefinitely, that they did not indefinitely <i>tolerate</i> it
+under that name. I do not mean to praise that strictness, where nothing
+more than merely religious toleration is concerned. Toleration, being a
+part of moral and political prudence, ought to be tender and large. A
+tolerant government ought not to be too scrupulous in its
+investigations, but may bear without blame, not only very ill-grounded
+doctrines, but even many things that are positively vices, where they
+are <i>adulta et pr&aelig;valida</i>. The good of the commonwealth is the rule
+which rides over the rest; and to this every other must completely
+submit.</p>
+
+<p>The Church of Scotland knows as little of Protestantism <i>undefined</i> as
+the Church of England and Ireland do. She has by the articles of union
+secured to herself the perpetual establishment of <i>the Confession of
+Faith</i>, and the <i>Presbyterian</i> Church government. In England, even
+during the troubled interregnum, it was not thought fit to establish a
+<i>negative</i> religion; <a name="Page_259" id="Page_259" title="259" class="pagenum"></a>but the Parliament settled the <i>Presbyterian</i> as
+the Church <i>discipline</i>, the <i>Directory</i> as the rule of public
+<i>worship</i>, and the <i>Westminster Catechism</i> as the institute of <i>faith</i>.
+This is to show that at no time was the Protestant religion,
+<i>undefined</i>, established here or anywhere else, as I believe. I am sure,
+that, when the three religions were established in Germany, they were
+expressly characterized and declared to be the <i>Evangelic</i>, the
+<i>Reformed</i>, and the <i>Catholic</i>; each of which has its confession of
+faith and its settled discipline: so that you always may know the best
+and the worst of them, to enable you to make the most of what is good,
+and to correct or to qualify or to guard against whatever may seem evil
+or dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>As to the coronation oath, to which you allude, as opposite to admitting
+a Roman Catholic to the use of any franchise whatsoever, I cannot think
+that the king would be perjured, if he gave his assent to any regulation
+which Parliament might think fit to make with regard to that affair. The
+king is bound by law, as clearly specified in several acts of
+Parliament, to be in communion with the Church of England. It is a part
+of the tenure by which he holds his crown; and though no provision was
+made till the Revolution, which could be called positive and valid in
+law, to ascertain this great principle, I have always considered it as
+in fact fundamental, that the king of England should be of the Christian
+religion, according to the national legal church for the time being. I
+conceive it was so before the Reformation. Since the Reformation it
+became doubly necessary; because the king is the head of that church, in
+some sort an ecclesiastical person,&mdash;and it would be incongruous and
+absurd to have the head of the Church of one <a name="Page_260" id="Page_260" title="260" class="pagenum"></a>faith, and the members of
+another. The king may <i>inherit</i> the crown as a <i>Protestant</i>; but he
+cannot <i>hold it</i>, according to law, without being a Protestant <i>of the
+Church of England</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Before we take it for granted that the king is bound by his coronation
+oath not to admit any of his Catholic subjects to the rights and
+liberties which ought to belong to them as Englishmen, (not as
+religionists,) or to settle the conditions or proportions of such
+admission by an act of Parliament, I wish you to place before your eyes
+that oath itself, as it is settled in the act of William and Mary.</p>
+
+<p>
+&quot;Will you to the utmost of your power maintain<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 2&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;  3</span><br />
+the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">4</span><br />
+and the Protestant Reformed Religion <i>established by</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;">5</span><br />
+<i>law</i>? And will you preserve unto the <i>bishops</i> and<br />
+clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed<br />
+to <i>their</i> charge, all such rights and privileges as by<br />
+law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of them?&mdash;All<br />
+this I promise to do.&quot;<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Here are the coronation engagements of the king. In them I do not find
+one word to preclude his Majesty from consenting to any arrangement
+which Parliament may make with regard to the civil privileges of any
+part of his subjects.</p>
+
+<p>It may not be amiss, on account of the light which it will throw on this
+discussion, to look a little more narrowly into the matter of that
+oath,&mdash;in order to discover how far it has hitherto operated, or how far
+in future it ought to operate, as a bar to any proceedings of the crown
+and Parliament in favor of <a name="Page_261" id="Page_261" title="261" class="pagenum"></a>those against whom it may be supposed that
+the king has engaged to support the Protestant Church of England in the
+two kingdoms in which it is established by law. First, the king swears
+he will maintain to the utmost of his power &quot;the laws of God.&quot; I suppose
+it means the natural moral laws.&mdash;Secondly, he swears to maintain &quot;the
+true profession of the Gospel.&quot; By which I suppose is understood
+<i>affirmatively</i> the Christian religion.&mdash;Thirdly, that he will maintain
+&quot;the Protestant reformed religion.&quot; This leaves me no power of
+supposition or conjecture; for that Protestant reformed religion is
+defined and described by the subsequent words, &quot;established by law&quot;; and
+in this instance, to define it beyond all possibility of doubt, he
+swears to maintain the &quot;bishops and clergy, and the churches committed
+to their charge,&quot; in their rights present and future.</p>
+
+<p>The oath as effectually prevents the king from doing anything to the
+prejudice of the Church, in favor of sectaries, Jews, Mahometans, or
+plain avowed infidels, as if he should do the same thing in favor of the
+Catholics. You will see that it is the same Protestant Church, so
+described, that the king is to maintain and communicate with, according
+to the Act of Settlement of the 12th and 13th of William the Third. The
+act of the 5th of Anne, made in prospect of the Union, is entitled, &quot;An
+act for securing the Church of England as by law established.&quot; It meant
+to guard the Church implicitly against any other mode of Protestant
+religion which might creep in by means of the Union. It proves beyond
+all doubt, that the legislature did not mean to guard the Church on one
+part only, and to leave it defenceless and exposed upon <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262" title="262" class="pagenum"></a>every other.
+This church, in that act, is declared to be &quot;fundamental and essential&quot;
+forever, in the Constitution of the United Kingdom, so far as England is
+concerned; and I suppose, as the law stands, even since the
+independence, it is so in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>All this shows that the religion which the king is bound to maintain has
+a positive part in it, as well as a negative,&mdash;and that the positive
+part of it (in which we are in perfect agreement with the Catholics and
+with the Church of Scotland) is infinitely the most valuable and
+essential. Such an agreement we had with Protestant Dissenters in
+England, of those descriptions who came under the Toleration Act of King
+William and Queen Mary: an act coeval with the Revolution; and which
+ought, on the principles of the gentlemen who oppose the relief to the
+Catholics, to have been held sacred and unalterable. Whether we agree
+with the present Protestant Dissenters in the points at the Revolution
+held essential and fundamental among Christians, or in any other
+fundamental, at present it is impossible for us to know: because, at
+their own very earnest desire, we have repealed the Toleration Act of
+William and Mary, and discharged them from the signature required by
+that act; and because, for the far greater part, they publicly declare
+against all manner of confessions of faith, even the <i>Consensus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>For reasons forcible enough at all times, but at this time particularly
+forcible with me, I dwell a little the longer upon this matter, and take
+the more pains, to put us both in mind that it was not settled at the
+Revolution that the state should be Protestant, in the latitude of the
+term, but in a defined and limited sense only, and that in that <a name="Page_263" id="Page_263" title="263" class="pagenum"></a>sense
+only the king is sworn to maintain it. To suppose that the king has
+sworn with his utmost power to maintain what it is wholly out of his
+power to discover, or which, if he could discover, he might discover to
+consist of things directly contradictory to each other, some of them
+perhaps impious, blasphemous, and seditious upon principle, would be not
+only a gross, but a most mischievous absurdity. If mere dissent from the
+Church of Rome be a merit, he that dissents the most perfectly is the
+most meritorious. In many points we hold strongly with that church. He
+that dissents throughout with that church will dissent with the Church
+of England, and then it will be a part of his merit that he dissents
+with ourselves: a whimsical species of merit for any set of men to
+establish. We quarrel to extremity with those who we know agree with us
+in many things; but we are to be so malicious even in the principle of
+our friendships, that we are to cherish in our bosom those who accord
+with us in nothing, because, whilst they despise ourselves, they abhor,
+even more than we do, those with whom we have some disagreement. A man
+is certainly the most perfect Protestant who protests against the whole
+Christian religion. Whether a person's having no Christian religion be a
+title to favor, in exclusion to the largest description of Christians,
+who hold all the doctrines of Christianity, though holding along with
+them some errors and some superfluities, is rather more than any man,
+who has not become recreant and apostate from his baptism, will, I
+believe, choose to affirm. The countenance given from a spirit of
+controversy to that negative religion may by degrees encourage light and
+unthinking peo<a name="Page_264" id="Page_264" title="264" class="pagenum"></a>ple to a total indifference to everything positive in
+matters of doctrine, and, in the end, of practice too. If continued, it
+would play the game of that sort of active, proselytizing, and
+persecuting atheism which is the disgrace and calamity of our time, and
+which we see to be as capable of subverting a government as any mode can
+be of misguided zeal for better things.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us fairly see what course has been taken relative to those
+against whom, in part at least, the king has sworn to maintain a church,
+<i>positive in its doctrine and its discipline</i>. The first thing done,
+even when the oath was fresh in the mouth of the sovereigns, was to give
+a toleration to Protestant Dissenters <i>whose doctrines they
+ascertained</i>. As to the mere civil privileges which the Dissenters held
+as subjects before the Revolution, these were not touched at all. The
+laws have fully permitted, in a qualification for all offices, to such
+Dissenters, <i>an occasional conformity</i>: a thing I believe singular,
+where tests are admitted. The act, called the Test Act, itself, is, with
+regard to them, grown to be hardly anything more than a dead letter.
+Whenever the Dissenters cease by their conduct to give any alarm to the
+government, in Church and State, I think it very probable that even this
+matter, rather disgustful than inconvenient to them, may be removed, or
+at least so modified as to distinguish the qualification to those
+offices which really <i>guide the state</i> from those which are <i>merely
+instrumental</i>, or that some other and better tests may be put in their
+place.</p>
+
+<p>So far as to England. In Ireland you have outran us. Without waiting for
+an English example, you have totally, and without any modification
+whatso<a name="Page_265" id="Page_265" title="265" class="pagenum"></a>ever, repealed the test as to Protestant Dissenters. Not having
+the repealing act by me, I ought not to say positively that there is no
+exception in it; but if it be what I suppose it is, you know very well
+that a Jew in religion, or a Mahometan, or even <i>a public, declared
+atheist</i> and blasphemer, is perfectly qualified to be Lord-Lieutenant, a
+lord-justice, or even keeper of the king's conscience, and by virtue of
+his office (if with you it be as it is with us) administrator to a great
+part of the ecclesiastical patronage of the crown.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us deal a little fairly. We must admit that Protestant Dissent
+was one of the quarters from which danger was apprehended at the
+Revolution, and against which a part of the coronation oath was
+peculiarly directed. By this unqualified repeal you certainly did not
+mean to deny that it was the duty of the crown to preserve the Church
+against Protestant Dissenters; or taking this to be the true sense of
+the two Revolution acts of King William, and of the previous and
+subsequent Union acts of Queen Anne, you did not declare by this most
+unqualified repeal, by which you broke down all the barriers, not
+invented, indeed, but carefully preserved, at the Revolution,&mdash;you did
+not then and by that proceeding declare that you had advised the king to
+perjury towards God and perfidy towards the Church. No! far, very far
+from it! You never would have done it, if you did not think it could be
+done with perfect repose to the royal conscience, and perfect safety to
+the national established religion. You did this upon a full
+consideration of the circumstances of your country. Now, if
+circumstances required it, why should it be contrary to the king's oath,
+his Parliament judg<a name="Page_266" id="Page_266" title="266" class="pagenum"></a>ing on those circumstances, to restore to his
+Catholic people, in such measure and with such modifications as the
+public wisdom shall think proper to add, <i>some part</i> in these franchises
+which they formerly had held without any limitation at all, and which,
+upon no sort of urgent reason at the time, they were deprived of? If
+such means can with any probability be shown, from circumstances, rather
+to add strength to our mixed ecclesiastical and secular Constitution
+than to weaken it, surely they are means infinitely to be preferred to
+penalties, incapacities, and proscriptions, continued from generation to
+generation. They are perfectly consistent with the other parts of the
+coronation oath, in which the king swears to maintain &quot;the laws of God
+and the true profession of the Gospel, and to govern the people
+according to the statutes in Parliament agreed upon, and the laws and
+customs of the realm.&quot; In consenting to such a statute, the crown would
+act at least as agreeable to the laws of God, and to the true profession
+of the Gospel, and to the laws and customs of the kingdom, as George the
+First did, when he passed the statute which took from the body of the
+people everything which to that hour, and even after the monstrous acts
+of the 2nd and 8th of Anne, (the objects of our common hatred,) they
+still enjoyed inviolate.</p>
+
+<p>It is hard to distinguish with the last degree of accuracy what laws are
+fundamental, and what not. However, there is a distinction between them,
+authorized by the writers on jurisprudence, and recognized in some of
+our statutes. I admit the acts of King William and Queen Anne to be
+fundamental, but they are not the only fundamental laws. The law called
+<i>Magna Charta</i>, by which it is provided that<a name="Page_267" id="Page_267" title="267" class="pagenum"></a> &quot;no man shall be disseised
+of his liberties and free customs but by the judgment of his peers or
+the laws of the land,&quot; (meaning clearly, for some proved crime tried and
+adjudged,) I take to be <i>a fundamental law.</i> Now, although this Magna
+Charta, or some of the statutes establishing it, provide that that law
+shall be perpetual, and all statutes contrary to it shall be void, yet I
+cannot go so far as to deny the authority of statutes made in defiance
+of Magna Charta and all its principles. This, however, I will say,&mdash;that
+it is a very venerable law, made by very wise and learned men, and that
+the legislature, in their attempt to perpetuate it, even against the
+authority of future Parliaments, have shown their judgment that it is
+<i>fundamental</i>, on the same grounds and in the same manner that the act
+of the fifth of Anne has considered and declared the establishment of
+the Church of England to be fundamental. Magna Charta, which secured
+these franchises to the subjects, regarded the rights of freeholders in
+counties to be as much a fundamental part of the Constitution as the
+establishment of the Church of England was thought either at that time,
+or in the act of King William, or in the act of Queen Anne.</p>
+
+<p>The churchmen who led in that transaction certainly took care of the
+material interest of which they were the natural guardians. It is the
+first article of Magna Charta, &quot;that the Church of England shall be
+free,&quot; &amp;c., &amp;c. But at that period, churchmen and barons and knights took
+care of the franchises and free customs of the people, too. Those
+franchises are part of the Constitution itself, and inseparable from it.
+It would be a very strange thing, if there should not only exist
+anomalies in our laws, a thing not easy <a name="Page_268" id="Page_268" title="268" class="pagenum"></a>to prevent, but that the
+fundamental parts of the Constitution should be perpetually and
+irreconcilably at variance with each other. I cannot persuade myself
+that the lovers of our church are not as able to find effectual ways of
+reconciling its safety with the franchises of the people as the
+ecclesiastics of the thirteenth century were able to do; I cannot
+conceive how anything worse can be said of the Protestant religion of
+the Church of England than this,&mdash;that, wherever it is judged proper to
+give it a legal establishment, it becomes necessary to deprive the body
+of the people, if they adhere to their old opinions, of &quot;their liberties
+and of all their free customs,&quot; and to reduce them to a state of <i>civil</i>
+servitude.</p>
+
+<p>There is no man on earth, I believe, more willing than I am to lay it
+down as a fundamental of the Constitution, that the Church of England
+should be united and even identified with it; but, allowing this, I
+cannot allow that all <i>laws of regulation</i>, made from time to time, in
+support of that fundamental law, are of course equally fundamental and
+equally unchangeable. This would be to confound all the branches of
+legislation and of jurisprudence. The <i>crown</i> and the personal safety of
+the monarch are <i>fundamentals</i> in our Constitution: yet I hope that no
+man regrets that the rabble of statutes got together during the reign of
+Henry the Eighth, by which treasons are multiplied with so prolific an
+energy, have been all repealed in a body; although they were all, or
+most of them, made in support of things truly fundamental in our
+Constitution. So were several of the acts by which the crown exercised
+its supremacy: such as the act of Elizabeth for making the <i>high
+commission courts</i>, and the like; as well as things made treason <a name="Page_269" id="Page_269" title="269" class="pagenum"></a>in the
+time of Charles the Second. None of this species of <i>secondary and
+subsidiary laws</i> have been held fundamental. They have yielded to
+circumstances; particularly where they were thought, even in their
+consequences, or obliquely, to affect other fundamentals. How much more,
+certainly, ought they to give way, when, as in our case, they affect,
+not here and there, in some particular point, or in their consequence,
+but universally, collectively, and directly, the fundamental franchises
+of a people equal to the whole inhabitants of several respectable
+kingdoms and states: equal to the subjects of the kings of Sardinia or
+of Denmark; equal to those of the United Netherlands; and more than are
+to be found in all the states of Switzerland. This way of proscribing
+men by whole nations, as it were, from all the benefits of the
+Constitution to which they were born, I never can believe to be politic
+or expedient, much less necessary for the existence of any state or
+church in the world. Whenever I shall be convinced, which will be late
+and reluctantly, that the safety of the Church is utterly inconsistent
+with all the civil rights whatsoever of the far larger part of the
+inhabitants of our country, I shall be extremely sorry for it; because I
+shall think the Church to be truly in danger. It is putting things into
+the position of an ugly alternative, into which I hope in God they never
+will be put.</p>
+
+<p>I have said most of what occurs to me on the topics you touch upon,
+relative to the religion of the king, and his coronation oath. I shall
+conclude the observations which I wished to submit to you on this point
+by assuring you that I think you the most remote that can be conceived
+from the metaphysicians <a name="Page_270" id="Page_270" title="270" class="pagenum"></a>of our times, who are the most foolish of men,
+and who, dealing in universals and essences, see no difference between
+more and less,&mdash;and who of course would think that the reason of the law
+which obliged the king to be a communicant of the Church of England
+would be as valid to exclude a Catholic from being an exciseman, or to
+deprive a man who has five hundred a year, under that description, from
+voting on a par with a factitious Protestant Dissenting freeholder of
+forty shillings.</p>
+
+<p>Recollect, my dear friend, that it was a fundamental principle in the
+French monarchy, whilst it stood, that the state should be Catholic; yet
+the Edict of Nantes gave, not a full ecclesiastical, but a complete
+civil <i>establishment</i>, with places of which only they were capable, to
+the Calvinists of France,&mdash;and there were very few employments, indeed,
+of which they were not capable. The world praised the Cardinal de
+Richelieu, who took the first opportunity to strip them of their
+fortified places and cautionary towns. The same world held and does hold
+in execration (so far as that business is concerned) the memory of Louis
+the Fourteenth, for the total repeal of that favorable edict; though the
+talk of &quot;fundamental laws, established religion, religion of the prince,
+safety to the state,&quot; &amp;c., &amp;c., was then as largely held, and with as
+bitter a revival of the animosities of the civil confusions during the
+struggles between the parties, as now they can be in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps there are persons who think that the same reason does not hold,
+when the religious relation of the sovereign and subject is changed; but
+they who have their shop full of false weights and measures, and who
+imagine that the adding or taking away the <a name="Page_271" id="Page_271" title="271" class="pagenum"></a>name of Protestant or
+Papist, Guelph or Ghibelline, alters all the principles of equity,
+policy, and prudence, leave us no common data upon which we can reason.
+I therefore pass by all this, which on you will make no impression, to
+come to what seems to be a serious consideration in your mind: I mean
+the dread you express of &quot;reviewing, for the purpose of altering, the
+<i>principles of the Revolution</i>.&quot; This is an interesting topic, on which
+I will, as fully as your leisure and mine permits, lay before you the
+ideas I have formed.</p>
+
+<p>First, I cannot possibly confound in my mind all the things which were
+done at the Revolution with the <i>principles</i> of the Revolution. As in
+most great changes, many things were done from the necessities of the
+time, well or ill understood, from passion or from vengeance, which were
+not only not perfectly agreeable to its principles, but in the most
+direct contradiction to them. I shall not think that the <i>deprivation of
+some millions of people of all the rights of citizens, and all interest
+in the Constitution, in and to which they were born</i>, was a thing
+conformable to the <i>declared principles</i> of the Revolution. This I am
+sure is true relatively to England (where the operation of these
+<i>anti-principles</i> comparatively were of little extent); and some of our
+late laws, in repealing acts made immediately after the Revolution,
+admit that some things then done were not done in the true spirit of the
+Revolution. But the Revolution operated differently in England and
+Ireland, in many, and these essential particulars. Supposing the
+principles to have been altogether the same in both kingdoms, by the
+application of those principles to very different objects the whole
+spirit of the system was <a name="Page_272" id="Page_272" title="272" class="pagenum"></a>changed, not to say reversed. In England it
+was the struggle of the <i>great body</i> of the people for the establishment
+of their liberties, against the efforts of a very <i>small faction</i>, who
+would have oppressed them. In Ireland it was the establishment of the
+power of the smaller number, at the expense of the civil liberties and
+properties of the far greater part, and at the expense of the political
+liberties of the whole. It was, to say the truth, not a revolution, but
+a conquest: which is not to say a great deal in its favor. To insist on
+everything done in Ireland at the Revolution would be to insist on the
+severe and jealous policy of a conqueror, in the crude settlement of his
+new acquisition, as <i>a permanent</i> rule for its future government. This
+no power, in no country that ever I heard of, has done or professed to
+do,&mdash;except in Ireland; where it is done, and possibly by some people
+will be professed. Time has, by degrees, in all other places and
+periods, blended and coalited the conquered with the conquerors. So,
+after some time, and after one of the most rigid conquests that we read
+of in history, the Normans softened into the English. I wish you to turn
+your recollection to the fine speech of Cerealis to the Gauls, made to
+dissuade them from revolt. Speaking of the Romans,&mdash;&quot;<i>Nos</i> quamvis
+toties lacessiti, jure victori&aelig; id solum vobis addidimus, quo pacem
+tueremur: nam neque quies gentium sine armis, neque arma sine
+stipendiis, neque stipendia sine tributis haberi queant. <i>Caetera in
+communi sita sunt</i>: ipsi plerumque nostris exercitibus <i>praesidetis</i>:
+ipsi has aliasque provincias <i>regitis: nil separatum clausumve</i>. Proinde
+pacem et urbem, quam <i>victores victique eodem jure obtinemus</i>, amate,
+colite.&quot; You will consider whether the ar<a name="Page_273" id="Page_273" title="273" class="pagenum"></a>guments used by that Roman to
+these Gauls would apply to the case in Ireland,&mdash;and whether you could
+use so plausible a preamble to any severe warning you might think it
+proper to hold out to those who should resort to sedition, instead of
+supplication, to obtain any object that they may pursue with the
+governing power.</p>
+
+<p>For a much longer period than that which had sufficed to blend the
+Romans with the nation to which of all others they were the most
+adverse, the Protestants settled in Ireland considered themselves in no
+other light than that of a sort of a colonial garrison, to keep the
+natives in subjection to the other state of Great Britain. The whole
+spirit of the Revolution in Ireland was that of not the mildest
+conqueror. In truth, the spirit of those proceedings did not commence at
+that era, nor was religion of any kind their primary object. What was
+done was not in the spirit of a contest between two religious factions,
+but between two adverse nations. The statutes of Kilkenny show that the
+spirit of the Popery laws, and some even of their actual provisions, as
+applied between Englishry and Irishry, had existed in that harassed
+country before the words <i>Protestant</i> and <i>Papist</i> were heard of in the
+world. If we read Baron Finglas, Spenser, and Sir John Davies, we cannot
+miss the true genius and policy of the English government there before
+the Revolution, as well as during the whole reign of Queen Elizabeth.
+Sir John Davies boasts of the benefits received by the natives, by
+extending to them the English law, and turning the whole kingdom into
+shire ground. But the appearance of things alone was changed. The
+original scheme was never deviated from for a single hour.<a name="Page_274" id="Page_274" title="274" class="pagenum"></a> Unheard-of
+confiscations were made in the northern parts, upon grounds of plots and
+conspiracies, never proved upon their supposed authors. The war of
+chicane succeeded to the war of arms and of hostile statutes; and a
+regular series of operations was carried on, particularly from
+Chichester's time, in the ordinary courts of justice, and by special
+commissions and inquisitions,&mdash;first under pretence of tenures, and then
+of titles in the crown, for the purpose of the total extirpation of the
+interest of the natives in their own soil,&mdash;until this species of subtle
+ravage, being carried to the last excess of oppression and insolence
+under Lord Strafford, it kindled the flames of that rebellion which
+broke out in 1641. By the issue of that war, by the turn which the Earl
+of Clarendon gave to things at the Restoration, and by the total
+reduction of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691, the ruin of the native
+Irish, and, in a great measure, too, of the first races of the English,
+was completely accomplished. The new English interest was settled with
+as solid a stability as anything in human affairs can look for. All the
+penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppression, which were made
+after the last event, were manifestly the effects of national hatred and
+scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample
+upon and were not at all afraid to provoke. They were not the effect of
+their fears, but of their security. They who carried on this system
+looked to the irresistible force of Great Britain for their support in
+their acts of power. They were quite certain that no complaints of the
+natives would be heard on this side of the water with any other
+sentiments than those of contempt and indignation. Their cries served
+only to augment their <a name="Page_275" id="Page_275" title="275" class="pagenum"></a>torture. Machines which could answer their
+purposes so well must be of an excellent contrivance. Indeed, in
+England, the double name of the complainants, Irish and Papists, (it
+would be hard to say which singly was the most odious,) shut up the
+hearts of every one against them. Whilst that temper prevailed, (and it
+prevailed in all its force to a time within our memory,) every measure
+was pleasing and popular just in proportion as it tended to harass and
+ruin a set of people who were looked upon as enemies to God and man,
+and, indeed, as a race of bigoted savages who were a disgrace to human
+nature itself.</p>
+
+<p>However, as the English in Ireland began to be domiciliated, they began
+also to recollect that they had a country. The <i>English interest</i>, at
+first by faint and almost insensible degrees, but at length openly and
+avowedly, became an <i>independent Irish interest</i>,&mdash;full as independent
+as it could ever have been if it had continued in the persons of the
+native Irish; and it was maintained with more skill and more consistency
+than probably it would have been in theirs. With their views, the
+<i>Anglo-Irish</i> changed their maxims: it was necessary to demonstrate to
+the whole people that there was something, at least, of a common
+interest, combined with the independency, which was to become the object
+of common exertions. The mildness of government produced the first
+relaxation towards the Irish; the necessities, and, in part, too, the
+temper that predominated at this great change, produced the second and
+the most important of these relaxations. English government and Irish
+legislature felt jointly the propriety of this measure. The Irish
+Parliament and nation became independent.<a name="Page_276" id="Page_276" title="276" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The true revolution to you, that which most intrinsically and
+substantially resembled the English Revolution of 1688, was the Irish
+Revolution of 1782. The Irish Parliament of 1782 bore little resemblance
+to that which sat in that kingdom after the period of the first of these
+revolutions. It bore a much nearer resemblance to that which sat under
+King James. The change of the Parliament in 1782 from the character of
+the Parliament which, as a token of its indignation, had burned all the
+journals indiscriminately of the former Parliament in the
+Council-Chamber, was very visible. The address of King William's
+Parliament, the Parliament which assembled after the Revolution, amongst
+other causes of complaint (many of them sufficiently just) complains of
+the repeal by their predecessors of Poynings's law,&mdash;no absolute idol
+with the Parliament of 1782.</p>
+
+<p>Great Britain, finding the Anglo-Irish highly animated with a spirit
+which had indeed shown itself before, though with little energy and many
+interruptions, and therefore suffered a multitude of uniform precedents
+to be established against it, acted, in my opinion, with the greatest
+temperance and wisdom. She saw that the disposition of the <i>leading
+part</i> of the nation would not permit them to act any longer the part of
+a <i>garrison</i>. She saw that true policy did not require that they ever
+should have appeared in that character; or if it had done so formerly,
+the reasons had now ceased to operate. She saw that the Irish of her
+race were resolved to build their Constitution and their politics upon
+another bottom. With those things under her view, she instantly complied
+with the whole of your demands, <a name="Page_277" id="Page_277" title="277" class="pagenum"></a>without any reservation whatsoever. She
+surrendered that boundless superiority, for the preservation of which,
+and the acquisition, she had supported the English colonies in Ireland
+for so long a time, and at so vast an expense (according to the standard
+of those ages) of her blood and treasure.</p>
+
+<p>When we bring before us the matter which history affords for our
+selection, it is not improper to examine the spirit of the several
+precedents which are candidates for our choice. Might it not be as well
+for your statesmen, on the other side of the water, to take an example
+from this latter and surely more conciliatory revolution, as a pattern
+for your conduct towards your own fellow-citizens, than from that of
+1688, when a paramount sovereignty over both you and them was more
+loftily claimed and more sternly exerted than at any former or at any
+subsequent period? Great Britain in 1782 rose above the vulgar ideas of
+policy, the ordinary jealousies of state, and all the sentiments of
+national pride and national ambition. If she had been more disposed
+(than, I thank God for it, she was) to listen to the suggestions of
+passion than to the dictates of prudence, she might have urged the
+principles, the maxims, the policy, the practice of the Revolution,
+against the demands of the leading description in Ireland, with full as
+much plausibility and full as good a grace as any amongst them can
+possibly do against the supplications of so vast and extensive a
+description of their own people.</p>
+
+<p>A good deal, too, if the spirit of domination and exclusion had
+prevailed in England, might have been excepted against some of the means
+then employed in Ireland, whilst her claims were in agitation. They
+<a name="Page_278" id="Page_278" title="278" class="pagenum"></a>were at least as much out of ordinary course as those which are now
+objected against admitting your people to any of the benefits of an
+English Constitution. Most certainly, neither with you nor here was any
+one ignorant of what was at that time said, written, and done. But on
+all sides we separated the means from the end: and we separated the
+cause of the moderate and rational from the ill-intentioned and
+seditious, which on such occasions are so frequently apt to march
+together. At that time, on your part, you were not afraid to review what
+was done at the Revolution of 1688, and what had been continued during
+the subsequent flourishing period of the British empire. The change then
+made was a great and fundamental alteration. In the execution, it was an
+operose business on both sides of the water. It required the repeal of
+several laws, the modification of many, and a new course to be given to
+an infinite number of legislative, judicial, and official practices and
+usages in both kingdoms. This did not frighten any of us. You are now
+asked to give, in some moderate measure, to your fellow-citizens, what
+Great Britain gave to you without any measure at all. Yet,
+notwithstanding all the difficulties at the time, and the apprehensions
+which some very well-meaning people entertained, through the admirable
+temper in which this revolution (or restoration in the nature of a
+revolution) was conducted in both kingdoms, it has hitherto produced no
+inconvenience to either; and I trust, with the continuance of the same
+temper, that it never will. I think that this small, inconsiderable
+change, (relative to an exclusive statute not made at the Revolution,)
+for restoring the people to the benefits from which the <a name="Page_279" id="Page_279" title="279" class="pagenum"></a>green soreness
+of a civil war had not excluded them, will be productive of no sort of
+mischief whatsoever. Compare what was done in 1782 with what is wished
+in 1792; consider the spirit of what has been done at the several
+periods of reformation; and weigh maturely whether it be exactly true
+that conciliatory concessions are of good policy only in discussions
+between nations, but that among descriptions in the same nation they
+must always be irrational and dangerous. What have you suffered in your
+peace, your prosperity, or, in what ought ever to be dear to a nation,
+your glory, by the last act by which you took the property of that
+people under the protection of the <i>laws</i>? What reasons have you to
+dread the consequences of admitting the people possessing that property
+to some share in the protection of the <i>Constitution</i>?</p>
+
+<p>I do not mean to trouble you with anything to remove the objections, I
+will not call them arguments, against this measure, taken from a
+ferocious hatred to all that numerous description of Christians. It
+would be to pay a poor compliment to your understanding or your heart.
+Neither <i>your</i> religion nor <i>your</i> politics consist &quot;in odd, perverse
+antipathies.&quot; You are not resolved to persevere in proscribing from the
+Constitution so many millions of your countrymen, because, in
+contradiction to experience and to common sense, you think proper to
+imagine that their principles are subversive of common human society. To
+that I shall only say, that whoever has a temper which can be gratified
+by indulging himself in these good-natured fancies ought to do a great
+deal more. For an exclusion from the privileges of British subjects is
+not a cure for so terrible <a name="Page_280" id="Page_280" title="280" class="pagenum"></a>a distemper of the human mind as they are
+pleased to suppose in their countrymen. I rather conceive a
+participation in those privileges to be itself a remedy for some mental
+disorders.</p>
+
+<p>As little shall I detain you with matters that can as little obtain
+admission into a mind like yours: such as the fear, or pretence of fear,
+that, in spite of your own power and the trifling power of Great
+Britain, you may be conquered by the Pope; or that this commodious
+bugbear (who is of infinitely more use to those who pretend to fear than
+to those who love him) will absolve his Majesty's subjects from their
+allegiance, and send over the Cardinal of York to rule you as his
+viceroy; or that, by the plenitude of his power, he will take that
+fierce tyrant, the king of the French, out of his jail, and arm that
+nation (which on all occasions treats his Holiness so very politely)
+with his bulls and pardons, to invade poor old Ireland, to reduce you to
+Popery and slavery, and to force the free-born, naked feet of your
+people into the wooden shoes of that arbitrary monarch. I do not believe
+that discourses of this kind are held, or that anything like them will
+be held, by any who walk about without a keeper. Yet I confess, that, on
+occasions of this nature, I am the most afraid of the weakest
+reasonings, because they discover the strongest passions. These things
+will never be brought out in definite propositions. They would not
+prevent pity towards any persons; they would only cause it for those who
+were capable of talking in such a strain. But I know, and am sure, that
+such ideas as no man will distinctly produce to another, or hardly
+venture to bring in any plain shape to his own mind, he will utter in
+obscure, ill-explained doubts, <a name="Page_281" id="Page_281" title="281" class="pagenum"></a>jealousies, surmises, fears, and
+apprehensions, and that in such a fog they will appear to have a good
+deal of size, and will make an impression, when, if they were clearly
+brought forth and defined, they would meet with nothing but scorn and
+derision.</p>
+
+<p>There is another way of taking an objection to this concession, which I
+admit to be something more plausible, and worthy of a more attentive
+examination. It is, that this numerous class of people is mutinous,
+disorderly, prone to sedition, and easy to be wrought upon by the
+insidious arts of wicked and designing men; that, conscious of this, the
+sober, rational, and wealthy part of that body, who are totally of
+another character, do by no means desire any participation for
+themselves, or for any one else of their description, in the franchises
+of the British Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>I have great doubt of the exactness of any part of this observation. But
+let us admit that the body of the Catholics are prone to sedition, (of
+which, as I have said, I entertain much doubt,) is it possible that any
+fair observer or fair reasoner can think of confining this description
+to them only? I believe it to be possible for men to be mutinous and
+seditious who feel no grievance, but I believe no man will assert
+seriously, that, when people are of a turbulent spirit, the best way to
+keep them in order is to furnish them with something substantial to
+complain of.</p>
+
+<p>You separate, very properly, the sober, rational, and substantial part
+of their description from the rest. You give, as you ought to do, weight
+only to the former. What I have always thought of the matter is
+this,&mdash;that the most poor, illiterate, and uninformed creatures upon
+earth are judges of a <i>practical</i> oppression. It is a matter of feeling;
+and as <a name="Page_282" id="Page_282" title="282" class="pagenum"></a>such persons generally have felt most of it, and are not of an
+over-lively sensibility, they are the best judges of it. But for <i>the
+real cause</i>, or <i>the appropriate remedy</i>, they ought never to be called
+into council about the one or the other. They ought to be totally shut
+out: because their reason is weak; because, when once roused, their
+passions are ungoverned; because they want information; because the
+smallness of the property which individually they possess renders them
+less attentive to the consequence of the measures they adopt in affairs
+of moment. When I find a great cry amongst the people who speculate
+little, I think myself called seriously to examine into it, and to
+separate the real cause from the ill effects of the passion it may
+excite, and the bad use which artful men may make of an irritation of
+the popular mind. Here we must be aided by persons of a contrary
+character; we must not listen to the desperate or the furious: but it is
+therefore necessary for us to distinguish who are the <i>really</i> indigent
+and the <i>really</i> intemperate. As to the persons who desire this part in
+the Constitution, I have no reason to imagine that they are men who have
+nothing to lose and much to look for in public confusion. The popular
+meeting from which apprehensions have been entertained has assembled. I
+have accidentally had conversation with two friends of mine who know
+something of the gentleman who was put into the chair upon that
+occasion: one of them has had money transactions with him; the other,
+from curiosity, has been to see his concerns: they both tell me he is a
+man of some property: but you must be the best judge of this, who by
+your office are likely to know his transactions. Many of the others are
+certainly per<a name="Page_283" id="Page_283" title="283" class="pagenum"></a>sons of fortune; and all, or most, fathers of families,
+men in respectable ways of life, and some of them far from contemptible,
+either for their information, or for the abilities which they have shown
+in the discussion of their interests. What such men think it for their
+advantage to acquire ought not, <i>prima facie</i>, to be considered as rash
+or heady or incompatible with the public safety or welfare.</p>
+
+<p>I admit, that men of the best fortunes and reputations, and of the best
+talents and education too, may by accident show themselves furious and
+intemperate in their desires. This is a great misfortune, when it
+happens; for the first presumptions are undoubtedly in their favor. We
+have two standards of judging, in this case, of the sanity and sobriety
+of any proceedings,&mdash;of unequal certainty, indeed, but neither of them
+to be neglected: the first is by the value of the object sought; the
+next is by the means through which it is pursued.</p>
+
+<p>The object pursued by the Catholics is, I understand, and have all along
+reasoned as if it were so, in some degree or measure to be again
+admitted to the franchises of the Constitution. Men are considered as
+under some derangement of their intellects, when they see good and evil
+in a different light from other men,&mdash;when they choose nauseous and
+unwholesome food, and reject such as to the rest of the world seems
+pleasant and is known to be nutritive. I have always considered the
+British Constitution not to be a thing in itself so vicious as that none
+but men of deranged understanding and turbulent tempers could desire a
+share in it: on the contrary, I should think very indifferently of the
+understanding and temper of any body of men who did not wish to <a name="Page_284" id="Page_284" title="284" class="pagenum"></a>partake
+of this great and acknowledged benefit. I cannot think quite so
+favorably either of the sense or temper of those, if any such there are,
+who would voluntarily persuade their brethren that the object is not fit
+for them, or they for the object. Whatever may be my thoughts concerning
+them, I am quite sure that they who hold such language must forfeit all
+credit with the rest. This is infallible,&mdash;if they conceive any opinion
+of their judgment, they cannot possibly think them their friends. There
+is, indeed, one supposition which would reconcile the conduct of such
+gentlemen to sound reason, and to the purest affection towards their
+fellow-sufferers: it is, that they act under the impression of a
+well-grounded fear for the general interest. If they should be told, and
+should believe the story, that, if they dare attempt to make their
+condition better, they will infallibly make it worse,&mdash;that, if they aim
+at obtaining liberty, they will have their slavery doubled,&mdash;that their
+endeavor to put themselves upon anything which approaches towards an
+equitable footing with their fellow-subjects will be considered as an
+indication of a seditious and rebellious disposition,&mdash;such a view of
+things ought perfectly to restore the gentlemen, who so anxiously
+dissuade their countrymen from wishing a participation with the
+privileged part of the people, to the good opinion of their fellows. But
+what is to <i>them</i> a very full justification is not quite so honorable to
+that power from whose maxims and temper so good a ground of rational
+terror is furnished. I think arguments of this kind will never be used
+by the friends of a government which I greatly respect, or by any of the
+leaders of an opposition whom I have the honor to know and the sense to
+admire. I re<a name="Page_285" id="Page_285" title="285" class="pagenum"></a>member Polybius tells us, that, during his captivity in
+Italy as a Peloponnesian hostage, he solicited old Cato to intercede
+with the Senate for his release, and that of his countrymen: this old
+politician told him that he had better continue in his present
+condition, however irksome, than apply again to that formidable
+authority for their relief; that he ought to imitate the wisdom of his
+countryman Ulysses, who, when he was once out of the den of the Cyclops,
+had too much sense to venture again into the same cavern. But I conceive
+too high an opinion of the Irish legislature to think that they are to
+their fellow-citizens what the grand oppressors of mankind were to a
+people whom the fortune of war had subjected to their power. For though
+Cato could use such a parallel with regard to his Senate, I should
+really think it nothing short of impious to compare an Irish Parliament
+to a den of Cyclops. I hope the people, both here and with you, will
+always apply to the House of Commons with becoming modesty, but at the
+same time with minds unembarrassed with any sort of terror.</p>
+
+<p>As to the means which the Catholics employ to obtain this object, so
+worthy of sober and rational minds, I do admit that such means may be
+used in the pursuit of it as may make it proper for the legislature, in
+this case, to defer their compliance until the demandants are brought to
+a proper sense of their duty. A concession in which the governing power
+of our country loses its dignity is dearly bought even by him who
+obtains his object. All the people have a deep interest in the dignity
+of Parliament. But as the refusal of franchises which are drawn out of
+the first vital stamina of the British<a name="Page_286" id="Page_286" title="286" class="pagenum"></a> Constitution is a very serious
+thing, we ought to be very sure that the manner and spirit of the
+application is offensive and dangerous indeed, before we ultimately
+reject all applications of this nature. The mode of application, I hear,
+is by petition. It is the manner in which all the sovereign powers of
+the world are approached; and I never heard (except in the case of James
+the Second) that any prince considered this manner of supplication to be
+contrary to the humility of a subject or to the respect due to the
+person or authority of the sovereign. This rule, and a correspondent
+practice, are observed from the Grand Seignior down to the most petty
+prince or republic in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>You have sent me several papers, some in print, some in manuscript. I
+think I had seen all of them, except the formula of association. I
+confess they appear to me to contain matter mischievous, and capable of
+giving alarm, if the spirit in which they are written should be found to
+make any considerable progress. But I am at a loss to know how to apply
+them as objections to the case now before us. When I find that <i>the
+General Committee</i> which acts for the Roman Catholics in Dublin prefers
+the association proposed in the written draught you have sent me to a
+respectful application in Parliament, I shall think the persons who sign
+such a paper to be unworthy of any privilege which may be thought fit to
+be granted, and that such men ought, <i>by name</i>, to be excepted from any
+benefit under the Constitution to which they offer this violence. But I
+do not find that this form of a seditious league has been signed by any
+person whatsoever, either on the part of the supposed projectors, or on
+the part of those whom it is <a name="Page_287" id="Page_287" title="287" class="pagenum"></a>calculated to seduce. I do not find, on
+inquiry, that such a thing was mentioned, or even remotely alluded to,
+in the general meeting of the Catholics from which so much violence was
+apprehended. I have considered the other publications, signed by
+individuals on the part of certain societies,&mdash;I may mistake, for I have
+not the honor of knowing them personally, but I take Mr. Butler and Mr.
+Tandy not to be Catholics, but members of the Established Church. Not
+<i>one</i> that I recollect of these publications, which you and I equally
+dislike, appears to be written by persons of that persuasion. Now, if,
+whilst a man is dutifully soliciting a favor from Parliament, any person
+should choose in an improper manner to show his inclination towards the
+cause depending, and if that <i>must</i> destroy the cause of the petitioner,
+then, not only the petitioner, but the legislature itself, is in the
+power of any weak friend or artful enemy that the supplicant or that the
+Parliament may have. A man must be judged by his own actions only.
+Certain Protestant Dissenters make seditious propositions to the
+Catholics, which it does not appear that they have yet accepted. It
+would be strange that the tempter should escape all punishment, and that
+he who, under circumstances full of seduction and full of provocation,
+has resisted the temptation should incur the penalty. You know, that,
+with regard to the Dissenters, who are <i>stated</i> to be the chief movers
+in this vile scheme of altering the principles of election to a right of
+voting by the head, you are not able (if you ought even to wish such a
+thing) to deprive them of any part of the franchises and privileges
+which they hold on a footing of perfect equality with yourselves. <i>They</i>
+may do what <a name="Page_288" id="Page_288" title="288" class="pagenum"></a>they please with constitutional impunity; but the others
+cannot even listen with civility to an invitation from them to an
+ill-judged scheme of liberty, without forfeiting forever all hopes of
+any of those liberties which we admit to be sober and rational.</p>
+
+<p>It is known, I believe, that the greater as well as the sounder part of
+our excluded countrymen have not adopted the wild ideas and wilder
+engagements which have been held out to them, but have rather chosen to
+hope small and safe concessions from the legal power than boundless
+objects from trouble and confusion. This mode of action seems to me to
+mark men of sobriety, and to distinguish them from those who are
+intemperate, from circumstance or from nature. But why do they not
+instantly disclaim and disavow those who make such advances to them? In
+this, too, in my opinion, they show themselves no less sober and
+circumspect. In the present moment nothing short of insanity could
+induce them to take such a step. Pray consider the circumstances.
+Disclaim, says somebody, all union with the Dissenters;&mdash;right.&mdash;But
+when this your injunction is obeyed, shall I obtain the object which I
+solicit from <i>you</i>?&mdash;Oh, no, nothing at all like it!&mdash;But, in punishing
+us, by an exclusion from the Constitution through the great gate, for
+having been invited to enter into it by a postern, will you punish by
+deprivation of their privileges, or mulet in any other way, those who
+have tempted us?&mdash;Far from it;&mdash;we mean to preserve all <i>their</i>
+liberties and immunities, as <i>our</i> life-blood. We mean to cultivate
+<i>them</i>, as brethren whom we love and respect;&mdash;with <i>you</i> we have no
+fellowship. We can bear with patience their enmity to ourselves; but
+their friendship with <a name="Page_289" id="Page_289" title="289" class="pagenum"></a>you we will not endure. But mark it well! All our
+quarrels with <i>them</i> are always to be revenged upon <i>you</i>. Formerly, it
+is notorious that we should have resented with the highest indignation
+your presuming to show any ill-will to them. You must not suffer them,
+now, to show any good-will to you. Know&mdash;and take it once for all&mdash;that
+it is, and ever has been, and ever will be, a fundamental maxim in our
+politics, that you are not to have any part or shadow or name of
+interest whatever in our state; that we look upon you as under an
+irreversible outlawry from our Constitution,&mdash;as perpetual and
+unalliable aliens.</p>
+
+<p>Such, my dear Sir, is the plain nature of the argument drawn from the
+Revolution maxims, enforced by a supposed disposition in the Catholics
+to unite with the Dissenters. Such it is, though it were clothed in
+never such bland and civil forms, and wrapped up, as a poet says, in a
+thousand &quot;artful folds of sacred lawn.&quot; For my own part, I do not know
+in what manner to shape such arguments, so as to obtain admission for
+them into a rational understanding. Everything of this kind is to be
+reduced at last to threats of power. I cannot say, <i>V&aelig; victis</i>! and then
+throw the sword into the scale. I have no sword; and if I had, in this
+case, most certainly, I would not use it as a makeweight in political
+reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>Observe, on these principles, the difference between the procedure of
+the Parliament and the Dissenters towards the people in question. One
+employs courtship, the other force. The Dissenters offer bribes, the
+Parliament nothing but the <i>front n&eacute;gatif</i> of a stern and forbidding
+authority. A man may be very <a name="Page_290" id="Page_290" title="290" class="pagenum"></a>wrong in his ideas of what is good for
+him. But no man affronts me, nor can therefore justify my affronting
+him, by offering to make me as happy as himself, according to his own
+ideas of happiness. This the Dissenters do to the Catholics. You are on
+the different extremes. The Dissenters offer, with regard to
+constitutional rights and civil advantages of all sorts, <i>everything</i>;
+you refuse <i>everything</i>. With them, there is boundless, though not very
+assured hope; with you, a very sure and very unqualified despair. The
+terms of alliance from the Dissenters offer a representation of the
+commons, chosen out of the people by the head. This is absurdly and
+dangerously large, in my opinion; and that scheme of election is known
+to have been at all times perfectly odious to me. But I cannot think it
+right of course to punish the Irish Roman Catholics by an universal
+exclusion, because others, whom you would not punish at all, propose an
+universal admission. I cannot dissemble to myself, that, in this very
+kingdom, many persons who are not in the situation of the Irish
+Catholics, but who, on the contrary, enjoy the full benefit of the
+Constitution as it stands, and some of whom, from the effect of their
+fortunes, enjoy it in a large measure, had some years ago associated to
+procure great and undefined changes (they considered them as reforms) in
+the popular part of the Constitution. Our friend, the late Mr. Flood,
+(no slight man,) proposed in his place, and in my hearing, a
+representation not much less extensive than this, for England,&mdash;in which
+every house was to be inhabited by a voter, <i>in addition</i> to all the
+actual votes by other titles (some of the corporate) which we know do
+not require a house or a shed. Can I forget that a person of the <a name="Page_291" id="Page_291" title="291" class="pagenum"></a>very
+highest rank, of very large fortune, and of the first class of ability,
+brought a bill into the House of Lords, in the head-quarters of
+aristocracy, containing identically the same project for the supposed
+adoption of which by a club or two it is thought right to extinguish all
+hopes in the Roman Catholics of Ireland? I cannot say it was very
+eagerly embraced or very warmly pursued. But the Lords neither did
+disavow the bill, nor treat it with any disregard, nor express any sort
+of disapprobation of its noble author, who has never lost, with king or
+people, the least degree of the respect and consideration which so
+justly belongs to him.</p>
+
+<p>I am not at all enamored, as I have told you, with this plan of
+representation; as little do I relish any bandings or associations for
+procuring it. But if the question was to be put to you and
+me,&mdash;<i>Universal</i> popular representation, or <i>none at all for us and
+ours</i>,&mdash;we should find ourselves in a very awkward position. I do not
+like this kind of dilemmas, especially when they are practical.</p>
+
+<p>Then, since our oldest fundamental laws follow, or rather couple,
+freehold with franchise,&mdash;since no principle of the Revolution shakes
+these liberties,&mdash;since the oldest and one of the best monuments of the
+Constitution demands for the Irish the privilege which they
+supplicate,&mdash;since the principles of the Revolution coincide with the
+declarations of the Great Charter,&mdash;since the practice of the
+Revolution, in this point, did not contradict its principles,&mdash;since,
+from that event, twenty-five years had elapsed, before a domineering
+party, on a party principle, had ventured to disfranchise, without any
+proof whatsoever of abuse, the greater part of the community,&mdash;since the
+king's <a name="Page_292" id="Page_292" title="292" class="pagenum"></a>coronation oath does not stand in his way to the performance of
+his duty to all his subjects,&mdash;since you have given to all other
+Dissenters these privileges without limit which are hitherto withheld
+without any limitation whatsoever from the Catholics,&mdash;since no nation
+in the world has ever been known to exclude so great a body of men (not
+born slaves) from the civil state, and all the benefits of its
+Constitution,&mdash;the whole question comes before Parliament as a matter
+for its prudence. I do not put the thing on a question of right. That
+discretion, which in judicature is well said by Lord Coke to be a
+crooked cord, in legislature is a golden rule. Supplicants ought not to
+appear too much in the character of litigants. If the subject thinks so
+highly and reverently of the sovereign authority as not to claim
+anything of right, so that it may seem to be independent of the power
+and free choice of its government,&mdash;and if the sovereign, on his part,
+considers the advantages of the subjects as their right, and all their
+reasonable wishes as so many claims,&mdash;in the fortunate conjunction of
+these mutual dispositions are laid the foundations of a happy and
+prosperous commonwealth. For my own part, desiring of all things that
+the authority of the legislature under which I was born, and which I
+cherish, not only with a dutiful awe, but with a partial and cordial
+affection, to be maintained in the utmost possible respect, I never will
+suffer myself to suppose that at bottom their discretion will be found
+to be at variance with their justice.</p>
+
+<p>The whole being at discretion, I beg leave just to suggest some matters
+for your consideration:&mdash;Whether the government in Church or State is
+likely to be more secure by continuing causes of grounded <a name="Page_293" id="Page_293" title="293" class="pagenum"></a>discontent to
+a very great number (say two millions) of the subjects? or whether the
+Constitution, combined and balanced as it is, will be rendered more
+solid by depriving so large a part of the people of all concern or
+interest or share in its representation, actual or <i>virtual</i>? I here
+mean to lay an emphasis on the word <i>virtual</i>. Virtual representation is
+that in which there is a communion of interests and a sympathy in
+feelings and desires between those who act in the name of any
+description of people and the people in whose name they act, though the
+trustees are not actually chosen by them. This is virtual
+representation. Such a representation I think to be in many cases even
+better than the actual. It possesses most of its advantages, and is free
+from many of its inconveniences; it corrects the irregularities in the
+literal representation, when the shifting current of human affairs or
+the acting of public interests in different ways carry it obliquely from
+its first line of direction. The people may err in their choice; but
+common interest and common sentiment are rarely mistaken. But this sort
+of virtual representation cannot have a long or sure existence, if it
+has not a substratum in the actual. The member must have some relation
+to the constituent. As things stand, the Catholic, as a Catholic, and
+belonging to a description, has no <i>virtual</i> relation to the
+representative,&mdash;but the <i>contrary</i>. There is a relation in mutual
+obligation. Gratitude may not always have a very lasting power; but the
+frequent recurrence of an application for favors will revive and refresh
+it, and will necessarily produce some degree of mutual attention. It
+will produce, at least, acquaintance. The several descriptions of people
+will not be kept so much apart <a name="Page_294" id="Page_294" title="294" class="pagenum"></a>as they now are, as if they were not
+only separate nations, but separate species. The stigma and reproach,
+the hideous mask will be taken off, and men will see each other as they
+are. Sure I am that there have been thousands in Ireland who have never
+conversed with a Roman Catholic in their whole lives, unless they
+happened to talk to their gardener's workmen, or to ask their way, when
+they had lost it in their sports,&mdash;or, at best, who had known them only
+as footmen, or other domestics, of the second and third order: and so
+averse were they, some time ago, to have them near their persons, that
+they would not employ even those who could never find their way beyond
+the stable. I well remember a great, and in many respects a good man,
+who advertised for a blacksmith, but at the same time added, he must be
+a Protestant. It is impossible that such a state of things, though
+natural goodness in many persons will undoubtedly make exceptions, must
+not produce alienation on the one side and pride and insolence on the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>Reduced to a question of discretion, and that discretion exercised
+solely upon what will appear best for the conservation of the state on
+its present basis, I should recommend it to your serious thoughts,
+whether the narrowing of the foundation is always the best way to secure
+the building? The body of disfranchised men will not be perfectly
+satisfied to remain always in that state. If they are not satisfied, you
+have two millions of subjects in your bosom full of uneasiness: not that
+they cannot overturn the Act of Settlement, and put themselves and you
+under an arbitrary master; or that they are not permitted to spawn a
+hydra of wild republics, on principles of a <a name="Page_295" id="Page_295" title="295" class="pagenum"></a>pretended natural equality
+in man; but because you will not suffer them to enjoy the ancient,
+fundamental, tried advantages of a British Constitution,&mdash;that you will
+not permit them to profit of the protection of a common father or the
+freedom of common citizens, and that the only reason which can be
+assigned for this disfranchisement has a tendency more deeply to
+ulcerate their minds than the act of exclusion itself. What the
+consequence of such feelings must be it is for you to look to. To warn
+is not to menace.</p>
+
+<p>I am far from asserting that men will not excite disturbances without
+just cause. I know that such an assertion is not true. But neither is it
+true that disturbances have never just complaints for their origin. I am
+sure that it is hardly prudent to furnish them with such causes of
+complaint as every man who thinks the British Constitution a benefit may
+think at least colorable and plausible.</p>
+
+<p>Several are in dread of the man&oelig;uvres of certain persons among the
+Dissenters, who turn this ill humor to their own ill purposes. You know,
+better than I can, how much these proceedings of certain among the
+Dissenters are to be feared. You are to weigh, with the temper which is
+natural to you, whether it may be for the safety of our establishment
+that the Catholics should be ultimately persuaded that they have no hope
+to enter into the Constitution but through the Dissenters.</p>
+
+<p>Think whether this be the way to prevent or dissolve factious
+combinations against the Church or the State. Reflect seriously on the
+possible consequences of keeping in the heart of your country a bank of
+discontent, every hour accumulating, upon <a name="Page_296" id="Page_296" title="296" class="pagenum"></a>which every description of
+seditious men may draw at pleasure. They whose principles of faction
+will dispose them to the establishment of an arbitrary monarchy will
+find a nation of men who have no sort of interest in freedom, but who
+will have an interest in that equality of justice or favor with which a
+wise despot must view all his subjects who do not attack the foundations
+of his power. Love of liberty itself may, in such men, become the means
+of establishing an arbitrary domination. On the other hand, they who
+wish for a democratic republic will find a set of men who have no choice
+between civil servitude and the entire ruin of a mixed Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>Suppose the people of Ireland divided into three parts. Of these, (I
+speak within compass,) two are Catholic; of the remaining third, one
+half is composed of Dissenters. There is no natural union between those
+descriptions. It may be produced. If the two parts Catholic be driven
+into a close confederacy with half the third part of Protestants, with a
+view to a change in the Constitution in Church or State or both, and you
+rest the whole of their security on a handful of gentlemen, clergy, and
+their dependents,&mdash;compute the strength <i>you have in Ireland</i>, to oppose
+to grounded discontent, to capricious innovation, to blind popular fury,
+and to ambitious, turbulent intrigue.</p>
+
+<p>You mention that the minds of some gentlemen are a good deal heated, and
+that it is often said, that, rather than submit to such persons, having
+a share in their franchises, they would throw up their independence, and
+precipitate an union with Great Britain. I have heard a discussion
+concerning such <a name="Page_297" id="Page_297" title="297" class="pagenum"></a>an union amongst all sorts of men ever since I remember
+anything. For my own part, I have never been able to bring my mind to
+anything clear and decisive upon the subject. There cannot be a more
+arduous question. As far as I can form an opinion, it would not be for
+the mutual advantage of the two kingdoms. Persons, however, more able
+than I am think otherwise. But whatever the merits of this union may be,
+to make it a <i>menace</i>, it must be shown to be an <i>evil</i>, and an evil
+more particularly to those who are threatened with it than to those who
+hold it out as a terror. I really do not see how this threat of an union
+can operate, or that the Catholics are more likely to be losers by that
+measure than the churchmen.</p>
+
+<p>The humors of the people, and of politicians too, are so variable in
+themselves, and are so much under the occasional influence of some
+leading men, that it is impossible to know what turn the public mind
+here would take on such an event. There is but one thing certain
+concerning it. Great divisions and vehement passions would precede this
+union, both on the measure itself and on its terms; and particularly,
+this very question of a share in the representation for the Catholics,
+from whence the project of an union originated, would form a principal
+part in the discussion; and in the temper in which some gentlemen seem
+inclined to throw themselves, by a sort of high, indignant passion, into
+the scheme, those points would not be deliberated with all possible
+calmness.</p>
+
+<p>From my best observation, I should greatly doubt, whether, in the end,
+these gentlemen would obtain their object, so as to make the exclusion
+of two millions of their countrymen a fundamental article in <a name="Page_298" id="Page_298" title="298" class="pagenum"></a>the union.
+The demand would be of a nature quite unprecedented. You might obtain
+the union; and yet a gentleman, who, under the new union establishment,
+would aspire to the honor of representing his county, might possibly be
+as much obliged, as he may fear to be under the old separate
+establishment, to the unsupportable mortification of asking his
+neighbors, who have a different opinion concerning the elements in the
+sacrament, for their votes.</p>
+
+<p>I believe, nay, I am sure, that the people of Great Britain, with or
+without an union, might be depended upon, in oases of any real danger,
+to aid the government of Ireland, with the same cordiality as they would
+support their own, against any wicked attempts to shake the security of
+the happy Constitution in Church and State. But before Great Britain
+engages in any quarrel, the <i>cause of the dispute</i> would certainly be a
+part of her consideration. If confusions should arise in that kingdom
+from too steady an attachment to a proscriptive, monopolizing system,
+and from the resolution of regarding the franchise, and in it the
+security of the subject, as belonging rather to religious opinions than
+to civil qualification and civil conduct, I doubt whether you might
+quite certainly reckon on obtaining an aid of force from hence for the
+support of that system. We might extend your distractions to this
+country by taking part in them. England will be indisposed, I suspect,
+to send an army for the conquest of Ireland. What was done in 1782 is a
+decisive proof of her sentiments of justice and moderation. She will not
+be fond of making another American war in Ireland. The principles of
+such a war would but too much resemble the former one. The well-disposed
+and <a name="Page_299" id="Page_299" title="299" class="pagenum"></a>the ill-disposed in England would (for different reasons perhaps)
+be equally averse to such an enterprise. The confiscations, the public
+auctions, the private grants, the plantations, the transplantations,
+which formerly animated so many adventurers, even among sober citizens,
+to such Irish expeditions, and which possibly might have animated some
+of them to the American, can have no existence in the case that we
+suppose.</p>
+
+<p>Let us form a supposition, (no foolish or ungrounded supposition,) that,
+in an age when men are infinitely more disposed to heat themselves with
+political than religious controversies, the former should entirely
+prevail, as we see that in some places they have prevailed, over the
+latter,&mdash;and that the Catholics of Ireland, from the courtship paid them
+on the one hand, and the high tone of refusal on the other, should, in
+order to enter into all the rights of subjects, all become Protestant
+Dissenters, and, as the others do, take all your oaths. They would all
+obtain their civil objects; and the change, for anything I know to the
+contrary, (in the dark as I am about the Protestant Dissenting tenets,)
+might be of use to the health of their souls. But what security our
+Constitution, in Church or State, could derive from that event, I cannot
+possibly discern. Depend upon it, it is as true as Nature is true, that,
+if you force them out of the religion of habit, education, or opinion,
+it is not to yours they will ever go. Shaken in their minds, they will
+go to that where the dogmas are fewest,&mdash;where they are the most
+uncertain,&mdash;where they lead them the least to a consideration of what
+they have abandoned. They will go to that uniformly democratic system to
+whose first move<a name="Page_300" id="Page_300" title="300" class="pagenum"></a>ments they owed their emancipation. I recommend you
+seriously to turn this in your mind. Believe that it requires your best
+and maturest thoughts. Take what course you please,&mdash;union or no union;
+whether the people remain Catholics or become Protestant Dissenters,
+sure it is that the present state of monopoly <i>cannot</i> continue.</p>
+
+<p>If England were animated, as I think she is not, with her former spirit
+of domination, and with the strong theological hatred which she once
+cherished for that description of her fellow-Christians and
+fellow-subjects, I am yet convinced, that, after the fullest success in
+a ruinous struggle, you would be obliged to abandon that monopoly. We
+were obliged to do this, even when everything promised success, in the
+American business. If you should make this experiment at last, under the
+pressure of any necessity, you never can do it well. But if, instead of
+falling into a passion, the leading gentlemen of the country themselves
+should undertake the business cheerfully, and with hearty affection
+towards it, great advantages would follow. What is forced cannot be
+modified: but here you may measure your concessions.</p>
+
+<p>It is a consideration of great moment, that you make the desired
+admission without altering the system of your representation in the
+smallest degree or in any part. You may leave that deliberation of a
+Parliamentary change or reform, if ever you should think fit to engage
+in it, uncomplicated and unembarrassed with the other question. Whereas,
+if they are mixed and confounded, as some people attempt to mix and
+confound them, no one can answer for the effects on the Constitution
+itself.<a name="Page_301" id="Page_301" title="301" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>There is another advantage in taking up this business singly and by an
+arrangement for the single object. It is that you may proceed by
+<i>degrees</i>. We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most
+powerful law of Nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation. All
+we can do, and that human wisdom can do, is to provide that the change
+shall proceed by insensible degrees. This has all the benefits which may
+be in change, without any of the inconveniences of mutation. Everything
+is provided for as it arrives. This mode will, on the one hand, prevent
+the <i>unfixing old interests at once</i>: a thing which is apt to breed a
+black and sullen discontent in those who are at once dispossessed of all
+their influence and consideration. This gradual course, on the other
+side, will prevent men long under depression from being intoxicated with
+a large draught of new power, which they always abuse with a licentious
+insolence. But, wishing, as I do, the change to be gradual and cautious,
+I would, in my first steps, lean rather to the side of enlargement than
+restriction.</p>
+
+<p>It is one excellence of our Constitution, that all our rights of
+provincial election regard rather property than person. It is another,
+that the rights which approach more nearly to the personal are most of
+them corporate, and suppose a restrained and strict education of seven
+years in some useful occupation. In both cases the practice may have
+slid from the principle. The standard of qualification in both cases may
+be so low, or not so judiciously chosen, as in some degree to frustrate
+the end. But all this is for your prudence in the case before you. You
+may rise a step or two the qualification of the Catholic voters. But if
+you were to-morrow to put the<a name="Page_302" id="Page_302" title="302" class="pagenum"></a> Catholic freeholder on the footing of the
+most favored forty-shilling Protestant Dissenter, you know, that, such
+is the actual state of Ireland, this would not make a sensible
+alteration in almost any <i>one</i> election in the kingdom. The effect in
+their favor, even defensively, would be infinitely slow. But it would be
+healing; it would be satisfactory and protecting. The stigma would be
+removed. By admitting settled, permanent substance in lieu of the
+numbers, you would avoid the great danger of our time, that of setting
+up number against property. The numbers ought never to be neglected,
+because (besides what is due to them as men) collectively, though not
+individually, they have great property: they ought to have, therefore,
+protection; they ought to have security; they ought to have even
+consideration: but they ought not to predominate.</p>
+
+<p>My dear Sir, I have nearly done. I meant to write you a long letter: I
+have written a long dissertation. I might have done it earlier and
+better. I might have been more forcible and more clear, if I had not
+been interrupted as I have been; and this obliges me not to write to you
+in my own hand. Though my hand but signs it, my heart goes with what I
+have written. Since I could think at all, those have been my thoughts.
+You know that thirty-two years ago they were as fully matured in my mind
+as they are now. A letter of mine to Lord Kenmare, though not by my
+desire, and full of lesser mistakes, has been printed in Dublin. It was
+written ten or twelve years ago, at the time when I began the
+employment, which I have not yet finished, in favor of another
+distressed people, injured by those who have vanquished them, or stolen
+a dominion over them. It <a name="Page_303" id="Page_303" title="303" class="pagenum"></a>contained my sentiments then: you will see how
+far they accord with my sentiments now. Time has more and more confirmed
+me in them all. The present circumstances fix them deeper in my mind.</p>
+
+<p>I voted last session, if a particular vote could be distinguished in
+unanimity, for an establishment of the Church of England <i>conjointly</i>
+with the establishment, which was made some years before by act of
+Parliament, of the Roman Catholic, in the French conquered country of
+Canada. At the time of making this English ecclesiastical establishment,
+we did not think it necessary for its safety to destroy the former
+Gallican Church settlement. In our first act we settled a government
+altogether monarchical, or nearly so. In that system, the Canadian
+Catholics were far from being deprived of the advantages or
+distinctions, of any kind, which they enjoyed under their former
+monarchy. It is true that some people, and amongst them one eminent
+divine, predicted at that time that by this step we should lose our
+dominions in America. He foretold that the Pope would send his
+indulgences hither; that the Canadians would fall in with France, would
+declare independence, and draw or force our colonies into the same
+design. The independence happened according to his prediction; but in
+directly the reverse order. All our English Protestant colonies
+revolted. They joined themselves to France; and it so happened that
+Popish Canada was the only place which preserved its fidelity, the only
+place in which France got no footing, the only peopled colony which now
+remains to Great Britain. Vain are all the prognostics taken from ideas
+and passions, which survive the state of things which gave rise to them.
+When last year we gave <a name="Page_304" id="Page_304" title="304" class="pagenum"></a>a popular representation to the same Canada by
+the choice of the landholders, and an aristocratic representation at the
+choice of the crown, neither was the choice of the crown nor the
+election of the landholders limited by a consideration of religion. We
+had no dread for the Protestant Church which we settled there, because
+we permitted the French Catholics, in the utmost latitude of the
+description, to be free subjects. They are good subjects, I have no
+doubt; but I will not allow that any French Canadian Catholics are
+better men or better citizens than the Irish of the same communion.
+Passing from the extremity of the West to the extremity almost of the
+East, I have been many years (now entering into the twelfth) employed in
+supporting the rights, privileges, laws, and immunities of a very remote
+people. I have not as yet been able to finish my task. I have struggled
+through much discouragement and much opposition, much obloquy, much
+calumny, for a people with whom I have no tie but the common bond of
+mankind. In this I have not been left alone. We did not fly from our
+undertaking because the people are Mahometans or Pagans, and that a
+great majority of the Christians amongst them are Papists. Some
+gentlemen in Ireland, I dare say, have good reasons for what they may
+do, which do not occur to me. I do not presume to condemn them; but,
+thinking and acting as I have done towards those remote nations, I
+should not know how to show my face, here or in Ireland, if I should say
+that all the Pagans, all the Mussulmen, and even all the Papists, (since
+they must form the highest stage in the climax of evil,) are worthy of a
+liberal and honorable condition, except those of one of the
+descriptions, which forms <a name="Page_305" id="Page_305" title="305" class="pagenum"></a>the majority of the inhabitants of the
+country in which you and I were born. If such are the Catholics of
+Ireland, ill-natured and unjust people, from our own data, may be
+inclined not to think better of the Protestants of a soil which is
+supposed to infuse into its sects a kind of venom unknown in other
+places.</p>
+
+<p>You hated the old system as early as I did. Your first juvenile lance
+was broken against that giant. I think you were even the first who
+attacked the grim phantom. You have an exceedingly good understanding,
+very good humor, and the best heart in the world. The dictates of that
+temper and that heart, as well as the policy pointed out by that
+understanding, led you to abhor the old code. You abhorred it, as I did,
+for its vicious perfection. For I must do it justice: it was a complete
+system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested and well
+composed in all its parts. It was a machine of wise and elaborate
+contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and
+degradation of a people, and the debasement, in them, of human nature
+itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man. It is a
+thing humiliating enough, that we are doubtful of the effect of the
+medicines we compound,&mdash;we are sure of our poisons. My opinion ever was,
+(in which I heartily agree with those that admired the old code,) that
+it was so constructed, that, if there was once a breach in any essential
+part of it, the ruin of the whole, or nearly of the whole, was, at some
+time or other, a certainty. For that reason I honor and shall forever
+honor and love you, and those who first caused it to stagger, crack, and
+gape. Others may finish; the beginners have the glory; <a name="Page_306" id="Page_306" title="306" class="pagenum"></a>and, take what
+part you please at this hour, (I think you will take the best,) your
+first services will never be forgotten by a grateful country. Adieu!
+Present my best regards to those I know,&mdash;and as many as I know in our
+country I honor. There never was so much ability, nor, I believe, virtue
+in it. They have a task worthy of both. I doubt not they will perform
+it, for the stability of the Church and State, and for the union and the
+separation of the people: for the union of the honest and peaceable of
+all sects; for their separation from all that is ill-intentioned and
+seditious in any of them.</p>
+
+<p>BEACONSFIELD, JANUARY 3, 1792.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> The letter is written on folio sheets.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> A small error of fact as to the abjuration oath, but of no
+importance in the argument.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307" title="307" class="pagenum"></a><a name="HINTS_FOR_A_MEMORIAL" id="HINTS_FOR_A_MEMORIAL" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">TO BE DELIVERED TO</span><br />
+<br />
+MONSIEUR DE M.M.<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">WRITTEN IN THE EARLY PART OF 1791</span></h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The King, my master, from his sincere desire of keeping up a good
+correspondence with his Most Christian Majesty and the French nation,
+has for some time beheld with concern the condition into which that
+sovereign and nation have fallen.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the reality and the warmth of those sentiments, his
+Britannic Majesty has hitherto forborne in any manner to take part in
+their affairs, in hopes that the common interest of king and subjects
+would render all parties sensible of the necessity of settling their
+government and their freedom upon principles of moderation, as the only
+means of securing permanence to both those blessings, as well as
+internal and external tranquillity to the kingdom of France, and to all
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>His Britannic Majesty finds, to his great regret, that his hopes have
+not been realized. He finds that confusions and disorders have rather
+increased than diminished, and that they now threaten to proceed to
+dangerous extremities.</p>
+
+<p>In this situation of things, the same regard to a neighboring sovereign
+living in friendship with Great Britain, the same spirit of good-will to
+the kingdom of France, the same regard to the general tranquillity,
+which have caused him to view with concern the growth and continuance of
+the present disorders, have induced the King of Great Britain to
+interpose <a name="Page_310" id="Page_310" title="310" class="pagenum"></a>his good offices towards a reconcilement of those unhappy
+differences. This his Majesty does with the most cordial regard to the
+good of all descriptions concerned, and with the most perfect sincerity,
+wholly removing from his royal mind all memory of every circumstance
+which might impede him in the execution of a plan of benevolence which
+he has so much at heart.</p>
+
+<p>His Majesty, having always thought it his greatest glory that he rules
+over a people perfectly and solidly, because soberly, rationally, and
+legally free, can never be supposed to proceed in offering thus his
+royal mediation, but with an unaffected desire and full resolution to
+consider the settlement of a free constitution in France as the very
+basis of any agreement between the sovereign and those of his subjects
+who are unhappily at variance with him,&mdash;to guaranty it to them, if it
+should be desired, in the most solemn and authentic manner, and to do
+all that in him lies to procure the like guaranty from other powers.</p>
+
+<p>His Britannic Majesty, in the same manner, assures the Most Christian
+King that he knows too well and values too highly what is due to the
+dignity and rights of crowned heads, and to the implied faith of
+treaties which have always been made with the <i>crown</i> of France, ever to
+listen to any proposition by which that monarchy shall be despoiled of
+all its rights, so essential for the support of the consideration of the
+prince and the concord and welfare of the people.</p>
+
+<p>If, unfortunately, a due attention should not be paid to these his
+Majesty's benevolent and neighborly offers, or if any circumstances
+should prevent the Most Christian King from acceding (as his Majesty
+<a name="Page_311" id="Page_311" title="311" class="pagenum"></a>has no doubt he is well disposed to do) to this healing mediation in
+favor of himself and all his subjects, his Majesty has commanded me to
+take leave of this court, as not conceiving it to be suitable to the
+dignity of his crown, and to what he owes to his faithful people, any
+longer to keep a public minister at the court of a sovereign who is not
+in possession of his own liberty.<a name="Page_312" id="Page_312" title="312" class="pagenum"></a><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"></a></p>
+
+
+<p><a name="THOUGHTS" id="THOUGHTS" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THOUGHTS<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON</span><br />
+<br />
+FRENCH AFFAIRS,<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ETC., ETC.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 1791.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314" title="314" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315" title="315" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>In all our transactions with France, and at all periods, we have treated
+with that state on the footing of a monarchy. Monarchy was considered in
+all the external relations of that kingdom with every power in Europe as
+its legal and constitutional government, and that in which alone its
+federal capacity was vested.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Montmorin's Letter.</span>It is not yet a year since Monsieur de Montmorin formally, and with as
+little respect as can be imagined to the king, and to all crowned heads,
+announced a total Revolution in that country. He has informed the
+British ministry that its frame of government is wholly altered,&mdash;that
+he is one of the ministers of the new system,&mdash;and, in effect, that the
+king is no longer his master, (nor does he even call him such,) but the
+&quot;<i>first of the ministers</i>,&quot; in the new system.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Acceptance of the Constitution ratified.</span>The second notification was that of the king's acceptance of the new
+Constitution, accompanied with fanfaronades in the modern style of the
+French bureaus: things which have much more the air and character of the
+saucy declamations of their clubs than the tone of regular office.</p>
+
+<p>It has not been very usual to notify to foreign courts anything
+concerning the internal arrangements of any state. In the present case,
+the cir<a name="Page_316" id="Page_316" title="316" class="pagenum"></a>cumstance of these two notifications, with the observations with
+which they are attended, does not leave it in the choice of the
+sovereigns of Christendom to appear ignorant either of this French
+Revolution or (what is more important) of its principles.</p>
+
+<p>We know, that, very soon after this manifesto of Monsieur de Montmorin,
+the king of France, in whose name it was made, found himself obliged to
+fly, with his whole family,&mdash;leaving behind him a declaration in which
+he disavows and annuls that Constitution, as having been the effect of
+force on his person and usurpation on his authority. It is equally
+notorious, that this unfortunate prince was, with many circumstances of
+insult and outrage, brought back prisoner by a deputation of the
+pretended National Assembly, and afterwards suspended by their authority
+from his government. Under equally notorious constraint, and under
+menaces of total deposition, he has been compelled to accept what they
+call a Constitution, and to agree to whatever else the usurped power
+which holds him in confinement thinks proper to impose.</p>
+
+<p>His nest brother, who had fled with him, and his third brother, who had
+fled before him, all the princes of his blood who remained faithful to
+him, and the flower of his magistracy, his clergy, and his nobility,
+continue in foreign countries, protesting against all acts done by him
+in his present situation, on the grounds upon which he had himself
+protested against them at the time of his flight,&mdash;with this addition,
+that they deny his very competence (as on good grounds they may) to
+abrogate the royalty, or the ancient constitutional orders of the
+kingdom. In this protest they are joined by <a name="Page_317" id="Page_317" title="317" class="pagenum"></a>three hundred of the late
+Assembly itself, and, in effect, by a great part of the French nation.
+The new government (so far as the people dare to disclose their
+sentiments) is disdained, I am persuaded, by the greater number,&mdash;who,
+as M. de La Fayette complains, and as the truth is, have declined to
+take any share in the new elections to the National Assembly, either as
+candidates or electors.</p>
+
+<p>In this state of things, (that is, in the case of a <i>divided</i> kingdom,)
+by the law of nations,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor" title=" See Vattel, B. II. c. 4, sect 56, and B. III. c 18, sect.
+296.">[30]</a> Great Britain, like every other power, is
+free to take any part she pleases. She may decline, with more or less
+formality, according to her discretion, to acknowledge this new system;
+or she may recognize it as a government <i>de facto</i>, setting aside all
+discussion of its original legality, and considering the ancient
+monarchy as at an end. The law of nations leaves our court open to its
+choice. We have no direction but what is found in the well-understood
+policy of the king and kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>This declaration of a <i>new species</i> of government, on new principles,
+(such it professes itself to be,) is a real crisis in the politics of
+Europe. The conduct which prudence ought to dictate to Great Britain
+will not depend (as hitherto our connection or quarrel with other states
+has for some time depended) upon merely <i>external</i> relations, but in a
+great measure also upon the system which we may think it right to adopt
+for the internal government of our own country.</p>
+
+<p>If it be our policy to assimilate our government to that of France, we
+ought to prepare for this change by encouraging the schemes of authority
+established <a name="Page_318" id="Page_318" title="318" class="pagenum"></a>there. We ought to wink at the captivity and deposition of
+a prince with whom, if not in close alliance, we were in friendship. We
+ought to fall in with the ideas of Monsieur Montmorin's circular
+manifesto, and to do business of course with the functionaries who act
+under the new power by which that king to whom his Majesty's minister
+has been sent to reside has been deposed and imprisoned. On that idea we
+ought also to withhold all sorts of direct or indirect countenance from
+those who are treating in Germany for the re&euml;stablishment of the French
+monarchy and the ancient orders of that state. This conduct is suitable
+to this policy.</p>
+
+<p>The question is, whether this policy be suitable to the interests of the
+crown and subjects of Great Britain. Let us, therefore, a little
+consider the true nature and probable effects of the Revolution which,
+in such a very unusual manner, has been twice diplomatically announced
+to his Majesty.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Difference between this Revolution and others.</span>There have been many internal revolutions in the government of
+countries, both as to persons and forms, in which the neighboring states
+have had little or no concern. Whatever the government might be with
+respect to those persons and those forms, the stationary interests of
+the nation concerned have most commonly influenced the new governments
+in the same manner in which they influenced the old; and the revolution,
+turning on matter of local grievance or of local accommodation, did not
+extend beyond its territory.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Nature of the French Revolution.</span>The present Revolution in France seems to me to be quite of another
+character and description, and to bear little resemblance or analogy to
+any of those which have been brought about <a name="Page_319" id="Page_319" title="319" class="pagenum"></a>in Europe, upon principles
+merely political. <i>It is a Revolution of doctrine and theoretic dogma</i>.
+It has a much greater resemblance to those changes which have been made
+upon religious grounds, in which a spirit of proselytism makes an
+essential part.</p>
+
+<p>The last revolution of doctrine and theory which has happened in Europe
+is the Reformation. It is not for my purpose to take any notice here of
+the merits of that revolution, but to state one only of its effects.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Its effects.</span>That effect was, <i>to introduce other interests into all countries than
+those which arose from their locality and natural circumstances</i>. The
+principle of the Reformation was such as, by its essence, could not be
+local or confined to the country in which it had its origin. For
+instance, the doctrine of &quot;Justification by Faith or by Works,&quot; which
+was the original basis of the Reformation, could not have one of its
+alternatives true as to Germany and false as to every other country.
+Neither are questions of theoretic truth and falsehood governed by
+circumstances any more than by places. On that occasion, therefore, the
+spirit of proselytism expanded itself with great elasticity upon all
+sides: and great divisions were everywhere the result.</p>
+
+<p>These divisions, however in appearance merely dogmatic, soon became
+mixed with the political; and their effects were rendered much more
+intense from this combination. Europe was for a long time divided into
+two great factions, under the name of Catholic and Protestant, which not
+only often alienated state from state, but also divided almost every
+state within itself. The warm parties in each state were more
+affectionately attached to those of their <a name="Page_320" id="Page_320" title="320" class="pagenum"></a>own doctrinal interest in
+some other country than to their fellow-citizens or to their natural
+government, when they or either of them happened to be of a different
+persuasion. These factions, wherever they prevailed, if they did not
+absolutely destroy, at least weakened and distracted the locality of
+patriotism. The public affections came to have other motives and other
+ties.</p>
+
+<p>It would be to repeat the history of the two last centuries to exemplify
+the effects of this revolution.</p>
+
+<p>Although the principles to which it gave rise did not operate with a
+perfect regularity and constancy, they never wholly ceased to operate.
+Few wars were made, and few treaties were entered into, in which they
+did not come in for some part. They gave a color, a character, and
+direction to all the politics of Europe.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">New system of politics.</span>These principles of internal as well as external division and coalition
+are but just now extinguished. But they who will examine into the true
+character and genius of some late events must be satisfied that other
+sources of faction, combining parties among the inhabitants of different
+countries into one connection, are opened, and that from these sources
+are likely to arise effects full as important as those which had
+formerly arisen from the jarring interests of the religious sects. The
+intention of the several actors in the change in France is not a matter
+of doubt. It is very openly professed.</p>
+
+<p>In the modern world, before this time, there has been no instance of
+this spirit of general political faction, separated from religion,
+pervading several countries, and forming a principle of union between
+the partisans in each. But the thing is not less in <a name="Page_321" id="Page_321" title="321" class="pagenum"></a>human nature. The
+ancient world has furnished a strong and striking instance of such a
+ground for faction, full as powerful and full as mischievous as our
+spirit of religions system had ever been, exciting in all the states of
+Greece (European and Asiatic) the most violent animosities and the most
+cruel and bloody persecutions and proscriptions. These ancient factions
+in each commonwealth of Greece connected themselves with those of the
+same description in some other states; and secret cabals and public
+alliances were carried on and made, not upon a conformity of general
+political interests, but for the support and aggrandizement of the two
+leading states which headed the aristocratic and democratic factions.
+For as, in later times, the king of Spain was at the head of a Catholic,
+and the king of Sweden of a Protestant interest, (France, though
+Catholic, acting subordinately to the latter,) in the like manner the
+Lacedemonians were everywhere at the head of the aristocratic interests,
+and the Athenians of the democratic. The two leading powers kept alive a
+constant cabal and conspiracy in every state, and the political dogmas
+concerning the constitution of a republic were the great instruments by
+which these leading states chose to aggrandize themselves. Their choice
+was not unwise; because the interest in opinions, (merely as opinions,
+and without any experimental reference to their effects,) when once they
+take strong hold of the mind, become the most operative of all
+interests, and indeed very often supersede every other.</p>
+
+<p>I might further exemplify the possibility of a political sentiment
+running through various states, and combining factions in them, from the
+history of the<a name="Page_322" id="Page_322" title="322" class="pagenum"></a> Middle Ages in the Guelfs and Ghibellines. These were
+political factions originally in favor of the Emperor and the Pope, with
+no mixture of religious dogmas: or if anything religiously doctrinal
+they had in them originally, it very soon disappeared; as their first
+political objects disappeared also, though the spirit remained. They
+became no more than names to distinguish factions: but they were not the
+less powerful in their operation, when they had no direct point of
+doctrine, either religious or civil, to assert. For a long time,
+however, those factions gave no small degree of influence to the foreign
+chiefs in every commonwealth in which they existed. I do not mean to
+pursue further the track of these parties. I allude to this part of
+history only as it furnishes an instance of that species of faction
+which broke the locality of public affections, and united descriptions
+of citizens more with strangers than with their countrymen of different
+opinions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">French fundamental principle.</span>The political dogma, which, upon the new French system, is to unite the
+factions of different nations, is this: &quot;That the majority, told by the
+head, of the taxable people in every country, is the perpetual, natural,
+unceasing, indefeasible sovereign; that this majority is perfectly
+master of the form as well as the administration of the state, and that
+the magistrates, under whatever names they are called, are only
+functionaries to obey the orders (general as laws or particular as
+decrees) which that majority may make; that this is the only natural
+government; that all others are tyranny and usurpation.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Practical project.</span>In order to reduce this dogma into practice, the republicans in France,
+and their <a name="Page_323" id="Page_323" title="323" class="pagenum"></a>associates in other countries, make it always their business,
+and often their public profession, to destroy all traces of ancient
+establishments, and to form a new commonwealth in each country, upon the
+basis of the French <i>Rights of Man</i>. On the principle of these rights,
+they mean to institute in every country, and as it were the germ of the
+whole, parochial governments, for the purpose of what they call equal
+representation. From them is to grow, by some media, a general council
+and representative of all the parochial governments. In that
+representative is to be vested the whole national power,&mdash;totally
+abolishing hereditary name and office, levelling all conditions of men,
+(except where money <i>must</i> make a difference,) breaking all connection
+between territory and dignity, and abolishing every species of nobility,
+gentry, and Church establishments: all their priests and all their
+magistrates being only creatures of election and pensioners at will.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing how opposite a permanent landed interest is to that scheme, they
+have resolved, and it is the great drift of all their regulations, to
+reduce that description of men to a mere peasantry for the sustenance of
+the towns, and to place the true effective government in cities, among
+the tradesmen, bankers, and voluntary clubs of bold, presuming young
+persons,&mdash;advocates, attorneys, notaries, managers of newspapers, and
+those cabals of literary men called academies. Their republic is to have
+a first functionary, (as they call him,) under the name of King, or not,
+as they think fit. This officer, when such an officer is permitted, is,
+however, neither in fact nor name to be considered as sovereign, nor the
+people as his subjects. The very use of these appellations is offensive
+to their ears.<a name="Page_324" id="Page_324" title="324" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Partisans of the French system.</span>This system, as it has first been realized, dogmatically as well as
+practically, in France, makes France the natural head of all factions
+formed on a similar principle, wherever they may prevail, as much as
+Athens was the head and settled ally of all democratic factions,
+wherever they existed. The other system has no head.</p>
+
+<p>This system has very many partisans in every country in Europe, but
+particularly in England, where they are already formed into a body,
+comprehending most of the Dissenters of the three leading denominations.
+To these are readily aggregated all who are Dissenters in character,
+temper, and disposition, though not belonging to any of their
+congregations: that is, all the restless people who resemble them, of
+all ranks and all parties,&mdash;Whigs, and even Tories; the whole race of
+half-bred speculators; all the Atheists, Deists, and Socinians; all
+those who hate the clergy and envy the nobility; a good many among the
+moneyed people; the East Indians almost to a man, who cannot bear to
+find that their present importance does not bear a proportion to their
+wealth. These latter have united themselves into one great, and, in my
+opinion, formidable club,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor" title=" Originally called the Bengal Club; but since opened to
+persons from the other Presidencies, for the purpose of consolidating
+the whole Indian interest.">[31]</a> which, though now quiet, may be brought
+into action with considerable unanimity and force.</p>
+
+<p>Formerly, few, except the ambitious great or the desperate and indigent,
+were to be feared as instruments in revolutions. What has happened in
+France teaches us, with many other things, that there are more causes
+than have commonly been taken into <a name="Page_325" id="Page_325" title="325" class="pagenum"></a>our consideration, by which
+government may be subverted. The moneyed men, merchants, principal
+tradesmen, and men of letters (hitherto generally thought the peaceable
+and even timid part of society) are the chief actors in the French
+Revolution. But the fact is, that, as money increases and circulates,
+and as the circulation of news in politics and letters becomes more and
+more diffused, the persons who diffuse this money and this intelligence
+become more and more important. This was not long undiscovered. Views of
+ambition were in France, for the first time, presented to these classes
+of men: objects in the state, in the army, in the system of civil
+offices of every kind. Their eyes were dazzled with this new prospect.
+They were, as it were, electrified, and made to lose the natural spirit
+of their situation. A bribe, great without example in the history of the
+world, was held out to them,&mdash;the whole government of a very large
+kingdom.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Grounds of security supposed for England.</span>There are several who are persuaded that the same thing cannot happen in
+England, because here (they say) the occupations of merchants,
+tradesmen, and manufacturers are not held as degrading situations. I
+once thought that the low estimation in which commerce was held in
+France might be reckoned among the causes of the late Revolution; and I
+am still of opinion that the exclusive spirit of the French nobility did
+irritate the wealthy of other classes. But I found long since, that
+persons in trade and business were by no means despised in France in the
+manner I had been taught to believe.<span class="sidenote">Literary Interest.</span> As to men of letters, they were so
+far from being despised or neglected, that there was no country,
+perhaps, in the universe, <a name="Page_326" id="Page_326" title="326" class="pagenum"></a>in which they were so highly esteemed,
+courted, caressed, and even feared: tradesmen naturally were not so much
+sought in society, (as not furnishing so largely to the fund of
+conversation as they do to the revenues of the state,) but the latter
+description got forward every day. M. Bailly, who made himself the
+popular mayor on the rebellion of the Bastile, and is a principal actor
+in the revolt, before the change possessed a pension or office under the
+crown of six hundred pound English a year,&mdash;for that country, no
+contemptible provision; and this he obtained solely as a man of letters,
+and on no other title. <span class="sidenote">Moneyed interest.</span>As to the moneyed men, whilst the monarchy
+continued, there is no doubt, that, merely as such, they did not enjoy
+the <i>privileges</i> of nobility; but nobility was of so easy an
+acquisition, that it was the fault or neglect of all of that description
+who did not obtain its privileges, for their lives at least, in virtue
+of office. It attached under the royal government to an innumerable
+multitude of places, real and nominal, that were vendible; and such
+nobility were as capable of everything as their degree of influence or
+interest could make them,&mdash;that is, as nobility of no considerable rank
+or consequence. M. Necker, so far from being a French gentleman, was not
+so much as a Frenchman born, and yet we all know the rank in which he
+stood on the day of the meeting of the States.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Mercantile interest.</span>As to the mere matter of estimation of the mercantile or any other
+class, this is regulated by opinion and prejudice. In England, a
+security against the envy of men in these classes is not so very
+complete as we may imagine. We must not impose upon ourselves. What
+institutions and <a name="Page_327" id="Page_327" title="327" class="pagenum"></a>manners together had done in France manners alone do
+here. It is the natural operation of things, where there exists a crown,
+a court, splendid orders of knighthood, and an hereditary
+nobility,&mdash;where there exists a fixed, permanent, landed gentry,
+continued in greatness and opulence by the law of primogeniture, and by
+a protection given to family settlements,&mdash;where there exists a standing
+army and navy,&mdash;where there exists a Church establishment, which bestows
+on learning and parts an interest combined with that of religion and the
+state;&mdash;in a country where such things exist, wealth, new in its
+acquisition, and precarious in its duration, can never rank first, or
+even near the first: though wealth has its natural weight further than
+as it is balanced and even preponderated amongst us, as amongst other
+nations, by artificial institutions and opinions growing out of them. At
+no period in the history of England have so few peers been taken out of
+trade or from families newly created by commerce. In no period has so
+small a number of noble families entered into the counting-house. I can
+call to mind but one in all England, and his is of near fifty years'
+standing. Be that as it may, it appears plain to me, from my best
+observation, that envy and ambition may, by art, management, and
+disposition, be as much excited amongst these descriptions of men in
+England as in any other country, and that they are just as capable of
+acting a part in any great change.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Progress of the French spirit.&mdash;Its course.</span>What direction the French spirit of proselytism is likely to take, and
+in what order it is likely to prevail in the several parts of Europe, it
+is not easy to determine. The seeds are sown almost everywhere, chiefly
+by newspaper circu<a name="Page_328" id="Page_328" title="328" class="pagenum"></a>lations, infinitely more efficacious and extensive
+than ever they were. And they are a more important instrument than
+generally is imagined. They are a part of the reading of all; they are
+the whole of the reading of the far greater number. There are thirty of
+them in Paris alone. The language diffuses them more widely than the
+English,&mdash;though the English, too, are much read. The writers of these
+papers, indeed, for the greater part, are either unknown or in contempt,
+but they are like a battery, in which the stroke of any one ball
+produces no great effect, but the amount of continual repetition is
+decisive. Let us only suffer any person to tell us his story, morning
+and evening, but for one twelvemonth, and he will become our master.</p>
+
+<p>All those countries in which several states are comprehended under some
+general geographical description, and loosely united by some federal
+constitution,&mdash;countries of which the members are small, and greatly
+diversified in their forms of government, and in the titles by which
+they are held,&mdash;these countries, as it might be well expected, are the
+principal objects of their hopes and machinations. Of these, the chief
+are Germany and Switzerland; after them, Italy has its place, as in
+circumstances somewhat similar.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Germany.</span>As to Germany, (in which, from their relation to the Emperor, I
+comprehend the Belgic Provinces,) it appears to me to be, from several
+circumstances, internal and external, in a very critical situation; and
+the laws and liberties of the Empire are by no means secure from the
+contagion of the French doctrines and the effect of French intrigues, or
+from the use which two of the greater<a name="Page_329" id="Page_329" title="329" class="pagenum"></a> German powers may make of a
+general derangement to the general detriment. I do not say that the
+French do not mean to bestow on these German states liberties, and laws
+too, after their mode; but those are not what have hitherto been
+understood as the laws and liberties of the Empire. These exist and have
+always existed under the principles of feodal tenure and succession,
+under imperial constitutions, grants and concessions of sovereigns,
+family compacts, and public treaties, made under the sanction, and some
+of them guarantied by the sovereign powers of other nations, and
+particularly the old government of France, the author and natural
+support of the Treaty of Westphalia.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Ecclesiastical state.</span>In short, the Germanic body is a vast mass of heterogeneous states, held
+together by that heterogeneous body of old principles which formed the
+public law positive and doctrinal. The modern laws and liberties, which
+the new power in France proposes to introduce into Germany, and to
+support with all its force of intrigue and of arms, is of a very
+different nature, utterly irreconcilable with the first, and indeed
+fundamentally the reverse of it: I mean the <i>rights and liberties of the
+man</i>, the <i>droit de l'homme</i>. That this doctrine has made an amazing
+progress in Germany there cannot be a shadow of doubt. They are infected
+by it along the whole course of the Rhine, the Maese, the Moselle, and
+in the greater part of Suabia and Franconia. It is particularly
+prevalent amongst all the lower people, churchmen and laity, in the
+dominions of the Ecclesiastical Electors. It is not easy to find or to
+conceive governments more mild and indulgent than these Church
+sovereignties; but good government <a name="Page_330" id="Page_330" title="330" class="pagenum"></a>is as nothing, when the rights of
+man take possession of the mind. Indeed, the loose rein held over the
+people in these provinces must be considered as one cause of the
+facility with which they lend themselves to any schemes of innovation,
+by inducing them to think lightly of their governments, and to judge of
+grievances, not by feeling, but by imagination.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Balance of Germany.</span>It is in these Electorates that the first impressions of France are
+likely to be made; and if they succeed, it is over with the Germanic
+body, as it stands at present. A great revolution is preparing in
+Germany, and a revolution, in my opinion, likely to be more decisive
+upon the general fate of nations than that of France itself,&mdash;other than
+as in France is to be found the first source of all the principles which
+are in any way likely to distinguish the troubles and convulsions of our
+age. If Europe does not conceive the independence and the equilibrium of
+the Empire to be in the very essence of the system of balanced power in
+Europe, and if the scheme of public law, or mass of laws, upon which
+that independence and equilibrium are founded, be of no leading
+consequence as they are preserved or destroyed, all the politics of
+Europe for more than two centuries have been miserably erroneous.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Prussia and Emperor.</span>If the two great leading powers of Germany do not regard this danger (as
+apparently they do not) in the light in which it presents itself so
+naturally, it is because they are powers too great to have a social
+interest. That sort of interest belongs only to those whose state of
+weakness or mediocrity is such as to give them greater cause of
+apprehension from what may destroy them than of <a name="Page_331" id="Page_331" title="331" class="pagenum"></a>hope from anything by
+which they may be aggrandized.</p>
+
+<p>As long as those two princes are at variance, so long the liberties of
+Germany are safe. But if ever they should so far understand one another
+as to be persuaded that they have a more direct and more certainly
+defined interest in a proportioned mutual aggrandizement than in a
+reciprocal reduction, that is, if they come to think that they are more
+likely to be enriched by a division of spoil than to be rendered secure
+by keeping to the old policy of preventing others from being spoiled by
+either of them, from that moment the liberties of Germany are no more.</p>
+
+<p>That a junction of two in such a scheme is neither impossible nor
+improbable is evident from the partition of Poland in 1773, which was
+effected by such a junction as made the interposition of other nations
+to prevent it not easy. Their circumstances at that time hindered any
+other three states, or indeed any two, from taking measures in common to
+prevent it, though France was at that time an existing power, and had
+not yet learned to act upon a system of politics of her own invention.
+The geographical position of Poland was a great obstacle to any
+movements of France in opposition to this, at that time, unparalleled
+league. To my certain knowledge, if Great Britain had at that time been
+willing to concur in preventing the execution of a project so dangerous
+in the example, even exhausted as France then was by the preceding war,
+and under a lazy and unenterprising prince, she would have at every risk
+taken an active part in this business. But a languor with regard to so
+remote an interest, and the principles and passions which were then
+strongly at work at <a name="Page_332" id="Page_332" title="332" class="pagenum"></a>home, were the causes why Great Britain would not
+give France any encouragement in such an enterprise. At that time,
+however, and with regard to that object, in my opinion, Great Britain
+and France had a common interest.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Possible project of the Emperor and king of Prussia.</span>But the position of Germany is not like that of Poland, with regard to
+France, either for good or for evil. If a conjunction between Prussia
+and the Emperor should be formed for the purpose of secularizing and
+rendering hereditary the Ecclesiastical Electorates and the Bishopric of
+M&uuml;nster, for settling two of them on the children of the Emperor, and
+uniting Cologne and M&uuml;nster to the dominions of the king of Prussia on
+the Rhine, or if any other project of mutual aggrandizement should be in
+prospect, and that, to facilitate such a scheme, the modern French
+should be permitted and encouraged to shake the internal and external
+security of these Ecclesiastical Electorates, Great Britain is so
+situated that she could not with any effect set herself in opposition to
+such a design. Her principal arm, her marine, could here be of no sort
+of use.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">To be resisted only by France.</span>France, the author of the Treaty of Westphalia, is the natural guardian
+of the independence and balance of Germany. Great Britain (to say
+nothing of the king's concern as one of that august body) has a serious
+interest in preserving it; but, except through the power of France,
+<i>acting upon the common old principles of state policy</i>, in the case we
+have supposed, she has no sort of means of supporting that interest. It
+is always the interest of Great Britain that the power of France should
+be kept within the bounds of moderation. It is not her interest that
+that power should be wholly annihilated in the <a name="Page_333" id="Page_333" title="333" class="pagenum"></a>system of Europe. Though
+at one time through France the independence of Europe was endangered, it
+is, and ever was, through her alone that the common liberty of Germany
+can be secured against the single or the combined ambition of any other
+power. In truth, within this century the aggrandizement of other
+sovereign houses has been such that there has been a great change in the
+whole state of Europe; and other nations as well as France may become
+objects of jealousy and apprehension.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">New principles of alliance.</span>In this state of things, a new principle of alliances and wars is
+opened. The Treaty of Westphalia is, with France, an antiquated fable.
+The rights and liberties she was bound to maintain are now a system of
+wrong and tyranny which she is bound to destroy. Her good and ill
+dispositions are shown by the same means. <i>To communicate peaceably</i> the
+rights of men is the true mode of her showing her <i>friendship</i>; to force
+sovereigns to <i>submit</i> to those rights is her mode of <i>hostility</i>. So
+that, either as friend or foe, her whole scheme has been, and is, to
+throw the Empire into confusion; and those statesmen who follow the old
+routine of politics may see in this general confusion, and in the danger
+of the <i>lesser</i> princes, an occasion, as protectors or enemies, of
+connecting their territories to one or the other of the <i>two great</i>
+German powers. They do not take into consideration that the means which
+they encourage, as leading to the event they desire, will with certainty
+not only ravage and destroy the Empire, but, if they should for a moment
+seem to aggrandize the two great houses, will also establish principles
+and confirm tempers amongst the people which will preclude the two
+sovereigns from the possibility of holding <a name="Page_334" id="Page_334" title="334" class="pagenum"></a>what they acquire, or even
+the dominions which they have inherited. It is on the side of the
+Ecclesiastical Electorates that the dikes raised to support the German
+liberty first will give way.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Geneva.</span>The French have begun their general operations by seizing upon those
+territories of the Pope the situation of which was the most inviting to
+the enterprise. Their method of doing it was by exciting sedition and
+spreading massacre and desolation through these unfortunate places, and
+then, under an idea of kindness and protection, bringing forward an
+antiquated title of the crown of France, and annexing Avignon and the
+two cities of the Comtat, with their territory, to the French republic.
+They have made an attempt on Geneva, in which they very narrowly failed
+of success.<span class="sidenote">Savoy.</span> It is known that they hold out from time to time the idea of
+uniting all the other provinces of which Gaul was anciently composed,
+including Savoy on the other side, and on this side bounding themselves
+by the Rhine.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Switzerland.</span>As to Switzerland, it is a country whose long union, rather than its
+possible division, is the matter of wonder. Here I know they entertain
+very sanguine hopes. The aggregation to France of the democratic Swiss
+republics appears to them to be a work half done by their very form; and
+it might seem to them rather an increase of importance to these little
+commonwealths than a derogation from their independency or a change in
+the manner of their government. Upon any quarrel amongst the Cantons,
+nothing is more likely than such an event. As to the aristocratic
+republics, the general clamor and hatred which the French excite against
+the very <a name="Page_335" id="Page_335" title="335" class="pagenum"></a>name, (and with more facility and success than against
+monarchs,) and the utter impossibility of their government making any
+sort of resistance against an insurrection, where they have no troops,
+and the people are all armed and trained, render their hopes in that
+quarter far indeed from unfounded. It is certain that the republic of
+Bern thinks itself obliged to a vigilance next to hostile, and to
+imprison or expel all the French whom it finds in its territories. But,
+indeed, those aristocracies, which comprehend whatever is considerable,
+wealthy, and valuable in Switzerland, do now so wholly depend upon
+opinion, and the humor of their multitude, that the lightest puff of
+wind is sufficient to blow them down.<span class="sidenote">Old French maxims the security of its independence.</span> If France, under its ancient
+regimen, and upon the ancient principles of policy, was the support of
+the Germanic Constitution, it was much more so of that of Switzerland,
+which almost from the very origin of that confederacy rested upon the
+closeness of its connection with France, on which the Swiss Cantons
+wholly reposed themselves for the preservation of the parts of their
+body in their respective rights and permanent forms, as well as for the
+maintenance of all in their general independency.</p>
+
+<p>Switzerland and Germany are the first objects of the new French
+politicians. When I contemplate what they have done at home, which is,
+in effect, little less than an amazing conquest, wrought by a change of
+opinion, in a great part (to be sure far from altogether) very sudden, I
+cannot help letting my thoughts run along with their designs, and,
+without attending to geographical order, to consider the other states of
+Europe, so far as they may be any way <a name="Page_336" id="Page_336" title="336" class="pagenum"></a>affected by this astonishing
+Revolution. If early steps are not taken in some way or other to prevent
+the spreading of this influence, I scarcely think any of them perfectly
+secure.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Italy.</span>Italy is divided, as Germany and Switzerland are, into many smaller
+states, and with some considerable diversity as to forms of government;
+but as these divisions and varieties in Italy are not so considerable,
+so neither do I think the danger altogether so imminent there as in
+Germany and Switzerland. Savoy I know that the French consider as in a
+very hopeful way, and I believe not at all without reason. They view it
+as an old member of the kingdom of France, which may be easily reunited
+in the manner and on the principles of the reunion of Avignon. This
+country communicates with Piedmont; and as the king of Sardinia's
+dominions were long the key of Italy, and as such long regarded by
+France, whilst France acted on her old maxims, and with views on
+Italy,&mdash;so, in this new French empire of sedition, if once she gets that
+key into her hands, she can easily lay open the barrier which hinders
+the entrance of her present politics into that inviting region. <span class="sidenote">Lombardy.</span>Milan, I
+am sure, nourishes great disquiets; and if Milan should stir, no part of
+Lombardy is secure to the present possessors,&mdash;whether the Venetian or
+the Austrian. Genoa is closely connected with France.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Bourbon princes in Italy.</span>The first prince of the House of Bourbon has been obliged to give
+himself up entirely to the new system, and to pretend even to propagate
+it with all zeal: at least, that club of intriguers who assemble at the
+Feuillants, and whose cabinet meets at Madame de Sta&euml;l's, and makes and
+directs all the <a name="Page_337" id="Page_337" title="337" class="pagenum"></a>ministers, is the real executive government of France.
+The Emperor is perfectly in concert, and they will not long suffer any
+prince of the House of Bourbon to keep by force the French emissaries
+out of their dominions; nor whilst France has a commerce with them,
+especially through Marseilles, (the hottest focus of sedition in
+France,) will it be long possible to prevent the intercourse or the
+effects.</p>
+
+<p>Naples has an old, inveterate disposition to republicanism, and (however
+for some time past quiet) is as liable to explosion as its own Vesuvius.
+Sicily, I think, has these dispositions in full as strong a degree. In
+neither of these countries exists anything which very well deserves the
+name of government or exact police.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Ecclesiastical State.</span>In the States of the Church, notwithstanding their strictness in
+banishing the French out of that country, there are not wanting the
+seeds of a revolution. The spirit of nepotism prevails there nearly as
+strong as ever. Every Pope of course is to give origin or restoration to
+a great family by the means of large donations. The foreign revenues
+have long been gradually on the decline, and seem now in a manner dried
+up. To supply this defect, the resource of vexatious and impolitic
+jobbing at home, if anything, is rather increased than lessened. Various
+well-intended, but ill-understood practices, some of them existing, in
+their spirit at least, from the time of the old Roman Empire, still
+prevail; and that government is as blindly attached to old abusive
+customs as others are wildly disposed to all sorts of innovations and
+experiments. These abuses were less felt whilst the Pontificate drew
+riches from abroad, which in some measure counterbalanced the evils of
+<a name="Page_338" id="Page_338" title="338" class="pagenum"></a>their remiss and jobbish government at home. But now it can subsist
+only on the resources of domestic management; and abuses in that
+management of course will be more intimately and more severely felt.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the apparently torpid languor of the Ecclesiastical
+State, those who have had opportunity of a near observation have seen a
+little rippling in that smooth water, which indicates something alive
+under it. There is in the Ecclesiastical State a personage who seems
+capable of acting (but with more force and steadiness) the part of the
+tribune Rienzi. The people, once inflamed, will not be destitute of a
+leader. They have such an one already in the Cardinal or Archbishop
+Boncompagni. He is, of all men, if I am not ill-informed, the most
+turbulent, seditious, intriguing, bold, and desperate. He is not at all
+made for a Roman of the present day. I think he lately held the first
+office of their state, that of Great Chamberlain, which is equivalent to
+High Treasurer. At present he is out of employment, and in disgrace. If
+he should be elected Pope, or even come to have any weight with a new
+Pope, he will infallibly conjure up a democratic spirit in that country.
+He may, indeed, be able to effect it without these advantages. The nest
+interregnum will probably show more of him. There may be others of the
+same character, who have not come to my knowledge. This much is
+certain,&mdash;that the Roman people, if once the blind reverence they bear
+to the sanctity of the Pope, which is their only bridle, should relax,
+are naturally turbulent, ferocious, and headlong, whilst the police is
+defective, and the government feeble and resourceless beyond all
+imagination.<a name="Page_339" id="Page_339" title="339" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Spain</span>As to Spain, it is a nerveless country. It does not possess the use, it
+only suffers the abuse, of a nobility. For some time, and even before
+the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been systematically
+lowered, and rendered incapable by exclusion, and for incapacity
+excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner
+annihilated; and so little means have they of any weighty exertion
+either to control or to support the crown, that, if they at all
+interfere, it is only by abetting desperate and mobbish insurrections,
+like that at Madrid, which drove Squillace from his place. Florida
+Blanca is a creature of office, and has little connection and no
+sympathy with that body.</p>
+
+<p>As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain that looks like an
+independent order; and they are kept in some respect by the Inquisition,
+the sole, but unhappy resource of public tranquillity and order now
+remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of
+state,&mdash;which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars
+no longer with Jews and heretics: it has no such war to carry on. Its
+great object is, to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making
+their way in that kingdom. No French book upon any subject can enter
+there which does not contain such matter. In Spain, the clergy are of
+moment from their influence, but at the same time with the envy and
+jealousy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by
+management with the Pope got a very great share of the ecclesiastical
+revenues into its own hands, much still remains to them. There will
+always be about that court those who look out to a farther division of
+the Church property as a resource, and to be ob<a name="Page_340" id="Page_340" title="340" class="pagenum"></a>tained by shorter
+methods than those of negotiations with the clergy and their chief. But
+at present I think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
+should be taken out of their hands,&mdash;and lest that body, in which
+remains the only life that exists in Spain, and is not a fever, may with
+their property lose all the influence necessary to preserve the
+monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ whatever influence
+remains to them as active agents in its destruction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Castile different from Catalonia and Aragon.</span>The Castilians have still remaining a good deal of their old character,
+their <i>gravedad, lealtad</i>, and <i>el temor de Dios</i>; but that character
+neither is, nor ever was, exactly true, except of the Castilians only.
+The several kingdoms which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
+which run through the whole; but they are in many particulars as
+different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for
+instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of
+the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of an attachment to
+royalty. They are more in the way of trade and intercourse with France,
+and, upon the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let
+loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into
+convulsions.</p>
+
+<p>It is a melancholy reflection, that the spirit of melioration which has
+been going on in that part of Europe, more or less, during this century,
+and the various schemes very lately on foot for further advancement, are
+all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected
+with innovation; and where that latter comes in for too large a share,
+those who undertake to improve their country may <a name="Page_341" id="Page_341" title="341" class="pagenum"></a>risk their own safety.
+In times where the correction, which includes the confession, of an
+abuse, is turned to criminate the authority which has long suffered it,
+rather than to honor those who would amend it, (which is the spirit of
+this malignant French distemper,) every step out of the common course
+becomes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes of
+moderate talents to engage in great undertakings. At present the only
+safety of Spain is the old national hatred to the French. How far that
+can be depended upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is
+impossible to say.</p>
+
+<p>As to Portugal, she is out of the high-road of these politics. I shall,
+therefore, not divert my thoughts that way, but return again to the
+North of Europe, which at present seems the part most interested, and
+there it appears to me that the French speculation on the Northern
+countries may be valued in the following or some such manner.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Denmark.</span>Denmark and Norway do not appear to furnish any of the materials of a
+democratic revolution, or the dispositions to it. Denmark can only be
+<i>consequentially</i> affected by anything done in Prance; but of Sweden I
+think quite otherwise. <span class="sidenote">Sweden.</span>The present power in Sweden is too new a system,
+and too green and too sore from its late Revolution, to be considered as
+perfectly assured. The king, by his astonishing activity, his boldness,
+his decision, his ready versatility, and by rousing and employing the
+old military spirit of Sweden, keeps up the top with continual agitation
+and lashing. The moment it ceases to spin, the royalty is a dead bit of
+box. Whenever Sweden is quiet externally for some time, there is great
+dan<a name="Page_342" id="Page_342" title="342" class="pagenum"></a>ger that all the republican elements she contains will be animated
+by the new French spirit, and of this I believe the king is very
+sensible.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Russia.</span>The Russian government is of all others the most liable to be subverted
+by military seditions, by court conspiracies, and sometimes by headlong
+rebellions of the people, such as the turbinating movement of Pugatchef.
+It is not quite so probable that in any of these changes the spirit of
+system may mingle, in the manner it has done in France. The Muscovites
+are no great speculators; but I should not much rely on their
+uninquisitive disposition, if any of their ordinary motives to sedition
+should arise. The little catechism of the Rights of Men is soon learned;
+and the inferences are in the passions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Poland.</span>Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet. The new Constitution
+only serves to supply that restless people with new means, at least new
+modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition. The bottom of the
+character is the same.<span class="sidenote">Saxony.</span> It is a great question, whether the joining that
+crown with the Electorate of Saxony will contribute most to strengthen
+the royal authority of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony. The
+Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six sevenths at the
+very least, Protestants. He <i>must</i> continue a Catholic, according to the
+Polish law, if he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons, formerly
+flattered by having a crown in the house of their prince, though an
+honor which cost them dear,&mdash;the German probity, fidelity, and
+loyalty,&mdash;the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under the Treaty
+of Westphalia,&mdash;the good temper and <a name="Page_343" id="Page_343" title="343" class="pagenum"></a>good-nature of the princes of the
+House of Saxony, had formerly removed from the people all apprehension
+with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient,
+and even affectionate. The Seven Years' War made some change in the
+minds of the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the loss of what
+might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the
+possession of which, by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often
+obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the support of which that
+foreign interest afforded no proportionable strength. In this very
+delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of the
+French and German <i>Economists</i>, and the cabals, and the secret, as well
+as public doctrines of the <i>Illuminatenorden</i>, and <i>Freemasons</i>, have
+made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent spirit,
+under color of religion, but in reality arising from the French rights
+of man, has already shown itself, and is ready on every occasion to
+blaze out.</p>
+
+<p>The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet temper, of great
+prudence and goodness. He knows, that, in the actual state of things,
+not the power and respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very
+existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very certain that
+not one sovereign in Europe can either promise for the continuance of
+his authority in a state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to
+venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning
+wholly the ancient magnificence of his court, the Elector has conducted
+his affairs with infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors,
+so as to restore his finances beyond what was thought possible from the
+state in which the Seven<a name="Page_344" id="Page_344" title="344" class="pagenum"></a> Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
+whole of that dreadful period, having been in the hands of an
+exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity,
+was obliged to bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in the
+intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabitants of that country
+were not better treated.</p>
+
+<p>The moderation and prudence of the present Elector, in my opinion,
+rather, perhaps, respites the troubles than secures the peace of the
+Electorate. The offer of the succession to the crown of Poland is truly
+critical, whether he accepts or whether he declines it. If the States
+will consent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already
+great, of his situation between the king of Prussia and the
+Emperor.&mdash;But these thoughts lead me too far, when I mean to speak only
+of the interior condition of these princes. It has always, however, some
+necessary connection with their foreign politics.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Holland.</span>With regard to Holland, and the ruling party there, I do not think it at
+all tainted, or likely to be so, except by fear,&mdash;or that it is likely
+to be misled, unless indirectly and circuitously. But the predominant
+party in Holland is not Holland. The suppressed faction, though
+suppressed, exists. Under the ashes, the embers of the late commotions
+are still warm. The anti-Orange party has from the day of its origin
+been French, though alienated in some degree for some time, through the
+pride and folly of Louis the Fourteenth. It will ever hanker after a
+French connection; and now that the internal government in France has
+been assimilated in so considerable a degree to that which the
+immoderate republicans began so very lately to introduce into<a name="Page_345" id="Page_345" title="345" class="pagenum"></a> Holland,
+their connection, as still more natural, will be more desired. I do not
+well understand the present exterior politics of the Stadtholder, nor
+the treaty into which the newspapers say he has entered for the States
+with the Emperor. But the Emperor's own politics with regard to the
+Netherlands seem to me to be exactly calculated to answer the purpose of
+the French Revolutionists. He endeavors to crush the aristocratic party,
+and to nourish one in avowed connection with the most furious
+democratists in France.</p>
+
+<p>These Provinces in which the French game is so well played they consider
+as part of the old French Empire: certainly they were amongst the oldest
+parts of it. These they think very well situated, as their party is well
+disposed to a reunion. As to the greater nations, they do not aim at
+making a direct conquest of them, but, by disturbing them through a
+propagation of their principles, they hope to weaken, as they will
+weaken them, and to keep them in perpetual alarm and agitation, and thus
+render all their efforts against them utterly impracticable, whilst they
+extend the dominion of their sovereign anarchy on all sides.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">England.</span>As to England, there may be some apprehension from vicinity, from
+constant communication, and from the very name of liberty, which, as it
+ought to be very dear to us, in its worst abuses carries something
+seductive. It is the abuse of the first and best of the objects which we
+cherish. I know that many, who sufficiently dislike the system of
+France, have yet no apprehensions of its prevalence here. I say nothing
+to the ground of this security in the attachment of the people to their
+Constitution, <a name="Page_346" id="Page_346" title="346" class="pagenum"></a>and their satisfaction in the discreet portion of liberty
+which it measures out to them. Upon this I have said all I have to say,
+in the Appeal I have published. That security is something, and not
+inconsiderable; but if a storm arises, I should not much rely upon it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Objection to the stability of the French system.</span>There are other views of things which may be used to give us a perfect
+(though in my opinion a delusive) assurance of our own security. The
+first of these is from the weakness and rickety nature of the new system
+in the place of its first formation. It is thought that the monster of a
+commonwealth cannot possibly live,&mdash;that at any rate the ill contrivance
+of their fabric will make it fall in pieces of itself,&mdash;that the
+Assembly must be bankrupt,&mdash;and that this bankruptcy will totally
+destroy that system from the contagion of which apprehensions are
+entertained.</p>
+
+<p>For my part I have long thought that one great cause of the stability of
+this wretched scheme of things in France was an opinion that it could
+not stand, and therefore that all external measures to destroy it were
+wholly useless.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Bankruptcy.</span>As to the bankruptcy, that event has happened long ago, as much as it is
+ever likely to happen. As soon as a nation compels a creditor to take
+paper currency in discharge of his debt, there is a bankruptcy. The
+compulsory paper has in some degree answered,&mdash;not because there was a
+surplus from Church lands, but because faith has not been kept with the
+clergy. As to the holders of the old funds, to them the payments will be
+dilatory, but they will be made; and whatever may be the discount on
+paper, whilst paper is taken, paper will be issued.<a name="Page_347" id="Page_347" title="347" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Resources.</span>As to the rest, they have shot out three branches of revenue to supply
+all those which they have destroyed: that is, <i>the Universal Register of
+all Transactions</i>, the heavy and universal <i>Stamp Duty</i>, and the new
+<i>Territorial Impost</i>, levied chiefly on the reduced estates of the
+gentlemen. These branches of the revenue, especially as they take
+assignats in payment, answer their purpose in a considerable degree, and
+keep up the credit of their paper: for, as they receive it in their
+treasury, it is in reality funded upon all their taxes and future
+resources of all kinds, as well as upon the Church estates. As this
+paper is become in a manner the only visible maintenance of the whole
+people, the dread of a bankruptcy is more apparently connected with the
+delay of a counter-revolution than with the duration of this republic;
+because the interest of the new republic manifestly leans upon it, and,
+in my opinion, the counter-revolution cannot exist along with it. The
+above three projects ruined some ministers under the old government,
+merely for having conceived them. They are the salvation of the present
+rulers.</p>
+
+<p>As the Assembly has laid a most unsparing and cruel hand on all men who
+have lived by the bounty, the justice, or the abuses of the old
+government, they have lessened many expenses. The royal establishment,
+though excessively and ridiculously great for <i>their</i> scheme of things,
+is reduced at least one half; the estates of the king's brothers, which
+under the ancient government had been in truth royal revenues, go to the
+general stock of the confiscation; and as to the crown lands, though
+under the monarchy they never yielded two hundred and fifty <a name="Page_348" id="Page_348" title="348" class="pagenum"></a>thousand a
+year, by many they are thought at least worth three times as much.</p>
+
+<p>As to the ecclesiastical charge, whether as a compensation for losses,
+or a provision for religion, of which they made at first a great parade,
+and entered into a solemn engagement in favor of it, it was estimated at
+a much larger sum than they could expect from the Church property,
+movable or immovable: they are completely bankrupt as to that article.
+It is just what they wish; and it is not productive of any serious
+inconvenience. The non-payment produces discontent and occasional
+sedition; but is only by fits and spasms, and amongst the country
+people, who are of no consequence. These seditions furnish new pretexts
+for non-payment to the Church establishment, and help the Assembly
+wholly to get rid of the clergy, and indeed of any form of religion,
+which is not only their real, but avowed object.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Want of money how supplied.</span>They are embarrassed, indeed, in the highest degree, but not wholly
+resourceless. They are without the species of money. Circulation of
+money is a great convenience, but a substitute for it may be found.
+Whilst the great objects of production and consumption, corn, cattle,
+wine, and the like, exist in a country, the means of giving them
+circulation, with more or less convenience, cannot be <i>wholly</i> wanting.
+The great confiscation of the Church and of the crown lands, and of the
+appanages of the princes, for the purchase of all which their paper is
+always received at par, gives means of continually destroying and
+continually creating; and this perpetual destruction and renovation
+feeds the speculative market, and prevents, and will prevent, <a name="Page_349" id="Page_349" title="349" class="pagenum"></a>till that
+fund of confiscation begins to fail, a <i>total</i> depreciation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Moneyed interest not necessary to them.</span>But all consideration of public credit in France is of little avail at
+present. The action, indeed, of the moneyed interest was of absolute
+necessity at the beginning of this Revolution; but the French republic
+can stand without any assistance from that description of men, which, as
+things are now circumstanced, rather stands in need of assistance itself
+from the power which alone substantially exists in France: I mean the
+several districts and municipal republics, and the several clubs which
+direct all their affairs and appoint all their magistrates. This is the
+power now paramount to everything, even to the Assembly itself called
+National and that to which tribunals, priesthood, laws, finances, and
+both descriptions of military power are wholly subservient, so far as
+the military power of either description yields obedience to any name of
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>The world of contingency and political combination is much larger than
+we are apt to imagine. We never can say what may or may not happen,
+without a view to all the actual circumstances. Experience, upon other
+data than those, is of all things the most delusive. Prudence in new
+cases can do nothing on grounds of retrospect. A constant vigilance and
+attention to the train of things as they successively emerge, and to act
+on what they direct, are the only sure courses. The physician that let
+blood, and by blood-letting cured one kind of plague, in the next added
+to its ravages. That power goes with property is not universally true,
+and the idea that the operation of it is certain and invariable may
+mislead us very fatally.<a name="Page_350" id="Page_350" title="350" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Power separated from property.</span>Whoever will take an accurate view of the state of those republics, and
+of the composition of the present Assembly deputed by them, (in which
+Assembly there are not quite fifty persons possessed of an income
+amounting to 100<i>l.</i> sterling yearly,) must discern clearly, <i>that the
+political and civil power of France is wholly separated from its
+property of every description</i>, and of course that neither the landed
+nor the moneyed interest possesses the smallest weight or consideration
+in the direction of any public concern. The whole kingdom is directed by
+<i>the refuse of its chicane</i>, with the aid of the bustling, presumptuous
+young clerks of counting-houses and shops, and some intermixture of
+young gentlemen of the same character in the several towns. The rich
+peasants are bribed with Church lands; and the poorer of that
+description are, and can be, counted for nothing. They may rise in
+ferocious, ill-directed tumults,&mdash;but they can only disgrace themselves
+and signalize the triumph of their adversaries.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Effects of the rota.</span>The <i>truly</i> active citizens, that is, the above descriptions, are all
+concerned in intrigue respecting the various objects in their local or
+their general government. The rota, which the French have established
+for their National Assembly, holds out the highest objects of ambition
+to such vast multitudes as in an unexampled measure to widen the bottom
+of a new species of interest merely political, and wholly unconnected
+with birth or property. This scheme of a rota, though it enfeebles the
+state, considered as one solid body, and indeed wholly disables it from
+acting as such, gives a great, an equal, and a diffusive strength to the
+democratic scheme. Seven hundred and fifty peo<a name="Page_351" id="Page_351" title="351" class="pagenum"></a>ple, every two years
+raised to the supreme power, has already produced at least fifteen
+hundred bold, acting politicians: a great number for even so great a
+country as France. These men never will quietly settle in ordinary
+occupations, nor submit to any scheme which must reduce them to an
+entirely private condition, or to the exercise of a steady, peaceful,
+but obscure and unimportant industry. Whilst they sit in the Assembly,
+they are denied offices of trust and profit,&mdash;but their short duration
+makes this no restraint: during their probation and apprenticeship they
+are all salaried with an income to the greatest part of them immense;
+and after they have passed the novitiate, those who take any sort of
+lead are placed in very lucrative offices, according to their influence
+and credit, or appoint those who divide their profits with them.</p>
+
+<p>This supply of recruits to the corps of the highest civil ambition goes
+on with a regular progression. In very few years it must amount to many
+thousands. These, however, will be as nothing in comparison to the
+multitude of municipal officers, and officers of district and
+department, of all sorts, who have tasted of power and profit, and who
+hunger for the periodical return of the meal. To these needy agitators,
+the glory of the state, the general wealth and prosperity of the nation,
+and the rise or fall of public credit are as dreams; nor have arguments
+deduced from these topics any sort of weight with them. The indifference
+with which the Assembly regards the state of their colonies, the only
+valuable part of the French commerce, is a full proof how little they
+are likely to be affected by anything but the selfish game of their own
+ambition, now universally diffused.<a name="Page_352" id="Page_352" title="352" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Impracticability of resistance.</span>It is true, amidst all these turbulent means of security to their
+system, very great discontents everywhere prevail. But they only produce
+misery to those who nurse them at home, or exile, beggary, and in the
+end confiscation, to those who are so impatient as to remove from them.
+Each municipal republic has a <i>Committee</i>, or something in the nature of
+a <i>Committee of Research</i>. In these petty republics the tyranny is so
+near its object that it becomes instantly acquainted with every act of
+every man. It stifles conspiracy in its very first movements. Their
+power is absolute and uncontrollable. No stand can be made against it.
+These republics are besides so disconnected, that very little
+intelligence of what happens in them is to be obtained beyond their own
+bounds, except by the means of their clubs, who keep up a constant
+correspondence, and who give what color they please to such facts as
+they choose to communicate out of the track of their correspondence.
+They all have some sort of communication, just as much or as little as
+they please, with the centre. By this confinement of all communication
+to the ruling faction, any combination, grounded on the abuses and
+discontents in one, scarcely can reach the other. There is not one man,
+in any one place, to head them. The old government had so much
+abstracted the nobility from the cultivation of provincial interest,
+that no man in France exists, whose power, credit, or consequence
+extends to two districts, or who is capable of uniting them in any
+design, even if any man could assemble ten men together without being
+sure of a speedy lodging in a prison. One must not judge of the state of
+France by what has been observed elsewhere. It <a name="Page_353" id="Page_353" title="353" class="pagenum"></a>does not in the least
+resemble any other country. Analogical reasoning from history or from
+recent experience in other places is wholly delusive.</p>
+
+<p>In my opinion, there never was seen so strong a government internally as
+that of the French municipalities. If ever any rebellion can arise
+against the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which
+gave birth to it did, at the capital. Paris is the only place in which
+there is the least freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many
+servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestic
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Gentlemen are fugitives.</span>But that place being the chief seat of the power and intelligence of the
+ruling faction, and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest
+spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have anything to feed
+it. The leaders of the aristocratic party have been drawn out of the
+kingdom by order of the princes, on the hopes held out by the Emperor
+and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the democratic factions in
+Paris, amongst them there are no leaders possessed of an influence for
+any other purpose but that of maintaining the present state of things.
+The moment they are seen to warp, they are reduced to nothing. They have
+no attached army,&mdash;no party that is at all personal.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be imagined, because a political system is, under certain
+aspects, very unwise in its contrivance, and very mischievous in its
+effects, that it therefore can have no long duration. Its very defects
+may tend to its stability, because they are agreeable to its nature. The
+very faults in the Constitution of Poland made it last; the <i>veto</i> which
+destroyed all its energy preserved its life. What can be conceived so
+<a name="Page_354" id="Page_354" title="354" class="pagenum"></a>monstrous as the republic of Algiers, and that no less strange republic
+of the Mamelukes in Egypt? They are of the worst form imaginable, and
+exercised in the worst manner, yet they have existed as a nuisance on
+the earth for several hundred years.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Conclusions.</span>From all these considerations, and many more that crowd upon me, three
+conclusions have long since arisen in my mind.</p>
+
+<p>First, that no counter revolution is to be expected in France from
+internal causes solely.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, that, the longer the present system exists, the greater will
+be its strength, the greater its power to destroy discontents at home,
+and to resist all foreign attempts in favor of these discontents.</p>
+
+<p>Thirdly, that, as long as it exists in France, it will be the interest
+of the managers there, and it is in the very essence of their plan, to
+disturb and distract all other governments, and their endless succession
+of restless politicians will continually stimulate them to new attempts.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Proceedings of princes; defensive plans.</span>Princes are generally sensible that this is their common cause; and two
+of them have made a public declaration of their opinion to this effect.
+Against this common danger, some of them, such as the king of Spain, the
+king of Sardinia, and the republic of Bern, are very diligent in using
+defensive measures.</p>
+
+<p>If they were to guard against an invasion from France, the merits of
+this plan of a merely defensive resistance might be supported by
+plausible topics; but as the attack does not operate against these
+countries externally, but by an internal corruption, (a sort of dry
+rot,) they who pursue this merely defensive plan against a danger which
+the plan itself supposes <a name="Page_355" id="Page_355" title="355" class="pagenum"></a>to be serious cannot possibly escape it. For
+it is in the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and vigorous
+under the impressions of the first alarm, and to relax by degrees, until
+at length the danger, by not operating instantly, comes to appear as a
+false alarm,&mdash;so much so, that the next menacing appearance will look
+less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are
+on the offensive it is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly it is
+more their interest not to be so. For their unforeseen attacks
+contribute to their success.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">The French party how composed.</span>In the mean time a system of French conspiracy is gaining ground in
+every country. This system, happening to be founded on principles the
+most delusive indeed, but the most flattering to the natural
+propensities of the unthinking multitude, and to the speculations of all
+those who think, without thinking very profoundly, must daily extend its
+influence. A predominant inclination towards it appears in all those who
+have no religion, when otherwise their disposition leads them to be
+advocates even for despotism. Hence Hume, though I cannot say that he
+does not throw out some expressions of disapprobation on the proceedings
+of the levellers in the reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms that
+the doctrines of John Ball were &quot;conformable to the ideas of primitive
+equality <i>which are engraven in the hearts of all men</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Boldness formerly was not the character of atheists as such. They were
+even of a character nearly the reverse; they were formerly like the old
+Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they are grown
+active, designing, turbulent, and seditious. They are sworn enemies to
+kings, nobility, and priest<a name="Page_356" id="Page_356" title="356" class="pagenum"></a>hood. We have seen all the Academicians at
+Paris, with Condorcet, the friend and correspondent of Priestley, at
+their head, the most furious of the extravagant republicans.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Condorcet.</span>The late Assembly, after the last captivity of the king, had actually
+chosen this Condorcet, by a majority on the ballot, for preceptor to the
+Dauphin, who was to be taken out of the hands and direction of his
+parents, and to be delivered over to this fanatic atheist and furious
+democratic republican. His untractability to these leaders, and his
+figure in the club of Jacobins, which at that time they wished to bring
+under, alone prevented that part of the arrangement, and others in the
+same style, from being carried into execution. Whilst he was candidate
+for this office, he produced his title to it by promulgating the
+following ideas of the title of his royal pupil to the crown. In a paper
+written by him, and published with his name, against the re&euml;stablishment
+even of the appearance of monarchy under any qualifications, he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Doctrine of the French.</span>&quot;Jusqu'&agrave; ce moment, ils [l'Assembl&eacute;e Nationale] n'ont rien pr&eacute;jug&eacute;
+encore. En se r&eacute;servant de nommer un gouverneur au Dauphin, ils n'ont
+pas prononc&eacute; <i>que cet enfant d&ucirc;t r&eacute;gner</i>, mais seulement qu'il <i>&eacute;tait
+possible</i> que la Constitution l'y destin&acirc;t; ils ont voulu que
+l'&eacute;ducation effa&ccedil;&acirc;t tout ce que <i>les prestiges du tr&ocirc;ne</i> ont pu lui
+inspirer de pr&eacute;jug&eacute;s sur les droits pr&eacute;tendus de sa naissance; qu'elle
+lui f&icirc;t conna&icirc;tre de bonne heure et <i>l'&eacute;galit&eacute; naturelle des hommes et
+la souverainet&eacute; du peuple</i>; qu'elle lui appr&icirc;t &agrave; ne pas oublier que
+c'est <i>du peuple</i> qu'il tiendra le titre de Roi, et que <i>le peuple n'a
+pas m&ecirc;me le droit de renoncer &agrave; celui de l'en d&eacute;pouiller</i>.<a name="Page_357" id="Page_357" title="357" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ils ont voulu que cette &eacute;ducation le rend&icirc;t &eacute;galement digne, par ses
+lumi&egrave;res et ses vertus, de recevoir <i>avec r&eacute;signation</i> le fardeau
+dangereux d'une couronne, ou de la <i>d&eacute;poser avec joie</i> entre les mains
+de ses fr&egrave;res; qu'il sent&icirc;t que le devoir et la gloire du roi d'un
+peuple libre sont de h&acirc;ter le moment de n'&ecirc;tre plus qu'un citoyen
+ordinaire.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ils ont voulu que <i>l'inutilit&eacute; d'un roi</i>, la n&eacute;cessit&eacute; de chercher les
+moyens de remplacer <i>un pouvoir fond&eacute; sur des illusions</i>, f&ucirc;t une des
+premi&egrave;res v&eacute;rit&eacute;s offertes &agrave; sa raison; <i>l'obligation d'y concourir
+lui-m&ecirc;me, un des premiers devoirs de sa morale; et le d&eacute;sir de n'&ecirc;tre
+plus affranchi du joug de la loi par une injurieuse inviolabilit&eacute;, le
+premier sentiment de son c&oelig;ur</i>. Ils n'ignorent pas que dans ce moment
+il s'agit bien moins de former un roi que de lui apprendre <i>&agrave; savoir &agrave;
+vouloir ne plus l'&ecirc;tre</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor" title=" &quot;Until now, they [the National Assembly] have prejudged
+nothing. Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a preceptor to the
+Dauphin, they did not declare _that this child was to reign_, but only
+that _possibly_ the Constitution _might_ destine him to it: they willed,
+that, while education should efface from his mind all the prejudices
+arising from _the delusions of the throne_ respecting his pretended
+birthright, it should also teach him not to forget that it is _from the
+people_ he is to receive the title of King, and that _the people do not
+even possess the right of giving up their power to take it from him_.
+
+&quot;They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
+knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive _with submission_ the
+dangerous burden of a crown, and _to resign it with pleasure_ into the
+hands of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
+that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the duty
+and the glory of a king of a free people.
+
+&quot;They willed that _the uselessness of a king_, the necessity of seeking
+means to establish something in lieu of _a power founded on illusions_,
+should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; _the obligation
+of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the
+desire of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious
+inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart_. They are not
+ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king
+than to teach him _that he should know how to wish no longer to be
+such_.&quot;">[32]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such are the sentiments of the man who has occasionally filled the chair
+of the National Assembly, who is their perpetual secretary, their only
+standing officer, and the most important by far. He leads them to peace
+or war. He is the great theme of the republican faction in England.
+These ideas of M. Condorcet are the principles of those to whom kings
+<a name="Page_358" id="Page_358" title="358" class="pagenum"></a>are to intrust their successors and the interests of their succession.
+This man would be ready to plunge the poniard in the heart of his pupil,
+or to whet the axe for his neck. Of all men, the most dangerous is a
+warm, hot-headed, zealous atheist. This sort of man aims at dominion,
+and his means are the words he always has in his mouth,&mdash;&quot;<i>L'&eacute;galit&eacute;
+naturelle des hommes, et la souverainet&eacute; du peuple</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>All former attempts, grounded on these rights of men, had proved
+unfortunate. The success of this last makes a mighty difference in the
+effect of the doctrine. Here is a principle of a nature to the multitude
+the most seductive, always existing before their eyes <i>as a thing
+feasible in practice</i>. After so many failures, such an enterprise,
+previous to the French experiment, carried ruin to the contrivers, on
+the face of it; and if any enthusiast was so wild as to wish to engage
+in a scheme of that nature, it was not easy for him to find followers:
+now there is a party almost in all countries, ready-made, animated with
+success, with a sure ally in the very centre of Europe. There is no
+cabal so obscure in any place, that they do not protect, cherish,
+foster, and endeavor to <a name="Page_359" id="Page_359" title="359" class="pagenum"></a>raise it into importance at home and abroad.
+From the lowest, this intrigue will creep up to the highest. Ambition,
+as well as enthusiasm, may find its account in the party and in the
+principle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Character of ministers.</span>The ministers of other kings, like those of the king of France, (not one
+of whom was perfectly free from this guilt, and some of whom were very
+deep in it,) may themselves be the persons to foment such a disposition
+and such a faction. Hertzberg, the king of Prussia's late minister, is
+so much of what is called a philosopher, that he was of a faction with
+that sort of politicians in everything, and in every place. Even when he
+defends himself from the imputation of giving extravagantly into these
+principles, he still considers the Revolution of France as a great
+public good, by giving credit to their fraudulent declaration of their
+universal benevolence and love of peace. Nor are his Prussian Majesty's
+present ministers at all disinclined to the same system. Their
+ostentatious preamble to certain late edicts demonstrates (if their
+actions had not been sufficiently explanatory of their cast of mind)
+that they are deeply infected with the same distemper of dangerous,
+because plausible, though trivial and shallow, speculation.</p>
+
+<p>Ministers, turning their backs on the reputation which properly belongs
+to them, aspire at the glory of being speculative writers. The duties of
+these two situations are in general directly opposite to each other.
+Speculators ought to be neutral. A minister cannot be so. He is to
+support the interest of the public as connected with that of his master.
+He is his master's trustee, advocate, attorney, and steward,&mdash;and he is
+not to indulge in any speculation which <a name="Page_360" id="Page_360" title="360" class="pagenum"></a>contradicts that character, or
+even detracts from its efficacy. Necker had an extreme thirst for this
+sort of glory; so had others; and this pursuit of a misplaced and
+misunderstood reputation was one of the causes of the ruin of these
+ministers, and of their unhappy, master. The Prussian ministers in
+foreign courts have (at least not long since) talked the most democratic
+language with regard to Prance, and in the most unmanaged terms.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Corps diplomatique.</span>The whole <i>corps diplomatique</i>, with very few exceptions, leans that
+way. What cause produces in them a turn of mind which at first one would
+think unnatural to their situation it is not impossible to explain. The
+discussion would, however, be somewhat long and somewhat invidious. The
+fact itself is indisputable, however they may disguise it to their
+several courts. This disposition is gone to so very great a length in
+that corps, in itself so important, and so important as <i>furnishing</i> the
+intelligence which sways all cabinets, that, if princes and states do
+not very speedily attend with a vigorous control to that source of
+direction and information, very serious evils are likely to befall them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Sovereigns&mdash;their dispositions.</span>But, indeed, kings are to guard against the same sort of dispositions in
+themselves. They are very easily alienated from all the higher orders of
+their subjects, whether civil or military, laic or ecclesiastical. It is
+with persons of condition that sovereigns chiefly come into contact. It
+is from them that they generally experience opposition to their will. It
+is with <i>their</i> pride and impracticability that princes are most hurt.
+It is with <i>their</i> servility and baseness that they are most commonly
+disgusted. It is from their humors and cabals that <a name="Page_361" id="Page_361" title="361" class="pagenum"></a>they find their
+affairs most frequently troubled and distracted. But of the common
+people, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing;
+and therefore being unacquainted with their faults, (which are as many
+as those of the great, and much more decisive in their effects, when
+accompanied with power,) kings generally regard them with tenderness and
+favor, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects,
+particularly when hurt by opposition from the higher orders. It was thus
+that the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was
+ruined. I have it from very sure information, (and it was, indeed,
+obvious enough, from the measures which were taken previous to the
+assembly of the States and afterwards,) that the king's counsellors had
+filled him with a strong dislike to his nobility, his clergy, and the
+corps of his magistracy. They represented to him, that he had tried them
+all severally, in several ways, and found them all untractable: that he
+had twice called an assembly (the Notables) composed of the first men of
+the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had himself named
+every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he
+had not, in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a
+compliance with his will than they had been separately; that there
+remained for him, with the least prospect of advantage to his authority
+in the States-General, which were to be composed of the same sorts of
+men, but not chosen by him, only the <i>Tiers &Eacute;tat</i>: in this alone he
+could repose any hope of extricating himself from his difficulties, and
+of settling him in a clear and permanent authority. They represented,
+(these are the words of one of my <a name="Page_362" id="Page_362" title="362" class="pagenum"></a>informants,) &quot;that the royal
+authority, compressed with the weight of these aristocratic bodies, full
+of ambition and of faction, when once unloaded, would rise of itself,
+and occupy its natural place without disturbance or control&quot;; that the
+common people would protect, cherish, and support, instead of crushing
+it. &quot;The people&quot; (it was said) &quot;could entertain no objects of ambition&quot;;
+they were out of the road of intrigue and cabal, and could possibly have
+no other view than the support of the mild and parental authority by
+which they were invested, for the first time collectively, with real
+importance in the state, and protected in their peaceable and useful
+employments.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">King of France.</span>This unfortunate king (not without a large share of blame to himself)
+was deluded to his ruin by a desire to humble and reduce his nobility,
+clergy, and big corporate magistracy: not that I suppose he meant wholly
+to eradicate these bodies, in the manner since effected by the
+democratic power; I rather believe that even Necker's designs did not go
+to that extent. With his own hand, however, Louis the Sixteenth pulled
+down the pillars which upheld his throne; and this he did, because he
+could not bear the inconveniences which are attached to everything
+human,&mdash;because he found himself cooped up, and in durance, by those
+limits which Nature prescribes to desire and imagination, and was taught
+to consider as low and degrading that mutual dependence which Providence
+has ordained that all men should have on one another. He is not at this
+minute, perhaps, cured of the dread of the power and credit like to be
+acquired by those who would save and rescue him. He leaves those <a name="Page_363" id="Page_363" title="363" class="pagenum"></a>who
+suffer in his cause to their fate,&mdash;and hopes, by various mean, delusive
+intrigues, in which I am afraid he is encouraged from abroad, to regain,
+among traitors and regicides, the power he has joined to take from his
+own family, whom he quietly sees proscribed before his eyes, and called
+to answer to the lowest of his rebels, as the vilest of all criminals.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Emperor.</span>It is to be hoped that the Emperor may be taught better things by this
+fatal example. But it is sure that he has advisers who endeavor to fill
+him with the ideas which have brought his brother-in-law to his present
+situation. Joseph the Second was far gone in this philosophy, and some,
+if not most, who serve the Emperor, would kindly initiate him into all
+the mysteries of this freemasonry. They would persuade him to look on
+the National Assembly, not with the hatred of an enemy, but the jealousy
+of a rival. They would make him desirous of doing, in his own dominions,
+by a royal despotism, what has been done in France by a democratic.
+Rather than abandon such enterprises, they would persuade him to a
+strange alliance between those extremes. Their grand object being now,
+as in his brother's time, at any rate to destroy the higher orders, they
+think he cannot compass this end, as certainly he cannot, without
+elevating the lower. By depressing the one and by raising the other they
+hope in the first place to increase his treasures and his army; and with
+these common instruments of royal power they flatter him that the
+democracy, which they help in his name to create, will give him but
+little trouble. In defiance of the freshest experience, which might show
+him that old impossibilities are become modern probabilities, and that
+the <a name="Page_364" id="Page_364" title="364" class="pagenum"></a>extent to which evil principles may go, when left to their own
+operation, is beyond the power of calculation, they will endeavor to
+persuade him that such a democracy is a thing which cannot subsist by
+itself; that in whose ever hands the military command is placed, he must
+be, in the necessary course of affairs, sooner or later the master; and
+that, being the master of various unconnected countries, he may keep
+them all in order by employing a military force which to each of them is
+foreign. This maxim, too, however formerly plausible, will not now hold
+water. This scheme is full of intricacy, and may cause him everywhere to
+lose the hearts of his people. These counsellors forget that a corrupted
+army was the very cause of the ruin of his brother-in-law, and that he
+is himself far from secure from a similar corruption.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Brabant.</span>Instead of reconciling himself heartily and <i>bon&acirc; fide</i>, according to
+the most obvious rules of policy, to the States of Brabant, <i>as they are
+constituted</i>, and who in <i>the present state of things</i> stand on the same
+foundation with the monarchy itself, and who might have been gained with
+the greatest facility, they have advised him to the most unkingly
+proceeding which, either in a good or in a bad light, has ever been
+attempted. Under a pretext taken from the spirit of the lowest chicane,
+they have counselled him wholly to break the public faith, to annul the
+amnesty, as well as the other conditions through which he obtained an
+entrance into the Provinces of the Netherlands under the guaranty of
+Great Britain and Prussia. He is made to declare his adherence to the
+indemnity in a criminal sense, but he is to keep alive in his own name,
+and to encourage in others, a <i>civil</i> process in the nature of an
+<a name="Page_365" id="Page_365" title="365" class="pagenum"></a>action of damages for what has been suffered during the troubles.
+Whilst he keeps up this hopeful lawsuit in view of the damages he may
+recover against individuals, he loses the hearts of a whole people, and
+the vast subsidies which his ancestors had been used to receive from
+them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Emperor's conduct with regard to France.</span>This design once admitted unriddles the mystery of the whole conduct of
+the Emperor's ministers with regard to France. As soon as they saw the
+life of the king and queen of France no longer, as they thought, in
+danger, they entirely changed their plan with regard to the French
+nation. I believe that the chiefs of the Revolution (those who led the
+constituting Assembly) have contrived, as far as they can do it, to give
+the Emperor satisfaction on this head. He keeps a continual tone and
+posture of menace to secure this his only point. But it must be
+observed, that he all along grounds his departure from the engagement at
+Pilnitz to the princes on the will and actions of <i>the king</i> and the
+majority of the people, without any regard to the natural and
+constitutional orders of the state, or to the opinions of the whole
+House of Bourbon. Though it is manifestly under the constraint of
+imprisonment and the fear of death that this unhappy man has been guilty
+of all those humilities which have astonished mankind, the advisers of
+the Emperor will consider nothing but the <i>physical</i> person of Louis,
+which, even in his present degraded and infamous state, they regard as
+of sufficient authority to give a complete sanction to the persecution
+and utter ruin of all his family, and of every person who has shown any
+degree of attachment or fidelity to him or to his cause, as <a name="Page_366" id="Page_366" title="366" class="pagenum"></a>well as
+competent to destroy the whole ancient constitution and frame of the
+French monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>The present policy, therefore, of the Austrian politicians is, to
+recover despotism through democracy,&mdash;or, at least, at any expense,
+everywhere to ruin the description of men who are everywhere the objects
+of their settled and systematic aversion, but more especially in the
+Netherlands. Compare this with the Emperor's refusing at first all
+intercourse with the present powers in France, with his endeavoring to
+excite all Europe against them, and then, his not only withdrawing all
+assistance and all countenance from the fugitives who had been drawn by
+his declarations from their houses, situations, and military
+commissions, many even from the means of their very existence, but
+treating them with every species of insult and outrage.</p>
+
+<p>Combining this unexampled conduct in the Emperor's advisers with the
+timidity (operating as perfidy) of the king of France, a fatal example
+is held out to all subjects, tending to show what little support, or
+even countenance, they are to expect from those for whom their principle
+of fidelity may induce them to risk life and fortune. The Emperor's
+advisers would not for the world rescind one of the acts of this or of
+the late French Assembly; nor do they wish anything better at present
+for their master's brother of France than that he should really be, as
+he is nominally, at the head of the system of persecution of religion
+and good order, and of all descriptions of dignity, natural and
+instituted: they only wish all this done with a little more respect to
+the king's person, and with more appearance of consideration for his new
+subordinate office,&mdash;in <a name="Page_367" id="Page_367" title="367" class="pagenum"></a>hopes, that, yielding himself for the present
+to the persons who have effected these changes, he may be able to game
+for the rest hereafter. On no other principles than these can the
+conduct of the court of Vienna be accounted for. The subordinate court
+of Brussels talks the language of a club of Feuillants and Jacobins.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Moderate party.</span>In this state of general rottenness among subjects, and of delusion and
+false politics in princes, comes a new experiment. The king of France is
+in the hands of the chiefs of the regicide faction,&mdash;the Barnaves,
+Lameths, Fayettes, P&eacute;rigords, Duports, Robespierres, Camuses, &amp;c., &amp;c.,
+&amp;c. They who had imprisoned, suspended, and conditionally deposed him
+are his confidential counsellors. The next desperate of the desperate
+rebels call themselves the <i>moderate</i> party. They are the chiefs of the
+first Assembly, who are confederated to support their power during their
+suspension from the present, and to govern the existent body with as
+sovereign a sway as they had done the last. They have, for the greater
+part, succeeded; and they have many advantages towards procuring their
+success in future. Just before the close of their regular power, they
+bestowed some appearance of prerogatives on the king, which in their
+first plans they had refused to him,&mdash;particularly the mischievous, and,
+in his situation, dreadful prerogative of a <i>veto</i>. This prerogative,
+(which they hold as their bit in the mouth of the National Assembly for
+the time being,) without the direct assistance of their club, it was
+impossible for the king to show even the desire of exerting with the
+smallest effect, or even with safety to his person. However, by playing,
+through this <i>veto</i>, the Assembly against the <a name="Page_368" id="Page_368" title="368" class="pagenum"></a>king, and the king
+against the Assembly, they have made themselves masters of both. In this
+situation, having destroyed the old government by their sedition, they
+would preserve as much of order as is necessary for the support of their
+own usurpation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">French ambassador.</span>It is believed that this, by far the worst party of the miscreants of
+France, has received direct encouragement from the counsellors who
+betray the Emperor. Thus strengthened by the possession of the captive
+king, (now captive in his mind as well as in body,) and by a good hope
+of the Emperor, they intend to send their ministers to every court in
+Europe,&mdash;having sent before them such a denunciation of terror and
+superiority to every nation without exception as has no example in the
+diplomatic world. Hitherto the ministers to foreign courts had been of
+the appointment of the sovereign of France <i>previous to the Revolution</i>;
+and, either from inclination, duty, or decorum, most of them were
+contented with a merely passive obedience to the new power. At present,
+the king, being entirely in the hands of his jailors, and his mind
+broken to his situation, can send none but the enthusiasts of the
+system,&mdash;men framed by the secret committee of the Feuillants, who meet
+in the house of Madame de Sta&euml;l, M. Necker's daughter. Such is every man
+whom they have talked of sending hither. These ministers will be so many
+spies and incendiaries, so many active emissaries of democracy. Their
+houses will become places of rendezvous here, as everywhere else, and
+centres of cabal for whatever is mischievous and malignant in this
+country, particularly among those of rank and fashion. As the minister
+of the National Assembly will be <a name="Page_369" id="Page_369" title="369" class="pagenum"></a>admitted at this court, at least with
+his usual rank, and as entertainments will be naturally given and
+received by the king's own ministers, any attempt to discountenance the
+resort of other people to that minister would be ineffectual, and indeed
+absurd, and full of contradiction. The women who come with these
+ambassadors will assist in fomenting factions amongst ours, which cannot
+fail of extending the evil. Some of them I hear are already arrived.
+There is no doubt they will do as much mischief as they can.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Connection of clubs.</span>Whilst the public ministers are received under the general law of the
+communication between nations, the correspondences between the factious
+clubs in France and ours will be, as they now are, kept up; but this
+pretended embassy will be a closer, more steady, and more effectual link
+between the partisans of the new system on both sides of the water. I do
+not mean that these Anglo-Gallic clubs in London, Manchester, &amp;c., are
+not dangerous in a high degree. The appointment of festive anniversaries
+has ever in the sense of mankind been held the best method of keeping
+alive the spirit of any institution. We have one settled in London; and
+at the last of them, that of the 14th of July, the strong discountenance
+of government, the unfavorable time of the year, and the then
+uncertainty of the disposition of foreign powers, did not hinder the
+meeting of at least nine hundred people, with good coats on their backs,
+who could afford to pay half a guinea a head to show their zeal for the
+new principles. They were with great difficulty, and all possible
+address, hindered from inviting the French ambassador. His real
+indisposition, besides <a name="Page_370" id="Page_370" title="370" class="pagenum"></a>the fear of offending any party, sent him out of
+town. But when our court shall have recognized a government in France
+founded on the principles announced in Montmorin's letter, how can the
+French ambassador be frowned upon for an attendance on those meetings
+wherein the establishment of the government he represents is celebrated?
+An event happened a few days ago, which in many particulars was very
+ridiculous; yet, even from the ridicule and absurdity of the
+proceedings, it marks the more strongly the spirit of the French
+Assembly: I mean the reception they have given to the Frith Street
+Alliance. This, though the delirium of a low, drunken alehouse club,
+they have publicly announced as a formal alliance with the people of
+England, as such ordered it to be presented to their king, and to be
+published in every province in France. This leads, more directly and
+with much greater force than any proceeding with a regular and rational
+appearance, to two very material considerations. First, it shows that
+they are of opinion that the current opinions of the English have the
+greatest influence on the minds of the people in France, and indeed of
+all the people in Europe, since they catch with such astonishing
+eagerness at every the most trifling show of such opinions in their
+favor. Next, and what appears to me to be full as important, it shows
+that they are willing publicly to countenance, and even to adopt, every
+factious conspiracy that can be formed in this nation, however low and
+base in itself, in order to excite in the most miserable wretches here
+an idea of their own sovereign importance, and to encourage them to look
+up to France, whenever they may be matured into something of more force,
+for assistance in <a name="Page_371" id="Page_371" title="371" class="pagenum"></a>the subversion of their domestic government. This
+address of the alehouse club was actually proposed and accepted by the
+Assembly as an <i>alliance</i>. The procedure was in my opinion a high
+misdemeanor in those who acted thus in England, if they were not so very
+low and so very base that no acts of theirs can be called high, even as
+a description of criminality; and the Assembly, in accepting,
+proclaiming, and publishing this forged alliance, has been guilty of a
+plain aggression, which would justify our court in demanding a direct
+disavowal, if our policy should not lead us to wink at it.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst I look over this paper to have it copied, I see a manifesto of
+the Assembly, as a preliminary to a declaration of war against the
+German princes on the Rhine. This manifesto contains the whole substance
+of the French politics with regard to foreign states. They have ordered
+it to be circulated amongst the people in every country of Europe,&mdash;even
+previously to its acceptance by the king, and his new privy council, the
+club of the Feuillants. Therefore, as a summary of their policy avowed
+by themselves, let us consider some of the circumstances attending that
+piece, as well as the spirit and temper of the piece itself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Declaration against the Emperor.</span>It was preceded by a speech from Brissot, full of unexampled insolence
+towards all the sovereign states of Germany, if not of Europe. The
+Assembly, to express their satisfaction in the sentiments which it
+contained, ordered it to be printed. This Brissot had been in the lowest
+and basest employ under the deposed monarchy,&mdash;a sort of thief-taker, or
+spy of police,&mdash;in which character he acted after the manner of persons
+in that descrip<a name="Page_372" id="Page_372" title="372" class="pagenum"></a>tion. He had been employed by his master, the
+<i>Lieutenant de Police</i>, for a considerable time in London, in the same
+or some such honorable occupation. The Revolution, which has brought
+forward all merit of that kind, raised him, with others of a similar
+class and disposition, to fame and eminence. On the Revolution he became
+a publisher of an infamous newspaper, which he still continues. He is
+charged, and I believe justly, as the first mover of the troubles in
+Hispaniola. There is no wickedness, if I am rightly informed, in which
+he is not versed, and of which he is not perfectly capable. His quality
+of news-writer, now an employment of the first dignity in France, and
+his practices and principles, procured his election into the Assembly,
+where he is one of the leading members. M. Condorcet produced on the
+same day a draught of a declaration to the king, which the Assembly
+published before it was presented.</p>
+
+<p>Condorcet (though no marquis, as he styled himself before the
+Revolution) is a man of another sort of birth, fashion, and occupation
+from Brissot,&mdash;but in every principle, and every disposition to the
+lowest as well as the highest and most determined villanies, fully his
+equal. He seconds Brissot in the Assembly, and is at once his coadjutor
+and his rival in a newspaper, which, in his own name, and as successor
+to M. Garat, a member also of the Assembly, he has just set up in that
+empire of gazettes. Condorcet was chosen to draw the first declaration
+presented by the Assembly to the king, as a threat to the Elector of
+Treves, and the other princes on the Rhine. In that piece, in which both
+Feuillants and Jacobins concurred, they declared publicly, and most
+proudly <a name="Page_373" id="Page_373" title="373" class="pagenum"></a>and insolently, the principle on which they mean to proceed in
+their future disputes with any of the sovereigns of Europe; for they
+say, &quot;that it is not with fire and sword they mean to attack their
+territories, but by what will be <i>more dreadful</i> to them, the
+introduction of liberty.&quot;&mdash;I have not the paper by me, to give the exact
+words, but I believe they are nearly as I state them.&mdash;<i>Dreadful</i>,
+indeed, will be their hostility, if they should be able to carry it on
+according to the example of <i>their</i> modes of introducing liberty. They
+have shown a perfect model of their whole design, very complete, though
+in little. This gang of murderers and savages have wholly laid waste and
+utterly ruined the beautiful and happy country of the Comtat Venaissin
+and the city of Avignon. This cruel and treacherous outrage the
+sovereigns of Europe, in my opinion, with a great mistake of their honor
+and interest, have permitted, even without a remonstrance, to be carried
+to the desired point, on the principles on which they are now themselves
+threatened in their own states; and this, because, according to the poor
+and narrow spirit now in fashion, their brother sovereign, whose
+subjects have been thus traitorously and inhumanly treated in violation
+of the law of Nature and of nations, has a name somewhat different from
+theirs, and, instead of being styled King, or Duke, or Landgrave, is
+usually called Pope.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">State of the Empire.</span>The Electors of Treves and Mentz were frightened with the menace of a
+similar mode of war. The Assembly, however, not thinking that the
+Electors of Treves and Mentz had done enough under their first terror,
+have again brought forward Condorcet, preceded by Brissot, as I have
+just stated. The declaration, which they have ordered <a name="Page_374" id="Page_374" title="374" class="pagenum"></a>now to be
+circulated in all countries, is in substance the same as the first, but
+still more insolent, because more full of detail. There they have the
+impudence to state that they aim at no conquest: insinuating that all
+the old, lawful powers of the world had each made a constant, open
+profession of a design of subduing his neighbors. They add, that, if
+they are provoked, their war will be directed only against those who
+assume to be <i>masters</i>; but to the <i>people</i> they will bring peace, law,
+liberty, &amp;c., &amp;c. There is not the least hint that they consider those
+whom they call persons &quot;<i>assuming to be matters</i>&quot; to be the lawful
+government of their country, or persons to be treated with the least
+management or respect. They regard them as usurpers and enslavers of the
+people. If I do not mistake, they are described by the name of tyrants
+in Condorcet's first draught. I am sure they are so in Brissot's speech,
+ordered by the Assembly to be printed at the same time and for the same
+purposes. The whole is in the same strain, full of false philosophy and
+false rhetoric,&mdash;both, however, calculated to captivate and influence
+the vulgar mind, and to excite sedition in the countries in which it is
+ordered to be circulated. Indeed, it is such, that, if any of the
+lawful, acknowledged sovereigns of Europe had publicly ordered such a
+manifesto to be circulated in the dominions of another, the ambassador
+of that power would instantly be ordered to quit every court without an
+audience.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Effect of fear on the sovereign powers.</span>The powers of Europe have a pretext for concealing their fears, by
+saying that this language is not used by the king; though they well know
+that there is in effect no such person,&mdash;that the Assembly is in
+reality, and by that king is acknowl<a name="Page_375" id="Page_375" title="375" class="pagenum"></a>edged to be, <i>the master</i>,&mdash;that
+what he does is but matter of formality,&mdash;and that he can neither cause
+nor hinder, accelerate nor retard, any measure whatsoever, nor add to
+nor soften the manifesto which the Assembly has directed to be
+published, with the declared purpose of exciting mutiny and rebellion in
+the several countries governed by these powers. By the generality also
+of the menaces contained in this paper, (though infinitely aggravating
+the outrage,) they hope to remove from each power separately the idea of
+a distinct affront. The persons first pointed at by the menace are
+certainly the princes of Germany, who harbor the persecuted House of
+Bourbon and the nobility of France; the declaration, however, is
+general, and goes to every state with which they may have a cause of
+quarrel. But the terror of France has fallen upon all nations. A few
+months since all sovereigns seemed disposed to unite against her; at
+present they all seem to combine in her favor. At no period has the
+power of France ever appeared with so formidable an aspect. In
+particular the liberties of the Empire can have nothing more than an
+existence the most tottering and precarious, whilst France exists with a
+great power of fomenting rebellion, and the greatest in the
+weakest,&mdash;but with neither power nor disposition to support the smaller
+states in their independence against the attempts of the more powerful.</p>
+
+<p>I wind up all in a full conviction within my own breast, and the
+substance of which I must repeat over and over again, that the state of
+France is the first consideration in the politics of Europe, and of each
+state, externally as well as internally considered.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the topics I have used are drawn from fear and apprehension.
+Topics derived from fear or ad<a name="Page_376" id="Page_376" title="376" class="pagenum"></a>dressed to it are, I well know, of
+doubtful appearance. To be sure, hope is in general the incitement to
+action. Alarm some men,&mdash;you do not drive them to provide for their
+security; you put them to a stand; you induce them, not to take measures
+to prevent the approach of danger, but to remove so unpleasant an idea
+from their minds; you persuade them to remain as they are, from a new
+fear that their activity may bring on the apprehended mischief before
+its time. I confess freely that this evil sometimes happens from an
+overdone precaution; but it is when the measures are rash, ill-chosen,
+or ill-combined, and the effects rather of blind terror than of
+enlightened foresight. But the few to whom I wish to submit my thoughts
+are of a character which will enable them to see danger without
+astonishment, and to provide against it without perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>To what lengths this method of circulating mutinous manifestoes, and of
+keeping emissaries of sedition in every court under the name of
+ambassadors, to propagate the same principles and to follow the
+practices, will go, and how soon they will operate, it is hard to say;
+but go on it will, more or less rapidly, according to events, and to the
+humor of the time. The princes menaced with the revolt of their
+subjects, at the same time that they have obsequiously obeyed the
+sovereign mandate of the new Roman senate, have received with
+distinction, in a public character, ambassadors from those who in the
+same act had circulated the manifesto of sedition in their dominions.
+This was the only thing wanting to the degradation and disgrace of the
+Germanic body.</p>
+
+<p>The ambassadors from the rights of man, and their admission into the
+diplomatic system, I hold to be a <a name="Page_377" id="Page_377" title="377" class="pagenum"></a>new era in this business. It will be
+the most important step yet taken to affect the existence of sovereigns,
+and the higher classes of life: I do not mean to exclude its effects
+upon all classes; but the first blow is aimed at the more prominent
+parts in the ancient order of things.</p>
+
+<p>What is to be done?</p>
+
+<p>It would be presumption in me to do more than to make a case. Many
+things occur. But as they, like all political measures, depend on
+dispositions, tempers, means, and external circumstances, for all their
+effect, not being well assured of these, I do not know how to let loose
+any speculations of mine on the subject. The evil is stated, in my
+opinion, as it exists. The remedy must be where power, wisdom, and
+information, I hope, are more united with good intentions than they can
+be with me. I have done with this subject, I believe, forever. It has
+given me many anxious moments for the two last years. If a great change
+is to be made in human affairs, the minds of men will be fitted to it,
+the general opinions and feelings will draw that way. Every fear, every
+hope, will forward it; and then they who persist in opposing this mighty
+current in human affairs will appear rather to resist the decrees of
+Providence itself than the mere designs of men. They will not be
+resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate.<a name="Page_378" id="Page_378" title="378" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> See Vattel, B. II. c. 4, sect 56, and B. III. c 18, sect.
+296.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Originally called the Bengal Club; but since opened to
+persons from the other Presidencies, for the purpose of consolidating
+the whole Indian interest.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> &quot;Until now, they [the National Assembly] have prejudged
+nothing. Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a preceptor to the
+Dauphin, they did not declare <i>that this child was to reign</i>, but only
+that <i>possibly</i> the Constitution <i>might</i> destine him to it: they willed,
+that, while education should efface from his mind all the prejudices
+arising from <i>the delusions of the throne</i> respecting his pretended
+birthright, it should also teach him not to forget that it is <i>from the
+people</i> he is to receive the title of King, and that <i>the people do not
+even possess the right of giving up their power to take it from him</i>.
+</p><p>
+&quot;They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
+knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive <i>with submission</i> the
+dangerous burden of a crown, and <i>to resign it with pleasure</i> into the
+hands of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
+that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the duty
+and the glory of a king of a free people.
+</p><p>
+&quot;They willed that <i>the uselessness of a king</i>, the necessity of seeking
+means to establish something in lieu of <i>a power founded on illusions</i>,
+should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; <i>the obligation
+of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the
+desire of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious
+inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart</i>. They are not
+ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king
+than to teach him <i>that he should know how to wish no longer to be
+such</i>.&quot;</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379" title="379" class="pagenum"></a><a name="HEADS_FOR_CONSIDERATION" id="HEADS_FOR_CONSIDERATION" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON THE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1792.</span><br /></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380" title="380" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381" title="381" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>That France by its mere geographical position, independently of every
+other circumstance, must affect every state of Europe: some of them
+immediately, all of them through mediums not very remote.</p>
+
+<p>That the standing policy of this kingdom ever has been to watch over the
+<i>external</i> proceedings of France, (whatever form the <i>interior</i>
+government of that kingdom might take,) and to prevent the extension of
+its dominion or its ruling influence over other states.</p>
+
+<p>That there is nothing in the present <i>internal</i> state of things in
+France which alters the national policy with regard to the exterior
+relations of that country.</p>
+
+<p>That there are, on the contrary, many things in the internal
+circumstances of France (and perhaps of this country, too) which tend to
+fortify the principles of that fundamental policy, and which render the
+active assertion of those principles more pressing at this than at any
+former time.</p>
+
+<p>That, by a change effected in about three weeks, France has been able to
+penetrate into the heart of Germany, to make an absolute conquest of
+Savoy, to menace an immediate invasion of the Netherlands, and to awe
+and overbear the whole Helvetic body, which is in a most perilous
+situation: the great aristocratic Cantons having, perhaps, as much or
+more to dread from their own people, whom they <a name="Page_382" id="Page_382" title="382" class="pagenum"></a>arm, but do not choose
+or dare to employ, as from the foreign enemy, which against all public
+faith has butchered their troops serving by treaty in France. To this
+picture it is hardly necessary to add the means by which Prance has been
+enabled to effect all this,&mdash;namely, the apparently entire destruction
+of one of the largest and certainly the highest disciplined and best
+appointed army ever seen, headed by the first military sovereign in
+Europe, with a captain under him of the greatest renown; and that
+without a blow given or received on any side. This state of things seems
+to me, even if it went no further, truly serious.</p>
+
+<p>Circumstances have enabled France to do all this by <i>land</i>. On the other
+element she has begun to exert herself; and she must succeed in her
+designs, if enemies very different from those she has hitherto had to
+encounter do not resist her.</p>
+
+<p>She has fitted out a naval force, now actually at sea, by which she is
+enabled to give law to the whole Mediterranean. It is known as a fact,
+(and if not so known, it is in the nature of things highly probable,)
+that she proposes the ravage of the Ecclesiastical State and the pillage
+of Rome, as her first object; that nest she means to bombard Naples,&mdash;to
+awe, to humble, and thus to command, all Italy,&mdash;to force it to a
+nominal neutrality, but to a real dependence,&mdash;to compel the Italian
+princes and republics to admit the free entrance of the French commerce,
+an open intercourse, and, the sure concomitant of that intercourse, the
+<i>affiliated societies</i>, in a manner similar to those she has established
+at Avignon, the Comtat, Chamb&eacute;ry, London, Manchester, &amp;c., &amp;c., which are
+so many colonies planted in all these countries, <a name="Page_383" id="Page_383" title="383" class="pagenum"></a>for extending the
+influence and securing the dominion of the French republic.</p>
+
+<p>That there never has been hitherto a period in which this kingdom would
+have suffered a French fleet to domineer in the Mediterranean, and to
+force Italy to submit to such terms as France would think fit to
+impose,&mdash;to say nothing of what has been done upon land in support of
+the same system. The great object for which we preserved Minorca, whilst
+we could keep it, and for which we still retain Gibraltar, both at a
+great expense, was, and is, to prevent the predominance of France over
+the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far as to the certain and immediate effect of that armament upon
+the Italian States. The probable effect which that armament, and the
+other armaments preparing at Toulon and other ports, may have upon
+Spain, on the side of the Mediterranean, is worthy of the serious
+attention of the British councils.</p>
+
+<p>That it is most probable, we may say in a manner certain, that, if there
+should be a rupture between France and Spain, France will not confine
+her offensive piratical operations against Spain to her efforts in the
+Mediterranean; on which side, however, she may grievously affect Spain,
+especially if she excites Morocco and Algiers, which undoubtedly she
+will, to fall upon that power.</p>
+
+<p>That she will fit out armaments upon the ocean, by which the flota
+itself may be intercepted, and thus the treasures of all Europe, as well
+as the largest and surest resources of the Spanish monarchy, may be
+conveyed into France, and become powerful instruments for the annoyance
+of all her neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>That she makes no secret of her designs.<a name="Page_384" id="Page_384" title="384" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>That, if the inward and outward bound flota should escape, still France
+has more and better means of dissevering many of the provinces in the
+West and East Indies from the state of Spain than Holland had, when she
+succeeded in the same attempt. The French marine resembles not a little
+the old armaments of the Flibustiers, which about a century back, in
+conjunction with pirates of our nation, brought such calamities upon the
+Spanish colonies. They differ only in this,&mdash;that the present piratical
+force is out of all measure and comparison greater: one hundred and
+fifty ships of the line and frigates being ready-built, most of them in
+a manner new, and all applicable in different ways to that service.
+Privateers and Moorish corsairs possess not the best seamanship, and
+very little discipline, and indeed can make no figure in regular
+service; but in desperate adventures, and animated with a lust of
+plunder, they are truly formidable.</p>
+
+<p>That the land forces of France are well adapted to concur with their
+marine in conjunct expeditions of this nature. In such expeditions,
+enterprise supplies the want of discipline, and perhaps more than
+supplies it. Both for this, and for other service, (however contemptible
+their military is in other respects,) one arm is extremely good, the
+engineering and artillery branch. The old officer corps in both being
+composed for the greater part of those who were not gentlemen, or
+gentlemen newly such, few have abandoned the service, and the men are
+veterans, well enough disciplined, and very expert. In this piratical
+way they must make war with good advantage. They must do so, even on the
+side of Flanders, either offensively or defensively. This shows the
+difference <a name="Page_385" id="Page_385" title="385" class="pagenum"></a>between the policy of Louis the Fourteenth, who built a wall
+of brass about his kingdom, and that of Joseph the Second, who
+premeditatedly uncovered his whole frontier.</p>
+
+<p>That Spain, from the actual and expected prevalence of French power, is
+in a most perilous situation,&mdash;perfectly dependent on the mercy of that
+republic. If Austria is broken, or even humbled, she will not dare to
+dispute its mandates.</p>
+
+<p>In the present state of things, we have nothing at all to dread from the
+power of Spain by sea or by land, or from any rivalry in commerce.</p>
+
+<p>That we have much to dread from the connections into which Spain may be
+forced.</p>
+
+<p>From the circumstances of her territorial possessions, of her resources,
+and the whole of her civil and political state, we may be authorized
+safely and with undoubted confidence to affirm that</p>
+
+<p><i>Spain is not a substantive power</i>.</p>
+
+<p>That she must lean on France or on England.</p>
+
+<p>That it is as much for the interest of Great Britain to prevent the
+predominancy of a French interest in that kingdom as if Spain were a
+province of the crown of Great Britain, or a state actually dependent on
+it,&mdash;full as much so as ever Portugal was reputed to be. This is a
+dependency of much greater value; and its destruction, or its being
+carried to any other dependency, of much more serious misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>One of these two things must happen: either Spain must submit to
+circumstances and take such conditions as France will impose, or she
+must engage in hostilities along with the Emperor and the king of
+Sardinia.</p>
+
+<p>If Spain should be forced or awed into a treaty <a name="Page_386" id="Page_386" title="386" class="pagenum"></a>with the republic of
+France, she must open her ports and her commerce, as well as the land
+communication for the French laborers, who were accustomed annually to
+gather in the harvest in Spain. Indeed, she must grant a free
+communication for travellers and traders through her whole country. In
+that case it is not conjectural, it is certain, the clubs will give law
+in the provinces; Bourgoing, or some such miscreant, will give law at
+Madrid.</p>
+
+<p>In this England may acquiesce, if she pleases; and France will conclude
+a triumphant peace with Spain under her absolute dependence, with a
+broad highway into that, and into every state of Europe. She actually
+invites Great Britain to divide with her the spoils of the New World,
+and to make a partition of the Spanish monarchy. Clearly, it is better
+to do so than to suffer France to possess those spoils and that
+territory alone; which, without doubt, unresisted by us, she is
+altogether as able as she is willing to do.</p>
+
+<p>This plan is proposed by the French in the way in which they propose all
+their plans,&mdash;and in the only way in which, indeed, they can propose
+them, where there is no regular communication between his Majesty and
+their republic.</p>
+
+<p>What they propose is <i>a plan</i>. It is <i>a plan</i> also to resist their
+predatory project. To remain quiet, and to suffer them to make their own
+use of a naval power before our face, so as to awe and bully Spain into
+a submissive peace, or to drive them into a ruinous war, without any
+measure on our part, I fear is no plan at all.</p>
+
+<p>However, if the plan of co&ouml;peration which France desires, and which her
+affiliated societies here ardently wish and are constantly writing up,
+should not <a name="Page_387" id="Page_387" title="387" class="pagenum"></a>be adopted, and the war between the Emperor and France
+should continue, I think it not at all likely that Spain should not be
+drawn into the quarrel. In that case, the neutrality of England will be
+a thing absolutely impossible. The time only is the subject of
+deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>Then the question will be, whether we are to defer putting ourselves
+into a posture for the common defence, either by armament, or
+negotiation, or both, until Spain is actually attacked,&mdash;that is,
+whether our court will take a decided part for Spain, whilst Spain, on
+her side, is yet in a condition to act with whatever degree of vigor she
+may have, whilst that vigor is yet unexhausted,&mdash;or whether we shall
+connect ourselves with her broken fortunes, after she shall have
+received material blows, and when we shall have the whole slow length of
+that always unwieldy and ill-constructed, and then wounded and crippled
+body, to drag after us, rather than to aid us. Whilst our disposition is
+uncertain, Spain will not dare to put herself in such a state of defence
+as will make her hostility formidable or her neutrality respectable.</p>
+
+<p>If the decision is such as the solution of this question (I take it to
+be the true question) conducts to, no time is to be lost. But the
+measures, though prompt, ought not to be rash and indigested. They ought
+to be well chosen, well combined, and well pursued. The system must be
+general; but it must be executed, not successively, or with
+interruption, but all together, <i>uno flatu</i>, in one melting, and one
+mould.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose we must put Europe before us, which plainly is, just
+now, in all its parts, in a state of dismay, derangement, and confusion,
+and, very <a name="Page_388" id="Page_388" title="388" class="pagenum"></a>possibly amongst all its sovereigns, full of secret
+heartburning, distrust, and mutual accusation. Perhaps it may labor
+under worse evils. There is no vigor anywhere, except the distempered
+vigor and energy of France. That country has but too much life in it,
+when everything around is so disposed to tameness and languor. The very
+vices of the French system at home tend to give force to foreign
+exertions. The generals <i>must</i> join the armies. They must lead them to
+enterprise, or they are likely to perish by their hands. Thus, without
+law or government of her own, France gives law to all the governments in
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>This great mass of political matter must have been always under the view
+of thinkers for the public, whether they act in office or not. Amongst
+events, even the late calamitous events were in the book of contingency.
+Of course they must have been in design, at least, provided for. A plan
+which takes in as many as possible of the states concerned will rather
+tend to facilitate and simplify a rational scheme for preserving Spain
+(if that were our sole, as I think it ought to be our principal object)
+than to delay and perplex it.</p>
+
+<p>If we should think that a provident policy (perhaps now more than
+provident, urgent and necessary) should lead us to act, we cannot take
+measures as if nothing had been done. We must see the faults, if any,
+which have conducted to the present misfortunes: not for the sake of
+criticism, military or political, or from the common motives of blaming
+persons and counsels which have not been successful, but in order, if we
+can, to administer some remedy to these disasters, by the adoption of
+plans more bot<a name="Page_389" id="Page_389" title="389" class="pagenum"></a>tomed in principle, and built on with more discretion.
+Mistakes may be lessons.</p>
+
+<p>There seem, indeed, to have been several mistakes in the political
+principles on which the war was entered into, as well as in the plans
+upon which it was conducted,&mdash;some of them very fundamental, and not
+only visibly, but I may say palpably erroneous; and I think him to have
+less than the discernment of a very ordinary statesman, who could not
+foresee, from the very beginning, unpleasant consequences from those
+plans, though not the unparalleled disgraces and disasters which really
+did attend them: for they were, both principles and measures, wholly new
+and out of the common course, without anything apparently very grand in
+the conception to justify this total departure from all rule.</p>
+
+<p>For, in the first place, the united sovereigns very much injured their
+cause by admitting that they had nothing to do with the interior
+arrangements of France,&mdash;in contradiction to the whole tenor of the
+public law of Europe, and to the correspondent practice of all its
+states, from the time we have any history of them. In this particular,
+the two German courts seem to have as little consulted the publicists of
+Germany as their own true interests, and those of all the sovereigns of
+Germany and Europe. This admission of a false principle in the law of
+nations brought them into an apparent contradiction, when they insisted
+on the re&euml;stablishment of the royal authority in France. But this
+confused and contradictory proceeding gave rise to a practical error of
+worse consequence. It was derived from one and the same root: namely,
+that the person of the monarch of France was everything; and the
+monarchy, and the interme<a name="Page_390" id="Page_390" title="390" class="pagenum"></a>diate orders of the state, by which the
+monarchy was upheld, were nothing. So that, if the united potentates had
+succeeded so far as to re&euml;stablish the authority of that king, and that
+he should be so ill-advised as to confirm all the confiscations, and to
+recognize as a lawful body and to class himself with that rabble of
+murderers, (and there wanted not persons who would so have advised him,)
+there was nothing in the principle or in the proceeding of the united
+powers to prevent such an arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>An expedition to free a brother sovereign from prison was undoubtedly a
+generous and chivalrous undertaking. But the spirit and generosity would
+not have been less, if the policy had been more profound and more
+comprehensive,&mdash;that is, if it had taken in those considerations and
+those persons by whom, and, in some measure, for whom, monarchy exists.
+This would become a bottom for a system of solid and permanent policy,
+and of operations conformable to that system.</p>
+
+<p>The same fruitful error was the cause why nothing was done to impress
+the people of France (so far as we can at all consider the inhabitants
+of France as a people) with an idea that the government was ever to be
+really French, or indeed anything else than the nominal government of a
+monarch, a monarch absolute as over them, but whose sole support was to
+arise from foreign potentates, and who was to be kept on his throne by
+German forces,&mdash;in short, that the king of France was to be a viceroy to
+the Emperor and the king of Prussia.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time that foreign powers, interfering in the concerns
+of a nation divided into parties, have thought proper to thrust wholly
+out of their <a name="Page_391" id="Page_391" title="391" class="pagenum"></a>councils, to postpone, to discountenance, to reject, and,
+in a manner, to disgrace, the party whom those powers came to support.
+The single person of a king cannot be a party. Woe to the king who is
+himself his party! The royal party, with the king or his representatives
+at its head, is the <i>royal cause</i>. Foreign powers have hitherto chosen
+to give to such wars as this the appearance of a civil contest, and not
+that of an hostile invasion. When the Spaniards, in the sixteenth
+century, sent aids to the chiefs of the League, they appeared as allies
+to that league, and to the imprisoned king (the Cardinal de Bourbon)
+which that league had set up. When the Germans came to the aid of the
+Protestant princes, in the same series of civil wars, they came as
+allies. When the English came to the aid of Henry the Fourth, they
+appeared as allies to that prince. So did the French always, when they
+intermeddled in the affairs of Germany: they came to aid a party there.
+When the English and Dutch intermeddled in the succession of Spain, they
+appeared as allies to the Emperor, Charles the Sixth. In short, the
+policy has been as uniform as its principles were obvious to an ordinary
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>According to all the old principles of law and policy, a regency ought
+to have been appointed by the French princes of the blood, nobles, and
+parliaments, and then recognized by the combined powers. Fundamental law
+and ancient usage, as well as the clear reason of the thing, have always
+ordained it during an imprisonment of the king of France: as in the case
+of John, and of Francis the First. A monarchy ought not to be left a
+moment without a representative having an interest in the succession.
+The orders of the state ought also to have been recognized <a name="Page_392" id="Page_392" title="392" class="pagenum"></a>in those
+amongst whom alone they existed in freedom, that is, in the emigrants.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, laying down a firm foundation on the recognition of the
+authorities of the kingdom of France, according to Nature and to its
+fundamental laws, and not according to the novel and inconsiderate
+principles of the usurpation which the united powers were come to
+extirpate, the king of Prussia and the Emperor, as allies of the ancient
+kingdom of France, would have proceeded with dignity, first, to free the
+monarch, if possible,&mdash;if not, to secure the monarchy as principal in
+the design; and in order to avoid all risks to that great object, (the
+object of other ages than the present, and of other countries than that
+of France,) they would of course avoid proceeding with more haste or in
+a different manner than what the nature of such an object required.</p>
+
+<p>Adopting this, the only rational system, the rational mode of proceeding
+upon it was to commence with an effective siege of Lisle, which the
+French generals must have seen taken before their faces, or be forced to
+fight. A plentiful country of friends, from whence to draw supplies,
+would have been behind them; a plentiful country of enemies, from whence
+to force supplies, would have been before them. Good towns were always
+within reach to deposit their hospitals and magazines. The march from
+Lisle to Paris is through a less defensible country, and the distance is
+hardly so great as from Longwy to Paris.</p>
+
+<p>If the <i>old</i> politic and military ideas had governed, the advanced guard
+would have been formed of those who best knew the country and had some
+interest in it, supported by some of the best light troops and light
+artillery, whilst the grand solid body of an army dis<a name="Page_393" id="Page_393" title="393" class="pagenum"></a>ciplined to
+perfection proceeded leisurely, and in close connection with all its
+stores, provisions, and heavy cannon, to support the expedite body in
+case of misadventure, or to improve and complete its success.</p>
+
+<p>The direct contrary of all this was put in practice. In consequence of
+the original sin of this project, the army of the French princes was
+everywhere thrown into the rear, and no part of it brought forward to
+the last moment, the time of the commencement of the secret negotiation.
+This naturally made an ill impression on the people, and furnished an
+occasion for the rebels at Paris to give out that the faithful subjects
+of the king were distrusted, despised, and abhorred by his allies. The
+march was directed through a skirt of Lorraine, and thence into a part
+of Champagne, the Duke of Brunswick leaving all the strongest places
+behind him,&mdash;leaving also behind him the strength of his artillery,&mdash;and
+by this means giving a superiority to the French, in the only way in
+which the present France is able to oppose a German force.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the adoption of those false politics, which turned
+everything on the king's sole and single person, the whole plan of the
+war was reduced to nothing but a <i>coup de main</i>, in order to set that
+prince at liberty. If that failed, everything was to be given up.</p>
+
+<p>The scheme of a <i>coup de main</i> might (under favorable circumstances) be
+very fit for a partisan at the head of a light corps, by whose failure
+nothing material would be deranged. But for a royal army of eighty
+thousand men, headed by a king in person, who was to march an hundred
+and fifty miles through an enemy's country,&mdash;surely, this was a plan
+unheard of.<a name="Page_394" id="Page_394" title="394" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Although this plan was not well chosen, and proceeded upon principles
+altogether ill-judged and impolitic, the superiority of the military
+force might in a great degree have supplied the defects, and furnished a
+corrective to the mistakes. The greater probability was, that the Duke
+of Brunswick would make his way to Paris over the bellies of the rabble
+of drunkards, robbers, assassins, rioters, mutineers, and half-grown
+boys, under the ill-obeyed command of a theatrical, vaporing, reduced
+captain of cavalry, who opposed that great commander and great army.
+But&mdash;<i>Diis aliter visum</i>. He began to treat,&mdash;the winds blew and the
+rains beat,&mdash;the house fell, because it was built upon sand,&mdash;and great
+was the fall thereof. This march was not an exact copy of either of the
+two marches made by the Duke of Parma into France.</p>
+
+<p>There is some secret. Sickness and weather may defeat an army pursuing a
+wrong plan: not that I believe the sickness to have been so great as it
+has been reported; but there is a great deal of superfluous humiliation
+in this business, a perfect prodigality of disgrace. Some advantage,
+real or imaginary, must compensate to a great sovereign and to a great
+general for so immense a loss of reputation. Longwy, situated as it is,
+might (one should think) be evacuated without a capitulation with a
+republic just proclaimed by the king of Prussia as an usurping and
+rebellious body. He was not far from Luxembourg. He might have taken
+away the obnoxious French in his flight. It does not appear to have been
+necessary that those magistrates who declared for their own king, on the
+faith and under the immediate protection of the king of Prussia, should
+be <a name="Page_395" id="Page_395" title="395" class="pagenum"></a>delivered over to the gallows. It was not necessary that the
+emigrant nobility and gentry who served with the king of Prussia's army,
+under his immediate command, should be excluded from the cartel, and
+given up to be hanged as rebels. Never was so gross and so cruel a
+breach of the public faith, not with an enemy, but with a friend.
+Dumouriez has dropped very singular hints. Custine has spoken out more
+broadly. These accounts have never been contradicted. They tend to make
+an eternal rupture between the powers. The French have given out, that
+the Duke of Brunswick endeavored to negotiate some name and place for
+the captive king, amongst the murderers and proscribers of those who
+have lost their all for his cause. Even this has not been denied.</p>
+
+<p>It is singular, and, indeed, a thing, under all its circumstances,
+inconceivable, that everything should by the Emperor be abandoned to the
+king of Prussia. That monarch was considered as principal. In the nature
+of things, as well as in his position with regard to the war, he was
+only an ally, and a new ally, with crossing interests in many
+particulars, and of a policy rather uncertain. At best, and supposing
+him to act with the greatest fidelity, the Emperor and the Empire to him
+must be but secondary objects. Countries out of Germany must affect him
+in a still more remote manner. France, other than from the fear of its
+doctrinal principles, can to him be no object at all. Accordingly, the
+Rhine, Sardinia, and the Swiss are left to their fate. The king of
+Prussia has no <i>direct</i> and immediate concern with France;
+<i>consequentially</i>, to be sure, a great deal: but the Emperor touches
+France <i>directly</i> in many parts; he <a name="Page_396" id="Page_396" title="396" class="pagenum"></a>is a near neighbor to Sardinia, by
+his Milanese territories; he borders on Switzerland; Cologne, possessed
+by his uncle, is between Mentz, Treves, and the king of Prussia's
+territories on the Lower Rhine. The Emperor is the natural guardian of
+Italy and Germany,&mdash;the natural balance against the ambition of France,
+whether republican or monarchical. His ministers and his generals,
+therefore, ought to have had their full share in every material
+consultation,&mdash;which I suspect they had not. If he has no minister
+capable of plans of policy which comprehend the superintendency of a
+war, or no general with the least of a political head, things have been
+as they must be. However, in all the parts of this strange proceeding
+there must be a secret.</p>
+
+<p>It is probably known to ministers. I do not mean to penetrate into it.
+My speculations on this head must be only conjectural. If the king of
+Prussia, under the pretext or on the reality of some information
+relative to ill practice on the part of the court of Vienna, takes
+advantage of his being admitted into the heart of the Emperor's
+dominions in the character of an ally, afterwards to join the common
+enemy, and to enable France to seize the Netherlands, and to reduce and
+humble the Empire, I cannot conceive, upon every principle, anything
+more alarming for this country, separately, and as a part of the general
+system. After all, we may be looking in vain in the regions of politics
+for what is only the operation of temper and character upon accidental
+circumstances. But I never knew accidents to decide the <i>whole</i> of any
+great business; and I never knew temper to act, but that some system of
+politics agreeable to its peculiar spirit was blended with it,
+<a name="Page_397" id="Page_397" title="397" class="pagenum"></a>strengthened it, and got strength from it. Therefore the politics can
+hardly be put out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>Great mistakes have been committed: at least I hope so. If there have
+been none, the case in future is desperate. I have endeavored to point
+out some of those which have occurred to me, and most of them very
+early.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever may be the cause of the present state of things, on a full and
+mature view and comparison of the historical matter, of the transactions
+that have passed before our eyes, and of the future prospect, I think I
+am authorized to form an opinion without the least hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>That there never was, nor is, nor ever will be, nor ever can be, the
+least rational hope of making an impression on France by any Continental
+powers, if England is not a part, is not the directing part, is not the
+soul, of the whole confederacy against it.</p>
+
+<p>This, so far as it is an anticipation of future, is grounded on the
+whole tenor of former history. In speculation it is to be accounted for
+on two plain principles.</p>
+
+<p>First, That Great Britain is likely to take a more fair and equal part
+in the alliance than the other powers, as having less of crossing
+interest or perplexed discussion with any of them.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, Because France cannot have to deal with any of these
+Continental sovereigns, without their feeling that nation, as a maritime
+power, greatly superior to them all put together,&mdash;a force which is only
+to be kept in check by England.</p>
+
+<p>England, except during the eccentric aberration of Charles the Second,
+has always considered it as <a name="Page_398" id="Page_398" title="398" class="pagenum"></a>her duty and interest to take her place in
+such a confederacy. Her chief disputes must ever be with France; and if
+England shows herself indifferent and unconcerned, when these powers are
+combined against the enterprises of France, she is to look with
+certainty for the same indifference on the part of these powers, when
+she may be at war with that nation. This will tend totally to disconnect
+this kingdom from the system of Europe, in which if she ought not rashly
+to meddle, she ought never wholly to withdraw herself from it.</p>
+
+<p>If, then, England is put in motion, whether by a consideration of the
+general safety, or of the influence of France upon Spain, or by the
+probable operations of this new system on the Netherlands, it must
+embrace in its project the whole as much as possible, and the part it
+takes ought to be as much as possible a leading and presiding part.</p>
+
+<p>I therefore beg leave to suggest,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, That a minister should forthwith be sent to Spain, to encourage
+that court to persevere in the measures they have adopted against
+France,&mdash;to make a close alliance and guaranty of possessions, as
+against France, with that power,&mdash;and, whilst the formality of the
+treaty is pending, to assure them of our protection, postponing any
+lesser disputes to another occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, To assure the court of Vienna of our desire to enter into our
+ancient connections with her, and to support her effectually in the war
+which France has declared against her.</p>
+
+<p>Thirdly, To animate the Swiss and the king of Sardinia to take a part,
+as the latter once did on the principles of the Grand Alliance.<a name="Page_399" id="Page_399" title="399" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Fourthly, To put an end to our disputes with Russia, and mutually to
+forget the past. I believe, if she is satisfied of this oblivion, she
+will return to her old sentiments with regard to this court, and will
+take a more forward part in this business than any other power.</p>
+
+<p>Fifthly, If what has happened to the king of Prussia is only in
+consequence of a sort of panic or of levity, and an indisposition to
+persevere long in one design, the support and concurrence of Russia will
+tend to steady him, and to give him resolution. If he be ill-disposed,
+with that power on his back, and without one ally in Europe, I conceive
+he will not be easily led to derange the plan.</p>
+
+<p>Sixthly, To use the joint influence of our court, and of our then allied
+powers, with Holland, to arm as fully as she can by sea, and to make
+some addition by land.</p>
+
+<p>Seventhly, To acknowledge the king of France's next brother (assisted by
+such a council and such representatives of the kingdom of France as
+shall be thought proper) regent of France, and to send that prince a
+small supply of money, arms, clothing, and artillery.</p>
+
+<p>Eighthly, To give force to these negotiations, an instant naval armament
+ought to be adopted,&mdash;one squadron for the Mediterranean, another for
+the Channel. The season is convenient,&mdash;most of our trade being, as I
+take it, at home.</p>
+
+<p>After speaking of a plan formed upon the ancient policy and practice of
+Great Britain and of Europe, to which this is exactly conformable in
+every respect, with no deviation whatsoever, and which is, I conceive,
+much more strongly called for by the <a name="Page_400" id="Page_400" title="400" class="pagenum"></a>present circumstances than by any
+former, I must take notice of another, which I hear, but cannot persuade
+myself to believe, is in agitation. This plan is grounded upon the very
+same view of things which is here stated,&mdash;namely, the danger to all
+sovereigns, and old republics, from the prevalence of French power and
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>It is, to form a congress of all the European powers for the purpose of
+a general defensive alliance, the objects of which should be,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, The recognition of this new republic, (which they well know is
+formed on the principles and for the declared purpose of the destruction
+of all kings,) and, whenever the heads of this new republic shall
+consent to release the royal captives, to make peace with them.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, To defend themselves with their joint forces against the open
+aggressions, or the secret practices, intrigues, and writings, which are
+used to propagate the French principles.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to discover from whose shop this commodity comes. It is so
+perfectly absurd, that, if that or anything like it meets with a serious
+entertainment in any cabinet, I should think it the effect of what is
+called a judicial blindness, the certain forerunner of the destruction
+of all crowns and kingdoms.</p>
+
+<p>An <i>offensive</i> alliance, in which union is preserved by common efforts
+in common dangers against a common active enemy, may preserve its
+consistency, and may produce for a given time some considerable effect:
+though this is not easy, and for any very long period can hardly be
+expected. But a <i>defensive</i> alliance, formed of long discordant
+inter<a name="Page_401" id="Page_401" title="401" class="pagenum"></a>ests, with innumerable discussions existing, having no one pointed
+object to which it is directed, which is to be held together with an
+unremitted vigilance, as watchful in peace as in war, is so evidently
+impossible, is such a chimera, is so contrary to human nature and the
+course of human affairs, that I am persuaded no person in his senses,
+except those whose country, religion, and sovereign are deposited in the
+French funds, could dream of it. There is not the slightest petty
+boundary suit, no difference between a family arrangement, no sort of
+misunderstanding or cross purpose between the pride and etiquette of
+courts, that would not entirely disjoint this sort of alliance, and
+render it as futile in its effects as it is feeble in its principle. But
+when we consider that the main drift of that defensive alliance must be
+to prevent the operation of intrigue, mischievous doctrine, and evil
+example, in the success of unprovoked rebellion, regicide, and
+systematic assassination and massacre, the absurdity of such a scheme
+becomes quite lamentable. Open the communication with France, and the
+rest follows of course.</p>
+
+<p>How far the interior circumstances of this country support what is said
+with regard to its foreign polities must be left to bettor judgments. I
+am sure the French faction here is infinitely strengthened by the
+success of the assassins on the other side of the water. This evil in
+the heart of Europe must be extirpated from that centre, or no part of
+the circumference can be free from the mischief which radiates from it,
+and which will spread, circle beyond circle, in spite of all the little
+defensive precautions which can be employed against it.</p>
+
+<p>I do not put my name to these hints submitted to <a name="Page_402" id="Page_402" title="402" class="pagenum"></a>the consideration of
+reflecting men. It is of too little importance to suppose the name of
+the writer could add any weight to the state of things contained in this
+paper. That state of things presses irresistibly on my judgment, and it
+lies, and has long lain, with a heavy weight upon my mind. I cannot
+think that what is done in France is beneficial to the human race. If it
+were, the English Constitution ought no more to stand against it than
+the ancient Constitution of the kingdom in which the new system
+prevails. I thought it the duty of a man not unconcerned for the public,
+and who is a faithful subject to the king, respectfully to submit this
+state of facts, at this new step in the progress of the French arms and
+politics, to his Majesty, to his confidential servants, and to those
+persons who, though not in office, by their birth, their rank, their
+fortune, their character, and their reputation for wisdom, seem to me to
+have a large stake in the stability of the ancient order of things.</p>
+
+<p>BATH, November 5, 1792.<a name="Page_403" id="Page_403" title="403" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+<p><a name="REMARKS" id="REMARKS" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>REMARKS<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON</span><br />
+<br />
+THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">BEGUN IN OCTOBER, 1793.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404" title="404" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405" title="405" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>As the proposed manifesto is, I understand, to promulgate to the world
+the general idea of a plan for the regulation of a great kingdom, and
+through the regulation of that kingdom probably to decide the fate of
+Europe forever, nothing requires a more serious deliberation with regard
+to the time of making it, the circumstances of those to whom it is
+addressed, and the matter it is to contain.</p>
+
+<p>As to the time, (with the due diffidence in my own opinion,) I have some
+doubts whether it is not rather unfavorable to the issuing any manifesto
+with regard to the intended government of France, and for this reason:
+that it is (upon the principal point of our attack) a time of calamity
+and defeat. Manifestoes of this nature are commonly made when the army
+of some sovereign enters into the enemy's country in great force, and
+under the imposing authority of that force employs menaces towards those
+whom he desires to awe, and makes promises to those whom he wishes to
+engage in his favor.</p>
+
+<p>As to a party, what has been done at Toulon leaves no doubt that the
+party for which we declare must be that which substantially declares for
+royalty as the basis of the government.</p>
+
+<p>As to menaces, nothing, in my opinion, can contribute more effectually
+to lower any sovereign in the <a name="Page_406" id="Page_406" title="406" class="pagenum"></a>public estimation, and to turn his
+defeats into disgraces, than to threaten in a moment of impotence. The
+second manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick appeared, therefore, to the
+world to be extremely ill-timed. However, if his menaces in that
+manifesto had been seasonable, they were not without an object. Great
+crimes then apprehended, and great evils then impending, were to be
+prevented. At this time, every act which early menaces might possibly
+have <i>prevented</i> is done. Punishment and vengeance alone remain,&mdash;and
+God forbid that they should ever be forgotten! But the punishment of
+enormous offenders will not be the less severe, or the less exemplary,
+when it is not threatened at a moment when we have it not in our power
+to execute our threats. On the other side, to pass by proceedings of
+such a nefarious nature, in all kinds, as have been carried on in
+France, without any signification of resentment, would be in effect to
+ratify them, and thus to become accessaries after the fact in all those
+enormities which it is impossible to repeat or think of without horror.
+An absolute silence appears to me to be at this time the only safe
+course.</p>
+
+<p>The second usual matter of manifestoes is composed of <i>promises</i> to
+those who cooperate with our designs. These promises depend in a great
+measure, if not wholly, on the apparent power of the person who makes
+them to fulfil his engagements. A time of disaster on the part of the
+promiser seems not to add much to the dignity of his person or to the
+effect of his offers. One would hardly wish to seduce any unhappy
+persons to give the last provocation to a merciless tyranny, without
+very effectual means of protecting them.<a name="Page_407" id="Page_407" title="407" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The time, therefore, seems (as I said) not favorable to a general
+manifesto, on account of the unpleasant situation of our affairs.
+However, I write in a changing scene, when a measure very imprudent
+to-day may be very proper to-morrow. Some great victory may alter the
+whole state of the question, so far as it regards our <i>power</i> of
+fulfilling any engagement we may think fit to make.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another consideration of far greater importance for all the
+purposes of this manifesto. The public, and the parties concerned, will
+look somewhat to the disposition of the promiser indicated by his
+conduct, as well as to his power of fulfilling his engagements.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of this nation as part of a general combination of powers, are
+we quite sure that others can believe us to be sincere, or that we can
+be even fully assured of our own sincerity, in the protection of those
+who shall risk their lives for the restoration of monarchy in France,
+when the world sees that those who are the natural, legal,
+constitutional representatives of that monarchy, if it has any, have not
+had their names so much as mentioned in any one public act, that in no
+way whatever are their persons brought forward, that their rights have
+not been expressly or implicitly allowed, and that they have not been in
+the least consulted on the important interests they have at stake? On
+the contrary, they are kept in a state of obscurity and contempt, and in
+a degree of indigence at times bordering on beggary. They are, in fact,
+little less prisoners in the village of Hanau than the royal captives
+who are locked up in the tower of the Temple. What is this, according to
+the common indications which guide the judgment <a name="Page_408" id="Page_408" title="408" class="pagenum"></a>of mankind, but, under
+the pretext of protecting the crown of France, in reality to usurp it?</p>
+
+<p>I am also very apprehensive that there are other circumstances which
+must tend to weaken the force of our declarations. No partiality to the
+allied powers can prevent great doubts on the fairness of our intentions
+as supporters of the crown of France, or of the true principles of
+legitimate government in opposition to Jacobinism, when it is visible
+that the two leading orders of the state of France, who are now the
+victims, and who must always be the true and sole supports of monarchy
+in that country, are, at best, in some of their descriptions, considered
+only as objects of charity, and others are, when employed, employed only
+as mercenary soldiers,&mdash;that they are thrown back out of all reputable
+service, are in a manner disowned, considered as nothing in their own
+cause, and never once consulted in the concerns of their king, their
+country, their laws, their religion, and their property. We even affect
+to be ashamed of them. In all our proceedings we carefully avoid the
+appearance of being of a party with them. In all our ideas of treaty we
+do not regard them as what they are, the two leading orders of the
+kingdom. If we do not consider them in that light, we must recognize the
+savages by whom they have been ruined, and who have declared war upon
+Europe, whilst they disgrace and persecute human nature, and openly defy
+the God that made them, as real proprietors of France.</p>
+
+<p>I am much afraid, too, that we shall scarcely be believed fair
+supporters of lawful monarchy against Jacobinism, so long as we continue
+to make and to observe cartels with the Jacobins, and on fair terms
+<a name="Page_409" id="Page_409" title="409" class="pagenum"></a>exchange prisoners with them, whilst the Royalists, invited to our
+standard, and employed under our public faith against the Jacobins, if
+taken by that savage faction, are given up to the executioner without
+the least attempt whatsoever at reprisal. For this we are to look at the
+king of Prussia's conduct, compared with his manifestoes about a
+twelvemonth ago. For this we are to look at the capitulations of Mentz
+and Valenciennes, made in the course of the present campaign. By those
+two capitulations the Christian Royalists were excluded from any
+participation in the cause of the combined powers. They were considered
+as the outlaws of Europe. Two armies were in effect sent against them.
+One of those armies (that which surrendered Mentz) was very near
+overpowering the Christians of Poitou, and the other (that which
+surrendered at Valenciennes) has actually crushed the people whom
+oppression and despair had driven to resistance at Lyons, has massacred
+several thousands of them in cold blood, pillaged the whole substance of
+the place, and pursued their rage to the very houses, condemning that
+noble city to desolation, in the unheard-of manner we have seen it
+devoted.</p>
+
+<p>It is, then, plain, by a conduct which overturns a thousand
+declarations, that we take the Royalists of France only as an instrument
+of some convenience in a temporary hostility with the Jacobins, but that
+we regard those atheistic and murderous barbarians as the <i>bon&acirc; fide</i>
+possessors of the soil of France. It appears, at least, that we consider
+them as a fair government <i>de facto</i>, if not <i>de jure</i>, a resistance to
+which, in favor of the king of Prance, by any man who happened to be
+born within that country, might equita<a name="Page_410" id="Page_410" title="410" class="pagenum"></a>bly be considered by other
+nations as the crime of treason.</p>
+
+<p>For my part, I would sooner put my hand into the fire than sign an
+invitation to oppressed men to fight under my standard, and then, on
+every sinister event of war, cruelly give them up to be punished as the
+basest of traitors, as long as I had one of the common enemy in my hands
+to be put to death in order to secure those under my protection, and to
+vindicate the common honor of sovereigns. We hear nothing of this kind
+of security in favor of those whom we invite to the support of our
+cause. Without it, I am not a little apprehensive that the proclamations
+of the combined powers might (contrary to their intention, no doubt) be
+looked upon as frauds, and cruel traps laid for their lives.</p>
+
+<p>So far as to the correspondence between our declarations and our
+conduct: let the declaration be worded as it will, the conduct is the
+practical comment by which, and which alone, it can be understood. This
+conduct, acting on the declaration, leaves a monarchy without a monarch,
+and without any representative or trustee for the monarch and the
+monarchy. It supposes a kingdom without states and orders, a territory
+without proprietors, and faithful subjects who are to be left to the
+fate of rebels and traitors.</p>
+
+<p>The affair of the establishment of a government is a very difficult
+undertaking for foreign powers to act in as <i>principals</i>; though as
+<i>auxiliaries and mediators</i> it has been not at all unusual, and may be a
+measure full of policy and humanity and true dignity.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing we ought to do, supposing us not giving the law as
+conquerors, but acting as friendly <a name="Page_411" id="Page_411" title="411" class="pagenum"></a>powers applied to for counsel and
+assistance in the settlement of a distracted country, is well to
+consider the composition, nature, and temper of its objects, and
+particularly of those who actually do or who ought to exercise power in
+that state. It is material to know who they are, and how constituted,
+whom we consider as <i>the people of France</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The next consideration is, through whom our arrangements are to be made,
+and on what principles the government we propose is to be established.</p>
+
+<p>The first question on the people is this: Whether we are to consider the
+individuals <i>now actually in France, numerically taken and arranged into
+Jacobin clubs</i>, as the body politic, constituting the nation of
+France,&mdash;or whether we consider the original individual proprietors of
+lands, expelled since the Revolution, and the states and the bodies
+politic, such as the colleges of justice called Parliaments, the
+corporations, noble and not noble, of bailliages and towns and cities,
+the bishops and the clergy, as the true constituent parts of the nation,
+and forming the legally organized parts of the people of France.</p>
+
+<p>In this serious concern it is very necessary that we should have the
+most distinct ideas annexed to the terms we employ; because it is
+evident that an abuse of the term <i>people</i> has been the original,
+fundamental cause of those evils, the cure of which, by war and policy,
+is the present object of all the states of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>If we consider the acting power in Prance, in any legal construction of
+public law, as the people, the question is decided in favor of the
+republic one and indivisible. But we have decided for monarchy. If so,
+we have a king and subjects; and that king and <a name="Page_412" id="Page_412" title="412" class="pagenum"></a>subjects have rights and
+privileges which ought to be supported at home: for I do not suppose
+that the government of that kingdom can or ought to be regulated by the
+arbitrary mandate of a foreign confederacy.</p>
+
+<p>As to the faction exercising power, to suppose that monarchy can be
+supported by principled regicides, religion by professed atheists, order
+by clubs of Jacobins, property by committees of proscription, and
+jurisprudence by revolutionary tribunals, is to be sanguine in a degree
+of which I am incapable. On them I decide, for myself, that these
+persons are not the legal corporation of France, and that it is not with
+them we can (if we would) settle the government of France.</p>
+
+<p>Since, then, we have decided for monarchy in that kingdom, we ought also
+to settle who is to be the monarch, who is to be the guardian of a
+minor, and how the monarch and monarchy is to be modified and supported;
+if the monarch is to be elected, who the electors are to be,&mdash;if
+hereditary, what order is established, corresponding with an hereditary
+monarchy, and fitted to maintain it; who are to modify it in its
+exercise; who are to restrain its powers, where they ought to be
+limited, to strengthen them, where they are to be supported, or, to
+enlarge them, where the object, the time, and the circumstances may
+demand their extension. These are things which, in the outline, ought to
+be made distinct and clear; for if they are not, (especially with regard
+to those great points, who are the proprietors of the soil, and what is
+the corporation of the kingdom,) there is nothing to hinder the complete
+establishment of a Jacobin republic, (such as that formed in 1790 and<a name="Page_413" id="Page_413" title="413" class="pagenum"></a>
+1791,) under the name of a <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale</i>. Jacobinism does not
+consist in the having or not having a certain pageant under the name of
+a king, but &quot;in taking the people as equal individuals, without any
+corporate name or description, without attention to property, without
+division of powers, and forming the government of delegates from a
+number of men so constituted,&mdash;in destroying or confiscating property,
+and bribing the public creditors, or the poor, with the spoils, now of
+one part of the community, now of another, without regard to
+prescription or possession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I hope no one can be so very blind as to imagine that monarchy can be
+acknowledged and supported in France upon any other basis than that of
+its property, <i>corporate and individual</i>,&mdash;or that it can enjoy a
+moment's permanence or security upon any scheme of things which sets
+aside all the ancient corporate capacities and distinctions of the
+kingdom, and subverts the whole fabric of its ancient laws and usages,
+political, civil, and religious, to introduce a system founded on the
+supposed <i>rights of man, and the absolute equality of the human race</i>.
+Unless, therefore, we declare clearly and distinctly in favor of the
+<i>restoration</i> of property, and confide to the hereditary property of the
+kingdom the limitation and qualifications of its hereditary monarchy,
+the blood and treasure of Europe is wasted for the establishment of
+Jacobinism in France. There is no doubt that Danton and Robespierre,
+Chaumette and Bar&egrave;re, that Condorcet, that Thomas Paine, that La
+Fayette, and the ex-Bishop of Autun, the <i>Abb&eacute; Gr&eacute;goire</i>, with all the
+gang of the Siey&egrave;ses, the Henriots, and the Santerres, if they could
+secure themselves in the fruits of their rebel<a name="Page_414" id="Page_414" title="414" class="pagenum"></a>lion and robbery, would
+be perfectly indifferent, whether the most unhappy of all infants, whom
+by the lessons of the shoemaker, his governor and guardian, they are
+training up studiously and methodically to be an idiot, or, what is
+worse, the most wicked and base of mankind, continues to receive his
+civic education in the Temple or the Tuileries, whilst they, and such as
+they, really govern the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>It cannot be too often and too strongly inculcated, that monarchy and
+property must, in France, go together, or neither can exist. To think of
+the possibility of the existence of a permanent and hereditary royalty,
+<i>where nothing else is hereditary or permanent in point either of
+personal or corporate dignity</i>, is a ruinous chimera, worthy of the Abb&eacute;
+Siey&egrave;s, and those wicked fools, his associates, who usurped power by the
+murders of the 19th of July and the 6th of October, 1789, and who
+brought forth the monster which they called <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale</i>, or the
+Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that most thinking men would prefer infinitely some sober and
+sensible form of a republic, in which there was no mention at all of a
+king, but which held out some reasonable security to property, life, and
+personal freedom, to a scheme of tilings like this <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale,</i>
+founded on impiety, immorality, fraudulent currencies, the confiscation
+of innocent individuals, and the pretended rights of man,&mdash;and which, in
+effect, excluding the whole body of the nobility, clergy, and landed
+property of a great nation, threw everything into the hands of a
+desperate set of obscure adventurers, who led to every mischief a blind
+and bloody band of <i>sans-culottes.</i> At the head, or rather at the tail,
+of this sys<a name="Page_415" id="Page_415" title="415" class="pagenum"></a>tem was a miserable pageant, as its ostensible instrument,
+who was to be treated with every species of indignity, till the moment
+when he was conveyed from the palace of contempt to the dungeon of
+horror, and thence led by a brewer of his capital, through the applauses
+of an hired, frantic, drunken multitude, to lose his head upon a
+scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>This is the Constitution, or <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale</i>; and this is what
+infallibly would be again set up in France, to run exactly the same
+round, if the predominant power should so far be forced to submit as to
+receive the name of a king, leaving it to the Jacobins (that is, to
+those who have subverted royalty and destroyed property) to modify the
+one and to distribute the other as spoil. By the Jacobins I mean
+indiscriminately the Brissotins and the Maratists, knowing no sort of
+difference between them. As to any other party, none exists in that
+unhappy country. The Royalists (those in Poitou excepted) are banished
+and extinguished; and as to what they call the Constitutionalists, or
+<i>Democrates Royaux</i>, they never had an existence of the smallest degree
+of power, consideration, or authority, nor, if they differ at all from
+the rest of the atheistic banditti, (which from their actions and
+principles I have no reason to think,) were they ever any other than the
+temporary tools and instruments of the more determined, able, and
+systematic regicides. Several attempts have been made to support this
+chimerical <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale</i>: the first was by La Fayette, the last by
+Dumouriez: they tended only to show that this absurd project had no
+party to support it. The Girondists under Wimpfen, and at Bordeaux, have
+made some <a name="Page_416" id="Page_416" title="416" class="pagenum"></a>struggle. The Constitutionalists never could make any, and
+for a very plain reason: they were <i>leaders in rebellion</i>. All their
+principles and their whole scheme of government being republican, they
+could never excite the smallest degree of enthusiasm in favor of the
+unhappy monarch, whom they had rendered contemptible, to make him the
+executive officer in their new commonwealth. They only appeared as
+traitors to their own Jacobin cause, not as faithful adherents to the
+king.</p>
+
+<p>In an address to France, in an attempt to treat with it, or in
+considering any scheme at all relative to it, it is impossible we should
+mean the geographical, we must always mean the moral and political
+country. I believe we shall be in a great error, if we act upon an idea
+that there exists in that country any organized body of men who might be
+willing to treat on equitable terms for the restoration of their
+monarchy, but who are nice in balancing those terms, and who would
+accept such as to them appeared reasonable, but who would quietly submit
+to the predominant power, if they were not gratified in the fashion of
+some constitution which suited with their fancies.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">No individual influence, civil or military.</span>I take the state of France to be totally different. I know of no such
+body, and of no such party. So far from a combination of twenty men,
+(always excepting Poitou,) I never yet heard that <i>a single man</i> could
+be named of sufficient force or influence to answer for another man,
+much less for the smallest district in the country, or for the most
+incomplete company of soldiers in the army. We see every man that the
+Jacobins choose to apprehend taken up in his village or in his house,
+and conveyed to prison <a name="Page_417" id="Page_417" title="417" class="pagenum"></a>without the least shadow of resistance,&mdash;<i>and
+this indifferently</i>, whether he is suspected of Royalism, or Federalism,
+Moderantism, Democracy Royal, or any other of the names of faction which
+they start by the hour. What is much more astonishing, (and, if we did
+not carefully attend to the genius and circumstances of this Revolution,
+must indeed appear incredible,) all their most accredited military men,
+from a generalissimo to a corporal, may be arrested, (each in the midst
+of his camp, and covered with the laurels of accumulated victories,)
+tied neck and heels, thrown into a cart, and sent to Paris to be
+disposed of at the pleasure of the Revolutionary tribunals.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">No corporations of justice, commerce, or police.</span>As no individuals have power and influence, so there are no
+corporations, whether of lawyers or burghers, existing. The Assembly
+called Constituent, destroyed all such institutions very early. The
+primary and secondary assemblies, by their original constitution, were
+to be dissolved when they answered the purpose of electing the
+magistrates, and were expressly disqualified from performing any
+corporate act whatsoever. The transient magistrates have been almost all
+removed before the expiration of their terms, and new have been lately
+imposed upon the people without the form or ceremony of an election.
+These magistrates during their existence are put under, as all the
+executive authorities are from first to last, the popular societies
+(called Jacobin clubs) of the several countries, and this by an express
+order of the National Convention: it is even made a case of death to
+oppose or attack those clubs. They, too, have been lately subjected to
+an expurgatory scrutiny, to drive <a name="Page_418" id="Page_418" title="418" class="pagenum"></a>out from them everything savoring of
+what they call the crime of <i>moderantism</i>, of which offence, however,
+few were guilty. But as people began to take refuge from their
+persecutions amongst themselves, they have driven them from that last
+asylum.</p>
+
+<p>The state of France is perfectly simple. It consists of but two
+descriptions,&mdash;the oppressors and the oppressed.</p>
+
+<p>The first has the whole authority of the state in their hands,&mdash;all the
+arms, all the revenues of the public, all the confiscations of
+individuals and corporations. They have taken the lower sort from their
+occupations and have put them into pay, that they may form them into a
+body of janizaries to overrule and awe property. The heads of these
+wretches they never suffer to cool. They supply them with a food for
+fury varied by the day,&mdash;besides the sensual state of intoxication, from
+which they are rarely free. They have made the priests and people
+formally abjure the Divinity; they have estranged them from every civil,
+moral, and social, or even natural and instinctive sentiment, habit, and
+practice, and have rendered them systematically savages, to make it
+impossible for them to be the instruments of any sober and virtuous
+arrangement, or to be reconciled to any state of order, under any name
+whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>The other description&mdash;<i>the oppressed</i>&mdash;are people of some property:
+they are the small relics of the persecuted landed interest; they are
+the burghers and the farmers. By the very circumstance of their being of
+some property, though numerous in some points of view, they cannot be
+very considerable as <i>a number</i>. In cities the nature of their
+occupations <a name="Page_419" id="Page_419" title="419" class="pagenum"></a>renders them domestic and feeble; in the country it
+confines them to their farm for subsistence. The national guards are all
+changed and reformed. Everything suspicious in the description of which
+they were composed is rigorously disarmed. Committees, called of
+vigilance and safety, are everywhere formed: a most severe and
+scrutinizing inquisition, far more rigid than anything ever known or
+imagined. Two persons cannot meet and confer without hazard to their
+liberty, and even to their lives. Numbers scarcely credible have been
+executed, and their property confiscated. At Paris, and in most other
+towns, the bread they buy is a daily dole,&mdash;which they cannot obtain
+without a daily ticket delivered to them by their masters. Multitudes of
+all ages and sexes are actually imprisoned. I have reason to believe
+that in France there are not, for various state crimes, so few as twenty
+thousand<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor" title=" Some accounts make them five times as many.">[33]</a> actually in jail,&mdash;a large proportion of people of property
+in any state. If a father of a family should show any disposition to
+resist or to withdraw himself from their power, his wife and children
+are cruelly to answer for it. It is by means of these hostages that they
+keep the troops, which they force by masses (as they call it) into the
+field, true to their colors.</p>
+
+<p>Another of their resources is not to be forgotten. They have lately
+found a way of giving a sort of ubiquity to the supreme sovereign
+authority, which no monarch has been able yet to give to any
+representation of his.</p>
+
+<p>The commissioners of the National Convention, who are the members of the
+Convention itself, and really exercise all its powers, make continual
+circuits <a name="Page_420" id="Page_420" title="420" class="pagenum"></a>through every province, and visits to every army. There they
+supersede all the ordinary authorities, civil and military, and change
+and alter everything at their pleasure. So that, in effect, no
+deliberative capacity exists in any portion of the inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>Toulon, republican in principle, having taken its decision <i>in a moment
+under the guillotine</i>, and before the arrival of these
+commissioners,&mdash;Toulon, being a place regularly fortified, and having in
+its bosom a navy in part highly discontented, has escaped, though by a
+sort of miracle: and it would not have escaped, if two powerful fleets
+had not been at the door, to give them not only strong, but prompt and
+immediate succor, especially as neither this nor any other seaport town
+in France can be depended on, from the peculiarly savage dispositions,
+manners, and connections among the lower sort of people in those places.
+This I take to be the true state of things in France, <i>so far as it
+regards any existing bodies, whether of legal or voluntary association,
+capable of acting or of treating in corps</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As to the oppressed <i>individuals</i>, they are many, and as discontented as
+men must be under the monstrous and complicated tyranny of all sorts
+with which they are crushed. They want no stimulus to throw off this
+dreadful yoke; but they do want, not manifestoes, which they have had
+even to surfeit, but real protection, force, and succor.</p>
+
+<p>The disputes and questions of men at their ease do not at all affect
+their minds, or ever can occupy the minds of men in their situation.
+These theories are long since gone by; they have had their day, and have
+done their mischief. The question is not between the rabble of systems,
+Fayettism, Condorcet<a name="Page_421" id="Page_421" title="421" class="pagenum"></a>ism, Monarchism, or Democratism, or Federalism, on
+the one side, and the fundamental laws of France on the other,&mdash;or
+between all these systems amongst themselves. It is a controversy (weak,
+indeed, and unequal, on the one part) between the proprietor and the
+robber, between the prisoner and the jailer, between the neck and the
+guillotine. Four fifths of the French inhabitants would thankfully take
+protection from the emperor of Morocco, and would never trouble their
+heads about the abstract principles of the power by which they were
+snatched from imprisonment, robbery, and murder. But then these men can
+do little or nothing for themselves. They have no arms, nor magazines,
+nor chiefs, nor union, nor the possibility of these things within
+themselves. On the whole, therefore, I lay it down as a certainty, that
+in the Jacobins no change of mind is to be expected, and that no others
+in the territory of France have an independent and deliberative
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>The truth is, that France is out of itself,&mdash;the moral France is
+separated from the geographical. The master of the house is expelled,
+and the robbers are in possession. If we look for the <i>corporate people</i>
+of France, existing as corporate in the eye and intention of public law,
+(that corporate people, I mean, who are free to deliberate and to
+decide, and who have a capacity to treat and conclude,) they are in
+Flanders, and Germany, in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and England. There
+are all the princes of the blood, there are all the orders of the state,
+there are all the parliaments of the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>This being, as I conceive, the true state of France, as it exists
+<i>territorially</i>, and as it exists <i>morally</i>, the <a name="Page_422" id="Page_422" title="422" class="pagenum"></a>question will be, with
+whom we are to concert our arrangements, and whom we are to use as our
+instruments in the reduction, in the pacification, and in the settlement
+of France. The work to be done must indicate the workmen. Supposing us
+to have national objects, we have two principal and one secondary. The
+first two are so intimately connected as not to be separated even in
+thought: the re&euml;stablishment of royalty, and the re&euml;stablishment of
+property. One would think it requires not a great deal of argument to
+prove that the most serious endeavors to restore royalty will be made by
+Royalists. Property will be most energetically restored by the ancient
+proprietors of that kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>When I speak of Royalists, I wish to be understood of those who were
+always such from principle. Every arm lifted up for royalty from the
+beginning was the arm of a man so principled. I do not think there are
+ten exceptions.</p>
+
+<p>The principled Royalists are certainly not of force to effect these
+objects by themselves. If they were, the operations of the present great
+combination would be wholly unnecessary. What I contend for is, that
+they should be consulted with, treated with, and employed; and that no
+foreigners whatsoever are either in interest so engaged, or in judgment
+and local knowledge so competent to answer all these purposes, as the
+natural proprietors of the country.</p>
+
+<p>Their number, for an exiled party, is also considerable. Almost the
+whole body of the landed proprietors of France, ecclesiastical and
+civil, have been steadily devoted to the monarchy. This body does not
+amount to less than seventy thousand,&mdash;a very great number in the
+composition of the respectable <a name="Page_423" id="Page_423" title="423" class="pagenum"></a>classes in any society. I am sure, that,
+if half that number of the same description were taken out of this
+country, it would leave hardly anything that I should call the people of
+England. On the faith of the Emperor and the king of Prussia, a body of
+ten thousand nobility on horseback, with the king's two brothers at
+their head, served with the king of Prussia in the campaign of 1792, and
+equipped themselves with the last shilling of their ruined fortunes and
+exhausted credit.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor" title=" Before the Revolution, the French noblesse were so reduced
+in numbers that they did not much exceed twenty thousand at least of
+full-grown men. As they have been very cruelly formed into entire corps
+of soldiers, it is estimated, that, by the sword, and distempers in the
+field, they have not lost less than five thousand men; and if this
+course is pursued, it is to be feared that the whole body of the French
+nobility may be extinguished. Several hundreds have also perished by
+famine, and various accidents.">[34]</a> It is not now the question, how that great force
+came to be rendered useless and totally dissipated. I state it now, only
+to remark that a great part of the same force exists, and would act, if
+it were enabled. I am sure everything has shown us that in this war with
+France one Frenchman is worth twenty foreigners. La Vend&eacute;e is a proof of
+this.</p>
+
+<p>If we wish to make an impression on the minds of any persons in France,
+or to persuade them to join our standard, it is impossible that they
+should not be more easily led, and more readily formed and disciplined,
+(civilly and martially disciplined,) by those who speak their language,
+who are acquainted with their manners, who are conversant with their
+usages and habits of thinking, and who have a local knowledge of their
+country, and some remains of ancient credit and consideration, than with
+a body con<a name="Page_424" id="Page_424" title="424" class="pagenum"></a>gregated from all tongues and tribes. Where none of the
+respectable native interests are seen in the transaction, it is
+impossible that any declarations can convince those that are within, or
+those that are without, that anything else than some sort of hostility
+in the style of a conqueror is meant. At best, it will appear to such
+wavering persons, (if such there are,) whom we mean to fix with us, a
+choice whether they are to continue a prey to domestic banditti, or to
+be fought for as a carrion carcass and picked to the bone by all the
+crows and vultures of the sky. They may take protection, (and they
+would, I doubt not,) but they can have neither alacrity nor zeal in such
+a cause. When they see nothing but bands of English, Spaniards,
+Neapolitans, Sardinians, Prussians, Austrians, Hungarians, Bohemians,
+Slavonians, Croatians, <i>acting as principals</i>, it is impossible they
+should think we come with a beneficent design. Many of those fierce and
+barbarous people have already given proofs how little they regard any
+French party whatsoever. Some of these nations the people of France are
+jealous of: such are the English and the Spaniards;&mdash;others they
+despise: such are the Italians;&mdash;others they hate and dread: such are
+the German and Danubian powers. At best, such interposition of ancient
+enemies excites apprehension; but in this case, how can they suppose
+that we come to maintain their legitimate monarchy in a truly paternal
+French government, to protect their privileges, their laws, their
+religion, and their property, when they see us make use of no one person
+who has any interest in them, any knowledge of them, or any the least
+zeal for them? On the contrary, they see that we do not suffer any of
+those who have shown a zeal <a name="Page_425" id="Page_425" title="425" class="pagenum"></a>in that cause which we seem to make our own
+to come freely into any place in which the allies obtain any footing.</p>
+
+<p>If we wish to gain upon any people, it is right to see what it is they
+expect. We have had a proposal from the Royalists of Poitou. They are
+well entitled, after a bloody war maintained for eight months against
+all the powers of anarchy, to speak the sentiments of the Royalists of
+France. Do they desire us to exclude their princes, their clergy, their
+nobility? The direct contrary. They earnestly solicit that men of every
+one of these descriptions should be sent to them. They do not call for
+English, Austrian, or Prussian officers. They call for French emigrant
+officers. They call for the exiled priests. They have demanded the Comte
+d'Artois to appear at their head. These are the demands (quite natural
+demands) of those who are ready to follow the standard of monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>The great means, therefore, of restoring the monarchy, which we have
+made <i>the main object of the war</i>, is, to assist the dignity, the
+religion, and the property of France to repossess themselves of the
+means of their natural influence. This ought to be the primary object of
+all our politics and all our military operations. Otherwise everything
+will move in a preposterous order, and nothing but confusion and
+destruction will follow.</p>
+
+<p>I know that misfortune is not made to win respect from ordinary minds. I
+know that there is a leaning to prosperity, however obtained, and a
+prejudice in its favor. I know there is a disposition to hope something
+from the variety and inconstancy of villany, rather than from the
+tiresome uniformity of fixed <a name="Page_426" id="Page_426" title="426" class="pagenum"></a>principle. There have been, I admit,
+situations in which a guiding person or party might be gained over, and
+through him or them the whole body of a nation. For the hope of such a
+conversion, and of deriving advantage from enemies, it might be politic
+for a while to throw your friends into the shade. But examples drawn
+from history in occasions like the present will be found dangerously to
+mislead us. France has no resemblance to other countries which have
+undergone troubles and been purified by them. If France, Jacobinized as
+it has been for four full years, did contain any bodies of authority and
+disposition to treat with you, (most assuredly she does not,) such is
+the levity of those who have expelled everything respectable in their
+country, such their ferocity, their arrogance, their mutinous spirit,
+their habits of defying everything human and divine, that no engagement
+would hold with them for three months; nor, indeed, could they cohere
+together for any purpose of civilized society, if left as they now are.
+There must be a means, not only of breaking their strength within
+themselves, but of <i>civilizing</i> them; and these two things must go
+together, before we can possibly treat with them, not only as a nation,
+but with any division of them. Descriptions of men of their own race,
+but better in rank, superior in property and decorum, of honorable,
+decent, and orderly habits, are absolutely necessary to bring them to
+such a frame as to qualify them so much as to come into contact with a
+civilized nation. A set of those ferocious savages with arms in their
+hands, left to themselves in one part of the country whilst you proceed
+to another, would break forth into outrages at least as bad as their
+former. They must, as fast <a name="Page_427" id="Page_427" title="427" class="pagenum"></a>as gained, (if ever they are gained,) be put
+under the guide, direction, and government of better Frenchmen than
+themselves, or they will instantly relapse into a fever of aggravated
+Jacobinism.</p>
+
+<p>We must not judge of other parts of France by the temporary submission
+of Toulon, with two vast fleets in its harbor, and a garrison far more
+numerous than all the inhabitants able to bear arms. If they were left
+to themselves, I am quite sure they would not retain their attachment to
+monarchy of any name for a single week.</p>
+
+<p>To administer the only cure for the unheard-of disorders of that undone
+country, I think it infinitely happy for us that God has given into our
+hands more effectual remedies than human contrivance could point out. We
+have in our bosom, and in the bosom of other civilized states, nearer
+forty than thirty thousand persons, providentially preserved, not only
+from the cruelty and violence, but from the contagion of the horrid
+practices, sentiments, and language of the Jacobins, and even sacredly
+guarded from the view of such abominable scenes. If we should obtain, in
+any considerable district, a footing in France, we possess an immense
+body of physicians and magistrates of the mind, whom we now know to be
+the most discreet, gentle, well-tempered, conciliatory, virtuous, and
+pious persons who in any order probably existed in the world. You will
+have a missioner of peace and order in every parish. Never was a wiser
+national economy than in the charity of the English and of other
+countries. Never was money better expended than in the maintenance of
+this body of civil troops for re&euml;stablishing order in France, and for
+thus securing its civilization to Eu<a name="Page_428" id="Page_428" title="428" class="pagenum"></a>rope. This means, if properly used,
+is of value inestimable.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is this corps of instruments of civilization confined to the first
+order of that state,&mdash;I mean the clergy. The allied powers possess also
+an exceedingly numerous, well-informed, sensible, ingenious,
+high-principled, and spirited body of cavaliers in the expatriated
+landed interest of France, as well qualified, at least, as I (who have
+been taught by time and experience to moderate my calculation of the
+expectancy of human abilities) ever expected to see in the body of any
+landed gentlemen and soldiers by their birth. France is well winnowed
+and sifted. Its virtuous men are, I believe, amongst the most virtuous,
+as its wicked are amongst the most abandoned upon earth. Whatever in the
+territory of France may be found to be in the middle between these must
+be attracted to the better part. This will be compassed, when every
+gentleman, everywhere being restored to his landed estate, each on his
+patrimonial ground, may join the clergy in reanimating the loyalty,
+fidelity, and religion of the people,&mdash;that these gentlemen proprietors
+of land may sort that people according to the trust they severally
+merit, that they may arm the honest and well-affected, and disarm and
+disable the factious and ill-disposed. No foreigner can make this
+discrimination nor these arrangements. The ancient corporations of
+burghers according to their several modes should be restored, and placed
+(as they ought to be) in the hands of men of gravity and property in the
+cities or bailliages, according to the proper constitutions of the
+commons or third estate of France. They will restrain and regulate the
+seditious rabble there, as the gentlemen will on their <a name="Page_429" id="Page_429" title="429" class="pagenum"></a>own estates. In
+this way, and <i>in this way alone</i>, the country (once broken in upon by
+foreign force well directed) may be gained and settled. It must be
+gained and settled by <i>itself</i>, and through the medium of its <i>own</i>
+native dignity and property. It is not honest, it is not decent, still
+less is it politic, for foreign powers themselves to attempt anything in
+this minute, internal, local detail, in which they could show nothing
+but ignorance, imbecility, confusion, and oppression. As to the prince
+who has a just claim to exercise the regency of France, like other men
+he is not without his faults and his defects. But faults or defects
+(always supposing them faults of common human infirmity) are not what in
+any country destroy a legal title to government. These princes are kept
+in a poor, obscure, country town of the king of Prussia's. Their
+reputation is entirely at the mercy of every calumniator. They cannot
+show themselves, they cannot explain themselves, as princes ought to do.
+After being well informed as any man here can be, I do not find that
+these blemishes in this eminent person are at all considerable, or that
+they at all affect a character which is full of probity, honor,
+generosity, and real goodness. In some points he has but too much
+resemblance to his unfortunate brother, who, with all his weaknesses,
+had a good understanding, and many parts of an excellent man and a good
+king. But Monsieur, without supposing the other deficient, (as he was
+not,) excels him in general knowledge, and in a sharp and keen
+observation, with something of a better address, and an happier mode of
+speaking and of writing. His conversation is open, agreeable, and
+informed; his manners gracious and princely.<a name="Page_430" id="Page_430" title="430" class="pagenum"></a> His brother, the Comte
+d'Artois, sustains still better the representation of his place. He is
+eloquent, lively, engaging in the highest degree, of a decided
+character, full of energy and activity. In a word, he is a brave,
+honorable, and accomplished cavalier. Their brethren of royalty, if they
+were true to their own cause and interest, instead of relegating these
+illustrious persons to an obscure town, would bring them forward in
+their courts and camps, and exhibit them to (what they would speedily
+obtain) the esteem, respect, and affection of mankind.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Objection made to the regent's endeavor to go to Spain.</span>As to their knocking at every door, (which seems to give offence,) can
+anything be more natural? Abandoned, despised, rendered in a manner
+outlaws by all the powers of Europe, who have treated their unfortunate
+brethren with all the giddy pride and improvident insolence of blind,
+unfeeling prosperity, who did not even send them a compliment of
+condolence on the murder of their brother and sister, in such a state is
+it to be wondered at, or blamed, that they tried every way, likely or
+unlikely, well or ill chosen, to get out of the horrible pit into which
+they are fallen, and that in particular they tried whether the princes
+of their own blood might at length be brought to think the cause of
+kings, and of kings of their race, wounded in the murder and exile of
+the branch of France, of as much importance as the killing of a brace of
+partridges? If they were absolutely idle, and only eat in sloth their
+bread of sorrow and dependence, they would be forgotten, or at best
+thought of as wretches unworthy of their pretensions, which they had
+done nothing to support. If they err from <i>our</i> interests, what care has
+been taken to keep them in those in<a name="Page_431" id="Page_431" title="431" class="pagenum"></a>terests? or what desire has ever
+been shown to employ them in any other way than as instruments of their
+own degradation, shame, and ruin?</p>
+
+<p>The Parliament of Paris, by whom the title of the regent is to be
+recognized, (not made,) according to the laws of the kingdom, is ready
+to recognize it, and to register it, if a place of meeting was given to
+them, which might be within their own jurisdiction, supposing that only
+locality was required for the exercise of their functions: for it is one
+of the advantages of monarchy to have no local seat. It may maintain its
+rights out of the sphere of its territorial jurisdiction, if other
+powers will suffer it.</p>
+
+<p>I am well apprised that the little intriguers, and whisperers, and
+self-conceited, thoughtless babblers, worse than either, run about to
+depreciate the fallen virtue of a great nation. But whilst they talk, we
+must make our choice,&mdash;they or the Jacobins. We have no other option. As
+to those who in the pride of a prosperity not obtained by their wisdom,
+valor, or industry, think so well of themselves, and of their own
+abilities and virtues, and so ill of other men, truth obliges me to say
+that they are not founded in their presumption concerning themselves,
+nor in their contempt of the French princes, magistrates, nobility, and
+clergy. Instead of inspiring me with dislike and distrust of the
+unfortunate, engaged with us in a common cause against our Jacobin
+enemy, they take away all my esteem for their own characters, and all my
+deference to their judgment.</p>
+
+<p>There are some few French gentlemen, indeed, who talk a language not
+wholly different from this jargon. Those whom I have in my eye I respect
+as gallant soldiers, as much as any one can do; but on their <a name="Page_432" id="Page_432" title="432" class="pagenum"></a>political
+judgment and prudence I have not the slightest reliance, nor on their
+knowledge of their own country, or of its laws and Constitution. They
+are, if not enemies, at least not friends, to the orders of their own
+state,&mdash;not to the princes, the clergy, or the nobility; they possess
+only an attachment to the monarchy, or rather to the persons of the late
+king and queen. In all other respects their conversation is Jacobin. I
+am afraid they, or some of them, go into the closets of ministers, and
+tell them that the affairs of France will be better arranged by the
+allied powers than by the landed proprietors of the kingdom, or by the
+princes who have a right to govern; and that, if any French are at all
+to be employed in the settlement of their country, it ought to be only
+those who have never declared any decided opinion, or taken any active
+part in the Revolution.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor" title=" This was the language of the Ministerialists.">[35]</a></p>
+
+<p>I suspect that the authors of this opinion are mere soldiers of fortune,
+who, though men of integrity and honor, would as gladly receive military
+rank from Russia, or Austria, or Prussia, as from the regent of France.
+Perhaps their not having as much importance at his court as they could
+wish may incline them to this strange imagination. Perhaps, having no
+property in old France, they are more indifferent about its restoration.
+Their language is certainly flattering to all ministers in all courts.
+We all are men; we all love to be told of the extent of our own power
+and our own faculties. If we love glory, we are jealous of partners, and
+afraid even of our own instruments. It is of all modes of flattery the
+most effectual, to be told that you can regulate the affairs of another
+kingdom better than its hereditary proprie<a name="Page_433" id="Page_433" title="433" class="pagenum"></a>tors. It is formed to flatter
+the principle of conquest so natural to all men. It is this principle
+which is now making the partition of Poland. The powers concerned have
+been told by some perfidious Poles, and perhaps they believe, that their
+usurpation is a great benefit to the people, especially to the common
+people. However this may turn out with regard to Poland, I am quite sure
+that France could not be so well under a foreign direction as under that
+of the representatives of its own king and its own ancient estates.</p>
+
+<p>I think I have myself studied France as much as most of those whom the
+allied courts are likely to employ in such a work. I have likewise of
+myself as partial and as vain an opinion as men commonly have of
+themselves. But if I could command the whole military arm of Europe, I
+am sure that a bribe of the best province in that kingdom would not
+tempt me to intermeddle in their affairs, except in perfect concurrence
+and concert with the natural, legal interests of the country, composed
+of the ecclesiastical, the military, the several corporate bodies of
+justice and of burghership, making under a monarch (I repeat it again
+and again) <i>the French nation according to its fundamental
+Constitution</i>. No considerate statesman would undertake to meddle with
+it upon any other condition.</p>
+
+<p>The government of that kingdom is fundamentally monarchical. The public
+law of Europe has never recognized in it any other form of government.
+The potentates of Europe have, by that law, a right, an interest, and a
+duty to know with what government they are to treat, and what they are
+to admit into the federative society,&mdash;or, in other words, into the
+diplo<a name="Page_434" id="Page_434" title="434" class="pagenum"></a>matic republic of Europe. This right is clear and indisputable.</p>
+
+<p>What other and further interference they have a right to in the interior
+of the concerns of another people is a matter on which, as on every
+political subject, no very definite or positive rule can well be laid
+down. Our neighbors are men; and who will attempt to dictate the laws
+under which it is allowable or forbidden to take a part in the concerns
+of men, whether they are considered individually or in a collective
+capacity, whenever charity to them, or a care of my own safety, calls
+forth my activity? Circumstances perpetually variable, directing a moral
+prudence and discretion, the <i>general</i> principles of which never vary,
+must alone prescribe a conduct fitting on such occasions. The latest
+casuists of public law are rather of a republican cast, and, in my mind,
+by no means so averse as they ought to be to a right in the people (a
+word which, ill defined, is of the most dangerous use) to make changes
+at their pleasure in the fundamental laws of their country. These
+writers, however, when a country is divided, leave abundant liberty for
+a neighbor to support any of the parties according to his choice.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor" title=" Vattel.">[36]</a>
+This interference must, indeed, always be a right, whilst the privilege
+of doing good to others, and of averting from them every sort of evil,
+is a right: circumstances may render that right a duty. It depends
+wholly on this, whether it be a <i>bon&acirc; fide</i> charity to a party, and a
+prudent precaution with regard to yourself, or whether, under the
+pretence of aiding one of the parties in a nation, you act in such a
+manner as to aggravate its calamities and accomplish its final
+destruction. In truth, <a name="Page_435" id="Page_435" title="435" class="pagenum"></a>it is not the interfering or keeping aloof, but
+iniquitous intermeddling, or treacherous inaction, which is praised or
+blamed by the decision of an equitable judge.</p>
+
+<p>It will be a just and irresistible presumption against the fairness of
+the interposing power, that he takes with him no party or description of
+men in the divided state. It is not probable that these parties should
+all, and all alike, be more adverse to the true interests of their
+country, and less capable of forming a judgment upon them, than those
+who are absolute strangers to their affairs, and to the character of the
+actors in them, and have but a remote, feeble, and secondary sympathy
+with their interest. Sometimes a calm and healing arbiter may be
+necessary; but he is to compose differences, not to give laws. It is
+impossible that any one should not feel the full force of that
+presumption. Even people, whose politics for the supposed good of their
+own country lead them to take advantage of the dissensions of a
+neighboring nation in order to ruin it, will not directly propose to
+exclude the natives, but they will take that mode of consulting and
+employing them which most nearly approaches to an exclusion. In some
+particulars they propose what amounts to that exclusion, in others they
+do much worse. They recommend to ministry, &quot;that no Frenchman who has
+given a decided opinion or acted a decided part in this great
+Revolution, for or against it, should be countenanced, brought forward,
+trusted, or employed, even in the strictest subordination to the
+ministers of the allied powers.&quot; Although one would think that this
+advice would stand condemned on the first proposition, yet, as it has
+been made popular, and has been proceeded upon <a name="Page_436" id="Page_436" title="436" class="pagenum"></a>practically, I think it
+right to give it a full consideration.</p>
+
+<p>And first, I have asked myself who these Frenchmen are, that, in the
+state their own country has been in for these last five years, of all
+the people of Europe, have alone not been able to form a decided
+opinion, or have been unwilling to act a decided part?</p>
+
+<p>Looking over all the names I have heard of in this great revolution in
+all human affairs, I find no man of any distinction who has remained in
+that more than Stoical apathy, but the Prince de Conti. This mean,
+stupid, selfish, swinish, and cowardly animal, universally known and
+despised as such, has indeed, except in one abortive attempt to elope,
+been perfectly neutral. However, his neutrality, which it seems would
+qualify him for trust, and on a competition must set aside the Prince de
+Cond&eacute;, can be of no sort of service. His moderation has not been able to
+keep him from a jail. The allied powers must draw him from that jail,
+before they can have the full advantage of the exertions of this great
+neutralist.</p>
+
+<p>Except him, I do not recollect a man of rank or talents, who by his
+speeches or his votes, by his pen or by his sword, has not been active
+on this scene. The time, indeed, could admit no neutrality in any person
+worthy of the name of man. There were originally two great divisions in
+France: the one is that which overturned the whole of the government in
+Church and State, and erected a republic on the basis of atheism. Their
+grand engine was the Jacobin Club, a sort of secession from which, but
+exactly on the same principles, begat another short-lived one, <a name="Page_437" id="Page_437" title="437" class="pagenum"></a>called
+the Club of Eighty-Nine,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor" title=" The first object of this club was the propagation of
+Jacobin principles.">[37]</a> which was chiefly guided by the court
+rebels, who, in addition to the crimes of which they were guilty in
+common with the others, had the merit of betraying a gracious master and
+a kind benefactor. Subdivisions of this faction, which since we have
+seen, do not in the least differ from each other in their principles,
+their dispositions, or the means they have employed. Their only quarrel
+has been about power: in that quarrel, like wave succeeding wave, one
+faction has got the better and expelled the other. Thus, La Fayette for
+a while got the better of Orl&eacute;ans; and Orl&eacute;ans afterwards prevailed over
+La Fayette. Brissot overpowered Orl&eacute;ans; Bar&egrave;re and Robespierre, and
+their faction, mastered them both, and cut off their heads. All who were
+not Royalists have been listed in some or other of these divisions. If
+it were of any use to settle a precedence, the elder ought to have his
+rank. The first authors, plotters, and contrivers of this monstrous
+scheme seem to me entitled to the first place in our distrust and
+abhorrence. I have seen some of those who are thought the best amongst
+the original rebels, and I have not neglected the means of being
+informed concerning the others. I can very truly say, that I have not
+found, by observation, or inquiry, that any sense of the evils produced
+by their projects has produced in them, or any <i>one</i> of them, the
+smallest degree of repentance. Disappointment and mortification
+undoubtedly they feel; but to them repentance is a thing impossible.
+They are atheists. This wretched opinion, by which they are possessed
+even to the height of fanaticism, leading them to exclude <a name="Page_438" id="Page_438" title="438" class="pagenum"></a>from their
+ideas of a commonwealth the vital principle of the physical, the moral,
+and the political world engages them in a thousand absurd contrivances
+to fill up this dreadful void. Incapable of innoxious repose or
+honorable action or wise speculation in the lurking-holes of a foreign
+land, into which (in a common ruin) they are driven to hide their heads
+amongst the innocent victims of their madness, they are at this very
+hour as busy in the confection of the dirt-pies of their imaginary
+constitutions as if they had not been quite fresh from destroying, by
+their impious and desperate vagaries, the finest country upon earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is, however, out of these, or of such as these, guilty and
+impenitent, despising the experience of others, and their own, that some
+people talk of choosing their negotiators with those Jacobins who they
+suppose may be recovered to a sounder mind. They flatter themselves, it
+seems, that the friendly habits formed during their original partnership
+of iniquity, a similarity of character, and a conformity in the
+groundwork of their principles, might facilitate their conversion, and
+gain them over to some recognition of royalty. But surely this is to
+read human nature very ill. The several sectaries in this schism of the
+Jacobins are the very last men in the world to trust each other.
+Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence. The last quarrels
+are the sorest; and the injuries received or offered by your own
+associates are ever the most bitterly resented. The people of France, of
+every name and description, would a thousand times sooner listen to the
+Prince de Cond&eacute;, or to the Archbishop of Aix, or the Bishop of St. Pol,
+or to Monsieur de<a name="Page_439" id="Page_439" title="439" class="pagenum"></a> Cazal&egrave;s, then to La Fayette, or Dumouriez, or the
+Vicomte de Noailles, or the Bishop of Autun, or Necker, or his disciple
+Lally Tollendal. Against the first description they have not the
+smallest animosity, beyond that of a merely political dissension. The
+others they regard as traitors.</p>
+
+<p>The first description is that of the Christian Royalists, men who as
+earnestly wished for reformation, as they opposed innovation in the
+fundamental parts of their Church and State. <i>Their</i> part has been <i>very
+decided</i>. Accordingly, they are to be set aside in the restoration of
+Church and State. It is an odd kind of disqualification, where the
+restoration of religion and monarchy is the question. If England should
+(God forbid it should!) fall into the same misfortune with France, and
+that the court of Vienna should undertake the restoration of our
+monarchy, I think it would be extraordinary to object to the admission
+of Mr. Pitt or Lord Grenville or Mr. Dundas into any share in the
+management of that business, because in a day of trial they have stood
+up firmly and manfully, as I trust they always will do, and with
+distinguished powers, for the monarchy and the legitimate Constitution
+of their country. I am sure, if I were to suppose myself at Vienna at
+such a time, I should, as a man, as an Englishman, and as a Royalist,
+protest in that case, as I do in this, against a weak and ruinous
+principle of proceeding, which can have no other tendency than to make
+those who wish to support the crown meditate too profoundly on the
+consequences of the part they take, and consider whether for their open
+and forward zeal in the royal cause they may not be thrust out from any
+sort of confidence and employment, where the interest of crowned heads
+is concerned.<a name="Page_440" id="Page_440" title="440" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>These are the <i>parties</i>. I have said, and said truly, that I know of no
+neutrals. But, as a general observation on this general principle of
+choosing neutrals on such occasions as the present, I have this to say,
+that it amounts to neither more nor less than this shocking
+proposition,&mdash;that we ought to exclude men of honor and ability from
+serving theirs and our cause, and to put the dearest interests of
+ourselves and our posterity into the hands of men of no decided
+character, without judgment to choose and without courage to profess any
+principle whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>Such men can serve no cause, for this plain reason,&mdash;they have no cause
+at heart. They can, at best, work only as mere mercenaries. They have
+not been guilty of great crimes; but it is only because they have not
+energy of mind to rise to any height of wickedness. They are not hawks
+or kites: they are only miserable fowls whose flight is not above their
+dunghill or hen-roost. But they tremble before the authors of these
+horrors. They admire them at a safe and respectful distance. There never
+was a mean and abject mind that did not admire an intrepid and dexterous
+villain. In the bottom of their hearts they believe such hardy
+miscreants to be the only men qualified for great affairs. If you set
+them to transact with such persons, they are instantly subdued. They
+dare not so much as look their antagonist in the face. They are made to
+be their subjects, not to be their arbiters or controllers.</p>
+
+<p>These men, to be sure, can look at atrocious acts without indignation,
+and can behold suffering virtue without sympathy. Therefore they are
+considered as sober, dispassionate men. But they have their pas<a name="Page_441" id="Page_441" title="441" class="pagenum"></a>sions,
+though of another kind, and which are infinitely more likely to carry
+them out of the path of their duty. They are of a tame, timid, languid,
+inert temper, wherever the welfare of <i>others</i> is concerned. In such
+causes, as they have no motives to action, they never possess any real
+ability, and are totally destitute of all resource.</p>
+
+<p>Believe a man who has seen much and observed something. I have seen, in
+the course of my life, a great many of that family of men. They are
+generally chosen because they have no opinion of their own; and as far
+as they can be got in good earnest to embrace any opinion, it is that of
+whoever happens to employ them, (neither longer nor shorter, narrower
+nor broader,) with whom they have no discussion or consultation. The
+only thing which occurs to such a man, when he has got a business for
+others into his hands, is, how to make his own fortune out of it. The
+person he is to treat with is not, with him, an adversary over whom he
+is to prevail, but a new friend he is to gain; therefore he always
+systematically betrays some part of his trust. Instead of thinking how
+he shall defend his ground to the last, and, if forced to retreat, how
+little he shall give up, this kind of man considers how much of the
+interest of his employer he is to sacrifice to his adversary. Having
+nothing but himself in view, he knows, that, in serving his principal
+with zeal, he must probably incur some resentment from the opposite
+party. His object is, to obtain the good-will of the person with whom he
+contends, that, when an agreement is made, he may join in rewarding him.
+I would not take one of these as my arbitrator in a dispute for so much
+as a fish-pond; for, if he re<a name="Page_442" id="Page_442" title="442" class="pagenum"></a>served the mud to me, he would be sure to
+give the water that fed the pool to my adversary. In a great cause, I
+should certainly wish that my agent should possess conciliating
+qualities: that he should be of a frank, open, and candid disposition,
+soft in his nature, and of a temper to soften animosities and to win
+confidence. He ought not to be a man odious to the person he treats
+with, by personal injury, by violence, or by deceit, or, above all, by
+the dereliction of his cause in any former transactions. But I would be
+sure that my negotiator should be <i>mine</i>,&mdash;that he should be as earnest
+in the cause as myself, and known to be so,&mdash;that he should not be
+looked upon as a stipendiary advocate, but as a principled partisan. In
+all treaty it is a great point that all idea of gaining your agent is
+hopeless. I would not trust the cause of royalty with a man who,
+professing neutrality, is half a republican. The enemy has already a
+great part of his suit without a struggle,&mdash;and he contends with
+advantage for all the rest. The common principle allowed between your
+adversary and your agent gives your adversary the advantage in every
+discussion.</p>
+
+<p>Before I shut up this discourse about neutral agency, (which I conceive
+is not to be found, or, if found, ought not to be used,) I have a few
+other remarks to make on the cause which I conceive gives rise to it.</p>
+
+<p>In all that we do, whether in the struggle or after it, it is necessary
+that we should constantly have in our eye the nature and character of
+the enemy we have to contend with. The Jacobin Revolution is carried on
+by men of no rank, of no consideration, of wild, savage minds, full of
+levity, arrogance, and presumption, without morals, without probity,
+with<a name="Page_443" id="Page_443" title="443" class="pagenum"></a>out prudence. What have they, then, to supply their innumerable
+defects, and to make them terrible even to the firmest minds? <i>One</i>
+thing, and <i>one</i> thing only,&mdash;but that one thing is worth a
+thousand;&mdash;they have <i>energy</i>. In France, all things being put into an
+universal ferment, in the decomposition of society, no man comes forward
+but by his spirit of enterprise and the vigor of his mind. If we meet
+this dreadful and portentous energy, restrained by no consideration of
+God or man, that is always vigilant, always on the attack, that allows
+itself no repose, and suffers none to rest an hour with impunity,&mdash;if we
+meet this energy with poor commonplace proceeding, with trivial maxims,
+paltry old saws, with doubts, fears, and suspicions, with a languid,
+uncertain hesitation, with a formal, official spirit, which is turned
+aside by every obstacle from its purpose, and which never sees a
+difficulty but to yield to it, or at best to evade it,&mdash;down we go to
+the bottom of the abyss, and nothing short of Omnipotence can save us.
+We must meet a vicious and distempered energy with a manly and rational
+vigor. As virtue is limited in its resources, we are doubly bound to use
+all that in the circle drawn about us by our morals we are able to
+command.</p>
+
+<p>I do not contend against the advantages of distrust. In the world we
+live in it is but too necessary. Some of old called it the very sinews
+of discretion. But what signify commonplaces that always run parallel
+and equal? Distrust is good, or it is bad, according to our position and
+our purpose. Distrust is a defensive principle. They who have much to
+lose have much to fear. But in France we hold nothing. We are to break
+in upon a power in pos<a name="Page_444" id="Page_444" title="444" class="pagenum"></a>session; we are to carry everything by storm, or
+by surprise, or by intelligence, or by all. Adventure, therefore, and
+not caution, is our policy. Here to be too presuming is the better
+error.</p>
+
+<p>The world will judge of the spirit of our proceeding in those places of
+France which may fall into our power by our conduct in those that are
+already in our hands. Our wisdom should not be vulgar. Other times,
+perhaps other measures; but in this awful hour our politics ought to be
+made up of nothing but courage, decision, manliness, and rectitude. We
+should have all the magnanimity of good faith. This is a royal and
+commanding policy; and as long as we are true to it, we may give the
+law. Never can we assume this command, if we will not risk the
+consequences. For which reason we ought to be bottomed enough in
+principle not to be carried away upon the first prospect of any sinister
+advantage. For depend upon it, that, if we once give way to a sinister
+dealing, we shall teach others the game, and we shall be outwitted and
+overborne; the Spaniards, the Prussians, God knows who, will put us
+under contribution at their pleasure; and instead of being at the head
+of a great confederacy, and the arbiters of Europe, we shall, by our
+mistakes, break up a great design into a thousand little selfish
+quarrels, the enemy will triumph, and we shall sit down under the terms
+of unsafe and dependent peace, weakened, mortified, and disgraced,
+whilst all Europe, England included, is left open and defenceless on
+every part, to Jacobin principles, intrigues, and arms. In the case of
+the king of France, declared to be our friend and ally, we will still be
+considering ourselves in the contradictory character of an enemy. This
+contradic<a name="Page_445" id="Page_445" title="445" class="pagenum"></a>tion, I am afraid, will, in spite of us, give a color of fraud
+to all our transactions, or at least will so complicate our politics
+that we shall ourselves be inextricably entangled in them.</p>
+
+<p>I have Toulon in my eye. It was with infinite sorrow I heard, that, in
+taking the king of France's fleet in trust, we instantly unrigged and
+dismasted the ships, instead of keeping them in a condition to escape in
+case of disaster, and in order to fulfil our trust,&mdash;that is, to hold
+them for the use of the owner, and in the mean time to employ them for
+our common service. These ships are now so circumstanced, that, if we
+are forced to evacuate Toulon, they must fall into the hands of the
+enemy or be burnt by ourselves. I know this is by some considered as a
+fine thing for us. But the Athenians ought not to be better than the
+English, or Mr. Pitt less virtuous than Aristides.</p>
+
+<p>Are we, then, so poor in resources that we can do no better with
+eighteen or twenty ships of the line than to burn them? Had we sent for
+French Royalist naval officers, of which some hundreds are to be had,
+and made them select such seamen as they could trust, and filled the
+rest with our own and Mediterranean seamen, which are all over Italy to
+be had by thousands, and put them under judicious English
+commanders-in-chief, and with a judicious mixture of our own
+subordinates, the West Indies would at this day have been ours. It may
+be said that these French officers would take them for the king of
+France, and that they would not be in our power. Be it so. The islands
+would not be ours, but they would not be Jacobinized. This is, however,
+a thing impossible. They must in effect and <a name="Page_446" id="Page_446" title="446" class="pagenum"></a>substance be ours. But all
+is upon that false principle of distrust, which, not confiding in
+strength, can never have the full use of it. They that pay, and feed,
+and equip, must direct. But I must speak plain upon this subject. The
+French islands, if they were all our own, ought not to be all kept. A
+fair partition only ought to be made of those territories. This is a
+subject of policy very serious, which has many relations and aspects.
+Just here I only hint at it as answering an objection, whilst I state
+the mischievous consequences which suffer us to be surprised into a
+virtual breach of faith by confounding our ally with our enemy, because
+they both belong to the same geographical territory.</p>
+
+<p>My clear opinion is, that Toulon ought to be made, what we set out with,
+a royal French city. By the necessity of the case, it must be under the
+influence, civil and military, of the allies. But the only way of
+keeping that jealous and discordant mass from tearing its component
+parts to pieces, and hazarding the loss of the whole, is, to put the
+place into the nominal government of the regent, his officers being
+approved by us. This, I say, is absolutely necessary for a poise amongst
+ourselves. Otherwise is it to be believed that the Spaniards, who hold
+that place with us in a sort of partnership, contrary to our mutual
+interest, will see us absolute masters of the Mediterranean, with
+Gibraltar on one side and Toulon on the other, with a quiet and composed
+mind, whilst we do little less than declare that we are to take the
+whole West Indies into our hands, leaving the vast, unwieldy, and feeble
+body of the Spanish dominions in that part of the world absolutely at
+our mercy, without any power to balance us in the smallest de<a name="Page_447" id="Page_447" title="447" class="pagenum"></a>gree?
+Nothing is so fatal to a nation as an extreme of self-partiality, and
+the total want of consideration of what others will naturally hope or
+fear. Spain must think she sees that we are taking advantage of the
+confusions which reign in France to disable that country, and of course
+every country, from affording her protection, and in the end to turn the
+Spanish monarchy into a province. If she saw things in a proper point of
+light, to be sure, she would not consider any other plan of politics as
+of the least moment in comparison of the extinction of Jacobinism. But
+her ministers (to say the best of them) are vulgar politicians. It is no
+wonder that they should postpone this great point, or balance it by
+considerations of the common politics, that is, the questions of power
+between <i>state and state</i>. If we manifestly endeavor to destroy the
+balance, especially the maritime and commercial balance, both in Europe
+and the West Indies, (the latter their sore and vulnerable part,) from
+fear of what France may do for Spain hereafter, is it to be wondered
+that Spain, infinitely weaker than we are, (weaker, indeed, than such a
+mass of empire ever was,) should feel the same fears from our
+uncontrolled power that we give way to ourselves from a supposed
+resurrection of the ancient power of France under a monarchy? It
+signifies nothing whether we are wrong or right in the abstract; but in
+respect to our relation to Spain, with such principles followed up in
+practice, it is absolutely impossible that any cordial alliance can
+subsist between the two nations. If Spain goes, Naples will speedily
+follow. Prussia is quite certain, and thinks of nothing but making a
+market of the present confusions. Italy is broken and divided.
+Switzer<a name="Page_448" id="Page_448" title="448" class="pagenum"></a>land is Jacobinized, I am afraid, completely. I have long seen
+with pain the progress of French principles in that country. Things
+cannot go on upon the present bottom. The possession of Toulon, which,
+well managed, might be of the greatest advantage, will be the greatest
+misfortune that ever happened to this nation. The more we multiply
+troops there, the more we shall multiply causes and means of quarrel
+amongst ourselves. I know but one way of avoiding it, which is, to give
+a greater degree of simplicity to our politics. Our situation does
+necessarily render them a good deal involved. And to this evil, instead
+of increasing it, we ought to apply all the remedies in our power.</p>
+
+<p>See what is in that place the consequence (to say nothing of every
+other) of this complexity. Toulon has, as it were, two gates,&mdash;an
+English and a Spanish. The English gate is by our policy fast barred
+against the entrance of any Royalists. The Spaniards open theirs, I
+fear, upon no fixed principle, and with very little judgment. By means,
+however, of this foolish, mean, and jealous policy on our side, all the
+Royalists whom the English might select as most practicable, and most
+subservient to honest views, are totally excluded. Of those admitted the
+Spaniards are masters. As to the inhabitants, they are a nest of
+Jacobins, which is delivered into our hands, not from principle, but
+from fear. The inhabitants of Toulon may be described in a few words. It
+is <i>differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis</i>. The rest of the
+seaports are of the same description.</p>
+
+<p>Another thing which I cannot account for is, the sending for the Bishop
+of Toulon and afterwards forbidding his entrance. This is as directly
+contrary to <a name="Page_449" id="Page_449" title="449" class="pagenum"></a>the declaration as it is to the practice of the allied
+powers. The king of Prussia did better. When he took Verdun, he actually
+reinstated the bishop and his chapter. When he thought he should be the
+master of Chalons, he called the bishop from Flanders, to put him into
+possession. The Austrians have restored the clergy wherever they
+obtained possession. We have proposed to restore religion as well as
+monarchy; and in Toulon we have restored neither the one nor the other.
+It is very likely that the Jacobin <i>sans-culottes</i>, or some of them,
+objected to this measure, who rather choose to have the atheistic
+buffoons of clergy they have got to sport with, till they are ready to
+come forward, with the rest of their worthy brethren, in Paris and other
+places, to declare that they are a set of impostors, that they never
+believed in God, and never will preach any sort of religion. If we give
+way to our Jacobins in this point, it is fully and fairly putting the
+government, civil and ecclesiastical, not in the king of France, to
+whom, as the protector and governor, and in substance the head of the
+Gallican Church, the nomination to the bishoprics belonged, and who made
+the Bishop of Toulon,&mdash;it does not leave it with him, or even in the
+hands of the king of England, or the king of Spain,&mdash;but in the basest
+Jacobins of a low seaport, to exercise, <i>pro tempore</i>, the sovereignty.
+If this point of religion is thus given up, the grand instrument for
+reclaiming France is abandoned. We cannot, if we would, delude ourselves
+about the true state of this dreadful contest. <i>It is a religious war</i>.
+It includes in its object, undoubtedly, every other interest of society
+as well as this; but this is the principal and leading feature. It is
+through this <a name="Page_450" id="Page_450" title="450" class="pagenum"></a>destruction of religion that our enemies propose the
+accomplishment of all their other views. The French Revolution, impious
+at once and fanatical, had no other plan for domestic power and foreign
+empire. Look at all the proceedings of the National Assembly, from the
+first day of declaring itself such, in the year 1789, to this very hour,
+and you will find full half of their business to be directly on this
+subject. In fact, it is the spirit of the whole. The religious system,
+called the Constitutional Church, was, on the face of the whole
+proceeding, set up only as a mere temporary amusement to the people, and
+so constantly stated in all their conversations, till the time should
+come when they might with safety cast off the very appearance of all
+religion whatsoever, and persecute Christianity throughout Europe with
+fire and sword. The Constitutional clergy are not the ministers of any
+religion: they are the agents and instruments of this horrible
+conspiracy against all morals. It was from a sense of this, that, in the
+English addition to the articles proposed at St. Domingo, tolerating all
+religions, we very wisely refused to suffer that kind of traitors and
+buffoons.</p>
+
+<p>This religious war is not a controversy between sect and sect, as
+formerly, but a war against all sects and all religions. The question is
+not, whether you are to overturn the Catholic, to set up the Protestant.
+Such an idea, in the present state of the world, is too contemptible.
+Our business is, to leave to the schools the discussion of the
+controverted points, abating as much as we can the acrimony of
+disputants on all sides. It is for Christian statesmen, as the world is
+now circumstanced, to secure their common basis, and not to risk the
+subversion of the whole fabric <a name="Page_451" id="Page_451" title="451" class="pagenum"></a>by pursuing these distinctions with an
+ill-timed zeal. We have in the present grand alliance all modes of
+government, as well as all modes of religion. In government, we mean to
+restore that which, notwithstanding our diversity of forms, we are all
+agreed in as fundamental in government. The same principle ought to
+guide us in the religious part: conforming the mode, not to our
+particular ideas, (for in that point we have no ideas in common,) but to
+what will best promote the great, general ends of the alliance. As
+statesmen, we are to see which of those modes best suits with the
+interests of such a commonwealth as we wish to secure and promote. There
+can be no doubt but that the Catholic religion, which is fundamentally
+the religion of France, must go with the monarchy of France. We know
+that the monarchy did not survive the hierarchy, no, not even in
+appearance, for many months,&mdash;in substance, not for a single hour. As
+little can it exist in future, if that pillar is taken away, or even
+shattered and impaired.</p>
+
+<p>If it should please God to give to the allies the means of restoring
+peace and order in that focus of war and confusion, I would, as I said
+in the beginning of this memorial, first replace the whole of the old
+clergy; because we have proof more than sufficient, that, whether they
+err or not in the scholastic disputes with us, they are not tainted with
+atheism, the great political evil of the time. I hope I need not
+apologize for this phrase, as if I thought religion nothing but policy:
+it is far from my thoughts, and I hope it is not to be inferred from my
+expressions. But in the light of policy alone I am here considering the
+question. I speak of policy, too, in a large <a name="Page_452" id="Page_452" title="452" class="pagenum"></a>light; in which large
+light, policy, too, is a sacred thing.</p>
+
+<p>There are many, perhaps half a million or more, calling themselves
+Protestants, in the South of France, and in other of the provinces. Some
+raise them to a much greater number; but I think this nearer to the
+mark. I am sorry to say that they have behaved shockingly since the very
+beginning of this rebellion, and have been uniformly concerned in its
+worst and most atrocious acts. Their clergy are just the same atheists
+with those of the Constitutional Catholics, but still more wicked and
+daring. Three of their number have met from their republican associates
+the reward of their crimes.</p>
+
+<p>As the ancient Catholic religion is to be restored for the body of
+France, the ancient Calvinistic religion ought to be restored for the
+Protestants, with every kind of protection and privilege. But not one
+minister concerned in this rebellion ought to be suffered amongst them.
+If they have not clergy of their own, men well recommended, as untainted
+with Jacobinism, by the synods of those places where Calvinism prevails
+and French is spoken, ought to be sought. Many such there are. The
+Presbyterian discipline ought, in my opinion, to be established in its
+vigor, and the people professing it ought to be bound to its
+maintenance. No man, under the false and hypocritical pretence of
+liberty of conscience, ought to be suffered to have no conscience at
+all. The king's commissioner ought also to sit in their synods, as
+before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I am conscious that this
+discipline disposes men to republicanism: but it is still a discipline,
+and it is a cure (such as it is) for the perverse and undis<a name="Page_453" id="Page_453" title="453" class="pagenum"></a>ciplined
+habits which for some time have prevailed. Republicanism repressed may
+have its use in the composition of a state. Inspection may be
+practicable, and responsibility in the teachers and elders may be
+established, in such an hierarchy as the Presbyterian. For a time like
+ours, it is a great point gained, that people should be taught to meet,
+to combine, and to be classed and arrayed in some other way than in
+clubs of Jacobins. If it be not the best mode of Protestantism under a
+monarchy, it is still an orderly Christian church, orthodox in the
+fundamentals, and, what is to our point, capable enough of rendering men
+useful citizens. It was the impolitic abolition of their discipline,
+which exposed them to the wild opinions and conduct that have prevailed
+amongst the Huguenots. The toleration in 1787 was owing to the good
+disposition of the late king; but it was modified by the profligate
+folly of his atheistic minister, the Cardinal de Lom&eacute;nie. This
+mischievous minister did not follow, in the edict of toleration, the
+wisdom of the Edict of Nantes. But his toleration was granted to
+<i>non-Catholics</i>,&mdash;a dangerous word, which might signify anything, and
+was but too expressive of a fatal indifference with regard to all piety.
+I speak for myself: I do not wish any man to be converted from his sect.
+The distinctions which we have reformed from animosity to emulation may
+be even useful to the cause of religion. By some moderate contention
+they keep alive zeal. Whereas people who change, except under strong
+conviction, (a thing now rather rare,) the religion of their early
+prejudices, especially if the conversion is brought about by any
+political machine, are very apt to degenerate into indifference, laxity,
+and often downright atheism.<a name="Page_454" id="Page_454" title="454" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Another political question arises about the mode of government which
+ought to be established. I think the proclamation (which I read before I
+had proceeded far in this memorial) puts it on the best footing, by
+postponing that arrangement to a time of peace.</p>
+
+<p>When our politics lead us to enterprise a great and almost total
+political revolution in Europe, we ought to look seriously into the
+consequences of what we are about to do. Some eminent persons discover
+an apprehension that the monarchy, if restored in France, may be
+restored in too great strength for the liberty and happiness of the
+natives, and for the tranquillity of other states. They are therefore of
+opinion that terms ought to be made for the modification of that
+monarchy. They are persons too considerable, from the powers of their
+mind, and from their situation, as well as from the real respect I have
+for them, who seem to entertain these apprehensions, to let me pass them
+by unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>As to the power of France as a state, and in its exterior relations, I
+confess my fears are on the part of its extreme reduction. There is
+undoubtedly something in the vicinity of France, which makes it
+naturally and properly an object of our watchfulness and jealousy,
+whatever form its government may take. But the difference is great
+between a plan for our own security and a scheme for the utter
+destruction of France. If there were no other countries in the political
+map but these two, I admit that policy might justify a wish to lower our
+neighbor to a standard which would even render her in some measure, if
+not wholly, our dependant. But the system of Europe is extensive and
+extremely complex. However formi<a name="Page_455" id="Page_455" title="455" class="pagenum"></a>dable to us, as taken in this one
+relation, France is not equally dreadful to all other states. On the
+contrary, my clear opinion is, that the liberties of Europe cannot
+possibly be preserved but by her remaining a very great and
+preponderating power. The design at present evidently pursued by the
+combined potentates, or of the two who lead, is totally to destroy her
+as such a power. For Great Britain resolves that she shall have no
+colonies, no commerce, and no marine. Austria means to take away the
+whole frontier, from the borders of Switzerland to Dunkirk. It is their
+plan also to render the interior government lax and feeble, by
+prescribing, by force of the arms of rival and jealous nations, and
+without consulting the natural interests of the kingdom, such
+arrangements as, in the actual state of Jacobinism in France, and the
+unsettled state in which property must remain for a long time, will
+inevitably produce such distraction and debility in government as to
+reduce it to nothing, or to throw it back into its old confusion. One
+cannot conceive so frightful a state of a nation. A maritime country
+without a marine and without commerce; a continental country without a
+frontier, and for a thousand miles surrounded with powerful, warlike,
+and ambitious neighbors! It is possible that she might submit to lose
+her commerce and her colonies: her security she never can abandon. If,
+contrary to all expectations, under such a disgraced and impotent
+government, any energy should remain in that country, she will make
+every effort to recover her security, which will involve Europe for a
+century in war and blood. What has it cost to France to make that
+frontier? What will it cost to recover it? Austria thinks that without a
+frontier she cannot secure <a name="Page_456" id="Page_456" title="456" class="pagenum"></a>the <i>Netherlands</i>. But without her frontier
+France cannot secure <i>herself</i>. Austria has been, however, secure for an
+hundred years in those very Netherlands, and has never been dispossessed
+of them by the chance of war without a moral certainty of receiving them
+again on the restoration of peace. Her late dangers have arisen not from
+the power or ambition of the king of France. They arose from her own ill
+policy, which dismantled all her towns, and discontented all her
+subjects by Jacobinical innovations. She dismantles her own towns, and
+then says, &quot;Give me the frontier of France!&quot; But let us depend upon it,
+whatever tends, under the name of security, to aggrandize Austria, will
+discontent and alarm Prussia. Such a length of frontier on the side of
+France, separated from itself, and separated from the mass of the
+Austrian country, will be weak, unless connected at the expense of the
+Elector of Bavaria (the Elector Palatine) and other lesser princes, or
+by such exchanges as will again convulse the Empire.</p>
+
+<p>Take it the other way, and let us suppose that France so broken in
+spirit as to be content to remain naked and defenceless by sea and by
+land. Is such a country no prey? Have other nations no views? Is Poland
+the only country of which it is worth while to make a partition? We
+cannot be so childish as to imagine that ambition is local, and that no
+others can be infected with it but those who rule within certain
+parallels of latitude and longitude. In this way I hold war equally
+certain. But I can conceive that both these principles may operate:
+ambition on the part of Austria to cut more and more from France; and
+French impatience under her degraded and unsafe condition. In such a
+contest will the other powers <a name="Page_457" id="Page_457" title="457" class="pagenum"></a>stand by? Will not Prussia call for
+indemnity, as well as Austria and England? Is she satisfied with her
+gains in Poland? By no means. Germany must pay; or we shall infallibly
+see Prussia leagued with France and Spain, and possibly with other
+powers, for the reduction of Austria; and such may be the situation of
+things, that it will not be so easy to decide what part England may take
+in such a contest.</p>
+
+<p>I am well aware how invidious a task it is to oppose anything which
+tends to the apparent aggrandizement of our own country. But I think no
+country can be aggrandized whilst France is Jacobinized. This post
+removed, it will be a serious question how far her further reduction
+will contribute to the general safety, which I always consider as
+included. Among precautions against ambition, it may not be amiss to
+take one precaution against our <i>own</i>. I must fairly say, I dread our
+<i>own</i> power and our <i>own</i> ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded.
+It is ridiculous to say we are not men, and that, as men, we shall never
+wish to aggrandize ourselves in some way or other. Can we say that even
+at this very hour we are not invidiously aggrandized? We are already in
+possession of almost all the commerce of the world. Our empire in India
+is an awful thing. If we should come to be in a condition not only to
+have all this ascendant in commerce, but to be absolutely able, without
+the least control, to hold the commerce of all other nations totally
+dependent upon our good pleasure, we may say that we shall not abuse
+this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of power. But every other nation
+will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or
+later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which
+may end in our ruin.<a name="Page_458" id="Page_458" title="458" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>As to France, I must observe that for a long time she has been
+stationary. She has, during this whole century, obtained far less by
+conquest or negotiation than any of the three great Continental powers.
+Some part of Lorraine excepted, I recollect nothing she has gained,&mdash;no,
+not a village. In truth, this Lorraine acquisition does little more than
+secure her barrier. In effect and substance it was her own before.</p>
+
+<p>However that may be, I consider these things at present chiefly in one
+point of view, as obstructions to the war on Jacobinism, which <i>must</i>
+stand as long as the powers think its extirpation but a <i>secondary</i>
+object, and think of taking advantage, under the name of <i>indemnity</i> and
+<i>security</i>, to make war upon the whole nation of France, royal and
+Jacobin, for the aggrandizement of the allies, on the ordinary
+principles of interest, as if no Jacobinism existed in the world.</p>
+
+<p>So far is France from being formidable to its neighbors for its domestic
+strength, that I conceive it will be as much as all its neighbors can
+do, by a steady guaranty, to keep that monarchy at all upon its basis.
+It will be their business to nurse France, not to exhaust it. France,
+such as it is, is indeed highly formidable: not formidable, however, as
+a great republic; but as the most dreadful gang of robbers and murderers
+that ever was embodied. But this distempered strength of France will be
+the cause of proportionable weakness on its recovery. Never was a
+country so completely ruined; and they who calculate the resurrection of
+her power by former examples have not sufficiently considered what is
+the present state of things. Without detailing the inventory of what
+organs of government have been destroyed, together with the very
+materials of which <a name="Page_459" id="Page_459" title="459" class="pagenum"></a>alone they can be recomposed, I wish it to be
+considered what an operose affair the whole system of taxation is in the
+old states of Europe. It is such as never could be made but in a long
+course of years. In France all taxes are abolished. The present powers
+resort to the capital, and to the capital in kind. But a savage,
+undisciplined people suffer a <i>robbery</i> with more patience than an
+<i>impost</i>. The former is in their habits and their dispositions. They
+consider it as transient, and as what, in their turn, they may exercise.
+But the terrors of the present power are such as no regular government
+can possibly employ. They who enter into France do not succeed to
+<i>their</i> resources. They have not a system to reform, but a system to
+begin. The whole estate of government is to be reacquired.</p>
+
+<p>What difficulties this will meet with in a country exhausted by the
+taking of the capital, and among a people in a manner new-principled,
+trained, and actually disciplined to anarchy, rebellion, disorder, and
+impiety, may be conceived by those who know what Jacobin France is, and
+who may have occupied themselves by revolving in their thoughts what
+they were to do, if it fell to their lot to re&euml;stablish the affairs of
+France. What support or what limitations the restored monarchy must have
+may be a doubt, or how it will pitch and settle at last. But one thing I
+conceive to be far beyond a doubt: that the settlement cannot be
+immediate; but that it must be preceded by some sort of power, equal at
+least in vigor, vigilance, promptitude, and decision, to a military
+government. For such a <i>preparatory</i> government, no slow-paced,
+methodical, formal, lawyer-like system, still less that of a showy,
+superficial, trifling, <a name="Page_460" id="Page_460" title="460" class="pagenum"></a>intriguing court, guided by cabals of ladies, or
+of men like ladies, least of all a philosophic, theoretic, disputatious
+school of sophistry,&mdash;none of these ever will or ever can lay the
+foundations of an order that can last. Whoever claims a right by birth
+to govern there must find in his breast, or must conjure up in it, an
+energy not to be expected, perhaps not always to be wished for, in
+well-ordered states. The lawful prince must have, in everything but
+crime, the character of an usurper. He is gone, if he imagines himself
+the quiet possessor of a throne. He is to contend for it as much after
+an apparent conquest as before. His task is, to win it: he must leave
+posterity to enjoy and to adorn it. No velvet cushions for him. He is to
+be always (I speak nearly to the letter) on horseback. This opinion is
+the result of much patient thinking on the subject, which I conceive no
+event is likely to alter.</p>
+
+<p>A valuable friend of mine, who I hope will conduct these affairs, so far
+as they fall to his share, with great ability, asked me what I thought
+of acts of general indemnity and oblivion, as a means of settling
+France, and reconciling it to monarchy. Before I venture upon any
+opinion of my own in this matter, I totally disclaim the interference of
+foreign powers in a business that properly belongs to the government
+which we have declared legal. That government is likely to be the best
+judge of what is to be done towards the security of that kingdom, which
+it is their duty and their interest to provide for by such measures of
+justice or of lenity as at the time they should find best. But if we
+weaken it not only by arbitrary limitations of our own, but preserve
+such persons in it as are disposed to disturb its future <a name="Page_461" id="Page_461" title="461" class="pagenum"></a>peace, as they
+have its past, I do not know how a more direct declaration can be made
+of a disposition to perpetual hostility against a government. The
+persons saved from the justice of the native magistrate by foreign
+authority will owe nothing to his clemency. He will, and must, look to
+those to whom he is indebted for the power he has of dispensing it. A
+Jacobin faction, constantly fostered with the nourishment of foreign
+protection, will be kept alive.</p>
+
+<p>This desire of securing the safety of the actors in the present scene is
+owing to more laudable motives. Ministers have been made to consider the
+brothers of the late merciful king, and the nobility of France who have
+been faithful to their honor and duty, as a set of inexorable and
+remorseless tyrants. How this notion has been infused into them I cannot
+be quite certain. I am sure it is not justified by anything they have
+done. Never were the two princes guilty, in the day of their power, of a
+single hard or ill-natured act. No one instance of cruelty on the part
+of the gentlemen ever came to my ears. It is true that the <i>English</i>
+Jacobins, (the natives have not thought of it,) as an excuse for their
+infernal system of murder, have so represented them. It is on this
+principle that the massacres in the month of September, 1792, were
+justified by a writer in the Morning Chronicle. <i>He</i> says, indeed, that
+&quot;the whole French nation is to be given up to the hands of an irritated
+and revengeful noblesse&quot;;&mdash;and, judging of others by himself and his
+brethren, he says, &quot;Whoever succeeds in a civil war will be cruel. But
+here the emigrants, flying to revenge in the cars of military victory,
+will almost insatiably call for <a name="Page_462" id="Page_462" title="462" class="pagenum"></a>their victims and their booty; and a
+body of emigrant traitors were attending the King of Prussia and the
+Duke of Brunswick, to suggest the most sanguinary counsels.&quot; So says
+this wicked Jacobin; but so cannot say the King of Prussia nor the Duke
+of Brunswick, who never did receive any sanguinary counsel; nor did the
+king's brothers, or that great body of gentlemen who attended those
+princes, commit one single cruel action, or hurt the person or property
+of one individual. It would be right to quote the instance. It is like
+the military luxury attributed to these unfortunate sufferers in our
+common cause.</p>
+
+<p>If these princes had shown a tyrannic disposition, it would be much to
+be lamented. We have no others to govern France. If we screened the body
+of murderers from their justice, we should only leave the innocent in
+future to the mercy of men of fierce and sanguinary dispositions, of
+which, in spite of all our intermeddling in their Constitution, we could
+not prevent the effects. But as we have much more reason to fear their
+feeble lenity than any blamable rigor, we ought, in my opinion, to leave
+the matter to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>If, however, I were asked to give an advice merely as such, here are my
+ideas. I am not for a total indemnity, nor a general punishment. And
+first, the body and mass of the people never ought to be treated as
+criminal. They may become an object of more or less constant
+watchfulness and suspicion, as their preservation may best require, but
+they can never become an object of punishment. This is one of the few
+fundamental and unalterable principles of politics.</p>
+
+<p>To punish them capitally would be to make massa<a name="Page_463" id="Page_463" title="463" class="pagenum"></a>cres. Massacres only
+increase the ferocity of men, and teach them to regard their own lives
+and those of others as of little value; whereas the great policy of
+government is, to teach the people to think both of great importance in
+the eyes of God and the state, and never to be sacrificed or even
+hazarded to gratify their passions, or for anything but the duties
+prescribed by the rules of morality, and under the direction of public
+law and public authority. To punish them with lesser penalties would be
+to debilitate the commonwealth, and make the nation miserable, which it
+is the business of government to render happy and flourishing.</p>
+
+<p>As to crimes, too, I would draw a strong line of limitation. For no one
+offence, <i>politically an offence of rebellion</i>, by council, contrivance,
+persuasion, or compulsion, for none properly a <i>military offence of
+rebellion</i>, or anything done by open hostility in the field, should any
+man at all be called in question; because such seems to be the proper
+and natural death of civil dissensions. The offences of war are
+obliterated by peace.</p>
+
+<p>Another class will of course be included in the indemnity,&mdash;namely, all
+those who by their activity in restoring lawful government shall
+obliterate their offences. The offence previously known, the acceptance
+of service is a pardon for crimes. I fear that this class of men will
+not be very numerous.</p>
+
+<p>So far as to indemnity. But where are the objects of justice, and of
+example, and of future security to the public peace? They are naturally
+pointed out, not by their having outraged political and civil laws, nor
+their having rebelled against the state as a state, but by their having
+rebelled against the law of Na<a name="Page_464" id="Page_464" title="464" class="pagenum"></a>ture and outraged man as man. In this
+list, all the regicides in general, all those who laid sacrilegious
+hands on the king, who, without anything in their own rebellious mission
+to the Convention to justify them, brought him to his trial and
+unanimously voted him guilty,&mdash;all those who had a share in the cruel
+murder of the queen, and the detestable proceedings with regard to the
+young king and the unhappy princesses,&mdash;all those who committed
+cold-blooded murder anywhere, and particularly in their revolutionary
+tribunals, where every idea of natural justice and of their own declared
+rights of man have been trod under foot with the most insolent
+mockery,&mdash;all men concerned in the burning and demolition of houses or
+churches, with audacious and marked acts of sacrilege and scorn offered
+to religion,&mdash;in general, all the leaders of Jacobin clubs,&mdash;not one of
+these should escape a punishment suitable to the nature, quality, and
+degree of their offence, by a steady, but a measured justice.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, no man ought to be subject to any penalty, from the
+highest to the lowest, but by a trial according to the course of law,
+carried on with all that caution and deliberation which has been used in
+the best times and precedents of the French jurisprudence, the criminal
+law of which country, faulty to be sure in some particulars, was highly
+laudable and tender of the lives of men. In restoring order and justice,
+everything like retaliation ought to be religiously avoided; and an
+example ought to be set of a total alienation from the Jacobin
+proceedings in their accursed revolutionary tribunals. Everything like
+lumping men in masses, and of forming tables of proscription, ought to
+be avoided.<a name="Page_465" id="Page_465" title="465" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>In all these punishments, anything which can be alleged in mitigation of
+the offence should be fully considered. Mercy is not a thing opposed to
+justice. It is an essential part of it,&mdash;as necessary in criminal cases
+as in civil affairs equity is to law. It is only for the Jacobins never
+to pardon. They have not done it in a single instance. A council of
+mercy ought therefore to be appointed, with powers to report on each
+case, to soften the penalty, or entirely to remit it, according to
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>With these precautions, the very first foundation of settlement must be
+to call to a strict account those bloody and merciless offenders.
+Without it, government cannot stand a year. People little consider the
+utter impossibility of getting those who, having emerged from very low,
+some from the lowest classes of society, have exercised a power so high,
+and with such unrelenting and bloody a rage, quietly to fall back into
+their old ranks, and become humble, peaceable, laborious, and useful
+members of society. It never can be. On the other hand, is it to be
+believed that any worthy and virtuous subject, restored to the ruins of
+his house, will with patience see the cold-blooded murderer of his
+father, mother, wife, or children, or perhaps all of these relations,
+(such things have been,) nose him in his own village, and insult him
+with the riches acquired from the plunder of his goods, ready again to
+head a Jacobin faction to attack his life? He is unworthy of the name of
+man who would suffer it. It is unworthy of the name of a government,
+which, taking justice out of the private hand, will not exercise it for
+the injured by the public arm.</p>
+
+<p>I know it sounds plausible, and is readily adopted <a name="Page_466" id="Page_466" title="466" class="pagenum"></a>by those who have
+little sympathy with the sufferings of others, to wish to jumble the
+innocent and guilty into one mass by a general indemnity. This cruel
+indifference dignifies itself with the name of humanity.</p>
+
+<p>It is extraordinary, that, as the wicked arts of this regicide and
+tyrannous faction increase in number, variety, and atrocity, the desire
+of punishing them becomes more and more faint, and the talk of an
+indemnity towards them every day stronger and stronger. Our ideas of
+justice appear to be fairly conquered and overpowered by guilt, when it
+is grown gigantic. It is not the point of view in which we are in the
+habit of viewing guilt. The crimes we every day punish are really below
+the penalties we inflict. The criminals are obscure and feeble. This is
+the view in which we see ordinary crimes and criminals. But when guilt
+is seen, though but for a time, to be furnished with the arms and to be
+invested with the robes of power, it seems to assume another nature, and
+to get, as it were, out of our jurisdiction. This I fear is the case
+with many. But there is another cause full as powerful towards this
+security to enormous guilt,&mdash;the desire which possesses people who have
+once obtained power to enjoy it at their ease. It is not humanity, but
+laziness and inertness of mind, which produces the desire of this kind
+of indemnities. This description of men love general and short methods.
+If they punish, they make a promiscuous massacre; if they spare, they
+make a general act of oblivion. This is a want of disposition to proceed
+laboriously according to the cases, and according to the rules and
+principles of justice on each case: a want of disposition to assort
+criminals, to discrimi<a name="Page_467" id="Page_467" title="467" class="pagenum"></a>nate the degrees and modes of guilt, to separate
+accomplices from principals, leaders from followers, seducers from the
+seduced, and then, by following the same principles in the same detail,
+to class punishments, and to fit them to the nature and kind of the
+delinquency. If that were once attempted, we should soon see that the
+task was neither infinite nor the execution cruel. There would be
+deaths, but, for the number of criminals and the extent of France, not
+many. There would be cases of transportation, cases of labor to restore
+what has been wickedly destroyed, cases of imprisonment, and cases of
+mere exile. But be this as it may, I am sure, that, if justice is not
+done there, there can be neither peace nor justice there, nor in any
+part of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>History is resorted to for other acts of indemnity in other times. The
+princes are desired to look back to Henry the Fourth. We are desired to
+look to the restoration of King Charles. These things, in my opinion,
+have no resemblance whatsoever. They were cases of a civil war,&mdash;in
+France more ferocious, in England more moderate than common. In neither
+country were the orders of society subverted, religion and morality
+destroyed on principle, or property totally annihilated. In England, the
+government of Cromwell was, to be sure, somewhat rigid, but, for a new
+power, no savage tyranny. The country was nearly as well in his hands as
+in those of Charles the Second, and in some points much better. The laws
+in general had their course, and were admirably administered. The king
+did not in reality grant an act of indemnity; the prevailing power, then
+in a manner the nation, in effect granted an indemnity to <i>him</i>. The
+idea of a preceding rebellion was not at all ad<a name="Page_468" id="Page_468" title="468" class="pagenum"></a>mitted in that
+convention and that Parliament. The regicides were a common enemy, and
+as such given up.</p>
+
+<p>Among the ornaments of their place which eminently distinguish them, few
+people are better acquainted with the history of their own country than
+the illustrious princes now in exile; but I caution them not to be led
+into error by that which has been supposed to be the guide of life. I
+would give the same caution to all princes. Not that I derogate from the
+use of history. It is a great improver of the understanding, by showing
+both men and affairs in a great variety of views. From this source much
+political wisdom may be learned,&mdash;that is, may be learned as habit, not
+as precept,&mdash;and as an exercise to strengthen the mind, as furnishing
+materials to enlarge and enrich it, not as a repertory of cases and
+precedents for a lawyer: if it were, a thousand times better would it be
+that a statesman had never learned to read,&mdash;<i>vellem nescirent literas</i>.
+This method turns their understanding from the object before them, and
+from the present exigencies of the world, to comparisons with former
+times, of which, after all, we can know very little and very
+imperfectly; and our guides, the historians, who are to give us their
+true interpretation, are often prejudiced, often ignorant, often fonder
+of system than of truth. Whereas, if a man with reasonable good parts
+and natural sagacity, and not in the leading-strings of any master, will
+look steadily on the business before him, without being diverted by
+retrospect and comparison, he may be capable of forming a reasonable
+good judgment of what is to be done. There are some fundamental points
+in which Nature never changes; but they are <a name="Page_469" id="Page_469" title="469" class="pagenum"></a>few and obvious, and belong
+rather to morals than to politics. But so far as regards political
+matter, the human mind and human affairs are susceptible of infinite
+modifications, and of combinations wholly new and unlooked-for. Very
+few, for instance, could have imagined that property, which has been
+taken for natural dominion, should, through the whole of a vast kingdom,
+lose all its importance, and even its influence. This is what history or
+books of speculation could hardly have taught us. How many could have
+thought that the most complete and formidable revolution in a great
+empire should be made by men of letters, not as subordinate instruments
+and trumpeters of sedition, but as the chief contrivers and managers,
+and in a short time as the open administrators and sovereign rulers? Who
+could have imagined that atheism could produce one of the most violently
+operative principles of fanaticism? Who could have imagined, that, in a
+commonwealth in a manner cradled in war, and in an extensive and
+dreadful war, military commanders should be of little or no account,
+&mdash;that the Convention should not contain one military man of name,&mdash;that
+administrative bodies, in a state of the utmost confusion, and of but a
+momentary duration, and composed of men with not one imposing part of
+character, should be able to govern the country and its armies with an
+authority which the most settled senates and the most respected monarchs
+scarcely ever had in the same degree? This, for one, I confess I did not
+foresee, though all the rest was present to me very early, and not out
+of my apprehension even for several years.</p>
+
+<p>I believe very few were able to enter into the effects of mere <i>terror</i>,
+as a principle not only for the <a name="Page_470" id="Page_470" title="470" class="pagenum"></a>support of power in given hands or
+forms, but in those things in which the soundest political speculators
+were of opinion that the least appearance of force would be totally
+destructive,&mdash;such is the market, whether of money, provision, or
+commodities of any kind. Yet for four years we have seen loans made,
+treasuries supplied, and armies levied and maintained, more numerous
+than France ever showed in the field, <i>by the effects of fear alone</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a state of things of which in its totality if history furnishes
+any examples at all, they are very remote and feeble. I therefore am not
+so ready as some are to tax with folly or cowardice those who were not
+prepared to meet an evil of this nature. Even now, after the events, all
+the causes may be somewhat difficult to ascertain. Very many are,
+however, traceable. But these things history and books of speculation
+(as I have already said) did not teach men to foresee, and of course to
+resist. Now that they are no longer a matter of sagacity, but of
+experience, of recent experience, of our own experience, it would be
+unjustifiable to go back to the records of other times to instruct us to
+manage what they never enabled us to foresee.<a name="Page_471" id="Page_471" title="471" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Some accounts make them five times as many.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Before the Revolution, the French noblesse were so reduced
+in numbers that they did not much exceed twenty thousand at least of
+full-grown men. As they have been very cruelly formed into entire corps
+of soldiers, it is estimated, that, by the sword, and distempers in the
+field, they have not lost less than five thousand men; and if this
+course is pursued, it is to be feared that the whole body of the French
+nobility may be extinguished. Several hundreds have also perished by
+famine, and various accidents.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> This was the language of the Ministerialists.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Vattel.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> The first object of this club was the propagation of
+Jacobin principles.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX" />APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>EXTRACTS FROM VATTEL'S LAW OF NATIONS.</h3>
+
+<p>[The Titles, Marginal Abstracts, and Notes are by Mr. BURKE, excepting
+such of the Notes as are here distinguished.]</p>
+
+
+<h3>CASES OF INTERFERENCE WITH INDEPENDENT POWERS.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;If, then, there is anywhere a nation of a <i>restless and mischievous</i>
+disposition, always ready <i>to injure others, to traverse their designs,
+and to raise domestic troubles</i><a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor" title=" This is the case of France:&mdash;Semonville at Turin,&mdash;Jacobin
+clubs,&mdash;Liegeois meeting,&mdash;Flemish meeting,&mdash;La Fayette's
+answer,&mdash;Clootz's embassy,&mdash;Avignon.">[38]</a> it is not to be doubted that all
+have a right to join <i>in order to repress, chastise, and put it ever
+after out of its power</i> to injure them. Such should be the just fruits
+of the policy which Machiavel praises in C&aelig;sar Borgia. The conduct
+followed by Philip the Second, King of Spain, <i>was adapted to unite all
+Europe against him</i>; and it was from just reasons that Henry the Great
+formed the design of humbling a power <i>formidable by its forces and
+pernicious by its maxims</i>.&quot;&mdash;Book II. ch. iv. &sect; 53.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let us apply to the unjust what we have said above (&sect; 53) of a
+mischievous or maleficent nation. If there be any that makes an open
+profession <i>of trampling justice under foot, of despising and <a name="Page_472" id="Page_472" title="472" class="pagenum"></a>violating
+the right of others</i>,<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor" title=" The French acknowledge no power not directly emanating
+from the people.">[39]</a> whenever it finds an opportunity, <i>the
+interest of human society will authorize all others to unite in order to
+humble and chastise it</i>. We do not here forget the maxim established in
+our preliminaries, that it does not belong to nations to usurp the power
+of being judges of each other. In particular cases, liable to the least
+doubt, it ought to be supposed that each of the parties may have some
+right; and the injustice of that which has committed the injury may
+proceed from error, and not from a general contempt of justice. <i>But if,
+by constant maxims, and by a continued conduct</i>, one nation shows that
+it has evidently this pernicious disposition, and that it considers no
+right as sacred, the safety of the human race requires that it should be
+suppressed. To form and support an unjust pretension is to do an injury
+<i>not only to him who is interested in this pretension, but to mock at
+justice in general, and to injure all nations</i>.&quot;&mdash;Ibid. ch. v. &sect; 70.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">To succor against tyranny.<br />
+Case of English Revolution.<br />
+An odious tyrant.<br />
+Rebellious people.<br />
+Case of civil war.<br />
+Sovereign and his people, when distinct powers.</span>&quot;If the prince, attacking the fundamental laws, gives his subjects a
+legal right to resist him, if tyranny, <i>becoming insupportable</i>, obliges
+the nation to rise in their defence, every foreign power has a right to
+succor an oppressed people who implore their assistance. The English
+justly complained of James the Second. <i>The nobility and the most
+distinguished patriots</i> resolved to put a check on his enterprises,
+which manifestly tended to overthrow the Constitution and to destroy the
+liberties and the religion of the people, <i>and therefore applied for
+assistance to the United Provinces</i>. The authority of the Prince of<a name="Page_473" id="Page_473" title="473" class="pagenum"></a>
+Orange had, doubtless, an influence on the deliberations of the
+States-General; but it did not make them commit injustice: for when a
+people, from good reasons, take up arms against an oppressor, <i>justice
+and generosity require that brave men should be assisted in the defence
+of their liberties</i>. Whenever, therefore, a civil war is kindled in a
+state, foreign powers may assist that party which appears to them to
+have justice on their side. <i>He who assists an odious tyrant, he who
+declares FOR AN UNJUST AND REBELLIOUS PEOPLE, offends against his duty</i>.
+When the bands of the political society are broken, or at least
+suspended between the sovereign and his people, they may then be
+considered as two distinct powers; and since each is independent of all
+foreign authority, nobody has a right to judge them. Either may be in
+the right, and each of those who grant their assistance may believe that
+he supports a good cause. It follows, then, in virtue of the voluntary
+law of nations, (see Prelim. &sect; 21,) that the two parties may act as
+having an equal right, and behave accordingly, till the decision of the
+affair.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Not to be pursued to an extreme.<br />
+Endeavor to persuade subjects to a revolt.</span>&quot;But we ought not to abuse this maxim for authorizing odious proceedings
+against the tranquillity of states. It is a violation of the law of
+nations <i>to persuade those subjects to revolt who actually obey their
+sovereign, though they complain of his government</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Attempt to excite subjects to revolt.</span>&quot;The practice of nations is conformable to our maxims. When the German
+Protestants came to the assistance of the Reformed in France, the court
+never undertook to treat them otherwise than as common enemies, and
+according to the laws of war. France <a name="Page_474" id="Page_474" title="474" class="pagenum"></a>at the same time assisted the
+Netherlands, which took up arms against Spain, and did not pretend that
+her troops should be considered upon any other footing than as
+auxiliaries in a regular war. <i>But no power avoids complaining of an
+atrocious injury, if any one attempts by his emissaries to excite his
+subjects to revolt</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Tyrants.</span>&quot;As to those monsters, who, under the title of sovereigns, render
+themselves the scourges and horror of the human race,&mdash;these are savage
+beasts, from which every brave man may justly purge the earth. All
+antiquity has praised Hercules for delivering the world from an Ant&aelig;us,
+a Busiris, and a Diomedes.&quot;&mdash;Ibid. ch. iv. &sect; 56.</p>
+
+<p>After stating that nations have no right to interfere in domestic
+concerns, he proceeds,&mdash;&quot;But this rule does not preclude them from
+espousing the quarrel of a dethroned king, and assisting him, if he
+appears to have justice on his side. They then declare themselves
+enemies of the nation which has acknowledged his rival; as, when two
+<i>different nations</i> are at war, they are at liberty to assist that whose
+quarrel they shall think has the fairest appearance.&quot;&mdash;Book IV. ch. ii.
+&sect; 14.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CASE OF ALLIANCES.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">When an alliance to preserve a king takes place. <br />
+King does not lose his quality by the loss of his kingdom.</span>&quot;It is asked if that alliance subsists with the king and the royal
+family when by some revolution they are deprived of their crown. We have
+lately remarked, (&sect; 194,) that a personal alliance expires with the
+reign of him who contracted it: but that is to be understood of an
+alliance with the state, limited, as to its duration, to the reign of
+the contracting king. This of which we are here speaking is of another
+na<a name="Page_475" id="Page_475" title="475" class="pagenum"></a>ture. For though it binds the state, since it is bound by all the
+public acts of its sovereign, it is made directly in favor of the king
+and his family; it would therefore be absurd for it to terminate <i>at the
+moment when they have need of it, and at an event against which it was
+made</i>. Besides, the king does not lose his quality merely by the loss of
+his kingdom. <i>If he is stripped of it unjustly by an usurper, or by
+rebels, he preserves his rights, in the number of which are his
+alliances</i>.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor" title=" By the seventh article of the Treaty of TRIPLE ALLIANCE,
+between France, England, and Holland, signed at the Hague, in the year
+1717, it is stipulated, &quot;that, if the kingdoms, countries, or provinces
+of any of the allies are disturbed by intestine quarrels, or _by
+rebellions, on account of the said successions_,&quot; (the Protestant
+succession to the throne of Great Britain, and the succession to the
+throne of France, as settled by the Treaty of Utrecht,) &quot;or _under any
+other pretext whatever_, the ally thus in trouble shall have full right
+to demand of his allies the succors above mentioned&quot;: that is to say,
+the same succors as in the case of an invasion from any foreign
+power,&mdash;8,000 foot and 2,000 horse to be furnished by France or England,
+and 4,000 foot and 1,000 horse by the States-General.
+
+By the fourth article of the Treaty of QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, between
+England, France, Holland, and the Emperor of Germany, signed in the year
+1718, the contracting powers &quot;promise and oblige themselves that they
+will and ought to maintain, guaranty, and defend the right of succession
+in the kingdom of France, according to the tenor of the treaties made at
+Utrecht the 11th day of April, 1713; ... and this they shall perform
+_against all persons whosoever who may presume to disturb the order of
+the said succession_, in contradiction to the previous acts and treaties
+subsequent thereon.&quot;
+
+The above treaties have been revived and confirmed by every subsequent
+treaty of peace between Great Britain and France.&mdash;EDIT.">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Case wherein aid may be given to a deposed king.</span>&quot;But who shall judge if the king be dethroned lawfully or by violence?
+An independent nation acknowledges no judge. If the body of the nation
+<a name="Page_476" id="Page_476" title="476" class="pagenum"></a>declares the king deprived of his rights by the abuse he has made of
+them, and deposes him, it may justly do it <i>when its grievances are well
+founded</i>, and no other power has a right to censure it. The personal
+ally of this king ought not then to assist him against the nation that
+has made use of its right in deposing him: if he attempts it, he injures
+that nation. England declared war against Louis the Fourteenth, in the
+year 1688, for supporting the interest of James the Second, who was
+deposed in form by the nation. The same country declared war against him
+a second time, at the beginning of the present century, because that
+prince acknowledged the son of the deposed James, under the name of
+James the Third. In doubtful cases, and <i>when the body of the nation has
+not pronounced, or HAS NOT PRONOUNCED FREELY</i>, a sovereign may naturally
+support and defend an ally; and it is then that the voluntary law of
+nations subsists between different states. The party that has driven out
+the king pretends to have right on its side; this unhappy king and his
+ally flatter themselves with having the same advantage; and as they have
+no common judge upon earth, they have no other method to take but to
+apply to arms to terminate the dispute; they therefore engage in a
+formal war.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Not obliged to pursue his right beyond a certain point.</span>&quot;In short, when the foreign prince has faithfully fulfilled his
+engagements towards an unfortunate monarch, when he has done in his
+defence, or to procure his restoration, all he was obliged to perform in
+virtue of the alliance, if his efforts are ineffectual, the dethroned
+prince cannot require him to support an endless war in his favor, or
+expect that he will eternally remain the enemy <a name="Page_477" id="Page_477" title="477" class="pagenum"></a>of the nation or of the
+sovereign who has deprived him of the throne. He must think of peace,
+abandon the ally, and consider him as having himself abandoned his right
+through necessity. Thus Louis the Fourteenth was obliged to abandon
+James the Second, and to acknowledge King William, though he had at
+first treated him as an usurper.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Case of defence against subjects.<br />
+Case where real alliances may be renounced.</span>&quot;The same question presents itself in real alliances, and, in general,
+in all alliances made with the state, and not in particular with a king
+for the defence of his person. An ally ought, doubtless, to be defended
+against every invasion, against every foreign violence, <i>and even
+against his rebellious subjects: in the same manner a republic ought to
+be defended against the enterprises of one who attempts to destroy the
+public liberty</i>. But it ought to be remembered that an ally of the state
+or the nation is not its judge. If the nation has deposed its king in
+form,&mdash;if the people of a republic have driven out their magistrates and
+set themselves at liberty, or acknowledged the authority of an usurper,
+either expressly or tacitly,&mdash;to oppose these domestic regulations, by
+disputing their justice or validity, would be to interfere in the
+government of the nation, and to do it an injury. (See &sect; 54, and
+following, of this Book.) The ally remains the ally of the state,
+notwithstanding the change that has happened in it. <i>However, when this
+change renders the alliance useless, dangerous, or disagreeable, it may
+renounce it; for it may say, upon a good foundation, that it would not
+have entered into an alliance with that nation, had it been under the
+present form of government.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Not an eternal war.</span>&quot;We may say here, what we have said on a per<a name="Page_478" id="Page_478" title="478" class="pagenum"></a>sonal alliance: however
+just the cause of that king may be who is driven from the throne either
+by his subjects or by a foreign usurper, his aides are not obliged to
+support <i>an eternal war</i> in his favor. After having made ineffectual
+efforts to restore him, they must at length give peace to their people,
+and come to an accommodation with the usurper, and for that purpose
+treat with him as with a lawful sovereign. Louis the Fourteenth,
+exhausted by a bloody and unsuccessful war, offered at Gertruydenberg to
+abandon his grandson, whom he had placed on the throne of Spain; and
+when affairs had changed their appearance, Charles of Austria, the rival
+of Philip, saw himself, in his turn, abandoned by his allies. They grew
+weary of exhausting their states in order to give him the possession of
+a crown which they believed to be his due, but which, to all appearance,
+they should never be able to procure for him.&quot;&mdash;Book II. ch. xii. &sect;&sect;
+196, 197.</p>
+
+
+<h3>DANGEROUS POWER.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">All nations may join.</span>&quot;It is still easier to prove, that, should this formidable power betray
+any unjust and ambitious dispositions by doing the least injustice to
+another, every nation may avail themselves of the occasion, and join
+their forces to those of the party injured, in order to reduce that
+ambitious power, and disable it from so easily oppressing its neighbors,
+or keeping them in continual awe and fear. For an injury gives a nation
+a right to provide for its future safety by taking away from the
+violator the means of oppression. It is lawful, and even praiseworthy,
+to assist those who are oppressed, or unjustly attacked.&quot;&mdash;Book III. ch.
+iii. &sect; 45.<a name="Page_479" id="Page_479" title="479" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+<h3>SYSTEM OF EUROPE.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Europe a republic to preserve order and liberty.</span>&quot;Europe forms a political system, a body where the whole is connected by
+the relations and different interests of nations inhabiting this part of
+the world. It is not, as anciently, a confused heap of detached pieces,
+each of which thought itself very little concerned in the fate of
+others, and seldom regarded things which did not immediately relate to
+it. The continual attention of sovereigns to what is on the carpet, the
+constant residence of ministers, and <i>the perpetual negotiations, make
+Europe a kind of a republic, the members of which, though independent,
+unite, through the ties of common interest, for the maintenance of order
+and liberty</i>. Hence arose that famous scheme of the political
+equilibrium, or balance of power, by which is understood such a
+disposition of things as no power is able absolutely to predominate or
+to prescribe laws to others.&quot;&mdash;Book III. ch. iii. &sect; 47.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confederacies would be a sure way of preserving the equilibrium, and
+supporting the liberty of nations, did all princes thoroughly understand
+their true interests, and regulate all their steps for the good of the
+state.&quot;&mdash;Ibid. &sect; 49.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">To be moderate.</span>&quot;Instead of the pillage of the country and defenceless places, a custom
+has been substituted more humane and more advantageous to the sovereign
+making war: I mean that of contributions. Whoever carries on <i>a just
+war<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor" title=" Contributions raised by the Duke of Brunswick in France.
+Compare these with the contributions raised by the French in the
+Netherlands.&mdash;EDIT.">[41]</a> has a right of making the enemy's <a name="Page_480" id="Page_480" title="480" class="pagenum"></a>country contribute to the
+support of the army, and towards defraying all the charges of the war</i>.
+Thus he obtains a part of what is due to him, and the subjects of the
+enemy, on submitting to this imposition, are secured from pillage, and
+the country is preserved. But a general who would not sully his
+reputation is to moderate his contributions, and proportion them to
+those on whom they are imposed. An excess in this point is not without
+the reproach of cruelty and inhumanity: if it shows less ferocity than
+ravage and destruction, it glares with avarice.&quot;&mdash;Book III. ch. ix. &sect;
+165.</p>
+
+
+<h3>ASYLUM.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;If an exile or banished man is driven from his country for any crime,
+it does <i>not</i> belong to the nation in which he has taken refuge to
+punish him for a fault committed in a foreign country. For Nature gives
+to mankind and to nations the right of punishing only for their defence
+and safety (&sect; 169): whence it follows that he can only be punished by
+those he has offended.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But this reason shows, that, if the justice of each nation ought in
+general to be confined to the punishment of crimes committed in its own
+territories, we ought to except from this rule the villains who, by the
+quality and habitual frequency of their crimes, violate all public
+security, and declare themselves the enemies of the human race.
+Poisoners, assassins, and incendiaries by profession may be exterminated
+wherever they are seized; for they attack and injure all nations by
+trampling under foot the foundations of their common safety. Thus
+pirates are brought to the gibbet by the first into whose hands <a name="Page_481" id="Page_481" title="481" class="pagenum"></a>they
+fall. If the sovereign of the country where crimes of that nature have
+been committed reclaims the authors of them in order to bring them to
+punishment, they ought to be restored to him, as to one who is
+<i>principally</i> interested in punishing them in an exemplary manner: and
+it being proper to convict the guilty, and to try them according to some
+form of law, this is a <i>second</i> [not sole] reason why malefactors are
+usually delivered up at the desire of the state where their crimes have
+been committed.&quot;&mdash;Book I. ch. xix. &sect;&sect; 232, 233.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every nation has a right of refusing to admit a stranger into the
+country, when he cannot enter it without putting it in evident danger,
+or without doing it a remarkable prejudice.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor" title=" The third article of the Treaty of Triple Alliance and the
+latter part of the fourth article of the Treaty of Quadruple Alliance
+stipulate, that no kind of refuge or protection shall be given to
+rebellious subjects of the contracting powers.&mdash;EDIT.">[42]</a>&mdash;Ibid. &sect; 230.</p>
+
+
+<h3>FOREIGN MINISTERS.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;The obligation does not go so far as to suffer at all times perpetual
+ministers, who are desirous of residing with a sovereign, though they
+have nothing to negotiate. It is natural, indeed, and very agreeable to
+the sentiments which nations owe to each other, that these resident
+ministers, <i>when there it nothing to be feared from their stay</i>, should
+be friendly received; but if there be any solid reason against this,
+what is for the good of the state ought unquestionably to be preferred:
+and the foreign sovereign cannot take it amiss, if his minister, who has
+concluded the affairs of his commission, and has no other affairs to
+negotiate, be desired to depart.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor" title=" Dismission of M. Chauvelin.&mdash;EDIT.">[43]</a> The custom of keeping every<a name="Page_482" id="Page_482" title="482" class="pagenum"></a>where
+ministers continually resident is now so strongly established, that the
+refusal of a conformity to it would, without <i>very good reasons</i>, give
+offence. These reasons may arise from <i>particular</i> conjunctures; but
+there are also common reasons always subsisting, and such as relate to
+<i>the constitution of a government and the state of a nation</i>. The
+republics have often very good reasons of the latter kind to excuse
+themselves from continually suffering foreign ministers who <i>corrupt the
+citizens in order to gain them over to their masters, to the great
+prejudice of the republic and fomenting of the parties</i>, &amp;c. And should
+they only diffuse among a nation, formerly plain, frugal, and virtuous,
+a taste for luxury, avidity for money, and the manners of courts, these
+would be more than sufficient for wise and provident rulers to dismiss
+them.&quot;&mdash;Book IV. ch. v. &sect; 66.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> This is the case of France:&mdash;Semonville at Turin,&mdash;Jacobin
+clubs,&mdash;Liegeois meeting,&mdash;Flemish meeting,&mdash;La Fayette's
+answer,&mdash;Clootz's embassy,&mdash;Avignon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> The French acknowledge no power not directly emanating
+from the people.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> By the seventh article of the Treaty of TRIPLE ALLIANCE,
+between France, England, and Holland, signed at the Hague, in the year
+1717, it is stipulated, &quot;that, if the kingdoms, countries, or provinces
+of any of the allies are disturbed by intestine quarrels, or <i>by
+rebellions, on account of the said successions</i>,&quot; (the Protestant
+succession to the throne of Great Britain, and the succession to the
+throne of France, as settled by the Treaty of Utrecht,) &quot;or <i>under any
+other pretext whatever</i>, the ally thus in trouble shall have full right
+to demand of his allies the succors above mentioned&quot;: that is to say,
+the same succors as in the case of an invasion from any foreign
+power,&mdash;8,000 foot and 2,000 horse to be furnished by France or England,
+and 4,000 foot and 1,000 horse by the States-General.
+</p><p>
+By the fourth article of the Treaty of QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, between
+England, France, Holland, and the Emperor of Germany, signed in the year
+1718, the contracting powers &quot;promise and oblige themselves that they
+will and ought to maintain, guaranty, and defend the right of succession
+in the kingdom of France, according to the tenor of the treaties made at
+Utrecht the 11th day of April, 1713; ... and this they shall perform
+<i>against all persons whosoever who may presume to disturb the order of
+the said succession</i>, in contradiction to the previous acts and treaties
+subsequent thereon.&quot;
+</p><p>
+The above treaties have been revived and confirmed by every subsequent
+treaty of peace between Great Britain and France.&mdash;EDIT.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Contributions raised by the Duke of Brunswick in France.
+Compare these with the contributions raised by the French in the
+Netherlands.&mdash;EDIT.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> The third article of the Treaty of Triple Alliance and the
+latter part of the fourth article of the Treaty of Quadruple Alliance
+stipulate, that no kind of refuge or protection shall be given to
+rebellious subjects of the contracting powers.&mdash;EDIT.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Dismission of M. Chauvelin.&mdash;EDIT.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>END OF VOL. IV.</h3>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable
+Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund
+Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
+
+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: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12)
+
+Author: Edmund Burke
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15700]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURKE VOL 4 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made
+available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France
+(BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WORKS
+
+OF
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
+
+EDMUND BURKE
+
+
+IN TWELVE VOLUMES
+
+VOLUME THE FOURTH
+
+
+[Illustration: Burke Coat of Arms.]
+
+
+LONDON
+JOHN C. NIMMO
+14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.
+MDCCCLXXXVII
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL IV.
+
+
+LETTER TO A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, IN ANSWER TO SOME
+OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS                               1
+
+APPEAL FROM THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS                                  57
+
+LETTER TO A PEER OF IRELAND ON THE PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH
+CATHOLICS                                                            217
+
+LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ROMAN
+CATHOLICS OF IRELAND                                                 241
+
+HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL TO BE DELIVERED TO MONSIEUR DE M.M.             307
+
+THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS                                           313
+
+HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS              379
+
+REMARKS ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE: WITH
+AN APPENDIX                                                          403
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+LETTER
+
+TO
+
+A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY,
+
+IN
+
+ANSWER TO SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
+
+1791.
+
+
+Sir,--I had the honor to receive your letter of the 17th of November
+last, in which, with some exceptions, you are pleased to consider
+favorably the letter I have written on the affairs of France. I shall
+ever accept any mark of approbation attended with instruction with more
+pleasure than general and unqualified praises. The latter can serve only
+to flatter our vanity; the former, whilst it encourages us to proceed,
+may help to improve us in our progress.
+
+Some of the errors you point out to me in my printed letter are really
+such. One only I find to be material. It is corrected in the edition
+which I take the liberty of sending to you. As to the cavils which may
+be made on some part of my remarks with regard to the _gradations_ in
+your new Constitution, you observe justly that they do not affect the
+substance of my objections. Whether there be a round more or less in the
+ladder of representation by which your workmen ascend from their
+parochial tyranny to their federal anarchy, when the whole scale is
+false, appears to me of little or no importance.
+
+I published my thoughts on that Constitution, that my countrymen might
+be enabled to estimate the wisdom of the plans which were held out to
+their imitation. I conceived that the true character of those plans
+would be best collected from the committee appointed to prepare them. I
+thought that the scheme of their building would be better comprehended
+in the design of the architects than in the execution of the masons. It
+was not worth my reader's while to occupy himself with the alterations
+by which bungling practice corrects absurd theory. Such an investigation
+would be endless: because every day's past experience of
+impracticability has driven, and every day's future experience will
+drive, those men to new devices as exceptionable as the old, and which
+are no otherwise worthy of observation than as they give a daily proof
+of the delusion of their promises and the falsehood of their
+professions. Had I followed all these changes, my letter would have been
+only a gazette of their wanderings, a journal of their march from error
+to error, through a dry, dreary desert, unguided by the lights of
+Heaven, or by the contrivance which wisdom has invented to supply their
+place.
+
+I am unalterably persuaded that the attempt to oppress, degrade,
+impoverish, confiscate, and extinguish the original gentlemen and landed
+property of a whole nation cannot be justified under any form it may
+assume. I am satisfied beyond a doubt, that the project of turning a
+great empire into a vestry, or into a collection of vestries, and of
+governing it in the spirit of a parochial administration, is senseless
+and absurd, in any mode or with any qualifications. I can never be
+convinced that the scheme of placing the highest powers of the state in
+church-wardens and constables and other such officers, guided by the
+prudence of litigious attorneys and Jew brokers, and set in action by
+shameless women of the lowest condition, by keepers of hotels, taverns,
+and brothels, by pert apprentices, by clerks, shop-boys, hair-dressers,
+fiddlers, and dancers on the stage, (who, in such a commonwealth as
+yours, will in future overbear, as already they have overborne, the
+sober incapacity of dull, uninstructed men, of useful, but laborious
+occupations,) can never be put into any shape that must not be both
+disgraceful and destructive. The whole of this project, even if it were
+what it pretends to be, and was not in reality the dominion, through
+that disgraceful medium, of half a dozen, or perhaps fewer, intriguing
+politicians, is so mean, so low-minded, so stupid a contrivance, in
+point of wisdom, as well as so perfectly detestable for its wickedness,
+that I must always consider the correctives which might make it in any
+degree practicable to be so many new objections to it.
+
+In that wretched state of things, some are afraid that the authors of
+your miseries may be led to precipitate their further designs by the
+hints they may receive from the very arguments used to expose the
+absurdity of their system, to mark the incongruity of its parts, and its
+inconsistency with their own principles,--and that your masters may be
+led to render their schemes more consistent by rendering them more
+mischievous. Excuse the liberty which your indulgence authorizes me to
+take, when I observe to you that such apprehensions as these would
+prevent all exertion of our faculties in this great cause of mankind.
+
+A rash recourse to _force_ is not to be justified in a state of real
+weakness. Such attempts bring on disgrace, and in their failure
+discountenance and discourage more rational endeavors. But _reason_ is
+to be hazarded, though it may be perverted by craft and sophistry; for
+reason can suffer no loss nor shame, nor can it impede any useful plan
+of future policy. In the unavoidable uncertainty as to the effect,
+which attends on every measure of human prudence, nothing seems a surer
+antidote to the poison of fraud than its detection. It is true, the
+fraud may be swallowed after this discovery, and perhaps even swallowed
+the more greedily for being a detected fraud. Men sometimes make a point
+of honor not to be disabused; and they had rather fall into an hundred
+errors than confess one. But, after all, when neither our principles nor
+our dispositions, nor, perhaps, our talents, enable us to encounter
+delusion with delusion, we must use our best reason to those that ought
+to be reasonable creatures, and to take our chance for the event. We
+cannot act on these anomalies in the minds of men. I do not conceive
+that the persons who have contrived these things can be made much the
+better or the worse for anything which can be said to them. _They_ are
+reason-proof. Here and there, some men, who were at first carried away
+by wild, good intentions, may be led, when their first fervors are
+abated, to join in a sober survey of the schemes into which they had
+been deluded. To those only (and I am sorry to say they are not likely
+to make a large description) we apply with any hope. I may speak it upon
+an assurance almost approaching to absolute knowledge, that nothing has
+been done that has not been contrived from the beginning, even before
+the States had assembled. _Nulla nova mihi res inopinave surgit._ They
+are the same men and the same designs that they were from the first,
+though varied in their appearance. It was the very same animal that at
+first crawled about in the shape of a caterpillar that you now see rise
+into the air and expand his wings to the sun.
+
+Proceeding, therefore, as we are obliged to proceed,--that is, upon an
+hypothesis that we address rational men,--can false political principles
+be more effectually exposed than by demonstrating that they lead to
+consequences directly inconsistent with and subversive of the
+arrangements grounded upon them? If this kind of demonstration is not
+permitted, the process of reasoning called _deductio ad absurdum_, which
+even the severity of geometry does not reject, could not be employed at
+all in legislative discussions. One of our strongest weapons against
+folly acting with authority would be lost.
+
+You know, Sir, that even the virtuous efforts of your patriots to
+prevent the ruin of your country have had this very turn given to them.
+It has been said here, and in France too, that the reigning usurpers
+would not have carried their tyranny to such destructive lengths, if
+they had not been stimulated and provoked to it by the acrimony of your
+opposition. There is a dilemma to which every opposition to successful
+iniquity must, in the nature of things, be liable. If you lie still, you
+are considered as an accomplice in the measures in which you silently
+acquiesce. If you resist, you are accused of provoking irritable power
+to new excesses. The conduct of a losing party never appears right: at
+least, it never can possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to
+vulgar judgments,--success.
+
+The indulgence of a sort of undefined hope, an obscure confidence, that
+some lurking remains of virtue, some degree of shame, might exist in the
+breasts of the oppressors of France, has been among the causes which
+have helped to bring on the common ruin of king and people. There is no
+safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men,
+and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
+I well remember, at every epocha of this wonderful history, in every
+scene of this tragic business, that, when your sophistic usurpers were
+laying down mischievous principles, and even applying them in direct
+resolutions, it was the fashion to say that they never intended to
+execute those declarations in their rigor. This made men careless in
+their opposition, and remiss in early precaution. By holding out this
+fallacious hope, the impostors deluded sometimes one description of men,
+and sometimes another, so that no means of resistance were provided
+against them, when they came to execute in cruelty what they had planned
+in fraud.
+
+There are cases in which a man would be ashamed not to have been imposed
+on. There is a confidence necessary to human intercourse, and without
+which men are often more injured by their own suspicions than they would
+be by the perfidy of others. But when men whom we _know_ to be wicked
+impose upon us, we are something worse than dupes. When we know them,
+their fair pretences become new motives for distrust. There is one case,
+indeed, in which it would be madness not to give the fullest credit to
+the most deceitful of men,--that is, when they make declarations of
+hostility against us.
+
+I find that some persons entertain other hopes, which I confess appear
+more specious than those by which at first so many were deluded and
+disarmed. They flatter themselves that the extreme misery brought upon
+the people by their folly will at last open the eyes of the multitude,
+if not of their leaders. Much the contrary, I fear. As to the leaders in
+this system of imposture,--you know that cheats and deceivers never can
+repent. The fraudulent have no resource but in fraud. They have no other
+goods in their magazine. They have no virtue or wisdom in their minds,
+to which, in a disappointment concerning the profitable effects of fraud
+and cunning, they can retreat. The wearing out of an old serves only to
+put them upon the invention of a new delusion. Unluckily, too, the
+credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as the invention of knaves. They
+never give people possession; but they always keep them in hope. Your
+state doctors do not so much as pretend that any good whatsoever has
+hitherto been derived from their operations, or that the public has
+prospered in any one instance under their management. The nation is
+sick, very sick, by their medicines. But the charlatan tells them that
+what is past cannot be helped;--they have taken the draught, and they
+must wait its operation with patience;--that the first effects, indeed,
+are unpleasant, but that the very sickness is a proof that the dose is
+of no sluggish operation;--that sickness is inevitable in all
+constitutional revolutions;--that the body must pass through pain to
+ease;--that the prescriber is not an empiric who proceeds by vulgar
+experience, but one who grounds his practice[1] on the sure rules of
+art, which cannot possibly fail. You have read, Sir, the last manifesto,
+or mountebank's bill, of the National Assembly. You see their
+presumption in their promises is not lessened by all their failures in
+the performance. Compare this last address of the Assembly and the
+present state of your affairs with the early engagements of that body,
+engagements which, not content with declaring, they solemnly deposed
+upon oath,--swearing lustily, that, if they were supported, they would
+make their country glorious and happy; and then judge whether those who
+can write such things, or those who can bear to read them, are of
+_themselves_ to be brought to any reasonable course of thought or
+action.
+
+As to the people at large, when once these miserable sheep have broken
+the fold, and have got themselves loose, not from the restraint, but
+from the protection, of all the principles of natural authority and
+legitimate subordination, they become the natural prey of impostors.
+When they have once tasted of the flattery of knaves, they can no longer
+endure reason, which appears to them only in the form of censure and
+reproach. Great distress has never hitherto taught, and whilst the world
+lasts it never will teach, wise lessons to any part of mankind. Men are
+as much blinded by the extremes of misery as by the extremes of
+prosperity. Desperate situations produce desperate councils and
+desperate measures. The people of France, almost generally, have been
+taught to look for other resources than those which can be derived from
+order, frugality, and industry. They are generally armed; and they are
+made to expect much from the use of arms. _Nihil non arrogant armis._
+Besides this, the retrograde order of society has something flattering
+to the dispositions of mankind. The life of adventurers, gamesters,
+gypsies, beggars, and robbers is not unpleasant. It requires restraint
+to keep men from falling into that habit. The shifting tides of fear
+and hope, the flight and pursuit, the peril and escape, the alternate
+famine and feast of the savage and the thief, after a time; render all
+course of slow, steady, progressive, unvaried occupation, and the
+prospect only of a limited mediocrity at the end of long labor, to the
+last degree tame, languid, and insipid. Those who have been once
+intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it,
+even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may
+be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look
+to anything but power for their relief. When did distress ever oblige a
+prince to abdicate his authority? And what effect will it have upon
+those who are made to believe themselves a people of princes?
+
+The more active and stirring part of the lower orders having got
+government and the distribution of plunder into their hands, they will
+use its resources in each municipality to form a body of adherents.
+These rulers and their adherents will be strong enough to overpower the
+discontents of those who have not been able to assert their share of the
+spoil. The unfortunate adventurers in the cheating lottery of plunder
+will probably be the least sagacious or the most inactive and irresolute
+of the gang. If, on disappointment, they should dare to stir, they will
+soon be suppressed as rebels and mutineers by their brother rebels.
+Scantily fed for a while with the offal of plunder, they will drop off
+by degrees; they will be driven out of sight and out of thought; and
+they will be left to perish obscurely, like rats, in holes and corners.
+
+From the forced repentance of invalid mutineers and disbanded thieves
+you can hope for no resource. Government itself, which ought to
+constrain the more bold and dexterous of these robbers, is their
+accomplice. Its arms, its treasures, its all are in their hands.
+Judicature, which above all things should awe them, is their creature
+and their instrument. Nothing seems to me to render your internal
+situation more desperate than this one circumstance of the state of your
+judicature. Many days are not passed since we have seen a set of men
+brought forth by your rulers for a most critical function. Your rulers
+brought forth a set of men, steaming from the sweat and drudgery, and
+all black with the smoke and soot, of the forge of confiscation and
+robbery,--_ardentis massae fuligine lippos_,--a set of men brought forth
+from the trade of hammering arms of proof, offensive and defensive, in
+aid of the enterprises, and for the subsequent protection, of
+housebreakers, murderers, traitors, and malefactors,--men, who had their
+minds seasoned with theories perfectly conformable to their practice,
+and who had always laughed at possession and prescription, and defied
+all the fundamental maxims of jurisprudence. To the horror and
+stupefaction of all the honest part of this nation, and indeed of all
+nations who are spectators, we have seen, on the credit of those very
+practices and principles, and to carry them further into effect, these
+very men placed on the sacred seat of justice in the capital city of
+your late kingdom. We see that in future you are to be destroyed with
+more form and regularity. This is not peace: it is only the introduction
+of a sort of discipline in their hostility. Their tyranny is complete in
+their justice; and their _lanterne_ is not half so dreadful as their
+court.
+
+One would think, that, out of common decency, they would have given you
+men who had not been in the habit of trampling upon law and justice in
+the Assembly, neutral men, or men apparently neutral, for judges, who
+are to dispose of your lives and fortunes.
+
+Cromwell, when he attempted to legalize his power, and to settle his
+conquered country in a state of order, did not look for dispensers of
+justice in the instruments of his usurpation. Quite the contrary. He
+sought out, with great solicitude and selection, and even from the party
+most opposite to his designs, men of weight and decorum of
+character,--men unstained with the violence of the times, and with hands
+not fouled with confiscation and sacrilege: for he chose an Hale for his
+chief justice, though he absolutely refused to take his civic oaths, or
+to make any acknowledgment whatsoever of the legality of his government.
+Cromwell told this great lawyer, that, since he did not approve his
+title, all he required of him was to administer, in a manner agreeable
+to his pure sentiments and unspotted character, that justice without
+which human society cannot subsist,--that it was not his particular
+government, but civil order itself, which, as a judge, he wished him to
+support. Cromwell knew how to separate the institutions expedient to his
+usurpation from the administration of the public justice of his country.
+For Cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not wholly suppressed, but
+only suspended, the sentiments of religion, and the love (as far as it
+could consist with his designs) of fair and honorable reputation.
+Accordingly, we are indebted to this act of his for the preservation of
+our laws, which some senseless assertors of the rights of men were then
+on the point of entirely erasing, as relics of feudality and barbarism.
+Besides, he gave, in the appointment of that man, to that age, and to
+all posterity, the most brilliant example of sincere and fervent piety,
+exact justice, and profound jurisprudence.[2] But these are not the
+things in which your philosophic usurpers choose to follow Cromwell.
+
+One would think, that, after an honest and necessary revolution, (if
+they had a mind that theirs should pass for such,) your masters would
+have imitated the virtuous policy of those who have been at the head of
+revolutions of that glorious character. Burnet tells us, that nothing
+tended to reconcile the English nation to the government of King William
+so much as the care he took to fill the vacant bishoprics with men who
+had attracted the public esteem by their learning, eloquence, and piety,
+and above all, by their known moderation in the state. With you, in your
+purifying revolution, whom have you chosen to regulate the Church? M.
+Mirabeau is a fine speaker, and a fine writer, and a fine--a very fine
+man; but, really, nothing gave more surprise to everybody here than to
+find him the supreme head of your ecclesiastical affairs. The rest is of
+course. Your Assembly addresses a manifesto to France, in which they
+tell the people, with an insulting irony, that they have brought the
+Church to its primitive condition. In one respect their declaration is
+undoubtedly true: for they have brought it to a state of poverty and
+persecution. What can be hoped for after this? Have not men, (if they
+deserve the name,) under this new hope and head of the Church, been made
+bishops for no other merit than having acted as instruments of atheists?
+for no other merit than having thrown the children's bread to dogs? and,
+in order to gorge the whole gang of usurers, peddlers, and itinerant
+Jew discounters at the corners of streets, starved the poor of their
+Christian flocks, and their own brother pastors? Have not such men been
+made bishops to administer in temples in which (if the patriotic
+donations have not already stripped them of their vessels) the
+church-wardens ought to take security for the altar plate, and not so
+much as to trust the chalice in their sacrilegious hands, so long as
+Jews have assignats on ecclesiastic plunder, to exchange for the silver
+stolen from churches?
+
+I am told that the very sons of such Jew jobbers have been made bishops:
+persons not to be suspected of any sort of _Christian_ superstition, fit
+colleagues to the holy prelate of Autun, and bred at the feet of that
+Gamaliel. We know who it was that drove the money-changers out of the
+temple. We see, too, who it is that brings them in again. We have in
+London very respectable persons of the Jewish nation, whom we will keep;
+but we have of the same tribe others of a very different
+description,--housebreakers, and receivers of stolen goods, and forgers
+of paper currency, more than we can conveniently hang. These we can
+spare to France, to fill the new episcopal thrones: men well versed in
+swearing; and who will scruple no oath which the fertile genius of any
+of your reformers can devise.
+
+In matters so ridiculous it is hard to be grave. On a view of their
+consequences, it is almost inhuman to treat them lightly. To what a
+state of savage, stupid, servile insensibility must your people be
+reduced, who can endure such proceedings in their Church, their state,
+and their judicature, even for a moment! But the deluded people of
+France are like other madmen, who, to a miracle, bear hunger, and
+thirst, and cold, and confinement, and the chains and lash of their
+keeper, whilst all the while they support themselves by the imagination
+that they are generals of armies, prophets, kings, and emperors. As to a
+change of mind in those men, who consider infamy as honor, degradation
+as preferment, bondage to low tyrants as liberty, and the practical
+scorn and contumely of their upstart masters as marks of respect and
+homage, I look upon it as absolutely impracticable. These madmen, to be
+cured, must first, like other madmen, be subdued. The sound part of the
+community, which I believe to be large, but by no means the largest
+part, has been taken by surprise, and is disjointed, terrified, and
+disarmed. That sound part of the community must first be put into a
+better condition, before it can do anything in the way of deliberation
+or persuasion. This must be an act of power, as well as of wisdom: of
+power in the hands of firm, determined patriots, who can distinguish the
+misled from traitors, who will regulate the state (if such should be
+their fortune) with a discriminating, manly, and provident mercy; men
+who are purged of the surfeit and indigestion of systems, if ever they
+have been admitted into the habit of their minds; men who will lay the
+foundation of a real reform in effacing every vestige of that philosophy
+which pretends to have made discoveries in the _Terra Australia_ of
+morality; men who will fix the state upon these bases of morals and
+politics, which are our old and immemorial, and, I hope, will be our
+eternal possession.
+
+This power, to such men, must come from _without_. It may be given to
+you in pity: for surely no nation ever called so pathetically on the
+compassion of all its neighbors. It may be given by those neighbors on
+motives of safety to themselves. Never shall I think any country in
+Europe to be secure, whilst there is established in the very centre of
+it a state (if so it may be called) founded on principles of anarchy,
+and which is in reality a college of armed fanatics, for the propagation
+of the principles of assassination, robbery, rebellion, fraud, faction,
+oppression, and impiety. Mahomet, hid, as for a time he was, in the
+bottom of the sands of Arabia, had his spirit and character been
+discovered, would have been an object of precaution to provident minds.
+What if he had erected his fanatic standard for the destruction of the
+Christian religion _in luce Asiae_, in the midst of the then noonday
+splendor of the then civilized world? The princes of Europe, in the
+beginning of this century, did well not to suffer the monarchy of France
+to swallow up the others. They ought not now, in my opinion, to suffer
+all the monarchies and commonwealths to be swallowed up in the gulf of
+this polluted anarchy. They may be tolerably safe at present, because
+the comparative power of France for the present is little. But times and
+occasions make dangers. Intestine troubles may arise in other countries.
+There is a power always on the watch, qualified and disposed to profit
+of every conjuncture, to establish its own principles and modes of
+mischief, wherever it can hope for success. What mercy would these
+usurpers have on other sovereigns, and on other nations, when they treat
+their own king with such unparalleled indignities, and so cruelly
+oppress their own countrymen?
+
+The king of Prussia, in concurrence with us, nobly interfered to save
+Holland from confusion. The same power, joined with the rescued Holland
+and with Great Britain, has put the Emperor in the possession of the
+Netherlands, and secured, under that prince, from all arbitrary
+innovation, the ancient, hereditary Constitution of those provinces. The
+chamber of Wetzlar has restored the Bishop of Liege, unjustly
+dispossessed by the rebellion of his subjects. The king of Prussia was
+bound by no treaty nor alliance of blood, nor had any particular reasons
+for thinking the Emperor's government would be more mischievous or more
+oppressive to human nature than that of the Turk; yet, on mere motives
+of policy, that prince has interposed, with the threat of all his force,
+to snatch even the Turk from the pounces of the Imperial eagle. If this
+is done in favor of a barbarous nation, with a barbarous neglect of
+police, fatal to the human race,--in favor of a nation by principle in
+eternal enmity with the Christian name, a nation which will not so much
+as give the salutation of peace (_Salam_) to any of us, nor make any
+pact with any Christian nation beyond a truce,--if this be done in favor
+of the Turk, shall it be thought either impolitic or unjust or
+uncharitable to employ the same power to rescue from captivity a
+virtuous monarch, (by the courtesy of Europe considered as Most
+Christian,) who, after an intermission of one hundred and seventy-five
+years, had called together the States of his kingdom to reform abuses,
+to establish a free government, and to strengthen his throne,--a monarch
+who, at the very outset, without force, even without solicitation, had
+given to his people such a Magna Charta of privileges as never was given
+by any king to any subjects? Is it to be tamely borne by kings who love
+their subjects, or by subjects who love their kings, that this monarch,
+in the midst of these gracious acts, was insolently and cruelly torn
+from his palace by a gang of traitors and assassins, and kept in close
+prison to this very hour, whilst his royal name and sacred character
+were used for the total ruin of those whom the laws had appointed him to
+protect?
+
+The only offence of this unhappy monarch towards his people was his
+attempt, under a monarchy, to give them a free Constitution. For this,
+by an example hitherto unheard of in the world, he has been deposed. It
+might well disgrace sovereigns to take part with a deposed tyrant. It
+would suppose in them a vicious sympathy. But not to make a common cause
+with a just prince, dethroned by traitors and rebels, who proscribe,
+plunder, confiscate, and in every way cruelly oppress their
+fellow-citizens, in my opinion is to forget what is due to the honor and
+to the rights of all virtuous and legal government.
+
+I think the king of France to be as much an object both of policy and
+compassion as the Grand Seignior or his states. I do not conceive that
+the total annihilation of France (if that could be effected) is a
+desirable thing to Europe, or even to this its rival nation. Provident
+patriots did not think it good for Rome that even Carthage should be
+quite destroyed; and he was a wise Greek, wise for the general Grecian
+interests, as well as a brave Lacedaemonian enemy and generous conqueror,
+who did not wish, by the destruction of Athens, to pluck out the other
+eye of Greece.
+
+However, Sir, what I have here said of the interference of foreign
+princes is only the opinion of a private individual, who is neither the
+representative of any state nor the organ of any party, but who thinks
+himself bound to express his own sentiments with freedom and energy in a
+crisis of such importance to the whole human race.
+
+I am not apprehensive, that, in speaking freely on the subject of the
+king and queen of France, I shall accelerate (as you fear) the execution
+of traitorous designs against them. You are of opinion, Sir, that the
+usurpers may, and that they will, gladly lay hold of any pretext to
+throw off the very name of a king: assuredly, I do not wish ill to your
+king; but better for him not to live (he does not reign) than to live
+the passive instrument of tyranny and usurpation.
+
+I certainly meant to show, to the best of my power, that the existence
+of such an executive officer in such a system of republic as theirs is
+absurd in the highest degree. But in demonstrating this, to _them_, at
+least, I can have made no discovery. They only held out the royal name
+to catch those Frenchmen to whom the name of king is still venerable.
+They calculate the duration of that sentiment; and when they find it
+nearly expiring, they will not trouble themselves with excuses for
+extinguishing the name, as they have the thing. They used it as a sort
+of navel-string to nourish their unnatural offspring from the bowels of
+royalty itself. Now that the monster can purvey for its own subsistence,
+it will only carry the mark about it, as a token of its having torn the
+womb it came from. Tyrants seldom want pretexts. Fraud is the ready
+minister of injustice; and whilst the currency of false pretence and
+sophistic reasoning was expedient to their designs, they were under no
+necessity of drawing upon me to furnish them with that coin. But
+pretexts and sophisms have had their day, and have done their work. The
+usurpation no longer seeks plausibility: it trusts to power.
+
+Nothing that I can say, or that you can say, will hasten them, by a
+single hour, in the execution of a design which they have long since
+entertained. In spite of their solemn declarations, their soothing
+addresses, and the multiplied oaths which they have taken and forced
+others to take, they will assassinate the king when his name will no
+longer be necessary to their designs,--but not a moment sooner. They
+will probably first assassinate the queen, whenever the renewed menace
+of such an assassination loses its effect upon the anxious mind of an
+affectionate husband. At present, the advantage which they derive from
+the daily threats against her life is her only security for preserving
+it. They keep their sovereign alive for the purpose of exhibiting him,
+like some wild beast at a fair,--as if they had a Bajazet in a cage.
+They choose to make monarchy contemptible by exposing it to derision in
+the person of the most benevolent of their kings.
+
+In my opinion their insolence appears more odious even than their
+crimes. The horrors of the fifth and sixth of October were less
+detestable than the festival of the fourteenth of July. There are
+situations (God forbid I should think that of the 5th and 6th of October
+one of them!) in which the best men may be confounded with the worst,
+and in the darkness and confusion, in the press and medley of such
+extremities, it may not be so easy to discriminate the one from the
+other. Tho necessities created even by ill designs have their excuse.
+They may be forgotten by others, when the guilty themselves do not
+choose to cherish their recollection, and, by ruminating their
+offences, nourish themselves, through the example of their past, to the
+perpetration of future crimes. It is in the relaxation of security, it
+is in the expansion of prosperity, it is in the hour of dilatation of
+the heart, and of its softening into festivity and pleasure, that the
+real character of men is discerned. If there is any good in them, it
+appears then or never. Even wolves and tigers, when gorged with their
+prey, are safe and gentle. It is at such times that noble minds give all
+the reins to their good nature. They indulge their genius even to
+intemperance, in kindness to the afflicted, in generosity to the
+conquered,--forbearing insults, forgiving injuries, overpaying benefits.
+Full of dignity themselves, they respect dignity in all, but they feel
+it sacred in the unhappy. But it is then, and basking in the sunshine of
+unmerited fortune, that low, sordid, ungenerous, and reptile souls swell
+with their hoarded poisons; it is then that they display their odious
+splendor, and shine out in the full lustre of their native villany and
+baseness. It is in that season that no man of sense or honor can be
+mistaken for one of them. It was in such a season, for them of political
+ease and security, though their people were but just emerged from actual
+famine, and were ready to be plunged into a gulf of penury and beggary,
+that your philosophic lords chose, with an ostentatious pomp and luxury,
+to feast an incredible number of idle and thoughtless people, collected
+with art and pains from all quarters of the world. They constructed a
+vast amphitheatre in which they raised a species of pillory.[3] On this
+pillory they set their lawful king and queen, with an insulting figure
+over their heads. There they exposed these objects of pity and respect
+to all good minds to the derision of an unthinking and unprincipled
+multitude, degenerated even from the versatile tenderness which marks
+the irregular and capricious feelings of the populace. That their cruel
+insult might have nothing wanting to complete it, they chose the
+anniversary of that day in which they exposed the life of their prince
+to the most imminent dangers and the vilest indignities, just following
+the instant when the assassins, whom they had hired without owning,
+first openly took up arms against their king, corrupted his guards,
+surprised his castle, butchered some of the poor invalids of his
+garrison, murdered his governor, and, like wild beasts, tore to pieces
+the chief magistrate of his capital city, on account of his fidelity to
+his service.
+
+Till the justice of the world is awakened, such as these will go on,
+without admonition, and without provocation, to every extremity. Those
+who have made the exhibition of the fourteenth of July are capable of
+every evil. They do not commit crimes for their designs; but they form
+designs that they may commit crimes. It is not their necessity, but
+their nature, that impels them. They are modern philosophers, which when
+you say of them, you express everything that is ignoble, savage, and
+hard-hearted.
+
+Besides the sure tokens which are given by the spirit of their
+particular arrangements, there are some characteristic lineaments in the
+general policy of your tumultuous despotism, which, in my opinion,
+indicate, beyond a doubt, that no revolution whatsoever _in their
+disposition_ is to be expected: I mean their scheme of educating the
+rising generation, the principles which they intend to instil and the
+sympathies which they wish to form in the mind at the season in which it
+is the most susceptible. Instead of forming their young minds to that
+docility, to that modesty, which are the grace and charm of youth, to an
+admiration of famous examples, and to an averseness to anything which
+approaches to pride, petulance, and self-conceit, (distempers to which
+that time of life is of itself sufficiently liable,) they artificially
+foment these evil dispositions, and even form them into springs of
+action. Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books
+recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the
+character of the age. Uncertain indeed is the efficacy, limited indeed
+is the extent, of a virtuous institution. But if education takes in
+_vice_ as any part of its system, there is no doubt but that it will
+operate with abundant energy, and to an extent indefinite. The
+magistrate, who in favor of freedom thinks himself obliged to suffer all
+sorts of publications, is under a stricter duty than any other well to
+consider what sort of writers he shall authorize, and shall recommend by
+the strongest of all sanctions, that is, by public honors and rewards.
+He ought to be cautious how he recommends authors of mixed or ambiguous
+morality. He ought to be fearful of putting into the hands of youth
+writers indulgent to the peculiarities of their own complexion, lest
+they should teach the humors of the professor, rather than the
+principles of the science. He ought, above all, to be cautious in
+recommending any writer who has carried marks of a deranged
+understanding: for where there is no sound reason, there can be no real
+virtue; and madness is ever vicious and malignant.
+
+The Assembly proceeds on maxims the very reverse of these. The Assembly
+recommends to its youth a study of the bold experimenters in morality.
+Everybody knows that there is a great dispute amongst their leaders,
+which of them is the best resemblance of Rousseau. In truth, they all
+resemble him. His blood they transfuse into their minds and into their
+manners. Him they study; him they meditate; him they turn over in all
+the time they can spare from the laborious mischief of the day or the
+debauches of the night. Rousseau is their canon of holy writ; in his
+life he is their canon of Polycletus; he is their standard figure of
+perfection. To this man and this writer, as a pattern to authors and to
+Frenchmen, the foundries of Paris are now running for statues, with the
+kettles of their poor and the bells of their churches. If an author had
+written like a great genius on geometry, though his practical and
+speculative morals were vicious in the extreme, it might appear that in
+voting the statue they honored only the geometrician. But Rousseau is a
+moralist or he is nothing. It is impossible, therefore, putting the
+circumstances together, to mistake their design in choosing the author
+with whom they have begun to recommend a course of studies.
+
+Their great problem is, to find a substitute for all the principles
+which hitherto have been employed to regulate the human will and action.
+They find dispositions in the mind of such force and quality as may fit
+men, far better than the old morality, for the purposes of such a state
+as theirs, and may go much further in supporting their power and
+destroying their enemies. They have therefore chosen a selfish,
+flattering, seductive, ostentatious vice, in the place of plain duty.
+True humility, the basis of the Christian system, is the low, but deep
+and firm foundation of all real virtue. But this, as very painful in the
+practice, and little imposing in the appearance, they have totally
+discarded. Their object is to merge all natural and all social sentiment
+in inordinate vanity. In a small degree, and conversant in little
+things, vanity is of little moment. When full-grown, it is the worst of
+vices, and the occasional mimic of them all. It makes the whole man
+false. It leaves nothing sincere or trustworthy about him. His best
+qualities are poisoned and perverted by it, and operate exactly as the
+worst. When your lords had many writers as immoral as the object of
+their statue (such as Voltaire and others) they chose Rousseau, because
+in him that peculiar vice which they wished to erect into ruling virtue
+was by far the most conspicuous.
+
+We have had the great professor and founder of _the philosophy of
+vanity_ in England. As I had good opportunities of knowing his
+proceedings almost from day to day, he left no doubt on my mind that he
+entertained no principle, either to influence his heart or to guide his
+understanding, but _vanity_. With this vice he was possessed to a degree
+little short of madness. It is from the same deranged, eccentric vanity,
+that this, the insane Socrates of the National Assembly, was impelled to
+publish a mad confession of his mad faults, and to attempt a new sort of
+glory from bringing hardily to light the obscure and vulgar vices which
+we know may sometimes be blended with eminent talents. He has not
+observed on the nature of vanity who does not know that it is
+omnivorous,--that it has no choice in its food,--that it is fond to
+talk even of its own faults and vices, as what will excite surprise and
+draw attention, and what will pass at worst for openness and candor.
+
+It was this abuse and perversion, which vanity makes even of hypocrisy,
+which has driven Rousseau to record a life not so much as checkered or
+spotted here and there with virtues, or even distinguished by a single
+good action. It is such a life he chooses to offer to the attention of
+mankind. It is such a life that, with a wild defiance, he flings in the
+face of his Creator, whom he acknowledges only to brave. Your Assembly,
+knowing how much more powerful example is found than precept, has chosen
+this man (by his own account without a single virtue) for a model. To
+him they erect their first statue. From him they commence their series
+of honors and distinctions.
+
+It is that new-invented virtue which your masters canonize that led
+their moral hero constantly to exhaust the stores of his powerful
+rhetoric in the expression of universal benevolence, whilst his heart
+was incapable of harboring one spark of common parental affection.
+Benevolence to the whole species, and want of feeling for every
+individual with whom the professors come in contact, form the character
+of the new philosophy. Setting up for an unsocial independence, this
+their hero of vanity refuses the just price of common labor, as well as
+the tribute which opulence owes to genius, and which, when paid, honors
+the giver and the receiver; and then he pleads his beggary as an excuse
+for his crimes. He melts with tenderness for those only who touch him by
+the remotest relation, and then, without one natural pang, casts away,
+as a sort of offal and excrement, the spawn of his disgustful amours,
+and sends his children to the hospital of foundlings. The bear loves,
+licks, and forms her young: but bears are not philosophers. Vanity,
+however, finds its account in reversing the train of our natural
+feelings. Thousands admire the sentimental-writer; the affectionate
+father is hardly known in his parish.
+
+Under this philosophic instructor in _the ethics of vanity_, they have
+attempted in France a regeneration of the moral constitution of man.
+Statesmen like your present rulers exist by everything which is
+spurious, fictitious, and false,--by everything which takes the man from
+his house, and sets him on a stage,--which makes him up an artificial
+creature, with painted, theatric sentiments, fit to be seen by the glare
+of candle-light, and formed to be contemplated at a due distance. Vanity
+is too apt to prevail in all of us, and in all countries. To the
+improvement of Frenchmen, it seems not absolutely necessary that it
+should be taught upon system. But it is plain that the present rebellion
+was its legitimate offspring, and it is piously fed by that rebellion
+with a daily dole.
+
+If the system of institution recommended by the Assembly is false and
+theatric, it is because their system of government is of the same
+character. To that, and to that alone, it is strictly conformable. To
+understand either, we must connect the morals with the politics of the
+legislators. Your practical philosophers, systematic in everything, have
+wisely began at the source. As the relation between parents and children
+is the first among the elements of vulgar, natural morality,[4] they
+erect statues to a wild, ferocious, low-minded, hard-hearted father, of
+fine general feelings,--a lover of his kind, but a hater of his kindred.
+Your masters reject the duties of this vulgar relation, as contrary to
+liberty, as not founded in the social compact, and not binding according
+to the rights of men; because the relation is not, of course, the result
+of _free election_,--never so on the side of the children, not always on
+the part of the parents.
+
+The next relation which they regenerate by their statues to Rousseau is
+that which is next in sanctity to that of a father. They differ from
+those old-fashioned thinkers who considered pedagogues as sober and
+venerable characters, and allied to the parental. The moralists of the
+dark times _praeceptorem sancti voluere parentis esse loco_. In this age
+of light they teach the people that preceptors ought to be in the place
+of gallants. They systematically corrupt a very corruptible race, (for
+some time a growing nuisance amongst you,)--a set of pert, petulant
+literators, to whom, instead of their proper, but severe, unostentatious
+duties, they assign the brilliant part of men of wit and pleasure, of
+gay, young, military sparks, and danglers at toilets. They call on the
+rising generation in France to take a sympathy in the adventures and
+fortunes, and they endeavor to engage their sensibility on the side, of
+pedagogues who betray the most awful family trusts and vitiate their
+female pupils. They teach the people that the debauchers of virgins,
+almost in the arms of their parents, may be safe inmates in their house,
+and even fit guardians of the honor of those husbands who succeed
+legally to the office which the young literators had preoccupied
+without asking leave of law or conscience.
+
+Thus they dispose of all the family relations of parents and children,
+husbands and wives. Through this same instructor, by whom they corrupt
+the morals, they corrupt the taste. Taste and elegance, though they are
+reckoned only among the smaller and secondary morals, yet are of no mean
+importance in the regulation of life. A moral taste is not of force to
+turn vice into virtue; but it recommends virtue with something like the
+blandishments of pleasure, and it infinitely abates the evils of vice.
+Rousseau, a writer of great force and vivacity, is totally destitute of
+taste in any sense of the word. Your masters, who are his scholars,
+conceive that all refinement has an aristocratic character. The last age
+had exhausted all its powers in giving a grace and nobleness to our
+natural appetites, and in raising them into a higher class and order
+than seemed justly to belong to them. Through Rousseau, your masters are
+resolved to destroy these aristocratic prejudices. The passion called
+love has so general and powerful an influence, it makes so much of the
+entertainment, and indeed so much the occupation, of that part of life
+which decides the character forever, that the mode and the principles on
+which it engages the sympathy and strikes the imagination become of the
+utmost importance to the morals and manners of every society. Your
+rulers were well aware of this; and in their system of changing your
+manners to accommodate them to their politics, they found nothing so
+convenient as Rousseau. Through him they teach men to love after the
+fashion of philosophers: that is, they teach to men, to Frenchmen, a
+love without gallantry,--a love without anything of that fine flower of
+youthfulness and gentility which places it, if not among the virtues,
+among the ornaments of life. Instead of this passion, naturally allied
+to grace and manners, they infuse into their youth an unfashioned,
+indelicate, sour, gloomy, ferocious medley of pedantry and lewdness,--of
+metaphysical speculations blended with the coarsest sensuality. Such is
+the general morality of the passions to be found in their famous
+philosopher, in his famous work of philosophic gallantry, the _Nouvelle
+Eloise_.
+
+When the fence from the gallantry of preceptors is broken down, and your
+families are no longer protected by decent pride and salutary domestic
+prejudice, there is but one step to a frightful corruption. The rulers
+in the National Assembly are in good hopes that the females of the first
+families in France may become an easy prey to dancing-masters, fiddlers,
+pattern-drawers, friseurs, and valets-de-chambre, and other active
+citizens of that description, who, having the entry into your houses,
+and being half domesticated by their situation, may be blended with you
+by regular and irregular relations. By a law they have made these people
+their equals. By adopting the sentiments of Rousseau they have made them
+your rivals. In this manner these great legislators complete their plan
+of levelling, and establish their rights of men on a sure foundation.
+
+I am certain that the writings of Rousseau lead directly to this kind of
+shameful evil. I have often wondered how he comes to be so much more
+admired and followed on the Continent than he is here. Perhaps a secret
+charm in the language may have its share in this extraordinary
+difference. We certainly perceive, and to a degree we feel, in this
+writer, a style glowing, animated, enthusiastic, at the same time that
+we find it lax, diffuse, and not in the best taste of composition,--all
+the members of the piece being pretty equally labored and expanded,
+without any due selection or subordination of parts. He is generally too
+much on the stretch, and his manner has little variety. We cannot rest
+upon, any of his works, though they contain observations which
+occasionally discover a considerable insight into human nature. But his
+doctrines, on the whole, are so inapplicable to real life and manners,
+that we never dream of drawing from them any rule for laws or conduct,
+or for fortifying or illustrating anything by a reference to his
+opinions. They have with us the fate of older paradoxes:--
+
+    Cum ventum ad _verum_ est, _sensus moresque_ repugnant,
+    Atque ipsa utilitas, justi prope mater et aequi.
+
+Perhaps bold speculations are more acceptable because more new to you
+than to us, who have been, long since satiated with them. We continue,
+as in the two last ages, to read, more generally than I believe is now
+done on the Continent, the authors of sound antiquity. These occupy our
+minds; they give us another taste and turn; and will not suffer us to be
+more than transiently amused with paradoxical morality. It is not that I
+consider this writer as wholly destitute of just notions. Amongst his
+irregularities, it must be reckoned that he is sometimes moral, and
+moral in a very sublime strain. But the _general spirit and tendency_ of
+his works is mischievous,--and the more mischievous for this mixture:
+for perfect depravity of sentiment is not reconcilable with eloquence;
+and the mind (though corruptible, not complexionally vicious) would
+reject and throw off with disgust a lesson of pure and unmixed evil.
+These writers make even virtue a pander to vice.
+
+However, I less consider the author than the system of the Assembly in
+perverting morality through his means. This I confess makes me nearly
+despair of any attempt upon the minds of their followers, through
+reason, honor, or conscience. The great object of your tyrants is to
+destroy the gentlemen of France; and for that purpose they destroy, to
+the best of their power, all the effect of those relations which may
+render considerable men powerful or even safe. To destroy that order,
+they vitiate the whole community. That no means may exist of
+confederating against their tyranny, by the false sympathies of this
+_Nouvelle Eloise_ they endeavor to subvert those principles of domestic
+trust and fidelity which form the discipline of social life. They
+propagate principles by which every servant may think it, if not his
+duty, at least his privilege, to betray his master. By these principles,
+every considerable father of a family loses the sanctuary of his house.
+_Debet sua cuique domus esse perfugium tutissimum_, says the law, which
+your legislators have taken so much pains first to decry, then to
+repeal. They destroy all the tranquillity and security of domestic life:
+turning the asylum of the house into a gloomy prison, where the father
+of the family must drag out a miserable existence, endangered in
+proportion to the apparent means of his safety,--where he is worse than
+solitary in a crowd of domestics, and more apprehensive from his
+servants and inmates than from the hired, bloodthirsty mob without
+doors who are ready to pull him to the _lanterne_.
+
+It is thus, and for the same end, that they endeavor to destroy that
+tribunal of conscience which exists independently of edicts and decrees.
+Your despots govern by terror. They know that he who fears God fears
+nothing else; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their
+Voltaire, their Helvetius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only
+sort of fear which generates true courage. Their object is, that their
+fellow-citizens may be under the dominion of no awe but that of their
+Committee of Research and of their _lanterne_.
+
+Having found the advantage of assassination in the formation of their
+tyranny, it is the grand resource in which they trust for the support of
+it. Whoever opposes any of their proceedings, or is suspected of a
+design to oppose them, is to answer it with his life, or the lives of
+his wife and children. This infamous, cruel, and cowardly practice of
+assassination they have the impudence to call _merciful_. They boast
+that they operated their usurpation rather by terror than by force, and
+that a few seasonable murders have prevented the bloodshed of many
+battles. There is no doubt they will extend these acts of mercy whenever
+they see an occasion. Dreadful, however, will be the consequences of
+their attempt to avoid the evils of war by the merciful policy of
+murder. If, by effectual punishment of the guilty, they do not wholly
+disavow that practice, and the threat of it too, as any part of their
+policy, if ever a foreign prince enters into France, he must enter it as
+into a country of assassins. The mode of civilized war will not be
+practised: nor are the French who act on the present system entitled to
+expect it. They whose known policy it is to assassinate every citizen
+whom they suspect to be discontented by their tyranny, and to corrupt
+the soldiery of every open enemy, must look for no modified hostility.
+All war, which is not battle, will be military execution. This will
+beget acts of retaliation from you; and every retaliation will beget a
+new revenge. The hell-hounds of war, on all sides, will be uncoupled and
+unmuzzled. The new school of murder and barbarism set up in Paris,
+having destroyed (so far as in it lies) all the other manners and
+principles which have hitherto civilized Europe, will destroy also the
+mode of civilized war, which, more than anything else, has distinguished
+the Christian world. Such is the approaching golden age which the
+Virgil[5] of your Assembly has sung to his Pollios!
+
+In such a situation of your political, your civil, and your social
+morals and manners, how can you be hurt by the freedom of any
+discussion? Caution is for those who have something to lose. What I have
+said, to justify myself in not apprehending any ill consequence from a
+free discussion of the absurd consequences which flow from the relation
+of the lawful king to the usurped Constitution, will apply to my
+vindication with regard to the exposure I have made of the state of the
+army under the same sophistic usurpation. The present tyrants want no
+arguments to prove, what they must daily feel, that no good army can
+exist on their principles. They are in no want of a monitor to suggest
+to them the policy of getting rid of the army, as well as of the king,
+whenever they are in a condition to effect that measure. What hopes may
+be entertained of your army for the restoration of your liberties I know
+not. At present, yielding obedience to the pretended orders of a king
+who, they are perfectly apprised, has no will, and who never can issue a
+mandate which is not intended, in the first operation, or in its certain
+consequences, for his own destruction, your army seems to make one of
+the principal links in the chain of that servitude of anarchy by which a
+cruel usurpation holds an undone people at once in bondage and
+confusion.
+
+You ask me what I think of the conduct of General Monk. How this affects
+your case I cannot tell. I doubt whether you possess in France any
+persons of a capacity to serve the French monarchy in the same manner in
+which Monk served the monarchy of England. The army which Monk commanded
+had been formed by Cromwell to a perfection of discipline which perhaps
+has never been exceeded. That army was besides of an excellent
+composition. The soldiers were men of extraordinary piety after their
+mode; of the greatest regularity, and even severity of manners; brave in
+the field, but modest, quiet, and orderly in their quarters; men who
+abhorred the idea of assassinating their officers or any other persons,
+and who (they at least who served in this island) were firmly attached
+to those generals by whom they were well treated and ably commanded.
+Such an army, once gained, might be depended on. I doubt much, if you
+could now find a Monk, whether a Monk could find in France such an army.
+
+I certainly agree with you, that in all probability we owe our whole
+Constitution to the restoration of the English monarchy. The state of
+things from which Monk relieved England was, however, by no means, at
+that time, so deplorable, in any sense, as yours is now, and under the
+present sway is likely to continue. Cromwell had delivered England from
+anarchy. His government, though military and despotic, had been regular
+and orderly. Under the iron, and under the yoke, the soil yielded its
+produce. After his death the evils of anarchy were rather dreaded than
+felt. Every man was yet safe in his house and in his property. But it
+must be admitted that Monk freed this nation from great and just
+apprehensions both of future anarchy and of probable tyranny in some
+form or other. The king whom he gave us was, indeed, the very reverse of
+your benignant sovereign, who, in reward for his attempt to bestow
+liberty on his subjects, languishes himself in prison. The person given
+to us by Monk was a man without any sense of his duty as a prince,
+without any regard to the dignity of his crown, without any love to his
+people,--dissolute, false, venal, and destitute of any positive good
+quality whatsoever, except a pleasant temper, and the manners of a
+gentleman. Yet the restoration of our monarchy, even in the person of
+such a prince, was everything to us; for without monarchy in England,
+most certainly we never can enjoy either peace or liberty. It was under
+this conviction that the very first regular step which we took, on the
+Revolution of 1688, was to fill the throne with a real king; and even
+before it could be done in due form, the chiefs of the nation did not
+attempt themselves to exercise authority so much as by _interim_. They
+instantly requested the Prince of Orange to take the government on
+himself. The throne was not effectively vacant for an hour.
+
+Your fundamental laws, as well as ours, suppose a monarchy. Your zeal,
+Sir, in standing so firmly for it as you have done, shows not only a
+sacred respect for your honor and fidelity, but a well-informed
+attachment to the real welfare and true liberties of your country. I
+have expressed myself ill, if I have given you cause to imagine that I
+prefer the conduct of those who have retired from this warfare to your
+behavior, who, with a courage and constancy almost supernatural, have
+struggled against tyranny, and kept the field to the last. You see I
+have corrected the exceptionable part in the edition which I now send
+you. Indeed, in such terrible extremities as yours, it is not easy to
+say, in a political view, what line of conduct is the most advisable. In
+that state of things, I cannot bring myself severely to condemn persons
+who are wholly unable to bear so much as the sight of those men in the
+throne of legislation who are only fit to be the objects of criminal
+justice. If fatigue, if disgust, if unsurmountable nausea drive them
+away from such spectacles, _ubi miseriarum pars non minima erat videre
+et aspici_, I cannot blame them. He must have an heart of adamant who
+could hear a set of traitors puffed up with unexpected and undeserved
+power, obtained by an ignoble, unmanly, and perfidious rebellion,
+treating their honest fellow-citizens as _rebels_, because they refused
+to bind them selves through their conscience, against the dictates of
+conscience itself, and had declined to swear an active compliance with
+their own ruin. How could a man of common flesh and blood endure that
+those who but the other day had skulked unobserved in their
+antechambers, scornfully insulting men illustrious in their rank, sacred
+in their function, and venerable in their character, now in decline of
+life, and swimming on the wrecks of their fortunes,--that those
+miscreants should tell such men scornfully and outrageously, after they
+had robbed them of all their property, that it is more than enough, if
+they are allowed what will keep them from absolute famine, and that, for
+the rest, they must let their gray hairs fall over the plough, to make
+out a scanty subsistence with the labor of their hands? Last, and,
+worst, who could endure to hear this unnatural, insolent, and savage
+despotism called liberty? If, at this distance, sitting quietly by my
+fire, I cannot read their decrees and speeches without indignation,
+shall I condemn those who have fled from the actual sight and hearing of
+all these horrors? No, no! mankind has no title to demand that we should
+be slaves to their guilt and insolence, or that we should serve them in
+spite of themselves. Minds sore with the poignant sense of insulted
+virtue, filled with high disdain against the pride of triumphant
+baseness, often have it not in their choice to stand their ground. Their
+complexion (which might defy the rack) cannot go through such a trial.
+Something very high must fortify men to that proof. But when I am driven
+to comparison, surely I cannot hesitate for a moment to prefer to such
+men as are common those heroes who in the midst of despair perform all
+the tasks of hope,--who subdue their feelings to their duties,--who, in
+the cause of humanity, liberty, and honor, abandon all the satisfactions
+of life, and every day incur a fresh risk of life itself. Do me the
+justice to believe that I never can prefer any fastidious virtue (virtue
+still) to the unconquered perseverance, to the affectionate patience, of
+those who watch day and night by the bedside of their delirious
+country,--who, for their love to that dear and venerable name, bear all
+the disgusts and all the buffets they receive from their frantic mother.
+Sir, I do look on you as true martyrs; I regard you as soldiers who act
+far more in the spirit of our Commander-in-Chief and the Captain of our
+Salvation than those who have left you: though I must first bolt myself
+very thoroughly, and know that I could do better, before I can censure
+them. I assure you, Sir, that, when I consider your unconquerable
+fidelity to your sovereign and to your country,--the courage, fortitude,
+magnanimity, and long-suffering of yourself, and the Abbe Maury, and of
+M. Cazales, and of many worthy persons of all orders in your
+Assembly,--I forget, in the lustre of these great qualities, that on
+your side has been displayed an eloquence so rational, manly, and
+convincing, that no time or country, perhaps, has ever excelled. But
+your talents disappear in my admiration of your virtues.
+
+As to M. Mounier and M. Lally, I have always wished to do justice to
+their parts, and their eloquence, and the general purity of their
+motives. Indeed, I saw very well, from the beginning, the mischiefs
+which, with all these talents and good intentions, they would do their
+country, through their confidence in systems. But their distemper was an
+epidemic malady. They were young and inexperienced; and when will young
+and inexperienced men learn caution and distrust of themselves? And when
+will men, young or old, if suddenly raised to far higher power than that
+which absolute kings and emperors commonly enjoy, learn anything like
+moderation? Monarchs, in general, respect some settled order of things,
+which they find it difficult to move from its basis, and to which they
+are obliged to conform, even when there are no positive limitations to
+their power. These gentlemen conceived that they were chosen to
+new-model the state, and even the whole order of civil society itself.
+No wonder that _they_ entertained dangerous visions, when the king's
+ministers, trustees for the sacred deposit of the monarchy, were so
+infected with the contagion of project and system (I can hardly think it
+black premeditated treachery) that they publicly advertised for plans
+and schemes of government, as if they were to provide for the rebuilding
+of an hospital that had been burned down. What was this, but to unchain
+the fury of rash speculation amongst a people of itself but too apt to
+be guided by a heated imagination and a wild spirit of adventure?
+
+The fault of M. Mounier and M. Lally was very great; but it was very
+general. If those gentlemen stopped, when they came to the brink of the
+gulf of guilt and public misery that yawned before them in the abyss of
+these dark and bottomless speculations, I forgive their first error: in
+that they were involved with many. Their repentance was their own.
+
+They who consider Mounier and Lally as deserters must regard themselves
+as murderers and as traitors: for from what else than murder and treason
+did they desert? For my part, I honor them for not having carried
+mistake into crime. If, indeed, I thought that they were not cured by
+experience, that they were not made sensible that those who would reform
+a state ought to assume some actual constitution of government which is
+to be reformed,--if they are not at length satisfied that it is become a
+necessary preliminary to liberty in France, to commence by the
+reestablishment of order and property of _every_ kind, and, through the
+reestablishment of their monarchy, of every one of the old habitual
+distinctions and classes of the state,--if they do not see that these
+classes are not to be confounded in order to be afterwards revived and
+separated,--if they are not convinced that the scheme of parochial and
+club governments takes up the state at the wrong end, and is a low and
+senseless contrivance, (as making the sole constitution of a supreme
+power,)--I should then allow that their early rashness ought to be
+remembered to the last moment of their lives.
+
+You gently reprehend me, because, in holding out the picture of your
+disastrous situation, I suggest no plan for a remedy. Alas! Sir, the
+proposition of plans, without an attention to circumstances, is the very
+cause of all your misfortunes; and never shall you find me aggravating,
+by the infusion of any speculations of mine, the evils which have arisen
+from the speculations of others. Your malady, in this respect, is a
+disorder of repletion. You seem to think that my keeping back my poor
+ideas may arise from an indifference to the welfare of a foreign and
+sometimes an hostile nation. No, Sir, I faithfully assure you, my
+reserve is owing to no such causes. Is this letter, swelled to a second
+book, a mark of national antipathy, or even of national indifference? I
+should act altogether in the spirit of the same caution, in a similar
+state of our own domestic affairs. If I were to venture any advice, in
+any case, it would be my best. The sacred duty of an adviser (one of the
+most inviolable that exists) would lead me, towards a real enemy, to act
+as if my best friend were the party concerned. But I dare not risk a
+speculation with no better view of your affairs than at present I can
+command; my caution is not from disregard, but from solicitude for your
+welfare. It is suggested solely from my dread of becoming the author of
+inconsiderate counsel.
+
+It is not, that, as this strange series of actions has passed before my
+eyes, I have not indulged my mind in a great variety of political
+speculations concerning them; but, compelled by no such positive duty as
+does not permit me to evade an opinion, called upon by no ruling power,
+without authority as I am, and without confidence, I should ill answer
+my own ideas of what would become myself, or what would be serviceable
+to others, if I were, as a volunteer, to obtrude any project of mine
+upon a nation to whose circumstances I could not be sure it might be
+applicable.
+
+Permit me to say, that, if I were as confident as I ought to be
+diffident in my own loose, general ideas, I never should venture to
+broach them, if but at twenty leagues' distance from the centre of your
+affairs. I must see with my own eyes, I must, in a manner, touch with my
+own hands, not only the fixed, but the momentary circumstances, before I
+could venture to suggest any political project whatsoever. I must know
+the power and disposition to accept, to execute, to persevere. I must
+see all the aids and all the obstacles. I must see the means of
+correcting the plan, where correctives would be wanted. I must see the
+things; I must see the men. Without a concurrence and adaptation of
+these to the design, the very best speculative projects might become not
+only useless, but mischievous. Plans must be made for men. We cannot
+think of making men, and binding Nature to our designs. People at a
+distance must judge ill of men. They do not always answer to their
+reputation, when you approach them. Nay, the perspective varies, and
+shows them quite otherwise than you thought them. At a distance, if we
+judge uncertainly of men, we must judge worse of _opportunities_, which
+continually vary their shapes and colors, and pass away like clouds. The
+Eastern politicians never do anything without the opinion of the
+astrologers on _the fortunate moment_. They are in the right, if they
+can do no better; for the opinion of fortune is something towards
+commanding it. Statesmen of a more judicious prescience look for the
+fortunate moment too; but they seek it, not in the conjunctions and
+oppositions of planets, but in the conjunctions and oppositions of men
+and things. These form their almanac.
+
+To illustrate the mischief of a wise plan, without any attention to
+means and circumstances, it is not necessary to go farther than to your
+recent history. In the condition in which France was found three years
+ago, what better system could be proposed, what less even savoring of
+wild theory, what fitter to provide for all the exigencies whilst it
+reformed all the abuses of government, than the convention of the
+States-General? I think nothing better could be imagined. But I have
+censured, and do still presume to censure, your Parliament of Paris for
+not having suggested to the king that this proper measure was of all
+measures the most critical and arduous, one in which the utmost
+circumspection and the greatest number of precautions were the most
+absolutely necessary. The very confession that a government wants either
+amendment in its conformation or relief to great distress causes it to
+lose half its reputation, and as great a proportion of its strength as
+depends upon that reputation. It was therefore necessary first to put
+government out of danger, whilst at its own desire it suffered such an
+operation as a general reform at the hands of those who were much more
+filled with a sense of the disease than provided with rational means of
+a cure.
+
+It may be said that this care and these precautions were more naturally
+the duty of the king's ministers than that of the Parliament. They were
+so: but every man must answer in his estimation for the advice he gives,
+when he puts the conduct of his measure into hands who he does not know
+will execute his plans according to his ideas. Three or four ministers
+were not to be trusted with the being of the French monarchy, of all the
+orders, and of all the distinctions, and all the property of the
+kingdom. What must be the prudence of those who could think, in the then
+known temper of the people of Paris, of assembling the States at a place
+situated as Versailles?
+
+The Parliament of Paris did worse than to inspire this blind confidence
+into the king. For, as if names were things, they took no notice of
+(indeed, they rather countenanced) the deviations, which were manifest
+in the execution, from the true ancient principles of the plan which
+they recommended. These deviations (as guardians of the ancient laws,
+usages, and Constitution of the kingdom) the Parliament of Paris ought
+not to have suffered, without the strongest remonstrances to the throne.
+It ought to have sounded the alarm to the whole nation, as it had often
+done on things of infinitely less importance. Under pretence of
+resuscitating the ancient Constitution, the Parliament saw one of the
+strongest acts of innovation, and the most leading in its consequences,
+carried into effect before their eyes,--and an innovation through the
+medium of despotism: that is, they suffered the king's ministers to
+new-model the whole representation of the _Tiers Etat_, and, in a great
+measure, that of the clergy too, and to destroy the ancient proportions
+of the orders. These changes, unquestionably, the king had no right to
+make; and here the Parliaments failed in their duty, and, along with
+their country, have perished by this failure.
+
+What a number of faults have led to this multitude of misfortunes, and
+almost all from this one source,--that of considering certain general
+maxims, without attending to circumstances, to times, to places, to
+conjunctures, and to actors! If we do not attend scrupulously to all
+these, the medicine of to-day becomes the poison of to-morrow. If any
+measure was in the abstract better than another, it was to call the
+States: _ea visa salus morientibus una_. Certainly it had the
+appearance. But see the consequences of not attending to critical
+moments, of not regarding the symptoms which discriminate diseases, and
+which distinguish constitutions, complexions, and humors.
+
+    Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio; furiisque refecti
+    Ardebant; ipsique suos, jam morte sub aegra,
+    Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus.
+
+Thus the potion which was given to strengthen the Constitution, to heal
+divisions, and to compose the minds of men, became the source of
+debility, frenzy, discord, and utter dissolution.
+
+In this, perhaps, I have answered, I think, another of your
+questions,--Whether the British Constitution is adapted to your
+circumstances? When I praised the British Constitution, and wished it to
+be well studied, I did not mean that its exterior form and positive
+arrangement should become a model for you or for any people servilely to
+copy. I meant to recommend the _principles_ from which it has grown, and
+the policy on which it has been progressively improved out of elements
+common to you and to us. I am sure it is no visionary theory of mine. It
+is not an advice that subjects you to the hazard of any experiment. I
+believed the ancient principles to be wise in all cases of a large
+empire that would be free. I thought you possessed our principles in
+your old forms in as great a perfection as we did originally. If your
+States agreed (as I think they did) with your circumstances, they were
+best for you. As you had a Constitution formed upon principles similar
+to ours, my idea was, that you might have improved them as we have done,
+conforming them to the state and exigencies of the times, and the
+condition of property in your country,--having the conservation of that
+property, and the substantial basis of your monarchy, as principal
+objects in all your reforms.
+
+I do not advise an House of Lords to you. Your ancient course by
+representatives of the noblesse (in your circumstances) appears to me
+rather a better institution. I know, that, with you, a set of men of
+rank have betrayed their constituents, their honor, their trust, their
+king, and their country, and levelled themselves with their footmen,
+that through this degradation they might afterwards put themselves above
+their natural equals. Some of these persons have entertained a project,
+that, in reward of this their black perfidy and corruption, they may be
+chosen to give rise to a new order, and to establish themselves into an
+House of Lords. Do you think, that, under the name of a British
+Constitution, I mean to recommend to you such Lords, made of such kind
+of stuff? I do not, however, include in this description all of those
+who are fond of this scheme.
+
+If you were now to form such an House of Peers, it would bear, in my
+opinion, but little resemblance to ours, in its origin, character, or
+the purposes which it might answer, at the same time that it would
+destroy your true natural nobility. But if you are not in a condition to
+frame a House of Lords, still less are you capable, in my opinion, of
+framing anything which virtually and substantially could be answerable
+(for the purposes of a stable, regular government) to our House of
+Commons. That House is, within itself, a much more subtle and artificial
+combination of parts and powers than people are generally aware of. What
+knits it to the other members of the Constitution, what fits it to be at
+once the great support and the great control of government, what makes
+it of such admirable service to that monarchy which, if it limits, it
+secures and strengthens, would require a long discourse, belonging to
+the leisure of a contemplative man, not to one whose duty it is to join
+in communicating practically to the people the blessings of such a
+Constitution.
+
+Your _Tiers Etat_ was not in effect and substance an House of Commons.
+You stood in absolute need of something else to supply the manifest
+defects in such a body as your _Tiers Etat_. On a sober and
+dispassionate view of your old Constitution, as connected with all the
+present circumstances, I was fully persuaded that the crown, standing as
+things have stood, (and are likely to stand, if you are to have any
+monarchy at all,) was and is incapable, alone and by itself, of holding
+a just balance between the two orders, and at the same time of effecting
+the interior and exterior purposes of a protecting government. I, whose
+leading principle it is, in a reformation of the state, to make use of
+existing materials, am of opinion that the representation of the clergy,
+as a separate order, was an institution which touched all the orders
+more nearly than any of them touched the other; that it was well fitted
+to connect them, and to hold a place in any wise monarchical
+commonwealth. If I refer you to your original Constitution, and think
+it, as I do, substantially a good one, I do not amuse you in this, more
+than in other things, with any inventions of mine. A certain
+intemperance of intellect is the disease of the time, and the source of
+all its other diseases. I will keep myself as untainted by it as I can.
+Your architects build without a foundation. I would readily lend an
+helping hand to any superstructure, when once this is effectually
+secured,--but first I would say, [Greek: Dos pou sto].
+
+You think, Sir, (and you might think rightly, upon the first view of the
+theory,) that to provide for the exigencies of an empire so situated and
+so related as that of France, its king ought to be invested with powers
+very much superior to those which the king of England possesses under
+the letter of our Constitution. Every degree of power necessary to the
+state, and not destructive to the rational and moral freedom of
+individuals, to that personal liberty and personal security which
+contribute so much to the vigor, the prosperity, the happiness, and the
+dignity of a nation,--every degree of power which does not suppose the
+total absence of all control and all responsibility on the part of
+ministers,--a king of France, in common sense, ought to possess. But
+whether the exact measure of authority assigned by the letter of the law
+to the king of Great Britain can answer to the exterior or interior
+purposes of the French monarchy is a point which I cannot venture to
+judge upon. Here, both in the power given, and its limitations, we have
+always cautiously felt our way. The parts of our Constitution have
+gradually, and almost insensibly, in a long course of time, accommodated
+themselves to each other, and to their common as well as to their
+separate purposes. But this adaptation of contending parts, as it has
+not been in ours, so it can never be in yours, or in any country, the
+effect of a single instantaneous regulation, and no sound heads could
+ever think of doing it in that manner.
+
+I believe, Sir, that many on the Continent altogether mistake the
+condition of a king of Great Britain. He is a real king, and not an
+executive officer. If he will not trouble himself with contemptible
+details, nor wish to degrade himself by becoming a party in little
+squabbles, I am far from sure that a king of Great Britain, in whatever
+concerns him as a king, or indeed as a rational man, who combines his
+public interest with his personal satisfaction, does not possess a more
+real, solid, extensive power than the king of France was possessed of
+before this miserable revolution. The direct power of the king of
+England is considerable. His indirect, and far more certain power, is
+great indeed. He stands in need of nothing towards dignity,--of nothing
+towards splendor,--of nothing towards authority,--of nothing at all
+towards consideration abroad. When was it that a king of England wanted
+wherewithal to make him respected, courted, or perhaps even feared, in
+every state in Europe?
+
+I am constantly of opinion that your States, in three orders, on the
+footing on which they stood in 1614, were capable of being brought into
+a proper and harmonious combination with royal authority. This
+constitution by Estates was the natural and only just representation of
+France. It grew out of the habitual conditions, relations, and
+reciprocal claims of men. It grew out of the circumstances of the
+country, and out of the state of property. The wretched scheme of your
+present masters is not to fit the Constitution to the people, but wholly
+to destroy conditions, to dissolve relations, to change the state of the
+nation, and to subvert property, in order to fit their country to their
+theory of a Constitution.
+
+Until you make out practically that great work, a combination of
+opposing forces, "a work of labor long, and endless praise," the utmost
+caution ought to have been used in the reduction of the royal power,
+which alone was capable of holding together the comparatively
+heterogeneous mass of your States. But at this day all these
+considerations are unseasonable. To what end should we discuss the
+limitations of royal power? Your king is in prison. Why speculate on the
+measure and standard of liberty? I doubt much, very much indeed, whether
+France is at all ripe for liberty on any standard. Men are qualified for
+civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral
+chains upon their own appetites,--in proportion as their love to justice
+is above their rapacity,--in proportion as their soundness and sobriety
+of understanding is above their vanity and presumption,--in proportion
+as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and
+good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist,
+unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere;
+and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It
+is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of
+intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
+
+This sentence the prevalent part of your countrymen execute on
+themselves. They possessed not long since what was next to freedom, a
+mild, paternal monarchy. They despised it for its weakness. They were
+offered a well-poised, free Constitution. It did not suit their taste or
+their temper. They carved for themselves: they flew out, murdered,
+robbed, and rebelled. They have succeeded, and put over their country an
+insolent tyranny made up of cruel and inexorable masters, and that, too,
+of a description hitherto not known in the world. The powers and
+policies by which they have succeeded are not those of great statesmen
+or great military commanders, but the practices of incendiaries,
+assassins, housebreakers, robbers, spreaders of false news, forgers of
+false orders from authority, and other delinquencies, of which ordinary
+justice takes cognizance. Accordingly, the spirit of their rule is
+exactly correspondent to the means by which they obtained it. They act
+more in the manner of thieves who have got possession of an house than
+of conquerors who have subdued a nation.
+
+Opposed to these, in appearance, but in appearance only, is another
+band, who call themselves _the Moderate_. These, if I conceive rightly
+of their conduct, are a set of men who approve heartily of the whole
+new Constitution, but wish to lay heavy on the most atrocious of those
+crimes by which this fine Constitution of theirs has been obtained. They
+are a sort of people who affect to proceed as if they thought that men
+may deceive without fraud, rob without injustice, and overturn
+everything without violence. They are men who would usurp the government
+of their country with decency and moderation. In fact, they are nothing
+more or better than men engaged in desperate designs with feeble minds.
+They are not honest; they are only ineffectual and unsystematic in their
+iniquity. They are persons who want not the dispositions, but the energy
+and vigor, that is necessary for great evil machinations. They find that
+in such designs they fall at best into a secondary rank, and others take
+the place and lead in usurpation which they are not qualified to obtain
+or to hold. They envy to their companions the natural fruit of their
+crimes; they join to run them down with the hue and cry of mankind,
+which pursues their common offences; and then hope to mount into their
+places on the credit of the sobriety with which they show themselves
+disposed to carry on what may seem most plausible in the mischievous
+projects they pursue in common. But these men are naturally despised by
+those who have heads to know, and hearts that are able to go through the
+necessary demands of bold, wicked enterprises. They are naturally
+classed below the latter description, and will only be used by them as
+inferior instruments. They will be only the Fairfaxes of your Cromwells.
+If they mean honestly, why do they not strengthen the arms of honest men
+to support their ancient, legal, wise, and free government, given to
+them in the spring of 1788, against the inventions of craft and the
+theories of ignorance and folly? If they do not, they must continue the
+scorn of both parties,--sometimes the tool, sometimes the incumbrance of
+that whose views they approve, whose conduct they decry. These people
+are only made to be the sport of tyrants. They never can obtain or
+communicate freedom.
+
+You ask me, too, whether we have a Committee of Research. No, Sir,--God
+forbid! It is the necessary instrument of tyranny and usurpation; and
+therefore I do not wonder that it has had an early establishment under
+your present lords. We do not want it.
+
+Excuse my length. I have been somewhat occupied since I was honored with
+your letter; and I should not have been able to answer it at all, but
+for the holidays, which have given me means of enjoying the leisure of
+the country. I am called to duties which I am neither able nor willing
+to evade. I must soon return to my old conflict with the corruptions and
+oppressions which have prevailed in our Eastern dominions. I must turn
+myself wholly from those of France.
+
+In England we _cannot_ work so hard as Frenchmen. Frequent relaxation is
+necessary to us. You are naturally more intense in your application. I
+did not know this part of your national character, until I went into
+France in 1773. At present, this your disposition to labor is rather
+increased than lessened. In your Assembly you do not allow yourselves a
+recess even on Sundays. We have two days in the week, besides the
+festivals, and besides five or six months of the summer and autumn. This
+continued, unremitted effort of the members of your Assembly I take to
+be one among the causes of the mischief they have done. They who always
+labor can have no true judgment. You never give yourselves time to cool.
+You can never survey, from its proper point of sight, the work you have
+finished, before you decree its final execution. You can never plan the
+future by the past. You never go into the country, soberly and
+dispassionately to observe the effect of your measures on their objects.
+You cannot feel distinctly how far the people are rendered better and
+improved, or more miserable and depraved, by what you have done. You
+cannot see with your own eyes the sufferings and afflictions you cause.
+You know them but at a distance, on the statements of those who always
+flatter the reigning power, and who, amidst their representations of the
+grievances, inflame your minds against those who are oppressed. These
+are amongst the effects of unremitted labor, when men exhaust their
+attention, burn out their candles, and are left in the dark.--_Malo
+meorum negligentiam, quam istorum obscuram diligentiam_.
+
+I have the honor, &c.,
+
+EDMUND BURKE.
+
+BEACONSFIELD, January 19th, 1791.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] It is said in the last quackish address of the National Assembly to
+the people of France, that they have not formed their arrangements upon
+vulgar practice, but on a theory which cannot fail,--or something to
+that effect.
+
+[2] See Burnet's Life of Hale.
+
+[3] The pillory (_carcan_) in England is generally made very high like
+that raised to exposing the king of France.
+
+[4] "Filiola tua te delectari laetor, et prohari tibi [Greek: Phusiken]
+esse [Greek: ten pros ta tekna]: etenim, si haec non est, nulla potest
+homini esse ad hominem naturae adjunctio: qua sublata, vitae societas
+tollitur. Valete Patron [Rousseau] et tui condiscipuli [L'Assemblee
+Nationale]"--Cic. Ep. ad Atticum.
+
+[5] Mirabeau's speech concerning universal peace.
+
+
+
+
+AN
+
+APPEAL
+
+FROM
+
+THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS,
+
+IN CONSEQUENCE OF SOME LATE
+
+DISCUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT
+
+RELATIVE TO THE
+
+REFLECTIONS ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
+
+1791.
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT
+
+TO THE SECOND EDITION.
+
+
+There are some corrections in this edition, which tend to render the
+sense less obscure in one or two places. The order of the two last
+members is also changed, and I believe for the better. This change was
+made on the suggestion of a very learned person, to the partiality of
+whose friendship I owe much; to the severity of whose judgment I owe
+more.
+
+
+
+
+AN APPEAL
+
+FROM
+
+THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS.
+
+
+At Mr. Burke's time of life, and in his dispositions, _petere honestam
+missionem_ was all he had to do with his political associates. This boon
+they have not chosen to grant him. With many expressions of good-will,
+in effect they tell him he has loaded the stage too long. They conceive
+it, though an harsh, yet a necessary office, in full Parliament to
+declare to the present age, and to as late a posterity as shall take any
+concern in the proceedings of our day, that by one book he has disgraced
+the whole tenor of his life.--Thus they dismiss their old partner of the
+war. He is advised to retire, whilst they continue to serve the public
+upon wiser principles and under better auspices.
+
+Whether Diogenes the Cynic was a true philosopher cannot easily be
+determined. He has written nothing. But the sayings of his which are
+handed down by others are lively, and may be easily and aptly applied on
+many occasions by those whose wit is not so perfect as their memory.
+This Diogenes (as every one will recollect) was citizen of a little
+bleak town situated on the coast of the Euxine, and exposed to all the
+buffets of that inhospitable sea. He lived at a great distance from
+those weather-beaten walls, in ease and indolence, and in the midst of
+literary leisure, when he was informed that his townsmen had condemned
+him to be banished from Sinope; he answered coolly, "And I condemn them
+to live in Sinope."
+
+The gentlemen of the party in which Mr. Burke has always acted, in
+passing upon him the sentence of retirement,[6] have done nothing more
+than to confirm the sentence which he had long before passed upon
+himself. When that retreat was choice, which the tribunal of his peers
+inflict as punishment, it is plain he does not think their sentence
+intolerably severe. Whether they, who are to continue in the Sinope
+which shortly he is to leave, will spend the long years, which I hope
+remain to them, in a manner more to their satisfaction than he shall
+slide down, in silence and obscurity, the slope of his declining days,
+is best known to Him who measures out years, and days, and fortunes.
+
+The quality of the sentence does not, however, decide on the justice of
+it. Angry friendship is sometimes as bad as calm enmity. For this reason
+the cold neutrality of abstract justice is, to a good and clear cause, a
+more desirable thing than an affection liable to be any way disturbed.
+When the trial is by friends, if the decision should happen to be
+favorable, the honor of the acquittal is lessened; if adverse, the
+condemnation is exceedingly embittered. It is aggravated by coming from
+lips professing friendship, and pronouncing judgment with sorrow and
+reluctance. Taking in the whole view of life, it is more safe to live
+under the jurisdiction of severe, but steady reason, than under the
+empire of indulgent, but capricious passion. It is certainly well for
+Mr. Burke that there are impartial men in the world. To them I address
+myself, pending the appeal which on his part is made from the living to
+the dead, from the modern Whigs to the ancient.
+
+The gentlemen, who, in the name of the party, have passed sentence on
+Mr. Burke's book, in the light of literary criticism, are judges above
+all challenge. He did not, indeed, flatter himself that as a writer he
+could claim the approbation of men whose talents, in his judgment and in
+the public judgment, approach to prodigies, if ever such persons should
+be disposed to estimate the merit of a composition upon the standard of
+their own ability.
+
+In their critical censure, though Mr. Burke may find himself humbled by
+it as a writer, as a man, and as an Englishman, he finds matter not only
+of consolation, but of pride. He proposed to convey to a foreign people,
+not his own ideas, but the prevalent opinions and sentiments of a
+nation, renowned for wisdom, and celebrated in all ages for a
+well-understood and well-regulated love of freedom. This was the avowed
+purpose of the far greater part of his work. As that work has not been
+ill received, and as his critics will not only admit, but contend, that
+this reception could not be owing to any excellence in the composition
+capable of perverting the public judgment, it is clear that he is not
+disavowed by the nation whose sentiments he had undertaken to describe.
+His representation is authenticated by the verdict of his country. Had
+his piece, as a work of skill, been thought worthy of commendation, some
+doubt might have been entertained of the cause of his success. But the
+matter stands exactly as he wishes it. He is more happy to have his
+fidelity in representation recognized by the body of the people than if
+he were to be ranked in point of ability (and higher he could not be
+ranked) with those whose critical censure he has had the misfortune to
+incur.
+
+It is not from this part of their decision which the author wishes an
+appeal. There are things which touch him more nearly. To abandon them
+would argue, not diffidence in his abilities, but treachery to his
+cause. Had his work been recognized as a pattern for dexterous argument
+and powerful eloquence, yet, if it tended to establish maxims or to
+inspire sentiments adverse to the wise and free Constitution of this
+kingdom, he would only have cause to lament that it possessed qualities
+fitted to perpetuate the memory of his offence. Oblivion would be the
+only means of his escaping the reproaches of posterity. But, after
+receiving the common allowance due to the common weakness of man, he
+wishes to owe no part of the indulgence of the world to its
+forgetfulness. He is at issue with the party before the present, and,
+if ever he can reach it, before the coming generation.
+
+The author, several months previous to his publication, well knew that
+two gentlemen, both of them possessed of the most distinguished
+abilities, and of a most decisive authority in the party, had differed
+with him in one of the most material points relative to the French
+Revolution: that is, in their opinion of the behavior of the French
+soldiery, and its revolt from its officers. At the time of their public
+declaration on this subject, he did not imagine the opinion of these two
+gentlemen had extended a great way beyond themselves. He was, however,
+well aware of the probability that persons of their just credit and
+influence would at length dispose the greater number to an agreement
+with their sentiments, and perhaps might induce the whole body to a
+tacit acquiescence in their declarations, under a natural and not always
+an improper dislike of showing a difference with those who lead their
+party. I will not deny that in general this conduct in parties is
+defensible; but within what limits the practice is to be circumscribed,
+and with what exceptions the doctrine which supports it is to be
+received, it is not my present purpose to define. The present question
+has nothing to do with their motives; it only regards the public
+expression of their sentiments.
+
+The author is compelled, however reluctantly, to receive the sentence
+pronounced upon him in the House of Commons as that of the party. It
+proceeded from the mouth of him who must be regarded as its authentic
+organ. In a discussion which continued for two days, no one gentleman of
+the opposition interposed a negative, or even a doubt, in favor of him
+or his opinions. If an idea consonant to the doctrine of his book, or
+favorable to his conduct, lurks in the minds of any persons in that
+description, it is to be considered only as a peculiarity which they
+indulge to their own private liberty of thinking. The author cannot
+reckon upon it. It has nothing to do with them as members of a party. In
+their public capacity, in everything that meets the public ear or public
+eye, the body must be considered as unanimous.
+
+They must have been animated with a very warm zeal against those
+opinions, because they were under no _necessity_ of acting as they did,
+from any just cause of apprehension that the errors of this writer
+should be taken for theirs. They might disapprove; it was not necessary
+they should _disavow_ him, as they have done in the whole and in all the
+parts of his book; because neither in the whole nor in any of the parts
+were they directly, or by any implication, involved. The author was
+known, indeed, to have been warmly, strenuously, and affectionately,
+against all allurements of ambition, and all possibility of alienation
+from pride or personal pique or peevish jealousy, attached to the Whig
+party. With one of them he has had a long friendship, which he must ever
+remember with a melancholy pleasure. To the great, real, and amiable
+virtues, and to the unequalled abilities of that gentleman, he shall
+always join with his country in paying a just tribute of applause. There
+are others in that party for whom, without any shade of sorrow, he bears
+as high a degree of love as can enter into the human heart, and as much
+veneration as ought to be paid to human creatures; because he firmly
+believes that they are endowed with as many and as great virtues as the
+nature of man is capable of producing, joined to great clearness of
+intellect, to a just judgment, to a wonderful temper, and to true
+wisdom. His sentiments with regard to them can never vary, without
+subjecting him to the just indignation of mankind, who are bound, and
+are generally disposed, to look up with reverence to the best patterns
+of their species, and such as give a dignity to the nature of which we
+all participate. For the whole of the party he has high respect. Upon a
+view, indeed, of the composition of all parties, he finds great
+satisfaction. It is, that, in leaving the service of his country, he
+leaves Parliament without all comparison richer in abilities than he
+found it. Very solid and very brilliant talents distinguish the
+ministerial benches. The opposite rows are a sort of seminary of genius,
+and have brought forth such and so great talents as never before
+(amongst us at least) have appeared together. If their owners are
+disposed to serve their country, (he trusts they are,) they are in a
+condition to render it services of the highest importance. If, through
+mistake or passion, they are led to contribute to its ruin, we shall at
+least have a consolation denied to the ruined country that adjoins us:
+we shall not be destroyed by men of mean or secondary capacities.
+
+All these considerations of party attachment, of personal regard, and of
+personal admiration rendered the author of the Reflections extremely
+cautious, lest the slightest suspicion should arise of his having
+undertaken to express the sentiments even of a single man of that
+description. His words at the outset of his Reflections are these:--
+
+"In the first letter I had the honor to write to you, and which at
+length I send, I wrote neither _for_ nor _from_ any description of men;
+nor shall I in this. My errors, if any, are _my own_. My reputation
+_alone_ is to answer for them." In another place he says, (p. 126,[7])
+"I have _no man's_ proxy. I speak _only_ from _myself_, when I disclaim,
+as I do with all possible earnestness, all communion with the actors in
+that triumph, or with the admirers of it. When I assert anything else,
+as concerning the people of England, I speak from observation, _not from
+authority_."
+
+To say, then, that the book did not contain the sentiments of their
+party is not to contradict the author or to clear themselves. If the
+party had denied his doctrines to be the current opinions of the
+majority in the nation, they would have put the question on its true
+issue. There, I hope and believe, his censurers will find, on the trial,
+that the author is as faithful a representative of the general sentiment
+of the people of England, as any person amongst them can be of the ideas
+of his own party.
+
+The French Revolution can have no connection with the objects of any
+parties in England formed before the period of that event, unless they
+choose to imitate any of its acts, or to consolidate any principles of
+that Revolution with their own opinions. The French Revolution is no
+part of their original contract. The matter, standing by itself, is an
+open subject of political discussion, like all the other revolutions
+(and there are many) which have been attempted or accomplished in our
+age. But if any considerable number of British subjects, taking a
+factious interest in the proceedings of France, begin publicly to
+incorporate themselves for the subversion of nothing short of the
+_whole_ Constitution of this kingdom,--to incorporate themselves for the
+utter overthrow of the body of its laws, civil and ecclesiastical, and
+with them of the whole system of its manners, in favor of the new
+Constitution and of the modern usages of the French nation,--I think no
+party principle could bind the author not to express his sentiments
+strongly against such a faction. On the contrary, he was perhaps bound
+to mark his dissent, when the leaders of the party were daily going out
+of their way to make public declarations in Parliament, which,
+notwithstanding the purity of their intentions, had a tendency to
+encourage ill-designing men in their practices against our Constitution.
+
+The members of this faction leave no doubt of the nature and the extent
+of the mischief they mean to produce. They declare it openly and
+decisively. Their intentions are not left equivocal. They are put out of
+all dispute by the thanks which, formally and as it were officially,
+they issue, in order to recommend and to promote the circulation of the
+most atrocious and treasonable libels against all the hitherto cherished
+objects of the love and veneration of this people. Is it contrary to the
+duty of a good subject to reprobate such proceedings? Is it alien to the
+office of a good member of Parliament, when such practices increase, and
+when the audacity of the conspirators grows with their impunity, to
+point out in his place their evil tendency to the happy Constitution
+which he is chosen to guard? Is it wrong, in any sense, to render the
+people of England sensible how much they must suffer, if, unfortunately,
+such a wicked faction should become possessed in this country of the
+same power which their allies in the very next to us have so
+perfidiously usurped and so outrageously abused? Is it inhuman to
+prevent, if possible, the spilling _their_ blood, or imprudent to guard
+against the effusion of _our own?_ Is it contrary to any of the honest
+principles of party, or repugnant to any of the known duties of
+friendship, for any senator respectfully and amicably to caution his
+brother members against countenancing, by inconsiderate expressions, a
+sort of proceeding which it is impossible they should deliberately
+approve?
+
+He had undertaken to demonstrate, by arguments which he thought could
+not be refuted, and by documents which he was sure could not be denied,
+that no comparison was to be made between the British government and the
+French usurpation.--That they who endeavored madly to compare them were
+by no means making the comparison of one good system with another good
+system, which varied only in local and circumstantial differences; much
+less that they were holding out to us a superior pattern of legal
+liberty, which we might substitute in the place of our old, and, as they
+describe it, superannuated Constitution. He meant to demonstrate that
+the French scheme was not a comparative good, but a positive evil.--That
+the question did not at all turn, as it had been stated, on a parallel
+between a monarchy and a republic. He denied that the present scheme of
+things in France did at all deserve the respectable name of a republic:
+he had therefore no comparison between monarchies and republics to
+make.--That what was done in France was a wild attempt to methodize
+anarchy, to perpetuate and fix disorder. That it was a foul, impious,
+monstrous thing, wholly out of the course of moral Nature. He undertook
+to prove that it was generated in treachery, fraud, falsehood,
+hypocrisy, and unprovoked murder.--He offered to make out that those who
+have led in that business had conducted themselves with the utmost
+perfidy to their colleagues in function, and with the most flagrant
+perjury both towards their king and their constituents: to the one of
+whom the Assembly had sworn fealty; and to the other, when under no sort
+of violence or constraint, they had sworn a full obedience to
+instructions.--That, by the terror of assassination, they had driven
+away a very great number of the members, so as to produce a false
+appearance of a majority.--That this fictitious majority had fabricated
+a Constitution, which, as now it stands, is a tyranny far beyond any
+example that can be found in the civilized European world of our age;
+that therefore the lovers of it must be lovers, not of liberty, but, if
+they really understand its nature, of the lowest and basest of all
+servitude.
+
+He proposed to prove that the present state of things in France is not a
+transient evil, productive, as some have too favorably represented it,
+of a lasting good; but that the present evil is only the means of
+producing future and (if that were possible) worse evils.--That it is
+not an undigested, imperfect, and crude scheme of liberty, which may
+gradually be mellowed and ripened into an orderly and social freedom;
+but that it is so fundamentally wrong as to be utterly incapable of
+correcting itself by any length of time, or of being formed into any
+mode of polity of which a member of the House of Commons could publicly
+declare his approbation.
+
+If it had been permitted to Mr. Burke, he would have shown distinctly,
+and in detail, that what the Assembly calling itself National had held
+out as a large and liberal toleration is in reality a cruel and
+insidious religious persecution, infinitely more bitter than any which
+had been heard of within this century.--That it had a feature in it
+worse than the old persecutions.--That the old persecutors acted, or
+pretended to act, from zeal towards some system of piety and virtue:
+they gave strong preferences to their own; and if they drove people from
+one religion, they provided for them another, in which men might take
+refuge and expect consolation.--That their new persecution is not
+against a variety in conscience, but against all conscience. That it
+professes contempt towards its object; and whilst it treats all religion
+with scorn, is not so much as neutral about the modes: it unites the
+opposite evils of intolerance and of indifference.
+
+He could have proved that it is so far from rejecting tests, (as
+unaccountably had been asserted,) that the Assembly had imposed tests of
+a peculiar hardship, arising from a cruel and premeditated pecuniary
+fraud: tests against old principles, sanctioned by the laws, and binding
+upon the conscience.--That these tests were not imposed as titles to
+some new honor or some new benefit, but to enable men to hold a poor
+compensation for their legal estates, of which they had been unjustly
+deprived; and as they had before been reduced from affluence to
+indigence, so, on refusal to swear against their conscience, they are
+now driven from indigence to famine, and treated with every possible
+degree of outrage, insult, and inhumanity.--That these tests, which
+their imposers well knew would not be taken, were intended for the very
+purpose of cheating their miserable victims out of the compensation
+which the tyrannic impostors of the Assembly had previously and
+purposely rendered the public unable to pay. That thus their ultimate
+violence arose from their original fraud.
+
+He would have shown that the universal peace and concord amongst
+nations, which these common enemies to mankind had held out with the
+same fraudulent ends and pretences with which they had uniformly
+conducted every part of their proceeding, was a coarse and clumsy
+deception, unworthy to be proposed as an example, by an informed and
+sagacious British senator, to any other country.--That, far from peace
+and good-will to men, they meditated war against all other governments,
+and proposed systematically to excite in them all the very worst kind of
+seditions, in order to lead to their common destruction.--That they had
+discovered, in the few instances in which they have hitherto had the
+power of discovering it, (as at Avignon and in the Comtat, at Cavaillon
+and at Carpentras,) in what a savage manner they mean to conduct the
+seditions and wars they have planned against their neighbors, for the
+sake of putting themselves at the head of a confederation of republics
+as wild and as mischievous as their own. He would have shown in what
+manner that wicked scheme was carried on in those places, without being
+directly either owned or disclaimed, in hopes that the undone people
+should at length be obliged to fly to their tyrannic protection, as some
+sort of refuge from their barbarous and treacherous hostility. He would
+have shown from those examples that neither this nor any other society
+could be in safety as long as such a public enemy was in a condition to
+continue directly or indirectly such practices against its peace.--That
+Great Britain was a principal object of their machinations; and that
+they had begun by establishing correspondences, communications, and a
+sort of federal union with the factious here.--That no practical
+enjoyment of a thing so imperfect and precarious as human happiness must
+be, even under the very best of governments, could be a security for the
+existence of these governments, during the prevalence of the principles
+of France, propagated from that grand school of every disorder and every
+vice.
+
+He was prepared to show the madness of their declaration of the
+pretended rights of man,--the childish, futility of some of their
+maxims, the gross and stupid absurdity and the palpable falsity of
+others, and the mischievous tendency of all such declarations to the
+well-being of men and of citizens and to the safety and prosperity of
+every just commonwealth. He was prepared to show, that, in their
+conduct, the Assembly had directly violated not only every sound
+principle of government, but every one, without exception, of their own
+false or futile maxims, and indeed every rule they had pretended to lay
+down for their own direction.
+
+In a word, he was ready to show that those who could, after such a full
+and fair exposure, continue to countenance the French insanity were not
+mistaken politicians, but bad men; but he thought that in this case, as
+in many others, ignorance had been the cause of admiration.
+
+These are strong assertions. They required strong proofs. The member who
+laid down these positions was and is ready to give, in his place, to
+each position decisive evidence, correspondent to the nature and quality
+of the several allegations.
+
+In order to judge on the propriety of the interruption given to Mr.
+Burke, in his speech in the committee of the Quebec Bill, it is
+necessary to inquire, First, whether, on general principles, he ought to
+have been suffered to prove his allegations? Secondly, whether the time
+he had chosen was so very unseasonable as to make his exercise of a
+parliamentary right productive of ill effects on his friends or his
+country? Thirdly, whether the opinions delivered in his book, and which
+he had begun to expatiate upon that day, were in contradiction to his
+former principles, and inconsistent with the general tenor of his public
+conduct?
+
+They who have made eloquent panegyrics on the French Revolution, and who
+think a free discussion so very advantageous in every case and under
+every circumstance, ought not, in my opinion, to have prevented their
+eulogies from being tried on the test of facts. If their panegyric had
+been answered with an invective, (bating the difference in point of
+eloquence,) the one would have been as good as the other: that is, they
+would both of them have been good for nothing. The panegyric and the
+satire ought to be suffered to go to trial; and that which shrinks from
+if must be contented to stand, at best, as a mere declamation.
+
+I do not think Mr. Burke was wrong in the course he took. That which
+seemed to be recommended to him by Mr. Pitt was rather to extol the
+English Constitution than to attack the French. I do not determine what
+would be best for Mr. Pitt to do in his situation. I do not deny that
+_he_ may have good reasons for his reserve. Perhaps they might have been
+as good for a similar reserve on the part of Mr. Fox, if his zeal had
+suffered him to listen to them. But there were no motives of ministerial
+prudence, or of that prudence which ought to guide a man perhaps on the
+eve of being minister, to restrain the author of the Reflections. He is
+in no office under the crown; he is not the organ of any party.
+
+The excellencies of the British Constitution had already exercised and
+exhausted the talents of the best thinkers and the most eloquent writers
+and speakers that the world ever saw. But in the present case a system
+declared to be far better, and which certainly is much newer, (to
+restless and unstable minds no small recommendation,) was held out to
+the admiration of the good people of England. In that case it was surely
+proper for those who had far other thoughts of the French Constitution
+to scrutinize that plan which has been recommended to our imitation by
+active and zealous factions at home and abroad. Our complexion is such,
+that we are palled with enjoyment, and stimulated with hope,--that we
+become less sensible to a long-possessed benefit from the very
+circumstance that it is become habitual. Specious, untried, ambiguous
+prospects of new advantage recommend themselves to the spirit of
+adventure which more or less prevails in every mind. From this temper,
+men and factions, and nations too, have sacrificed the good of which
+they had been in assured possession, in favor of wild and irrational
+expectations. What should hinder Mr. Burke, if he thought this temper
+likely at one time or other to prevail in our country, from exposing to
+a multitude eager to game the false calculations of this lottery of
+fraud?
+
+I allow, as I ought to do, for the effusions which come from a _general_
+zeal for liberty. This is to be indulged, and even to be encouraged, as
+long as _the question is general_. An orator, above all men, ought to be
+allowed a full and free use of the praise of liberty. A commonplace in
+favor of slavery and tyranny, delivered to a popular assembly, would
+indeed be a bold defiance to all the principles of rhetoric. But in a
+question whether any particular Constitution is or is not a plan of
+rational liberty, this kind of rhetorical flourish in favor of freedom
+in general is surely a little out of its place. It is virtually a
+begging of the question. It is a song of triumph before the battle.
+
+"But Mr. Fox does not make the panegyric of the new Constitution; it is
+the destruction only of the absolute monarchy he commends." When that
+nameless thing which has been lately set up in France was described as
+"the most stupendous and glorious edifice of liberty which had been
+erected on the foundation of human integrity in any time or country," it
+might at first have led the hearer into an opinion that the construction
+of the new fabric was an object of admiration, as well as the demolition
+of the old. Mr. Fox, however, has explained himself; and it would be too
+like that captious and cavilling spirit which I so perfectly detest, if
+I were to pin down the language of an eloquent and ardent mind to the
+punctilious exactness of a pleader. Then Mr. Fox did not mean to applaud
+that monstrous thing which, by the courtesy of France, they call a
+Constitution. I easily believe it. Far from meriting the praises of a
+great genius like Mr. Fox, it cannot be approved by any man of common
+sense or common information. He cannot admire the change of one piece of
+barbarism for another, and a worse. He cannot rejoice at the destruction
+of a monarchy, mitigated by manners, respectful to laws and usages, and
+attentive, perhaps but too attentive, to public opinion, in favor of the
+tyranny of a licentious, ferocious, and savage multitude, without laws,
+manners, or morals, and which, so far from respecting the general sense
+of mankind, insolently endeavors to alter all the principles and
+opinions which have hitherto guided and contained the world, and to
+force them into a conformity to their views and actions. His mind is
+made to better things.
+
+That a man should rejoice and triumph in the destruction of an absolute
+monarchy,--that in such an event he should overlook the captivity,
+disgrace, and degradation of an unfortunate prince, and the continual
+danger to a life which exists only to be endangered,--that he should
+overlook the utter ruin of whole orders and classes of men, extending
+itself directly, or in its nearest consequences, to at least a million
+of our kind, and to at least the temporary wretchedness of a whole
+community,--I do not deny to be in some sort natural; because, when
+people see a political object which they ardently desire but in one
+point of view, they are apt extremely to palliate or underrate the evils
+which may arise in obtaining it. This is no reflection on the humanity
+of those persons. Their good-nature I am the last man in the world to
+dispute. It only shows that they are not sufficiently informed or
+sufficiently considerate. When they come to reflect seriously on the
+transaction, they will think themselves bound to examine what the
+object is that has been acquired by all this havoc. They will hardly
+assert that the destruction of an absolute monarchy is a thing good in
+itself, without any sort of reference to the antecedent state of things,
+or to consequences which result from the change,--without any
+consideration whether under its ancient rule a country was to a
+considerable degree flourishing and populous, highly cultivated and
+highly commercial, and whether, under that domination, though personal
+liberty had been precarious and insecure, property at least was ever
+violated. They cannot take the moral sympathies of the human mind along
+with them, in abstractions separated from the good or evil condition of
+the state, from the quality of actions, and the character of the actors.
+None of us love absolute and uncontrolled monarchy; but we could not
+rejoice at the sufferings of a Marcus Aurelius or a Trajan, who were
+absolute monarchs, as we do when Nero is condemned by the Senate to be
+punished _more majorum_; nor, when that monster was obliged to fly with
+his wife Sporus, and to drink puddle, were men affected in the same
+manner as when the venerable Galba, with all his faults and errors, was
+murdered by a revolted mercenary soldiery. With such things before our
+eyes, our feelings contradict our theories; and when this is the case,
+the feelings are true, and the theory is false. What I contend for is,
+that, in commending the destruction of an absolute monarchy, _all the
+circumstances_ ought not to be wholly overlooked, as "considerations fit
+only for shallow and superficial minds." (The words of Mr. Fox, or to
+that effect.)
+
+The subversion of a government, to deserve any praise, must be
+considered but as a step preparatory to the formation of something
+better, either in the scheme of the government itself, or in the persons
+who administer it, or in both. These events cannot in reason be
+separated. For instance, when we praise our Revolution of 1688, though
+the nation in that act was on the defensive, and was justified in
+incurring all the evils of a defensive war, we do not rest there. We
+always combine with the subversion of the old government the happy
+settlement which followed. When we estimate that Revolution, we mean to
+comprehend in our calculation both the value of the thing parted with
+and the value of the thing received in exchange.
+
+The burden of proof lies heavily on those who tear to pieces the whole
+frame and contexture of their country, that they could find no other way
+of settling a government fit to obtain its rational ends, except that
+which they have pursued by means unfavorable to all the present
+happiness of millions of people, and to the utter ruin of several
+hundreds of thousands. In their political arrangements, men have no
+right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the
+question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands
+is the care of our own time. With regard to futurity, we are to treat it
+like a ward. We are not so to attempt an improvement of his fortune as
+to put the capital of his estate to any hazard.
+
+It is not worth our while to discuss, like sophisters, whether in no
+case some evil for the sake of some benefit is to be tolerated. Nothing
+universal can be rationally affirmed on any moral or any political
+subject. Pure metaphysical abstraction does not belong to these
+matters. The lines of morality are not like the ideal lines of
+mathematics. They are broad and deep as well as long. They admit of
+exceptions; they demand modifications. These exceptions and
+modifications are not made by the process of logic, but by the rules of
+prudence. Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues
+political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the
+standard of them all. Metaphysics cannot live without definition; but
+Prudence is cautious how she defines. Our courts cannot be more fearful
+in suffering fictitious cases to be brought before them for eliciting
+their determination on a point of law than prudent moralists are in
+putting extreme and hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not
+existing. Without attempting, therefore, to define, what never can be
+defined, the case of a revolution in government, this, I think, may be
+safely affirmed,--that a sore and pressing evil is to be removed, and
+that a good, great in its amount and unequivocal in its nature, must be
+probable almost to certainty, before the inestimable price of our own
+morals and the well-being of a number of our fellow-citizens is paid for
+a revolution. If ever we ought to be economists even to parsimony, it is
+in the voluntary production of evil. Every revolution contains in it
+something of evil.
+
+It must always be, to those who are the greatest amateurs, or even
+professors, of revolutions, a matter very hard to prove, that the late
+French government was so bad that nothing worse in the infinite devices
+of men could come in its place. They who have brought France to its
+present condition ought to prove also, by something better than
+prattling about the Bastile, that their subverted government was as
+incapable as the present certainly is of all improvement and
+correction. How dare they to say so who have never made that experiment?
+They are experimenters by their trade. They have made an hundred others,
+infinitely more hazardous.
+
+The English admirers of the forty-eight thousand republics which form
+the French federation praise them not for what they are, but for what
+they are to become. They do not talk as politicians, but as prophets.
+But in whatever character they choose to found panegyric on prediction,
+it will be thought a little singular to praise any work, not for its own
+merits, but for the merits of something else which may succeed to it.
+When any political institution is praised, in spite of great and
+prominent faults of every kind, and in all its parts, it must be
+supposed to have something excellent in its fundamental principles. It
+must be shown that it is right, though imperfect,--that it is not only
+by possibility susceptible of improvement, but that it contains in it a
+principle tending to its melioration.
+
+Before they attempt to show this progression of their favorite work from
+absolute pravity to finished perfection, they will find themselves
+engaged in a civil war with those whose cause they maintain. What! alter
+our sublime Constitution, the glory of France, the envy of the world,
+the pattern for mankind, the masterpiece of legislation, the collected
+and concentrated glory of this enlightened age? Have we not produced it
+ready-made and ready-armed, mature in its birth, a perfect goddess of
+wisdom and of war, hammered by our blacksmith midwives out of the brain
+of Jupiter himself? Have we not sworn our devout, profane, believing,
+infidel people to an allegiance to this goddess, even before she had
+burst the _dura mater_, and as yet existed only in embryo? Have we not
+solemnly declared this Constitution unalterable by any future
+legislature? Have we not bound it on posterity forever, though our
+abettors have declared that no one generation is competent to bind
+another? Have we not obliged the members of every future Assembly to
+qualify themselves for their seats by swearing to its conservation?
+
+Indeed, the French Constitution always must be (if a change is not made
+in all their principles and fundamental arrangements) a government
+wholly by popular representation. It must be this or nothing. The French
+faction considers as an usurpation, as an atrocious violation of the
+indefensible rights of man, every other description of government. Take
+it, or leave it: there is no medium. Let the irrefragable doctors fight
+out their own controversy in their own way and with their own weapons;
+and when they are tired, let them commence a treaty of peace. Let the
+plenipotentiary sophisters of England settle with the diplomatic
+sophisters of France in what manner right is to be corrected by an
+infusion of wrong, and how truth may be rendered more true by a due
+intermixture of falsehood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Having sufficiently proved that nothing could make it _generally_
+improper for Mr. Burke to prove what he had alleged concerning the
+object of this dispute, I pass to the second question, that is, Whether
+he was justified in choosing the committee on the Quebec Bill as the
+field for this discussion? If it were necessary, it might be shown that
+he was not the first to bring these discussions into Parliament, nor the
+first to renew them in this session. The fact is notorious. As to the
+Quebec Bill, they were introduced into the debate upon that subject for
+two plain reasons: First, that, as he thought it _then_ not advisable to
+make the proceedings of the factious societies the subject of a direct
+motion, he had no other way open to him. Nobody has attempted to show
+that it was at all admissible into any other business before the House.
+Here everything was favorable. Here was a bill to form a new
+Constitution for a French province under English dominion. The question
+naturally arose, whether we should settle that constitution upon English
+ideas, or upon French. This furnished an opportunity for examining into
+the value of the French Constitution, either considered as applicable to
+colonial government, or in its own nature. The bill, too, was in a
+committee. By the privilege of speaking as often as he pleased, he hoped
+in some measure to supply the want of support, which he had but too much
+reason to apprehend. In a committee it was always in his power to bring
+the questions from generalities to facts, from declamation to
+discussion. Some benefit he actually received from this privilege. These
+are plain, obvious, natural reasons for his conduct. I believe they are
+the true, and the only true ones.
+
+They who justify the frequent interruptions, which at length wholly
+disabled him from proceeding, attribute their conduct to a very
+different interpretation of his motives. They say, that, through
+corruption, or malice, or folly, he was acting his part in a plot to
+make his friend Mr. Fox pass for a republican, and thereby to prevent
+the gracious intentions of his sovereign from taking effect, which at
+that time had begun to disclose themselves in his favor.[8] This is a
+pretty serious charge. This, on Mr. Burke's part, would be something
+more than mistake, something worse than formal irregularity. Any
+contumely, any outrage, is readily passed over, by the indulgence which
+we all owe to sudden passion. These things are soon forgot upon
+occasions in which all men are so apt to forget themselves. Deliberate
+injuries, to a degree, must be remembered, because they require
+deliberate precautions to be secured against their return.
+
+I am authorized to say for Mr. Burke, that he considers that cause
+assigned for the outrage offered to him as ten times worse than the
+outrage itself. There is such a strange confusion of ideas on this
+subject, that it is far more difficult to understand the nature of the
+charge than to refute it when understood. Mr. Fox's friends were, it
+seems, seized with a sudden panic terror lest he should pass for a
+republican. I do not think they had any ground for this apprehension.
+But let us admit they had. What was there in the Quebec Bill, rather
+than in any other, which could subject him or them to that imputation?
+Nothing in a discussion of the French Constitutions which might arise on
+the Quebec Bill, could tend to make Mr. Fox pass for a republican,
+except he should take occasion to extol that state of things in France
+which affects to be a republic or a confederacy of republics. If such an
+encomium could make any unfavorable impression on the king's mind,
+surely his voluntary panegyrics on that event, not so much introduced as
+intruded into other debates, with which they had little relation, must
+have produced that effect with much more certainty and much greater
+force. The Quebec Bill, at worst, was only one of those opportunities
+carefully sought and industriously improved by himself. Mr. Sheridan had
+already brought forth a panegyric on the French system in a still higher
+strain, with full as little demand from the nature of the business
+before the House, in a speech too good to be speedily forgotten. Mr. Fox
+followed him without any direct call from the subject-matter, and upon
+the same ground. To canvass the merits of the French Constitution on the
+Quebec Bill could not draw forth any opinions which were not brought
+forward before, with no small ostentation, and with very little of
+necessity, or perhaps of propriety. What mode or what time of discussing
+the conduct of the French faction in England would not equally tend to
+kindle this enthusiasm, and afford those occasions for panegyric, which,
+far from shunning, Mr. Fox has always industriously sought? He himself
+said, very truly, in the debate, that no artifices were necessary to
+draw from him his opinions upon that subject. But to fall upon Mr. Burke
+for making an use, at worst not more irregular, of the same liberty, is
+tantamount to a plain declaration that the topic of Franco is _tabooed_
+or forbidden ground to Mr. Burke, and to Mr. Burke alone. But surely
+Mr. Fox is not a republican; and what should hinder him, when such a
+discussion came on, from clearing himself unequivocally (as his friends
+say he had done near a fortnight before) of all such imputations?
+Instead of being a disadvantage to him, he would have defeated all his
+enemies, and Mr. Burke, since he has thought proper to reckon him
+amongst them.
+
+But it seems some newspaper or other had imputed to him republican
+principles, on occasion of his conduct upon the Quebec Bill. Supposing
+Mr. Burke to have seen these newspapers, (which is to suppose more than
+I believe to be true,) I would ask, When did the newspapers forbear to
+charge Mr Fox, or Mr. Burke himself, with republican principles, or any
+other principles which they thought could render both of them odious,
+sometimes to one description of people, sometimes to another? Mr. Burke,
+since the publication of his pamphlet, has been a thousand times charged
+in the newspapers with holding despotic principles. He could not enjoy
+one moment of domestic quiet, he could not perform the least particle of
+public duty, if he did not altogether disregard the language of those
+libels. But, however his sensibility might be affected by such abuse, it
+would in _him_ have been thought a most ridiculous reason for shutting
+up the mouths of Mr. Fox or Mr. Sheridan, so as to prevent their
+delivering their sentiments of the French Revolution, that, forsooth,
+"the newspapers had lately charged Mr. Burke with being an enemy to
+liberty."
+
+I allow that those gentlemen have privileges to which Mr. Burke has no
+claim. But their friends ought to plead those privileges, and not to
+assign bad reasons, on the principle of what is fair between man and
+man, and thereby to put themselves on a level with those who can so
+easily refute them. Let them say at once that his reputation is of no
+value, and that he has no call to assert it,--but that theirs is of
+infinite concern to the party and the public, and to that consideration
+he ought to sacrifice all his opinions and all his feelings.
+
+In that language I should hear a style correspondent to the
+proceeding,--lofty, indeed, but plain and consistent. Admit, however,
+for a moment, and merely for argument, that this gentleman had as good a
+right to continue as they had to begin these discussions; in candor and
+equity they must allow that their voluntary descant in praise of the
+French Constitution was as much an oblique attack on Mr. Burke as Mr.
+Burke's inquiry into the foundation of this encomium could possibly be
+construed into an imputation upon them. They well knew that he felt like
+other men; and of course he would think it mean and unworthy to decline
+asserting in his place, and in the front of able adversaries, the
+principles of what he had penned in his closet and without an opponent
+before him. They could not but be convinced that declamations of this
+kind would rouse him,--that he must think, coming from men of their
+calibre, they were highly mischievous,--that they gave countenance to
+bad men and bad designs; and though he was aware that the handling such
+matters in Parliament was delicate, yet he was a man very likely,
+whenever, much against his will, they were brought there, to resolve
+that there they should be thoroughly sifted. Mr. Fox, early in the
+preceding session, had public notice from Mr. Burke of the light in
+which he considered every attempt to introduce the example of France
+into the politics of this country, and of his resolution to break with
+his host friends and to join with his worst enemies to prevent it. He
+hoped that no such necessity would ever exist; but in case it should,
+his determination was made. The party knew perfectly that he would at
+least defend himself. He never intended to attack Mr. Fox, nor did he
+attack him directly or indirectly. His speech kept to its matter. No
+personality was employed, even in the remotest allusion. He never did
+impute to that gentleman any republican principles, or any other bad
+principles or bad conduct whatsoever. It was far from his words; it was
+far from his heart. It must be remembered, that, notwithstanding the
+attempt of Mr. Fox to fix on Mr. Burke an unjustifiable change of
+opinion, and the foul crime of teaching a set of maxims to a boy, and
+afterwards, when these maxims became adult in his mature age, of
+abandoning both the disciple and the doctrine, Mr. Burke never
+attempted, in any one particular, either to criminate or to recriminate.
+It may be said that he had nothing of the kind in his power. This he
+does not controvert. He certainly had it not in his inclination. That
+gentleman had as little ground for the charges which he was so easily
+provoked to make upon him.
+
+The gentlemen of the party (I include Mr. Fox) have been kind enough to
+consider the dispute brought on by this business, and the consequent
+separation of Mr. Burke from their corps, as a matter of regret and
+uneasiness. I cannot be of opinion that by his exclusion they have had
+any loss at all. A man whose opinions are so very adverse to theirs,
+adverse, as it was expressed, "as pole to pole," so mischievously as
+well as so directly adverse that they found themselves under the
+necessity of solemnly disclaiming them in full Parliament,--such a man
+must ever be to them a most unseemly and unprofitable incumbrance. A
+cooeperation with him could only serve to embarrass them in all their
+councils. They have besides publicly represented him as a man capable of
+abusing the docility and confidence of ingenuous youth,--and, for a bad
+reason or for no reason, of disgracing his whole public life by a
+scandalous contradiction of every one of his own acts, writings, and
+declarations. If these charges be true, their exclusion of such a person
+from their body is a circumstance which does equal honor to their
+justice and their prudence. If they express a degree of sensibility in
+being obliged to execute this wise and just sentence, from a
+consideration of some amiable or some pleasant qualities which in his
+private life their former friend may happen to possess, they add to the
+praise of their wisdom and firmness the merit of great tenderness of
+heart and humanity of disposition.
+
+On their ideas, the new Whig party have, in my opinion, acted as became
+them. The author of the Reflections, however, on his part, cannot,
+without great shame to himself, and without entailing everlasting
+disgrace on his posterity, admit the truth or justice of the charges
+which have been made upon him, or allow that he has in those Reflections
+discovered any principles to which honest men are bound to declare, not
+a shade or two of dissent, but a total, fundamental opposition. He must
+believe, if he does not mean wilfully to abandon his cause and his
+reputation, that principles fundamentally at variance with those of his
+book are fundamentally false. What those principles, the antipodes to
+his, really are, he can only discover from their contrariety. He is very
+unwilling to suppose that the doctrines of some books lately circulated
+are the principles of the party; though, from the vehement declarations
+against his opinions, he is at some loss how to judge otherwise.
+
+For the present, my plan does not render it necessary to say anything
+further concerning the merits either of the one set of opinions or the
+other. The author would have discussed the merits of both in his place,
+but he was not permitted to do so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I pass to the next head of charge,--Mr. Burke's inconsistency. It is
+certainly a great aggravation of his fault in embracing false opinions,
+that in doing so he is not supposed to fill up a void, but that he is
+guilty of a dereliction of opinions that are true and laudable. This is
+the great gist of the charge against him. It is not so much that he is
+wrong in his book (that, however, is alleged also) as that he has
+therein belied his whole life. I believe, if he could venture to value
+himself upon anything, it is on the virtue of consistency that he would
+value himself the most. Strip him of this, and you leave him naked
+indeed.
+
+In the case of any man who had written something, and spoken a great
+deal, upon very multifarious matter, during upwards of twenty-five
+years' public service, and in as great a variety of important events as
+perhaps have ever happened in the same number of years, it would appear
+a little hard, in order to charge such a man with inconsistency, to see
+collected by his friend a sort of digest of his sayings, even to such
+as were merely sportive and jocular. This digest, however, has been
+made, with equal pains and partiality, and without bringing out those
+passages of his writings which might tend to show with what restrictions
+any expressions quoted from him ought to have been understood. From a
+great statesman he did not quite expect this mode of inquisition. If it
+only appeared in the works of common pamphleteers, Mr. Burke might
+safely trust to his reputation. When thus urged, he ought, perhaps, to
+do a little more. It shall be as little as possible; for I hope not much
+is wanting. To be totally silent on his charges would not be respectful
+to Mr. Fox. Accusations sometimes derive a weight from the persons who
+make them to which they are not entitled from their matter.
+
+He who thinks that the British Constitution ought to consist of the
+three members, of three very different natures, of which it does
+actually consist, and thinks it his duty to preserve each of those
+members in its proper place and with its proper proportion of power,
+must (as each shall happen to be attacked) vindicate the three several
+parts on the several principles peculiarly belonging to them. He cannot
+assert the democratic part on the principles on which monarchy is
+supported, nor can he support monarchy on the principles of democracy,
+nor can he maintain aristocracy on the grounds of the one or of the
+other or of both. All these he must support on grounds that are totally
+different, though practically they may be, and happily with us they are,
+brought into one harmonious body. A man could not be consistent in
+defending such various, and, at first view, discordant, parts of a
+mixed Constitution, without that sort of inconsistency with which Mr.
+Burke stands charged.
+
+As any one of the great members of this Constitution happens to be
+endangered, he that is a friend to all of them chooses and presses the
+topics necessary for the support of the part attacked, with all the
+strength, the earnestness, the vehemence, with all the power of stating,
+of argument, and of coloring, which he happens to possess, and which the
+case demands. He is not to embarrass the minds of his hearers, or to
+incumber or overlay his speech, by bringing into view at once (as if he
+were reading an academic lecture) all that may and ought, when a just
+occasion presents itself, to be said in favor of the other members. At
+that time they are out of the court; there is no question concerning
+them. Whilst he opposes his defence on the part where the attack is
+made, he presumes that for his regard to the just rights of all the rest
+he has credit in every candid mind. He ought not to apprehend that his
+raising fences about popular privileges this day will infer that he
+ought on the next to concur with those who would pull down the throne;
+because on the next he defends the throne, it ought not to be supposed
+that he has abandoned the rights of the people.
+
+A man, who, among various objects of his equal regard, is secure of
+some, and full of anxiety for the fate of others, is apt to go to much
+greater lengths in his preference of the objects of his immediate
+solicitude than Mr. Burke has ever done. A man so circumstanced often
+seems to undervalue, to vilify, almost to reprobate and disown, those
+that are out of danger. This is the voice of Nature and truth, and not
+of inconsistency and false pretence. The danger of anything very dear
+to us removes, for the moment, every other affection from the mind. When
+Priam had his whole thoughts employed on the body of his Hector, he
+repels with indignation, and drives from him with a thousand reproaches,
+his surviving sons, who with an officious piety crowded about him to
+offer their assistance. A good critic (there is no better than Mr. Fox)
+would say that this is a masterstroke, and marks a deep understanding of
+Nature in the father of poetry. He would despise a Zoilus who would
+conclude from this passage that Homer meant to represent this man of
+affliction as hating or being indifferent and cold in his affections to
+the poor relics of his house, or that he preferred a dead carcass to his
+living children.
+
+Mr. Burke does not stand in need of an allowance of this kind, which, if
+he did, by candid critics ought to be granted to him. If the principles
+of a mixed Constitution be admitted, he wants no more to justify to
+consistency everything he has said and done during the course of a
+political life just touching to its close. I believe that gentleman has
+kept himself more clear of running into the fashion of wild, visionary
+theories, or of seeking popularity through every means, than any man
+perhaps ever did in the same situation.
+
+He was the first man who, on the hustings, at a popular election,
+rejected the authority of instructions from constituents,--or who, in
+any place, has argued so fully against it. Perhaps the discredit into
+which that doctrine of compulsive instructions under our Constitution is
+since fallen may be due in a great degree to his opposing himself to it
+in that manner and on that occasion.
+
+The reforms in representation, and the bills for shortening the duration
+of Parliaments, he uniformly and steadily opposed for many years
+together, in contradiction to many of his best friends. These friends,
+however, in his better days, when they had more to hope from his service
+and more to fear from his loss than now they have, never chose to find
+any inconsistency between his acts and expressions in favor of liberty
+and his votes on those questions. But there is a time for all things.
+
+Against the opinion of many friends, even against the solicitation of
+some of them, he opposed those of the Church clergy who had petitioned
+the House of Commons to be discharged from the subscription. Although he
+supported the Dissenters in their petition for the indulgence which he
+had refused to the clergy of the Established Church, in this, as he was
+not guilty of it, so he was not reproached with inconsistency. At the
+same time he promoted, and against the wish of several, the clause that
+gave the Dissenting teachers another subscription in the place of that
+which was then taken away. Neither at that time was the reproach of
+inconsistency brought against him. People could then distinguish between
+a difference in conduct under a variation of circumstances and an
+inconsistency in principle. It was not then thought necessary to be
+freed of him as of an incumbrance.
+
+These instances, a few among many, are produced as an answer to the
+insinuation of his having pursued high popular courses which in his late
+book he has abandoned. Perhaps in his whole life he has never omitted a
+fair occasion, with whatever risk to him of obloquy as an individual,
+with whatever detriment to his interest as a member of opposition, to
+assert the very same doctrines which appear in that book. He told the
+House, upon an important occasion, and pretty early in his service,
+that, "being warned by the ill effect of a contrary procedure in great
+examples, he had taken his ideas of liberty very low in order that they
+should stick to him and that he might stick to them to the end of his
+life."
+
+At popular elections the most rigorous casuists will remit a little of
+their severity. They will allow to a candidate some unqualified
+effusions in favor of freedom, without binding him to adhere to them in
+their utmost extent. But Mr. Burke put a more strict rule upon himself
+than most moralists would put upon others. At his first offering himself
+to Bristol, where he was almost sure he should not obtain, on that or
+any occasion, a single Tory vote, (in fact, he did obtain but one,) and
+rested wholly on the Whig interest, he thought himself bound to tell to
+the electors, both before and after his election, exactly what a
+representative they had to expect in him.
+
+"The _distinguishing_ part of our Constitution," he said, "is its
+liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate is the _peculiar_ duty and
+_proper_ trust of a member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the
+_only_ liberty, I mean is a liberty connected with _order;_ and that not
+only exists _with_ order and virtue, but cannot exist at all _without_
+them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in _its substance and
+vital principle_."
+
+The liberty to which Mr. Burke declared himself attached is not French
+liberty. That liberty is nothing but the rein given to vice and
+confusion. Mr. Burke was then, as he was at the writing of his
+Reflections, awfully impressed with the difficulties arising from the
+complex state of our Constitution and our empire, and that it might
+require in different emergencies different sorts of exertions, and the
+successive call upon all the various principles which uphold and justify
+it. This will appear from what he said at the close of the poll.
+
+"To be a good member of Parliament is, let me tell you, no easy
+task,--especially at this time, when there is so strong a disposition to
+run into the perilous extremes of _servile_ compliance or _wild
+popularity_. To unite circumspection with vigor is absolutely necessary,
+but it is extremely difficult. We are now members for a rich commercial
+_city_; this city, however, is but a part of a rich commercial _nation_,
+the interests of which are _various, multiform, and intricate_. We are
+members for that great _nation_, which, however, is itself but part of a
+great _empire_, extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest
+limits of the East and of the West. _All_ these wide-spread interests
+must be _considered_,--must be _compared_,--must be _reconciled_, if
+possible. We are members for a _free_ country; and surely we all know
+that the machine of a free constitution is no _simple_ thing, but as
+_intricate_ and as _delicate_ as it is valuable. We are members in a
+_great and ancient_ MONARCHY_; and we must preserve religiously the
+true, legal rights of the sovereign, which form the key-stone that binds
+together the noble and well-constructed arch of our empire and our
+Constitution_. A constitution made up of _balanced powers_ must ever be
+a critical thing. As such I mean to touch that part of it which comes
+within my reach."
+
+In this manner Mr. Burke spoke to his constituents seventeen years ago.
+He spoke, not like a partisan of one particular member of our
+Constitution, but as a person strongly, and on principle, attached to
+them all. He thought these great and essential members ought to be
+preserved, and preserved each in its place,--and that the monarchy ought
+not only to be secured in its peculiar existence, but in its preeminence
+too, as the presiding and connecting principle of the whole. Let it be
+considered whether the language of his book, printed in 1790, differs
+from his speech at Bristol in 1774.
+
+With equal justice his opinions on the American war are introduced, as
+if in his late work he had belied his conduct and opinions in the
+debates which arose upon that great event. On the American war he never
+had any opinions which he has seen occasion to retract, or which he has
+ever retracted. He, indeed, differs essentially from Mr. Fox as to the
+cause of that war. Mr. Fox has been pleased to say that the Americans
+rebelled "because they thought they had not enjoyed liberty enough."
+This cause of the war, _from him_, I have heard of for the first time.
+It is true that those who stimulated the nation to that measure did
+frequently urge this topic. They contended that the Americans had from
+the beginning aimed at independence,--that from the beginning they meant
+wholly to throw off the authority of the crown, and to break their
+connection with the parent country. This Mr. Burke never believed. When
+he moved his second conciliatory proposition, in the year 1776, he
+entered into the discussion of this point at very great length, and,
+from nine several heads of presumption, endeavored to prove the charge
+upon that people not to be true.
+
+If the principles of all he has said and wrote on the occasion be viewed
+with common temper, the gentlemen of the party will perceive, that, on a
+supposition that the Americans had rebelled merely in order to enlarge
+their liberty, Mr. Burke would have thought very differently of the
+American cause. What might have been in the secret thoughts of some of
+their leaders it is impossible to say. As far as a man so locked up as
+Dr. Franklin could be expected to communicate his ideas, I believe he
+opened them to Mr. Burke. It was, I think, the very day before he set
+out for America that a very long conversation passed between them, and
+with a greater air of openness on the Doctor's side than Mr. Burke had
+observed in him before. In this discourse Dr. Franklin lamented, and
+with apparent sincerity, the separation which he feared was inevitable
+between Great Britain and her colonies. He certainly spoke of it as an
+event which gave him the greatest concern. America, he said, would never
+again see such happy days as she had passed under the protection of
+England. He observed, that ours was the only instance of a great empire
+in which the most distant parts and members had been as well governed as
+the metropolis and its vicinage, but that the Americans were going to
+lose the means which secured to them this rare and precious advantage.
+The question with them was not, whether they were to remain as they had
+been before the troubles,--for better, he allowed, they could not hope
+to be,--but whether they were to give up so happy a situation without a
+struggle. Mr. Burke had several other conversations with him about that
+time, in none of which, soured and exasperated as his mind certainly
+was, did he discover any other wish in favor of America than for a
+security to its _ancient_ condition. Mr. Burke's conversation with other
+Americans was large, indeed, and his inquiries extensive and diligent.
+Trusting to the result of all these means of information, but trusting
+much more in the public presumptive indications I have just referred to,
+and to the reiterated solemn declarations of their Assemblies, he always
+firmly believed that they were purely on the defensive in that
+rebellion. He considered the Americans as standing at that time, and in
+that controversy, in the same relation to England as England did to King
+James the Second in 1688. He believed that they had taken up arms from
+one motive only: that is, our attempting to tax them without their
+consent,--to tax them for the purposes of maintaining civil and military
+establishments. If this attempt of ours could have been practically
+established, he thought, with them, that their Assemblies would become
+totally useless,--that, under the system of policy which was then
+pursued, the Americans could have no sort of security for their laws or
+liberties, or for any part of them,--and that the very circumstance of
+_our_ freedom would have augmented the weight of _their_ slavery.
+
+Considering the Americans on that defensive footing, he thought Great
+Britain ought instantly to have closed with them by the repeal of the
+taxing act. He was of opinion that our general rights over that country
+would have been preserved by this timely concession.[9] When, instead of
+this, a Boston Port Bill, a Massachusetts Charter Bill, a Fishery Bill,
+an Intercourse Bill, I know not how many hostile bills, rushed out like
+so many tempests from all points of the compass, and were accompanied
+first with great fleets and armies of English, and followed afterwards
+with great bodies of foreign troops, he thought that their cause grew
+daily better, because daily more defensive,--and that ours, because
+daily more offensive, grew daily worse. He therefore, in two motions, in
+two successive years, proposed in Parliament many concessions beyond
+what he had reason to think in the beginning of the troubles would ever
+be seriously demanded.
+
+So circumstanced, he certainly never could and never did wish the
+colonists to be subdued by arms. He was fully persuaded, that, if such
+should be the event, they must be held in that subdued state by a great
+body of standing forces, and perhaps of foreign forces. He was strongly
+of opinion that such armies, first victorious over Englishmen, in a
+conflict for English constitutional rights and privileges, and
+afterwards habituated (though in America) to keep an English people in a
+state of abject subjection, would prove fatal in the end to the
+liberties of England itself; that in the mean time this military system
+would lie as an oppressive burden upon the national finances; that it
+would constantly breed and feed new discussions, full of heat and
+acrimony, leading possibly to a new series of wars; and that foreign
+powers, whilst we continued in a state at once burdened and distracted,
+must at length obtain a decided superiority over us. On what part of his
+late publication, or on what expression that might have escaped him in
+that work, is any man authorized to charge Mr. Burke with a
+contradiction to the line of his conduct and to the current of his
+doctrines on the American war? The pamphlet is in the hands of his
+accusers: let them point out the passage, if they can.
+
+Indeed, the author has been well sifted and scrutinized by his friends.
+He is even called to an account for every jocular and light expression.
+A ludicrous picture which he made with regard to a passage in the speech
+of a late minister[10] has been brought up against him. That passage
+contained a lamentation for the loss of monarchy to the Americans, after
+they had separated from Great Britain. He thought it to be unseasonable,
+ill-judged, and ill-sorted with the circumstances of all the parties.
+Mr. Burke, it seems, considered it ridiculous to lament the loss of some
+monarch or other to a rebel people, at the moment they had forever
+quitted their allegiance to theirs and our sovereign, at the time when
+they had broken off all connection with this nation and had allied
+themselves with its enemies. He certainly must have thought it open to
+ridicule; and now that it is recalled to his memory, (he had, I believe,
+wholly forgotten the circumstance,) he recollects that he did treat it
+with some levity. But is it a fair inference from a jest on this
+unseasonable lamentation, that he was then an enemy to monarchy, either
+in this or in any other country? The contrary perhaps ought to be
+inferred,--if anything at all can be argued from pleasantries good or
+bad. Is it for this reason, or for anything he has said or done relative
+to the American war, that he is to enter into an alliance offensive and
+defensive with every rebellion, in every country, under every
+circumstance, and raised upon whatever pretence? Is it because he did
+not wish the Americans to be subdued by arms, that he must be
+inconsistent with himself, if he reprobates the conduct of those
+societies in England, who, alleging no one act of tyranny or oppression,
+and complaining of no hostile attempt against our ancient laws, rights,
+and usages, are now endeavoring to work the destruction of the crown of
+this kingdom, and the whole of its Constitution? Is he obliged, from the
+concessions he wished to be made to the colonies, to keep any terms with
+those clubs and federations who hold out to us, as a pattern for
+imitation, the proceedings in France, in which a king, who had
+voluntarily and formally divested himself of the right of taxation, and
+of all other species of arbitrary power, has been dethroned? Is it
+because Mr. Burke wished to have America rather conciliated than
+vanquished, that he must wish well to the army of republics which are
+set up in France,--a country wherein not the people, but the monarch,
+was wholly on the defensive, (a poor, indeed, and feeble defensive,) to
+preserve _some fragments_ of the royal authority against a determined
+and desperate body of conspirators, whose object it was, with whatever
+certainty of crimes, with whatever hazard of war, and every other
+species of calamity, to annihilate the _whole_ of that authority, to
+level all ranks, orders, and distinctions in the state, and utterly to
+destroy property, not more by their acts than in their principles?
+
+Mr. Burke has been also reproached with an inconsistency between his
+late writings and his former conduct, because he had proposed in
+Parliament several economical, leading to several constitutional
+reforms. Mr. Burke thought, with a majority of the House of Commons,
+that the influence of the crown at one time was too great; but after his
+Majesty had, by a gracious message, and several subsequent acts of
+Parliament, reduced it to a standard which satisfied Mr. Fox himself,
+and, apparently at least, contented whoever wished to go farthest in
+that reduction, is Mr. Burke to allow that it would be right for us to
+proceed to indefinite lengths upon that subject? that it would therefore
+be justifiable in a people owing allegiance to a monarchy, and
+professing to maintain it, not to _reduce_, but wholly to _take away
+all_ prerogative and _all_ influence whatsoever? Must his having made,
+in virtue of a plan of economical regulation, a reduction of the
+influence of the crown compel him to allow that it would be right in the
+French or in us to bring a king to so abject a state as in function not
+to be so respectable as an under-sheriff, but in person not to differ
+from the condition of a mere prisoner? One would think that such a thing
+as a medium had never been heard of in the moral world.
+
+This mode of arguing from your having done _any_ thing in a certain line
+to the necessity of doing _every_ thing has political consequences of
+other moment than those of a logical fallacy. If no man can propose any
+diminution or modification of an invidious or dangerous power or
+influence in government, without entitling friends turned into
+adversaries to argue him into the destruction of all prerogative, and to
+a spoliation of the whole patronage of royalty, I do not know what can
+more effectually deter persons of sober minds from engaging in any
+reform, nor how the worst enemies to the liberty of the subject could
+contrive any method more fit to bring all correctives on the power of
+the crown into suspicion and disrepute.
+
+If, say his accusers, the dread of too great influence in the crown of
+Great Britain could justify the degree of reform which he adopted, the
+dread of a return under the despotism of a monarchy might justify the
+people of France in going much further, and reducing monarchy to its
+present nothing.--Mr. Burke does not allow that a sufficient argument
+_ad hominem_ is inferable from these premises. If the horror of the
+excesses of an absolute monarchy furnishes a reason for abolishing it,
+no monarchy once absolute (all have been so at one period or other)
+could ever be limited. It must be destroyed; otherwise no way could be
+found to quiet the fears of those who were formerly subjected to that
+sway. But the principle of Mr. Burke's proceeding ought to lead him to a
+very different conclusion,--to this conclusion,--that a monarchy is a
+thing perfectly susceptible of reform, perfectly susceptible of a
+balance of power, and that, when reformed and balanced, for a great
+country it is the best of all governments. The example of our country
+might have led France, as it has led him, to perceive that monarchy is
+not only reconcilable to liberty, but that it may be rendered a great
+and stable security to its perpetual enjoyment. No correctives which he
+proposed to the power of the crown could lead him to approve of a plan
+of a republic (if so it may be reputed) which has no correctives, and
+which he believes to be incapable of admitting any. No principle of Mr.
+Burke's conduct or writings obliged him from consistency to become an
+advocate for an exchange of mischiefs; no principle of his could compel
+him to justify the setting up in the place of a mitigated monarchy a new
+and far more despotic power, under which there is no trace of liberty,
+except what appears in confusion and in crime.
+
+Mr. Burke does not admit that the faction predominant in France have
+abolished their monarchy, and the orders of their state, from any dread
+of arbitrary power that lay heavy on the minds of the people. It is not
+very long since he has been in that country. Whilst there he conversed
+with many descriptions of its inhabitants. A few persons of rank did, he
+allows, discover strong and manifest tokens of such a spirit of liberty
+as might be expected one day to break all bounds. Such gentlemen have
+since had more reason to repent of their want of foresight than I hope
+any of the same class will ever have in this country. But this spirit
+was far from general, even amongst the gentlemen. As to the lower
+orders, and those little above them, in whose name the present powers
+domineer, they were far from discovering any sort of dissatisfaction
+with the power and prerogatives of the crown. That vain people were
+rather proud of them: they rather despised the English for not having a
+monarch possessed of such high and perfect authority. _They_ had felt
+nothing from _lettres de cachet_. The Bastile could inspire no horrors
+into _them_. This was a treat for their betters. It was by art and
+impulse, it was by the sinister use made of a season of scarcity, it was
+under an infinitely diversified succession of wicked pretences wholly
+foreign to the question of monarchy or aristocracy, that this light
+people were inspired with their present spirit of levelling. Their old
+vanity was led by art to take another turn: it was dazzled and seduced
+by military liveries, cockades, and epaulets, until the French populace
+was led to become the willing, but still the proud and thoughtless,
+instrument and victim of another domination. Neither did that people
+despise or hate or fear their nobility: on the contrary, they valued
+themselves on the generous qualities which distinguished the chiefs of
+their nation.
+
+So far as to the attack on Mr. Burke in consequence of his reforms.
+
+To show that he has in his last publication abandoned those principles
+of liberty which have given energy to his youth, and in spite of his
+censors will afford repose and consolation to his declining age, those
+who have thought proper in Parliament to declare against his book ought
+to have produced something in it which directly or indirectly militates
+with any rational plan of free government. It is something
+extraordinary, that they whose memories have so well served them with
+regard to light and ludicrous expressions, which years had consigned to
+oblivion, should not have been able to quote a single passage in a piece
+so lately published, which contradicts anything he has formerly ever
+said in a style either ludicrous or serious. They quote his former
+speeches and his former votes, but not one syllable from the book. It is
+only by a collation of the one with the other that the alleged
+inconsistency can be established. But as they are unable to cite any
+such contradictory passage, so neither can they show anything in the
+general tendency and spirit of the whole work unfavorable to a rational
+and generous spirit of liberty; unless a warm opposition to the spirit
+of levelling, to the spirit of impiety, to the spirit of proscription,
+plunder, murder, and cannibalism, be adverse to the true principles of
+freedom.
+
+The author of that book is supposed to have passed from extreme to
+extreme; but he has always kept himself in a medium. This charge is not
+so wonderful. It is in the nature of things, that they who are in the
+centre of a circle should appear directly opposed to those who view them
+from any part of the circumference. In that middle point, however, he
+will still remain, though he may hear people who themselves run beyond
+Aurora and the Ganges cry out that he is at the extremity of the West.
+
+In the same debate Mr. Burke was represented by Mr. Fox as arguing in a
+manner which implied that the British Constitution could not be
+defended, but by abusing all republics ancient and modern. He said
+nothing to give the least ground for such a censure. He never abused all
+republics. He has never professed himself a friend or an enemy to
+republics or to monarchies in the abstract. He thought that the
+circumstances and habits of every country, which it is always perilous
+and productive of the greatest calamities to force, are to decide upon
+the form of its government. There is nothing in his nature, his temper,
+or his faculties which should make him an enemy to any republic, modern
+or ancient. Far from it. He has studied the form and spirit of republics
+very early in life; he has studied them with great attention, and with a
+mind undisturbed by affection or prejudice. He is, indeed, convinced
+that the science of government would be poorly cultivated without that
+study. But the result in his mind from that investigation has been and
+is, that neither England nor France, without infinite detriment to them,
+as well in the event as in the experiment, could be brought into a
+republican form; but that everything republican which can be introduced
+with safety into either of them must be built upon a monarchy,--built
+upon a real, not a nominal monarchy, _as its essential basis_; that all
+such institutions, whether aristocratic or democratic, must originate
+from their crown, and in all their proceedings must refer to it; that by
+the energy of that mainspring alone those republican parts must be set
+in action, and from thence must derive their whole legal effect, (as
+amongst us they actually do,) or the whole will fall into confusion.
+These republican members have no other point but the crown in which they
+can possibly unite.
+
+This is the opinion expressed in Mr. Burke's book. He has never varied
+in that opinion since he came to years of discretion. But surely, if at
+any time of his life he had entertained other notions, (which, however,
+he has never held or professed to hold,) the horrible calamities brought
+upon a great people by the wild attempt to force their country into a
+republic might be more than sufficient to undeceive his understanding,
+and to free it forever from such destructive fancies. He is certain that
+many, even in France, have been made sick of their theories by their
+very success in realizing them.
+
+To fortify the imputation of a desertion from his principles, his
+constant attempts to reform abuses have been brought forward. It is
+true, it has been the business of his strength to reform abuses in
+government, and his last feeble efforts are employed in a struggle
+against them. Politically he has lived in that element; politically he
+will die in it. Before he departs, I will admit for him that he deserves
+to have all his titles of merit brought forth, as they have been, for
+grounds of condemnation, if one word justifying or supporting abuses of
+any sort is to be found in that book which has kindled so much
+indignation in the mind of a great man. On the contrary, it spares no
+existing abuse. Its very purpose is to make war with abuses,--not,
+indeed, to make war with the dead, but with those which live, and
+flourish, and reign.
+
+The _purpose_ for which the abuses of government are brought into view
+forms a very material consideration in the mode of treating them. The
+complaints of a friend are things very different from the invectives of
+an enemy. The charge of abuses on the late monarchy of France was not
+intended to lead to its reformation, but to justify its destruction.
+They who have raked into all history for the faults of kings, and who
+have aggravated every fault they have found, have acted consistently,
+because they acted as enemies. No man can be a friend to a tempered
+monarchy who bears a decided hatred to monarchy itself. He, who, at the
+present time, is favorable or even fair to that system, must act towards
+it as towards a friend with frailties who is under the prosecution of
+implacable foes. I think it a duty, in that case, not to inflame the
+public mind against the obnoxious person by any exaggeration of his
+faults. It is our duty rather to palliate his errors and defects, or to
+cast them into the shade, and industriously to bring forward any good
+qualities that he may happen to possess. But when the man is to be
+amended, and by amendment to be preserved, then the line of duty takes
+another direction. When his safety is effectually provided for, it then
+becomes the office of a friend to urge his faults and vices with all the
+energy of enlightened affection, to paint them in their most vivid
+colors, and to bring the moral patient to a better habit. Thus I think
+with regard to individuals; thus I think with regard to ancient and
+respected governments and orders of men. A spirit of reformation is
+never more consistent with itself than when it refuses to be rendered
+the means of destruction.
+
+I suppose that enough is said upon these heads of accusation. One more I
+had nearly forgotten, but I shall soon dispatch it. The author of the
+Reflections, in the opening of the last Parliament, entered on the
+journals of the House of Commons a motion for a remonstrance to the
+crown, which is substantially a defence of the preceding Parliament,
+that had been dissolved under displeasure. It is a defence of Mr. Fox.
+It is a defence of the Whigs. By what connection of argument, by what
+association of ideas, this apology for Mr. Fox and his party is by him
+and them brought to criminate his and their apologist, I cannot easily
+divine. It is true that Mr. Burke received no previous encouragement
+from Mr. Fox, nor any the least countenance or support, at the time when
+the motion was made, from him or from any gentleman of the party,--one
+only excepted, from whose friendship, on that and on other occasions, he
+derives an honor to which he must be dull indeed to be insensible.[11]
+If that remonstrance, therefore, was a false or feeble defence of the
+measures of the party, they were in no wise affected by it. It stands on
+the journals. This secures to it a permanence which the author cannot
+expect to any other work of his. Let it speak for itself to the present
+age and to all posterity. The party had no concern in it; and it can
+never be quoted against them. But in the late debate it was produced,
+not to clear the party from an improper defence in which they had no
+share, but for the kind purpose of insinuating an inconsistency between
+the principles of Mr. Burke's defence of the dissolved Parliament and
+those on which he proceeded in his late Reflections on France.
+
+It requires great ingenuity to make out such a parallel between the two
+cases as to found a charge of inconsistency in the principles assumed in
+arguing the one and the other. What relation had Mr. Fox's India Bill to
+the Constitution of France? What relation had that Constitution to the
+question of right in an House of Commons to give or to withhold its
+confidence from ministers, and to state that opinion to the crown? What
+had this discussion to do with Mr. Burke's idea in 1784 of the ill
+consequences which must in the end arise to the crown from setting up
+the commons at large as an opposite interest to the commons in
+Parliament? What has this discussion to do with a recorded warning to
+the people of their rashly forming a precipitate judgment against their
+representatives? What had Mr. Burke's opinion of the danger of
+introducing new theoretic language, unknown to the records of the
+kingdom, and calculated to excite vexatious questions, into a
+Parliamentary proceeding, to do with the French Assembly, which defies
+all precedent, and places its whole glory in realizing what had been
+thought the most visionary theories? What had this in common with the
+abolition of the French monarchy, or with the principles upon which the
+English Revolution was justified,--a Revolution in which Parliament, in
+all its acts and all its declarations, religiously adheres to "the form
+of sound words," without excluding from private discussions such terms
+of art as may serve to conduct an inquiry for which none but private
+persons are responsible? These were the topics of Mr. Burke's proposed
+remonstrance; all of which topics suppose the existence and mutual
+relation of our three estates,--as well as the relation of the East
+India Company to the crown, to Parliament, and to the peculiar laws,
+rights, and usages of the people of Hindostan. What reference, I say,
+had these topics to the Constitution of France, in which there is no
+king, no lords, no commons, no India Company to injure or support, no
+Indian empire to govern or oppress? What relation had all or any of
+these, or any question which could arise between the prerogatives of the
+crown and the privileges of Parliament, with the censure of those
+factious persons in Great Britain whom Mr. Burke states to be engaged,
+not in favor of privilege against prerogative, or of prerogative against
+privilege, but in an open attempt against our crown and our Parliament,
+against our Constitution in Church and State, against all the parts and
+orders which compose the one and the other?
+
+No persons were more fiercely active against Mr. Fox, and against the
+measures of the House of Commons dissolved in 1784, which Mr. Burke
+defends in that remonstrance, than several of those revolution-makers
+whom Mr. Burke condemns alike in his remonstrance and in his book. These
+revolutionists, indeed, may be well thought to vary in their conduct. He
+is, however, far from accusing them, in this variation, of the smallest
+degree of inconsistency. He is persuaded that they are totally
+indifferent at which end they begin the demolition of the Constitution.
+Some are for commencing their operations with the destruction of the
+civil powers, in order the better to pull down the ecclesiastical,--some
+wish to begin with the ecclesiastical, in order to facilitate the ruin
+of the civil; some would destroy the House of Commons through the crown,
+some the crown through the House of Commons, and some would overturn
+both the one and the other through what they call the people. But I
+believe that this injured writer will think it not at all inconsistent
+with his present duty or with his former life strenuously to oppose all
+the various partisans of destruction, let them begin where or when or
+how they will. No man would set his face more determinedly against those
+who should attempt to deprive them, or any description of men, of the
+rights they possess. No man would be more steady in preventing them from
+abusing those rights to the destruction of that happy order under which
+they enjoy them. As to their title to anything further, it ought to be
+grounded on the proof they give of the safety with which power may be
+trusted in their hands. When they attempt without disguise, not to win
+it from our affections, but to force it from our fears, they show, in
+the character of their means of obtaining it, the use they would make of
+their dominion. That writer is too well read in men not to know how
+often the desire and design of a tyrannic domination lurks in the claim
+of an extravagant liberty. Perhaps in the beginning it _always_ displays
+itself in that manner. No man has ever affected power which he did not
+hope from the favor of the existing government in any other mode.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The attacks on the author's consistency relative to France are (however
+grievous they may be to his feelings) in a great degree external to him
+and to us, and comparatively of little moment to the people of England.
+The substantial charge upon him is concerning his doctrines relative to
+the Revolution of 1688. Here it is that they who speak in the name of
+the party have thought proper to censure him the most loudly and with
+the greatest asperity. Here they fasten, and, if they are right in their
+fact, with sufficient judgment in their selection. If he be guilty in
+this point, he is equally blamable, whether he is consistent or not. If
+he endeavors to delude his countrymen by a false representation of the
+spirit of that leading event, and of the true nature and tenure of the
+government formed in consequence of it, he is deeply responsible, he is
+an enemy to the free Constitution of the kingdom. But he is not guilty
+in any sense. I maintain that in his Reflections he has stated the
+Revolution and the Settlement upon their true principles of legal reason
+and constitutional policy.
+
+His authorities are the acts and declarations of Parliament, given in
+their proper words. So far as these go, nothing can be added to what he
+has quoted. The question is, whether he has understood them rightly. I
+think they speak plain enough. But we must now see whether he proceeds
+with other authority than his own constructions, and, if he does, on
+what sort of authority he proceeds. In this part, his defence will not
+be made by argument, but by wager of law. He takes his compurgators, his
+vouchers, his guaranties, along with him. I know that he will not be
+satisfied with a justification proceeding on general reasons of policy.
+He must be defended on party grounds, too, or his cause is not so
+tenable as I wish it to appear. It must be made out for him not only
+that in his construction of these public acts and monuments he conforms
+himself to the rules of fair, legal, and logical interpretation, but it
+must be proved that his construction is in perfect harmony with that of
+the ancient Whigs, to whom, against the sentence of the modern, on his
+part, I here appeal.
+
+This July it will be twenty-six years[12] since he became connected with
+a man whose memory will ever be precious to Englishmen of all parties,
+as long as the ideas of honor and virtue, public and private, are
+understood and cherished in this nation. That memory will be kept alive
+with particular veneration by all rational and honorable Whigs. Mr.
+Burke entered into a connection with that party through that man, at an
+age far from raw and immature,--at those years when men are all they are
+ever likely to become,--when he was in the prime and vigor of his
+life,--when the powers of his understanding, according to their
+standard, were at the best, his memory exercised, his judgment formed,
+and his reading much fresher in the recollection and much readier in the
+application than now it is. He was at that time as likely as most men to
+know what were Whig and what were Tory principles. He was in a situation
+to discern what sort of Whig principles they entertained with whom it
+was his wish to form an eternal connection. Foolish he would have been
+at that time of life (more foolish than any man who undertakes a public
+trust would be thought) to adhere to a cause which he, amongst all those
+who were engaged in it, had the least sanguine hopes of as a road to
+power.
+
+There are who remember, that, on the removal of the Whigs in the year
+1766, he was as free to choose another connection as any man in the
+kingdom. To put himself out of the way of the negotiations which were
+then carrying on very eagerly and through many channels with the Earl of
+Chatham, he went to Ireland very soon after the change of ministry, and
+did not return until the meeting of Parliament. He was at that time free
+from anything which looked like an engagement. He was further free at
+the desire of his friends; for, the very day of his return, the Marquis
+of Rockingham wished him to accept an employment under the new system.
+He believes he might have had such a situation; but again he cheerfully
+took his fate with the party.
+
+It would be a serious imputation upon the prudence of my friend, to have
+made even such trivial sacrifices as it was in his power to make for
+principles which he did not truly embrace or did not perfectly
+understand. In either case the folly would have been great. The question
+now is, whether, when he first practically professed Whig principles, he
+understood what principles he professed, and whether in his book he has
+faithfully expressed them.
+
+When he entered into the Whig party, he did not conceive that they
+pretended to any discoveries. They did not affect to be better Whigs
+than those were who lived in the days in which principle was put to the
+test. Some of the Whigs of those days were then living. They were what
+the Whigs had been at the Revolution,--what they had been during the
+reign of Queen Anne,--what they had been at the accession of the present
+royal family.
+
+What they were at those periods is to be seen. It rarely happens to a
+party to have the opportunity of a clear, authentic, recorded
+declaration of their political tenets upon the subject of a great
+constitutional event like that of the Revolution. The Whigs had that
+opportunity,--or to speak more properly, they made it. The impeachment
+of Dr. Sacheverell was undertaken by a Whig ministry and a Whig House of
+Commons, and carried on before a prevalent and steady majority of Whig
+peers. It was carried on for the express purpose of stating the true
+grounds and principles of the Revolution,--what the Commons emphatically
+called their _foundation_. It was carried on for the purpose of
+condemning the principles on which the Revolution was first opposed and
+afterwards calumniated, in order, by a juridical sentence of the highest
+authority, to confirm and fix Whig principles, as they had operated both
+in the resistance to King James and in the subsequent settlement, and to
+fix them in the extent and with the limitations with which it was meant
+they should be understood by posterity. The ministers and managers for
+the Commons were persons who had, many of them, an active share in the
+Revolution. Most of them had seen it at an age capable of reflection.
+The grand event, and all the discussions which led to it and followed
+it, were then alive in the memory and conversation of all men. The
+managers for the Commons must be supposed to have spoken on that subject
+the prevalent ideas of the leading party in the Commons, and of the Whig
+ministry. Undoubtedly they spoke also their own private opinions; and
+the private opinions of such men are not without weight. They were not
+_umbratiles doctores_, men who had studied a free Constitution only in
+its anatomy and upon dead systems. They knew it alive and in action.
+
+In this proceeding the Whig principles, as applied to the Revolution and
+Settlement, are to be found, or they are to be found nowhere. I wish the
+Whig readers of this Appeal first to turn to Mr. Burke's Reflections,
+from page 20 to page 50,[13] and then to attend to the following
+extracts from the trial of Dr. Sacheverell. After this, they will
+consider two things: first, whether the doctrine in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections be consonant to that of the Whigs of that period; and,
+secondly, whether they choose to abandon the principles which belonged
+to the progenitors of some of them, and to the predecessors of them all,
+and to learn new principles of Whiggism, imported from France, and
+disseminated in this country from Dissenting pulpits, from Federation
+societies, and from the pamphlets, which (as containing the political
+creed of those synods) are industriously circulated in all parts of the
+two kingdoms. This is their affair, and they will make their option.
+
+These new Whigs hold that the sovereignty, whether exercised by one or
+many, did not only originate _from_ the people, (a position not denied
+nor worth denying or assenting to,) but that in the people the same
+sovereignty constantly and unalienably resides; that the people may
+lawfully depose kings, not only for misconduct, but without any
+misconduct at all; that they may set up any new fashion of government
+for themselves, or continue without any government, at their pleasure;
+that the people are essentially their own rule, and their will the
+measure of their conduct; that the tenure of magistracy is not a proper
+subject of contract, because magistrates have duties, but no rights;
+and that, if a contract _de facto_ is made with them in one age,
+allowing that it binds at all, it only binds those who are immediately
+concerned in it, but does not pass to posterity. These doctrines
+concerning _the people_ (a term which they are far from accurately
+defining, but by which, from many circumstances, it is plain enough they
+mean their own faction, if they should grow, by early arming, by
+treachery, or violence, into the prevailing force) tend, in my opinion,
+to the utter subversion, not only of all government, in all modes, and
+to all stable securities to rational freedom, but to all the rules and
+principles of morality itself.
+
+I assert that the ancient Whigs held doctrines totally different from
+those I have last mentioned. I assert, that the foundations laid down by
+the Commons, on the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, for justifying the
+Revolution of 1688, are the very same laid down in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections,--that is to say, a breach of the _original contrast_,
+implied and expressed in the Constitution of this country, as a scheme
+of government fundamentally and inviolably fixed in King, Lords, and
+Commons;--that the fundamental subversion of this ancient Constitution,
+by one of its parts, having been attempted, and in effect accomplished,
+justified the Revolution;--that it was justified _only_ upon the
+_necessity_ of the case, as the _only_ means left for the recovery of
+that _ancient_ Constitution formed by the _original contract_ of the
+British state, as well as for the future preservation of the _same_
+government. These are the points to be proved.
+
+A general opening to the charge against Dr. Sacheverell was made by the
+attorney-general, Sir John Montague; but as there is nothing in that
+opening speech which tends very accurately to settle the principle upon
+which the Whigs proceeded in the prosecution, (the plan of the speech
+not requiring it,) I proceed to that of Mr. Lechmere, the manager, who
+spoke next after him. The following are extracts, given, not in the
+exact order in which they stand in the printed trial, but in that which
+is thought most fit to bring the ideas of the Whig Commons distinctly
+under our view.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Lechmere_[14]
+
+"It becomes an _indispensable_ duty upon us, who appear in the name and
+on the behalf of all the commons of Great Britain, not only to demand
+your Lordships' justice on such a criminal, [Dr. Sacheverell,] _but
+clearly and openly to assert our foundations_."
+
+[Sidenote: That the terms of our Constitution imply and express an
+original contract.]
+
+[Sidenote: That the contract is mutual consent, and binding at all times
+upon the parties.]
+
+[Sidenote: The mixed Constitution uniformly preserved for many ages, and
+is a proof of the contract.]
+
+"The nature of our Constitution is that of a _limited monarchy_, wherein
+the supreme power is communicated and divided between Queen, Lords, and
+Commons, though the executive power and administration be wholly in the
+crown. The terms of such a Constitution do not only suppose, but
+express, an original contract between the crown and the people, by which
+that supreme power was (by mutual consent, and not by accident) limited
+and lodged in more hands than one. And _the uniform preservation of such
+a Constitution for so many ages, without any fundamental change,
+demonstrates to your Lordships the continuance of the same contract_.
+
+[Sidenote: Laws the common measure to King and subject.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case of fundamental injury, and breach of original contract.]
+
+"The consequences of such a frame of government are obvious: That the
+_laws_ are the rule to both, the common measure of the power of the
+crown and of the obedience of the subject; and if the executive part
+endeavors the _subversion and total destruction of the government_, the
+original contract is thereby broke, and the right of allegiance ceases
+that part of the government thus _fundamentally_ injured hath a right to
+save or recover _that_ Constitution in which it had an original
+interest."
+
+[Sidenote: Words _necessary means_ selected with caution.]
+
+"_The necessary means_ (which is the phrase used by the Commons in their
+first article) words made choice of by them _with the greatest caution_.
+Those means are described (in the preamble to their charge) to be, that
+glorious enterprise which his late Majesty undertook, with an armed
+force, to deliver this kingdom from Popery and arbitrary power; the
+concurrence of many subjects of the realm, who came over with him in
+that enterprise, and of many others, of _all ranks and orders_, who
+appeared in arms in many parts of the kingdom in aid of that enterprise.
+
+"These were the _means_ that brought about the Revolution; and which the
+act that passed soon after, _declaring the rights and liberties of the
+subject, and settling the succession of the crown_, intends, when his
+late Majesty is therein called _the glorious instrument of delivering
+the kingdom_; and which the Commons, in the last part of their first
+article, express by the word _resistance_.
+
+[Sidenote: Regard of the Commons to their allegiance to the crown, and
+to the ancient Constitution.]
+
+"But the Commons, who will never be unmindful of the _allegiance_ of the
+subjects to the _crown_ of this realm, judged it highly incumbent upon
+them, out of regard to the _safety of her Majesty's person and
+government, and the ancient and legal Constitution of this kingdom_, to
+call that resistance the _necessary_ means; thereby plainly founding
+that power, of right and resistance, which was exercised by the people
+at the time of the happy Revolution, and which the duties of
+_self-preservation_ and religion called them to, _upon the NECESSITY of
+the case, and at the same time effectually securing her Majesty's
+government, and the due allegiance of all her subjects_."
+
+[Sidenote: All ages have the same interest in preservation of the
+contract, and the same Constitution.]
+
+"The nature of such an _original contract_ of government proves that
+there is not only a power in the people, who have _inherited its
+freedom_, to assert their own title to it, but they are bound in duty to
+transmit the _same_ Constitution to their posterity also."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Lechmere made a second speech. Notwithstanding the clear and
+satisfactory manner in which he delivered himself in his first, upon
+this arduous question, he thinks himself bound again distinctly to
+assert the same foundation, and to justify the Revolution on _the case
+of necessity only_, upon principles perfectly coinciding with those laid
+down in Mr. Burke's letter on the French affairs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Lechmere._
+
+[Sidenote: The Commons strictly confine their ideas of a revolution to
+necessity alone and self-defence.]
+
+[Sidenote A: N.B. The remark implies, that allegiance would be insecure
+without this restriction.]
+
+"Your Lordships were acquainted, in opening the charge, with how _great
+caution_, and with what unfeigned regard to her Majesty and her
+government, and to the _duty and allegiance_ of her subjects, the
+Commons made choice of the words _necessary means_ to express the
+resistance that was made use of to bring about the Revolution, and with
+the condemning of which the Doctor is charged by this article: not
+doubting but that the honor and justice of that resistance, _from the
+necessity of that case, and to which alone we have strictly confined
+ourselves_, when duly considered, would confirm and strengthen[A] and be
+understood to be an effectual security of the allegiance of the subject
+to the crown of this realm, _in every other case where there is not the
+same necessity_; and that the right of the people to _self-defence, and
+preservation of their liberties, by resistance as their last remedy, is
+the result of a case of such NECESSITY ONLY, and by which the ORIGINAL
+CONTRACT between king and people is broke. This was the principle laid
+down and carried through all that was said with respect to ALLEGIANCE;
+and on WHICH FOUNDATION, in the name and on the behalf of all the
+commons of Great Britain, we assert and justify that resistance by which
+the late happy Revolution was brought about_."
+
+"It appears to your Lordships and the world, that _breaking the original
+contract between king and people_ were the words made choice of by that
+House of Commons," (the House of Commons which originated the
+Declaration of Right,) "with the _greatest deliberation and judgment_,
+and approved of by your Lordships, in that first and fundamental step
+made towards the _re-establishment of the government_, which had
+received so great a shock from the evil counsels which had been given to
+that unfortunate prince."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir John Hawles, another of the managers, follows the steps of his
+brethren, positively affirming the doctrine of non-resistance to
+government to be the general moral, religious, and political rule for
+the subject, and justifying the Revolution on the same principle with
+Mr. Burke,--that is, as _an exception from necessity_. Indeed, he
+carries the doctrine on the general idea of non-resistance much further
+than Mr. Burke has done, and full as far as it can perhaps be supported
+by any duty of _perfect obligation_, however noble and heroic it may be
+in many cases to suffer death rather than disturb the tranquillity of
+our country.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir John Hawles._[15]
+
+"Certainly it must be granted, that the doctrine that commands obedience
+to the supreme power, _though in things contrary to Nature_, even to
+suffer death, which is the highest injustice that can be done a man,
+rather than make an opposition to the supreme power [is reasonable[16]],
+because the death of one or some few private persons is a less evil than
+_disturbing the whole government_; that law must needs be understood to
+forbid the doing or saying anything to disturb the government, the
+rather because the obeying that law cannot be pretended to be against
+Nature: and the Doctor's refusing to obey that implicit law is the
+reason for which he is now prosecuted; though he would have it believed
+that the reason he is now prosecuted was for the doctrine he asserted of
+obedience to the supreme power; which he might have preached as long as
+he had pleased, and the Commons would have taken no offence at it, if
+he had stopped there, and not have taken upon him, on that pretence or
+occasion, to have cast odious colors upon the Revolution."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+General Stanhope was among the managers. He begins his speech by a
+reference to the opinion of his fellow-managers, which he hoped had put
+beyond all doubt the limits and qualifications that the Commons had
+placed to their doctrines concerning the Revolution; yet, not satisfied
+with this general reference, after condemning the principle of
+non-resistance, which is asserted in the sermon _without any exception_,
+and stating, that, under the specious pretence of preaching a peaceable
+doctrine, Sacheverell and the Jacobites meant, in reality, to excite a
+rebellion in favor of the Pretender, he explicitly limits his ideas of
+resistance with the boundaries laid down by his colleagues, and by Mr.
+Burke.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_General Stanhope._
+
+[Sidenote: Rights of the subject and the crown equally legal.]
+
+"The Constitution of England is founded upon _compact_; and the subjects
+of this kingdom have, in their several public and private capacities,
+_as_ legal a title to what are their rights by law _as_ a prince to the
+possession of his crown.
+
+[Sidenote: Justice of resistance founded on necessity.]
+
+"Your Lordships, and most that hear me, are witnesses, and must remember
+the _necessities_ of those times which brought about the Revolution:
+that _no other_ remedy was left to preserve our religion and liberties;
+_that resistance was_ necessary, _and consequently just_."
+
+"Had the Doctor, in the remaining part of his sermon, preached up peace,
+quietness, and the like, and shown how happy we are under her Majesty's
+administration, and exhorted obedience to it, he had never been called
+to answer a charge at your Lordships' bar. But the tenor of all his
+subsequent discourse is one continued invective against the government."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Walpole (afterwards Sir Robert) was one of the managers on this
+occasion. He was an honorable man and a sound Whig. He was not, as the
+Jacobites and discontented Whigs of his time have represented him, and
+as ill-informed people still represent him, a prodigal and corrupt
+minister. They charged him, in their libels and seditious conversations,
+as having first reduced corruption to a system. Such was their cant. But
+he was far from governing by corruption. He governed by party
+attachments. The charge of systematic corruption is less applicable to
+him, perhaps, than to any minister who ever served the crown for so
+great a length of time. He gained over very few from the opposition.
+Without being a genius of the first class, he was an intelligent,
+prudent, and safe minister. He loved peace, and he helped to communicate
+the same disposition to nations at least as warlike and restless as that
+in which he had the chief direction of affairs. Though he served a
+master who was fond of martial fame, he kept all the establishments very
+low. The land tax continued at two shillings in the pound for the
+greater part of his administration. The other impositions were moderate.
+The profound repose, the equal liberty, the firm protection of just
+laws, during the long period of his power, were the principal causes of
+that prosperity which afterwards took such rapid strides towards
+perfection, and which furnished to this nation ability to acquire the
+military glory which it has since obtained, as well as to bear the
+burdens, the cause and consequence of that warlike reputation. With many
+virtues, public and private, he had his faults; but his faults were
+superficial. A careless, coarse, and over-familiar style of discourse,
+without sufficient regard to persons or occasions, and an almost total
+want of political decorum, were the errors by which he was most hurt in
+the public opinion, and those through which his enemies obtained the
+greatest advantage over him. But justice must be done. The prudence,
+steadiness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the greatest possible
+lenity in his character and his politics, preserved the crown to this
+royal family, and, with it, their laws and liberties to this country.
+Walpole had no other plan of defence for the Revolution than that of the
+other managers, and of Mr. Burke; and he gives full as little
+countenance to any arbitrary attempts, on the part of restless and
+factious men, for framing new governments according to their fancies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Walpole_.
+
+[Sidenote: Case of resistance out of the law, and the highest offence.]
+
+[Sidenote: Utmost necessity justifies it.]
+
+"Resistance is nowhere enacted to be legal, but subjected, by all the
+laws now in being, to the greatest penalties. 'Tis what is not, cannot,
+nor ought ever to be described, or affirmed in any positive law, to be
+excusable; when, and upon what _never-to-be-expected_ occasions, it may
+be exercised, no man can foresee; _and ought never to be thought of, but
+when an utter subversion of the laws of the realm threatens the whole
+frame of a Constitution, and no redress can otherwise be hoped for_. It
+therefore does and _ought forever_ to stand, in the eye and letter of
+the law, as the _highest offence_. But because any man, or party of men,
+may not, out of folly or wantonness, commit treason, or make their own
+discontents, ill principles, or disguised affections to another
+interest, a pretence to resist the supreme power, will it follow from
+thence that the _utmost necessity_ ought not to engage a nation _in its
+own defence for the preservation of the whole_?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Joseph Jekyl was, as I have always heard and believed, as nearly as
+any individual could be, the very standard of Whig principles in his
+age. He was a learned and an able man; full of honor, integrity, and
+public spirit; no lover of innovation; nor disposed to change his solid
+principles for the giddy fashion of the hour. Let us hear this Whig.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: Commons do not state the limits of submission.]
+
+[Sidenote: To secure the laws, the only aim of the Revolution.]
+
+"In clearing up and vindicating the justice of the Revolution, which was
+the second thing proposed, it is far from the intent of the Commons to
+state the _limits and bounds_ of the subject's submission to the
+sovereign. That which the law hath been wisely silent in, the Commons
+desire to be silent in too; nor will they put _any_ case of a
+justifiable resistance, but that of the Revolution only: and _they
+persuade themselves that the doing right to that resistance will be so
+far from promoting popular license or confusion, that it will have a
+contrary effect, and be a means of settling men's minds in the love of
+and veneration for the laws_; to rescue and secure which was the _ONLY
+aim and intention of those concerned in that resistance_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dr. Sacheverell's counsel defended him on this principle, namely,--that,
+whilst he enforced from the pulpit the general doctrine of
+non-resistance, he was not obliged to take notice of the theoretic
+limits which ought to modify that doctrine. Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his
+reply, whilst he controverts its application to the Doctor's defence,
+fully admits and even enforces the principle itself, and supports the
+Revolution of 1688, as he and all the managers had done before, exactly
+upon the same grounds on which Mr. Burke has built, in his Reflections
+on the French Revolution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: Blamable to state the bounds of non-resistance.]
+
+[Sidenote: Resistance lawful only in _case_ of extreme and obvious
+necessity.]
+
+"If the Doctor had pretended to have stated the particular bounds and
+limits of non-resistance, and told the people in what cases they might
+or might not resist, _he would have been much to blame_; nor was one
+word said in the articles, or by the managers, as if that was expected
+from him; but, _on the contrary, we have insisted that in NO case can
+resistance be lawful, but in case of EXTREME NECESSITY, and where the
+Constitution can't otherwise be preserved; and such necessity ought to
+be plain and obvious to the sense and judgment of the whole nation: and
+this was the case at the Revolution_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The counsel for Doctor Sacheverell, in defending their client, were
+driven in reality to abandon the fundamental principles of his doctrine,
+and to confess that an exception to the general doctrine of passive
+obedience and non-resistance did exist in the case of the Revolution.
+This the managers for the Commons considered as having gained their
+cause, as their having obtained _the whole_ of what they contended for.
+They congratulated themselves and the nation on a civil victory as
+glorious and as honorable as any that had obtained in arms during that
+reign of triumphs.
+
+Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his reply to Harcourt, and the other great men who
+conducted the cause for the Tory side, spoke in the following memorable
+terms, distinctly stating the whole of what the Whig House of Commons
+contended for, in the name of all their constituents.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: Necessity creates an exception, and the Revolution a case of
+necessity, the utmost extent of the demand of the Commons.]
+
+"My Lords, the concessions" (the concessions of Sacheverell's counsel)
+"are these: That _necessity_ creates an _exception_ to the general rule
+of submission to the prince; that such exception is understood or
+implied in the laws that require such submission; and that _the case of
+the Revolution was a case of necessity._
+
+"These are concessions _so ample_, and do so _fully_ answer the drift of
+the Commons in this article, and are to _the utmost extent of their
+meaning in it_, that I can't forbear congratulating them upon this
+success of their impeachment,--that in full Parliament, this erroneous
+doctrine of _unlimited_ non-resistance is given up and disclaimed. And
+may it not, in after ages, be an addition to the glories of this bright
+reign, that so many of those who are honored with being in her Majesty's
+service have been at your Lordships' bar thus successfully contending
+for the _national_ rights of her people, and proving they are not
+precarious or remediless?
+
+"But to return to these concessions: I must appeal to your Lordships,
+whether they are not a _total departure_ from the Doctor's answer."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I now proceed to show that the Whig managers for the Commons meant to
+preserve the government on a firm foundation, by asserting the perpetual
+validity of the settlement then made, and its coercive power upon
+posterity. I mean to show that they gave no sort of countenance to any
+doctrine tending to impress the _people_ (taken separately from the
+legislature, which includes the crown) with an idea that _they_ had
+acquired a moral or civil competence to alter, without breach of the
+original compact on the part of the king, the succession to the crown,
+at their pleasure,--much less that they had acquired any right, in the
+case of such an event as caused the Revolution, to set up any new form
+of government. The author of the Reflections, I believe, thought that no
+man of common understanding could oppose to this doctrine the ordinary
+sovereign power as declared in the act of Queen Anne: that is, that the
+kings or queens of the realm, with the consent of Parliament, are
+competent to regulate and to settle the succession of the crown. This
+power is and ever was inherent in the supreme sovereignty, and was not,
+as the political divines vainly talk, acquired by the Revolution. It is
+declared in the old statute of Queen Elizabeth. Such a power must reside
+in the complete sovereignty of every kingdom; and it is in fact
+exercised in all of them. But this right of _competence_ in the
+legislature, not in the people, is by the legislature itself to be
+exercised with _sound discretion_: that is to say, it is to be exercised
+or not, in conformity to the fundamental principles of this government,
+to the rules of moral obligation, and to the faith of pacts, either
+contained in the nature of the transaction or entered into by the body
+corporate of the kingdom,--which body in juridical construction never
+dies, and in fact never loses its members at once by death.
+
+Whether this doctrine is reconcilable to the modern philosophy of
+government I believe the author neither knows nor cares, as he has
+little respect for any of that sort of philosophy. This may be because
+his capacity and knowledge do not reach to it. If such be the case, he
+cannot be blamed, if he acts on the sense of that incapacity; he cannot
+be blamed, if, in the most arduous and critical questions which can
+possibly arise, and which affect to the quick the vital parts of our
+Constitution, he takes the side which leans most to safety and
+settlement; that he is resolved not "to be wise beyond what is written"
+in the legislative record and practice; that, when doubts arise on them,
+he endeavors to interpret one statute by another, and to reconcile them
+all to established, recognized morals, and to the general, ancient,
+known policy of the laws of England. Two things are equally evident: the
+first is, that the legislature possesses the power of regulating the
+succession of the crown; the second, that in the exercise of that right
+it has uniformly acted as if under the _restraints_ which the author has
+stated. That author makes what the ancients call _mos majorum_ not
+indeed his sole, but certainly his principal rule of policy, to guide
+his judgment in whatever regards our laws. Uniformity and analogy can be
+preserved in them by this process only. That point being fixed, and
+laying fast hold of a strong bottom, our speculations may swing in all
+directions without public detriment, because they will ride with sure
+anchorage.
+
+In this manner these things have been always considered by our
+ancestors. There are some, indeed, who have the art of turning the very
+acts of Parliament which were made for securing the hereditary
+succession in the present royal family, by rendering it penal to doubt
+of the validity of those acts of Parliament, into an instrument for
+defeating all their ends and purposes,--but upon grounds so very foolish
+that it is not worth while to take further notice of such sophistry.
+
+To prevent any unnecessary subdivision, I shall here put together what
+may be necessary to show the perfect agreement of the Whigs with Mr.
+Burke in his assertions, that the Revolution made no "essential change
+in the constitution of the monarchy, or in any of its ancient, sound,
+and legal principles; that the succession was settled in the Hanover
+family, upon the idea and in the mode of an hereditary succession
+qualified with Protestantism; that it was not settled upon _elective_
+principles, in any sense of the word _elective_, or under any
+modification or description of _election_ whatsoever; but, on the
+contrary, that the nation, after the Revolution, renewed by a fresh
+compact the spirit of the original compact of the state, binding itself,
+_both in its existing members and all its posterity_, to adhere to the
+settlement of an hereditary succession in the Protestant line, drawn
+from James the First, as the stock of inheritance."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir John Hawles_.
+
+[Sidenote: Necessity of settling the right of the crown, and submission
+to the settlement.]
+
+"If he [Dr. Sacheverell] is of the opinion he pretends, I can't imagine
+how it comes to pass that he that pays that deference to the supreme
+power has preached so directly contrary to the determinations of the
+supreme power in this government, he very well knowing that the
+lawfulness of the Revolution, and of the means whereby it was brought
+about, has already been determined by the aforesaid acts of
+Parliament,--and do it in the worst manner that he could invent. _For
+questioning the right to the crown here in England has procured the
+shedding of more blood and caused more slaughter than all the other
+matters tending to disturbances in the government put together._ If,
+therefore, the doctrine which the Apostles had laid down was only to
+continue the peace of the world, as thinking the death of some few
+particular persons better to be borne with than a civil war, sure it is
+the highest breach of that law to question the first principles of this
+government."
+
+"If the Doctor had been contented with the liberty he took of preaching
+up the duty of passive obedience in the most extensive manner he had
+thought fit, and would have stopped there, your Lordships would not have
+had the trouble in relation to him that you now have; but it is plain
+that he preached up his absolute and unconditional obedience, not _to
+continue the peace and tranquillity of this nation, but to set the
+subjects at strife, and to raise a war in the bowels of this nation_:
+and it is for _this_ that he is now prosecuted; though he would fain
+have it believed that the prosecution was for preaching the peaceable
+doctrine of absolute obedience."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl_.
+
+[Sidenote: Whole frame of government restored unhurt, on the
+Revolution.]
+
+"The whole tenor of the administration then in being was agreed to by
+all to be a _total departure from the Constitution_. The nation was at
+that time united in that opinion, all but the criminal part of it. And
+as the nation joined in the judgment of their disease, so they did in
+the remedy. _They saw there was no remedy left but the last;_ and when
+that remedy took place, _the whole frame of the government was restored
+entire and unhurt_.[17] This showed the excellent temper the nation was
+in at that time, that, after such provocations from an abuse of the
+regal power, and such a convulsion, _no one part of the Constitution was
+altered, or suffered the least damage; but, on the contrary, the whole
+received new life and vigor_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Tory counsel for Dr. Sacheverell having insinuated that a great and
+essential alteration in the Constitution had been wrought by the
+Revolution, Sir Joseph Jekyl is so strong on this point, that he takes
+fire even at the insinuation of his being of such an opinion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: No innovation at the Revolution.]
+
+"If the Doctor instructed his counsel to insinuate that there was _any
+innovation in the Constitution wrought by the Revolution, it is an
+addition to his crime. The Revolution did not introduce any innovation;
+it was a restoration of the ancient fundamental Constitution of the
+kingdom_, and giving it its proper force and energy."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre, distinguishes expressly the case
+of the Revolution, and its principles, from a proceeding at pleasure, on
+the part of the people, to change their ancient Constitution, and to
+frame a new government for themselves. He distinguishes it with the same
+care from the principles of regicide and republicanism, and the sorts of
+resistance condemned by the doctrines of the Church of England, and
+which ought to be condemned by the doctrines of all churches professing
+Christianity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre._
+
+[Sidenote: Revolution no precedent for voluntary cancelling allegiance.]
+
+[Sidenote: Revolution not like the case of Charles the First.]
+
+"The resistance at the Revolution, which was founded in _unavoidable
+necessity_, could be no defence to a man that was attacked _for
+asserting that the people might cancel their allegiance at pleasure, or
+dethrone and murder their sovereign by a judiciary sentence_. For it can
+never be inferred, from the lawfulness of resistance at a time when _a
+total subversion of the government both in Church and State was
+intended_, that a people may take up arms and _call their sovereign to
+account at pleasure_; and therefore, since _the Revolution could be of
+no service in giving the least color for asserting any such wicked
+principle_, the Doctor could never intend to put it into the mouths of
+those new preachers and new politicians for a defence,--unless it be his
+opinion that the resistance at the Revolution can bear any parallel with
+_the execrable murder of the royal martyr, so justly detested by the
+whole nation_."
+
+[Sidenote: Sacheverell's doctrine intended to bring an odium on the
+Revolution.]
+
+[Sidenote: True defence of the Revolution an absolute necessity.]
+
+"'Tis plain that the Doctor is not impeached for preaching a general
+doctrine, and enforcing the general duty of obedience, but for preaching
+against an _excepted case after he has stated the exception_. He is not
+impeached for preaching the general doctrine of obedience, and the utter
+illegality of resistance upon any pretence whatsoever, but because,
+having first laid down the general doctrine as true, without any
+exception, _he states the excepted case_, the Revolution, in express
+terms, as an objection, and then assumes the consideration of that
+excepted case, denies there was any resistance in the Revolution, and
+asserts that to impute resistance to the Revolution would cast black and
+odious colors upon it. This, my Lords, is not preaching the doctrine of
+non-resistance in the _general_ terms used by the Homilies and the
+fathers of the Church, where cases of necessity may be _understood to be
+excepted by a tacit implication, as the counsel have allowed_,--but is
+preaching directly against the resistance at the Revolution, which, in
+the course of this debate, has been all along admitted to _be necessary
+and just_, and can have no other meaning than to bring a dishonor upon
+the Revolution, and an odium upon those great and illustrious persons,
+_those friends to the monarchy and the Church, that assisted in bringing
+it about_. For had the Doctor intended anything else, he would have
+treated the case of the Revolution in a different manner, and have
+given _it the true and fair answer_: he would have said that the
+resistance at the Revolution was _of absolute necessity, and the only
+means left to revive the Constitution, and must be therefore taken as an
+excepted case_, and could never come within the reach or intention of
+the general doctrine of the Church."
+
+"Your Lordships take notice on what grounds the Doctor continues to
+assert the same position in his answer. But is it not most evident that
+the general exhortations to be met with in the Homilies of the Church of
+England, and such like declarations in the statutes of the kingdom, are
+meant only as rules for the civil obedience of the subject to the legal
+administration of the supreme power in _ordinary cases_? And it is
+equally absurd to construe any words in a positive law to authorize the
+destruction of the whole, as to expect that King, Lords, and Commons
+should, in express terms of law, declare _such an ultimate resort as the
+right of resistance, at a time when the case supposes that the force of
+all law is ceased_."[18]
+
+[Sidenote: Commons abhor whatever shakes the submission of posterity to
+the settlement of the crown.]
+
+"The Commons must always resent, with the utmost detestation and
+abhorrence, every position that may shake the authority of that act of
+Parliament whereby the crown is settled upon her Majesty, _and whereby
+the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do, in the name of all the
+people of England, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their
+heirs and posterities, to her Majesty_, which this general principle of
+absolute non-resistance must certainly shake.
+
+"For, if the resistance at the Revolution was illegal, the Revolution
+settled in usurpation, and this act can have no greater force and
+authority than an act passed under a usurper.
+
+"And the Commons take leave to observe, that the authority of this
+Parliamentary settlement is a matter of the greatest consequence to
+maintain, in a case where the hereditary right to the crown is
+contested."
+
+"It appears by the several instances mentioned in the act declaring the
+rights and liberties of the subject and settling the succession of the
+crown, that at the time of the Revolution there was _a total subversion
+of the constitution of government both in Church and State, which is a
+case that the laws of England could never suppose, provide for, or have
+in view._"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Joseph Jekyl, so often quoted, considered the preservation of the
+monarchy, and of the rights and prerogatives of the crown, as essential
+objects with all sound Whigs, and that they were bound not only to
+maintain them, when injured or invaded, but to exert themselves as much
+for their reestablishment, if they should happen to be overthrown by
+popular fury, as any of their own more immediate and popular rights and
+privileges, if the latter should be at any time subverted by the crown.
+For this reason he puts the cases of the _Revolution_, and the
+_Restoration_ exactly upon the same footing. He plainly marks, that it
+was the object of all honest men not to sacrifice one part of the
+Constitution to another, and much more, not to sacrifice any of them to
+visionary theories of the rights of man, but to preserve our whole
+inheritance in the Constitution, in all its members and all its
+relations, entire and unimpaired, from generation to generation. In this
+Mr. Burke exactly agrees with him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
+
+[Sidenote: What are the rights of the people.]
+
+[Sidenote: Restoration and Revolution.]
+
+[Sidenote: People have an equal interest in the legal rights of the
+crown and of their own.]
+
+"Nothing is plainer than that the people have a right to the laws and
+the Constitution. This right the nation hath asserted, and recovered out
+of the hands of those who had dispossessed them of it at several times.
+There are of this _two famous instances_ in the knowledge of the present
+age: I mean that of the _Restoration_, and that of the _Revolution_: in
+both these great events were the _regal power_ and the _rights of the
+people_ recovered. And it is _hard to say in which the people have the
+greatest interest; for the Commons are sensible that there it not one
+legal power belonging to the crown, but they have an interest in it; and
+I doubt not but they will always be as careful to support the rights of
+the crown as their own privileges_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The other Whig managers regarded (as he did) the overturning of the
+monarchy by a republican faction with the very same horror and
+detestation with which they regarded the destruction of the privileges
+of the people by an arbitrary monarch.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Mr. Lechmere_,
+
+[Sidenote: Constitution recovered at the Restoration and Revolution.]
+
+Speaking of our Constitution, states it as "a Constitution which happily
+recovered itself, at the Restoration, from the confusions and disorders
+which _the horrid and detestable proceedings of faction and usurpation
+had thrown it into_, and which after many convulsions and struggles was
+providentially saved at the late happy Revolution, and by the many good
+laws passed since that time stands now upon a firmer foundation,
+together with the most comfortable prospect of _security to all
+posterity_ by the settlement of the crown in the Protestant line."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I mean now to show that the Whigs (if Sir Joseph Jekyl was one, and if
+he spoke in conformity to the sense of the Whig House of Commons, and
+the Whig ministry who employed him) did carefully guard against any
+presumption that might arise from the repeal of the non-resistance oath
+of Charles the Second, as if at the Revolution the ancient principles of
+our government were at all changed, or that republican doctrines were
+countenanced, or any sanction given to seditious proceedings upon
+general undefined ideas of misconduct, or for changing the form of
+government, or for resistance upon any other ground than the _necessity_
+so often mentioned for the purpose of self-preservation. It will show
+still more clearly the equal care of the then Whigs to prevent either
+the regal power from being swallowed up on pretence of popular rights,
+or the popular rights from being destroyed on pretence of regal
+prerogatives.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir Joseph Jekyl_.
+
+[Sidenote: Mischief of broaching antimonarchical principles.]
+
+[Sidenote: Two cases of resistance: one to preserve the crown, the other
+the rights of the subject.]
+
+"Further, I desire it may be considered, these legislators" (the
+legislators who framed the non-resistance oath of Charles the Second)
+"were guarding against the consequences of those _pernicious and
+antimonarchical principles which had been broached a little before in
+this nation_, and those large declarations in favor of _non-resistance_
+were made to encounter or obviate the _mischief_ of those
+principles,--as appears by the preamble to the fullest of those acts,
+which is the _Militia Act_, in the 13th and 14th of King Charles the
+Second. The words of that act are these: _And during the late usurped
+governments, many evil and rebellious principles have been instilled
+into the minds of the people of this kingdom, which may break forth,
+unless prevented, to the disturbance of the peace and quiet thereof: Be
+it therefore enacted_, &c. Here your Lordships may see the reason that
+inclined those legislators to express themselves in such a manner
+against resistance. _They had seen the regal rights swallowed up under
+the pretence of popular ones_: and it is no imputation on them, that
+they did not then foresee a _quite different case_, as was that of the
+Revolution, where, under the pretence of regal authority, a total
+subversion of the rights of the subject was advanced, and in a manner
+effected. And this may serve to show that it was not the design of those
+legislators to condemn resistance, in a case _of absolute necessity, for
+preserving the Constitution_, when they were guarding against principles
+which had so lately destroyed it."
+
+[Sidenote: Non-resistance oath not repealed because (with the
+restriction of necessity) it was false, but to prevent false
+interpretations.]
+
+"As to the truth of the doctrine in this declaration which was repealed,
+_I'll admit it to be as true as the Doctor's counsel assert it,--that
+is, with an exception of cases of necessity_: and it was not repealed
+because it was false, _understanding it with that restriction_; but it
+was repealed because it might be interpreted in _an unconfined sense,
+and exclusive of that restriction_, and, being so understood, would
+reflect on the justice of the Revolution: and this the legislature had
+at heart, and were very jealous of, and by this repeal of that
+declaration gave a Parliamentary or legislative admonition against
+asserting this doctrine of non-resistance _in an unlimited sense_."
+
+[Sidenote: General doctrine of non-resistance godly and wholesome; not
+bound to state _explicitly_ the exceptions.]
+
+"Though the general doctrine of non-resistance, the doctrine of the
+Church of England, as stated in her Homilies, or elsewhere delivered, by
+which the general duty of subjects to the higher powers is taught, be
+owned to be, as unquestionably it is, _a godly and wholesome
+doctrine_,--though this general doctrine has been constantly inculcated
+by the reverend fathers of the Church, dead and living, and preached by
+them as a preservative against the Popish doctrine of deposing princes,
+and as the ordinary rule of obedience,--and though the same doctrine has
+been preached, maintained, and avowed by our most orthodox and able
+divines from the time of the Reformation,--and how _innocent a man_
+soever Dr. Sacheverell had been, if, _with an honest and well-meant_
+zeal, he had preached the same doctrine in the same general terms in
+which he found it delivered by the Apostles of Christ, as taught by the
+Homilies and the reverend fathers of our Church, and, in imitation of
+those great examples, had only pressed the general duty of obedience,
+and the illegality of resistance, without taking notice of any
+exception," &c.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another of the managers for the House of Commons, Sir John Holland, was
+not less careful in guarding against a confusion of the principles of
+the Revolution with any loose, general doctrines of a right in the
+individual, or even in the people, to undertake for themselves, on any
+prevalent, temporary opinions of convenience or improvement, any
+fundamental change in the Constitution, or to fabricate a new
+government for themselves, and thereby to disturb the public peace, and
+to unsettle the ancient Constitution of this kingdom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Sir John Holland_.
+
+[Sidenote: Submission to the sovereign a conscientious duty, except in
+cases of necessity.]
+
+"The Commons would not be understood as if they were pleading for a
+licentious resistance, as if _subjects_ were left to _their_ good-will
+and pleasure when they are to _obey_ and when to _resist_. No, my Lords,
+they know they are _obliged by all the ties of social creatures and
+Christians, for wrath and conscience' sake, to submit to their
+sovereign_. The Commons do not abet _humorsome, factious arms_: they
+aver them to be _rebellions_. But yet they maintain that that resistance
+at the Revolution, which was so _necessary, was lawful and just from
+that necessity_."
+
+[Sidenote: Right of resistance how to be understood.]
+
+"These general rules of obedience may, upon a _real necessity,_ admit a
+lawful _exception_; and such a _necessary exception_ we assert the
+Revolution to be.
+
+"'Tis with this view of _necessity_, only _absolute necessity_ of
+preserving our laws, liberties, and religion,--'tis with _this
+limitation_, that we desire to be understood, when any of us speak of
+resistance in general. The _necessity_ of the resistance at the
+Revolution was at that time obvious to every man."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I shall conclude these extracts with a reference to the Prince of
+Orange's Declaration, in which he gives the nation the fullest assurance
+that in his enterprise he was far from the intention of introducing any
+change whatever in the fundamental law and Constitution of the state. He
+considered the object of his enterprise not to be a precedent for
+further revolutions, but that it was the great end of his expedition to
+make such revolutions, so far as human power and wisdom could provide,
+unnecessary.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Extracts from the Prince of Orange's Declaration_.
+
+"_All magistrates, who have been_ unjustly turned out, shall _forthwith
+resume their former_ employments; as well as all the boroughs of England
+shall return again to _their ancient prescriptions and charters_, and,
+more particularly, that _the ancient_ charter of the great and famous
+city of London shall again be in force; and that the writs for the
+members of Parliament shall be addressed to the _proper officers,
+according to law and custom_."
+
+"And for the doing of all other things which the two Houses of
+Parliament shall find necessary for the peace, honor, and safety of the
+nation, so that there may _be no more danger of the nation's falling, at
+any time hereafter, under arbitrary government_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Extract from the Prince of Oranges Additional Declaration_.
+
+[Sidenote: Principal nobility and gentry well affected to the Church and
+crown, security against the design of innovation.]
+
+"We are confident that no persons can have _such hard thoughts of us_ as
+to imagine that we have any other design in this undertaking than to
+procure a settlement of the _religion and of the liberties and
+properties of the subjects upon so sure a foundation that there may be
+no danger of the nation's relapsing into the like miseries at any time
+hereafter_. And as the forces that we have brought along with us are
+utterly disproportioned to that wicked design of conquering the nation,
+if we were capable of intending it, _so the great numbers of the
+principal nobility and gentry, that are men of eminent quality and
+estates, and persons of known integrity and zeal, both for the religion
+and government of England, many of them, also being distinguished by
+their constant fidelity to the crown_, who do both accompany us in this
+expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it, will cover us from all
+such malicious insinuations."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the spirit, and, upon one occasion, in the words,[19] of this
+Declaration, the statutes passed in that reign made such provisions for
+preventing these dangers, that scarcely anything short of combination of
+King, Lords, and Commons, for the destruction of the liberties of the
+nation, can in any probability make us liable to similar perils. In that
+dreadful, and, I hope, not to be looked-for case, any opinion of a right
+to make revolutions, grounded on this precedent, would be but a poor
+resource. Dreadful, indeed, would be our situation!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These are the doctrines held by _the Whigs of the Revolution_, delivered
+with as much solemnity, and as authentically at least, as any political
+dogmas were ever promulgated from the beginning of the world. If there
+be any difference between their tenets and those of Mr. Burke, it is,
+that the old Whigs oppose themselves still more strongly than he does
+against the doctrines which are now propagated with so much industry by
+those who would be thought their successors.
+
+It will be said, perhaps, that the old Whigs, in order to guard
+themselves against popular odium, pretended to assert tenets contrary
+to those which they secretly held. This, if true, would prove, what Mr.
+Burke has uniformly asserted, that the extravagant doctrines which he
+meant to expose were disagreeable to the body of the people,--who,
+though they perfectly abhor a despotic government, certainly approached
+more nearly to the love of mitigated monarchy than to anything which
+bears the appearance even of the best republic. But if these old Whigs
+deceived the people, their conduct was unaccountable indeed. They
+exposed their power, as every one conversant in history knows, to the
+greatest peril, for the propagation of opinions which, on this
+hypothesis, they did not hold. It is a new kind of martyrdom. This
+supposition does as little credit to their integrity as their wisdom: it
+makes them at once hypocrites and fools. I think of those great men very
+differently. I hold them to have been, what the world thought them, men
+of deep understanding, open sincerity, and clear honor. However, be that
+matter as it may, what these old Whigs pretended to be Mr. Burke is.
+This is enough for him.
+
+I do, indeed, admit, that, though Mr. Burke has proved that his opinions
+were those of the old Whig party, solemnly declared by one House, in
+effect and substance by both Houses of Parliament, this testimony
+standing by itself will form no proper defence for his opinions, if he
+and the old Whigs were both of them in the wrong. But it is his present
+concern, not to vindicate these old Whigs, but to show his agreement
+with them. He appeals to them as judges: he does not vindicate them as
+culprits. It is current that these old politicians knew little of the
+rights of men,--that they lost their way by groping about in the dark,
+and fumbling among rotten parchments and musty records. Great lights,
+they say, are lately obtained in the world; and Mr. Burke, instead of
+shrouding himself in exploded ignorance, ought to have taken advantage
+of the blaze of illumination which has been spread about him. It may be
+so. The enthusiasts of this time, it seems, like their predecessors in
+another faction of fanaticism, deal in lights. Hudibras pleasantly says
+of them, they
+
+    "Have _lights_, where better eyes are blind,--
+     As pigs are said to see the wind."
+
+The author of the Reflections has _heard_ a great deal concerning the
+modern lights, but he has not yet had the good fortune to _see_ much of
+them. He has read more than he can justify to anything but the spirit of
+curiosity, of the works of these illuminators of the world. He has
+learned nothing from the far greater number of them than a full
+certainty of their shallowness, levity, pride, petulance, presumption,
+and ignorance. Where the old authors whom he has read, and the old men
+whom he has conversed with, have left him in the dark, he is in the dark
+still. If others, however, have obtained any of this extraordinary
+light, they will use it to guide them in their researches and their
+conduct. I have only to wish that the nation may be as happy and as
+prosperous under the influence of the new light as it has been in the
+sober shade of the old obscurity. As to the rest, it will be difficult
+for the author of the Reflections to conform to the principles of the
+avowed leaders of the party, until they appear otherwise than
+negatively. All we can gather from them is this,--that their principles
+are diametrically opposite to his. This is all that we know from
+authority. Their negative declaration obliges me to have recourse to
+the books which contain positive doctrines. They are, indeed, to those
+Mr. Burke holds diametrically opposite; and if it be true (as the
+oracles of the party have said, I hope hastily) that their opinions
+differ so widely, it should seem they are the most likely to form the
+creed of the modern Whigs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have stated what were the avowed sentiments of the old Whigs, not in
+the way of argument, but narratively. It is but fair to set before the
+reader, in the same simple manner, the sentiments of the modern, to
+which they spare neither pains nor expense to make proselytes. I choose
+them from the books upon which most of that industry and expenditure in
+circulation have been employed; I choose them, not from those who speak
+with a politic obscurity, not from those who only controvert the
+opinions of the old Whigs, without advancing any of their own, but from
+those who speak plainly and affirmatively. The Whig reader may make his
+choice between the two doctrines.
+
+The doctrine, then, propagated by these societies, which gentlemen think
+they ought to be very tender in discouraging, as nearly as possible in
+their own words, is as follows: That in Great Britain we are not only
+without a good Constitution, but that we have "no Constitution";--that,
+"though it is much talked about, no such thing as a Constitution exists
+or ever did exist, and consequently that _the people have a Constitution
+yet to form_;--that since William the Conqueror the country has never
+yet _regenerated itself_, and is therefore without a Constitution;--that
+where it cannot be produced in a visible form there is none;--that a
+Constitution is a thing antecedent to government; and that the
+Constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of a
+people constituting a government;--that _everything_ in the English
+government is the reverse of what it ought to be, and what it is said to
+be in England;--that the right of war and peace resides in a metaphor
+shown at the Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece;--that it signifies
+not where the right resides, whether in the crown or in Parliament; war
+is the common harvest of those who participate in the division and
+expenditure of public money;--that the portion of liberty enjoyed in
+England is just enough to enslave a country more productively than by
+despotism."
+
+So far as to the general state of the British Constitution.--As to our
+House of Lords, the chief virtual representative of our aristocracy, the
+great ground and pillar of security to the landed interest, and that
+main link by which it is connected with the law and the crown, these
+worthy societies are pleased to tell us, that, "whether we view
+aristocracy before, or behind, or sideways, or any way else,
+domestically or publicly, it is still a _monster_;--that aristocracy in
+France had one feature less in its countenance than what it has in some
+other countries: it did not compose a body of hereditary legislators; it
+was not _a corporation of aristocracy_" (for such, it seems, that
+profound legislator, M. de La Fayette, describes the House of
+Peers);--"that it is kept up by family tyranny and injustice;--that
+there is an unnatural unfitness in aristocracy to be legislators for a
+nation;--that their ideas of distributive justice are corrupted at the
+very source; they begin life by trampling on all their younger brothers
+and sisters, and relations of every kind, and are taught and educated
+so to do;--that the idea of an hereditary legislator is as absurd as an
+hereditary mathematician;--that a body holding themselves unaccountable
+to anybody ought to be trusted by nobody;--that it is continuing the
+uncivilized principles of governments founded in conquest, and the base
+idea of man having a property in man, and governing him by a personal
+right;--that aristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the human
+species," &c., &c.
+
+As to our law of primogeniture, which with few and inconsiderable
+exceptions is the standing law of all our landed inheritance, and which
+without question has a tendency, and I think a most happy tendency, to
+preserve a character of consequence, weight, and prevalent influence
+over others in the whole body of the landed interest, they call loudly
+for its destruction. They do this for political reasons that are very
+manifest. They have the confidence to say, "that it is a law against
+every law of Nature, and Nature herself calls for its destruction.
+Establish family justice, and aristocracy falls. By the aristocratical
+law of primogenitureship, in a family of six children, five are exposed.
+Aristocracy has never but _one_ child. The rest are begotten to be
+devoured. They are thrown to the cannibal for prey, and the natural
+parent prepares the unnatural repast."
+
+As to the House of Commons, they treat it far worse than the House of
+Lords or the crown have been ever treated. Perhaps they thought they had
+a greater right to take this amicable freedom with those of their own
+family. For many years it has been the perpetual theme of their
+invectives. "Mockery, insult, usurpation," are amongst the best names
+they bestow upon it. They damn it in the mass, by declaring "that it
+does not arise out of the inherent rights of the people, as the National
+Assembly does in France, and whose name designates its original."
+
+Of the charters and corporations, to whose rights a few years ago these
+gentlemen were so tremblingly alive, they say, "that, when the people of
+England come to reflect upon them, they will, like France, annihilate
+those badges of oppression, those traces of a conquered nation."
+
+As to our monarchy, they had formerly been more tender of that branch of
+the Constitution, and for a good reason. The laws had guarded against
+all seditious attacks upon it with a greater degree of strictness and
+severity. The tone of these gentlemen is totally altered since the
+French Revolution. They now declaim as vehemently against the monarchy
+as on former occasions they treacherously flattered and soothed it.
+
+"When we survey the wretched condition of man under the monarchical and
+hereditary systems of government, dragged from his home by one power, or
+driven by another, and impoverished by taxes more than by enemies, it
+becomes evident that those systems are bad, and that a general
+revolution in the principle and construction of governments is
+necessary.
+
+"What is government more than the management of the affairs of a nation?
+It is not, and from its nature cannot be, the property of any particular
+man or family, but of the whole community, at whose expense it is
+supported; and though by force or contrivance it has been usurped into
+an inheritance, the usurpation cannot alter the right of things.
+Sovereignty, as a matter of right, appertains to the nation only, and
+not to any individual; and a nation has at all times an inherent
+indefeasible right to abolish any form of government it finds
+inconvenient, and establish such as accords with its interest,
+disposition, and happiness. The romantic and barbarous distinction of
+men into kings and subjects, though it may suit the condition of
+courtiers, cannot that of citizens, and is exploded by the principle
+upon which governments are now founded. Every citizen is a member of the
+sovereignty, and, as such, can acknowledge no personal subjection, and
+his obedience can be only to the laws."
+
+Warmly recommending to us the example of Prance, where they have
+destroyed monarchy, they say,--
+
+"Monarchical sovereignty, the enemy of mankind, and the source of
+misery, is abolished; and sovereignty itself is restored to its natural
+and original place, the nation. Were this the case throughout Europe,
+the cause of wars would be taken away."
+
+"But, after all, what is this metaphor called a crown? or rather, what
+is monarchy? Is it a thing, or is it a name, or is it a fraud? Is it 'a
+contrivance of human wisdom,' or of human craft, to obtain money from a
+nation under specious pretences? Is it a thing necessary to a nation? If
+it is, in what does that necessity consist, what services does it
+perform, what is its business, and what are its merits? Doth the virtue
+consist in the metaphor or in the man? Doth the goldsmith that makes the
+crown make the virtue also? Doth it operate like Fortunatus's
+wishing-cap or Harlequin's wooden sword? Doth it make a man a conjurer?
+In fine, what is it? It appears to be a something going much out of
+fashion, falling into ridicule, and rejected in some countries both as
+unnecessary and expensive. In America it is considered as an absurdity;
+and in France it has so far declined, that the goodness of the man and
+the respect for his personal character are the only things that preserve
+the appearance of its existence."
+
+"Mr. Burke talks about what he calls an hereditary crown, as if it were
+some production of Nature,--or as if, like time, it had a power to
+operate, not only independently, but in spite of man,--or as if it were
+a thing or a subject universally consented to. Alas! it has none of
+those properties, but is the reverse of them all. It is a thing in
+imagination, the propriety of which is more than doubted, and the
+legality of which in a few years will be denied."
+
+"If I ask the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and
+down through all the occupations of life to the common laborer, what
+service monarchy is to him, he can give me no answer. If I ask him what
+monarchy is, he believes it is something like a sinecure."
+
+"The French Constitution says, that the right of war and peace is in the
+nation. Where else should it reside, but in those who are to pay the
+expense?
+
+"In England, this right is said to reside in a _metaphor_, shown at the
+Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece: so are the lions; and it would
+be a step nearer to reason to say it resided in them, for any inanimate
+metaphor is no more than a hat or a cap. We can all see the absurdity of
+worshipping Aaron's molten calf, or Nebuchadnezzar's golden image; but
+why do men continue to practise themselves the absurdities they despise
+in others?"
+
+The Revolution and Hanover succession had been objects of the highest
+veneration to the old Whigs. They thought them not only proofs of the
+sober and steady spirit of liberty which guided their ancestors, but of
+their wisdom and provident care of posterity. The modern Whigs have
+quite other notions of these events and actions. They do not deny that
+Mr. Burke has given truly the words of the acts of Parliament which
+secured the succession, and the just sense of them. They attack not him,
+but the law.
+
+"Mr Burke" (say they) "has done some service, not to his cause, but to
+his country, by bringing those clauses into public view. They serve to
+demonstrate how necessary it is at all times to watch against the
+attempted encroachment of power, and to prevent its running to excess.
+It is somewhat extraordinary, that the offence for which James the
+Second was expelled, that of setting up power by _assumption_, should be
+re-acted, under another shape and form, by the Parliament that expelled
+him. It shows that the rights of man were but imperfectly understood at
+the Revolution; for certain it is, that the right which that Parliament
+set up by _assumption_ (for by delegation it had it not, and could not
+have it, because none could give it) over the persons and freedom of
+posterity forever, was of the same tyrannical unfounded kind which James
+attempted to set up over the Parliament and the nation, and for which he
+was expelled. The only difference is, (for in principle they differ
+not,) that the one was an usurper over the living, and the other over
+the unborn; and as the one has no better authority to stand upon than
+the other, both of them must be equally null and void, and of no
+effect."
+
+"As the estimation of all things is by comparison, the Revolution of
+1688, however from circumstances it may have been exalted beyond its
+value, will find its level. It is already on the wane, eclipsed by the
+enlarging orb of reason and the luminous Revolutions of America and
+France. In less than another century, it will go, as well as Mr. Burke's
+labors, 'to the family vault of all the Capulets.' _Mankind will then
+scarcely believe that a country calling itself free would send to
+Holland for a man and clothe him with power on purpose to put themselves
+in fear of him, and give him almost a million sterling a year for leave
+to submit themselves and their posterity like bondmen and bondwomen
+forever_."
+
+Mr. Burke having said that "the king holds his crown in contempt of the
+choice of the Revolution Society, who individually or collectively have
+not" (as most certainly they have not) "a vote for a king amongst them,"
+they take occasion from thence to infer that the king who does not hold
+his crown by election despises the people.
+
+"'The king of England,' says he, 'holds _his_ crown' (for it does not
+belong to the nation, according to Mr. Burke) 'in _contempt_ of the
+choice of the Revolution Society,'" &c.
+
+"As to who is king in England or elsewhere, or whether there is any king
+at all, or whether the people choose a Cherokee chief or a Hessian
+hussar for a king, it is not a matter that I trouble myself about,--be
+that to themselves; but with respect to the doctrine, so far as it
+relates to the rights of men and nations, it is as abominable as
+anything ever uttered in the most enslaved country under heaven. Whether
+it sounds worse to my ear, by not being accustomed to hear such
+despotism, than what it does to the ear of another person, I am not so
+well a judge of; but of its abominable principle I am at no loss to
+judge."
+
+These societies of modern Whigs push their insolence as far as it can
+go. In order to prepare the minds of the people for treason and
+rebellion, they represent the king as tainted with principles of
+despotism, from the circumstance of his having dominions in Germany. In
+direct defiance of the most notorious truth, they describe his
+government there to be a despotism; whereas it is a free Constitution,
+in which the states of the Electorate have their part in the government:
+and this privilege has never been infringed by the king, or, that I have
+heard of, by any of his predecessors. The Constitution of the Electoral
+dominions has, indeed, a double control, both from the laws of the
+Empire and from the privileges of the country. Whatever rights the king
+enjoys as Elector have been always parentally exercised, and the
+calumnies of these scandalous societies have not been authorized by a
+single complaint of oppression.
+
+"When Mr. Burke says that 'his Majesty's heirs and successors, each in
+their time and order, will come to the crown with the _same contempt_ of
+their choice with which his Majesty has succeeded to that he wears,' it
+is saying too much even to the humblest individual in the country, part
+of whose daily labor goes towards making up the million sterling a year
+which the country gives the person it styles a king. Government with
+insolence is despotism; but when contempt is added, it becomes worse;
+and to pay for contempt is the excess of slavery. This species of
+government comes from Germany, and reminds me of what one of the
+Brunswick soldiers told me, who was taken prisoner by the Americans in
+the late war. 'Ah!' said he, 'America is a fine free country: it is
+worth the people's fighting for. I know the difference by knowing my
+own: in my country, _if the prince says, "Eat straw" we eat straw_.' God
+help that country, thought I, be it England, or elsewhere, whose
+liberties are to be protected by _German principles of government and
+princes of Brunswick_!"
+
+"It is somewhat curious to observe, that, although the people of England
+have been in the habit of talking about kings, it is always a foreign
+house of kings,--hating foreigners, yet governed by them. It is now the
+House of Brunswick, one of the petty tribes of Germany."
+
+"If government be what Mr. Burke describes it, 'a contrivance of human
+wisdom,' I might ask him if wisdom was at such a low ebb in England that
+it was become necessary to import it from Holland and from Hanover? But
+I will do the country the justice to say, that was not the case; and
+even if it was, it mistook the cargo. The wisdom of every country, when
+properly exerted, is sufficient for all its purposes; _and there could
+exist no more real occasion in England to have sent for a Dutch
+Stadtholder or a German Elector_ than there was in America to have done
+a similar thing. If a country does not understand its own affairs, how
+is a foreigner to understand them, who knows neither its laws, its
+manners, nor its language? If there existed a man so transcendently wise
+above all others that his wisdom was necessary to instruct a nation,
+some reason might be offered for monarchy; but when we cast our eyes
+about a country, and observe how every part understands its own
+affairs, and when we look around the world, and see, that, of all men in
+it, the race of kings are the most insignificant in capacity, our reason
+cannot fail to ask us, What are those men kept for?"[20]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These are the notions which, under the idea of Whig principles, several
+persons, and among them persons of no mean mark, have associated
+themselves to propagate. I will not attempt in the smallest degree to
+refute them. This will probably be done (if such writings shall be
+thought to deserve any other than the refutation of criminal justice) by
+others, who may think with Mr. Burke. He has performed his part.
+
+I do not wish to enter very much at large into the discussions which
+diverge and ramify in all ways from this productive subject. But there
+is one topic upon which I hope I shall be excused in going a little
+beyond my design. The factions now so busy amongst us, in order to
+divest men of all love for their country, and to remove from their minds
+all duty with regard to the state, endeavor to propagate an opinion,
+that the _people_, in forming their commonwealth, have by no means
+parted with their power over it. This is an impregnable citadel, to
+which these gentlemen retreat, whenever they are pushed by the battery
+of laws and usages and positive conventions. Indeed, it is such, and of
+so great force, that all they have done in defending their outworks is
+so much time and labor thrown away. Discuss any of their schemes, their
+answer is, It is the act of the _people_, and that is sufficient. Are
+we to deny to a _majority_ of the people the right of altering even the
+whole frame of their society, if such should be their pleasure? They may
+change it, say they, from a monarchy to a republic to-day, and to-morrow
+back again from a republic to a monarchy; and so backward and forward as
+often as they like. They are masters of the commonwealth, because in
+substance they are themselves the commonwealth. The French Revolution,
+say they, was the act of the majority of the people; and if the majority
+of any other people, the people of England, for instance, wish to make
+the same change, they have the same right.
+
+Just the same, undoubtedly. That is, none at all. Neither the few nor
+the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter
+connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation. The Constitution
+of a country being once settled upon some compact, tacit or expressed,
+there is no power existing of force to alter it, without the breach of
+the covenant, or the consent of all the parties. Such is the nature of a
+contract. And the votes of a majority of the people, whatever their
+infamous flatterers may teach in order to corrupt their minds, cannot
+alter the moral any more than they can alter the physical essence of
+things. The people are not to be taught to think lightly of their
+engagements to their governors; else they teach governors to think
+lightly of their engagements towards them. In that kind of game, in the
+end, the people are sure to be losers. To flatter them into a contempt
+of faith, truth, and justice is to ruin them; for in these virtues
+consists their whole safety. To flatter any man, or any part of mankind,
+in any description, by asserting that in engagements he or they are
+free, whilst any other human creature is bound, is ultimately to vest
+the rule of morality in the pleasure of those who ought to be rigidly
+submitted to it,--to subject the sovereign reason of the world to the
+caprices of weak and giddy men.
+
+But, as no one of us men can dispense with public or private faith, or
+with any other tie of moral obligation, so neither can any number of us.
+The number engaged in crimes, instead of turning them into laudable
+acts, only augments the quantity and intensity of the guilt. I am well
+aware that men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme
+disrelish to be told of their duty. This is of course; because every
+duty is a limitation of some power. Indeed, arbitrary power is so much
+to the depraved taste of the vulgar, of the vulgar of every description,
+that almost all the dissensions which lacerate the commonwealth are not
+concerning the manner in which it is to be exercised, but concerning the
+hands in which it is to be placed. Somewhere they are resolved to have
+it. Whether they desire it to be vested in the many or the few depends
+with most men upon the chance which they imagine they themselves may
+have of partaking in the exercise of that arbitrary sway, in the one
+mode or in the other.
+
+It is not necessary to teach men to thirst after power. But it is very
+expedient that by moral instruction they should be taught, and by their
+civil constitutions they should be compelled, to put many restrictions
+upon the immoderate exercise of it, and the inordinate desire. The best
+method of obtaining these two great points forms the important, but at
+the same time the difficult problem to the true statesman. He thinks of
+the place in which political power is to be lodged with no other
+attention than as it may render the more or the less practicable its
+salutary restraint and its prudent direction. For this reason, no
+legislator, at any period of the world, has willingly placed the seat of
+active power in the hands of the multitude; because there it admits of
+no control, no regulation, no steady direction whatsoever. The people
+are the natural control on authority; but to exercise and to control
+together is contradictory and impossible.
+
+As the exorbitant exercise of power cannot, under popular sway, be
+effectually restrained, the other great object of political arrangement,
+the means of abating an excessive desire of it, is in such a state still
+worse provided for. The democratic commonwealth is the foodful nurse of
+ambition. Under the other forms it meets with many restraints. Whenever,
+in states which have had a democratic basis, the legislators have
+endeavored to put restraints upon ambition, their methods were as
+violent as in the end they were ineffectual,--as violent, indeed, as any
+the most jealous despotism could invent. The ostracism could not very
+long save itself, and much less the state which it was meant to guard,
+from the attempts of ambition,--one of the natural, inbred, incurable
+distempers of a powerful democracy.
+
+But to return from this short digression,--which, however, is not wholly
+foreign to the question of the effect of the will of the majority upon
+the form or the existence of their society. I cannot too often recommend
+it to the serious consideration of all men who think civil society to be
+within the province of moral jurisdiction, that, if we owe to it any
+duty, it is not subject to our will. Duties are not voluntary. Duty and
+will are even contradictory terms. Now, though civil society might be at
+first a voluntary act, (which in many cases it undoubtedly was,) its
+continuance is under a permanent standing covenant, coexisting with the
+society; and it attaches upon every individual of that society, without
+any formal act of his own. This is warranted by the general practice,
+arising out of the general sense of mankind. Men without their choice
+derive benefits from that association; without their choice they are
+subjected to duties in consequence of these benefits; and without their
+choice they enter into a virtual obligation as binding as any that is
+actual. Look through the whole of life and the whole system of duties.
+Much the strongest moral obligations are such as were never the results
+of our option. I allow, that, if no Supreme Ruler exists, wise to form,
+and potent to enforce, the moral law, there is no sanction to any
+contract, virtual or even actual, against the will of prevalent power.
+On that hypothesis, let any set of men be strong enough to set their
+duties at defiance, and they cease to be duties any longer. We have but
+this one appeal against irresistible power,--
+
+    Si genus humanum et mortalia temnitis arma,
+    At sperate Deos memores fandi atque nefandi.
+
+Taking it for granted that I do not write to the disciples of the
+Parisian philosophy, I may assume that the awful Author of our being is
+the Author of our place in the order of existence,--and that, having
+disposed and marshalled us by a divine tactic, not according to our
+will, but according to His, He has in and by that disposition virtually
+subjected us to act the part which belongs to the place assigned us. We
+have obligations to mankind at large, which are not in consequence of
+any special voluntary pact. They arise from the relation of man to man,
+and the relation of man to God, which relations are not matters of
+choice. On the contrary, the force of all the pacts which we enter into
+with any particular person or number of persons amongst mankind depends
+upon those prior obligations. In some cases the subordinate relations
+are voluntary, in others they are necessary,--but the duties are all
+compulsive. When we marry, the choice is voluntary, but the duties are
+not matter of choice: they are dictated by the nature of the situation.
+Dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come into the world. The
+instincts which give rise to this mysterious process of Nature are not
+of our making. But out of physical causes, unknown to us, perhaps
+unknowable, arise moral duties, which, as we are able perfectly to
+comprehend, we are bound indispensably to perform. Parents may not be
+consenting to their moral relation; but, consenting or not, they are
+bound to a long train of burdensome duties towards those with whom they
+have never made a convention of any sort. Children are not consenting to
+their relation; but their relation, without their actual consent, binds
+them to its duties,--or rather it implies their consent, because the
+presumed consent of every rational creature is in unison with the
+predisposed order of things. Men come in that manner into a community
+with the social state of their parents, endowed with all the benefits,
+loaded with all the duties of their situation. If the social ties and
+ligaments, spun out of those physical relations which are the elements
+of the commonwealth, in most cases begin, and always continue,
+independently of our will, so, without any stipulation on our own part,
+are we bound by that relation called our country, which comprehends (as
+it has been well said) "all the charities of all."[21] Nor are we left
+without powerful instincts to make this duty as dear and grateful to us
+as it is awful and coercive. Our country is not a thing of mere physical
+locality. It consists, in a great measure, in the ancient order into
+which we are born. We may have the same geographical situation, but
+another country; as we may have the same country in another soil. The
+place that determines our duty to our country is a social, civil
+relation.
+
+These are the opinions of the author whose cause I defend. I lay them
+down, not to enforce them upon others by disputation, but as an account
+of his proceedings. On them he acts; and from them he is convinced that
+neither he, nor any man, or number of men, have a right (except what
+necessity, which is out of and above all rule, rather imposes than
+bestows) to free themselves from that primary engagement into which
+every man born into a community as much contracts by his being born into
+it as he contracts an obligation to certain parents by his having been
+derived from their bodies. The place of every man determines his duty.
+If you ask, _Quem te Deus esse jussit_? you will be answered when you
+resolve this other question, _Humana qua parte locatus es in re_?[22]
+
+I admit, indeed, that in morals, as in all things else, difficulties
+will sometimes occur. Duties will sometimes cross one another. Then
+questions will arise, which of them is to be placed in subordination?
+which of them may be entirely superseded? These doubts give rise to that
+part of moral science called _casuistry_, which though necessary to be
+well studied by those who would become expert in that learning, who aim
+at becoming what I think Cicero somewhere calls _artifices officiorum_,
+it requires a very solid and discriminating judgment, great modesty and
+caution, and much sobriety of mind in the handling; else there is a
+danger that it may totally subvert those offices which it is its object
+only to methodize and reconcile. Duties, at their extreme bounds, are
+drawn very fine, so as to become almost evanescent. In that state some
+shade of doubt will always rest on these questions, when they are
+pursued with great subtilty. But the very habit of stating these extreme
+cases is not very laudable or safe; because, in general, it is not right
+to turn our duties into doubts. They are imposed to govern our conduct,
+not to exercise our ingenuity; and therefore our opinions about them
+ought not to be in a state of fluctuation, but steady, sure, and
+resolved.
+
+Amongst these nice, and therefore dangerous points of casuistry, may be
+reckoned the question so much agitated in the present hour,--Whether,
+after the people have discharged themselves of their original power by
+an habitual delegation, no occasion can possibly occur which may
+justify the resumption of it? This question, in this latitude, is very
+hard to affirm or deny: but I am satisfied that no occasion can justify
+such a resumption, which would not equally authorize a dispensation with
+any other moral duty, perhaps with all of them together. However, if in
+general it be not easy to determine concerning the lawfulness of such
+devious proceedings, which must be ever on the edge of crimes, it is far
+from difficult to foresee the perilous consequences of the resuscitation
+of such a power in the people. The practical consequences of any
+political tenet go a great way in deciding upon its value. Political
+problems do not primarily concern truth or falsehood. They relate to
+good or evil. What in the result is likely to produce evil is
+politically false; that which is productive of good, politically true.
+
+Believing it, therefore, a question at least arduous in the theory, and
+in the practice very critical, it would become us to ascertain as well
+as we can what form it is that our incantations are about to call up
+from darkness and the sleep of ages. When the supreme authority of the
+people is in question, before we attempt to extend or to confine it, we
+ought to fix in our minds, with some degree of distinctness, an idea of
+what it is we mean, when we say, the PEOPLE.
+
+In a state of _rude_ Nature there is no such thing as a people. A number
+of men in themselves have no collective capacity. The idea of a people
+is the idea of a corporation. It is wholly artificial, and made, like
+all other legal fictions, by common agreement. What the particular
+nature of that agreement was is collected from the form into which the
+particular society has been cast. Any other is not _their_ covenant.
+When men, therefore, break up the original compact or agreement which
+gives its corporate form and capacity to a state, they are no longer a
+people,--they have no longer a corporate existence,--they have no longer
+a legal coactive force to bind within, nor a claim to be recognized
+abroad. They are a number of vague, loose individuals, and nothing more.
+With them all is to begin again. Alas! they little know how many a weary
+step is to be taken before they can form themselves into a mass which
+has a true politic personality.
+
+We hear much, from men who have not acquired their hardiness of
+assertion from the profundity of their thinking, about the omnipotence
+of a _majority_, in such a dissolution of an ancient society as hath
+taken place in France. But amongst men so disbanded there can be no such
+thing as majority or minority, or power in any one person to bind
+another. The power of acting by a majority, which the gentlemen
+theorists seem to assume so readily, after they have violated the
+contract out of which it has arisen, (if at all it existed,) must be
+grounded on two assumptions: first, that of an incorporation produced by
+unanimity; and secondly, an unanimous agreement that the act of a mere
+majority (say of one) shall pass with them and with others as the act of
+the whole.
+
+We are so little affected by things which are habitual, that we consider
+this idea of the decision of a _majority_ as if it were a law of our
+original nature. But such constructive whole, residing in a part only,
+is one of the most violent fictions of positive law that ever has been
+or can be made on the principles of artificial incorporation. Out of
+civil society Nature knows nothing of it; nor are men, even when
+arranged according to civil order, otherwise than by very long training,
+brought at all to submit to it. The mind is brought far more easily to
+acquiesce in the proceedings of one man, or a few, who act under a
+general procuration for the state, than in the vote of a victorious
+majority in councils in which every man has his share in the
+deliberation. For there the beaten party are exasperated and soured by
+the previous contention, and mortified by the conclusive defeat. This
+mode of decision, where wills may be so nearly equal, where, according
+to circumstances, the smaller number may be the stronger force, and
+where apparent reason may be all upon one side, and on the other little
+else than impetuous appetite,--all this must be the result of a very
+particular and special convention, confirmed afterwards by long habits
+of obedience, by a sort of discipline in society, and by a strong hand,
+vested with stationary, permanent power to enforce this sort of
+constructive general will. What organ it is that shall declare the
+corporate mind is so much a matter of positive arrangement, that several
+states, for the validity of several of their acts, have required a
+proportion of voices much greater than that of a mere majority. These
+proportions are so entirely governed by convention that in some cases
+the minority decides. The laws in many countries to _condemn_ require
+more than a mere majority; less than an equal number to _acquit_. In our
+judicial trials we require unanimity either to condemn or to absolve. In
+some incorporations one man speaks for the whole; in others, a few.
+Until the other day, in the Constitution of Poland unanimity was
+required to give validity to any act of their great national council or
+diet. This approaches much more nearly to rude Nature than the
+institutions of any other country. Such, indeed, every commonwealth must
+be, without a positive law to recognize in a certain number the will of
+the entire body.
+
+If men dissolve their ancient incorporation in order to regenerate their
+community, in that state of things each man has a right, if he pleases,
+to remain an individual. Any number of individuals, who can agree upon
+it, have an undoubted right to form themselves into a state apart and
+wholly independent. If any of these is forced into the fellowship of
+another, this is conquest and not compact. On every principle which
+supposes society to be in virtue of a free covenant, this compulsive
+incorporation must be null and void.
+
+As a people can have no right to a corporate capacity without universal
+consent, so neither have they a right to hold exclusively any lands in
+the name and title of a corporation. On the scheme of the present rulers
+in our neighboring country, regenerated as they are, they have no more
+right to the territory called France than I have. I have a right to
+pitch my tent in any unoccupied place I can find for it; and I may apply
+to my own maintenance any part of their unoccupied soil. I may purchase
+the house or vineyard of any individual proprietor who refuses his
+consent (and most proprietors have, as far as they dared, refused it) to
+the new incorporation. I stand in his independent place. Who are these
+insolent men, calling themselves the French nation, that would
+monopolize this fair domain of Nature? Is it because they speak a
+certain jargon? Is it their mode of chattering, to me unintelligible,
+that forms their title to my land? Who are they who claim by
+prescription and descent from certain gangs of banditti called Franks,
+and Burgundians, and Visigoths, of whom I may have never heard, and
+ninety-nine out of an hundred of themselves certainly never have heard,
+whilst at the very time they tell me that prescription and long
+possession form no title to property? Who are they that presume to
+assert that the land which I purchased of the individual, a natural
+person, and not a fiction of state, belongs to them, who in the very
+capacity in which they make their claim can exist only as an imaginary
+being, and in virtue of the very prescription which they reject and
+disown? This mode of arguing might be pushed into all the detail, so as
+to leave no sort of doubt, that, on their principles, and on the sort of
+footing on which they have thought proper to place themselves, the crowd
+of men, on the other side of the Channel, who have the impudence to call
+themselves a people, can never be the lawful, exclusive possessors of
+the soil. By what they call reasoning without prejudice, they leave not
+one stone upon another in the fabric of human society. They subvert all
+the authority which they hold, as well as all that which they have
+destroyed.
+
+As in the abstract it is perfectly clear, that, out of a state of civil
+society, majority and minority are relations which can have no
+existence, and that, in civil society, its own specific conventions in
+each corporation determine what it is that constitutes the people, so as
+to make their act the signification of the general will,--to come to
+particulars, it is equally clear that neither in France nor in England
+has the original or any subsequent compact of the state, expressed or
+implied, constituted _a majority of men, told by the head_, to be the
+acting people of their several communities. And I see as little of
+policy or utility as there is of right, in laying down a principle that
+a majority of men told by the head are to be considered as the people,
+and that as such their will is to be law. What policy can there be found
+in arrangements made in defiance of every political principle? To enable
+men to act with the weight and character of a people, and to answer the
+ends for which they are incorporated into that capacity, we must suppose
+them (by means immediate or consequential) to be in that state of
+habitual social discipline in which the wiser, the more expert, and the
+more opulent conduct, and by conducting enlighten and protect, the
+weaker, the less knowing, and the less provided with the goods of
+fortune. When the multitude are not under this discipline, they can
+scarcely be said to be in civil society. Give once a certain
+constitution of things which produces a variety of conditions and
+circumstances in a state, and there is in Nature and reason a principle
+which, for their own benefit, postpones, not the interest, but the
+judgment, of those who are _numero plures_, to those who are _virtute et
+honore majores_. Numbers in a state (supposing, which is not the case in
+France, that a state does exist) are always of consideration,--but they
+are not the whole consideration. It is in things more serious than a
+play, that it may be truly said, _Satis est equitem mihi plaudere_.
+
+A true natural aristocracy is not a separate interest in the state, or
+separable from it. It is an essential integrant part of any large body
+rightly constituted. It is formed out of a class of legitimate
+presumptions, which, taken as generalities, must be admitted for actual
+truths. To be bred in a place of estimation; to see nothing low and
+sordid from one's infancy; to be taught to respect one's self; to be
+habituated to the censorial inspection of the public eye; to look early
+to public opinion; to stand upon such elevated ground as to be enabled
+to take a large view of the wide-spread and infinitely diversified
+combinations of men and affairs in a large society; to have leisure to
+read, to reflect, to converse; to be enabled to draw the court and
+attention of the wise and learned, wherever they are to be found; to be
+habituated in armies to command and to obey; to be taught to despise
+danger in the pursuit of honor and duty; to be formed to the greatest
+degree of vigilance, foresight, and circumspection, in a state of things
+in which no fault is committed with impunity and the slightest mistakes
+draw on the most ruinous consequences; to be led to a guarded and
+regulated conduct, from a sense that you are considered as an instructor
+of your fellow-citizens in their highest concerns, and that you act as a
+reconciler between God and man; to be employed as an administrator of
+law and justice, and to be thereby amongst the first benefactors to
+mankind; to be a professor of high science, or of liberal and ingenuous
+art; to be amongst rich traders, who from their success are presumed to
+have sharp and vigorous understandings, and to possess the virtues of
+diligence, order, constancy, and regularity, and to have cultivated an
+habitual regard to commutative justice: these are the circumstances of
+men that form what I should call a _natural_ aristocracy, without which
+there is no nation.
+
+The state of civil society which necessarily generates this aristocracy
+is a state of Nature,--and much more truly so than a savage and
+incoherent mode of life. For man is by nature reasonable; and he is
+never perfectly in his natural state, but when he is placed where reason
+may be best cultivated and most predominates. Art is man's nature. We
+are as much, at least, in a state of Nature in formed manhood as in
+immature and helpless infancy. Men, qualified in the manner I have just
+described, form in Nature, as she operates in the common modification of
+society, the leading, guiding, and governing part. It is the soul to the
+body, without which the man does not exist. To give, therefore, no more
+importance, in the social order, to such descriptions of men than that
+of so many units is a horrible usurpation.
+
+When great multitudes act together, under that discipline of Nature, I
+recognize the PEOPLE. I acknowledge something that perhaps equals, and
+ought always to guide, the sovereignty of convention. In all things the
+voice of this grand chorus of national harmony ought to have a mighty
+and decisive influence. But when you disturb this harmony,--when you
+break up this beautiful order, this array of truth and Nature, as well
+as of habit and prejudice,--when you separate the common sort of men
+from their proper chieftains, so as to form them into an adverse
+army,--I no longer know that venerable object called the people in such
+a disbanded race of deserters and vagabonds. For a while they may be
+terrible, indeed,--but in such a manner as wild beasts are terrible. The
+mind owes to them no sort of submission. They are, as they have always
+been reputed, rebels. They may lawfully be fought with, and brought
+under, whenever an advantage offers. Those who attempt by outrage and
+violence to deprive men of any advantage which they hold under the
+laws, and to destroy the natural order of life, proclaim war against
+them.
+
+We have read in history of that furious insurrection of the common
+people in France called the _Jacquerie_: for this is not the first time
+that the people have been enlightened into treason, murder, and rapine.
+Its object was to extirpate the gentry. The Captal de Buch, a famous
+soldier of those days, dishonored the name of a gentleman and of a man
+by taking, for their cruelties, a cruel vengeance on these deluded
+wretches: it was, however, his right and his duty to make war upon them,
+and afterwards, in moderation, to bring them to punishment for their
+rebellion; though in the sense of the French Revolution, and of some of
+our clubs, they were the _people_,--and were truly so, if you will call
+by that appellation _any majority of men told by the head_.
+
+At a time not very remote from the same period (for these humors never
+have affected one of the nations without some influence on the other)
+happened several risings of the lower commons in England. These
+insurgents were certainly the majority of the inhabitants of the
+counties in which they resided; and Cade, Ket, and Straw, at the head of
+their national guards, and fomented by certain traitors of high rank,
+did no more than exert, according to the doctrines of ours and the
+Parisian societies, the sovereign power inherent in the majority.
+
+We call the time of those events a dark age. Indeed, we are too
+indulgent to our own proficiency. The Abbe John Ball understood the
+rights of man as well as the Abbe Gregoire. That reverend patriarch of
+sedition, and prototype of our modern preachers, was of opinion, with
+the National Assembly, that all the evils which have fallen upon men had
+been caused by an ignorance of their "having been born and continued
+equal as to their rights." Had the populace been able to repeat that
+profound maxim, all would have gone perfectly well with them. No
+tyranny, no vexation, no oppression, no care, no sorrow, could have
+existed in the world. This would have cured them like a charm for the
+tooth-ache. But the lowest wretches, in their most ignorant state, were
+able at all times to talk such stuff; and yet at all times have they
+suffered many evils and many oppressions, both before and since the
+republication by the National Assembly of this spell of healing potency
+and virtue. The enlightened Dr. Ball, when he wished to rekindle the
+lights and fires of his audience on this point, chose for the test the
+following couplet:--
+
+    When Adam delved and Eve span,
+    Who was then the gentleman?
+
+Of this sapient maxim, however, I do not give him for the inventor. It
+seems to have been handed down by tradition, and had certainly become
+proverbial; but whether then composed or only applied, thus much must be
+admitted, that in learning, sense, energy, and comprehensiveness, it is
+fully equal to all the modern dissertations on the equality of mankind:
+and it has one advantage over them,--that it is in rhyme.[23]
+
+There is no doubt but that this great teacher of the rights of man
+decorated his discourse on this valuable text with lemmas, theorems,
+scholia, corollaries, and all the apparatus of science, which was
+furnished in as great plenty and perfection out of the dogmatic and
+polemic magazines, the old horse-armory of the Schoolmen, among whom the
+Rev. Dr. Ball was bred, as they can be supplied from the new arsenal at
+Hackney. It was, no doubt, disposed with all the adjutancy of
+definition and division, in which (I speak it with submission) the old
+marshals were as able as the modern martinets. Neither can we deny that
+the philosophic auditory, when they had once obtained this knowledge,
+could never return to their former ignorance, or after so instructive a
+lecture be in the same state of mind as if they had never heard it.[24]
+But these poor people, who were not to be envied for their knowledge,
+but pitied for their delusion, were not reasoned, (that was impossible,)
+but beaten, out of their lights. With their teacher they were delivered
+over to the lawyers, who wrote in their blood the statutes of the land,
+as harshly, and in the same sort of ink, as they and their teachers had
+written the rights of man.
+
+Our doctors of the day are not so fond of quoting the opinions of this
+ancient sage as they are of imitating his conduct: first, because it
+might appear that they are not as great inventors as they would be
+thought; and next, because, unfortunately for his fame, he was not
+successful. It is a remark liable to as few exceptions as any generality
+can be, that they who applaud prosperous folly and adore triumphant
+guilt have never been known to succor or even to pity human weakness or
+offence, when they become subject to human vicissitude, and meet with
+punishment instead of obtaining power. Abating for their want of
+sensibility to the sufferings of their associates, they are not so much
+in the wrong; for madness and wickedness are things foul and deformed in
+themselves, and stand in need of all the coverings and trappings of
+fortune to recommend them to the multitude. Nothing can be more
+loathsome in their naked nature.
+
+Aberrations like these, whether ancient or modern, unsuccessful or
+prosperous, are things of passage. They furnish no argument for
+supposing _a multitude told by the head to be the people_. Such a
+multitude can have no sort of title to alter the seat of power in the
+society, in which it ever ought to be the obedient, and not the ruling
+or presiding part. What power may belong to the whole mass, in which
+mass the natural _aristocracy_, or what by convention is appointed to
+represent and strengthen it, acts in its proper place, with its proper
+weight, and without being subjected to violence, is a deeper question.
+But in that case, and with that concurrence, I should have much doubt
+whether any rash or desperate changes in the state, such as we have seen
+in France, could ever be effected.
+
+I have said that in all political questions the consequences of any
+assumed rights are of great moment in deciding upon their validity. In
+this point of view let us a little scrutinize the effects of a right in
+the mere majority of the inhabitants of any country of superseding and
+altering their government _at pleasure_.
+
+The sum total of every people is composed of its units. Every individual
+must have a right to originate what afterwards is to become the act of
+the majority. Whatever he may lawfully originate he may lawfully
+endeavor to accomplish. He has a right, therefore, in his own
+particular, to break the ties and engagements which bind him to the
+country in which he lives; and he has a right to make as many converts
+to his opinions, and to obtain as many associates in his designs, as he
+can procure: for how can you know the dispositions of the majority to
+destroy their government, but by tampering with some part of the body?
+You must begin by a secret conspiracy, that you may end with a national
+confederation. The mere pleasure of the beginner must be the sole guide;
+since the mere pleasure of others must be the sole ultimate sanction, as
+well as the sole actuating principle in every part of the progress.
+Thus, arbitrary will (the last corruption of ruling power) step by step
+poisons the heart of every citizen. If the undertaker fails, he has the
+misfortune of a rebel, but not the guilt. By such doctrines, all love to
+our country, all pious veneration and attachment to its laws and
+customs, are obliterated from our minds; and nothing can result from
+this opinion, when grown into a principle, and animated by discontent,
+ambition, or enthusiasm, but a series of conspiracies and seditions,
+sometimes ruinous to their authors, always noxious to the state. No
+sense of duty can prevent any man from being a leader or a follower in
+such enterprises. Nothing restrains the tempter; nothing guards the
+tempted. Nor is the new state, fabricated by such arts, safer than the
+old. What can prevent the mere will of any person, who hopes to unite
+the wills of others to his own, from an attempt wholly to overturn it?
+It wants nothing but a disposition to trouble the established order, to
+give a title to the enterprise.
+
+When you combine this principle of the right to change a fixed and
+tolerable constitution of things at pleasure with the theory and
+practice of the French Assembly, the political, civil, and moral
+irregularity are, if possible, aggravated. The Assembly have found
+another road, and a far more commodious, to the destruction of an old
+government, and the legitimate formation of a new one, than through the
+previous will of the majority of what they call the people. Get, say
+they, the possession of power by any means you can into your hands; and
+then, a subsequent consent (what they call an _address of adhesion_)
+makes your authority as much the act of the people as if they had
+conferred upon you originally that kind and degree of power which
+without their permission you had seized upon. This is to give a direct
+sanction to fraud, hypocrisy, perjury, and the breach of the most sacred
+trusts that can exist between man and man. What can sound with such
+horrid discordance in the moral ear as this position,--that a delegate
+with limited powers may break his sworn engagements to his constituent,
+assume an authority, never committed to him, to alter all things at his
+pleasure, and then, if he can persuade a large number of men to flatter
+him in the power he has usurped, that he is absolved in his own
+conscience, and ought to stand acquitted in the eyes of mankind? On this
+scheme, the maker of the experiment must begin with a determined
+perjury. That point is certain. He must take his chance for the
+expiatory addresses. This is to make the success of villany the
+standard of innocence.
+
+Without drawing on, therefore, very shocking consequences, neither by
+previous consent, nor by subsequent ratification of a _mere reckoned
+majority_, can any set of men attempt to dissolve the state at their
+pleasure. To apply this to our present subject. When the several orders,
+in their several bailliages, had met in the year 1789, (such of them, I
+mean, as had met peaceably and constitutionally,) to choose and to
+instruct their representatives, so organized and so acting, (because
+they were organized and were acting according to the conventions which
+made them a people,) they were the _people_ of France. They had a legal
+and a natural capacity to be considered as that people. But observe,
+whilst they were in this state, that is, whilst they were a people, in
+no one of their instructions did they charge or even hint at any of
+those things which have drawn upon the usurping Assembly and their
+adherents the detestation of the rational and thinking part of mankind.
+I will venture to affirm, without the least apprehension of being
+contradicted by any person who knows the then state of France, that, if
+any one of the changes were proposed, which form the fundamental parts
+of their Revolution, and compose its most distinguishing acts, it would
+not have had one vote in twenty thousand in any order. Their
+instructions purported the direct contrary to all those famous
+proceedings which are defended as the acts of the people. Had such
+proceedings been expected, the great probability is, that the people
+would then have risen, as to a man, to prevent them. The whole
+organization of the Assembly was altered, the whole frame of the
+kingdom was changed, before these things could be done. It is long to
+tell, by what evil arts of the conspirators, and by what extreme
+weakness and want of steadiness in the lawful government, this equal
+usurpation on the rights of the prince and people, having first cheated,
+and then offered violence to both, has been able to triumph, and to
+employ with success the forged signature of an imprisoned sovereign, and
+the spurious voice of dictated addresses, to a subsequent ratification
+of things that had never received any previous sanction, general or
+particular, expressed or implied, from the nation, (in whatever sense
+that word is taken,) or from any part of it.
+
+After the weighty and respectable part of the people had been murdered,
+or driven by the menaces of murder from their houses, or were dispersed
+in exile into every country in Europe,--after the soldiery had been
+debauched from their officers,--after property had lost its weight and
+consideration, along with its security,--after voluntary clubs and
+associations of factious and unprincipled men were substituted in the
+place of all the legal corporations of the kingdom arbitrarily
+dissolved,--after freedom had been banished from those popular
+meetings[25] whose sole recommendation is freedom,--after it had come to
+that pass that no dissent dared to appear in any of them, but at the
+certain price of life,--after even dissent had been anticipated, and
+assassination became as quick as suspicion,--such pretended ratification
+by addresses could be no act of what any lover of the people would
+choose to call by their name. It is that voice which every successful
+usurpation, as well as this before us, may easily procure, even without
+making (as these tyrants have made) donatives from the spoil of one part
+of the citizens to corrupt the other.
+
+The pretended _rights of man_, which have made this havoc, cannot be the
+rights of the people. For to be a people, and to have these rights, are
+things incompatible. The one supposes the presence, the other the
+absence, of a state of civil society. The very foundation of the French
+commonwealth is false and self-destructive; nor can its principles be
+adopted in any country, without the certainty of bringing it to the very
+same condition in which France is found. Attempts are made to introduce
+them into every nation in Europe. This nation, as possessing the
+greatest influence, they wish most to corrupt, as by that means they are
+assured the contagion must become general. I hope, therefore, I shall be
+excused, if I endeavor to show, as shortly as the matter will admit, the
+danger of giving to them, either avowedly or tacitly, the smallest
+countenance.
+
+There are times and circumstances in which not to speak out is at least
+to connive. Many think it enough for them, that the principles
+propagated by these clubs and societies, enemies to their country and
+its Constitution, are not owned by the _modern Whigs in Parliament_, who
+are so warm in condemnation of Mr. Burke and his book, and of course of
+all the principles of the ancient, constitutional Whigs of this kingdom.
+Certainly they are not owned. But are they condemned with the same zeal
+as Mr. Burke and his book are condemned? Are they condemned at all? Are
+they rejected or discountenanced in any way whatsoever? Is any man who
+would fairly examine into the demeanor and principles of those
+societies, and that too very moderately, and in the way rather of
+admonition than of punishment, is such a man even decently treated? Is
+he not reproached as if in condemning such principles he had belied the
+conduct of his whole life, suggesting that his life had been governed by
+principles similar to those which he now reprobates? The French system
+is in the mean time, by many active agents out of doors, rapturously
+praised; the British Constitution is coldly tolerated. But these
+Constitutions are different both in the foundation and in the whole
+superstructure; and it is plain that you cannot build up the one but on
+the ruins of the other. After all, if the French be a superior system of
+liberty, why should we not adopt it? To what end are our praises? Is
+excellence held out to us only that we should not copy after it? And
+what is there in the manners of the people, or in the climate of France,
+which renders that species of republic fitted for them, and unsuitable
+to us? A strong and marked difference between the two nations ought to
+be shown, before we can admit a constant, affected panegyric, a
+standing, annual commemoration, to be without any tendency to an
+example.
+
+But the leaders of party will not go the length of the doctrines taught
+by the seditious clubs. I am sure they do not mean to do so. God forbid!
+Perhaps even those who are directly carrying on the work of this
+pernicious foreign faction do not all of them intend to produce all the
+mischiefs which must inevitably follow from their having any success in
+their proceedings. As to leaders in parties, nothing is more common than
+to see them blindly led. The world is governed by go-betweens. These
+go-betweens influence the persons with whom they carry on the
+intercourse, by stating their own sense to each of them as the sense of
+the other; and thus they reciprocally master both sides. It is first
+buzzed about the ears of leaders, "that their friends without doors are
+very eager for some measure, or very warm about some opinion,--that you
+must not be too rigid with them. They are useful persons, and zealous in
+the cause. They may be a little wrong, but the spirit of liberty must
+not be damped; and by the influence you obtain from some degree of
+concurrence with them at present, you may be enabled to set them right
+hereafter."
+
+Thus the leaders are at first drawn to a connivance with sentiments and
+proceedings often totally different from their serious and deliberate
+notions. But their acquiescence answers every purpose.
+
+With no better than such powers, the go-betweens assume a new
+representative character. What at best was but an acquiescence is
+magnified into an authority, and thence into a desire on the part of the
+leaders; and it is carried down as such to the subordinate members of
+parties. By this artifice they in their turn are led into measures which
+at first, perhaps, few of them wished at all, or at least did not desire
+vehemently or systematically.
+
+There is in all parties, between the principal leaders in Parliament and
+the lowest followers out of doors, a middle sort of men, a sort of
+equestrian order, who, by the spirit of that middle situation, are the
+fittest for preventing things from running to excess. But indecision,
+though a vice of a totally different character, is the natural
+accomplice of violence. The irresolution and timidity of those who
+compose this middle order often prevents the effect of their
+controlling situation. The fear of differing with the authority of
+leaders on the one hand, and of contradicting the desires of the
+multitude on the other, induces them to give a careless and passive
+assent to measures in which they never were consulted; and thus things
+proceed, by a sort of activity of inertness, until whole bodies,
+leaders, middle-men, and followers, are all hurried, with every
+appearance and with many of the effects of unanimity, into schemes of
+politics, in the substance of which no two of them were ever fully
+agreed, and the origin and authors of which, in this circular mode of
+communication, none of them find it possible to trace. In my experience,
+I have seen much of this in affairs which, though trifling in comparison
+to the present, were yet of some importance to parties; and I have known
+them suffer by it. The sober part give their sanction, at first through
+inattention and levity; at last they give it through necessity. A
+violent spirit is raised, which the presiding minds after a time find it
+impracticable to stop at their pleasure, to control, to regulate, or
+even to direct.
+
+This shows, in my opinion, how very quick and awakened all men ought to
+be, who are looked up to by the public, and who deserve that confidence,
+to prevent a surprise on their opinions, when dogmas are spread and
+projects pursued by which the foundations of society may be affected.
+Before they listen even to moderate alterations in the government of
+their country, they ought to take care that principles are not
+propagated for that purpose which are too big for their object.
+Doctrines limited in their present application, and wide in their
+general principles, are never meant to be confined to what they at
+first pretend. If I were to form a prognostic of the effect of the
+present machinations on the people from their sense of any grievance
+they suffer under this Constitution, my mind would be at ease. But there
+is a wide difference between the multitude, when they act against their
+government from a sense of grievance or from zeal for some opinions.
+When men are thoroughly possessed with that zeal, it is difficult to
+calculate its force. It is certain that its power is by no means in
+exact proportion to its reasonableness. It must always have been
+discoverable by persons of reflection, but it is now obvious to the
+world, that a theory concerning government may become as much a cause of
+fanaticism as a dogma in religion. There is a boundary to men's
+passions, when they act from feeling; none when they are under the
+influence of imagination. Remove a grievance, and, when men act from
+feeling, you go a great way towards quieting a commotion. But the good
+or bad conduct of a government, the protection men have enjoyed or the
+oppression they have suffered under it, are of no sort of moment, when a
+faction, proceeding upon speculative grounds, is thoroughly heated
+against its form. When a man is from system furious against monarchy or
+episcopacy, the good conduct of the monarch or the bishop has no other
+effect than further to irritate the adversary. He is provoked at it as
+furnishing a plea for preserving the thing which he wishes to destroy.
+His mind will be heated as much by the sight of a sceptre, a mace, or a
+verge, as if he had been daily bruised and wounded by these symbols of
+authority. Mere spectacles, mere names, will become sufficient causes to
+stimulate the people to war and tumult.
+
+Some gentlemen are not terrified by the facility with which government
+has been overturned in France. "The people of France," they say, "had
+nothing to lose in the destruction of a bad Constitution; but, though
+not the best possible, we have still a good stake in ours, which will
+hinder us from desperate risks." Is this any security at all against
+those who seem to persuade themselves, and who labor to persuade others,
+that our Constitution is an usurpation in its origin, unwise in its
+contrivance, mischievous in its effects, contrary to the rights of man,
+and in all its parts a perfect nuisance? What motive has any rational
+man, who thinks in that manner, to spill his blood, or even to risk a
+shilling of his fortune, or to waste a moment of his leisure, to
+preserve it? If he has any duty relative to it, his duty is to destroy
+it. A Constitution on sufferance is a Constitution condemned. Sentence
+is already passed upon it. The execution is only delayed. On the
+principles of these gentlemen, it neither has nor ought to have any
+security. So far as regards them, it is left naked, without friends,
+partisans, assertors, or protectors.
+
+Let us examine into the value of this security upon the principles of
+those who are more sober,--of those who think, indeed, the French
+Constitution better, or at least as good as the British, without going
+to all the lengths of the warmer politicians in reprobating their own.
+Their security amounts in reality to nothing more than this,--that the
+difference between their republican system and the British limited
+monarchy is not worth a civil war. This opinion, I admit, will prevent
+people not very enterprising in their nature from an active undertaking
+against the British Constitution. But it is the poorest defensive
+principle that ever was infused into the mind of man against the
+attempts of those who will enterprise. It will tend totally to remove
+from their minds that very terror of a civil war which is held out as
+our sole security. They who think so well of the French Constitution
+certainly will not be the persons to carry on a war to prevent their
+obtaining a great benefit, or at worst a fair exchange. They will not go
+to battle in favor of a cause in which their defeat might be more
+advantageous to the public than their victory. They must at least
+tacitly abet those who endeavor to make converts to a sound opinion;
+they must discountenance those who would oppose its propagation. In
+proportion as by these means the enterprising party is strengthened, the
+dread of a struggle is lessened. See what an encouragement this is to
+the enemies of the Constitution! A few assassinations and a very great
+destruction of property we know they consider as no real obstacles in
+the way of a grand political change. And they will hope, that here, if
+antimonarchical opinions gain ground as they have done in France, they
+may, as in France, accomplish a revolution without a war.
+
+They who think so well of the French Constitution cannot be seriously
+alarmed by any progress made by its partisans. Provisions for security
+are not to be received from those who think that there is no danger. No!
+there is no plan of security to be listened to but from those who
+entertain the same fears with ourselves,--from those who think that the
+thing to be secured is a great blessing, and the thing against which we
+would secure it a great mischief. Every person of a different opinion
+must be careless about security.
+
+I believe the author of the Reflections, whether he fears the designs of
+that set of people with reason or not, cannot prevail on himself to
+despise them. He cannot despise them for their numbers, which, though
+small, compared with the sound part of the community, are not
+inconsiderable: he cannot look with contempt on their influence, their
+activity, or the kind of talents and tempers which they possess, exactly
+calculated for the work they have in hand and the minds they chiefly
+apply to. Do we not see their most considerable and accredited
+ministers, and several of their party of weight and importance, active
+in spreading mischievous opinions, in giving sanction to seditious
+writings, in promoting seditious anniversaries? and what part of their
+description has disowned them or their proceedings? When men,
+circumstanced as these are, publicly declare such admiration of a
+foreign Constitution, and such contempt of our own, it would be, in the
+author of the Reflections, thinking as he does of the French
+Constitution, infamously to cheat the rest of the nation to their ruin
+to say there is no danger.
+
+In estimating danger, we are obliged to take into our calculation the
+character and disposition of the enemy into whose hands we may chance to
+fall. The genius of this faction is easily discerned, by observing with
+what a very different eye they have viewed the late foreign revolutions.
+Two have passed before them: that of France, and that of Poland. The
+state of Poland was such, that there could scarcely exist two opinions,
+but that a reformation of its Constitution, even at some expense of
+blood, might be seen without much disapprobation. No confusion could be
+feared in such an enterprise; because the establishment to be reformed
+was itself a state of confusion. A king without authority; nobles
+without union or subordination; a people without arts, industry,
+commerce, or liberty; no order within, no defence without; no effective
+public force, but a foreign force, which entered, a naked country at
+will, and disposed of everything at pleasure. Here was a state of things
+which seemed to invite, and might perhaps justify, bold enterprise and
+desperate experiment. But in what manner was this chaos brought into
+order? The means were as striking to the imagination as satisfactory to
+the reason and soothing to the moral sentiments. In contemplating that
+change, humanity has everything to rejoice and to glory in,--nothing to
+be ashamed of, nothing to suffer. So far as it has gone, it probably is
+the most pure and defecated public good which ever has been conferred on
+mankind. We have seen anarchy and servitude at once removed; a throne
+strengthened for the protection of the people, without trenching on
+their liberties; all foreign cabal banished, by changing the crown from
+elective to hereditary; and what was a matter of pleasing wonder, we
+have seen a reigning king, from an heroic love to his country, exerting
+himself with all the toil, the dexterity, the management, the intrigue,
+in favor of a family of strangers, with which ambitious men labor for
+the aggrandizement of their own. Ten millions of men in a way of being
+freed gradually, and therefore safely to themselves and the state, not
+from civil or political chains, which, bad as they are, only fetter the
+mind, but from substantial personal bondage. Inhabitants of cities,
+before without privileges, placed in the consideration which belongs to
+that improved and connecting situation of social life. One of the most
+proud, numerous, and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known in
+the world arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous
+citizens. Not one man incurred loss or suffered degradation. All, from
+the king to the day-laborer, were improved in their condition.
+Everything was kept in its place and order; but in that place and order
+everything was bettered. To add to this happy wonder, this unheard-of
+conjunction of wisdom and fortune, not one drop of blood was spilled; no
+treachery; no outrage; no system of slander more cruel than the sword;
+no studied insults on religion, morals, or manners; no spoil; no
+confiscation; no citizen beggared; none imprisoned; none exiled: the
+whole was effected with a policy, a discretion, an unanimity and
+secrecy, such as have never been before known on any occasion; but such
+wonderful conduct was reserved for this glorious conspiracy in favor of
+the true and genuine rights and interests of men. Happy people, if they
+know to proceed as they have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin with
+splendor or to close with glory a race of patriots and of kings, and to
+leave
+
+    A name, which every wind to heaven would bear,
+    Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear!
+
+To finish all,--this great good, as in the instant it is, contains in it
+the seeds of all further improvement, and may be considered as in a
+regular progress, because founded on similar principles, towards the
+stable excellence of a British Constitution.
+
+Here was a matter for congratulation and for festive remembrance through
+ages. Here moralists and divines might indeed relax in their temperance,
+to exhilarate their humanity. But mark the character of our faction.
+All their enthusiasm is kept for the French Revolution. They cannot
+pretend that France had stood so much in need of a change as Poland.
+They cannot pretend that Poland has not obtained a better system of
+liberty or of government than it enjoyed before. They cannot assert that
+the Polish Revolution cost more dearly than that of France to the
+interests and feelings of multitudes of men. But the cold and
+subordinate light in which they look upon the one, and the pains they
+take to preach up the other of these Revolutions, leave us no choice in
+fixing on their motives. Both Revolutions profess liberty as their
+object; but in obtaining this object the one proceeds from anarchy to
+order, the other from order to anarchy. The first secures its liberty by
+establishing its throne; the other builds its freedom on the subversion
+of its monarchy. In the one, their means are unstained by crimes, and
+their settlement favors morality; in the other, vice and confusion are
+in the very essence of their pursuit, and of their enjoyment. The
+circumstances in which these two events differ must cause the difference
+we make in their comparative estimation. These turn the scale with the
+societies in favor of France. _Ferrum est quod amant_. The frauds, the
+violences, the sacrileges, the havoc and ruin of families, the
+dispersion and exile of the pride and flower of a great country, the
+disorder, the confusion, the anarchy, the violation of property, the
+cruel murders, the inhuman confiscations, and in the end the insolent
+domination of bloody, ferocious, and senseless clubs,--these are the
+things which they love and admire. What men admire and love they would
+surely act. Let us see what is done in France; and then let us
+undervalue any the slightest danger of falling into the hands of such a
+merciless and savage faction!
+
+"But the leaders of the factious societies are too wild to succeed in
+this their undertaking." I hope so. But supposing them wild and absurd,
+is there no danger but from wise and reflecting men? Perhaps the
+greatest mischiefs that have happened in the world have happened from
+persons as wild as those we think the wildest. In truth, they are the
+fittest beginners of all great changes. Why encourage men in a
+mischievous proceeding, because their absurdity may disappoint their
+malice?--"But noticing them may give them consequence." Certainly. But
+they are noticed; and they are noticed, not with reproof, but with that
+kind of countenance which is given by an _apparent_ concurrence (not a
+_real_ one, I am convinced) of a great party in the praises of the
+object which they hold out to imitation.
+
+But I hear a language still more extraordinary, and indeed of such a
+nature as must suppose or leave us at their mercy. It is this:--"You
+know their promptitude in writing, and their diligence in caballing; to
+write, speak, or act against them will only stimulate them to new
+efforts." This way of considering the principle of their conduct pays
+but a poor compliment to these gentlemen. They pretend that their
+doctrines are infinitely beneficial to mankind; but it seems they would
+keep them to themselves, if they were not greatly provoked. They are
+benevolent from spite. Their oracles are like those of Proteus, (whom
+some people think they resemble in many particulars,) who never would
+give his responses, unless you used him as ill as possible. These cats,
+it seems, would not give out their electrical light without having
+their backs well rubbed. But this is not to do them perfect justice.
+They are sufficiently communicative. Had they been quiet, the propriety
+of any agitation of topics on the origin and primary rights of
+government, in opposition to their private sentiments, might possibly be
+doubted. But, as it is notorious that they were proceeding as fast and
+as far as time and circumstances would admit, both in their discussions
+and cabals,--as it is not to be denied that they had opened a
+correspondence with a foreign faction the most wicked the world ever
+saw, and established anniversaries to commemorate the most monstrous,
+cruel, and perfidious of all the proceedings of that faction,--the
+question is, whether their conduct was to be regarded in silence, lest
+our interference should render them outrageous. Then let them deal as
+they please with the Constitution. Let the lady be passive, lest the
+ravisher should be driven to force. Resistance will only increase his
+desires. Yes, truly, if the resistance be feigned and feeble. But they
+who are wedded to the Constitution will not act the part of wittols.
+They will drive such seducers from the house on the first appearance of
+their love-letters and offered assignations. But if the author of the
+Reflections, though a vigilant, was not a discreet guardian of the
+Constitution, let them who have the same regard to it show themselves as
+vigilant and more skilful in repelling the attacks of seduction or
+violence. Their freedom from jealousy is equivocal, and may arise as
+well from indifference to the object as from confidence in her virtue.
+
+On their principle, it is the resistance, and not the assault, which
+produces the danger. I admit, indeed, that, if we estimated the danger
+by the value of the writings, it would be little worthy of our
+attention: contemptible these writings are in every sense. But they are
+not the cause, they are the disgusting symptoms of a frightful
+distemper. They are not otherwise of consequence than as they show the
+evil habit of the bodies from whence they come. In that light the
+meanest of them is a serious thing. If, however, I should underrate
+them, and if the truth is, that they are not the result, but the cause,
+of the disorders I speak of, surely those who circulate operative
+poisons, and give to whatever force they have by their nature the
+further operation of their authority and adoption, are to be censured,
+watched, and, if possible, repressed.
+
+At what distance the direct danger from such factions may be it is not
+easy to fix. An adaptation of circumstances to designs and principles is
+necessary. But these cannot be wanting for any long time, in the
+ordinary course of sublunary affairs. Great discontents frequently arise
+in the best constituted governments from causes which no human wisdom
+can foresee and no human power can prevent. They occur at uncertain
+periods, but at periods which are not commonly far asunder. Governments
+of all kinds are administered only by men; and great mistakes, tending
+to inflame these discontents, may concur. The indecision of those who
+happen to rule at the critical time, their supine neglect, or their
+precipitate and ill-judged attention, may aggravate the public
+misfortunes. In such a state of things, the principles, now only sown,
+will shoot out and vegetate in full luxuriance. In such circumstances
+the minds of the people become sore and ulcerated. They are put out of
+humor with all public men and all public parties; they are fatigued
+with their dissensions; they are irritated at their coalitions; they are
+made easily to believe (what much pains are taken to make them believe)
+that all oppositions are factious, and all courtiers base and servile.
+From their disgust at men, they are soon led to quarrel with their frame
+of government, which they presume gives nourishment to the vices, real
+or supposed, of those who administer in it. Mistaking malignity for
+sagacity, they are soon led to cast off all hope from a good
+administration of affairs, and come to think that all reformation
+depends, not on a change of actors, but upon an alteration in the
+machinery. Then will be felt the full effect of encouraging doctrines
+which tend to make the citizens despise their Constitution. Then will be
+felt the plenitude of the mischief of teaching the people to believe
+that all ancient institutions are the results of ignorance, and that all
+prescriptive government is in its nature usurpation. Then will be felt,
+in all its energy, the danger of encouraging a spirit of litigation in
+persons of that immature and imperfect state of knowledge which serves
+to render them susceptible of doubts, but incapable of their solution.
+Then will be felt, in all its aggravation, the pernicious consequence of
+destroying all docility in the minds of those who are not formed for
+finding their own way in the labyrinths of political theory, and are
+made to reject the clew and to disdain the guide. Then will be felt, and
+too late will be acknowledged, the ruin which follows the disjoining of
+religion from the state, the separation of morality from policy, and the
+giving conscience no concern and no coactive or coercive force in the
+most material of all the social ties, the principle of our obligations
+to government.
+
+I know, too, that, besides this vain, contradictory, and
+self-destructive security which some men derive from the habitual
+attachment of the people to this Constitution, whilst they suffer it
+with a sort of sportive acquiescence to be brought into contempt before
+their faces, they have other grounds for removing all apprehension from
+their minds. They are of opinion that there are too many men of great
+hereditary estates and influence in the kingdom to suffer the
+establishment of the levelling system which has taken place in France.
+This is very true, if, in order to guide the power which now attends
+their property, these men possess the wisdom which is involved in early
+fear. But if, through a supine security, to which such fortunes are
+peculiarly liable, they neglect the use of their influence in the season
+of their power, on the first derangement of society the nerves of their
+strength will be cut. Their estates, instead of being the means of their
+security, will become the very causes of their danger. Instead of
+bestowing influence, they will excite rapacity. They will be looked to
+as a prey.
+
+Such will be the impotent condition of those men of great hereditary
+estates, who indeed dislike the designs that are carried on, but whose
+dislike is rather that of spectators than of parties that may be
+concerned in the catastrophe of the piece. But riches do not in all
+cases secure even an inert and passive resistance. There are always in
+that description men whose fortunes, when their minds are once vitiated
+by passion or by evil principle, are by no means a security from their
+actually taking their part against the public tranquillity. We see to
+what low and despicable passions of all kinds many men in that class
+are ready to sacrifice the patrimonial estates which might be
+perpetuated in their families with splendor, and with the fame of
+hereditary benefactors to mankind, from generation to generation. Do we
+not see how lightly people treat their fortunes, when under the
+influence of the passion of gaming? The game of ambition or resentment
+will be played by many of the rich and great as desperately, and with as
+much blindness to the consequences, as any other game. Was he a man of
+no rank or fortune who first set on foot the disturbances which have
+ruined France? Passion blinded him to the consequences, so far as they
+concerned himself; and as to the consequences with regard to others,
+they were no part of his consideration,--nor ever will be with those who
+bear any resemblance to that virtuous patriot and lover of the rights of
+man.
+
+There is also a time of insecurity, when interests of all sorts become
+objects of speculation. Then it is that their very attachment to wealth
+and importance will induce several persons of opulence to list
+themselves and even to take a lead with the party which they think most
+likely to prevail, in order to obtain to themselves consideration in
+some new order or disorder of things. They may be led to act in this
+manner, that they may secure some portion of their own property, and
+perhaps to become partakers of the spoil of their own order. Those who
+speculate on change always make a great number among people of rank and
+fortune, as well as amongst the low and the indigent.
+
+What security against all this?--All human securities are liable to
+uncertainty. But if anything bids fair for the prevention of so great a
+calamity, it must consist in the use of the ordinary means of just
+influence in society, whilst those means continue unimpaired. The public
+judgment ought to receive a proper direction. All weighty men may have
+their share in so good a work. As yet, notwithstanding the strutting and
+lying independence of a braggart philosophy, Nature maintains her
+rights, and great names have great prevalence. Two such men as Mr. Pitt
+and Mr. Fox, adding to their authority in a point in which they concur
+even by their disunion in everything else, might frown these wicked
+opinions out of the kingdom. But if the influence of either of them, or
+the influence of men like them, should, against their serious
+intentions, be otherwise perverted, they may countenance opinions which
+(as I have said before, and could wish over and over again to press)
+they may in vain attempt to control. In their theory, these doctrines
+admit no limit, no qualification whatsoever. No man can say how far he
+will go, who joins with those who are avowedly going to the utmost
+extremities. What security is there for stopping short at all in these
+wild conceits? Why, neither more nor less than this,--that the moral
+sentiments of some few amongst them do put some check on their savage
+theories. But let us take care. The moral sentiments, so nearly
+connected with early prejudice as to be almost one and the same thing,
+will assuredly not live long under a discipline which has for its basis
+the destruction of all prejudices, and the making the mind proof against
+all dread of consequences flowing from the pretended truths that are
+taught by their philosophy.
+
+In this school the moral sentiments must grow weaker and weaker every
+day. The more cautious of these teachers, in laying down their maxims,
+draw as much of the conclusion as suits, not with their premises, but
+with their policy. They trust the rest to the sagacity of their pupils.
+Others, and these are the most vaunted for their spirit, not only lay
+down the same premises, but boldly draw the conclusions, to the
+destruction of our whole Constitution in Church and State. But are these
+conclusions truly drawn? Yes, most certainly. Their principles are wild
+and wicked; but let justice be done even to frenzy and villany. These
+teachers are perfectly systematic. No man who assumes their grounds can
+tolerate the British Constitution in Church or State. These teachers
+profess to scorn all mediocrity,--to engage for perfection,--to proceed
+by the simplest and shortest course. They build their politics, not on
+convenience, but on truth; and they profess to conduct men to certain
+happiness by the assertion of their undoubted rights. With them there is
+no compromise. All other governments are usurpations, which justify and
+even demand resistance.
+
+Their principles always go to the extreme. They who go with the
+principles of the ancient Whigs, which are those contained in Mr.
+Burke's book, never can go too far. They may, indeed, stop short of some
+hazardous and ambiguous excellence, which they will be taught to
+postpone to any reasonable degree of good they may actually possess. The
+opinions maintained in that book never can lead to an extreme, because
+their foundation is laid in an opposition to extremes. The foundation of
+government is there laid, not in imaginary rights of men, (which at best
+is a confusion of judicial with civil principles,) but in political
+convenience, and in human nature,--either as that nature is universal,
+or as it is modified by local habits and social aptitudes. The
+foundation of government (those who have read that book will recollect)
+is laid in a provision for our wants and in a conformity to our duties:
+it is to purvey for the one, it is to enforce the other. These doctrines
+do of themselves gravitate to a middle point, or to some point near a
+middle. They suppose, indeed, a certain portion of liberty to be
+essential to all good government; but they infer that this liberty is to
+be blended into the government, to harmonize with its forms and its
+rules, and to be made subordinate to its end. Those who are not with
+that book are with its opposite; for there is no medium besides the
+medium itself. That medium is not such because it is found there, but it
+is found there because it is conformable to truth and Nature. In this we
+do not follow the author, but we and the author travel together upon the
+same safe and middle path.
+
+The theory contained in his book is not to furnish principles for making
+a new Constitution, but for illustrating the principles of a
+Constitution already made. It is a theory drawn from the _fact_ of our
+government. They who oppose it are bound to show that his theory
+militates with that fact; otherwise, their quarrel is not with his book,
+but with the Constitution of their country. The whole scheme of our
+mixed Constitution is to prevent any one of its principles from being
+carried as far as, taken by itself, and theoretically, it would go.
+Allow that to be the true policy of the British system, then most of the
+faults with which that system stands charged will appear to be, not
+imperfections into which it has inadvertently fallen, but excellencies
+which it has studiously sought. To avoid the perfections of extreme,
+all its several parts are so constituted as not alone to answer their
+own several ends, but also each to limit and control the others;
+insomuch that, take which of the principles you please, you will find
+its operation checked and stopped at a certain point. The whole movement
+stands still rather than that any part should proceed beyond its
+boundary. From thence it results that in the British Constitution there
+is a perpetual treaty and compromise going on, sometimes openly,
+sometimes with less observation. To him who contemplates the British
+Constitution, as to him who contemplates the subordinate material world,
+it will always be a matter of his most curious investigation to discover
+the secret of this mutual limitation.
+
+            _Finita_ potestas denique _cuique_
+    Quanam sit ratione, atque alte terminus haerens?
+
+They who have acted, as in France they have done, upon a scheme wholly
+different, and who aim at the abstract and unlimited perfection of power
+in the popular part, can be of no service to us in any of our political
+arrangements. They who in their headlong career have overpassed the goal
+can furnish no example to those who aim to go no further. The temerity
+of such speculators is no more an example than the timidity of others.
+The one sort scorns the right; the other fears it; both miss it. But
+those who by violence go beyond the barrier are without question the
+most mischievous; because, to go beyond it, they overturn and destroy
+it. To say they have spirit is to say nothing in their praise. The
+untempered spirit of madness, blindness, immorality, and impiety
+deserves no commendation. He that sets his house on fire because his
+fingers are frost-bitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of
+providing our habitations with a cheerful and salutary warmth. We want
+no foreign examples to rekindle in us the flame of liberty. The example
+of our own ancestors is abundantly sufficient to maintain the spirit of
+freedom in its full vigor, and to qualify it in all its exertions. The
+example of a wise, moral, well-natured, and well-tempered spirit of
+freedom is that alone which can be useful to us, or in the least degree
+reputable or safe. Our fabric is so constituted, one part of it bears so
+much on the other, the parts are so made for one another, and for
+nothing else, that to introduce any foreign matter into it is to destroy
+it.
+
+What has been said of the Roman Empire is at least as true of the
+British Constitution:--"_Octingentorum annorum fortuna disciplinaque
+compages haec coaluit; quae convelli sine convellentium exitio non
+potest_." This British Constitution has not been struck out at an heat
+by a set of presumptuous men, like the Assembly of pettifoggers run mad
+in Paris.
+
+    "'Tis not the hasty product of a day,
+    But the well-ripened fruit of wise delay."
+
+It is the result of the thoughts of many minds in many ages. It is no
+simple, no superficial thing, nor to be estimated by superficial
+understandings. An ignorant man, who is not fool enough to meddle with
+his clock, is, however, sufficiently confident to think he can safely
+take to pieces and put together, at his pleasure, a moral machine of
+another guise, importance, and complexity, composed of far other wheels
+and springs and balances and counteracting and cooeperating powers. Men
+little think how immorally they act in rashly meddling with what they
+do not understand. Their delusive good intention is no sort of excuse
+for their presumption. They who truly mean well must be fearful of
+acting ill. The British Constitution may have its advantages pointed out
+to wise and reflecting minds, but it is of too high an order of
+excellence to be adapted to those which are common. It takes in too many
+views, it makes too many combinations, to be so much as comprehended by
+shallow and superficial understandings. Profound thinkers will know it
+in its reason and spirit. The less inquiring will recognize it in their
+feelings and their experience. They will thank God they have a standard,
+which, in the most essential point of this great concern, will put them
+on a par with the most wise and knowing.
+
+If we do not take to our aid the foregone studies of men reputed
+intelligent and learned, we shall be always beginners. But men must
+learn somewhere; and the new teachers mean no more than what they
+effect, as far as they succeed,--that is, to deprive men of the benefit
+of the collected wisdom of mankind, and to make them blind disciples of
+their own particular presumption. Talk to these deluded creatures (all
+the disciples and most of the masters) who are taught to think
+themselves so newly fitted up and furnished, and you will find nothing
+in their houses but the refuse of _Knaves' Acre_,--nothing but the
+rotten stuff, worn out in the service of delusion and sedition in all
+ages, and which, being newly furbished up, patched, and varnished,
+serves well enough for those who, being unacquainted with the conflict
+which has always been maintained between the sense and the nonsense of
+mankind, know nothing of the former existence and the ancient
+refutation of the same follies. It is near two thousand years since it
+has been observed that these devices of ambition, avarice, and
+turbulence were antiquated. They are, indeed, the most ancient of all
+commonplaces: commonplaces sometimes of good and necessary causes; more
+frequently of the worst, but which decide upon neither. _Eadem semper
+causa, libido et avaritia, et mutandarum rerum amor. Ceterum libertas et
+speciosa nomina pretexuntur; nec quisquam alienum servitium, et
+dominationem sibi concupivit, ut non eadem ista vocabula usurparet_.
+
+Rational and experienced men tolerably well know, and have always known,
+how to distinguish between true and false liberty, and between the
+genuine adherence and the false pretence to what is true. But none,
+except those who are profoundly studied, can comprehend the elaborate
+contrivance of a fabric fitted to unite private and public liberty with
+public force, with order, with peace, with justice, and, above all, with
+the institutions formed for bestowing permanence and stability, through
+ages, upon this invaluable whole.
+
+Place, for instance, before your eyes such a man as Montesquieu. Think
+of a genius not born in every country or every time: a man gifted by
+Nature with a penetrating, aquiline eye,--with a judgment prepared with
+the most extensive erudition,--with an Herculean robustness of mind, and
+nerves not to be broken with labor,--a man who could spend twenty years
+in one pursuit. Think of a man like the universal patriarch in Milton
+(who had drawn up before him in his prophetic vision the whole series of
+the generations which were to issue from his loins): a man capable of
+placing in review, after having brought together from the East, the
+West, the North, and the South, from the coarseness of the rudest
+barbarism to the most refined and subtle civilization, all the schemes
+of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind, weighing,
+measuring, collating, and comparing them all, joining fact with theory,
+and calling into council, upon all this infinite assemblage of things,
+all the speculations which have fatigued the understandings of profound
+reasoners in all times. Let us then consider, that all these were but so
+many preparatory steps to qualify a man, and such a man, tinctured with
+no national prejudice, with no domestic affection, to admire, and to
+hold out to the admiration of mankind, the Constitution of England. And
+shall we Englishmen revoke to such a suit? Shall we, when so much more
+than he has produced remains still to be understood and admired, instead
+of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science, choose for our
+teachers men incapable of being taught,--whose only claim to know is,
+that they have never doubted,--from whom we can learn nothing but their
+own indocility,--who would teach us to scorn what in the silence of our
+hearts we ought to adore?
+
+Different from them are all the great critics. They have taught us one
+essential rule. I think the excellent and philosophic artist, a true
+judge, as well as a perfect follower of Nature, Sir Joshua Reynolds, has
+somewhere applied it, or something like it, in his own profession. It is
+this: that, if ever we should find ourselves disposed not to admire
+those writers or artists (Livy and Virgil, for instance, Raphael or
+Michael Angelo) whom all the learned had admired, not to follow our own
+fancies, but to study them, until we know how and what we ought to
+admire; and if we cannot arrive at this combination of admiration with
+knowledge, rather to believe that we are dull than that the rest of the
+world has been imposed on. It is as good a rule, at least, with regard
+to this admired Constitution. We ought to understand it according to our
+measure, and to venerate where we are not able presently to comprehend.
+
+Such admirers were our fathers, to whom we owe this splendid
+inheritance. Let us improve it with zeal, but with fear. Let us follow
+our ancestors, men not without a rational, though without an exclusive
+confidence in themselves,--who, by respecting the reason of others, who,
+by looking backward as well as forward, by the modesty as well as by the
+energy of their minds, went on insensibly drawing this Constitution
+nearer and nearer to its perfection, by never departing from its
+fundamental principles, nor introducing any amendment which had not a
+subsisting root in the laws, Constitution, and usages of the kingdom.
+Let those who have the trust of political or of natural authority ever
+keep watch against the desperate enterprises of innovation: let even
+their benevolence be fortified and armed. They have before their eyes
+the example of a monarch insulted, degraded, confined, deposed; his
+family dispersed, scattered, imprisoned; his wife insulted to his face,
+like the vilest of the sex, by the vilest of all populace; himself three
+times dragged by these wretches in an infamous triumph; his children
+torn from him, in violation of the first right of Nature, and given into
+the tuition of the most desperate and impious of the leaders of
+desperate and impious clubs; his revenues dilapidated and plundered;
+his magistrates murdered; his clergy proscribed, persecuted, famished;
+his nobility degraded in their rank, undone in their fortunes, fugitives
+in their persons; his armies corrupted and ruined; his whole people
+impoverished, disunited, dissolved; whilst through the bars of his
+prison, and amidst the bayonets of his keepers, he hears the tumult of
+two conflicting factions, equally wicked and abandoned, who agree in
+principles, in dispositions, and in objects, but who tear each other to
+pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining their common end: the
+one contending to preserve for a while his name, and his person, the
+more easily to destroy the royal authority,--the other clamoring to cut
+off the name, the person, and the monarchy together, by one sacrilegious
+execution. All this accumulation of calamity, the greatest that ever
+fell upon one man, has fallen upon his head, because he had left his
+virtues unguarded by caution,--because he was not taught, that, where
+power is concerned, he who will confer benefits must take security
+against ingratitude.
+
+I have stated the calamities which have fallen upon a great prince and
+nation, because they were not alarmed at the approach of danger, and
+because, what commonly happens to men surprised, they lost all resource
+when they were caught in it. When I speak of danger, I certainly mean to
+address myself to those who consider the prevalence of the new Whig
+doctrines as an evil.
+
+The Whigs of this day have before them, in this Appeal, their
+constitutional ancestors; they have the doctors of the modern school.
+They will choose for themselves. The author of the Reflections has
+chosen for himself. If a new order is coming on, and all the political
+opinions must pass away as dreams, which our ancestors have worshipped
+as revelations, I say for him, that he would rather be the last (as
+certainly he is the least) of that race of men than the first and
+greatest of those who have coined to themselves Whig principles from a
+French die, unknown to the impress of our fathers in the Constitution.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] Newspaper intelligence ought always to be received with some degree
+of caution. I do not know that the following paragraph is founded on any
+authority; but it comes with an air of authority. The paper is
+professedly in the interest of the modern Whigs, and under their
+direction. The paragraph is not disclaimed on their part. It professes
+to be the decision of those whom its author calls "the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England." Who are the Whigs of a different
+composition, which the promulgator of the sentence considers as composed
+of fleeting and unsettled particles, I know not, nor whether there be
+any of that description. The definitive sentence of "the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England" (as this paper gives it out) is as
+follows:--
+
+"The great and firm body of the Whigs of England, true to their
+principles, have decided on the dispute between Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke;
+and the former is declared to have maintained the pure doctrines by
+which they are bound together, and upon which they have invariably
+acted. The consequence is, that Mr. Burke retires from
+Parliament."--_Morning Chronicle_, May 12, 1791.
+
+[7] Reflections, &c., 1st ed., London, J. Dodsley, 1790.--Works, Vol.
+III. p. 343, in the present edition.
+
+[8] To explain this, it will be necessary to advert to a paragraph which
+appeared in a paper in the minority interest some time before this
+debate. "A very dark intrigue has lately been discovered, the authors of
+which are well known to us; but until the glorious day shall come when
+it will not be a LIBEL to tell the TRUTH, we must not be so regardless
+of our own safety as to publish their names. We will, however, state the
+fact, leaving it to the ingenuity of our readers to discover what we
+dare not publish.
+
+"Since the business of the armament against Russia has been under
+discussion, a great personage has been heard to say, 'that he was not so
+wedded to Mr. PITT as not to be very willing to give his confidence to
+Mr. FOX, if the latter should be able, in a crisis like the present, to
+conduct the government of the country with greater advantage to the
+public.'
+
+"This patriotic declaration immediately alarmed the swarm of courtly
+insects that live only in the sunshine of ministerial favor. It was
+thought to be the forerunner of the dismission of Mr. Pitt, and every
+engine was set at work for the purpose of preventing such an event. The
+principal engine employed on this occasion was CALUMNY. It was whispered
+in the ear of a great personage, that Mr. Fox was the last man in
+England to be trusted by a KING, because he was by PRINCIPLE a
+REPUBLICAN, and consequently an enemy to MONARCHY.
+
+"In the discussion of the Quebec Bill which stood for yesterday, it was
+the intention of some persons to connect with this subject the French
+Revolution, in hopes that Mr. Fox would be warmed by a collision with
+Mr. Burke, and induced to defend that Revolution, in which so much power
+was taken from, and so little left in the crown.
+
+"Had Mr. Fox fallen into the snare, his speech on the occasion would
+have been laid before a great personage, as a proof that a man who could
+defend such a revolution might be a very good republican, but could not
+possibly be a friend to monarchy.
+
+"But those who laid the snare were disappointed; for Mr. Fox, in the
+short conversation which took place yesterday in the House of Commons,
+said, that he confessedly had thought favorably of the French
+Revolution, but that most certainly he never had, either in Parliament
+or out of Parliament, professed or defended republican
+principles."--_Argus_, April 22d, 1791.
+
+Mr. Burke cannot answer for the truth nor prove the falsehood of the
+story given by the friends of the party in this paper. He only knows
+that an opinion of its being well or ill authenticated had no influence
+on his conduct. He meant only, to the best of his power, to guard the
+public against the ill designs of factions out of doors. What Mr. Burke
+did in Parliament could hardly have been intended to draw Mr. Fox into
+any declarations unfavorable to his principles, since (by the account of
+those who are his friends) he had long before effectually prevented the
+success of any such scandalous designs. Mr. Fox's friends have
+themselves done away that imputation on Mr. Burke.
+
+[9] See his speech on American Taxation, the 19th of April, 1774.
+
+[10] Lord Lansdowne.
+
+[11] Mr. Windham.
+
+[12] July 17th, 1765.
+
+[13] Works, Vol. III. pp. 251-276, present edition.
+
+[14] State Trials, Vol. V. p. 651.
+
+[15] Page 676.
+
+[16] The words necessary to the completion of the sentence are wanting
+in the printed trial--but the construction of the sentence, as well as
+the foregoing part of the speech, justify the insertion of some such
+supplemental words as the above.
+
+[17] "What we did was, in truth and substance, and in a constitutional
+light, a revolution, not made, but prevented. We took solid securities;
+we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies in our law. In the
+stable, fundamental parts of our Constitution we made no
+revolution,--no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the
+monarchy. Perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very
+considerably. The nation kept the same ranks, the same orders, the same
+privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property, the same
+subordinations, the same order in the law, in the revenue, and in the
+magistracy,--the same lords, the same commons, the same corporations,
+the same electors."--_Mr. Burke's Speech in the House of Commons, 9th
+February, 1790._--It appears how exactly he coincides in everything with
+Sir Joseph Jekyl.
+
+[18] See Reflections, pp. 42, 43.--Works, Vol. III. p. 270, present
+edition.
+
+[19] Declaration of Right.
+
+[20] Vindication of the Rights of Man, recommended by the several
+societies.
+
+[21] "Omnes omnium charitates patria una complectitur."--Cic.
+
+[22] A few lines in Persius contain a good summary of all the objects of
+moral investigation, and hint the result of our inquiry: There human
+will has no place.
+
+    Quid _sumus_? et quidnam _victuri gignimur_? ordo
+    Quis _datus_? et _metae_ quis mollis flexus, et unde?
+    Quis modus argento? Quid _fas optare_? Quid asper
+    Utile nummus habet? _Patriae charisque propinquis_
+    Quantum elargiri _debet_? Quem te Deus esse
+    _Jussit_? et humana qua parte _locatus es_ in re?
+
+
+
+[23] It is no small loss to the world, that the whole of this
+enlightened and philosophic sermon, preached to _two hundred thousand_
+national guards assembled at Blackheath (a number probably equal to the
+sublime and majestic _Federation_ of the 14th of July, 1790, in the
+Champ de Mars) is not preserved. A short abstract is, however, to be
+found in Walsingham. I have added it here for the edification of the
+modern Whigs, who may possibly except this precious little fragment from
+their general contempt of ancient learning.
+
+"Ut sua doctrina plures inficeret, ad le Blackheth (ubi ducenta millia
+hominum communium fuere simul congregata) hujuscemodi sermonem est
+exorsus.
+
+    "Whan Adam dalfe and Eve span,
+     Who was than a gentleman?
+
+Continuansque sermonem inceptum, nitebatur per verba proverbii, quod pro
+themate sumpserat, introducere et probare, _ab initio omnes pares
+creatos a natura_, servitutem per injustam oppressionem nequam hominum
+introductam contra Dei voluntatem, quia si Deo placuisset servos
+creasse, utique in principio mundi constituisset, quis servus, quisve
+dominus futurus fuisset. Considerarent igitur jam tempus a Deo datum
+eis, in quo (deposito servitutis jugo diutius) possent, si vellent,
+libertate diu concupita gaudere. Quapropter monuit ut essent viri
+cordati, et amore boni patrisfamilias excolentis agrum suum, et
+extirpantis ac resecantis noxia gramina quae fruges solent opprimere, et
+ipsi in praesenti facere festinarent. Primo _majores regni dominos
+occidendo. Deinde juridicos, justiciarios, et juratores patriae
+perimendo._ Postremo quoscunque scirent _in posterum communitati
+nocivos_ tollerent de terra sua, sic demum et _pacem_ sibimet _parerent
+et securitatem_ in futurum. _Si sublatis majoribus esset inter eos aequa
+libertas, eadem nobilitas, par dignitas, similisque potestas._"
+
+Here is displayed at once the whole of the grand _arcanum_ pretended to
+be found out by the National Assembly, for securing future happiness,
+peace, and tranquillity. There seems, however, to be some doubt whether
+this venerable protomartyr of philosophy was inclined to carry his own
+declaration of the rights of men more rigidly into practice than the
+National Assembly themselves. He was, like them, only preaching
+licentiousness to the populace to obtain power for himself, if we may
+believe what is subjoined by the historian.
+
+"Cumque haec et _plura alia deliramenta_" (think of this old fool's
+calling all the wise maxims of the French Academy _deliramenta_!)
+"praedicasset, commune vulgus cum tanto favore prosequitur, ut
+_exclamarent eum archiepiscopum futurum, et regni cancellarium_."
+Whether he would have taken these situations under these names, or would
+have changed the whole nomenclature of the State and Church, to be
+understood in the sense of the Revolution, is not so certain. It is
+probable that he would have changed the names and kept the substance of
+power.
+
+We find, too, that they had in those days their _society for
+constitutional information_, of which the Reverend John Ball was a
+conspicuous member, sometimes under his own name, sometimes under the
+feigned name of John Schep. Besides him it consisted (as Knyghton tells
+us) of persons who went by the real or fictitious names of Jack Mylner,
+Tom Baker, Jack Straw, Jack Trewman, Jack Carter, and probably of many
+more. Some of the choicest flowers of the publications charitably
+written and circulated by them gratis are upon record in Walsingham and
+Knyghton: and I am inclined to prefer the pithy and sententious brevity
+of these _bulletins_ of ancient rebellion before the loose and confused
+prolixity of the modern advertisements of constitutional information.
+They contain more good morality and less bad politics, they had much
+more foundation in real oppression, and they have the recommendation of
+being much better adapted to the capacities of those for whose
+instruction they were intended. Whatever laudable pains the teachers of
+the present day appear to take, I cannot compliment them so far as to
+allow that they have succeeded in writing down to the level of their
+pupils, _the members of the sovereign_, with half the ability of Jack
+Carter and the Reverend John Ball. That my readers may judge for
+themselves, I shall give them, one or two specimens.
+
+The first is an address from the Reverend John Ball, under his _nom de
+guerre_ of John Schep. I know not against what particular "guyle in
+borough" the writer means to caution the people; it may have been only a
+general cry against "_rotten boroughs_," which it was thought
+convenient, then as now, to make the first pretext, and place at the
+head of the list of grievances.
+
+JOHN SCHEP.
+
+"Iohn Schep sometime seint Mary priest of Yorke, and now of Colchester,
+greeteth well Iohn Namelesse, and Iohn the Miller, and Iohn Carter, and
+_biddeth them that they beware of guyle in borough_, and stand together
+in Gods name, and biddeth Piers Ploweman goe to his werke, and chastise
+well _Hob the robber_, [probably the king,] and take with you Iohn
+Trewman, and all his fellows, and no moe.
+
+    "Iohn the Miller hath yground smal, small, small:
+     The kings sonne of heauen shal pay for all.
+     Beware or ye be woe,
+     Know your frende fro your foe,
+     Haue ynough, and say hoe:
+     And do wel and better, & flee sinne,
+     _And seeke peace and holde you therin,_
+
+& so biddeth Iohn Trewman & all his fellowes."
+
+The reader has perceived, from the last lines of this curious
+state-paper, how well the National Assembly has copied its union of the
+profession of universal peace with the practice of murder and confusion,
+and the blast of the trumpet of sedition in all nations. He will in the
+following constitutional paper observe how well, in their enigmatical
+style, like the Assembly and their abettors, the old philosophers
+proscribe all hereditary distinction, and bestow it only on virtue and
+wisdom, according to their estimation of both. Yet these people are
+supposed never to have heard of "the rights of man"!
+
+JACK MYLNER.
+
+"Jakke Mylner asket help to turne his mylne aright.
+
+    "He hath grounden smal smal,
+     The Kings sone of heven he schal pay for alle.
+
+Loke thy mylne go a rygt, with the fours sayles, and the post stande in
+steadfastnesse.
+
+    "With rygt and with mygt,
+     With skyl and with wylle,
+     Lat mygt helpe rygt,
+     And skyl go before wille,
+     And rygt before mygt:
+     Than goth oure mylne aryght.
+     And if mygt go before ryght,
+     And wylle before skylle;
+     Than is oure mylne mys a dygt."
+
+JACK CARTER understood perfectly the doctrine of looking to the _end_,
+with an indifference to the _means_, and the probability of much good
+arising from great evil.
+
+"Jakke Carter pryes yowe alle that ye make a gode _ende_ of that ye hane
+begunnen, and doth wele and ay bettur and bettur: for at the even men
+heryth the day. _For if the ende be wele, than is alle wele._ Lat Peres
+the Plowman my brother duelle at home and dygt us corne, and I will go
+with yowe and helpe that y may to dygte youre mete and youre drynke,
+that ye none fayle: lokke that Hobbe robbyoure be wele chastysed for
+lesyng of youre grace: for ye have gret nede to take God with yowe in
+alle yours dedes. For nowe is tyme to be war."
+
+[24] See the wise remark on this subject in the Defence of Rights of
+Man, circulated by the societies.
+
+[25] The primary assemblies.
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+LETTER
+
+TO
+
+A PEER OF IRELAND
+
+ON THE
+
+PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICS,
+
+PREVIOUS TO
+
+THE LATE REPEAL OF A PART THEREOF IN THE SESSION OF THE IRISH
+PARLIAMENT, HELD A.D. 1782.
+
+
+CHARLES STREET, LONDON, Feb. 21, 1782
+
+
+My Lord,--I am obliged to your Lordship for your communication of the
+heads of Mr. Gardiner's bill. I had received it, in an earlier stage of
+its progress, from Mr. Braughall; and I am still in that gentleman's
+debt, as I have not made him the proper return for the favor he has done
+me. Business, to which I was more immediately called, and in which my
+sentiments had the weight of one vote, occupied me every moment since I
+received his letter. This first morning which I can call my own I give
+with great cheerfulness to the subject on which your Lordship has done
+me the honor of desiring my opinion.
+
+I have read the heads of the bill, with the amendments. Your Lordship is
+too well acquainted with men, and with affairs, to imagine that any true
+judgment can be formed on the value of a great measure of policy from
+the perusal of a piece of paper. At present I am much in the dark with
+regard to the state of the country which the intended law is to be
+applied to. It is not easy for me to determine whether or no it was wise
+(for the sake of expunging the black letter of laws which, menacing as
+they were in the language, were every day fading into disuse) solemnly
+to reaffirm the principles and to reenact the provisions of a code of
+statutes by which you are totally excluded from THE PRIVILEGES OF THE
+COMMONWEALTH, from the highest to the lowest, from the most material of
+the civil professions, from the army, and even from education, where
+alone education is to be had.[26]
+
+Whether this scheme of indulgence, grounded at once on contempt and
+jealousy, has a tendency gradually to produce something better and more
+liberal, I cannot tell, for want of having the actual map of the
+country. If this should be the case, it was right in you to accept it,
+such as it is. But if this should be one of the experiments which have
+sometimes been made before the temper of the nation was ripe for a real
+reformation, I think it may possibly have ill effects, by disposing the
+penal matter in a more systematic order, and thereby fixing a permanent
+bar against any relief that is truly substantial. The whole merit or
+demerit of the measure depends upon the plans and dispositions of those
+by whom the act was made, concurring with the general temper of the
+Protestants of Ireland, and their aptitude to admit in time of some part
+of that equality without which you never can be FELLOW-CITIZENS. Of all
+this I am wholly ignorant. All my correspondence with men of public
+importance in Ireland has for some time totally ceased. On the first
+bill for the relief of the ROMAN CATHOLICS of Ireland, I was, without
+any call of mine, consulted both on your side of the water and on this.
+On the present occasion, I have not heard a word from any man in office,
+and know as little of the intentions of the British government as I
+know of the temper of the Irish Parliament. I do not find that any
+opposition was made by the principal persons of the minority in the
+House of Commons, or that any is apprehended from them in the House of
+Lords. The whole of the difficulty seems to lie with the principal men
+in government, under whose protection this bill is supposed to be
+brought in. This violent opposition and cordial support, coming from one
+and the same quarter, appears to me something mysterious, and hinders me
+from being able to make any clear judgment of the merit of the present
+measure, as compared with the actual state of the country and the
+general views of government, without which one can say nothing that may
+not be very erroneous.
+
+To look at the bill in the abstract, it is neither more nor less than a
+renewed act of UNIVERSAL, UNMITIGATED, INDISPENSABLE, EXCEPTIONLESS
+DISQUALIFICATION.
+
+One would imagine that a bill inflicting such a multitude of
+incapacities had followed on the heels of a conquest made by a very
+fierce enemy, under the impression of recent animosity and resentment.
+No man, on reading that bill, could imagine he was reading an act of
+amnesty and indulgence, following a recital of the good behavior of
+those who are the objects of it,--which recital stood at the head of the
+bill, as it was first introduced, but, I suppose for its incongruity
+with the body of the piece, was afterwards omitted. This I say on
+memory. It, however, still recites the oath, and that Catholics ought to
+be considered as good and loyal subjects to his Majesty, his crown and
+government. Then follows an universal exclusion of those GOOD and LOYAL
+subjects from every (even the lowest) office of trust and profit,--from
+any vote at an election,--from any privilege in a town corporate,--from
+being even a freeman of such a corporation,--from serving on grand
+juries,--from a vote at a vestry,--from having a gun in his house,--from
+being a barrister, attorney, or solicitor, &c., &c., &c.
+
+This has surely much more the air of a table of proscription than an act
+of grace. What must we suppose the laws concerning those _good_ subjects
+to have been, of which this is a relaxation? I know well that there is a
+cant language current, about the difference between an exclusion from
+employments, even to the most rigorous extent, and an exclusion from the
+natural benefits arising from a man's own industry. I allow, that, under
+some circumstances, the difference is very material in point of justice,
+and that there are considerations which may render it advisable for a
+wise government to keep the leading parts of every branch of civil and
+military administration in hands of the best trust; but a total
+exclusion from the commonwealth is a very different thing. When a
+government subsists (as governments formerly did) on an estate of its
+own, with but few and inconsiderable revenues drawn from the subject,
+then the few officers which existed in such establishments were
+naturally at the disposal of that government, which paid the salaries
+out of its own coffers: there an exclusive preference could hardly merit
+the name of proscription. Almost the whole produce of a man's industry
+at that time remained in his own purse to maintain his family. But times
+alter, and the _whole_ estate of government is from private
+contribution. When a very great portion of the labor of individuals
+goes to the state, and is by the state again refunded to individuals,
+through the medium of offices, and in this circuitous progress from the
+private to the public, and from the public again to the private fund,
+the families from whom the revenue is taken are indemnified, and an
+equitable balance between the government and the subject is established.
+But if a great body of the people who contribute to this state lottery
+are excluded from all the prizes, the stopping the circulation with
+regard to them may be a most cruel hardship, amounting in effect to
+being double and treble taxed; and it will be felt as such to the very
+quick, by all the families, high and low, of those hundreds of thousands
+who are denied their chance in the returned fruits of their own
+industry. This is the thing meant by those who look upon the public
+revenue only as a spoil, and will naturally wish to have as few as
+possible concerned in the division of the booty. If a state should be so
+unhappy as to think it cannot subsist without such a barbarous
+proscription, the persons so proscribed ought to be indemnified by the
+remission of a large part of their taxes, by an immunity from the
+offices of public burden, and by an exemption from being pressed into
+any military or naval service.
+
+Common sense and common justice dictate this at least, as some sort of
+compensation to a people for their slavery. How many families are
+incapable of existing, if the little offices of the revenue and little
+military commissions are denied them! To deny them at home, and to make
+the happiness of acquiring some of them somewhere else felony or high
+treason, is a piece of cruelty, in which, till very lately, I did not
+suppose this age capable of persisting. Formerly a similarity of
+religion made a sort of country for a man in some quarter or other. A
+refugee for religion was a protected character. Now the reception is
+cold indeed; and therefore, as the asylum abroad is destroyed, the
+hardship at home is doubled. This hardship is the more intolerable
+because the professions are shut up. The Church is so of course. Much is
+to be said on that subject, in regard to them, and to the Protestant
+Dissenters. But that is a chapter by itself. I am sure I wish well to
+that Church, and think its ministers among the very best citizens of
+your country. However, such as it is, a great walk in life is forbidden
+ground to seventeen hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Ireland. Why
+are they excluded from the law? Do not they expend money in their suits?
+Why may not they indemnify themselves, by profiting, in the persons of
+some, for the losses incurred by others? Why may not they have persons
+of confidence, whom they may, if they please, employ in the agency of
+their affairs? The exclusion from the law, from grand juries, from
+sheriffships and under-sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any
+corporation, may subject them to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude
+them wholly from all that is beneficial and expose them to all that is
+mischievous in a trial by jury. This was manifestly within my own
+observation, for I was three times in Ireland from the year 1760 to the
+year 1767, where I had sufficient means of information concerning the
+inhuman proceedings (among which were many cruel murders, besides an
+infinity of outrages and oppressions unknown before in a civilized age)
+which prevailed during that period, in consequence of a pretended
+conspiracy among _Roman Catholics_ against the king's government. I
+could dilate upon the mischiefs that may happen, from those which have
+happened, upon this head of disqualification, if it were at all
+necessary.
+
+The head of exclusion from votes for members of Parliament is closely
+connected with the former. When you cast your eye on the statute-book,
+you will see that no _Catholic_, even in the ferocious acts of Queen
+Anne, was disabled from voting on account of his religion. The only
+conditions required for that privilege were the oaths of allegiance and
+abjuration,--both oaths relative to a civil concern. Parliament has
+since added another oath of the same kind; and yet a House of Commons,
+adding to the securities of government in proportion as its danger is
+confessedly lessened, and professing both confidence and indulgence, in
+effect takes away the privilege left by an act full of jealousy and
+professing persecution.
+
+The taking away of a vote is the taking away the shield which the
+subject has, not only against the oppression of power, but that worst of
+all oppressions, the persecution of private society and private manners.
+No candidate for Parliamentary influence is obliged to the least
+attention towards them, either in cities or counties. On the contrary,
+if they should become obnoxious to any bigoted or malignant people
+amongst whom they live, it will become the interest of those who court
+popular favor to use the numberless means which always reside in
+magistracy and influence to oppress them. The proceedings in a certain
+county in Munster, during the unfortunate period I have mentioned, read
+a strong lecture on the cruelty of depriving men of that shield on
+account of their speculative opinions. The Protestants of Ireland feel
+well and naturally on the hardship of being bound by laws in the
+enacting of which they do not directly or indirectly vote. The bounds of
+these matters are nice, and hard to be settled in theory, and perhaps
+they have been pushed too far. But how they can avoid the necessary
+application of the principles they use in their disputes with others to
+their disputes with their fellow-citizens, I know not.
+
+It is true, the words of this act do not create a disability; but they
+clearly and evidently suppose it. There are few _Catholic_ freeholders
+to take the benefit of the privilege, if they were permitted to partake
+it; but the manner in which this very right in freeholders at large is
+defended is not on the idea that the freeholders do really and truly
+represent the people, but that, all people being capable of obtaining
+freeholds, all those who by their industry and sobriety merit this
+privilege have the means of arriving at votes. It is the same with the
+corporations.
+
+The laws against foreign education are clearly the very worst part of
+the old code. Besides your laity, you have the succession of about four
+thousand clergymen to provide for. These, having no lucrative objects in
+prospect, are taken very much out of the lower orders of the people. At
+home they have no means whatsoever provided for their attaining a
+clerical education, or indeed any education at all. When I was in Paris,
+about seven years ago, I looked at everything, and lived with every kind
+of people, as well as my time admitted. I saw there the Irish college of
+the Lombard, which seemed to me a very good place of education, under
+excellent orders and regulations, and under the government of a very
+prudent and learned man (the late Dr. Kelly). This college was possessed
+of an annual fixed revenue of more than a thousand pound a year, the
+greatest part of which had arisen from the legacies and benefactions of
+persons educated in that college, and who had obtained promotions in
+France, from the emolument of which promotions they made this grateful
+return. One in particular I remember, to the amount of ten thousand
+livres annually, as it is recorded on the donor's monument in their
+chapel.
+
+It has been the custom of poor persons in Ireland to pick up such
+knowledge of the Latin tongue as, under the general discouragements, and
+occasional pursuits of magistracy, they were able to acquire; and
+receiving orders at home, were sent abroad to obtain a clerical
+education. By officiating in petty chaplainships, and performing now and
+then certain offices of religion for small gratuities, they received the
+means of maintaining themselves until they were able to complete their
+education. Through such difficulties and discouragements, many of them
+have arrived at a very considerable proficiency, so as to be marked and
+distinguished abroad. These persons afterwards, by being sunk in the
+most abject poverty, despised and ill-treated by the higher orders among
+Protestants, and not much better esteemed or treated even by the few
+persons of fortune of their own persuasion, and contracting the habits
+and ways of thinking of the poor and uneducated, among whom they were
+obliged to live, in a few years retained little or no traces of the
+talents and acquirements which distinguished them in the early periods
+of their lives. Can we with justice cut them off from the use of places
+of education founded for the greater part from the economy of poverty
+and exile, without providing something that is equivalent at home?
+
+Whilst this restraint of foreign and domestic education was part of an
+horrible and impious system of servitude, the members were well fitted
+to the body. To render men patient under a deprivation of all the rights
+of human nature, everything which could give them a knowledge or feeling
+of those rights was rationally forbidden. To render humanity fit to be
+insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded. But when we profess to
+restore men to the capacity for property, it is equally irrational and
+unjust to deny them the power of improving their minds as well as their
+fortunes. Indeed, I have ever thought the prohibition of the means of
+improving our rational nature to be the worst species of tyranny that
+the insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared to exercise. This
+goes to all men, in all situations, to whom education can be denied.
+
+Your Lordship mentions a proposal which came from my friend, the
+Provost, whose benevolence and enlarged spirit I am perfectly convinced
+of,--which is, the proposal of erecting a few sizarships in the college,
+for the education (I suppose) of Roman Catholic clergymen.[27] He
+certainly meant it well; but, coming from such a man as he is, it is a
+strong instance of the danger of suffering any description of men to
+fall into entire contempt. The charities intended for them are not
+perceived to be fresh insults; and the true nature of their wants and
+necessities being unknown, remedies wholly unsuitable to the nature of
+their complaint are provided for them. It is to feed a sick Gentoo with
+beef broth, and to foment his wounds with brandy. If the other parts of
+the university were open to them, as well on the foundation as
+otherwise, the offering of sizarships would be a proportioned part of a
+_general_ kindness. But when everything _liberal_ is withheld, and only
+that which is _servile_ is permitted, it is easy to conceive upon what
+footing they must be in such a place.
+
+Mr. Hutchinson must well know the regard and honor I have for him; and
+he cannot think my dissenting from him in this particular arises from a
+disregard of his opinion: it only shows that I think he has lived in
+Ireland. To have any respect for the character and person of a Popish
+priest there--oh, 'tis an uphill work indeed! But until we come to
+respect what stands in a respectable light with others, we are very
+deficient in the temper which qualifies us to make any laws and
+regulations about them: it even disqualifies us from being charitable to
+them with any effect or judgment.
+
+When we are to provide for the education of any body of men, we ought
+seriously to consider the particular functions they are to perform in
+life. A Roman Catholic clergyman is the minister of a very ritual
+religion, and by his profession subject to many restraints. His life is
+a life full of strict observances; and his duties are of a laborious
+nature towards himself, and of the highest possible trust towards
+others. The duty of confession alone is sufficient to set in the
+strongest light the necessity of his having an appropriated mode of
+education. The theological opinions and peculiar rites of one religion
+never can be properly taught in universities founded for the purposes
+and on the principles of another which in many points are directly
+opposite. If a Roman Catholic clergyman, intended for celibacy and the
+function of confession, is not strictly bred in a seminary where these
+things are respected, inculcated, and enforced, as sacred, and not made
+the subject of derision and obloquy, he will be ill fitted for the
+former, and the latter will be indeed in his hands a terrible
+instrument.
+
+There is a great resemblance between, the whole frame and constitution
+of the Greek and Latin Churches. The secular clergy in the former, by
+being married, living under little restraint, and having no particular
+education suited to their function, are universally fallen into such
+contempt that they are never permitted to aspire to the dignities of
+their own Church. It is not held respectful to call them _Papas_, their
+true and ancient appellation, but those who wish to address them with
+civility always call them _Hieromonachi_. In consequence of this
+disrespect, which I venture to say, in such a Church, must be the
+consequence of a secular life, a very great degeneracy from reputable
+Christian manners has taken place throughout almost the whole of that
+great member of the Christian Church.
+
+It was so with the Latin Church, before the restraint on marriage. Even
+that restraint gave rise to the greatest disorders before the Council of
+Trent, which, together with the emulation raised and the good examples
+given by the Reformed churches, wherever they were in view of each
+other, has brought on that happy amendment which we see in the Latin
+communion, both at home and abroad.
+
+The Council of Trent has wisely introduced the discipline of seminaries,
+by which priests are not trusted for a clerical institution even to the
+severe discipline of their colleges, but, after they pass through them,
+are frequently, if not for the greater part, obliged to pass through
+peculiar methods, having their particular ritual function in view. It is
+in a great measure to this, and to similar methods used in foreign
+education, that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, miserably provided
+for, living among low and ill-regulated people, without any discipline
+of sufficient force to secure good manners, have been prevented from
+becoming an intolerable nuisance to the country, instead of being, as I
+conceive they generally are, a very great service to it.
+
+The ministers of Protestant churches require a different mode of
+education, more liberal, and more fit for the ordinary intercourse of
+life. That religion having little hold on the minds of people by
+external ceremonies and extraordinary observances, or separate habits of
+living, the clergy make up the deficiency by cultivating their minds
+with all kinds of ornamental learning, which the liberal provision made
+in England and Ireland for the parochial clergy, (to say nothing of the
+ample Church preferments, with little or no duties annexed,) and the
+comparative lightness of parochial duties, enables the greater part of
+them in some considerable degree to accomplish.
+
+This learning, which I believe to be pretty general, together with an
+higher situation, and more chastened by the opinion of mankind, forms a
+sufficient security for the morals of the established clergy, and for
+their sustaining their clerical character with dignity. It is not
+necessary to observe, that all these things are, however, collateral to
+their function, and that, except in preaching, which may be and is
+supplied, and often best supplied, out of printed books, little else is
+necessary for a Protestant minister than to be able to read the English
+language,--I mean for the exercise of his function, not to the
+qualification of his admission to it. But a Popish parson in Ireland may
+do very well without any considerable classical erudition, or any
+proficiency in pure or mixed mathematics, or any knowledge of civil
+history. Even if the Catholic clergy should possess those acquisitions,
+as at first many of them do, they soon lose them in the painful course
+of professional and parochial duties: but they must have all the
+knowledge, and, what is to them more important than the knowledge, the
+discipline, necessary to those duties. All modes of education conducted
+by those whose minds are cast in another mould, as I may say, and whose
+original ways of thinking are formed upon the reverse pattern, must be
+to them not only useless, but mischievous. Just as I should suppose the
+education in a Popish ecclesiastical seminary would be ill fitted for a
+Protestant clergyman. To educate a Catholic priest in a Protestant
+seminary would be much worse. The Protestant educated amongst Catholics
+has only something to reject: what he keeps may be useful. But a
+Catholic parish priest learns little for his peculiar purpose and duty
+in a Protestant college.
+
+All this, my Lord, I know very well, will pass for nothing with those
+who wish that the Popish clergy should be illiterate, and in a situation
+to produce contempt and detestation. Their minds are wholly taken up
+with party squabbles, and I have neither leisure nor inclination to
+apply any part of what I have to say to those who never think of
+religion or of the commonwealth in any other light than as they tend to
+the prevalence of some faction in either. I speak on a supposition that
+there is a disposition _to take the state in the condition in which it
+is found_, and to improve it _in that state_ to the best advantage.
+Hitherto the plan for the government of Ireland has been to sacrifice
+the civil prosperity of the nation to its religious improvement. But if
+people in power there are at length come to entertain other ideas, they
+will consider the good order, decorum, virtue, and morality of every
+description of men among them as of infinitely greater importance than
+the struggle (for it is nothing better) to change those descriptions by
+means which put to hazard objects which, in my poor opinion, are of more
+importance to religion and to the state than all the polemical matter
+which has been agitated among men from the beginning of the world to
+this hour.
+
+On this idea, an education fitted _to each order and division of men,
+such as they are found_, will be thought an affair rather to be
+encouraged than discountenanced; and until institutions at home,
+suitable to the occasions and necessities of the people, are
+established, and which are armed, as they are abroad, with authority to
+coerce the young men to be formed in them by a strict and severe
+discipline, the means they have at present of a cheap and effectual
+education in other countries should not continue to be prohibited by
+penalties and modes of inquisition not fit to be mentioned to ears that
+are organized to the chaste sounds of equity and justice.
+
+Before I had written thus far, I heard of a scheme of giving to the
+Castle the patronage of the presiding members of the Catholic clergy. At
+first I could scarcely credit it; for I believe it is the first time
+that the presentation to other people's alms has been desired in any
+country. If the state provides a suitable maintenance and temporality
+for the governing members of the Irish Roman Catholic Church, and for
+the clergy under them, I should think the project, however improper in
+other respects, to be by no means unjust. But to deprive a poor people,
+who maintain a second set of clergy, out of the miserable remains of
+what is left after taxing and tithing, to deprive them of the
+disposition of their own charities among their own communion, would, in
+my opinion, be an intolerable hardship. Never were the members of one
+religious sect fit to appoint the pastors to another. Those who have no
+regard for their welfare, reputation, or internal quiet will not appoint
+such as are proper. The seraglio of Constantinople is as equitable as we
+are, whether Catholics or Protestants,--and where their own sect is
+concerned, full as religious. But the sport which they make of the
+miserable dignities of the Greek Church, the little factions of the
+harem to which they make them subservient, the continual sale to which
+they expose and reexpose the same dignity, and by which they squeeze all
+the inferior orders of the clergy, is (for I have had particular means
+of being acquainted with it) nearly equal to all the other oppressions
+together, exercised by Mussulmen over the unhappy members of the
+Oriental Church. It is a great deal to suppose that even the present
+Castle would nominate bishops for the Roman Church of Ireland with a
+religious regard for its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they dare
+not do it.
+
+But suppose them to be as well inclined as I know that I am to do the
+Catholics all kind of justice, I declare I would not, if it were in my
+power, take that patronage on myself. I know I ought not to do it. I
+belong to another community, and it would be intolerable usurpation for
+me to affect such authority, where I conferred no benefit, or even if I
+did confer (as in some degree the seraglio does) temporal advantages.
+But allowing that the _present_ Castle finds itself fit to administer
+the government of a church which they solemnly forswear, and forswear
+with very hard words and many evil epithets, and that as often as they
+qualify themselves for the power which is to give this very patronage,
+or to give anything else that they desire,--yet they cannot insure
+themselves that a man like the late Lord Chesterfield will not succeed
+to them. This man, while he was duping the credulity of Papists with
+fine words in private, and commending their good behavior during a
+rebellion in Great Britain, (as it well deserved to be commended and
+rewarded,) was capable of urging penal laws against them in a speech
+from the throne, and of stimulating with provocatives the wearied and
+half-exhausted bigotry of the then Parliament of Ireland. They set to
+work, but they were at a loss what to do; for they had already almost
+gone through every contrivance which could _waste the vigor_ of their
+country: but, after much struggle, they produced a child of their old
+age, the shocking and unnatural act about marriages, which tended to
+finish the scheme for making the people not only two distinct parties
+forever, but keeping them as two distinct species in the same land. Mr.
+Gardiner's humanity was shocked at it, as one of the worst parts of that
+truly barbarous system, if one could well settle the preference, where
+almost all the parts were outrages on the rights of humanity and the
+laws of Nature.
+
+Suppose an atheist, playing the part of a bigot, should be in power
+again in that country, do you believe that he would faithfully and
+religiously administer the trust of appointing pastors to a church
+which, wanting every other support, stands in tenfold need of ministers
+who will be dear to the people committed to their charge, and who will
+exercise a really paternal authority amongst them? But if the superior
+power was always in a disposition to dispense conscientiously, and like
+an upright trustee and guardian of these rights which he holds for those
+with whom he is at variance, has he the capacity and means of doing it?
+How can the Lord-Lieutenant form the least judgment of their merits, so
+as to discern which of the Popish priests is fit to be made a bishop? It
+cannot be: the idea is ridiculous. He will hand them over to
+lords-lieutenant of counties, justices of the peace, and other persons,
+who, for the purpose of vexing and turning to derision this miserable
+people, will pick out the worst and most obnoxious they can find amongst
+the clergy to set over the rest. Whoever is complained against by his
+brother will be considered as persecuted; whoever is censured by his
+superior will be looked upon as oppressed; whoever is careless in his
+opinions and loose in his morals will be called a liberal man, and will
+be supposed to have incurred hatred because he was not a bigot.
+Informers, tale-bearers, perverse and obstinate men, flatterers, who
+turn their back upon their flock and court the Protestant gentlemen of
+the country, will be the objects of preferment. And then I run no risk
+in foretelling that whatever order, quiet, and morality you have in the
+country will be lost. A Popish clergy who are not restrained by the most
+austere subordination will become a nuisance, a real public grievance of
+the heaviest kind, in any country that entertains them; and instead of
+the great benefit which Ireland does and has long derived from them, if
+they are educated without any idea of discipline and obedience, and then
+put under bishops who do not owe their station to their good opinion,
+and whom they cannot respect, that nation will see disorders, of which,
+bad as things are, it has yet no idea. I do not say this, as thinking
+the leading men in Ireland would exercise this trust worse than others.
+Not at all. No man, no set of men living are fit to administer the
+affairs or regulate the interior economy of a church to which they are
+enemies.
+
+As to government, if I might recommend a prudent caution to them, it
+would be, to innovate as little as possible, upon speculation, in
+establishments from which, as they stand, they experience no material
+inconvenience to the repose of the country,--_quieta non movere_.
+
+I could say a great deal more; but I am tired, and am afraid your
+Lordship is tired too. I have not sat to this letter a single quarter of
+an hour without interruption. It has grown long, and probably contains
+many repetitions, from my total want of leisure to digest and
+consolidate my thoughts; and as to my expressions, I could wish to be
+able perhaps to measure them more exactly. But my intentions are fair,
+and I certainly mean to offend nobody.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thinking over this matter more maturely, I see no reason for altering my
+opinion in any part. The act, as far as it goes, is good undoubtedly. It
+amounts, I think, very nearly to a _toleration_, with respect to
+religious ceremonies; but it puts a new bolt on civil rights, and rivets
+it to the old one in such a manner, that neither, I fear, will be easily
+loosened. What I could have wished would be, to see the civil advantages
+take the lead; the other, of a religious toleration, I conceive, would
+follow, (in a manner,) of course. From what I have observed, it is
+pride, arrogance, and a spirit of domination, and not a bigoted spirit
+of religion, that has caused and kept up those oppressive statutes. I am
+sure I have known those who have oppressed Papists in their civil rights
+exceedingly indulgent to them in their religious ceremonies, and who
+really wished them to continue Catholics, in order to furnish pretences
+for oppression. These persons never saw a man (by converting) escape out
+of their power, but with grudging and regret. I have known men to whom I
+am not uncharitable in saying (though they are dead) that they would
+have become Papists in order to oppress Protestants, if, being
+Protestants, it was not in their power to oppress Papists. It is
+injustice, and not a mistaken conscience, that has been the principle of
+persecution,--at least, as far as it has fallen under my
+observation.--However, as I began, so I end. I do not know the map of
+the country. Mr. Gardiner, who conducts this great and difficult work,
+and those who support him, are better judges of the business than I can
+pretend to be, who have not set my foot in Ireland these sixteen years.
+I have been given to understand that I am not considered as a friend to
+that country; and I know that pains have been taken to lessen the credit
+that I might have had there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am so convinced of the weakness of interfering in any business,
+without the opinion of the people in whose business I interfere, that I
+do not know how to acquit myself of what I have now done.
+
+I have the honor to be, with high regard and esteem, my Lord,
+
+Your Lordship's most obedient
+
+And humble servant, &c.
+
+EDMUND BURKE.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] The sketch of the bill sent to Mr. Burke, along with the repeal of
+some acts, reaffirmed many others in the penal code. It was altered
+afterwards, and the clauses reaffirming the incapacities left out; but
+they all still exist, and are in full force.
+
+[27] It appears that Mr. Hutchinson meant this only as one of the means
+for their relief in point of education.
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+LETTER
+
+TO
+
+SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, BART., M.P.,
+
+ON THE SUBJECT OF
+
+THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND,
+
+THE PROPRIETY OF ADMITTING THEM TO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE, CONSISTENTLY
+WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION, AS ESTABLISHED AT THE
+REVOLUTION.
+
+1792.
+
+
+My Dear Sir,--Your remembrance of me, with sentiments of so much
+kindness, has given me the most sincere satisfaction. It perfectly
+agrees with the friendly and hospitable reception which my son and I
+received from you some time since, when, after an absence of twenty-two
+years, I had the happiness of embracing you, among my few surviving
+friends.
+
+I really imagined that I should not again interest myself in any public
+business. I had, to the best of my moderate faculties, paid my club to
+the society which I was born in some way or other to serve; and I
+thought I had a right to put on my night-gown and slippers, and wish a
+cheerful evening to the good company I must leave behind. But if our
+resolutions of vigor and exertion are so often broken or procrastinated
+in the execution, I think we may be excused, if we are not very punctual
+in fulfilling our engagements to indolence and inactivity. I have,
+indeed, no power of action, and am almost a cripple even with regard to
+thinking; but you descend with force into the stagnant pool, and you
+cause such a fermentation as to cure at least one impotent creature of
+his lameness, though it cannot enable him either to run or to wrestle.
+
+You see by the paper[28] I take that I am likely to be long, with malice
+prepense. You have brought under my view a subject always difficult, at
+present critical. It has filled my thoughts, which I wish to lay open to
+you with the clearness and simplicity which your friendship demands from
+me. I thank you for the communication of your ideas. I should be still
+more pleased, if they had been more your own. What you hint I believe to
+be the case: that, if you had not deferred to the judgment of others,
+our opinions would not differ more materially at this day than they did
+when we used to confer on the same subject so many years ago. If I still
+persevere in my old opinions, it is no small comfort to me that it is
+not with regard to doctrines properly yours that I discover my
+indocility.
+
+The case upon which your letter of the 10th of December turns is hardly
+before me with precision enough to enable me to form any very certain
+judgment upon it. It seems to be some plan of further indulgence
+proposed for the Catholics of Ireland. You observe, that your "general
+principles are not changed, but that _times and circumstances are
+altered_." I perfectly agree with you, that times and circumstances,
+considered with reference to the public, ought very much to govern our
+conduct,--though I am far from slighting, when applied with discretion
+to those circumstances, general principles and maxims of policy. I
+cannot help observing, however, that you have said rather less upon the
+inapplicability of your own old principles to the _circumstances_ that
+are likely to influence your conduct against these principles than of
+the _general_ maxims of state, which I can very readily believe not to
+have great weight with you personally.
+
+In my present state of imperfect information, you will pardon the
+errors into which I may easily fall. The principles you lay down are,
+"that the Roman Catholics should enjoy everything _under_ the state, but
+should not be _the state itself_." And you add, "that, when you exclude
+them from being _a part of the state_, you rather conform to the spirit
+of the age than to any abstract doctrine"; but you consider the
+Constitution as already established,--that our state is Protestant. "It
+was declared so at the Revolution. It was so provided in the acts for
+settling the succession of the crown:--the king's coronation oath was
+enjoined in order to keep it so. The king, as first magistrate of the
+state, is obliged to take the oath of abjuration,[29] and to subscribe
+the Declaration; and by laws subsequent, every other magistrate and
+member of the state, legislative and executive, are bound under the same
+obligation."
+
+As to the plan to which these maxims are applied, I cannot speak, as I
+told you, positively about it: because neither from your letter, nor
+from any in formation I have been able to collect, do I find anything
+settled, either on the part of the Roman Catholics themselves, or on
+that of any persons who may wish to conduct their affairs in Parliament.
+But if I have leave to conjecture, something is in agitation towards
+admitting them, under _certain qualifications_, to have _some share_ in
+the election of members of Parliament. This I understand is the scheme
+of those who are entitled to come within your description of persons of
+consideration, property, and character,--and firmly attached to the king
+and Constitution, as by "law established, with a grateful sense of your
+former concessions, and a patient reliance on the benignity of
+Parliament for the further mitigation of the laws that still affect
+them."--As to the low, thoughtless, wild, and profligate, who have
+joined themselves with those of other professions, but of the same
+character, you are not to imagine that for a moment I can suppose them
+to be met with anything else than the manly and enlightened energy of a
+firm government, supported by the united efforts of all virtuous men, if
+ever their proceedings should become so considerable as to demand its
+notice. I really think that such associations should be crushed in their
+very commencement.
+
+Setting, therefore, this case out of the question, it becomes an object
+of very serious consideration, whether, because wicked men of _various_
+descriptions are engaged in seditious courses, the rational, sober, and
+valuable part of _one_ description should not be indulged in their sober
+and rational expectations. You, who have looked deeply into the spirit
+of the Popery laws, must be perfectly sensible that a great part of the
+present mischief which we abhor in common (if it at all exists) has
+arisen from them. Their declared object was, to reduce the Catholics of
+Ireland to a miserable populace, without property, without estimation,
+without education. The professed object was, to deprive the few men,
+who, in spite of those laws, might hold or obtain any property amongst
+them, of all sort of influence or authority over the rest. They divided
+the nation into two distinct bodies, without common interest, sympathy,
+or connection. One of these bodies was to possess _all_ the franchises,
+_all_ the property, _all_ the education: the other was to be composed of
+drawers of water and cutters of turf for them. Are we to be astonished,
+when, by the efforts of so much violence in conquest, and so much policy
+in regulation, continued without intermission for near an hundred years,
+we had reduced them to a mob, that, whenever they came to act at all,
+many of them would act exactly like a mob, without temper, measure, or
+foresight? Surely it might be just now a matter of temperate discussion,
+whether you ought not to apply a remedy to the real cause of the evil.
+If the disorder you speak of be real and considerable, you ought to
+raise an aristocratic interest, that is, an interest of property and
+education, amongst them,--and to strengthen, by every prudent means, the
+authority and influence of men of that description. It will deserve your
+best thoughts, to examine whether this can be done without giving such
+persons the means of demonstrating to the rest that something more is to
+be got by their temperate conduct than can be expected from the wild and
+senseless projects of those who do not belong to their body, who have no
+interest in their well-being, and only wish to make them the dupes of
+their turbulent ambition.
+
+If the absurd persons you mention find no way of providing for liberty,
+but by overturning this happy Constitution, and introducing a frantic
+democracy, let us take care how we prevent better people from any
+rational expectations of partaking in the benefits of that Constitution
+_as it stands_. The maxims you establish cut the matter short. They have
+no sort of connection with the good or the ill behavior of the persons
+who seek relief, or with the proper or improper means by which they seek
+it. They form a perpetual bar to all pleas and to all expectations.
+
+You begin by asserting, that "the Catholics ought to enjoy all things
+_under_ the state, but that they ought not to _be the state_": a
+position which, I believe, in the latter part of it, and in the latitude
+there expressed, no man of common sense has ever thought proper to
+dispute; because the contrary implies that the state ought to be in them
+_exclusively_. But before you have finished the line, you express
+yourself as if the other member of your proposition, namely, that "they
+ought not to be a _part_ of the state," were necessarily included in the
+first,--whereas I conceive it to be as different as a part is from the
+whole, that is, just as different as possible. I know, indeed, that it
+is common with those who talk very differently from you, that is, with
+heat and animosity, to confound those things, and to argue the admission
+of the Catholics into any, however minute and subordinate, parts of the
+state, as a surrender into their hands of the whole government of the
+kingdom. To them I have nothing at all to say.
+
+Wishing to proceed with a deliberative spirit and temper in so very
+serious a question, I shall attempt to analyze, as well as I can, the
+principles you lay down, in order to fit them for the grasp of an
+understanding so little comprehensive as
+mine.--"State,"--"Protestant,"--"Revolution." These are terms which, if
+not well explained, may lead us into many errors. In the word _State_ I
+conceive there is much ambiguity. The state is sometimes used to signify
+_the whole commonwealth_, comprehending all its orders, with the several
+privileges belonging to each. Sometimes it signifies only _the higher
+and ruling part_ of the commonwealth, which we commonly call _the
+Government_. In the first sense, to be under the state, but not the
+state itself, _nor any part of it_, that is, to be nothing at all in the
+commonwealth, is a situation perfectly intelligible,--but to those who
+fill that situation, not very pleasant, when it is understood. It is a
+state of _civil servitude_, by the very force of the definition.
+_Servorum non est respublica_ is a very old and a very true maxim. This
+servitude, which makes men _subject_ to a state without being
+_citizens_, may be more or less tolerable from many circumstances; but
+these circumstances, more or less favorable, do not alter the nature of
+the thing. The mildness by which absolute masters exercise their
+dominion leaves them masters still. We may talk a little presently of
+the manner in which the majority of the people of Ireland (the
+Catholics) are affected by this situation, which at present undoubtedly
+is theirs, and which you are of opinion ought so to continue forever.
+
+In the other sense of the word _State_, by which is understood the
+_Supreme Government_ only, I must observe this upon the question: that
+to exclude whole classes of men entirely from this _part_ of government
+cannot be considered as _absolute slavery_. It only implies a lower and
+degraded state of citizenship: such is (with more or less strictness)
+the condition of all countries in which an hereditary nobility possess
+the exclusive rule. This may be no bad mode of government,--provided
+that the personal authority of individual nobles be kept in due bounds,
+that their cabals and factions are guarded against with a severe
+vigilance, and that the people (who have no share in granting their own
+money) are subjected to but light impositions, and are otherwise treated
+with attention, and with indulgence to their humors and prejudices.
+
+The republic of Venice is one of those which strictly confines all the
+great functions and offices, such as are truly _stale_ functions and
+_state_ offices, to those who by hereditary right or admission are noble
+Venetians. But there are many offices, and some of them not mean nor
+unprofitable, (that of Chancellor is one,) which are reserved for the
+_cittadini_. Of these all citizens of Venice are capable. The
+inhabitants of the _terra firma_, who are mere subjects of conquest,
+that is, as you express it, under the state, but "not a part of it," are
+not, however, subjects in so very rigorous a sense as not to be capable
+of numberless subordinate employments. It is, indeed, one of the
+advantages attending the narrow bottom of their aristocracy, (narrow as
+compared with their acquired dominions, otherwise broad enough,) that an
+exclusion from such employments cannot possibly be made amongst their
+subjects. There are, besides, advantages in states so constituted, by
+which those who are considered as of an inferior race are indemnified
+for their exclusion from the government, and from nobler employments. In
+all these countries, either by express law, or by usage more operative,
+the noble castes are almost universally, in their turn, excluded from
+commerce, manufacture, farming of land, and in general from all
+lucrative civil professions. The nobles have the monopoly of honor; the
+plebeians a monopoly of all the means of acquiring wealth. Thus some
+sort of a balance is formed among conditions; a sort of compensation is
+furnished to those who, in a _limited sense_, are excluded from the
+government of the state.
+
+Between the extreme of _a total exclusion_, to which your maxim goes,
+and _an universal unmodified capacity_, to which the fanatics pretend,
+there are many different degrees and stages, and a great variety of
+temperaments, upon which prudence may give full scope to its exertions.
+For you know that the decisions of prudence (contrary to the system of
+the insane reasoners) differ from those of judicature; and that almost
+all the former are determined on the more or the less, the earlier or
+the later, and on a balance of advantage and inconvenience, of good and
+evil.
+
+In all considerations which turn upon the question of vesting or
+continuing the state solely and exclusively in some one description of
+citizens, prudent legislators will consider how far _the general form
+and principles of their commonwealth render it fit to be cast into an
+oligarchical shape, or to remain always in it_. We know that the
+government of Ireland (the same as the British) is not in its
+constitution _wholly_ aristocratical; and as it is not such in its form,
+so neither is it in its spirit. If it had been inveterately
+aristocratical, exclusions might be more patiently submitted to. The lot
+of one plebeian would be the lot of all; and an habitual reverence and
+admiration of certain families might make the people content to see
+government wholly in hands to whom it seemed naturally to belong. But
+our Constitution has _a plebeian member_, which forms an essential
+integrant part of it. A plebeian oligarchy is a monster; and no people,
+not absolutely domestic or predial slaves, will long endure it. The
+Protestants of Ireland are not _alone_ sufficiently the people to form a
+democracy; and they are _too numerous_ to answer the ends and purposes
+of _an aristocracy_. Admiration, that first source of obedience, can be
+only the claim or the imposture of the few. I hold it to be absolutely
+impossible for two millions of plebeians, composing certainly a very
+clear and decided majority in that class, to become so far in love with
+six or seven hundred thousand of their fellow-citizens (to all outward
+appearance plebeians like themselves, and many of them tradesmen,
+servants, and otherwise inferior to some of them) as to see with
+satisfaction, or even with patience, an exclusive power vested in them,
+by which _constitutionally_ they become the absolute masters, and, by
+the _manners_ derived from their circumstances, must be capable of
+exercising upon them, daily and hourly, an insulting and vexatious
+superiority. Neither are the majority of the Irish indemnified (as in
+some aristocracies) for this state of humiliating vassalage (often
+inverting the nature of things and relations) by having the lower walks
+of industry wholly abandoned to them. They are rivalled, to say the
+least of the matter, in every laborious and lucrative course of life;
+while every franchise, every honor, every trust, every place, down to
+the very lowest and least confidential, (besides whole professions,) is
+reserved for the master caste.
+
+Our Constitution is not made for great, general, and proscriptive
+exclusions; sooner or later it will destroy them, or they will destroy
+the Constitution. In our Constitution there has always been a difference
+between _a franchise_ and _an office_, and between the capacity for the
+one and for the other. Franchises were supposed to belong to the
+_subject_, as _a subject_, and not as _a member of the governing part of
+the state_. The policy of government has considered them as things very
+different; for, whilst Parliament excluded by the test acts (and for a
+while these test acts were not a dead letter, as now they are in
+England) Protestant Dissenters from all civil and military employments,
+they _never touched their right of voting for members of Parliament or
+sitting in either House_: a point I state, not as approving or
+condemning, with regard to them, the measure of exclusion from
+employments, but to prove that the distinction has been admitted in
+legislature, as, in truth, it is founded in reason.
+
+I will not here examine whether the principles of the British [the
+Irish] Constitution be wise or not. I must assume that they are, and
+that those who partake the franchises which make it partake of a
+benefit. They who are excluded from votes (under proper qualifications
+inherent in the Constitution that gives them) are excluded, not from
+_the state_, but from _the British Constitution_. They cannot by any
+possibility, whilst they hear its praises continually rung in their
+ears, and are present at the declaration which is so generally and so
+bravely made by those who possess the privilege, that the best blood in
+their veins ought to be shed to preserve their share in it,--they, the
+disfranchised part, cannot, I say, think themselves in an _happy_ state,
+to be utterly excluded from all its direct and all its consequential
+advantages. The popular part of the Constitution must be to them by far
+the most odious part of it. To them it is not an _actual_, and, if
+possible, still less a _virtual_ representation. It is, indeed, the
+direct contrary. It is power unlimited placed in the hands of _an
+adverse_ description _because it is an adverse description_. And if they
+who compose the privileged body have not an interest, they must but too
+frequently have motives of pride, passion, petulance, peevish jealousy,
+or tyrannic suspicion, to urge them to treat the excluded people with
+contempt and rigor.
+
+This is not a mere theory; though, whilst men are men, it is a theory
+that cannot be false. I do not desire to revive all the particulars in
+my memory; I wish them to sleep forever; but it is impossible I should
+wholly forget what happened in some parts of Ireland, with very few and
+short intermissions, from the year 1761 to the year 1766, both
+inclusive. In a country of miserable police, passing from the extremes
+of laxity to the extremes of rigor, among a neglected and therefore
+disorderly populace, if any disturbance or sedition, from any grievance
+real or imaginary, happened to arise, it was presently perverted from
+its true nature, often criminal enough in itself to draw upon it a
+severe, appropriate punishment: it was metamorphosed into a conspiracy
+against the state, and prosecuted as such. Amongst the Catholics, as
+being by far the most numerous and the most wretched, all sorts of
+offenders against the laws must commonly be found. The punishment of low
+people for the offences usual among low people would warrant no
+inference against any descriptions of religion or of politics. Men of
+consideration from their age, their profession, or their character, men
+of proprietary landed estates, substantial renters, opulent merchants,
+physicians, and titular bishops, could not easily be suspected of riot
+in open day, or of nocturnal assemblies for the purpose of pulling down
+hedges, making breaches in park-walls, firing barns, maiming cattle, and
+outrages of a similar nature, which characterize the disorders of an
+oppressed or a licentious populace. But when the evidence given on the
+trial for such misdemeanors qualified them as overt acts of high
+treason, and when witnesses were found (such witnesses as they were) to
+depose to the taking of oaths of allegiance by the rioters to the king
+of France, to their being paid by his money, and embodied and exercised
+under his officers, to overturn the state for the purposes of that
+potentate,--in that case, the rioters might (if the witness was
+believed) be supposed only the troops, and persons more reputable the
+leaders and commanders, in such a rebellion. All classes in the
+obnoxious description, who could not be suspected of the lower crime of
+riot, might be involved in the odium, in the suspicion, and sometimes in
+the punishment, of a higher and far more criminal species of offence.
+These proceedings did not arise from any one of the Popery laws since
+repealed, but from this circumstance, that, when it answered the
+purposes of an election party or a malevolent person of influence to
+forge such plots, the people had no protection. The people of that
+description have no hold on the gentlemen who aspire to be popular
+representatives. The candidates neither love nor respect nor fear them,
+individually or collectively. I do not think this evil (an evil amongst
+a thousand others) at this day entirely over; for I conceive I have
+lately seen some indication of a disposition perfectly similar to the
+old one,--that is, a disposition to carry the imputation of crimes from
+persons to descriptions, and wholly to alter the character and quality
+of the offences themselves.
+
+This universal exclusion seems to me a serious evil,--because many
+collateral oppressions, besides what I have just now stated, have arisen
+from it. In things of this nature it would not be either easy or proper
+to quote chapter and verse; but I have great reason to believe,
+particularly since the Octennial Act, that several have refused at all
+to let their lands to Roman Catholics, because it would so far disable
+them from promoting such interests in counties as they were inclined to
+favor. They who consider also the state of all sorts of tradesmen,
+shopkeepers, and particularly publicans in towns, must soon discern the
+disadvantages under which those labor who have no votes. It cannot be
+otherwise, whilst the spirit of elections and the tendencies of human
+nature continue as they are. If property be artificially separated from
+franchise, the franchise must in some way or other, and in some
+proportion, naturally attract property to it. Many are the collateral
+disadvantages, amongst a _privileged_ people, which must attend on those
+who have _no_ privileges.
+
+Among the rich, each individual, with or without a franchise, is of
+importance; the poor and the middling are no otherwise so than as they
+obtain some collective capacity, and can be aggregated to some corps. If
+legal ways are not found, illegal will be resorted to; and seditious
+clubs and confederacies, such as no man living holds in greater horror
+than I do, will grow and flourish, in spite, I am afraid, of anything
+which can be done to prevent the evil. Lawful enjoyment is the surest
+method to prevent unlawful gratification. Where there is property, there
+will be less theft; where there is marriage, there will always be less
+fornication.
+
+I have said enough of the question of state, _as it affects the people
+merely as such_. But it is complicated with a political question
+relative to religion, to which it is very necessary I should say
+something,--because the term _Protestant_, which you apply, is too
+general for the conclusions which one of your accurate understanding
+would wish to draw from it, and because a great deal of argument will
+depend on the use that is made of that term.
+
+It is _not_ a fundamental part of the settlement at the Revolution that
+the state should be Protestant _without any qualification of the term_.
+With a qualification it is unquestionably true; not in all its latitude.
+With the qualification, it was true before the Revolution. Our
+predecessors in legislation were not so irrational (not to say impious)
+as to form an operose ecclesiastical establishment, and even to render
+the state itself in some degree subservient to it, when their religion
+(if such it might be called) was nothing but a mere _negation_ of some
+other,--without any positive idea, either of doctrine, discipline,
+worship, or morals, in the scheme which they professed themselves, and
+which they imposed upon others, even under penalties and incapacities.
+No! No! This never could have been done, even by reasonable atheists.
+They who think religion of no importance to the state have abandoned it
+to the conscience or caprice of the individual; they make no provision
+for it whatsoever, but leave every club to make, or not, a voluntary
+contribution towards its support, according to their fancies. This would
+be consistent. The other always appeared to me to be a monster of
+contradiction and absurdity. It was for that reason, that, some years
+ago, I strenuously opposed the clergy who petitioned, to the number of
+about three hundred, to be freed from the subscription to the
+Thirty-Nine Articles, without proposing to substitute any other in their
+place. There never has been a religion of the state (the few years of
+the Parliament only excepted) but that of _the Episcopal Church of
+England_: the Episcopal Church of England, before the Reformation,
+connected with the see of Rome; since then, disconnected, and protesting
+against some of her doctrines, and against the whole of her authority,
+as binding in our national church: nor did the fundamental laws of this
+kingdom (in Ireland it has been the same) ever know, at any period, any
+other church _as an object of establishment_,--or, in that light, any
+other Protestant religion. Nay, our Protestant _toleration_ itself, at
+the Revolution, and until within a few years, required a signature of
+thirty-six, and a part of the thirty-seventh, out of the Thirty-Nine
+Articles. So little idea had they at the Revolution of _establishing_
+Protestantism indefinitely, that they did not indefinitely _tolerate_ it
+under that name. I do not mean to praise that strictness, where nothing
+more than merely religious toleration is concerned. Toleration, being a
+part of moral and political prudence, ought to be tender and large. A
+tolerant government ought not to be too scrupulous in its
+investigations, but may bear without blame, not only very ill-grounded
+doctrines, but even many things that are positively vices, where they
+are _adulta et praevalida_. The good of the commonwealth is the rule
+which rides over the rest; and to this every other must completely
+submit.
+
+The Church of Scotland knows as little of Protestantism _undefined_ as
+the Church of England and Ireland do. She has by the articles of union
+secured to herself the perpetual establishment of _the Confession of
+Faith_, and the _Presbyterian_ Church government. In England, even
+during the troubled interregnum, it was not thought fit to establish a
+_negative_ religion; but the Parliament settled the _Presbyterian_ as
+the Church _discipline_, the _Directory_ as the rule of public
+_worship_, and the _Westminster Catechism_ as the institute of _faith_.
+This is to show that at no time was the Protestant religion,
+_undefined_, established here or anywhere else, as I believe. I am sure,
+that, when the three religions were established in Germany, they were
+expressly characterized and declared to be the _Evangelic_, the
+_Reformed_, and the _Catholic_; each of which has its confession of
+faith and its settled discipline: so that you always may know the best
+and the worst of them, to enable you to make the most of what is good,
+and to correct or to qualify or to guard against whatever may seem evil
+or dangerous.
+
+As to the coronation oath, to which you allude, as opposite to admitting
+a Roman Catholic to the use of any franchise whatsoever, I cannot think
+that the king would be perjured, if he gave his assent to any regulation
+which Parliament might think fit to make with regard to that affair. The
+king is bound by law, as clearly specified in several acts of
+Parliament, to be in communion with the Church of England. It is a part
+of the tenure by which he holds his crown; and though no provision was
+made till the Revolution, which could be called positive and valid in
+law, to ascertain this great principle, I have always considered it as
+in fact fundamental, that the king of England should be of the Christian
+religion, according to the national legal church for the time being. I
+conceive it was so before the Reformation. Since the Reformation it
+became doubly necessary; because the king is the head of that church, in
+some sort an ecclesiastical person,--and it would be incongruous and
+absurd to have the head of the Church of one faith, and the members of
+another. The king may _inherit_ the crown as a _Protestant_; but he
+cannot _hold it_, according to law, without being a Protestant _of the
+Church of England_.
+
+Before we take it for granted that the king is bound by his coronation
+oath not to admit any of his Catholic subjects to the rights and
+liberties which ought to belong to them as Englishmen, (not as
+religionists,) or to settle the conditions or proportions of such
+admission by an act of Parliament, I wish you to place before your eyes
+that oath itself, as it is settled in the act of William and Mary.
+
+"Will you to the utmost of your power maintain
+      1                2                 3
+the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel,
+           4
+and the Protestant Reformed Religion _established by_
+                            5
+_law_? And will you preserve unto the _bishops_ and clergy of this
+realm, and to the churches committed to _their_ charge, all such rights
+and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of
+them?--All this I promise to do."
+
+Here are the coronation engagements of the king. In them I do not find
+one word to preclude his Majesty from consenting to any arrangement
+which Parliament may make with regard to the civil privileges of any
+part of his subjects.
+
+It may not be amiss, on account of the light which it will throw on this
+discussion, to look a little more narrowly into the matter of that
+oath,--in order to discover how far it has hitherto operated, or how far
+in future it ought to operate, as a bar to any proceedings of the crown
+and Parliament in favor of those against whom it may be supposed that
+the king has engaged to support the Protestant Church of England in the
+two kingdoms in which it is established by law. First, the king swears
+he will maintain to the utmost of his power "the laws of God." I suppose
+it means the natural moral laws.--Secondly, he swears to maintain "the
+true profession of the Gospel." By which I suppose is understood
+_affirmatively_ the Christian religion.--Thirdly, that he will maintain
+"the Protestant reformed religion." This leaves me no power of
+supposition or conjecture; for that Protestant reformed religion is
+defined and described by the subsequent words, "established by law"; and
+in this instance, to define it beyond all possibility of doubt, he
+swears to maintain the "bishops and clergy, and the churches committed
+to their charge," in their rights present and future.
+
+The oath as effectually prevents the king from doing anything to the
+prejudice of the Church, in favor of sectaries, Jews, Mahometans, or
+plain avowed infidels, as if he should do the same thing in favor of the
+Catholics. You will see that it is the same Protestant Church, so
+described, that the king is to maintain and communicate with, according
+to the Act of Settlement of the 12th and 13th of William the Third. The
+act of the 5th of Anne, made in prospect of the Union, is entitled, "An
+act for securing the Church of England as by law established." It meant
+to guard the Church implicitly against any other mode of Protestant
+religion which might creep in by means of the Union. It proves beyond
+all doubt, that the legislature did not mean to guard the Church on one
+part only, and to leave it defenceless and exposed upon every other.
+This church, in that act, is declared to be "fundamental and essential"
+forever, in the Constitution of the United Kingdom, so far as England is
+concerned; and I suppose, as the law stands, even since the
+independence, it is so in Ireland.
+
+All this shows that the religion which the king is bound to maintain has
+a positive part in it, as well as a negative,--and that the positive
+part of it (in which we are in perfect agreement with the Catholics and
+with the Church of Scotland) is infinitely the most valuable and
+essential. Such an agreement we had with Protestant Dissenters in
+England, of those descriptions who came under the Toleration Act of King
+William and Queen Mary: an act coeval with the Revolution; and which
+ought, on the principles of the gentlemen who oppose the relief to the
+Catholics, to have been held sacred and unalterable. Whether we agree
+with the present Protestant Dissenters in the points at the Revolution
+held essential and fundamental among Christians, or in any other
+fundamental, at present it is impossible for us to know: because, at
+their own very earnest desire, we have repealed the Toleration Act of
+William and Mary, and discharged them from the signature required by
+that act; and because, for the far greater part, they publicly declare
+against all manner of confessions of faith, even the _Consensus_.
+
+For reasons forcible enough at all times, but at this time particularly
+forcible with me, I dwell a little the longer upon this matter, and take
+the more pains, to put us both in mind that it was not settled at the
+Revolution that the state should be Protestant, in the latitude of the
+term, but in a defined and limited sense only, and that in that sense
+only the king is sworn to maintain it. To suppose that the king has
+sworn with his utmost power to maintain what it is wholly out of his
+power to discover, or which, if he could discover, he might discover to
+consist of things directly contradictory to each other, some of them
+perhaps impious, blasphemous, and seditious upon principle, would be not
+only a gross, but a most mischievous absurdity. If mere dissent from the
+Church of Rome be a merit, he that dissents the most perfectly is the
+most meritorious. In many points we hold strongly with that church. He
+that dissents throughout with that church will dissent with the Church
+of England, and then it will be a part of his merit that he dissents
+with ourselves: a whimsical species of merit for any set of men to
+establish. We quarrel to extremity with those who we know agree with us
+in many things; but we are to be so malicious even in the principle of
+our friendships, that we are to cherish in our bosom those who accord
+with us in nothing, because, whilst they despise ourselves, they abhor,
+even more than we do, those with whom we have some disagreement. A man
+is certainly the most perfect Protestant who protests against the whole
+Christian religion. Whether a person's having no Christian religion be a
+title to favor, in exclusion to the largest description of Christians,
+who hold all the doctrines of Christianity, though holding along with
+them some errors and some superfluities, is rather more than any man,
+who has not become recreant and apostate from his baptism, will, I
+believe, choose to affirm. The countenance given from a spirit of
+controversy to that negative religion may by degrees encourage light and
+unthinking people to a total indifference to everything positive in
+matters of doctrine, and, in the end, of practice too. If continued, it
+would play the game of that sort of active, proselytizing, and
+persecuting atheism which is the disgrace and calamity of our time, and
+which we see to be as capable of subverting a government as any mode can
+be of misguided zeal for better things.
+
+Now let us fairly see what course has been taken relative to those
+against whom, in part at least, the king has sworn to maintain a church,
+_positive in its doctrine and its discipline_. The first thing done,
+even when the oath was fresh in the mouth of the sovereigns, was to give
+a toleration to Protestant Dissenters _whose doctrines they
+ascertained_. As to the mere civil privileges which the Dissenters held
+as subjects before the Revolution, these were not touched at all. The
+laws have fully permitted, in a qualification for all offices, to such
+Dissenters, _an occasional conformity_: a thing I believe singular,
+where tests are admitted. The act, called the Test Act, itself, is, with
+regard to them, grown to be hardly anything more than a dead letter.
+Whenever the Dissenters cease by their conduct to give any alarm to the
+government, in Church and State, I think it very probable that even this
+matter, rather disgustful than inconvenient to them, may be removed, or
+at least so modified as to distinguish the qualification to those
+offices which really _guide the state_ from those which are _merely
+instrumental_, or that some other and better tests may be put in their
+place.
+
+So far as to England. In Ireland you have outran us. Without waiting for
+an English example, you have totally, and without any modification
+whatsoever, repealed the test as to Protestant Dissenters. Not having
+the repealing act by me, I ought not to say positively that there is no
+exception in it; but if it be what I suppose it is, you know very well
+that a Jew in religion, or a Mahometan, or even _a public, declared
+atheist_ and blasphemer, is perfectly qualified to be Lord-Lieutenant, a
+lord-justice, or even keeper of the king's conscience, and by virtue of
+his office (if with you it be as it is with us) administrator to a great
+part of the ecclesiastical patronage of the crown.
+
+Now let us deal a little fairly. We must admit that Protestant Dissent
+was one of the quarters from which danger was apprehended at the
+Revolution, and against which a part of the coronation oath was
+peculiarly directed. By this unqualified repeal you certainly did not
+mean to deny that it was the duty of the crown to preserve the Church
+against Protestant Dissenters; or taking this to be the true sense of
+the two Revolution acts of King William, and of the previous and
+subsequent Union acts of Queen Anne, you did not declare by this most
+unqualified repeal, by which you broke down all the barriers, not
+invented, indeed, but carefully preserved, at the Revolution,--you did
+not then and by that proceeding declare that you had advised the king to
+perjury towards God and perfidy towards the Church. No! far, very far
+from it! You never would have done it, if you did not think it could be
+done with perfect repose to the royal conscience, and perfect safety to
+the national established religion. You did this upon a full
+consideration of the circumstances of your country. Now, if
+circumstances required it, why should it be contrary to the king's oath,
+his Parliament judging on those circumstances, to restore to his
+Catholic people, in such measure and with such modifications as the
+public wisdom shall think proper to add, _some part_ in these franchises
+which they formerly had held without any limitation at all, and which,
+upon no sort of urgent reason at the time, they were deprived of? If
+such means can with any probability be shown, from circumstances, rather
+to add strength to our mixed ecclesiastical and secular Constitution
+than to weaken it, surely they are means infinitely to be preferred to
+penalties, incapacities, and proscriptions, continued from generation to
+generation. They are perfectly consistent with the other parts of the
+coronation oath, in which the king swears to maintain "the laws of God
+and the true profession of the Gospel, and to govern the people
+according to the statutes in Parliament agreed upon, and the laws and
+customs of the realm." In consenting to such a statute, the crown would
+act at least as agreeable to the laws of God, and to the true profession
+of the Gospel, and to the laws and customs of the kingdom, as George the
+First did, when he passed the statute which took from the body of the
+people everything which to that hour, and even after the monstrous acts
+of the 2nd and 8th of Anne, (the objects of our common hatred,) they
+still enjoyed inviolate.
+
+It is hard to distinguish with the last degree of accuracy what laws are
+fundamental, and what not. However, there is a distinction between them,
+authorized by the writers on jurisprudence, and recognized in some of
+our statutes. I admit the acts of King William and Queen Anne to be
+fundamental, but they are not the only fundamental laws. The law called
+_Magna Charta_, by which it is provided that "no man shall be disseised
+of his liberties and free customs but by the judgment of his peers or
+the laws of the land," (meaning clearly, for some proved crime tried and
+adjudged,) I take to be _a fundamental law._ Now, although this Magna
+Charta, or some of the statutes establishing it, provide that that law
+shall be perpetual, and all statutes contrary to it shall be void, yet I
+cannot go so far as to deny the authority of statutes made in defiance
+of Magna Charta and all its principles. This, however, I will say,--that
+it is a very venerable law, made by very wise and learned men, and that
+the legislature, in their attempt to perpetuate it, even against the
+authority of future Parliaments, have shown their judgment that it is
+_fundamental_, on the same grounds and in the same manner that the act
+of the fifth of Anne has considered and declared the establishment of
+the Church of England to be fundamental. Magna Charta, which secured
+these franchises to the subjects, regarded the rights of freeholders in
+counties to be as much a fundamental part of the Constitution as the
+establishment of the Church of England was thought either at that time,
+or in the act of King William, or in the act of Queen Anne.
+
+The churchmen who led in that transaction certainly took care of the
+material interest of which they were the natural guardians. It is the
+first article of Magna Charta, "that the Church of England shall be
+free," &c, &c. But at that period, churchmen and barons and knights took
+care of the franchises and free customs of the people, too. Those
+franchises are part of the Constitution itself, and inseparable from it.
+It would be a very strange thing, if there should not only exist
+anomalies in our laws, a thing not easy to prevent, but that the
+fundamental parts of the Constitution should be perpetually and
+irreconcilably at variance with each other. I cannot persuade myself
+that the lovers of our church are not as able to find effectual ways of
+reconciling its safety with the franchises of the people as the
+ecclesiastics of the thirteenth century were able to do; I cannot
+conceive how anything worse can be said of the Protestant religion of
+the Church of England than this,--that, wherever it is judged proper to
+give it a legal establishment, it becomes necessary to deprive the body
+of the people, if they adhere to their old opinions, of "their liberties
+and of all their free customs," and to reduce them to a state of _civil_
+servitude.
+
+There is no man on earth, I believe, more willing than I am to lay it
+down as a fundamental of the Constitution, that the Church of England
+should be united and even identified with it; but, allowing this, I
+cannot allow that all _laws of regulation_, made from time to time, in
+support of that fundamental law, are of course equally fundamental and
+equally unchangeable. This would be to confound all the branches of
+legislation and of jurisprudence. The _crown_ and the personal safety of
+the monarch are _fundamentals_ in our Constitution: yet I hope that no
+man regrets that the rabble of statutes got together during the reign of
+Henry the Eighth, by which treasons are multiplied with so prolific an
+energy, have been all repealed in a body; although they were all, or
+most of them, made in support of things truly fundamental in our
+Constitution. So were several of the acts by which the crown exercised
+its supremacy: such as the act of Elizabeth for making the _high
+commission courts_, and the like; as well as things made treason in the
+time of Charles the Second. None of this species of _secondary and
+subsidiary laws_ have been held fundamental. They have yielded to
+circumstances; particularly where they were thought, even in their
+consequences, or obliquely, to affect other fundamentals. How much more,
+certainly, ought they to give way, when, as in our case, they affect,
+not here and there, in some particular point, or in their consequence,
+but universally, collectively, and directly, the fundamental franchises
+of a people equal to the whole inhabitants of several respectable
+kingdoms and states: equal to the subjects of the kings of Sardinia or
+of Denmark; equal to those of the United Netherlands; and more than are
+to be found in all the states of Switzerland. This way of proscribing
+men by whole nations, as it were, from all the benefits of the
+Constitution to which they were born, I never can believe to be politic
+or expedient, much less necessary for the existence of any state or
+church in the world. Whenever I shall be convinced, which will be late
+and reluctantly, that the safety of the Church is utterly inconsistent
+with all the civil rights whatsoever of the far larger part of the
+inhabitants of our country, I shall be extremely sorry for it; because I
+shall think the Church to be truly in danger. It is putting things into
+the position of an ugly alternative, into which I hope in God they never
+will be put.
+
+I have said most of what occurs to me on the topics you touch upon,
+relative to the religion of the king, and his coronation oath. I shall
+conclude the observations which I wished to submit to you on this point
+by assuring you that I think you the most remote that can be conceived
+from the metaphysicians of our times, who are the most foolish of men,
+and who, dealing in universals and essences, see no difference between
+more and less,--and who of course would think that the reason of the law
+which obliged the king to be a communicant of the Church of England
+would be as valid to exclude a Catholic from being an exciseman, or to
+deprive a man who has five hundred a year, under that description, from
+voting on a par with a factitious Protestant Dissenting freeholder of
+forty shillings.
+
+Recollect, my dear friend, that it was a fundamental principle in the
+French monarchy, whilst it stood, that the state should be Catholic; yet
+the Edict of Nantes gave, not a full ecclesiastical, but a complete
+civil _establishment_, with places of which only they were capable, to
+the Calvinists of France,--and there were very few employments, indeed,
+of which they were not capable. The world praised the Cardinal de
+Richelieu, who took the first opportunity to strip them of their
+fortified places and cautionary towns. The same world held and does hold
+in execration (so far as that business is concerned) the memory of Louis
+the Fourteenth, for the total repeal of that favorable edict; though the
+talk of "fundamental laws, established religion, religion of the prince,
+safety to the state," &c., &c., was then as largely held, and with as
+bitter a revival of the animosities of the civil confusions during the
+struggles between the parties, as now they can be in Ireland.
+
+Perhaps there are persons who think that the same reason does not hold,
+when the religious relation of the sovereign and subject is changed; but
+they who have their shop full of false weights and measures, and who
+imagine that the adding or taking away the name of Protestant or
+Papist, Guelph or Ghibelline, alters all the principles of equity,
+policy, and prudence, leave us no common data upon which we can reason.
+I therefore pass by all this, which on you will make no impression, to
+come to what seems to be a serious consideration in your mind: I mean
+the dread you express of "reviewing, for the purpose of altering, the
+_principles of the Revolution_." This is an interesting topic, on which
+I will, as fully as your leisure and mine permits, lay before you the
+ideas I have formed.
+
+First, I cannot possibly confound in my mind all the things which were
+done at the Revolution with the _principles_ of the Revolution. As in
+most great changes, many things were done from the necessities of the
+time, well or ill understood, from passion or from vengeance, which were
+not only not perfectly agreeable to its principles, but in the most
+direct contradiction to them. I shall not think that the _deprivation of
+some millions of people of all the rights of citizens, and all interest
+in the Constitution, in and to which they were born_, was a thing
+conformable to the _declared principles_ of the Revolution. This I am
+sure is true relatively to England (where the operation of these
+_anti-principles_ comparatively were of little extent); and some of our
+late laws, in repealing acts made immediately after the Revolution,
+admit that some things then done were not done in the true spirit of the
+Revolution. But the Revolution operated differently in England and
+Ireland, in many, and these essential particulars. Supposing the
+principles to have been altogether the same in both kingdoms, by the
+application of those principles to very different objects the whole
+spirit of the system was changed, not to say reversed. In England it
+was the struggle of the _great body_ of the people for the establishment
+of their liberties, against the efforts of a very _small faction_, who
+would have oppressed them. In Ireland it was the establishment of the
+power of the smaller number, at the expense of the civil liberties and
+properties of the far greater part, and at the expense of the political
+liberties of the whole. It was, to say the truth, not a revolution, but
+a conquest: which is not to say a great deal in its favor. To insist on
+everything done in Ireland at the Revolution would be to insist on the
+severe and jealous policy of a conqueror, in the crude settlement of his
+new acquisition, as _a permanent_ rule for its future government. This
+no power, in no country that ever I heard of, has done or professed to
+do,--except in Ireland; where it is done, and possibly by some people
+will be professed. Time has, by degrees, in all other places and
+periods, blended and coalited the conquered with the conquerors. So,
+after some time, and after one of the most rigid conquests that we read
+of in history, the Normans softened into the English. I wish you to turn
+your recollection to the fine speech of Cerealis to the Gauls, made to
+dissuade them from revolt. Speaking of the Romans,--"_Nos_ quamvis
+toties lacessiti, jure victoriae id solum vobis addidimus, quo pacem
+tueremur: nam neque quies gentium sine armis, neque arma sine
+stipendiis, neque stipendia sine tributis haberi queant. _Caetera in
+communi sita sunt_: ipsi plerumque nostris exercitibus _praesidetis_:
+ipsi has aliasque provincias _regitis: nil separatum clausumve_. Proinde
+pacem et urbem, quam _victores victique eodem jure obtinemus_, amate,
+colite." You will consider whether the arguments used by that Roman to
+these Gauls would apply to the case in Ireland,--and whether you could
+use so plausible a preamble to any severe warning you might think it
+proper to hold out to those who should resort to sedition, instead of
+supplication, to obtain any object that they may pursue with the
+governing power.
+
+For a much longer period than that which had sufficed to blend the
+Romans with the nation to which of all others they were the most
+adverse, the Protestants settled in Ireland considered themselves in no
+other light than that of a sort of a colonial garrison, to keep the
+natives in subjection to the other state of Great Britain. The whole
+spirit of the Revolution in Ireland was that of not the mildest
+conqueror. In truth, the spirit of those proceedings did not commence at
+that era, nor was religion of any kind their primary object. What was
+done was not in the spirit of a contest between two religious factions,
+but between two adverse nations. The statutes of Kilkenny show that the
+spirit of the Popery laws, and some even of their actual provisions, as
+applied between Englishry and Irishry, had existed in that harassed
+country before the words _Protestant_ and _Papist_ were heard of in the
+world. If we read Baron Finglas, Spenser, and Sir John Davies, we cannot
+miss the true genius and policy of the English government there before
+the Revolution, as well as during the whole reign of Queen Elizabeth.
+Sir John Davies boasts of the benefits received by the natives, by
+extending to them the English law, and turning the whole kingdom into
+shire ground. But the appearance of things alone was changed. The
+original scheme was never deviated from for a single hour. Unheard-of
+confiscations were made in the northern parts, upon grounds of plots and
+conspiracies, never proved upon their supposed authors. The war of
+chicane succeeded to the war of arms and of hostile statutes; and a
+regular series of operations was carried on, particularly from
+Chichester's time, in the ordinary courts of justice, and by special
+commissions and inquisitions,--first under pretence of tenures, and then
+of titles in the crown, for the purpose of the total extirpation of the
+interest of the natives in their own soil,--until this species of subtle
+ravage, being carried to the last excess of oppression and insolence
+under Lord Strafford, it kindled the flames of that rebellion which
+broke out in 1641. By the issue of that war, by the turn which the Earl
+of Clarendon gave to things at the Restoration, and by the total
+reduction of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691, the ruin of the native
+Irish, and, in a great measure, too, of the first races of the English,
+was completely accomplished. The new English interest was settled with
+as solid a stability as anything in human affairs can look for. All the
+penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppression, which were made
+after the last event, were manifestly the effects of national hatred and
+scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample
+upon and were not at all afraid to provoke. They were not the effect of
+their fears, but of their security. They who carried on this system
+looked to the irresistible force of Great Britain for their support in
+their acts of power. They were quite certain that no complaints of the
+natives would be heard on this side of the water with any other
+sentiments than those of contempt and indignation. Their cries served
+only to augment their torture. Machines which could answer their
+purposes so well must be of an excellent contrivance. Indeed, in
+England, the double name of the complainants, Irish and Papists, (it
+would be hard to say which singly was the most odious,) shut up the
+hearts of every one against them. Whilst that temper prevailed, (and it
+prevailed in all its force to a time within our memory,) every measure
+was pleasing and popular just in proportion as it tended to harass and
+ruin a set of people who were looked upon as enemies to God and man,
+and, indeed, as a race of bigoted savages who were a disgrace to human
+nature itself.
+
+However, as the English in Ireland began to be domiciliated, they began
+also to recollect that they had a country. The _English interest_, at
+first by faint and almost insensible degrees, but at length openly and
+avowedly, became an _independent Irish interest_,--full as independent
+as it could ever have been if it had continued in the persons of the
+native Irish; and it was maintained with more skill and more consistency
+than probably it would have been in theirs. With their views, the
+_Anglo-Irish_ changed their maxims: it was necessary to demonstrate to
+the whole people that there was something, at least, of a common
+interest, combined with the independency, which was to become the object
+of common exertions. The mildness of government produced the first
+relaxation towards the Irish; the necessities, and, in part, too, the
+temper that predominated at this great change, produced the second and
+the most important of these relaxations. English government and Irish
+legislature felt jointly the propriety of this measure. The Irish
+Parliament and nation became independent.
+
+The true revolution to you, that which most intrinsically and
+substantially resembled the English Revolution of 1688, was the Irish
+Revolution of 1782. The Irish Parliament of 1782 bore little resemblance
+to that which sat in that kingdom after the period of the first of these
+revolutions. It bore a much nearer resemblance to that which sat under
+King James. The change of the Parliament in 1782 from the character of
+the Parliament which, as a token of its indignation, had burned all the
+journals indiscriminately of the former Parliament in the
+Council-Chamber, was very visible. The address of King William's
+Parliament, the Parliament which assembled after the Revolution, amongst
+other causes of complaint (many of them sufficiently just) complains of
+the repeal by their predecessors of Poynings's law,--no absolute idol
+with the Parliament of 1782.
+
+Great Britain, finding the Anglo-Irish highly animated with a spirit
+which had indeed shown itself before, though with little energy and many
+interruptions, and therefore suffered a multitude of uniform precedents
+to be established against it, acted, in my opinion, with the greatest
+temperance and wisdom. She saw that the disposition of the _leading
+part_ of the nation would not permit them to act any longer the part of
+a _garrison_. She saw that true policy did not require that they ever
+should have appeared in that character; or if it had done so formerly,
+the reasons had now ceased to operate. She saw that the Irish of her
+race were resolved to build their Constitution and their politics upon
+another bottom. With those things under her view, she instantly complied
+with the whole of your demands, without any reservation whatsoever. She
+surrendered that boundless superiority, for the preservation of which,
+and the acquisition, she had supported the English colonies in Ireland
+for so long a time, and at so vast an expense (according to the standard
+of those ages) of her blood and treasure.
+
+When we bring before us the matter which history affords for our
+selection, it is not improper to examine the spirit of the several
+precedents which are candidates for our choice. Might it not be as well
+for your statesmen, on the other side of the water, to take an example
+from this latter and surely more conciliatory revolution, as a pattern
+for your conduct towards your own fellow-citizens, than from that of
+1688, when a paramount sovereignty over both you and them was more
+loftily claimed and more sternly exerted than at any former or at any
+subsequent period? Great Britain in 1782 rose above the vulgar ideas of
+policy, the ordinary jealousies of state, and all the sentiments of
+national pride and national ambition. If she had been more disposed
+(than, I thank God for it, she was) to listen to the suggestions of
+passion than to the dictates of prudence, she might have urged the
+principles, the maxims, the policy, the practice of the Revolution,
+against the demands of the leading description in Ireland, with full as
+much plausibility and full as good a grace as any amongst them can
+possibly do against the supplications of so vast and extensive a
+description of their own people.
+
+A good deal, too, if the spirit of domination and exclusion had
+prevailed in England, might have been excepted against some of the means
+then employed in Ireland, whilst her claims were in agitation. They
+were at least as much out of ordinary course as those which are now
+objected against admitting your people to any of the benefits of an
+English Constitution. Most certainly, neither with you nor here was any
+one ignorant of what was at that time said, written, and done. But on
+all sides we separated the means from the end: and we separated the
+cause of the moderate and rational from the ill-intentioned and
+seditious, which on such occasions are so frequently apt to march
+together. At that time, on your part, you were not afraid to review what
+was done at the Revolution of 1688, and what had been continued during
+the subsequent flourishing period of the British empire. The change then
+made was a great and fundamental alteration. In the execution, it was an
+operose business on both sides of the water. It required the repeal of
+several laws, the modification of many, and a new course to be given to
+an infinite number of legislative, judicial, and official practices and
+usages in both kingdoms. This did not frighten any of us. You are now
+asked to give, in some moderate measure, to your fellow-citizens, what
+Great Britain gave to you without any measure at all. Yet,
+notwithstanding all the difficulties at the time, and the apprehensions
+which some very well-meaning people entertained, through the admirable
+temper in which this revolution (or restoration in the nature of a
+revolution) was conducted in both kingdoms, it has hitherto produced no
+inconvenience to either; and I trust, with the continuance of the same
+temper, that it never will. I think that this small, inconsiderable
+change, (relative to an exclusive statute not made at the Revolution,)
+for restoring the people to the benefits from which the green soreness
+of a civil war had not excluded them, will be productive of no sort of
+mischief whatsoever. Compare what was done in 1782 with what is wished
+in 1792; consider the spirit of what has been done at the several
+periods of reformation; and weigh maturely whether it be exactly true
+that conciliatory concessions are of good policy only in discussions
+between nations, but that among descriptions in the same nation they
+must always be irrational and dangerous. What have you suffered in your
+peace, your prosperity, or, in what ought ever to be dear to a nation,
+your glory, by the last act by which you took the property of that
+people under the protection of the _laws_? What reasons have you to
+dread the consequences of admitting the people possessing that property
+to some share in the protection of the _Constitution_?
+
+I do not mean to trouble you with anything to remove the objections, I
+will not call them arguments, against this measure, taken from a
+ferocious hatred to all that numerous description of Christians. It
+would be to pay a poor compliment to your understanding or your heart.
+Neither _your_ religion nor _your_ politics consist "in odd, perverse
+antipathies." You are not resolved to persevere in proscribing from the
+Constitution so many millions of your countrymen, because, in
+contradiction to experience and to common sense, you think proper to
+imagine that their principles are subversive of common human society. To
+that I shall only say, that whoever has a temper which can be gratified
+by indulging himself in these good-natured fancies ought to do a great
+deal more. For an exclusion from the privileges of British subjects is
+not a cure for so terrible a distemper of the human mind as they are
+pleased to suppose in their countrymen. I rather conceive a
+participation in those privileges to be itself a remedy for some mental
+disorders.
+
+As little shall I detain you with matters that can as little obtain
+admission into a mind like yours: such as the fear, or pretence of fear,
+that, in spite of your own power and the trifling power of Great
+Britain, you may be conquered by the Pope; or that this commodious
+bugbear (who is of infinitely more use to those who pretend to fear than
+to those who love him) will absolve his Majesty's subjects from their
+allegiance, and send over the Cardinal of York to rule you as his
+viceroy; or that, by the plenitude of his power, he will take that
+fierce tyrant, the king of the French, out of his jail, and arm that
+nation (which on all occasions treats his Holiness so very politely)
+with his bulls and pardons, to invade poor old Ireland, to reduce you to
+Popery and slavery, and to force the free-born, naked feet of your
+people into the wooden shoes of that arbitrary monarch. I do not believe
+that discourses of this kind are held, or that anything like them will
+be held, by any who walk about without a keeper. Yet I confess, that, on
+occasions of this nature, I am the most afraid of the weakest
+reasonings, because they discover the strongest passions. These things
+will never be brought out in definite propositions. They would not
+prevent pity towards any persons; they would only cause it for those who
+were capable of talking in such a strain. But I know, and am sure, that
+such ideas as no man will distinctly produce to another, or hardly
+venture to bring in any plain shape to his own mind, he will utter in
+obscure, ill-explained doubts, jealousies, surmises, fears, and
+apprehensions, and that in such a fog they will appear to have a good
+deal of size, and will make an impression, when, if they were clearly
+brought forth and defined, they would meet with nothing but scorn and
+derision.
+
+There is another way of taking an objection to this concession, which I
+admit to be something more plausible, and worthy of a more attentive
+examination. It is, that this numerous class of people is mutinous,
+disorderly, prone to sedition, and easy to be wrought upon by the
+insidious arts of wicked and designing men; that, conscious of this, the
+sober, rational, and wealthy part of that body, who are totally of
+another character, do by no means desire any participation for
+themselves, or for any one else of their description, in the franchises
+of the British Constitution.
+
+I have great doubt of the exactness of any part of this observation. But
+let us admit that the body of the Catholics are prone to sedition, (of
+which, as I have said, I entertain much doubt,) is it possible that any
+fair observer or fair reasoner can think of confining this description
+to them only? I believe it to be possible for men to be mutinous and
+seditious who feel no grievance, but I believe no man will assert
+seriously, that, when people are of a turbulent spirit, the best way to
+keep them in order is to furnish them with something substantial to
+complain of.
+
+You separate, very properly, the sober, rational, and substantial part
+of their description from the rest. You give, as you ought to do, weight
+only to the former. What I have always thought of the matter is
+this,--that the most poor, illiterate, and uninformed creatures upon
+earth are judges of a _practical_ oppression. It is a matter of feeling;
+and as such persons generally have felt most of it, and are not of an
+over-lively sensibility, they are the best judges of it. But for _the
+real cause_, or _the appropriate remedy_, they ought never to be called
+into council about the one or the other. They ought to be totally shut
+out: because their reason is weak; because, when once roused, their
+passions are ungoverned; because they want information; because the
+smallness of the property which individually they possess renders them
+less attentive to the consequence of the measures they adopt in affairs
+of moment. When I find a great cry amongst the people who speculate
+little, I think myself called seriously to examine into it, and to
+separate the real cause from the ill effects of the passion it may
+excite, and the bad use which artful men may make of an irritation of
+the popular mind. Here we must be aided by persons of a contrary
+character; we must not listen to the desperate or the furious: but it is
+therefore necessary for us to distinguish who are the _really_ indigent
+and the _really_ intemperate. As to the persons who desire this part in
+the Constitution, I have no reason to imagine that they are men who have
+nothing to lose and much to look for in public confusion. The popular
+meeting from which apprehensions have been entertained has assembled. I
+have accidentally had conversation with two friends of mine who know
+something of the gentleman who was put into the chair upon that
+occasion: one of them has had money transactions with him; the other,
+from curiosity, has been to see his concerns: they both tell me he is a
+man of some property: but you must be the best judge of this, who by
+your office are likely to know his transactions. Many of the others are
+certainly persons of fortune; and all, or most, fathers of families,
+men in respectable ways of life, and some of them far from contemptible,
+either for their information, or for the abilities which they have shown
+in the discussion of their interests. What such men think it for their
+advantage to acquire ought not, _prima facie_, to be considered as rash
+or heady or incompatible with the public safety or welfare.
+
+I admit, that men of the best fortunes and reputations, and of the best
+talents and education too, may by accident show themselves furious and
+intemperate in their desires. This is a great misfortune, when it
+happens; for the first presumptions are undoubtedly in their favor. We
+have two standards of judging, in this case, of the sanity and sobriety
+of any proceedings,--of unequal certainty, indeed, but neither of them
+to be neglected: the first is by the value of the object sought; the
+next is by the means through which it is pursued.
+
+The object pursued by the Catholics is, I understand, and have all along
+reasoned as if it were so, in some degree or measure to be again
+admitted to the franchises of the Constitution. Men are considered as
+under some derangement of their intellects, when they see good and evil
+in a different light from other men,--when they choose nauseous and
+unwholesome food, and reject such as to the rest of the world seems
+pleasant and is known to be nutritive. I have always considered the
+British Constitution not to be a thing in itself so vicious as that none
+but men of deranged understanding and turbulent tempers could desire a
+share in it: on the contrary, I should think very indifferently of the
+understanding and temper of any body of men who did not wish to partake
+of this great and acknowledged benefit. I cannot think quite so
+favorably either of the sense or temper of those, if any such there are,
+who would voluntarily persuade their brethren that the object is not fit
+for them, or they for the object. Whatever may be my thoughts concerning
+them, I am quite sure that they who hold such language must forfeit all
+credit with the rest. This is infallible,--if they conceive any opinion
+of their judgment, they cannot possibly think them their friends. There
+is, indeed, one supposition which would reconcile the conduct of such
+gentlemen to sound reason, and to the purest affection towards their
+fellow-sufferers: it is, that they act under the impression of a
+well-grounded fear for the general interest. If they should be told, and
+should believe the story, that, if they dare attempt to make their
+condition better, they will infallibly make it worse,--that, if they aim
+at obtaining liberty, they will have their slavery doubled,--that their
+endeavor to put themselves upon anything which approaches towards an
+equitable footing with their fellow-subjects will be considered as an
+indication of a seditious and rebellious disposition,--such a view of
+things ought perfectly to restore the gentlemen, who so anxiously
+dissuade their countrymen from wishing a participation with the
+privileged part of the people, to the good opinion of their fellows. But
+what is to _them_ a very full justification is not quite so honorable to
+that power from whose maxims and temper so good a ground of rational
+terror is furnished. I think arguments of this kind will never be used
+by the friends of a government which I greatly respect, or by any of the
+leaders of an opposition whom I have the honor to know and the sense to
+admire. I remember Polybius tells us, that, during his captivity in
+Italy as a Peloponnesian hostage, he solicited old Cato to intercede
+with the Senate for his release, and that of his countrymen: this old
+politician told him that he had better continue in his present
+condition, however irksome, than apply again to that formidable
+authority for their relief; that he ought to imitate the wisdom of his
+countryman Ulysses, who, when he was once out of the den of the Cyclops,
+had too much sense to venture again into the same cavern. But I conceive
+too high an opinion of the Irish legislature to think that they are to
+their fellow-citizens what the grand oppressors of mankind were to a
+people whom the fortune of war had subjected to their power. For though
+Cato could use such a parallel with regard to his Senate, I should
+really think it nothing short of impious to compare an Irish Parliament
+to a den of Cyclops. I hope the people, both here and with you, will
+always apply to the House of Commons with becoming modesty, but at the
+same time with minds unembarrassed with any sort of terror.
+
+As to the means which the Catholics employ to obtain this object, so
+worthy of sober and rational minds, I do admit that such means may be
+used in the pursuit of it as may make it proper for the legislature, in
+this case, to defer their compliance until the demandants are brought to
+a proper sense of their duty. A concession in which the governing power
+of our country loses its dignity is dearly bought even by him who
+obtains his object. All the people have a deep interest in the dignity
+of Parliament. But as the refusal of franchises which are drawn out of
+the first vital stamina of the British Constitution is a very serious
+thing, we ought to be very sure that the manner and spirit of the
+application is offensive and dangerous indeed, before we ultimately
+reject all applications of this nature. The mode of application, I hear,
+is by petition. It is the manner in which all the sovereign powers of
+the world are approached; and I never heard (except in the case of James
+the Second) that any prince considered this manner of supplication to be
+contrary to the humility of a subject or to the respect due to the
+person or authority of the sovereign. This rule, and a correspondent
+practice, are observed from the Grand Seignior down to the most petty
+prince or republic in Europe.
+
+You have sent me several papers, some in print, some in manuscript. I
+think I had seen all of them, except the formula of association. I
+confess they appear to me to contain matter mischievous, and capable of
+giving alarm, if the spirit in which they are written should be found to
+make any considerable progress. But I am at a loss to know how to apply
+them as objections to the case now before us. When I find that _the
+General Committee_ which acts for the Roman Catholics in Dublin prefers
+the association proposed in the written draught you have sent me to a
+respectful application in Parliament, I shall think the persons who sign
+such a paper to be unworthy of any privilege which may be thought fit to
+be granted, and that such men ought, _by name_, to be excepted from any
+benefit under the Constitution to which they offer this violence. But I
+do not find that this form of a seditious league has been signed by any
+person whatsoever, either on the part of the supposed projectors, or on
+the part of those whom it is calculated to seduce. I do not find, on
+inquiry, that such a thing was mentioned, or even remotely alluded to,
+in the general meeting of the Catholics from which so much violence was
+apprehended. I have considered the other publications, signed by
+individuals on the part of certain societies,--I may mistake, for I have
+not the honor of knowing them personally, but I take Mr. Butler and Mr.
+Tandy not to be Catholics, but members of the Established Church. Not
+_one_ that I recollect of these publications, which you and I equally
+dislike, appears to be written by persons of that persuasion. Now, if,
+whilst a man is dutifully soliciting a favor from Parliament, any person
+should choose in an improper manner to show his inclination towards the
+cause depending, and if that _must_ destroy the cause of the petitioner,
+then, not only the petitioner, but the legislature itself, is in the
+power of any weak friend or artful enemy that the supplicant or that the
+Parliament may have. A man must be judged by his own actions only.
+Certain Protestant Dissenters make seditious propositions to the
+Catholics, which it does not appear that they have yet accepted. It
+would be strange that the tempter should escape all punishment, and that
+he who, under circumstances full of seduction and full of provocation,
+has resisted the temptation should incur the penalty. You know, that,
+with regard to the Dissenters, who are _stated_ to be the chief movers
+in this vile scheme of altering the principles of election to a right of
+voting by the head, you are not able (if you ought even to wish such a
+thing) to deprive them of any part of the franchises and privileges
+which they hold on a footing of perfect equality with yourselves. _They_
+may do what they please with constitutional impunity; but the others
+cannot even listen with civility to an invitation from them to an
+ill-judged scheme of liberty, without forfeiting forever all hopes of
+any of those liberties which we admit to be sober and rational.
+
+It is known, I believe, that the greater as well as the sounder part of
+our excluded countrymen have not adopted the wild ideas and wilder
+engagements which have been held out to them, but have rather chosen to
+hope small and safe concessions from the legal power than boundless
+objects from trouble and confusion. This mode of action seems to me to
+mark men of sobriety, and to distinguish them from those who are
+intemperate, from circumstance or from nature. But why do they not
+instantly disclaim and disavow those who make such advances to them? In
+this, too, in my opinion, they show themselves no less sober and
+circumspect. In the present moment nothing short of insanity could
+induce them to take such a step. Pray consider the circumstances.
+Disclaim, says somebody, all union with the Dissenters;--right.--But
+when this your injunction is obeyed, shall I obtain the object which I
+solicit from _you_?--Oh, no, nothing at all like it!--But, in punishing
+us, by an exclusion from the Constitution through the great gate, for
+having been invited to enter into it by a postern, will you punish by
+deprivation of their privileges, or mulet in any other way, those who
+have tempted us?--Far from it;--we mean to preserve all _their_
+liberties and immunities, as _our_ life-blood. We mean to cultivate
+_them_, as brethren whom we love and respect;--with _you_ we have no
+fellowship. We can bear with patience their enmity to ourselves; but
+their friendship with you we will not endure. But mark it well! All our
+quarrels with _them_ are always to be revenged upon _you_. Formerly, it
+is notorious that we should have resented with the highest indignation
+your presuming to show any ill-will to them. You must not suffer them,
+now, to show any good-will to you. Know--and take it once for all--that
+it is, and ever has been, and ever will be, a fundamental maxim in our
+politics, that you are not to have any part or shadow or name of
+interest whatever in our state; that we look upon you as under an
+irreversible outlawry from our Constitution,--as perpetual and
+unalliable aliens.
+
+Such, my dear Sir, is the plain nature of the argument drawn from the
+Revolution maxims, enforced by a supposed disposition in the Catholics
+to unite with the Dissenters. Such it is, though it were clothed in
+never such bland and civil forms, and wrapped up, as a poet says, in a
+thousand "artful folds of sacred lawn." For my own part, I do not know
+in what manner to shape such arguments, so as to obtain admission for
+them into a rational understanding. Everything of this kind is to be
+reduced at last to threats of power. I cannot say, _Vae victis_! and then
+throw the sword into the scale. I have no sword; and if I had, in this
+case, most certainly, I would not use it as a makeweight in political
+reasoning.
+
+Observe, on these principles, the difference between the procedure of
+the Parliament and the Dissenters towards the people in question. One
+employs courtship, the other force. The Dissenters offer bribes, the
+Parliament nothing but the _front negatif_ of a stern and forbidding
+authority. A man may be very wrong in his ideas of what is good for
+him. But no man affronts me, nor can therefore justify my affronting
+him, by offering to make me as happy as himself, according to his own
+ideas of happiness. This the Dissenters do to the Catholics. You are on
+the different extremes. The Dissenters offer, with regard to
+constitutional rights and civil advantages of all sorts, _everything_;
+you refuse _everything_. With them, there is boundless, though not very
+assured hope; with you, a very sure and very unqualified despair. The
+terms of alliance from the Dissenters offer a representation of the
+commons, chosen out of the people by the head. This is absurdly and
+dangerously large, in my opinion; and that scheme of election is known
+to have been at all times perfectly odious to me. But I cannot think it
+right of course to punish the Irish Roman Catholics by an universal
+exclusion, because others, whom you would not punish at all, propose an
+universal admission. I cannot dissemble to myself, that, in this very
+kingdom, many persons who are not in the situation of the Irish
+Catholics, but who, on the contrary, enjoy the full benefit of the
+Constitution as it stands, and some of whom, from the effect of their
+fortunes, enjoy it in a large measure, had some years ago associated to
+procure great and undefined changes (they considered them as reforms) in
+the popular part of the Constitution. Our friend, the late Mr. Flood,
+(no slight man,) proposed in his place, and in my hearing, a
+representation not much less extensive than this, for England,--in which
+every house was to be inhabited by a voter, _in addition_ to all the
+actual votes by other titles (some of the corporate) which we know do
+not require a house or a shed. Can I forget that a person of the very
+highest rank, of very large fortune, and of the first class of ability,
+brought a bill into the House of Lords, in the head-quarters of
+aristocracy, containing identically the same project for the supposed
+adoption of which by a club or two it is thought right to extinguish all
+hopes in the Roman Catholics of Ireland? I cannot say it was very
+eagerly embraced or very warmly pursued. But the Lords neither did
+disavow the bill, nor treat it with any disregard, nor express any sort
+of disapprobation of its noble author, who has never lost, with king or
+people, the least degree of the respect and consideration which so
+justly belongs to him.
+
+I am not at all enamored, as I have told you, with this plan of
+representation; as little do I relish any bandings or associations for
+procuring it. But if the question was to be put to you and
+me,--_Universal_ popular representation, or _none at all for us and
+ours_,--we should find ourselves in a very awkward position. I do not
+like this kind of dilemmas, especially when they are practical.
+
+Then, since our oldest fundamental laws follow, or rather couple,
+freehold with franchise,--since no principle of the Revolution shakes
+these liberties,--since the oldest and one of the best monuments of the
+Constitution demands for the Irish the privilege which they
+supplicate,--since the principles of the Revolution coincide with the
+declarations of the Great Charter,--since the practice of the
+Revolution, in this point, did not contradict its principles,--since,
+from that event, twenty-five years had elapsed, before a domineering
+party, on a party principle, had ventured to disfranchise, without any
+proof whatsoever of abuse, the greater part of the community,--since the
+king's coronation oath does not stand in his way to the performance of
+his duty to all his subjects,--since you have given to all other
+Dissenters these privileges without limit which are hitherto withheld
+without any limitation whatsoever from the Catholics,--since no nation
+in the world has ever been known to exclude so great a body of men (not
+born slaves) from the civil state, and all the benefits of its
+Constitution,--the whole question comes before Parliament as a matter
+for its prudence. I do not put the thing on a question of right. That
+discretion, which in judicature is well said by Lord Coke to be a
+crooked cord, in legislature is a golden rule. Supplicants ought not to
+appear too much in the character of litigants. If the subject thinks so
+highly and reverently of the sovereign authority as not to claim
+anything of right, so that it may seem to be independent of the power
+and free choice of its government,--and if the sovereign, on his part,
+considers the advantages of the subjects as their right, and all their
+reasonable wishes as so many claims,--in the fortunate conjunction of
+these mutual dispositions are laid the foundations of a happy and
+prosperous commonwealth. For my own part, desiring of all things that
+the authority of the legislature under which I was born, and which I
+cherish, not only with a dutiful awe, but with a partial and cordial
+affection, to be maintained in the utmost possible respect, I never will
+suffer myself to suppose that at bottom their discretion will be found
+to be at variance with their justice.
+
+The whole being at discretion, I beg leave just to suggest some matters
+for your consideration:--Whether the government in Church or State is
+likely to be more secure by continuing causes of grounded discontent to
+a very great number (say two millions) of the subjects? or whether the
+Constitution, combined and balanced as it is, will be rendered more
+solid by depriving so large a part of the people of all concern or
+interest or share in its representation, actual or _virtual_? I here
+mean to lay an emphasis on the word _virtual_. Virtual representation is
+that in which there is a communion of interests and a sympathy in
+feelings and desires between those who act in the name of any
+description of people and the people in whose name they act, though the
+trustees are not actually chosen by them. This is virtual
+representation. Such a representation I think to be in many cases even
+better than the actual. It possesses most of its advantages, and is free
+from many of its inconveniences; it corrects the irregularities in the
+literal representation, when the shifting current of human affairs or
+the acting of public interests in different ways carry it obliquely from
+its first line of direction. The people may err in their choice; but
+common interest and common sentiment are rarely mistaken. But this sort
+of virtual representation cannot have a long or sure existence, if it
+has not a substratum in the actual. The member must have some relation
+to the constituent. As things stand, the Catholic, as a Catholic, and
+belonging to a description, has no _virtual_ relation to the
+representative,--but the _contrary_. There is a relation in mutual
+obligation. Gratitude may not always have a very lasting power; but the
+frequent recurrence of an application for favors will revive and refresh
+it, and will necessarily produce some degree of mutual attention. It
+will produce, at least, acquaintance. The several descriptions of people
+will not be kept so much apart as they now are, as if they were not
+only separate nations, but separate species. The stigma and reproach,
+the hideous mask will be taken off, and men will see each other as they
+are. Sure I am that there have been thousands in Ireland who have never
+conversed with a Roman Catholic in their whole lives, unless they
+happened to talk to their gardener's workmen, or to ask their way, when
+they had lost it in their sports,--or, at best, who had known them only
+as footmen, or other domestics, of the second and third order: and so
+averse were they, some time ago, to have them near their persons, that
+they would not employ even those who could never find their way beyond
+the stable. I well remember a great, and in many respects a good man,
+who advertised for a blacksmith, but at the same time added, he must be
+a Protestant. It is impossible that such a state of things, though
+natural goodness in many persons will undoubtedly make exceptions, must
+not produce alienation on the one side and pride and insolence on the
+other.
+
+Reduced to a question of discretion, and that discretion exercised
+solely upon what will appear best for the conservation of the state on
+its present basis, I should recommend it to your serious thoughts,
+whether the narrowing of the foundation is always the best way to secure
+the building? The body of disfranchised men will not be perfectly
+satisfied to remain always in that state. If they are not satisfied, you
+have two millions of subjects in your bosom full of uneasiness: not that
+they cannot overturn the Act of Settlement, and put themselves and you
+under an arbitrary master; or that they are not permitted to spawn a
+hydra of wild republics, on principles of a pretended natural equality
+in man; but because you will not suffer them to enjoy the ancient,
+fundamental, tried advantages of a British Constitution,--that you will
+not permit them to profit of the protection of a common father or the
+freedom of common citizens, and that the only reason which can be
+assigned for this disfranchisement has a tendency more deeply to
+ulcerate their minds than the act of exclusion itself. What the
+consequence of such feelings must be it is for you to look to. To warn
+is not to menace.
+
+I am far from asserting that men will not excite disturbances without
+just cause. I know that such an assertion is not true. But neither is it
+true that disturbances have never just complaints for their origin. I am
+sure that it is hardly prudent to furnish them with such causes of
+complaint as every man who thinks the British Constitution a benefit may
+think at least colorable and plausible.
+
+Several are in dread of the manoeuvres of certain persons among the
+Dissenters, who turn this ill humor to their own ill purposes. You know,
+better than I can, how much these proceedings of certain among the
+Dissenters are to be feared. You are to weigh, with the temper which is
+natural to you, whether it may be for the safety of our establishment
+that the Catholics should be ultimately persuaded that they have no hope
+to enter into the Constitution but through the Dissenters.
+
+Think whether this be the way to prevent or dissolve factious
+combinations against the Church or the State. Reflect seriously on the
+possible consequences of keeping in the heart of your country a bank of
+discontent, every hour accumulating, upon which every description of
+seditious men may draw at pleasure. They whose principles of faction
+will dispose them to the establishment of an arbitrary monarchy will
+find a nation of men who have no sort of interest in freedom, but who
+will have an interest in that equality of justice or favor with which a
+wise despot must view all his subjects who do not attack the foundations
+of his power. Love of liberty itself may, in such men, become the means
+of establishing an arbitrary domination. On the other hand, they who
+wish for a democratic republic will find a set of men who have no choice
+between civil servitude and the entire ruin of a mixed Constitution.
+
+Suppose the people of Ireland divided into three parts. Of these, (I
+speak within compass,) two are Catholic; of the remaining third, one
+half is composed of Dissenters. There is no natural union between those
+descriptions. It may be produced. If the two parts Catholic be driven
+into a close confederacy with half the third part of Protestants, with a
+view to a change in the Constitution in Church or State or both, and you
+rest the whole of their security on a handful of gentlemen, clergy, and
+their dependents,--compute the strength _you have in Ireland_, to oppose
+to grounded discontent, to capricious innovation, to blind popular fury,
+and to ambitious, turbulent intrigue.
+
+You mention that the minds of some gentlemen are a good deal heated, and
+that it is often said, that, rather than submit to such persons, having
+a share in their franchises, they would throw up their independence, and
+precipitate an union with Great Britain. I have heard a discussion
+concerning such an union amongst all sorts of men ever since I remember
+anything. For my own part, I have never been able to bring my mind to
+anything clear and decisive upon the subject. There cannot be a more
+arduous question. As far as I can form an opinion, it would not be for
+the mutual advantage of the two kingdoms. Persons, however, more able
+than I am think otherwise. But whatever the merits of this union may be,
+to make it a _menace_, it must be shown to be an _evil_, and an evil
+more particularly to those who are threatened with it than to those who
+hold it out as a terror. I really do not see how this threat of an union
+can operate, or that the Catholics are more likely to be losers by that
+measure than the churchmen.
+
+The humors of the people, and of politicians too, are so variable in
+themselves, and are so much under the occasional influence of some
+leading men, that it is impossible to know what turn the public mind
+here would take on such an event. There is but one thing certain
+concerning it. Great divisions and vehement passions would precede this
+union, both on the measure itself and on its terms; and particularly,
+this very question of a share in the representation for the Catholics,
+from whence the project of an union originated, would form a principal
+part in the discussion; and in the temper in which some gentlemen seem
+inclined to throw themselves, by a sort of high, indignant passion, into
+the scheme, those points would not be deliberated with all possible
+calmness.
+
+From my best observation, I should greatly doubt, whether, in the end,
+these gentlemen would obtain their object, so as to make the exclusion
+of two millions of their countrymen a fundamental article in the union.
+The demand would be of a nature quite unprecedented. You might obtain
+the union; and yet a gentleman, who, under the new union establishment,
+would aspire to the honor of representing his county, might possibly be
+as much obliged, as he may fear to be under the old separate
+establishment, to the unsupportable mortification of asking his
+neighbors, who have a different opinion concerning the elements in the
+sacrament, for their votes.
+
+I believe, nay, I am sure, that the people of Great Britain, with or
+without an union, might be depended upon, in oases of any real danger,
+to aid the government of Ireland, with the same cordiality as they would
+support their own, against any wicked attempts to shake the security of
+the happy Constitution in Church and State. But before Great Britain
+engages in any quarrel, the _cause of the dispute_ would certainly be a
+part of her consideration. If confusions should arise in that kingdom
+from too steady an attachment to a proscriptive, monopolizing system,
+and from the resolution of regarding the franchise, and in it the
+security of the subject, as belonging rather to religious opinions than
+to civil qualification and civil conduct, I doubt whether you might
+quite certainly reckon on obtaining an aid of force from hence for the
+support of that system. We might extend your distractions to this
+country by taking part in them. England will be indisposed, I suspect,
+to send an army for the conquest of Ireland. What was done in 1782 is a
+decisive proof of her sentiments of justice and moderation. She will not
+be fond of making another American war in Ireland. The principles of
+such a war would but too much resemble the former one. The well-disposed
+and the ill-disposed in England would (for different reasons perhaps)
+be equally averse to such an enterprise. The confiscations, the public
+auctions, the private grants, the plantations, the transplantations,
+which formerly animated so many adventurers, even among sober citizens,
+to such Irish expeditions, and which possibly might have animated some
+of them to the American, can have no existence in the case that we
+suppose.
+
+Let us form a supposition, (no foolish or ungrounded supposition,) that,
+in an age when men are infinitely more disposed to heat themselves with
+political than religious controversies, the former should entirely
+prevail, as we see that in some places they have prevailed, over the
+latter,--and that the Catholics of Ireland, from the courtship paid them
+on the one hand, and the high tone of refusal on the other, should, in
+order to enter into all the rights of subjects, all become Protestant
+Dissenters, and, as the others do, take all your oaths. They would all
+obtain their civil objects; and the change, for anything I know to the
+contrary, (in the dark as I am about the Protestant Dissenting tenets,)
+might be of use to the health of their souls. But what security our
+Constitution, in Church or State, could derive from that event, I cannot
+possibly discern. Depend upon it, it is as true as Nature is true, that,
+if you force them out of the religion of habit, education, or opinion,
+it is not to yours they will ever go. Shaken in their minds, they will
+go to that where the dogmas are fewest,--where they are the most
+uncertain,--where they lead them the least to a consideration of what
+they have abandoned. They will go to that uniformly democratic system to
+whose first movements they owed their emancipation. I recommend you
+seriously to turn this in your mind. Believe that it requires your best
+and maturest thoughts. Take what course you please,--union or no union;
+whether the people remain Catholics or become Protestant Dissenters,
+sure it is that the present state of monopoly _cannot_ continue.
+
+If England were animated, as I think she is not, with her former spirit
+of domination, and with the strong theological hatred which she once
+cherished for that description of her fellow-Christians and
+fellow-subjects, I am yet convinced, that, after the fullest success in
+a ruinous struggle, you would be obliged to abandon that monopoly. We
+were obliged to do this, even when everything promised success, in the
+American business. If you should make this experiment at last, under the
+pressure of any necessity, you never can do it well. But if, instead of
+falling into a passion, the leading gentlemen of the country themselves
+should undertake the business cheerfully, and with hearty affection
+towards it, great advantages would follow. What is forced cannot be
+modified: but here you may measure your concessions.
+
+It is a consideration of great moment, that you make the desired
+admission without altering the system of your representation in the
+smallest degree or in any part. You may leave that deliberation of a
+Parliamentary change or reform, if ever you should think fit to engage
+in it, uncomplicated and unembarrassed with the other question. Whereas,
+if they are mixed and confounded, as some people attempt to mix and
+confound them, no one can answer for the effects on the Constitution
+itself.
+
+There is another advantage in taking up this business singly and by an
+arrangement for the single object. It is that you may proceed by
+_degrees_. We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most
+powerful law of Nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation. All
+we can do, and that human wisdom can do, is to provide that the change
+shall proceed by insensible degrees. This has all the benefits which may
+be in change, without any of the inconveniences of mutation. Everything
+is provided for as it arrives. This mode will, on the one hand, prevent
+the _unfixing old interests at once_: a thing which is apt to breed a
+black and sullen discontent in those who are at once dispossessed of all
+their influence and consideration. This gradual course, on the other
+side, will prevent men long under depression from being intoxicated with
+a large draught of new power, which they always abuse with a licentious
+insolence. But, wishing, as I do, the change to be gradual and cautious,
+I would, in my first steps, lean rather to the side of enlargement than
+restriction.
+
+It is one excellence of our Constitution, that all our rights of
+provincial election regard rather property than person. It is another,
+that the rights which approach more nearly to the personal are most of
+them corporate, and suppose a restrained and strict education of seven
+years in some useful occupation. In both cases the practice may have
+slid from the principle. The standard of qualification in both cases may
+be so low, or not so judiciously chosen, as in some degree to frustrate
+the end. But all this is for your prudence in the case before you. You
+may rise a step or two the qualification of the Catholic voters. But if
+you were to-morrow to put the Catholic freeholder on the footing of the
+most favored forty-shilling Protestant Dissenter, you know, that, such
+is the actual state of Ireland, this would not make a sensible
+alteration in almost any _one_ election in the kingdom. The effect in
+their favor, even defensively, would be infinitely slow. But it would be
+healing; it would be satisfactory and protecting. The stigma would be
+removed. By admitting settled, permanent substance in lieu of the
+numbers, you would avoid the great danger of our time, that of setting
+up number against property. The numbers ought never to be neglected,
+because (besides what is due to them as men) collectively, though not
+individually, they have great property: they ought to have, therefore,
+protection; they ought to have security; they ought to have even
+consideration: but they ought not to predominate.
+
+My dear Sir, I have nearly done. I meant to write you a long letter: I
+have written a long dissertation. I might have done it earlier and
+better. I might have been more forcible and more clear, if I had not
+been interrupted as I have been; and this obliges me not to write to you
+in my own hand. Though my hand but signs it, my heart goes with what I
+have written. Since I could think at all, those have been my thoughts.
+You know that thirty-two years ago they were as fully matured in my mind
+as they are now. A letter of mine to Lord Kenmare, though not by my
+desire, and full of lesser mistakes, has been printed in Dublin. It was
+written ten or twelve years ago, at the time when I began the
+employment, which I have not yet finished, in favor of another
+distressed people, injured by those who have vanquished them, or stolen
+a dominion over them. It contained my sentiments then: you will see how
+far they accord with my sentiments now. Time has more and more confirmed
+me in them all. The present circumstances fix them deeper in my mind.
+
+I voted last session, if a particular vote could be distinguished in
+unanimity, for an establishment of the Church of England _conjointly_
+with the establishment, which was made some years before by act of
+Parliament, of the Roman Catholic, in the French conquered country of
+Canada. At the time of making this English ecclesiastical establishment,
+we did not think it necessary for its safety to destroy the former
+Gallican Church settlement. In our first act we settled a government
+altogether monarchical, or nearly so. In that system, the Canadian
+Catholics were far from being deprived of the advantages or
+distinctions, of any kind, which they enjoyed under their former
+monarchy. It is true that some people, and amongst them one eminent
+divine, predicted at that time that by this step we should lose our
+dominions in America. He foretold that the Pope would send his
+indulgences hither; that the Canadians would fall in with France, would
+declare independence, and draw or force our colonies into the same
+design. The independence happened according to his prediction; but in
+directly the reverse order. All our English Protestant colonies
+revolted. They joined themselves to France; and it so happened that
+Popish Canada was the only place which preserved its fidelity, the only
+place in which France got no footing, the only peopled colony which now
+remains to Great Britain. Vain are all the prognostics taken from ideas
+and passions, which survive the state of things which gave rise to them.
+When last year we gave a popular representation to the same Canada by
+the choice of the landholders, and an aristocratic representation at the
+choice of the crown, neither was the choice of the crown nor the
+election of the landholders limited by a consideration of religion. We
+had no dread for the Protestant Church which we settled there, because
+we permitted the French Catholics, in the utmost latitude of the
+description, to be free subjects. They are good subjects, I have no
+doubt; but I will not allow that any French Canadian Catholics are
+better men or better citizens than the Irish of the same communion.
+Passing from the extremity of the West to the extremity almost of the
+East, I have been many years (now entering into the twelfth) employed in
+supporting the rights, privileges, laws, and immunities of a very remote
+people. I have not as yet been able to finish my task. I have struggled
+through much discouragement and much opposition, much obloquy, much
+calumny, for a people with whom I have no tie but the common bond of
+mankind. In this I have not been left alone. We did not fly from our
+undertaking because the people are Mahometans or Pagans, and that a
+great majority of the Christians amongst them are Papists. Some
+gentlemen in Ireland, I dare say, have good reasons for what they may
+do, which do not occur to me. I do not presume to condemn them; but,
+thinking and acting as I have done towards those remote nations, I
+should not know how to show my face, here or in Ireland, if I should say
+that all the Pagans, all the Mussulmen, and even all the Papists, (since
+they must form the highest stage in the climax of evil,) are worthy of a
+liberal and honorable condition, except those of one of the
+descriptions, which forms the majority of the inhabitants of the
+country in which you and I were born. If such are the Catholics of
+Ireland, ill-natured and unjust people, from our own data, may be
+inclined not to think better of the Protestants of a soil which is
+supposed to infuse into its sects a kind of venom unknown in other
+places.
+
+You hated the old system as early as I did. Your first juvenile lance
+was broken against that giant. I think you were even the first who
+attacked the grim phantom. You have an exceedingly good understanding,
+very good humor, and the best heart in the world. The dictates of that
+temper and that heart, as well as the policy pointed out by that
+understanding, led you to abhor the old code. You abhorred it, as I did,
+for its vicious perfection. For I must do it justice: it was a complete
+system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested and well
+composed in all its parts. It was a machine of wise and elaborate
+contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and
+degradation of a people, and the debasement, in them, of human nature
+itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man. It is a
+thing humiliating enough, that we are doubtful of the effect of the
+medicines we compound,--we are sure of our poisons. My opinion ever was,
+(in which I heartily agree with those that admired the old code,) that
+it was so constructed, that, if there was once a breach in any essential
+part of it, the ruin of the whole, or nearly of the whole, was, at some
+time or other, a certainty. For that reason I honor and shall forever
+honor and love you, and those who first caused it to stagger, crack, and
+gape. Others may finish; the beginners have the glory; and, take what
+part you please at this hour, (I think you will take the best,) your
+first services will never be forgotten by a grateful country. Adieu!
+Present my best regards to those I know,--and as many as I know in our
+country I honor. There never was so much ability, nor, I believe, virtue
+in it. They have a task worthy of both. I doubt not they will perform
+it, for the stability of the Church and State, and for the union and the
+separation of the people: for the union of the honest and peaceable of
+all sects; for their separation from all that is ill-intentioned and
+seditious in any of them.
+
+BEACONSFIELD, JANUARY 3, 1792.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[28] The letter is written on folio sheets.
+
+[29] A small error of fact as to the abjuration oath, but of no
+importance in the argument.
+
+
+
+
+HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL
+
+TO BE DELIVERED TO
+
+MONSIEUR DE M.M.
+
+WRITTEN IN THE EARLY PART OF 1791
+
+
+The King, my master, from his sincere desire of keeping up a good
+correspondence with his Most Christian Majesty and the French nation,
+has for some time beheld with concern the condition into which that
+sovereign and nation have fallen.
+
+Notwithstanding the reality and the warmth of those sentiments, his
+Britannic Majesty has hitherto forborne in any manner to take part in
+their affairs, in hopes that the common interest of king and subjects
+would render all parties sensible of the necessity of settling their
+government and their freedom upon principles of moderation, as the only
+means of securing permanence to both those blessings, as well as
+internal and external tranquillity to the kingdom of France, and to all
+Europe.
+
+His Britannic Majesty finds, to his great regret, that his hopes have
+not been realized. He finds that confusions and disorders have rather
+increased than diminished, and that they now threaten to proceed to
+dangerous extremities.
+
+In this situation of things, the same regard to a neighboring sovereign
+living in friendship with Great Britain, the same spirit of good-will to
+the kingdom of France, the same regard to the general tranquillity,
+which have caused him to view with concern the growth and continuance of
+the present disorders, have induced the King of Great Britain to
+interpose his good offices towards a reconcilement of those unhappy
+differences. This his Majesty does with the most cordial regard to the
+good of all descriptions concerned, and with the most perfect sincerity,
+wholly removing from his royal mind all memory of every circumstance
+which might impede him in the execution of a plan of benevolence which
+he has so much at heart.
+
+His Majesty, having always thought it his greatest glory that he rules
+over a people perfectly and solidly, because soberly, rationally, and
+legally free, can never be supposed to proceed in offering thus his
+royal mediation, but with an unaffected desire and full resolution to
+consider the settlement of a free constitution in France as the very
+basis of any agreement between the sovereign and those of his subjects
+who are unhappily at variance with him,--to guaranty it to them, if it
+should be desired, in the most solemn and authentic manner, and to do
+all that in him lies to procure the like guaranty from other powers.
+
+His Britannic Majesty, in the same manner, assures the Most Christian
+King that he knows too well and values too highly what is due to the
+dignity and rights of crowned heads, and to the implied faith of
+treaties which have always been made with the _crown_ of France, ever to
+listen to any proposition by which that monarchy shall be despoiled of
+all its rights, so essential for the support of the consideration of the
+prince and the concord and welfare of the people.
+
+If, unfortunately, a due attention should not be paid to these his
+Majesty's benevolent and neighborly offers, or if any circumstances
+should prevent the Most Christian King from acceding (as his Majesty
+has no doubt he is well disposed to do) to this healing mediation in
+favor of himself and all his subjects, his Majesty has commanded me to
+take leave of this court, as not conceiving it to be suitable to the
+dignity of his crown, and to what he owes to his faithful people, any
+longer to keep a public minister at the court of a sovereign who is not
+in possession of his own liberty.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS
+
+ON
+
+FRENCH AFFAIRS,
+
+ETC., ETC.
+
+WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 1791.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
+
+
+In all our transactions with France, and at all periods, we have treated
+with that state on the footing of a monarchy. Monarchy was considered in
+all the external relations of that kingdom with every power in Europe as
+its legal and constitutional government, and that in which alone its
+federal capacity was vested.
+
+[Sidenote: Montmorin's Letter.]
+
+It is not yet a year since Monsieur de Montmorin formally, and with as
+little respect as can be imagined to the king, and to all crowned heads,
+announced a total Revolution in that country. He has informed the
+British ministry that its frame of government is wholly altered,--that
+he is one of the ministers of the new system,--and, in effect, that the
+king is no longer his master, (nor does he even call him such,) but the
+"_first of the ministers_," in the new system.
+
+[Sidenote: Acceptance of the Constitution ratified.]
+
+The second notification was that of the king's acceptance of the new
+Constitution, accompanied with fanfaronades in the modern style of the
+French bureaus: things which have much more the air and character of the
+saucy declamations of their clubs than the tone of regular office.
+
+It has not been very usual to notify to foreign courts anything
+concerning the internal arrangements of any state. In the present case,
+the circumstance of these two notifications, with the observations with
+which they are attended, does not leave it in the choice of the
+sovereigns of Christendom to appear ignorant either of this French
+Revolution or (what is more important) of its principles.
+
+We know, that, very soon after this manifesto of Monsieur de Montmorin,
+the king of France, in whose name it was made, found himself obliged to
+fly, with his whole family,--leaving behind him a declaration in which
+he disavows and annuls that Constitution, as having been the effect of
+force on his person and usurpation on his authority. It is equally
+notorious, that this unfortunate prince was, with many circumstances of
+insult and outrage, brought back prisoner by a deputation of the
+pretended National Assembly, and afterwards suspended by their authority
+from his government. Under equally notorious constraint, and under
+menaces of total deposition, he has been compelled to accept what they
+call a Constitution, and to agree to whatever else the usurped power
+which holds him in confinement thinks proper to impose.
+
+His nest brother, who had fled with him, and his third brother, who had
+fled before him, all the princes of his blood who remained faithful to
+him, and the flower of his magistracy, his clergy, and his nobility,
+continue in foreign countries, protesting against all acts done by him
+in his present situation, on the grounds upon which he had himself
+protested against them at the time of his flight,--with this addition,
+that they deny his very competence (as on good grounds they may) to
+abrogate the royalty, or the ancient constitutional orders of the
+kingdom. In this protest they are joined by three hundred of the late
+Assembly itself, and, in effect, by a great part of the French nation.
+The new government (so far as the people dare to disclose their
+sentiments) is disdained, I am persuaded, by the greater number,--who,
+as M. de La Fayette complains, and as the truth is, have declined to
+take any share in the new elections to the National Assembly, either as
+candidates or electors.
+
+In this state of things, (that is, in the case of a _divided_ kingdom,)
+by the law of nations,[30] Great Britain, like every other power, is
+free to take any part she pleases. She may decline, with more or less
+formality, according to her discretion, to acknowledge this new system;
+or she may recognize it as a government _de facto_, setting aside all
+discussion of its original legality, and considering the ancient
+monarchy as at an end. The law of nations leaves our court open to its
+choice. We have no direction but what is found in the well-understood
+policy of the king and kingdom.
+
+This declaration of a _new species_ of government, on new principles,
+(such it professes itself to be,) is a real crisis in the politics of
+Europe. The conduct which prudence ought to dictate to Great Britain
+will not depend (as hitherto our connection or quarrel with other states
+has for some time depended) upon merely _external_ relations, but in a
+great measure also upon the system which we may think it right to adopt
+for the internal government of our own country.
+
+If it be our policy to assimilate our government to that of France, we
+ought to prepare for this change by encouraging the schemes of authority
+established there. We ought to wink at the captivity and deposition of
+a prince with whom, if not in close alliance, we were in friendship. We
+ought to fall in with the ideas of Monsieur Montmorin's circular
+manifesto, and to do business of course with the functionaries who act
+under the new power by which that king to whom his Majesty's minister
+has been sent to reside has been deposed and imprisoned. On that idea we
+ought also to withhold all sorts of direct or indirect countenance from
+those who are treating in Germany for the reestablishment of the French
+monarchy and the ancient orders of that state. This conduct is suitable
+to this policy.
+
+The question is, whether this policy be suitable to the interests of the
+crown and subjects of Great Britain. Let us, therefore, a little
+consider the true nature and probable effects of the Revolution which,
+in such a very unusual manner, has been twice diplomatically announced
+to his Majesty.
+
+[Sidenote: Difference between this Revolution and others.]
+
+There have been many internal revolutions in the government of
+countries, both as to persons and forms, in which the neighboring states
+have had little or no concern. Whatever the government might be with
+respect to those persons and those forms, the stationary interests of
+the nation concerned have most commonly influenced the new governments
+in the same manner in which they influenced the old; and the revolution,
+turning on matter of local grievance or of local accommodation, did not
+extend beyond its territory.
+
+[Sidenote: Nature of the French Revolution.]
+
+The present Revolution in France seems to me to be quite of another
+character and description, and to bear little resemblance or analogy to
+any of those which have been brought about in Europe, upon principles
+merely political. _It is a Revolution of doctrine and theoretic dogma_.
+It has a much greater resemblance to those changes which have been made
+upon religious grounds, in which a spirit of proselytism makes an
+essential part.
+
+The last revolution of doctrine and theory which has happened in Europe
+is the Reformation. It is not for my purpose to take any notice here of
+the merits of that revolution, but to state one only of its effects.
+
+[Sidenote: Its effects.]
+
+That effect was, _to introduce other interests into all countries than
+those which arose from their locality and natural circumstances_. The
+principle of the Reformation was such as, by its essence, could not be
+local or confined to the country in which it had its origin. For
+instance, the doctrine of "Justification by Faith or by Works," which
+was the original basis of the Reformation, could not have one of its
+alternatives true as to Germany and false as to every other country.
+Neither are questions of theoretic truth and falsehood governed by
+circumstances any more than by places. On that occasion, therefore, the
+spirit of proselytism expanded itself with great elasticity upon all
+sides: and great divisions were everywhere the result.
+
+These divisions, however in appearance merely dogmatic, soon became
+mixed with the political; and their effects were rendered much more
+intense from this combination. Europe was for a long time divided into
+two great factions, under the name of Catholic and Protestant, which not
+only often alienated state from state, but also divided almost every
+state within itself. The warm parties in each state were more
+affectionately attached to those of their own doctrinal interest in
+some other country than to their fellow-citizens or to their natural
+government, when they or either of them happened to be of a different
+persuasion. These factions, wherever they prevailed, if they did not
+absolutely destroy, at least weakened and distracted the locality of
+patriotism. The public affections came to have other motives and other
+ties.
+
+It would be to repeat the history of the two last centuries to exemplify
+the effects of this revolution.
+
+Although the principles to which it gave rise did not operate with a
+perfect regularity and constancy, they never wholly ceased to operate.
+Few wars were made, and few treaties were entered into, in which they
+did not come in for some part. They gave a color, a character, and
+direction to all the politics of Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: New system of politics.]
+
+These principles of internal as well as external division and coalition
+are but just now extinguished. But they who will examine into the true
+character and genius of some late events must be satisfied that other
+sources of faction, combining parties among the inhabitants of different
+countries into one connection, are opened, and that from these sources
+are likely to arise effects full as important as those which had
+formerly arisen from the jarring interests of the religious sects. The
+intention of the several actors in the change in France is not a matter
+of doubt. It is very openly professed.
+
+In the modern world, before this time, there has been no instance of
+this spirit of general political faction, separated from religion,
+pervading several countries, and forming a principle of union between
+the partisans in each. But the thing is not less in human nature. The
+ancient world has furnished a strong and striking instance of such a
+ground for faction, full as powerful and full as mischievous as our
+spirit of religions system had ever been, exciting in all the states of
+Greece (European and Asiatic) the most violent animosities and the most
+cruel and bloody persecutions and proscriptions. These ancient factions
+in each commonwealth of Greece connected themselves with those of the
+same description in some other states; and secret cabals and public
+alliances were carried on and made, not upon a conformity of general
+political interests, but for the support and aggrandizement of the two
+leading states which headed the aristocratic and democratic factions.
+For as, in later times, the king of Spain was at the head of a Catholic,
+and the king of Sweden of a Protestant interest, (France, though
+Catholic, acting subordinately to the latter,) in the like manner the
+Lacedemonians were everywhere at the head of the aristocratic interests,
+and the Athenians of the democratic. The two leading powers kept alive a
+constant cabal and conspiracy in every state, and the political dogmas
+concerning the constitution of a republic were the great instruments by
+which these leading states chose to aggrandize themselves. Their choice
+was not unwise; because the interest in opinions, (merely as opinions,
+and without any experimental reference to their effects,) when once they
+take strong hold of the mind, become the most operative of all
+interests, and indeed very often supersede every other.
+
+I might further exemplify the possibility of a political sentiment
+running through various states, and combining factions in them, from the
+history of the Middle Ages in the Guelfs and Ghibellines. These were
+political factions originally in favor of the Emperor and the Pope, with
+no mixture of religious dogmas: or if anything religiously doctrinal
+they had in them originally, it very soon disappeared; as their first
+political objects disappeared also, though the spirit remained. They
+became no more than names to distinguish factions: but they were not the
+less powerful in their operation, when they had no direct point of
+doctrine, either religious or civil, to assert. For a long time,
+however, those factions gave no small degree of influence to the foreign
+chiefs in every commonwealth in which they existed. I do not mean to
+pursue further the track of these parties. I allude to this part of
+history only as it furnishes an instance of that species of faction
+which broke the locality of public affections, and united descriptions
+of citizens more with strangers than with their countrymen of different
+opinions.
+
+[Sidenote: French fundamental principle.]
+
+The political dogma, which, upon the new French system, is to unite the
+factions of different nations, is this: "That the majority, told by the
+head, of the taxable people in every country, is the perpetual, natural,
+unceasing, indefeasible sovereign; that this majority is perfectly
+master of the form as well as the administration of the state, and that
+the magistrates, under whatever names they are called, are only
+functionaries to obey the orders (general as laws or particular as
+decrees) which that majority may make; that this is the only natural
+government; that all others are tyranny and usurpation."
+
+[Sidenote: Practical project.]
+
+In order to reduce this dogma into practice, the republicans in France,
+and their associates in other countries, make it always their business,
+and often their public profession, to destroy all traces of ancient
+establishments, and to form a new commonwealth in each country, upon the
+basis of the French _Rights of Man_. On the principle of these rights,
+they mean to institute in every country, and as it were the germ of the
+whole, parochial governments, for the purpose of what they call equal
+representation. From them is to grow, by some media, a general council
+and representative of all the parochial governments. In that
+representative is to be vested the whole national power,--totally
+abolishing hereditary name and office, levelling all conditions of men,
+(except where money _must_ make a difference,) breaking all connection
+between territory and dignity, and abolishing every species of nobility,
+gentry, and Church establishments: all their priests and all their
+magistrates being only creatures of election and pensioners at will.
+
+Knowing how opposite a permanent landed interest is to that scheme, they
+have resolved, and it is the great drift of all their regulations, to
+reduce that description of men to a mere peasantry for the sustenance of
+the towns, and to place the true effective government in cities, among
+the tradesmen, bankers, and voluntary clubs of bold, presuming young
+persons,--advocates, attorneys, notaries, managers of newspapers, and
+those cabals of literary men called academies. Their republic is to have
+a first functionary, (as they call him,) under the name of King, or not,
+as they think fit. This officer, when such an officer is permitted, is,
+however, neither in fact nor name to be considered as sovereign, nor the
+people as his subjects. The very use of these appellations is offensive
+to their ears.
+
+[Sidenote: Partisans of the French system.]
+
+This system, as it has first been realized, dogmatically as well as
+practically, in France, makes France the natural head of all factions
+formed on a similar principle, wherever they may prevail, as much as
+Athens was the head and settled ally of all democratic factions,
+wherever they existed. The other system has no head.
+
+This system has very many partisans in every country in Europe, but
+particularly in England, where they are already formed into a body,
+comprehending most of the Dissenters of the three leading denominations.
+To these are readily aggregated all who are Dissenters in character,
+temper, and disposition, though not belonging to any of their
+congregations: that is, all the restless people who resemble them, of
+all ranks and all parties,--Whigs, and even Tories; the whole race of
+half-bred speculators; all the Atheists, Deists, and Socinians; all
+those who hate the clergy and envy the nobility; a good many among the
+moneyed people; the East Indians almost to a man, who cannot bear to
+find that their present importance does not bear a proportion to their
+wealth. These latter have united themselves into one great, and, in my
+opinion, formidable club,[31] which, though now quiet, may be brought
+into action with considerable unanimity and force.
+
+Formerly, few, except the ambitious great or the desperate and indigent,
+were to be feared as instruments in revolutions. What has happened in
+France teaches us, with many other things, that there are more causes
+than have commonly been taken into our consideration, by which
+government may be subverted. The moneyed men, merchants, principal
+tradesmen, and men of letters (hitherto generally thought the peaceable
+and even timid part of society) are the chief actors in the French
+Revolution. But the fact is, that, as money increases and circulates,
+and as the circulation of news in politics and letters becomes more and
+more diffused, the persons who diffuse this money and this intelligence
+become more and more important. This was not long undiscovered. Views of
+ambition were in France, for the first time, presented to these classes
+of men: objects in the state, in the army, in the system of civil
+offices of every kind. Their eyes were dazzled with this new prospect.
+They were, as it were, electrified, and made to lose the natural spirit
+of their situation. A bribe, great without example in the history of the
+world, was held out to them,--the whole government of a very large
+kingdom.
+
+[Sidenote: Grounds of security supposed for England.]
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Interest.]
+
+[Sidenote: Moneyed interest.]
+
+There are several who are persuaded that the same thing cannot happen in
+England, because here (they say) the occupations of merchants,
+tradesmen, and manufacturers are not held as degrading situations. I
+once thought that the low estimation in which commerce was held in
+France might be reckoned among the causes of the late Revolution; and I
+am still of opinion that the exclusive spirit of the French nobility did
+irritate the wealthy of other classes. But I found long since, that
+persons in trade and business were by no means despised in France in the
+manner I had been taught to believe. As to men of letters, they were so
+far from being despised or neglected, that there was no country,
+perhaps, in the universe, in which they were so highly esteemed,
+courted, caressed, and even feared: tradesmen naturally were not so much
+sought in society, (as not furnishing so largely to the fund of
+conversation as they do to the revenues of the state,) but the latter
+description got forward every day. M. Bailly, who made himself the
+popular mayor on the rebellion of the Bastile, and is a principal actor
+in the revolt, before the change possessed a pension or office under the
+crown of six hundred pound English a year,--for that country, no
+contemptible provision; and this he obtained solely as a man of letters,
+and on no other title. As to the moneyed men, whilst the monarchy
+continued, there is no doubt, that, merely as such, they did not enjoy
+the _privileges_ of nobility; but nobility was of so easy an
+acquisition, that it was the fault or neglect of all of that description
+who did not obtain its privileges, for their lives at least, in virtue
+of office. It attached under the royal government to an innumerable
+multitude of places, real and nominal, that were vendible; and such
+nobility were as capable of everything as their degree of influence or
+interest could make them,--that is, as nobility of no considerable rank
+or consequence. M. Necker, so far from being a French gentleman, was not
+so much as a Frenchman born, and yet we all know the rank in which he
+stood on the day of the meeting of the States.
+
+[Sidenote: Mercantile interest.]
+
+As to the mere matter of estimation of the mercantile or any other
+class, this is regulated by opinion and prejudice. In England, a
+security against the envy of men in these classes is not so very
+complete as we may imagine. We must not impose upon ourselves. What
+institutions and manners together had done in France manners alone do
+here. It is the natural operation of things, where there exists a crown,
+a court, splendid orders of knighthood, and an hereditary
+nobility,--where there exists a fixed, permanent, landed gentry,
+continued in greatness and opulence by the law of primogeniture, and by
+a protection given to family settlements,--where there exists a standing
+army and navy,--where there exists a Church establishment, which bestows
+on learning and parts an interest combined with that of religion and the
+state;--in a country where such things exist, wealth, new in its
+acquisition, and precarious in its duration, can never rank first, or
+even near the first: though wealth has its natural weight further than
+as it is balanced and even preponderated amongst us, as amongst other
+nations, by artificial institutions and opinions growing out of them. At
+no period in the history of England have so few peers been taken out of
+trade or from families newly created by commerce. In no period has so
+small a number of noble families entered into the counting-house. I can
+call to mind but one in all England, and his is of near fifty years'
+standing. Be that as it may, it appears plain to me, from my best
+observation, that envy and ambition may, by art, management, and
+disposition, be as much excited amongst these descriptions of men in
+England as in any other country, and that they are just as capable of
+acting a part in any great change.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of the French spirit.--Its course.]
+
+What direction the French spirit of proselytism is likely to take, and
+in what order it is likely to prevail in the several parts of Europe, it
+is not easy to determine. The seeds are sown almost everywhere, chiefly
+by newspaper circulations, infinitely more efficacious and extensive
+than ever they were. And they are a more important instrument than
+generally is imagined. They are a part of the reading of all; they are
+the whole of the reading of the far greater number. There are thirty of
+them in Paris alone. The language diffuses them more widely than the
+English,--though the English, too, are much read. The writers of these
+papers, indeed, for the greater part, are either unknown or in contempt,
+but they are like a battery, in which the stroke of any one ball
+produces no great effect, but the amount of continual repetition is
+decisive. Let us only suffer any person to tell us his story, morning
+and evening, but for one twelvemonth, and he will become our master.
+
+All those countries in which several states are comprehended under some
+general geographical description, and loosely united by some federal
+constitution,--countries of which the members are small, and greatly
+diversified in their forms of government, and in the titles by which
+they are held,--these countries, as it might be well expected, are the
+principal objects of their hopes and machinations. Of these, the chief
+are Germany and Switzerland; after them, Italy has its place, as in
+circumstances somewhat similar.
+
+[Sidenote: Germany.]
+
+As to Germany, (in which, from their relation to the Emperor, I
+comprehend the Belgic Provinces,) it appears to me to be, from several
+circumstances, internal and external, in a very critical situation; and
+the laws and liberties of the Empire are by no means secure from the
+contagion of the French doctrines and the effect of French intrigues, or
+from the use which two of the greater German powers may make of a
+general derangement to the general detriment. I do not say that the
+French do not mean to bestow on these German states liberties, and laws
+too, after their mode; but those are not what have hitherto been
+understood as the laws and liberties of the Empire. These exist and have
+always existed under the principles of feodal tenure and succession,
+under imperial constitutions, grants and concessions of sovereigns,
+family compacts, and public treaties, made under the sanction, and some
+of them guarantied by the sovereign powers of other nations, and
+particularly the old government of France, the author and natural
+support of the Treaty of Westphalia.
+
+[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical state.]
+
+In short, the Germanic body is a vast mass of heterogeneous states, held
+together by that heterogeneous body of old principles which formed the
+public law positive and doctrinal. The modern laws and liberties, which
+the new power in France proposes to introduce into Germany, and to
+support with all its force of intrigue and of arms, is of a very
+different nature, utterly irreconcilable with the first, and indeed
+fundamentally the reverse of it: I mean the _rights and liberties of the
+man_, the _droit de l'homme_. That this doctrine has made an amazing
+progress in Germany there cannot be a shadow of doubt. They are infected
+by it along the whole course of the Rhine, the Maese, the Moselle, and
+in the greater part of Suabia and Franconia. It is particularly
+prevalent amongst all the lower people, churchmen and laity, in the
+dominions of the Ecclesiastical Electors. It is not easy to find or to
+conceive governments more mild and indulgent than these Church
+sovereignties; but good government is as nothing, when the rights of
+man take possession of the mind. Indeed, the loose rein held over the
+people in these provinces must be considered as one cause of the
+facility with which they lend themselves to any schemes of innovation,
+by inducing them to think lightly of their governments, and to judge of
+grievances, not by feeling, but by imagination.
+
+[Sidenote: Balance of Germany.]
+
+It is in these Electorates that the first impressions of France are
+likely to be made; and if they succeed, it is over with the Germanic
+body, as it stands at present. A great revolution is preparing in
+Germany, and a revolution, in my opinion, likely to be more decisive
+upon the general fate of nations than that of France itself,--other than
+as in France is to be found the first source of all the principles which
+are in any way likely to distinguish the troubles and convulsions of our
+age. If Europe does not conceive the independence and the equilibrium of
+the Empire to be in the very essence of the system of balanced power in
+Europe, and if the scheme of public law, or mass of laws, upon which
+that independence and equilibrium are founded, be of no leading
+consequence as they are preserved or destroyed, all the politics of
+Europe for more than two centuries have been miserably erroneous.
+
+[Sidenote: Prussia and Emperor.]
+
+If the two great leading powers of Germany do not regard this danger (as
+apparently they do not) in the light in which it presents itself so
+naturally, it is because they are powers too great to have a social
+interest. That sort of interest belongs only to those whose state of
+weakness or mediocrity is such as to give them greater cause of
+apprehension from what may destroy them than of hope from anything by
+which they may be aggrandized.
+
+As long as those two princes are at variance, so long the liberties of
+Germany are safe. But if ever they should so far understand one another
+as to be persuaded that they have a more direct and more certainly
+defined interest in a proportioned mutual aggrandizement than in a
+reciprocal reduction, that is, if they come to think that they are more
+likely to be enriched by a division of spoil than to be rendered secure
+by keeping to the old policy of preventing others from being spoiled by
+either of them, from that moment the liberties of Germany are no more.
+
+That a junction of two in such a scheme is neither impossible nor
+improbable is evident from the partition of Poland in 1773, which was
+effected by such a junction as made the interposition of other nations
+to prevent it not easy. Their circumstances at that time hindered any
+other three states, or indeed any two, from taking measures in common to
+prevent it, though France was at that time an existing power, and had
+not yet learned to act upon a system of politics of her own invention.
+The geographical position of Poland was a great obstacle to any
+movements of France in opposition to this, at that time, unparalleled
+league. To my certain knowledge, if Great Britain had at that time been
+willing to concur in preventing the execution of a project so dangerous
+in the example, even exhausted as France then was by the preceding war,
+and under a lazy and unenterprising prince, she would have at every risk
+taken an active part in this business. But a languor with regard to so
+remote an interest, and the principles and passions which were then
+strongly at work at home, were the causes why Great Britain would not
+give France any encouragement in such an enterprise. At that time,
+however, and with regard to that object, in my opinion, Great Britain
+and France had a common interest.
+
+[Sidenote: Possible project of the Emperor and king of Prussia.]
+
+But the position of Germany is not like that of Poland, with regard to
+France, either for good or for evil. If a conjunction between Prussia
+and the Emperor should be formed for the purpose of secularizing and
+rendering hereditary the Ecclesiastical Electorates and the Bishopric of
+Muenster, for settling two of them on the children of the Emperor, and
+uniting Cologne and Muenster to the dominions of the king of Prussia on
+the Rhine, or if any other project of mutual aggrandizement should be in
+prospect, and that, to facilitate such a scheme, the modern French
+should be permitted and encouraged to shake the internal and external
+security of these Ecclesiastical Electorates, Great Britain is so
+situated that she could not with any effect set herself in opposition to
+such a design. Her principal arm, her marine, could here be of no sort
+of use.
+
+[Sidenote: To be resisted only by France.]
+
+France, the author of the Treaty of Westphalia, is the natural guardian
+of the independence and balance of Germany. Great Britain (to say
+nothing of the king's concern as one of that august body) has a serious
+interest in preserving it; but, except through the power of France,
+_acting upon the common old principles of state policy_, in the case we
+have supposed, she has no sort of means of supporting that interest. It
+is always the interest of Great Britain that the power of France should
+be kept within the bounds of moderation. It is not her interest that
+that power should be wholly annihilated in the system of Europe. Though
+at one time through France the independence of Europe was endangered, it
+is, and ever was, through her alone that the common liberty of Germany
+can be secured against the single or the combined ambition of any other
+power. In truth, within this century the aggrandizement of other
+sovereign houses has been such that there has been a great change in the
+whole state of Europe; and other nations as well as France may become
+objects of jealousy and apprehension.
+
+[Sidenote: New principles of alliance.]
+
+In this state of things, a new principle of alliances and wars is
+opened. The Treaty of Westphalia is, with France, an antiquated fable.
+The rights and liberties she was bound to maintain are now a system of
+wrong and tyranny which she is bound to destroy. Her good and ill
+dispositions are shown by the same means. _To communicate peaceably_ the
+rights of men is the true mode of her showing her _friendship_; to force
+sovereigns to _submit_ to those rights is her mode of _hostility_. So
+that, either as friend or foe, her whole scheme has been, and is, to
+throw the Empire into confusion; and those statesmen who follow the old
+routine of politics may see in this general confusion, and in the danger
+of the _lesser_ princes, an occasion, as protectors or enemies, of
+connecting their territories to one or the other of the _two great_
+German powers. They do not take into consideration that the means which
+they encourage, as leading to the event they desire, will with certainty
+not only ravage and destroy the Empire, but, if they should for a moment
+seem to aggrandize the two great houses, will also establish principles
+and confirm tempers amongst the people which will preclude the two
+sovereigns from the possibility of holding what they acquire, or even
+the dominions which they have inherited. It is on the side of the
+Ecclesiastical Electorates that the dikes raised to support the German
+liberty first will give way.
+
+[Sidenote: Geneva.]
+
+[Sidenote: Savoy.]
+
+The French have begun their general operations by seizing upon those
+territories of the Pope the situation of which was the most inviting to
+the enterprise. Their method of doing it was by exciting sedition and
+spreading massacre and desolation through these unfortunate places, and
+then, under an idea of kindness and protection, bringing forward an
+antiquated title of the crown of France, and annexing Avignon and the
+two cities of the Comtat, with their territory, to the French republic.
+They have made an attempt on Geneva, in which they very narrowly failed
+of success. It is known that they hold out from time to time the idea of
+uniting all the other provinces of which Gaul was anciently composed,
+including Savoy on the other side, and on this side bounding themselves
+by the Rhine.
+
+[Sidenote: Switzerland.]
+
+[Sidenote: Old French maxims the security of its independence.]
+
+As to Switzerland, it is a country whose long union, rather than its
+possible division, is the matter of wonder. Here I know they entertain
+very sanguine hopes. The aggregation to France of the democratic Swiss
+republics appears to them to be a work half done by their very form; and
+it might seem to them rather an increase of importance to these little
+commonwealths than a derogation from their independency or a change in
+the manner of their government. Upon any quarrel amongst the Cantons,
+nothing is more likely than such an event. As to the aristocratic
+republics, the general clamor and hatred which the French excite against
+the very name, (and with more facility and success than against
+monarchs,) and the utter impossibility of their government making any
+sort of resistance against an insurrection, where they have no troops,
+and the people are all armed and trained, render their hopes in that
+quarter far indeed from unfounded. It is certain that the republic of
+Bern thinks itself obliged to a vigilance next to hostile, and to
+imprison or expel all the French whom it finds in its territories. But,
+indeed, those aristocracies, which comprehend whatever is considerable,
+wealthy, and valuable in Switzerland, do now so wholly depend upon
+opinion, and the humor of their multitude, that the lightest puff of
+wind is sufficient to blow them down. If France, under its ancient
+regimen, and upon the ancient principles of policy, was the support of
+the Germanic Constitution, it was much more so of that of Switzerland,
+which almost from the very origin of that confederacy rested upon the
+closeness of its connection with France, on which the Swiss Cantons
+wholly reposed themselves for the preservation of the parts of their
+body in their respective rights and permanent forms, as well as for the
+maintenance of all in their general independency.
+
+Switzerland and Germany are the first objects of the new French
+politicians. When I contemplate what they have done at home, which is,
+in effect, little less than an amazing conquest, wrought by a change of
+opinion, in a great part (to be sure far from altogether) very sudden, I
+cannot help letting my thoughts run along with their designs, and,
+without attending to geographical order, to consider the other states of
+Europe, so far as they may be any way affected by this astonishing
+Revolution. If early steps are not taken in some way or other to prevent
+the spreading of this influence, I scarcely think any of them perfectly
+secure.
+
+[Sidenote: Italy.]
+
+[Sidenote: Lombardy.]
+
+Italy is divided, as Germany and Switzerland are, into many smaller
+states, and with some considerable diversity as to forms of government;
+but as these divisions and varieties in Italy are not so considerable,
+so neither do I think the danger altogether so imminent there as in
+Germany and Switzerland. Savoy I know that the French consider as in a
+very hopeful way, and I believe not at all without reason. They view it
+as an old member of the kingdom of France, which may be easily reunited
+in the manner and on the principles of the reunion of Avignon. This
+country communicates with Piedmont; and as the king of Sardinia's
+dominions were long the key of Italy, and as such long regarded by
+France, whilst France acted on her old maxims, and with views on
+Italy,--so, in this new French empire of sedition, if once she gets that
+key into her hands, she can easily lay open the barrier which hinders
+the entrance of her present politics into that inviting region. Milan, I
+am sure, nourishes great disquiets; and if Milan should stir, no part of
+Lombardy is secure to the present possessors,--whether the Venetian or
+the Austrian. Genoa is closely connected with France.
+
+[Sidenote: Bourbon princes in Italy.]
+
+The first prince of the House of Bourbon has been obliged to give
+himself up entirely to the new system, and to pretend even to propagate
+it with all zeal: at least, that club of intriguers who assemble at the
+Feuillants, and whose cabinet meets at Madame de Stael's, and makes and
+directs all the ministers, is the real executive government of France.
+The Emperor is perfectly in concert, and they will not long suffer any
+prince of the House of Bourbon to keep by force the French emissaries
+out of their dominions; nor whilst France has a commerce with them,
+especially through Marseilles, (the hottest focus of sedition in
+France,) will it be long possible to prevent the intercourse or the
+effects.
+
+Naples has an old, inveterate disposition to republicanism, and (however
+for some time past quiet) is as liable to explosion as its own Vesuvius.
+Sicily, I think, has these dispositions in full as strong a degree. In
+neither of these countries exists anything which very well deserves the
+name of government or exact police.
+
+[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical State.]
+
+In the States of the Church, notwithstanding their strictness in
+banishing the French out of that country, there are not wanting the
+seeds of a revolution. The spirit of nepotism prevails there nearly as
+strong as ever. Every Pope of course is to give origin or restoration to
+a great family by the means of large donations. The foreign revenues
+have long been gradually on the decline, and seem now in a manner dried
+up. To supply this defect, the resource of vexatious and impolitic
+jobbing at home, if anything, is rather increased than lessened. Various
+well-intended, but ill-understood practices, some of them existing, in
+their spirit at least, from the time of the old Roman Empire, still
+prevail; and that government is as blindly attached to old abusive
+customs as others are wildly disposed to all sorts of innovations and
+experiments. These abuses were less felt whilst the Pontificate drew
+riches from abroad, which in some measure counterbalanced the evils of
+their remiss and jobbish government at home. But now it can subsist
+only on the resources of domestic management; and abuses in that
+management of course will be more intimately and more severely felt.
+
+In the midst of the apparently torpid languor of the Ecclesiastical
+State, those who have had opportunity of a near observation have seen a
+little rippling in that smooth water, which indicates something alive
+under it. There is in the Ecclesiastical State a personage who seems
+capable of acting (but with more force and steadiness) the part of the
+tribune Rienzi. The people, once inflamed, will not be destitute of a
+leader. They have such an one already in the Cardinal or Archbishop
+Boncompagni. He is, of all men, if I am not ill-informed, the most
+turbulent, seditious, intriguing, bold, and desperate. He is not at all
+made for a Roman of the present day. I think he lately held the first
+office of their state, that of Great Chamberlain, which is equivalent to
+High Treasurer. At present he is out of employment, and in disgrace. If
+he should be elected Pope, or even come to have any weight with a new
+Pope, he will infallibly conjure up a democratic spirit in that country.
+He may, indeed, be able to effect it without these advantages. The nest
+interregnum will probably show more of him. There may be others of the
+same character, who have not come to my knowledge. This much is
+certain,--that the Roman people, if once the blind reverence they bear
+to the sanctity of the Pope, which is their only bridle, should relax,
+are naturally turbulent, ferocious, and headlong, whilst the police is
+defective, and the government feeble and resourceless beyond all
+imagination.
+
+[Sidenote: Spain]
+
+As to Spain, it is a nerveless country. It does not possess the use, it
+only suffers the abuse, of a nobility. For some time, and even before
+the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been systematically
+lowered, and rendered incapable by exclusion, and for incapacity
+excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner
+annihilated; and so little means have they of any weighty exertion
+either to control or to support the crown, that, if they at all
+interfere, it is only by abetting desperate and mobbish insurrections,
+like that at Madrid, which drove Squillace from his place. Florida
+Blanca is a creature of office, and has little connection and no
+sympathy with that body.
+
+As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain that looks like an
+independent order; and they are kept in some respect by the Inquisition,
+the sole, but unhappy resource of public tranquillity and order now
+remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of
+state,--which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars
+no longer with Jews and heretics: it has no such war to carry on. Its
+great object is, to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making
+their way in that kingdom. No French book upon any subject can enter
+there which does not contain such matter. In Spain, the clergy are of
+moment from their influence, but at the same time with the envy and
+jealousy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by
+management with the Pope got a very great share of the ecclesiastical
+revenues into its own hands, much still remains to them. There will
+always be about that court those who look out to a farther division of
+the Church property as a resource, and to be obtained by shorter
+methods than those of negotiations with the clergy and their chief. But
+at present I think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
+should be taken out of their hands,--and lest that body, in which
+remains the only life that exists in Spain, and is not a fever, may with
+their property lose all the influence necessary to preserve the
+monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ whatever influence
+remains to them as active agents in its destruction.
+
+[Sidenote: Castile different from Catalonia and Aragon.]
+
+The Castilians have still remaining a good deal of their old character,
+their _gravedad, lealtad_, and _el temor de Dios_; but that character
+neither is, nor ever was, exactly true, except of the Castilians only.
+The several kingdoms which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
+which run through the whole; but they are in many particulars as
+different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for
+instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of
+the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of an attachment to
+royalty. They are more in the way of trade and intercourse with France,
+and, upon the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let
+loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into
+convulsions.
+
+It is a melancholy reflection, that the spirit of melioration which has
+been going on in that part of Europe, more or less, during this century,
+and the various schemes very lately on foot for further advancement, are
+all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected
+with innovation; and where that latter comes in for too large a share,
+those who undertake to improve their country may risk their own safety.
+In times where the correction, which includes the confession, of an
+abuse, is turned to criminate the authority which has long suffered it,
+rather than to honor those who would amend it, (which is the spirit of
+this malignant French distemper,) every step out of the common course
+becomes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes of
+moderate talents to engage in great undertakings. At present the only
+safety of Spain is the old national hatred to the French. How far that
+can be depended upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is
+impossible to say.
+
+As to Portugal, she is out of the high-road of these politics. I shall,
+therefore, not divert my thoughts that way, but return again to the
+North of Europe, which at present seems the part most interested, and
+there it appears to me that the French speculation on the Northern
+countries may be valued in the following or some such manner.
+
+[Sidenote: Denmark.]
+
+[Sidenote: Sweden.]
+
+Denmark and Norway do not appear to furnish any of the materials of a
+democratic revolution, or the dispositions to it. Denmark can only be
+_consequentially_ affected by anything done in Prance; but of Sweden I
+think quite otherwise. The present power in Sweden is too new a system,
+and too green and too sore from its late Revolution, to be considered as
+perfectly assured. The king, by his astonishing activity, his boldness,
+his decision, his ready versatility, and by rousing and employing the
+old military spirit of Sweden, keeps up the top with continual agitation
+and lashing. The moment it ceases to spin, the royalty is a dead bit of
+box. Whenever Sweden is quiet externally for some time, there is great
+danger that all the republican elements she contains will be animated
+by the new French spirit, and of this I believe the king is very
+sensible.
+
+[Sidenote: Russia.]
+
+The Russian government is of all others the most liable to be subverted
+by military seditions, by court conspiracies, and sometimes by headlong
+rebellions of the people, such as the turbinating movement of Pugatchef.
+It is not quite so probable that in any of these changes the spirit of
+system may mingle, in the manner it has done in France. The Muscovites
+are no great speculators; but I should not much rely on their
+uninquisitive disposition, if any of their ordinary motives to sedition
+should arise. The little catechism of the Rights of Men is soon learned;
+and the inferences are in the passions.
+
+[Sidenote: Poland.]
+
+[Sidenote: Saxony.]
+
+Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet. The new Constitution
+only serves to supply that restless people with new means, at least new
+modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition. The bottom of the
+character is the same. It is a great question, whether the joining that
+crown with the Electorate of Saxony will contribute most to strengthen
+the royal authority of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony. The
+Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six sevenths at the
+very least, Protestants. He _must_ continue a Catholic, according to the
+Polish law, if he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons, formerly
+flattered by having a crown in the house of their prince, though an
+honor which cost them dear,--the German probity, fidelity, and
+loyalty,--the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under the Treaty
+of Westphalia,--the good temper and good-nature of the princes of the
+House of Saxony, had formerly removed from the people all apprehension
+with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient,
+and even affectionate. The Seven Years' War made some change in the
+minds of the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the loss of what
+might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the
+possession of which, by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often
+obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the support of which that
+foreign interest afforded no proportionable strength. In this very
+delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of the
+French and German _Economists_, and the cabals, and the secret, as well
+as public doctrines of the _Illuminatenorden_, and _Freemasons_, have
+made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent spirit,
+under color of religion, but in reality arising from the French rights
+of man, has already shown itself, and is ready on every occasion to
+blaze out.
+
+The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet temper, of great
+prudence and goodness. He knows, that, in the actual state of things,
+not the power and respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very
+existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very certain that
+not one sovereign in Europe can either promise for the continuance of
+his authority in a state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to
+venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning
+wholly the ancient magnificence of his court, the Elector has conducted
+his affairs with infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors,
+so as to restore his finances beyond what was thought possible from the
+state in which the Seven Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
+whole of that dreadful period, having been in the hands of an
+exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity,
+was obliged to bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in the
+intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabitants of that country
+were not better treated.
+
+The moderation and prudence of the present Elector, in my opinion,
+rather, perhaps, respites the troubles than secures the peace of the
+Electorate. The offer of the succession to the crown of Poland is truly
+critical, whether he accepts or whether he declines it. If the States
+will consent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already
+great, of his situation between the king of Prussia and the
+Emperor.--But these thoughts lead me too far, when I mean to speak only
+of the interior condition of these princes. It has always, however, some
+necessary connection with their foreign politics.
+
+[Sidenote: Holland.]
+
+With regard to Holland, and the ruling party there, I do not think it at
+all tainted, or likely to be so, except by fear,--or that it is likely
+to be misled, unless indirectly and circuitously. But the predominant
+party in Holland is not Holland. The suppressed faction, though
+suppressed, exists. Under the ashes, the embers of the late commotions
+are still warm. The anti-Orange party has from the day of its origin
+been French, though alienated in some degree for some time, through the
+pride and folly of Louis the Fourteenth. It will ever hanker after a
+French connection; and now that the internal government in France has
+been assimilated in so considerable a degree to that which the
+immoderate republicans began so very lately to introduce into Holland,
+their connection, as still more natural, will be more desired. I do not
+well understand the present exterior politics of the Stadtholder, nor
+the treaty into which the newspapers say he has entered for the States
+with the Emperor. But the Emperor's own politics with regard to the
+Netherlands seem to me to be exactly calculated to answer the purpose of
+the French Revolutionists. He endeavors to crush the aristocratic party,
+and to nourish one in avowed connection with the most furious
+democratists in France.
+
+These Provinces in which the French game is so well played they consider
+as part of the old French Empire: certainly they were amongst the oldest
+parts of it. These they think very well situated, as their party is well
+disposed to a reunion. As to the greater nations, they do not aim at
+making a direct conquest of them, but, by disturbing them through a
+propagation of their principles, they hope to weaken, as they will
+weaken them, and to keep them in perpetual alarm and agitation, and thus
+render all their efforts against them utterly impracticable, whilst they
+extend the dominion of their sovereign anarchy on all sides.
+
+[Sidenote: England.]
+
+As to England, there may be some apprehension from vicinity, from
+constant communication, and from the very name of liberty, which, as it
+ought to be very dear to us, in its worst abuses carries something
+seductive. It is the abuse of the first and best of the objects which we
+cherish. I know that many, who sufficiently dislike the system of
+France, have yet no apprehensions of its prevalence here. I say nothing
+to the ground of this security in the attachment of the people to their
+Constitution, and their satisfaction in the discreet portion of liberty
+which it measures out to them. Upon this I have said all I have to say,
+in the Appeal I have published. That security is something, and not
+inconsiderable; but if a storm arises, I should not much rely upon it.
+
+[Sidenote: Objection to the stability of the French system.]
+
+There are other views of things which may be used to give us a perfect
+(though in my opinion a delusive) assurance of our own security. The
+first of these is from the weakness and rickety nature of the new system
+in the place of its first formation. It is thought that the monster of a
+commonwealth cannot possibly live,--that at any rate the ill contrivance
+of their fabric will make it fall in pieces of itself,--that the
+Assembly must be bankrupt,--and that this bankruptcy will totally
+destroy that system from the contagion of which apprehensions are
+entertained.
+
+For my part I have long thought that one great cause of the stability of
+this wretched scheme of things in France was an opinion that it could
+not stand, and therefore that all external measures to destroy it were
+wholly useless.
+
+[Sidenote: Bankruptcy.]
+
+As to the bankruptcy, that event has happened long ago, as much as it is
+ever likely to happen. As soon as a nation compels a creditor to take
+paper currency in discharge of his debt, there is a bankruptcy. The
+compulsory paper has in some degree answered,--not because there was a
+surplus from Church lands, but because faith has not been kept with the
+clergy. As to the holders of the old funds, to them the payments will be
+dilatory, but they will be made; and whatever may be the discount on
+paper, whilst paper is taken, paper will be issued.
+
+[Sidenote: Resources.]
+
+As to the rest, they have shot out three branches of revenue to supply
+all those which they have destroyed: that is, _the Universal Register of
+all Transactions_, the heavy and universal _Stamp Duty_, and the new
+_Territorial Impost_, levied chiefly on the reduced estates of the
+gentlemen. These branches of the revenue, especially as they take
+assignats in payment, answer their purpose in a considerable degree, and
+keep up the credit of their paper: for, as they receive it in their
+treasury, it is in reality funded upon all their taxes and future
+resources of all kinds, as well as upon the Church estates. As this
+paper is become in a manner the only visible maintenance of the whole
+people, the dread of a bankruptcy is more apparently connected with the
+delay of a counter-revolution than with the duration of this republic;
+because the interest of the new republic manifestly leans upon it, and,
+in my opinion, the counter-revolution cannot exist along with it. The
+above three projects ruined some ministers under the old government,
+merely for having conceived them. They are the salvation of the present
+rulers.
+
+As the Assembly has laid a most unsparing and cruel hand on all men who
+have lived by the bounty, the justice, or the abuses of the old
+government, they have lessened many expenses. The royal establishment,
+though excessively and ridiculously great for _their_ scheme of things,
+is reduced at least one half; the estates of the king's brothers, which
+under the ancient government had been in truth royal revenues, go to the
+general stock of the confiscation; and as to the crown lands, though
+under the monarchy they never yielded two hundred and fifty thousand a
+year, by many they are thought at least worth three times as much.
+
+As to the ecclesiastical charge, whether as a compensation for losses,
+or a provision for religion, of which they made at first a great parade,
+and entered into a solemn engagement in favor of it, it was estimated at
+a much larger sum than they could expect from the Church property,
+movable or immovable: they are completely bankrupt as to that article.
+It is just what they wish; and it is not productive of any serious
+inconvenience. The non-payment produces discontent and occasional
+sedition; but is only by fits and spasms, and amongst the country
+people, who are of no consequence. These seditions furnish new pretexts
+for non-payment to the Church establishment, and help the Assembly
+wholly to get rid of the clergy, and indeed of any form of religion,
+which is not only their real, but avowed object.
+
+[Sidenote: Want of money how supplied.]
+
+They are embarrassed, indeed, in the highest degree, but not wholly
+resourceless. They are without the species of money. Circulation of
+money is a great convenience, but a substitute for it may be found.
+Whilst the great objects of production and consumption, corn, cattle,
+wine, and the like, exist in a country, the means of giving them
+circulation, with more or less convenience, cannot be _wholly_ wanting.
+The great confiscation of the Church and of the crown lands, and of the
+appanages of the princes, for the purchase of all which their paper is
+always received at par, gives means of continually destroying and
+continually creating; and this perpetual destruction and renovation
+feeds the speculative market, and prevents, and will prevent, till that
+fund of confiscation begins to fail, a _total_ depreciation.
+
+[Sidenote: Moneyed interest not necessary to them.]
+
+But all consideration of public credit in France is of little avail at
+present. The action, indeed, of the moneyed interest was of absolute
+necessity at the beginning of this Revolution; but the French republic
+can stand without any assistance from that description of men, which, as
+things are now circumstanced, rather stands in need of assistance itself
+from the power which alone substantially exists in France: I mean the
+several districts and municipal republics, and the several clubs which
+direct all their affairs and appoint all their magistrates. This is the
+power now paramount to everything, even to the Assembly itself called
+National and that to which tribunals, priesthood, laws, finances, and
+both descriptions of military power are wholly subservient, so far as
+the military power of either description yields obedience to any name of
+authority.
+
+The world of contingency and political combination is much larger than
+we are apt to imagine. We never can say what may or may not happen,
+without a view to all the actual circumstances. Experience, upon other
+data than those, is of all things the most delusive. Prudence in new
+cases can do nothing on grounds of retrospect. A constant vigilance and
+attention to the train of things as they successively emerge, and to act
+on what they direct, are the only sure courses. The physician that let
+blood, and by blood-letting cured one kind of plague, in the next added
+to its ravages. That power goes with property is not universally true,
+and the idea that the operation of it is certain and invariable may
+mislead us very fatally.
+
+[Sidenote: Power separated from property.]
+
+Whoever will take an accurate view of the state of those republics, and
+of the composition of the present Assembly deputed by them, (in which
+Assembly there are not quite fifty persons possessed of an income
+amounting to 100_l._ sterling yearly,) must discern clearly, _that the
+political and civil power of France is wholly separated from its
+property of every description_, and of course that neither the landed
+nor the moneyed interest possesses the smallest weight or consideration
+in the direction of any public concern. The whole kingdom is directed by
+_the refuse of its chicane_, with the aid of the bustling, presumptuous
+young clerks of counting-houses and shops, and some intermixture of
+young gentlemen of the same character in the several towns. The rich
+peasants are bribed with Church lands; and the poorer of that
+description are, and can be, counted for nothing. They may rise in
+ferocious, ill-directed tumults,--but they can only disgrace themselves
+and signalize the triumph of their adversaries.
+
+[Sidenote: Effects of the rota.]
+
+The _truly_ active citizens, that is, the above descriptions, are all
+concerned in intrigue respecting the various objects in their local or
+their general government. The rota, which the French have established
+for their National Assembly, holds out the highest objects of ambition
+to such vast multitudes as in an unexampled measure to widen the bottom
+of a new species of interest merely political, and wholly unconnected
+with birth or property. This scheme of a rota, though it enfeebles the
+state, considered as one solid body, and indeed wholly disables it from
+acting as such, gives a great, an equal, and a diffusive strength to the
+democratic scheme. Seven hundred and fifty people, every two years
+raised to the supreme power, has already produced at least fifteen
+hundred bold, acting politicians: a great number for even so great a
+country as France. These men never will quietly settle in ordinary
+occupations, nor submit to any scheme which must reduce them to an
+entirely private condition, or to the exercise of a steady, peaceful,
+but obscure and unimportant industry. Whilst they sit in the Assembly,
+they are denied offices of trust and profit,--but their short duration
+makes this no restraint: during their probation and apprenticeship they
+are all salaried with an income to the greatest part of them immense;
+and after they have passed the novitiate, those who take any sort of
+lead are placed in very lucrative offices, according to their influence
+and credit, or appoint those who divide their profits with them.
+
+This supply of recruits to the corps of the highest civil ambition goes
+on with a regular progression. In very few years it must amount to many
+thousands. These, however, will be as nothing in comparison to the
+multitude of municipal officers, and officers of district and
+department, of all sorts, who have tasted of power and profit, and who
+hunger for the periodical return of the meal. To these needy agitators,
+the glory of the state, the general wealth and prosperity of the nation,
+and the rise or fall of public credit are as dreams; nor have arguments
+deduced from these topics any sort of weight with them. The indifference
+with which the Assembly regards the state of their colonies, the only
+valuable part of the French commerce, is a full proof how little they
+are likely to be affected by anything but the selfish game of their own
+ambition, now universally diffused.
+
+[Sidenote: Impracticability of resistance.]
+
+It is true, amidst all these turbulent means of security to their
+system, very great discontents everywhere prevail. But they only produce
+misery to those who nurse them at home, or exile, beggary, and in the
+end confiscation, to those who are so impatient as to remove from them.
+Each municipal republic has a _Committee_, or something in the nature of
+a _Committee of Research_. In these petty republics the tyranny is so
+near its object that it becomes instantly acquainted with every act of
+every man. It stifles conspiracy in its very first movements. Their
+power is absolute and uncontrollable. No stand can be made against it.
+These republics are besides so disconnected, that very little
+intelligence of what happens in them is to be obtained beyond their own
+bounds, except by the means of their clubs, who keep up a constant
+correspondence, and who give what color they please to such facts as
+they choose to communicate out of the track of their correspondence.
+They all have some sort of communication, just as much or as little as
+they please, with the centre. By this confinement of all communication
+to the ruling faction, any combination, grounded on the abuses and
+discontents in one, scarcely can reach the other. There is not one man,
+in any one place, to head them. The old government had so much
+abstracted the nobility from the cultivation of provincial interest,
+that no man in France exists, whose power, credit, or consequence
+extends to two districts, or who is capable of uniting them in any
+design, even if any man could assemble ten men together without being
+sure of a speedy lodging in a prison. One must not judge of the state of
+France by what has been observed elsewhere. It does not in the least
+resemble any other country. Analogical reasoning from history or from
+recent experience in other places is wholly delusive.
+
+In my opinion, there never was seen so strong a government internally as
+that of the French municipalities. If ever any rebellion can arise
+against the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which
+gave birth to it did, at the capital. Paris is the only place in which
+there is the least freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many
+servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestic
+enemies.
+
+[Sidenote: Gentlemen are fugitives.]
+
+But that place being the chief seat of the power and intelligence of the
+ruling faction, and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest
+spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have anything to feed
+it. The leaders of the aristocratic party have been drawn out of the
+kingdom by order of the princes, on the hopes held out by the Emperor
+and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the democratic factions in
+Paris, amongst them there are no leaders possessed of an influence for
+any other purpose but that of maintaining the present state of things.
+The moment they are seen to warp, they are reduced to nothing. They have
+no attached army,--no party that is at all personal.
+
+It is not to be imagined, because a political system is, under certain
+aspects, very unwise in its contrivance, and very mischievous in its
+effects, that it therefore can have no long duration. Its very defects
+may tend to its stability, because they are agreeable to its nature. The
+very faults in the Constitution of Poland made it last; the _veto_ which
+destroyed all its energy preserved its life. What can be conceived so
+monstrous as the republic of Algiers, and that no less strange republic
+of the Mamelukes in Egypt? They are of the worst form imaginable, and
+exercised in the worst manner, yet they have existed as a nuisance on
+the earth for several hundred years.
+
+[Sidenote: Conclusions.]
+
+From all these considerations, and many more that crowd upon me, three
+conclusions have long since arisen in my mind.
+
+First, that no counter revolution is to be expected in France from
+internal causes solely.
+
+Secondly, that, the longer the present system exists, the greater will
+be its strength, the greater its power to destroy discontents at home,
+and to resist all foreign attempts in favor of these discontents.
+
+Thirdly, that, as long as it exists in France, it will be the interest
+of the managers there, and it is in the very essence of their plan, to
+disturb and distract all other governments, and their endless succession
+of restless politicians will continually stimulate them to new attempts.
+
+[Sidenote: Proceedings of princes; defensive plans.]
+
+Princes are generally sensible that this is their common cause; and two
+of them have made a public declaration of their opinion to this effect.
+Against this common danger, some of them, such as the king of Spain, the
+king of Sardinia, and the republic of Bern, are very diligent in using
+defensive measures.
+
+If they were to guard against an invasion from France, the merits of
+this plan of a merely defensive resistance might be supported by
+plausible topics; but as the attack does not operate against these
+countries externally, but by an internal corruption, (a sort of dry
+rot,) they who pursue this merely defensive plan against a danger which
+the plan itself supposes to be serious cannot possibly escape it. For
+it is in the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and vigorous
+under the impressions of the first alarm, and to relax by degrees, until
+at length the danger, by not operating instantly, comes to appear as a
+false alarm,--so much so, that the next menacing appearance will look
+less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are
+on the offensive it is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly it is
+more their interest not to be so. For their unforeseen attacks
+contribute to their success.
+
+[Sidenote: The French party how composed.]
+
+In the mean time a system of French conspiracy is gaining ground in
+every country. This system, happening to be founded on principles the
+most delusive indeed, but the most flattering to the natural
+propensities of the unthinking multitude, and to the speculations of all
+those who think, without thinking very profoundly, must daily extend its
+influence. A predominant inclination towards it appears in all those who
+have no religion, when otherwise their disposition leads them to be
+advocates even for despotism. Hence Hume, though I cannot say that he
+does not throw out some expressions of disapprobation on the proceedings
+of the levellers in the reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms that
+the doctrines of John Ball were "conformable to the ideas of primitive
+equality _which are engraven in the hearts of all men_."
+
+Boldness formerly was not the character of atheists as such. They were
+even of a character nearly the reverse; they were formerly like the old
+Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they are grown
+active, designing, turbulent, and seditious. They are sworn enemies to
+kings, nobility, and priesthood. We have seen all the Academicians at
+Paris, with Condorcet, the friend and correspondent of Priestley, at
+their head, the most furious of the extravagant republicans.
+
+[Sidenote: Condorcet.]
+
+The late Assembly, after the last captivity of the king, had actually
+chosen this Condorcet, by a majority on the ballot, for preceptor to the
+Dauphin, who was to be taken out of the hands and direction of his
+parents, and to be delivered over to this fanatic atheist and furious
+democratic republican. His untractability to these leaders, and his
+figure in the club of Jacobins, which at that time they wished to bring
+under, alone prevented that part of the arrangement, and others in the
+same style, from being carried into execution. Whilst he was candidate
+for this office, he produced his title to it by promulgating the
+following ideas of the title of his royal pupil to the crown. In a paper
+written by him, and published with his name, against the reestablishment
+even of the appearance of monarchy under any qualifications, he says:--
+
+[Sidenote: Doctrine of the French.]
+
+"Jusqu'a ce moment, ils [l'Assemblee Nationale] n'ont rien prejuge
+encore. En se reservant de nommer un gouverneur au Dauphin, ils n'ont
+pas prononce _que cet enfant dut regner_, mais seulement qu'il _etait
+possible_ que la Constitution l'y destinat; ils ont voulu que
+l'education effacat tout ce que _les prestiges du trone_ ont pu lui
+inspirer de prejuges sur les droits pretendus de sa naissance; qu'elle
+lui fit connaitre de bonne heure et _l'egalite naturelle des hommes et
+la souverainete du peuple_; qu'elle lui apprit a ne pas oublier que
+c'est _du peuple_ qu'il tiendra le titre de Roi, et que _le peuple n'a
+pas meme le droit de renoncer a celui de l'en depouiller_.
+
+"Ils ont voulu que cette education le rendit egalement digne, par ses
+lumieres et ses vertus, de recevoir _avec resignation_ le fardeau
+dangereux d'une couronne, ou de la _deposer avec joie_ entre les mains
+de ses freres; qu'il sentit que le devoir et la gloire du roi d'un
+peuple libre sont de hater le moment de n'etre plus qu'un citoyen
+ordinaire.
+
+"Ils ont voulu que _l'inutilite d'un roi_, la necessite de chercher les
+moyens de remplacer _un pouvoir fonde sur des illusions_, fut une des
+premieres verites offertes a sa raison; _l'obligation d'y concourir
+lui-meme, un des premiers devoirs de sa morale; et le desir de n'etre
+plus affranchi du joug de la loi par une injurieuse inviolabilite, le
+premier sentiment de son coeur_. Ils n'ignorent pas que dans ce moment
+il s'agit bien moins de former un roi que de lui apprendre _a savoir a
+vouloir ne plus l'etre_."[32]
+
+Such are the sentiments of the man who has occasionally filled the chair
+of the National Assembly, who is their perpetual secretary, their only
+standing officer, and the most important by far. He leads them to peace
+or war. He is the great theme of the republican faction in England.
+These ideas of M. Condorcet are the principles of those to whom kings
+are to intrust their successors and the interests of their succession.
+This man would be ready to plunge the poniard in the heart of his pupil,
+or to whet the axe for his neck. Of all men, the most dangerous is a
+warm, hot-headed, zealous atheist. This sort of man aims at dominion,
+and his means are the words he always has in his mouth,--"_L'egalite
+naturelle des hommes, et la souverainete du peuple_."
+
+All former attempts, grounded on these rights of men, had proved
+unfortunate. The success of this last makes a mighty difference in the
+effect of the doctrine. Here is a principle of a nature to the multitude
+the most seductive, always existing before their eyes _as a thing
+feasible in practice_. After so many failures, such an enterprise,
+previous to the French experiment, carried ruin to the contrivers, on
+the face of it; and if any enthusiast was so wild as to wish to engage
+in a scheme of that nature, it was not easy for him to find followers:
+now there is a party almost in all countries, ready-made, animated with
+success, with a sure ally in the very centre of Europe. There is no
+cabal so obscure in any place, that they do not protect, cherish,
+foster, and endeavor to raise it into importance at home and abroad.
+From the lowest, this intrigue will creep up to the highest. Ambition,
+as well as enthusiasm, may find its account in the party and in the
+principle.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of ministers.]
+
+The ministers of other kings, like those of the king of France, (not one
+of whom was perfectly free from this guilt, and some of whom were very
+deep in it,) may themselves be the persons to foment such a disposition
+and such a faction. Hertzberg, the king of Prussia's late minister, is
+so much of what is called a philosopher, that he was of a faction with
+that sort of politicians in everything, and in every place. Even when he
+defends himself from the imputation of giving extravagantly into these
+principles, he still considers the Revolution of France as a great
+public good, by giving credit to their fraudulent declaration of their
+universal benevolence and love of peace. Nor are his Prussian Majesty's
+present ministers at all disinclined to the same system. Their
+ostentatious preamble to certain late edicts demonstrates (if their
+actions had not been sufficiently explanatory of their cast of mind)
+that they are deeply infected with the same distemper of dangerous,
+because plausible, though trivial and shallow, speculation.
+
+Ministers, turning their backs on the reputation which properly belongs
+to them, aspire at the glory of being speculative writers. The duties of
+these two situations are in general directly opposite to each other.
+Speculators ought to be neutral. A minister cannot be so. He is to
+support the interest of the public as connected with that of his master.
+He is his master's trustee, advocate, attorney, and steward,--and he is
+not to indulge in any speculation which contradicts that character, or
+even detracts from its efficacy. Necker had an extreme thirst for this
+sort of glory; so had others; and this pursuit of a misplaced and
+misunderstood reputation was one of the causes of the ruin of these
+ministers, and of their unhappy, master. The Prussian ministers in
+foreign courts have (at least not long since) talked the most democratic
+language with regard to Prance, and in the most unmanaged terms.
+
+[Sidenote: Corps diplomatique.]
+
+The whole _corps diplomatique_, with very few exceptions, leans that
+way. What cause produces in them a turn of mind which at first one would
+think unnatural to their situation it is not impossible to explain. The
+discussion would, however, be somewhat long and somewhat invidious. The
+fact itself is indisputable, however they may disguise it to their
+several courts. This disposition is gone to so very great a length in
+that corps, in itself so important, and so important as _furnishing_ the
+intelligence which sways all cabinets, that, if princes and states do
+not very speedily attend with a vigorous control to that source of
+direction and information, very serious evils are likely to befall them.
+
+[Sidenote: Sovereigns--their dispositions.]
+
+But, indeed, kings are to guard against the same sort of dispositions in
+themselves. They are very easily alienated from all the higher orders of
+their subjects, whether civil or military, laic or ecclesiastical. It is
+with persons of condition that sovereigns chiefly come into contact. It
+is from them that they generally experience opposition to their will. It
+is with _their_ pride and impracticability that princes are most hurt.
+It is with _their_ servility and baseness that they are most commonly
+disgusted. It is from their humors and cabals that they find their
+affairs most frequently troubled and distracted. But of the common
+people, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing;
+and therefore being unacquainted with their faults, (which are as many
+as those of the great, and much more decisive in their effects, when
+accompanied with power,) kings generally regard them with tenderness and
+favor, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects,
+particularly when hurt by opposition from the higher orders. It was thus
+that the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was
+ruined. I have it from very sure information, (and it was, indeed,
+obvious enough, from the measures which were taken previous to the
+assembly of the States and afterwards,) that the king's counsellors had
+filled him with a strong dislike to his nobility, his clergy, and the
+corps of his magistracy. They represented to him, that he had tried them
+all severally, in several ways, and found them all untractable: that he
+had twice called an assembly (the Notables) composed of the first men of
+the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had himself named
+every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he
+had not, in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a
+compliance with his will than they had been separately; that there
+remained for him, with the least prospect of advantage to his authority
+in the States-General, which were to be composed of the same sorts of
+men, but not chosen by him, only the _Tiers Etat_: in this alone he
+could repose any hope of extricating himself from his difficulties, and
+of settling him in a clear and permanent authority. They represented,
+(these are the words of one of my informants,) "that the royal
+authority, compressed with the weight of these aristocratic bodies, full
+of ambition and of faction, when once unloaded, would rise of itself,
+and occupy its natural place without disturbance or control"; that the
+common people would protect, cherish, and support, instead of crushing
+it. "The people" (it was said) "could entertain no objects of ambition";
+they were out of the road of intrigue and cabal, and could possibly have
+no other view than the support of the mild and parental authority by
+which they were invested, for the first time collectively, with real
+importance in the state, and protected in their peaceable and useful
+employments.
+
+[Sidenote: King of France.]
+
+This unfortunate king (not without a large share of blame to himself)
+was deluded to his ruin by a desire to humble and reduce his nobility,
+clergy, and big corporate magistracy: not that I suppose he meant wholly
+to eradicate these bodies, in the manner since effected by the
+democratic power; I rather believe that even Necker's designs did not go
+to that extent. With his own hand, however, Louis the Sixteenth pulled
+down the pillars which upheld his throne; and this he did, because he
+could not bear the inconveniences which are attached to everything
+human,--because he found himself cooped up, and in durance, by those
+limits which Nature prescribes to desire and imagination, and was taught
+to consider as low and degrading that mutual dependence which Providence
+has ordained that all men should have on one another. He is not at this
+minute, perhaps, cured of the dread of the power and credit like to be
+acquired by those who would save and rescue him. He leaves those who
+suffer in his cause to their fate,--and hopes, by various mean, delusive
+intrigues, in which I am afraid he is encouraged from abroad, to regain,
+among traitors and regicides, the power he has joined to take from his
+own family, whom he quietly sees proscribed before his eyes, and called
+to answer to the lowest of his rebels, as the vilest of all criminals.
+
+[Sidenote: Emperor.]
+
+It is to be hoped that the Emperor may be taught better things by this
+fatal example. But it is sure that he has advisers who endeavor to fill
+him with the ideas which have brought his brother-in-law to his present
+situation. Joseph the Second was far gone in this philosophy, and some,
+if not most, who serve the Emperor, would kindly initiate him into all
+the mysteries of this freemasonry. They would persuade him to look on
+the National Assembly, not with the hatred of an enemy, but the jealousy
+of a rival. They would make him desirous of doing, in his own dominions,
+by a royal despotism, what has been done in France by a democratic.
+Rather than abandon such enterprises, they would persuade him to a
+strange alliance between those extremes. Their grand object being now,
+as in his brother's time, at any rate to destroy the higher orders, they
+think he cannot compass this end, as certainly he cannot, without
+elevating the lower. By depressing the one and by raising the other they
+hope in the first place to increase his treasures and his army; and with
+these common instruments of royal power they flatter him that the
+democracy, which they help in his name to create, will give him but
+little trouble. In defiance of the freshest experience, which might show
+him that old impossibilities are become modern probabilities, and that
+the extent to which evil principles may go, when left to their own
+operation, is beyond the power of calculation, they will endeavor to
+persuade him that such a democracy is a thing which cannot subsist by
+itself; that in whose ever hands the military command is placed, he must
+be, in the necessary course of affairs, sooner or later the master; and
+that, being the master of various unconnected countries, he may keep
+them all in order by employing a military force which to each of them is
+foreign. This maxim, too, however formerly plausible, will not now hold
+water. This scheme is full of intricacy, and may cause him everywhere to
+lose the hearts of his people. These counsellors forget that a corrupted
+army was the very cause of the ruin of his brother-in-law, and that he
+is himself far from secure from a similar corruption.
+
+[Sidenote: Brabant.]
+
+Instead of reconciling himself heartily and _bona fide_, according to
+the most obvious rules of policy, to the States of Brabant, _as they are
+constituted_, and who in _the present state of things_ stand on the same
+foundation with the monarchy itself, and who might have been gained with
+the greatest facility, they have advised him to the most unkingly
+proceeding which, either in a good or in a bad light, has ever been
+attempted. Under a pretext taken from the spirit of the lowest chicane,
+they have counselled him wholly to break the public faith, to annul the
+amnesty, as well as the other conditions through which he obtained an
+entrance into the Provinces of the Netherlands under the guaranty of
+Great Britain and Prussia. He is made to declare his adherence to the
+indemnity in a criminal sense, but he is to keep alive in his own name,
+and to encourage in others, a _civil_ process in the nature of an
+action of damages for what has been suffered during the troubles.
+Whilst he keeps up this hopeful lawsuit in view of the damages he may
+recover against individuals, he loses the hearts of a whole people, and
+the vast subsidies which his ancestors had been used to receive from
+them.
+
+[Sidenote: Emperor's conduct with regard to France.]
+
+This design once admitted unriddles the mystery of the whole conduct of
+the Emperor's ministers with regard to France. As soon as they saw the
+life of the king and queen of France no longer, as they thought, in
+danger, they entirely changed their plan with regard to the French
+nation. I believe that the chiefs of the Revolution (those who led the
+constituting Assembly) have contrived, as far as they can do it, to give
+the Emperor satisfaction on this head. He keeps a continual tone and
+posture of menace to secure this his only point. But it must be
+observed, that he all along grounds his departure from the engagement at
+Pilnitz to the princes on the will and actions of _the king_ and the
+majority of the people, without any regard to the natural and
+constitutional orders of the state, or to the opinions of the whole
+House of Bourbon. Though it is manifestly under the constraint of
+imprisonment and the fear of death that this unhappy man has been guilty
+of all those humilities which have astonished mankind, the advisers of
+the Emperor will consider nothing but the _physical_ person of Louis,
+which, even in his present degraded and infamous state, they regard as
+of sufficient authority to give a complete sanction to the persecution
+and utter ruin of all his family, and of every person who has shown any
+degree of attachment or fidelity to him or to his cause, as well as
+competent to destroy the whole ancient constitution and frame of the
+French monarchy.
+
+The present policy, therefore, of the Austrian politicians is, to
+recover despotism through democracy,--or, at least, at any expense,
+everywhere to ruin the description of men who are everywhere the objects
+of their settled and systematic aversion, but more especially in the
+Netherlands. Compare this with the Emperor's refusing at first all
+intercourse with the present powers in France, with his endeavoring to
+excite all Europe against them, and then, his not only withdrawing all
+assistance and all countenance from the fugitives who had been drawn by
+his declarations from their houses, situations, and military
+commissions, many even from the means of their very existence, but
+treating them with every species of insult and outrage.
+
+Combining this unexampled conduct in the Emperor's advisers with the
+timidity (operating as perfidy) of the king of France, a fatal example
+is held out to all subjects, tending to show what little support, or
+even countenance, they are to expect from those for whom their principle
+of fidelity may induce them to risk life and fortune. The Emperor's
+advisers would not for the world rescind one of the acts of this or of
+the late French Assembly; nor do they wish anything better at present
+for their master's brother of France than that he should really be, as
+he is nominally, at the head of the system of persecution of religion
+and good order, and of all descriptions of dignity, natural and
+instituted: they only wish all this done with a little more respect to
+the king's person, and with more appearance of consideration for his new
+subordinate office,--in hopes, that, yielding himself for the present
+to the persons who have effected these changes, he may be able to game
+for the rest hereafter. On no other principles than these can the
+conduct of the court of Vienna be accounted for. The subordinate court
+of Brussels talks the language of a club of Feuillants and Jacobins.
+
+[Sidenote: Moderate party.]
+
+In this state of general rottenness among subjects, and of delusion and
+false politics in princes, comes a new experiment. The king of France is
+in the hands of the chiefs of the regicide faction,--the Barnaves,
+Lameths, Fayettes, Perigords, Duports, Robespierres, Camuses, &c., &c.,
+&c. They who had imprisoned, suspended, and conditionally deposed him
+are his confidential counsellors. The next desperate of the desperate
+rebels call themselves the _moderate_ party. They are the chiefs of the
+first Assembly, who are confederated to support their power during their
+suspension from the present, and to govern the existent body with as
+sovereign a sway as they had done the last. They have, for the greater
+part, succeeded; and they have many advantages towards procuring their
+success in future. Just before the close of their regular power, they
+bestowed some appearance of prerogatives on the king, which in their
+first plans they had refused to him,--particularly the mischievous, and,
+in his situation, dreadful prerogative of a _veto_. This prerogative,
+(which they hold as their bit in the mouth of the National Assembly for
+the time being,) without the direct assistance of their club, it was
+impossible for the king to show even the desire of exerting with the
+smallest effect, or even with safety to his person. However, by playing,
+through this _veto_, the Assembly against the king, and the king
+against the Assembly, they have made themselves masters of both. In this
+situation, having destroyed the old government by their sedition, they
+would preserve as much of order as is necessary for the support of their
+own usurpation.
+
+[Sidenote: French ambassador.]
+
+It is believed that this, by far the worst party of the miscreants of
+France, has received direct encouragement from the counsellors who
+betray the Emperor. Thus strengthened by the possession of the captive
+king, (now captive in his mind as well as in body,) and by a good hope
+of the Emperor, they intend to send their ministers to every court in
+Europe,--having sent before them such a denunciation of terror and
+superiority to every nation without exception as has no example in the
+diplomatic world. Hitherto the ministers to foreign courts had been of
+the appointment of the sovereign of France _previous to the Revolution_;
+and, either from inclination, duty, or decorum, most of them were
+contented with a merely passive obedience to the new power. At present,
+the king, being entirely in the hands of his jailors, and his mind
+broken to his situation, can send none but the enthusiasts of the
+system,--men framed by the secret committee of the Feuillants, who meet
+in the house of Madame de Stael, M. Necker's daughter. Such is every man
+whom they have talked of sending hither. These ministers will be so many
+spies and incendiaries, so many active emissaries of democracy. Their
+houses will become places of rendezvous here, as everywhere else, and
+centres of cabal for whatever is mischievous and malignant in this
+country, particularly among those of rank and fashion. As the minister
+of the National Assembly will be admitted at this court, at least with
+his usual rank, and as entertainments will be naturally given and
+received by the king's own ministers, any attempt to discountenance the
+resort of other people to that minister would be ineffectual, and indeed
+absurd, and full of contradiction. The women who come with these
+ambassadors will assist in fomenting factions amongst ours, which cannot
+fail of extending the evil. Some of them I hear are already arrived.
+There is no doubt they will do as much mischief as they can.
+
+[Sidenote: Connection of clubs.]
+
+Whilst the public ministers are received under the general law of the
+communication between nations, the correspondences between the factious
+clubs in France and ours will be, as they now are, kept up; but this
+pretended embassy will be a closer, more steady, and more effectual link
+between the partisans of the new system on both sides of the water. I do
+not mean that these Anglo-Gallic clubs in London, Manchester, &c., are
+not dangerous in a high degree. The appointment of festive anniversaries
+has ever in the sense of mankind been held the best method of keeping
+alive the spirit of any institution. We have one settled in London; and
+at the last of them, that of the 14th of July, the strong discountenance
+of government, the unfavorable time of the year, and the then
+uncertainty of the disposition of foreign powers, did not hinder the
+meeting of at least nine hundred people, with good coats on their backs,
+who could afford to pay half a guinea a head to show their zeal for the
+new principles. They were with great difficulty, and all possible
+address, hindered from inviting the French ambassador. His real
+indisposition, besides the fear of offending any party, sent him out of
+town. But when our court shall have recognized a government in France
+founded on the principles announced in Montmorin's letter, how can the
+French ambassador be frowned upon for an attendance on those meetings
+wherein the establishment of the government he represents is celebrated?
+An event happened a few days ago, which in many particulars was very
+ridiculous; yet, even from the ridicule and absurdity of the
+proceedings, it marks the more strongly the spirit of the French
+Assembly: I mean the reception they have given to the Frith Street
+Alliance. This, though the delirium of a low, drunken alehouse club,
+they have publicly announced as a formal alliance with the people of
+England, as such ordered it to be presented to their king, and to be
+published in every province in France. This leads, more directly and
+with much greater force than any proceeding with a regular and rational
+appearance, to two very material considerations. First, it shows that
+they are of opinion that the current opinions of the English have the
+greatest influence on the minds of the people in France, and indeed of
+all the people in Europe, since they catch with such astonishing
+eagerness at every the most trifling show of such opinions in their
+favor. Next, and what appears to me to be full as important, it shows
+that they are willing publicly to countenance, and even to adopt, every
+factious conspiracy that can be formed in this nation, however low and
+base in itself, in order to excite in the most miserable wretches here
+an idea of their own sovereign importance, and to encourage them to look
+up to France, whenever they may be matured into something of more force,
+for assistance in the subversion of their domestic government. This
+address of the alehouse club was actually proposed and accepted by the
+Assembly as an _alliance_. The procedure was in my opinion a high
+misdemeanor in those who acted thus in England, if they were not so very
+low and so very base that no acts of theirs can be called high, even as
+a description of criminality; and the Assembly, in accepting,
+proclaiming, and publishing this forged alliance, has been guilty of a
+plain aggression, which would justify our court in demanding a direct
+disavowal, if our policy should not lead us to wink at it.
+
+Whilst I look over this paper to have it copied, I see a manifesto of
+the Assembly, as a preliminary to a declaration of war against the
+German princes on the Rhine. This manifesto contains the whole substance
+of the French politics with regard to foreign states. They have ordered
+it to be circulated amongst the people in every country of Europe,--even
+previously to its acceptance by the king, and his new privy council, the
+club of the Feuillants. Therefore, as a summary of their policy avowed
+by themselves, let us consider some of the circumstances attending that
+piece, as well as the spirit and temper of the piece itself.
+
+[Sidenote: Declaration against the Emperor.]
+
+It was preceded by a speech from Brissot, full of unexampled insolence
+towards all the sovereign states of Germany, if not of Europe. The
+Assembly, to express their satisfaction in the sentiments which it
+contained, ordered it to be printed. This Brissot had been in the lowest
+and basest employ under the deposed monarchy,--a sort of thief-taker, or
+spy of police,--in which character he acted after the manner of persons
+in that description. He had been employed by his master, the
+_Lieutenant de Police_, for a considerable time in London, in the same
+or some such honorable occupation. The Revolution, which has brought
+forward all merit of that kind, raised him, with others of a similar
+class and disposition, to fame and eminence. On the Revolution he became
+a publisher of an infamous newspaper, which he still continues. He is
+charged, and I believe justly, as the first mover of the troubles in
+Hispaniola. There is no wickedness, if I am rightly informed, in which
+he is not versed, and of which he is not perfectly capable. His quality
+of news-writer, now an employment of the first dignity in France, and
+his practices and principles, procured his election into the Assembly,
+where he is one of the leading members. M. Condorcet produced on the
+same day a draught of a declaration to the king, which the Assembly
+published before it was presented.
+
+Condorcet (though no marquis, as he styled himself before the
+Revolution) is a man of another sort of birth, fashion, and occupation
+from Brissot,--but in every principle, and every disposition to the
+lowest as well as the highest and most determined villanies, fully his
+equal. He seconds Brissot in the Assembly, and is at once his coadjutor
+and his rival in a newspaper, which, in his own name, and as successor
+to M. Garat, a member also of the Assembly, he has just set up in that
+empire of gazettes. Condorcet was chosen to draw the first declaration
+presented by the Assembly to the king, as a threat to the Elector of
+Treves, and the other princes on the Rhine. In that piece, in which both
+Feuillants and Jacobins concurred, they declared publicly, and most
+proudly and insolently, the principle on which they mean to proceed in
+their future disputes with any of the sovereigns of Europe; for they
+say, "that it is not with fire and sword they mean to attack their
+territories, but by what will be _more dreadful_ to them, the
+introduction of liberty."--I have not the paper by me, to give the exact
+words, but I believe they are nearly as I state them.--_Dreadful_,
+indeed, will be their hostility, if they should be able to carry it on
+according to the example of _their_ modes of introducing liberty. They
+have shown a perfect model of their whole design, very complete, though
+in little. This gang of murderers and savages have wholly laid waste and
+utterly ruined the beautiful and happy country of the Comtat Venaissin
+and the city of Avignon. This cruel and treacherous outrage the
+sovereigns of Europe, in my opinion, with a great mistake of their honor
+and interest, have permitted, even without a remonstrance, to be carried
+to the desired point, on the principles on which they are now themselves
+threatened in their own states; and this, because, according to the poor
+and narrow spirit now in fashion, their brother sovereign, whose
+subjects have been thus traitorously and inhumanly treated in violation
+of the law of Nature and of nations, has a name somewhat different from
+theirs, and, instead of being styled King, or Duke, or Landgrave, is
+usually called Pope.
+
+[Sidenote: State of the Empire.]
+
+The Electors of Treves and Mentz were frightened with the menace of a
+similar mode of war. The Assembly, however, not thinking that the
+Electors of Treves and Mentz had done enough under their first terror,
+have again brought forward Condorcet, preceded by Brissot, as I have
+just stated. The declaration, which they have ordered now to be
+circulated in all countries, is in substance the same as the first, but
+still more insolent, because more full of detail. There they have the
+impudence to state that they aim at no conquest: insinuating that all
+the old, lawful powers of the world had each made a constant, open
+profession of a design of subduing his neighbors. They add, that, if
+they are provoked, their war will be directed only against those who
+assume to be _masters_; but to the _people_ they will bring peace, law,
+liberty, &c, &c. There is not the least hint that they consider those
+whom they call persons "_assuming to be matters_" to be the lawful
+government of their country, or persons to be treated with the least
+management or respect. They regard them as usurpers and enslavers of the
+people. If I do not mistake, they are described by the name of tyrants
+in Condorcet's first draught. I am sure they are so in Brissot's speech,
+ordered by the Assembly to be printed at the same time and for the same
+purposes. The whole is in the same strain, full of false philosophy and
+false rhetoric,--both, however, calculated to captivate and influence
+the vulgar mind, and to excite sedition in the countries in which it is
+ordered to be circulated. Indeed, it is such, that, if any of the
+lawful, acknowledged sovereigns of Europe had publicly ordered such a
+manifesto to be circulated in the dominions of another, the ambassador
+of that power would instantly be ordered to quit every court without an
+audience.
+
+[Sidenote: Effect of fear on the sovereign powers.]
+
+The powers of Europe have a pretext for concealing their fears, by
+saying that this language is not used by the king; though they well know
+that there is in effect no such person,--that the Assembly is in
+reality, and by that king is acknowledged to be, _the master_,--that
+what he does is but matter of formality,--and that he can neither cause
+nor hinder, accelerate nor retard, any measure whatsoever, nor add to
+nor soften the manifesto which the Assembly has directed to be
+published, with the declared purpose of exciting mutiny and rebellion in
+the several countries governed by these powers. By the generality also
+of the menaces contained in this paper, (though infinitely aggravating
+the outrage,) they hope to remove from each power separately the idea of
+a distinct affront. The persons first pointed at by the menace are
+certainly the princes of Germany, who harbor the persecuted House of
+Bourbon and the nobility of France; the declaration, however, is
+general, and goes to every state with which they may have a cause of
+quarrel. But the terror of France has fallen upon all nations. A few
+months since all sovereigns seemed disposed to unite against her; at
+present they all seem to combine in her favor. At no period has the
+power of France ever appeared with so formidable an aspect. In
+particular the liberties of the Empire can have nothing more than an
+existence the most tottering and precarious, whilst France exists with a
+great power of fomenting rebellion, and the greatest in the
+weakest,--but with neither power nor disposition to support the smaller
+states in their independence against the attempts of the more powerful.
+
+I wind up all in a full conviction within my own breast, and the
+substance of which I must repeat over and over again, that the state of
+France is the first consideration in the politics of Europe, and of each
+state, externally as well as internally considered.
+
+Most of the topics I have used are drawn from fear and apprehension.
+Topics derived from fear or addressed to it are, I well know, of
+doubtful appearance. To be sure, hope is in general the incitement to
+action. Alarm some men,--you do not drive them to provide for their
+security; you put them to a stand; you induce them, not to take measures
+to prevent the approach of danger, but to remove so unpleasant an idea
+from their minds; you persuade them to remain as they are, from a new
+fear that their activity may bring on the apprehended mischief before
+its time. I confess freely that this evil sometimes happens from an
+overdone precaution; but it is when the measures are rash, ill-chosen,
+or ill-combined, and the effects rather of blind terror than of
+enlightened foresight. But the few to whom I wish to submit my thoughts
+are of a character which will enable them to see danger without
+astonishment, and to provide against it without perplexity.
+
+To what lengths this method of circulating mutinous manifestoes, and of
+keeping emissaries of sedition in every court under the name of
+ambassadors, to propagate the same principles and to follow the
+practices, will go, and how soon they will operate, it is hard to say;
+but go on it will, more or less rapidly, according to events, and to the
+humor of the time. The princes menaced with the revolt of their
+subjects, at the same time that they have obsequiously obeyed the
+sovereign mandate of the new Roman senate, have received with
+distinction, in a public character, ambassadors from those who in the
+same act had circulated the manifesto of sedition in their dominions.
+This was the only thing wanting to the degradation and disgrace of the
+Germanic body.
+
+The ambassadors from the rights of man, and their admission into the
+diplomatic system, I hold to be a new era in this business. It will be
+the most important step yet taken to affect the existence of sovereigns,
+and the higher classes of life: I do not mean to exclude its effects
+upon all classes; but the first blow is aimed at the more prominent
+parts in the ancient order of things.
+
+What is to be done?
+
+It would be presumption in me to do more than to make a case. Many
+things occur. But as they, like all political measures, depend on
+dispositions, tempers, means, and external circumstances, for all their
+effect, not being well assured of these, I do not know how to let loose
+any speculations of mine on the subject. The evil is stated, in my
+opinion, as it exists. The remedy must be where power, wisdom, and
+information, I hope, are more united with good intentions than they can
+be with me. I have done with this subject, I believe, forever. It has
+given me many anxious moments for the two last years. If a great change
+is to be made in human affairs, the minds of men will be fitted to it,
+the general opinions and feelings will draw that way. Every fear, every
+hope, will forward it; and then they who persist in opposing this mighty
+current in human affairs will appear rather to resist the decrees of
+Providence itself than the mere designs of men. They will not be
+resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[30] See Vattel, B. II. c. 4, sect 56, and B. III. c 18, sect. 296.
+
+[31] Originally called the Bengal Club; but since opened to persons from
+the other Presidencies, for the purpose of consolidating the whole
+Indian interest.
+
+[32] "Until now, they [the National Assembly] have prejudged nothing.
+Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a preceptor to the Dauphin,
+they did not declare _that this child was to reign_, but only that
+_possibly_ the Constitution _might_ destine him to it: they willed,
+that, while education should efface from his mind all the prejudices
+arising from _the delusions of the throne_ respecting his pretended
+birthright, it should also teach him not to forget that it is _from the
+people_ he is to receive the title of King, and that _the people do not
+even possess the right of giving up their power to take it from him_.
+
+"They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
+knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive _with submission_ the
+dangerous burden of a crown, and _to resign it with pleasure_ into the
+hands of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
+that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the duty
+and the glory of a king of a free people.
+
+"They willed that _the uselessness of a king_, the necessity of seeking
+means to establish something in lieu of _a power founded on illusions_,
+should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; _the obligation
+of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the
+desire of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious
+inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart_. They are not
+ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king
+than to teach him _that he should know how to wish no longer to be
+such_."
+
+
+
+
+HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION
+
+ON THE
+
+PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS.
+
+WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1792.
+
+
+That France by its mere geographical position, independently of every
+other circumstance, must affect every state of Europe: some of them
+immediately, all of them through mediums not very remote.
+
+That the standing policy of this kingdom ever has been to watch over the
+_external_ proceedings of France, (whatever form the _interior_
+government of that kingdom might take,) and to prevent the extension of
+its dominion or its ruling influence over other states.
+
+That there is nothing in the present _internal_ state of things in
+France which alters the national policy with regard to the exterior
+relations of that country.
+
+That there are, on the contrary, many things in the internal
+circumstances of France (and perhaps of this country, too) which tend to
+fortify the principles of that fundamental policy, and which render the
+active assertion of those principles more pressing at this than at any
+former time.
+
+That, by a change effected in about three weeks, France has been able to
+penetrate into the heart of Germany, to make an absolute conquest of
+Savoy, to menace an immediate invasion of the Netherlands, and to awe
+and overbear the whole Helvetic body, which is in a most perilous
+situation: the great aristocratic Cantons having, perhaps, as much or
+more to dread from their own people, whom they arm, but do not choose
+or dare to employ, as from the foreign enemy, which against all public
+faith has butchered their troops serving by treaty in France. To this
+picture it is hardly necessary to add the means by which Prance has been
+enabled to effect all this,--namely, the apparently entire destruction
+of one of the largest and certainly the highest disciplined and best
+appointed army ever seen, headed by the first military sovereign in
+Europe, with a captain under him of the greatest renown; and that
+without a blow given or received on any side. This state of things seems
+to me, even if it went no further, truly serious.
+
+Circumstances have enabled France to do all this by _land_. On the other
+element she has begun to exert herself; and she must succeed in her
+designs, if enemies very different from those she has hitherto had to
+encounter do not resist her.
+
+She has fitted out a naval force, now actually at sea, by which she is
+enabled to give law to the whole Mediterranean. It is known as a fact,
+(and if not so known, it is in the nature of things highly probable,)
+that she proposes the ravage of the Ecclesiastical State and the pillage
+of Rome, as her first object; that nest she means to bombard Naples,--to
+awe, to humble, and thus to command, all Italy,--to force it to a
+nominal neutrality, but to a real dependence,--to compel the Italian
+princes and republics to admit the free entrance of the French commerce,
+an open intercourse, and, the sure concomitant of that intercourse, the
+_affiliated societies_, in a manner similar to those she has established
+at Avignon, the Comtat, Chambery, London, Manchester, &c, &c., which are
+so many colonies planted in all these countries, for extending the
+influence and securing the dominion of the French republic.
+
+That there never has been hitherto a period in which this kingdom would
+have suffered a French fleet to domineer in the Mediterranean, and to
+force Italy to submit to such terms as France would think fit to
+impose,--to say nothing of what has been done upon land in support of
+the same system. The great object for which we preserved Minorca, whilst
+we could keep it, and for which we still retain Gibraltar, both at a
+great expense, was, and is, to prevent the predominance of France over
+the Mediterranean.
+
+Thus far as to the certain and immediate effect of that armament upon
+the Italian States. The probable effect which that armament, and the
+other armaments preparing at Toulon and other ports, may have upon
+Spain, on the side of the Mediterranean, is worthy of the serious
+attention of the British councils.
+
+That it is most probable, we may say in a manner certain, that, if there
+should be a rupture between France and Spain, France will not confine
+her offensive piratical operations against Spain to her efforts in the
+Mediterranean; on which side, however, she may grievously affect Spain,
+especially if she excites Morocco and Algiers, which undoubtedly she
+will, to fall upon that power.
+
+That she will fit out armaments upon the ocean, by which the flota
+itself may be intercepted, and thus the treasures of all Europe, as well
+as the largest and surest resources of the Spanish monarchy, may be
+conveyed into France, and become powerful instruments for the annoyance
+of all her neighbors.
+
+That she makes no secret of her designs.
+
+That, if the inward and outward bound flota should escape, still France
+has more and better means of dissevering many of the provinces in the
+West and East Indies from the state of Spain than Holland had, when she
+succeeded in the same attempt. The French marine resembles not a little
+the old armaments of the Flibustiers, which about a century back, in
+conjunction with pirates of our nation, brought such calamities upon the
+Spanish colonies. They differ only in this,--that the present piratical
+force is out of all measure and comparison greater: one hundred and
+fifty ships of the line and frigates being ready-built, most of them in
+a manner new, and all applicable in different ways to that service.
+Privateers and Moorish corsairs possess not the best seamanship, and
+very little discipline, and indeed can make no figure in regular
+service; but in desperate adventures, and animated with a lust of
+plunder, they are truly formidable.
+
+That the land forces of France are well adapted to concur with their
+marine in conjunct expeditions of this nature. In such expeditions,
+enterprise supplies the want of discipline, and perhaps more than
+supplies it. Both for this, and for other service, (however contemptible
+their military is in other respects,) one arm is extremely good, the
+engineering and artillery branch. The old officer corps in both being
+composed for the greater part of those who were not gentlemen, or
+gentlemen newly such, few have abandoned the service, and the men are
+veterans, well enough disciplined, and very expert. In this piratical
+way they must make war with good advantage. They must do so, even on the
+side of Flanders, either offensively or defensively. This shows the
+difference between the policy of Louis the Fourteenth, who built a wall
+of brass about his kingdom, and that of Joseph the Second, who
+premeditatedly uncovered his whole frontier.
+
+That Spain, from the actual and expected prevalence of French power, is
+in a most perilous situation,--perfectly dependent on the mercy of that
+republic. If Austria is broken, or even humbled, she will not dare to
+dispute its mandates.
+
+In the present state of things, we have nothing at all to dread from the
+power of Spain by sea or by land, or from any rivalry in commerce.
+
+That we have much to dread from the connections into which Spain may be
+forced.
+
+From the circumstances of her territorial possessions, of her resources,
+and the whole of her civil and political state, we may be authorized
+safely and with undoubted confidence to affirm that
+
+_Spain is not a substantive power_.
+
+That she must lean on France or on England.
+
+That it is as much for the interest of Great Britain to prevent the
+predominancy of a French interest in that kingdom as if Spain were a
+province of the crown of Great Britain, or a state actually dependent on
+it,--full as much so as ever Portugal was reputed to be. This is a
+dependency of much greater value; and its destruction, or its being
+carried to any other dependency, of much more serious misfortune.
+
+One of these two things must happen: either Spain must submit to
+circumstances and take such conditions as France will impose, or she
+must engage in hostilities along with the Emperor and the king of
+Sardinia.
+
+If Spain should be forced or awed into a treaty with the republic of
+France, she must open her ports and her commerce, as well as the land
+communication for the French laborers, who were accustomed annually to
+gather in the harvest in Spain. Indeed, she must grant a free
+communication for travellers and traders through her whole country. In
+that case it is not conjectural, it is certain, the clubs will give law
+in the provinces; Bourgoing, or some such miscreant, will give law at
+Madrid.
+
+In this England may acquiesce, if she pleases; and France will conclude
+a triumphant peace with Spain under her absolute dependence, with a
+broad highway into that, and into every state of Europe. She actually
+invites Great Britain to divide with her the spoils of the New World,
+and to make a partition of the Spanish monarchy. Clearly, it is better
+to do so than to suffer France to possess those spoils and that
+territory alone; which, without doubt, unresisted by us, she is
+altogether as able as she is willing to do.
+
+This plan is proposed by the French in the way in which they propose all
+their plans,--and in the only way in which, indeed, they can propose
+them, where there is no regular communication between his Majesty and
+their republic.
+
+What they propose is _a plan_. It is _a plan_ also to resist their
+predatory project. To remain quiet, and to suffer them to make their own
+use of a naval power before our face, so as to awe and bully Spain into
+a submissive peace, or to drive them into a ruinous war, without any
+measure on our part, I fear is no plan at all.
+
+However, if the plan of cooeperation which France desires, and which her
+affiliated societies here ardently wish and are constantly writing up,
+should not be adopted, and the war between the Emperor and France
+should continue, I think it not at all likely that Spain should not be
+drawn into the quarrel. In that case, the neutrality of England will be
+a thing absolutely impossible. The time only is the subject of
+deliberation.
+
+Then the question will be, whether we are to defer putting ourselves
+into a posture for the common defence, either by armament, or
+negotiation, or both, until Spain is actually attacked,--that is,
+whether our court will take a decided part for Spain, whilst Spain, on
+her side, is yet in a condition to act with whatever degree of vigor she
+may have, whilst that vigor is yet unexhausted,--or whether we shall
+connect ourselves with her broken fortunes, after she shall have
+received material blows, and when we shall have the whole slow length of
+that always unwieldy and ill-constructed, and then wounded and crippled
+body, to drag after us, rather than to aid us. Whilst our disposition is
+uncertain, Spain will not dare to put herself in such a state of defence
+as will make her hostility formidable or her neutrality respectable.
+
+If the decision is such as the solution of this question (I take it to
+be the true question) conducts to, no time is to be lost. But the
+measures, though prompt, ought not to be rash and indigested. They ought
+to be well chosen, well combined, and well pursued. The system must be
+general; but it must be executed, not successively, or with
+interruption, but all together, _uno flatu_, in one melting, and one
+mould.
+
+For this purpose we must put Europe before us, which plainly is, just
+now, in all its parts, in a state of dismay, derangement, and confusion,
+and, very possibly amongst all its sovereigns, full of secret
+heartburning, distrust, and mutual accusation. Perhaps it may labor
+under worse evils. There is no vigor anywhere, except the distempered
+vigor and energy of France. That country has but too much life in it,
+when everything around is so disposed to tameness and languor. The very
+vices of the French system at home tend to give force to foreign
+exertions. The generals _must_ join the armies. They must lead them to
+enterprise, or they are likely to perish by their hands. Thus, without
+law or government of her own, France gives law to all the governments in
+Europe.
+
+This great mass of political matter must have been always under the view
+of thinkers for the public, whether they act in office or not. Amongst
+events, even the late calamitous events were in the book of contingency.
+Of course they must have been in design, at least, provided for. A plan
+which takes in as many as possible of the states concerned will rather
+tend to facilitate and simplify a rational scheme for preserving Spain
+(if that were our sole, as I think it ought to be our principal object)
+than to delay and perplex it.
+
+If we should think that a provident policy (perhaps now more than
+provident, urgent and necessary) should lead us to act, we cannot take
+measures as if nothing had been done. We must see the faults, if any,
+which have conducted to the present misfortunes: not for the sake of
+criticism, military or political, or from the common motives of blaming
+persons and counsels which have not been successful, but in order, if we
+can, to administer some remedy to these disasters, by the adoption of
+plans more bottomed in principle, and built on with more discretion.
+Mistakes may be lessons.
+
+There seem, indeed, to have been several mistakes in the political
+principles on which the war was entered into, as well as in the plans
+upon which it was conducted,--some of them very fundamental, and not
+only visibly, but I may say palpably erroneous; and I think him to have
+less than the discernment of a very ordinary statesman, who could not
+foresee, from the very beginning, unpleasant consequences from those
+plans, though not the unparalleled disgraces and disasters which really
+did attend them: for they were, both principles and measures, wholly new
+and out of the common course, without anything apparently very grand in
+the conception to justify this total departure from all rule.
+
+For, in the first place, the united sovereigns very much injured their
+cause by admitting that they had nothing to do with the interior
+arrangements of France,--in contradiction to the whole tenor of the
+public law of Europe, and to the correspondent practice of all its
+states, from the time we have any history of them. In this particular,
+the two German courts seem to have as little consulted the publicists of
+Germany as their own true interests, and those of all the sovereigns of
+Germany and Europe. This admission of a false principle in the law of
+nations brought them into an apparent contradiction, when they insisted
+on the reestablishment of the royal authority in France. But this
+confused and contradictory proceeding gave rise to a practical error of
+worse consequence. It was derived from one and the same root: namely,
+that the person of the monarch of France was everything; and the
+monarchy, and the intermediate orders of the state, by which the
+monarchy was upheld, were nothing. So that, if the united potentates had
+succeeded so far as to reestablish the authority of that king, and that
+he should be so ill-advised as to confirm all the confiscations, and to
+recognize as a lawful body and to class himself with that rabble of
+murderers, (and there wanted not persons who would so have advised him,)
+there was nothing in the principle or in the proceeding of the united
+powers to prevent such an arrangement.
+
+An expedition to free a brother sovereign from prison was undoubtedly a
+generous and chivalrous undertaking. But the spirit and generosity would
+not have been less, if the policy had been more profound and more
+comprehensive,--that is, if it had taken in those considerations and
+those persons by whom, and, in some measure, for whom, monarchy exists.
+This would become a bottom for a system of solid and permanent policy,
+and of operations conformable to that system.
+
+The same fruitful error was the cause why nothing was done to impress
+the people of France (so far as we can at all consider the inhabitants
+of France as a people) with an idea that the government was ever to be
+really French, or indeed anything else than the nominal government of a
+monarch, a monarch absolute as over them, but whose sole support was to
+arise from foreign potentates, and who was to be kept on his throne by
+German forces,--in short, that the king of France was to be a viceroy to
+the Emperor and the king of Prussia.
+
+It was the first time that foreign powers, interfering in the concerns
+of a nation divided into parties, have thought proper to thrust wholly
+out of their councils, to postpone, to discountenance, to reject, and,
+in a manner, to disgrace, the party whom those powers came to support.
+The single person of a king cannot be a party. Woe to the king who is
+himself his party! The royal party, with the king or his representatives
+at its head, is the _royal cause_. Foreign powers have hitherto chosen
+to give to such wars as this the appearance of a civil contest, and not
+that of an hostile invasion. When the Spaniards, in the sixteenth
+century, sent aids to the chiefs of the League, they appeared as allies
+to that league, and to the imprisoned king (the Cardinal de Bourbon)
+which that league had set up. When the Germans came to the aid of the
+Protestant princes, in the same series of civil wars, they came as
+allies. When the English came to the aid of Henry the Fourth, they
+appeared as allies to that prince. So did the French always, when they
+intermeddled in the affairs of Germany: they came to aid a party there.
+When the English and Dutch intermeddled in the succession of Spain, they
+appeared as allies to the Emperor, Charles the Sixth. In short, the
+policy has been as uniform as its principles were obvious to an ordinary
+eye.
+
+According to all the old principles of law and policy, a regency ought
+to have been appointed by the French princes of the blood, nobles, and
+parliaments, and then recognized by the combined powers. Fundamental law
+and ancient usage, as well as the clear reason of the thing, have always
+ordained it during an imprisonment of the king of France: as in the case
+of John, and of Francis the First. A monarchy ought not to be left a
+moment without a representative having an interest in the succession.
+The orders of the state ought also to have been recognized in those
+amongst whom alone they existed in freedom, that is, in the emigrants.
+
+Thus, laying down a firm foundation on the recognition of the
+authorities of the kingdom of France, according to Nature and to its
+fundamental laws, and not according to the novel and inconsiderate
+principles of the usurpation which the united powers were come to
+extirpate, the king of Prussia and the Emperor, as allies of the ancient
+kingdom of France, would have proceeded with dignity, first, to free the
+monarch, if possible,--if not, to secure the monarchy as principal in
+the design; and in order to avoid all risks to that great object, (the
+object of other ages than the present, and of other countries than that
+of France,) they would of course avoid proceeding with more haste or in
+a different manner than what the nature of such an object required.
+
+Adopting this, the only rational system, the rational mode of proceeding
+upon it was to commence with an effective siege of Lisle, which the
+French generals must have seen taken before their faces, or be forced to
+fight. A plentiful country of friends, from whence to draw supplies,
+would have been behind them; a plentiful country of enemies, from whence
+to force supplies, would have been before them. Good towns were always
+within reach to deposit their hospitals and magazines. The march from
+Lisle to Paris is through a less defensible country, and the distance is
+hardly so great as from Longwy to Paris.
+
+If the _old_ politic and military ideas had governed, the advanced guard
+would have been formed of those who best knew the country and had some
+interest in it, supported by some of the best light troops and light
+artillery, whilst the grand solid body of an army disciplined to
+perfection proceeded leisurely, and in close connection with all its
+stores, provisions, and heavy cannon, to support the expedite body in
+case of misadventure, or to improve and complete its success.
+
+The direct contrary of all this was put in practice. In consequence of
+the original sin of this project, the army of the French princes was
+everywhere thrown into the rear, and no part of it brought forward to
+the last moment, the time of the commencement of the secret negotiation.
+This naturally made an ill impression on the people, and furnished an
+occasion for the rebels at Paris to give out that the faithful subjects
+of the king were distrusted, despised, and abhorred by his allies. The
+march was directed through a skirt of Lorraine, and thence into a part
+of Champagne, the Duke of Brunswick leaving all the strongest places
+behind him,--leaving also behind him the strength of his artillery,--and
+by this means giving a superiority to the French, in the only way in
+which the present France is able to oppose a German force.
+
+In consequence of the adoption of those false politics, which turned
+everything on the king's sole and single person, the whole plan of the
+war was reduced to nothing but a _coup de main_, in order to set that
+prince at liberty. If that failed, everything was to be given up.
+
+The scheme of a _coup de main_ might (under favorable circumstances) be
+very fit for a partisan at the head of a light corps, by whose failure
+nothing material would be deranged. But for a royal army of eighty
+thousand men, headed by a king in person, who was to march an hundred
+and fifty miles through an enemy's country,--surely, this was a plan
+unheard of.
+
+Although this plan was not well chosen, and proceeded upon principles
+altogether ill-judged and impolitic, the superiority of the military
+force might in a great degree have supplied the defects, and furnished a
+corrective to the mistakes. The greater probability was, that the Duke
+of Brunswick would make his way to Paris over the bellies of the rabble
+of drunkards, robbers, assassins, rioters, mutineers, and half-grown
+boys, under the ill-obeyed command of a theatrical, vaporing, reduced
+captain of cavalry, who opposed that great commander and great army.
+But--_Diis aliter visum_. He began to treat,--the winds blew and the
+rains beat,--the house fell, because it was built upon sand,--and great
+was the fall thereof. This march was not an exact copy of either of the
+two marches made by the Duke of Parma into France.
+
+There is some secret. Sickness and weather may defeat an army pursuing a
+wrong plan: not that I believe the sickness to have been so great as it
+has been reported; but there is a great deal of superfluous humiliation
+in this business, a perfect prodigality of disgrace. Some advantage,
+real or imaginary, must compensate to a great sovereign and to a great
+general for so immense a loss of reputation. Longwy, situated as it is,
+might (one should think) be evacuated without a capitulation with a
+republic just proclaimed by the king of Prussia as an usurping and
+rebellious body. He was not far from Luxembourg. He might have taken
+away the obnoxious French in his flight. It does not appear to have been
+necessary that those magistrates who declared for their own king, on the
+faith and under the immediate protection of the king of Prussia, should
+be delivered over to the gallows. It was not necessary that the
+emigrant nobility and gentry who served with the king of Prussia's army,
+under his immediate command, should be excluded from the cartel, and
+given up to be hanged as rebels. Never was so gross and so cruel a
+breach of the public faith, not with an enemy, but with a friend.
+Dumouriez has dropped very singular hints. Custine has spoken out more
+broadly. These accounts have never been contradicted. They tend to make
+an eternal rupture between the powers. The French have given out, that
+the Duke of Brunswick endeavored to negotiate some name and place for
+the captive king, amongst the murderers and proscribers of those who
+have lost their all for his cause. Even this has not been denied.
+
+It is singular, and, indeed, a thing, under all its circumstances,
+inconceivable, that everything should by the Emperor be abandoned to the
+king of Prussia. That monarch was considered as principal. In the nature
+of things, as well as in his position with regard to the war, he was
+only an ally, and a new ally, with crossing interests in many
+particulars, and of a policy rather uncertain. At best, and supposing
+him to act with the greatest fidelity, the Emperor and the Empire to him
+must be but secondary objects. Countries out of Germany must affect him
+in a still more remote manner. France, other than from the fear of its
+doctrinal principles, can to him be no object at all. Accordingly, the
+Rhine, Sardinia, and the Swiss are left to their fate. The king of
+Prussia has no _direct_ and immediate concern with France;
+_consequentially_, to be sure, a great deal: but the Emperor touches
+France _directly_ in many parts; he is a near neighbor to Sardinia, by
+his Milanese territories; he borders on Switzerland; Cologne, possessed
+by his uncle, is between Mentz, Treves, and the king of Prussia's
+territories on the Lower Rhine. The Emperor is the natural guardian of
+Italy and Germany,--the natural balance against the ambition of France,
+whether republican or monarchical. His ministers and his generals,
+therefore, ought to have had their full share in every material
+consultation,--which I suspect they had not. If he has no minister
+capable of plans of policy which comprehend the superintendency of a
+war, or no general with the least of a political head, things have been
+as they must be. However, in all the parts of this strange proceeding
+there must be a secret.
+
+It is probably known to ministers. I do not mean to penetrate into it.
+My speculations on this head must be only conjectural. If the king of
+Prussia, under the pretext or on the reality of some information
+relative to ill practice on the part of the court of Vienna, takes
+advantage of his being admitted into the heart of the Emperor's
+dominions in the character of an ally, afterwards to join the common
+enemy, and to enable France to seize the Netherlands, and to reduce and
+humble the Empire, I cannot conceive, upon every principle, anything
+more alarming for this country, separately, and as a part of the general
+system. After all, we may be looking in vain in the regions of politics
+for what is only the operation of temper and character upon accidental
+circumstances. But I never knew accidents to decide the _whole_ of any
+great business; and I never knew temper to act, but that some system of
+politics agreeable to its peculiar spirit was blended with it,
+strengthened it, and got strength from it. Therefore the politics can
+hardly be put out of the question.
+
+Great mistakes have been committed: at least I hope so. If there have
+been none, the case in future is desperate. I have endeavored to point
+out some of those which have occurred to me, and most of them very
+early.
+
+Whatever may be the cause of the present state of things, on a full and
+mature view and comparison of the historical matter, of the transactions
+that have passed before our eyes, and of the future prospect, I think I
+am authorized to form an opinion without the least hesitation.
+
+That there never was, nor is, nor ever will be, nor ever can be, the
+least rational hope of making an impression on France by any Continental
+powers, if England is not a part, is not the directing part, is not the
+soul, of the whole confederacy against it.
+
+This, so far as it is an anticipation of future, is grounded on the
+whole tenor of former history. In speculation it is to be accounted for
+on two plain principles.
+
+First, That Great Britain is likely to take a more fair and equal part
+in the alliance than the other powers, as having less of crossing
+interest or perplexed discussion with any of them.
+
+Secondly, Because France cannot have to deal with any of these
+Continental sovereigns, without their feeling that nation, as a maritime
+power, greatly superior to them all put together,--a force which is only
+to be kept in check by England.
+
+England, except during the eccentric aberration of Charles the Second,
+has always considered it as her duty and interest to take her place in
+such a confederacy. Her chief disputes must ever be with France; and if
+England shows herself indifferent and unconcerned, when these powers are
+combined against the enterprises of France, she is to look with
+certainty for the same indifference on the part of these powers, when
+she may be at war with that nation. This will tend totally to disconnect
+this kingdom from the system of Europe, in which if she ought not rashly
+to meddle, she ought never wholly to withdraw herself from it.
+
+If, then, England is put in motion, whether by a consideration of the
+general safety, or of the influence of France upon Spain, or by the
+probable operations of this new system on the Netherlands, it must
+embrace in its project the whole as much as possible, and the part it
+takes ought to be as much as possible a leading and presiding part.
+
+I therefore beg leave to suggest,--
+
+First, That a minister should forthwith be sent to Spain, to encourage
+that court to persevere in the measures they have adopted against
+France,--to make a close alliance and guaranty of possessions, as
+against France, with that power,--and, whilst the formality of the
+treaty is pending, to assure them of our protection, postponing any
+lesser disputes to another occasion.
+
+Secondly, To assure the court of Vienna of our desire to enter into our
+ancient connections with her, and to support her effectually in the war
+which France has declared against her.
+
+Thirdly, To animate the Swiss and the king of Sardinia to take a part,
+as the latter once did on the principles of the Grand Alliance.
+
+Fourthly, To put an end to our disputes with Russia, and mutually to
+forget the past. I believe, if she is satisfied of this oblivion, she
+will return to her old sentiments with regard to this court, and will
+take a more forward part in this business than any other power.
+
+Fifthly, If what has happened to the king of Prussia is only in
+consequence of a sort of panic or of levity, and an indisposition to
+persevere long in one design, the support and concurrence of Russia will
+tend to steady him, and to give him resolution. If he be ill-disposed,
+with that power on his back, and without one ally in Europe, I conceive
+he will not be easily led to derange the plan.
+
+Sixthly, To use the joint influence of our court, and of our then allied
+powers, with Holland, to arm as fully as she can by sea, and to make
+some addition by land.
+
+Seventhly, To acknowledge the king of France's next brother (assisted by
+such a council and such representatives of the kingdom of France as
+shall be thought proper) regent of France, and to send that prince a
+small supply of money, arms, clothing, and artillery.
+
+Eighthly, To give force to these negotiations, an instant naval armament
+ought to be adopted,--one squadron for the Mediterranean, another for
+the Channel. The season is convenient,--most of our trade being, as I
+take it, at home.
+
+After speaking of a plan formed upon the ancient policy and practice of
+Great Britain and of Europe, to which this is exactly conformable in
+every respect, with no deviation whatsoever, and which is, I conceive,
+much more strongly called for by the present circumstances than by any
+former, I must take notice of another, which I hear, but cannot persuade
+myself to believe, is in agitation. This plan is grounded upon the very
+same view of things which is here stated,--namely, the danger to all
+sovereigns, and old republics, from the prevalence of French power and
+influence.
+
+It is, to form a congress of all the European powers for the purpose of
+a general defensive alliance, the objects of which should be,--
+
+First, The recognition of this new republic, (which they well know is
+formed on the principles and for the declared purpose of the destruction
+of all kings,) and, whenever the heads of this new republic shall
+consent to release the royal captives, to make peace with them.
+
+Secondly, To defend themselves with their joint forces against the open
+aggressions, or the secret practices, intrigues, and writings, which are
+used to propagate the French principles.
+
+It is easy to discover from whose shop this commodity comes. It is so
+perfectly absurd, that, if that or anything like it meets with a serious
+entertainment in any cabinet, I should think it the effect of what is
+called a judicial blindness, the certain forerunner of the destruction
+of all crowns and kingdoms.
+
+An _offensive_ alliance, in which union is preserved by common efforts
+in common dangers against a common active enemy, may preserve its
+consistency, and may produce for a given time some considerable effect:
+though this is not easy, and for any very long period can hardly be
+expected. But a _defensive_ alliance, formed of long discordant
+interests, with innumerable discussions existing, having no one pointed
+object to which it is directed, which is to be held together with an
+unremitted vigilance, as watchful in peace as in war, is so evidently
+impossible, is such a chimera, is so contrary to human nature and the
+course of human affairs, that I am persuaded no person in his senses,
+except those whose country, religion, and sovereign are deposited in the
+French funds, could dream of it. There is not the slightest petty
+boundary suit, no difference between a family arrangement, no sort of
+misunderstanding or cross purpose between the pride and etiquette of
+courts, that would not entirely disjoint this sort of alliance, and
+render it as futile in its effects as it is feeble in its principle. But
+when we consider that the main drift of that defensive alliance must be
+to prevent the operation of intrigue, mischievous doctrine, and evil
+example, in the success of unprovoked rebellion, regicide, and
+systematic assassination and massacre, the absurdity of such a scheme
+becomes quite lamentable. Open the communication with France, and the
+rest follows of course.
+
+How far the interior circumstances of this country support what is said
+with regard to its foreign polities must be left to bettor judgments. I
+am sure the French faction here is infinitely strengthened by the
+success of the assassins on the other side of the water. This evil in
+the heart of Europe must be extirpated from that centre, or no part of
+the circumference can be free from the mischief which radiates from it,
+and which will spread, circle beyond circle, in spite of all the little
+defensive precautions which can be employed against it.
+
+I do not put my name to these hints submitted to the consideration of
+reflecting men. It is of too little importance to suppose the name of
+the writer could add any weight to the state of things contained in this
+paper. That state of things presses irresistibly on my judgment, and it
+lies, and has long lain, with a heavy weight upon my mind. I cannot
+think that what is done in France is beneficial to the human race. If it
+were, the English Constitution ought no more to stand against it than
+the ancient Constitution of the kingdom in which the new system
+prevails. I thought it the duty of a man not unconcerned for the public,
+and who is a faithful subject to the king, respectfully to submit this
+state of facts, at this new step in the progress of the French arms and
+politics, to his Majesty, to his confidential servants, and to those
+persons who, though not in office, by their birth, their rank, their
+fortune, their character, and their reputation for wisdom, seem to me to
+have a large stake in the stability of the ancient order of things.
+
+BATH, November 5, 1792.
+
+
+
+
+REMARKS
+
+ON
+
+THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES
+
+WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE.
+
+BEGUN IN OCTOBER, 1793.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES.
+
+
+As the proposed manifesto is, I understand, to promulgate to the world
+the general idea of a plan for the regulation of a great kingdom, and
+through the regulation of that kingdom probably to decide the fate of
+Europe forever, nothing requires a more serious deliberation with regard
+to the time of making it, the circumstances of those to whom it is
+addressed, and the matter it is to contain.
+
+As to the time, (with the due diffidence in my own opinion,) I have some
+doubts whether it is not rather unfavorable to the issuing any manifesto
+with regard to the intended government of France, and for this reason:
+that it is (upon the principal point of our attack) a time of calamity
+and defeat. Manifestoes of this nature are commonly made when the army
+of some sovereign enters into the enemy's country in great force, and
+under the imposing authority of that force employs menaces towards those
+whom he desires to awe, and makes promises to those whom he wishes to
+engage in his favor.
+
+As to a party, what has been done at Toulon leaves no doubt that the
+party for which we declare must be that which substantially declares for
+royalty as the basis of the government.
+
+As to menaces, nothing, in my opinion, can contribute more effectually
+to lower any sovereign in the public estimation, and to turn his
+defeats into disgraces, than to threaten in a moment of impotence. The
+second manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick appeared, therefore, to the
+world to be extremely ill-timed. However, if his menaces in that
+manifesto had been seasonable, they were not without an object. Great
+crimes then apprehended, and great evils then impending, were to be
+prevented. At this time, every act which early menaces might possibly
+have _prevented_ is done. Punishment and vengeance alone remain,--and
+God forbid that they should ever be forgotten! But the punishment of
+enormous offenders will not be the less severe, or the less exemplary,
+when it is not threatened at a moment when we have it not in our power
+to execute our threats. On the other side, to pass by proceedings of
+such a nefarious nature, in all kinds, as have been carried on in
+France, without any signification of resentment, would be in effect to
+ratify them, and thus to become accessaries after the fact in all those
+enormities which it is impossible to repeat or think of without horror.
+An absolute silence appears to me to be at this time the only safe
+course.
+
+The second usual matter of manifestoes is composed of _promises_ to
+those who cooperate with our designs. These promises depend in a great
+measure, if not wholly, on the apparent power of the person who makes
+them to fulfil his engagements. A time of disaster on the part of the
+promiser seems not to add much to the dignity of his person or to the
+effect of his offers. One would hardly wish to seduce any unhappy
+persons to give the last provocation to a merciless tyranny, without
+very effectual means of protecting them.
+
+The time, therefore, seems (as I said) not favorable to a general
+manifesto, on account of the unpleasant situation of our affairs.
+However, I write in a changing scene, when a measure very imprudent
+to-day may be very proper to-morrow. Some great victory may alter the
+whole state of the question, so far as it regards our _power_ of
+fulfilling any engagement we may think fit to make.
+
+But there is another consideration of far greater importance for all the
+purposes of this manifesto. The public, and the parties concerned, will
+look somewhat to the disposition of the promiser indicated by his
+conduct, as well as to his power of fulfilling his engagements.
+
+Speaking of this nation as part of a general combination of powers, are
+we quite sure that others can believe us to be sincere, or that we can
+be even fully assured of our own sincerity, in the protection of those
+who shall risk their lives for the restoration of monarchy in France,
+when the world sees that those who are the natural, legal,
+constitutional representatives of that monarchy, if it has any, have not
+had their names so much as mentioned in any one public act, that in no
+way whatever are their persons brought forward, that their rights have
+not been expressly or implicitly allowed, and that they have not been in
+the least consulted on the important interests they have at stake? On
+the contrary, they are kept in a state of obscurity and contempt, and in
+a degree of indigence at times bordering on beggary. They are, in fact,
+little less prisoners in the village of Hanau than the royal captives
+who are locked up in the tower of the Temple. What is this, according to
+the common indications which guide the judgment of mankind, but, under
+the pretext of protecting the crown of France, in reality to usurp it?
+
+I am also very apprehensive that there are other circumstances which
+must tend to weaken the force of our declarations. No partiality to the
+allied powers can prevent great doubts on the fairness of our intentions
+as supporters of the crown of France, or of the true principles of
+legitimate government in opposition to Jacobinism, when it is visible
+that the two leading orders of the state of France, who are now the
+victims, and who must always be the true and sole supports of monarchy
+in that country, are, at best, in some of their descriptions, considered
+only as objects of charity, and others are, when employed, employed only
+as mercenary soldiers,--that they are thrown back out of all reputable
+service, are in a manner disowned, considered as nothing in their own
+cause, and never once consulted in the concerns of their king, their
+country, their laws, their religion, and their property. We even affect
+to be ashamed of them. In all our proceedings we carefully avoid the
+appearance of being of a party with them. In all our ideas of treaty we
+do not regard them as what they are, the two leading orders of the
+kingdom. If we do not consider them in that light, we must recognize the
+savages by whom they have been ruined, and who have declared war upon
+Europe, whilst they disgrace and persecute human nature, and openly defy
+the God that made them, as real proprietors of France.
+
+I am much afraid, too, that we shall scarcely be believed fair
+supporters of lawful monarchy against Jacobinism, so long as we continue
+to make and to observe cartels with the Jacobins, and on fair terms
+exchange prisoners with them, whilst the Royalists, invited to our
+standard, and employed under our public faith against the Jacobins, if
+taken by that savage faction, are given up to the executioner without
+the least attempt whatsoever at reprisal. For this we are to look at the
+king of Prussia's conduct, compared with his manifestoes about a
+twelvemonth ago. For this we are to look at the capitulations of Mentz
+and Valenciennes, made in the course of the present campaign. By those
+two capitulations the Christian Royalists were excluded from any
+participation in the cause of the combined powers. They were considered
+as the outlaws of Europe. Two armies were in effect sent against them.
+One of those armies (that which surrendered Mentz) was very near
+overpowering the Christians of Poitou, and the other (that which
+surrendered at Valenciennes) has actually crushed the people whom
+oppression and despair had driven to resistance at Lyons, has massacred
+several thousands of them in cold blood, pillaged the whole substance of
+the place, and pursued their rage to the very houses, condemning that
+noble city to desolation, in the unheard-of manner we have seen it
+devoted.
+
+It is, then, plain, by a conduct which overturns a thousand
+declarations, that we take the Royalists of France only as an instrument
+of some convenience in a temporary hostility with the Jacobins, but that
+we regard those atheistic and murderous barbarians as the _bona fide_
+possessors of the soil of France. It appears, at least, that we consider
+them as a fair government _de facto_, if not _de jure_, a resistance to
+which, in favor of the king of Prance, by any man who happened to be
+born within that country, might equitably be considered by other
+nations as the crime of treason.
+
+For my part, I would sooner put my hand into the fire than sign an
+invitation to oppressed men to fight under my standard, and then, on
+every sinister event of war, cruelly give them up to be punished as the
+basest of traitors, as long as I had one of the common enemy in my hands
+to be put to death in order to secure those under my protection, and to
+vindicate the common honor of sovereigns. We hear nothing of this kind
+of security in favor of those whom we invite to the support of our
+cause. Without it, I am not a little apprehensive that the proclamations
+of the combined powers might (contrary to their intention, no doubt) be
+looked upon as frauds, and cruel traps laid for their lives.
+
+So far as to the correspondence between our declarations and our
+conduct: let the declaration be worded as it will, the conduct is the
+practical comment by which, and which alone, it can be understood. This
+conduct, acting on the declaration, leaves a monarchy without a monarch,
+and without any representative or trustee for the monarch and the
+monarchy. It supposes a kingdom without states and orders, a territory
+without proprietors, and faithful subjects who are to be left to the
+fate of rebels and traitors.
+
+The affair of the establishment of a government is a very difficult
+undertaking for foreign powers to act in as _principals_; though as
+_auxiliaries and mediators_ it has been not at all unusual, and may be a
+measure full of policy and humanity and true dignity.
+
+The first thing we ought to do, supposing us not giving the law as
+conquerors, but acting as friendly powers applied to for counsel and
+assistance in the settlement of a distracted country, is well to
+consider the composition, nature, and temper of its objects, and
+particularly of those who actually do or who ought to exercise power in
+that state. It is material to know who they are, and how constituted,
+whom we consider as _the people of France_.
+
+The next consideration is, through whom our arrangements are to be made,
+and on what principles the government we propose is to be established.
+
+The first question on the people is this: Whether we are to consider the
+individuals _now actually in France, numerically taken and arranged into
+Jacobin clubs_, as the body politic, constituting the nation of
+France,--or whether we consider the original individual proprietors of
+lands, expelled since the Revolution, and the states and the bodies
+politic, such as the colleges of justice called Parliaments, the
+corporations, noble and not noble, of bailliages and towns and cities,
+the bishops and the clergy, as the true constituent parts of the nation,
+and forming the legally organized parts of the people of France.
+
+In this serious concern it is very necessary that we should have the
+most distinct ideas annexed to the terms we employ; because it is
+evident that an abuse of the term _people_ has been the original,
+fundamental cause of those evils, the cure of which, by war and policy,
+is the present object of all the states of Europe.
+
+If we consider the acting power in Prance, in any legal construction of
+public law, as the people, the question is decided in favor of the
+republic one and indivisible. But we have decided for monarchy. If so,
+we have a king and subjects; and that king and subjects have rights and
+privileges which ought to be supported at home: for I do not suppose
+that the government of that kingdom can or ought to be regulated by the
+arbitrary mandate of a foreign confederacy.
+
+As to the faction exercising power, to suppose that monarchy can be
+supported by principled regicides, religion by professed atheists, order
+by clubs of Jacobins, property by committees of proscription, and
+jurisprudence by revolutionary tribunals, is to be sanguine in a degree
+of which I am incapable. On them I decide, for myself, that these
+persons are not the legal corporation of France, and that it is not with
+them we can (if we would) settle the government of France.
+
+Since, then, we have decided for monarchy in that kingdom, we ought also
+to settle who is to be the monarch, who is to be the guardian of a
+minor, and how the monarch and monarchy is to be modified and supported;
+if the monarch is to be elected, who the electors are to be,--if
+hereditary, what order is established, corresponding with an hereditary
+monarchy, and fitted to maintain it; who are to modify it in its
+exercise; who are to restrain its powers, where they ought to be
+limited, to strengthen them, where they are to be supported, or, to
+enlarge them, where the object, the time, and the circumstances may
+demand their extension. These are things which, in the outline, ought to
+be made distinct and clear; for if they are not, (especially with regard
+to those great points, who are the proprietors of the soil, and what is
+the corporation of the kingdom,) there is nothing to hinder the complete
+establishment of a Jacobin republic, (such as that formed in 1790 and
+1791,) under the name of a _Democratie Royale_. Jacobinism does not
+consist in the having or not having a certain pageant under the name of
+a king, but "in taking the people as equal individuals, without any
+corporate name or description, without attention to property, without
+division of powers, and forming the government of delegates from a
+number of men so constituted,--in destroying or confiscating property,
+and bribing the public creditors, or the poor, with the spoils, now of
+one part of the community, now of another, without regard to
+prescription or possession."
+
+I hope no one can be so very blind as to imagine that monarchy can be
+acknowledged and supported in France upon any other basis than that of
+its property, _corporate and individual_,--or that it can enjoy a
+moment's permanence or security upon any scheme of things which sets
+aside all the ancient corporate capacities and distinctions of the
+kingdom, and subverts the whole fabric of its ancient laws and usages,
+political, civil, and religious, to introduce a system founded on the
+supposed _rights of man, and the absolute equality of the human race_.
+Unless, therefore, we declare clearly and distinctly in favor of the
+_restoration_ of property, and confide to the hereditary property of the
+kingdom the limitation and qualifications of its hereditary monarchy,
+the blood and treasure of Europe is wasted for the establishment of
+Jacobinism in France. There is no doubt that Danton and Robespierre,
+Chaumette and Barere, that Condorcet, that Thomas Paine, that La
+Fayette, and the ex-Bishop of Autun, the _Abbe Gregoire_, with all the
+gang of the Sieyeses, the Henriots, and the Santerres, if they could
+secure themselves in the fruits of their rebellion and robbery, would
+be perfectly indifferent, whether the most unhappy of all infants, whom
+by the lessons of the shoemaker, his governor and guardian, they are
+training up studiously and methodically to be an idiot, or, what is
+worse, the most wicked and base of mankind, continues to receive his
+civic education in the Temple or the Tuileries, whilst they, and such as
+they, really govern the kingdom.
+
+It cannot be too often and too strongly inculcated, that monarchy and
+property must, in France, go together, or neither can exist. To think of
+the possibility of the existence of a permanent and hereditary royalty,
+_where nothing else is hereditary or permanent in point either of
+personal or corporate dignity_, is a ruinous chimera, worthy of the Abbe
+Sieyes, and those wicked fools, his associates, who usurped power by the
+murders of the 19th of July and the 6th of October, 1789, and who
+brought forth the monster which they called _Democratie Royale_, or the
+Constitution.
+
+I believe that most thinking men would prefer infinitely some sober and
+sensible form of a republic, in which there was no mention at all of a
+king, but which held out some reasonable security to property, life, and
+personal freedom, to a scheme of tilings like this _Democratie Royale,_
+founded on impiety, immorality, fraudulent currencies, the confiscation
+of innocent individuals, and the pretended rights of man,--and which, in
+effect, excluding the whole body of the nobility, clergy, and landed
+property of a great nation, threw everything into the hands of a
+desperate set of obscure adventurers, who led to every mischief a blind
+and bloody band of _sans-culottes._ At the head, or rather at the tail,
+of this system was a miserable pageant, as its ostensible instrument,
+who was to be treated with every species of indignity, till the moment
+when he was conveyed from the palace of contempt to the dungeon of
+horror, and thence led by a brewer of his capital, through the applauses
+of an hired, frantic, drunken multitude, to lose his head upon a
+scaffold.
+
+This is the Constitution, or _Democratie Royale_; and this is what
+infallibly would be again set up in France, to run exactly the same
+round, if the predominant power should so far be forced to submit as to
+receive the name of a king, leaving it to the Jacobins (that is, to
+those who have subverted royalty and destroyed property) to modify the
+one and to distribute the other as spoil. By the Jacobins I mean
+indiscriminately the Brissotins and the Maratists, knowing no sort of
+difference between them. As to any other party, none exists in that
+unhappy country. The Royalists (those in Poitou excepted) are banished
+and extinguished; and as to what they call the Constitutionalists, or
+_Democrates Royaux_, they never had an existence of the smallest degree
+of power, consideration, or authority, nor, if they differ at all from
+the rest of the atheistic banditti, (which from their actions and
+principles I have no reason to think,) were they ever any other than the
+temporary tools and instruments of the more determined, able, and
+systematic regicides. Several attempts have been made to support this
+chimerical _Democratie Royale_: the first was by La Fayette, the last by
+Dumouriez: they tended only to show that this absurd project had no
+party to support it. The Girondists under Wimpfen, and at Bordeaux, have
+made some struggle. The Constitutionalists never could make any, and
+for a very plain reason: they were _leaders in rebellion_. All their
+principles and their whole scheme of government being republican, they
+could never excite the smallest degree of enthusiasm in favor of the
+unhappy monarch, whom they had rendered contemptible, to make him the
+executive officer in their new commonwealth. They only appeared as
+traitors to their own Jacobin cause, not as faithful adherents to the
+king.
+
+In an address to France, in an attempt to treat with it, or in
+considering any scheme at all relative to it, it is impossible we should
+mean the geographical, we must always mean the moral and political
+country. I believe we shall be in a great error, if we act upon an idea
+that there exists in that country any organized body of men who might be
+willing to treat on equitable terms for the restoration of their
+monarchy, but who are nice in balancing those terms, and who would
+accept such as to them appeared reasonable, but who would quietly submit
+to the predominant power, if they were not gratified in the fashion of
+some constitution which suited with their fancies.
+
+[Sidenote: No individual influence, civil or military.]
+
+I take the state of France to be totally different. I know of no such
+body, and of no such party. So far from a combination of twenty men,
+(always excepting Poitou,) I never yet heard that _a single man_ could
+be named of sufficient force or influence to answer for another man,
+much less for the smallest district in the country, or for the most
+incomplete company of soldiers in the army. We see every man that the
+Jacobins choose to apprehend taken up in his village or in his house,
+and conveyed to prison without the least shadow of resistance,--_and
+this indifferently_, whether he is suspected of Royalism, or Federalism,
+Moderantism, Democracy Royal, or any other of the names of faction which
+they start by the hour. What is much more astonishing, (and, if we did
+not carefully attend to the genius and circumstances of this Revolution,
+must indeed appear incredible,) all their most accredited military men,
+from a generalissimo to a corporal, may be arrested, (each in the midst
+of his camp, and covered with the laurels of accumulated victories,)
+tied neck and heels, thrown into a cart, and sent to Paris to be
+disposed of at the pleasure of the Revolutionary tribunals.
+
+[Sidenote: No corporations of justice, commerce, or police.]
+
+As no individuals have power and influence, so there are no
+corporations, whether of lawyers or burghers, existing. The Assembly
+called Constituent, destroyed all such institutions very early. The
+primary and secondary assemblies, by their original constitution, were
+to be dissolved when they answered the purpose of electing the
+magistrates, and were expressly disqualified from performing any
+corporate act whatsoever. The transient magistrates have been almost all
+removed before the expiration of their terms, and new have been lately
+imposed upon the people without the form or ceremony of an election.
+These magistrates during their existence are put under, as all the
+executive authorities are from first to last, the popular societies
+(called Jacobin clubs) of the several countries, and this by an express
+order of the National Convention: it is even made a case of death to
+oppose or attack those clubs. They, too, have been lately subjected to
+an expurgatory scrutiny, to drive out from them everything savoring of
+what they call the crime of _moderantism_, of which offence, however,
+few were guilty. But as people began to take refuge from their
+persecutions amongst themselves, they have driven them from that last
+asylum.
+
+The state of France is perfectly simple. It consists of but two
+descriptions,--the oppressors and the oppressed.
+
+The first has the whole authority of the state in their hands,--all the
+arms, all the revenues of the public, all the confiscations of
+individuals and corporations. They have taken the lower sort from their
+occupations and have put them into pay, that they may form them into a
+body of janizaries to overrule and awe property. The heads of these
+wretches they never suffer to cool. They supply them with a food for
+fury varied by the day,--besides the sensual state of intoxication, from
+which they are rarely free. They have made the priests and people
+formally abjure the Divinity; they have estranged them from every civil,
+moral, and social, or even natural and instinctive sentiment, habit, and
+practice, and have rendered them systematically savages, to make it
+impossible for them to be the instruments of any sober and virtuous
+arrangement, or to be reconciled to any state of order, under any name
+whatsoever.
+
+The other description--_the oppressed_--are people of some property:
+they are the small relics of the persecuted landed interest; they are
+the burghers and the farmers. By the very circumstance of their being of
+some property, though numerous in some points of view, they cannot be
+very considerable as _a number_. In cities the nature of their
+occupations renders them domestic and feeble; in the country it
+confines them to their farm for subsistence. The national guards are all
+changed and reformed. Everything suspicious in the description of which
+they were composed is rigorously disarmed. Committees, called of
+vigilance and safety, are everywhere formed: a most severe and
+scrutinizing inquisition, far more rigid than anything ever known or
+imagined. Two persons cannot meet and confer without hazard to their
+liberty, and even to their lives. Numbers scarcely credible have been
+executed, and their property confiscated. At Paris, and in most other
+towns, the bread they buy is a daily dole,--which they cannot obtain
+without a daily ticket delivered to them by their masters. Multitudes of
+all ages and sexes are actually imprisoned. I have reason to believe
+that in France there are not, for various state crimes, so few as twenty
+thousand[33] actually in jail,--a large proportion of people of property
+in any state. If a father of a family should show any disposition to
+resist or to withdraw himself from their power, his wife and children
+are cruelly to answer for it. It is by means of these hostages that they
+keep the troops, which they force by masses (as they call it) into the
+field, true to their colors.
+
+Another of their resources is not to be forgotten. They have lately
+found a way of giving a sort of ubiquity to the supreme sovereign
+authority, which no monarch has been able yet to give to any
+representation of his.
+
+The commissioners of the National Convention, who are the members of the
+Convention itself, and really exercise all its powers, make continual
+circuits through every province, and visits to every army. There they
+supersede all the ordinary authorities, civil and military, and change
+and alter everything at their pleasure. So that, in effect, no
+deliberative capacity exists in any portion of the inhabitants.
+
+Toulon, republican in principle, having taken its decision _in a moment
+under the guillotine_, and before the arrival of these
+commissioners,--Toulon, being a place regularly fortified, and having in
+its bosom a navy in part highly discontented, has escaped, though by a
+sort of miracle: and it would not have escaped, if two powerful fleets
+had not been at the door, to give them not only strong, but prompt and
+immediate succor, especially as neither this nor any other seaport town
+in France can be depended on, from the peculiarly savage dispositions,
+manners, and connections among the lower sort of people in those places.
+This I take to be the true state of things in France, _so far as it
+regards any existing bodies, whether of legal or voluntary association,
+capable of acting or of treating in corps_.
+
+As to the oppressed _individuals_, they are many, and as discontented as
+men must be under the monstrous and complicated tyranny of all sorts
+with which they are crushed. They want no stimulus to throw off this
+dreadful yoke; but they do want, not manifestoes, which they have had
+even to surfeit, but real protection, force, and succor.
+
+The disputes and questions of men at their ease do not at all affect
+their minds, or ever can occupy the minds of men in their situation.
+These theories are long since gone by; they have had their day, and have
+done their mischief. The question is not between the rabble of systems,
+Fayettism, Condorcetism, Monarchism, or Democratism, or Federalism, on
+the one side, and the fundamental laws of France on the other,--or
+between all these systems amongst themselves. It is a controversy (weak,
+indeed, and unequal, on the one part) between the proprietor and the
+robber, between the prisoner and the jailer, between the neck and the
+guillotine. Four fifths of the French inhabitants would thankfully take
+protection from the emperor of Morocco, and would never trouble their
+heads about the abstract principles of the power by which they were
+snatched from imprisonment, robbery, and murder. But then these men can
+do little or nothing for themselves. They have no arms, nor magazines,
+nor chiefs, nor union, nor the possibility of these things within
+themselves. On the whole, therefore, I lay it down as a certainty, that
+in the Jacobins no change of mind is to be expected, and that no others
+in the territory of France have an independent and deliberative
+existence.
+
+The truth is, that France is out of itself,--the moral France is
+separated from the geographical. The master of the house is expelled,
+and the robbers are in possession. If we look for the _corporate people_
+of France, existing as corporate in the eye and intention of public law,
+(that corporate people, I mean, who are free to deliberate and to
+decide, and who have a capacity to treat and conclude,) they are in
+Flanders, and Germany, in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and England. There
+are all the princes of the blood, there are all the orders of the state,
+there are all the parliaments of the kingdom.
+
+This being, as I conceive, the true state of France, as it exists
+_territorially_, and as it exists _morally_, the question will be, with
+whom we are to concert our arrangements, and whom we are to use as our
+instruments in the reduction, in the pacification, and in the settlement
+of France. The work to be done must indicate the workmen. Supposing us
+to have national objects, we have two principal and one secondary. The
+first two are so intimately connected as not to be separated even in
+thought: the reestablishment of royalty, and the reestablishment of
+property. One would think it requires not a great deal of argument to
+prove that the most serious endeavors to restore royalty will be made by
+Royalists. Property will be most energetically restored by the ancient
+proprietors of that kingdom.
+
+When I speak of Royalists, I wish to be understood of those who were
+always such from principle. Every arm lifted up for royalty from the
+beginning was the arm of a man so principled. I do not think there are
+ten exceptions.
+
+The principled Royalists are certainly not of force to effect these
+objects by themselves. If they were, the operations of the present great
+combination would be wholly unnecessary. What I contend for is, that
+they should be consulted with, treated with, and employed; and that no
+foreigners whatsoever are either in interest so engaged, or in judgment
+and local knowledge so competent to answer all these purposes, as the
+natural proprietors of the country.
+
+Their number, for an exiled party, is also considerable. Almost the
+whole body of the landed proprietors of France, ecclesiastical and
+civil, have been steadily devoted to the monarchy. This body does not
+amount to less than seventy thousand,--a very great number in the
+composition of the respectable classes in any society. I am sure, that,
+if half that number of the same description were taken out of this
+country, it would leave hardly anything that I should call the people of
+England. On the faith of the Emperor and the king of Prussia, a body of
+ten thousand nobility on horseback, with the king's two brothers at
+their head, served with the king of Prussia in the campaign of 1792, and
+equipped themselves with the last shilling of their ruined fortunes and
+exhausted credit.[34] It is not now the question, how that great force
+came to be rendered useless and totally dissipated. I state it now, only
+to remark that a great part of the same force exists, and would act, if
+it were enabled. I am sure everything has shown us that in this war with
+France one Frenchman is worth twenty foreigners. La Vendee is a proof of
+this.
+
+If we wish to make an impression on the minds of any persons in France,
+or to persuade them to join our standard, it is impossible that they
+should not be more easily led, and more readily formed and disciplined,
+(civilly and martially disciplined,) by those who speak their language,
+who are acquainted with their manners, who are conversant with their
+usages and habits of thinking, and who have a local knowledge of their
+country, and some remains of ancient credit and consideration, than with
+a body congregated from all tongues and tribes. Where none of the
+respectable native interests are seen in the transaction, it is
+impossible that any declarations can convince those that are within, or
+those that are without, that anything else than some sort of hostility
+in the style of a conqueror is meant. At best, it will appear to such
+wavering persons, (if such there are,) whom we mean to fix with us, a
+choice whether they are to continue a prey to domestic banditti, or to
+be fought for as a carrion carcass and picked to the bone by all the
+crows and vultures of the sky. They may take protection, (and they
+would, I doubt not,) but they can have neither alacrity nor zeal in such
+a cause. When they see nothing but bands of English, Spaniards,
+Neapolitans, Sardinians, Prussians, Austrians, Hungarians, Bohemians,
+Slavonians, Croatians, _acting as principals_, it is impossible they
+should think we come with a beneficent design. Many of those fierce and
+barbarous people have already given proofs how little they regard any
+French party whatsoever. Some of these nations the people of France are
+jealous of: such are the English and the Spaniards;--others they
+despise: such are the Italians;--others they hate and dread: such are
+the German and Danubian powers. At best, such interposition of ancient
+enemies excites apprehension; but in this case, how can they suppose
+that we come to maintain their legitimate monarchy in a truly paternal
+French government, to protect their privileges, their laws, their
+religion, and their property, when they see us make use of no one person
+who has any interest in them, any knowledge of them, or any the least
+zeal for them? On the contrary, they see that we do not suffer any of
+those who have shown a zeal in that cause which we seem to make our own
+to come freely into any place in which the allies obtain any footing.
+
+If we wish to gain upon any people, it is right to see what it is they
+expect. We have had a proposal from the Royalists of Poitou. They are
+well entitled, after a bloody war maintained for eight months against
+all the powers of anarchy, to speak the sentiments of the Royalists of
+France. Do they desire us to exclude their princes, their clergy, their
+nobility? The direct contrary. They earnestly solicit that men of every
+one of these descriptions should be sent to them. They do not call for
+English, Austrian, or Prussian officers. They call for French emigrant
+officers. They call for the exiled priests. They have demanded the Comte
+d'Artois to appear at their head. These are the demands (quite natural
+demands) of those who are ready to follow the standard of monarchy.
+
+The great means, therefore, of restoring the monarchy, which we have
+made _the main object of the war_, is, to assist the dignity, the
+religion, and the property of France to repossess themselves of the
+means of their natural influence. This ought to be the primary object of
+all our politics and all our military operations. Otherwise everything
+will move in a preposterous order, and nothing but confusion and
+destruction will follow.
+
+I know that misfortune is not made to win respect from ordinary minds. I
+know that there is a leaning to prosperity, however obtained, and a
+prejudice in its favor. I know there is a disposition to hope something
+from the variety and inconstancy of villany, rather than from the
+tiresome uniformity of fixed principle. There have been, I admit,
+situations in which a guiding person or party might be gained over, and
+through him or them the whole body of a nation. For the hope of such a
+conversion, and of deriving advantage from enemies, it might be politic
+for a while to throw your friends into the shade. But examples drawn
+from history in occasions like the present will be found dangerously to
+mislead us. France has no resemblance to other countries which have
+undergone troubles and been purified by them. If France, Jacobinized as
+it has been for four full years, did contain any bodies of authority and
+disposition to treat with you, (most assuredly she does not,) such is
+the levity of those who have expelled everything respectable in their
+country, such their ferocity, their arrogance, their mutinous spirit,
+their habits of defying everything human and divine, that no engagement
+would hold with them for three months; nor, indeed, could they cohere
+together for any purpose of civilized society, if left as they now are.
+There must be a means, not only of breaking their strength within
+themselves, but of _civilizing_ them; and these two things must go
+together, before we can possibly treat with them, not only as a nation,
+but with any division of them. Descriptions of men of their own race,
+but better in rank, superior in property and decorum, of honorable,
+decent, and orderly habits, are absolutely necessary to bring them to
+such a frame as to qualify them so much as to come into contact with a
+civilized nation. A set of those ferocious savages with arms in their
+hands, left to themselves in one part of the country whilst you proceed
+to another, would break forth into outrages at least as bad as their
+former. They must, as fast as gained, (if ever they are gained,) be put
+under the guide, direction, and government of better Frenchmen than
+themselves, or they will instantly relapse into a fever of aggravated
+Jacobinism.
+
+We must not judge of other parts of France by the temporary submission
+of Toulon, with two vast fleets in its harbor, and a garrison far more
+numerous than all the inhabitants able to bear arms. If they were left
+to themselves, I am quite sure they would not retain their attachment to
+monarchy of any name for a single week.
+
+To administer the only cure for the unheard-of disorders of that undone
+country, I think it infinitely happy for us that God has given into our
+hands more effectual remedies than human contrivance could point out. We
+have in our bosom, and in the bosom of other civilized states, nearer
+forty than thirty thousand persons, providentially preserved, not only
+from the cruelty and violence, but from the contagion of the horrid
+practices, sentiments, and language of the Jacobins, and even sacredly
+guarded from the view of such abominable scenes. If we should obtain, in
+any considerable district, a footing in France, we possess an immense
+body of physicians and magistrates of the mind, whom we now know to be
+the most discreet, gentle, well-tempered, conciliatory, virtuous, and
+pious persons who in any order probably existed in the world. You will
+have a missioner of peace and order in every parish. Never was a wiser
+national economy than in the charity of the English and of other
+countries. Never was money better expended than in the maintenance of
+this body of civil troops for reestablishing order in France, and for
+thus securing its civilization to Europe. This means, if properly used,
+is of value inestimable.
+
+Nor is this corps of instruments of civilization confined to the first
+order of that state,--I mean the clergy. The allied powers possess also
+an exceedingly numerous, well-informed, sensible, ingenious,
+high-principled, and spirited body of cavaliers in the expatriated
+landed interest of France, as well qualified, at least, as I (who have
+been taught by time and experience to moderate my calculation of the
+expectancy of human abilities) ever expected to see in the body of any
+landed gentlemen and soldiers by their birth. France is well winnowed
+and sifted. Its virtuous men are, I believe, amongst the most virtuous,
+as its wicked are amongst the most abandoned upon earth. Whatever in the
+territory of France may be found to be in the middle between these must
+be attracted to the better part. This will be compassed, when every
+gentleman, everywhere being restored to his landed estate, each on his
+patrimonial ground, may join the clergy in reanimating the loyalty,
+fidelity, and religion of the people,--that these gentlemen proprietors
+of land may sort that people according to the trust they severally
+merit, that they may arm the honest and well-affected, and disarm and
+disable the factious and ill-disposed. No foreigner can make this
+discrimination nor these arrangements. The ancient corporations of
+burghers according to their several modes should be restored, and placed
+(as they ought to be) in the hands of men of gravity and property in the
+cities or bailliages, according to the proper constitutions of the
+commons or third estate of France. They will restrain and regulate the
+seditious rabble there, as the gentlemen will on their own estates. In
+this way, and _in this way alone_, the country (once broken in upon by
+foreign force well directed) may be gained and settled. It must be
+gained and settled by _itself_, and through the medium of its _own_
+native dignity and property. It is not honest, it is not decent, still
+less is it politic, for foreign powers themselves to attempt anything in
+this minute, internal, local detail, in which they could show nothing
+but ignorance, imbecility, confusion, and oppression. As to the prince
+who has a just claim to exercise the regency of France, like other men
+he is not without his faults and his defects. But faults or defects
+(always supposing them faults of common human infirmity) are not what in
+any country destroy a legal title to government. These princes are kept
+in a poor, obscure, country town of the king of Prussia's. Their
+reputation is entirely at the mercy of every calumniator. They cannot
+show themselves, they cannot explain themselves, as princes ought to do.
+After being well informed as any man here can be, I do not find that
+these blemishes in this eminent person are at all considerable, or that
+they at all affect a character which is full of probity, honor,
+generosity, and real goodness. In some points he has but too much
+resemblance to his unfortunate brother, who, with all his weaknesses,
+had a good understanding, and many parts of an excellent man and a good
+king. But Monsieur, without supposing the other deficient, (as he was
+not,) excels him in general knowledge, and in a sharp and keen
+observation, with something of a better address, and an happier mode of
+speaking and of writing. His conversation is open, agreeable, and
+informed; his manners gracious and princely. His brother, the Comte
+d'Artois, sustains still better the representation of his place. He is
+eloquent, lively, engaging in the highest degree, of a decided
+character, full of energy and activity. In a word, he is a brave,
+honorable, and accomplished cavalier. Their brethren of royalty, if they
+were true to their own cause and interest, instead of relegating these
+illustrious persons to an obscure town, would bring them forward in
+their courts and camps, and exhibit them to (what they would speedily
+obtain) the esteem, respect, and affection of mankind.
+
+[Sidenote: Objection made to the regent's endeavor to go to Spain.]
+
+As to their knocking at every door, (which seems to give offence,) can
+anything be more natural? Abandoned, despised, rendered in a manner
+outlaws by all the powers of Europe, who have treated their unfortunate
+brethren with all the giddy pride and improvident insolence of blind,
+unfeeling prosperity, who did not even send them a compliment of
+condolence on the murder of their brother and sister, in such a state is
+it to be wondered at, or blamed, that they tried every way, likely or
+unlikely, well or ill chosen, to get out of the horrible pit into which
+they are fallen, and that in particular they tried whether the princes
+of their own blood might at length be brought to think the cause of
+kings, and of kings of their race, wounded in the murder and exile of
+the branch of France, of as much importance as the killing of a brace of
+partridges? If they were absolutely idle, and only eat in sloth their
+bread of sorrow and dependence, they would be forgotten, or at best
+thought of as wretches unworthy of their pretensions, which they had
+done nothing to support. If they err from _our_ interests, what care has
+been taken to keep them in those interests? or what desire has ever
+been shown to employ them in any other way than as instruments of their
+own degradation, shame, and ruin?
+
+The Parliament of Paris, by whom the title of the regent is to be
+recognized, (not made,) according to the laws of the kingdom, is ready
+to recognize it, and to register it, if a place of meeting was given to
+them, which might be within their own jurisdiction, supposing that only
+locality was required for the exercise of their functions: for it is one
+of the advantages of monarchy to have no local seat. It may maintain its
+rights out of the sphere of its territorial jurisdiction, if other
+powers will suffer it.
+
+I am well apprised that the little intriguers, and whisperers, and
+self-conceited, thoughtless babblers, worse than either, run about to
+depreciate the fallen virtue of a great nation. But whilst they talk, we
+must make our choice,--they or the Jacobins. We have no other option. As
+to those who in the pride of a prosperity not obtained by their wisdom,
+valor, or industry, think so well of themselves, and of their own
+abilities and virtues, and so ill of other men, truth obliges me to say
+that they are not founded in their presumption concerning themselves,
+nor in their contempt of the French princes, magistrates, nobility, and
+clergy. Instead of inspiring me with dislike and distrust of the
+unfortunate, engaged with us in a common cause against our Jacobin
+enemy, they take away all my esteem for their own characters, and all my
+deference to their judgment.
+
+There are some few French gentlemen, indeed, who talk a language not
+wholly different from this jargon. Those whom I have in my eye I respect
+as gallant soldiers, as much as any one can do; but on their political
+judgment and prudence I have not the slightest reliance, nor on their
+knowledge of their own country, or of its laws and Constitution. They
+are, if not enemies, at least not friends, to the orders of their own
+state,--not to the princes, the clergy, or the nobility; they possess
+only an attachment to the monarchy, or rather to the persons of the late
+king and queen. In all other respects their conversation is Jacobin. I
+am afraid they, or some of them, go into the closets of ministers, and
+tell them that the affairs of France will be better arranged by the
+allied powers than by the landed proprietors of the kingdom, or by the
+princes who have a right to govern; and that, if any French are at all
+to be employed in the settlement of their country, it ought to be only
+those who have never declared any decided opinion, or taken any active
+part in the Revolution.[35]
+
+I suspect that the authors of this opinion are mere soldiers of fortune,
+who, though men of integrity and honor, would as gladly receive military
+rank from Russia, or Austria, or Prussia, as from the regent of France.
+Perhaps their not having as much importance at his court as they could
+wish may incline them to this strange imagination. Perhaps, having no
+property in old France, they are more indifferent about its restoration.
+Their language is certainly flattering to all ministers in all courts.
+We all are men; we all love to be told of the extent of our own power
+and our own faculties. If we love glory, we are jealous of partners, and
+afraid even of our own instruments. It is of all modes of flattery the
+most effectual, to be told that you can regulate the affairs of another
+kingdom better than its hereditary proprietors. It is formed to flatter
+the principle of conquest so natural to all men. It is this principle
+which is now making the partition of Poland. The powers concerned have
+been told by some perfidious Poles, and perhaps they believe, that their
+usurpation is a great benefit to the people, especially to the common
+people. However this may turn out with regard to Poland, I am quite sure
+that France could not be so well under a foreign direction as under that
+of the representatives of its own king and its own ancient estates.
+
+I think I have myself studied France as much as most of those whom the
+allied courts are likely to employ in such a work. I have likewise of
+myself as partial and as vain an opinion as men commonly have of
+themselves. But if I could command the whole military arm of Europe, I
+am sure that a bribe of the best province in that kingdom would not
+tempt me to intermeddle in their affairs, except in perfect concurrence
+and concert with the natural, legal interests of the country, composed
+of the ecclesiastical, the military, the several corporate bodies of
+justice and of burghership, making under a monarch (I repeat it again
+and again) _the French nation according to its fundamental
+Constitution_. No considerate statesman would undertake to meddle with
+it upon any other condition.
+
+The government of that kingdom is fundamentally monarchical. The public
+law of Europe has never recognized in it any other form of government.
+The potentates of Europe have, by that law, a right, an interest, and a
+duty to know with what government they are to treat, and what they are
+to admit into the federative society,--or, in other words, into the
+diplomatic republic of Europe. This right is clear and indisputable.
+
+What other and further interference they have a right to in the interior
+of the concerns of another people is a matter on which, as on every
+political subject, no very definite or positive rule can well be laid
+down. Our neighbors are men; and who will attempt to dictate the laws
+under which it is allowable or forbidden to take a part in the concerns
+of men, whether they are considered individually or in a collective
+capacity, whenever charity to them, or a care of my own safety, calls
+forth my activity? Circumstances perpetually variable, directing a moral
+prudence and discretion, the _general_ principles of which never vary,
+must alone prescribe a conduct fitting on such occasions. The latest
+casuists of public law are rather of a republican cast, and, in my mind,
+by no means so averse as they ought to be to a right in the people (a
+word which, ill defined, is of the most dangerous use) to make changes
+at their pleasure in the fundamental laws of their country. These
+writers, however, when a country is divided, leave abundant liberty for
+a neighbor to support any of the parties according to his choice.[36]
+This interference must, indeed, always be a right, whilst the privilege
+of doing good to others, and of averting from them every sort of evil,
+is a right: circumstances may render that right a duty. It depends
+wholly on this, whether it be a _bona fide_ charity to a party, and a
+prudent precaution with regard to yourself, or whether, under the
+pretence of aiding one of the parties in a nation, you act in such a
+manner as to aggravate its calamities and accomplish its final
+destruction. In truth, it is not the interfering or keeping aloof, but
+iniquitous intermeddling, or treacherous inaction, which is praised or
+blamed by the decision of an equitable judge.
+
+It will be a just and irresistible presumption against the fairness of
+the interposing power, that he takes with him no party or description of
+men in the divided state. It is not probable that these parties should
+all, and all alike, be more adverse to the true interests of their
+country, and less capable of forming a judgment upon them, than those
+who are absolute strangers to their affairs, and to the character of the
+actors in them, and have but a remote, feeble, and secondary sympathy
+with their interest. Sometimes a calm and healing arbiter may be
+necessary; but he is to compose differences, not to give laws. It is
+impossible that any one should not feel the full force of that
+presumption. Even people, whose politics for the supposed good of their
+own country lead them to take advantage of the dissensions of a
+neighboring nation in order to ruin it, will not directly propose to
+exclude the natives, but they will take that mode of consulting and
+employing them which most nearly approaches to an exclusion. In some
+particulars they propose what amounts to that exclusion, in others they
+do much worse. They recommend to ministry, "that no Frenchman who has
+given a decided opinion or acted a decided part in this great
+Revolution, for or against it, should be countenanced, brought forward,
+trusted, or employed, even in the strictest subordination to the
+ministers of the allied powers." Although one would think that this
+advice would stand condemned on the first proposition, yet, as it has
+been made popular, and has been proceeded upon practically, I think it
+right to give it a full consideration.
+
+And first, I have asked myself who these Frenchmen are, that, in the
+state their own country has been in for these last five years, of all
+the people of Europe, have alone not been able to form a decided
+opinion, or have been unwilling to act a decided part?
+
+Looking over all the names I have heard of in this great revolution in
+all human affairs, I find no man of any distinction who has remained in
+that more than Stoical apathy, but the Prince de Conti. This mean,
+stupid, selfish, swinish, and cowardly animal, universally known and
+despised as such, has indeed, except in one abortive attempt to elope,
+been perfectly neutral. However, his neutrality, which it seems would
+qualify him for trust, and on a competition must set aside the Prince de
+Conde, can be of no sort of service. His moderation has not been able to
+keep him from a jail. The allied powers must draw him from that jail,
+before they can have the full advantage of the exertions of this great
+neutralist.
+
+Except him, I do not recollect a man of rank or talents, who by his
+speeches or his votes, by his pen or by his sword, has not been active
+on this scene. The time, indeed, could admit no neutrality in any person
+worthy of the name of man. There were originally two great divisions in
+France: the one is that which overturned the whole of the government in
+Church and State, and erected a republic on the basis of atheism. Their
+grand engine was the Jacobin Club, a sort of secession from which, but
+exactly on the same principles, begat another short-lived one, called
+the Club of Eighty-Nine,[37] which was chiefly guided by the court
+rebels, who, in addition to the crimes of which they were guilty in
+common with the others, had the merit of betraying a gracious master and
+a kind benefactor. Subdivisions of this faction, which since we have
+seen, do not in the least differ from each other in their principles,
+their dispositions, or the means they have employed. Their only quarrel
+has been about power: in that quarrel, like wave succeeding wave, one
+faction has got the better and expelled the other. Thus, La Fayette for
+a while got the better of Orleans; and Orleans afterwards prevailed over
+La Fayette. Brissot overpowered Orleans; Barere and Robespierre, and
+their faction, mastered them both, and cut off their heads. All who were
+not Royalists have been listed in some or other of these divisions. If
+it were of any use to settle a precedence, the elder ought to have his
+rank. The first authors, plotters, and contrivers of this monstrous
+scheme seem to me entitled to the first place in our distrust and
+abhorrence. I have seen some of those who are thought the best amongst
+the original rebels, and I have not neglected the means of being
+informed concerning the others. I can very truly say, that I have not
+found, by observation, or inquiry, that any sense of the evils produced
+by their projects has produced in them, or any _one_ of them, the
+smallest degree of repentance. Disappointment and mortification
+undoubtedly they feel; but to them repentance is a thing impossible.
+They are atheists. This wretched opinion, by which they are possessed
+even to the height of fanaticism, leading them to exclude from their
+ideas of a commonwealth the vital principle of the physical, the moral,
+and the political world engages them in a thousand absurd contrivances
+to fill up this dreadful void. Incapable of innoxious repose or
+honorable action or wise speculation in the lurking-holes of a foreign
+land, into which (in a common ruin) they are driven to hide their heads
+amongst the innocent victims of their madness, they are at this very
+hour as busy in the confection of the dirt-pies of their imaginary
+constitutions as if they had not been quite fresh from destroying, by
+their impious and desperate vagaries, the finest country upon earth.
+
+It is, however, out of these, or of such as these, guilty and
+impenitent, despising the experience of others, and their own, that some
+people talk of choosing their negotiators with those Jacobins who they
+suppose may be recovered to a sounder mind. They flatter themselves, it
+seems, that the friendly habits formed during their original partnership
+of iniquity, a similarity of character, and a conformity in the
+groundwork of their principles, might facilitate their conversion, and
+gain them over to some recognition of royalty. But surely this is to
+read human nature very ill. The several sectaries in this schism of the
+Jacobins are the very last men in the world to trust each other.
+Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence. The last quarrels
+are the sorest; and the injuries received or offered by your own
+associates are ever the most bitterly resented. The people of France, of
+every name and description, would a thousand times sooner listen to the
+Prince de Conde, or to the Archbishop of Aix, or the Bishop of St. Pol,
+or to Monsieur de Cazales, then to La Fayette, or Dumouriez, or the
+Vicomte de Noailles, or the Bishop of Autun, or Necker, or his disciple
+Lally Tollendal. Against the first description they have not the
+smallest animosity, beyond that of a merely political dissension. The
+others they regard as traitors.
+
+The first description is that of the Christian Royalists, men who as
+earnestly wished for reformation, as they opposed innovation in the
+fundamental parts of their Church and State. _Their_ part has been _very
+decided_. Accordingly, they are to be set aside in the restoration of
+Church and State. It is an odd kind of disqualification, where the
+restoration of religion and monarchy is the question. If England should
+(God forbid it should!) fall into the same misfortune with France, and
+that the court of Vienna should undertake the restoration of our
+monarchy, I think it would be extraordinary to object to the admission
+of Mr. Pitt or Lord Grenville or Mr. Dundas into any share in the
+management of that business, because in a day of trial they have stood
+up firmly and manfully, as I trust they always will do, and with
+distinguished powers, for the monarchy and the legitimate Constitution
+of their country. I am sure, if I were to suppose myself at Vienna at
+such a time, I should, as a man, as an Englishman, and as a Royalist,
+protest in that case, as I do in this, against a weak and ruinous
+principle of proceeding, which can have no other tendency than to make
+those who wish to support the crown meditate too profoundly on the
+consequences of the part they take, and consider whether for their open
+and forward zeal in the royal cause they may not be thrust out from any
+sort of confidence and employment, where the interest of crowned heads
+is concerned.
+
+These are the _parties_. I have said, and said truly, that I know of no
+neutrals. But, as a general observation on this general principle of
+choosing neutrals on such occasions as the present, I have this to say,
+that it amounts to neither more nor less than this shocking
+proposition,--that we ought to exclude men of honor and ability from
+serving theirs and our cause, and to put the dearest interests of
+ourselves and our posterity into the hands of men of no decided
+character, without judgment to choose and without courage to profess any
+principle whatsoever.
+
+Such men can serve no cause, for this plain reason,--they have no cause
+at heart. They can, at best, work only as mere mercenaries. They have
+not been guilty of great crimes; but it is only because they have not
+energy of mind to rise to any height of wickedness. They are not hawks
+or kites: they are only miserable fowls whose flight is not above their
+dunghill or hen-roost. But they tremble before the authors of these
+horrors. They admire them at a safe and respectful distance. There never
+was a mean and abject mind that did not admire an intrepid and dexterous
+villain. In the bottom of their hearts they believe such hardy
+miscreants to be the only men qualified for great affairs. If you set
+them to transact with such persons, they are instantly subdued. They
+dare not so much as look their antagonist in the face. They are made to
+be their subjects, not to be their arbiters or controllers.
+
+These men, to be sure, can look at atrocious acts without indignation,
+and can behold suffering virtue without sympathy. Therefore they are
+considered as sober, dispassionate men. But they have their passions,
+though of another kind, and which are infinitely more likely to carry
+them out of the path of their duty. They are of a tame, timid, languid,
+inert temper, wherever the welfare of _others_ is concerned. In such
+causes, as they have no motives to action, they never possess any real
+ability, and are totally destitute of all resource.
+
+Believe a man who has seen much and observed something. I have seen, in
+the course of my life, a great many of that family of men. They are
+generally chosen because they have no opinion of their own; and as far
+as they can be got in good earnest to embrace any opinion, it is that of
+whoever happens to employ them, (neither longer nor shorter, narrower
+nor broader,) with whom they have no discussion or consultation. The
+only thing which occurs to such a man, when he has got a business for
+others into his hands, is, how to make his own fortune out of it. The
+person he is to treat with is not, with him, an adversary over whom he
+is to prevail, but a new friend he is to gain; therefore he always
+systematically betrays some part of his trust. Instead of thinking how
+he shall defend his ground to the last, and, if forced to retreat, how
+little he shall give up, this kind of man considers how much of the
+interest of his employer he is to sacrifice to his adversary. Having
+nothing but himself in view, he knows, that, in serving his principal
+with zeal, he must probably incur some resentment from the opposite
+party. His object is, to obtain the good-will of the person with whom he
+contends, that, when an agreement is made, he may join in rewarding him.
+I would not take one of these as my arbitrator in a dispute for so much
+as a fish-pond; for, if he reserved the mud to me, he would be sure to
+give the water that fed the pool to my adversary. In a great cause, I
+should certainly wish that my agent should possess conciliating
+qualities: that he should be of a frank, open, and candid disposition,
+soft in his nature, and of a temper to soften animosities and to win
+confidence. He ought not to be a man odious to the person he treats
+with, by personal injury, by violence, or by deceit, or, above all, by
+the dereliction of his cause in any former transactions. But I would be
+sure that my negotiator should be _mine_,--that he should be as earnest
+in the cause as myself, and known to be so,--that he should not be
+looked upon as a stipendiary advocate, but as a principled partisan. In
+all treaty it is a great point that all idea of gaining your agent is
+hopeless. I would not trust the cause of royalty with a man who,
+professing neutrality, is half a republican. The enemy has already a
+great part of his suit without a struggle,--and he contends with
+advantage for all the rest. The common principle allowed between your
+adversary and your agent gives your adversary the advantage in every
+discussion.
+
+Before I shut up this discourse about neutral agency, (which I conceive
+is not to be found, or, if found, ought not to be used,) I have a few
+other remarks to make on the cause which I conceive gives rise to it.
+
+In all that we do, whether in the struggle or after it, it is necessary
+that we should constantly have in our eye the nature and character of
+the enemy we have to contend with. The Jacobin Revolution is carried on
+by men of no rank, of no consideration, of wild, savage minds, full of
+levity, arrogance, and presumption, without morals, without probity,
+without prudence. What have they, then, to supply their innumerable
+defects, and to make them terrible even to the firmest minds? _One_
+thing, and _one_ thing only,--but that one thing is worth a
+thousand;--they have _energy_. In France, all things being put into an
+universal ferment, in the decomposition of society, no man comes forward
+but by his spirit of enterprise and the vigor of his mind. If we meet
+this dreadful and portentous energy, restrained by no consideration of
+God or man, that is always vigilant, always on the attack, that allows
+itself no repose, and suffers none to rest an hour with impunity,--if we
+meet this energy with poor commonplace proceeding, with trivial maxims,
+paltry old saws, with doubts, fears, and suspicions, with a languid,
+uncertain hesitation, with a formal, official spirit, which is turned
+aside by every obstacle from its purpose, and which never sees a
+difficulty but to yield to it, or at best to evade it,--down we go to
+the bottom of the abyss, and nothing short of Omnipotence can save us.
+We must meet a vicious and distempered energy with a manly and rational
+vigor. As virtue is limited in its resources, we are doubly bound to use
+all that in the circle drawn about us by our morals we are able to
+command.
+
+I do not contend against the advantages of distrust. In the world we
+live in it is but too necessary. Some of old called it the very sinews
+of discretion. But what signify commonplaces that always run parallel
+and equal? Distrust is good, or it is bad, according to our position and
+our purpose. Distrust is a defensive principle. They who have much to
+lose have much to fear. But in France we hold nothing. We are to break
+in upon a power in possession; we are to carry everything by storm, or
+by surprise, or by intelligence, or by all. Adventure, therefore, and
+not caution, is our policy. Here to be too presuming is the better
+error.
+
+The world will judge of the spirit of our proceeding in those places of
+France which may fall into our power by our conduct in those that are
+already in our hands. Our wisdom should not be vulgar. Other times,
+perhaps other measures; but in this awful hour our politics ought to be
+made up of nothing but courage, decision, manliness, and rectitude. We
+should have all the magnanimity of good faith. This is a royal and
+commanding policy; and as long as we are true to it, we may give the
+law. Never can we assume this command, if we will not risk the
+consequences. For which reason we ought to be bottomed enough in
+principle not to be carried away upon the first prospect of any sinister
+advantage. For depend upon it, that, if we once give way to a sinister
+dealing, we shall teach others the game, and we shall be outwitted and
+overborne; the Spaniards, the Prussians, God knows who, will put us
+under contribution at their pleasure; and instead of being at the head
+of a great confederacy, and the arbiters of Europe, we shall, by our
+mistakes, break up a great design into a thousand little selfish
+quarrels, the enemy will triumph, and we shall sit down under the terms
+of unsafe and dependent peace, weakened, mortified, and disgraced,
+whilst all Europe, England included, is left open and defenceless on
+every part, to Jacobin principles, intrigues, and arms. In the case of
+the king of France, declared to be our friend and ally, we will still be
+considering ourselves in the contradictory character of an enemy. This
+contradiction, I am afraid, will, in spite of us, give a color of fraud
+to all our transactions, or at least will so complicate our politics
+that we shall ourselves be inextricably entangled in them.
+
+I have Toulon in my eye. It was with infinite sorrow I heard, that, in
+taking the king of France's fleet in trust, we instantly unrigged and
+dismasted the ships, instead of keeping them in a condition to escape in
+case of disaster, and in order to fulfil our trust,--that is, to hold
+them for the use of the owner, and in the mean time to employ them for
+our common service. These ships are now so circumstanced, that, if we
+are forced to evacuate Toulon, they must fall into the hands of the
+enemy or be burnt by ourselves. I know this is by some considered as a
+fine thing for us. But the Athenians ought not to be better than the
+English, or Mr. Pitt less virtuous than Aristides.
+
+Are we, then, so poor in resources that we can do no better with
+eighteen or twenty ships of the line than to burn them? Had we sent for
+French Royalist naval officers, of which some hundreds are to be had,
+and made them select such seamen as they could trust, and filled the
+rest with our own and Mediterranean seamen, which are all over Italy to
+be had by thousands, and put them under judicious English
+commanders-in-chief, and with a judicious mixture of our own
+subordinates, the West Indies would at this day have been ours. It may
+be said that these French officers would take them for the king of
+France, and that they would not be in our power. Be it so. The islands
+would not be ours, but they would not be Jacobinized. This is, however,
+a thing impossible. They must in effect and substance be ours. But all
+is upon that false principle of distrust, which, not confiding in
+strength, can never have the full use of it. They that pay, and feed,
+and equip, must direct. But I must speak plain upon this subject. The
+French islands, if they were all our own, ought not to be all kept. A
+fair partition only ought to be made of those territories. This is a
+subject of policy very serious, which has many relations and aspects.
+Just here I only hint at it as answering an objection, whilst I state
+the mischievous consequences which suffer us to be surprised into a
+virtual breach of faith by confounding our ally with our enemy, because
+they both belong to the same geographical territory.
+
+My clear opinion is, that Toulon ought to be made, what we set out with,
+a royal French city. By the necessity of the case, it must be under the
+influence, civil and military, of the allies. But the only way of
+keeping that jealous and discordant mass from tearing its component
+parts to pieces, and hazarding the loss of the whole, is, to put the
+place into the nominal government of the regent, his officers being
+approved by us. This, I say, is absolutely necessary for a poise amongst
+ourselves. Otherwise is it to be believed that the Spaniards, who hold
+that place with us in a sort of partnership, contrary to our mutual
+interest, will see us absolute masters of the Mediterranean, with
+Gibraltar on one side and Toulon on the other, with a quiet and composed
+mind, whilst we do little less than declare that we are to take the
+whole West Indies into our hands, leaving the vast, unwieldy, and feeble
+body of the Spanish dominions in that part of the world absolutely at
+our mercy, without any power to balance us in the smallest degree?
+Nothing is so fatal to a nation as an extreme of self-partiality, and
+the total want of consideration of what others will naturally hope or
+fear. Spain must think she sees that we are taking advantage of the
+confusions which reign in France to disable that country, and of course
+every country, from affording her protection, and in the end to turn the
+Spanish monarchy into a province. If she saw things in a proper point of
+light, to be sure, she would not consider any other plan of politics as
+of the least moment in comparison of the extinction of Jacobinism. But
+her ministers (to say the best of them) are vulgar politicians. It is no
+wonder that they should postpone this great point, or balance it by
+considerations of the common politics, that is, the questions of power
+between _state and state_. If we manifestly endeavor to destroy the
+balance, especially the maritime and commercial balance, both in Europe
+and the West Indies, (the latter their sore and vulnerable part,) from
+fear of what France may do for Spain hereafter, is it to be wondered
+that Spain, infinitely weaker than we are, (weaker, indeed, than such a
+mass of empire ever was,) should feel the same fears from our
+uncontrolled power that we give way to ourselves from a supposed
+resurrection of the ancient power of France under a monarchy? It
+signifies nothing whether we are wrong or right in the abstract; but in
+respect to our relation to Spain, with such principles followed up in
+practice, it is absolutely impossible that any cordial alliance can
+subsist between the two nations. If Spain goes, Naples will speedily
+follow. Prussia is quite certain, and thinks of nothing but making a
+market of the present confusions. Italy is broken and divided.
+Switzerland is Jacobinized, I am afraid, completely. I have long seen
+with pain the progress of French principles in that country. Things
+cannot go on upon the present bottom. The possession of Toulon, which,
+well managed, might be of the greatest advantage, will be the greatest
+misfortune that ever happened to this nation. The more we multiply
+troops there, the more we shall multiply causes and means of quarrel
+amongst ourselves. I know but one way of avoiding it, which is, to give
+a greater degree of simplicity to our politics. Our situation does
+necessarily render them a good deal involved. And to this evil, instead
+of increasing it, we ought to apply all the remedies in our power.
+
+See what is in that place the consequence (to say nothing of every
+other) of this complexity. Toulon has, as it were, two gates,--an
+English and a Spanish. The English gate is by our policy fast barred
+against the entrance of any Royalists. The Spaniards open theirs, I
+fear, upon no fixed principle, and with very little judgment. By means,
+however, of this foolish, mean, and jealous policy on our side, all the
+Royalists whom the English might select as most practicable, and most
+subservient to honest views, are totally excluded. Of those admitted the
+Spaniards are masters. As to the inhabitants, they are a nest of
+Jacobins, which is delivered into our hands, not from principle, but
+from fear. The inhabitants of Toulon may be described in a few words. It
+is _differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis_. The rest of the
+seaports are of the same description.
+
+Another thing which I cannot account for is, the sending for the Bishop
+of Toulon and afterwards forbidding his entrance. This is as directly
+contrary to the declaration as it is to the practice of the allied
+powers. The king of Prussia did better. When he took Verdun, he actually
+reinstated the bishop and his chapter. When he thought he should be the
+master of Chalons, he called the bishop from Flanders, to put him into
+possession. The Austrians have restored the clergy wherever they
+obtained possession. We have proposed to restore religion as well as
+monarchy; and in Toulon we have restored neither the one nor the other.
+It is very likely that the Jacobin _sans-culottes_, or some of them,
+objected to this measure, who rather choose to have the atheistic
+buffoons of clergy they have got to sport with, till they are ready to
+come forward, with the rest of their worthy brethren, in Paris and other
+places, to declare that they are a set of impostors, that they never
+believed in God, and never will preach any sort of religion. If we give
+way to our Jacobins in this point, it is fully and fairly putting the
+government, civil and ecclesiastical, not in the king of France, to
+whom, as the protector and governor, and in substance the head of the
+Gallican Church, the nomination to the bishoprics belonged, and who made
+the Bishop of Toulon,--it does not leave it with him, or even in the
+hands of the king of England, or the king of Spain,--but in the basest
+Jacobins of a low seaport, to exercise, _pro tempore_, the sovereignty.
+If this point of religion is thus given up, the grand instrument for
+reclaiming France is abandoned. We cannot, if we would, delude ourselves
+about the true state of this dreadful contest. _It is a religious war_.
+It includes in its object, undoubtedly, every other interest of society
+as well as this; but this is the principal and leading feature. It is
+through this destruction of religion that our enemies propose the
+accomplishment of all their other views. The French Revolution, impious
+at once and fanatical, had no other plan for domestic power and foreign
+empire. Look at all the proceedings of the National Assembly, from the
+first day of declaring itself such, in the year 1789, to this very hour,
+and you will find full half of their business to be directly on this
+subject. In fact, it is the spirit of the whole. The religious system,
+called the Constitutional Church, was, on the face of the whole
+proceeding, set up only as a mere temporary amusement to the people, and
+so constantly stated in all their conversations, till the time should
+come when they might with safety cast off the very appearance of all
+religion whatsoever, and persecute Christianity throughout Europe with
+fire and sword. The Constitutional clergy are not the ministers of any
+religion: they are the agents and instruments of this horrible
+conspiracy against all morals. It was from a sense of this, that, in the
+English addition to the articles proposed at St. Domingo, tolerating all
+religions, we very wisely refused to suffer that kind of traitors and
+buffoons.
+
+This religious war is not a controversy between sect and sect, as
+formerly, but a war against all sects and all religions. The question is
+not, whether you are to overturn the Catholic, to set up the Protestant.
+Such an idea, in the present state of the world, is too contemptible.
+Our business is, to leave to the schools the discussion of the
+controverted points, abating as much as we can the acrimony of
+disputants on all sides. It is for Christian statesmen, as the world is
+now circumstanced, to secure their common basis, and not to risk the
+subversion of the whole fabric by pursuing these distinctions with an
+ill-timed zeal. We have in the present grand alliance all modes of
+government, as well as all modes of religion. In government, we mean to
+restore that which, notwithstanding our diversity of forms, we are all
+agreed in as fundamental in government. The same principle ought to
+guide us in the religious part: conforming the mode, not to our
+particular ideas, (for in that point we have no ideas in common,) but to
+what will best promote the great, general ends of the alliance. As
+statesmen, we are to see which of those modes best suits with the
+interests of such a commonwealth as we wish to secure and promote. There
+can be no doubt but that the Catholic religion, which is fundamentally
+the religion of France, must go with the monarchy of France. We know
+that the monarchy did not survive the hierarchy, no, not even in
+appearance, for many months,--in substance, not for a single hour. As
+little can it exist in future, if that pillar is taken away, or even
+shattered and impaired.
+
+If it should please God to give to the allies the means of restoring
+peace and order in that focus of war and confusion, I would, as I said
+in the beginning of this memorial, first replace the whole of the old
+clergy; because we have proof more than sufficient, that, whether they
+err or not in the scholastic disputes with us, they are not tainted with
+atheism, the great political evil of the time. I hope I need not
+apologize for this phrase, as if I thought religion nothing but policy:
+it is far from my thoughts, and I hope it is not to be inferred from my
+expressions. But in the light of policy alone I am here considering the
+question. I speak of policy, too, in a large light; in which large
+light, policy, too, is a sacred thing.
+
+There are many, perhaps half a million or more, calling themselves
+Protestants, in the South of France, and in other of the provinces. Some
+raise them to a much greater number; but I think this nearer to the
+mark. I am sorry to say that they have behaved shockingly since the very
+beginning of this rebellion, and have been uniformly concerned in its
+worst and most atrocious acts. Their clergy are just the same atheists
+with those of the Constitutional Catholics, but still more wicked and
+daring. Three of their number have met from their republican associates
+the reward of their crimes.
+
+As the ancient Catholic religion is to be restored for the body of
+France, the ancient Calvinistic religion ought to be restored for the
+Protestants, with every kind of protection and privilege. But not one
+minister concerned in this rebellion ought to be suffered amongst them.
+If they have not clergy of their own, men well recommended, as untainted
+with Jacobinism, by the synods of those places where Calvinism prevails
+and French is spoken, ought to be sought. Many such there are. The
+Presbyterian discipline ought, in my opinion, to be established in its
+vigor, and the people professing it ought to be bound to its
+maintenance. No man, under the false and hypocritical pretence of
+liberty of conscience, ought to be suffered to have no conscience at
+all. The king's commissioner ought also to sit in their synods, as
+before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I am conscious that this
+discipline disposes men to republicanism: but it is still a discipline,
+and it is a cure (such as it is) for the perverse and undisciplined
+habits which for some time have prevailed. Republicanism repressed may
+have its use in the composition of a state. Inspection may be
+practicable, and responsibility in the teachers and elders may be
+established, in such an hierarchy as the Presbyterian. For a time like
+ours, it is a great point gained, that people should be taught to meet,
+to combine, and to be classed and arrayed in some other way than in
+clubs of Jacobins. If it be not the best mode of Protestantism under a
+monarchy, it is still an orderly Christian church, orthodox in the
+fundamentals, and, what is to our point, capable enough of rendering men
+useful citizens. It was the impolitic abolition of their discipline,
+which exposed them to the wild opinions and conduct that have prevailed
+amongst the Huguenots. The toleration in 1787 was owing to the good
+disposition of the late king; but it was modified by the profligate
+folly of his atheistic minister, the Cardinal de Lomenie. This
+mischievous minister did not follow, in the edict of toleration, the
+wisdom of the Edict of Nantes. But his toleration was granted to
+_non-Catholics_,--a dangerous word, which might signify anything, and
+was but too expressive of a fatal indifference with regard to all piety.
+I speak for myself: I do not wish any man to be converted from his sect.
+The distinctions which we have reformed from animosity to emulation may
+be even useful to the cause of religion. By some moderate contention
+they keep alive zeal. Whereas people who change, except under strong
+conviction, (a thing now rather rare,) the religion of their early
+prejudices, especially if the conversion is brought about by any
+political machine, are very apt to degenerate into indifference, laxity,
+and often downright atheism.
+
+Another political question arises about the mode of government which
+ought to be established. I think the proclamation (which I read before I
+had proceeded far in this memorial) puts it on the best footing, by
+postponing that arrangement to a time of peace.
+
+When our politics lead us to enterprise a great and almost total
+political revolution in Europe, we ought to look seriously into the
+consequences of what we are about to do. Some eminent persons discover
+an apprehension that the monarchy, if restored in France, may be
+restored in too great strength for the liberty and happiness of the
+natives, and for the tranquillity of other states. They are therefore of
+opinion that terms ought to be made for the modification of that
+monarchy. They are persons too considerable, from the powers of their
+mind, and from their situation, as well as from the real respect I have
+for them, who seem to entertain these apprehensions, to let me pass them
+by unnoticed.
+
+As to the power of France as a state, and in its exterior relations, I
+confess my fears are on the part of its extreme reduction. There is
+undoubtedly something in the vicinity of France, which makes it
+naturally and properly an object of our watchfulness and jealousy,
+whatever form its government may take. But the difference is great
+between a plan for our own security and a scheme for the utter
+destruction of France. If there were no other countries in the political
+map but these two, I admit that policy might justify a wish to lower our
+neighbor to a standard which would even render her in some measure, if
+not wholly, our dependant. But the system of Europe is extensive and
+extremely complex. However formidable to us, as taken in this one
+relation, France is not equally dreadful to all other states. On the
+contrary, my clear opinion is, that the liberties of Europe cannot
+possibly be preserved but by her remaining a very great and
+preponderating power. The design at present evidently pursued by the
+combined potentates, or of the two who lead, is totally to destroy her
+as such a power. For Great Britain resolves that she shall have no
+colonies, no commerce, and no marine. Austria means to take away the
+whole frontier, from the borders of Switzerland to Dunkirk. It is their
+plan also to render the interior government lax and feeble, by
+prescribing, by force of the arms of rival and jealous nations, and
+without consulting the natural interests of the kingdom, such
+arrangements as, in the actual state of Jacobinism in France, and the
+unsettled state in which property must remain for a long time, will
+inevitably produce such distraction and debility in government as to
+reduce it to nothing, or to throw it back into its old confusion. One
+cannot conceive so frightful a state of a nation. A maritime country
+without a marine and without commerce; a continental country without a
+frontier, and for a thousand miles surrounded with powerful, warlike,
+and ambitious neighbors! It is possible that she might submit to lose
+her commerce and her colonies: her security she never can abandon. If,
+contrary to all expectations, under such a disgraced and impotent
+government, any energy should remain in that country, she will make
+every effort to recover her security, which will involve Europe for a
+century in war and blood. What has it cost to France to make that
+frontier? What will it cost to recover it? Austria thinks that without a
+frontier she cannot secure the _Netherlands_. But without her frontier
+France cannot secure _herself_. Austria has been, however, secure for an
+hundred years in those very Netherlands, and has never been dispossessed
+of them by the chance of war without a moral certainty of receiving them
+again on the restoration of peace. Her late dangers have arisen not from
+the power or ambition of the king of France. They arose from her own ill
+policy, which dismantled all her towns, and discontented all her
+subjects by Jacobinical innovations. She dismantles her own towns, and
+then says, "Give me the frontier of France!" But let us depend upon it,
+whatever tends, under the name of security, to aggrandize Austria, will
+discontent and alarm Prussia. Such a length of frontier on the side of
+France, separated from itself, and separated from the mass of the
+Austrian country, will be weak, unless connected at the expense of the
+Elector of Bavaria (the Elector Palatine) and other lesser princes, or
+by such exchanges as will again convulse the Empire.
+
+Take it the other way, and let us suppose that France so broken in
+spirit as to be content to remain naked and defenceless by sea and by
+land. Is such a country no prey? Have other nations no views? Is Poland
+the only country of which it is worth while to make a partition? We
+cannot be so childish as to imagine that ambition is local, and that no
+others can be infected with it but those who rule within certain
+parallels of latitude and longitude. In this way I hold war equally
+certain. But I can conceive that both these principles may operate:
+ambition on the part of Austria to cut more and more from France; and
+French impatience under her degraded and unsafe condition. In such a
+contest will the other powers stand by? Will not Prussia call for
+indemnity, as well as Austria and England? Is she satisfied with her
+gains in Poland? By no means. Germany must pay; or we shall infallibly
+see Prussia leagued with France and Spain, and possibly with other
+powers, for the reduction of Austria; and such may be the situation of
+things, that it will not be so easy to decide what part England may take
+in such a contest.
+
+I am well aware how invidious a task it is to oppose anything which
+tends to the apparent aggrandizement of our own country. But I think no
+country can be aggrandized whilst France is Jacobinized. This post
+removed, it will be a serious question how far her further reduction
+will contribute to the general safety, which I always consider as
+included. Among precautions against ambition, it may not be amiss to
+take one precaution against our _own_. I must fairly say, I dread our
+_own_ power and our _own_ ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded.
+It is ridiculous to say we are not men, and that, as men, we shall never
+wish to aggrandize ourselves in some way or other. Can we say that even
+at this very hour we are not invidiously aggrandized? We are already in
+possession of almost all the commerce of the world. Our empire in India
+is an awful thing. If we should come to be in a condition not only to
+have all this ascendant in commerce, but to be absolutely able, without
+the least control, to hold the commerce of all other nations totally
+dependent upon our good pleasure, we may say that we shall not abuse
+this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of power. But every other nation
+will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or
+later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which
+may end in our ruin.
+
+As to France, I must observe that for a long time she has been
+stationary. She has, during this whole century, obtained far less by
+conquest or negotiation than any of the three great Continental powers.
+Some part of Lorraine excepted, I recollect nothing she has gained,--no,
+not a village. In truth, this Lorraine acquisition does little more than
+secure her barrier. In effect and substance it was her own before.
+
+However that may be, I consider these things at present chiefly in one
+point of view, as obstructions to the war on Jacobinism, which _must_
+stand as long as the powers think its extirpation but a _secondary_
+object, and think of taking advantage, under the name of _indemnity_ and
+_security_, to make war upon the whole nation of France, royal and
+Jacobin, for the aggrandizement of the allies, on the ordinary
+principles of interest, as if no Jacobinism existed in the world.
+
+So far is France from being formidable to its neighbors for its domestic
+strength, that I conceive it will be as much as all its neighbors can
+do, by a steady guaranty, to keep that monarchy at all upon its basis.
+It will be their business to nurse France, not to exhaust it. France,
+such as it is, is indeed highly formidable: not formidable, however, as
+a great republic; but as the most dreadful gang of robbers and murderers
+that ever was embodied. But this distempered strength of France will be
+the cause of proportionable weakness on its recovery. Never was a
+country so completely ruined; and they who calculate the resurrection of
+her power by former examples have not sufficiently considered what is
+the present state of things. Without detailing the inventory of what
+organs of government have been destroyed, together with the very
+materials of which alone they can be recomposed, I wish it to be
+considered what an operose affair the whole system of taxation is in the
+old states of Europe. It is such as never could be made but in a long
+course of years. In France all taxes are abolished. The present powers
+resort to the capital, and to the capital in kind. But a savage,
+undisciplined people suffer a _robbery_ with more patience than an
+_impost_. The former is in their habits and their dispositions. They
+consider it as transient, and as what, in their turn, they may exercise.
+But the terrors of the present power are such as no regular government
+can possibly employ. They who enter into France do not succeed to
+_their_ resources. They have not a system to reform, but a system to
+begin. The whole estate of government is to be reacquired.
+
+What difficulties this will meet with in a country exhausted by the
+taking of the capital, and among a people in a manner new-principled,
+trained, and actually disciplined to anarchy, rebellion, disorder, and
+impiety, may be conceived by those who know what Jacobin France is, and
+who may have occupied themselves by revolving in their thoughts what
+they were to do, if it fell to their lot to reestablish the affairs of
+France. What support or what limitations the restored monarchy must have
+may be a doubt, or how it will pitch and settle at last. But one thing I
+conceive to be far beyond a doubt: that the settlement cannot be
+immediate; but that it must be preceded by some sort of power, equal at
+least in vigor, vigilance, promptitude, and decision, to a military
+government. For such a _preparatory_ government, no slow-paced,
+methodical, formal, lawyer-like system, still less that of a showy,
+superficial, trifling, intriguing court, guided by cabals of ladies, or
+of men like ladies, least of all a philosophic, theoretic, disputatious
+school of sophistry,--none of these ever will or ever can lay the
+foundations of an order that can last. Whoever claims a right by birth
+to govern there must find in his breast, or must conjure up in it, an
+energy not to be expected, perhaps not always to be wished for, in
+well-ordered states. The lawful prince must have, in everything but
+crime, the character of an usurper. He is gone, if he imagines himself
+the quiet possessor of a throne. He is to contend for it as much after
+an apparent conquest as before. His task is, to win it: he must leave
+posterity to enjoy and to adorn it. No velvet cushions for him. He is to
+be always (I speak nearly to the letter) on horseback. This opinion is
+the result of much patient thinking on the subject, which I conceive no
+event is likely to alter.
+
+A valuable friend of mine, who I hope will conduct these affairs, so far
+as they fall to his share, with great ability, asked me what I thought
+of acts of general indemnity and oblivion, as a means of settling
+France, and reconciling it to monarchy. Before I venture upon any
+opinion of my own in this matter, I totally disclaim the interference of
+foreign powers in a business that properly belongs to the government
+which we have declared legal. That government is likely to be the best
+judge of what is to be done towards the security of that kingdom, which
+it is their duty and their interest to provide for by such measures of
+justice or of lenity as at the time they should find best. But if we
+weaken it not only by arbitrary limitations of our own, but preserve
+such persons in it as are disposed to disturb its future peace, as they
+have its past, I do not know how a more direct declaration can be made
+of a disposition to perpetual hostility against a government. The
+persons saved from the justice of the native magistrate by foreign
+authority will owe nothing to his clemency. He will, and must, look to
+those to whom he is indebted for the power he has of dispensing it. A
+Jacobin faction, constantly fostered with the nourishment of foreign
+protection, will be kept alive.
+
+This desire of securing the safety of the actors in the present scene is
+owing to more laudable motives. Ministers have been made to consider the
+brothers of the late merciful king, and the nobility of France who have
+been faithful to their honor and duty, as a set of inexorable and
+remorseless tyrants. How this notion has been infused into them I cannot
+be quite certain. I am sure it is not justified by anything they have
+done. Never were the two princes guilty, in the day of their power, of a
+single hard or ill-natured act. No one instance of cruelty on the part
+of the gentlemen ever came to my ears. It is true that the _English_
+Jacobins, (the natives have not thought of it,) as an excuse for their
+infernal system of murder, have so represented them. It is on this
+principle that the massacres in the month of September, 1792, were
+justified by a writer in the Morning Chronicle. _He_ says, indeed, that
+"the whole French nation is to be given up to the hands of an irritated
+and revengeful noblesse";--and, judging of others by himself and his
+brethren, he says, "Whoever succeeds in a civil war will be cruel. But
+here the emigrants, flying to revenge in the cars of military victory,
+will almost insatiably call for their victims and their booty; and a
+body of emigrant traitors were attending the King of Prussia and the
+Duke of Brunswick, to suggest the most sanguinary counsels." So says
+this wicked Jacobin; but so cannot say the King of Prussia nor the Duke
+of Brunswick, who never did receive any sanguinary counsel; nor did the
+king's brothers, or that great body of gentlemen who attended those
+princes, commit one single cruel action, or hurt the person or property
+of one individual. It would be right to quote the instance. It is like
+the military luxury attributed to these unfortunate sufferers in our
+common cause.
+
+If these princes had shown a tyrannic disposition, it would be much to
+be lamented. We have no others to govern France. If we screened the body
+of murderers from their justice, we should only leave the innocent in
+future to the mercy of men of fierce and sanguinary dispositions, of
+which, in spite of all our intermeddling in their Constitution, we could
+not prevent the effects. But as we have much more reason to fear their
+feeble lenity than any blamable rigor, we ought, in my opinion, to leave
+the matter to themselves.
+
+If, however, I were asked to give an advice merely as such, here are my
+ideas. I am not for a total indemnity, nor a general punishment. And
+first, the body and mass of the people never ought to be treated as
+criminal. They may become an object of more or less constant
+watchfulness and suspicion, as their preservation may best require, but
+they can never become an object of punishment. This is one of the few
+fundamental and unalterable principles of politics.
+
+To punish them capitally would be to make massacres. Massacres only
+increase the ferocity of men, and teach them to regard their own lives
+and those of others as of little value; whereas the great policy of
+government is, to teach the people to think both of great importance in
+the eyes of God and the state, and never to be sacrificed or even
+hazarded to gratify their passions, or for anything but the duties
+prescribed by the rules of morality, and under the direction of public
+law and public authority. To punish them with lesser penalties would be
+to debilitate the commonwealth, and make the nation miserable, which it
+is the business of government to render happy and flourishing.
+
+As to crimes, too, I would draw a strong line of limitation. For no one
+offence, _politically an offence of rebellion_, by council, contrivance,
+persuasion, or compulsion, for none properly a _military offence of
+rebellion_, or anything done by open hostility in the field, should any
+man at all be called in question; because such seems to be the proper
+and natural death of civil dissensions. The offences of war are
+obliterated by peace.
+
+Another class will of course be included in the indemnity,--namely, all
+those who by their activity in restoring lawful government shall
+obliterate their offences. The offence previously known, the acceptance
+of service is a pardon for crimes. I fear that this class of men will
+not be very numerous.
+
+So far as to indemnity. But where are the objects of justice, and of
+example, and of future security to the public peace? They are naturally
+pointed out, not by their having outraged political and civil laws, nor
+their having rebelled against the state as a state, but by their having
+rebelled against the law of Nature and outraged man as man. In this
+list, all the regicides in general, all those who laid sacrilegious
+hands on the king, who, without anything in their own rebellious mission
+to the Convention to justify them, brought him to his trial and
+unanimously voted him guilty,--all those who had a share in the cruel
+murder of the queen, and the detestable proceedings with regard to the
+young king and the unhappy princesses,--all those who committed
+cold-blooded murder anywhere, and particularly in their revolutionary
+tribunals, where every idea of natural justice and of their own declared
+rights of man have been trod under foot with the most insolent
+mockery,--all men concerned in the burning and demolition of houses or
+churches, with audacious and marked acts of sacrilege and scorn offered
+to religion,--in general, all the leaders of Jacobin clubs,--not one of
+these should escape a punishment suitable to the nature, quality, and
+degree of their offence, by a steady, but a measured justice.
+
+In the first place, no man ought to be subject to any penalty, from the
+highest to the lowest, but by a trial according to the course of law,
+carried on with all that caution and deliberation which has been used in
+the best times and precedents of the French jurisprudence, the criminal
+law of which country, faulty to be sure in some particulars, was highly
+laudable and tender of the lives of men. In restoring order and justice,
+everything like retaliation ought to be religiously avoided; and an
+example ought to be set of a total alienation from the Jacobin
+proceedings in their accursed revolutionary tribunals. Everything like
+lumping men in masses, and of forming tables of proscription, ought to
+be avoided.
+
+In all these punishments, anything which can be alleged in mitigation of
+the offence should be fully considered. Mercy is not a thing opposed to
+justice. It is an essential part of it,--as necessary in criminal cases
+as in civil affairs equity is to law. It is only for the Jacobins never
+to pardon. They have not done it in a single instance. A council of
+mercy ought therefore to be appointed, with powers to report on each
+case, to soften the penalty, or entirely to remit it, according to
+circumstances.
+
+With these precautions, the very first foundation of settlement must be
+to call to a strict account those bloody and merciless offenders.
+Without it, government cannot stand a year. People little consider the
+utter impossibility of getting those who, having emerged from very low,
+some from the lowest classes of society, have exercised a power so high,
+and with such unrelenting and bloody a rage, quietly to fall back into
+their old ranks, and become humble, peaceable, laborious, and useful
+members of society. It never can be. On the other hand, is it to be
+believed that any worthy and virtuous subject, restored to the ruins of
+his house, will with patience see the cold-blooded murderer of his
+father, mother, wife, or children, or perhaps all of these relations,
+(such things have been,) nose him in his own village, and insult him
+with the riches acquired from the plunder of his goods, ready again to
+head a Jacobin faction to attack his life? He is unworthy of the name of
+man who would suffer it. It is unworthy of the name of a government,
+which, taking justice out of the private hand, will not exercise it for
+the injured by the public arm.
+
+I know it sounds plausible, and is readily adopted by those who have
+little sympathy with the sufferings of others, to wish to jumble the
+innocent and guilty into one mass by a general indemnity. This cruel
+indifference dignifies itself with the name of humanity.
+
+It is extraordinary, that, as the wicked arts of this regicide and
+tyrannous faction increase in number, variety, and atrocity, the desire
+of punishing them becomes more and more faint, and the talk of an
+indemnity towards them every day stronger and stronger. Our ideas of
+justice appear to be fairly conquered and overpowered by guilt, when it
+is grown gigantic. It is not the point of view in which we are in the
+habit of viewing guilt. The crimes we every day punish are really below
+the penalties we inflict. The criminals are obscure and feeble. This is
+the view in which we see ordinary crimes and criminals. But when guilt
+is seen, though but for a time, to be furnished with the arms and to be
+invested with the robes of power, it seems to assume another nature, and
+to get, as it were, out of our jurisdiction. This I fear is the case
+with many. But there is another cause full as powerful towards this
+security to enormous guilt,--the desire which possesses people who have
+once obtained power to enjoy it at their ease. It is not humanity, but
+laziness and inertness of mind, which produces the desire of this kind
+of indemnities. This description of men love general and short methods.
+If they punish, they make a promiscuous massacre; if they spare, they
+make a general act of oblivion. This is a want of disposition to proceed
+laboriously according to the cases, and according to the rules and
+principles of justice on each case: a want of disposition to assort
+criminals, to discriminate the degrees and modes of guilt, to separate
+accomplices from principals, leaders from followers, seducers from the
+seduced, and then, by following the same principles in the same detail,
+to class punishments, and to fit them to the nature and kind of the
+delinquency. If that were once attempted, we should soon see that the
+task was neither infinite nor the execution cruel. There would be
+deaths, but, for the number of criminals and the extent of France, not
+many. There would be cases of transportation, cases of labor to restore
+what has been wickedly destroyed, cases of imprisonment, and cases of
+mere exile. But be this as it may, I am sure, that, if justice is not
+done there, there can be neither peace nor justice there, nor in any
+part of Europe.
+
+History is resorted to for other acts of indemnity in other times. The
+princes are desired to look back to Henry the Fourth. We are desired to
+look to the restoration of King Charles. These things, in my opinion,
+have no resemblance whatsoever. They were cases of a civil war,--in
+France more ferocious, in England more moderate than common. In neither
+country were the orders of society subverted, religion and morality
+destroyed on principle, or property totally annihilated. In England, the
+government of Cromwell was, to be sure, somewhat rigid, but, for a new
+power, no savage tyranny. The country was nearly as well in his hands as
+in those of Charles the Second, and in some points much better. The laws
+in general had their course, and were admirably administered. The king
+did not in reality grant an act of indemnity; the prevailing power, then
+in a manner the nation, in effect granted an indemnity to _him_. The
+idea of a preceding rebellion was not at all admitted in that
+convention and that Parliament. The regicides were a common enemy, and
+as such given up.
+
+Among the ornaments of their place which eminently distinguish them, few
+people are better acquainted with the history of their own country than
+the illustrious princes now in exile; but I caution them not to be led
+into error by that which has been supposed to be the guide of life. I
+would give the same caution to all princes. Not that I derogate from the
+use of history. It is a great improver of the understanding, by showing
+both men and affairs in a great variety of views. From this source much
+political wisdom may be learned,--that is, may be learned as habit, not
+as precept,--and as an exercise to strengthen the mind, as furnishing
+materials to enlarge and enrich it, not as a repertory of cases and
+precedents for a lawyer: if it were, a thousand times better would it be
+that a statesman had never learned to read,--_vellem nescirent literas_.
+This method turns their understanding from the object before them, and
+from the present exigencies of the world, to comparisons with former
+times, of which, after all, we can know very little and very
+imperfectly; and our guides, the historians, who are to give us their
+true interpretation, are often prejudiced, often ignorant, often fonder
+of system than of truth. Whereas, if a man with reasonable good parts
+and natural sagacity, and not in the leading-strings of any master, will
+look steadily on the business before him, without being diverted by
+retrospect and comparison, he may be capable of forming a reasonable
+good judgment of what is to be done. There are some fundamental points
+in which Nature never changes; but they are few and obvious, and belong
+rather to morals than to politics. But so far as regards political
+matter, the human mind and human affairs are susceptible of infinite
+modifications, and of combinations wholly new and unlooked-for. Very
+few, for instance, could have imagined that property, which has been
+taken for natural dominion, should, through the whole of a vast kingdom,
+lose all its importance, and even its influence. This is what history or
+books of speculation could hardly have taught us. How many could have
+thought that the most complete and formidable revolution in a great
+empire should be made by men of letters, not as subordinate instruments
+and trumpeters of sedition, but as the chief contrivers and managers,
+and in a short time as the open administrators and sovereign rulers? Who
+could have imagined that atheism could produce one of the most violently
+operative principles of fanaticism? Who could have imagined, that, in a
+commonwealth in a manner cradled in war, and in an extensive and
+dreadful war, military commanders should be of little or no account,
+--that the Convention should not contain one military man of name,--that
+administrative bodies, in a state of the utmost confusion, and of but a
+momentary duration, and composed of men with not one imposing part of
+character, should be able to govern the country and its armies with an
+authority which the most settled senates and the most respected monarchs
+scarcely ever had in the same degree? This, for one, I confess I did not
+foresee, though all the rest was present to me very early, and not out
+of my apprehension even for several years.
+
+I believe very few were able to enter into the effects of mere _terror_,
+as a principle not only for the support of power in given hands or
+forms, but in those things in which the soundest political speculators
+were of opinion that the least appearance of force would be totally
+destructive,--such is the market, whether of money, provision, or
+commodities of any kind. Yet for four years we have seen loans made,
+treasuries supplied, and armies levied and maintained, more numerous
+than France ever showed in the field, _by the effects of fear alone_.
+
+Here is a state of things of which in its totality if history furnishes
+any examples at all, they are very remote and feeble. I therefore am not
+so ready as some are to tax with folly or cowardice those who were not
+prepared to meet an evil of this nature. Even now, after the events, all
+the causes may be somewhat difficult to ascertain. Very many are,
+however, traceable. But these things history and books of speculation
+(as I have already said) did not teach men to foresee, and of course to
+resist. Now that they are no longer a matter of sagacity, but of
+experience, of recent experience, of our own experience, it would be
+unjustifiable to go back to the records of other times to instruct us to
+manage what they never enabled us to foresee.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[33] Some accounts make them five times as many.
+
+[34] Before the Revolution, the French noblesse were so reduced in
+numbers that they did not much exceed twenty thousand at least of
+full-grown men. As they have been very cruelly formed into entire corps
+of soldiers, it is estimated, that, by the sword, and distempers in the
+field, they have not lost less than five thousand men; and if this
+course is pursued, it is to be feared that the whole body of the French
+nobility may be extinguished. Several hundreds have also perished by
+famine, and various accidents.
+
+[35] This was the language of the Ministerialists.
+
+[36] Vattel.
+
+[37] The first object of this club was the propagation of Jacobin
+principles.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+EXTRACTS FROM VATTEL'S LAW OF NATIONS.
+
+[The Titles, Marginal Abstracts, and Notes are by Mr. BURKE, excepting
+such of the Notes as are here distinguished.]
+
+
+CASES OF INTERFERENCE WITH INDEPENDENT POWERS.
+
+"If, then, there is anywhere a nation of a _restless and mischievous_
+disposition, always ready _to injure others, to traverse their designs,
+and to raise domestic troubles_[38] it is not to be doubted that all
+have a right to join _in order to repress, chastise, and put it ever
+after out of its power_ to injure them. Such should be the just fruits
+of the policy which Machiavel praises in Caesar Borgia. The conduct
+followed by Philip the Second, King of Spain, _was adapted to unite all
+Europe against him_; and it was from just reasons that Henry the Great
+formed the design of humbling a power _formidable by its forces and
+pernicious by its maxims_."--Book II. ch. iv. Sec. 53.
+
+"Let us apply to the unjust what we have said above (Sec. 53) of a
+mischievous or maleficent nation. If there be any that makes an open
+profession _of trampling justice under foot, of despising and violating
+the right of others_,[39] whenever it finds an opportunity, _the
+interest of human society will authorize all others to unite in order to
+humble and chastise it_. We do not here forget the maxim established in
+our preliminaries, that it does not belong to nations to usurp the power
+of being judges of each other. In particular cases, liable to the least
+doubt, it ought to be supposed that each of the parties may have some
+right; and the injustice of that which has committed the injury may
+proceed from error, and not from a general contempt of justice. _But if,
+by constant maxims, and by a continued conduct_, one nation shows that
+it has evidently this pernicious disposition, and that it considers no
+right as sacred, the safety of the human race requires that it should be
+suppressed. To form and support an unjust pretension is to do an injury
+_not only to him who is interested in this pretension, but to mock at
+justice in general, and to injure all nations_."--Ibid. ch. v. Sec. 70.
+
+[Sidenote: To succor against tyranny.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case of English Revolution.]
+
+[Sidenote: An odious tyrant.]
+
+[Sidenote: Rebellious people.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case of civil war.]
+
+[Sidenote: Sovereign and his people, when distinct powers.]
+
+"If the prince, attacking the fundamental laws, gives his subjects a
+legal right to resist him, if tyranny, _becoming insupportable_, obliges
+the nation to rise in their defence, every foreign power has a right to
+succor an oppressed people who implore their assistance. The English
+justly complained of James the Second. _The nobility and the most
+distinguished patriots_ resolved to put a check on his enterprises,
+which manifestly tended to overthrow the Constitution and to destroy the
+liberties and the religion of the people, _and therefore applied for
+assistance to the United Provinces_. The authority of the Prince of
+Orange had, doubtless, an influence on the deliberations of the
+States-General; but it did not make them commit injustice: for when a
+people, from good reasons, take up arms against an oppressor, _justice
+and generosity require that brave men should be assisted in the defence
+of their liberties_. Whenever, therefore, a civil war is kindled in a
+state, foreign powers may assist that party which appears to them to
+have justice on their side. _He who assists an odious tyrant, he who
+declares FOR AN UNJUST AND REBELLIOUS PEOPLE, offends against his duty_.
+When the bands of the political society are broken, or at least
+suspended between the sovereign and his people, they may then be
+considered as two distinct powers; and since each is independent of all
+foreign authority, nobody has a right to judge them. Either may be in
+the right, and each of those who grant their assistance may believe that
+he supports a good cause. It follows, then, in virtue of the voluntary
+law of nations, (see Prelim. Sec. 21,) that the two parties may act as
+having an equal right, and behave accordingly, till the decision of the
+affair.
+
+[Sidenote: Not to be pursued to an extreme.]
+
+[Sidenote: Endeavor to persuade subjects to a revolt.]
+
+"But we ought not to abuse this maxim for authorizing odious proceedings
+against the tranquillity of states. It is a violation of the law of
+nations _to persuade those subjects to revolt who actually obey their
+sovereign, though they complain of his government_.
+
+[Sidenote: Attempt to excite subjects to revolt.]
+
+"The practice of nations is conformable to our maxims. When the German
+Protestants came to the assistance of the Reformed in France, the court
+never undertook to treat them otherwise than as common enemies, and
+according to the laws of war. France at the same time assisted the
+Netherlands, which took up arms against Spain, and did not pretend that
+her troops should be considered upon any other footing than as
+auxiliaries in a regular war. _But no power avoids complaining of an
+atrocious injury, if any one attempts by his emissaries to excite his
+subjects to revolt_.
+
+[Sidenote: Tyrants.]
+
+"As to those monsters, who, under the title of sovereigns, render
+themselves the scourges and horror of the human race,--these are savage
+beasts, from which every brave man may justly purge the earth. All
+antiquity has praised Hercules for delivering the world from an Antaeus,
+a Busiris, and a Diomedes."--Ibid. ch. iv. Sec. 56.
+
+After stating that nations have no right to interfere in domestic
+concerns, he proceeds,--"But this rule does not preclude them from
+espousing the quarrel of a dethroned king, and assisting him, if he
+appears to have justice on his side. They then declare themselves
+enemies of the nation which has acknowledged his rival; as, when two
+_different nations_ are at war, they are at liberty to assist that whose
+quarrel they shall think has the fairest appearance."--Book IV. ch. ii.
+Sec. 14.
+
+
+CASE OF ALLIANCES.
+
+[Sidenote: When an alliance to preserve a king takes place.]
+
+[Sidenote: King does not lose his quality by the loss of his kingdom.]
+
+"It is asked if that alliance subsists with the king and the royal
+family when by some revolution they are deprived of their crown. We have
+lately remarked, (Sec. 194,) that a personal alliance expires with the
+reign of him who contracted it: but that is to be understood of an
+alliance with the state, limited, as to its duration, to the reign of
+the contracting king. This of which we are here speaking is of another
+nature. For though it binds the state, since it is bound by all the
+public acts of its sovereign, it is made directly in favor of the king
+and his family; it would therefore be absurd for it to terminate _at the
+moment when they have need of it, and at an event against which it was
+made_. Besides, the king does not lose his quality merely by the loss of
+his kingdom. _If he is stripped of it unjustly by an usurper, or by
+rebels, he preserves his rights, in the number of which are his
+alliances_.[40]
+
+[Sidenote: Case wherein aid may be given to a deposed king.]
+
+"But who shall judge if the king be dethroned lawfully or by violence?
+An independent nation acknowledges no judge. If the body of the nation
+declares the king deprived of his rights by the abuse he has made of
+them, and deposes him, it may justly do it _when its grievances are well
+founded_, and no other power has a right to censure it. The personal
+ally of this king ought not then to assist him against the nation that
+has made use of its right in deposing him: if he attempts it, he injures
+that nation. England declared war against Louis the Fourteenth, in the
+year 1688, for supporting the interest of James the Second, who was
+deposed in form by the nation. The same country declared war against him
+a second time, at the beginning of the present century, because that
+prince acknowledged the son of the deposed James, under the name of
+James the Third. In doubtful cases, and _when the body of the nation has
+not pronounced, or HAS NOT PRONOUNCED FREELY_, a sovereign may naturally
+support and defend an ally; and it is then that the voluntary law of
+nations subsists between different states. The party that has driven out
+the king pretends to have right on its side; this unhappy king and his
+ally flatter themselves with having the same advantage; and as they have
+no common judge upon earth, they have no other method to take but to
+apply to arms to terminate the dispute; they therefore engage in a
+formal war.
+
+[Sidenote: Not obliged to pursue his right beyond a certain point.]
+
+"In short, when the foreign prince has faithfully fulfilled his
+engagements towards an unfortunate monarch, when he has done in his
+defence, or to procure his restoration, all he was obliged to perform in
+virtue of the alliance, if his efforts are ineffectual, the dethroned
+prince cannot require him to support an endless war in his favor, or
+expect that he will eternally remain the enemy of the nation or of the
+sovereign who has deprived him of the throne. He must think of peace,
+abandon the ally, and consider him as having himself abandoned his right
+through necessity. Thus Louis the Fourteenth was obliged to abandon
+James the Second, and to acknowledge King William, though he had at
+first treated him as an usurper.
+
+[Sidenote: Case of defence against subjects.]
+
+[Sidenote: Case where real alliances may be renounced.]
+
+"The same question presents itself in real alliances, and, in general,
+in all alliances made with the state, and not in particular with a king
+for the defence of his person. An ally ought, doubtless, to be defended
+against every invasion, against every foreign violence, _and even
+against his rebellious subjects: in the same manner a republic ought to
+be defended against the enterprises of one who attempts to destroy the
+public liberty_. But it ought to be remembered that an ally of the state
+or the nation is not its judge. If the nation has deposed its king in
+form,--if the people of a republic have driven out their magistrates and
+set themselves at liberty, or acknowledged the authority of an usurper,
+either expressly or tacitly,--to oppose these domestic regulations, by
+disputing their justice or validity, would be to interfere in the
+government of the nation, and to do it an injury. (See Sec. 54, and
+following, of this Book.) The ally remains the ally of the state,
+notwithstanding the change that has happened in it. _However, when this
+change renders the alliance useless, dangerous, or disagreeable, it may
+renounce it; for it may say, upon a good foundation, that it would not
+have entered into an alliance with that nation, had it been under the
+present form of government._
+
+[Sidenote: Not an eternal war.]
+
+"We may say here, what we have said on a personal alliance: however
+just the cause of that king may be who is driven from the throne either
+by his subjects or by a foreign usurper, his aides are not obliged to
+support _an eternal war_ in his favor. After having made ineffectual
+efforts to restore him, they must at length give peace to their people,
+and come to an accommodation with the usurper, and for that purpose
+treat with him as with a lawful sovereign. Louis the Fourteenth,
+exhausted by a bloody and unsuccessful war, offered at Gertruydenberg to
+abandon his grandson, whom he had placed on the throne of Spain; and
+when affairs had changed their appearance, Charles of Austria, the rival
+of Philip, saw himself, in his turn, abandoned by his allies. They grew
+weary of exhausting their states in order to give him the possession of
+a crown which they believed to be his due, but which, to all appearance,
+they should never be able to procure for him."--Book II. ch. xii. Sec.Sec.
+196, 197.
+
+
+DANGEROUS POWER.
+
+[Sidenote: All nations may join.]
+
+"It is still easier to prove, that, should this formidable power betray
+any unjust and ambitious dispositions by doing the least injustice to
+another, every nation may avail themselves of the occasion, and join
+their forces to those of the party injured, in order to reduce that
+ambitious power, and disable it from so easily oppressing its neighbors,
+or keeping them in continual awe and fear. For an injury gives a nation
+a right to provide for its future safety by taking away from the
+violator the means of oppression. It is lawful, and even praiseworthy,
+to assist those who are oppressed, or unjustly attacked."--Book III. ch.
+iii. Sec. 45.
+
+
+SYSTEM OF EUROPE.
+
+[Sidenote: Europe a republic to preserve order and liberty.]
+
+"Europe forms a political system, a body where the whole is connected by
+the relations and different interests of nations inhabiting this part of
+the world. It is not, as anciently, a confused heap of detached pieces,
+each of which thought itself very little concerned in the fate of
+others, and seldom regarded things which did not immediately relate to
+it. The continual attention of sovereigns to what is on the carpet, the
+constant residence of ministers, and _the perpetual negotiations, make
+Europe a kind of a republic, the members of which, though independent,
+unite, through the ties of common interest, for the maintenance of order
+and liberty_. Hence arose that famous scheme of the political
+equilibrium, or balance of power, by which is understood such a
+disposition of things as no power is able absolutely to predominate or
+to prescribe laws to others."--Book III. ch. iii. Sec. 47.
+
+"Confederacies would be a sure way of preserving the equilibrium, and
+supporting the liberty of nations, did all princes thoroughly understand
+their true interests, and regulate all their steps for the good of the
+state."--Ibid. Sec. 49.
+
+
+CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY.
+
+[Sidenote: To be moderate.]
+
+"Instead of the pillage of the country and defenceless places, a custom
+has been substituted more humane and more advantageous to the sovereign
+making war: I mean that of contributions. Whoever carries on _a just
+war[41] has a right of making the enemy's country contribute to the
+support of the army, and towards defraying all the charges of the war_.
+Thus he obtains a part of what is due to him, and the subjects of the
+enemy, on submitting to this imposition, are secured from pillage, and
+the country is preserved. But a general who would not sully his
+reputation is to moderate his contributions, and proportion them to
+those on whom they are imposed. An excess in this point is not without
+the reproach of cruelty and inhumanity: if it shows less ferocity than
+ravage and destruction, it glares with avarice."--Book III. ch. ix. Sec.
+165.
+
+
+ASYLUM.
+
+"If an exile or banished man is driven from his country for any crime,
+it does _not_ belong to the nation in which he has taken refuge to
+punish him for a fault committed in a foreign country. For Nature gives
+to mankind and to nations the right of punishing only for their defence
+and safety (Sec. 169): whence it follows that he can only be punished by
+those he has offended.
+
+"But this reason shows, that, if the justice of each nation ought in
+general to be confined to the punishment of crimes committed in its own
+territories, we ought to except from this rule the villains who, by the
+quality and habitual frequency of their crimes, violate all public
+security, and declare themselves the enemies of the human race.
+Poisoners, assassins, and incendiaries by profession may be exterminated
+wherever they are seized; for they attack and injure all nations by
+trampling under foot the foundations of their common safety. Thus
+pirates are brought to the gibbet by the first into whose hands they
+fall. If the sovereign of the country where crimes of that nature have
+been committed reclaims the authors of them in order to bring them to
+punishment, they ought to be restored to him, as to one who is
+_principally_ interested in punishing them in an exemplary manner: and
+it being proper to convict the guilty, and to try them according to some
+form of law, this is a _second_ [not sole] reason why malefactors are
+usually delivered up at the desire of the state where their crimes have
+been committed."--Book I. ch. xix. Sec.Sec. 232, 233.
+
+"Every nation has a right of refusing to admit a stranger into the
+country, when he cannot enter it without putting it in evident danger,
+or without doing it a remarkable prejudice."[42]--Ibid. Sec. 230.
+
+
+FOREIGN MINISTERS.
+
+"The obligation does not go so far as to suffer at all times perpetual
+ministers, who are desirous of residing with a sovereign, though they
+have nothing to negotiate. It is natural, indeed, and very agreeable to
+the sentiments which nations owe to each other, that these resident
+ministers, _when there it nothing to be feared from their stay_, should
+be friendly received; but if there be any solid reason against this,
+what is for the good of the state ought unquestionably to be preferred:
+and the foreign sovereign cannot take it amiss, if his minister, who has
+concluded the affairs of his commission, and has no other affairs to
+negotiate, be desired to depart.[43] The custom of keeping everywhere
+ministers continually resident is now so strongly established, that the
+refusal of a conformity to it would, without _very good reasons_, give
+offence. These reasons may arise from _particular_ conjunctures; but
+there are also common reasons always subsisting, and such as relate to
+_the constitution of a government and the state of a nation_. The
+republics have often very good reasons of the latter kind to excuse
+themselves from continually suffering foreign ministers who _corrupt the
+citizens in order to gain them over to their masters, to the great
+prejudice of the republic and fomenting of the parties_, &c. And should
+they only diffuse among a nation, formerly plain, frugal, and virtuous,
+a taste for luxury, avidity for money, and the manners of courts, these
+would be more than sufficient for wise and provident rulers to dismiss
+them."--Book IV. ch. v. Sec. 66.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[38] This is the case of France:--Semonville at Turin,--Jacobin
+clubs,--Liegeois meeting,--Flemish meeting,--La Fayette's
+answer,--Clootz's embassy,--Avignon.
+
+[39] The French acknowledge no power not directly emanating from the
+people.
+
+[40] By the seventh article of the Treaty of TRIPLE ALLIANCE, between
+France, England, and Holland, signed at the Hague, in the year 1717, it
+is stipulated, "that, if the kingdoms, countries, or provinces of any of
+the allies are disturbed by intestine quarrels, or _by rebellions, on
+account of the said successions_," (the Protestant succession to the
+throne of Great Britain, and the succession to the throne of France, as
+settled by the Treaty of Utrecht,) "or _under any other pretext
+whatever_, the ally thus in trouble shall have full right to demand of
+his allies the succors above mentioned": that is to say, the same
+succors as in the case of an invasion from any foreign power,--8,000
+foot and 2,000 horse to be furnished by France or England, and 4,000
+foot and 1,000 horse by the States-General.
+
+By the fourth article of the Treaty of QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, between
+England, France, Holland, and the Emperor of Germany, signed in the year
+1718, the contracting powers "promise and oblige themselves that they
+will and ought to maintain, guaranty, and defend the right of succession
+in the kingdom of France, according to the tenor of the treaties made at
+Utrecht the 11th day of April, 1713; ... and this they shall perform
+_against all persons whosoever who may presume to disturb the order of
+the said succession_, in contradiction to the previous acts and treaties
+subsequent thereon."
+
+The above treaties have been revived and confirmed by every subsequent
+treaty of peace between Great Britain and France.--EDIT.
+
+[41] Contributions raised by the Duke of Brunswick in France. Compare
+these with the contributions raised by the French in the
+Netherlands.--EDIT.
+
+[42] The third article of the Treaty of Triple Alliance and the latter
+part of the fourth article of the Treaty of Quadruple Alliance
+stipulate, that no kind of refuge or protection shall be given to
+rebellious subjects of the contracting powers.--EDIT.
+
+[43] Dismission of M. Chauvelin.--EDIT.
+
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. IV.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable
+Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
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diff --git a/15700.zip b/15700.zip
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diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #15700 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15700)
diff --git a/old/15700-h.htm.2020-12-14 b/old/15700-h.htm.2020-12-14
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Burke's Writings and Speeches, Volume the Fourth, by Edmund Burke.
+    </title>
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+              }
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+/*
+ * set the body text indention, and spacing, and leading
+ */
+	p { /* all paragraphs unless overridden */
+		margin-top: 1em;
+		margin-bottom: 0;
+		line-height: 1.4em;
+	}
+
+	body > p { /* paras at <body> level - not in <div> or <table>  */
+		text-align: justify;
+		text-indent: 1em;
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+
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+ * Style the blockquote tag and related:
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+ *	- one-point smaller font (questionable?)
+ *	- <p class="citation"> right-just and italicized
+ *	- <p class="signature"> deeply indented
+ */
+	.blockquote {
+		margin-left: 5%;
+		margin-right: 5%;
+		}
+	p.citation { /* author citation at end of blockquote or poem */
+                margin-left:20%;
+		text-align: left;
+		/* text-align: right;    MP, I DON'T LIKE THIS */
+		/* font-style: italic;   MP, I DON'T LIKE THIS */
+		}
+	p.quotdate { /* date of a letter aligned right */
+		text-align: right;
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+	p.quotsig { /* author signature at end of letter */
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+	dt { margin-top: 0.5em; }
+	/* turn off list decoration in a single item  to form the
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+	 * or make an unmarked list: < ul class="off" >
+	 */
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+ * In all browsers **except MSIE 5** the items of an "inside" list are
+ * indented as if they still had their symbol.
+ */
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+/*
+ * The TOC, LOI, and Index are unordered lists with no prefix symbols.
+ * The tocright class is used to right-align page numbers in a TOC
+ * (not to be confused with linenum, used for poetry line#s).
+ */
+
+/* MP... In konqueror, the numbers all pile up together at the first item */
+
+	ul.TOC { /* styling the Table of Contents */
+		list-style-type: none; /* a list with no symbol */
+		position: relative; /* makes a "container" for span.tocright */
+		margin-right: 5%; /* pulls the page#s in a skosh */
+                padding-right: 3em; /* MP stops text hitting numbers */
+                margin-left: 1em;  /* MP for long titles,indent all lines */
+                text-indent: -1em; /* MP for long titles, unindent 1st line */
+		}
+	ul.TOCSub { /* sub-entries in the TOC */
+		list-style-type: none;
+		position: relative; /* makes a "container" for span.tocright */
+		margin-right: 10%; /* pulls these page#s in even more */
+                padding-right: 3em; /* MP stops text hitting numbers */
+                margin-left: 1em;  /* MP for long titles,indent all lines */
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+	span.tocright { /* use absolute positioning to move page# right */
+		position: absolute; right: 0; text-indent: 0;/* valign: bottom; */
+		}
+	ul.LOI { /* styling the List of Illustrations */
+		list-style-type: none;
+		position: relative; /* makes a "container" for span.tocright */
+		margin-right: 5%; /* pulls the page#s in a skosh */
+		}
+
+	ul.IX { /* styling the IndeX */
+		list-style-type: none;
+		font-size: 80%;
+		}
+	ul.IXSub { /* sub-terms in the index */
+		list-style-type: none;
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+	ul.IX li { /* list items in an index list: compressed */
+		margin-top: 0;
+		}
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+/*
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+ */
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+		margin-top: 1em;
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+ * a div with centering, use for images and tables
+ * to center a table or image in all browsers:
+ *	<div class="ctr">	 <table/img ... >  ... < / div>
+ */
+	div.ctr { text-align: center; }
+	div.ctr table { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;  text-align: left; }
+	div.ctr img { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }
+
+/*
+ * Use of <ins> ... < /ins> for marking corrected typos:
+ * Surround the corrected text with:
+ *   <ins class="correction"
+ *		title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'txet'">text< /ins>
+ * Very fine underline is not intrusive. Explanation pops up on hover.
+ */
+	ins.correction {
+		text-decoration:none;
+		border-bottom: thin dotted gray;}
+
+/*
+ * Styling for images and captions
+ */
+	img { /* the default image has */
+			border: 1px solid black; /* a thin black line border */
+			padding: 6px; /* ..spaced a bit out from the graphic */
+		}
+
+	img.plain { /* image with no border or padding, see float */
+			border: none; padding: 0;
+		}
+	p.caption { margin-top: 0; font-size: smaller; }
+
+/*
+ * style sidenotes as class="sn", use in div or p
+ * guiguts expects a class "sidenote"
+ */
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+		/* sidenote box appearance controls: */
+			width: 20em; 		/* ..fixed width, */
+			float: right;		/* ..float to the right, */
+			margin-right: -21em;	/* ..exdent into body margin */
+			margin-top: 0; /* top even with following <p>'s top */
+			border: 1px dotted black; /* ..optional border */
+			background-color: rgb(90%,90%,90%); /* ..optional tint */
+		/* sidenote content control: */
+			font-size: smaller;	/* ..small text; could be x-small */
+			text-indent: 0;		/* ..no para indent */
+			text-align: left;	/* ..right align text in box */
+			margin-left: 0.2em; /* ensure space from text */
+		}
+
+/*
+ * style sidebars as div class="sb"
+ */
+	.sb {
+			width: 40%;		/* make 100% to force in-line */
+			float: right;
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+			padding: 0 0 0 0.5em; /* get text away from border */
+			margin: 0 0 1em 0.5em; /* get border clear of body text */
+			background-color: rgb(90%,90%,90%); /* ..optional tint */
+		}
+/*
+ * style floating images just like sidebars but no border
+ * Use image class="plain", as div border encloses all.
+ * Use div when caption accompanies image, span for image-only
+ * Note: guiguts expects class names figleft, figright
+ */
+	.floatr, .figright {
+			float: right;
+			clear: right; /* don't allow overlaps */
+			text-align: center; /* img, caption centered in box */
+			border: 1px solid black; /* thin border */
+			margin-left: 4px; /* keep body text away from border */
+			padding: 3px; /* keep caption text away border */
+		}
+
+	.floatl, .figleft {
+			float: left;
+			clear: left; /* don't allow overlaps */
+			text-align: center; /* img, caption centered in box */
+			border: 1px solid black; /* thin border */
+			margin-right: 4px; /* keep body text away from border */
+			padding: 3px; /* keep caption text from touching border */
+		}
+/*
+ *   Styling tables and their content
+ */
+
+	table { /* style all < table> elements */
+		margin-top: 1em; /* space above the table */
+		caption-side: /* top; or */ bottom ;
+		empty-cells: show; /* usual default is hide */
+	}
+
+	thead td, tfoot td { /* center & bold */
+		text-align: center;
+		font-weight: bold;
+		background-color: #ddd; /* dubious: gray background */
+	}
+	table .shade { /* tr or td class="shade" */
+		background-color: #ddd;
+	}
+	td, td > p {
+		margin-top: 0.25em;
+		/* line-height: 1.1em; OLD */
+		/* font-size: 90%; OLD */
+		/* text-align: left; OLD*/
+	}
+        td.wrap { /* MP's magic table: For cells in 1st col with lots of text,
+                     allows rewrap with indent.
+                     set padding-left: to 1 on main table...
+                     Numbers following should be "valign: bottom"*/
+                text-indent: -1em;
+                padding-right: 2em;
+        }
+                  /* use to add borders to table cells */
+        .bb       {border-bottom: solid 1px;}
+        .bl       {border-left: solid 1px;}
+        .bt       {border-top: solid 1px;}
+        .br       {border-right: solid 1px;}
+        .bbox     {border: solid 1px;}
+/*
+ * Styling Poetry the method generated by Guiguts:
+ *  div class=poem encloses poem
+ *  h4 within the poem div for poem title
+ *  div class=stanza encloses stanza
+ *	p [class=iN] encloses line
+ *  span class=linenum encloses line number
+ */
+	.poem {
+		text-align: left;
+		margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;
+		position: relative;  /* basis of .linenum positions */
+		/* background-color: #fdc; /* Demonstration only: DELETE */
+		}
+	.poem h4 {
+		margin-left: 5em;
+		text-decoration: underline;
+		}
+	.poem .stanza {
+		margin-top: 1em; /* vertical break between stanzas */
+		}
+	.stanza div { /* default line */
+		line-height: 1.2em;
+		margin-top: 0em;
+		margin-left: 2em;
+		text-indent: -2em;
+		}
+	.poem .i1 {margin-left: 2em;} /* p or span indents */
+	.poem .i2 {margin-left: 4em;} /* indents */
+	.poem .i3 {margin-left: 5em;} /* indents */
+	.poem .i4 {margin-left: 6em;} /* indents */
+	.poem .i5 {margin-left: 7em;} /* indents */
+	.poem .i6 {margin-left: 8em;} /* indents */
+	.poem .i7 {margin-left: 9em;} /* indents */
+	.poem .i8 {margin-left: 10em;} /* indents */
+	.poem .i9 {margin-left: 11em;} /* indents */
+    .poem .caesura	{	/* vertical break in mid-line */
+    	vertical-align: -200%;
+    	}
+
+	.poem .linenum {
+		margin: 0; text-indent:0;
+		font-size: 90%;			/* they are smaller */
+		text-align: center;		/* centered in a space... */
+		width: 1.75em;				/* ...about 3+ digits wide */
+		position: absolute;		/* positioned out of text flow */
+		/*left: -4em; 		  ...positioned in LEFT margin */
+		right: -4em;	/*		 ...positioned in RIGHT margin */
+		color: #777; background-color: #ddd; /* medium gray on light gray */
+		/* color: #fff; background-color: #888;  white on medium gray */
+		}
+
+/*
+ * Making page numbers visible: Change the display: value of this class
+ *		for visible page numbers: "inline"
+ *		for hidden page numbers: "none"
+ */
+
+/* THESE LINES ADDED BY MP */
+    /*.pagenum  {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; color: #778899;} /* page numbers */
+    /*.pagenum  {position: absolute; right: 1%; font-size: smaller; text-align: left; color: #778899;} /* page numbers */
+    .pagenum {
+      font-size: smaller;
+      text-align: right;
+      padding: 0 0 0 0 ;
+      margin: 0 0 0 0;
+      position: absolute; right: 1%;
+      color: #778899;
+    }
+    /* Uncomment to get page numbers displayed with text */
+    a.pagenum:after            {display: inline; color: #778899; /* background-color: yellow;*/ content: "{" attr(title) "}";}
+
+    /* Change cursor over Greek text (the transliteration will appear in a popup) */
+    :lang(el)                  {cursor: help;}
+
+
+/*
+ * This code uses the :after selector to display the title string
+ * from the anchor inline in the text. It presumes every page anchor is:
+ *   <a class="page1" id="Page_NN" title="NN" > < /a>
+ *
+ * Advantage: non-CSS browsers display nothing.
+ * Problem: display is within the text between words. (you can't do
+ * absolute positioning of generated content.)
+ */
+	.page1:after {
+				display: inline; /* none or inline */
+				content: "[" attr(title) "]";
+				font-size: 50%;
+				background-color: rgb(95%,95%,95%);
+				vertical-align: 0.25em; /* raise its baseline */
+				}
+/*
+ * This code uses absolute positioning to display page numbers in the
+ * right margin. It presumes that every page-number anchor is augmented
+ * with a text span:
+ *	<a id="Page_NN">< /a> <span class="page2">NN< /span>
+ *
+ * Advantage: absolute positioning lets you put #s in the margin.
+ * Drawback: non-CSS browsers display the number inline instead.
+ * Drawback: multiple pagenumbers in the same text line overlap in the margin
+ */
+
+	.page2 {	display: inline; /* none or inline	*/
+				font-size:50%;
+				text-align: right;
+				padding: 0 0 0 0 ;
+				margin: 0 0 0 0;
+				position: absolute; right: 1%;}
+
+/*
+ * Styling footnotes and their references. See text for discussion.
+ * NOTE: Guiguts keeps changing the classnames it uses for the
+ * footnote div and p's. Be prepared to change these to match.
+ */
+
+	.fnanchor {   /* MODIFIED FROM fnref BY MP FOR GUIGUTS NOMENCLATURE */
+			font-size: smaller; /* discreet [X] */
+			vertical-align: 2px; /* bumped up a trace from baseline */
+		}
+
+	.note {
+			font-size: 90%;  /* somewhat smaller */
+			margin: 0 2em 2em 1em;
+                        text-align: justify;
+		}
+
+	.footnotes {  /* ADDED BY MP */
+                      border: dashed 1px;  /* Added by MP */
+                /*but note that knoqueror messes it up (though readable)*/
+		}
+/*
+ * Stylings for drama:
+ *    h4.scn is the scene-header, centered, italic
+ *    span.cnm is for all character-names
+ *    p.sdn is the stage-direction paragraph
+ *    span.sdr is the end-of-line right-aligned direction
+ *    span.sdm is the mid-line embedded direction
+ */
+
+	h4.scn {
+		text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic;
+	}
+	p.sdn {
+		text-align: center; font-style: italic;
+	}
+	p.dlg {
+		margin:0.25em;
+		line-height: 1.2em;
+		position: relative; /* establish "container" for span.sdn */
+	}
+	.dlg .in5em { position:relative; left: 5em; }
+	.dlg .in10em { position: relative; left: 10em; }
+	span.sdm { font-style: italic; 	}
+	span.sdm:before {  font-style:normal; content: "[" }
+	span.sdm:after { font-style:normal; content: "]" }
+	span.sdr {
+		font-style: italic;
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund
+Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
+
+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: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12)
+
+Author: Edmund Burke
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15700]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURKE VOL 4 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made
+available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France
+(BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p><a name="Page_-3" id="Page_-3" /></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>THE WORKS
+<br /><br />
+<span style="font-size: 71%">OF</span>
+<br /><br />
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE<br />
+
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 200%">EDMUND BURKE</span></h2>
+
+<h3>IN TWELVE VOLUMES<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: smaller">VOLUME THE FOURTH</span></h3>
+<p />
+<div style="text-align: center">
+<img src="images/001.png" alt="BURKE COAT OF ARMS." title="BURKE COAT OF ARMS" />
+</div>
+<p />
+<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0"><b>London</b><br />
+<br />
+
+JOHN C. NIMMO<br />
+<br />
+14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.<br />
+
+MDCCCLXXXVII<br /></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_IV" id="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_IV" />CONTENTS OF VOL IV.</h2>
+<p><a name="Page_-2" id="Page_-2"></a><a name="Page_-1" id="Page_-1"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<ul class="TOC"><li><a href="#MEMBER_OF_THE_NATIONAL_ASSEMBLY">LETTER TO A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, IN ANSWER TO SOME
+OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS</a>                               <span class="tocright">1</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#APPEAL">APPEAL FROM THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS</a>                                  <span class="tocright">57</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#PEER_OF_IRELAND">LETTER TO A PEER OF IRELAND ON THE PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH
+CATHOLICS</a>                                                            <span class="tocright">217</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#SIR_HERCULES_LANGRISHE">LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ROMAN
+CATHOLICS OF IRELAND</a>                                                 <span class="tocright">241</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#HINTS_FOR_A_MEMORIAL">HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL TO BE DELIVERED TO MONSIEUR DE M.M.</a>             <span class="tocright">307</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#THOUGHTS">THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS</a>                                           <span class="tocright">313</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#HEADS_FOR_CONSIDERATION">HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS</a>              <span class="tocright">379</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#REMARKS">REMARKS ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE: WITH
+AN APPENDIX</a>                                                          <span class="tocright">403</span></li></ul>
+
+<p><a name="Page_-0" id="Page_-0"></a><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" title="1" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="MEMBER_OF_THE_NATIONAL_ASSEMBLY" id="MEMBER_OF_THE_NATIONAL_ASSEMBLY" /></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span style="font-size: 60%">A</span><br />
+<br />
+LETTER<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">TO</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">IN</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">ANSWER TO SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">1791.</span></h2>
+<p><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" title="2" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" title="3" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Sir,&mdash;I had the honor to receive your letter of the 17th of November
+last, in which, with some exceptions, you are pleased to consider
+favorably the letter I have written on the affairs of France. I shall
+ever accept any mark of approbation attended with instruction with more
+pleasure than general and unqualified praises. The latter can serve only
+to flatter our vanity; the former, whilst it encourages us to proceed,
+may help to improve us in our progress.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the errors you point out to me in my printed letter are really
+such. One only I find to be material. It is corrected in the edition
+which I take the liberty of sending to you. As to the cavils which may
+be made on some part of my remarks with regard to the <i>gradations</i> in
+your new Constitution, you observe justly that they do not affect the
+substance of my objections. Whether there be a round more or less in the
+ladder of representation by which your workmen ascend from their
+parochial tyranny to their federal anarchy, when the whole scale is
+false, appears to me of little or no importance.</p>
+
+<p>I published my thoughts on that Constitution, that my countrymen might
+be enabled to estimate the wisdom of the plans which were held out to
+their imitation. I conceived that the true character of those plans
+would be best collected from the committee appointed to prepare them. I
+thought that the scheme of their building would be better comprehended<a name="Page_4" id="Page_4" title="4" class="pagenum"></a>
+in the design of the architects than in the execution of the masons. It
+was not worth my reader's while to occupy himself with the alterations
+by which bungling practice corrects absurd theory. Such an investigation
+would be endless: because every day's past experience of
+impracticability has driven, and every day's future experience will
+drive, those men to new devices as exceptionable as the old, and which
+are no otherwise worthy of observation than as they give a daily proof
+of the delusion of their promises and the falsehood of their
+professions. Had I followed all these changes, my letter would have been
+only a gazette of their wanderings, a journal of their march from error
+to error, through a dry, dreary desert, unguided by the lights of
+Heaven, or by the contrivance which wisdom has invented to supply their
+place.</p>
+
+<p>I am unalterably persuaded that the attempt to oppress, degrade,
+impoverish, confiscate, and extinguish the original gentlemen and landed
+property of a whole nation cannot be justified under any form it may
+assume. I am satisfied beyond a doubt, that the project of turning a
+great empire into a vestry, or into a collection of vestries, and of
+governing it in the spirit of a parochial administration, is senseless
+and absurd, in any mode or with any qualifications. I can never be
+convinced that the scheme of placing the highest powers of the state in
+church-wardens and constables and other such officers, guided by the
+prudence of litigious attorneys and Jew brokers, and set in action by
+shameless women of the lowest condition, by keepers of hotels, taverns,
+and brothels, by pert apprentices, by clerks, shop-boys, hair-dressers,
+fiddlers, and dancers on the stage,<a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" title="5" class="pagenum"></a> (who, in such a commonwealth as
+yours, will in future overbear, as already they have overborne, the
+sober incapacity of dull, uninstructed men, of useful, but laborious
+occupations,) can never be put into any shape that must not be both
+disgraceful and destructive. The whole of this project, even if it were
+what it pretends to be, and was not in reality the dominion, through
+that disgraceful medium, of half a dozen, or perhaps fewer, intriguing
+politicians, is so mean, so low-minded, so stupid a contrivance, in
+point of wisdom, as well as so perfectly detestable for its wickedness,
+that I must always consider the correctives which might make it in any
+degree practicable to be so many new objections to it.</p>
+
+<p>In that wretched state of things, some are afraid that the authors of
+your miseries may be led to precipitate their further designs by the
+hints they may receive from the very arguments used to expose the
+absurdity of their system, to mark the incongruity of its parts, and its
+inconsistency with their own principles,&mdash;and that your masters may be
+led to render their schemes more consistent by rendering them more
+mischievous. Excuse the liberty which your indulgence authorizes me to
+take, when I observe to you that such apprehensions as these would
+prevent all exertion of our faculties in this great cause of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>A rash recourse to <i>force</i> is not to be justified in a state of real
+weakness. Such attempts bring on disgrace, and in their failure
+discountenance and discourage more rational endeavors. But <i>reason</i> is
+to be hazarded, though it may be perverted by craft and sophistry; for
+reason can suffer no loss nor shame, nor can it impede any useful plan
+of future policy.<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" title="6" class="pagenum"></a> In the unavoidable uncertainty as to the effect,
+which attends on every measure of human prudence, nothing seems a surer
+antidote to the poison of fraud than its detection. It is true, the
+fraud may be swallowed after this discovery, and perhaps even swallowed
+the more greedily for being a detected fraud. Men sometimes make a point
+of honor not to be disabused; and they had rather fall into an hundred
+errors than confess one. But, after all, when neither our principles nor
+our dispositions, nor, perhaps, our talents, enable us to encounter
+delusion with delusion, we must use our best reason to those that ought
+to be reasonable creatures, and to take our chance for the event. We
+cannot act on these anomalies in the minds of men. I do not conceive
+that the persons who have contrived these things can be made much the
+better or the worse for anything which can be said to them. <i>They</i> are
+reason-proof. Here and there, some men, who were at first carried away
+by wild, good intentions, may be led, when their first fervors are
+abated, to join in a sober survey of the schemes into which they had
+been deluded. To those only (and I am sorry to say they are not likely
+to make a large description) we apply with any hope. I may speak it upon
+an assurance almost approaching to absolute knowledge, that nothing has
+been done that has not been contrived from the beginning, even before
+the States had assembled. <i>Nulla nova mihi res inopinave surgit.</i> They
+are the same men and the same designs that they were from the first,
+though varied in their appearance. It was the very same animal that at
+first crawled about in the shape of a caterpillar that you now see rise
+into the air and expand his wings to the sun.<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" title="7" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Proceeding, therefore, as we are obliged to proceed,&mdash;that is, upon an
+hypothesis that we address rational men,&mdash;can false political principles
+be more effectually exposed than by demonstrating that they lead to
+consequences directly inconsistent with and subversive of the
+arrangements grounded upon them? If this kind of demonstration is not
+permitted, the process of reasoning called <i>deductio ad absurdum</i>, which
+even the severity of geometry does not reject, could not be employed at
+all in legislative discussions. One of our strongest weapons against
+folly acting with authority would be lost.</p>
+
+<p>You know, Sir, that even the virtuous efforts of your patriots to
+prevent the ruin of your country have had this very turn given to them.
+It has been said here, and in France too, that the reigning usurpers
+would not have carried their tyranny to such destructive lengths, if
+they had not been stimulated and provoked to it by the acrimony of your
+opposition. There is a dilemma to which every opposition to successful
+iniquity must, in the nature of things, be liable. If you lie still, you
+are considered as an accomplice in the measures in which you silently
+acquiesce. If you resist, you are accused of provoking irritable power
+to new excesses. The conduct of a losing party never appears right: at
+least, it never can possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to
+vulgar judgments,&mdash;success.</p>
+
+<p>The indulgence of a sort of undefined hope, an obscure confidence, that
+some lurking remains of virtue, some degree of shame, might exist in the
+breasts of the oppressors of France, has been among the causes which
+have helped to bring on the common ruin of king and people. There is no
+safety for hon<a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" title="8" class="pagenum"></a>est men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men,
+and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
+I well remember, at every epocha of this wonderful history, in every
+scene of this tragic business, that, when your sophistic usurpers were
+laying down mischievous principles, and even applying them in direct
+resolutions, it was the fashion to say that they never intended to
+execute those declarations in their rigor. This made men careless in
+their opposition, and remiss in early precaution. By holding out this
+fallacious hope, the impostors deluded sometimes one description of men,
+and sometimes another, so that no means of resistance were provided
+against them, when they came to execute in cruelty what they had planned
+in fraud.</p>
+
+<p>There are cases in which a man would be ashamed not to have been imposed
+on. There is a confidence necessary to human intercourse, and without
+which men are often more injured by their own suspicions than they would
+be by the perfidy of others. But when men whom we <i>know</i> to be wicked
+impose upon us, we are something worse than dupes. When we know them,
+their fair pretences become new motives for distrust. There is one case,
+indeed, in which it would be madness not to give the fullest credit to
+the most deceitful of men,&mdash;that is, when they make declarations of
+hostility against us.</p>
+
+<p>I find that some persons entertain other hopes, which I confess appear
+more specious than those by which at first so many were deluded and
+disarmed. They flatter themselves that the extreme misery brought upon
+the people by their folly will at last open the eyes of the multitude,
+if not of their leaders. Much the contrary, I fear. As to the leaders in
+this <a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" title="9" class="pagenum"></a>system of imposture,&mdash;you know that cheats and deceivers never can
+repent. The fraudulent have no resource but in fraud. They have no other
+goods in their magazine. They have no virtue or wisdom in their minds,
+to which, in a disappointment concerning the profitable effects of fraud
+and cunning, they can retreat. The wearing out of an old serves only to
+put them upon the invention of a new delusion. Unluckily, too, the
+credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as the invention of knaves. They
+never give people possession; but they always keep them in hope. Your
+state doctors do not so much as pretend that any good whatsoever has
+hitherto been derived from their operations, or that the public has
+prospered in any one instance under their management. The nation is
+sick, very sick, by their medicines. But the charlatan tells them that
+what is past cannot be helped;&mdash;they have taken the draught, and they
+must wait its operation with patience;&mdash;that the first effects, indeed,
+are unpleasant, but that the very sickness is a proof that the dose is
+of no sluggish operation;&mdash;that sickness is inevitable in all
+constitutional revolutions;&mdash;that the body must pass through pain to
+ease;&mdash;that the prescriber is not an empiric who proceeds by vulgar
+experience, but one who grounds his practice<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor" title=" It is said in the last quackish address of the National
+Assembly to the people of France, that they have not formed their
+arrangements upon vulgar practice, but on a theory which cannot
+fail,&mdash;or something to that effect.">[1]</a> on the sure rules of
+art, which cannot possibly fail. You have read, Sir, the last manifesto,
+or mountebank's bill, of the National Assembly. You see their
+presumption in their promises is not lessened by all their failures in
+the per<a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" title="10" class="pagenum"></a>formance. Compare this last address of the Assembly and the
+present state of your affairs with the early engagements of that body,
+engagements which, not content with declaring, they solemnly deposed
+upon oath,&mdash;swearing lustily, that, if they were supported, they would
+make their country glorious and happy; and then judge whether those who
+can write such things, or those who can bear to read them, are of
+<i>themselves</i> to be brought to any reasonable course of thought or
+action.</p>
+
+<p>As to the people at large, when once these miserable sheep have broken
+the fold, and have got themselves loose, not from the restraint, but
+from the protection, of all the principles of natural authority and
+legitimate subordination, they become the natural prey of impostors.
+When they have once tasted of the flattery of knaves, they can no longer
+endure reason, which appears to them only in the form of censure and
+reproach. Great distress has never hitherto taught, and whilst the world
+lasts it never will teach, wise lessons to any part of mankind. Men are
+as much blinded by the extremes of misery as by the extremes of
+prosperity. Desperate situations produce desperate councils and
+desperate measures. The people of France, almost generally, have been
+taught to look for other resources than those which can be derived from
+order, frugality, and industry. They are generally armed; and they are
+made to expect much from the use of arms. <i>Nihil non arrogant armis.</i>
+Besides this, the retrograde order of society has something flattering
+to the dispositions of mankind. The life of adventurers, gamesters,
+gypsies, beggars, and robbers is not unpleasant. It requires restraint
+to keep men from falling into that habit. The shifting <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" title="11" class="pagenum"></a>tides of fear
+and hope, the flight and pursuit, the peril and escape, the alternate
+famine and feast of the savage and the thief, after a time; render all
+course of slow, steady, progressive, unvaried occupation, and the
+prospect only of a limited mediocrity at the end of long labor, to the
+last degree tame, languid, and insipid. Those who have been once
+intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it,
+even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may
+be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look
+to anything but power for their relief. When did distress ever oblige a
+prince to abdicate his authority? And what effect will it have upon
+those who are made to believe themselves a people of princes?</p>
+
+<p>The more active and stirring part of the lower orders having got
+government and the distribution of plunder into their hands, they will
+use its resources in each municipality to form a body of adherents.
+These rulers and their adherents will be strong enough to overpower the
+discontents of those who have not been able to assert their share of the
+spoil. The unfortunate adventurers in the cheating lottery of plunder
+will probably be the least sagacious or the most inactive and irresolute
+of the gang. If, on disappointment, they should dare to stir, they will
+soon be suppressed as rebels and mutineers by their brother rebels.
+Scantily fed for a while with the offal of plunder, they will drop off
+by degrees; they will be driven out of sight and out of thought; and
+they will be left to perish obscurely, like rats, in holes and corners.</p>
+
+<p>From the forced repentance of invalid mutineers and disbanded thieves
+you can hope for no resource. Government itself, which ought to
+constrain the more <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" title="12" class="pagenum"></a>bold and dexterous of these robbers, is their
+accomplice. Its arms, its treasures, its all are in their hands.
+Judicature, which above all things should awe them, is their creature
+and their instrument. Nothing seems to me to render your internal
+situation more desperate than this one circumstance of the state of your
+judicature. Many days are not passed since we have seen a set of men
+brought forth by your rulers for a most critical function. Your rulers
+brought forth a set of men, steaming from the sweat and drudgery, and
+all black with the smoke and soot, of the forge of confiscation and
+robbery,&mdash;<i>ardentis mass&aelig; fuligine lippos</i>,&mdash;a set of men brought forth
+from the trade of hammering arms of proof, offensive and defensive, in
+aid of the enterprises, and for the subsequent protection, of
+housebreakers, murderers, traitors, and malefactors,&mdash;men, who had their
+minds seasoned with theories perfectly conformable to their practice,
+and who had always laughed at possession and prescription, and defied
+all the fundamental maxims of jurisprudence. To the horror and
+stupefaction of all the honest part of this nation, and indeed of all
+nations who are spectators, we have seen, on the credit of those very
+practices and principles, and to carry them further into effect, these
+very men placed on the sacred seat of justice in the capital city of
+your late kingdom. We see that in future you are to be destroyed with
+more form and regularity. This is not peace: it is only the introduction
+of a sort of discipline in their hostility. Their tyranny is complete in
+their justice; and their <i>lanterne</i> is not half so dreadful as their
+court.</p>
+
+<p>One would think, that, out of common decency, they would have given you
+men who had not been in the <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" title="13" class="pagenum"></a>habit of trampling upon law and justice in
+the Assembly, neutral men, or men apparently neutral, for judges, who
+are to dispose of your lives and fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell, when he attempted to legalize his power, and to settle his
+conquered country in a state of order, did not look for dispensers of
+justice in the instruments of his usurpation. Quite the contrary. He
+sought out, with great solicitude and selection, and even from the party
+most opposite to his designs, men of weight and decorum of
+character,&mdash;men unstained with the violence of the times, and with hands
+not fouled with confiscation and sacrilege: for he chose an Hale for his
+chief justice, though he absolutely refused to take his civic oaths, or
+to make any acknowledgment whatsoever of the legality of his government.
+Cromwell told this great lawyer, that, since he did not approve his
+title, all he required of him was to administer, in a manner agreeable
+to his pure sentiments and unspotted character, that justice without
+which human society cannot subsist,&mdash;that it was not his particular
+government, but civil order itself, which, as a judge, he wished him to
+support. Cromwell knew how to separate the institutions expedient to his
+usurpation from the administration of the public justice of his country.
+For Cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not wholly suppressed, but
+only suspended, the sentiments of religion, and the love (as far as it
+could consist with his designs) of fair and honorable reputation.
+Accordingly, we are indebted to this act of his for the preservation of
+our laws, which some senseless assertors of the rights of men were then
+on the point of entirely erasing, as relics of feudality and barbarism.
+Besides, he gave, in the appointment of that man, to that age, and to
+<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" title="14" class="pagenum"></a>all posterity, the most brilliant example of sincere and fervent piety,
+exact justice, and profound jurisprudence.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor" title=" See Burnet's Life of Hale.">[2]</a> But these are not the
+things in which your philosophic usurpers choose to follow Cromwell.</p>
+
+<p>One would think, that, after an honest and necessary revolution, (if
+they had a mind that theirs should pass for such,) your masters would
+have imitated the virtuous policy of those who have been at the head of
+revolutions of that glorious character. Burnet tells us, that nothing
+tended to reconcile the English nation to the government of King William
+so much as the care he took to fill the vacant bishoprics with men who
+had attracted the public esteem by their learning, eloquence, and piety,
+and above all, by their known moderation in the state. With you, in your
+purifying revolution, whom have you chosen to regulate the Church? M.
+Mirabeau is a fine speaker, and a fine writer, and a fine&mdash;a very fine
+man; but, really, nothing gave more surprise to everybody here than to
+find him the supreme head of your ecclesiastical affairs. The rest is of
+course. Your Assembly addresses a manifesto to France, in which they
+tell the people, with an insulting irony, that they have brought the
+Church to its primitive condition. In one respect their declaration is
+undoubtedly true: for they have brought it to a state of poverty and
+persecution. What can be hoped for after this? Have not men, (if they
+deserve the name,) under this new hope and head of the Church, been made
+bishops for no other merit than having acted as instruments of atheists?
+for no other merit than having thrown the children's bread to dogs? and,
+in order to gorge the whole gang of usurers, <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" title="15" class="pagenum"></a>peddlers, and itinerant
+Jew discounters at the corners of streets, starved the poor of their
+Christian flocks, and their own brother pastors? Have not such men been
+made bishops to administer in temples in which (if the patriotic
+donations have not already stripped them of their vessels) the
+church-wardens ought to take security for the altar plate, and not so
+much as to trust the chalice in their sacrilegious hands, so long as
+Jews have assignats on ecclesiastic plunder, to exchange for the silver
+stolen from churches?</p>
+
+<p>I am told that the very sons of such Jew jobbers have been made bishops:
+persons not to be suspected of any sort of <i>Christian</i> superstition, fit
+colleagues to the holy prelate of Autun, and bred at the feet of that
+Gamaliel. We know who it was that drove the money-changers out of the
+temple. We see, too, who it is that brings them in again. We have in
+London very respectable persons of the Jewish nation, whom we will keep;
+but we have of the same tribe others of a very different
+description,&mdash;housebreakers, and receivers of stolen goods, and forgers
+of paper currency, more than we can conveniently hang. These we can
+spare to France, to fill the new episcopal thrones: men well versed in
+swearing; and who will scruple no oath which the fertile genius of any
+of your reformers can devise.</p>
+
+<p>In matters so ridiculous it is hard to be grave. On a view of their
+consequences, it is almost inhuman to treat them lightly. To what a
+state of savage, stupid, servile insensibility must your people be
+reduced, who can endure such proceedings in their Church, their state,
+and their judicature, even for a moment! But the deluded people of
+France are like other madmen, who, to a miracle, bear hunger, and
+<a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" title="16" class="pagenum"></a>thirst, and cold, and confinement, and the chains and lash of their
+keeper, whilst all the while they support themselves by the imagination
+that they are generals of armies, prophets, kings, and emperors. As to a
+change of mind in those men, who consider infamy as honor, degradation
+as preferment, bondage to low tyrants as liberty, and the practical
+scorn and contumely of their upstart masters as marks of respect and
+homage, I look upon it as absolutely impracticable. These madmen, to be
+cured, must first, like other madmen, be subdued. The sound part of the
+community, which I believe to be large, but by no means the largest
+part, has been taken by surprise, and is disjointed, terrified, and
+disarmed. That sound part of the community must first be put into a
+better condition, before it can do anything in the way of deliberation
+or persuasion. This must be an act of power, as well as of wisdom: of
+power in the hands of firm, determined patriots, who can distinguish the
+misled from traitors, who will regulate the state (if such should be
+their fortune) with a discriminating, manly, and provident mercy; men
+who are purged of the surfeit and indigestion of systems, if ever they
+have been admitted into the habit of their minds; men who will lay the
+foundation of a real reform in effacing every vestige of that philosophy
+which pretends to have made discoveries in the <i>Terra Australia</i> of
+morality; men who will fix the state upon these bases of morals and
+politics, which are our old and immemorial, and, I hope, will be our
+eternal possession.</p>
+
+<p>This power, to such men, must come from <i>without</i>. It may be given to
+you in pity: for surely no nation ever called so pathetically on the
+compassion <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" title="17" class="pagenum"></a>of all its neighbors. It may be given by those neighbors on
+motives of safety to themselves. Never shall I think any country in
+Europe to be secure, whilst there is established in the very centre of
+it a state (if so it may be called) founded on principles of anarchy,
+and which is in reality a college of armed fanatics, for the propagation
+of the principles of assassination, robbery, rebellion, fraud, faction,
+oppression, and impiety. Mahomet, hid, as for a time he was, in the
+bottom of the sands of Arabia, had his spirit and character been
+discovered, would have been an object of precaution to provident minds.
+What if he had erected his fanatic standard for the destruction of the
+Christian religion <i>in luce Asi&aelig;</i>, in the midst of the then noonday
+splendor of the then civilized world? The princes of Europe, in the
+beginning of this century, did well not to suffer the monarchy of France
+to swallow up the others. They ought not now, in my opinion, to suffer
+all the monarchies and commonwealths to be swallowed up in the gulf of
+this polluted anarchy. They may be tolerably safe at present, because
+the comparative power of France for the present is little. But times and
+occasions make dangers. Intestine troubles may arise in other countries.
+There is a power always on the watch, qualified and disposed to profit
+of every conjuncture, to establish its own principles and modes of
+mischief, wherever it can hope for success. What mercy would these
+usurpers have on other sovereigns, and on other nations, when they treat
+their own king with such unparalleled indignities, and so cruelly
+oppress their own countrymen?</p>
+
+<p>The king of Prussia, in concurrence with us, nobly interfered to save
+Holland from confusion. The <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" title="18" class="pagenum"></a>same power, joined with the rescued Holland
+and with Great Britain, has put the Emperor in the possession of the
+Netherlands, and secured, under that prince, from all arbitrary
+innovation, the ancient, hereditary Constitution of those provinces. The
+chamber of Wetzlar has restored the Bishop of Liege, unjustly
+dispossessed by the rebellion of his subjects. The king of Prussia was
+bound by no treaty nor alliance of blood, nor had any particular reasons
+for thinking the Emperor's government would be more mischievous or more
+oppressive to human nature than that of the Turk; yet, on mere motives
+of policy, that prince has interposed, with the threat of all his force,
+to snatch even the Turk from the pounces of the Imperial eagle. If this
+is done in favor of a barbarous nation, with a barbarous neglect of
+police, fatal to the human race,&mdash;in favor of a nation by principle in
+eternal enmity with the Christian name, a nation which will not so much
+as give the salutation of peace (<i>Salam</i>) to any of us, nor make any
+pact with any Christian nation beyond a truce,&mdash;if this be done in favor
+of the Turk, shall it be thought either impolitic or unjust or
+uncharitable to employ the same power to rescue from captivity a
+virtuous monarch, (by the courtesy of Europe considered as Most
+Christian,) who, after an intermission of one hundred and seventy-five
+years, had called together the States of his kingdom to reform abuses,
+to establish a free government, and to strengthen his throne,&mdash;a monarch
+who, at the very outset, without force, even without solicitation, had
+given to his people such a Magna Charta of privileges as never was given
+by any king to any subjects? Is it to be tamely borne by kings who love
+their subjects, or by subjects who love their <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" title="19" class="pagenum"></a>kings, that this monarch,
+in the midst of these gracious acts, was insolently and cruelly torn
+from his palace by a gang of traitors and assassins, and kept in close
+prison to this very hour, whilst his royal name and sacred character
+were used for the total ruin of those whom the laws had appointed him to
+protect?</p>
+
+<p>The only offence of this unhappy monarch towards his people was his
+attempt, under a monarchy, to give them a free Constitution. For this,
+by an example hitherto unheard of in the world, he has been deposed. It
+might well disgrace sovereigns to take part with a deposed tyrant. It
+would suppose in them a vicious sympathy. But not to make a common cause
+with a just prince, dethroned by traitors and rebels, who proscribe,
+plunder, confiscate, and in every way cruelly oppress their
+fellow-citizens, in my opinion is to forget what is due to the honor and
+to the rights of all virtuous and legal government.</p>
+
+<p>I think the king of France to be as much an object both of policy and
+compassion as the Grand Seignior or his states. I do not conceive that
+the total annihilation of France (if that could be effected) is a
+desirable thing to Europe, or even to this its rival nation. Provident
+patriots did not think it good for Rome that even Carthage should be
+quite destroyed; and he was a wise Greek, wise for the general Grecian
+interests, as well as a brave Laced&aelig;monian enemy and generous conqueror,
+who did not wish, by the destruction of Athens, to pluck out the other
+eye of Greece.</p>
+
+<p>However, Sir, what I have here said of the interference of foreign
+princes is only the opinion of a private individual, who is neither the
+representative of <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" title="20" class="pagenum"></a>any state nor the organ of any party, but who thinks
+himself bound to express his own sentiments with freedom and energy in a
+crisis of such importance to the whole human race.</p>
+
+<p>I am not apprehensive, that, in speaking freely on the subject of the
+king and queen of France, I shall accelerate (as you fear) the execution
+of traitorous designs against them. You are of opinion, Sir, that the
+usurpers may, and that they will, gladly lay hold of any pretext to
+throw off the very name of a king: assuredly, I do not wish ill to your
+king; but better for him not to live (he does not reign) than to live
+the passive instrument of tyranny and usurpation.</p>
+
+<p>I certainly meant to show, to the best of my power, that the existence
+of such an executive officer in such a system of republic as theirs is
+absurd in the highest degree. But in demonstrating this, to <i>them</i>, at
+least, I can have made no discovery. They only held out the royal name
+to catch those Frenchmen to whom the name of king is still venerable.
+They calculate the duration of that sentiment; and when they find it
+nearly expiring, they will not trouble themselves with excuses for
+extinguishing the name, as they have the thing. They used it as a sort
+of navel-string to nourish their unnatural offspring from the bowels of
+royalty itself. Now that the monster can purvey for its own subsistence,
+it will only carry the mark about it, as a token of its having torn the
+womb it came from. Tyrants seldom want pretexts. Fraud is the ready
+minister of injustice; and whilst the currency of false pretence and
+sophistic reasoning was expedient to their designs, they were under no
+necessity of drawing upon me to furnish them with that coin. But
+pretexts and sophisms have had their <a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" title="21" class="pagenum"></a>day, and have done their work. The
+usurpation no longer seeks plausibility: it trusts to power.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing that I can say, or that you can say, will hasten them, by a
+single hour, in the execution of a design which they have long since
+entertained. In spite of their solemn declarations, their soothing
+addresses, and the multiplied oaths which they have taken and forced
+others to take, they will assassinate the king when his name will no
+longer be necessary to their designs,&mdash;but not a moment sooner. They
+will probably first assassinate the queen, whenever the renewed menace
+of such an assassination loses its effect upon the anxious mind of an
+affectionate husband. At present, the advantage which they derive from
+the daily threats against her life is her only security for preserving
+it. They keep their sovereign alive for the purpose of exhibiting him,
+like some wild beast at a fair,&mdash;as if they had a Bajazet in a cage.
+They choose to make monarchy contemptible by exposing it to derision in
+the person of the most benevolent of their kings.</p>
+
+<p>In my opinion their insolence appears more odious even than their
+crimes. The horrors of the fifth and sixth of October were less
+detestable than the festival of the fourteenth of July. There are
+situations (God forbid I should think that of the 5th and 6th of October
+one of them!) in which the best men may be confounded with the worst,
+and in the darkness and confusion, in the press and medley of such
+extremities, it may not be so easy to discriminate the one from the
+other. Tho necessities created even by ill designs have their excuse.
+They may be forgotten by others, when the guilty themselves do not
+choose to cherish their recollection, and, by ruminating their
+<a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" title="22" class="pagenum"></a>offences, nourish themselves, through the example of their past, to the
+perpetration of future crimes. It is in the relaxation of security, it
+is in the expansion of prosperity, it is in the hour of dilatation of
+the heart, and of its softening into festivity and pleasure, that the
+real character of men is discerned. If there is any good in them, it
+appears then or never. Even wolves and tigers, when gorged with their
+prey, are safe and gentle. It is at such times that noble minds give all
+the reins to their good nature. They indulge their genius even to
+intemperance, in kindness to the afflicted, in generosity to the
+conquered,&mdash;forbearing insults, forgiving injuries, overpaying benefits.
+Full of dignity themselves, they respect dignity in all, but they feel
+it sacred in the unhappy. But it is then, and basking in the sunshine of
+unmerited fortune, that low, sordid, ungenerous, and reptile souls swell
+with their hoarded poisons; it is then that they display their odious
+splendor, and shine out in the full lustre of their native villany and
+baseness. It is in that season that no man of sense or honor can be
+mistaken for one of them. It was in such a season, for them of political
+ease and security, though their people were but just emerged from actual
+famine, and were ready to be plunged into a gulf of penury and beggary,
+that your philosophic lords chose, with an ostentatious pomp and luxury,
+to feast an incredible number of idle and thoughtless people, collected
+with art and pains from all quarters of the world. They constructed a
+vast amphitheatre in which they raised a species of pillory.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor" title=" The pillory (_carcan_) in England is generally made very
+high like that raised to exposing the king of France.">[3]</a> On this
+pillory they set their lawful king and queen, with an insulting figure
+<a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" title="23" class="pagenum"></a>over their heads. There they exposed these objects of pity and respect
+to all good minds to the derision of an unthinking and unprincipled
+multitude, degenerated even from the versatile tenderness which marks
+the irregular and capricious feelings of the populace. That their cruel
+insult might have nothing wanting to complete it, they chose the
+anniversary of that day in which they exposed the life of their prince
+to the most imminent dangers and the vilest indignities, just following
+the instant when the assassins, whom they had hired without owning,
+first openly took up arms against their king, corrupted his guards,
+surprised his castle, butchered some of the poor invalids of his
+garrison, murdered his governor, and, like wild beasts, tore to pieces
+the chief magistrate of his capital city, on account of his fidelity to
+his service.</p>
+
+<p>Till the justice of the world is awakened, such as these will go on,
+without admonition, and without provocation, to every extremity. Those
+who have made the exhibition of the fourteenth of July are capable of
+every evil. They do not commit crimes for their designs; but they form
+designs that they may commit crimes. It is not their necessity, but
+their nature, that impels them. They are modern philosophers, which when
+you say of them, you express everything that is ignoble, savage, and
+hard-hearted.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the sure tokens which are given by the spirit of their
+particular arrangements, there are some characteristic lineaments in the
+general policy of your tumultuous despotism, which, in my opinion,
+indicate, beyond a doubt, that no revolution whatsoever <i>in their
+disposition</i> is to be expected: I mean their scheme of educating the
+rising generation, the <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" title="24" class="pagenum"></a>principles which they intend to instil and the
+sympathies which they wish to form in the mind at the season in which it
+is the most susceptible. Instead of forming their young minds to that
+docility, to that modesty, which are the grace and charm of youth, to an
+admiration of famous examples, and to an averseness to anything which
+approaches to pride, petulance, and self-conceit, (distempers to which
+that time of life is of itself sufficiently liable,) they artificially
+foment these evil dispositions, and even form them into springs of
+action. Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books
+recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the
+character of the age. Uncertain indeed is the efficacy, limited indeed
+is the extent, of a virtuous institution. But if education takes in
+<i>vice</i> as any part of its system, there is no doubt but that it will
+operate with abundant energy, and to an extent indefinite. The
+magistrate, who in favor of freedom thinks himself obliged to suffer all
+sorts of publications, is under a stricter duty than any other well to
+consider what sort of writers he shall authorize, and shall recommend by
+the strongest of all sanctions, that is, by public honors and rewards.
+He ought to be cautious how he recommends authors of mixed or ambiguous
+morality. He ought to be fearful of putting into the hands of youth
+writers indulgent to the peculiarities of their own complexion, lest
+they should teach the humors of the professor, rather than the
+principles of the science. He ought, above all, to be cautious in
+recommending any writer who has carried marks of a deranged
+understanding: for where there is no sound reason, there can be no real
+virtue; and madness is ever vicious and malignant.<a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" title="25" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The Assembly proceeds on maxims the very reverse of these. The Assembly
+recommends to its youth a study of the bold experimenters in morality.
+Everybody knows that there is a great dispute amongst their leaders,
+which of them is the best resemblance of Rousseau. In truth, they all
+resemble him. His blood they transfuse into their minds and into their
+manners. Him they study; him they meditate; him they turn over in all
+the time they can spare from the laborious mischief of the day or the
+debauches of the night. Rousseau is their canon of holy writ; in his
+life he is their canon of Polycletus; he is their standard figure of
+perfection. To this man and this writer, as a pattern to authors and to
+Frenchmen, the foundries of Paris are now running for statues, with the
+kettles of their poor and the bells of their churches. If an author had
+written like a great genius on geometry, though his practical and
+speculative morals were vicious in the extreme, it might appear that in
+voting the statue they honored only the geometrician. But Rousseau is a
+moralist or he is nothing. It is impossible, therefore, putting the
+circumstances together, to mistake their design in choosing the author
+with whom they have begun to recommend a course of studies.</p>
+
+<p>Their great problem is, to find a substitute for all the principles
+which hitherto have been employed to regulate the human will and action.
+They find dispositions in the mind of such force and quality as may fit
+men, far better than the old morality, for the purposes of such a state
+as theirs, and may go much further in supporting their power and
+destroying their enemies. They have therefore chosen a selfish,
+flattering, seductive, ostentatious vice, in the <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" title="26" class="pagenum"></a>place of plain duty.
+True humility, the basis of the Christian system, is the low, but deep
+and firm foundation of all real virtue. But this, as very painful in the
+practice, and little imposing in the appearance, they have totally
+discarded. Their object is to merge all natural and all social sentiment
+in inordinate vanity. In a small degree, and conversant in little
+things, vanity is of little moment. When full-grown, it is the worst of
+vices, and the occasional mimic of them all. It makes the whole man
+false. It leaves nothing sincere or trustworthy about him. His best
+qualities are poisoned and perverted by it, and operate exactly as the
+worst. When your lords had many writers as immoral as the object of
+their statue (such as Voltaire and others) they chose Rousseau, because
+in him that peculiar vice which they wished to erect into ruling virtue
+was by far the most conspicuous.</p>
+
+<p>We have had the great professor and founder of <i>the philosophy of
+vanity</i> in England. As I had good opportunities of knowing his
+proceedings almost from day to day, he left no doubt on my mind that he
+entertained no principle, either to influence his heart or to guide his
+understanding, but <i>vanity</i>. With this vice he was possessed to a degree
+little short of madness. It is from the same deranged, eccentric vanity,
+that this, the insane Socrates of the National Assembly, was impelled to
+publish a mad confession of his mad faults, and to attempt a new sort of
+glory from bringing hardily to light the obscure and vulgar vices which
+we know may sometimes be blended with eminent talents. He has not
+observed on the nature of vanity who does not know that it is
+omnivorous,&mdash;that it has no choice in its food,&mdash;that it is fond to
+<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" title="27" class="pagenum"></a>talk even of its own faults and vices, as what will excite surprise and
+draw attention, and what will pass at worst for openness and candor.</p>
+
+<p>It was this abuse and perversion, which vanity makes even of hypocrisy,
+which has driven Rousseau to record a life not so much as checkered or
+spotted here and there with virtues, or even distinguished by a single
+good action. It is such a life he chooses to offer to the attention of
+mankind. It is such a life that, with a wild defiance, he flings in the
+face of his Creator, whom he acknowledges only to brave. Your Assembly,
+knowing how much more powerful example is found than precept, has chosen
+this man (by his own account without a single virtue) for a model. To
+him they erect their first statue. From him they commence their series
+of honors and distinctions.</p>
+
+<p>It is that new-invented virtue which your masters canonize that led
+their moral hero constantly to exhaust the stores of his powerful
+rhetoric in the expression of universal benevolence, whilst his heart
+was incapable of harboring one spark of common parental affection.
+Benevolence to the whole species, and want of feeling for every
+individual with whom the professors come in contact, form the character
+of the new philosophy. Setting up for an unsocial independence, this
+their hero of vanity refuses the just price of common labor, as well as
+the tribute which opulence owes to genius, and which, when paid, honors
+the giver and the receiver; and then he pleads his beggary as an excuse
+for his crimes. He melts with tenderness for those only who touch him by
+the remotest relation, and then, without one natural pang, casts away,
+as a sort of offal and excrement, the spawn of his disgustful amours,
+and sends his chil<a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" title="28" class="pagenum"></a>dren to the hospital of foundlings. The bear loves,
+licks, and forms her young: but bears are not philosophers. Vanity,
+however, finds its account in reversing the train of our natural
+feelings. Thousands admire the sentimental-writer; the affectionate
+father is hardly known in his parish.</p>
+
+<p>Under this philosophic instructor in <i>the ethics of vanity</i>, they have
+attempted in France a regeneration of the moral constitution of man.
+Statesmen like your present rulers exist by everything which is
+spurious, fictitious, and false,&mdash;by everything which takes the man from
+his house, and sets him on a stage,&mdash;which makes him up an artificial
+creature, with painted, theatric sentiments, fit to be seen by the glare
+of candle-light, and formed to be contemplated at a due distance. Vanity
+is too apt to prevail in all of us, and in all countries. To the
+improvement of Frenchmen, it seems not absolutely necessary that it
+should be taught upon system. But it is plain that the present rebellion
+was its legitimate offspring, and it is piously fed by that rebellion
+with a daily dole.</p>
+
+<p>If the system of institution recommended by the Assembly is false and
+theatric, it is because their system of government is of the same
+character. To that, and to that alone, it is strictly conformable. To
+understand either, we must connect the morals with the politics of the
+legislators. Your practical philosophers, systematic in everything, have
+wisely began at the source. As the relation between parents and children
+is the first among the elements of vulgar, natural morality,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor" title=" &quot;Filiola tua te delectari l&aelig;tor, et prohari tibi
+Φυσικὴν esse τὴν πρὸς τὰ τεκνα: etenim, si h&aelig;c non est, nulla
+potest homini esse ad hominem natur&aelig; adjunctio: qua sublata, vit&aelig;
+societas tollitur. Valete Patron [Rousseau] et tui condiscipuli
+[L'Assembl&eacute;e Nationale]&quot;&mdash;Cic. Ep. ad Atticum.">[4]</a> they
+erect statues to a wild, <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" title="29" class="pagenum"></a>ferocious, low-minded, hard-hearted father, of
+fine general feelings,&mdash;a lover of his kind, but a hater of his kindred.
+Your masters reject the duties of this vulgar relation, as contrary to
+liberty, as not founded in the social compact, and not binding according
+to the rights of men; because the relation is not, of course, the result
+of <i>free election</i>,&mdash;never so on the side of the children, not always on
+the part of the parents.</p>
+
+<p>The next relation which they regenerate by their statues to Rousseau is
+that which is next in sanctity to that of a father. They differ from
+those old-fashioned thinkers who considered pedagogues as sober and
+venerable characters, and allied to the parental. The moralists of the
+dark times <i>pr&aelig;ceptorem sancti voluere parentis esse loco</i>. In this age
+of light they teach the people that preceptors ought to be in the place
+of gallants. They systematically corrupt a very corruptible race, (for
+some time a growing nuisance amongst you,)&mdash;a set of pert, petulant
+literators, to whom, instead of their proper, but severe, unostentatious
+duties, they assign the brilliant part of men of wit and pleasure, of
+gay, young, military sparks, and danglers at toilets. They call on the
+rising generation in France to take a sympathy in the adventures and
+fortunes, and they endeavor to engage their sensibility on the side, of
+pedagogues who betray the most awful family trusts and vitiate their
+female pupils. They teach the people that the debauchers of virgins,
+almost in the arms of their parents, may be safe inmates in their house,
+and even fit guardians of the honor of those husbands who succeed
+<a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" title="30" class="pagenum"></a>legally to the office which the young literators had preoccupied
+without asking leave of law or conscience.</p>
+
+<p>Thus they dispose of all the family relations of parents and children,
+husbands and wives. Through this same instructor, by whom they corrupt
+the morals, they corrupt the taste. Taste and elegance, though they are
+reckoned only among the smaller and secondary morals, yet are of no mean
+importance in the regulation of life. A moral taste is not of force to
+turn vice into virtue; but it recommends virtue with something like the
+blandishments of pleasure, and it infinitely abates the evils of vice.
+Rousseau, a writer of great force and vivacity, is totally destitute of
+taste in any sense of the word. Your masters, who are his scholars,
+conceive that all refinement has an aristocratic character. The last age
+had exhausted all its powers in giving a grace and nobleness to our
+natural appetites, and in raising them into a higher class and order
+than seemed justly to belong to them. Through Rousseau, your masters are
+resolved to destroy these aristocratic prejudices. The passion called
+love has so general and powerful an influence, it makes so much of the
+entertainment, and indeed so much the occupation, of that part of life
+which decides the character forever, that the mode and the principles on
+which it engages the sympathy and strikes the imagination become of the
+utmost importance to the morals and manners of every society. Your
+rulers were well aware of this; and in their system of changing your
+manners to accommodate them to their politics, they found nothing so
+convenient as Rousseau. Through him they teach men to love after the
+fashion of philoso<a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" title="31" class="pagenum"></a>phers: that is, they teach to men, to Frenchmen, a
+love without gallantry,&mdash;a love without anything of that fine flower of
+youthfulness and gentility which places it, if not among the virtues,
+among the ornaments of life. Instead of this passion, naturally allied
+to grace and manners, they infuse into their youth an unfashioned,
+indelicate, sour, gloomy, ferocious medley of pedantry and lewdness,&mdash;of
+metaphysical speculations blended with the coarsest sensuality. Such is
+the general morality of the passions to be found in their famous
+philosopher, in his famous work of philosophic gallantry, the <i>Nouvelle
+&Eacute;loise</i>.</p>
+
+<p>When the fence from the gallantry of preceptors is broken down, and your
+families are no longer protected by decent pride and salutary domestic
+prejudice, there is but one step to a frightful corruption. The rulers
+in the National Assembly are in good hopes that the females of the first
+families in France may become an easy prey to dancing-masters, fiddlers,
+pattern-drawers, friseurs, and valets-de-chambre, and other active
+citizens of that description, who, having the entry into your houses,
+and being half domesticated by their situation, may be blended with you
+by regular and irregular relations. By a law they have made these people
+their equals. By adopting the sentiments of Rousseau they have made them
+your rivals. In this manner these great legislators complete their plan
+of levelling, and establish their rights of men on a sure foundation.</p>
+
+<p>I am certain that the writings of Rousseau lead directly to this kind of
+shameful evil. I have often wondered how he comes to be so much more
+admired and followed on the Continent than he is here. Per<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" title="32" class="pagenum"></a>haps a secret
+charm in the language may have its share in this extraordinary
+difference. We certainly perceive, and to a degree we feel, in this
+writer, a style glowing, animated, enthusiastic, at the same time that
+we find it lax, diffuse, and not in the best taste of composition,&mdash;all
+the members of the piece being pretty equally labored and expanded,
+without any due selection or subordination of parts. He is generally too
+much on the stretch, and his manner has little variety. We cannot rest
+upon, any of his works, though they contain observations which
+occasionally discover a considerable insight into human nature. But his
+doctrines, on the whole, are so inapplicable to real life and manners,
+that we never dream of drawing from them any rule for laws or conduct,
+or for fortifying or illustrating anything by a reference to his
+opinions. They have with us the fate of older paradoxes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Cum ventum ad <i>verum</i> est, <i>sensus moresque</i> repugnant,<br /></span>
+<span>Atque ipsa utilitas, justi prope mater et &aelig;qui.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Perhaps bold speculations are more acceptable because more new to you
+than to us, who have been, long since satiated with them. We continue,
+as in the two last ages, to read, more generally than I believe is now
+done on the Continent, the authors of sound antiquity. These occupy our
+minds; they give us another taste and turn; and will not suffer us to be
+more than transiently amused with paradoxical morality. It is not that I
+consider this writer as wholly destitute of just notions. Amongst his
+irregularities, it must be reckoned that he is sometimes moral, and
+moral in a very sublime strain. But the <i>general spirit and tendency</i> of
+his works is mischievous,&mdash;and the more mischievous for this mixture:<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" title="33" class="pagenum"></a>
+for perfect depravity of sentiment is not reconcilable with eloquence;
+and the mind (though corruptible, not complexionally vicious) would
+reject and throw off with disgust a lesson of pure and unmixed evil.
+These writers make even virtue a pander to vice.</p>
+
+<p>However, I less consider the author than the system of the Assembly in
+perverting morality through his means. This I confess makes me nearly
+despair of any attempt upon the minds of their followers, through
+reason, honor, or conscience. The great object of your tyrants is to
+destroy the gentlemen of France; and for that purpose they destroy, to
+the best of their power, all the effect of those relations which may
+render considerable men powerful or even safe. To destroy that order,
+they vitiate the whole community. That no means may exist of
+confederating against their tyranny, by the false sympathies of this
+<i>Nouvelle &Eacute;loise</i> they endeavor to subvert those principles of domestic
+trust and fidelity which form the discipline of social life. They
+propagate principles by which every servant may think it, if not his
+duty, at least his privilege, to betray his master. By these principles,
+every considerable father of a family loses the sanctuary of his house.
+<i>Debet sua cuique domus esse perfugium tutissimum</i>, says the law, which
+your legislators have taken so much pains first to decry, then to
+repeal. They destroy all the tranquillity and security of domestic life:
+turning the asylum of the house into a gloomy prison, where the father
+of the family must drag out a miserable existence, endangered in
+proportion to the apparent means of his safety,&mdash;where he is worse than
+solitary in a crowd of domestics, and more apprehensive from his
+servants and inmates than from the hired, bloodthirsty mob <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" title="34" class="pagenum"></a>without
+doors who are ready to pull him to the <i>lanterne</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus, and for the same end, that they endeavor to destroy that
+tribunal of conscience which exists independently of edicts and decrees.
+Your despots govern by terror. They know that he who fears God fears
+nothing else; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their
+Voltaire, their Helv&eacute;tius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only
+sort of fear which generates true courage. Their object is, that their
+fellow-citizens may be under the dominion of no awe but that of their
+Committee of Research and of their <i>lanterne</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Having found the advantage of assassination in the formation of their
+tyranny, it is the grand resource in which they trust for the support of
+it. Whoever opposes any of their proceedings, or is suspected of a
+design to oppose them, is to answer it with his life, or the lives of
+his wife and children. This infamous, cruel, and cowardly practice of
+assassination they have the impudence to call <i>merciful</i>. They boast
+that they operated their usurpation rather by terror than by force, and
+that a few seasonable murders have prevented the bloodshed of many
+battles. There is no doubt they will extend these acts of mercy whenever
+they see an occasion. Dreadful, however, will be the consequences of
+their attempt to avoid the evils of war by the merciful policy of
+murder. If, by effectual punishment of the guilty, they do not wholly
+disavow that practice, and the threat of it too, as any part of their
+policy, if ever a foreign prince enters into France, he must enter it as
+into a country of assassins. The mode of civilized war will not be
+practised: nor are the French who act on the present <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" title="35" class="pagenum"></a>system entitled to
+expect it. They whose known policy it is to assassinate every citizen
+whom they suspect to be discontented by their tyranny, and to corrupt
+the soldiery of every open enemy, must look for no modified hostility.
+All war, which is not battle, will be military execution. This will
+beget acts of retaliation from you; and every retaliation will beget a
+new revenge. The hell-hounds of war, on all sides, will be uncoupled and
+unmuzzled. The new school of murder and barbarism set up in Paris,
+having destroyed (so far as in it lies) all the other manners and
+principles which have hitherto civilized Europe, will destroy also the
+mode of civilized war, which, more than anything else, has distinguished
+the Christian world. Such is the approaching golden age which the
+Virgil<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor" title=" Mirabeau's speech concerning universal peace.">[5]</a> of your Assembly has sung to his Pollios!</p>
+
+<p>In such a situation of your political, your civil, and your social
+morals and manners, how can you be hurt by the freedom of any
+discussion? Caution is for those who have something to lose. What I have
+said, to justify myself in not apprehending any ill consequence from a
+free discussion of the absurd consequences which flow from the relation
+of the lawful king to the usurped Constitution, will apply to my
+vindication with regard to the exposure I have made of the state of the
+army under the same sophistic usurpation. The present tyrants want no
+arguments to prove, what they must daily feel, that no good army can
+exist on their principles. They are in no want of a monitor to suggest
+to them the policy of getting rid of the army, as well as of the king,
+whenever they are in a condition to effect that measure.<a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" title="36" class="pagenum"></a> What hopes may
+be entertained of your army for the restoration of your liberties I know
+not. At present, yielding obedience to the pretended orders of a king
+who, they are perfectly apprised, has no will, and who never can issue a
+mandate which is not intended, in the first operation, or in its certain
+consequences, for his own destruction, your army seems to make one of
+the principal links in the chain of that servitude of anarchy by which a
+cruel usurpation holds an undone people at once in bondage and
+confusion.</p>
+
+<p>You ask me what I think of the conduct of General Monk. How this affects
+your case I cannot tell. I doubt whether you possess in France any
+persons of a capacity to serve the French monarchy in the same manner in
+which Monk served the monarchy of England. The army which Monk commanded
+had been formed by Cromwell to a perfection of discipline which perhaps
+has never been exceeded. That army was besides of an excellent
+composition. The soldiers were men of extraordinary piety after their
+mode; of the greatest regularity, and even severity of manners; brave in
+the field, but modest, quiet, and orderly in their quarters; men who
+abhorred the idea of assassinating their officers or any other persons,
+and who (they at least who served in this island) were firmly attached
+to those generals by whom they were well treated and ably commanded.
+Such an army, once gained, might be depended on. I doubt much, if you
+could now find a Monk, whether a Monk could find in France such an army.</p>
+
+<p>I certainly agree with you, that in all probability we owe our whole
+Constitution to the restoration of the English monarchy. The state of
+things from <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" title="37" class="pagenum"></a>which Monk relieved England was, however, by no means, at
+that time, so deplorable, in any sense, as yours is now, and under the
+present sway is likely to continue. Cromwell had delivered England from
+anarchy. His government, though military and despotic, had been regular
+and orderly. Under the iron, and under the yoke, the soil yielded its
+produce. After his death the evils of anarchy were rather dreaded than
+felt. Every man was yet safe in his house and in his property. But it
+must be admitted that Monk freed this nation from great and just
+apprehensions both of future anarchy and of probable tyranny in some
+form or other. The king whom he gave us was, indeed, the very reverse of
+your benignant sovereign, who, in reward for his attempt to bestow
+liberty on his subjects, languishes himself in prison. The person given
+to us by Monk was a man without any sense of his duty as a prince,
+without any regard to the dignity of his crown, without any love to his
+people,&mdash;dissolute, false, venal, and destitute of any positive good
+quality whatsoever, except a pleasant temper, and the manners of a
+gentleman. Yet the restoration of our monarchy, even in the person of
+such a prince, was everything to us; for without monarchy in England,
+most certainly we never can enjoy either peace or liberty. It was under
+this conviction that the very first regular step which we took, on the
+Revolution of 1688, was to fill the throne with a real king; and even
+before it could be done in due form, the chiefs of the nation did not
+attempt themselves to exercise authority so much as by <i>interim</i>. They
+instantly requested the Prince of Orange to take the government on
+himself. The throne was not effectively vacant for an hour.<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" title="38" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Your fundamental laws, as well as ours, suppose a monarchy. Your zeal,
+Sir, in standing so firmly for it as you have done, shows not only a
+sacred respect for your honor and fidelity, but a well-informed
+attachment to the real welfare and true liberties of your country. I
+have expressed myself ill, if I have given you cause to imagine that I
+prefer the conduct of those who have retired from this warfare to your
+behavior, who, with a courage and constancy almost supernatural, have
+struggled against tyranny, and kept the field to the last. You see I
+have corrected the exceptionable part in the edition which I now send
+you. Indeed, in such terrible extremities as yours, it is not easy to
+say, in a political view, what line of conduct is the most advisable. In
+that state of things, I cannot bring myself severely to condemn persons
+who are wholly unable to bear so much as the sight of those men in the
+throne of legislation who are only fit to be the objects of criminal
+justice. If fatigue, if disgust, if unsurmountable nausea drive them
+away from such spectacles, <i>ubi miseriarum pars non minima erat videre
+et aspici</i>, I cannot blame them. He must have an heart of adamant who
+could hear a set of traitors puffed up with unexpected and undeserved
+power, obtained by an ignoble, unmanly, and perfidious rebellion,
+treating their honest fellow-citizens as <i>rebels</i>, because they refused
+to bind them selves through their conscience, against the dictates of
+conscience itself, and had declined to swear an active compliance with
+their own ruin. How could a man of common flesh and blood endure that
+those who but the other day had skulked unobserved in their
+antechambers, scornfully insulting men illustrious in their rank, sacred
+in their function, and ven<a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" title="39" class="pagenum"></a>erable in their character, now in decline of
+life, and swimming on the wrecks of their fortunes,&mdash;that those
+miscreants should tell such men scornfully and outrageously, after they
+had robbed them of all their property, that it is more than enough, if
+they are allowed what will keep them from absolute famine, and that, for
+the rest, they must let their gray hairs fall over the plough, to make
+out a scanty subsistence with the labor of their hands? Last, and,
+worst, who could endure to hear this unnatural, insolent, and savage
+despotism called liberty? If, at this distance, sitting quietly by my
+fire, I cannot read their decrees and speeches without indignation,
+shall I condemn those who have fled from the actual sight and hearing of
+all these horrors? No, no! mankind has no title to demand that we should
+be slaves to their guilt and insolence, or that we should serve them in
+spite of themselves. Minds sore with the poignant sense of insulted
+virtue, filled with high disdain against the pride of triumphant
+baseness, often have it not in their choice to stand their ground. Their
+complexion (which might defy the rack) cannot go through such a trial.
+Something very high must fortify men to that proof. But when I am driven
+to comparison, surely I cannot hesitate for a moment to prefer to such
+men as are common those heroes who in the midst of despair perform all
+the tasks of hope,&mdash;who subdue their feelings to their duties,&mdash;who, in
+the cause of humanity, liberty, and honor, abandon all the satisfactions
+of life, and every day incur a fresh risk of life itself. Do me the
+justice to believe that I never can prefer any fastidious virtue (virtue
+still) to the unconquered perseverance, to the affectionate patience, of
+those who watch day and <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" title="40" class="pagenum"></a>night by the bedside of their delirious
+country,&mdash;who, for their love to that dear and venerable name, bear all
+the disgusts and all the buffets they receive from their frantic mother.
+Sir, I do look on you as true martyrs; I regard you as soldiers who act
+far more in the spirit of our Commander-in-Chief and the Captain of our
+Salvation than those who have left you: though I must first bolt myself
+very thoroughly, and know that I could do better, before I can censure
+them. I assure you, Sir, that, when I consider your unconquerable
+fidelity to your sovereign and to your country,&mdash;the courage, fortitude,
+magnanimity, and long-suffering of yourself, and the Abb&eacute; Maury, and of
+M. Cazal&egrave;s, and of many worthy persons of all orders in your
+Assembly,&mdash;I forget, in the lustre of these great qualities, that on
+your side has been displayed an eloquence so rational, manly, and
+convincing, that no time or country, perhaps, has ever excelled. But
+your talents disappear in my admiration of your virtues.</p>
+
+<p>As to M. Mounier and M. Lally, I have always wished to do justice to
+their parts, and their eloquence, and the general purity of their
+motives. Indeed, I saw very well, from the beginning, the mischiefs
+which, with all these talents and good intentions, they would do their
+country, through their confidence in systems. But their distemper was an
+epidemic malady. They were young and inexperienced; and when will young
+and inexperienced men learn caution and distrust of themselves? And when
+will men, young or old, if suddenly raised to far higher power than that
+which absolute kings and emperors commonly enjoy, learn anything like
+moderation? Monarchs, in general, respect some <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" title="41" class="pagenum"></a>settled order of things,
+which they find it difficult to move from its basis, and to which they
+are obliged to conform, even when there are no positive limitations to
+their power. These gentlemen conceived that they were chosen to
+new-model the state, and even the whole order of civil society itself.
+No wonder that <i>they</i> entertained dangerous visions, when the king's
+ministers, trustees for the sacred deposit of the monarchy, were so
+infected with the contagion of project and system (I can hardly think it
+black premeditated treachery) that they publicly advertised for plans
+and schemes of government, as if they were to provide for the rebuilding
+of an hospital that had been burned down. What was this, but to unchain
+the fury of rash speculation amongst a people of itself but too apt to
+be guided by a heated imagination and a wild spirit of adventure?</p>
+
+<p>The fault of M. Mounier and M. Lally was very great; but it was very
+general. If those gentlemen stopped, when they came to the brink of the
+gulf of guilt and public misery that yawned before them in the abyss of
+these dark and bottomless speculations, I forgive their first error: in
+that they were involved with many. Their repentance was their own.</p>
+
+<p>They who consider Mounier and Lally as deserters must regard themselves
+as murderers and as traitors: for from what else than murder and treason
+did they desert? For my part, I honor them for not having carried
+mistake into crime. If, indeed, I thought that they were not cured by
+experience, that they were not made sensible that those who would reform
+a state ought to assume some actual constitution of government which is
+to be reformed,&mdash;if they are not at length satisfied that it is become a
+necessary pre<a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" title="42" class="pagenum"></a>liminary to liberty in France, to commence by the
+re&euml;stablishment of order and property of <i>every</i> kind, and, through the
+re&euml;stablishment of their monarchy, of every one of the old habitual
+distinctions and classes of the state,&mdash;if they do not see that these
+classes are not to be confounded in order to be afterwards revived and
+separated,&mdash;if they are not convinced that the scheme of parochial and
+club governments takes up the state at the wrong end, and is a low and
+senseless contrivance, (as making the sole constitution of a supreme
+power,)&mdash;I should then allow that their early rashness ought to be
+remembered to the last moment of their lives.</p>
+
+<p>You gently reprehend me, because, in holding out the picture of your
+disastrous situation, I suggest no plan for a remedy. Alas! Sir, the
+proposition of plans, without an attention to circumstances, is the very
+cause of all your misfortunes; and never shall you find me aggravating,
+by the infusion of any speculations of mine, the evils which have arisen
+from the speculations of others. Your malady, in this respect, is a
+disorder of repletion. You seem to think that my keeping back my poor
+ideas may arise from an indifference to the welfare of a foreign and
+sometimes an hostile nation. No, Sir, I faithfully assure you, my
+reserve is owing to no such causes. Is this letter, swelled to a second
+book, a mark of national antipathy, or even of national indifference? I
+should act altogether in the spirit of the same caution, in a similar
+state of our own domestic affairs. If I were to venture any advice, in
+any case, it would be my best. The sacred duty of an adviser (one of the
+most inviolable that exists) would lead me, towards a real enemy, to act
+as if my best friend were the party con<a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" title="43" class="pagenum"></a>cerned. But I dare not risk a
+speculation with no better view of your affairs than at present I can
+command; my caution is not from disregard, but from solicitude for your
+welfare. It is suggested solely from my dread of becoming the author of
+inconsiderate counsel.</p>
+
+<p>It is not, that, as this strange series of actions has passed before my
+eyes, I have not indulged my mind in a great variety of political
+speculations concerning them; but, compelled by no such positive duty as
+does not permit me to evade an opinion, called upon by no ruling power,
+without authority as I am, and without confidence, I should ill answer
+my own ideas of what would become myself, or what would be serviceable
+to others, if I were, as a volunteer, to obtrude any project of mine
+upon a nation to whose circumstances I could not be sure it might be
+applicable.</p>
+
+<p>Permit me to say, that, if I were as confident as I ought to be
+diffident in my own loose, general ideas, I never should venture to
+broach them, if but at twenty leagues' distance from the centre of your
+affairs. I must see with my own eyes, I must, in a manner, touch with my
+own hands, not only the fixed, but the momentary circumstances, before I
+could venture to suggest any political project whatsoever. I must know
+the power and disposition to accept, to execute, to persevere. I must
+see all the aids and all the obstacles. I must see the means of
+correcting the plan, where correctives would be wanted. I must see the
+things; I must see the men. Without a concurrence and adaptation of
+these to the design, the very best speculative projects might become not
+only useless, but mischievous. Plans must be made for men. We cannot
+think of making men, and binding<a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" title="44" class="pagenum"></a> Nature to our designs. People at a
+distance must judge ill of men. They do not always answer to their
+reputation, when you approach them. Nay, the perspective varies, and
+shows them quite otherwise than you thought them. At a distance, if we
+judge uncertainly of men, we must judge worse of <i>opportunities</i>, which
+continually vary their shapes and colors, and pass away like clouds. The
+Eastern politicians never do anything without the opinion of the
+astrologers on <i>the fortunate moment</i>. They are in the right, if they
+can do no better; for the opinion of fortune is something towards
+commanding it. Statesmen of a more judicious prescience look for the
+fortunate moment too; but they seek it, not in the conjunctions and
+oppositions of planets, but in the conjunctions and oppositions of men
+and things. These form their almanac.</p>
+
+<p>To illustrate the mischief of a wise plan, without any attention to
+means and circumstances, it is not necessary to go farther than to your
+recent history. In the condition in which France was found three years
+ago, what better system could be proposed, what less even savoring of
+wild theory, what fitter to provide for all the exigencies whilst it
+reformed all the abuses of government, than the convention of the
+States-General? I think nothing better could be imagined. But I have
+censured, and do still presume to censure, your Parliament of Paris for
+not having suggested to the king that this proper measure was of all
+measures the most critical and arduous, one in which the utmost
+circumspection and the greatest number of precautions were the most
+absolutely necessary. The very confession that a government wants either
+amendment in its conformation or relief to <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" title="45" class="pagenum"></a>great distress causes it to
+lose half its reputation, and as great a proportion of its strength as
+depends upon that reputation. It was therefore necessary first to put
+government out of danger, whilst at its own desire it suffered such an
+operation as a general reform at the hands of those who were much more
+filled with a sense of the disease than provided with rational means of
+a cure.</p>
+
+<p>It may be said that this care and these precautions were more naturally
+the duty of the king's ministers than that of the Parliament. They were
+so: but every man must answer in his estimation for the advice he gives,
+when he puts the conduct of his measure into hands who he does not know
+will execute his plans according to his ideas. Three or four ministers
+were not to be trusted with the being of the French monarchy, of all the
+orders, and of all the distinctions, and all the property of the
+kingdom. What must be the prudence of those who could think, in the then
+known temper of the people of Paris, of assembling the States at a place
+situated as Versailles?</p>
+
+<p>The Parliament of Paris did worse than to inspire this blind confidence
+into the king. For, as if names were things, they took no notice of
+(indeed, they rather countenanced) the deviations, which were manifest
+in the execution, from the true ancient principles of the plan which
+they recommended. These deviations (as guardians of the ancient laws,
+usages, and Constitution of the kingdom) the Parliament of Paris ought
+not to have suffered, without the strongest remonstrances to the throne.
+It ought to have sounded the alarm to the whole nation, as it had often
+done on things of infinitely less importance. Under pre<a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" title="46" class="pagenum"></a>tence of
+resuscitating the ancient Constitution, the Parliament saw one of the
+strongest acts of innovation, and the most leading in its consequences,
+carried into effect before their eyes,&mdash;and an innovation through the
+medium of despotism: that is, they suffered the king's ministers to
+new-model the whole representation of the <i>Tiers &Eacute;tat</i>, and, in a great
+measure, that of the clergy too, and to destroy the ancient proportions
+of the orders. These changes, unquestionably, the king had no right to
+make; and here the Parliaments failed in their duty, and, along with
+their country, have perished by this failure.</p>
+
+<p>What a number of faults have led to this multitude of misfortunes, and
+almost all from this one source,&mdash;that of considering certain general
+maxims, without attending to circumstances, to times, to places, to
+conjunctures, and to actors! If we do not attend scrupulously to all
+these, the medicine of to-day becomes the poison of to-morrow. If any
+measure was in the abstract better than another, it was to call the
+States: <i>ea visa salus morientibus una</i>. Certainly it had the
+appearance. But see the consequences of not attending to critical
+moments, of not regarding the symptoms which discriminate diseases, and
+which distinguish constitutions, complexions, and humors.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio; furiisque refecti<br /></span>
+<span>Ardebant; ipsique suos, jam morte sub &aelig;gra,<br /></span>
+<span>Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Thus the potion which was given to strengthen the Constitution, to heal
+divisions, and to compose the minds of men, became the source of
+debility, frenzy, discord, and utter dissolution.</p>
+
+<p>In this, perhaps, I have answered, I think, another of your
+questions,&mdash;Whether the British Constitu<a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" title="47" class="pagenum"></a>tion is adapted to your
+circumstances? When I praised the British Constitution, and wished it to
+be well studied, I did not mean that its exterior form and positive
+arrangement should become a model for you or for any people servilely to
+copy. I meant to recommend the <i>principles</i> from which it has grown, and
+the policy on which it has been progressively improved out of elements
+common to you and to us. I am sure it is no visionary theory of mine. It
+is not an advice that subjects you to the hazard of any experiment. I
+believed the ancient principles to be wise in all cases of a large
+empire that would be free. I thought you possessed our principles in
+your old forms in as great a perfection as we did originally. If your
+States agreed (as I think they did) with your circumstances, they were
+best for you. As you had a Constitution formed upon principles similar
+to ours, my idea was, that you might have improved them as we have done,
+conforming them to the state and exigencies of the times, and the
+condition of property in your country,&mdash;having the conservation of that
+property, and the substantial basis of your monarchy, as principal
+objects in all your reforms.</p>
+
+<p>I do not advise an House of Lords to you. Your ancient course by
+representatives of the noblesse (in your circumstances) appears to me
+rather a better institution. I know, that, with you, a set of men of
+rank have betrayed their constituents, their honor, their trust, their
+king, and their country, and levelled themselves with their footmen,
+that through this degradation they might afterwards put themselves above
+their natural equals. Some of these persons have entertained a project,
+that, in reward of this their black perfidy and corruption, they may be
+<a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" title="48" class="pagenum"></a>chosen to give rise to a new order, and to establish themselves into an
+House of Lords. Do you think, that, under the name of a British
+Constitution, I mean to recommend to you such Lords, made of such kind
+of stuff? I do not, however, include in this description all of those
+who are fond of this scheme.</p>
+
+<p>If you were now to form such an House of Peers, it would bear, in my
+opinion, but little resemblance to ours, in its origin, character, or
+the purposes which it might answer, at the same time that it would
+destroy your true natural nobility. But if you are not in a condition to
+frame a House of Lords, still less are you capable, in my opinion, of
+framing anything which virtually and substantially could be answerable
+(for the purposes of a stable, regular government) to our House of
+Commons. That House is, within itself, a much more subtle and artificial
+combination of parts and powers than people are generally aware of. What
+knits it to the other members of the Constitution, what fits it to be at
+once the great support and the great control of government, what makes
+it of such admirable service to that monarchy which, if it limits, it
+secures and strengthens, would require a long discourse, belonging to
+the leisure of a contemplative man, not to one whose duty it is to join
+in communicating practically to the people the blessings of such a
+Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>Your <i>Tiers &Eacute;tat</i> was not in effect and substance an House of Commons.
+You stood in absolute need of something else to supply the manifest
+defects in such a body as your <i>Tiers &Eacute;tat</i>. On a sober and
+dispassionate view of your old Constitution, as connected with all the
+present circumstances, I was fully persuaded that the crown, standing as
+things have stood, (and <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" title="49" class="pagenum"></a>are likely to stand, if you are to have any
+monarchy at all,) was and is incapable, alone and by itself, of holding
+a just balance between the two orders, and at the same time of effecting
+the interior and exterior purposes of a protecting government. I, whose
+leading principle it is, in a reformation of the state, to make use of
+existing materials, am of opinion that the representation of the clergy,
+as a separate order, was an institution which touched all the orders
+more nearly than any of them touched the other; that it was well fitted
+to connect them, and to hold a place in any wise monarchical
+commonwealth. If I refer you to your original Constitution, and think
+it, as I do, substantially a good one, I do not amuse you in this, more
+than in other things, with any inventions of mine. A certain
+intemperance of intellect is the disease of the time, and the source of
+all its other diseases. I will keep myself as untainted by it as I can.
+Your architects build without a foundation. I would readily lend an
+helping hand to any superstructure, when once this is effectually
+secured,&mdash;but first I would say, <span title="[Greek: Dos pou st&ocirc;]">Δός πον στῶ</span>.</p>
+
+<p>You think, Sir, (and you might think rightly, upon the first view of the
+theory,) that to provide for the exigencies of an empire so situated and
+so related as that of France, its king ought to be invested with powers
+very much superior to those which the king of England possesses under
+the letter of our Constitution. Every degree of power necessary to the
+state, and not destructive to the rational and moral freedom of
+individuals, to that personal liberty and personal security which
+contribute so much to the vigor, the prosperity, the happiness, and the
+dignity of a nation,&mdash;every degree of power which does not suppose the
+<a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" title="50" class="pagenum"></a>total absence of all control and all responsibility on the part of
+ministers,&mdash;a king of France, in common sense, ought to possess. But
+whether the exact measure of authority assigned by the letter of the law
+to the king of Great Britain can answer to the exterior or interior
+purposes of the French monarchy is a point which I cannot venture to
+judge upon. Here, both in the power given, and its limitations, we have
+always cautiously felt our way. The parts of our Constitution have
+gradually, and almost insensibly, in a long course of time, accommodated
+themselves to each other, and to their common as well as to their
+separate purposes. But this adaptation of contending parts, as it has
+not been in ours, so it can never be in yours, or in any country, the
+effect of a single instantaneous regulation, and no sound heads could
+ever think of doing it in that manner.</p>
+
+<p>I believe, Sir, that many on the Continent altogether mistake the
+condition of a king of Great Britain. He is a real king, and not an
+executive officer. If he will not trouble himself with contemptible
+details, nor wish to degrade himself by becoming a party in little
+squabbles, I am far from sure that a king of Great Britain, in whatever
+concerns him as a king, or indeed as a rational man, who combines his
+public interest with his personal satisfaction, does not possess a more
+real, solid, extensive power than the king of France was possessed of
+before this miserable revolution. The direct power of the king of
+England is considerable. His indirect, and far more certain power, is
+great indeed. He stands in need of nothing towards dignity,&mdash;of nothing
+towards splendor,&mdash;of nothing towards authority,&mdash;of nothing at all
+towards consideration abroad. When was it that a king of<a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" title="51" class="pagenum"></a> England wanted
+wherewithal to make him respected, courted, or perhaps even feared, in
+every state in Europe?</p>
+
+<p>I am constantly of opinion that your States, in three orders, on the
+footing on which they stood in 1614, were capable of being brought into
+a proper and harmonious combination with royal authority. This
+constitution by Estates was the natural and only just representation of
+France. It grew out of the habitual conditions, relations, and
+reciprocal claims of men. It grew out of the circumstances of the
+country, and out of the state of property. The wretched scheme of your
+present masters is not to fit the Constitution to the people, but wholly
+to destroy conditions, to dissolve relations, to change the state of the
+nation, and to subvert property, in order to fit their country to their
+theory of a Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>Until you make out practically that great work, a combination of
+opposing forces, &quot;a work of labor long, and endless praise,&quot; the utmost
+caution ought to have been used in the reduction of the royal power,
+which alone was capable of holding together the comparatively
+heterogeneous mass of your States. But at this day all these
+considerations are unseasonable. To what end should we discuss the
+limitations of royal power? Your king is in prison. Why speculate on the
+measure and standard of liberty? I doubt much, very much indeed, whether
+France is at all ripe for liberty on any standard. Men are qualified for
+civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral
+chains upon their own appetites,&mdash;in proportion as their love to justice
+is above their rapacity,&mdash;in proportion as their soundness and sobriety
+of understanding is above their vanity <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" title="52" class="pagenum"></a>and presumption,&mdash;in proportion
+as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and
+good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist,
+unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere;
+and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It
+is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of
+intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.</p>
+
+<p>This sentence the prevalent part of your countrymen execute on
+themselves. They possessed not long since what was next to freedom, a
+mild, paternal monarchy. They despised it for its weakness. They were
+offered a well-poised, free Constitution. It did not suit their taste or
+their temper. They carved for themselves: they flew out, murdered,
+robbed, and rebelled. They have succeeded, and put over their country an
+insolent tyranny made up of cruel and inexorable masters, and that, too,
+of a description hitherto not known in the world. The powers and
+policies by which they have succeeded are not those of great statesmen
+or great military commanders, but the practices of incendiaries,
+assassins, housebreakers, robbers, spreaders of false news, forgers of
+false orders from authority, and other delinquencies, of which ordinary
+justice takes cognizance. Accordingly, the spirit of their rule is
+exactly correspondent to the means by which they obtained it. They act
+more in the manner of thieves who have got possession of an house than
+of conquerors who have subdued a nation.</p>
+
+<p>Opposed to these, in appearance, but in appearance only, is another
+band, who call themselves <i>the Moderate</i>. These, if I conceive rightly
+of their con<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" title="53" class="pagenum"></a>duct, are a set of men who approve heartily of the whole
+new Constitution, but wish to lay heavy on the most atrocious of those
+crimes by which this fine Constitution of theirs has been obtained. They
+are a sort of people who affect to proceed as if they thought that men
+may deceive without fraud, rob without injustice, and overturn
+everything without violence. They are men who would usurp the government
+of their country with decency and moderation. In fact, they are nothing
+more or better than men engaged in desperate designs with feeble minds.
+They are not honest; they are only ineffectual and unsystematic in their
+iniquity. They are persons who want not the dispositions, but the energy
+and vigor, that is necessary for great evil machinations. They find that
+in such designs they fall at best into a secondary rank, and others take
+the place and lead in usurpation which they are not qualified to obtain
+or to hold. They envy to their companions the natural fruit of their
+crimes; they join to run them down with the hue and cry of mankind,
+which pursues their common offences; and then hope to mount into their
+places on the credit of the sobriety with which they show themselves
+disposed to carry on what may seem most plausible in the mischievous
+projects they pursue in common. But these men are naturally despised by
+those who have heads to know, and hearts that are able to go through the
+necessary demands of bold, wicked enterprises. They are naturally
+classed below the latter description, and will only be used by them as
+inferior instruments. They will be only the Fairfaxes of your Cromwells.
+If they mean honestly, why do they not strengthen the arms of honest men
+to support their ancient, legal, <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" title="54" class="pagenum"></a>wise, and free government, given to
+them in the spring of 1788, against the inventions of craft and the
+theories of ignorance and folly? If they do not, they must continue the
+scorn of both parties,&mdash;sometimes the tool, sometimes the incumbrance of
+that whose views they approve, whose conduct they decry. These people
+are only made to be the sport of tyrants. They never can obtain or
+communicate freedom.</p>
+
+<p>You ask me, too, whether we have a Committee of Research. No, Sir,&mdash;God
+forbid! It is the necessary instrument of tyranny and usurpation; and
+therefore I do not wonder that it has had an early establishment under
+your present lords. We do not want it.</p>
+
+<p>Excuse my length. I have been somewhat occupied since I was honored with
+your letter; and I should not have been able to answer it at all, but
+for the holidays, which have given me means of enjoying the leisure of
+the country. I am called to duties which I am neither able nor willing
+to evade. I must soon return to my old conflict with the corruptions and
+oppressions which have prevailed in our Eastern dominions. I must turn
+myself wholly from those of France.</p>
+
+<p>In England we <i>cannot</i> work so hard as Frenchmen. Frequent relaxation is
+necessary to us. You are naturally more intense in your application. I
+did not know this part of your national character, until I went into
+France in 1773. At present, this your disposition to labor is rather
+increased than lessened. In your Assembly you do not allow yourselves a
+recess even on Sundays. We have two days in the week, besides the
+festivals, and besides five or six months of the summer and autumn. This
+contin<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" title="55" class="pagenum"></a>ued, unremitted effort of the members of your Assembly I take to
+be one among the causes of the mischief they have done. They who always
+labor can have no true judgment. You never give yourselves time to cool.
+You can never survey, from its proper point of sight, the work you have
+finished, before you decree its final execution. You can never plan the
+future by the past. You never go into the country, soberly and
+dispassionately to observe the effect of your measures on their objects.
+You cannot feel distinctly how far the people are rendered better and
+improved, or more miserable and depraved, by what you have done. You
+cannot see with your own eyes the sufferings and afflictions you cause.
+You know them but at a distance, on the statements of those who always
+flatter the reigning power, and who, amidst their representations of the
+grievances, inflame your minds against those who are oppressed. These
+are amongst the effects of unremitted labor, when men exhaust their
+attention, burn out their candles, and are left in the dark.&mdash;<i>Malo
+meorum negligentiam, quam istorum obscuram diligentiam</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I have the honor, &amp;c.,</p>
+
+<p>EDMUND BURKE.</p>
+
+<p>BEACONSFIELD, January 19th, 1791.<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" title="56" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> It is said in the last quackish address of the National
+Assembly to the people of France, that they have not formed their
+arrangements upon vulgar practice, but on a theory which cannot
+fail,&mdash;or something to that effect.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See Burnet's Life of Hale.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The pillory (<i>carcan</i>) in England is generally made very
+high like that raised to exposing the king of France.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> &quot;Filiola tua te delectari l&aelig;tor, et prohari tibi
+<span title="[Greek: Phusik&ecirc;n]">Φυσικὴν</span> esse <span title="[Greek: t&ecirc;n pros ta tekna]">τὴν πρὸς τὰ τεκνα</span>: etenim, si h&aelig;c non est, nulla
+potest homini esse ad hominem natur&aelig; adjunctio: qua sublata, vit&aelig;
+societas tollitur. Valete Patron [Rousseau] et tui condiscipuli
+[L'Assembl&eacute;e Nationale]&quot;&mdash;Cic. Ep. ad Atticum.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Mirabeau's speech concerning universal peace.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" title="57" class="pagenum"></a>
+<a name="APPEAL" id="APPEAL" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span style="font-size: 60%">AN</span><br />
+<br />
+APPEAL<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">FROM</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">IN CONSEQUENCE OF SOME LATE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">DISCUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">RELATIVE TO THE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">REFLECTIONS ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">1791.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" title="58" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"  title="59" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ADVERTISEMENT<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">TO THE SECOND EDITION.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>There are some corrections in this edition, which tend to render the
+sense less obscure in one or two places. The order of the two last
+members is also changed, and I believe for the better. This change was
+made on the suggestion of a very learned person, to the partiality of
+whose friendship I owe much; to the severity of whose judgment I owe
+more.<a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" title="60" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+<p><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" title="61" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>AN APPEAL<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">FROM</span><br />
+<br />
+THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>At Mr. Burke's time of life, and in his dispositions, <i>petere honestam
+missionem</i> was all he had to do with his political associates. This boon
+they have not chosen to grant him. With many expressions of good-will,
+in effect they tell him he has loaded the stage too long. They conceive
+it, though an harsh, yet a necessary office, in full Parliament to
+declare to the present age, and to as late a posterity as shall take any
+concern in the proceedings of our day, that by one book he has disgraced
+the whole tenor of his life.&mdash;Thus they dismiss their old partner of the
+war. He is advised to retire, whilst they continue to serve the public
+upon wiser principles and under better auspices.</p>
+
+<p>Whether Diogenes the Cynic was a true philosopher cannot easily be
+determined. He has written nothing. But the sayings of his which are
+handed down by others are lively, and may be easily and aptly applied on
+many occasions by those whose wit is not so perfect as their memory.
+This Diogenes (as every one will recollect) was citizen of a little
+bleak town situated on the coast of the Euxine, and exposed to all the
+buffets of that inhospitable sea. He lived at a great distance from
+those weather-<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" title="62" class="pagenum"></a>beaten walls, in ease and indolence, and in the midst of
+literary leisure, when he was informed that his townsmen had condemned
+him to be banished from Sinope; he answered coolly, &quot;And I condemn them
+to live in Sinope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen of the party in which Mr. Burke has always acted, in
+passing upon him the sentence of retirement,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor" title=" Newspaper intelligence ought always to be received with
+some degree of caution. I do not know that the following paragraph is
+founded on any authority; but it comes with an air of authority. The
+paper is professedly in the interest of the modern Whigs, and under
+their direction. The paragraph is not disclaimed on their part. It
+professes to be the decision of those whom its author calls &quot;the great
+and firm body of the Whigs of England.&quot; Who are the Whigs of a different
+composition, which the promulgator of the sentence considers as composed
+of fleeting and unsettled particles, I know not, nor whether there be
+any of that description. The definitive sentence of &quot;the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England&quot; (as this paper gives it out) is as
+follows:&mdash;
+
+&quot;The great and firm body of the Whigs of England, true to their
+principles, have decided on the dispute between Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke;
+and the former is declared to have maintained the pure doctrines by
+which they are bound together, and upon which they have invariably
+acted. The consequence is, that Mr. Burke retires from
+Parliament.&quot;&mdash;_Morning Chronicle_, May 12, 1791.">[6]</a> have done nothing more
+than to confirm the sentence which he had long before passed upon
+himself. When that retreat was choice, which the tribunal of his peers
+inflict as punishment, it is plain he does not think their sentence
+intolerably severe. Whether they, who are to continue in the Sinope
+which shortly he is to leave, will spend the long years, which I hope
+remain to them, in a manner more to their satisfaction than he shall
+slide down, in silence and obscurity, the slope of his declining days,
+is best known to Him who measures out years, and days, and fortunes.<a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" title="63" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The quality of the sentence does not, however, decide on the justice of
+it. Angry friendship is sometimes as bad as calm enmity. For this reason
+the cold neutrality of abstract justice is, to a good and clear cause, a
+more desirable thing than an affection liable to be any way disturbed.
+When the trial is by friends, if the decision should happen to be
+favorable, the honor of the acquittal is lessened; if adverse, the
+condemnation is exceedingly embittered. It is aggravated by coming from
+lips professing friendship, and pronouncing judgment with sorrow and
+reluctance. Taking in the whole view of life, it is more safe to live
+under the jurisdiction of severe, but steady reason, than under the
+empire of indulgent, but capricious passion. It is certainly well for
+Mr. Burke that there are impartial men in the world. To them I address
+myself, pending the appeal which on his part is made from the living to
+the dead, from the modern Whigs to the ancient.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen, who, in the name of the party, have passed sentence on
+Mr. Burke's book, in the light of literary criticism, are judges above
+all challenge. He did not, indeed, flatter himself that as a writer he
+could claim the approbation of men whose talents, in his judgment and in
+the public judgment, approach to prodigies, if ever such persons should
+be disposed to estimate the merit of a composition upon the standard of
+their own ability.</p>
+
+<p>In their critical censure, though Mr. Burke may find himself humbled by
+it as a writer, as a man, and as an Englishman, he finds matter not only
+of consolation, but of pride. He proposed to convey to a foreign people,
+not his own ideas, but the prevalent opinions and sentiments of a
+nation, renowned for <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" title="64" class="pagenum"></a>wisdom, and celebrated in all ages for a
+well-understood and well-regulated love of freedom. This was the avowed
+purpose of the far greater part of his work. As that work has not been
+ill received, and as his critics will not only admit, but contend, that
+this reception could not be owing to any excellence in the composition
+capable of perverting the public judgment, it is clear that he is not
+disavowed by the nation whose sentiments he had undertaken to describe.
+His representation is authenticated by the verdict of his country. Had
+his piece, as a work of skill, been thought worthy of commendation, some
+doubt might have been entertained of the cause of his success. But the
+matter stands exactly as he wishes it. He is more happy to have his
+fidelity in representation recognized by the body of the people than if
+he were to be ranked in point of ability (and higher he could not be
+ranked) with those whose critical censure he has had the misfortune to
+incur.</p>
+
+<p>It is not from this part of their decision which the author wishes an
+appeal. There are things which touch him more nearly. To abandon them
+would argue, not diffidence in his abilities, but treachery to his
+cause. Had his work been recognized as a pattern for dexterous argument
+and powerful eloquence, yet, if it tended to establish maxims or to
+inspire sentiments adverse to the wise and free Constitution of this
+kingdom, he would only have cause to lament that it possessed qualities
+fitted to perpetuate the memory of his offence. Oblivion would be the
+only means of his escaping the reproaches of posterity. But, after
+receiving the common allowance due to the common weakness of man, he
+wishes to owe no part of the indulgence of the world to its
+for<a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" title="65" class="pagenum"></a>getfulness. He is at issue with the party before the present, and,
+if ever he can reach it, before the coming generation.</p>
+
+<p>The author, several months previous to his publication, well knew that
+two gentlemen, both of them possessed of the most distinguished
+abilities, and of a most decisive authority in the party, had differed
+with him in one of the most material points relative to the French
+Revolution: that is, in their opinion of the behavior of the French
+soldiery, and its revolt from its officers. At the time of their public
+declaration on this subject, he did not imagine the opinion of these two
+gentlemen had extended a great way beyond themselves. He was, however,
+well aware of the probability that persons of their just credit and
+influence would at length dispose the greater number to an agreement
+with their sentiments, and perhaps might induce the whole body to a
+tacit acquiescence in their declarations, under a natural and not always
+an improper dislike of showing a difference with those who lead their
+party. I will not deny that in general this conduct in parties is
+defensible; but within what limits the practice is to be circumscribed,
+and with what exceptions the doctrine which supports it is to be
+received, it is not my present purpose to define. The present question
+has nothing to do with their motives; it only regards the public
+expression of their sentiments.</p>
+
+<p>The author is compelled, however reluctantly, to receive the sentence
+pronounced upon him in the House of Commons as that of the party. It
+proceeded from the mouth of him who must be regarded as its authentic
+organ. In a discussion which continued for two days, no one gentleman of
+the <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" title="66" class="pagenum"></a>opposition interposed a negative, or even a doubt, in favor of him
+or his opinions. If an idea consonant to the doctrine of his book, or
+favorable to his conduct, lurks in the minds of any persons in that
+description, it is to be considered only as a peculiarity which they
+indulge to their own private liberty of thinking. The author cannot
+reckon upon it. It has nothing to do with them as members of a party. In
+their public capacity, in everything that meets the public ear or public
+eye, the body must be considered as unanimous.</p>
+
+<p>They must have been animated with a very warm zeal against those
+opinions, because they were under no <i>necessity</i> of acting as they did,
+from any just cause of apprehension that the errors of this writer
+should be taken for theirs. They might disapprove; it was not necessary
+they should <i>disavow</i> him, as they have done in the whole and in all the
+parts of his book; because neither in the whole nor in any of the parts
+were they directly, or by any implication, involved. The author was
+known, indeed, to have been warmly, strenuously, and affectionately,
+against all allurements of ambition, and all possibility of alienation
+from pride or personal pique or peevish jealousy, attached to the Whig
+party. With one of them he has had a long friendship, which he must ever
+remember with a melancholy pleasure. To the great, real, and amiable
+virtues, and to the unequalled abilities of that gentleman, he shall
+always join with his country in paying a just tribute of applause. There
+are others in that party for whom, without any shade of sorrow, he bears
+as high a degree of love as can enter into the human heart, and as much
+veneration as ought to be paid to human creatures; because he <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" title="67" class="pagenum"></a>firmly
+believes that they are endowed with as many and as great virtues as the
+nature of man is capable of producing, joined to great clearness of
+intellect, to a just judgment, to a wonderful temper, and to true
+wisdom. His sentiments with regard to them can never vary, without
+subjecting him to the just indignation of mankind, who are bound, and
+are generally disposed, to look up with reverence to the best patterns
+of their species, and such as give a dignity to the nature of which we
+all participate. For the whole of the party he has high respect. Upon a
+view, indeed, of the composition of all parties, he finds great
+satisfaction. It is, that, in leaving the service of his country, he
+leaves Parliament without all comparison richer in abilities than he
+found it. Very solid and very brilliant talents distinguish the
+ministerial benches. The opposite rows are a sort of seminary of genius,
+and have brought forth such and so great talents as never before
+(amongst us at least) have appeared together. If their owners are
+disposed to serve their country, (he trusts they are,) they are in a
+condition to render it services of the highest importance. If, through
+mistake or passion, they are led to contribute to its ruin, we shall at
+least have a consolation denied to the ruined country that adjoins us:
+we shall not be destroyed by men of mean or secondary capacities.</p>
+
+<p>All these considerations of party attachment, of personal regard, and of
+personal admiration rendered the author of the Reflections extremely
+cautious, lest the slightest suspicion should arise of his having
+undertaken to express the sentiments even of a single man of that
+description. His words at the outset of his Reflections are these:&mdash;<a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" title="68" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first letter I had the honor to write to you, and which at
+length I send, I wrote neither <i>for</i> nor <i>from</i> any description of men;
+nor shall I in this. My errors, if any, are <i>my own</i>. My reputation
+<i>alone</i> is to answer for them.&quot; In another place he says, (p. 126,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor" title=" Reflections, &amp;c., 1st ed., London, J. Dodsley,
+1790.&mdash;Works, Vol. III. p. 343, in the present edition.">[7]</a>)
+&quot;I have <i>no man's</i> proxy. I speak <i>only</i> from <i>myself</i>, when I disclaim,
+as I do with all possible earnestness, all communion with the actors in
+that triumph, or with the admirers of it. When I assert anything else,
+as concerning the people of England, I speak from observation, <i>not from
+authority</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To say, then, that the book did not contain the sentiments of their
+party is not to contradict the author or to clear themselves. If the
+party had denied his doctrines to be the current opinions of the
+majority in the nation, they would have put the question on its true
+issue. There, I hope and believe, his censurers will find, on the trial,
+that the author is as faithful a representative of the general sentiment
+of the people of England, as any person amongst them can be of the ideas
+of his own party.</p>
+
+<p>The French Revolution can have no connection with the objects of any
+parties in England formed before the period of that event, unless they
+choose to imitate any of its acts, or to consolidate any principles of
+that Revolution with their own opinions. The French Revolution is no
+part of their original contract. The matter, standing by itself, is an
+open subject of political discussion, like all the other revolutions
+(and there are many) which have been attempted or accomplished in our
+age. But if any considerable number of British subjects, taking a
+factious interest in <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" title="69" class="pagenum"></a>the proceedings of France, begin publicly to
+incorporate themselves for the subversion of nothing short of the
+<i>whole</i> Constitution of this kingdom,&mdash;to incorporate themselves for the
+utter overthrow of the body of its laws, civil and ecclesiastical, and
+with them of the whole system of its manners, in favor of the new
+Constitution and of the modern usages of the French nation,&mdash;I think no
+party principle could bind the author not to express his sentiments
+strongly against such a faction. On the contrary, he was perhaps bound
+to mark his dissent, when the leaders of the party were daily going out
+of their way to make public declarations in Parliament, which,
+notwithstanding the purity of their intentions, had a tendency to
+encourage ill-designing men in their practices against our Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>The members of this faction leave no doubt of the nature and the extent
+of the mischief they mean to produce. They declare it openly and
+decisively. Their intentions are not left equivocal. They are put out of
+all dispute by the thanks which, formally and as it were officially,
+they issue, in order to recommend and to promote the circulation of the
+most atrocious and treasonable libels against all the hitherto cherished
+objects of the love and veneration of this people. Is it contrary to the
+duty of a good subject to reprobate such proceedings? Is it alien to the
+office of a good member of Parliament, when such practices increase, and
+when the audacity of the conspirators grows with their impunity, to
+point out in his place their evil tendency to the happy Constitution
+which he is chosen to guard? Is it wrong, in any sense, to render the
+people of England sensible how much they must suffer, if, unfortunately,
+such <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" title="70" class="pagenum"></a>a wicked faction should become possessed in this country of the
+same power which their allies in the very next to us have so
+perfidiously usurped and so outrageously abused? Is it inhuman to
+prevent, if possible, the spilling <i>their</i> blood, or imprudent to guard
+against the effusion of <i>our own?</i> Is it contrary to any of the honest
+principles of party, or repugnant to any of the known duties of
+friendship, for any senator respectfully and amicably to caution his
+brother members against countenancing, by inconsiderate expressions, a
+sort of proceeding which it is impossible they should deliberately
+approve?</p>
+
+<p>He had undertaken to demonstrate, by arguments which he thought could
+not be refuted, and by documents which he was sure could not be denied,
+that no comparison was to be made between the British government and the
+French usurpation.&mdash;That they who endeavored madly to compare them were
+by no means making the comparison of one good system with another good
+system, which varied only in local and circumstantial differences; much
+less that they were holding out to us a superior pattern of legal
+liberty, which we might substitute in the place of our old, and, as they
+describe it, superannuated Constitution. He meant to demonstrate that
+the French scheme was not a comparative good, but a positive evil.&mdash;That
+the question did not at all turn, as it had been stated, on a parallel
+between a monarchy and a republic. He denied that the present scheme of
+things in France did at all deserve the respectable name of a republic:
+he had therefore no comparison between monarchies and republics to
+make.&mdash;That what was done in France was a wild attempt to methodize
+anarchy, to perpetuate and fix disorder.<a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" title="71" class="pagenum"></a> That it was a foul, impious,
+monstrous thing, wholly out of the course of moral Nature. He undertook
+to prove that it was generated in treachery, fraud, falsehood,
+hypocrisy, and unprovoked murder.&mdash;He offered to make out that those who
+have led in that business had conducted themselves with the utmost
+perfidy to their colleagues in function, and with the most flagrant
+perjury both towards their king and their constituents: to the one of
+whom the Assembly had sworn fealty; and to the other, when under no sort
+of violence or constraint, they had sworn a full obedience to
+instructions.&mdash;That, by the terror of assassination, they had driven
+away a very great number of the members, so as to produce a false
+appearance of a majority.&mdash;That this fictitious majority had fabricated
+a Constitution, which, as now it stands, is a tyranny far beyond any
+example that can be found in the civilized European world of our age;
+that therefore the lovers of it must be lovers, not of liberty, but, if
+they really understand its nature, of the lowest and basest of all
+servitude.</p>
+
+<p>He proposed to prove that the present state of things in France is not a
+transient evil, productive, as some have too favorably represented it,
+of a lasting good; but that the present evil is only the means of
+producing future and (if that were possible) worse evils.&mdash;That it is
+not an undigested, imperfect, and crude scheme of liberty, which may
+gradually be mellowed and ripened into an orderly and social freedom;
+but that it is so fundamentally wrong as to be utterly incapable of
+correcting itself by any length of time, or of being formed into any
+mode of polity of which a member of the House of Commons could publicly
+declare his approbation.<a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" title="72" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>If it had been permitted to Mr. Burke, he would have shown distinctly,
+and in detail, that what the Assembly calling itself National had held
+out as a large and liberal toleration is in reality a cruel and
+insidious religious persecution, infinitely more bitter than any which
+had been heard of within this century.&mdash;That it had a feature in it
+worse than the old persecutions.&mdash;That the old persecutors acted, or
+pretended to act, from zeal towards some system of piety and virtue:
+they gave strong preferences to their own; and if they drove people from
+one religion, they provided for them another, in which men might take
+refuge and expect consolation.&mdash;That their new persecution is not
+against a variety in conscience, but against all conscience. That it
+professes contempt towards its object; and whilst it treats all religion
+with scorn, is not so much as neutral about the modes: it unites the
+opposite evils of intolerance and of indifference.</p>
+
+<p>He could have proved that it is so far from rejecting tests, (as
+unaccountably had been asserted,) that the Assembly had imposed tests of
+a peculiar hardship, arising from a cruel and premeditated pecuniary
+fraud: tests against old principles, sanctioned by the laws, and binding
+upon the conscience.&mdash;That these tests were not imposed as titles to
+some new honor or some new benefit, but to enable men to hold a poor
+compensation for their legal estates, of which they had been unjustly
+deprived; and as they had before been reduced from affluence to
+indigence, so, on refusal to swear against their conscience, they are
+now driven from indigence to famine, and treated with every possible
+degree of outrage, insult, and inhumanity.&mdash;That these tests, which
+their impos<a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" title="73" class="pagenum"></a>ers well knew would not be taken, were intended for the very
+purpose of cheating their miserable victims out of the compensation
+which the tyrannic impostors of the Assembly had previously and
+purposely rendered the public unable to pay. That thus their ultimate
+violence arose from their original fraud.</p>
+
+<p>He would have shown that the universal peace and concord amongst
+nations, which these common enemies to mankind had held out with the
+same fraudulent ends and pretences with which they had uniformly
+conducted every part of their proceeding, was a coarse and clumsy
+deception, unworthy to be proposed as an example, by an informed and
+sagacious British senator, to any other country.&mdash;That, far from peace
+and good-will to men, they meditated war against all other governments,
+and proposed systematically to excite in them all the very worst kind of
+seditions, in order to lead to their common destruction.&mdash;That they had
+discovered, in the few instances in which they have hitherto had the
+power of discovering it, (as at Avignon and in the Comtat, at Cavaillon
+and at Carpentras,) in what a savage manner they mean to conduct the
+seditions and wars they have planned against their neighbors, for the
+sake of putting themselves at the head of a confederation of republics
+as wild and as mischievous as their own. He would have shown in what
+manner that wicked scheme was carried on in those places, without being
+directly either owned or disclaimed, in hopes that the undone people
+should at length be obliged to fly to their tyrannic protection, as some
+sort of refuge from their barbarous and treacherous hostility. He would
+have shown from those examples that neither this nor any other society
+could be <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" title="74" class="pagenum"></a>in safety as long as such a public enemy was in a condition to
+continue directly or indirectly such practices against its peace.&mdash;That
+Great Britain was a principal object of their machinations; and that
+they had begun by establishing correspondences, communications, and a
+sort of federal union with the factious here.&mdash;That no practical
+enjoyment of a thing so imperfect and precarious as human happiness must
+be, even under the very best of governments, could be a security for the
+existence of these governments, during the prevalence of the principles
+of France, propagated from that grand school of every disorder and every
+vice.</p>
+
+<p>He was prepared to show the madness of their declaration of the
+pretended rights of man,&mdash;the childish, futility of some of their
+maxims, the gross and stupid absurdity and the palpable falsity of
+others, and the mischievous tendency of all such declarations to the
+well-being of men and of citizens and to the safety and prosperity of
+every just commonwealth. He was prepared to show, that, in their
+conduct, the Assembly had directly violated not only every sound
+principle of government, but every one, without exception, of their own
+false or futile maxims, and indeed every rule they had pretended to lay
+down for their own direction.</p>
+
+<p>In a word, he was ready to show that those who could, after such a full
+and fair exposure, continue to countenance the French insanity were not
+mistaken politicians, but bad men; but he thought that in this case, as
+in many others, ignorance had been the cause of admiration.</p>
+
+<p>These are strong assertions. They required strong proofs. The member who
+laid down these positions <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" title="75" class="pagenum"></a>was and is ready to give, in his place, to
+each position decisive evidence, correspondent to the nature and quality
+of the several allegations.</p>
+
+<p>In order to judge on the propriety of the interruption given to Mr.
+Burke, in his speech in the committee of the Quebec Bill, it is
+necessary to inquire, First, whether, on general principles, he ought to
+have been suffered to prove his allegations? Secondly, whether the time
+he had chosen was so very unseasonable as to make his exercise of a
+parliamentary right productive of ill effects on his friends or his
+country? Thirdly, whether the opinions delivered in his book, and which
+he had begun to expatiate upon that day, were in contradiction to his
+former principles, and inconsistent with the general tenor of his public
+conduct?</p>
+
+<p>They who have made eloquent panegyrics on the French Revolution, and who
+think a free discussion so very advantageous in every case and under
+every circumstance, ought not, in my opinion, to have prevented their
+eulogies from being tried on the test of facts. If their panegyric had
+been answered with an invective, (bating the difference in point of
+eloquence,) the one would have been as good as the other: that is, they
+would both of them have been good for nothing. The panegyric and the
+satire ought to be suffered to go to trial; and that which shrinks from
+if must be contented to stand, at best, as a mere declamation.</p>
+
+<p>I do not think Mr. Burke was wrong in the course he took. That which
+seemed to be recommended to him by Mr. Pitt was rather to extol the
+English Constitution than to attack the French. I do not determine what
+would be best for Mr. Pitt to do in his <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" title="76" class="pagenum"></a>situation. I do not deny that
+<i>he</i> may have good reasons for his reserve. Perhaps they might have been
+as good for a similar reserve on the part of Mr. Fox, if his zeal had
+suffered him to listen to them. But there were no motives of ministerial
+prudence, or of that prudence which ought to guide a man perhaps on the
+eve of being minister, to restrain the author of the Reflections. He is
+in no office under the crown; he is not the organ of any party.</p>
+
+<p>The excellencies of the British Constitution had already exercised and
+exhausted the talents of the best thinkers and the most eloquent writers
+and speakers that the world ever saw. But in the present case a system
+declared to be far better, and which certainly is much newer, (to
+restless and unstable minds no small recommendation,) was held out to
+the admiration of the good people of England. In that case it was surely
+proper for those who had far other thoughts of the French Constitution
+to scrutinize that plan which has been recommended to our imitation by
+active and zealous factions at home and abroad. Our complexion is such,
+that we are palled with enjoyment, and stimulated with hope,&mdash;that we
+become less sensible to a long-possessed benefit from the very
+circumstance that it is become habitual. Specious, untried, ambiguous
+prospects of new advantage recommend themselves to the spirit of
+adventure which more or less prevails in every mind. From this temper,
+men and factions, and nations too, have sacrificed the good of which
+they had been in assured possession, in favor of wild and irrational
+expectations. What should hinder Mr. Burke, if he thought this temper
+likely at one time or other to prevail in our country, from exposing to
+a multitude <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" title="77" class="pagenum"></a>eager to game the false calculations of this lottery of
+fraud?</p>
+
+<p>I allow, as I ought to do, for the effusions which come from a <i>general</i>
+zeal for liberty. This is to be indulged, and even to be encouraged, as
+long as <i>the question is general</i>. An orator, above all men, ought to be
+allowed a full and free use of the praise of liberty. A commonplace in
+favor of slavery and tyranny, delivered to a popular assembly, would
+indeed be a bold defiance to all the principles of rhetoric. But in a
+question whether any particular Constitution is or is not a plan of
+rational liberty, this kind of rhetorical flourish in favor of freedom
+in general is surely a little out of its place. It is virtually a
+begging of the question. It is a song of triumph before the battle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Mr. Fox does not make the panegyric of the new Constitution; it is
+the destruction only of the absolute monarchy he commends.&quot; When that
+nameless thing which has been lately set up in France was described as
+&quot;the most stupendous and glorious edifice of liberty which had been
+erected on the foundation of human integrity in any time or country,&quot; it
+might at first have led the hearer into an opinion that the construction
+of the new fabric was an object of admiration, as well as the demolition
+of the old. Mr. Fox, however, has explained himself; and it would be too
+like that captious and cavilling spirit which I so perfectly detest, if
+I were to pin down the language of an eloquent and ardent mind to the
+punctilious exactness of a pleader. Then Mr. Fox did not mean to applaud
+that monstrous thing which, by the courtesy of France, they call a
+Constitution. I easily believe it. Far from <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" title="78" class="pagenum"></a>meriting the praises of a
+great genius like Mr. Fox, it cannot be approved by any man of common
+sense or common information. He cannot admire the change of one piece of
+barbarism for another, and a worse. He cannot rejoice at the destruction
+of a monarchy, mitigated by manners, respectful to laws and usages, and
+attentive, perhaps but too attentive, to public opinion, in favor of the
+tyranny of a licentious, ferocious, and savage multitude, without laws,
+manners, or morals, and which, so far from respecting the general sense
+of mankind, insolently endeavors to alter all the principles and
+opinions which have hitherto guided and contained the world, and to
+force them into a conformity to their views and actions. His mind is
+made to better things.</p>
+
+<p>That a man should rejoice and triumph in the destruction of an absolute
+monarchy,&mdash;that in such an event he should overlook the captivity,
+disgrace, and degradation of an unfortunate prince, and the continual
+danger to a life which exists only to be endangered,&mdash;that he should
+overlook the utter ruin of whole orders and classes of men, extending
+itself directly, or in its nearest consequences, to at least a million
+of our kind, and to at least the temporary wretchedness of a whole
+community,&mdash;I do not deny to be in some sort natural; because, when
+people see a political object which they ardently desire but in one
+point of view, they are apt extremely to palliate or underrate the evils
+which may arise in obtaining it. This is no reflection on the humanity
+of those persons. Their good-nature I am the last man in the world to
+dispute. It only shows that they are not sufficiently informed or
+sufficiently considerate. When they come to reflect seriously on the
+trans<a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" title="79" class="pagenum"></a>action, they will think themselves bound to examine what the
+object is that has been acquired by all this havoc. They will hardly
+assert that the destruction of an absolute monarchy is a thing good in
+itself, without any sort of reference to the antecedent state of things,
+or to consequences which result from the change,&mdash;without any
+consideration whether under its ancient rule a country was to a
+considerable degree flourishing and populous, highly cultivated and
+highly commercial, and whether, under that domination, though personal
+liberty had been precarious and insecure, property at least was ever
+violated. They cannot take the moral sympathies of the human mind along
+with them, in abstractions separated from the good or evil condition of
+the state, from the quality of actions, and the character of the actors.
+None of us love absolute and uncontrolled monarchy; but we could not
+rejoice at the sufferings of a Marcus Aurelius or a Trajan, who were
+absolute monarchs, as we do when Nero is condemned by the Senate to be
+punished <i>more majorum</i>; nor, when that monster was obliged to fly with
+his wife Sporus, and to drink puddle, were men affected in the same
+manner as when the venerable Galba, with all his faults and errors, was
+murdered by a revolted mercenary soldiery. With such things before our
+eyes, our feelings contradict our theories; and when this is the case,
+the feelings are true, and the theory is false. What I contend for is,
+that, in commending the destruction of an absolute monarchy, <i>all the
+circumstances</i> ought not to be wholly overlooked, as &quot;considerations fit
+only for shallow and superficial minds.&quot; (The words of Mr. Fox, or to
+that effect.)</p>
+
+<p>The subversion of a government, to deserve any <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" title="80" class="pagenum"></a>praise, must be
+considered but as a step preparatory to the formation of something
+better, either in the scheme of the government itself, or in the persons
+who administer it, or in both. These events cannot in reason be
+separated. For instance, when we praise our Revolution of 1688, though
+the nation in that act was on the defensive, and was justified in
+incurring all the evils of a defensive war, we do not rest there. We
+always combine with the subversion of the old government the happy
+settlement which followed. When we estimate that Revolution, we mean to
+comprehend in our calculation both the value of the thing parted with
+and the value of the thing received in exchange.</p>
+
+<p>The burden of proof lies heavily on those who tear to pieces the whole
+frame and contexture of their country, that they could find no other way
+of settling a government fit to obtain its rational ends, except that
+which they have pursued by means unfavorable to all the present
+happiness of millions of people, and to the utter ruin of several
+hundreds of thousands. In their political arrangements, men have no
+right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the
+question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands
+is the care of our own time. With regard to futurity, we are to treat it
+like a ward. We are not so to attempt an improvement of his fortune as
+to put the capital of his estate to any hazard.</p>
+
+<p>It is not worth our while to discuss, like sophisters, whether in no
+case some evil for the sake of some benefit is to be tolerated. Nothing
+universal can be rationally affirmed on any moral or any political
+subject. Pure metaphysical abstraction does not <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" title="81" class="pagenum"></a>belong to these
+matters. The lines of morality are not like the ideal lines of
+mathematics. They are broad and deep as well as long. They admit of
+exceptions; they demand modifications. These exceptions and
+modifications are not made by the process of logic, but by the rules of
+prudence. Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues
+political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the
+standard of them all. Metaphysics cannot live without definition; but
+Prudence is cautious how she defines. Our courts cannot be more fearful
+in suffering fictitious cases to be brought before them for eliciting
+their determination on a point of law than prudent moralists are in
+putting extreme and hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not
+existing. Without attempting, therefore, to define, what never can be
+defined, the case of a revolution in government, this, I think, may be
+safely affirmed,&mdash;that a sore and pressing evil is to be removed, and
+that a good, great in its amount and unequivocal in its nature, must be
+probable almost to certainty, before the inestimable price of our own
+morals and the well-being of a number of our fellow-citizens is paid for
+a revolution. If ever we ought to be economists even to parsimony, it is
+in the voluntary production of evil. Every revolution contains in it
+something of evil.</p>
+
+<p>It must always be, to those who are the greatest amateurs, or even
+professors, of revolutions, a matter very hard to prove, that the late
+French government was so bad that nothing worse in the infinite devices
+of men could come in its place. They who have brought France to its
+present condition ought to prove also, by something better than
+prattling about the Bastile, that their subverted government was as
+<a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" title="82" class="pagenum"></a>incapable as the present certainly is of all improvement and
+correction. How dare they to say so who have never made that experiment?
+They are experimenters by their trade. They have made an hundred others,
+infinitely more hazardous.</p>
+
+<p>The English admirers of the forty-eight thousand republics which form
+the French federation praise them not for what they are, but for what
+they are to become. They do not talk as politicians, but as prophets.
+But in whatever character they choose to found panegyric on prediction,
+it will be thought a little singular to praise any work, not for its own
+merits, but for the merits of something else which may succeed to it.
+When any political institution is praised, in spite of great and
+prominent faults of every kind, and in all its parts, it must be
+supposed to have something excellent in its fundamental principles. It
+must be shown that it is right, though imperfect,&mdash;that it is not only
+by possibility susceptible of improvement, but that it contains in it a
+principle tending to its melioration.</p>
+
+<p>Before they attempt to show this progression of their favorite work from
+absolute pravity to finished perfection, they will find themselves
+engaged in a civil war with those whose cause they maintain. What! alter
+our sublime Constitution, the glory of France, the envy of the world,
+the pattern for mankind, the masterpiece of legislation, the collected
+and concentrated glory of this enlightened age? Have we not produced it
+ready-made and ready-armed, mature in its birth, a perfect goddess of
+wisdom and of war, hammered by our blacksmith midwives out of the brain
+of Jupiter himself? Have we not sworn our devout, profane, believing,
+infidel people to an <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" title="83" class="pagenum"></a>allegiance to this goddess, even before she had
+burst the <i>dura mater</i>, and as yet existed only in embryo? Have we not
+solemnly declared this Constitution unalterable by any future
+legislature? Have we not bound it on posterity forever, though our
+abettors have declared that no one generation is competent to bind
+another? Have we not obliged the members of every future Assembly to
+qualify themselves for their seats by swearing to its conservation?</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the French Constitution always must be (if a change is not made
+in all their principles and fundamental arrangements) a government
+wholly by popular representation. It must be this or nothing. The French
+faction considers as an usurpation, as an atrocious violation of the
+indefensible rights of man, every other description of government. Take
+it, or leave it: there is no medium. Let the irrefragable doctors fight
+out their own controversy in their own way and with their own weapons;
+and when they are tired, let them commence a treaty of peace. Let the
+plenipotentiary sophisters of England settle with the diplomatic
+sophisters of France in what manner right is to be corrected by an
+infusion of wrong, and how truth may be rendered more true by a due
+intermixture of falsehood.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Having sufficiently proved that nothing could make it <i>generally</i>
+improper for Mr. Burke to prove what he had alleged concerning the
+object of this dispute, I pass to the second question, that is, Whether
+he was justified in choosing the committee on the Quebec Bill as the
+field for this discussion? If it were necessary, it might be shown that
+he was not the first to bring these discussions into Parliament, nor the
+first <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" title="84" class="pagenum"></a>to renew them in this session. The fact is notorious. As to the
+Quebec Bill, they were introduced into the debate upon that subject for
+two plain reasons: First, that, as he thought it <i>then</i> not advisable to
+make the proceedings of the factious societies the subject of a direct
+motion, he had no other way open to him. Nobody has attempted to show
+that it was at all admissible into any other business before the House.
+Here everything was favorable. Here was a bill to form a new
+Constitution for a French province under English dominion. The question
+naturally arose, whether we should settle that constitution upon English
+ideas, or upon French. This furnished an opportunity for examining into
+the value of the French Constitution, either considered as applicable to
+colonial government, or in its own nature. The bill, too, was in a
+committee. By the privilege of speaking as often as he pleased, he hoped
+in some measure to supply the want of support, which he had but too much
+reason to apprehend. In a committee it was always in his power to bring
+the questions from generalities to facts, from declamation to
+discussion. Some benefit he actually received from this privilege. These
+are plain, obvious, natural reasons for his conduct. I believe they are
+the true, and the only true ones.</p>
+
+<p>They who justify the frequent interruptions, which at length wholly
+disabled him from proceeding, attribute their conduct to a very
+different interpretation of his motives. They say, that, through
+corruption, or malice, or folly, he was acting his part in a plot to
+make his friend Mr. Fox pass for a republican, and thereby to prevent
+the gracious intentions of his sovereign from taking effect, which at
+that time had <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" title="85" class="pagenum"></a>begun to disclose themselves in his favor.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor" title=" To explain this, it will be necessary to advert to a
+paragraph which appeared in a paper in the minority interest some time
+before this debate. &quot;A very dark intrigue has lately been discovered,
+the authors of which are well known to us; but until the glorious day
+shall come when it will not be a LIBEL to tell the TRUTH, we must not be
+so regardless of our own safety as to publish their names. We will,
+however, state the fact, leaving it to the ingenuity of our readers to
+discover what we dare not publish.
+
+&quot;Since the business of the armament against Russia has been under
+discussion, a great personage has been heard to say, 'that he was not so
+wedded to Mr. PITT as not to be very willing to give his confidence to
+Mr. FOX, if the latter should be able, in a crisis like the present, to
+conduct the government of the country with greater advantage to the
+public.'
+
+&quot;This patriotic declaration immediately alarmed the swarm of courtly
+insects that live only in the sunshine of ministerial favor. It was
+thought to be the forerunner of the dismission of Mr. Pitt, and every
+engine was set at work for the purpose of preventing such an event. The
+principal engine employed on this occasion was CALUMNY. It was whispered
+in the ear of a great personage, that Mr. Fox was the last man in
+England to be trusted by a KING, because he was by PRINCIPLE a
+REPUBLICAN, and consequently an enemy to MONARCHY.
+
+&quot;In the discussion of the Quebec Bill which stood for yesterday, it was
+the intention of some persons to connect with this subject the French
+Revolution, in hopes that Mr. Fox would be warmed by a collision with
+Mr. Burke, and induced to defend that Revolution, in which so much power
+was taken from, and so little left in the crown.
+
+&quot;Had Mr. Fox fallen into the snare, his speech on the occasion would
+have been laid before a great personage, as a proof that a man who could
+defend such a revolution might be a very good republican, but could not
+possibly be a friend to monarchy.
+
+&quot;But those who laid the snare were disappointed; for Mr. Fox, in the
+short conversation which took place yesterday in the House of Commons,
+said, that he confessedly had thought favorably of the French
+Revolution, but that most certainly he never had, either in Parliament
+or out of Parliament, professed or defended republican
+principles.&quot;&mdash;_Argus_, April 22d, 1791.
+
+Mr. Burke cannot answer for the truth nor prove the falsehood of the
+story given by the friends of the party in this paper. He only knows
+that an opinion of its being well or ill authenticated had no influence
+on his conduct. He meant only, to the best of his power, to guard the
+public against the ill designs of factions out of doors. What Mr. Burke
+did in Parliament could hardly have been intended to draw Mr. Fox into
+any declarations unfavorable to his principles, since (by the account of
+those who are his friends) he had long before effectually prevented the
+success of any such scandalous designs. Mr. Fox's friends have
+themselves done away that imputation on Mr. Burke.">[8]</a> This is a
+pretty serious charge. This, on Mr. Burke's part, would be something
+more than mistake, something worse than formal irregularity. Any
+contumely, any outrage, is readily passed over, by the indulgence which
+we all owe to sudden passion. These things are soon forgot upon
+occasions in which all men are so apt to forget themselves. Deliberate
+injuries, to a degree, must be remembered, because they require
+deliberate precautions to be secured against their return.</p>
+
+<p>I am authorized to say for Mr. Burke, that he <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" title="86" class="pagenum"></a>considers that cause
+assigned for the outrage offered to him as ten times worse than the
+outrage itself. There is such a strange confusion of ideas on this
+subject, that it is far more difficult to understand the nature of the
+charge than to refute it when understood. Mr. Fox's friends were, it
+seems, seized with a sudden panic terror lest he should pass for a
+republican. I do not think they had any ground for this apprehension.
+But let us admit they had. What was there in the Quebec Bill, rather
+than in any other, which could subject him or them to that imputation?
+Nothing in a discussion of the French Constitutions which might arise on
+the Quebec Bill, <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" title="87" class="pagenum"></a>could tend to make Mr. Fox pass for a republican,
+except he should take occasion to extol that state of things in France
+which affects to be a republic or a confederacy of republics. If such an
+encomium could make any unfavorable impression on the king's mind,
+surely his voluntary panegyrics on that event, not so much introduced as
+intruded into other debates, with which they had little relation, must
+have produced that effect with much more certainty and much greater
+force. The Quebec Bill, at worst, was only one of those opportunities
+carefully sought and industriously improved by himself. Mr. Sheridan had
+already brought forth a panegyric on the French system in a still higher
+strain, with full as little demand from the nature of the business
+before the House, in a speech too good to be speedily forgotten. Mr. Fox
+followed him without any direct call from the subject-matter, and upon
+the same ground. To canvass the merits of the French Constitution on the
+Quebec Bill could not draw forth any opinions which were not brought
+forward before, with no small ostentation, and with very little of
+necessity, or perhaps of propriety. What mode or what time of discussing
+the conduct of the French faction in England would not equally tend to
+kindle this enthusiasm, and afford those occasions for panegyric, which,
+far from shunning, Mr. Fox has always industriously sought? He himself
+said, very truly, in the debate, that no artifices were necessary to
+draw from him his opinions upon that subject. But to fall upon Mr. Burke
+for making an use, at worst not more irregular, of the same liberty, is
+tantamount to a plain declaration that the topic of Franco is <i>tabooed</i>
+or forbidden ground to Mr. Burke, and to Mr. Burke alone. But <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" title="88" class="pagenum"></a>surely
+Mr. Fox is not a republican; and what should hinder him, when such a
+discussion came on, from clearing himself unequivocally (as his friends
+say he had done near a fortnight before) of all such imputations?
+Instead of being a disadvantage to him, he would have defeated all his
+enemies, and Mr. Burke, since he has thought proper to reckon him
+amongst them.</p>
+
+<p>But it seems some newspaper or other had imputed to him republican
+principles, on occasion of his conduct upon the Quebec Bill. Supposing
+Mr. Burke to have seen these newspapers, (which is to suppose more than
+I believe to be true,) I would ask, When did the newspapers forbear to
+charge Mr Fox, or Mr. Burke himself, with republican principles, or any
+other principles which they thought could render both of them odious,
+sometimes to one description of people, sometimes to another? Mr. Burke,
+since the publication of his pamphlet, has been a thousand times charged
+in the newspapers with holding despotic principles. He could not enjoy
+one moment of domestic quiet, he could not perform the least particle of
+public duty, if he did not altogether disregard the language of those
+libels. But, however his sensibility might be affected by such abuse, it
+would in <i>him</i> have been thought a most ridiculous reason for shutting
+up the mouths of Mr. Fox or Mr. Sheridan, so as to prevent their
+delivering their sentiments of the French Revolution, that, forsooth,
+&quot;the newspapers had lately charged Mr. Burke with being an enemy to
+liberty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I allow that those gentlemen have privileges to which Mr. Burke has no
+claim. But their friends ought to plead those privileges, and not to
+assign <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" title="89" class="pagenum"></a>bad reasons, on the principle of what is fair between man and
+man, and thereby to put themselves on a level with those who can so
+easily refute them. Let them say at once that his reputation is of no
+value, and that he has no call to assert it,&mdash;but that theirs is of
+infinite concern to the party and the public, and to that consideration
+he ought to sacrifice all his opinions and all his feelings.</p>
+
+<p>In that language I should hear a style correspondent to the
+proceeding,&mdash;lofty, indeed, but plain and consistent. Admit, however,
+for a moment, and merely for argument, that this gentleman had as good a
+right to continue as they had to begin these discussions; in candor and
+equity they must allow that their voluntary descant in praise of the
+French Constitution was as much an oblique attack on Mr. Burke as Mr.
+Burke's inquiry into the foundation of this encomium could possibly be
+construed into an imputation upon them. They well knew that he felt like
+other men; and of course he would think it mean and unworthy to decline
+asserting in his place, and in the front of able adversaries, the
+principles of what he had penned in his closet and without an opponent
+before him. They could not but be convinced that declamations of this
+kind would rouse him,&mdash;that he must think, coming from men of their
+calibre, they were highly mischievous,&mdash;that they gave countenance to
+bad men and bad designs; and though he was aware that the handling such
+matters in Parliament was delicate, yet he was a man very likely,
+whenever, much against his will, they were brought there, to resolve
+that there they should be thoroughly sifted. Mr. Fox, early in the
+preceding session, had public notice from Mr. Burke of the light <a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" title="90" class="pagenum"></a>in
+which he considered every attempt to introduce the example of France
+into the politics of this country, and of his resolution to break with
+his host friends and to join with his worst enemies to prevent it. He
+hoped that no such necessity would ever exist; but in case it should,
+his determination was made. The party knew perfectly that he would at
+least defend himself. He never intended to attack Mr. Fox, nor did he
+attack him directly or indirectly. His speech kept to its matter. No
+personality was employed, even in the remotest allusion. He never did
+impute to that gentleman any republican principles, or any other bad
+principles or bad conduct whatsoever. It was far from his words; it was
+far from his heart. It must be remembered, that, notwithstanding the
+attempt of Mr. Fox to fix on Mr. Burke an unjustifiable change of
+opinion, and the foul crime of teaching a set of maxims to a boy, and
+afterwards, when these maxims became adult in his mature age, of
+abandoning both the disciple and the doctrine, Mr. Burke never
+attempted, in any one particular, either to criminate or to recriminate.
+It may be said that he had nothing of the kind in his power. This he
+does not controvert. He certainly had it not in his inclination. That
+gentleman had as little ground for the charges which he was so easily
+provoked to make upon him.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen of the party (I include Mr. Fox) have been kind enough to
+consider the dispute brought on by this business, and the consequent
+separation of Mr. Burke from their corps, as a matter of regret and
+uneasiness. I cannot be of opinion that by his exclusion they have had
+any loss at all. A man whose opinions are so very adverse to theirs,
+<a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" title="91" class="pagenum"></a>adverse, as it was expressed, &quot;as pole to pole,&quot; so mischievously as
+well as so directly adverse that they found themselves under the
+necessity of solemnly disclaiming them in full Parliament,&mdash;such a man
+must ever be to them a most unseemly and unprofitable incumbrance. A
+co&ouml;peration with him could only serve to embarrass them in all their
+councils. They have besides publicly represented him as a man capable of
+abusing the docility and confidence of ingenuous youth,&mdash;and, for a bad
+reason or for no reason, of disgracing his whole public life by a
+scandalous contradiction of every one of his own acts, writings, and
+declarations. If these charges be true, their exclusion of such a person
+from their body is a circumstance which does equal honor to their
+justice and their prudence. If they express a degree of sensibility in
+being obliged to execute this wise and just sentence, from a
+consideration of some amiable or some pleasant qualities which in his
+private life their former friend may happen to possess, they add to the
+praise of their wisdom and firmness the merit of great tenderness of
+heart and humanity of disposition.</p>
+
+<p>On their ideas, the new Whig party have, in my opinion, acted as became
+them. The author of the Reflections, however, on his part, cannot,
+without great shame to himself, and without entailing everlasting
+disgrace on his posterity, admit the truth or justice of the charges
+which have been made upon him, or allow that he has in those Reflections
+discovered any principles to which honest men are bound to declare, not
+a shade or two of dissent, but a total, fundamental opposition. He must
+believe, if he does not mean wilfully to abandon his <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" title="92" class="pagenum"></a>cause and his
+reputation, that principles fundamentally at variance with those of his
+book are fundamentally false. What those principles, the antipodes to
+his, really are, he can only discover from their contrariety. He is very
+unwilling to suppose that the doctrines of some books lately circulated
+are the principles of the party; though, from the vehement declarations
+against his opinions, he is at some loss how to judge otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>For the present, my plan does not render it necessary to say anything
+further concerning the merits either of the one set of opinions or the
+other. The author would have discussed the merits of both in his place,
+but he was not permitted to do so.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I pass to the next head of charge,&mdash;Mr. Burke's inconsistency. It is
+certainly a great aggravation of his fault in embracing false opinions,
+that in doing so he is not supposed to fill up a void, but that he is
+guilty of a dereliction of opinions that are true and laudable. This is
+the great gist of the charge against him. It is not so much that he is
+wrong in his book (that, however, is alleged also) as that he has
+therein belied his whole life. I believe, if he could venture to value
+himself upon anything, it is on the virtue of consistency that he would
+value himself the most. Strip him of this, and you leave him naked
+indeed.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of any man who had written something, and spoken a great
+deal, upon very multifarious matter, during upwards of twenty-five
+years' public service, and in as great a variety of important events as
+perhaps have ever happened in the same number of years, it would appear
+a little hard, in order to charge such a man with inconsistency, to see
+collected by his <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" title="93" class="pagenum"></a>friend a sort of digest of his sayings, even to such
+as were merely sportive and jocular. This digest, however, has been
+made, with equal pains and partiality, and without bringing out those
+passages of his writings which might tend to show with what restrictions
+any expressions quoted from him ought to have been understood. From a
+great statesman he did not quite expect this mode of inquisition. If it
+only appeared in the works of common pamphleteers, Mr. Burke might
+safely trust to his reputation. When thus urged, he ought, perhaps, to
+do a little more. It shall be as little as possible; for I hope not much
+is wanting. To be totally silent on his charges would not be respectful
+to Mr. Fox. Accusations sometimes derive a weight from the persons who
+make them to which they are not entitled from their matter.</p>
+
+<p>He who thinks that the British Constitution ought to consist of the
+three members, of three very different natures, of which it does
+actually consist, and thinks it his duty to preserve each of those
+members in its proper place and with its proper proportion of power,
+must (as each shall happen to be attacked) vindicate the three several
+parts on the several principles peculiarly belonging to them. He cannot
+assert the democratic part on the principles on which monarchy is
+supported, nor can he support monarchy on the principles of democracy,
+nor can he maintain aristocracy on the grounds of the one or of the
+other or of both. All these he must support on grounds that are totally
+different, though practically they may be, and happily with us they are,
+brought into one harmonious body. A man could not be consistent in
+defending such various, and, at first view, discordant, parts of a
+mixed<a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" title="94" class="pagenum"></a> Constitution, without that sort of inconsistency with which Mr.
+Burke stands charged.</p>
+
+<p>As any one of the great members of this Constitution happens to be
+endangered, he that is a friend to all of them chooses and presses the
+topics necessary for the support of the part attacked, with all the
+strength, the earnestness, the vehemence, with all the power of stating,
+of argument, and of coloring, which he happens to possess, and which the
+case demands. He is not to embarrass the minds of his hearers, or to
+incumber or overlay his speech, by bringing into view at once (as if he
+were reading an academic lecture) all that may and ought, when a just
+occasion presents itself, to be said in favor of the other members. At
+that time they are out of the court; there is no question concerning
+them. Whilst he opposes his defence on the part where the attack is
+made, he presumes that for his regard to the just rights of all the rest
+he has credit in every candid mind. He ought not to apprehend that his
+raising fences about popular privileges this day will infer that he
+ought on the next to concur with those who would pull down the throne;
+because on the next he defends the throne, it ought not to be supposed
+that he has abandoned the rights of the people.</p>
+
+<p>A man, who, among various objects of his equal regard, is secure of
+some, and full of anxiety for the fate of others, is apt to go to much
+greater lengths in his preference of the objects of his immediate
+solicitude than Mr. Burke has ever done. A man so circumstanced often
+seems to undervalue, to vilify, almost to reprobate and disown, those
+that are out of danger. This is the voice of Nature and truth, and not
+of inconsistency and false pretence. The <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" title="95" class="pagenum"></a>danger of anything very dear
+to us removes, for the moment, every other affection from the mind. When
+Priam had his whole thoughts employed on the body of his Hector, he
+repels with indignation, and drives from him with a thousand reproaches,
+his surviving sons, who with an officious piety crowded about him to
+offer their assistance. A good critic (there is no better than Mr. Fox)
+would say that this is a masterstroke, and marks a deep understanding of
+Nature in the father of poetry. He would despise a Zo&iuml;lus who would
+conclude from this passage that Homer meant to represent this man of
+affliction as hating or being indifferent and cold in his affections to
+the poor relics of his house, or that he preferred a dead carcass to his
+living children.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burke does not stand in need of an allowance of this kind, which, if
+he did, by candid critics ought to be granted to him. If the principles
+of a mixed Constitution be admitted, he wants no more to justify to
+consistency everything he has said and done during the course of a
+political life just touching to its close. I believe that gentleman has
+kept himself more clear of running into the fashion of wild, visionary
+theories, or of seeking popularity through every means, than any man
+perhaps ever did in the same situation.</p>
+
+<p>He was the first man who, on the hustings, at a popular election,
+rejected the authority of instructions from constituents,&mdash;or who, in
+any place, has argued so fully against it. Perhaps the discredit into
+which that doctrine of compulsive instructions under our Constitution is
+since fallen may be due in a great degree to his opposing himself to it
+in that manner and on that occasion.<a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" title="96" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The reforms in representation, and the bills for shortening the duration
+of Parliaments, he uniformly and steadily opposed for many years
+together, in contradiction to many of his best friends. These friends,
+however, in his better days, when they had more to hope from his service
+and more to fear from his loss than now they have, never chose to find
+any inconsistency between his acts and expressions in favor of liberty
+and his votes on those questions. But there is a time for all things.</p>
+
+<p>Against the opinion of many friends, even against the solicitation of
+some of them, he opposed those of the Church clergy who had petitioned
+the House of Commons to be discharged from the subscription. Although he
+supported the Dissenters in their petition for the indulgence which he
+had refused to the clergy of the Established Church, in this, as he was
+not guilty of it, so he was not reproached with inconsistency. At the
+same time he promoted, and against the wish of several, the clause that
+gave the Dissenting teachers another subscription in the place of that
+which was then taken away. Neither at that time was the reproach of
+inconsistency brought against him. People could then distinguish between
+a difference in conduct under a variation of circumstances and an
+inconsistency in principle. It was not then thought necessary to be
+freed of him as of an incumbrance.</p>
+
+<p>These instances, a few among many, are produced as an answer to the
+insinuation of his having pursued high popular courses which in his late
+book he has abandoned. Perhaps in his whole life he has never omitted a
+fair occasion, with whatever risk to him of obloquy as an individual,
+with what<a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" title="97" class="pagenum"></a>ever detriment to his interest as a member of opposition, to
+assert the very same doctrines which appear in that book. He told the
+House, upon an important occasion, and pretty early in his service,
+that, &quot;being warned by the ill effect of a contrary procedure in great
+examples, he had taken his ideas of liberty very low in order that they
+should stick to him and that he might stick to them to the end of his
+life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At popular elections the most rigorous casuists will remit a little of
+their severity. They will allow to a candidate some unqualified
+effusions in favor of freedom, without binding him to adhere to them in
+their utmost extent. But Mr. Burke put a more strict rule upon himself
+than most moralists would put upon others. At his first offering himself
+to Bristol, where he was almost sure he should not obtain, on that or
+any occasion, a single Tory vote, (in fact, he did obtain but one,) and
+rested wholly on the Whig interest, he thought himself bound to tell to
+the electors, both before and after his election, exactly what a
+representative they had to expect in him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The <i>distinguishing</i> part of our Constitution,&quot; he said, &quot;is its
+liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate is the <i>peculiar</i> duty and
+<i>proper</i> trust of a member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the
+<i>only</i> liberty, I mean is a liberty connected with <i>order;</i> and that not
+only exists <i>with</i> order and virtue, but cannot exist at all <i>without</i>
+them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in <i>its substance and
+vital principle</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The liberty to which Mr. Burke declared himself attached is not French
+liberty. That liberty is nothing but the rein given to vice and
+confusion. Mr. Burke was then, as he was at the writing of his
+Re<a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" title="98" class="pagenum"></a>flections, awfully impressed with the difficulties arising from the
+complex state of our Constitution and our empire, and that it might
+require in different emergencies different sorts of exertions, and the
+successive call upon all the various principles which uphold and justify
+it. This will appear from what he said at the close of the poll.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be a good member of Parliament is, let me tell you, no easy
+task,&mdash;especially at this time, when there is so strong a disposition to
+run into the perilous extremes of <i>servile</i> compliance or <i>wild
+popularity</i>. To unite circumspection with vigor is absolutely necessary,
+but it is extremely difficult. We are now members for a rich commercial
+<i>city</i>; this city, however, is but a part of a rich commercial <i>nation</i>,
+the interests of which are <i>various, multiform, and intricate</i>. We are
+members for that great <i>nation</i>, which, however, is itself but part of a
+great <i>empire</i>, extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest
+limits of the East and of the West. <i>All</i> these wide-spread interests
+must be <i>considered</i>,&mdash;must be <i>compared</i>,&mdash;must be <i>reconciled</i>, if
+possible. We are members for a <i>free</i> country; and surely we all know
+that the machine of a free constitution is no <i>simple</i> thing, but as
+<i>intricate</i> and as <i>delicate</i> as it is valuable. We are members in a
+<i>great and ancient</i> MONARCHY<i>; and we must preserve religiously the
+true, legal rights of the sovereign, which form the key-stone that binds
+together the noble and well-constructed arch of our empire and our
+Constitution</i>. A constitution made up of <i>balanced powers</i> must ever be
+a critical thing. As such I mean to touch that part of it which comes
+within my reach.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In this manner Mr. Burke spoke to his constitu<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" title="99" class="pagenum"></a>ents seventeen years ago.
+He spoke, not like a partisan of one particular member of our
+Constitution, but as a person strongly, and on principle, attached to
+them all. He thought these great and essential members ought to be
+preserved, and preserved each in its place,&mdash;and that the monarchy ought
+not only to be secured in its peculiar existence, but in its preeminence
+too, as the presiding and connecting principle of the whole. Let it be
+considered whether the language of his book, printed in 1790, differs
+from his speech at Bristol in 1774.</p>
+
+<p>With equal justice his opinions on the American war are introduced, as
+if in his late work he had belied his conduct and opinions in the
+debates which arose upon that great event. On the American war he never
+had any opinions which he has seen occasion to retract, or which he has
+ever retracted. He, indeed, differs essentially from Mr. Fox as to the
+cause of that war. Mr. Fox has been pleased to say that the Americans
+rebelled &quot;because they thought they had not enjoyed liberty enough.&quot;
+This cause of the war, <i>from him</i>, I have heard of for the first time.
+It is true that those who stimulated the nation to that measure did
+frequently urge this topic. They contended that the Americans had from
+the beginning aimed at independence,&mdash;that from the beginning they meant
+wholly to throw off the authority of the crown, and to break their
+connection with the parent country. This Mr. Burke never believed. When
+he moved his second conciliatory proposition, in the year 1776, he
+entered into the discussion of this point at very great length, and,
+from nine several heads of presumption, endeavored to prove the charge
+upon that people not to be true.<a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" title="100" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>If the principles of all he has said and wrote on the occasion be viewed
+with common temper, the gentlemen of the party will perceive, that, on a
+supposition that the Americans had rebelled merely in order to enlarge
+their liberty, Mr. Burke would have thought very differently of the
+American cause. What might have been in the secret thoughts of some of
+their leaders it is impossible to say. As far as a man so locked up as
+Dr. Franklin could be expected to communicate his ideas, I believe he
+opened them to Mr. Burke. It was, I think, the very day before he set
+out for America that a very long conversation passed between them, and
+with a greater air of openness on the Doctor's side than Mr. Burke had
+observed in him before. In this discourse Dr. Franklin lamented, and
+with apparent sincerity, the separation which he feared was inevitable
+between Great Britain and her colonies. He certainly spoke of it as an
+event which gave him the greatest concern. America, he said, would never
+again see such happy days as she had passed under the protection of
+England. He observed, that ours was the only instance of a great empire
+in which the most distant parts and members had been as well governed as
+the metropolis and its vicinage, but that the Americans were going to
+lose the means which secured to them this rare and precious advantage.
+The question with them was not, whether they were to remain as they had
+been before the troubles,&mdash;for better, he allowed, they could not hope
+to be,&mdash;but whether they were to give up so happy a situation without a
+struggle. Mr. Burke had several other conversations with him about that
+time, in none of which, soured and exasperated as his mind certainly
+was, did he discover any other wish <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" title="101" class="pagenum"></a>in favor of America than for a
+security to its <i>ancient</i> condition. Mr. Burke's conversation with other
+Americans was large, indeed, and his inquiries extensive and diligent.
+Trusting to the result of all these means of information, but trusting
+much more in the public presumptive indications I have just referred to,
+and to the reiterated solemn declarations of their Assemblies, he always
+firmly believed that they were purely on the defensive in that
+rebellion. He considered the Americans as standing at that time, and in
+that controversy, in the same relation to England as England did to King
+James the Second in 1688. He believed that they had taken up arms from
+one motive only: that is, our attempting to tax them without their
+consent,&mdash;to tax them for the purposes of maintaining civil and military
+establishments. If this attempt of ours could have been practically
+established, he thought, with them, that their Assemblies would become
+totally useless,&mdash;that, under the system of policy which was then
+pursued, the Americans could have no sort of security for their laws or
+liberties, or for any part of them,&mdash;and that the very circumstance of
+<i>our</i> freedom would have augmented the weight of <i>their</i> slavery.</p>
+
+<p>Considering the Americans on that defensive footing, he thought Great
+Britain ought instantly to have closed with them by the repeal of the
+taxing act. He was of opinion that our general rights over that country
+would have been preserved by this timely concession.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor" title=" See his speech on American Taxation, the 19th of April,
+1774.">[9]</a> When, instead of
+this, a Boston Port Bill, a Massachusetts Charter Bill, a Fishery Bill,
+an Intercourse Bill, I know not how many hostile bills, rushed out like
+so many tempests from all points of <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" title="102" class="pagenum"></a>the compass, and were accompanied
+first with great fleets and armies of English, and followed afterwards
+with great bodies of foreign troops, he thought that their cause grew
+daily better, because daily more defensive,&mdash;and that ours, because
+daily more offensive, grew daily worse. He therefore, in two motions, in
+two successive years, proposed in Parliament many concessions beyond
+what he had reason to think in the beginning of the troubles would ever
+be seriously demanded.</p>
+
+<p>So circumstanced, he certainly never could and never did wish the
+colonists to be subdued by arms. He was fully persuaded, that, if such
+should be the event, they must be held in that subdued state by a great
+body of standing forces, and perhaps of foreign forces. He was strongly
+of opinion that such armies, first victorious over Englishmen, in a
+conflict for English constitutional rights and privileges, and
+afterwards habituated (though in America) to keep an English people in a
+state of abject subjection, would prove fatal in the end to the
+liberties of England itself; that in the mean time this military system
+would lie as an oppressive burden upon the national finances; that it
+would constantly breed and feed new discussions, full of heat and
+acrimony, leading possibly to a new series of wars; and that foreign
+powers, whilst we continued in a state at once burdened and distracted,
+must at length obtain a decided superiority over us. On what part of his
+late publication, or on what expression that might have escaped him in
+that work, is any man authorized to charge Mr. Burke with a
+contradiction to the line of his conduct and to the current of his
+doctrines on the American war? The pamphlet is in the hands of <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" title="103" class="pagenum"></a>his
+accusers: let them point out the passage, if they can.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the author has been well sifted and scrutinized by his friends.
+He is even called to an account for every jocular and light expression.
+A ludicrous picture which he made with regard to a passage in the speech
+of a late minister<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor" title=" Lord Lansdowne.">[10]</a> has been brought up against him. That passage
+contained a lamentation for the loss of monarchy to the Americans, after
+they had separated from Great Britain. He thought it to be unseasonable,
+ill-judged, and ill-sorted with the circumstances of all the parties.
+Mr. Burke, it seems, considered it ridiculous to lament the loss of some
+monarch or other to a rebel people, at the moment they had forever
+quitted their allegiance to theirs and our sovereign, at the time when
+they had broken off all connection with this nation and had allied
+themselves with its enemies. He certainly must have thought it open to
+ridicule; and now that it is recalled to his memory, (he had, I believe,
+wholly forgotten the circumstance,) he recollects that he did treat it
+with some levity. But is it a fair inference from a jest on this
+unseasonable lamentation, that he was then an enemy to monarchy, either
+in this or in any other country? The contrary perhaps ought to be
+inferred,&mdash;if anything at all can be argued from pleasantries good or
+bad. Is it for this reason, or for anything he has said or done relative
+to the American war, that he is to enter into an alliance offensive and
+defensive with every rebellion, in every country, under every
+circumstance, and raised upon whatever pretence? Is it because he did
+not wish the Americans to be subdued by <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" title="104" class="pagenum"></a>arms, that he must be
+inconsistent with himself, if he reprobates the conduct of those
+societies in England, who, alleging no one act of tyranny or oppression,
+and complaining of no hostile attempt against our ancient laws, rights,
+and usages, are now endeavoring to work the destruction of the crown of
+this kingdom, and the whole of its Constitution? Is he obliged, from the
+concessions he wished to be made to the colonies, to keep any terms with
+those clubs and federations who hold out to us, as a pattern for
+imitation, the proceedings in France, in which a king, who had
+voluntarily and formally divested himself of the right of taxation, and
+of all other species of arbitrary power, has been dethroned? Is it
+because Mr. Burke wished to have America rather conciliated than
+vanquished, that he must wish well to the army of republics which are
+set up in France,&mdash;a country wherein not the people, but the monarch,
+was wholly on the defensive, (a poor, indeed, and feeble defensive,) to
+preserve <i>some fragments</i> of the royal authority against a determined
+and desperate body of conspirators, whose object it was, with whatever
+certainty of crimes, with whatever hazard of war, and every other
+species of calamity, to annihilate the <i>whole</i> of that authority, to
+level all ranks, orders, and distinctions in the state, and utterly to
+destroy property, not more by their acts than in their principles?</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burke has been also reproached with an inconsistency between his
+late writings and his former conduct, because he had proposed in
+Parliament several economical, leading to several constitutional
+reforms. Mr. Burke thought, with a majority of the House of Commons,
+that the influence of the crown at one time was too great; but after his
+Majesty <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" title="105" class="pagenum"></a>had, by a gracious message, and several subsequent acts of
+Parliament, reduced it to a standard which satisfied Mr. Fox himself,
+and, apparently at least, contented whoever wished to go farthest in
+that reduction, is Mr. Burke to allow that it would be right for us to
+proceed to indefinite lengths upon that subject? that it would therefore
+be justifiable in a people owing allegiance to a monarchy, and
+professing to maintain it, not to <i>reduce</i>, but wholly to <i>take away
+all</i> prerogative and <i>all</i> influence whatsoever? Must his having made,
+in virtue of a plan of economical regulation, a reduction of the
+influence of the crown compel him to allow that it would be right in the
+French or in us to bring a king to so abject a state as in function not
+to be so respectable as an under-sheriff, but in person not to differ
+from the condition of a mere prisoner? One would think that such a thing
+as a medium had never been heard of in the moral world.</p>
+
+<p>This mode of arguing from your having done <i>any</i> thing in a certain line
+to the necessity of doing <i>every</i> thing has political consequences of
+other moment than those of a logical fallacy. If no man can propose any
+diminution or modification of an invidious or dangerous power or
+influence in government, without entitling friends turned into
+adversaries to argue him into the destruction of all prerogative, and to
+a spoliation of the whole patronage of royalty, I do not know what can
+more effectually deter persons of sober minds from engaging in any
+reform, nor how the worst enemies to the liberty of the subject could
+contrive any method more fit to bring all correctives on the power of
+the crown into suspicion and disrepute.<a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" title="106" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>If, say his accusers, the dread of too great influence in the crown of
+Great Britain could justify the degree of reform which he adopted, the
+dread of a return under the despotism of a monarchy might justify the
+people of France in going much further, and reducing monarchy to its
+present nothing.&mdash;Mr. Burke does not allow that a sufficient argument
+<i>ad hominem</i> is inferable from these premises. If the horror of the
+excesses of an absolute monarchy furnishes a reason for abolishing it,
+no monarchy once absolute (all have been so at one period or other)
+could ever be limited. It must be destroyed; otherwise no way could be
+found to quiet the fears of those who were formerly subjected to that
+sway. But the principle of Mr. Burke's proceeding ought to lead him to a
+very different conclusion,&mdash;to this conclusion,&mdash;that a monarchy is a
+thing perfectly susceptible of reform, perfectly susceptible of a
+balance of power, and that, when reformed and balanced, for a great
+country it is the best of all governments. The example of our country
+might have led France, as it has led him, to perceive that monarchy is
+not only reconcilable to liberty, but that it may be rendered a great
+and stable security to its perpetual enjoyment. No correctives which he
+proposed to the power of the crown could lead him to approve of a plan
+of a republic (if so it may be reputed) which has no correctives, and
+which he believes to be incapable of admitting any. No principle of Mr.
+Burke's conduct or writings obliged him from consistency to become an
+advocate for an exchange of mischiefs; no principle of his could compel
+him to justify the setting up in the place of a mitigated monarchy a new
+and far more despotic power, under which there is no trace <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" title="107" class="pagenum"></a>of liberty,
+except what appears in confusion and in crime.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burke does not admit that the faction predominant in France have
+abolished their monarchy, and the orders of their state, from any dread
+of arbitrary power that lay heavy on the minds of the people. It is not
+very long since he has been in that country. Whilst there he conversed
+with many descriptions of its inhabitants. A few persons of rank did, he
+allows, discover strong and manifest tokens of such a spirit of liberty
+as might be expected one day to break all bounds. Such gentlemen have
+since had more reason to repent of their want of foresight than I hope
+any of the same class will ever have in this country. But this spirit
+was far from general, even amongst the gentlemen. As to the lower
+orders, and those little above them, in whose name the present powers
+domineer, they were far from discovering any sort of dissatisfaction
+with the power and prerogatives of the crown. That vain people were
+rather proud of them: they rather despised the English for not having a
+monarch possessed of such high and perfect authority. <i>They</i> had felt
+nothing from <i>lettres de cachet</i>. The Bastile could inspire no horrors
+into <i>them</i>. This was a treat for their betters. It was by art and
+impulse, it was by the sinister use made of a season of scarcity, it was
+under an infinitely diversified succession of wicked pretences wholly
+foreign to the question of monarchy or aristocracy, that this light
+people were inspired with their present spirit of levelling. Their old
+vanity was led by art to take another turn: it was dazzled and seduced
+by military liveries, cockades, and epaulets, until the French populace
+was led to become the willing, but still the proud and thought<a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" title="108" class="pagenum"></a>less,
+instrument and victim of another domination. Neither did that people
+despise or hate or fear their nobility: on the contrary, they valued
+themselves on the generous qualities which distinguished the chiefs of
+their nation.</p>
+
+<p>So far as to the attack on Mr. Burke in consequence of his reforms.</p>
+
+<p>To show that he has in his last publication abandoned those principles
+of liberty which have given energy to his youth, and in spite of his
+censors will afford repose and consolation to his declining age, those
+who have thought proper in Parliament to declare against his book ought
+to have produced something in it which directly or indirectly militates
+with any rational plan of free government. It is something
+extraordinary, that they whose memories have so well served them with
+regard to light and ludicrous expressions, which years had consigned to
+oblivion, should not have been able to quote a single passage in a piece
+so lately published, which contradicts anything he has formerly ever
+said in a style either ludicrous or serious. They quote his former
+speeches and his former votes, but not one syllable from the book. It is
+only by a collation of the one with the other that the alleged
+inconsistency can be established. But as they are unable to cite any
+such contradictory passage, so neither can they show anything in the
+general tendency and spirit of the whole work unfavorable to a rational
+and generous spirit of liberty; unless a warm opposition to the spirit
+of levelling, to the spirit of impiety, to the spirit of proscription,
+plunder, murder, and cannibalism, be adverse to the true principles of
+freedom.</p>
+
+<p>The author of that book is supposed to have passed <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" title="109" class="pagenum"></a>from extreme to
+extreme; but he has always kept himself in a medium. This charge is not
+so wonderful. It is in the nature of things, that they who are in the
+centre of a circle should appear directly opposed to those who view them
+from any part of the circumference. In that middle point, however, he
+will still remain, though he may hear people who themselves run beyond
+Aurora and the Ganges cry out that he is at the extremity of the West.</p>
+
+<p>In the same debate Mr. Burke was represented by Mr. Fox as arguing in a
+manner which implied that the British Constitution could not be
+defended, but by abusing all republics ancient and modern. He said
+nothing to give the least ground for such a censure. He never abused all
+republics. He has never professed himself a friend or an enemy to
+republics or to monarchies in the abstract. He thought that the
+circumstances and habits of every country, which it is always perilous
+and productive of the greatest calamities to force, are to decide upon
+the form of its government. There is nothing in his nature, his temper,
+or his faculties which should make him an enemy to any republic, modern
+or ancient. Far from it. He has studied the form and spirit of republics
+very early in life; he has studied them with great attention, and with a
+mind undisturbed by affection or prejudice. He is, indeed, convinced
+that the science of government would be poorly cultivated without that
+study. But the result in his mind from that investigation has been and
+is, that neither England nor France, without infinite detriment to them,
+as well in the event as in the experiment, could be brought into a
+republican form; but that everything republican which can be introduced
+with safety into either of them must be <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" title="110" class="pagenum"></a>built upon a monarchy,&mdash;built
+upon a real, not a nominal monarchy, <i>as its essential basis</i>; that all
+such institutions, whether aristocratic or democratic, must originate
+from their crown, and in all their proceedings must refer to it; that by
+the energy of that mainspring alone those republican parts must be set
+in action, and from thence must derive their whole legal effect, (as
+amongst us they actually do,) or the whole will fall into confusion.
+These republican members have no other point but the crown in which they
+can possibly unite.</p>
+
+<p>This is the opinion expressed in Mr. Burke's book. He has never varied
+in that opinion since he came to years of discretion. But surely, if at
+any time of his life he had entertained other notions, (which, however,
+he has never held or professed to hold,) the horrible calamities brought
+upon a great people by the wild attempt to force their country into a
+republic might be more than sufficient to undeceive his understanding,
+and to free it forever from such destructive fancies. He is certain that
+many, even in France, have been made sick of their theories by their
+very success in realizing them.</p>
+
+<p>To fortify the imputation of a desertion from his principles, his
+constant attempts to reform abuses have been brought forward. It is
+true, it has been the business of his strength to reform abuses in
+government, and his last feeble efforts are employed in a struggle
+against them. Politically he has lived in that element; politically he
+will die in it. Before he departs, I will admit for him that he deserves
+to have all his titles of merit brought forth, as they have been, for
+grounds of condemnation, if one word justifying or supporting abuses of
+any sort is to be found in <a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" title="111" class="pagenum"></a>that book which has kindled so much
+indignation in the mind of a great man. On the contrary, it spares no
+existing abuse. Its very purpose is to make war with abuses,&mdash;not,
+indeed, to make war with the dead, but with those which live, and
+flourish, and reign.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>purpose</i> for which the abuses of government are brought into view
+forms a very material consideration in the mode of treating them. The
+complaints of a friend are things very different from the invectives of
+an enemy. The charge of abuses on the late monarchy of France was not
+intended to lead to its reformation, but to justify its destruction.
+They who have raked into all history for the faults of kings, and who
+have aggravated every fault they have found, have acted consistently,
+because they acted as enemies. No man can be a friend to a tempered
+monarchy who bears a decided hatred to monarchy itself. He, who, at the
+present time, is favorable or even fair to that system, must act towards
+it as towards a friend with frailties who is under the prosecution of
+implacable foes. I think it a duty, in that case, not to inflame the
+public mind against the obnoxious person by any exaggeration of his
+faults. It is our duty rather to palliate his errors and defects, or to
+cast them into the shade, and industriously to bring forward any good
+qualities that he may happen to possess. But when the man is to be
+amended, and by amendment to be preserved, then the line of duty takes
+another direction. When his safety is effectually provided for, it then
+becomes the office of a friend to urge his faults and vices with all the
+energy of enlightened affection, to paint them in their most vivid
+colors, and to bring the moral patient to a better habit. Thus I think
+with regard to individu<a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" title="112" class="pagenum"></a>als; thus I think with regard to ancient and
+respected governments and orders of men. A spirit of reformation is
+never more consistent with itself than when it refuses to be rendered
+the means of destruction.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose that enough is said upon these heads of accusation. One more I
+had nearly forgotten, but I shall soon dispatch it. The author of the
+Reflections, in the opening of the last Parliament, entered on the
+journals of the House of Commons a motion for a remonstrance to the
+crown, which is substantially a defence of the preceding Parliament,
+that had been dissolved under displeasure. It is a defence of Mr. Fox.
+It is a defence of the Whigs. By what connection of argument, by what
+association of ideas, this apology for Mr. Fox and his party is by him
+and them brought to criminate his and their apologist, I cannot easily
+divine. It is true that Mr. Burke received no previous encouragement
+from Mr. Fox, nor any the least countenance or support, at the time when
+the motion was made, from him or from any gentleman of the party,&mdash;one
+only excepted, from whose friendship, on that and on other occasions, he
+derives an honor to which he must be dull indeed to be insensible.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor" title=" Mr. Windham.">[11]</a>
+If that remonstrance, therefore, was a false or feeble defence of the
+measures of the party, they were in no wise affected by it. It stands on
+the journals. This secures to it a permanence which the author cannot
+expect to any other work of his. Let it speak for itself to the present
+age and to all posterity. The party had no concern in it; and it can
+never be quoted against them. But in the late debate it was produced,
+not to clear the party from an improper defence in which they had no
+share, but <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" title="113" class="pagenum"></a>for the kind purpose of insinuating an inconsistency between
+the principles of Mr. Burke's defence of the dissolved Parliament and
+those on which he proceeded in his late Reflections on France.</p>
+
+<p>It requires great ingenuity to make out such a parallel between the two
+cases as to found a charge of inconsistency in the principles assumed in
+arguing the one and the other. What relation had Mr. Fox's India Bill to
+the Constitution of France? What relation had that Constitution to the
+question of right in an House of Commons to give or to withhold its
+confidence from ministers, and to state that opinion to the crown? What
+had this discussion to do with Mr. Burke's idea in 1784 of the ill
+consequences which must in the end arise to the crown from setting up
+the commons at large as an opposite interest to the commons in
+Parliament? What has this discussion to do with a recorded warning to
+the people of their rashly forming a precipitate judgment against their
+representatives? What had Mr. Burke's opinion of the danger of
+introducing new theoretic language, unknown to the records of the
+kingdom, and calculated to excite vexatious questions, into a
+Parliamentary proceeding, to do with the French Assembly, which defies
+all precedent, and places its whole glory in realizing what had been
+thought the most visionary theories? What had this in common with the
+abolition of the French monarchy, or with the principles upon which the
+English Revolution was justified,&mdash;a Revolution in which Parliament, in
+all its acts and all its declarations, religiously adheres to &quot;the form
+of sound words,&quot; without excluding from private discussions such terms
+of art as may serve to conduct an inquiry for which none but private
+per<a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" title="114" class="pagenum"></a>sons are responsible? These were the topics of Mr. Burke's proposed
+remonstrance; all of which topics suppose the existence and mutual
+relation of our three estates,&mdash;as well as the relation of the East
+India Company to the crown, to Parliament, and to the peculiar laws,
+rights, and usages of the people of Hindostan. What reference, I say,
+had these topics to the Constitution of France, in which there is no
+king, no lords, no commons, no India Company to injure or support, no
+Indian empire to govern or oppress? What relation had all or any of
+these, or any question which could arise between the prerogatives of the
+crown and the privileges of Parliament, with the censure of those
+factious persons in Great Britain whom Mr. Burke states to be engaged,
+not in favor of privilege against prerogative, or of prerogative against
+privilege, but in an open attempt against our crown and our Parliament,
+against our Constitution in Church and State, against all the parts and
+orders which compose the one and the other?</p>
+
+<p>No persons were more fiercely active against Mr. Fox, and against the
+measures of the House of Commons dissolved in 1784, which Mr. Burke
+defends in that remonstrance, than several of those revolution-makers
+whom Mr. Burke condemns alike in his remonstrance and in his book. These
+revolutionists, indeed, may be well thought to vary in their conduct. He
+is, however, far from accusing them, in this variation, of the smallest
+degree of inconsistency. He is persuaded that they are totally
+indifferent at which end they begin the demolition of the Constitution.
+Some are for commencing their operations with the destruction of the
+civil powers, in order the better to pull down the ecclesiastical,&mdash;some
+wish to begin <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" title="115" class="pagenum"></a>with the ecclesiastical, in order to facilitate the ruin
+of the civil; some would destroy the House of Commons through the crown,
+some the crown through the House of Commons, and some would overturn
+both the one and the other through what they call the people. But I
+believe that this injured writer will think it not at all inconsistent
+with his present duty or with his former life strenuously to oppose all
+the various partisans of destruction, let them begin where or when or
+how they will. No man would set his face more determinedly against those
+who should attempt to deprive them, or any description of men, of the
+rights they possess. No man would be more steady in preventing them from
+abusing those rights to the destruction of that happy order under which
+they enjoy them. As to their title to anything further, it ought to be
+grounded on the proof they give of the safety with which power may be
+trusted in their hands. When they attempt without disguise, not to win
+it from our affections, but to force it from our fears, they show, in
+the character of their means of obtaining it, the use they would make of
+their dominion. That writer is too well read in men not to know how
+often the desire and design of a tyrannic domination lurks in the claim
+of an extravagant liberty. Perhaps in the beginning it <i>always</i> displays
+itself in that manner. No man has ever affected power which he did not
+hope from the favor of the existing government in any other mode.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The attacks on the author's consistency relative to France are (however
+grievous they may be to his feelings) in a great degree external to him
+and to us, and comparatively of little moment to the people <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" title="116" class="pagenum"></a>of England.
+The substantial charge upon him is concerning his doctrines relative to
+the Revolution of 1688. Here it is that they who speak in the name of
+the party have thought proper to censure him the most loudly and with
+the greatest asperity. Here they fasten, and, if they are right in their
+fact, with sufficient judgment in their selection. If he be guilty in
+this point, he is equally blamable, whether he is consistent or not. If
+he endeavors to delude his countrymen by a false representation of the
+spirit of that leading event, and of the true nature and tenure of the
+government formed in consequence of it, he is deeply responsible, he is
+an enemy to the free Constitution of the kingdom. But he is not guilty
+in any sense. I maintain that in his Reflections he has stated the
+Revolution and the Settlement upon their true principles of legal reason
+and constitutional policy.</p>
+
+<p>His authorities are the acts and declarations of Parliament, given in
+their proper words. So far as these go, nothing can be added to what he
+has quoted. The question is, whether he has understood them rightly. I
+think they speak plain enough. But we must now see whether he proceeds
+with other authority than his own constructions, and, if he does, on
+what sort of authority he proceeds. In this part, his defence will not
+be made by argument, but by wager of law. He takes his compurgators, his
+vouchers, his guaranties, along with him. I know that he will not be
+satisfied with a justification proceeding on general reasons of policy.
+He must be defended on party grounds, too, or his cause is not so
+tenable as I wish it to appear. It must be made out for him not only
+that in his construction of these public acts <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" title="117" class="pagenum"></a>and monuments he conforms
+himself to the rules of fair, legal, and logical interpretation, but it
+must be proved that his construction is in perfect harmony with that of
+the ancient Whigs, to whom, against the sentence of the modern, on his
+part, I here appeal.</p>
+
+<p>This July it will be twenty-six years<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor" title=" July 17th, 1765.">[12]</a> since he became connected with
+a man whose memory will ever be precious to Englishmen of all parties,
+as long as the ideas of honor and virtue, public and private, are
+understood and cherished in this nation. That memory will be kept alive
+with particular veneration by all rational and honorable Whigs. Mr.
+Burke entered into a connection with that party through that man, at an
+age far from raw and immature,&mdash;at those years when men are all they are
+ever likely to become,&mdash;when he was in the prime and vigor of his
+life,&mdash;when the powers of his understanding, according to their
+standard, were at the best, his memory exercised, his judgment formed,
+and his reading much fresher in the recollection and much readier in the
+application than now it is. He was at that time as likely as most men to
+know what were Whig and what were Tory principles. He was in a situation
+to discern what sort of Whig principles they entertained with whom it
+was his wish to form an eternal connection. Foolish he would have been
+at that time of life (more foolish than any man who undertakes a public
+trust would be thought) to adhere to a cause which he, amongst all those
+who were engaged in it, had the least sanguine hopes of as a road to
+power.</p>
+
+<p>There are who remember, that, on the removal of <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" title="118" class="pagenum"></a>the Whigs in the year
+1766, he was as free to choose another connection as any man in the
+kingdom. To put himself out of the way of the negotiations which were
+then carrying on very eagerly and through many channels with the Earl of
+Chatham, he went to Ireland very soon after the change of ministry, and
+did not return until the meeting of Parliament. He was at that time free
+from anything which looked like an engagement. He was further free at
+the desire of his friends; for, the very day of his return, the Marquis
+of Rockingham wished him to accept an employment under the new system.
+He believes he might have had such a situation; but again he cheerfully
+took his fate with the party.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a serious imputation upon the prudence of my friend, to have
+made even such trivial sacrifices as it was in his power to make for
+principles which he did not truly embrace or did not perfectly
+understand. In either case the folly would have been great. The question
+now is, whether, when he first practically professed Whig principles, he
+understood what principles he professed, and whether in his book he has
+faithfully expressed them.</p>
+
+<p>When he entered into the Whig party, he did not conceive that they
+pretended to any discoveries. They did not affect to be better Whigs
+than those were who lived in the days in which principle was put to the
+test. Some of the Whigs of those days were then living. They were what
+the Whigs had been at the Revolution,&mdash;what they had been during the
+reign of Queen Anne,&mdash;what they had been at the accession of the present
+royal family.</p>
+
+<p>What they were at those periods is to be seen. It <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" title="119" class="pagenum"></a>rarely happens to a
+party to have the opportunity of a clear, authentic, recorded
+declaration of their political tenets upon the subject of a great
+constitutional event like that of the Revolution. The Whigs had that
+opportunity,&mdash;or to speak more properly, they made it. The impeachment
+of Dr. Sacheverell was undertaken by a Whig ministry and a Whig House of
+Commons, and carried on before a prevalent and steady majority of Whig
+peers. It was carried on for the express purpose of stating the true
+grounds and principles of the Revolution,&mdash;what the Commons emphatically
+called their <i>foundation</i>. It was carried on for the purpose of
+condemning the principles on which the Revolution was first opposed and
+afterwards calumniated, in order, by a juridical sentence of the highest
+authority, to confirm and fix Whig principles, as they had operated both
+in the resistance to King James and in the subsequent settlement, and to
+fix them in the extent and with the limitations with which it was meant
+they should be understood by posterity. The ministers and managers for
+the Commons were persons who had, many of them, an active share in the
+Revolution. Most of them had seen it at an age capable of reflection.
+The grand event, and all the discussions which led to it and followed
+it, were then alive in the memory and conversation of all men. The
+managers for the Commons must be supposed to have spoken on that subject
+the prevalent ideas of the leading party in the Commons, and of the Whig
+ministry. Undoubtedly they spoke also their own private opinions; and
+the private opinions of such men are not without weight. They were not
+<i>umbratiles doctores</i>, men who had studied a free Constitution only in
+its anatomy <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" title="120" class="pagenum"></a>and upon dead systems. They knew it alive and in action.</p>
+
+<p>In this proceeding the Whig principles, as applied to the Revolution and
+Settlement, are to be found, or they are to be found nowhere. I wish the
+Whig readers of this Appeal first to turn to Mr. Burke's Reflections,
+from page 20 to page 50,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor" title=" Works, Vol. III. pp. 251-276, present edition.">[13]</a> and then to attend to the following
+extracts from the trial of Dr. Sacheverell. After this, they will
+consider two things: first, whether the doctrine in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections be consonant to that of the Whigs of that period; and,
+secondly, whether they choose to abandon the principles which belonged
+to the progenitors of some of them, and to the predecessors of them all,
+and to learn new principles of Whiggism, imported from France, and
+disseminated in this country from Dissenting pulpits, from Federation
+societies, and from the pamphlets, which (as containing the political
+creed of those synods) are industriously circulated in all parts of the
+two kingdoms. This is their affair, and they will make their option.</p>
+
+<p>These new Whigs hold that the sovereignty, whether exercised by one or
+many, did not only originate <i>from</i> the people, (a position not denied
+nor worth denying or assenting to,) but that in the people the same
+sovereignty constantly and unalienably resides; that the people may
+lawfully depose kings, not only for misconduct, but without any
+misconduct at all; that they may set up any new fashion of government
+for themselves, or continue without any government, at their pleasure;
+that the people are essentially their own rule, and their will the
+measure of their conduct; that the tenure of magistracy is not a proper
+subject <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" title="121" class="pagenum"></a>of contract, because magistrates have duties, but no rights;
+and that, if a contract <i>de facto</i> is made with them in one age,
+allowing that it binds at all, it only binds those who are immediately
+concerned in it, but does not pass to posterity. These doctrines
+concerning <i>the people</i> (a term which they are far from accurately
+defining, but by which, from many circumstances, it is plain enough they
+mean their own faction, if they should grow, by early arming, by
+treachery, or violence, into the prevailing force) tend, in my opinion,
+to the utter subversion, not only of all government, in all modes, and
+to all stable securities to rational freedom, but to all the rules and
+principles of morality itself.</p>
+
+<p>I assert that the ancient Whigs held doctrines totally different from
+those I have last mentioned. I assert, that the foundations laid down by
+the Commons, on the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, for justifying the
+Revolution of 1688, are the very same laid down in Mr. Burke's
+Reflections,&mdash;that is to say, a breach of the <i>original contrast</i>,
+implied and expressed in the Constitution of this country, as a scheme
+of government fundamentally and inviolably fixed in King, Lords, and
+Commons;&mdash;that the fundamental subversion of this ancient Constitution,
+by one of its parts, having been attempted, and in effect accomplished,
+justified the Revolution;&mdash;that it was justified <i>only</i> upon the
+<i>necessity</i> of the case, as the <i>only</i> means left for the recovery of
+that <i>ancient</i> Constitution formed by the <i>original contract</i> of the
+British state, as well as for the future preservation of the <i>same</i>
+government. These are the points to be proved.</p>
+
+<p>A general opening to the charge against Dr. Sacheverell was made by the
+attorney-general, Sir John<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" title="122" class="pagenum"></a> Montague; but as there is nothing in that
+opening speech which tends very accurately to settle the principle upon
+which the Whigs proceeded in the prosecution, (the plan of the speech
+not requiring it,) I proceed to that of Mr. Lechmere, the manager, who
+spoke next after him. The following are extracts, given, not in the
+exact order in which they stand in the printed trial, but in that which
+is thought most fit to bring the ideas of the Whig Commons distinctly
+under our view.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Lechmere</i><a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor" title=" State Trials, Vol. V. p. 651.">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;It becomes an <i>indispensable</i> duty upon us, who appear in the name and
+on the behalf of all the commons of Great Britain, not only to demand
+your Lordships' justice on such a criminal, [Dr. Sacheverell,] <i>but
+clearly and openly to assert our foundations</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">That the terms of our Constitution imply and express an
+original contract.<br />
+That the contract is mutual consent, and binding at all times
+upon the parties.<br />
+The mixed Constitution uniformly preserved for many ages, and
+is a proof of the contract.</span>
+
+&quot;The nature of our Constitution is that of a <i>limited monarchy</i>, wherein
+the supreme power is communicated and divided between Queen, Lords, and
+Commons, though the executive power and administration be wholly in the
+crown. The terms of such a Constitution do not only suppose, but
+express, an original contract between the crown and the people, by which
+that supreme power was (by mutual consent, and not by accident) limited
+and lodged in more hands than one. And <i>the uniform preservation of such
+a Constitution for so many ages, without any fundamental change,
+demonstrates to your Lordships the continuance of the same contract</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Laws the common measure to King and subject.<br />
+Case of fundamental injury, and breach of original contract.</span>&quot;The consequences of such a frame of <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" title="123" class="pagenum"></a>government are obvious: That the
+<i>laws</i> are the rule to both, the common measure of the power of the
+crown and of the obedience of the subject; and if the executive part
+endeavors the <i>subversion and total destruction of the government</i>, the
+original contract is thereby broke, and the right of allegiance ceases
+that part of the government thus <i>fundamentally</i> injured hath a right to
+save or recover <i>that</i> Constitution in which it had an original
+interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Words <i>necessary means</i> selected with caution.</span>&quot;<i>The necessary means</i> (which is the phrase used by the Commons in their
+first article) words made choice of by them <i>with the greatest caution</i>.
+Those means are described (in the preamble to their charge) to be, that
+glorious enterprise which his late Majesty undertook, with an armed
+force, to deliver this kingdom from Popery and arbitrary power; the
+concurrence of many subjects of the realm, who came over with him in
+that enterprise, and of many others, of <i>all ranks and orders</i>, who
+appeared in arms in many parts of the kingdom in aid of that enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These were the <i>means</i> that brought about the Revolution; and which the
+act that passed soon after, <i>declaring the rights and liberties of the
+subject, and settling the succession of the crown</i>, intends, when his
+late Majesty is therein called <i>the glorious instrument of delivering
+the kingdom</i>; and which the Commons, in the last part of their first
+article, express by the word <i>resistance</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Regard of the Commons to their allegiance to the crown, and
+to the ancient Constitution.</span>&quot;But the Commons, who will never be unmindful of the <i>allegiance</i> of the
+subjects to the <i>crown</i> of this realm, judged it highly incumbent upon
+them, out of regard to the<a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" title="124" class="pagenum"></a> <i>safety of her Majesty's person and
+government, and the ancient and legal Constitution of this kingdom</i>, to
+call that resistance the <i>necessary</i> means; thereby plainly founding
+that power, of right and resistance, which was exercised by the people
+at the time of the happy Revolution, and which the duties of
+<i>self-preservation</i> and religion called them to, <i>upon the NECESSITY of
+the case, and at the same time effectually securing her Majesty's
+government, and the due allegiance of all her subjects</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">All ages have the same interest in preservation of the
+contract, and the same Constitution.</span>&quot;The nature of such an <i>original contract</i> of government proves that
+there is not only a power in the people, who have <i>inherited its
+freedom</i>, to assert their own title to it, but they are bound in duty to
+transmit the <i>same</i> Constitution to their posterity also.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Mr. Lechmere made a second speech. Notwithstanding the clear and
+satisfactory manner in which he delivered himself in his first, upon
+this arduous question, he thinks himself bound again distinctly to
+assert the same foundation, and to justify the Revolution on <i>the case
+of necessity only</i>, upon principles perfectly coinciding with those laid
+down in Mr. Burke's letter on the French affairs.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Lechmere.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">The Commons strictly confine their ideas of a revolution to
+necessity alone and self-defence.</span>&quot;Your Lordships were acquainted, in opening the charge, with how <i>great
+caution</i>, and with what unfeigned regard to her Majesty and her
+government, and to the <i>duty and allegiance</i> of her subjects, the
+Commons made choice of the words <i>necessary means</i> to express the
+resistance that was made use of to bring about the Rev<a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" title="125" class="pagenum"></a>olution, and with
+the condemning of which the Doctor is charged by this article: not
+doubting but that the honor and justice of that resistance, <i>from the
+necessity of that case, and to which alone we have strictly confined
+ourselves</i>, when duly considered, would confirm and strengthen[A]<span class="sidenote">[A] N.B. The remark implies, that allegiance would be insecure
+without this restriction.</span> and be
+understood to be an effectual security of the allegiance of the subject
+to the crown of this realm, <i>in every other case where there is not the
+same necessity</i>; and that the right of the people to <i>self-defence, and
+preservation of their liberties, by resistance as their last remedy, is
+the result of a case of such NECESSITY ONLY, and by which the ORIGINAL
+CONTRACT between king and people is broke. This was the principle laid
+down and carried through all that was said with respect to ALLEGIANCE;
+and on WHICH FOUNDATION, in the name and on the behalf of all the
+commons of Great Britain, we assert and justify that resistance by which
+the late happy Revolution was brought about</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It appears to your Lordships and the world, that <i>breaking the original
+contract between king and people</i> were the words made choice of by that
+House of Commons,&quot; (the House of Commons which originated the
+Declaration of Right,) &quot;with the <i>greatest deliberation and judgment</i>,
+and approved of by your Lordships, in that first and fundamental step
+made towards the <i>re-establishment of the government</i>, which had
+received so great a shock from the evil counsels which had been given to
+that unfortunate prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Sir John Hawles, another of the managers, follows the steps of his
+brethren, positively affirming the doctrine of non-resistance to
+government to be the <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" title="126" class="pagenum"></a>general moral, religious, and political rule for
+the subject, and justifying the Revolution on the same principle with
+Mr. Burke,&mdash;that is, as <i>an exception from necessity</i>. Indeed, he
+carries the doctrine on the general idea of non-resistance much further
+than Mr. Burke has done, and full as far as it can perhaps be supported
+by any duty of <i>perfect obligation</i>, however noble and heroic it may be
+in many cases to suffer death rather than disturb the tranquillity of
+our country.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir John Hawles.</i><a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor" title=" Page 676.">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly it must be granted, that the doctrine that commands obedience
+to the supreme power, <i>though in things contrary to Nature</i>, even to
+suffer death, which is the highest injustice that can be done a man,
+rather than make an opposition to the supreme power [is reasonable<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor" title=" The words necessary to the completion of the sentence are
+wanting in the printed trial&mdash;but the construction of the sentence, as
+well as the foregoing part of the speech, justify the insertion of some
+such supplemental words as the above.">[16]</a>],
+because the death of one or some few private persons is a less evil than
+<i>disturbing the whole government</i>; that law must needs be understood to
+forbid the doing or saying anything to disturb the government, the
+rather because the obeying that law cannot be pretended to be against
+Nature: and the Doctor's refusing to obey that implicit law is the
+reason for which he is now prosecuted; though he would have it believed
+that the reason he is now prosecuted was for the doctrine he asserted of
+obedience to the supreme power; which he might have preached as long as
+he had pleased, and the Commons would have taken no offence at it, <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" title="127" class="pagenum"></a>if
+he had stopped there, and not have taken upon him, on that pretence or
+occasion, to have cast odious colors upon the Revolution.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>General Stanhope was among the managers. He begins his speech by a
+reference to the opinion of his fellow-managers, which he hoped had put
+beyond all doubt the limits and qualifications that the Commons had
+placed to their doctrines concerning the Revolution; yet, not satisfied
+with this general reference, after condemning the principle of
+non-resistance, which is asserted in the sermon <i>without any exception</i>,
+and stating, that, under the specious pretence of preaching a peaceable
+doctrine, Sacheverell and the Jacobites meant, in reality, to excite a
+rebellion in favor of the Pretender, he explicitly limits his ideas of
+resistance with the boundaries laid down by his colleagues, and by Mr.
+Burke.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>General Stanhope.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Rights of the subject and the crown equally legal.</span>&quot;The Constitution of England is founded upon <i>compact</i>; and the subjects
+of this kingdom have, in their several public and private capacities,
+<i>as</i> legal a title to what are their rights by law <i>as</i> a prince to the
+possession of his crown.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Justice of resistance founded on necessity.</span>&quot;Your Lordships, and most that hear me, are witnesses, and must remember
+the <i>necessities</i> of those times which brought about the Revolution:
+that <i>no other</i> remedy was left to preserve our religion and liberties;
+<i>that resistance was</i> necessary, <i>and consequently just</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had the Doctor, in the remaining part of his sermon, preached up peace,
+quietness, and the like, <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" title="128" class="pagenum"></a>and shown how happy we are under her Majesty's
+administration, and exhorted obedience to it, he had never been called
+to answer a charge at your Lordships' bar. But the tenor of all his
+subsequent discourse is one continued invective against the government.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Mr. Walpole (afterwards Sir Robert) was one of the managers on this
+occasion. He was an honorable man and a sound Whig. He was not, as the
+Jacobites and discontented Whigs of his time have represented him, and
+as ill-informed people still represent him, a prodigal and corrupt
+minister. They charged him, in their libels and seditious conversations,
+as having first reduced corruption to a system. Such was their cant. But
+he was far from governing by corruption. He governed by party
+attachments. The charge of systematic corruption is less applicable to
+him, perhaps, than to any minister who ever served the crown for so
+great a length of time. He gained over very few from the opposition.
+Without being a genius of the first class, he was an intelligent,
+prudent, and safe minister. He loved peace, and he helped to communicate
+the same disposition to nations at least as warlike and restless as that
+in which he had the chief direction of affairs. Though he served a
+master who was fond of martial fame, he kept all the establishments very
+low. The land tax continued at two shillings in the pound for the
+greater part of his administration. The other impositions were moderate.
+The profound repose, the equal liberty, the firm protection of just
+laws, during the long period of his power, were the principal causes of
+that prosperity which afterwards took such rapid strides <a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" title="129" class="pagenum"></a>towards
+perfection, and which furnished to this nation ability to acquire the
+military glory which it has since obtained, as well as to bear the
+burdens, the cause and consequence of that warlike reputation. With many
+virtues, public and private, he had his faults; but his faults were
+superficial. A careless, coarse, and over-familiar style of discourse,
+without sufficient regard to persons or occasions, and an almost total
+want of political decorum, were the errors by which he was most hurt in
+the public opinion, and those through which his enemies obtained the
+greatest advantage over him. But justice must be done. The prudence,
+steadiness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the greatest possible
+lenity in his character and his politics, preserved the crown to this
+royal family, and, with it, their laws and liberties to this country.
+Walpole had no other plan of defence for the Revolution than that of the
+other managers, and of Mr. Burke; and he gives full as little
+countenance to any arbitrary attempts, on the part of restless and
+factious men, for framing new governments according to their fancies.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Walpole</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Case of resistance out of the law, and the highest offence.<br />
+Utmost necessity justifies it.</span>&quot;Resistance is nowhere enacted to be legal, but subjected, by all the
+laws now in being, to the greatest penalties. 'Tis what is not, cannot,
+nor ought ever to be described, or affirmed in any positive law, to be
+excusable; when, and upon what <i>never-to-be-expected</i> occasions, it may
+be exercised, no man can foresee; <i>and ought never to be thought of, but
+when an utter subversion of the laws of the realm threatens the whole
+frame of a Constitution, and no redress can otherwise<a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" title="130" class="pagenum"></a> be hoped for</i>. It
+therefore does and <i>ought forever</i> to stand, in the eye and letter of
+the law, as the <i>highest offence</i>. But because any man, or party of men,
+may not, out of folly or wantonness, commit treason, or make their own
+discontents, ill principles, or disguised affections to another
+interest, a pretence to resist the supreme power, will it follow from
+thence that the <i>utmost necessity</i> ought not to engage a nation <i>in its
+own defence for the preservation of the whole</i>?&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Sir Joseph Jekyl was, as I have always heard and believed, as nearly as
+any individual could be, the very standard of Whig principles in his
+age. He was a learned and an able man; full of honor, integrity, and
+public spirit; no lover of innovation; nor disposed to change his solid
+principles for the giddy fashion of the hour. Let us hear this Whig.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Commons do not state the limits of submission.<br />
+To secure the laws, the only aim of the Revolution.</span>
+&quot;In clearing up and vindicating the justice of the Revolution, which was
+the second thing proposed, it is far from the intent of the Commons to
+state the <i>limits and bounds</i> of the subject's submission to the
+sovereign. That which the law hath been wisely silent in, the Commons
+desire to be silent in too; nor will they put <i>any</i> case of a
+justifiable resistance, but that of the Revolution only: and <i>they
+persuade themselves that the doing right to that resistance will be so
+far from promoting popular license or confusion, that it will have a
+contrary effect, and be a means of settling men's minds in the love of
+and veneration for the laws</i>; to rescue and secure which was the <i>ONLY
+aim and intention of those concerned in that resistance</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' /><p><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" title="131" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Sacheverell's counsel defended him on this principle, namely,&mdash;that,
+whilst he enforced from the pulpit the general doctrine of
+non-resistance, he was not obliged to take notice of the theoretic
+limits which ought to modify that doctrine. Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his
+reply, whilst he controverts its application to the Doctor's defence,
+fully admits and even enforces the principle itself, and supports the
+Revolution of 1688, as he and all the managers had done before, exactly
+upon the same grounds on which Mr. Burke has built, in his Reflections
+on the French Revolution.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Blamable to state the bounds of non-resistance.<br />
+Resistance lawful only in <i>case</i> of extreme and obvious
+necessity.</span>&quot;If the Doctor had pretended to have stated the particular bounds and
+limits of non-resistance, and told the people in what cases they might
+or might not resist, <i>he would have been much to blame</i>; nor was one
+word said in the articles, or by the managers, as if that was expected
+from him; but, <i>on the contrary, we have insisted that in NO case can
+resistance be lawful, but in case of EXTREME NECESSITY, and where the
+Constitution can't otherwise be preserved; and such necessity ought to
+be plain and obvious to the sense and judgment of the whole nation: and
+this was the case at the Revolution</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The counsel for Doctor Sacheverell, in defending their client, were
+driven in reality to abandon the fundamental principles of his doctrine,
+and to confess that an exception to the general doctrine of passive
+obedience and non-resistance did exist in the case of the Revolution.
+This the managers for the<a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" title="132" class="pagenum"></a> Commons considered as having gained their
+cause, as their having obtained <i>the whole</i> of what they contended for.
+They congratulated themselves and the nation on a civil victory as
+glorious and as honorable as any that had obtained in arms during that
+reign of triumphs.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his reply to Harcourt, and the other great men who
+conducted the cause for the Tory side, spoke in the following memorable
+terms, distinctly stating the whole of what the Whig House of Commons
+contended for, in the name of all their constituents.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Necessity creates an exception, and the Revolution a case of
+necessity, the utmost extent of the demand of the Commons.</span>&quot;My Lords, the concessions&quot; (the concessions of Sacheverell's counsel)
+&quot;are these: That <i>necessity</i> creates an <i>exception</i> to the general rule
+of submission to the prince; that such exception is understood or
+implied in the laws that require such submission; and that <i>the case of
+the Revolution was a case of necessity.</i></p>
+
+<p>&quot;These are concessions <i>so ample</i>, and do so <i>fully</i> answer the drift of
+the Commons in this article, and are to <i>the utmost extent of their
+meaning in it</i>, that I can't forbear congratulating them upon this
+success of their impeachment,&mdash;that in full Parliament, this erroneous
+doctrine of <i>unlimited</i> non-resistance is given up and disclaimed. And
+may it not, in after ages, be an addition to the glories of this bright
+reign, that so many of those who are honored with being in her Majesty's
+service have been at your Lordships' bar thus successfully contending
+for the <i>national</i> rights of her people, and proving they are not
+precarious or remediless?<a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" title="133" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;But to return to these concessions: I must appeal to your Lordships,
+whether they are not a <i>total departure</i> from the Doctor's answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I now proceed to show that the Whig managers for the Commons meant to
+preserve the government on a firm foundation, by asserting the perpetual
+validity of the settlement then made, and its coercive power upon
+posterity. I mean to show that they gave no sort of countenance to any
+doctrine tending to impress the <i>people</i> (taken separately from the
+legislature, which includes the crown) with an idea that <i>they</i> had
+acquired a moral or civil competence to alter, without breach of the
+original compact on the part of the king, the succession to the crown,
+at their pleasure,&mdash;much less that they had acquired any right, in the
+case of such an event as caused the Revolution, to set up any new form
+of government. The author of the Reflections, I believe, thought that no
+man of common understanding could oppose to this doctrine the ordinary
+sovereign power as declared in the act of Queen Anne: that is, that the
+kings or queens of the realm, with the consent of Parliament, are
+competent to regulate and to settle the succession of the crown. This
+power is and ever was inherent in the supreme sovereignty, and was not,
+as the political divines vainly talk, acquired by the Revolution. It is
+declared in the old statute of Queen Elizabeth. Such a power must reside
+in the complete sovereignty of every kingdom; and it is in fact
+exercised in all of them. But this right of <i>competence</i> in the
+legislature, not in the people, is by the legislature itself to be
+exercised with <i>sound discretion</i>: that is to say, it is to be exercised
+or not, in conformity to the fun<a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" title="134" class="pagenum"></a>damental principles of this government,
+to the rules of moral obligation, and to the faith of pacts, either
+contained in the nature of the transaction or entered into by the body
+corporate of the kingdom,&mdash;which body in juridical construction never
+dies, and in fact never loses its members at once by death.</p>
+
+<p>Whether this doctrine is reconcilable to the modern philosophy of
+government I believe the author neither knows nor cares, as he has
+little respect for any of that sort of philosophy. This may be because
+his capacity and knowledge do not reach to it. If such be the case, he
+cannot be blamed, if he acts on the sense of that incapacity; he cannot
+be blamed, if, in the most arduous and critical questions which can
+possibly arise, and which affect to the quick the vital parts of our
+Constitution, he takes the side which leans most to safety and
+settlement; that he is resolved not &quot;to be wise beyond what is written&quot;
+in the legislative record and practice; that, when doubts arise on them,
+he endeavors to interpret one statute by another, and to reconcile them
+all to established, recognized morals, and to the general, ancient,
+known policy of the laws of England. Two things are equally evident: the
+first is, that the legislature possesses the power of regulating the
+succession of the crown; the second, that in the exercise of that right
+it has uniformly acted as if under the <i>restraints</i> which the author has
+stated. That author makes what the ancients call <i>mos majorum</i> not
+indeed his sole, but certainly his principal rule of policy, to guide
+his judgment in whatever regards our laws. Uniformity and analogy can be
+preserved in them by this process only. That point being fixed, and
+laying fast hold of a strong bottom, our speculations may swing in all
+<a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" title="135" class="pagenum"></a>directions without public detriment, because they will ride with sure
+anchorage.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner these things have been always considered by our
+ancestors. There are some, indeed, who have the art of turning the very
+acts of Parliament which were made for securing the hereditary
+succession in the present royal family, by rendering it penal to doubt
+of the validity of those acts of Parliament, into an instrument for
+defeating all their ends and purposes,&mdash;but upon grounds so very foolish
+that it is not worth while to take further notice of such sophistry.</p>
+
+<p>To prevent any unnecessary subdivision, I shall here put together what
+may be necessary to show the perfect agreement of the Whigs with Mr.
+Burke in his assertions, that the Revolution made no &quot;essential change
+in the constitution of the monarchy, or in any of its ancient, sound,
+and legal principles; that the succession was settled in the Hanover
+family, upon the idea and in the mode of an hereditary succession
+qualified with Protestantism; that it was not settled upon <i>elective</i>
+principles, in any sense of the word <i>elective</i>, or under any
+modification or description of <i>election</i> whatsoever; but, on the
+contrary, that the nation, after the Revolution, renewed by a fresh
+compact the spirit of the original compact of the state, binding itself,
+<i>both in its existing members and all its posterity</i>, to adhere to the
+settlement of an hereditary succession in the Protestant line, drawn
+from James the First, as the stock of inheritance.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir John Hawles</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Necessity of settling the right of the crown, and submission
+to the settlement.</span>&quot;If he [Dr. Sacheverell] is of the opinion he pretends, I can't imagine
+how it comes <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" title="136" class="pagenum"></a>to pass that he that pays that deference to the supreme
+power has preached so directly contrary to the determinations of the
+supreme power in this government, he very well knowing that the
+lawfulness of the Revolution, and of the means whereby it was brought
+about, has already been determined by the aforesaid acts of
+Parliament,&mdash;and do it in the worst manner that he could invent. <i>For
+questioning the right to the crown here in England has procured the
+shedding of more blood and caused more slaughter than all the other
+matters tending to disturbances in the government put together.</i> If,
+therefore, the doctrine which the Apostles had laid down was only to
+continue the peace of the world, as thinking the death of some few
+particular persons better to be borne with than a civil war, sure it is
+the highest breach of that law to question the first principles of this
+government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the Doctor had been contented with the liberty he took of preaching
+up the duty of passive obedience in the most extensive manner he had
+thought fit, and would have stopped there, your Lordships would not have
+had the trouble in relation to him that you now have; but it is plain
+that he preached up his absolute and unconditional obedience, not <i>to
+continue the peace and tranquillity of this nation, but to set the
+subjects at strife, and to raise a war in the bowels of this nation</i>:
+and it is for <i>this</i> that he is now prosecuted; though he would fain
+have it believed that the prosecution was for preaching the peaceable
+doctrine of absolute obedience.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Whole frame of government restored unhurt, on the
+Revolution.</span>&quot;The whole tenor of the administration then in being was agreed to by
+all to be a <i>total <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" title="137" class="pagenum"></a>departure from the Constitution</i>. The nation was at
+that time united in that opinion, all but the criminal part of it. And
+as the nation joined in the judgment of their disease, so they did in
+the remedy. <i>They saw there was no remedy left but the last;</i> and when
+that remedy took place, <i>the whole frame of the government was restored
+entire and unhurt</i>.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor" title=" &quot;What we did was, in truth and substance, and in a
+constitutional light, a revolution, not made, but prevented. We took
+solid securities; we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies
+in our law. In the stable, fundamental parts of our Constitution we made
+no revolution,&mdash;no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the
+monarchy. Perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very
+considerably. The nation kept the same ranks, the same orders, the same
+privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property, the same
+subordinations, the same order in the law, in the revenue, and in the
+magistracy,&mdash;the same lords, the same commons, the same corporations,
+the same electors.&quot;&mdash;_Mr. Burke's Speech in the House of Commons, 9th
+February, 1790._&mdash;It appears how exactly he coincides in everything with
+Sir Joseph Jekyl.">[17]</a> This showed the excellent temper the nation was
+in at that time, that, after such provocations from an abuse of the
+regal power, and such a convulsion, <i>no one part of the Constitution was
+altered, or suffered the least damage; but, on the contrary, the whole
+received new life and vigor</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The Tory counsel for Dr. Sacheverell having insinuated that a great and
+essential alteration in the Constitution had been wrought by the
+Revolution, Sir Joseph Jekyl is so strong on this point, that he takes
+fire even at the insinuation of his being of such an opinion.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">No innovation at the Revolution.</span>&quot;If the Doctor instructed his counsel to insinuate that there was <i>any
+innovation in the Constitution wrought by the Revolution, it is an
+addition to his crime. The Revolution did not introduce any innovation;
+it was a restoration of the ancient fun<a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" title="138" class="pagenum"></a>damental Constitution of the
+kingdom</i>, and giving it its proper force and energy.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre, distinguishes expressly the case
+of the Revolution, and its principles, from a proceeding at pleasure, on
+the part of the people, to change their ancient Constitution, and to
+frame a new government for themselves. He distinguishes it with the same
+care from the principles of regicide and republicanism, and the sorts of
+resistance condemned by the doctrines of the Church of England, and
+which ought to be condemned by the doctrines of all churches professing
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Eyre.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Revolution no precedent for voluntary cancelling allegiance.<br />
+Revolution not like the case of Charles the First.</span>&quot;The resistance at the Revolution, which was founded in <i>unavoidable
+necessity</i>, could be no defence to a man that was attacked <i>for
+asserting that the people might cancel their allegiance at pleasure, or
+dethrone and murder their sovereign by a judiciary sentence</i>. For it can
+never be inferred, from the lawfulness of resistance at a time when <i>a
+total subversion of the government both in Church and State was
+intended</i>, that a people may take up arms and <i>call their sovereign to
+account at pleasure</i>; and therefore, since <i>the Revolution could be of
+no service in giving the least color for asserting any such wicked
+principle</i>, the Doctor could never in<a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" title="139" class="pagenum"></a>tend to put it into the mouths of
+those new preachers and new politicians for a defence,&mdash;unless it be his
+opinion that the resistance at the Revolution can bear any parallel with
+<i>the execrable murder of the royal martyr, so justly detested by the
+whole nation</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Sacheverell's doctrine intended to bring an odium on the
+Revolution.<br />
+True defence of the Revolution an absolute necessity.</span>&quot;'Tis plain that the Doctor is not impeached for preaching a general
+doctrine, and enforcing the general duty of obedience, but for preaching
+against an <i>excepted case after he has stated the exception</i>. He is not
+impeached for preaching the general doctrine of obedience, and the utter
+illegality of resistance upon any pretence whatsoever, but because,
+having first laid down the general doctrine as true, without any
+exception, <i>he states the excepted case</i>, the Revolution, in express
+terms, as an objection, and then assumes the consideration of that
+excepted case, denies there was any resistance in the Revolution, and
+asserts that to impute resistance to the Revolution would cast black and
+odious colors upon it. This, my Lords, is not preaching the doctrine of
+non-resistance in the <i>general</i> terms used by the Homilies and the
+fathers of the Church, where cases of necessity may be <i>understood to be
+excepted by a tacit implication, as the counsel have allowed</i>,&mdash;but is
+preaching directly against the resistance at the Revolution, which, in
+the course of this debate, has been all along admitted to <i>be necessary
+and just</i>, and can have no other meaning than to bring a dishonor upon
+the Revolution, and an odium upon those great and illustrious persons,
+<i>those friends to the monarchy and the Church, that assisted in bringing
+it about</i>. For had the Doctor intended anything else, he would have
+treated the case of the Revolution in a <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" title="140" class="pagenum"></a>different manner, and have
+given <i>it the true and fair answer</i>: he would have said that the
+resistance at the Revolution was <i>of absolute necessity, and the only
+means left to revive the Constitution, and must be therefore taken as an
+excepted case</i>, and could never come within the reach or intention of
+the general doctrine of the Church.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your Lordships take notice on what grounds the Doctor continues to
+assert the same position in his answer. But is it not most evident that
+the general exhortations to be met with in the Homilies of the Church of
+England, and such like declarations in the statutes of the kingdom, are
+meant only as rules for the civil obedience of the subject to the legal
+administration of the supreme power in <i>ordinary cases</i>? And it is
+equally absurd to construe any words in a positive law to authorize the
+destruction of the whole, as to expect that King, Lords, and Commons
+should, in express terms of law, declare <i>such an ultimate resort as the
+right of resistance, at a time when the case supposes that the force of
+all law is ceased</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor" title=" See Reflections, pp. 42, 43.&mdash;Works, Vol. III. p. 270,
+present edition.">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Commons abhor whatever shakes the submission of posterity to
+the settlement of the crown.</span>&quot;The Commons must always resent, with the utmost detestation and
+abhorrence, every position that may shake the authority of that act of
+Parliament whereby the crown is settled upon her Majesty, <i>and whereby
+the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do, in the name of all the
+people of England, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their
+heirs and posterities, to her Majesty</i>, which this general principle of
+absolute non-resistance must certainly shake.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For, if the resistance at the Revolution was ille<a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" title="141" class="pagenum"></a>gal, the Revolution
+settled in usurpation, and this act can have no greater force and
+authority than an act passed under a usurper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the Commons take leave to observe, that the authority of this
+Parliamentary settlement is a matter of the greatest consequence to
+maintain, in a case where the hereditary right to the crown is
+contested.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It appears by the several instances mentioned in the act declaring the
+rights and liberties of the subject and settling the succession of the
+crown, that at the time of the Revolution there was <i>a total subversion
+of the constitution of government both in Church and State, which is a
+case that the laws of England could never suppose, provide for, or have
+in view.</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Sir Joseph Jekyl, so often quoted, considered the preservation of the
+monarchy, and of the rights and prerogatives of the crown, as essential
+objects with all sound Whigs, and that they were bound not only to
+maintain them, when injured or invaded, but to exert themselves as much
+for their re&euml;stablishment, if they should happen to be overthrown by
+popular fury, as any of their own more immediate and popular rights and
+privileges, if the latter should be at any time subverted by the crown.
+For this reason he puts the cases of the <i>Revolution</i>, and the
+<i>Restoration</i> exactly upon the same footing. He plainly marks, that it
+was the object of all honest men not to sacrifice one part of the
+Constitution to another, and much more, not to sacrifice any of them to
+visionary theories of the rights of man, but to preserve our whole
+inheritance in the Constitution, in all its members and all its
+relations, entire and unimpaired, from generation to generation. In this
+Mr. Burke exactly agrees with him.<a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" title="142" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">What are the rights of the people.<br />
+Restoration and Revolution.<br />
+People have an equal interest in the legal rights of the
+crown and of their own.</span>&quot;Nothing is plainer than that the people have a right to the laws and
+the Constitution. This right the nation hath asserted, and recovered out
+of the hands of those who had dispossessed them of it at several times.
+There are of this <i>two famous instances</i> in the knowledge of the present
+age: I mean that of the <i>Restoration</i>, and that of the <i>Revolution</i>: in
+both these great events were the <i>regal power</i> and the <i>rights of the
+people</i> recovered. And it is <i>hard to say in which the people have the
+greatest interest; for the Commons are sensible that there it not one
+legal power belonging to the crown, but they have an interest in it; and
+I doubt not but they will always be as careful to support the rights of
+the crown as their own privileges</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The other Whig managers regarded (as he did) the overturning of the
+monarchy by a republican faction with the very same horror and
+detestation with which they regarded the destruction of the privileges
+of the people by an arbitrary monarch.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Mr. Lechmere</i>,</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Constitution recovered at the Restoration and Revolution.</span>Speaking of our Constitution, states it as &quot;a Constitution which happily
+recovered itself, at the Restoration, from the confusions and disorders
+which <i>the horrid and detestable proceedings of faction and usurpation
+had thrown it into</i>, and which after many convulsions and struggles was
+providentially saved at the late happy Revolution, and by the many good
+laws passed since that time stands now upon a firmer foundation,
+together with <a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" title="143" class="pagenum"></a>the most comfortable prospect of <i>security to all
+posterity</i> by the settlement of the crown in the Protestant line.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I mean now to show that the Whigs (if Sir Joseph Jekyl was one, and if
+he spoke in conformity to the sense of the Whig House of Commons, and
+the Whig ministry who employed him) did carefully guard against any
+presumption that might arise from the repeal of the non-resistance oath
+of Charles the Second, as if at the Revolution the ancient principles of
+our government were at all changed, or that republican doctrines were
+countenanced, or any sanction given to seditious proceedings upon
+general undefined ideas of misconduct, or for changing the form of
+government, or for resistance upon any other ground than the <i>necessity</i>
+so often mentioned for the purpose of self-preservation. It will show
+still more clearly the equal care of the then Whigs to prevent either
+the regal power from being swallowed up on pretence of popular rights,
+or the popular rights from being destroyed on pretence of regal
+prerogatives.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir Joseph Jekyl</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Mischief of broaching antimonarchical principles.<br />
+Two cases of resistance: one to preserve the crown, the other
+the rights of the subject.</span>&quot;Further, I desire it may be considered, these legislators&quot; (the
+legislators who framed the non-resistance oath of Charles the Second)
+&quot;were guarding against the consequences of those <i>pernicious and
+antimonarchical principles which had been broached a little before in
+this nation</i>, and those large declarations in favor of <i>non-resistance</i>
+were made to encounter or obviate the <i>mischief</i> of those
+principles,&mdash;as appears by the preamble to the fullest of those acts,
+which is the <i>Militia Act</i>, in the<a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" title="144" class="pagenum"></a> 13th and 14th of King Charles the
+Second. The words of that act are these: <i>And during the late usurped
+governments, many evil and rebellious principles have been instilled
+into the minds of the people of this kingdom, which may break forth,
+unless prevented, to the disturbance of the peace and quiet thereof: Be
+it therefore enacted</i>, &amp;c. Here your Lordships may see the reason that
+inclined those legislators to express themselves in such a manner
+against resistance. <i>They had seen the regal rights swallowed up under
+the pretence of popular ones</i>: and it is no imputation on them, that
+they did not then foresee a <i>quite different case</i>, as was that of the
+Revolution, where, under the pretence of regal authority, a total
+subversion of the rights of the subject was advanced, and in a manner
+effected. And this may serve to show that it was not the design of those
+legislators to condemn resistance, in a case <i>of absolute necessity, for
+preserving the Constitution</i>, when they were guarding against principles
+which had so lately destroyed it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Non-resistance oath not repealed because (with the
+restriction of necessity) it was false, but to prevent false
+interpretations.</span>&quot;As to the truth of the doctrine in this declaration which was repealed,
+<i>I'll admit it to be as true as the Doctor's counsel assert it,&mdash;that
+is, with an exception of cases of necessity</i>: and it was not repealed
+because it was false, <i>understanding it with that restriction</i>; but it
+was repealed because it might be interpreted in <i>an unconfined sense,
+and exclusive of that restriction</i>, and, being so understood, would
+reflect on the justice of the Revolution: and this the legislature had
+at heart, and were very jealous of, and by this repeal of that
+declaration gave a Parliamentary or legislative ad<a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" title="145" class="pagenum"></a>monition against
+asserting this doctrine of non-resistance <i>in an unlimited sense</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">General doctrine of non-resistance godly and wholesome; not
+bound to state <i>explicitly</i> the exceptions.</span>&quot;Though the general doctrine of non-resistance, the doctrine of the
+Church of England, as stated in her Homilies, or elsewhere delivered, by
+which the general duty of subjects to the higher powers is taught, be
+owned to be, as unquestionably it is, <i>a godly and wholesome
+doctrine</i>,&mdash;though this general doctrine has been constantly inculcated
+by the reverend fathers of the Church, dead and living, and preached by
+them as a preservative against the Popish doctrine of deposing princes,
+and as the ordinary rule of obedience,&mdash;and though the same doctrine has
+been preached, maintained, and avowed by our most orthodox and able
+divines from the time of the Reformation,&mdash;and how <i>innocent a man</i>
+soever Dr. Sacheverell had been, if, <i>with an honest and well-meant</i>
+zeal, he had preached the same doctrine in the same general terms in
+which he found it delivered by the Apostles of Christ, as taught by the
+Homilies and the reverend fathers of our Church, and, in imitation of
+those great examples, had only pressed the general duty of obedience,
+and the illegality of resistance, without taking notice of any
+exception,&quot; &amp;c.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Another of the managers for the House of Commons, Sir John Holland, was
+not less careful in guarding against a confusion of the principles of
+the Revolution with any loose, general doctrines of a right in the
+individual, or even in the people, to undertake for themselves, on any
+prevalent, temporary opinions of convenience or improvement, any
+fundamental change in the Constitution, or to fabricate a <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" title="146" class="pagenum"></a>new
+government for themselves, and thereby to disturb the public peace, and
+to unsettle the ancient Constitution of this kingdom.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Sir John Holland</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Submission to the sovereign a conscientious duty, except in
+cases of necessity.</span>&quot;The Commons would not be understood as if they were pleading for a
+licentious resistance, as if <i>subjects</i> were left to <i>their</i> good-will
+and pleasure when they are to <i>obey</i> and when to <i>resist</i>. No, my Lords,
+they know they are <i>obliged by all the ties of social creatures and
+Christians, for wrath and conscience' sake, to submit to their
+sovereign</i>. The Commons do not abet <i>humorsome, factious arms</i>: they
+aver them to be <i>rebellions</i>. But yet they maintain that that resistance
+at the Revolution, which was so <i>necessary, was lawful and just from
+that necessity</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Right of resistance how to be understood.</span>&quot;These general rules of obedience may, upon a <i>real necessity,</i> admit a
+lawful <i>exception</i>; and such a <i>necessary exception</i> we assert the
+Revolution to be.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis with this view of <i>necessity</i>, only <i>absolute necessity</i> of
+preserving our laws, liberties, and religion,&mdash;'tis with <i>this
+limitation</i>, that we desire to be understood, when any of us speak of
+resistance in general. The <i>necessity</i> of the resistance at the
+Revolution was at that time obvious to every man.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I shall conclude these extracts with a reference to the Prince of
+Orange's Declaration, in which he gives the nation the fullest assurance
+that in his enterprise he was far from the intention of introducing any
+change whatever in the fundamental law and Constitution of the state. He
+considered the object <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" title="147" class="pagenum"></a>of his enterprise not to be a precedent for
+further revolutions, but that it was the great end of his expedition to
+make such revolutions, so far as human power and wisdom could provide,
+unnecessary.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Extracts from the Prince of Orange's Declaration</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>All magistrates, who have been</i> unjustly turned out, shall <i>forthwith
+resume their former</i> employments; as well as all the boroughs of England
+shall return again to <i>their ancient prescriptions and charters</i>, and,
+more particularly, that <i>the ancient</i> charter of the great and famous
+city of London shall again be in force; and that the writs for the
+members of Parliament shall be addressed to the <i>proper officers,
+according to law and custom</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And for the doing of all other things which the two Houses of
+Parliament shall find necessary for the peace, honor, and safety of the
+nation, so that there may <i>be no more danger of the nation's falling, at
+any time hereafter, under arbitrary government</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Extract from the Prince of Oranges Additional Declaration</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Principal nobility and gentry well affected to the Church and
+crown, security against the design of innovation.</span>&quot;We are confident that no persons can have <i>such hard thoughts of us</i> as
+to imagine that we have any other design in this undertaking than to
+procure a settlement of the <i>religion and of the liberties and
+properties of the subjects upon so sure a foundation that there may be
+no danger of the nation's relapsing into the like miseries at any time
+hereafter</i>. And as the forces that we have brought along with us are
+utterly disproportioned to that wicked design of conquering the nation,
+if we were capable of intending it, <i>so the great numbers of the
+principal nobility and <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" title="148" class="pagenum"></a>gentry, that are men of eminent quality and
+estates, and persons of known integrity and zeal, both for the religion
+and government of England, many of them, also being distinguished by
+their constant fidelity to the crown</i>, who do both accompany us in this
+expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it, will cover us from all
+such malicious insinuations.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the spirit, and, upon one occasion, in the words,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor" title=" Declaration of Right.">[19]</a> of this
+Declaration, the statutes passed in that reign made such provisions for
+preventing these dangers, that scarcely anything short of combination of
+King, Lords, and Commons, for the destruction of the liberties of the
+nation, can in any probability make us liable to similar perils. In that
+dreadful, and, I hope, not to be looked-for case, any opinion of a right
+to make revolutions, grounded on this precedent, would be but a poor
+resource. Dreadful, indeed, would be our situation!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>These are the doctrines held by <i>the Whigs of the Revolution</i>, delivered
+with as much solemnity, and as authentically at least, as any political
+dogmas were ever promulgated from the beginning of the world. If there
+be any difference between their tenets and those of Mr. Burke, it is,
+that the old Whigs oppose themselves still more strongly than he does
+against the doctrines which are now propagated with so much industry by
+those who would be thought their successors.</p>
+
+<p>It will be said, perhaps, that the old Whigs, in order to guard
+themselves against popular odium, <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" title="149" class="pagenum"></a>pretended to assert tenets contrary
+to those which they secretly held. This, if true, would prove, what Mr.
+Burke has uniformly asserted, that the extravagant doctrines which he
+meant to expose were disagreeable to the body of the people,&mdash;who,
+though they perfectly abhor a despotic government, certainly approached
+more nearly to the love of mitigated monarchy than to anything which
+bears the appearance even of the best republic. But if these old Whigs
+deceived the people, their conduct was unaccountable indeed. They
+exposed their power, as every one conversant in history knows, to the
+greatest peril, for the propagation of opinions which, on this
+hypothesis, they did not hold. It is a new kind of martyrdom. This
+supposition does as little credit to their integrity as their wisdom: it
+makes them at once hypocrites and fools. I think of those great men very
+differently. I hold them to have been, what the world thought them, men
+of deep understanding, open sincerity, and clear honor. However, be that
+matter as it may, what these old Whigs pretended to be Mr. Burke is.
+This is enough for him.</p>
+
+<p>I do, indeed, admit, that, though Mr. Burke has proved that his opinions
+were those of the old Whig party, solemnly declared by one House, in
+effect and substance by both Houses of Parliament, this testimony
+standing by itself will form no proper defence for his opinions, if he
+and the old Whigs were both of them in the wrong. But it is his present
+concern, not to vindicate these old Whigs, but to show his agreement
+with them. He appeals to them as judges: he does not vindicate them as
+culprits. It is current that these old politicians knew little of the
+rights of men,&mdash;that they lost their way by groping about in <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" title="150" class="pagenum"></a>the dark,
+and fumbling among rotten parchments and musty records. Great lights,
+they say, are lately obtained in the world; and Mr. Burke, instead of
+shrouding himself in exploded ignorance, ought to have taken advantage
+of the blaze of illumination which has been spread about him. It may be
+so. The enthusiasts of this time, it seems, like their predecessors in
+another faction of fanaticism, deal in lights. Hudibras pleasantly says
+of them, they</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;Have <i>lights</i>, where better eyes are blind,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>As pigs are said to see the wind.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The author of the Reflections has <i>heard</i> a great deal concerning the
+modern lights, but he has not yet had the good fortune to <i>see</i> much of
+them. He has read more than he can justify to anything but the spirit of
+curiosity, of the works of these illuminators of the world. He has
+learned nothing from the far greater number of them than a full
+certainty of their shallowness, levity, pride, petulance, presumption,
+and ignorance. Where the old authors whom he has read, and the old men
+whom he has conversed with, have left him in the dark, he is in the dark
+still. If others, however, have obtained any of this extraordinary
+light, they will use it to guide them in their researches and their
+conduct. I have only to wish that the nation may be as happy and as
+prosperous under the influence of the new light as it has been in the
+sober shade of the old obscurity. As to the rest, it will be difficult
+for the author of the Reflections to conform to the principles of the
+avowed leaders of the party, until they appear otherwise than
+negatively. All we can gather from them is this,&mdash;that their principles
+are diametrically opposite to his. This is all that we know from
+authority. Their neg<a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" title="151" class="pagenum"></a>ative declaration obliges me to have recourse to
+the books which contain positive doctrines. They are, indeed, to those
+Mr. Burke holds diametrically opposite; and if it be true (as the
+oracles of the party have said, I hope hastily) that their opinions
+differ so widely, it should seem they are the most likely to form the
+creed of the modern Whigs.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I have stated what were the avowed sentiments of the old Whigs, not in
+the way of argument, but narratively. It is but fair to set before the
+reader, in the same simple manner, the sentiments of the modern, to
+which they spare neither pains nor expense to make proselytes. I choose
+them from the books upon which most of that industry and expenditure in
+circulation have been employed; I choose them, not from those who speak
+with a politic obscurity, not from those who only controvert the
+opinions of the old Whigs, without advancing any of their own, but from
+those who speak plainly and affirmatively. The Whig reader may make his
+choice between the two doctrines.</p>
+
+<p>The doctrine, then, propagated by these societies, which gentlemen think
+they ought to be very tender in discouraging, as nearly as possible in
+their own words, is as follows: That in Great Britain we are not only
+without a good Constitution, but that we have &quot;no Constitution&quot;;&mdash;that,
+&quot;though it is much talked about, no such thing as a Constitution exists
+or ever did exist, and consequently that <i>the people have a Constitution
+yet to form</i>;&mdash;that since William the Conqueror the country has never
+yet <i>regenerated itself</i>, and is therefore without a Constitution;&mdash;that
+where it cannot be produced in a visible form there <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" title="152" class="pagenum"></a>is none;&mdash;that a
+Constitution is a thing antecedent to government; and that the
+Constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of a
+people constituting a government;&mdash;that <i>everything</i> in the English
+government is the reverse of what it ought to be, and what it is said to
+be in England;&mdash;that the right of war and peace resides in a metaphor
+shown at the Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece;&mdash;that it signifies
+not where the right resides, whether in the crown or in Parliament; war
+is the common harvest of those who participate in the division and
+expenditure of public money;&mdash;that the portion of liberty enjoyed in
+England is just enough to enslave a country more productively than by
+despotism.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So far as to the general state of the British Constitution.&mdash;As to our
+House of Lords, the chief virtual representative of our aristocracy, the
+great ground and pillar of security to the landed interest, and that
+main link by which it is connected with the law and the crown, these
+worthy societies are pleased to tell us, that, &quot;whether we view
+aristocracy before, or behind, or sideways, or any way else,
+domestically or publicly, it is still a <i>monster</i>;&mdash;that aristocracy in
+France had one feature less in its countenance than what it has in some
+other countries: it did not compose a body of hereditary legislators; it
+was not <i>a corporation of aristocracy</i>&quot; (for such, it seems, that
+profound legislator, M. de La Fayette, describes the House of
+Peers);&mdash;&quot;that it is kept up by family tyranny and injustice;&mdash;that
+there is an unnatural unfitness in aristocracy to be legislators for a
+nation;&mdash;that their ideas of distributive justice are corrupted at the
+very source; they begin life by trampling on all their younger brothers
+and sisters, and relations <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" title="153" class="pagenum"></a>of every kind, and are taught and educated
+so to do;&mdash;that the idea of an hereditary legislator is as absurd as an
+hereditary mathematician;&mdash;that a body holding themselves unaccountable
+to anybody ought to be trusted by nobody;&mdash;that it is continuing the
+uncivilized principles of governments founded in conquest, and the base
+idea of man having a property in man, and governing him by a personal
+right;&mdash;that aristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the human
+species,&quot; &amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>As to our law of primogeniture, which with few and inconsiderable
+exceptions is the standing law of all our landed inheritance, and which
+without question has a tendency, and I think a most happy tendency, to
+preserve a character of consequence, weight, and prevalent influence
+over others in the whole body of the landed interest, they call loudly
+for its destruction. They do this for political reasons that are very
+manifest. They have the confidence to say, &quot;that it is a law against
+every law of Nature, and Nature herself calls for its destruction.
+Establish family justice, and aristocracy falls. By the aristocratical
+law of primogenitureship, in a family of six children, five are exposed.
+Aristocracy has never but <i>one</i> child. The rest are begotten to be
+devoured. They are thrown to the cannibal for prey, and the natural
+parent prepares the unnatural repast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As to the House of Commons, they treat it far worse than the House of
+Lords or the crown have been ever treated. Perhaps they thought they had
+a greater right to take this amicable freedom with those of their own
+family. For many years it has been the perpetual theme of their
+invectives. &quot;Mockery, insult, usurpation,&quot; are amongst the best names
+<a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" title="154" class="pagenum"></a>they bestow upon it. They damn it in the mass, by declaring &quot;that it
+does not arise out of the inherent rights of the people, as the National
+Assembly does in France, and whose name designates its original.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Of the charters and corporations, to whose rights a few years ago these
+gentlemen were so tremblingly alive, they say, &quot;that, when the people of
+England come to reflect upon them, they will, like France, annihilate
+those badges of oppression, those traces of a conquered nation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As to our monarchy, they had formerly been more tender of that branch of
+the Constitution, and for a good reason. The laws had guarded against
+all seditious attacks upon it with a greater degree of strictness and
+severity. The tone of these gentlemen is totally altered since the
+French Revolution. They now declaim as vehemently against the monarchy
+as on former occasions they treacherously flattered and soothed it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When we survey the wretched condition of man under the monarchical and
+hereditary systems of government, dragged from his home by one power, or
+driven by another, and impoverished by taxes more than by enemies, it
+becomes evident that those systems are bad, and that a general
+revolution in the principle and construction of governments is
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is government more than the management of the affairs of a nation?
+It is not, and from its nature cannot be, the property of any particular
+man or family, but of the whole community, at whose expense it is
+supported; and though by force or contrivance it has been usurped into
+an inheritance, the usurpa<a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" title="155" class="pagenum"></a>tion cannot alter the right of things.
+Sovereignty, as a matter of right, appertains to the nation only, and
+not to any individual; and a nation has at all times an inherent
+indefeasible right to abolish any form of government it finds
+inconvenient, and establish such as accords with its interest,
+disposition, and happiness. The romantic and barbarous distinction of
+men into kings and subjects, though it may suit the condition of
+courtiers, cannot that of citizens, and is exploded by the principle
+upon which governments are now founded. Every citizen is a member of the
+sovereignty, and, as such, can acknowledge no personal subjection, and
+his obedience can be only to the laws.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Warmly recommending to us the example of Prance, where they have
+destroyed monarchy, they say,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Monarchical sovereignty, the enemy of mankind, and the source of
+misery, is abolished; and sovereignty itself is restored to its natural
+and original place, the nation. Were this the case throughout Europe,
+the cause of wars would be taken away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, after all, what is this metaphor called a crown? or rather, what
+is monarchy? Is it a thing, or is it a name, or is it a fraud? Is it 'a
+contrivance of human wisdom,' or of human craft, to obtain money from a
+nation under specious pretences? Is it a thing necessary to a nation? If
+it is, in what does that necessity consist, what services does it
+perform, what is its business, and what are its merits? Doth the virtue
+consist in the metaphor or in the man? Doth the goldsmith that makes the
+crown make the virtue also? Doth it operate like Fortunatus's
+wishing-cap or Harlequin's wooden sword? Doth <a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" title="156" class="pagenum"></a>it make a man a conjurer?
+In fine, what is it? It appears to be a something going much out of
+fashion, falling into ridicule, and rejected in some countries both as
+unnecessary and expensive. In America it is considered as an absurdity;
+and in France it has so far declined, that the goodness of the man and
+the respect for his personal character are the only things that preserve
+the appearance of its existence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Burke talks about what he calls an hereditary crown, as if it were
+some production of Nature,&mdash;or as if, like time, it had a power to
+operate, not only independently, but in spite of man,&mdash;or as if it were
+a thing or a subject universally consented to. Alas! it has none of
+those properties, but is the reverse of them all. It is a thing in
+imagination, the propriety of which is more than doubted, and the
+legality of which in a few years will be denied.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I ask the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and
+down through all the occupations of life to the common laborer, what
+service monarchy is to him, he can give me no answer. If I ask him what
+monarchy is, he believes it is something like a sinecure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The French Constitution says, that the right of war and peace is in the
+nation. Where else should it reside, but in those who are to pay the
+expense?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In England, this right is said to reside in a <i>metaphor</i>, shown at the
+Tower for sixpence or a shilling apiece: so are the lions; and it would
+be a step nearer to reason to say it resided in them, for any inanimate
+metaphor is no more than a hat or a cap. We can all see the absurdity of
+worshipping Aaron's molten calf, or Nebuchadnezzar's golden image; but
+why do men continue to practise themselves the absurdities they despise
+in others?&quot;<a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" title="157" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The Revolution and Hanover succession had been objects of the highest
+veneration to the old Whigs. They thought them not only proofs of the
+sober and steady spirit of liberty which guided their ancestors, but of
+their wisdom and provident care of posterity. The modern Whigs have
+quite other notions of these events and actions. They do not deny that
+Mr. Burke has given truly the words of the acts of Parliament which
+secured the succession, and the just sense of them. They attack not him,
+but the law.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr Burke&quot; (say they) &quot;has done some service, not to his cause, but to
+his country, by bringing those clauses into public view. They serve to
+demonstrate how necessary it is at all times to watch against the
+attempted encroachment of power, and to prevent its running to excess.
+It is somewhat extraordinary, that the offence for which James the
+Second was expelled, that of setting up power by <i>assumption</i>, should be
+re-acted, under another shape and form, by the Parliament that expelled
+him. It shows that the rights of man were but imperfectly understood at
+the Revolution; for certain it is, that the right which that Parliament
+set up by <i>assumption</i> (for by delegation it had it not, and could not
+have it, because none could give it) over the persons and freedom of
+posterity forever, was of the same tyrannical unfounded kind which James
+attempted to set up over the Parliament and the nation, and for which he
+was expelled. The only difference is, (for in principle they differ
+not,) that the one was an usurper over the living, and the other over
+the unborn; and as the one has no better authority to stand upon than
+the other, both of them must be equally null and void, and of no
+effect.&quot;<a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" title="158" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;As the estimation of all things is by comparison, the Revolution of
+1688, however from circumstances it may have been exalted beyond its
+value, will find its level. It is already on the wane, eclipsed by the
+enlarging orb of reason and the luminous Revolutions of America and
+France. In less than another century, it will go, as well as Mr. Burke's
+labors, 'to the family vault of all the Capulets.' <i>Mankind will then
+scarcely believe that a country calling itself free would send to
+Holland for a man and clothe him with power on purpose to put themselves
+in fear of him, and give him almost a million sterling a year for leave
+to submit themselves and their posterity like bondmen and bondwomen
+forever</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burke having said that &quot;the king holds his crown in contempt of the
+choice of the Revolution Society, who individually or collectively have
+not&quot; (as most certainly they have not) &quot;a vote for a king amongst them,&quot;
+they take occasion from thence to infer that the king who does not hold
+his crown by election despises the people.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'The king of England,' says he, 'holds <i>his</i> crown' (for it does not
+belong to the nation, according to Mr. Burke) 'in <i>contempt</i> of the
+choice of the Revolution Society,'&quot; &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As to who is king in England or elsewhere, or whether there is any king
+at all, or whether the people choose a Cherokee chief or a Hessian
+hussar for a king, it is not a matter that I trouble myself about,&mdash;be
+that to themselves; but with respect to the doctrine, so far as it
+relates to the rights of men and nations, it is as abominable as
+anything ever uttered in the most enslaved country under heaven. Whether
+it sounds worse to my ear, by not being accus<a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" title="159" class="pagenum"></a>tomed to hear such
+despotism, than what it does to the ear of another person, I am not so
+well a judge of; but of its abominable principle I am at no loss to
+judge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These societies of modern Whigs push their insolence as far as it can
+go. In order to prepare the minds of the people for treason and
+rebellion, they represent the king as tainted with principles of
+despotism, from the circumstance of his having dominions in Germany. In
+direct defiance of the most notorious truth, they describe his
+government there to be a despotism; whereas it is a free Constitution,
+in which the states of the Electorate have their part in the government:
+and this privilege has never been infringed by the king, or, that I have
+heard of, by any of his predecessors. The Constitution of the Electoral
+dominions has, indeed, a double control, both from the laws of the
+Empire and from the privileges of the country. Whatever rights the king
+enjoys as Elector have been always parentally exercised, and the
+calumnies of these scandalous societies have not been authorized by a
+single complaint of oppression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When Mr. Burke says that 'his Majesty's heirs and successors, each in
+their time and order, will come to the crown with the <i>same contempt</i> of
+their choice with which his Majesty has succeeded to that he wears,' it
+is saying too much even to the humblest individual in the country, part
+of whose daily labor goes towards making up the million sterling a year
+which the country gives the person it styles a king. Government with
+insolence is despotism; but when contempt is added, it becomes worse;
+and to pay for contempt is the excess of slavery. This species of
+<a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" title="160" class="pagenum"></a>government comes from Germany, and reminds me of what one of the
+Brunswick soldiers told me, who was taken prisoner by the Americans in
+the late war. 'Ah!' said he, 'America is a fine free country: it is
+worth the people's fighting for. I know the difference by knowing my
+own: in my country, <i>if the prince says, &quot;Eat straw&quot; we eat straw</i>.' God
+help that country, thought I, be it England, or elsewhere, whose
+liberties are to be protected by <i>German principles of government and
+princes of Brunswick</i>!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is somewhat curious to observe, that, although the people of England
+have been in the habit of talking about kings, it is always a foreign
+house of kings,&mdash;hating foreigners, yet governed by them. It is now the
+House of Brunswick, one of the petty tribes of Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If government be what Mr. Burke describes it, 'a contrivance of human
+wisdom,' I might ask him if wisdom was at such a low ebb in England that
+it was become necessary to import it from Holland and from Hanover? But
+I will do the country the justice to say, that was not the case; and
+even if it was, it mistook the cargo. The wisdom of every country, when
+properly exerted, is sufficient for all its purposes; <i>and there could
+exist no more real occasion in England to have sent for a Dutch
+Stadtholder or a German Elector</i> than there was in America to have done
+a similar thing. If a country does not understand its own affairs, how
+is a foreigner to understand them, who knows neither its laws, its
+manners, nor its language? If there existed a man so transcendently wise
+above all others that his wisdom was necessary to instruct a nation,
+some reason might be offered for monarchy; but when we cast our eyes
+about a coun<a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" title="161" class="pagenum"></a>try, and observe how every part understands its own
+affairs, and when we look around the world, and see, that, of all men in
+it, the race of kings are the most insignificant in capacity, our reason
+cannot fail to ask us, What are those men kept for?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor" title=" Vindication of the Rights of Man, recommended by the
+several societies.">[20]</a></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>These are the notions which, under the idea of Whig principles, several
+persons, and among them persons of no mean mark, have associated
+themselves to propagate. I will not attempt in the smallest degree to
+refute them. This will probably be done (if such writings shall be
+thought to deserve any other than the refutation of criminal justice) by
+others, who may think with Mr. Burke. He has performed his part.</p>
+
+<p>I do not wish to enter very much at large into the discussions which
+diverge and ramify in all ways from this productive subject. But there
+is one topic upon which I hope I shall be excused in going a little
+beyond my design. The factions now so busy amongst us, in order to
+divest men of all love for their country, and to remove from their minds
+all duty with regard to the state, endeavor to propagate an opinion,
+that the <i>people</i>, in forming their commonwealth, have by no means
+parted with their power over it. This is an impregnable citadel, to
+which these gentlemen retreat, whenever they are pushed by the battery
+of laws and usages and positive conventions. Indeed, it is such, and of
+so great force, that all they have done in defending their outworks is
+so much time and labor thrown away. Discuss any of their schemes, their
+answer is, It is the act of the<a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" title="162" class="pagenum"></a> <i>people</i>, and that is sufficient. Are
+we to deny to a <i>majority</i> of the people the right of altering even the
+whole frame of their society, if such should be their pleasure? They may
+change it, say they, from a monarchy to a republic to-day, and to-morrow
+back again from a republic to a monarchy; and so backward and forward as
+often as they like. They are masters of the commonwealth, because in
+substance they are themselves the commonwealth. The French Revolution,
+say they, was the act of the majority of the people; and if the majority
+of any other people, the people of England, for instance, wish to make
+the same change, they have the same right.</p>
+
+<p>Just the same, undoubtedly. That is, none at all. Neither the few nor
+the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter
+connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation. The Constitution
+of a country being once settled upon some compact, tacit or expressed,
+there is no power existing of force to alter it, without the breach of
+the covenant, or the consent of all the parties. Such is the nature of a
+contract. And the votes of a majority of the people, whatever their
+infamous flatterers may teach in order to corrupt their minds, cannot
+alter the moral any more than they can alter the physical essence of
+things. The people are not to be taught to think lightly of their
+engagements to their governors; else they teach governors to think
+lightly of their engagements towards them. In that kind of game, in the
+end, the people are sure to be losers. To flatter them into a contempt
+of faith, truth, and justice is to ruin them; for in these virtues
+consists their whole safety. To flatter any man, or any part of mankind,
+in any description, by asserting that in <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" title="163" class="pagenum"></a>engagements he or they are
+free, whilst any other human creature is bound, is ultimately to vest
+the rule of morality in the pleasure of those who ought to be rigidly
+submitted to it,&mdash;to subject the sovereign reason of the world to the
+caprices of weak and giddy men.</p>
+
+<p>But, as no one of us men can dispense with public or private faith, or
+with any other tie of moral obligation, so neither can any number of us.
+The number engaged in crimes, instead of turning them into laudable
+acts, only augments the quantity and intensity of the guilt. I am well
+aware that men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme
+disrelish to be told of their duty. This is of course; because every
+duty is a limitation of some power. Indeed, arbitrary power is so much
+to the depraved taste of the vulgar, of the vulgar of every description,
+that almost all the dissensions which lacerate the commonwealth are not
+concerning the manner in which it is to be exercised, but concerning the
+hands in which it is to be placed. Somewhere they are resolved to have
+it. Whether they desire it to be vested in the many or the few depends
+with most men upon the chance which they imagine they themselves may
+have of partaking in the exercise of that arbitrary sway, in the one
+mode or in the other.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary to teach men to thirst after power. But it is very
+expedient that by moral instruction they should be taught, and by their
+civil constitutions they should be compelled, to put many restrictions
+upon the immoderate exercise of it, and the inordinate desire. The best
+method of obtaining these two great points forms the important, but at
+the same time the difficult problem to the true states<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" title="164" class="pagenum"></a>man. He thinks of
+the place in which political power is to be lodged with no other
+attention than as it may render the more or the less practicable its
+salutary restraint and its prudent direction. For this reason, no
+legislator, at any period of the world, has willingly placed the seat of
+active power in the hands of the multitude; because there it admits of
+no control, no regulation, no steady direction whatsoever. The people
+are the natural control on authority; but to exercise and to control
+together is contradictory and impossible.</p>
+
+<p>As the exorbitant exercise of power cannot, under popular sway, be
+effectually restrained, the other great object of political arrangement,
+the means of abating an excessive desire of it, is in such a state still
+worse provided for. The democratic commonwealth is the foodful nurse of
+ambition. Under the other forms it meets with many restraints. Whenever,
+in states which have had a democratic basis, the legislators have
+endeavored to put restraints upon ambition, their methods were as
+violent as in the end they were ineffectual,&mdash;as violent, indeed, as any
+the most jealous despotism could invent. The ostracism could not very
+long save itself, and much less the state which it was meant to guard,
+from the attempts of ambition,&mdash;one of the natural, inbred, incurable
+distempers of a powerful democracy.</p>
+
+<p>But to return from this short digression,&mdash;which, however, is not wholly
+foreign to the question of the effect of the will of the majority upon
+the form or the existence of their society. I cannot too often recommend
+it to the serious consideration of all men who think civil society to be
+within the province of moral jurisdiction, that, if we owe to it any
+duty, it is not <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" title="165" class="pagenum"></a>subject to our will. Duties are not voluntary. Duty and
+will are even contradictory terms. Now, though civil society might be at
+first a voluntary act, (which in many cases it undoubtedly was,) its
+continuance is under a permanent standing covenant, coexisting with the
+society; and it attaches upon every individual of that society, without
+any formal act of his own. This is warranted by the general practice,
+arising out of the general sense of mankind. Men without their choice
+derive benefits from that association; without their choice they are
+subjected to duties in consequence of these benefits; and without their
+choice they enter into a virtual obligation as binding as any that is
+actual. Look through the whole of life and the whole system of duties.
+Much the strongest moral obligations are such as were never the results
+of our option. I allow, that, if no Supreme Ruler exists, wise to form,
+and potent to enforce, the moral law, there is no sanction to any
+contract, virtual or even actual, against the will of prevalent power.
+On that hypothesis, let any set of men be strong enough to set their
+duties at defiance, and they cease to be duties any longer. We have but
+this one appeal against irresistible power,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Si genus humanum et mortalia temnitis arma,<br /></span>
+<span>At sperate Deos memores fandi atque nefandi.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Taking it for granted that I do not write to the disciples of the
+Parisian philosophy, I may assume that the awful Author of our being is
+the Author of our place in the order of existence,&mdash;and that, having
+disposed and marshalled us by a divine tactic, not according to our
+will, but according to His, He has in and by that disposition virtually
+subjected us to act the part which belongs to the place assigned <a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" title="166" class="pagenum"></a>us. We
+have obligations to mankind at large, which are not in consequence of
+any special voluntary pact. They arise from the relation of man to man,
+and the relation of man to God, which relations are not matters of
+choice. On the contrary, the force of all the pacts which we enter into
+with any particular person or number of persons amongst mankind depends
+upon those prior obligations. In some cases the subordinate relations
+are voluntary, in others they are necessary,&mdash;but the duties are all
+compulsive. When we marry, the choice is voluntary, but the duties are
+not matter of choice: they are dictated by the nature of the situation.
+Dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come into the world. The
+instincts which give rise to this mysterious process of Nature are not
+of our making. But out of physical causes, unknown to us, perhaps
+unknowable, arise moral duties, which, as we are able perfectly to
+comprehend, we are bound indispensably to perform. Parents may not be
+consenting to their moral relation; but, consenting or not, they are
+bound to a long train of burdensome duties towards those with whom they
+have never made a convention of any sort. Children are not consenting to
+their relation; but their relation, without their actual consent, binds
+them to its duties,&mdash;or rather it implies their consent, because the
+presumed consent of every rational creature is in unison with the
+predisposed order of things. Men come in that manner into a community
+with the social state of their parents, endowed with all the benefits,
+loaded with all the duties of their situation. If the social ties and
+ligaments, spun out of those physical relations which are the elements
+of the commonwealth, in most cases begin, and always continue,
+<a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" title="167" class="pagenum"></a>independently of our will, so, without any stipulation on our own part,
+are we bound by that relation called our country, which comprehends (as
+it has been well said) &quot;all the charities of all.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor" title=" &quot;Omnes omnium charitates patria una complectitur.&quot;&mdash;Cic.">[21]</a> Nor are we left
+without powerful instincts to make this duty as dear and grateful to us
+as it is awful and coercive. Our country is not a thing of mere physical
+locality. It consists, in a great measure, in the ancient order into
+which we are born. We may have the same geographical situation, but
+another country; as we may have the same country in another soil. The
+place that determines our duty to our country is a social, civil
+relation.</p>
+
+<p>These are the opinions of the author whose cause I defend. I lay them
+down, not to enforce them upon others by disputation, but as an account
+of his proceedings. On them he acts; and from them he is convinced that
+neither he, nor any man, or number of men, have a right (except what
+necessity, which is out of and above all rule, rather imposes than
+bestows) to free themselves from that primary engagement into which
+every man born into a community as much contracts by his being born into
+it as he contracts an obligation to certain parents by his having been
+derived from their bodies. The place of every man determines his duty.
+If you ask, <i>Quem te Deus esse jussit</i>? you will be answered when you
+resolve this other question, <i>Humana qua parte locatus es in re</i>?<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor" title=" A few lines in Persius contain a good summary of all the
+objects of moral investigation, and hint the result of our inquiry:
+There human will has no place.
+
+
+Quid _sumus_? et quidnam _victuri gignimur_? ordo
+Quis _datus_? et _met&aelig;_ quis mollis flexus, et unde?
+Quis modus argento? Quid _fas optare_? Quid asper
+Utile nummus habet? _Patri&aelig; charisque propinquis_
+Quantum elargiri _debet_? Quem te Deus esse
+_Jussit_? et humana qua parte _locatus es_ in re?
+
+
+">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>I admit, indeed, that in morals, as in all things else, difficulties
+will sometimes occur. Duties will sometimes cross one another. Then
+questions will <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" title="168" class="pagenum"></a>arise, which of them is to be placed in subordination?
+which of them may be entirely superseded? These doubts give rise to that
+part of moral science called <i>casuistry</i>, which though necessary to be
+well studied by those who would become expert in that learning, who aim
+at becoming what I think Cicero somewhere calls <i>artifices officiorum</i>,
+it requires a very solid and discriminating judgment, great modesty and
+caution, and much sobriety of mind in the handling; else there is a
+danger that it may totally subvert those offices which it is its object
+only to methodize and reconcile. Duties, at their extreme bounds, are
+drawn very fine, so as to become almost evanescent. In that state some
+shade of doubt will always rest on these questions, when they are
+pursued with great subtilty. But the very habit of stating these extreme
+cases is not very laudable or safe; because, in general, it is not right
+to turn our duties into doubts. They are imposed to govern our conduct,
+not to exercise our ingenuity; and therefore our opinions about them
+ought not to be in a state of fluctuation, but steady, sure, and
+resolved.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst these nice, and therefore dangerous points of casuistry, may be
+reckoned the question so much agitated in the present hour,&mdash;Whether,
+after the people have discharged themselves of their original power by
+an habitual delegation, no occasion can <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" title="169" class="pagenum"></a>possibly occur which may
+justify the resumption of it? This question, in this latitude, is very
+hard to affirm or deny: but I am satisfied that no occasion can justify
+such a resumption, which would not equally authorize a dispensation with
+any other moral duty, perhaps with all of them together. However, if in
+general it be not easy to determine concerning the lawfulness of such
+devious proceedings, which must be ever on the edge of crimes, it is far
+from difficult to foresee the perilous consequences of the resuscitation
+of such a power in the people. The practical consequences of any
+political tenet go a great way in deciding upon its value. Political
+problems do not primarily concern truth or falsehood. They relate to
+good or evil. What in the result is likely to produce evil is
+politically false; that which is productive of good, politically true.</p>
+
+<p>Believing it, therefore, a question at least arduous in the theory, and
+in the practice very critical, it would become us to ascertain as well
+as we can what form it is that our incantations are about to call up
+from darkness and the sleep of ages. When the supreme authority of the
+people is in question, before we attempt to extend or to confine it, we
+ought to fix in our minds, with some degree of distinctness, an idea of
+what it is we mean, when we say, the PEOPLE.</p>
+
+<p>In a state of <i>rude</i> Nature there is no such thing as a people. A number
+of men in themselves have no collective capacity. The idea of a people
+is the idea of a corporation. It is wholly artificial, and made, like
+all other legal fictions, by common agreement. What the particular
+nature of that agreement was is collected from the form into which the
+particular <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" title="170" class="pagenum"></a>society has been cast. Any other is not <i>their</i> covenant.
+When men, therefore, break up the original compact or agreement which
+gives its corporate form and capacity to a state, they are no longer a
+people,&mdash;they have no longer a corporate existence,&mdash;they have no longer
+a legal coactive force to bind within, nor a claim to be recognized
+abroad. They are a number of vague, loose individuals, and nothing more.
+With them all is to begin again. Alas! they little know how many a weary
+step is to be taken before they can form themselves into a mass which
+has a true politic personality.</p>
+
+<p>We hear much, from men who have not acquired their hardiness of
+assertion from the profundity of their thinking, about the omnipotence
+of a <i>majority</i>, in such a dissolution of an ancient society as hath
+taken place in France. But amongst men so disbanded there can be no such
+thing as majority or minority, or power in any one person to bind
+another. The power of acting by a majority, which the gentlemen
+theorists seem to assume so readily, after they have violated the
+contract out of which it has arisen, (if at all it existed,) must be
+grounded on two assumptions: first, that of an incorporation produced by
+unanimity; and secondly, an unanimous agreement that the act of a mere
+majority (say of one) shall pass with them and with others as the act of
+the whole.</p>
+
+<p>We are so little affected by things which are habitual, that we consider
+this idea of the decision of a <i>majority</i> as if it were a law of our
+original nature. But such constructive whole, residing in a part only,
+is one of the most violent fictions of positive law that ever has been
+or can be made on the principles of artificial incorporation. Out of
+civil society Nature <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" title="171" class="pagenum"></a>knows nothing of it; nor are men, even when
+arranged according to civil order, otherwise than by very long training,
+brought at all to submit to it. The mind is brought far more easily to
+acquiesce in the proceedings of one man, or a few, who act under a
+general procuration for the state, than in the vote of a victorious
+majority in councils in which every man has his share in the
+deliberation. For there the beaten party are exasperated and soured by
+the previous contention, and mortified by the conclusive defeat. This
+mode of decision, where wills may be so nearly equal, where, according
+to circumstances, the smaller number may be the stronger force, and
+where apparent reason may be all upon one side, and on the other little
+else than impetuous appetite,&mdash;all this must be the result of a very
+particular and special convention, confirmed afterwards by long habits
+of obedience, by a sort of discipline in society, and by a strong hand,
+vested with stationary, permanent power to enforce this sort of
+constructive general will. What organ it is that shall declare the
+corporate mind is so much a matter of positive arrangement, that several
+states, for the validity of several of their acts, have required a
+proportion of voices much greater than that of a mere majority. These
+proportions are so entirely governed by convention that in some cases
+the minority decides. The laws in many countries to <i>condemn</i> require
+more than a mere majority; less than an equal number to <i>acquit</i>. In our
+judicial trials we require unanimity either to condemn or to absolve. In
+some incorporations one man speaks for the whole; in others, a few.
+Until the other day, in the Constitution of Poland unanimity was
+required to give validity to any act of their great <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" title="172" class="pagenum"></a>national council or
+diet. This approaches much more nearly to rude Nature than the
+institutions of any other country. Such, indeed, every commonwealth must
+be, without a positive law to recognize in a certain number the will of
+the entire body.</p>
+
+<p>If men dissolve their ancient incorporation in order to regenerate their
+community, in that state of things each man has a right, if he pleases,
+to remain an individual. Any number of individuals, who can agree upon
+it, have an undoubted right to form themselves into a state apart and
+wholly independent. If any of these is forced into the fellowship of
+another, this is conquest and not compact. On every principle which
+supposes society to be in virtue of a free covenant, this compulsive
+incorporation must be null and void.</p>
+
+<p>As a people can have no right to a corporate capacity without universal
+consent, so neither have they a right to hold exclusively any lands in
+the name and title of a corporation. On the scheme of the present rulers
+in our neighboring country, regenerated as they are, they have no more
+right to the territory called France than I have. I have a right to
+pitch my tent in any unoccupied place I can find for it; and I may apply
+to my own maintenance any part of their unoccupied soil. I may purchase
+the house or vineyard of any individual proprietor who refuses his
+consent (and most proprietors have, as far as they dared, refused it) to
+the new incorporation. I stand in his independent place. Who are these
+insolent men, calling themselves the French nation, that would
+monopolize this fair domain of Nature? Is it because they speak a
+certain jargon? Is it their mode of chattering, to me unintelligible,
+that forms their title to <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" title="173" class="pagenum"></a>my land? Who are they who claim by
+prescription and descent from certain gangs of banditti called Franks,
+and Burgundians, and Visigoths, of whom I may have never heard, and
+ninety-nine out of an hundred of themselves certainly never have heard,
+whilst at the very time they tell me that prescription and long
+possession form no title to property? Who are they that presume to
+assert that the land which I purchased of the individual, a natural
+person, and not a fiction of state, belongs to them, who in the very
+capacity in which they make their claim can exist only as an imaginary
+being, and in virtue of the very prescription which they reject and
+disown? This mode of arguing might be pushed into all the detail, so as
+to leave no sort of doubt, that, on their principles, and on the sort of
+footing on which they have thought proper to place themselves, the crowd
+of men, on the other side of the Channel, who have the impudence to call
+themselves a people, can never be the lawful, exclusive possessors of
+the soil. By what they call reasoning without prejudice, they leave not
+one stone upon another in the fabric of human society. They subvert all
+the authority which they hold, as well as all that which they have
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>As in the abstract it is perfectly clear, that, out of a state of civil
+society, majority and minority are relations which can have no
+existence, and that, in civil society, its own specific conventions in
+each corporation determine what it is that constitutes the people, so as
+to make their act the signification of the general will,&mdash;to come to
+particulars, it is equally clear that neither in France nor in England
+has the original or any subsequent compact of the state, expressed or
+implied, constituted <i>a majority of men, told <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" title="174" class="pagenum"></a>by the head</i>, to be the
+acting people of their several communities. And I see as little of
+policy or utility as there is of right, in laying down a principle that
+a majority of men told by the head are to be considered as the people,
+and that as such their will is to be law. What policy can there be found
+in arrangements made in defiance of every political principle? To enable
+men to act with the weight and character of a people, and to answer the
+ends for which they are incorporated into that capacity, we must suppose
+them (by means immediate or consequential) to be in that state of
+habitual social discipline in which the wiser, the more expert, and the
+more opulent conduct, and by conducting enlighten and protect, the
+weaker, the less knowing, and the less provided with the goods of
+fortune. When the multitude are not under this discipline, they can
+scarcely be said to be in civil society. Give once a certain
+constitution of things which produces a variety of conditions and
+circumstances in a state, and there is in Nature and reason a principle
+which, for their own benefit, postpones, not the interest, but the
+judgment, of those who are <i>numero plures</i>, to those who are <i>virtute et
+honore majores</i>. Numbers in a state (supposing, which is not the case in
+France, that a state does exist) are always of consideration,&mdash;but they
+are not the whole consideration. It is in things more serious than a
+play, that it may be truly said, <i>Satis est equitem mihi plaudere</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A true natural aristocracy is not a separate interest in the state, or
+separable from it. It is an essential integrant part of any large body
+rightly constituted. It is formed out of a class of legitimate
+presumptions, which, taken as generalities, must be admitted for <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" title="175" class="pagenum"></a>actual
+truths. To be bred in a place of estimation; to see nothing low and
+sordid from one's infancy; to be taught to respect one's self; to be
+habituated to the censorial inspection of the public eye; to look early
+to public opinion; to stand upon such elevated ground as to be enabled
+to take a large view of the wide-spread and infinitely diversified
+combinations of men and affairs in a large society; to have leisure to
+read, to reflect, to converse; to be enabled to draw the court and
+attention of the wise and learned, wherever they are to be found; to be
+habituated in armies to command and to obey; to be taught to despise
+danger in the pursuit of honor and duty; to be formed to the greatest
+degree of vigilance, foresight, and circumspection, in a state of things
+in which no fault is committed with impunity and the slightest mistakes
+draw on the most ruinous consequences; to be led to a guarded and
+regulated conduct, from a sense that you are considered as an instructor
+of your fellow-citizens in their highest concerns, and that you act as a
+reconciler between God and man; to be employed as an administrator of
+law and justice, and to be thereby amongst the first benefactors to
+mankind; to be a professor of high science, or of liberal and ingenuous
+art; to be amongst rich traders, who from their success are presumed to
+have sharp and vigorous understandings, and to possess the virtues of
+diligence, order, constancy, and regularity, and to have cultivated an
+habitual regard to commutative justice: these are the circumstances of
+men that form what I should call a <i>natural</i> aristocracy, without which
+there is no nation.</p>
+
+<p>The state of civil society which necessarily generates this aristocracy
+is a state of Nature,&mdash;and much <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" title="176" class="pagenum"></a>more truly so than a savage and
+incoherent mode of life. For man is by nature reasonable; and he is
+never perfectly in his natural state, but when he is placed where reason
+may be best cultivated and most predominates. Art is man's nature. We
+are as much, at least, in a state of Nature in formed manhood as in
+immature and helpless infancy. Men, qualified in the manner I have just
+described, form in Nature, as she operates in the common modification of
+society, the leading, guiding, and governing part. It is the soul to the
+body, without which the man does not exist. To give, therefore, no more
+importance, in the social order, to such descriptions of men than that
+of so many units is a horrible usurpation.</p>
+
+<p>When great multitudes act together, under that discipline of Nature, I
+recognize the PEOPLE. I acknowledge something that perhaps equals, and
+ought always to guide, the sovereignty of convention. In all things the
+voice of this grand chorus of national harmony ought to have a mighty
+and decisive influence. But when you disturb this harmony,&mdash;when you
+break up this beautiful order, this array of truth and Nature, as well
+as of habit and prejudice,&mdash;when you separate the common sort of men
+from their proper chieftains, so as to form them into an adverse
+army,&mdash;I no longer know that venerable object called the people in such
+a disbanded race of deserters and vagabonds. For a while they may be
+terrible, indeed,&mdash;but in such a manner as wild beasts are terrible. The
+mind owes to them no sort of submission. They are, as they have always
+been reputed, rebels. They may lawfully be fought with, and brought
+under, whenever an advantage offers. Those who attempt by outrage and
+violence to de<a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" title="177" class="pagenum"></a>prive men of any advantage which they hold under the
+laws, and to destroy the natural order of life, proclaim war against
+them.</p>
+
+<p>We have read in history of that furious insurrection of the common
+people in France called the <i>Jacquerie</i>: for this is not the first time
+that the people have been enlightened into treason, murder, and rapine.
+Its object was to extirpate the gentry. The Captal de Buch, a famous
+soldier of those days, dishonored the name of a gentleman and of a man
+by taking, for their cruelties, a cruel vengeance on these deluded
+wretches: it was, however, his right and his duty to make war upon them,
+and afterwards, in moderation, to bring them to punishment for their
+rebellion; though in the sense of the French Revolution, and of some of
+our clubs, they were the <i>people</i>,&mdash;and were truly so, if you will call
+by that appellation <i>any majority of men told by the head</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At a time not very remote from the same period (for these humors never
+have affected one of the nations without some influence on the other)
+happened several risings of the lower commons in England. These
+insurgents were certainly the majority of the inhabitants of the
+counties in which they resided; and Cade, Ket, and Straw, at the head of
+their national guards, and fomented by certain traitors of high rank,
+did no more than exert, according to the doctrines of ours and the
+Parisian societies, the sovereign power inherent in the majority.</p>
+
+<p>We call the time of those events a dark age. Indeed, we are too
+indulgent to our own proficiency. The Abb&eacute; John Ball understood the
+rights of man as well as the Abb&eacute; Gr&eacute;goire. That reverend patriarch of
+sedition, and prototype of our modern preach<a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" title="178" class="pagenum"></a>ers, was of opinion, with
+the National Assembly, that all the evils which have fallen upon men had
+been caused by an ignorance of their &quot;having been born and continued
+equal as to their rights.&quot; Had the populace been able to repeat that
+profound maxim, all would have gone perfectly well with them. No
+tyranny, no vexation, no oppression, no care, no sorrow, could have
+existed in the world. This would have cured them like a charm for the
+tooth-ache. But the lowest wretches, in their most ignorant state, were
+able at all times to talk such stuff; and yet at all times have they
+suffered many evils and many oppressions, both before and since the
+republication by the National Assembly of this spell of healing potency
+and virtue. The enlightened Dr. Ball, when he wished to rekindle the
+lights and fires of his audience on this point, chose for the test the
+following couplet:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>When Adam delved and Eve span,<br /></span>
+<span>Who was then the gentleman?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Of this sapient maxim, however, I do not give him for the inventor. It
+seems to have been handed down by tradition, and had certainly become
+proverbial; but whether then composed or only applied, thus much must be
+admitted, that in learning, sense, energy, and comprehensiveness, it is
+fully equal to all the modern dissertations on the equality of mankind:
+and it has one advantage over them,&mdash;that it is in rhyme.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor" title=" It is no small loss to the world, that the whole of this
+enlightened and philosophic sermon, preached to _two hundred thousand_
+national guards assembled at Blackheath (a number probably equal to the
+sublime and majestic _F&eacute;d&eacute;ration_ of the 14th of July, 1790, in the
+Champ de Mars) is not preserved. A short abstract is, however, to be
+found in Walsingham. I have added it here for the edification of the
+modern Whigs, who may possibly except this precious little fragment from
+their general contempt of ancient learning.
+
+&quot;Ut su&acirc; doctrin&acirc; plures inficeret, ad le Blackheth (ubi ducenta millia
+hominum communium fuere simul congregata) hujuscemodi sermonem est
+exorsus.
+
+
+&quot;Whan Adam dalfe and Eve span,
+Who was than a gentleman?
+
+
+Continuansque sermonem inceptum, nitebatur per verba proverbii, quod pro
+themate sumpserat, introducere et probare, _ab initio omnes pares
+creatos a natur&acirc;_, servitutem per injustam oppressionem nequam hominum
+introductam contra Dei voluntatem, quia si Deo placuisset servos
+cre&acirc;sse, utique in principio mundi constituisset, quis servus, quisve
+dominus futurus fuisset. Considerarent igitur jam tempus a Deo datum
+eis, in quo (deposito servitutis jugo diutius) possent, si vellent,
+libertate diu concupit&acirc; gaudere. Quapropter monuit ut essent viri
+cordati, et amore boni patrisfamilias excolentis agrum suum, et
+extirpantis ac resecantis noxia gramina qu&aelig; fruges solent opprimere, et
+ipsi in pr&aelig;senti facere festinarent. Prim&ograve; _majores regni dominos
+occidendo. Deinde juridicos, justiciarios, et juratores patri&aelig;
+perimendo._ Postrem&ograve; quoscunque scirent _in posterum communitati
+nocivos_ tollerent de terr&acirc; su&acirc;, sic demum et _pacem_ sibimet _parerent
+et securitatem_ in futurum. _Si sublatis majoribus esset inter eos &aelig;qua
+libertas, eadem nobilitas, par dignitas, similisque potestas._&quot;
+
+Here is displayed at once the whole of the grand _arcanum_ pretended to
+be found out by the National Assembly, for securing future happiness,
+peace, and tranquillity. There seems, however, to be some doubt whether
+this venerable protomartyr of philosophy was inclined to carry his own
+declaration of the rights of men more rigidly into practice than the
+National Assembly themselves. He was, like them, only preaching
+licentiousness to the populace to obtain power for himself, if we may
+believe what is subjoined by the historian.
+
+&quot;Cumque h&aelig;c et _plura alia deliramenta_&quot; (think of this old fool's
+calling all the wise maxims of the French Academy _deliramenta_!)
+&quot;pr&aelig;dic&acirc;sset, commune vulgus cum tanto favore prosequitur, ut
+_exclamarent eum archiepiscopum futurum, et regni cancellarium_.&quot;
+Whether he would have taken these situations under these names, or would
+have changed the whole nomenclature of the State and Church, to be
+understood in the sense of the Revolution, is not so certain. It is
+probable that he would have changed the names and kept the substance of
+power.
+
+We find, too, that they had in those days their _society for
+constitutional information_, of which the Reverend John Ball was a
+conspicuous member, sometimes under his own name, sometimes under the
+feigned name of John Schep. Besides him it consisted (as Knyghton tells
+us) of persons who went by the real or fictitious names of Jack Mylner,
+Tom Baker, Jack Straw, Jack Trewman, Jack Carter, and probably of many
+more. Some of the choicest flowers of the publications charitably
+written and circulated by them gratis are upon record in Walsingham and
+Knyghton: and I am inclined to prefer the pithy and sententious brevity
+of these _bulletins_ of ancient rebellion before the loose and confused
+prolixity of the modern advertisements of constitutional information.
+They contain more good morality and less bad politics, they had much
+more foundation in real oppression, and they have the recommendation of
+being much better adapted to the capacities of those for whose
+instruction they were intended. Whatever laudable pains the teachers of
+the present day appear to take, I cannot compliment them so far as to
+allow that they have succeeded in writing down to the level of their
+pupils, _the members of the sovereign_, with half the ability of Jack
+Carter and the Reverend John Ball. That my readers may judge for
+themselves, I shall give them, one or two specimens.
+
+The first is an address from the Reverend John Ball, under his _nom de
+guerre_ of John Schep. I know not against what particular &quot;guyle in
+borough&quot; the writer means to caution the people; it may have been only a
+general cry against &quot;_rotten boroughs_,&quot; which it was thought
+convenient, then as now, to make the first pretext, and place at the
+head of the list of grievances.
+
+JOHN SCHEP.
+
+&quot;Iohn Schep sometime seint Mary priest of Yorke, and now of Colchester,
+greeteth well Iohn Namelesse, and Iohn the Miller, and Iohn Carter, and
+_biddeth them that they beware of guyle in borough_, and stand together
+in Gods name, and biddeth Piers Ploweman goe to his werke, and chastise
+well _Hob the robber_, [probably the king,] and take with you Iohn
+Trewman, and all his fellows, and no moe.
+
+
+&quot;Iohn the Miller hath yground smal, small, small:
+The kings sonne of heauen shal pay for all.
+Beware or ye be woe,
+Know your frende fro your foe,
+Haue ynough, and say hoe:
+And do wel and better, &amp; flee sinne,
+_And seeke peace and holde you therin,_
+
+
+&amp; so biddeth Iohn Trewman &amp; all his fellowes.&quot;
+
+The reader has perceived, from the last lines of this curious
+state-paper, how well the National Assembly has copied its union of the
+profession of universal peace with the practice of murder and confusion,
+and the blast of the trumpet of sedition in all nations. He will in the
+following constitutional paper observe how well, in their enigmatical
+style, like the Assembly and their abettors, the old philosophers
+proscribe all hereditary distinction, and bestow it only on virtue and
+wisdom, according to their estimation of both. Yet these people are
+supposed never to have heard of &quot;the rights of man&quot;!
+
+JACK MYLNER.
+
+&quot;Jakke Mylner asket help to turne his mylne aright.
+
+
+&quot;He hath grounden smal smal,
+The Kings sone of heven he schal pay for alle.
+
+
+Loke thy mylne go a rygt, with the fours sayles, and the post stande in
+steadfastnesse.
+
+
+&quot;With rygt and with mygt,
+With skyl and with wylle,
+Lat mygt helpe rygt,
+And skyl go before wille,
+And rygt before mygt:
+Than goth oure mylne aryght.
+And if mygt go before ryght,
+And wylle before skylle;
+Than is oure mylne mys a dygt.&quot;
+
+
+JACK CARTER understood perfectly the doctrine of looking to the _end_,
+with an indifference to the _means_, and the probability of much good
+arising from great evil.
+
+&quot;Jakke Carter pryes yowe alle that ye make a gode _ende_ of that ye hane
+begunnen, and doth wele and ay bettur and bettur: for at the even men
+heryth the day. _For if the ende be wele, than is alle wele._ Lat Peres
+the Plowman my brother duelle at home and dygt us corne, and I will go
+with yowe and helpe that y may to dygte youre mete and youre drynke,
+that ye none fayle: lokke that Hobbe robbyoure be wele chastysed for
+lesyng of youre grace: for ye have gret nede to take God with yowe in
+alle yours dedes. For nowe is tyme to be war.&quot;">[23]</a><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" title="179" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt but that this great teacher of the rights of man
+decorated his discourse on this valuable text with lemmas, theorems,
+scholia, corollaries, and all the apparatus of science, which was
+furnished in <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" title="180" class="pagenum"></a>as great plenty and perfection out of the dogmatic and
+polemic magazines, the old horse-armory of the Schoolmen, among whom the
+Rev. Dr. Ball was bred, as they can be supplied from the new arsenal at
+Hack<a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" title="181" class="pagenum"></a>ney. It was, no doubt, disposed with all the adjutancy of
+definition and division, in which (I speak it with submission) the old
+marshals were as able as the modern martinets. Neither can we deny that
+the <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" title="182" class="pagenum"></a>philosophic auditory, when they had once obtained this knowledge,
+could never return to their former ignorance, or after so instructive a
+lecture be in the same state of mind as if they had never heard it.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor" title=" See the wise remark on this subject in the Defence of
+Rights of Man, circulated by the societies.">[24]</a>
+But these poor people, who were not to be envied for their knowledge,
+but pitied for their delusion, were not reasoned, (that was impossible,)
+but beaten, out of their lights. With their teacher they were delivered
+over to the lawyers, who wrote in their blood the statutes of the land,
+as harshly, and in the same sort of ink, as they and their teachers had
+written the rights of man.</p>
+
+<p>Our doctors of the day are not so fond of quoting the opinions of this
+ancient sage as they are of imitating his conduct: first, because it
+might appear that they are not as great inventors as they would be
+thought; and next, because, unfortunately for his fame, he was not
+successful. It is a remark liable to as few exceptions as any generality
+can be, that they who applaud prosperous folly and adore trium<a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" title="183" class="pagenum"></a>phant
+guilt have never been known to succor or even to pity human weakness or
+offence, when they become subject to human vicissitude, and meet with
+punishment instead of obtaining power. Abating for their want of
+sensibility to the sufferings of their associates, they are not so much
+in the wrong; for madness and wickedness are things foul and deformed in
+themselves, and stand in need of all the coverings and trappings of
+fortune to recommend them to the multitude. Nothing can be more
+loathsome in their naked nature.</p>
+
+<p>Aberrations like these, whether ancient or modern, unsuccessful or
+prosperous, are things of passage. They furnish no argument for
+supposing <i>a multitude told by the head to be the people</i>. Such a
+multitude can have no sort of title to alter the seat of power in the
+society, in which it ever ought to be the obedient, and not the ruling
+or presiding part. What power may belong to the whole mass, in which
+mass the natural <i>aristocracy</i>, or what by convention is appointed to
+represent and strengthen it, acts in its proper place, with its proper
+weight, and without being subjected to violence, is a deeper question.
+But in that case, and with that concurrence, I should have much doubt
+whether any rash or desperate changes in the state, such as we have seen
+in France, could ever be effected.</p>
+
+<p>I have said that in all political questions the consequences of any
+assumed rights are of great moment in deciding upon their validity. In
+this point of view let us a little scrutinize the effects of a right in
+the mere majority of the inhabitants of any country of superseding and
+altering their government <i>at pleasure</i>.<a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" title="184" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The sum total of every people is composed of its units. Every individual
+must have a right to originate what afterwards is to become the act of
+the majority. Whatever he may lawfully originate he may lawfully
+endeavor to accomplish. He has a right, therefore, in his own
+particular, to break the ties and engagements which bind him to the
+country in which he lives; and he has a right to make as many converts
+to his opinions, and to obtain as many associates in his designs, as he
+can procure: for how can you know the dispositions of the majority to
+destroy their government, but by tampering with some part of the body?
+You must begin by a secret conspiracy, that you may end with a national
+confederation. The mere pleasure of the beginner must be the sole guide;
+since the mere pleasure of others must be the sole ultimate sanction, as
+well as the sole actuating principle in every part of the progress.
+Thus, arbitrary will (the last corruption of ruling power) step by step
+poisons the heart of every citizen. If the undertaker fails, he has the
+misfortune of a rebel, but not the guilt. By such doctrines, all love to
+our country, all pious veneration and attachment to its laws and
+customs, are obliterated from our minds; and nothing can result from
+this opinion, when grown into a principle, and animated by discontent,
+ambition, or enthusiasm, but a series of conspiracies and seditions,
+sometimes ruinous to their authors, always noxious to the state. No
+sense of duty can prevent any man from being a leader or a follower in
+such enterprises. Nothing restrains the tempter; nothing guards the
+tempted. Nor is the new state, fabricated by such arts, safer than the
+old. What can prevent the mere will of any person, who hopes <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" title="185" class="pagenum"></a>to unite
+the wills of others to his own, from an attempt wholly to overturn it?
+It wants nothing but a disposition to trouble the established order, to
+give a title to the enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>When you combine this principle of the right to change a fixed and
+tolerable constitution of things at pleasure with the theory and
+practice of the French Assembly, the political, civil, and moral
+irregularity are, if possible, aggravated. The Assembly have found
+another road, and a far more commodious, to the destruction of an old
+government, and the legitimate formation of a new one, than through the
+previous will of the majority of what they call the people. Get, say
+they, the possession of power by any means you can into your hands; and
+then, a subsequent consent (what they call an <i>address of adhesion</i>)
+makes your authority as much the act of the people as if they had
+conferred upon you originally that kind and degree of power which
+without their permission you had seized upon. This is to give a direct
+sanction to fraud, hypocrisy, perjury, and the breach of the most sacred
+trusts that can exist between man and man. What can sound with such
+horrid discordance in the moral ear as this position,&mdash;that a delegate
+with limited powers may break his sworn engagements to his constituent,
+assume an authority, never committed to him, to alter all things at his
+pleasure, and then, if he can persuade a large number of men to flatter
+him in the power he has usurped, that he is absolved in his own
+conscience, and ought to stand acquitted in the eyes of mankind? On this
+scheme, the maker of the experiment must begin with a determined
+perjury. That point is certain. He must take his chance for the
+expiatory <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" title="186" class="pagenum"></a>addresses. This is to make the success of villany the
+standard of innocence.</p>
+
+<p>Without drawing on, therefore, very shocking consequences, neither by
+previous consent, nor by subsequent ratification of a <i>mere reckoned
+majority</i>, can any set of men attempt to dissolve the state at their
+pleasure. To apply this to our present subject. When the several orders,
+in their several bailliages, had met in the year 1789, (such of them, I
+mean, as had met peaceably and constitutionally,) to choose and to
+instruct their representatives, so organized and so acting, (because
+they were organized and were acting according to the conventions which
+made them a people,) they were the <i>people</i> of France. They had a legal
+and a natural capacity to be considered as that people. But observe,
+whilst they were in this state, that is, whilst they were a people, in
+no one of their instructions did they charge or even hint at any of
+those things which have drawn upon the usurping Assembly and their
+adherents the detestation of the rational and thinking part of mankind.
+I will venture to affirm, without the least apprehension of being
+contradicted by any person who knows the then state of France, that, if
+any one of the changes were proposed, which form the fundamental parts
+of their Revolution, and compose its most distinguishing acts, it would
+not have had one vote in twenty thousand in any order. Their
+instructions purported the direct contrary to all those famous
+proceedings which are defended as the acts of the people. Had such
+proceedings been expected, the great probability is, that the people
+would then have risen, as to a man, to prevent them. The whole
+organization of the Assembly was altered, the <a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" title="187" class="pagenum"></a>whole frame of the
+kingdom was changed, before these things could be done. It is long to
+tell, by what evil arts of the conspirators, and by what extreme
+weakness and want of steadiness in the lawful government, this equal
+usurpation on the rights of the prince and people, having first cheated,
+and then offered violence to both, has been able to triumph, and to
+employ with success the forged signature of an imprisoned sovereign, and
+the spurious voice of dictated addresses, to a subsequent ratification
+of things that had never received any previous sanction, general or
+particular, expressed or implied, from the nation, (in whatever sense
+that word is taken,) or from any part of it.</p>
+
+<p>After the weighty and respectable part of the people had been murdered,
+or driven by the menaces of murder from their houses, or were dispersed
+in exile into every country in Europe,&mdash;after the soldiery had been
+debauched from their officers,&mdash;after property had lost its weight and
+consideration, along with its security,&mdash;after voluntary clubs and
+associations of factious and unprincipled men were substituted in the
+place of all the legal corporations of the kingdom arbitrarily
+dissolved,&mdash;after freedom had been banished from those popular
+meetings<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor" title=" The primary assemblies.">[25]</a> whose sole recommendation is freedom,&mdash;after it had come to
+that pass that no dissent dared to appear in any of them, but at the
+certain price of life,&mdash;after even dissent had been anticipated, and
+assassination became as quick as suspicion,&mdash;such pretended ratification
+by addresses could be no act of what any lover of the people would
+choose to call by their name. It is that voice which every successful
+usurpation, as well as <a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" title="188" class="pagenum"></a>this before us, may easily procure, even without
+making (as these tyrants have made) donatives from the spoil of one part
+of the citizens to corrupt the other.</p>
+
+<p>The pretended <i>rights of man</i>, which have made this havoc, cannot be the
+rights of the people. For to be a people, and to have these rights, are
+things incompatible. The one supposes the presence, the other the
+absence, of a state of civil society. The very foundation of the French
+commonwealth is false and self-destructive; nor can its principles be
+adopted in any country, without the certainty of bringing it to the very
+same condition in which France is found. Attempts are made to introduce
+them into every nation in Europe. This nation, as possessing the
+greatest influence, they wish most to corrupt, as by that means they are
+assured the contagion must become general. I hope, therefore, I shall be
+excused, if I endeavor to show, as shortly as the matter will admit, the
+danger of giving to them, either avowedly or tacitly, the smallest
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>There are times and circumstances in which not to speak out is at least
+to connive. Many think it enough for them, that the principles
+propagated by these clubs and societies, enemies to their country and
+its Constitution, are not owned by the <i>modern Whigs in Parliament</i>, who
+are so warm in condemnation of Mr. Burke and his book, and of course of
+all the principles of the ancient, constitutional Whigs of this kingdom.
+Certainly they are not owned. But are they condemned with the same zeal
+as Mr. Burke and his book are condemned? Are they condemned at all? Are
+they rejected or discountenanced in any way whatsoever? Is any man who
+would fairly examine into the demeanor and prin<a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" title="189" class="pagenum"></a>ciples of those
+societies, and that too very moderately, and in the way rather of
+admonition than of punishment, is such a man even decently treated? Is
+he not reproached as if in condemning such principles he had belied the
+conduct of his whole life, suggesting that his life had been governed by
+principles similar to those which he now reprobates? The French system
+is in the mean time, by many active agents out of doors, rapturously
+praised; the British Constitution is coldly tolerated. But these
+Constitutions are different both in the foundation and in the whole
+superstructure; and it is plain that you cannot build up the one but on
+the ruins of the other. After all, if the French be a superior system of
+liberty, why should we not adopt it? To what end are our praises? Is
+excellence held out to us only that we should not copy after it? And
+what is there in the manners of the people, or in the climate of France,
+which renders that species of republic fitted for them, and unsuitable
+to us? A strong and marked difference between the two nations ought to
+be shown, before we can admit a constant, affected panegyric, a
+standing, annual commemoration, to be without any tendency to an
+example.</p>
+
+<p>But the leaders of party will not go the length of the doctrines taught
+by the seditious clubs. I am sure they do not mean to do so. God forbid!
+Perhaps even those who are directly carrying on the work of this
+pernicious foreign faction do not all of them intend to produce all the
+mischiefs which must inevitably follow from their having any success in
+their proceedings. As to leaders in parties, nothing is more common than
+to see them blindly led. The world is governed by go-betweens. These
+<a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" title="190" class="pagenum"></a>go-betweens influence the persons with whom they carry on the
+intercourse, by stating their own sense to each of them as the sense of
+the other; and thus they reciprocally master both sides. It is first
+buzzed about the ears of leaders, &quot;that their friends without doors are
+very eager for some measure, or very warm about some opinion,&mdash;that you
+must not be too rigid with them. They are useful persons, and zealous in
+the cause. They may be a little wrong, but the spirit of liberty must
+not be damped; and by the influence you obtain from some degree of
+concurrence with them at present, you may be enabled to set them right
+hereafter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus the leaders are at first drawn to a connivance with sentiments and
+proceedings often totally different from their serious and deliberate
+notions. But their acquiescence answers every purpose.</p>
+
+<p>With no better than such powers, the go-betweens assume a new
+representative character. What at best was but an acquiescence is
+magnified into an authority, and thence into a desire on the part of the
+leaders; and it is carried down as such to the subordinate members of
+parties. By this artifice they in their turn are led into measures which
+at first, perhaps, few of them wished at all, or at least did not desire
+vehemently or systematically.</p>
+
+<p>There is in all parties, between the principal leaders in Parliament and
+the lowest followers out of doors, a middle sort of men, a sort of
+equestrian order, who, by the spirit of that middle situation, are the
+fittest for preventing things from running to excess. But indecision,
+though a vice of a totally different character, is the natural
+accomplice of violence. The irresolution and timidity of those who
+<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" title="191" class="pagenum"></a>compose this middle order often prevents the effect of their
+controlling situation. The fear of differing with the authority of
+leaders on the one hand, and of contradicting the desires of the
+multitude on the other, induces them to give a careless and passive
+assent to measures in which they never were consulted; and thus things
+proceed, by a sort of activity of inertness, until whole bodies,
+leaders, middle-men, and followers, are all hurried, with every
+appearance and with many of the effects of unanimity, into schemes of
+politics, in the substance of which no two of them were ever fully
+agreed, and the origin and authors of which, in this circular mode of
+communication, none of them find it possible to trace. In my experience,
+I have seen much of this in affairs which, though trifling in comparison
+to the present, were yet of some importance to parties; and I have known
+them suffer by it. The sober part give their sanction, at first through
+inattention and levity; at last they give it through necessity. A
+violent spirit is raised, which the presiding minds after a time find it
+impracticable to stop at their pleasure, to control, to regulate, or
+even to direct.</p>
+
+<p>This shows, in my opinion, how very quick and awakened all men ought to
+be, who are looked up to by the public, and who deserve that confidence,
+to prevent a surprise on their opinions, when dogmas are spread and
+projects pursued by which the foundations of society may be affected.
+Before they listen even to moderate alterations in the government of
+their country, they ought to take care that principles are not
+propagated for that purpose which are too big for their object.
+Doctrines limited in their present application, and wide in their
+general principles, <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" title="192" class="pagenum"></a>are never meant to be confined to what they at
+first pretend. If I were to form a prognostic of the effect of the
+present machinations on the people from their sense of any grievance
+they suffer under this Constitution, my mind would be at ease. But there
+is a wide difference between the multitude, when they act against their
+government from a sense of grievance or from zeal for some opinions.
+When men are thoroughly possessed with that zeal, it is difficult to
+calculate its force. It is certain that its power is by no means in
+exact proportion to its reasonableness. It must always have been
+discoverable by persons of reflection, but it is now obvious to the
+world, that a theory concerning government may become as much a cause of
+fanaticism as a dogma in religion. There is a boundary to men's
+passions, when they act from feeling; none when they are under the
+influence of imagination. Remove a grievance, and, when men act from
+feeling, you go a great way towards quieting a commotion. But the good
+or bad conduct of a government, the protection men have enjoyed or the
+oppression they have suffered under it, are of no sort of moment, when a
+faction, proceeding upon speculative grounds, is thoroughly heated
+against its form. When a man is from system furious against monarchy or
+episcopacy, the good conduct of the monarch or the bishop has no other
+effect than further to irritate the adversary. He is provoked at it as
+furnishing a plea for preserving the thing which he wishes to destroy.
+His mind will be heated as much by the sight of a sceptre, a mace, or a
+verge, as if he had been daily bruised and wounded by these symbols of
+authority. Mere spectacles, mere names, will become sufficient causes to
+stimulate the people to war and tumult.<a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" title="193" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Some gentlemen are not terrified by the facility with which government
+has been overturned in France. &quot;The people of France,&quot; they say, &quot;had
+nothing to lose in the destruction of a bad Constitution; but, though
+not the best possible, we have still a good stake in ours, which will
+hinder us from desperate risks.&quot; Is this any security at all against
+those who seem to persuade themselves, and who labor to persuade others,
+that our Constitution is an usurpation in its origin, unwise in its
+contrivance, mischievous in its effects, contrary to the rights of man,
+and in all its parts a perfect nuisance? What motive has any rational
+man, who thinks in that manner, to spill his blood, or even to risk a
+shilling of his fortune, or to waste a moment of his leisure, to
+preserve it? If he has any duty relative to it, his duty is to destroy
+it. A Constitution on sufferance is a Constitution condemned. Sentence
+is already passed upon it. The execution is only delayed. On the
+principles of these gentlemen, it neither has nor ought to have any
+security. So far as regards them, it is left naked, without friends,
+partisans, assertors, or protectors.</p>
+
+<p>Let us examine into the value of this security upon the principles of
+those who are more sober,&mdash;of those who think, indeed, the French
+Constitution better, or at least as good as the British, without going
+to all the lengths of the warmer politicians in reprobating their own.
+Their security amounts in reality to nothing more than this,&mdash;that the
+difference between their republican system and the British limited
+monarchy is not worth a civil war. This opinion, I admit, will prevent
+people not very enterprising in their nature from an active undertaking
+against the Brit<a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" title="194" class="pagenum"></a>ish Constitution. But it is the poorest defensive
+principle that ever was infused into the mind of man against the
+attempts of those who will enterprise. It will tend totally to remove
+from their minds that very terror of a civil war which is held out as
+our sole security. They who think so well of the French Constitution
+certainly will not be the persons to carry on a war to prevent their
+obtaining a great benefit, or at worst a fair exchange. They will not go
+to battle in favor of a cause in which their defeat might be more
+advantageous to the public than their victory. They must at least
+tacitly abet those who endeavor to make converts to a sound opinion;
+they must discountenance those who would oppose its propagation. In
+proportion as by these means the enterprising party is strengthened, the
+dread of a struggle is lessened. See what an encouragement this is to
+the enemies of the Constitution! A few assassinations and a very great
+destruction of property we know they consider as no real obstacles in
+the way of a grand political change. And they will hope, that here, if
+antimonarchical opinions gain ground as they have done in France, they
+may, as in France, accomplish a revolution without a war.</p>
+
+<p>They who think so well of the French Constitution cannot be seriously
+alarmed by any progress made by its partisans. Provisions for security
+are not to be received from those who think that there is no danger. No!
+there is no plan of security to be listened to but from those who
+entertain the same fears with ourselves,&mdash;from those who think that the
+thing to be secured is a great blessing, and the thing against which we
+would secure it a great mischief. Every person of a different opinion
+must be careless about security.<a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" title="195" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>I believe the author of the Reflections, whether he fears the designs of
+that set of people with reason or not, cannot prevail on himself to
+despise them. He cannot despise them for their numbers, which, though
+small, compared with the sound part of the community, are not
+inconsiderable: he cannot look with contempt on their influence, their
+activity, or the kind of talents and tempers which they possess, exactly
+calculated for the work they have in hand and the minds they chiefly
+apply to. Do we not see their most considerable and accredited
+ministers, and several of their party of weight and importance, active
+in spreading mischievous opinions, in giving sanction to seditious
+writings, in promoting seditious anniversaries? and what part of their
+description has disowned them or their proceedings? When men,
+circumstanced as these are, publicly declare such admiration of a
+foreign Constitution, and such contempt of our own, it would be, in the
+author of the Reflections, thinking as he does of the French
+Constitution, infamously to cheat the rest of the nation to their ruin
+to say there is no danger.</p>
+
+<p>In estimating danger, we are obliged to take into our calculation the
+character and disposition of the enemy into whose hands we may chance to
+fall. The genius of this faction is easily discerned, by observing with
+what a very different eye they have viewed the late foreign revolutions.
+Two have passed before them: that of France, and that of Poland. The
+state of Poland was such, that there could scarcely exist two opinions,
+but that a reformation of its Constitution, even at some expense of
+blood, might be seen without much disapprobation. No confusion could be
+feared in such an enterprise; because the establishment to <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" title="196" class="pagenum"></a>be reformed
+was itself a state of confusion. A king without authority; nobles
+without union or subordination; a people without arts, industry,
+commerce, or liberty; no order within, no defence without; no effective
+public force, but a foreign force, which entered, a naked country at
+will, and disposed of everything at pleasure. Here was a state of things
+which seemed to invite, and might perhaps justify, bold enterprise and
+desperate experiment. But in what manner was this chaos brought into
+order? The means were as striking to the imagination as satisfactory to
+the reason and soothing to the moral sentiments. In contemplating that
+change, humanity has everything to rejoice and to glory in,&mdash;nothing to
+be ashamed of, nothing to suffer. So far as it has gone, it probably is
+the most pure and defecated public good which ever has been conferred on
+mankind. We have seen anarchy and servitude at once removed; a throne
+strengthened for the protection of the people, without trenching on
+their liberties; all foreign cabal banished, by changing the crown from
+elective to hereditary; and what was a matter of pleasing wonder, we
+have seen a reigning king, from an heroic love to his country, exerting
+himself with all the toil, the dexterity, the management, the intrigue,
+in favor of a family of strangers, with which ambitious men labor for
+the aggrandizement of their own. Ten millions of men in a way of being
+freed gradually, and therefore safely to themselves and the state, not
+from civil or political chains, which, bad as they are, only fetter the
+mind, but from substantial personal bondage. Inhabitants of cities,
+before without privileges, placed in the consideration which belongs to
+that improved and connecting situation of <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" title="197" class="pagenum"></a>social life. One of the most
+proud, numerous, and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known in
+the world arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous
+citizens. Not one man incurred loss or suffered degradation. All, from
+the king to the day-laborer, were improved in their condition.
+Everything was kept in its place and order; but in that place and order
+everything was bettered. To add to this happy wonder, this unheard-of
+conjunction of wisdom and fortune, not one drop of blood was spilled; no
+treachery; no outrage; no system of slander more cruel than the sword;
+no studied insults on religion, morals, or manners; no spoil; no
+confiscation; no citizen beggared; none imprisoned; none exiled: the
+whole was effected with a policy, a discretion, an unanimity and
+secrecy, such as have never been before known on any occasion; but such
+wonderful conduct was reserved for this glorious conspiracy in favor of
+the true and genuine rights and interests of men. Happy people, if they
+know to proceed as they have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin with
+splendor or to close with glory a race of patriots and of kings, and to
+leave</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>A name, which every wind to heaven would bear,<br /></span>
+<span>Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">To finish all,&mdash;this great good, as in the instant it is, contains in it
+the seeds of all further improvement, and may be considered as in a
+regular progress, because founded on similar principles, towards the
+stable excellence of a British Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a matter for congratulation and for festive remembrance through
+ages. Here moralists and divines might indeed relax in their temperance,
+to exhilarate their humanity. But mark the character <a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" title="198" class="pagenum"></a>of our faction.
+All their enthusiasm is kept for the French Revolution. They cannot
+pretend that France had stood so much in need of a change as Poland.
+They cannot pretend that Poland has not obtained a better system of
+liberty or of government than it enjoyed before. They cannot assert that
+the Polish Revolution cost more dearly than that of France to the
+interests and feelings of multitudes of men. But the cold and
+subordinate light in which they look upon the one, and the pains they
+take to preach up the other of these Revolutions, leave us no choice in
+fixing on their motives. Both Revolutions profess liberty as their
+object; but in obtaining this object the one proceeds from anarchy to
+order, the other from order to anarchy. The first secures its liberty by
+establishing its throne; the other builds its freedom on the subversion
+of its monarchy. In the one, their means are unstained by crimes, and
+their settlement favors morality; in the other, vice and confusion are
+in the very essence of their pursuit, and of their enjoyment. The
+circumstances in which these two events differ must cause the difference
+we make in their comparative estimation. These turn the scale with the
+societies in favor of France. <i>Ferrum est quod amant</i>. The frauds, the
+violences, the sacrileges, the havoc and ruin of families, the
+dispersion and exile of the pride and flower of a great country, the
+disorder, the confusion, the anarchy, the violation of property, the
+cruel murders, the inhuman confiscations, and in the end the insolent
+domination of bloody, ferocious, and senseless clubs,&mdash;these are the
+things which they love and admire. What men admire and love they would
+surely act. Let us see what is done in France; and then let us
+undervalue any the slightest danger <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" title="199" class="pagenum"></a>of falling into the hands of such a
+merciless and savage faction!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the leaders of the factious societies are too wild to succeed in
+this their undertaking.&quot; I hope so. But supposing them wild and absurd,
+is there no danger but from wise and reflecting men? Perhaps the
+greatest mischiefs that have happened in the world have happened from
+persons as wild as those we think the wildest. In truth, they are the
+fittest beginners of all great changes. Why encourage men in a
+mischievous proceeding, because their absurdity may disappoint their
+malice?&mdash;&quot;But noticing them may give them consequence.&quot; Certainly. But
+they are noticed; and they are noticed, not with reproof, but with that
+kind of countenance which is given by an <i>apparent</i> concurrence (not a
+<i>real</i> one, I am convinced) of a great party in the praises of the
+object which they hold out to imitation.</p>
+
+<p>But I hear a language still more extraordinary, and indeed of such a
+nature as must suppose or leave us at their mercy. It is this:&mdash;&quot;You
+know their promptitude in writing, and their diligence in caballing; to
+write, speak, or act against them will only stimulate them to new
+efforts.&quot; This way of considering the principle of their conduct pays
+but a poor compliment to these gentlemen. They pretend that their
+doctrines are infinitely beneficial to mankind; but it seems they would
+keep them to themselves, if they were not greatly provoked. They are
+benevolent from spite. Their oracles are like those of Proteus, (whom
+some people think they resemble in many particulars,) who never would
+give his responses, unless you used him as ill as possible. These cats,
+it seems, would not give out their electrical light without having
+<a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" title="200" class="pagenum"></a>their backs well rubbed. But this is not to do them perfect justice.
+They are sufficiently communicative. Had they been quiet, the propriety
+of any agitation of topics on the origin and primary rights of
+government, in opposition to their private sentiments, might possibly be
+doubted. But, as it is notorious that they were proceeding as fast and
+as far as time and circumstances would admit, both in their discussions
+and cabals,&mdash;as it is not to be denied that they had opened a
+correspondence with a foreign faction the most wicked the world ever
+saw, and established anniversaries to commemorate the most monstrous,
+cruel, and perfidious of all the proceedings of that faction,&mdash;the
+question is, whether their conduct was to be regarded in silence, lest
+our interference should render them outrageous. Then let them deal as
+they please with the Constitution. Let the lady be passive, lest the
+ravisher should be driven to force. Resistance will only increase his
+desires. Yes, truly, if the resistance be feigned and feeble. But they
+who are wedded to the Constitution will not act the part of wittols.
+They will drive such seducers from the house on the first appearance of
+their love-letters and offered assignations. But if the author of the
+Reflections, though a vigilant, was not a discreet guardian of the
+Constitution, let them who have the same regard to it show themselves as
+vigilant and more skilful in repelling the attacks of seduction or
+violence. Their freedom from jealousy is equivocal, and may arise as
+well from indifference to the object as from confidence in her virtue.</p>
+
+<p>On their principle, it is the resistance, and not the assault, which
+produces the danger. I admit, indeed, that, if we estimated the danger
+by the value of the <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" title="201" class="pagenum"></a>writings, it would be little worthy of our
+attention: contemptible these writings are in every sense. But they are
+not the cause, they are the disgusting symptoms of a frightful
+distemper. They are not otherwise of consequence than as they show the
+evil habit of the bodies from whence they come. In that light the
+meanest of them is a serious thing. If, however, I should underrate
+them, and if the truth is, that they are not the result, but the cause,
+of the disorders I speak of, surely those who circulate operative
+poisons, and give to whatever force they have by their nature the
+further operation of their authority and adoption, are to be censured,
+watched, and, if possible, repressed.</p>
+
+<p>At what distance the direct danger from such factions may be it is not
+easy to fix. An adaptation of circumstances to designs and principles is
+necessary. But these cannot be wanting for any long time, in the
+ordinary course of sublunary affairs. Great discontents frequently arise
+in the best constituted governments from causes which no human wisdom
+can foresee and no human power can prevent. They occur at uncertain
+periods, but at periods which are not commonly far asunder. Governments
+of all kinds are administered only by men; and great mistakes, tending
+to inflame these discontents, may concur. The indecision of those who
+happen to rule at the critical time, their supine neglect, or their
+precipitate and ill-judged attention, may aggravate the public
+misfortunes. In such a state of things, the principles, now only sown,
+will shoot out and vegetate in full luxuriance. In such circumstances
+the minds of the people become sore and ulcerated. They are put out of
+humor with all public men and all public <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" title="202" class="pagenum"></a>parties; they are fatigued
+with their dissensions; they are irritated at their coalitions; they are
+made easily to believe (what much pains are taken to make them believe)
+that all oppositions are factious, and all courtiers base and servile.
+From their disgust at men, they are soon led to quarrel with their frame
+of government, which they presume gives nourishment to the vices, real
+or supposed, of those who administer in it. Mistaking malignity for
+sagacity, they are soon led to cast off all hope from a good
+administration of affairs, and come to think that all reformation
+depends, not on a change of actors, but upon an alteration in the
+machinery. Then will be felt the full effect of encouraging doctrines
+which tend to make the citizens despise their Constitution. Then will be
+felt the plenitude of the mischief of teaching the people to believe
+that all ancient institutions are the results of ignorance, and that all
+prescriptive government is in its nature usurpation. Then will be felt,
+in all its energy, the danger of encouraging a spirit of litigation in
+persons of that immature and imperfect state of knowledge which serves
+to render them susceptible of doubts, but incapable of their solution.
+Then will be felt, in all its aggravation, the pernicious consequence of
+destroying all docility in the minds of those who are not formed for
+finding their own way in the labyrinths of political theory, and are
+made to reject the clew and to disdain the guide. Then will be felt, and
+too late will be acknowledged, the ruin which follows the disjoining of
+religion from the state, the separation of morality from policy, and the
+giving conscience no concern and no coactive or coercive force in the
+most material of all the social ties, the principle of our obligations
+to government.<a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" title="203" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>I know, too, that, besides this vain, contradictory, and
+self-destructive security which some men derive from the habitual
+attachment of the people to this Constitution, whilst they suffer it
+with a sort of sportive acquiescence to be brought into contempt before
+their faces, they have other grounds for removing all apprehension from
+their minds. They are of opinion that there are too many men of great
+hereditary estates and influence in the kingdom to suffer the
+establishment of the levelling system which has taken place in France.
+This is very true, if, in order to guide the power which now attends
+their property, these men possess the wisdom which is involved in early
+fear. But if, through a supine security, to which such fortunes are
+peculiarly liable, they neglect the use of their influence in the season
+of their power, on the first derangement of society the nerves of their
+strength will be cut. Their estates, instead of being the means of their
+security, will become the very causes of their danger. Instead of
+bestowing influence, they will excite rapacity. They will be looked to
+as a prey.</p>
+
+<p>Such will be the impotent condition of those men of great hereditary
+estates, who indeed dislike the designs that are carried on, but whose
+dislike is rather that of spectators than of parties that may be
+concerned in the catastrophe of the piece. But riches do not in all
+cases secure even an inert and passive resistance. There are always in
+that description men whose fortunes, when their minds are once vitiated
+by passion or by evil principle, are by no means a security from their
+actually taking their part against the public tranquillity. We see to
+what low and despicable passions of all kinds many men in that class
+<a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" title="204" class="pagenum"></a>are ready to sacrifice the patrimonial estates which might be
+perpetuated in their families with splendor, and with the fame of
+hereditary benefactors to mankind, from generation to generation. Do we
+not see how lightly people treat their fortunes, when under the
+influence of the passion of gaming? The game of ambition or resentment
+will be played by many of the rich and great as desperately, and with as
+much blindness to the consequences, as any other game. Was he a man of
+no rank or fortune who first set on foot the disturbances which have
+ruined France? Passion blinded him to the consequences, so far as they
+concerned himself; and as to the consequences with regard to others,
+they were no part of his consideration,&mdash;nor ever will be with those who
+bear any resemblance to that virtuous patriot and lover of the rights of
+man.</p>
+
+<p>There is also a time of insecurity, when interests of all sorts become
+objects of speculation. Then it is that their very attachment to wealth
+and importance will induce several persons of opulence to list
+themselves and even to take a lead with the party which they think most
+likely to prevail, in order to obtain to themselves consideration in
+some new order or disorder of things. They may be led to act in this
+manner, that they may secure some portion of their own property, and
+perhaps to become partakers of the spoil of their own order. Those who
+speculate on change always make a great number among people of rank and
+fortune, as well as amongst the low and the indigent.</p>
+
+<p>What security against all this?&mdash;All human securities are liable to
+uncertainty. But if anything bids fair for the prevention of so great a
+calamity, <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" title="205" class="pagenum"></a>it must consist in the use of the ordinary means of just
+influence in society, whilst those means continue unimpaired. The public
+judgment ought to receive a proper direction. All weighty men may have
+their share in so good a work. As yet, notwithstanding the strutting and
+lying independence of a braggart philosophy, Nature maintains her
+rights, and great names have great prevalence. Two such men as Mr. Pitt
+and Mr. Fox, adding to their authority in a point in which they concur
+even by their disunion in everything else, might frown these wicked
+opinions out of the kingdom. But if the influence of either of them, or
+the influence of men like them, should, against their serious
+intentions, be otherwise perverted, they may countenance opinions which
+(as I have said before, and could wish over and over again to press)
+they may in vain attempt to control. In their theory, these doctrines
+admit no limit, no qualification whatsoever. No man can say how far he
+will go, who joins with those who are avowedly going to the utmost
+extremities. What security is there for stopping short at all in these
+wild conceits? Why, neither more nor less than this,&mdash;that the moral
+sentiments of some few amongst them do put some check on their savage
+theories. But let us take care. The moral sentiments, so nearly
+connected with early prejudice as to be almost one and the same thing,
+will assuredly not live long under a discipline which has for its basis
+the destruction of all prejudices, and the making the mind proof against
+all dread of consequences flowing from the pretended truths that are
+taught by their philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>In this school the moral sentiments must grow weaker and weaker every
+day. The more cautious <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" title="206" class="pagenum"></a>of these teachers, in laying down their maxims,
+draw as much of the conclusion as suits, not with their premises, but
+with their policy. They trust the rest to the sagacity of their pupils.
+Others, and these are the most vaunted for their spirit, not only lay
+down the same premises, but boldly draw the conclusions, to the
+destruction of our whole Constitution in Church and State. But are these
+conclusions truly drawn? Yes, most certainly. Their principles are wild
+and wicked; but let justice be done even to frenzy and villany. These
+teachers are perfectly systematic. No man who assumes their grounds can
+tolerate the British Constitution in Church or State. These teachers
+profess to scorn all mediocrity,&mdash;to engage for perfection,&mdash;to proceed
+by the simplest and shortest course. They build their politics, not on
+convenience, but on truth; and they profess to conduct men to certain
+happiness by the assertion of their undoubted rights. With them there is
+no compromise. All other governments are usurpations, which justify and
+even demand resistance.</p>
+
+<p>Their principles always go to the extreme. They who go with the
+principles of the ancient Whigs, which are those contained in Mr.
+Burke's book, never can go too far. They may, indeed, stop short of some
+hazardous and ambiguous excellence, which they will be taught to
+postpone to any reasonable degree of good they may actually possess. The
+opinions maintained in that book never can lead to an extreme, because
+their foundation is laid in an opposition to extremes. The foundation of
+government is there laid, not in imaginary rights of men, (which at best
+is a confusion of judicial with civil principles,) but in political
+convenience, and in hu<a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" title="207" class="pagenum"></a>man nature,&mdash;either as that nature is universal,
+or as it is modified by local habits and social aptitudes. The
+foundation of government (those who have read that book will recollect)
+is laid in a provision for our wants and in a conformity to our duties:
+it is to purvey for the one, it is to enforce the other. These doctrines
+do of themselves gravitate to a middle point, or to some point near a
+middle. They suppose, indeed, a certain portion of liberty to be
+essential to all good government; but they infer that this liberty is to
+be blended into the government, to harmonize with its forms and its
+rules, and to be made subordinate to its end. Those who are not with
+that book are with its opposite; for there is no medium besides the
+medium itself. That medium is not such because it is found there, but it
+is found there because it is conformable to truth and Nature. In this we
+do not follow the author, but we and the author travel together upon the
+same safe and middle path.</p>
+
+<p>The theory contained in his book is not to furnish principles for making
+a new Constitution, but for illustrating the principles of a
+Constitution already made. It is a theory drawn from the <i>fact</i> of our
+government. They who oppose it are bound to show that his theory
+militates with that fact; otherwise, their quarrel is not with his book,
+but with the Constitution of their country. The whole scheme of our
+mixed Constitution is to prevent any one of its principles from being
+carried as far as, taken by itself, and theoretically, it would go.
+Allow that to be the true policy of the British system, then most of the
+faults with which that system stands charged will appear to be, not
+imperfections into which it has inadvertently fallen, but excellencies
+which it has <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" title="208" class="pagenum"></a>studiously sought. To avoid the perfections of extreme,
+all its several parts are so constituted as not alone to answer their
+own several ends, but also each to limit and control the others;
+insomuch that, take which of the principles you please, you will find
+its operation checked and stopped at a certain point. The whole movement
+stands still rather than that any part should proceed beyond its
+boundary. From thence it results that in the British Constitution there
+is a perpetual treaty and compromise going on, sometimes openly,
+sometimes with less observation. To him who contemplates the British
+Constitution, as to him who contemplates the subordinate material world,
+it will always be a matter of his most curious investigation to discover
+the secret of this mutual limitation.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8"><i>Finita</i> potestas denique <i>cuique</i><br /></span>
+<span>Quanam sit ratione, atque alte terminus h&aelig;rens?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>They who have acted, as in France they have done, upon a scheme wholly
+different, and who aim at the abstract and unlimited perfection of power
+in the popular part, can be of no service to us in any of our political
+arrangements. They who in their headlong career have overpassed the goal
+can furnish no example to those who aim to go no further. The temerity
+of such speculators is no more an example than the timidity of others.
+The one sort scorns the right; the other fears it; both miss it. But
+those who by violence go beyond the barrier are without question the
+most mischievous; because, to go beyond it, they overturn and destroy
+it. To say they have spirit is to say nothing in their praise. The
+untempered spirit of madness, blindness, immorality, and impiety
+deserves no commendation. He that sets his <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" title="209" class="pagenum"></a>house on fire because his
+fingers are frost-bitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of
+providing our habitations with a cheerful and salutary warmth. We want
+no foreign examples to rekindle in us the flame of liberty. The example
+of our own ancestors is abundantly sufficient to maintain the spirit of
+freedom in its full vigor, and to qualify it in all its exertions. The
+example of a wise, moral, well-natured, and well-tempered spirit of
+freedom is that alone which can be useful to us, or in the least degree
+reputable or safe. Our fabric is so constituted, one part of it bears so
+much on the other, the parts are so made for one another, and for
+nothing else, that to introduce any foreign matter into it is to destroy
+it.</p>
+
+<p>What has been said of the Roman Empire is at least as true of the
+British Constitution:&mdash;&quot;<i>Octingentorum annorum fortuna disciplinaque
+compages h&aelig;c coaluit; qu&aelig; convelli sine convellentium exitio non
+potest</i>.&quot; This British Constitution has not been struck out at an heat
+by a set of presumptuous men, like the Assembly of pettifoggers run mad
+in Paris.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;'Tis not the hasty product of a day,<br /></span>
+<span>But the well-ripened fruit of wise delay.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">It is the result of the thoughts of many minds in many ages. It is no
+simple, no superficial thing, nor to be estimated by superficial
+understandings. An ignorant man, who is not fool enough to meddle with
+his clock, is, however, sufficiently confident to think he can safely
+take to pieces and put together, at his pleasure, a moral machine of
+another guise, importance, and complexity, composed of far other wheels
+and springs and balances and counteracting and co&ouml;perating powers. Men
+little think how im<a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" title="210" class="pagenum"></a>morally they act in rashly meddling with what they
+do not understand. Their delusive good intention is no sort of excuse
+for their presumption. They who truly mean well must be fearful of
+acting ill. The British Constitution may have its advantages pointed out
+to wise and reflecting minds, but it is of too high an order of
+excellence to be adapted to those which are common. It takes in too many
+views, it makes too many combinations, to be so much as comprehended by
+shallow and superficial understandings. Profound thinkers will know it
+in its reason and spirit. The less inquiring will recognize it in their
+feelings and their experience. They will thank God they have a standard,
+which, in the most essential point of this great concern, will put them
+on a par with the most wise and knowing.</p>
+
+<p>If we do not take to our aid the foregone studies of men reputed
+intelligent and learned, we shall be always beginners. But men must
+learn somewhere; and the new teachers mean no more than what they
+effect, as far as they succeed,&mdash;that is, to deprive men of the benefit
+of the collected wisdom of mankind, and to make them blind disciples of
+their own particular presumption. Talk to these deluded creatures (all
+the disciples and most of the masters) who are taught to think
+themselves so newly fitted up and furnished, and you will find nothing
+in their houses but the refuse of <i>Knaves' Acre</i>,&mdash;nothing but the
+rotten stuff, worn out in the service of delusion and sedition in all
+ages, and which, being newly furbished up, patched, and varnished,
+serves well enough for those who, being unacquainted with the conflict
+which has always been maintained between the sense and the nonsense of
+mankind, know noth<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" title="211" class="pagenum"></a>ing of the former existence and the ancient
+refutation of the same follies. It is near two thousand years since it
+has been observed that these devices of ambition, avarice, and
+turbulence were antiquated. They are, indeed, the most ancient of all
+commonplaces: commonplaces sometimes of good and necessary causes; more
+frequently of the worst, but which decide upon neither. <i>Eadem semper
+causa, libido et avaritia, et mutandarum rerum amor. Ceterum libertas et
+speciosa nomina pretexuntur; nec quisquam alienum servitium, et
+dominationem sibi concupivit, ut non eadem ista vocabula usurparet</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Rational and experienced men tolerably well know, and have always known,
+how to distinguish between true and false liberty, and between the
+genuine adherence and the false pretence to what is true. But none,
+except those who are profoundly studied, can comprehend the elaborate
+contrivance of a fabric fitted to unite private and public liberty with
+public force, with order, with peace, with justice, and, above all, with
+the institutions formed for bestowing permanence and stability, through
+ages, upon this invaluable whole.</p>
+
+<p>Place, for instance, before your eyes such a man as Montesquieu. Think
+of a genius not born in every country or every time: a man gifted by
+Nature with a penetrating, aquiline eye,&mdash;with a judgment prepared with
+the most extensive erudition,&mdash;with an Herculean robustness of mind, and
+nerves not to be broken with labor,&mdash;a man who could spend twenty years
+in one pursuit. Think of a man like the universal patriarch in Milton
+(who had drawn up before him in his prophetic vision the whole series of
+the generations which were to issue from his loins):<a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" title="212" class="pagenum"></a> a man capable of
+placing in review, after having brought together from the East, the
+West, the North, and the South, from the coarseness of the rudest
+barbarism to the most refined and subtle civilization, all the schemes
+of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind, weighing,
+measuring, collating, and comparing them all, joining fact with theory,
+and calling into council, upon all this infinite assemblage of things,
+all the speculations which have fatigued the understandings of profound
+reasoners in all times. Let us then consider, that all these were but so
+many preparatory steps to qualify a man, and such a man, tinctured with
+no national prejudice, with no domestic affection, to admire, and to
+hold out to the admiration of mankind, the Constitution of England. And
+shall we Englishmen revoke to such a suit? Shall we, when so much more
+than he has produced remains still to be understood and admired, instead
+of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science, choose for our
+teachers men incapable of being taught,&mdash;whose only claim to know is,
+that they have never doubted,&mdash;from whom we can learn nothing but their
+own indocility,&mdash;who would teach us to scorn what in the silence of our
+hearts we ought to adore?</p>
+
+<p>Different from them are all the great critics. They have taught us one
+essential rule. I think the excellent and philosophic artist, a true
+judge, as well as a perfect follower of Nature, Sir Joshua Reynolds, has
+somewhere applied it, or something like it, in his own profession. It is
+this: that, if ever we should find ourselves disposed not to admire
+those writers or artists (Livy and Virgil, for instance, Raphael or
+Michael Angelo) whom all the learned had admired, <a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" title="213" class="pagenum"></a>not to follow our own
+fancies, but to study them, until we know how and what we ought to
+admire; and if we cannot arrive at this combination of admiration with
+knowledge, rather to believe that we are dull than that the rest of the
+world has been imposed on. It is as good a rule, at least, with regard
+to this admired Constitution. We ought to understand it according to our
+measure, and to venerate where we are not able presently to comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>Such admirers were our fathers, to whom we owe this splendid
+inheritance. Let us improve it with zeal, but with fear. Let us follow
+our ancestors, men not without a rational, though without an exclusive
+confidence in themselves,&mdash;who, by respecting the reason of others, who,
+by looking backward as well as forward, by the modesty as well as by the
+energy of their minds, went on insensibly drawing this Constitution
+nearer and nearer to its perfection, by never departing from its
+fundamental principles, nor introducing any amendment which had not a
+subsisting root in the laws, Constitution, and usages of the kingdom.
+Let those who have the trust of political or of natural authority ever
+keep watch against the desperate enterprises of innovation: let even
+their benevolence be fortified and armed. They have before their eyes
+the example of a monarch insulted, degraded, confined, deposed; his
+family dispersed, scattered, imprisoned; his wife insulted to his face,
+like the vilest of the sex, by the vilest of all populace; himself three
+times dragged by these wretches in an infamous triumph; his children
+torn from him, in violation of the first right of Nature, and given into
+the tuition of the most desperate and impious of the leaders of
+desperate and impious clubs; <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" title="214" class="pagenum"></a>his revenues dilapidated and plundered;
+his magistrates murdered; his clergy proscribed, persecuted, famished;
+his nobility degraded in their rank, undone in their fortunes, fugitives
+in their persons; his armies corrupted and ruined; his whole people
+impoverished, disunited, dissolved; whilst through the bars of his
+prison, and amidst the bayonets of his keepers, he hears the tumult of
+two conflicting factions, equally wicked and abandoned, who agree in
+principles, in dispositions, and in objects, but who tear each other to
+pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining their common end: the
+one contending to preserve for a while his name, and his person, the
+more easily to destroy the royal authority,&mdash;the other clamoring to cut
+off the name, the person, and the monarchy together, by one sacrilegious
+execution. All this accumulation of calamity, the greatest that ever
+fell upon one man, has fallen upon his head, because he had left his
+virtues unguarded by caution,&mdash;because he was not taught, that, where
+power is concerned, he who will confer benefits must take security
+against ingratitude.</p>
+
+<p>I have stated the calamities which have fallen upon a great prince and
+nation, because they were not alarmed at the approach of danger, and
+because, what commonly happens to men surprised, they lost all resource
+when they were caught in it. When I speak of danger, I certainly mean to
+address myself to those who consider the prevalence of the new Whig
+doctrines as an evil.</p>
+
+<p>The Whigs of this day have before them, in this Appeal, their
+constitutional ancestors; they have the doctors of the modern school.
+They will choose for themselves. The author of the Reflections has
+chosen <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" title="215" class="pagenum"></a>for himself. If a new order is coming on, and all the political
+opinions must pass away as dreams, which our ancestors have worshipped
+as revelations, I say for him, that he would rather be the last (as
+certainly he is the least) of that race of men than the first and
+greatest of those who have coined to themselves Whig principles from a
+French die, unknown to the impress of our fathers in the Constitution.<a name="Page_216" id="Page_216" title="216" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Newspaper intelligence ought always to be received with
+some degree of caution. I do not know that the following paragraph is
+founded on any authority; but it comes with an air of authority. The
+paper is professedly in the interest of the modern Whigs, and under
+their direction. The paragraph is not disclaimed on their part. It
+professes to be the decision of those whom its author calls &quot;the great
+and firm body of the Whigs of England.&quot; Who are the Whigs of a different
+composition, which the promulgator of the sentence considers as composed
+of fleeting and unsettled particles, I know not, nor whether there be
+any of that description. The definitive sentence of &quot;the great and firm
+body of the Whigs of England&quot; (as this paper gives it out) is as
+follows:&mdash;
+</p><p>
+&quot;The great and firm body of the Whigs of England, true to their
+principles, have decided on the dispute between Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke;
+and the former is declared to have maintained the pure doctrines by
+which they are bound together, and upon which they have invariably
+acted. The consequence is, that Mr. Burke retires from
+Parliament.&quot;&mdash;<i>Morning Chronicle</i>, May 12, 1791.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Reflections, &amp;c., 1st ed., London, J. Dodsley,
+1790.&mdash;Works, Vol. III. p. 343, in the present edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> To explain this, it will be necessary to advert to a
+paragraph which appeared in a paper in the minority interest some time
+before this debate. &quot;A very dark intrigue has lately been discovered,
+the authors of which are well known to us; but until the glorious day
+shall come when it will not be a LIBEL to tell the TRUTH, we must not be
+so regardless of our own safety as to publish their names. We will,
+however, state the fact, leaving it to the ingenuity of our readers to
+discover what we dare not publish.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Since the business of the armament against Russia has been under
+discussion, a great personage has been heard to say, 'that he was not so
+wedded to Mr. PITT as not to be very willing to give his confidence to
+Mr. FOX, if the latter should be able, in a crisis like the present, to
+conduct the government of the country with greater advantage to the
+public.'
+</p><p>
+&quot;This patriotic declaration immediately alarmed the swarm of courtly
+insects that live only in the sunshine of ministerial favor. It was
+thought to be the forerunner of the dismission of Mr. Pitt, and every
+engine was set at work for the purpose of preventing such an event. The
+principal engine employed on this occasion was CALUMNY. It was whispered
+in the ear of a great personage, that Mr. Fox was the last man in
+England to be trusted by a KING, because he was by PRINCIPLE a
+REPUBLICAN, and consequently an enemy to MONARCHY.
+</p><p>
+&quot;In the discussion of the Quebec Bill which stood for yesterday, it was
+the intention of some persons to connect with this subject the French
+Revolution, in hopes that Mr. Fox would be warmed by a collision with
+Mr. Burke, and induced to defend that Revolution, in which so much power
+was taken from, and so little left in the crown.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Had Mr. Fox fallen into the snare, his speech on the occasion would
+have been laid before a great personage, as a proof that a man who could
+defend such a revolution might be a very good republican, but could not
+possibly be a friend to monarchy.
+</p><p>
+&quot;But those who laid the snare were disappointed; for Mr. Fox, in the
+short conversation which took place yesterday in the House of Commons,
+said, that he confessedly had thought favorably of the French
+Revolution, but that most certainly he never had, either in Parliament
+or out of Parliament, professed or defended republican
+principles.&quot;&mdash;<i>Argus</i>, April 22d, 1791.
+</p><p>
+Mr. Burke cannot answer for the truth nor prove the falsehood of the
+story given by the friends of the party in this paper. He only knows
+that an opinion of its being well or ill authenticated had no influence
+on his conduct. He meant only, to the best of his power, to guard the
+public against the ill designs of factions out of doors. What Mr. Burke
+did in Parliament could hardly have been intended to draw Mr. Fox into
+any declarations unfavorable to his principles, since (by the account of
+those who are his friends) he had long before effectually prevented the
+success of any such scandalous designs. Mr. Fox's friends have
+themselves done away that imputation on Mr. Burke.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See his speech on American Taxation, the 19th of April,
+1774.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Lord Lansdowne.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Mr. Windham.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> July 17th, 1765.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Works, Vol. III. pp. 251-276, present edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> State Trials, Vol. V. p. 651.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Page 676.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The words necessary to the completion of the sentence are
+wanting in the printed trial&mdash;but the construction of the sentence, as
+well as the foregoing part of the speech, justify the insertion of some
+such supplemental words as the above.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> &quot;What we did was, in truth and substance, and in a
+constitutional light, a revolution, not made, but prevented. We took
+solid securities; we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies
+in our law. In the stable, fundamental parts of our Constitution we made
+no revolution,&mdash;no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the
+monarchy. Perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very
+considerably. The nation kept the same ranks, the same orders, the same
+privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property, the same
+subordinations, the same order in the law, in the revenue, and in the
+magistracy,&mdash;the same lords, the same commons, the same corporations,
+the same electors.&quot;&mdash;<i>Mr. Burke's Speech in the House of Commons, 9th
+February, 1790.</i>&mdash;It appears how exactly he coincides in everything with
+Sir Joseph Jekyl.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> See Reflections, pp. 42, 43.&mdash;Works, Vol. III. p. 270,
+present edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Declaration of Right.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Vindication of the Rights of Man, recommended by the
+several societies.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> &quot;Omnes omnium charitates patria una complectitur.&quot;&mdash;Cic.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> A few lines in Persius contain a good summary of all the
+objects of moral investigation, and hint the result of our inquiry:
+There human will has no place.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Quid <i>sumus</i>? et quidnam <i>victuri gignimur</i>? ordo<br /></span>
+<span>Quis <i>datus</i>? et <i>met&aelig;</i> quis mollis flexus, et unde?<br /></span>
+<span>Quis modus argento? Quid <i>fas optare</i>? Quid asper<br /></span>
+<span>Utile nummus habet? <i>Patri&aelig; charisque propinquis</i><br /></span>
+<span>Quantum elargiri <i>debet</i>? Quem te Deus esse<br /></span>
+<span><i>Jussit</i>? et humana qua parte <i>locatus es</i> in re?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> It is no small loss to the world, that the whole of this
+enlightened and philosophic sermon, preached to <i>two hundred thousand</i>
+national guards assembled at Blackheath (a number probably equal to the
+sublime and majestic <i>F&eacute;d&eacute;ration</i> of the 14th of July, 1790, in the
+Champ de Mars) is not preserved. A short abstract is, however, to be
+found in Walsingham. I have added it here for the edification of the
+modern Whigs, who may possibly except this precious little fragment from
+their general contempt of ancient learning.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Ut su&acirc; doctrin&acirc; plures inficeret, ad le Blackheth (ubi ducenta millia
+hominum communium fuere simul congregata) hujuscemodi sermonem est
+exorsus.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;Whan Adam dalfe and Eve span,<br /></span>
+<span>Who was than a gentleman?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p class="noindent">
+Continuansque sermonem inceptum, nitebatur per verba proverbii, quod pro
+themate sumpserat, introducere et probare, <i>ab initio omnes pares
+creatos a natur&acirc;</i>, servitutem per injustam oppressionem nequam hominum
+introductam contra Dei voluntatem, quia si Deo placuisset servos
+cre&acirc;sse, utique in principio mundi constituisset, quis servus, quisve
+dominus futurus fuisset. Considerarent igitur jam tempus a Deo datum
+eis, in quo (deposito servitutis jugo diutius) possent, si vellent,
+libertate diu concupit&acirc; gaudere. Quapropter monuit ut essent viri
+cordati, et amore boni patrisfamilias excolentis agrum suum, et
+extirpantis ac resecantis noxia gramina qu&aelig; fruges solent opprimere, et
+ipsi in pr&aelig;senti facere festinarent. Prim&ograve; <i>majores regni dominos
+occidendo. Deinde juridicos, justiciarios, et juratores patri&aelig;
+perimendo.</i> Postrem&ograve; quoscunque scirent <i>in posterum communitati
+nocivos</i> tollerent de terr&acirc; su&acirc;, sic demum et <i>pacem</i> sibimet <i>parerent
+et securitatem</i> in futurum. <i>Si sublatis majoribus esset inter eos &aelig;qua
+libertas, eadem nobilitas, par dignitas, similisque potestas.</i>&quot;
+</p><p>
+Here is displayed at once the whole of the grand <i>arcanum</i> pretended to
+be found out by the National Assembly, for securing future happiness,
+peace, and tranquillity. There seems, however, to be some doubt whether
+this venerable protomartyr of philosophy was inclined to carry his own
+declaration of the rights of men more rigidly into practice than the
+National Assembly themselves. He was, like them, only preaching
+licentiousness to the populace to obtain power for himself, if we may
+believe what is subjoined by the historian.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Cumque h&aelig;c et <i>plura alia deliramenta</i>&quot; (think of this old fool's
+calling all the wise maxims of the French Academy <i>deliramenta</i>!)
+&quot;pr&aelig;dic&acirc;sset, commune vulgus cum tanto favore prosequitur, ut
+<i>exclamarent eum archiepiscopum futurum, et regni cancellarium</i>.&quot;
+Whether he would have taken these situations under these names, or would
+have changed the whole nomenclature of the State and Church, to be
+understood in the sense of the Revolution, is not so certain. It is
+probable that he would have changed the names and kept the substance of
+power.
+</p><p>
+We find, too, that they had in those days their <i>society for
+constitutional information</i>, of which the Reverend John Ball was a
+conspicuous member, sometimes under his own name, sometimes under the
+feigned name of John Schep. Besides him it consisted (as Knyghton tells
+us) of persons who went by the real or fictitious names of Jack Mylner,
+Tom Baker, Jack Straw, Jack Trewman, Jack Carter, and probably of many
+more. Some of the choicest flowers of the publications charitably
+written and circulated by them gratis are upon record in Walsingham and
+Knyghton: and I am inclined to prefer the pithy and sententious brevity
+of these <i>bulletins</i> of ancient rebellion before the loose and confused
+prolixity of the modern advertisements of constitutional information.
+They contain more good morality and less bad politics, they had much
+more foundation in real oppression, and they have the recommendation of
+being much better adapted to the capacities of those for whose
+instruction they were intended. Whatever laudable pains the teachers of
+the present day appear to take, I cannot compliment them so far as to
+allow that they have succeeded in writing down to the level of their
+pupils, <i>the members of the sovereign</i>, with half the ability of Jack
+Carter and the Reverend John Ball. That my readers may judge for
+themselves, I shall give them, one or two specimens.
+</p><p>
+The first is an address from the Reverend John Ball, under his <i>nom de
+guerre</i> of John Schep. I know not against what particular &quot;guyle in
+borough&quot; the writer means to caution the people; it may have been only a
+general cry against &quot;<i>rotten boroughs</i>,&quot; which it was thought
+convenient, then as now, to make the first pretext, and place at the
+head of the list of grievances.
+</p><p>
+JOHN SCHEP.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Iohn Schep sometime seint Mary priest of Yorke, and now of Colchester,
+greeteth well Iohn Namelesse, and Iohn the Miller, and Iohn Carter, and
+<i>biddeth them that they beware of guyle in borough</i>, and stand together
+in Gods name, and biddeth Piers Ploweman goe to his werke, and chastise
+well <i>Hob the robber</i>, [probably the king,] and take with you Iohn
+Trewman, and all his fellows, and no moe.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;Iohn the Miller hath yground smal, small, small:<br /></span>
+<span>The kings sonne of heauen shal pay for all.<br /></span>
+<span>Beware or ye be woe,<br /></span>
+<span>Know your frende fro your foe,<br /></span>
+<span>Haue ynough, and say hoe:<br /></span>
+<span>And do wel and better, &amp; flee sinne,<br /></span>
+<span><i>And seeke peace and holde you therin,</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p class="noindent">
+&amp; so biddeth Iohn Trewman &amp; all his fellowes.&quot;
+</p><p>
+The reader has perceived, from the last lines of this curious
+state-paper, how well the National Assembly has copied its union of the
+profession of universal peace with the practice of murder and confusion,
+and the blast of the trumpet of sedition in all nations. He will in the
+following constitutional paper observe how well, in their enigmatical
+style, like the Assembly and their abettors, the old philosophers
+proscribe all hereditary distinction, and bestow it only on virtue and
+wisdom, according to their estimation of both. Yet these people are
+supposed never to have heard of &quot;the rights of man&quot;!
+</p><p>
+JACK MYLNER.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Jakke Mylner asket help to turne his mylne aright.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;He hath grounden smal smal,<br /></span>
+<span>The Kings sone of heven he schal pay for alle.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p class="noindent">
+Loke thy mylne go a rygt, with the fours sayles, and the post stande in
+steadfastnesse.
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span   style="margin-left: -.5em;">&quot;With rygt and with mygt,<br /></span>
+<span>With skyl and with wylle,<br /></span>
+<span>Lat mygt helpe rygt,<br /></span>
+<span>And skyl go before wille,<br /></span>
+<span>And rygt before mygt:<br /></span>
+<span>Than goth oure mylne aryght.<br /></span>
+<span>And if mygt go before ryght,<br /></span>
+<span>And wylle before skylle;<br /></span>
+<span>Than is oure mylne mys a dygt.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p>
+JACK CARTER understood perfectly the doctrine of looking to the <i>end</i>,
+with an indifference to the <i>means</i>, and the probability of much good
+arising from great evil.
+</p><p>
+&quot;Jakke Carter pryes yowe alle that ye make a gode <i>ende</i> of that ye hane
+begunnen, and doth wele and ay bettur and bettur: for at the even men
+heryth the day. <i>For if the ende be wele, than is alle wele.</i> Lat Peres
+the Plowman my brother duelle at home and dygt us corne, and I will go
+with yowe and helpe that y may to dygte youre mete and youre drynke,
+that ye none fayle: lokke that Hobbe robbyoure be wele chastysed for
+lesyng of youre grace: for ye have gret nede to take God with yowe in
+alle yours dedes. For nowe is tyme to be war.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See the wise remark on this subject in the Defence of
+Rights of Man, circulated by the societies.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> The primary assemblies.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217" title="217" class="pagenum"></a><a name="PEER_OF_IRELAND" id="PEER_OF_IRELAND" /></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span style="font-size: 60%">A</span><br />
+<br />
+LETTER<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">TO</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">A PEER OF IRELAND</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON THE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICS,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">PREVIOUS TO</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 75%">THE LATE REPEAL OF A PART THEREOF IN THE SESSION OF THE IRISH
+PARLIAMENT, HELD A.D. 1782.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218" title="218" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219" title="219" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="quotdate">CHARLES STREET, LONDON, Feb. 21, 1782</p>
+
+
+<p>My Lord,&mdash;I am obliged to your Lordship for your communication of the
+heads of Mr. Gardiner's bill. I had received it, in an earlier stage of
+its progress, from Mr. Braughall; and I am still in that gentleman's
+debt, as I have not made him the proper return for the favor he has done
+me. Business, to which I was more immediately called, and in which my
+sentiments had the weight of one vote, occupied me every moment since I
+received his letter. This first morning which I can call my own I give
+with great cheerfulness to the subject on which your Lordship has done
+me the honor of desiring my opinion.</p>
+
+<p>I have read the heads of the bill, with the amendments. Your Lordship is
+too well acquainted with men, and with affairs, to imagine that any true
+judgment can be formed on the value of a great measure of policy from
+the perusal of a piece of paper. At present I am much in the dark with
+regard to the state of the country which the intended law is to be
+applied to. It is not easy for me to determine whether or no it was wise
+(for the sake of expunging the black letter of laws which, menacing as
+they were in the language, were every day fading into disuse) solemnly
+to reaffirm the principles and to reenact the provisions of a code of
+statutes by which <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220" title="220" class="pagenum"></a>you are totally excluded from THE PRIVILEGES OF THE
+COMMONWEALTH, from the highest to the lowest, from the most material of
+the civil professions, from the army, and even from education, where
+alone education is to be had.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor" title=" The sketch of the bill sent to Mr. Burke, along with the
+repeal of some acts, reaffirmed many others in the penal code. It was
+altered afterwards, and the clauses reaffirming the incapacities left
+out; but they all still exist, and are in full force.">[26]</a></p>
+
+<p>Whether this scheme of indulgence, grounded at once on contempt and
+jealousy, has a tendency gradually to produce something better and more
+liberal, I cannot tell, for want of having the actual map of the
+country. If this should be the case, it was right in you to accept it,
+such as it is. But if this should be one of the experiments which have
+sometimes been made before the temper of the nation was ripe for a real
+reformation, I think it may possibly have ill effects, by disposing the
+penal matter in a more systematic order, and thereby fixing a permanent
+bar against any relief that is truly substantial. The whole merit or
+demerit of the measure depends upon the plans and dispositions of those
+by whom the act was made, concurring with the general temper of the
+Protestants of Ireland, and their aptitude to admit in time of some part
+of that equality without which you never can be FELLOW-CITIZENS. Of all
+this I am wholly ignorant. All my correspondence with men of public
+importance in Ireland has for some time totally ceased. On the first
+bill for the relief of the ROMAN CATHOLICS of Ireland, I was, without
+any call of mine, consulted both on your side of the water and on this.
+On the present occasion, I have not heard a word from any man in office,
+and know as <a name="Page_221" id="Page_221" title="221" class="pagenum"></a>little of the intentions of the British government as I
+know of the temper of the Irish Parliament. I do not find that any
+opposition was made by the principal persons of the minority in the
+House of Commons, or that any is apprehended from them in the House of
+Lords. The whole of the difficulty seems to lie with the principal men
+in government, under whose protection this bill is supposed to be
+brought in. This violent opposition and cordial support, coming from one
+and the same quarter, appears to me something mysterious, and hinders me
+from being able to make any clear judgment of the merit of the present
+measure, as compared with the actual state of the country and the
+general views of government, without which one can say nothing that may
+not be very erroneous.</p>
+
+<p>To look at the bill in the abstract, it is neither more nor less than a
+renewed act of UNIVERSAL, UNMITIGATED, INDISPENSABLE, EXCEPTIONLESS
+DISQUALIFICATION.</p>
+
+<p>One would imagine that a bill inflicting such a multitude of
+incapacities had followed on the heels of a conquest made by a very
+fierce enemy, under the impression of recent animosity and resentment.
+No man, on reading that bill, could imagine he was reading an act of
+amnesty and indulgence, following a recital of the good behavior of
+those who are the objects of it,&mdash;which recital stood at the head of the
+bill, as it was first introduced, but, I suppose for its incongruity
+with the body of the piece, was afterwards omitted. This I say on
+memory. It, however, still recites the oath, and that Catholics ought to
+be considered as good and loyal subjects to his Majesty, his crown and
+government. Then follows an universal <a name="Page_222" id="Page_222" title="222" class="pagenum"></a>exclusion of those GOOD and LOYAL
+subjects from every (even the lowest) office of trust and profit,&mdash;from
+any vote at an election,&mdash;from any privilege in a town corporate,&mdash;from
+being even a freeman of such a corporation,&mdash;from serving on grand
+juries,&mdash;from a vote at a vestry,&mdash;from having a gun in his house,&mdash;from
+being a barrister, attorney, or solicitor, &amp;c., &amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>This has surely much more the air of a table of proscription than an act
+of grace. What must we suppose the laws concerning those <i>good</i> subjects
+to have been, of which this is a relaxation? I know well that there is a
+cant language current, about the difference between an exclusion from
+employments, even to the most rigorous extent, and an exclusion from the
+natural benefits arising from a man's own industry. I allow, that, under
+some circumstances, the difference is very material in point of justice,
+and that there are considerations which may render it advisable for a
+wise government to keep the leading parts of every branch of civil and
+military administration in hands of the best trust; but a total
+exclusion from the commonwealth is a very different thing. When a
+government subsists (as governments formerly did) on an estate of its
+own, with but few and inconsiderable revenues drawn from the subject,
+then the few officers which existed in such establishments were
+naturally at the disposal of that government, which paid the salaries
+out of its own coffers: there an exclusive preference could hardly merit
+the name of proscription. Almost the whole produce of a man's industry
+at that time remained in his own purse to maintain his family. But times
+alter, and the <i>whole</i> estate of government is from private
+contribution.<a name="Page_223" id="Page_223" title="223" class="pagenum"></a> When a very great portion of the labor of individuals
+goes to the state, and is by the state again refunded to individuals,
+through the medium of offices, and in this circuitous progress from the
+private to the public, and from the public again to the private fund,
+the families from whom the revenue is taken are indemnified, and an
+equitable balance between the government and the subject is established.
+But if a great body of the people who contribute to this state lottery
+are excluded from all the prizes, the stopping the circulation with
+regard to them may be a most cruel hardship, amounting in effect to
+being double and treble taxed; and it will be felt as such to the very
+quick, by all the families, high and low, of those hundreds of thousands
+who are denied their chance in the returned fruits of their own
+industry. This is the thing meant by those who look upon the public
+revenue only as a spoil, and will naturally wish to have as few as
+possible concerned in the division of the booty. If a state should be so
+unhappy as to think it cannot subsist without such a barbarous
+proscription, the persons so proscribed ought to be indemnified by the
+remission of a large part of their taxes, by an immunity from the
+offices of public burden, and by an exemption from being pressed into
+any military or naval service.</p>
+
+<p>Common sense and common justice dictate this at least, as some sort of
+compensation to a people for their slavery. How many families are
+incapable of existing, if the little offices of the revenue and little
+military commissions are denied them! To deny them at home, and to make
+the happiness of acquiring some of them somewhere else felony or high
+treason, is a piece of cruelty, in which, till very late<a name="Page_224" id="Page_224" title="224" class="pagenum"></a>ly, I did not
+suppose this age capable of persisting. Formerly a similarity of
+religion made a sort of country for a man in some quarter or other. A
+refugee for religion was a protected character. Now the reception is
+cold indeed; and therefore, as the asylum abroad is destroyed, the
+hardship at home is doubled. This hardship is the more intolerable
+because the professions are shut up. The Church is so of course. Much is
+to be said on that subject, in regard to them, and to the Protestant
+Dissenters. But that is a chapter by itself. I am sure I wish well to
+that Church, and think its ministers among the very best citizens of
+your country. However, such as it is, a great walk in life is forbidden
+ground to seventeen hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Ireland. Why
+are they excluded from the law? Do not they expend money in their suits?
+Why may not they indemnify themselves, by profiting, in the persons of
+some, for the losses incurred by others? Why may not they have persons
+of confidence, whom they may, if they please, employ in the agency of
+their affairs? The exclusion from the law, from grand juries, from
+sheriffships and under-sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any
+corporation, may subject them to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude
+them wholly from all that is beneficial and expose them to all that is
+mischievous in a trial by jury. This was manifestly within my own
+observation, for I was three times in Ireland from the year 1760 to the
+year 1767, where I had sufficient means of information concerning the
+inhuman proceedings (among which were many cruel murders, besides an
+infinity of outrages and oppressions unknown before in a civilized age)
+which prevailed during that period, in consequence of a pre<a name="Page_225" id="Page_225" title="225" class="pagenum"></a>tended
+conspiracy among <i>Roman Catholics</i> against the king's government. I
+could dilate upon the mischiefs that may happen, from those which have
+happened, upon this head of disqualification, if it were at all
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The head of exclusion from votes for members of Parliament is closely
+connected with the former. When you cast your eye on the statute-book,
+you will see that no <i>Catholic</i>, even in the ferocious acts of Queen
+Anne, was disabled from voting on account of his religion. The only
+conditions required for that privilege were the oaths of allegiance and
+abjuration,&mdash;both oaths relative to a civil concern. Parliament has
+since added another oath of the same kind; and yet a House of Commons,
+adding to the securities of government in proportion as its danger is
+confessedly lessened, and professing both confidence and indulgence, in
+effect takes away the privilege left by an act full of jealousy and
+professing persecution.</p>
+
+<p>The taking away of a vote is the taking away the shield which the
+subject has, not only against the oppression of power, but that worst of
+all oppressions, the persecution of private society and private manners.
+No candidate for Parliamentary influence is obliged to the least
+attention towards them, either in cities or counties. On the contrary,
+if they should become obnoxious to any bigoted or malignant people
+amongst whom they live, it will become the interest of those who court
+popular favor to use the numberless means which always reside in
+magistracy and influence to oppress them. The proceedings in a certain
+county in Munster, during the unfortunate period I have mentioned, read
+a strong lecture on <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226" title="226" class="pagenum"></a>the cruelty of depriving men of that shield on
+account of their speculative opinions. The Protestants of Ireland feel
+well and naturally on the hardship of being bound by laws in the
+enacting of which they do not directly or indirectly vote. The bounds of
+these matters are nice, and hard to be settled in theory, and perhaps
+they have been pushed too far. But how they can avoid the necessary
+application of the principles they use in their disputes with others to
+their disputes with their fellow-citizens, I know not.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, the words of this act do not create a disability; but they
+clearly and evidently suppose it. There are few <i>Catholic</i> freeholders
+to take the benefit of the privilege, if they were permitted to partake
+it; but the manner in which this very right in freeholders at large is
+defended is not on the idea that the freeholders do really and truly
+represent the people, but that, all people being capable of obtaining
+freeholds, all those who by their industry and sobriety merit this
+privilege have the means of arriving at votes. It is the same with the
+corporations.</p>
+
+<p>The laws against foreign education are clearly the very worst part of
+the old code. Besides your laity, you have the succession of about four
+thousand clergymen to provide for. These, having no lucrative objects in
+prospect, are taken very much out of the lower orders of the people. At
+home they have no means whatsoever provided for their attaining a
+clerical education, or indeed any education at all. When I was in Paris,
+about seven years ago, I looked at everything, and lived with every kind
+of people, as well as my time admitted. I saw there the Irish college of
+the Lombard, which seemed to me a very good place of education, under
+excellent orders and regula<a name="Page_227" id="Page_227" title="227" class="pagenum"></a>tions, and under the government of a very
+prudent and learned man (the late Dr. Kelly). This college was possessed
+of an annual fixed revenue of more than a thousand pound a year, the
+greatest part of which had arisen from the legacies and benefactions of
+persons educated in that college, and who had obtained promotions in
+France, from the emolument of which promotions they made this grateful
+return. One in particular I remember, to the amount of ten thousand
+livres annually, as it is recorded on the donor's monument in their
+chapel.</p>
+
+<p>It has been the custom of poor persons in Ireland to pick up such
+knowledge of the Latin tongue as, under the general discouragements, and
+occasional pursuits of magistracy, they were able to acquire; and
+receiving orders at home, were sent abroad to obtain a clerical
+education. By officiating in petty chaplainships, and performing now and
+then certain offices of religion for small gratuities, they received the
+means of maintaining themselves until they were able to complete their
+education. Through such difficulties and discouragements, many of them
+have arrived at a very considerable proficiency, so as to be marked and
+distinguished abroad. These persons afterwards, by being sunk in the
+most abject poverty, despised and ill-treated by the higher orders among
+Protestants, and not much better esteemed or treated even by the few
+persons of fortune of their own persuasion, and contracting the habits
+and ways of thinking of the poor and uneducated, among whom they were
+obliged to live, in a few years retained little or no traces of the
+talents and acquirements which distinguished them in the early periods
+of their lives. Can we with justice cut them off from <a name="Page_228" id="Page_228" title="228" class="pagenum"></a>the use of places
+of education founded for the greater part from the economy of poverty
+and exile, without providing something that is equivalent at home?</p>
+
+<p>Whilst this restraint of foreign and domestic education was part of an
+horrible and impious system of servitude, the members were well fitted
+to the body. To render men patient under a deprivation of all the rights
+of human nature, everything which could give them a knowledge or feeling
+of those rights was rationally forbidden. To render humanity fit to be
+insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded. But when we profess to
+restore men to the capacity for property, it is equally irrational and
+unjust to deny them the power of improving their minds as well as their
+fortunes. Indeed, I have ever thought the prohibition of the means of
+improving our rational nature to be the worst species of tyranny that
+the insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared to exercise. This
+goes to all men, in all situations, to whom education can be denied.</p>
+
+<p>Your Lordship mentions a proposal which came from my friend, the
+Provost, whose benevolence and enlarged spirit I am perfectly convinced
+of,&mdash;which is, the proposal of erecting a few sizarships in the college,
+for the education (I suppose) of Roman Catholic clergymen.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor" title=" It appears that Mr. Hutchinson meant this only as one of
+the means for their relief in point of education.">[27]</a> He
+certainly meant it well; but, coming from such a man as he is, it is a
+strong instance of the danger of suffering any description of men to
+fall into entire contempt. The charities intended for them are not
+perceived to be fresh insults; and the true nature of their wants and
+necessities being unknown, remedies wholly unsuitable to <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229" title="229" class="pagenum"></a>the nature of
+their complaint are provided for them. It is to feed a sick Gentoo with
+beef broth, and to foment his wounds with brandy. If the other parts of
+the university were open to them, as well on the foundation as
+otherwise, the offering of sizarships would be a proportioned part of a
+<i>general</i> kindness. But when everything <i>liberal</i> is withheld, and only
+that which is <i>servile</i> is permitted, it is easy to conceive upon what
+footing they must be in such a place.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hutchinson must well know the regard and honor I have for him; and
+he cannot think my dissenting from him in this particular arises from a
+disregard of his opinion: it only shows that I think he has lived in
+Ireland. To have any respect for the character and person of a Popish
+priest there&mdash;oh, 'tis an uphill work indeed! But until we come to
+respect what stands in a respectable light with others, we are very
+deficient in the temper which qualifies us to make any laws and
+regulations about them: it even disqualifies us from being charitable to
+them with any effect or judgment.</p>
+
+<p>When we are to provide for the education of any body of men, we ought
+seriously to consider the particular functions they are to perform in
+life. A Roman Catholic clergyman is the minister of a very ritual
+religion, and by his profession subject to many restraints. His life is
+a life full of strict observances; and his duties are of a laborious
+nature towards himself, and of the highest possible trust towards
+others. The duty of confession alone is sufficient to set in the
+strongest light the necessity of his having an appropriated mode of
+education. The theological opinions and peculiar rites of one religion
+<a name="Page_230" id="Page_230" title="230" class="pagenum"></a>never can be properly taught in universities founded for the purposes
+and on the principles of another which in many points are directly
+opposite. If a Roman Catholic clergyman, intended for celibacy and the
+function of confession, is not strictly bred in a seminary where these
+things are respected, inculcated, and enforced, as sacred, and not made
+the subject of derision and obloquy, he will be ill fitted for the
+former, and the latter will be indeed in his hands a terrible
+instrument.</p>
+
+<p>There is a great resemblance between, the whole frame and constitution
+of the Greek and Latin Churches. The secular clergy in the former, by
+being married, living under little restraint, and having no particular
+education suited to their function, are universally fallen into such
+contempt that they are never permitted to aspire to the dignities of
+their own Church. It is not held respectful to call them <i>Papas</i>, their
+true and ancient appellation, but those who wish to address them with
+civility always call them <i>Hieromonachi</i>. In consequence of this
+disrespect, which I venture to say, in such a Church, must be the
+consequence of a secular life, a very great degeneracy from reputable
+Christian manners has taken place throughout almost the whole of that
+great member of the Christian Church.</p>
+
+<p>It was so with the Latin Church, before the restraint on marriage. Even
+that restraint gave rise to the greatest disorders before the Council of
+Trent, which, together with the emulation raised and the good examples
+given by the Reformed churches, wherever they were in view of each
+other, has brought on that happy amendment which we see in the Latin
+communion, both at home and abroad.<a name="Page_231" id="Page_231" title="231" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The Council of Trent has wisely introduced the discipline of seminaries,
+by which priests are not trusted for a clerical institution even to the
+severe discipline of their colleges, but, after they pass through them,
+are frequently, if not for the greater part, obliged to pass through
+peculiar methods, having their particular ritual function in view. It is
+in a great measure to this, and to similar methods used in foreign
+education, that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, miserably provided
+for, living among low and ill-regulated people, without any discipline
+of sufficient force to secure good manners, have been prevented from
+becoming an intolerable nuisance to the country, instead of being, as I
+conceive they generally are, a very great service to it.</p>
+
+<p>The ministers of Protestant churches require a different mode of
+education, more liberal, and more fit for the ordinary intercourse of
+life. That religion having little hold on the minds of people by
+external ceremonies and extraordinary observances, or separate habits of
+living, the clergy make up the deficiency by cultivating their minds
+with all kinds of ornamental learning, which the liberal provision made
+in England and Ireland for the parochial clergy, (to say nothing of the
+ample Church preferments, with little or no duties annexed,) and the
+comparative lightness of parochial duties, enables the greater part of
+them in some considerable degree to accomplish.</p>
+
+<p>This learning, which I believe to be pretty general, together with an
+higher situation, and more chastened by the opinion of mankind, forms a
+sufficient security for the morals of the established clergy, and for
+their sustaining their clerical character with dignity. It <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232" title="232" class="pagenum"></a>is not
+necessary to observe, that all these things are, however, collateral to
+their function, and that, except in preaching, which may be and is
+supplied, and often best supplied, out of printed books, little else is
+necessary for a Protestant minister than to be able to read the English
+language,&mdash;I mean for the exercise of his function, not to the
+qualification of his admission to it. But a Popish parson in Ireland may
+do very well without any considerable classical erudition, or any
+proficiency in pure or mixed mathematics, or any knowledge of civil
+history. Even if the Catholic clergy should possess those acquisitions,
+as at first many of them do, they soon lose them in the painful course
+of professional and parochial duties: but they must have all the
+knowledge, and, what is to them more important than the knowledge, the
+discipline, necessary to those duties. All modes of education conducted
+by those whose minds are cast in another mould, as I may say, and whose
+original ways of thinking are formed upon the reverse pattern, must be
+to them not only useless, but mischievous. Just as I should suppose the
+education in a Popish ecclesiastical seminary would be ill fitted for a
+Protestant clergyman. To educate a Catholic priest in a Protestant
+seminary would be much worse. The Protestant educated amongst Catholics
+has only something to reject: what he keeps may be useful. But a
+Catholic parish priest learns little for his peculiar purpose and duty
+in a Protestant college.</p>
+
+<p>All this, my Lord, I know very well, will pass for nothing with those
+who wish that the Popish clergy should be illiterate, and in a situation
+to produce contempt and detestation. Their minds are wholly <a name="Page_233" id="Page_233" title="233" class="pagenum"></a>taken up
+with party squabbles, and I have neither leisure nor inclination to
+apply any part of what I have to say to those who never think of
+religion or of the commonwealth in any other light than as they tend to
+the prevalence of some faction in either. I speak on a supposition that
+there is a disposition <i>to take the state in the condition in which it
+is found</i>, and to improve it <i>in that state</i> to the best advantage.
+Hitherto the plan for the government of Ireland has been to sacrifice
+the civil prosperity of the nation to its religious improvement. But if
+people in power there are at length come to entertain other ideas, they
+will consider the good order, decorum, virtue, and morality of every
+description of men among them as of infinitely greater importance than
+the struggle (for it is nothing better) to change those descriptions by
+means which put to hazard objects which, in my poor opinion, are of more
+importance to religion and to the state than all the polemical matter
+which has been agitated among men from the beginning of the world to
+this hour.</p>
+
+<p>On this idea, an education fitted <i>to each order and division of men,
+such as they are found</i>, will be thought an affair rather to be
+encouraged than discountenanced; and until institutions at home,
+suitable to the occasions and necessities of the people, are
+established, and which are armed, as they are abroad, with authority to
+coerce the young men to be formed in them by a strict and severe
+discipline, the means they have at present of a cheap and effectual
+education in other countries should not continue to be prohibited by
+penalties and modes of inquisition not fit to be mentioned to ears that
+<a name="Page_234" id="Page_234" title="234" class="pagenum"></a>are organized to the chaste sounds of equity and justice.</p>
+
+<p>Before I had written thus far, I heard of a scheme of giving to the
+Castle the patronage of the presiding members of the Catholic clergy. At
+first I could scarcely credit it; for I believe it is the first time
+that the presentation to other people's alms has been desired in any
+country. If the state provides a suitable maintenance and temporality
+for the governing members of the Irish Roman Catholic Church, and for
+the clergy under them, I should think the project, however improper in
+other respects, to be by no means unjust. But to deprive a poor people,
+who maintain a second set of clergy, out of the miserable remains of
+what is left after taxing and tithing, to deprive them of the
+disposition of their own charities among their own communion, would, in
+my opinion, be an intolerable hardship. Never were the members of one
+religious sect fit to appoint the pastors to another. Those who have no
+regard for their welfare, reputation, or internal quiet will not appoint
+such as are proper. The seraglio of Constantinople is as equitable as we
+are, whether Catholics or Protestants,&mdash;and where their own sect is
+concerned, full as religious. But the sport which they make of the
+miserable dignities of the Greek Church, the little factions of the
+harem to which they make them subservient, the continual sale to which
+they expose and re&euml;xpose the same dignity, and by which they squeeze all
+the inferior orders of the clergy, is (for I have had particular means
+of being acquainted with it) nearly equal to all the other oppressions
+together, exercised by Mussulmen over the unhappy members of the
+Oriental<a name="Page_235" id="Page_235" title="235" class="pagenum"></a> Church. It is a great deal to suppose that even the present
+Castle would nominate bishops for the Roman Church of Ireland with a
+religious regard for its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they dare
+not do it.</p>
+
+<p>But suppose them to be as well inclined as I know that I am to do the
+Catholics all kind of justice, I declare I would not, if it were in my
+power, take that patronage on myself. I know I ought not to do it. I
+belong to another community, and it would be intolerable usurpation for
+me to affect such authority, where I conferred no benefit, or even if I
+did confer (as in some degree the seraglio does) temporal advantages.
+But allowing that the <i>present</i> Castle finds itself fit to administer
+the government of a church which they solemnly forswear, and forswear
+with very hard words and many evil epithets, and that as often as they
+qualify themselves for the power which is to give this very patronage,
+or to give anything else that they desire,&mdash;yet they cannot insure
+themselves that a man like the late Lord Chesterfield will not succeed
+to them. This man, while he was duping the credulity of Papists with
+fine words in private, and commending their good behavior during a
+rebellion in Great Britain, (as it well deserved to be commended and
+rewarded,) was capable of urging penal laws against them in a speech
+from the throne, and of stimulating with provocatives the wearied and
+half-exhausted bigotry of the then Parliament of Ireland. They set to
+work, but they were at a loss what to do; for they had already almost
+gone through every contrivance which could <i>waste the vigor</i> of their
+country: but, after much struggle, they produced a child of their old
+age, the shocking and unnatural act about <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236" title="236" class="pagenum"></a>marriages, which tended to
+finish the scheme for making the people not only two distinct parties
+forever, but keeping them as two distinct species in the same land. Mr.
+Gardiner's humanity was shocked at it, as one of the worst parts of that
+truly barbarous system, if one could well settle the preference, where
+almost all the parts were outrages on the rights of humanity and the
+laws of Nature.</p>
+
+<p>Suppose an atheist, playing the part of a bigot, should be in power
+again in that country, do you believe that he would faithfully and
+religiously administer the trust of appointing pastors to a church
+which, wanting every other support, stands in tenfold need of ministers
+who will be dear to the people committed to their charge, and who will
+exercise a really paternal authority amongst them? But if the superior
+power was always in a disposition to dispense conscientiously, and like
+an upright trustee and guardian of these rights which he holds for those
+with whom he is at variance, has he the capacity and means of doing it?
+How can the Lord-Lieutenant form the least judgment of their merits, so
+as to discern which of the Popish priests is fit to be made a bishop? It
+cannot be: the idea is ridiculous. He will hand them over to
+lords-lieutenant of counties, justices of the peace, and other persons,
+who, for the purpose of vexing and turning to derision this miserable
+people, will pick out the worst and most obnoxious they can find amongst
+the clergy to set over the rest. Whoever is complained against by his
+brother will be considered as persecuted; whoever is censured by his
+superior will be looked upon as oppressed; whoever is careless in his
+opinions and loose in his morals will be called a liberal man, and <a name="Page_237" id="Page_237" title="237" class="pagenum"></a>will
+be supposed to have incurred hatred because he was not a bigot.
+Informers, tale-bearers, perverse and obstinate men, flatterers, who
+turn their back upon their flock and court the Protestant gentlemen of
+the country, will be the objects of preferment. And then I run no risk
+in foretelling that whatever order, quiet, and morality you have in the
+country will be lost. A Popish clergy who are not restrained by the most
+austere subordination will become a nuisance, a real public grievance of
+the heaviest kind, in any country that entertains them; and instead of
+the great benefit which Ireland does and has long derived from them, if
+they are educated without any idea of discipline and obedience, and then
+put under bishops who do not owe their station to their good opinion,
+and whom they cannot respect, that nation will see disorders, of which,
+bad as things are, it has yet no idea. I do not say this, as thinking
+the leading men in Ireland would exercise this trust worse than others.
+Not at all. No man, no set of men living are fit to administer the
+affairs or regulate the interior economy of a church to which they are
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>As to government, if I might recommend a prudent caution to them, it
+would be, to innovate as little as possible, upon speculation, in
+establishments from which, as they stand, they experience no material
+inconvenience to the repose of the country,&mdash;<i>quieta non movere</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I could say a great deal more; but I am tired, and am afraid your
+Lordship is tired too. I have not sat to this letter a single quarter of
+an hour without interruption. It has grown long, and probably contains
+many repetitions, from my total want of leisure <a name="Page_238" id="Page_238" title="238" class="pagenum"></a>to digest and
+consolidate my thoughts; and as to my expressions, I could wish to be
+able perhaps to measure them more exactly. But my intentions are fair,
+and I certainly mean to offend nobody.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Thinking over this matter more maturely, I see no reason for altering my
+opinion in any part. The act, as far as it goes, is good undoubtedly. It
+amounts, I think, very nearly to a <i>toleration</i>, with respect to
+religious ceremonies; but it puts a new bolt on civil rights, and rivets
+it to the old one in such a manner, that neither, I fear, will be easily
+loosened. What I could have wished would be, to see the civil advantages
+take the lead; the other, of a religious toleration, I conceive, would
+follow, (in a manner,) of course. From what I have observed, it is
+pride, arrogance, and a spirit of domination, and not a bigoted spirit
+of religion, that has caused and kept up those oppressive statutes. I am
+sure I have known those who have oppressed Papists in their civil rights
+exceedingly indulgent to them in their religious ceremonies, and who
+really wished them to continue Catholics, in order to furnish pretences
+for oppression. These persons never saw a man (by converting) escape out
+of their power, but with grudging and regret. I have known men to whom I
+am not uncharitable in saying (though they are dead) that they would
+have become Papists in order to oppress Protestants, if, being
+Protestants, it was not in their power to oppress Papists. It is
+injustice, and not a mistaken conscience, that has been the principle of
+persecution,&mdash;at least, as far as it has fallen under my
+observation.&mdash;However, as I began, so I end. I <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239" title="239" class="pagenum"></a>do not know the map of
+the country. Mr. Gardiner, who conducts this great and difficult work,
+and those who support him, are better judges of the business than I can
+pretend to be, who have not set my foot in Ireland these sixteen years.
+I have been given to understand that I am not considered as a friend to
+that country; and I know that pains have been taken to lessen the credit
+that I might have had there.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I am so convinced of the weakness of interfering in any business,
+without the opinion of the people in whose business I interfere, that I
+do not know how to acquit myself of what I have now done.</p>
+
+<p>I have the honor to be, with high regard and esteem, my Lord,</p>
+
+<p>Your Lordship's most obedient</p>
+
+<p>And humble servant, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>EDMUND BURKE.<a name="Page_240" id="Page_240" title="240" class="pagenum"></a><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> The sketch of the bill sent to Mr. Burke, along with the
+repeal of some acts, reaffirmed many others in the penal code. It was
+altered afterwards, and the clauses reaffirming the incapacities left
+out; but they all still exist, and are in full force.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> It appears that Mr. Hutchinson meant this only as one of
+the means for their relief in point of education.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="SIR_HERCULES_LANGRISHE" id="SIR_HERCULES_LANGRISHE" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span style="font-size: 60%">A</span><br />
+<br />
+LETTER<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">TO</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, BART., M.P.,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON THE SUBJECT OF</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 90%">THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 75%">THE PROPRIETY OF ADMITTING THEM TO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE, CONSISTENTLY
+WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION, AS ESTABLISHED AT THE
+REVOLUTION.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">1792.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242" title="242" class="pagenum"></a><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>My Dear Sir,&mdash;Your remembrance of me, with sentiments of so much
+kindness, has given me the most sincere satisfaction. It perfectly
+agrees with the friendly and hospitable reception which my son and I
+received from you some time since, when, after an absence of twenty-two
+years, I had the happiness of embracing you, among my few surviving
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>I really imagined that I should not again interest myself in any public
+business. I had, to the best of my moderate faculties, paid my club to
+the society which I was born in some way or other to serve; and I
+thought I had a right to put on my night-gown and slippers, and wish a
+cheerful evening to the good company I must leave behind. But if our
+resolutions of vigor and exertion are so often broken or procrastinated
+in the execution, I think we may be excused, if we are not very punctual
+in fulfilling our engagements to indolence and inactivity. I have,
+indeed, no power of action, and am almost a cripple even with regard to
+thinking; but you descend with force into the stagnant pool, and you
+cause such a fermentation as to cure at least one impotent creature of
+his lameness, though it cannot enable him either to run or to wrestle.</p>
+
+<p>You see by the paper<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor" title=" The letter is written on folio sheets.">[28]</a> I take that I am likely to be long, with malice
+prepense. You have brought <a name="Page_244" id="Page_244" title="244" class="pagenum"></a>under my view a subject always difficult, at
+present critical. It has filled my thoughts, which I wish to lay open to
+you with the clearness and simplicity which your friendship demands from
+me. I thank you for the communication of your ideas. I should be still
+more pleased, if they had been more your own. What you hint I believe to
+be the case: that, if you had not deferred to the judgment of others,
+our opinions would not differ more materially at this day than they did
+when we used to confer on the same subject so many years ago. If I still
+persevere in my old opinions, it is no small comfort to me that it is
+not with regard to doctrines properly yours that I discover my
+indocility.</p>
+
+<p>The case upon which your letter of the 10th of December turns is hardly
+before me with precision enough to enable me to form any very certain
+judgment upon it. It seems to be some plan of further indulgence
+proposed for the Catholics of Ireland. You observe, that your &quot;general
+principles are not changed, but that <i>times and circumstances are
+altered</i>.&quot; I perfectly agree with you, that times and circumstances,
+considered with reference to the public, ought very much to govern our
+conduct,&mdash;though I am far from slighting, when applied with discretion
+to those circumstances, general principles and maxims of policy. I
+cannot help observing, however, that you have said rather less upon the
+inapplicability of your own old principles to the <i>circumstances</i> that
+are likely to influence your conduct against these principles than of
+the <i>general</i> maxims of state, which I can very readily believe not to
+have great weight with you personally.</p>
+
+<p>In my present state of imperfect information, you <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245" title="245" class="pagenum"></a>will pardon the
+errors into which I may easily fall. The principles you lay down are,
+&quot;that the Roman Catholics should enjoy everything <i>under</i> the state, but
+should not be <i>the state itself</i>.&quot; And you add, &quot;that, when you exclude
+them from being <i>a part of the state</i>, you rather conform to the spirit
+of the age than to any abstract doctrine&quot;; but you consider the
+Constitution as already established,&mdash;that our state is Protestant. &quot;It
+was declared so at the Revolution. It was so provided in the acts for
+settling the succession of the crown:&mdash;the king's coronation oath was
+enjoined in order to keep it so. The king, as first magistrate of the
+state, is obliged to take the oath of abjuration,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor" title=" A small error of fact as to the abjuration oath, but of no
+importance in the argument.">[29]</a> and to subscribe
+the Declaration; and by laws subsequent, every other magistrate and
+member of the state, legislative and executive, are bound under the same
+obligation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As to the plan to which these maxims are applied, I cannot speak, as I
+told you, positively about it: because neither from your letter, nor
+from any in formation I have been able to collect, do I find anything
+settled, either on the part of the Roman Catholics themselves, or on
+that of any persons who may wish to conduct their affairs in Parliament.
+But if I have leave to conjecture, something is in agitation towards
+admitting them, under <i>certain qualifications</i>, to have <i>some share</i> in
+the election of members of Parliament. This I understand is the scheme
+of those who are entitled to come within your description of persons of
+consideration, property, and character,&mdash;and firmly attached to the king
+and Constitution, as by &quot;law established, with a grateful sense of your
+<a name="Page_246" id="Page_246" title="246" class="pagenum"></a>former concessions, and a patient reliance on the benignity of
+Parliament for the further mitigation of the laws that still affect
+them.&quot;&mdash;As to the low, thoughtless, wild, and profligate, who have
+joined themselves with those of other professions, but of the same
+character, you are not to imagine that for a moment I can suppose them
+to be met with anything else than the manly and enlightened energy of a
+firm government, supported by the united efforts of all virtuous men, if
+ever their proceedings should become so considerable as to demand its
+notice. I really think that such associations should be crushed in their
+very commencement.</p>
+
+<p>Setting, therefore, this case out of the question, it becomes an object
+of very serious consideration, whether, because wicked men of <i>various</i>
+descriptions are engaged in seditious courses, the rational, sober, and
+valuable part of <i>one</i> description should not be indulged in their sober
+and rational expectations. You, who have looked deeply into the spirit
+of the Popery laws, must be perfectly sensible that a great part of the
+present mischief which we abhor in common (if it at all exists) has
+arisen from them. Their declared object was, to reduce the Catholics of
+Ireland to a miserable populace, without property, without estimation,
+without education. The professed object was, to deprive the few men,
+who, in spite of those laws, might hold or obtain any property amongst
+them, of all sort of influence or authority over the rest. They divided
+the nation into two distinct bodies, without common interest, sympathy,
+or connection. One of these bodies was to possess <i>all</i> the franchises,
+<i>all</i> the property, <i>all</i> the education: the other was to be composed of
+drawers of water and <a name="Page_247" id="Page_247" title="247" class="pagenum"></a>cutters of turf for them. Are we to be astonished,
+when, by the efforts of so much violence in conquest, and so much policy
+in regulation, continued without intermission for near an hundred years,
+we had reduced them to a mob, that, whenever they came to act at all,
+many of them would act exactly like a mob, without temper, measure, or
+foresight? Surely it might be just now a matter of temperate discussion,
+whether you ought not to apply a remedy to the real cause of the evil.
+If the disorder you speak of be real and considerable, you ought to
+raise an aristocratic interest, that is, an interest of property and
+education, amongst them,&mdash;and to strengthen, by every prudent means, the
+authority and influence of men of that description. It will deserve your
+best thoughts, to examine whether this can be done without giving such
+persons the means of demonstrating to the rest that something more is to
+be got by their temperate conduct than can be expected from the wild and
+senseless projects of those who do not belong to their body, who have no
+interest in their well-being, and only wish to make them the dupes of
+their turbulent ambition.</p>
+
+<p>If the absurd persons you mention find no way of providing for liberty,
+but by overturning this happy Constitution, and introducing a frantic
+democracy, let us take care how we prevent better people from any
+rational expectations of partaking in the benefits of that Constitution
+<i>as it stands</i>. The maxims you establish cut the matter short. They have
+no sort of connection with the good or the ill behavior of the persons
+who seek relief, or with the proper or improper means by which they seek
+it. They form a perpetual bar to all pleas and to all expectations.<a name="Page_248" id="Page_248" title="248" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>You begin by asserting, that &quot;the Catholics ought to enjoy all things
+<i>under</i> the state, but that they ought not to <i>be the state</i>&quot;: a
+position which, I believe, in the latter part of it, and in the latitude
+there expressed, no man of common sense has ever thought proper to
+dispute; because the contrary implies that the state ought to be in them
+<i>exclusively</i>. But before you have finished the line, you express
+yourself as if the other member of your proposition, namely, that &quot;they
+ought not to be a <i>part</i> of the state,&quot; were necessarily included in the
+first,&mdash;whereas I conceive it to be as different as a part is from the
+whole, that is, just as different as possible. I know, indeed, that it
+is common with those who talk very differently from you, that is, with
+heat and animosity, to confound those things, and to argue the admission
+of the Catholics into any, however minute and subordinate, parts of the
+state, as a surrender into their hands of the whole government of the
+kingdom. To them I have nothing at all to say.</p>
+
+<p>Wishing to proceed with a deliberative spirit and temper in so very
+serious a question, I shall attempt to analyze, as well as I can, the
+principles you lay down, in order to fit them for the grasp of an
+understanding so little comprehensive as
+mine.&mdash;&quot;State,&quot;&mdash;&quot;Protestant,&quot;&mdash;&quot;Revolution.&quot; These are terms which, if
+not well explained, may lead us into many errors. In the word <i>State</i> I
+conceive there is much ambiguity. The state is sometimes used to signify
+<i>the whole commonwealth</i>, comprehending all its orders, with the several
+privileges belonging to each. Sometimes it signifies only <i>the higher
+and ruling part</i> of the commonwealth, which we commonly call <i>the
+Government</i>. In the first sense, to be under the state, <a name="Page_249" id="Page_249" title="249" class="pagenum"></a>but not the
+state itself, <i>nor any part of it</i>, that is, to be nothing at all in the
+commonwealth, is a situation perfectly intelligible,&mdash;but to those who
+fill that situation, not very pleasant, when it is understood. It is a
+state of <i>civil servitude</i>, by the very force of the definition.
+<i>Servorum non est respublica</i> is a very old and a very true maxim. This
+servitude, which makes men <i>subject</i> to a state without being
+<i>citizens</i>, may be more or less tolerable from many circumstances; but
+these circumstances, more or less favorable, do not alter the nature of
+the thing. The mildness by which absolute masters exercise their
+dominion leaves them masters still. We may talk a little presently of
+the manner in which the majority of the people of Ireland (the
+Catholics) are affected by this situation, which at present undoubtedly
+is theirs, and which you are of opinion ought so to continue forever.</p>
+
+<p>In the other sense of the word <i>State</i>, by which is understood the
+<i>Supreme Government</i> only, I must observe this upon the question: that
+to exclude whole classes of men entirely from this <i>part</i> of government
+cannot be considered as <i>absolute slavery</i>. It only implies a lower and
+degraded state of citizenship: such is (with more or less strictness)
+the condition of all countries in which an hereditary nobility possess
+the exclusive rule. This may be no bad mode of government,&mdash;provided
+that the personal authority of individual nobles be kept in due bounds,
+that their cabals and factions are guarded against with a severe
+vigilance, and that the people (who have no share in granting their own
+money) are subjected to but light impositions, and are otherwise treated
+with attention, and with indulgence to their humors and prejudices.</p>
+
+<p>The republic of Venice is one of those which strictly <a name="Page_250" id="Page_250" title="250" class="pagenum"></a>confines all the
+great functions and offices, such as are truly <i>stale</i> functions and
+<i>state</i> offices, to those who by hereditary right or admission are noble
+Venetians. But there are many offices, and some of them not mean nor
+unprofitable, (that of Chancellor is one,) which are reserved for the
+<i>cittadini</i>. Of these all citizens of Venice are capable. The
+inhabitants of the <i>terra firma</i>, who are mere subjects of conquest,
+that is, as you express it, under the state, but &quot;not a part of it,&quot; are
+not, however, subjects in so very rigorous a sense as not to be capable
+of numberless subordinate employments. It is, indeed, one of the
+advantages attending the narrow bottom of their aristocracy, (narrow as
+compared with their acquired dominions, otherwise broad enough,) that an
+exclusion from such employments cannot possibly be made amongst their
+subjects. There are, besides, advantages in states so constituted, by
+which those who are considered as of an inferior race are indemnified
+for their exclusion from the government, and from nobler employments. In
+all these countries, either by express law, or by usage more operative,
+the noble castes are almost universally, in their turn, excluded from
+commerce, manufacture, farming of land, and in general from all
+lucrative civil professions. The nobles have the monopoly of honor; the
+plebeians a monopoly of all the means of acquiring wealth. Thus some
+sort of a balance is formed among conditions; a sort of compensation is
+furnished to those who, in a <i>limited sense</i>, are excluded from the
+government of the state.</p>
+
+<p>Between the extreme of <i>a total exclusion</i>, to which your maxim goes,
+and <i>an universal unmodified capacity</i>, to which the fanatics pretend,
+there are many <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251" title="251" class="pagenum"></a>different degrees and stages, and a great variety of
+temperaments, upon which prudence may give full scope to its exertions.
+For you know that the decisions of prudence (contrary to the system of
+the insane reasoners) differ from those of judicature; and that almost
+all the former are determined on the more or the less, the earlier or
+the later, and on a balance of advantage and inconvenience, of good and
+evil.</p>
+
+<p>In all considerations which turn upon the question of vesting or
+continuing the state solely and exclusively in some one description of
+citizens, prudent legislators will consider how far <i>the general form
+and principles of their commonwealth render it fit to be cast into an
+oligarchical shape, or to remain always in it</i>. We know that the
+government of Ireland (the same as the British) is not in its
+constitution <i>wholly</i> aristocratical; and as it is not such in its form,
+so neither is it in its spirit. If it had been inveterately
+aristocratical, exclusions might be more patiently submitted to. The lot
+of one plebeian would be the lot of all; and an habitual reverence and
+admiration of certain families might make the people content to see
+government wholly in hands to whom it seemed naturally to belong. But
+our Constitution has <i>a plebeian member</i>, which forms an essential
+integrant part of it. A plebeian oligarchy is a monster; and no people,
+not absolutely domestic or predial slaves, will long endure it. The
+Protestants of Ireland are not <i>alone</i> sufficiently the people to form a
+democracy; and they are <i>too numerous</i> to answer the ends and purposes
+of <i>an aristocracy</i>. Admiration, that first source of obedience, can be
+only the claim or the imposture of the few. I hold it to be absolutely
+<a name="Page_252" id="Page_252" title="252" class="pagenum"></a>impossible for two millions of plebeians, composing certainly a very
+clear and decided majority in that class, to become so far in love with
+six or seven hundred thousand of their fellow-citizens (to all outward
+appearance plebeians like themselves, and many of them tradesmen,
+servants, and otherwise inferior to some of them) as to see with
+satisfaction, or even with patience, an exclusive power vested in them,
+by which <i>constitutionally</i> they become the absolute masters, and, by
+the <i>manners</i> derived from their circumstances, must be capable of
+exercising upon them, daily and hourly, an insulting and vexatious
+superiority. Neither are the majority of the Irish indemnified (as in
+some aristocracies) for this state of humiliating vassalage (often
+inverting the nature of things and relations) by having the lower walks
+of industry wholly abandoned to them. They are rivalled, to say the
+least of the matter, in every laborious and lucrative course of life;
+while every franchise, every honor, every trust, every place, down to
+the very lowest and least confidential, (besides whole professions,) is
+reserved for the master caste.</p>
+
+<p>Our Constitution is not made for great, general, and proscriptive
+exclusions; sooner or later it will destroy them, or they will destroy
+the Constitution. In our Constitution there has always been a difference
+between <i>a franchise</i> and <i>an office</i>, and between the capacity for the
+one and for the other. Franchises were supposed to belong to the
+<i>subject</i>, as <i>a subject</i>, and not as <i>a member of the governing part of
+the state</i>. The policy of government has considered them as things very
+different; for, whilst Parliament excluded by the test acts (and for a
+while these test acts were not a dead letter, as now they are in
+Eng<a name="Page_253" id="Page_253" title="253" class="pagenum"></a>land) Protestant Dissenters from all civil and military employments,
+they <i>never touched their right of voting for members of Parliament or
+sitting in either House</i>: a point I state, not as approving or
+condemning, with regard to them, the measure of exclusion from
+employments, but to prove that the distinction has been admitted in
+legislature, as, in truth, it is founded in reason.</p>
+
+<p>I will not here examine whether the principles of the British [the
+Irish] Constitution be wise or not. I must assume that they are, and
+that those who partake the franchises which make it partake of a
+benefit. They who are excluded from votes (under proper qualifications
+inherent in the Constitution that gives them) are excluded, not from
+<i>the state</i>, but from <i>the British Constitution</i>. They cannot by any
+possibility, whilst they hear its praises continually rung in their
+ears, and are present at the declaration which is so generally and so
+bravely made by those who possess the privilege, that the best blood in
+their veins ought to be shed to preserve their share in it,&mdash;they, the
+disfranchised part, cannot, I say, think themselves in an <i>happy</i> state,
+to be utterly excluded from all its direct and all its consequential
+advantages. The popular part of the Constitution must be to them by far
+the most odious part of it. To them it is not an <i>actual</i>, and, if
+possible, still less a <i>virtual</i> representation. It is, indeed, the
+direct contrary. It is power unlimited placed in the hands of <i>an
+adverse</i> description <i>because it is an adverse description</i>. And if they
+who compose the privileged body have not an interest, they must but too
+frequently have motives of pride, passion, petulance, peevish jealousy,
+or tyrannic suspi<a name="Page_254" id="Page_254" title="254" class="pagenum"></a>cion, to urge them to treat the excluded people with
+contempt and rigor.</p>
+
+<p>This is not a mere theory; though, whilst men are men, it is a theory
+that cannot be false. I do not desire to revive all the particulars in
+my memory; I wish them to sleep forever; but it is impossible I should
+wholly forget what happened in some parts of Ireland, with very few and
+short intermissions, from the year 1761 to the year 1766, both
+inclusive. In a country of miserable police, passing from the extremes
+of laxity to the extremes of rigor, among a neglected and therefore
+disorderly populace, if any disturbance or sedition, from any grievance
+real or imaginary, happened to arise, it was presently perverted from
+its true nature, often criminal enough in itself to draw upon it a
+severe, appropriate punishment: it was metamorphosed into a conspiracy
+against the state, and prosecuted as such. Amongst the Catholics, as
+being by far the most numerous and the most wretched, all sorts of
+offenders against the laws must commonly be found. The punishment of low
+people for the offences usual among low people would warrant no
+inference against any descriptions of religion or of politics. Men of
+consideration from their age, their profession, or their character, men
+of proprietary landed estates, substantial renters, opulent merchants,
+physicians, and titular bishops, could not easily be suspected of riot
+in open day, or of nocturnal assemblies for the purpose of pulling down
+hedges, making breaches in park-walls, firing barns, maiming cattle, and
+outrages of a similar nature, which characterize the disorders of an
+oppressed or a licentious populace. But when the evidence given on the
+trial for such misdemeanors qualified them as <a name="Page_255" id="Page_255" title="255" class="pagenum"></a>overt acts of high
+treason, and when witnesses were found (such witnesses as they were) to
+depose to the taking of oaths of allegiance by the rioters to the king
+of France, to their being paid by his money, and embodied and exercised
+under his officers, to overturn the state for the purposes of that
+potentate,&mdash;in that case, the rioters might (if the witness was
+believed) be supposed only the troops, and persons more reputable the
+leaders and commanders, in such a rebellion. All classes in the
+obnoxious description, who could not be suspected of the lower crime of
+riot, might be involved in the odium, in the suspicion, and sometimes in
+the punishment, of a higher and far more criminal species of offence.
+These proceedings did not arise from any one of the Popery laws since
+repealed, but from this circumstance, that, when it answered the
+purposes of an election party or a malevolent person of influence to
+forge such plots, the people had no protection. The people of that
+description have no hold on the gentlemen who aspire to be popular
+representatives. The candidates neither love nor respect nor fear them,
+individually or collectively. I do not think this evil (an evil amongst
+a thousand others) at this day entirely over; for I conceive I have
+lately seen some indication of a disposition perfectly similar to the
+old one,&mdash;that is, a disposition to carry the imputation of crimes from
+persons to descriptions, and wholly to alter the character and quality
+of the offences themselves.</p>
+
+<p>This universal exclusion seems to me a serious evil,&mdash;because many
+collateral oppressions, besides what I have just now stated, have arisen
+from it. In things of this nature it would not be either easy or proper
+to quote chapter and verse; but I have great reason <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256" title="256" class="pagenum"></a>to believe,
+particularly since the Octennial Act, that several have refused at all
+to let their lands to Roman Catholics, because it would so far disable
+them from promoting such interests in counties as they were inclined to
+favor. They who consider also the state of all sorts of tradesmen,
+shopkeepers, and particularly publicans in towns, must soon discern the
+disadvantages under which those labor who have no votes. It cannot be
+otherwise, whilst the spirit of elections and the tendencies of human
+nature continue as they are. If property be artificially separated from
+franchise, the franchise must in some way or other, and in some
+proportion, naturally attract property to it. Many are the collateral
+disadvantages, amongst a <i>privileged</i> people, which must attend on those
+who have <i>no</i> privileges.</p>
+
+<p>Among the rich, each individual, with or without a franchise, is of
+importance; the poor and the middling are no otherwise so than as they
+obtain some collective capacity, and can be aggregated to some corps. If
+legal ways are not found, illegal will be resorted to; and seditious
+clubs and confederacies, such as no man living holds in greater horror
+than I do, will grow and flourish, in spite, I am afraid, of anything
+which can be done to prevent the evil. Lawful enjoyment is the surest
+method to prevent unlawful gratification. Where there is property, there
+will be less theft; where there is marriage, there will always be less
+fornication.</p>
+
+<p>I have said enough of the question of state, <i>as it affects the people
+merely as such</i>. But it is complicated with a political question
+relative to religion, to which it is very necessary I should say
+something,&mdash;because the term <i>Protestant</i>, which you apply, is too
+<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257" title="257" class="pagenum"></a>general for the conclusions which one of your accurate understanding
+would wish to draw from it, and because a great deal of argument will
+depend on the use that is made of that term.</p>
+
+<p>It is <i>not</i> a fundamental part of the settlement at the Revolution that
+the state should be Protestant <i>without any qualification of the term</i>.
+With a qualification it is unquestionably true; not in all its latitude.
+With the qualification, it was true before the Revolution. Our
+predecessors in legislation were not so irrational (not to say impious)
+as to form an operose ecclesiastical establishment, and even to render
+the state itself in some degree subservient to it, when their religion
+(if such it might be called) was nothing but a mere <i>negation</i> of some
+other,&mdash;without any positive idea, either of doctrine, discipline,
+worship, or morals, in the scheme which they professed themselves, and
+which they imposed upon others, even under penalties and incapacities.
+No! No! This never could have been done, even by reasonable atheists.
+They who think religion of no importance to the state have abandoned it
+to the conscience or caprice of the individual; they make no provision
+for it whatsoever, but leave every club to make, or not, a voluntary
+contribution towards its support, according to their fancies. This would
+be consistent. The other always appeared to me to be a monster of
+contradiction and absurdity. It was for that reason, that, some years
+ago, I strenuously opposed the clergy who petitioned, to the number of
+about three hundred, to be freed from the subscription to the
+Thirty-Nine Articles, without proposing to substitute any other in their
+place. There never has been a religion of the state (the few years of
+the Parliament <a name="Page_258" id="Page_258" title="258" class="pagenum"></a>only excepted) but that of <i>the Episcopal Church of
+England</i>: the Episcopal Church of England, before the Reformation,
+connected with the see of Rome; since then, disconnected, and protesting
+against some of her doctrines, and against the whole of her authority,
+as binding in our national church: nor did the fundamental laws of this
+kingdom (in Ireland it has been the same) ever know, at any period, any
+other church <i>as an object of establishment</i>,&mdash;or, in that light, any
+other Protestant religion. Nay, our Protestant <i>toleration</i> itself, at
+the Revolution, and until within a few years, required a signature of
+thirty-six, and a part of the thirty-seventh, out of the Thirty-Nine
+Articles. So little idea had they at the Revolution of <i>establishing</i>
+Protestantism indefinitely, that they did not indefinitely <i>tolerate</i> it
+under that name. I do not mean to praise that strictness, where nothing
+more than merely religious toleration is concerned. Toleration, being a
+part of moral and political prudence, ought to be tender and large. A
+tolerant government ought not to be too scrupulous in its
+investigations, but may bear without blame, not only very ill-grounded
+doctrines, but even many things that are positively vices, where they
+are <i>adulta et pr&aelig;valida</i>. The good of the commonwealth is the rule
+which rides over the rest; and to this every other must completely
+submit.</p>
+
+<p>The Church of Scotland knows as little of Protestantism <i>undefined</i> as
+the Church of England and Ireland do. She has by the articles of union
+secured to herself the perpetual establishment of <i>the Confession of
+Faith</i>, and the <i>Presbyterian</i> Church government. In England, even
+during the troubled interregnum, it was not thought fit to establish a
+<i>negative</i> religion; <a name="Page_259" id="Page_259" title="259" class="pagenum"></a>but the Parliament settled the <i>Presbyterian</i> as
+the Church <i>discipline</i>, the <i>Directory</i> as the rule of public
+<i>worship</i>, and the <i>Westminster Catechism</i> as the institute of <i>faith</i>.
+This is to show that at no time was the Protestant religion,
+<i>undefined</i>, established here or anywhere else, as I believe. I am sure,
+that, when the three religions were established in Germany, they were
+expressly characterized and declared to be the <i>Evangelic</i>, the
+<i>Reformed</i>, and the <i>Catholic</i>; each of which has its confession of
+faith and its settled discipline: so that you always may know the best
+and the worst of them, to enable you to make the most of what is good,
+and to correct or to qualify or to guard against whatever may seem evil
+or dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>As to the coronation oath, to which you allude, as opposite to admitting
+a Roman Catholic to the use of any franchise whatsoever, I cannot think
+that the king would be perjured, if he gave his assent to any regulation
+which Parliament might think fit to make with regard to that affair. The
+king is bound by law, as clearly specified in several acts of
+Parliament, to be in communion with the Church of England. It is a part
+of the tenure by which he holds his crown; and though no provision was
+made till the Revolution, which could be called positive and valid in
+law, to ascertain this great principle, I have always considered it as
+in fact fundamental, that the king of England should be of the Christian
+religion, according to the national legal church for the time being. I
+conceive it was so before the Reformation. Since the Reformation it
+became doubly necessary; because the king is the head of that church, in
+some sort an ecclesiastical person,&mdash;and it would be incongruous and
+absurd to have the head of the Church of one <a name="Page_260" id="Page_260" title="260" class="pagenum"></a>faith, and the members of
+another. The king may <i>inherit</i> the crown as a <i>Protestant</i>; but he
+cannot <i>hold it</i>, according to law, without being a Protestant <i>of the
+Church of England</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Before we take it for granted that the king is bound by his coronation
+oath not to admit any of his Catholic subjects to the rights and
+liberties which ought to belong to them as Englishmen, (not as
+religionists,) or to settle the conditions or proportions of such
+admission by an act of Parliament, I wish you to place before your eyes
+that oath itself, as it is settled in the act of William and Mary.</p>
+
+<p>
+&quot;Will you to the utmost of your power maintain<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 2&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;  3</span><br />
+the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">4</span><br />
+and the Protestant Reformed Religion <i>established by</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;">5</span><br />
+<i>law</i>? And will you preserve unto the <i>bishops</i> and<br />
+clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed<br />
+to <i>their</i> charge, all such rights and privileges as by<br />
+law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of them?&mdash;All<br />
+this I promise to do.&quot;<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Here are the coronation engagements of the king. In them I do not find
+one word to preclude his Majesty from consenting to any arrangement
+which Parliament may make with regard to the civil privileges of any
+part of his subjects.</p>
+
+<p>It may not be amiss, on account of the light which it will throw on this
+discussion, to look a little more narrowly into the matter of that
+oath,&mdash;in order to discover how far it has hitherto operated, or how far
+in future it ought to operate, as a bar to any proceedings of the crown
+and Parliament in favor of <a name="Page_261" id="Page_261" title="261" class="pagenum"></a>those against whom it may be supposed that
+the king has engaged to support the Protestant Church of England in the
+two kingdoms in which it is established by law. First, the king swears
+he will maintain to the utmost of his power &quot;the laws of God.&quot; I suppose
+it means the natural moral laws.&mdash;Secondly, he swears to maintain &quot;the
+true profession of the Gospel.&quot; By which I suppose is understood
+<i>affirmatively</i> the Christian religion.&mdash;Thirdly, that he will maintain
+&quot;the Protestant reformed religion.&quot; This leaves me no power of
+supposition or conjecture; for that Protestant reformed religion is
+defined and described by the subsequent words, &quot;established by law&quot;; and
+in this instance, to define it beyond all possibility of doubt, he
+swears to maintain the &quot;bishops and clergy, and the churches committed
+to their charge,&quot; in their rights present and future.</p>
+
+<p>The oath as effectually prevents the king from doing anything to the
+prejudice of the Church, in favor of sectaries, Jews, Mahometans, or
+plain avowed infidels, as if he should do the same thing in favor of the
+Catholics. You will see that it is the same Protestant Church, so
+described, that the king is to maintain and communicate with, according
+to the Act of Settlement of the 12th and 13th of William the Third. The
+act of the 5th of Anne, made in prospect of the Union, is entitled, &quot;An
+act for securing the Church of England as by law established.&quot; It meant
+to guard the Church implicitly against any other mode of Protestant
+religion which might creep in by means of the Union. It proves beyond
+all doubt, that the legislature did not mean to guard the Church on one
+part only, and to leave it defenceless and exposed upon <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262" title="262" class="pagenum"></a>every other.
+This church, in that act, is declared to be &quot;fundamental and essential&quot;
+forever, in the Constitution of the United Kingdom, so far as England is
+concerned; and I suppose, as the law stands, even since the
+independence, it is so in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>All this shows that the religion which the king is bound to maintain has
+a positive part in it, as well as a negative,&mdash;and that the positive
+part of it (in which we are in perfect agreement with the Catholics and
+with the Church of Scotland) is infinitely the most valuable and
+essential. Such an agreement we had with Protestant Dissenters in
+England, of those descriptions who came under the Toleration Act of King
+William and Queen Mary: an act coeval with the Revolution; and which
+ought, on the principles of the gentlemen who oppose the relief to the
+Catholics, to have been held sacred and unalterable. Whether we agree
+with the present Protestant Dissenters in the points at the Revolution
+held essential and fundamental among Christians, or in any other
+fundamental, at present it is impossible for us to know: because, at
+their own very earnest desire, we have repealed the Toleration Act of
+William and Mary, and discharged them from the signature required by
+that act; and because, for the far greater part, they publicly declare
+against all manner of confessions of faith, even the <i>Consensus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>For reasons forcible enough at all times, but at this time particularly
+forcible with me, I dwell a little the longer upon this matter, and take
+the more pains, to put us both in mind that it was not settled at the
+Revolution that the state should be Protestant, in the latitude of the
+term, but in a defined and limited sense only, and that in that <a name="Page_263" id="Page_263" title="263" class="pagenum"></a>sense
+only the king is sworn to maintain it. To suppose that the king has
+sworn with his utmost power to maintain what it is wholly out of his
+power to discover, or which, if he could discover, he might discover to
+consist of things directly contradictory to each other, some of them
+perhaps impious, blasphemous, and seditious upon principle, would be not
+only a gross, but a most mischievous absurdity. If mere dissent from the
+Church of Rome be a merit, he that dissents the most perfectly is the
+most meritorious. In many points we hold strongly with that church. He
+that dissents throughout with that church will dissent with the Church
+of England, and then it will be a part of his merit that he dissents
+with ourselves: a whimsical species of merit for any set of men to
+establish. We quarrel to extremity with those who we know agree with us
+in many things; but we are to be so malicious even in the principle of
+our friendships, that we are to cherish in our bosom those who accord
+with us in nothing, because, whilst they despise ourselves, they abhor,
+even more than we do, those with whom we have some disagreement. A man
+is certainly the most perfect Protestant who protests against the whole
+Christian religion. Whether a person's having no Christian religion be a
+title to favor, in exclusion to the largest description of Christians,
+who hold all the doctrines of Christianity, though holding along with
+them some errors and some superfluities, is rather more than any man,
+who has not become recreant and apostate from his baptism, will, I
+believe, choose to affirm. The countenance given from a spirit of
+controversy to that negative religion may by degrees encourage light and
+unthinking peo<a name="Page_264" id="Page_264" title="264" class="pagenum"></a>ple to a total indifference to everything positive in
+matters of doctrine, and, in the end, of practice too. If continued, it
+would play the game of that sort of active, proselytizing, and
+persecuting atheism which is the disgrace and calamity of our time, and
+which we see to be as capable of subverting a government as any mode can
+be of misguided zeal for better things.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us fairly see what course has been taken relative to those
+against whom, in part at least, the king has sworn to maintain a church,
+<i>positive in its doctrine and its discipline</i>. The first thing done,
+even when the oath was fresh in the mouth of the sovereigns, was to give
+a toleration to Protestant Dissenters <i>whose doctrines they
+ascertained</i>. As to the mere civil privileges which the Dissenters held
+as subjects before the Revolution, these were not touched at all. The
+laws have fully permitted, in a qualification for all offices, to such
+Dissenters, <i>an occasional conformity</i>: a thing I believe singular,
+where tests are admitted. The act, called the Test Act, itself, is, with
+regard to them, grown to be hardly anything more than a dead letter.
+Whenever the Dissenters cease by their conduct to give any alarm to the
+government, in Church and State, I think it very probable that even this
+matter, rather disgustful than inconvenient to them, may be removed, or
+at least so modified as to distinguish the qualification to those
+offices which really <i>guide the state</i> from those which are <i>merely
+instrumental</i>, or that some other and better tests may be put in their
+place.</p>
+
+<p>So far as to England. In Ireland you have outran us. Without waiting for
+an English example, you have totally, and without any modification
+whatso<a name="Page_265" id="Page_265" title="265" class="pagenum"></a>ever, repealed the test as to Protestant Dissenters. Not having
+the repealing act by me, I ought not to say positively that there is no
+exception in it; but if it be what I suppose it is, you know very well
+that a Jew in religion, or a Mahometan, or even <i>a public, declared
+atheist</i> and blasphemer, is perfectly qualified to be Lord-Lieutenant, a
+lord-justice, or even keeper of the king's conscience, and by virtue of
+his office (if with you it be as it is with us) administrator to a great
+part of the ecclesiastical patronage of the crown.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us deal a little fairly. We must admit that Protestant Dissent
+was one of the quarters from which danger was apprehended at the
+Revolution, and against which a part of the coronation oath was
+peculiarly directed. By this unqualified repeal you certainly did not
+mean to deny that it was the duty of the crown to preserve the Church
+against Protestant Dissenters; or taking this to be the true sense of
+the two Revolution acts of King William, and of the previous and
+subsequent Union acts of Queen Anne, you did not declare by this most
+unqualified repeal, by which you broke down all the barriers, not
+invented, indeed, but carefully preserved, at the Revolution,&mdash;you did
+not then and by that proceeding declare that you had advised the king to
+perjury towards God and perfidy towards the Church. No! far, very far
+from it! You never would have done it, if you did not think it could be
+done with perfect repose to the royal conscience, and perfect safety to
+the national established religion. You did this upon a full
+consideration of the circumstances of your country. Now, if
+circumstances required it, why should it be contrary to the king's oath,
+his Parliament judg<a name="Page_266" id="Page_266" title="266" class="pagenum"></a>ing on those circumstances, to restore to his
+Catholic people, in such measure and with such modifications as the
+public wisdom shall think proper to add, <i>some part</i> in these franchises
+which they formerly had held without any limitation at all, and which,
+upon no sort of urgent reason at the time, they were deprived of? If
+such means can with any probability be shown, from circumstances, rather
+to add strength to our mixed ecclesiastical and secular Constitution
+than to weaken it, surely they are means infinitely to be preferred to
+penalties, incapacities, and proscriptions, continued from generation to
+generation. They are perfectly consistent with the other parts of the
+coronation oath, in which the king swears to maintain &quot;the laws of God
+and the true profession of the Gospel, and to govern the people
+according to the statutes in Parliament agreed upon, and the laws and
+customs of the realm.&quot; In consenting to such a statute, the crown would
+act at least as agreeable to the laws of God, and to the true profession
+of the Gospel, and to the laws and customs of the kingdom, as George the
+First did, when he passed the statute which took from the body of the
+people everything which to that hour, and even after the monstrous acts
+of the 2nd and 8th of Anne, (the objects of our common hatred,) they
+still enjoyed inviolate.</p>
+
+<p>It is hard to distinguish with the last degree of accuracy what laws are
+fundamental, and what not. However, there is a distinction between them,
+authorized by the writers on jurisprudence, and recognized in some of
+our statutes. I admit the acts of King William and Queen Anne to be
+fundamental, but they are not the only fundamental laws. The law called
+<i>Magna Charta</i>, by which it is provided that<a name="Page_267" id="Page_267" title="267" class="pagenum"></a> &quot;no man shall be disseised
+of his liberties and free customs but by the judgment of his peers or
+the laws of the land,&quot; (meaning clearly, for some proved crime tried and
+adjudged,) I take to be <i>a fundamental law.</i> Now, although this Magna
+Charta, or some of the statutes establishing it, provide that that law
+shall be perpetual, and all statutes contrary to it shall be void, yet I
+cannot go so far as to deny the authority of statutes made in defiance
+of Magna Charta and all its principles. This, however, I will say,&mdash;that
+it is a very venerable law, made by very wise and learned men, and that
+the legislature, in their attempt to perpetuate it, even against the
+authority of future Parliaments, have shown their judgment that it is
+<i>fundamental</i>, on the same grounds and in the same manner that the act
+of the fifth of Anne has considered and declared the establishment of
+the Church of England to be fundamental. Magna Charta, which secured
+these franchises to the subjects, regarded the rights of freeholders in
+counties to be as much a fundamental part of the Constitution as the
+establishment of the Church of England was thought either at that time,
+or in the act of King William, or in the act of Queen Anne.</p>
+
+<p>The churchmen who led in that transaction certainly took care of the
+material interest of which they were the natural guardians. It is the
+first article of Magna Charta, &quot;that the Church of England shall be
+free,&quot; &amp;c., &amp;c. But at that period, churchmen and barons and knights took
+care of the franchises and free customs of the people, too. Those
+franchises are part of the Constitution itself, and inseparable from it.
+It would be a very strange thing, if there should not only exist
+anomalies in our laws, a thing not easy <a name="Page_268" id="Page_268" title="268" class="pagenum"></a>to prevent, but that the
+fundamental parts of the Constitution should be perpetually and
+irreconcilably at variance with each other. I cannot persuade myself
+that the lovers of our church are not as able to find effectual ways of
+reconciling its safety with the franchises of the people as the
+ecclesiastics of the thirteenth century were able to do; I cannot
+conceive how anything worse can be said of the Protestant religion of
+the Church of England than this,&mdash;that, wherever it is judged proper to
+give it a legal establishment, it becomes necessary to deprive the body
+of the people, if they adhere to their old opinions, of &quot;their liberties
+and of all their free customs,&quot; and to reduce them to a state of <i>civil</i>
+servitude.</p>
+
+<p>There is no man on earth, I believe, more willing than I am to lay it
+down as a fundamental of the Constitution, that the Church of England
+should be united and even identified with it; but, allowing this, I
+cannot allow that all <i>laws of regulation</i>, made from time to time, in
+support of that fundamental law, are of course equally fundamental and
+equally unchangeable. This would be to confound all the branches of
+legislation and of jurisprudence. The <i>crown</i> and the personal safety of
+the monarch are <i>fundamentals</i> in our Constitution: yet I hope that no
+man regrets that the rabble of statutes got together during the reign of
+Henry the Eighth, by which treasons are multiplied with so prolific an
+energy, have been all repealed in a body; although they were all, or
+most of them, made in support of things truly fundamental in our
+Constitution. So were several of the acts by which the crown exercised
+its supremacy: such as the act of Elizabeth for making the <i>high
+commission courts</i>, and the like; as well as things made treason <a name="Page_269" id="Page_269" title="269" class="pagenum"></a>in the
+time of Charles the Second. None of this species of <i>secondary and
+subsidiary laws</i> have been held fundamental. They have yielded to
+circumstances; particularly where they were thought, even in their
+consequences, or obliquely, to affect other fundamentals. How much more,
+certainly, ought they to give way, when, as in our case, they affect,
+not here and there, in some particular point, or in their consequence,
+but universally, collectively, and directly, the fundamental franchises
+of a people equal to the whole inhabitants of several respectable
+kingdoms and states: equal to the subjects of the kings of Sardinia or
+of Denmark; equal to those of the United Netherlands; and more than are
+to be found in all the states of Switzerland. This way of proscribing
+men by whole nations, as it were, from all the benefits of the
+Constitution to which they were born, I never can believe to be politic
+or expedient, much less necessary for the existence of any state or
+church in the world. Whenever I shall be convinced, which will be late
+and reluctantly, that the safety of the Church is utterly inconsistent
+with all the civil rights whatsoever of the far larger part of the
+inhabitants of our country, I shall be extremely sorry for it; because I
+shall think the Church to be truly in danger. It is putting things into
+the position of an ugly alternative, into which I hope in God they never
+will be put.</p>
+
+<p>I have said most of what occurs to me on the topics you touch upon,
+relative to the religion of the king, and his coronation oath. I shall
+conclude the observations which I wished to submit to you on this point
+by assuring you that I think you the most remote that can be conceived
+from the metaphysicians <a name="Page_270" id="Page_270" title="270" class="pagenum"></a>of our times, who are the most foolish of men,
+and who, dealing in universals and essences, see no difference between
+more and less,&mdash;and who of course would think that the reason of the law
+which obliged the king to be a communicant of the Church of England
+would be as valid to exclude a Catholic from being an exciseman, or to
+deprive a man who has five hundred a year, under that description, from
+voting on a par with a factitious Protestant Dissenting freeholder of
+forty shillings.</p>
+
+<p>Recollect, my dear friend, that it was a fundamental principle in the
+French monarchy, whilst it stood, that the state should be Catholic; yet
+the Edict of Nantes gave, not a full ecclesiastical, but a complete
+civil <i>establishment</i>, with places of which only they were capable, to
+the Calvinists of France,&mdash;and there were very few employments, indeed,
+of which they were not capable. The world praised the Cardinal de
+Richelieu, who took the first opportunity to strip them of their
+fortified places and cautionary towns. The same world held and does hold
+in execration (so far as that business is concerned) the memory of Louis
+the Fourteenth, for the total repeal of that favorable edict; though the
+talk of &quot;fundamental laws, established religion, religion of the prince,
+safety to the state,&quot; &amp;c., &amp;c., was then as largely held, and with as
+bitter a revival of the animosities of the civil confusions during the
+struggles between the parties, as now they can be in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps there are persons who think that the same reason does not hold,
+when the religious relation of the sovereign and subject is changed; but
+they who have their shop full of false weights and measures, and who
+imagine that the adding or taking away the <a name="Page_271" id="Page_271" title="271" class="pagenum"></a>name of Protestant or
+Papist, Guelph or Ghibelline, alters all the principles of equity,
+policy, and prudence, leave us no common data upon which we can reason.
+I therefore pass by all this, which on you will make no impression, to
+come to what seems to be a serious consideration in your mind: I mean
+the dread you express of &quot;reviewing, for the purpose of altering, the
+<i>principles of the Revolution</i>.&quot; This is an interesting topic, on which
+I will, as fully as your leisure and mine permits, lay before you the
+ideas I have formed.</p>
+
+<p>First, I cannot possibly confound in my mind all the things which were
+done at the Revolution with the <i>principles</i> of the Revolution. As in
+most great changes, many things were done from the necessities of the
+time, well or ill understood, from passion or from vengeance, which were
+not only not perfectly agreeable to its principles, but in the most
+direct contradiction to them. I shall not think that the <i>deprivation of
+some millions of people of all the rights of citizens, and all interest
+in the Constitution, in and to which they were born</i>, was a thing
+conformable to the <i>declared principles</i> of the Revolution. This I am
+sure is true relatively to England (where the operation of these
+<i>anti-principles</i> comparatively were of little extent); and some of our
+late laws, in repealing acts made immediately after the Revolution,
+admit that some things then done were not done in the true spirit of the
+Revolution. But the Revolution operated differently in England and
+Ireland, in many, and these essential particulars. Supposing the
+principles to have been altogether the same in both kingdoms, by the
+application of those principles to very different objects the whole
+spirit of the system was <a name="Page_272" id="Page_272" title="272" class="pagenum"></a>changed, not to say reversed. In England it
+was the struggle of the <i>great body</i> of the people for the establishment
+of their liberties, against the efforts of a very <i>small faction</i>, who
+would have oppressed them. In Ireland it was the establishment of the
+power of the smaller number, at the expense of the civil liberties and
+properties of the far greater part, and at the expense of the political
+liberties of the whole. It was, to say the truth, not a revolution, but
+a conquest: which is not to say a great deal in its favor. To insist on
+everything done in Ireland at the Revolution would be to insist on the
+severe and jealous policy of a conqueror, in the crude settlement of his
+new acquisition, as <i>a permanent</i> rule for its future government. This
+no power, in no country that ever I heard of, has done or professed to
+do,&mdash;except in Ireland; where it is done, and possibly by some people
+will be professed. Time has, by degrees, in all other places and
+periods, blended and coalited the conquered with the conquerors. So,
+after some time, and after one of the most rigid conquests that we read
+of in history, the Normans softened into the English. I wish you to turn
+your recollection to the fine speech of Cerealis to the Gauls, made to
+dissuade them from revolt. Speaking of the Romans,&mdash;&quot;<i>Nos</i> quamvis
+toties lacessiti, jure victori&aelig; id solum vobis addidimus, quo pacem
+tueremur: nam neque quies gentium sine armis, neque arma sine
+stipendiis, neque stipendia sine tributis haberi queant. <i>Caetera in
+communi sita sunt</i>: ipsi plerumque nostris exercitibus <i>praesidetis</i>:
+ipsi has aliasque provincias <i>regitis: nil separatum clausumve</i>. Proinde
+pacem et urbem, quam <i>victores victique eodem jure obtinemus</i>, amate,
+colite.&quot; You will consider whether the ar<a name="Page_273" id="Page_273" title="273" class="pagenum"></a>guments used by that Roman to
+these Gauls would apply to the case in Ireland,&mdash;and whether you could
+use so plausible a preamble to any severe warning you might think it
+proper to hold out to those who should resort to sedition, instead of
+supplication, to obtain any object that they may pursue with the
+governing power.</p>
+
+<p>For a much longer period than that which had sufficed to blend the
+Romans with the nation to which of all others they were the most
+adverse, the Protestants settled in Ireland considered themselves in no
+other light than that of a sort of a colonial garrison, to keep the
+natives in subjection to the other state of Great Britain. The whole
+spirit of the Revolution in Ireland was that of not the mildest
+conqueror. In truth, the spirit of those proceedings did not commence at
+that era, nor was religion of any kind their primary object. What was
+done was not in the spirit of a contest between two religious factions,
+but between two adverse nations. The statutes of Kilkenny show that the
+spirit of the Popery laws, and some even of their actual provisions, as
+applied between Englishry and Irishry, had existed in that harassed
+country before the words <i>Protestant</i> and <i>Papist</i> were heard of in the
+world. If we read Baron Finglas, Spenser, and Sir John Davies, we cannot
+miss the true genius and policy of the English government there before
+the Revolution, as well as during the whole reign of Queen Elizabeth.
+Sir John Davies boasts of the benefits received by the natives, by
+extending to them the English law, and turning the whole kingdom into
+shire ground. But the appearance of things alone was changed. The
+original scheme was never deviated from for a single hour.<a name="Page_274" id="Page_274" title="274" class="pagenum"></a> Unheard-of
+confiscations were made in the northern parts, upon grounds of plots and
+conspiracies, never proved upon their supposed authors. The war of
+chicane succeeded to the war of arms and of hostile statutes; and a
+regular series of operations was carried on, particularly from
+Chichester's time, in the ordinary courts of justice, and by special
+commissions and inquisitions,&mdash;first under pretence of tenures, and then
+of titles in the crown, for the purpose of the total extirpation of the
+interest of the natives in their own soil,&mdash;until this species of subtle
+ravage, being carried to the last excess of oppression and insolence
+under Lord Strafford, it kindled the flames of that rebellion which
+broke out in 1641. By the issue of that war, by the turn which the Earl
+of Clarendon gave to things at the Restoration, and by the total
+reduction of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691, the ruin of the native
+Irish, and, in a great measure, too, of the first races of the English,
+was completely accomplished. The new English interest was settled with
+as solid a stability as anything in human affairs can look for. All the
+penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppression, which were made
+after the last event, were manifestly the effects of national hatred and
+scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample
+upon and were not at all afraid to provoke. They were not the effect of
+their fears, but of their security. They who carried on this system
+looked to the irresistible force of Great Britain for their support in
+their acts of power. They were quite certain that no complaints of the
+natives would be heard on this side of the water with any other
+sentiments than those of contempt and indignation. Their cries served
+only to augment their <a name="Page_275" id="Page_275" title="275" class="pagenum"></a>torture. Machines which could answer their
+purposes so well must be of an excellent contrivance. Indeed, in
+England, the double name of the complainants, Irish and Papists, (it
+would be hard to say which singly was the most odious,) shut up the
+hearts of every one against them. Whilst that temper prevailed, (and it
+prevailed in all its force to a time within our memory,) every measure
+was pleasing and popular just in proportion as it tended to harass and
+ruin a set of people who were looked upon as enemies to God and man,
+and, indeed, as a race of bigoted savages who were a disgrace to human
+nature itself.</p>
+
+<p>However, as the English in Ireland began to be domiciliated, they began
+also to recollect that they had a country. The <i>English interest</i>, at
+first by faint and almost insensible degrees, but at length openly and
+avowedly, became an <i>independent Irish interest</i>,&mdash;full as independent
+as it could ever have been if it had continued in the persons of the
+native Irish; and it was maintained with more skill and more consistency
+than probably it would have been in theirs. With their views, the
+<i>Anglo-Irish</i> changed their maxims: it was necessary to demonstrate to
+the whole people that there was something, at least, of a common
+interest, combined with the independency, which was to become the object
+of common exertions. The mildness of government produced the first
+relaxation towards the Irish; the necessities, and, in part, too, the
+temper that predominated at this great change, produced the second and
+the most important of these relaxations. English government and Irish
+legislature felt jointly the propriety of this measure. The Irish
+Parliament and nation became independent.<a name="Page_276" id="Page_276" title="276" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The true revolution to you, that which most intrinsically and
+substantially resembled the English Revolution of 1688, was the Irish
+Revolution of 1782. The Irish Parliament of 1782 bore little resemblance
+to that which sat in that kingdom after the period of the first of these
+revolutions. It bore a much nearer resemblance to that which sat under
+King James. The change of the Parliament in 1782 from the character of
+the Parliament which, as a token of its indignation, had burned all the
+journals indiscriminately of the former Parliament in the
+Council-Chamber, was very visible. The address of King William's
+Parliament, the Parliament which assembled after the Revolution, amongst
+other causes of complaint (many of them sufficiently just) complains of
+the repeal by their predecessors of Poynings's law,&mdash;no absolute idol
+with the Parliament of 1782.</p>
+
+<p>Great Britain, finding the Anglo-Irish highly animated with a spirit
+which had indeed shown itself before, though with little energy and many
+interruptions, and therefore suffered a multitude of uniform precedents
+to be established against it, acted, in my opinion, with the greatest
+temperance and wisdom. She saw that the disposition of the <i>leading
+part</i> of the nation would not permit them to act any longer the part of
+a <i>garrison</i>. She saw that true policy did not require that they ever
+should have appeared in that character; or if it had done so formerly,
+the reasons had now ceased to operate. She saw that the Irish of her
+race were resolved to build their Constitution and their politics upon
+another bottom. With those things under her view, she instantly complied
+with the whole of your demands, <a name="Page_277" id="Page_277" title="277" class="pagenum"></a>without any reservation whatsoever. She
+surrendered that boundless superiority, for the preservation of which,
+and the acquisition, she had supported the English colonies in Ireland
+for so long a time, and at so vast an expense (according to the standard
+of those ages) of her blood and treasure.</p>
+
+<p>When we bring before us the matter which history affords for our
+selection, it is not improper to examine the spirit of the several
+precedents which are candidates for our choice. Might it not be as well
+for your statesmen, on the other side of the water, to take an example
+from this latter and surely more conciliatory revolution, as a pattern
+for your conduct towards your own fellow-citizens, than from that of
+1688, when a paramount sovereignty over both you and them was more
+loftily claimed and more sternly exerted than at any former or at any
+subsequent period? Great Britain in 1782 rose above the vulgar ideas of
+policy, the ordinary jealousies of state, and all the sentiments of
+national pride and national ambition. If she had been more disposed
+(than, I thank God for it, she was) to listen to the suggestions of
+passion than to the dictates of prudence, she might have urged the
+principles, the maxims, the policy, the practice of the Revolution,
+against the demands of the leading description in Ireland, with full as
+much plausibility and full as good a grace as any amongst them can
+possibly do against the supplications of so vast and extensive a
+description of their own people.</p>
+
+<p>A good deal, too, if the spirit of domination and exclusion had
+prevailed in England, might have been excepted against some of the means
+then employed in Ireland, whilst her claims were in agitation. They
+<a name="Page_278" id="Page_278" title="278" class="pagenum"></a>were at least as much out of ordinary course as those which are now
+objected against admitting your people to any of the benefits of an
+English Constitution. Most certainly, neither with you nor here was any
+one ignorant of what was at that time said, written, and done. But on
+all sides we separated the means from the end: and we separated the
+cause of the moderate and rational from the ill-intentioned and
+seditious, which on such occasions are so frequently apt to march
+together. At that time, on your part, you were not afraid to review what
+was done at the Revolution of 1688, and what had been continued during
+the subsequent flourishing period of the British empire. The change then
+made was a great and fundamental alteration. In the execution, it was an
+operose business on both sides of the water. It required the repeal of
+several laws, the modification of many, and a new course to be given to
+an infinite number of legislative, judicial, and official practices and
+usages in both kingdoms. This did not frighten any of us. You are now
+asked to give, in some moderate measure, to your fellow-citizens, what
+Great Britain gave to you without any measure at all. Yet,
+notwithstanding all the difficulties at the time, and the apprehensions
+which some very well-meaning people entertained, through the admirable
+temper in which this revolution (or restoration in the nature of a
+revolution) was conducted in both kingdoms, it has hitherto produced no
+inconvenience to either; and I trust, with the continuance of the same
+temper, that it never will. I think that this small, inconsiderable
+change, (relative to an exclusive statute not made at the Revolution,)
+for restoring the people to the benefits from which the <a name="Page_279" id="Page_279" title="279" class="pagenum"></a>green soreness
+of a civil war had not excluded them, will be productive of no sort of
+mischief whatsoever. Compare what was done in 1782 with what is wished
+in 1792; consider the spirit of what has been done at the several
+periods of reformation; and weigh maturely whether it be exactly true
+that conciliatory concessions are of good policy only in discussions
+between nations, but that among descriptions in the same nation they
+must always be irrational and dangerous. What have you suffered in your
+peace, your prosperity, or, in what ought ever to be dear to a nation,
+your glory, by the last act by which you took the property of that
+people under the protection of the <i>laws</i>? What reasons have you to
+dread the consequences of admitting the people possessing that property
+to some share in the protection of the <i>Constitution</i>?</p>
+
+<p>I do not mean to trouble you with anything to remove the objections, I
+will not call them arguments, against this measure, taken from a
+ferocious hatred to all that numerous description of Christians. It
+would be to pay a poor compliment to your understanding or your heart.
+Neither <i>your</i> religion nor <i>your</i> politics consist &quot;in odd, perverse
+antipathies.&quot; You are not resolved to persevere in proscribing from the
+Constitution so many millions of your countrymen, because, in
+contradiction to experience and to common sense, you think proper to
+imagine that their principles are subversive of common human society. To
+that I shall only say, that whoever has a temper which can be gratified
+by indulging himself in these good-natured fancies ought to do a great
+deal more. For an exclusion from the privileges of British subjects is
+not a cure for so terrible <a name="Page_280" id="Page_280" title="280" class="pagenum"></a>a distemper of the human mind as they are
+pleased to suppose in their countrymen. I rather conceive a
+participation in those privileges to be itself a remedy for some mental
+disorders.</p>
+
+<p>As little shall I detain you with matters that can as little obtain
+admission into a mind like yours: such as the fear, or pretence of fear,
+that, in spite of your own power and the trifling power of Great
+Britain, you may be conquered by the Pope; or that this commodious
+bugbear (who is of infinitely more use to those who pretend to fear than
+to those who love him) will absolve his Majesty's subjects from their
+allegiance, and send over the Cardinal of York to rule you as his
+viceroy; or that, by the plenitude of his power, he will take that
+fierce tyrant, the king of the French, out of his jail, and arm that
+nation (which on all occasions treats his Holiness so very politely)
+with his bulls and pardons, to invade poor old Ireland, to reduce you to
+Popery and slavery, and to force the free-born, naked feet of your
+people into the wooden shoes of that arbitrary monarch. I do not believe
+that discourses of this kind are held, or that anything like them will
+be held, by any who walk about without a keeper. Yet I confess, that, on
+occasions of this nature, I am the most afraid of the weakest
+reasonings, because they discover the strongest passions. These things
+will never be brought out in definite propositions. They would not
+prevent pity towards any persons; they would only cause it for those who
+were capable of talking in such a strain. But I know, and am sure, that
+such ideas as no man will distinctly produce to another, or hardly
+venture to bring in any plain shape to his own mind, he will utter in
+obscure, ill-explained doubts, <a name="Page_281" id="Page_281" title="281" class="pagenum"></a>jealousies, surmises, fears, and
+apprehensions, and that in such a fog they will appear to have a good
+deal of size, and will make an impression, when, if they were clearly
+brought forth and defined, they would meet with nothing but scorn and
+derision.</p>
+
+<p>There is another way of taking an objection to this concession, which I
+admit to be something more plausible, and worthy of a more attentive
+examination. It is, that this numerous class of people is mutinous,
+disorderly, prone to sedition, and easy to be wrought upon by the
+insidious arts of wicked and designing men; that, conscious of this, the
+sober, rational, and wealthy part of that body, who are totally of
+another character, do by no means desire any participation for
+themselves, or for any one else of their description, in the franchises
+of the British Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>I have great doubt of the exactness of any part of this observation. But
+let us admit that the body of the Catholics are prone to sedition, (of
+which, as I have said, I entertain much doubt,) is it possible that any
+fair observer or fair reasoner can think of confining this description
+to them only? I believe it to be possible for men to be mutinous and
+seditious who feel no grievance, but I believe no man will assert
+seriously, that, when people are of a turbulent spirit, the best way to
+keep them in order is to furnish them with something substantial to
+complain of.</p>
+
+<p>You separate, very properly, the sober, rational, and substantial part
+of their description from the rest. You give, as you ought to do, weight
+only to the former. What I have always thought of the matter is
+this,&mdash;that the most poor, illiterate, and uninformed creatures upon
+earth are judges of a <i>practical</i> oppression. It is a matter of feeling;
+and as <a name="Page_282" id="Page_282" title="282" class="pagenum"></a>such persons generally have felt most of it, and are not of an
+over-lively sensibility, they are the best judges of it. But for <i>the
+real cause</i>, or <i>the appropriate remedy</i>, they ought never to be called
+into council about the one or the other. They ought to be totally shut
+out: because their reason is weak; because, when once roused, their
+passions are ungoverned; because they want information; because the
+smallness of the property which individually they possess renders them
+less attentive to the consequence of the measures they adopt in affairs
+of moment. When I find a great cry amongst the people who speculate
+little, I think myself called seriously to examine into it, and to
+separate the real cause from the ill effects of the passion it may
+excite, and the bad use which artful men may make of an irritation of
+the popular mind. Here we must be aided by persons of a contrary
+character; we must not listen to the desperate or the furious: but it is
+therefore necessary for us to distinguish who are the <i>really</i> indigent
+and the <i>really</i> intemperate. As to the persons who desire this part in
+the Constitution, I have no reason to imagine that they are men who have
+nothing to lose and much to look for in public confusion. The popular
+meeting from which apprehensions have been entertained has assembled. I
+have accidentally had conversation with two friends of mine who know
+something of the gentleman who was put into the chair upon that
+occasion: one of them has had money transactions with him; the other,
+from curiosity, has been to see his concerns: they both tell me he is a
+man of some property: but you must be the best judge of this, who by
+your office are likely to know his transactions. Many of the others are
+certainly per<a name="Page_283" id="Page_283" title="283" class="pagenum"></a>sons of fortune; and all, or most, fathers of families,
+men in respectable ways of life, and some of them far from contemptible,
+either for their information, or for the abilities which they have shown
+in the discussion of their interests. What such men think it for their
+advantage to acquire ought not, <i>prima facie</i>, to be considered as rash
+or heady or incompatible with the public safety or welfare.</p>
+
+<p>I admit, that men of the best fortunes and reputations, and of the best
+talents and education too, may by accident show themselves furious and
+intemperate in their desires. This is a great misfortune, when it
+happens; for the first presumptions are undoubtedly in their favor. We
+have two standards of judging, in this case, of the sanity and sobriety
+of any proceedings,&mdash;of unequal certainty, indeed, but neither of them
+to be neglected: the first is by the value of the object sought; the
+next is by the means through which it is pursued.</p>
+
+<p>The object pursued by the Catholics is, I understand, and have all along
+reasoned as if it were so, in some degree or measure to be again
+admitted to the franchises of the Constitution. Men are considered as
+under some derangement of their intellects, when they see good and evil
+in a different light from other men,&mdash;when they choose nauseous and
+unwholesome food, and reject such as to the rest of the world seems
+pleasant and is known to be nutritive. I have always considered the
+British Constitution not to be a thing in itself so vicious as that none
+but men of deranged understanding and turbulent tempers could desire a
+share in it: on the contrary, I should think very indifferently of the
+understanding and temper of any body of men who did not wish to <a name="Page_284" id="Page_284" title="284" class="pagenum"></a>partake
+of this great and acknowledged benefit. I cannot think quite so
+favorably either of the sense or temper of those, if any such there are,
+who would voluntarily persuade their brethren that the object is not fit
+for them, or they for the object. Whatever may be my thoughts concerning
+them, I am quite sure that they who hold such language must forfeit all
+credit with the rest. This is infallible,&mdash;if they conceive any opinion
+of their judgment, they cannot possibly think them their friends. There
+is, indeed, one supposition which would reconcile the conduct of such
+gentlemen to sound reason, and to the purest affection towards their
+fellow-sufferers: it is, that they act under the impression of a
+well-grounded fear for the general interest. If they should be told, and
+should believe the story, that, if they dare attempt to make their
+condition better, they will infallibly make it worse,&mdash;that, if they aim
+at obtaining liberty, they will have their slavery doubled,&mdash;that their
+endeavor to put themselves upon anything which approaches towards an
+equitable footing with their fellow-subjects will be considered as an
+indication of a seditious and rebellious disposition,&mdash;such a view of
+things ought perfectly to restore the gentlemen, who so anxiously
+dissuade their countrymen from wishing a participation with the
+privileged part of the people, to the good opinion of their fellows. But
+what is to <i>them</i> a very full justification is not quite so honorable to
+that power from whose maxims and temper so good a ground of rational
+terror is furnished. I think arguments of this kind will never be used
+by the friends of a government which I greatly respect, or by any of the
+leaders of an opposition whom I have the honor to know and the sense to
+admire. I re<a name="Page_285" id="Page_285" title="285" class="pagenum"></a>member Polybius tells us, that, during his captivity in
+Italy as a Peloponnesian hostage, he solicited old Cato to intercede
+with the Senate for his release, and that of his countrymen: this old
+politician told him that he had better continue in his present
+condition, however irksome, than apply again to that formidable
+authority for their relief; that he ought to imitate the wisdom of his
+countryman Ulysses, who, when he was once out of the den of the Cyclops,
+had too much sense to venture again into the same cavern. But I conceive
+too high an opinion of the Irish legislature to think that they are to
+their fellow-citizens what the grand oppressors of mankind were to a
+people whom the fortune of war had subjected to their power. For though
+Cato could use such a parallel with regard to his Senate, I should
+really think it nothing short of impious to compare an Irish Parliament
+to a den of Cyclops. I hope the people, both here and with you, will
+always apply to the House of Commons with becoming modesty, but at the
+same time with minds unembarrassed with any sort of terror.</p>
+
+<p>As to the means which the Catholics employ to obtain this object, so
+worthy of sober and rational minds, I do admit that such means may be
+used in the pursuit of it as may make it proper for the legislature, in
+this case, to defer their compliance until the demandants are brought to
+a proper sense of their duty. A concession in which the governing power
+of our country loses its dignity is dearly bought even by him who
+obtains his object. All the people have a deep interest in the dignity
+of Parliament. But as the refusal of franchises which are drawn out of
+the first vital stamina of the British<a name="Page_286" id="Page_286" title="286" class="pagenum"></a> Constitution is a very serious
+thing, we ought to be very sure that the manner and spirit of the
+application is offensive and dangerous indeed, before we ultimately
+reject all applications of this nature. The mode of application, I hear,
+is by petition. It is the manner in which all the sovereign powers of
+the world are approached; and I never heard (except in the case of James
+the Second) that any prince considered this manner of supplication to be
+contrary to the humility of a subject or to the respect due to the
+person or authority of the sovereign. This rule, and a correspondent
+practice, are observed from the Grand Seignior down to the most petty
+prince or republic in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>You have sent me several papers, some in print, some in manuscript. I
+think I had seen all of them, except the formula of association. I
+confess they appear to me to contain matter mischievous, and capable of
+giving alarm, if the spirit in which they are written should be found to
+make any considerable progress. But I am at a loss to know how to apply
+them as objections to the case now before us. When I find that <i>the
+General Committee</i> which acts for the Roman Catholics in Dublin prefers
+the association proposed in the written draught you have sent me to a
+respectful application in Parliament, I shall think the persons who sign
+such a paper to be unworthy of any privilege which may be thought fit to
+be granted, and that such men ought, <i>by name</i>, to be excepted from any
+benefit under the Constitution to which they offer this violence. But I
+do not find that this form of a seditious league has been signed by any
+person whatsoever, either on the part of the supposed projectors, or on
+the part of those whom it is <a name="Page_287" id="Page_287" title="287" class="pagenum"></a>calculated to seduce. I do not find, on
+inquiry, that such a thing was mentioned, or even remotely alluded to,
+in the general meeting of the Catholics from which so much violence was
+apprehended. I have considered the other publications, signed by
+individuals on the part of certain societies,&mdash;I may mistake, for I have
+not the honor of knowing them personally, but I take Mr. Butler and Mr.
+Tandy not to be Catholics, but members of the Established Church. Not
+<i>one</i> that I recollect of these publications, which you and I equally
+dislike, appears to be written by persons of that persuasion. Now, if,
+whilst a man is dutifully soliciting a favor from Parliament, any person
+should choose in an improper manner to show his inclination towards the
+cause depending, and if that <i>must</i> destroy the cause of the petitioner,
+then, not only the petitioner, but the legislature itself, is in the
+power of any weak friend or artful enemy that the supplicant or that the
+Parliament may have. A man must be judged by his own actions only.
+Certain Protestant Dissenters make seditious propositions to the
+Catholics, which it does not appear that they have yet accepted. It
+would be strange that the tempter should escape all punishment, and that
+he who, under circumstances full of seduction and full of provocation,
+has resisted the temptation should incur the penalty. You know, that,
+with regard to the Dissenters, who are <i>stated</i> to be the chief movers
+in this vile scheme of altering the principles of election to a right of
+voting by the head, you are not able (if you ought even to wish such a
+thing) to deprive them of any part of the franchises and privileges
+which they hold on a footing of perfect equality with yourselves. <i>They</i>
+may do what <a name="Page_288" id="Page_288" title="288" class="pagenum"></a>they please with constitutional impunity; but the others
+cannot even listen with civility to an invitation from them to an
+ill-judged scheme of liberty, without forfeiting forever all hopes of
+any of those liberties which we admit to be sober and rational.</p>
+
+<p>It is known, I believe, that the greater as well as the sounder part of
+our excluded countrymen have not adopted the wild ideas and wilder
+engagements which have been held out to them, but have rather chosen to
+hope small and safe concessions from the legal power than boundless
+objects from trouble and confusion. This mode of action seems to me to
+mark men of sobriety, and to distinguish them from those who are
+intemperate, from circumstance or from nature. But why do they not
+instantly disclaim and disavow those who make such advances to them? In
+this, too, in my opinion, they show themselves no less sober and
+circumspect. In the present moment nothing short of insanity could
+induce them to take such a step. Pray consider the circumstances.
+Disclaim, says somebody, all union with the Dissenters;&mdash;right.&mdash;But
+when this your injunction is obeyed, shall I obtain the object which I
+solicit from <i>you</i>?&mdash;Oh, no, nothing at all like it!&mdash;But, in punishing
+us, by an exclusion from the Constitution through the great gate, for
+having been invited to enter into it by a postern, will you punish by
+deprivation of their privileges, or mulet in any other way, those who
+have tempted us?&mdash;Far from it;&mdash;we mean to preserve all <i>their</i>
+liberties and immunities, as <i>our</i> life-blood. We mean to cultivate
+<i>them</i>, as brethren whom we love and respect;&mdash;with <i>you</i> we have no
+fellowship. We can bear with patience their enmity to ourselves; but
+their friendship with <a name="Page_289" id="Page_289" title="289" class="pagenum"></a>you we will not endure. But mark it well! All our
+quarrels with <i>them</i> are always to be revenged upon <i>you</i>. Formerly, it
+is notorious that we should have resented with the highest indignation
+your presuming to show any ill-will to them. You must not suffer them,
+now, to show any good-will to you. Know&mdash;and take it once for all&mdash;that
+it is, and ever has been, and ever will be, a fundamental maxim in our
+politics, that you are not to have any part or shadow or name of
+interest whatever in our state; that we look upon you as under an
+irreversible outlawry from our Constitution,&mdash;as perpetual and
+unalliable aliens.</p>
+
+<p>Such, my dear Sir, is the plain nature of the argument drawn from the
+Revolution maxims, enforced by a supposed disposition in the Catholics
+to unite with the Dissenters. Such it is, though it were clothed in
+never such bland and civil forms, and wrapped up, as a poet says, in a
+thousand &quot;artful folds of sacred lawn.&quot; For my own part, I do not know
+in what manner to shape such arguments, so as to obtain admission for
+them into a rational understanding. Everything of this kind is to be
+reduced at last to threats of power. I cannot say, <i>V&aelig; victis</i>! and then
+throw the sword into the scale. I have no sword; and if I had, in this
+case, most certainly, I would not use it as a makeweight in political
+reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>Observe, on these principles, the difference between the procedure of
+the Parliament and the Dissenters towards the people in question. One
+employs courtship, the other force. The Dissenters offer bribes, the
+Parliament nothing but the <i>front n&eacute;gatif</i> of a stern and forbidding
+authority. A man may be very <a name="Page_290" id="Page_290" title="290" class="pagenum"></a>wrong in his ideas of what is good for
+him. But no man affronts me, nor can therefore justify my affronting
+him, by offering to make me as happy as himself, according to his own
+ideas of happiness. This the Dissenters do to the Catholics. You are on
+the different extremes. The Dissenters offer, with regard to
+constitutional rights and civil advantages of all sorts, <i>everything</i>;
+you refuse <i>everything</i>. With them, there is boundless, though not very
+assured hope; with you, a very sure and very unqualified despair. The
+terms of alliance from the Dissenters offer a representation of the
+commons, chosen out of the people by the head. This is absurdly and
+dangerously large, in my opinion; and that scheme of election is known
+to have been at all times perfectly odious to me. But I cannot think it
+right of course to punish the Irish Roman Catholics by an universal
+exclusion, because others, whom you would not punish at all, propose an
+universal admission. I cannot dissemble to myself, that, in this very
+kingdom, many persons who are not in the situation of the Irish
+Catholics, but who, on the contrary, enjoy the full benefit of the
+Constitution as it stands, and some of whom, from the effect of their
+fortunes, enjoy it in a large measure, had some years ago associated to
+procure great and undefined changes (they considered them as reforms) in
+the popular part of the Constitution. Our friend, the late Mr. Flood,
+(no slight man,) proposed in his place, and in my hearing, a
+representation not much less extensive than this, for England,&mdash;in which
+every house was to be inhabited by a voter, <i>in addition</i> to all the
+actual votes by other titles (some of the corporate) which we know do
+not require a house or a shed. Can I forget that a person of the <a name="Page_291" id="Page_291" title="291" class="pagenum"></a>very
+highest rank, of very large fortune, and of the first class of ability,
+brought a bill into the House of Lords, in the head-quarters of
+aristocracy, containing identically the same project for the supposed
+adoption of which by a club or two it is thought right to extinguish all
+hopes in the Roman Catholics of Ireland? I cannot say it was very
+eagerly embraced or very warmly pursued. But the Lords neither did
+disavow the bill, nor treat it with any disregard, nor express any sort
+of disapprobation of its noble author, who has never lost, with king or
+people, the least degree of the respect and consideration which so
+justly belongs to him.</p>
+
+<p>I am not at all enamored, as I have told you, with this plan of
+representation; as little do I relish any bandings or associations for
+procuring it. But if the question was to be put to you and
+me,&mdash;<i>Universal</i> popular representation, or <i>none at all for us and
+ours</i>,&mdash;we should find ourselves in a very awkward position. I do not
+like this kind of dilemmas, especially when they are practical.</p>
+
+<p>Then, since our oldest fundamental laws follow, or rather couple,
+freehold with franchise,&mdash;since no principle of the Revolution shakes
+these liberties,&mdash;since the oldest and one of the best monuments of the
+Constitution demands for the Irish the privilege which they
+supplicate,&mdash;since the principles of the Revolution coincide with the
+declarations of the Great Charter,&mdash;since the practice of the
+Revolution, in this point, did not contradict its principles,&mdash;since,
+from that event, twenty-five years had elapsed, before a domineering
+party, on a party principle, had ventured to disfranchise, without any
+proof whatsoever of abuse, the greater part of the community,&mdash;since the
+king's <a name="Page_292" id="Page_292" title="292" class="pagenum"></a>coronation oath does not stand in his way to the performance of
+his duty to all his subjects,&mdash;since you have given to all other
+Dissenters these privileges without limit which are hitherto withheld
+without any limitation whatsoever from the Catholics,&mdash;since no nation
+in the world has ever been known to exclude so great a body of men (not
+born slaves) from the civil state, and all the benefits of its
+Constitution,&mdash;the whole question comes before Parliament as a matter
+for its prudence. I do not put the thing on a question of right. That
+discretion, which in judicature is well said by Lord Coke to be a
+crooked cord, in legislature is a golden rule. Supplicants ought not to
+appear too much in the character of litigants. If the subject thinks so
+highly and reverently of the sovereign authority as not to claim
+anything of right, so that it may seem to be independent of the power
+and free choice of its government,&mdash;and if the sovereign, on his part,
+considers the advantages of the subjects as their right, and all their
+reasonable wishes as so many claims,&mdash;in the fortunate conjunction of
+these mutual dispositions are laid the foundations of a happy and
+prosperous commonwealth. For my own part, desiring of all things that
+the authority of the legislature under which I was born, and which I
+cherish, not only with a dutiful awe, but with a partial and cordial
+affection, to be maintained in the utmost possible respect, I never will
+suffer myself to suppose that at bottom their discretion will be found
+to be at variance with their justice.</p>
+
+<p>The whole being at discretion, I beg leave just to suggest some matters
+for your consideration:&mdash;Whether the government in Church or State is
+likely to be more secure by continuing causes of grounded <a name="Page_293" id="Page_293" title="293" class="pagenum"></a>discontent to
+a very great number (say two millions) of the subjects? or whether the
+Constitution, combined and balanced as it is, will be rendered more
+solid by depriving so large a part of the people of all concern or
+interest or share in its representation, actual or <i>virtual</i>? I here
+mean to lay an emphasis on the word <i>virtual</i>. Virtual representation is
+that in which there is a communion of interests and a sympathy in
+feelings and desires between those who act in the name of any
+description of people and the people in whose name they act, though the
+trustees are not actually chosen by them. This is virtual
+representation. Such a representation I think to be in many cases even
+better than the actual. It possesses most of its advantages, and is free
+from many of its inconveniences; it corrects the irregularities in the
+literal representation, when the shifting current of human affairs or
+the acting of public interests in different ways carry it obliquely from
+its first line of direction. The people may err in their choice; but
+common interest and common sentiment are rarely mistaken. But this sort
+of virtual representation cannot have a long or sure existence, if it
+has not a substratum in the actual. The member must have some relation
+to the constituent. As things stand, the Catholic, as a Catholic, and
+belonging to a description, has no <i>virtual</i> relation to the
+representative,&mdash;but the <i>contrary</i>. There is a relation in mutual
+obligation. Gratitude may not always have a very lasting power; but the
+frequent recurrence of an application for favors will revive and refresh
+it, and will necessarily produce some degree of mutual attention. It
+will produce, at least, acquaintance. The several descriptions of people
+will not be kept so much apart <a name="Page_294" id="Page_294" title="294" class="pagenum"></a>as they now are, as if they were not
+only separate nations, but separate species. The stigma and reproach,
+the hideous mask will be taken off, and men will see each other as they
+are. Sure I am that there have been thousands in Ireland who have never
+conversed with a Roman Catholic in their whole lives, unless they
+happened to talk to their gardener's workmen, or to ask their way, when
+they had lost it in their sports,&mdash;or, at best, who had known them only
+as footmen, or other domestics, of the second and third order: and so
+averse were they, some time ago, to have them near their persons, that
+they would not employ even those who could never find their way beyond
+the stable. I well remember a great, and in many respects a good man,
+who advertised for a blacksmith, but at the same time added, he must be
+a Protestant. It is impossible that such a state of things, though
+natural goodness in many persons will undoubtedly make exceptions, must
+not produce alienation on the one side and pride and insolence on the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>Reduced to a question of discretion, and that discretion exercised
+solely upon what will appear best for the conservation of the state on
+its present basis, I should recommend it to your serious thoughts,
+whether the narrowing of the foundation is always the best way to secure
+the building? The body of disfranchised men will not be perfectly
+satisfied to remain always in that state. If they are not satisfied, you
+have two millions of subjects in your bosom full of uneasiness: not that
+they cannot overturn the Act of Settlement, and put themselves and you
+under an arbitrary master; or that they are not permitted to spawn a
+hydra of wild republics, on principles of a <a name="Page_295" id="Page_295" title="295" class="pagenum"></a>pretended natural equality
+in man; but because you will not suffer them to enjoy the ancient,
+fundamental, tried advantages of a British Constitution,&mdash;that you will
+not permit them to profit of the protection of a common father or the
+freedom of common citizens, and that the only reason which can be
+assigned for this disfranchisement has a tendency more deeply to
+ulcerate their minds than the act of exclusion itself. What the
+consequence of such feelings must be it is for you to look to. To warn
+is not to menace.</p>
+
+<p>I am far from asserting that men will not excite disturbances without
+just cause. I know that such an assertion is not true. But neither is it
+true that disturbances have never just complaints for their origin. I am
+sure that it is hardly prudent to furnish them with such causes of
+complaint as every man who thinks the British Constitution a benefit may
+think at least colorable and plausible.</p>
+
+<p>Several are in dread of the man&oelig;uvres of certain persons among the
+Dissenters, who turn this ill humor to their own ill purposes. You know,
+better than I can, how much these proceedings of certain among the
+Dissenters are to be feared. You are to weigh, with the temper which is
+natural to you, whether it may be for the safety of our establishment
+that the Catholics should be ultimately persuaded that they have no hope
+to enter into the Constitution but through the Dissenters.</p>
+
+<p>Think whether this be the way to prevent or dissolve factious
+combinations against the Church or the State. Reflect seriously on the
+possible consequences of keeping in the heart of your country a bank of
+discontent, every hour accumulating, upon <a name="Page_296" id="Page_296" title="296" class="pagenum"></a>which every description of
+seditious men may draw at pleasure. They whose principles of faction
+will dispose them to the establishment of an arbitrary monarchy will
+find a nation of men who have no sort of interest in freedom, but who
+will have an interest in that equality of justice or favor with which a
+wise despot must view all his subjects who do not attack the foundations
+of his power. Love of liberty itself may, in such men, become the means
+of establishing an arbitrary domination. On the other hand, they who
+wish for a democratic republic will find a set of men who have no choice
+between civil servitude and the entire ruin of a mixed Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>Suppose the people of Ireland divided into three parts. Of these, (I
+speak within compass,) two are Catholic; of the remaining third, one
+half is composed of Dissenters. There is no natural union between those
+descriptions. It may be produced. If the two parts Catholic be driven
+into a close confederacy with half the third part of Protestants, with a
+view to a change in the Constitution in Church or State or both, and you
+rest the whole of their security on a handful of gentlemen, clergy, and
+their dependents,&mdash;compute the strength <i>you have in Ireland</i>, to oppose
+to grounded discontent, to capricious innovation, to blind popular fury,
+and to ambitious, turbulent intrigue.</p>
+
+<p>You mention that the minds of some gentlemen are a good deal heated, and
+that it is often said, that, rather than submit to such persons, having
+a share in their franchises, they would throw up their independence, and
+precipitate an union with Great Britain. I have heard a discussion
+concerning such <a name="Page_297" id="Page_297" title="297" class="pagenum"></a>an union amongst all sorts of men ever since I remember
+anything. For my own part, I have never been able to bring my mind to
+anything clear and decisive upon the subject. There cannot be a more
+arduous question. As far as I can form an opinion, it would not be for
+the mutual advantage of the two kingdoms. Persons, however, more able
+than I am think otherwise. But whatever the merits of this union may be,
+to make it a <i>menace</i>, it must be shown to be an <i>evil</i>, and an evil
+more particularly to those who are threatened with it than to those who
+hold it out as a terror. I really do not see how this threat of an union
+can operate, or that the Catholics are more likely to be losers by that
+measure than the churchmen.</p>
+
+<p>The humors of the people, and of politicians too, are so variable in
+themselves, and are so much under the occasional influence of some
+leading men, that it is impossible to know what turn the public mind
+here would take on such an event. There is but one thing certain
+concerning it. Great divisions and vehement passions would precede this
+union, both on the measure itself and on its terms; and particularly,
+this very question of a share in the representation for the Catholics,
+from whence the project of an union originated, would form a principal
+part in the discussion; and in the temper in which some gentlemen seem
+inclined to throw themselves, by a sort of high, indignant passion, into
+the scheme, those points would not be deliberated with all possible
+calmness.</p>
+
+<p>From my best observation, I should greatly doubt, whether, in the end,
+these gentlemen would obtain their object, so as to make the exclusion
+of two millions of their countrymen a fundamental article in <a name="Page_298" id="Page_298" title="298" class="pagenum"></a>the union.
+The demand would be of a nature quite unprecedented. You might obtain
+the union; and yet a gentleman, who, under the new union establishment,
+would aspire to the honor of representing his county, might possibly be
+as much obliged, as he may fear to be under the old separate
+establishment, to the unsupportable mortification of asking his
+neighbors, who have a different opinion concerning the elements in the
+sacrament, for their votes.</p>
+
+<p>I believe, nay, I am sure, that the people of Great Britain, with or
+without an union, might be depended upon, in oases of any real danger,
+to aid the government of Ireland, with the same cordiality as they would
+support their own, against any wicked attempts to shake the security of
+the happy Constitution in Church and State. But before Great Britain
+engages in any quarrel, the <i>cause of the dispute</i> would certainly be a
+part of her consideration. If confusions should arise in that kingdom
+from too steady an attachment to a proscriptive, monopolizing system,
+and from the resolution of regarding the franchise, and in it the
+security of the subject, as belonging rather to religious opinions than
+to civil qualification and civil conduct, I doubt whether you might
+quite certainly reckon on obtaining an aid of force from hence for the
+support of that system. We might extend your distractions to this
+country by taking part in them. England will be indisposed, I suspect,
+to send an army for the conquest of Ireland. What was done in 1782 is a
+decisive proof of her sentiments of justice and moderation. She will not
+be fond of making another American war in Ireland. The principles of
+such a war would but too much resemble the former one. The well-disposed
+and <a name="Page_299" id="Page_299" title="299" class="pagenum"></a>the ill-disposed in England would (for different reasons perhaps)
+be equally averse to such an enterprise. The confiscations, the public
+auctions, the private grants, the plantations, the transplantations,
+which formerly animated so many adventurers, even among sober citizens,
+to such Irish expeditions, and which possibly might have animated some
+of them to the American, can have no existence in the case that we
+suppose.</p>
+
+<p>Let us form a supposition, (no foolish or ungrounded supposition,) that,
+in an age when men are infinitely more disposed to heat themselves with
+political than religious controversies, the former should entirely
+prevail, as we see that in some places they have prevailed, over the
+latter,&mdash;and that the Catholics of Ireland, from the courtship paid them
+on the one hand, and the high tone of refusal on the other, should, in
+order to enter into all the rights of subjects, all become Protestant
+Dissenters, and, as the others do, take all your oaths. They would all
+obtain their civil objects; and the change, for anything I know to the
+contrary, (in the dark as I am about the Protestant Dissenting tenets,)
+might be of use to the health of their souls. But what security our
+Constitution, in Church or State, could derive from that event, I cannot
+possibly discern. Depend upon it, it is as true as Nature is true, that,
+if you force them out of the religion of habit, education, or opinion,
+it is not to yours they will ever go. Shaken in their minds, they will
+go to that where the dogmas are fewest,&mdash;where they are the most
+uncertain,&mdash;where they lead them the least to a consideration of what
+they have abandoned. They will go to that uniformly democratic system to
+whose first move<a name="Page_300" id="Page_300" title="300" class="pagenum"></a>ments they owed their emancipation. I recommend you
+seriously to turn this in your mind. Believe that it requires your best
+and maturest thoughts. Take what course you please,&mdash;union or no union;
+whether the people remain Catholics or become Protestant Dissenters,
+sure it is that the present state of monopoly <i>cannot</i> continue.</p>
+
+<p>If England were animated, as I think she is not, with her former spirit
+of domination, and with the strong theological hatred which she once
+cherished for that description of her fellow-Christians and
+fellow-subjects, I am yet convinced, that, after the fullest success in
+a ruinous struggle, you would be obliged to abandon that monopoly. We
+were obliged to do this, even when everything promised success, in the
+American business. If you should make this experiment at last, under the
+pressure of any necessity, you never can do it well. But if, instead of
+falling into a passion, the leading gentlemen of the country themselves
+should undertake the business cheerfully, and with hearty affection
+towards it, great advantages would follow. What is forced cannot be
+modified: but here you may measure your concessions.</p>
+
+<p>It is a consideration of great moment, that you make the desired
+admission without altering the system of your representation in the
+smallest degree or in any part. You may leave that deliberation of a
+Parliamentary change or reform, if ever you should think fit to engage
+in it, uncomplicated and unembarrassed with the other question. Whereas,
+if they are mixed and confounded, as some people attempt to mix and
+confound them, no one can answer for the effects on the Constitution
+itself.<a name="Page_301" id="Page_301" title="301" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>There is another advantage in taking up this business singly and by an
+arrangement for the single object. It is that you may proceed by
+<i>degrees</i>. We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most
+powerful law of Nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation. All
+we can do, and that human wisdom can do, is to provide that the change
+shall proceed by insensible degrees. This has all the benefits which may
+be in change, without any of the inconveniences of mutation. Everything
+is provided for as it arrives. This mode will, on the one hand, prevent
+the <i>unfixing old interests at once</i>: a thing which is apt to breed a
+black and sullen discontent in those who are at once dispossessed of all
+their influence and consideration. This gradual course, on the other
+side, will prevent men long under depression from being intoxicated with
+a large draught of new power, which they always abuse with a licentious
+insolence. But, wishing, as I do, the change to be gradual and cautious,
+I would, in my first steps, lean rather to the side of enlargement than
+restriction.</p>
+
+<p>It is one excellence of our Constitution, that all our rights of
+provincial election regard rather property than person. It is another,
+that the rights which approach more nearly to the personal are most of
+them corporate, and suppose a restrained and strict education of seven
+years in some useful occupation. In both cases the practice may have
+slid from the principle. The standard of qualification in both cases may
+be so low, or not so judiciously chosen, as in some degree to frustrate
+the end. But all this is for your prudence in the case before you. You
+may rise a step or two the qualification of the Catholic voters. But if
+you were to-morrow to put the<a name="Page_302" id="Page_302" title="302" class="pagenum"></a> Catholic freeholder on the footing of the
+most favored forty-shilling Protestant Dissenter, you know, that, such
+is the actual state of Ireland, this would not make a sensible
+alteration in almost any <i>one</i> election in the kingdom. The effect in
+their favor, even defensively, would be infinitely slow. But it would be
+healing; it would be satisfactory and protecting. The stigma would be
+removed. By admitting settled, permanent substance in lieu of the
+numbers, you would avoid the great danger of our time, that of setting
+up number against property. The numbers ought never to be neglected,
+because (besides what is due to them as men) collectively, though not
+individually, they have great property: they ought to have, therefore,
+protection; they ought to have security; they ought to have even
+consideration: but they ought not to predominate.</p>
+
+<p>My dear Sir, I have nearly done. I meant to write you a long letter: I
+have written a long dissertation. I might have done it earlier and
+better. I might have been more forcible and more clear, if I had not
+been interrupted as I have been; and this obliges me not to write to you
+in my own hand. Though my hand but signs it, my heart goes with what I
+have written. Since I could think at all, those have been my thoughts.
+You know that thirty-two years ago they were as fully matured in my mind
+as they are now. A letter of mine to Lord Kenmare, though not by my
+desire, and full of lesser mistakes, has been printed in Dublin. It was
+written ten or twelve years ago, at the time when I began the
+employment, which I have not yet finished, in favor of another
+distressed people, injured by those who have vanquished them, or stolen
+a dominion over them. It <a name="Page_303" id="Page_303" title="303" class="pagenum"></a>contained my sentiments then: you will see how
+far they accord with my sentiments now. Time has more and more confirmed
+me in them all. The present circumstances fix them deeper in my mind.</p>
+
+<p>I voted last session, if a particular vote could be distinguished in
+unanimity, for an establishment of the Church of England <i>conjointly</i>
+with the establishment, which was made some years before by act of
+Parliament, of the Roman Catholic, in the French conquered country of
+Canada. At the time of making this English ecclesiastical establishment,
+we did not think it necessary for its safety to destroy the former
+Gallican Church settlement. In our first act we settled a government
+altogether monarchical, or nearly so. In that system, the Canadian
+Catholics were far from being deprived of the advantages or
+distinctions, of any kind, which they enjoyed under their former
+monarchy. It is true that some people, and amongst them one eminent
+divine, predicted at that time that by this step we should lose our
+dominions in America. He foretold that the Pope would send his
+indulgences hither; that the Canadians would fall in with France, would
+declare independence, and draw or force our colonies into the same
+design. The independence happened according to his prediction; but in
+directly the reverse order. All our English Protestant colonies
+revolted. They joined themselves to France; and it so happened that
+Popish Canada was the only place which preserved its fidelity, the only
+place in which France got no footing, the only peopled colony which now
+remains to Great Britain. Vain are all the prognostics taken from ideas
+and passions, which survive the state of things which gave rise to them.
+When last year we gave <a name="Page_304" id="Page_304" title="304" class="pagenum"></a>a popular representation to the same Canada by
+the choice of the landholders, and an aristocratic representation at the
+choice of the crown, neither was the choice of the crown nor the
+election of the landholders limited by a consideration of religion. We
+had no dread for the Protestant Church which we settled there, because
+we permitted the French Catholics, in the utmost latitude of the
+description, to be free subjects. They are good subjects, I have no
+doubt; but I will not allow that any French Canadian Catholics are
+better men or better citizens than the Irish of the same communion.
+Passing from the extremity of the West to the extremity almost of the
+East, I have been many years (now entering into the twelfth) employed in
+supporting the rights, privileges, laws, and immunities of a very remote
+people. I have not as yet been able to finish my task. I have struggled
+through much discouragement and much opposition, much obloquy, much
+calumny, for a people with whom I have no tie but the common bond of
+mankind. In this I have not been left alone. We did not fly from our
+undertaking because the people are Mahometans or Pagans, and that a
+great majority of the Christians amongst them are Papists. Some
+gentlemen in Ireland, I dare say, have good reasons for what they may
+do, which do not occur to me. I do not presume to condemn them; but,
+thinking and acting as I have done towards those remote nations, I
+should not know how to show my face, here or in Ireland, if I should say
+that all the Pagans, all the Mussulmen, and even all the Papists, (since
+they must form the highest stage in the climax of evil,) are worthy of a
+liberal and honorable condition, except those of one of the
+descriptions, which forms <a name="Page_305" id="Page_305" title="305" class="pagenum"></a>the majority of the inhabitants of the
+country in which you and I were born. If such are the Catholics of
+Ireland, ill-natured and unjust people, from our own data, may be
+inclined not to think better of the Protestants of a soil which is
+supposed to infuse into its sects a kind of venom unknown in other
+places.</p>
+
+<p>You hated the old system as early as I did. Your first juvenile lance
+was broken against that giant. I think you were even the first who
+attacked the grim phantom. You have an exceedingly good understanding,
+very good humor, and the best heart in the world. The dictates of that
+temper and that heart, as well as the policy pointed out by that
+understanding, led you to abhor the old code. You abhorred it, as I did,
+for its vicious perfection. For I must do it justice: it was a complete
+system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested and well
+composed in all its parts. It was a machine of wise and elaborate
+contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and
+degradation of a people, and the debasement, in them, of human nature
+itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man. It is a
+thing humiliating enough, that we are doubtful of the effect of the
+medicines we compound,&mdash;we are sure of our poisons. My opinion ever was,
+(in which I heartily agree with those that admired the old code,) that
+it was so constructed, that, if there was once a breach in any essential
+part of it, the ruin of the whole, or nearly of the whole, was, at some
+time or other, a certainty. For that reason I honor and shall forever
+honor and love you, and those who first caused it to stagger, crack, and
+gape. Others may finish; the beginners have the glory; <a name="Page_306" id="Page_306" title="306" class="pagenum"></a>and, take what
+part you please at this hour, (I think you will take the best,) your
+first services will never be forgotten by a grateful country. Adieu!
+Present my best regards to those I know,&mdash;and as many as I know in our
+country I honor. There never was so much ability, nor, I believe, virtue
+in it. They have a task worthy of both. I doubt not they will perform
+it, for the stability of the Church and State, and for the union and the
+separation of the people: for the union of the honest and peaceable of
+all sects; for their separation from all that is ill-intentioned and
+seditious in any of them.</p>
+
+<p>BEACONSFIELD, JANUARY 3, 1792.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> The letter is written on folio sheets.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> A small error of fact as to the abjuration oath, but of no
+importance in the argument.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307" title="307" class="pagenum"></a><a name="HINTS_FOR_A_MEMORIAL" id="HINTS_FOR_A_MEMORIAL" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">TO BE DELIVERED TO</span><br />
+<br />
+MONSIEUR DE M.M.<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">WRITTEN IN THE EARLY PART OF 1791</span></h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The King, my master, from his sincere desire of keeping up a good
+correspondence with his Most Christian Majesty and the French nation,
+has for some time beheld with concern the condition into which that
+sovereign and nation have fallen.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the reality and the warmth of those sentiments, his
+Britannic Majesty has hitherto forborne in any manner to take part in
+their affairs, in hopes that the common interest of king and subjects
+would render all parties sensible of the necessity of settling their
+government and their freedom upon principles of moderation, as the only
+means of securing permanence to both those blessings, as well as
+internal and external tranquillity to the kingdom of France, and to all
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>His Britannic Majesty finds, to his great regret, that his hopes have
+not been realized. He finds that confusions and disorders have rather
+increased than diminished, and that they now threaten to proceed to
+dangerous extremities.</p>
+
+<p>In this situation of things, the same regard to a neighboring sovereign
+living in friendship with Great Britain, the same spirit of good-will to
+the kingdom of France, the same regard to the general tranquillity,
+which have caused him to view with concern the growth and continuance of
+the present disorders, have induced the King of Great Britain to
+interpose <a name="Page_310" id="Page_310" title="310" class="pagenum"></a>his good offices towards a reconcilement of those unhappy
+differences. This his Majesty does with the most cordial regard to the
+good of all descriptions concerned, and with the most perfect sincerity,
+wholly removing from his royal mind all memory of every circumstance
+which might impede him in the execution of a plan of benevolence which
+he has so much at heart.</p>
+
+<p>His Majesty, having always thought it his greatest glory that he rules
+over a people perfectly and solidly, because soberly, rationally, and
+legally free, can never be supposed to proceed in offering thus his
+royal mediation, but with an unaffected desire and full resolution to
+consider the settlement of a free constitution in France as the very
+basis of any agreement between the sovereign and those of his subjects
+who are unhappily at variance with him,&mdash;to guaranty it to them, if it
+should be desired, in the most solemn and authentic manner, and to do
+all that in him lies to procure the like guaranty from other powers.</p>
+
+<p>His Britannic Majesty, in the same manner, assures the Most Christian
+King that he knows too well and values too highly what is due to the
+dignity and rights of crowned heads, and to the implied faith of
+treaties which have always been made with the <i>crown</i> of France, ever to
+listen to any proposition by which that monarchy shall be despoiled of
+all its rights, so essential for the support of the consideration of the
+prince and the concord and welfare of the people.</p>
+
+<p>If, unfortunately, a due attention should not be paid to these his
+Majesty's benevolent and neighborly offers, or if any circumstances
+should prevent the Most Christian King from acceding (as his Majesty
+<a name="Page_311" id="Page_311" title="311" class="pagenum"></a>has no doubt he is well disposed to do) to this healing mediation in
+favor of himself and all his subjects, his Majesty has commanded me to
+take leave of this court, as not conceiving it to be suitable to the
+dignity of his crown, and to what he owes to his faithful people, any
+longer to keep a public minister at the court of a sovereign who is not
+in possession of his own liberty.<a name="Page_312" id="Page_312" title="312" class="pagenum"></a><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"></a></p>
+
+
+<p><a name="THOUGHTS" id="THOUGHTS" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THOUGHTS<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON</span><br />
+<br />
+FRENCH AFFAIRS,<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ETC., ETC.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 1791.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314" title="314" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315" title="315" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>In all our transactions with France, and at all periods, we have treated
+with that state on the footing of a monarchy. Monarchy was considered in
+all the external relations of that kingdom with every power in Europe as
+its legal and constitutional government, and that in which alone its
+federal capacity was vested.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Montmorin's Letter.</span>It is not yet a year since Monsieur de Montmorin formally, and with as
+little respect as can be imagined to the king, and to all crowned heads,
+announced a total Revolution in that country. He has informed the
+British ministry that its frame of government is wholly altered,&mdash;that
+he is one of the ministers of the new system,&mdash;and, in effect, that the
+king is no longer his master, (nor does he even call him such,) but the
+&quot;<i>first of the ministers</i>,&quot; in the new system.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Acceptance of the Constitution ratified.</span>The second notification was that of the king's acceptance of the new
+Constitution, accompanied with fanfaronades in the modern style of the
+French bureaus: things which have much more the air and character of the
+saucy declamations of their clubs than the tone of regular office.</p>
+
+<p>It has not been very usual to notify to foreign courts anything
+concerning the internal arrangements of any state. In the present case,
+the cir<a name="Page_316" id="Page_316" title="316" class="pagenum"></a>cumstance of these two notifications, with the observations with
+which they are attended, does not leave it in the choice of the
+sovereigns of Christendom to appear ignorant either of this French
+Revolution or (what is more important) of its principles.</p>
+
+<p>We know, that, very soon after this manifesto of Monsieur de Montmorin,
+the king of France, in whose name it was made, found himself obliged to
+fly, with his whole family,&mdash;leaving behind him a declaration in which
+he disavows and annuls that Constitution, as having been the effect of
+force on his person and usurpation on his authority. It is equally
+notorious, that this unfortunate prince was, with many circumstances of
+insult and outrage, brought back prisoner by a deputation of the
+pretended National Assembly, and afterwards suspended by their authority
+from his government. Under equally notorious constraint, and under
+menaces of total deposition, he has been compelled to accept what they
+call a Constitution, and to agree to whatever else the usurped power
+which holds him in confinement thinks proper to impose.</p>
+
+<p>His nest brother, who had fled with him, and his third brother, who had
+fled before him, all the princes of his blood who remained faithful to
+him, and the flower of his magistracy, his clergy, and his nobility,
+continue in foreign countries, protesting against all acts done by him
+in his present situation, on the grounds upon which he had himself
+protested against them at the time of his flight,&mdash;with this addition,
+that they deny his very competence (as on good grounds they may) to
+abrogate the royalty, or the ancient constitutional orders of the
+kingdom. In this protest they are joined by <a name="Page_317" id="Page_317" title="317" class="pagenum"></a>three hundred of the late
+Assembly itself, and, in effect, by a great part of the French nation.
+The new government (so far as the people dare to disclose their
+sentiments) is disdained, I am persuaded, by the greater number,&mdash;who,
+as M. de La Fayette complains, and as the truth is, have declined to
+take any share in the new elections to the National Assembly, either as
+candidates or electors.</p>
+
+<p>In this state of things, (that is, in the case of a <i>divided</i> kingdom,)
+by the law of nations,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor" title=" See Vattel, B. II. c. 4, sect 56, and B. III. c 18, sect.
+296.">[30]</a> Great Britain, like every other power, is
+free to take any part she pleases. She may decline, with more or less
+formality, according to her discretion, to acknowledge this new system;
+or she may recognize it as a government <i>de facto</i>, setting aside all
+discussion of its original legality, and considering the ancient
+monarchy as at an end. The law of nations leaves our court open to its
+choice. We have no direction but what is found in the well-understood
+policy of the king and kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>This declaration of a <i>new species</i> of government, on new principles,
+(such it professes itself to be,) is a real crisis in the politics of
+Europe. The conduct which prudence ought to dictate to Great Britain
+will not depend (as hitherto our connection or quarrel with other states
+has for some time depended) upon merely <i>external</i> relations, but in a
+great measure also upon the system which we may think it right to adopt
+for the internal government of our own country.</p>
+
+<p>If it be our policy to assimilate our government to that of France, we
+ought to prepare for this change by encouraging the schemes of authority
+established <a name="Page_318" id="Page_318" title="318" class="pagenum"></a>there. We ought to wink at the captivity and deposition of
+a prince with whom, if not in close alliance, we were in friendship. We
+ought to fall in with the ideas of Monsieur Montmorin's circular
+manifesto, and to do business of course with the functionaries who act
+under the new power by which that king to whom his Majesty's minister
+has been sent to reside has been deposed and imprisoned. On that idea we
+ought also to withhold all sorts of direct or indirect countenance from
+those who are treating in Germany for the re&euml;stablishment of the French
+monarchy and the ancient orders of that state. This conduct is suitable
+to this policy.</p>
+
+<p>The question is, whether this policy be suitable to the interests of the
+crown and subjects of Great Britain. Let us, therefore, a little
+consider the true nature and probable effects of the Revolution which,
+in such a very unusual manner, has been twice diplomatically announced
+to his Majesty.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Difference between this Revolution and others.</span>There have been many internal revolutions in the government of
+countries, both as to persons and forms, in which the neighboring states
+have had little or no concern. Whatever the government might be with
+respect to those persons and those forms, the stationary interests of
+the nation concerned have most commonly influenced the new governments
+in the same manner in which they influenced the old; and the revolution,
+turning on matter of local grievance or of local accommodation, did not
+extend beyond its territory.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Nature of the French Revolution.</span>The present Revolution in France seems to me to be quite of another
+character and description, and to bear little resemblance or analogy to
+any of those which have been brought about <a name="Page_319" id="Page_319" title="319" class="pagenum"></a>in Europe, upon principles
+merely political. <i>It is a Revolution of doctrine and theoretic dogma</i>.
+It has a much greater resemblance to those changes which have been made
+upon religious grounds, in which a spirit of proselytism makes an
+essential part.</p>
+
+<p>The last revolution of doctrine and theory which has happened in Europe
+is the Reformation. It is not for my purpose to take any notice here of
+the merits of that revolution, but to state one only of its effects.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Its effects.</span>That effect was, <i>to introduce other interests into all countries than
+those which arose from their locality and natural circumstances</i>. The
+principle of the Reformation was such as, by its essence, could not be
+local or confined to the country in which it had its origin. For
+instance, the doctrine of &quot;Justification by Faith or by Works,&quot; which
+was the original basis of the Reformation, could not have one of its
+alternatives true as to Germany and false as to every other country.
+Neither are questions of theoretic truth and falsehood governed by
+circumstances any more than by places. On that occasion, therefore, the
+spirit of proselytism expanded itself with great elasticity upon all
+sides: and great divisions were everywhere the result.</p>
+
+<p>These divisions, however in appearance merely dogmatic, soon became
+mixed with the political; and their effects were rendered much more
+intense from this combination. Europe was for a long time divided into
+two great factions, under the name of Catholic and Protestant, which not
+only often alienated state from state, but also divided almost every
+state within itself. The warm parties in each state were more
+affectionately attached to those of their <a name="Page_320" id="Page_320" title="320" class="pagenum"></a>own doctrinal interest in
+some other country than to their fellow-citizens or to their natural
+government, when they or either of them happened to be of a different
+persuasion. These factions, wherever they prevailed, if they did not
+absolutely destroy, at least weakened and distracted the locality of
+patriotism. The public affections came to have other motives and other
+ties.</p>
+
+<p>It would be to repeat the history of the two last centuries to exemplify
+the effects of this revolution.</p>
+
+<p>Although the principles to which it gave rise did not operate with a
+perfect regularity and constancy, they never wholly ceased to operate.
+Few wars were made, and few treaties were entered into, in which they
+did not come in for some part. They gave a color, a character, and
+direction to all the politics of Europe.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">New system of politics.</span>These principles of internal as well as external division and coalition
+are but just now extinguished. But they who will examine into the true
+character and genius of some late events must be satisfied that other
+sources of faction, combining parties among the inhabitants of different
+countries into one connection, are opened, and that from these sources
+are likely to arise effects full as important as those which had
+formerly arisen from the jarring interests of the religious sects. The
+intention of the several actors in the change in France is not a matter
+of doubt. It is very openly professed.</p>
+
+<p>In the modern world, before this time, there has been no instance of
+this spirit of general political faction, separated from religion,
+pervading several countries, and forming a principle of union between
+the partisans in each. But the thing is not less in <a name="Page_321" id="Page_321" title="321" class="pagenum"></a>human nature. The
+ancient world has furnished a strong and striking instance of such a
+ground for faction, full as powerful and full as mischievous as our
+spirit of religions system had ever been, exciting in all the states of
+Greece (European and Asiatic) the most violent animosities and the most
+cruel and bloody persecutions and proscriptions. These ancient factions
+in each commonwealth of Greece connected themselves with those of the
+same description in some other states; and secret cabals and public
+alliances were carried on and made, not upon a conformity of general
+political interests, but for the support and aggrandizement of the two
+leading states which headed the aristocratic and democratic factions.
+For as, in later times, the king of Spain was at the head of a Catholic,
+and the king of Sweden of a Protestant interest, (France, though
+Catholic, acting subordinately to the latter,) in the like manner the
+Lacedemonians were everywhere at the head of the aristocratic interests,
+and the Athenians of the democratic. The two leading powers kept alive a
+constant cabal and conspiracy in every state, and the political dogmas
+concerning the constitution of a republic were the great instruments by
+which these leading states chose to aggrandize themselves. Their choice
+was not unwise; because the interest in opinions, (merely as opinions,
+and without any experimental reference to their effects,) when once they
+take strong hold of the mind, become the most operative of all
+interests, and indeed very often supersede every other.</p>
+
+<p>I might further exemplify the possibility of a political sentiment
+running through various states, and combining factions in them, from the
+history of the<a name="Page_322" id="Page_322" title="322" class="pagenum"></a> Middle Ages in the Guelfs and Ghibellines. These were
+political factions originally in favor of the Emperor and the Pope, with
+no mixture of religious dogmas: or if anything religiously doctrinal
+they had in them originally, it very soon disappeared; as their first
+political objects disappeared also, though the spirit remained. They
+became no more than names to distinguish factions: but they were not the
+less powerful in their operation, when they had no direct point of
+doctrine, either religious or civil, to assert. For a long time,
+however, those factions gave no small degree of influence to the foreign
+chiefs in every commonwealth in which they existed. I do not mean to
+pursue further the track of these parties. I allude to this part of
+history only as it furnishes an instance of that species of faction
+which broke the locality of public affections, and united descriptions
+of citizens more with strangers than with their countrymen of different
+opinions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">French fundamental principle.</span>The political dogma, which, upon the new French system, is to unite the
+factions of different nations, is this: &quot;That the majority, told by the
+head, of the taxable people in every country, is the perpetual, natural,
+unceasing, indefeasible sovereign; that this majority is perfectly
+master of the form as well as the administration of the state, and that
+the magistrates, under whatever names they are called, are only
+functionaries to obey the orders (general as laws or particular as
+decrees) which that majority may make; that this is the only natural
+government; that all others are tyranny and usurpation.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Practical project.</span>In order to reduce this dogma into practice, the republicans in France,
+and their <a name="Page_323" id="Page_323" title="323" class="pagenum"></a>associates in other countries, make it always their business,
+and often their public profession, to destroy all traces of ancient
+establishments, and to form a new commonwealth in each country, upon the
+basis of the French <i>Rights of Man</i>. On the principle of these rights,
+they mean to institute in every country, and as it were the germ of the
+whole, parochial governments, for the purpose of what they call equal
+representation. From them is to grow, by some media, a general council
+and representative of all the parochial governments. In that
+representative is to be vested the whole national power,&mdash;totally
+abolishing hereditary name and office, levelling all conditions of men,
+(except where money <i>must</i> make a difference,) breaking all connection
+between territory and dignity, and abolishing every species of nobility,
+gentry, and Church establishments: all their priests and all their
+magistrates being only creatures of election and pensioners at will.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing how opposite a permanent landed interest is to that scheme, they
+have resolved, and it is the great drift of all their regulations, to
+reduce that description of men to a mere peasantry for the sustenance of
+the towns, and to place the true effective government in cities, among
+the tradesmen, bankers, and voluntary clubs of bold, presuming young
+persons,&mdash;advocates, attorneys, notaries, managers of newspapers, and
+those cabals of literary men called academies. Their republic is to have
+a first functionary, (as they call him,) under the name of King, or not,
+as they think fit. This officer, when such an officer is permitted, is,
+however, neither in fact nor name to be considered as sovereign, nor the
+people as his subjects. The very use of these appellations is offensive
+to their ears.<a name="Page_324" id="Page_324" title="324" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Partisans of the French system.</span>This system, as it has first been realized, dogmatically as well as
+practically, in France, makes France the natural head of all factions
+formed on a similar principle, wherever they may prevail, as much as
+Athens was the head and settled ally of all democratic factions,
+wherever they existed. The other system has no head.</p>
+
+<p>This system has very many partisans in every country in Europe, but
+particularly in England, where they are already formed into a body,
+comprehending most of the Dissenters of the three leading denominations.
+To these are readily aggregated all who are Dissenters in character,
+temper, and disposition, though not belonging to any of their
+congregations: that is, all the restless people who resemble them, of
+all ranks and all parties,&mdash;Whigs, and even Tories; the whole race of
+half-bred speculators; all the Atheists, Deists, and Socinians; all
+those who hate the clergy and envy the nobility; a good many among the
+moneyed people; the East Indians almost to a man, who cannot bear to
+find that their present importance does not bear a proportion to their
+wealth. These latter have united themselves into one great, and, in my
+opinion, formidable club,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor" title=" Originally called the Bengal Club; but since opened to
+persons from the other Presidencies, for the purpose of consolidating
+the whole Indian interest.">[31]</a> which, though now quiet, may be brought
+into action with considerable unanimity and force.</p>
+
+<p>Formerly, few, except the ambitious great or the desperate and indigent,
+were to be feared as instruments in revolutions. What has happened in
+France teaches us, with many other things, that there are more causes
+than have commonly been taken into <a name="Page_325" id="Page_325" title="325" class="pagenum"></a>our consideration, by which
+government may be subverted. The moneyed men, merchants, principal
+tradesmen, and men of letters (hitherto generally thought the peaceable
+and even timid part of society) are the chief actors in the French
+Revolution. But the fact is, that, as money increases and circulates,
+and as the circulation of news in politics and letters becomes more and
+more diffused, the persons who diffuse this money and this intelligence
+become more and more important. This was not long undiscovered. Views of
+ambition were in France, for the first time, presented to these classes
+of men: objects in the state, in the army, in the system of civil
+offices of every kind. Their eyes were dazzled with this new prospect.
+They were, as it were, electrified, and made to lose the natural spirit
+of their situation. A bribe, great without example in the history of the
+world, was held out to them,&mdash;the whole government of a very large
+kingdom.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Grounds of security supposed for England.</span>There are several who are persuaded that the same thing cannot happen in
+England, because here (they say) the occupations of merchants,
+tradesmen, and manufacturers are not held as degrading situations. I
+once thought that the low estimation in which commerce was held in
+France might be reckoned among the causes of the late Revolution; and I
+am still of opinion that the exclusive spirit of the French nobility did
+irritate the wealthy of other classes. But I found long since, that
+persons in trade and business were by no means despised in France in the
+manner I had been taught to believe.<span class="sidenote">Literary Interest.</span> As to men of letters, they were so
+far from being despised or neglected, that there was no country,
+perhaps, in the universe, <a name="Page_326" id="Page_326" title="326" class="pagenum"></a>in which they were so highly esteemed,
+courted, caressed, and even feared: tradesmen naturally were not so much
+sought in society, (as not furnishing so largely to the fund of
+conversation as they do to the revenues of the state,) but the latter
+description got forward every day. M. Bailly, who made himself the
+popular mayor on the rebellion of the Bastile, and is a principal actor
+in the revolt, before the change possessed a pension or office under the
+crown of six hundred pound English a year,&mdash;for that country, no
+contemptible provision; and this he obtained solely as a man of letters,
+and on no other title. <span class="sidenote">Moneyed interest.</span>As to the moneyed men, whilst the monarchy
+continued, there is no doubt, that, merely as such, they did not enjoy
+the <i>privileges</i> of nobility; but nobility was of so easy an
+acquisition, that it was the fault or neglect of all of that description
+who did not obtain its privileges, for their lives at least, in virtue
+of office. It attached under the royal government to an innumerable
+multitude of places, real and nominal, that were vendible; and such
+nobility were as capable of everything as their degree of influence or
+interest could make them,&mdash;that is, as nobility of no considerable rank
+or consequence. M. Necker, so far from being a French gentleman, was not
+so much as a Frenchman born, and yet we all know the rank in which he
+stood on the day of the meeting of the States.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Mercantile interest.</span>As to the mere matter of estimation of the mercantile or any other
+class, this is regulated by opinion and prejudice. In England, a
+security against the envy of men in these classes is not so very
+complete as we may imagine. We must not impose upon ourselves. What
+institutions and <a name="Page_327" id="Page_327" title="327" class="pagenum"></a>manners together had done in France manners alone do
+here. It is the natural operation of things, where there exists a crown,
+a court, splendid orders of knighthood, and an hereditary
+nobility,&mdash;where there exists a fixed, permanent, landed gentry,
+continued in greatness and opulence by the law of primogeniture, and by
+a protection given to family settlements,&mdash;where there exists a standing
+army and navy,&mdash;where there exists a Church establishment, which bestows
+on learning and parts an interest combined with that of religion and the
+state;&mdash;in a country where such things exist, wealth, new in its
+acquisition, and precarious in its duration, can never rank first, or
+even near the first: though wealth has its natural weight further than
+as it is balanced and even preponderated amongst us, as amongst other
+nations, by artificial institutions and opinions growing out of them. At
+no period in the history of England have so few peers been taken out of
+trade or from families newly created by commerce. In no period has so
+small a number of noble families entered into the counting-house. I can
+call to mind but one in all England, and his is of near fifty years'
+standing. Be that as it may, it appears plain to me, from my best
+observation, that envy and ambition may, by art, management, and
+disposition, be as much excited amongst these descriptions of men in
+England as in any other country, and that they are just as capable of
+acting a part in any great change.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Progress of the French spirit.&mdash;Its course.</span>What direction the French spirit of proselytism is likely to take, and
+in what order it is likely to prevail in the several parts of Europe, it
+is not easy to determine. The seeds are sown almost everywhere, chiefly
+by newspaper circu<a name="Page_328" id="Page_328" title="328" class="pagenum"></a>lations, infinitely more efficacious and extensive
+than ever they were. And they are a more important instrument than
+generally is imagined. They are a part of the reading of all; they are
+the whole of the reading of the far greater number. There are thirty of
+them in Paris alone. The language diffuses them more widely than the
+English,&mdash;though the English, too, are much read. The writers of these
+papers, indeed, for the greater part, are either unknown or in contempt,
+but they are like a battery, in which the stroke of any one ball
+produces no great effect, but the amount of continual repetition is
+decisive. Let us only suffer any person to tell us his story, morning
+and evening, but for one twelvemonth, and he will become our master.</p>
+
+<p>All those countries in which several states are comprehended under some
+general geographical description, and loosely united by some federal
+constitution,&mdash;countries of which the members are small, and greatly
+diversified in their forms of government, and in the titles by which
+they are held,&mdash;these countries, as it might be well expected, are the
+principal objects of their hopes and machinations. Of these, the chief
+are Germany and Switzerland; after them, Italy has its place, as in
+circumstances somewhat similar.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Germany.</span>As to Germany, (in which, from their relation to the Emperor, I
+comprehend the Belgic Provinces,) it appears to me to be, from several
+circumstances, internal and external, in a very critical situation; and
+the laws and liberties of the Empire are by no means secure from the
+contagion of the French doctrines and the effect of French intrigues, or
+from the use which two of the greater<a name="Page_329" id="Page_329" title="329" class="pagenum"></a> German powers may make of a
+general derangement to the general detriment. I do not say that the
+French do not mean to bestow on these German states liberties, and laws
+too, after their mode; but those are not what have hitherto been
+understood as the laws and liberties of the Empire. These exist and have
+always existed under the principles of feodal tenure and succession,
+under imperial constitutions, grants and concessions of sovereigns,
+family compacts, and public treaties, made under the sanction, and some
+of them guarantied by the sovereign powers of other nations, and
+particularly the old government of France, the author and natural
+support of the Treaty of Westphalia.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Ecclesiastical state.</span>In short, the Germanic body is a vast mass of heterogeneous states, held
+together by that heterogeneous body of old principles which formed the
+public law positive and doctrinal. The modern laws and liberties, which
+the new power in France proposes to introduce into Germany, and to
+support with all its force of intrigue and of arms, is of a very
+different nature, utterly irreconcilable with the first, and indeed
+fundamentally the reverse of it: I mean the <i>rights and liberties of the
+man</i>, the <i>droit de l'homme</i>. That this doctrine has made an amazing
+progress in Germany there cannot be a shadow of doubt. They are infected
+by it along the whole course of the Rhine, the Maese, the Moselle, and
+in the greater part of Suabia and Franconia. It is particularly
+prevalent amongst all the lower people, churchmen and laity, in the
+dominions of the Ecclesiastical Electors. It is not easy to find or to
+conceive governments more mild and indulgent than these Church
+sovereignties; but good government <a name="Page_330" id="Page_330" title="330" class="pagenum"></a>is as nothing, when the rights of
+man take possession of the mind. Indeed, the loose rein held over the
+people in these provinces must be considered as one cause of the
+facility with which they lend themselves to any schemes of innovation,
+by inducing them to think lightly of their governments, and to judge of
+grievances, not by feeling, but by imagination.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Balance of Germany.</span>It is in these Electorates that the first impressions of France are
+likely to be made; and if they succeed, it is over with the Germanic
+body, as it stands at present. A great revolution is preparing in
+Germany, and a revolution, in my opinion, likely to be more decisive
+upon the general fate of nations than that of France itself,&mdash;other than
+as in France is to be found the first source of all the principles which
+are in any way likely to distinguish the troubles and convulsions of our
+age. If Europe does not conceive the independence and the equilibrium of
+the Empire to be in the very essence of the system of balanced power in
+Europe, and if the scheme of public law, or mass of laws, upon which
+that independence and equilibrium are founded, be of no leading
+consequence as they are preserved or destroyed, all the politics of
+Europe for more than two centuries have been miserably erroneous.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Prussia and Emperor.</span>If the two great leading powers of Germany do not regard this danger (as
+apparently they do not) in the light in which it presents itself so
+naturally, it is because they are powers too great to have a social
+interest. That sort of interest belongs only to those whose state of
+weakness or mediocrity is such as to give them greater cause of
+apprehension from what may destroy them than of <a name="Page_331" id="Page_331" title="331" class="pagenum"></a>hope from anything by
+which they may be aggrandized.</p>
+
+<p>As long as those two princes are at variance, so long the liberties of
+Germany are safe. But if ever they should so far understand one another
+as to be persuaded that they have a more direct and more certainly
+defined interest in a proportioned mutual aggrandizement than in a
+reciprocal reduction, that is, if they come to think that they are more
+likely to be enriched by a division of spoil than to be rendered secure
+by keeping to the old policy of preventing others from being spoiled by
+either of them, from that moment the liberties of Germany are no more.</p>
+
+<p>That a junction of two in such a scheme is neither impossible nor
+improbable is evident from the partition of Poland in 1773, which was
+effected by such a junction as made the interposition of other nations
+to prevent it not easy. Their circumstances at that time hindered any
+other three states, or indeed any two, from taking measures in common to
+prevent it, though France was at that time an existing power, and had
+not yet learned to act upon a system of politics of her own invention.
+The geographical position of Poland was a great obstacle to any
+movements of France in opposition to this, at that time, unparalleled
+league. To my certain knowledge, if Great Britain had at that time been
+willing to concur in preventing the execution of a project so dangerous
+in the example, even exhausted as France then was by the preceding war,
+and under a lazy and unenterprising prince, she would have at every risk
+taken an active part in this business. But a languor with regard to so
+remote an interest, and the principles and passions which were then
+strongly at work at <a name="Page_332" id="Page_332" title="332" class="pagenum"></a>home, were the causes why Great Britain would not
+give France any encouragement in such an enterprise. At that time,
+however, and with regard to that object, in my opinion, Great Britain
+and France had a common interest.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Possible project of the Emperor and king of Prussia.</span>But the position of Germany is not like that of Poland, with regard to
+France, either for good or for evil. If a conjunction between Prussia
+and the Emperor should be formed for the purpose of secularizing and
+rendering hereditary the Ecclesiastical Electorates and the Bishopric of
+M&uuml;nster, for settling two of them on the children of the Emperor, and
+uniting Cologne and M&uuml;nster to the dominions of the king of Prussia on
+the Rhine, or if any other project of mutual aggrandizement should be in
+prospect, and that, to facilitate such a scheme, the modern French
+should be permitted and encouraged to shake the internal and external
+security of these Ecclesiastical Electorates, Great Britain is so
+situated that she could not with any effect set herself in opposition to
+such a design. Her principal arm, her marine, could here be of no sort
+of use.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">To be resisted only by France.</span>France, the author of the Treaty of Westphalia, is the natural guardian
+of the independence and balance of Germany. Great Britain (to say
+nothing of the king's concern as one of that august body) has a serious
+interest in preserving it; but, except through the power of France,
+<i>acting upon the common old principles of state policy</i>, in the case we
+have supposed, she has no sort of means of supporting that interest. It
+is always the interest of Great Britain that the power of France should
+be kept within the bounds of moderation. It is not her interest that
+that power should be wholly annihilated in the <a name="Page_333" id="Page_333" title="333" class="pagenum"></a>system of Europe. Though
+at one time through France the independence of Europe was endangered, it
+is, and ever was, through her alone that the common liberty of Germany
+can be secured against the single or the combined ambition of any other
+power. In truth, within this century the aggrandizement of other
+sovereign houses has been such that there has been a great change in the
+whole state of Europe; and other nations as well as France may become
+objects of jealousy and apprehension.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">New principles of alliance.</span>In this state of things, a new principle of alliances and wars is
+opened. The Treaty of Westphalia is, with France, an antiquated fable.
+The rights and liberties she was bound to maintain are now a system of
+wrong and tyranny which she is bound to destroy. Her good and ill
+dispositions are shown by the same means. <i>To communicate peaceably</i> the
+rights of men is the true mode of her showing her <i>friendship</i>; to force
+sovereigns to <i>submit</i> to those rights is her mode of <i>hostility</i>. So
+that, either as friend or foe, her whole scheme has been, and is, to
+throw the Empire into confusion; and those statesmen who follow the old
+routine of politics may see in this general confusion, and in the danger
+of the <i>lesser</i> princes, an occasion, as protectors or enemies, of
+connecting their territories to one or the other of the <i>two great</i>
+German powers. They do not take into consideration that the means which
+they encourage, as leading to the event they desire, will with certainty
+not only ravage and destroy the Empire, but, if they should for a moment
+seem to aggrandize the two great houses, will also establish principles
+and confirm tempers amongst the people which will preclude the two
+sovereigns from the possibility of holding <a name="Page_334" id="Page_334" title="334" class="pagenum"></a>what they acquire, or even
+the dominions which they have inherited. It is on the side of the
+Ecclesiastical Electorates that the dikes raised to support the German
+liberty first will give way.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Geneva.</span>The French have begun their general operations by seizing upon those
+territories of the Pope the situation of which was the most inviting to
+the enterprise. Their method of doing it was by exciting sedition and
+spreading massacre and desolation through these unfortunate places, and
+then, under an idea of kindness and protection, bringing forward an
+antiquated title of the crown of France, and annexing Avignon and the
+two cities of the Comtat, with their territory, to the French republic.
+They have made an attempt on Geneva, in which they very narrowly failed
+of success.<span class="sidenote">Savoy.</span> It is known that they hold out from time to time the idea of
+uniting all the other provinces of which Gaul was anciently composed,
+including Savoy on the other side, and on this side bounding themselves
+by the Rhine.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Switzerland.</span>As to Switzerland, it is a country whose long union, rather than its
+possible division, is the matter of wonder. Here I know they entertain
+very sanguine hopes. The aggregation to France of the democratic Swiss
+republics appears to them to be a work half done by their very form; and
+it might seem to them rather an increase of importance to these little
+commonwealths than a derogation from their independency or a change in
+the manner of their government. Upon any quarrel amongst the Cantons,
+nothing is more likely than such an event. As to the aristocratic
+republics, the general clamor and hatred which the French excite against
+the very <a name="Page_335" id="Page_335" title="335" class="pagenum"></a>name, (and with more facility and success than against
+monarchs,) and the utter impossibility of their government making any
+sort of resistance against an insurrection, where they have no troops,
+and the people are all armed and trained, render their hopes in that
+quarter far indeed from unfounded. It is certain that the republic of
+Bern thinks itself obliged to a vigilance next to hostile, and to
+imprison or expel all the French whom it finds in its territories. But,
+indeed, those aristocracies, which comprehend whatever is considerable,
+wealthy, and valuable in Switzerland, do now so wholly depend upon
+opinion, and the humor of their multitude, that the lightest puff of
+wind is sufficient to blow them down.<span class="sidenote">Old French maxims the security of its independence.</span> If France, under its ancient
+regimen, and upon the ancient principles of policy, was the support of
+the Germanic Constitution, it was much more so of that of Switzerland,
+which almost from the very origin of that confederacy rested upon the
+closeness of its connection with France, on which the Swiss Cantons
+wholly reposed themselves for the preservation of the parts of their
+body in their respective rights and permanent forms, as well as for the
+maintenance of all in their general independency.</p>
+
+<p>Switzerland and Germany are the first objects of the new French
+politicians. When I contemplate what they have done at home, which is,
+in effect, little less than an amazing conquest, wrought by a change of
+opinion, in a great part (to be sure far from altogether) very sudden, I
+cannot help letting my thoughts run along with their designs, and,
+without attending to geographical order, to consider the other states of
+Europe, so far as they may be any way <a name="Page_336" id="Page_336" title="336" class="pagenum"></a>affected by this astonishing
+Revolution. If early steps are not taken in some way or other to prevent
+the spreading of this influence, I scarcely think any of them perfectly
+secure.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Italy.</span>Italy is divided, as Germany and Switzerland are, into many smaller
+states, and with some considerable diversity as to forms of government;
+but as these divisions and varieties in Italy are not so considerable,
+so neither do I think the danger altogether so imminent there as in
+Germany and Switzerland. Savoy I know that the French consider as in a
+very hopeful way, and I believe not at all without reason. They view it
+as an old member of the kingdom of France, which may be easily reunited
+in the manner and on the principles of the reunion of Avignon. This
+country communicates with Piedmont; and as the king of Sardinia's
+dominions were long the key of Italy, and as such long regarded by
+France, whilst France acted on her old maxims, and with views on
+Italy,&mdash;so, in this new French empire of sedition, if once she gets that
+key into her hands, she can easily lay open the barrier which hinders
+the entrance of her present politics into that inviting region. <span class="sidenote">Lombardy.</span>Milan, I
+am sure, nourishes great disquiets; and if Milan should stir, no part of
+Lombardy is secure to the present possessors,&mdash;whether the Venetian or
+the Austrian. Genoa is closely connected with France.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Bourbon princes in Italy.</span>The first prince of the House of Bourbon has been obliged to give
+himself up entirely to the new system, and to pretend even to propagate
+it with all zeal: at least, that club of intriguers who assemble at the
+Feuillants, and whose cabinet meets at Madame de Sta&euml;l's, and makes and
+directs all the <a name="Page_337" id="Page_337" title="337" class="pagenum"></a>ministers, is the real executive government of France.
+The Emperor is perfectly in concert, and they will not long suffer any
+prince of the House of Bourbon to keep by force the French emissaries
+out of their dominions; nor whilst France has a commerce with them,
+especially through Marseilles, (the hottest focus of sedition in
+France,) will it be long possible to prevent the intercourse or the
+effects.</p>
+
+<p>Naples has an old, inveterate disposition to republicanism, and (however
+for some time past quiet) is as liable to explosion as its own Vesuvius.
+Sicily, I think, has these dispositions in full as strong a degree. In
+neither of these countries exists anything which very well deserves the
+name of government or exact police.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Ecclesiastical State.</span>In the States of the Church, notwithstanding their strictness in
+banishing the French out of that country, there are not wanting the
+seeds of a revolution. The spirit of nepotism prevails there nearly as
+strong as ever. Every Pope of course is to give origin or restoration to
+a great family by the means of large donations. The foreign revenues
+have long been gradually on the decline, and seem now in a manner dried
+up. To supply this defect, the resource of vexatious and impolitic
+jobbing at home, if anything, is rather increased than lessened. Various
+well-intended, but ill-understood practices, some of them existing, in
+their spirit at least, from the time of the old Roman Empire, still
+prevail; and that government is as blindly attached to old abusive
+customs as others are wildly disposed to all sorts of innovations and
+experiments. These abuses were less felt whilst the Pontificate drew
+riches from abroad, which in some measure counterbalanced the evils of
+<a name="Page_338" id="Page_338" title="338" class="pagenum"></a>their remiss and jobbish government at home. But now it can subsist
+only on the resources of domestic management; and abuses in that
+management of course will be more intimately and more severely felt.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the apparently torpid languor of the Ecclesiastical
+State, those who have had opportunity of a near observation have seen a
+little rippling in that smooth water, which indicates something alive
+under it. There is in the Ecclesiastical State a personage who seems
+capable of acting (but with more force and steadiness) the part of the
+tribune Rienzi. The people, once inflamed, will not be destitute of a
+leader. They have such an one already in the Cardinal or Archbishop
+Boncompagni. He is, of all men, if I am not ill-informed, the most
+turbulent, seditious, intriguing, bold, and desperate. He is not at all
+made for a Roman of the present day. I think he lately held the first
+office of their state, that of Great Chamberlain, which is equivalent to
+High Treasurer. At present he is out of employment, and in disgrace. If
+he should be elected Pope, or even come to have any weight with a new
+Pope, he will infallibly conjure up a democratic spirit in that country.
+He may, indeed, be able to effect it without these advantages. The nest
+interregnum will probably show more of him. There may be others of the
+same character, who have not come to my knowledge. This much is
+certain,&mdash;that the Roman people, if once the blind reverence they bear
+to the sanctity of the Pope, which is their only bridle, should relax,
+are naturally turbulent, ferocious, and headlong, whilst the police is
+defective, and the government feeble and resourceless beyond all
+imagination.<a name="Page_339" id="Page_339" title="339" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Spain</span>As to Spain, it is a nerveless country. It does not possess the use, it
+only suffers the abuse, of a nobility. For some time, and even before
+the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been systematically
+lowered, and rendered incapable by exclusion, and for incapacity
+excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner
+annihilated; and so little means have they of any weighty exertion
+either to control or to support the crown, that, if they at all
+interfere, it is only by abetting desperate and mobbish insurrections,
+like that at Madrid, which drove Squillace from his place. Florida
+Blanca is a creature of office, and has little connection and no
+sympathy with that body.</p>
+
+<p>As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain that looks like an
+independent order; and they are kept in some respect by the Inquisition,
+the sole, but unhappy resource of public tranquillity and order now
+remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of
+state,&mdash;which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars
+no longer with Jews and heretics: it has no such war to carry on. Its
+great object is, to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making
+their way in that kingdom. No French book upon any subject can enter
+there which does not contain such matter. In Spain, the clergy are of
+moment from their influence, but at the same time with the envy and
+jealousy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by
+management with the Pope got a very great share of the ecclesiastical
+revenues into its own hands, much still remains to them. There will
+always be about that court those who look out to a farther division of
+the Church property as a resource, and to be ob<a name="Page_340" id="Page_340" title="340" class="pagenum"></a>tained by shorter
+methods than those of negotiations with the clergy and their chief. But
+at present I think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
+should be taken out of their hands,&mdash;and lest that body, in which
+remains the only life that exists in Spain, and is not a fever, may with
+their property lose all the influence necessary to preserve the
+monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ whatever influence
+remains to them as active agents in its destruction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Castile different from Catalonia and Aragon.</span>The Castilians have still remaining a good deal of their old character,
+their <i>gravedad, lealtad</i>, and <i>el temor de Dios</i>; but that character
+neither is, nor ever was, exactly true, except of the Castilians only.
+The several kingdoms which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
+which run through the whole; but they are in many particulars as
+different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for
+instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of
+the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of an attachment to
+royalty. They are more in the way of trade and intercourse with France,
+and, upon the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let
+loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into
+convulsions.</p>
+
+<p>It is a melancholy reflection, that the spirit of melioration which has
+been going on in that part of Europe, more or less, during this century,
+and the various schemes very lately on foot for further advancement, are
+all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected
+with innovation; and where that latter comes in for too large a share,
+those who undertake to improve their country may <a name="Page_341" id="Page_341" title="341" class="pagenum"></a>risk their own safety.
+In times where the correction, which includes the confession, of an
+abuse, is turned to criminate the authority which has long suffered it,
+rather than to honor those who would amend it, (which is the spirit of
+this malignant French distemper,) every step out of the common course
+becomes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes of
+moderate talents to engage in great undertakings. At present the only
+safety of Spain is the old national hatred to the French. How far that
+can be depended upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is
+impossible to say.</p>
+
+<p>As to Portugal, she is out of the high-road of these politics. I shall,
+therefore, not divert my thoughts that way, but return again to the
+North of Europe, which at present seems the part most interested, and
+there it appears to me that the French speculation on the Northern
+countries may be valued in the following or some such manner.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Denmark.</span>Denmark and Norway do not appear to furnish any of the materials of a
+democratic revolution, or the dispositions to it. Denmark can only be
+<i>consequentially</i> affected by anything done in Prance; but of Sweden I
+think quite otherwise. <span class="sidenote">Sweden.</span>The present power in Sweden is too new a system,
+and too green and too sore from its late Revolution, to be considered as
+perfectly assured. The king, by his astonishing activity, his boldness,
+his decision, his ready versatility, and by rousing and employing the
+old military spirit of Sweden, keeps up the top with continual agitation
+and lashing. The moment it ceases to spin, the royalty is a dead bit of
+box. Whenever Sweden is quiet externally for some time, there is great
+dan<a name="Page_342" id="Page_342" title="342" class="pagenum"></a>ger that all the republican elements she contains will be animated
+by the new French spirit, and of this I believe the king is very
+sensible.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Russia.</span>The Russian government is of all others the most liable to be subverted
+by military seditions, by court conspiracies, and sometimes by headlong
+rebellions of the people, such as the turbinating movement of Pugatchef.
+It is not quite so probable that in any of these changes the spirit of
+system may mingle, in the manner it has done in France. The Muscovites
+are no great speculators; but I should not much rely on their
+uninquisitive disposition, if any of their ordinary motives to sedition
+should arise. The little catechism of the Rights of Men is soon learned;
+and the inferences are in the passions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Poland.</span>Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet. The new Constitution
+only serves to supply that restless people with new means, at least new
+modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition. The bottom of the
+character is the same.<span class="sidenote">Saxony.</span> It is a great question, whether the joining that
+crown with the Electorate of Saxony will contribute most to strengthen
+the royal authority of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony. The
+Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six sevenths at the
+very least, Protestants. He <i>must</i> continue a Catholic, according to the
+Polish law, if he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons, formerly
+flattered by having a crown in the house of their prince, though an
+honor which cost them dear,&mdash;the German probity, fidelity, and
+loyalty,&mdash;the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under the Treaty
+of Westphalia,&mdash;the good temper and <a name="Page_343" id="Page_343" title="343" class="pagenum"></a>good-nature of the princes of the
+House of Saxony, had formerly removed from the people all apprehension
+with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient,
+and even affectionate. The Seven Years' War made some change in the
+minds of the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the loss of what
+might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the
+possession of which, by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often
+obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the support of which that
+foreign interest afforded no proportionable strength. In this very
+delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of the
+French and German <i>Economists</i>, and the cabals, and the secret, as well
+as public doctrines of the <i>Illuminatenorden</i>, and <i>Freemasons</i>, have
+made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent spirit,
+under color of religion, but in reality arising from the French rights
+of man, has already shown itself, and is ready on every occasion to
+blaze out.</p>
+
+<p>The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet temper, of great
+prudence and goodness. He knows, that, in the actual state of things,
+not the power and respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very
+existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very certain that
+not one sovereign in Europe can either promise for the continuance of
+his authority in a state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to
+venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning
+wholly the ancient magnificence of his court, the Elector has conducted
+his affairs with infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors,
+so as to restore his finances beyond what was thought possible from the
+state in which the Seven<a name="Page_344" id="Page_344" title="344" class="pagenum"></a> Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
+whole of that dreadful period, having been in the hands of an
+exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity,
+was obliged to bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in the
+intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabitants of that country
+were not better treated.</p>
+
+<p>The moderation and prudence of the present Elector, in my opinion,
+rather, perhaps, respites the troubles than secures the peace of the
+Electorate. The offer of the succession to the crown of Poland is truly
+critical, whether he accepts or whether he declines it. If the States
+will consent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already
+great, of his situation between the king of Prussia and the
+Emperor.&mdash;But these thoughts lead me too far, when I mean to speak only
+of the interior condition of these princes. It has always, however, some
+necessary connection with their foreign politics.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Holland.</span>With regard to Holland, and the ruling party there, I do not think it at
+all tainted, or likely to be so, except by fear,&mdash;or that it is likely
+to be misled, unless indirectly and circuitously. But the predominant
+party in Holland is not Holland. The suppressed faction, though
+suppressed, exists. Under the ashes, the embers of the late commotions
+are still warm. The anti-Orange party has from the day of its origin
+been French, though alienated in some degree for some time, through the
+pride and folly of Louis the Fourteenth. It will ever hanker after a
+French connection; and now that the internal government in France has
+been assimilated in so considerable a degree to that which the
+immoderate republicans began so very lately to introduce into<a name="Page_345" id="Page_345" title="345" class="pagenum"></a> Holland,
+their connection, as still more natural, will be more desired. I do not
+well understand the present exterior politics of the Stadtholder, nor
+the treaty into which the newspapers say he has entered for the States
+with the Emperor. But the Emperor's own politics with regard to the
+Netherlands seem to me to be exactly calculated to answer the purpose of
+the French Revolutionists. He endeavors to crush the aristocratic party,
+and to nourish one in avowed connection with the most furious
+democratists in France.</p>
+
+<p>These Provinces in which the French game is so well played they consider
+as part of the old French Empire: certainly they were amongst the oldest
+parts of it. These they think very well situated, as their party is well
+disposed to a reunion. As to the greater nations, they do not aim at
+making a direct conquest of them, but, by disturbing them through a
+propagation of their principles, they hope to weaken, as they will
+weaken them, and to keep them in perpetual alarm and agitation, and thus
+render all their efforts against them utterly impracticable, whilst they
+extend the dominion of their sovereign anarchy on all sides.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">England.</span>As to England, there may be some apprehension from vicinity, from
+constant communication, and from the very name of liberty, which, as it
+ought to be very dear to us, in its worst abuses carries something
+seductive. It is the abuse of the first and best of the objects which we
+cherish. I know that many, who sufficiently dislike the system of
+France, have yet no apprehensions of its prevalence here. I say nothing
+to the ground of this security in the attachment of the people to their
+Constitution, <a name="Page_346" id="Page_346" title="346" class="pagenum"></a>and their satisfaction in the discreet portion of liberty
+which it measures out to them. Upon this I have said all I have to say,
+in the Appeal I have published. That security is something, and not
+inconsiderable; but if a storm arises, I should not much rely upon it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Objection to the stability of the French system.</span>There are other views of things which may be used to give us a perfect
+(though in my opinion a delusive) assurance of our own security. The
+first of these is from the weakness and rickety nature of the new system
+in the place of its first formation. It is thought that the monster of a
+commonwealth cannot possibly live,&mdash;that at any rate the ill contrivance
+of their fabric will make it fall in pieces of itself,&mdash;that the
+Assembly must be bankrupt,&mdash;and that this bankruptcy will totally
+destroy that system from the contagion of which apprehensions are
+entertained.</p>
+
+<p>For my part I have long thought that one great cause of the stability of
+this wretched scheme of things in France was an opinion that it could
+not stand, and therefore that all external measures to destroy it were
+wholly useless.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Bankruptcy.</span>As to the bankruptcy, that event has happened long ago, as much as it is
+ever likely to happen. As soon as a nation compels a creditor to take
+paper currency in discharge of his debt, there is a bankruptcy. The
+compulsory paper has in some degree answered,&mdash;not because there was a
+surplus from Church lands, but because faith has not been kept with the
+clergy. As to the holders of the old funds, to them the payments will be
+dilatory, but they will be made; and whatever may be the discount on
+paper, whilst paper is taken, paper will be issued.<a name="Page_347" id="Page_347" title="347" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Resources.</span>As to the rest, they have shot out three branches of revenue to supply
+all those which they have destroyed: that is, <i>the Universal Register of
+all Transactions</i>, the heavy and universal <i>Stamp Duty</i>, and the new
+<i>Territorial Impost</i>, levied chiefly on the reduced estates of the
+gentlemen. These branches of the revenue, especially as they take
+assignats in payment, answer their purpose in a considerable degree, and
+keep up the credit of their paper: for, as they receive it in their
+treasury, it is in reality funded upon all their taxes and future
+resources of all kinds, as well as upon the Church estates. As this
+paper is become in a manner the only visible maintenance of the whole
+people, the dread of a bankruptcy is more apparently connected with the
+delay of a counter-revolution than with the duration of this republic;
+because the interest of the new republic manifestly leans upon it, and,
+in my opinion, the counter-revolution cannot exist along with it. The
+above three projects ruined some ministers under the old government,
+merely for having conceived them. They are the salvation of the present
+rulers.</p>
+
+<p>As the Assembly has laid a most unsparing and cruel hand on all men who
+have lived by the bounty, the justice, or the abuses of the old
+government, they have lessened many expenses. The royal establishment,
+though excessively and ridiculously great for <i>their</i> scheme of things,
+is reduced at least one half; the estates of the king's brothers, which
+under the ancient government had been in truth royal revenues, go to the
+general stock of the confiscation; and as to the crown lands, though
+under the monarchy they never yielded two hundred and fifty <a name="Page_348" id="Page_348" title="348" class="pagenum"></a>thousand a
+year, by many they are thought at least worth three times as much.</p>
+
+<p>As to the ecclesiastical charge, whether as a compensation for losses,
+or a provision for religion, of which they made at first a great parade,
+and entered into a solemn engagement in favor of it, it was estimated at
+a much larger sum than they could expect from the Church property,
+movable or immovable: they are completely bankrupt as to that article.
+It is just what they wish; and it is not productive of any serious
+inconvenience. The non-payment produces discontent and occasional
+sedition; but is only by fits and spasms, and amongst the country
+people, who are of no consequence. These seditions furnish new pretexts
+for non-payment to the Church establishment, and help the Assembly
+wholly to get rid of the clergy, and indeed of any form of religion,
+which is not only their real, but avowed object.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Want of money how supplied.</span>They are embarrassed, indeed, in the highest degree, but not wholly
+resourceless. They are without the species of money. Circulation of
+money is a great convenience, but a substitute for it may be found.
+Whilst the great objects of production and consumption, corn, cattle,
+wine, and the like, exist in a country, the means of giving them
+circulation, with more or less convenience, cannot be <i>wholly</i> wanting.
+The great confiscation of the Church and of the crown lands, and of the
+appanages of the princes, for the purchase of all which their paper is
+always received at par, gives means of continually destroying and
+continually creating; and this perpetual destruction and renovation
+feeds the speculative market, and prevents, and will prevent, <a name="Page_349" id="Page_349" title="349" class="pagenum"></a>till that
+fund of confiscation begins to fail, a <i>total</i> depreciation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Moneyed interest not necessary to them.</span>But all consideration of public credit in France is of little avail at
+present. The action, indeed, of the moneyed interest was of absolute
+necessity at the beginning of this Revolution; but the French republic
+can stand without any assistance from that description of men, which, as
+things are now circumstanced, rather stands in need of assistance itself
+from the power which alone substantially exists in France: I mean the
+several districts and municipal republics, and the several clubs which
+direct all their affairs and appoint all their magistrates. This is the
+power now paramount to everything, even to the Assembly itself called
+National and that to which tribunals, priesthood, laws, finances, and
+both descriptions of military power are wholly subservient, so far as
+the military power of either description yields obedience to any name of
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>The world of contingency and political combination is much larger than
+we are apt to imagine. We never can say what may or may not happen,
+without a view to all the actual circumstances. Experience, upon other
+data than those, is of all things the most delusive. Prudence in new
+cases can do nothing on grounds of retrospect. A constant vigilance and
+attention to the train of things as they successively emerge, and to act
+on what they direct, are the only sure courses. The physician that let
+blood, and by blood-letting cured one kind of plague, in the next added
+to its ravages. That power goes with property is not universally true,
+and the idea that the operation of it is certain and invariable may
+mislead us very fatally.<a name="Page_350" id="Page_350" title="350" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Power separated from property.</span>Whoever will take an accurate view of the state of those republics, and
+of the composition of the present Assembly deputed by them, (in which
+Assembly there are not quite fifty persons possessed of an income
+amounting to 100<i>l.</i> sterling yearly,) must discern clearly, <i>that the
+political and civil power of France is wholly separated from its
+property of every description</i>, and of course that neither the landed
+nor the moneyed interest possesses the smallest weight or consideration
+in the direction of any public concern. The whole kingdom is directed by
+<i>the refuse of its chicane</i>, with the aid of the bustling, presumptuous
+young clerks of counting-houses and shops, and some intermixture of
+young gentlemen of the same character in the several towns. The rich
+peasants are bribed with Church lands; and the poorer of that
+description are, and can be, counted for nothing. They may rise in
+ferocious, ill-directed tumults,&mdash;but they can only disgrace themselves
+and signalize the triumph of their adversaries.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Effects of the rota.</span>The <i>truly</i> active citizens, that is, the above descriptions, are all
+concerned in intrigue respecting the various objects in their local or
+their general government. The rota, which the French have established
+for their National Assembly, holds out the highest objects of ambition
+to such vast multitudes as in an unexampled measure to widen the bottom
+of a new species of interest merely political, and wholly unconnected
+with birth or property. This scheme of a rota, though it enfeebles the
+state, considered as one solid body, and indeed wholly disables it from
+acting as such, gives a great, an equal, and a diffusive strength to the
+democratic scheme. Seven hundred and fifty peo<a name="Page_351" id="Page_351" title="351" class="pagenum"></a>ple, every two years
+raised to the supreme power, has already produced at least fifteen
+hundred bold, acting politicians: a great number for even so great a
+country as France. These men never will quietly settle in ordinary
+occupations, nor submit to any scheme which must reduce them to an
+entirely private condition, or to the exercise of a steady, peaceful,
+but obscure and unimportant industry. Whilst they sit in the Assembly,
+they are denied offices of trust and profit,&mdash;but their short duration
+makes this no restraint: during their probation and apprenticeship they
+are all salaried with an income to the greatest part of them immense;
+and after they have passed the novitiate, those who take any sort of
+lead are placed in very lucrative offices, according to their influence
+and credit, or appoint those who divide their profits with them.</p>
+
+<p>This supply of recruits to the corps of the highest civil ambition goes
+on with a regular progression. In very few years it must amount to many
+thousands. These, however, will be as nothing in comparison to the
+multitude of municipal officers, and officers of district and
+department, of all sorts, who have tasted of power and profit, and who
+hunger for the periodical return of the meal. To these needy agitators,
+the glory of the state, the general wealth and prosperity of the nation,
+and the rise or fall of public credit are as dreams; nor have arguments
+deduced from these topics any sort of weight with them. The indifference
+with which the Assembly regards the state of their colonies, the only
+valuable part of the French commerce, is a full proof how little they
+are likely to be affected by anything but the selfish game of their own
+ambition, now universally diffused.<a name="Page_352" id="Page_352" title="352" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Impracticability of resistance.</span>It is true, amidst all these turbulent means of security to their
+system, very great discontents everywhere prevail. But they only produce
+misery to those who nurse them at home, or exile, beggary, and in the
+end confiscation, to those who are so impatient as to remove from them.
+Each municipal republic has a <i>Committee</i>, or something in the nature of
+a <i>Committee of Research</i>. In these petty republics the tyranny is so
+near its object that it becomes instantly acquainted with every act of
+every man. It stifles conspiracy in its very first movements. Their
+power is absolute and uncontrollable. No stand can be made against it.
+These republics are besides so disconnected, that very little
+intelligence of what happens in them is to be obtained beyond their own
+bounds, except by the means of their clubs, who keep up a constant
+correspondence, and who give what color they please to such facts as
+they choose to communicate out of the track of their correspondence.
+They all have some sort of communication, just as much or as little as
+they please, with the centre. By this confinement of all communication
+to the ruling faction, any combination, grounded on the abuses and
+discontents in one, scarcely can reach the other. There is not one man,
+in any one place, to head them. The old government had so much
+abstracted the nobility from the cultivation of provincial interest,
+that no man in France exists, whose power, credit, or consequence
+extends to two districts, or who is capable of uniting them in any
+design, even if any man could assemble ten men together without being
+sure of a speedy lodging in a prison. One must not judge of the state of
+France by what has been observed elsewhere. It <a name="Page_353" id="Page_353" title="353" class="pagenum"></a>does not in the least
+resemble any other country. Analogical reasoning from history or from
+recent experience in other places is wholly delusive.</p>
+
+<p>In my opinion, there never was seen so strong a government internally as
+that of the French municipalities. If ever any rebellion can arise
+against the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which
+gave birth to it did, at the capital. Paris is the only place in which
+there is the least freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many
+servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestic
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Gentlemen are fugitives.</span>But that place being the chief seat of the power and intelligence of the
+ruling faction, and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest
+spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have anything to feed
+it. The leaders of the aristocratic party have been drawn out of the
+kingdom by order of the princes, on the hopes held out by the Emperor
+and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the democratic factions in
+Paris, amongst them there are no leaders possessed of an influence for
+any other purpose but that of maintaining the present state of things.
+The moment they are seen to warp, they are reduced to nothing. They have
+no attached army,&mdash;no party that is at all personal.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be imagined, because a political system is, under certain
+aspects, very unwise in its contrivance, and very mischievous in its
+effects, that it therefore can have no long duration. Its very defects
+may tend to its stability, because they are agreeable to its nature. The
+very faults in the Constitution of Poland made it last; the <i>veto</i> which
+destroyed all its energy preserved its life. What can be conceived so
+<a name="Page_354" id="Page_354" title="354" class="pagenum"></a>monstrous as the republic of Algiers, and that no less strange republic
+of the Mamelukes in Egypt? They are of the worst form imaginable, and
+exercised in the worst manner, yet they have existed as a nuisance on
+the earth for several hundred years.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Conclusions.</span>From all these considerations, and many more that crowd upon me, three
+conclusions have long since arisen in my mind.</p>
+
+<p>First, that no counter revolution is to be expected in France from
+internal causes solely.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, that, the longer the present system exists, the greater will
+be its strength, the greater its power to destroy discontents at home,
+and to resist all foreign attempts in favor of these discontents.</p>
+
+<p>Thirdly, that, as long as it exists in France, it will be the interest
+of the managers there, and it is in the very essence of their plan, to
+disturb and distract all other governments, and their endless succession
+of restless politicians will continually stimulate them to new attempts.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Proceedings of princes; defensive plans.</span>Princes are generally sensible that this is their common cause; and two
+of them have made a public declaration of their opinion to this effect.
+Against this common danger, some of them, such as the king of Spain, the
+king of Sardinia, and the republic of Bern, are very diligent in using
+defensive measures.</p>
+
+<p>If they were to guard against an invasion from France, the merits of
+this plan of a merely defensive resistance might be supported by
+plausible topics; but as the attack does not operate against these
+countries externally, but by an internal corruption, (a sort of dry
+rot,) they who pursue this merely defensive plan against a danger which
+the plan itself supposes <a name="Page_355" id="Page_355" title="355" class="pagenum"></a>to be serious cannot possibly escape it. For
+it is in the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and vigorous
+under the impressions of the first alarm, and to relax by degrees, until
+at length the danger, by not operating instantly, comes to appear as a
+false alarm,&mdash;so much so, that the next menacing appearance will look
+less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are
+on the offensive it is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly it is
+more their interest not to be so. For their unforeseen attacks
+contribute to their success.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">The French party how composed.</span>In the mean time a system of French conspiracy is gaining ground in
+every country. This system, happening to be founded on principles the
+most delusive indeed, but the most flattering to the natural
+propensities of the unthinking multitude, and to the speculations of all
+those who think, without thinking very profoundly, must daily extend its
+influence. A predominant inclination towards it appears in all those who
+have no religion, when otherwise their disposition leads them to be
+advocates even for despotism. Hence Hume, though I cannot say that he
+does not throw out some expressions of disapprobation on the proceedings
+of the levellers in the reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms that
+the doctrines of John Ball were &quot;conformable to the ideas of primitive
+equality <i>which are engraven in the hearts of all men</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Boldness formerly was not the character of atheists as such. They were
+even of a character nearly the reverse; they were formerly like the old
+Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they are grown
+active, designing, turbulent, and seditious. They are sworn enemies to
+kings, nobility, and priest<a name="Page_356" id="Page_356" title="356" class="pagenum"></a>hood. We have seen all the Academicians at
+Paris, with Condorcet, the friend and correspondent of Priestley, at
+their head, the most furious of the extravagant republicans.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Condorcet.</span>The late Assembly, after the last captivity of the king, had actually
+chosen this Condorcet, by a majority on the ballot, for preceptor to the
+Dauphin, who was to be taken out of the hands and direction of his
+parents, and to be delivered over to this fanatic atheist and furious
+democratic republican. His untractability to these leaders, and his
+figure in the club of Jacobins, which at that time they wished to bring
+under, alone prevented that part of the arrangement, and others in the
+same style, from being carried into execution. Whilst he was candidate
+for this office, he produced his title to it by promulgating the
+following ideas of the title of his royal pupil to the crown. In a paper
+written by him, and published with his name, against the re&euml;stablishment
+even of the appearance of monarchy under any qualifications, he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Doctrine of the French.</span>&quot;Jusqu'&agrave; ce moment, ils [l'Assembl&eacute;e Nationale] n'ont rien pr&eacute;jug&eacute;
+encore. En se r&eacute;servant de nommer un gouverneur au Dauphin, ils n'ont
+pas prononc&eacute; <i>que cet enfant d&ucirc;t r&eacute;gner</i>, mais seulement qu'il <i>&eacute;tait
+possible</i> que la Constitution l'y destin&acirc;t; ils ont voulu que
+l'&eacute;ducation effa&ccedil;&acirc;t tout ce que <i>les prestiges du tr&ocirc;ne</i> ont pu lui
+inspirer de pr&eacute;jug&eacute;s sur les droits pr&eacute;tendus de sa naissance; qu'elle
+lui f&icirc;t conna&icirc;tre de bonne heure et <i>l'&eacute;galit&eacute; naturelle des hommes et
+la souverainet&eacute; du peuple</i>; qu'elle lui appr&icirc;t &agrave; ne pas oublier que
+c'est <i>du peuple</i> qu'il tiendra le titre de Roi, et que <i>le peuple n'a
+pas m&ecirc;me le droit de renoncer &agrave; celui de l'en d&eacute;pouiller</i>.<a name="Page_357" id="Page_357" title="357" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ils ont voulu que cette &eacute;ducation le rend&icirc;t &eacute;galement digne, par ses
+lumi&egrave;res et ses vertus, de recevoir <i>avec r&eacute;signation</i> le fardeau
+dangereux d'une couronne, ou de la <i>d&eacute;poser avec joie</i> entre les mains
+de ses fr&egrave;res; qu'il sent&icirc;t que le devoir et la gloire du roi d'un
+peuple libre sont de h&acirc;ter le moment de n'&ecirc;tre plus qu'un citoyen
+ordinaire.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ils ont voulu que <i>l'inutilit&eacute; d'un roi</i>, la n&eacute;cessit&eacute; de chercher les
+moyens de remplacer <i>un pouvoir fond&eacute; sur des illusions</i>, f&ucirc;t une des
+premi&egrave;res v&eacute;rit&eacute;s offertes &agrave; sa raison; <i>l'obligation d'y concourir
+lui-m&ecirc;me, un des premiers devoirs de sa morale; et le d&eacute;sir de n'&ecirc;tre
+plus affranchi du joug de la loi par une injurieuse inviolabilit&eacute;, le
+premier sentiment de son c&oelig;ur</i>. Ils n'ignorent pas que dans ce moment
+il s'agit bien moins de former un roi que de lui apprendre <i>&agrave; savoir &agrave;
+vouloir ne plus l'&ecirc;tre</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor" title=" &quot;Until now, they [the National Assembly] have prejudged
+nothing. Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a preceptor to the
+Dauphin, they did not declare _that this child was to reign_, but only
+that _possibly_ the Constitution _might_ destine him to it: they willed,
+that, while education should efface from his mind all the prejudices
+arising from _the delusions of the throne_ respecting his pretended
+birthright, it should also teach him not to forget that it is _from the
+people_ he is to receive the title of King, and that _the people do not
+even possess the right of giving up their power to take it from him_.
+
+&quot;They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
+knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive _with submission_ the
+dangerous burden of a crown, and _to resign it with pleasure_ into the
+hands of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
+that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the duty
+and the glory of a king of a free people.
+
+&quot;They willed that _the uselessness of a king_, the necessity of seeking
+means to establish something in lieu of _a power founded on illusions_,
+should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; _the obligation
+of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the
+desire of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious
+inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart_. They are not
+ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king
+than to teach him _that he should know how to wish no longer to be
+such_.&quot;">[32]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such are the sentiments of the man who has occasionally filled the chair
+of the National Assembly, who is their perpetual secretary, their only
+standing officer, and the most important by far. He leads them to peace
+or war. He is the great theme of the republican faction in England.
+These ideas of M. Condorcet are the principles of those to whom kings
+<a name="Page_358" id="Page_358" title="358" class="pagenum"></a>are to intrust their successors and the interests of their succession.
+This man would be ready to plunge the poniard in the heart of his pupil,
+or to whet the axe for his neck. Of all men, the most dangerous is a
+warm, hot-headed, zealous atheist. This sort of man aims at dominion,
+and his means are the words he always has in his mouth,&mdash;&quot;<i>L'&eacute;galit&eacute;
+naturelle des hommes, et la souverainet&eacute; du peuple</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>All former attempts, grounded on these rights of men, had proved
+unfortunate. The success of this last makes a mighty difference in the
+effect of the doctrine. Here is a principle of a nature to the multitude
+the most seductive, always existing before their eyes <i>as a thing
+feasible in practice</i>. After so many failures, such an enterprise,
+previous to the French experiment, carried ruin to the contrivers, on
+the face of it; and if any enthusiast was so wild as to wish to engage
+in a scheme of that nature, it was not easy for him to find followers:
+now there is a party almost in all countries, ready-made, animated with
+success, with a sure ally in the very centre of Europe. There is no
+cabal so obscure in any place, that they do not protect, cherish,
+foster, and endeavor to <a name="Page_359" id="Page_359" title="359" class="pagenum"></a>raise it into importance at home and abroad.
+From the lowest, this intrigue will creep up to the highest. Ambition,
+as well as enthusiasm, may find its account in the party and in the
+principle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Character of ministers.</span>The ministers of other kings, like those of the king of France, (not one
+of whom was perfectly free from this guilt, and some of whom were very
+deep in it,) may themselves be the persons to foment such a disposition
+and such a faction. Hertzberg, the king of Prussia's late minister, is
+so much of what is called a philosopher, that he was of a faction with
+that sort of politicians in everything, and in every place. Even when he
+defends himself from the imputation of giving extravagantly into these
+principles, he still considers the Revolution of France as a great
+public good, by giving credit to their fraudulent declaration of their
+universal benevolence and love of peace. Nor are his Prussian Majesty's
+present ministers at all disinclined to the same system. Their
+ostentatious preamble to certain late edicts demonstrates (if their
+actions had not been sufficiently explanatory of their cast of mind)
+that they are deeply infected with the same distemper of dangerous,
+because plausible, though trivial and shallow, speculation.</p>
+
+<p>Ministers, turning their backs on the reputation which properly belongs
+to them, aspire at the glory of being speculative writers. The duties of
+these two situations are in general directly opposite to each other.
+Speculators ought to be neutral. A minister cannot be so. He is to
+support the interest of the public as connected with that of his master.
+He is his master's trustee, advocate, attorney, and steward,&mdash;and he is
+not to indulge in any speculation which <a name="Page_360" id="Page_360" title="360" class="pagenum"></a>contradicts that character, or
+even detracts from its efficacy. Necker had an extreme thirst for this
+sort of glory; so had others; and this pursuit of a misplaced and
+misunderstood reputation was one of the causes of the ruin of these
+ministers, and of their unhappy, master. The Prussian ministers in
+foreign courts have (at least not long since) talked the most democratic
+language with regard to Prance, and in the most unmanaged terms.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Corps diplomatique.</span>The whole <i>corps diplomatique</i>, with very few exceptions, leans that
+way. What cause produces in them a turn of mind which at first one would
+think unnatural to their situation it is not impossible to explain. The
+discussion would, however, be somewhat long and somewhat invidious. The
+fact itself is indisputable, however they may disguise it to their
+several courts. This disposition is gone to so very great a length in
+that corps, in itself so important, and so important as <i>furnishing</i> the
+intelligence which sways all cabinets, that, if princes and states do
+not very speedily attend with a vigorous control to that source of
+direction and information, very serious evils are likely to befall them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Sovereigns&mdash;their dispositions.</span>But, indeed, kings are to guard against the same sort of dispositions in
+themselves. They are very easily alienated from all the higher orders of
+their subjects, whether civil or military, laic or ecclesiastical. It is
+with persons of condition that sovereigns chiefly come into contact. It
+is from them that they generally experience opposition to their will. It
+is with <i>their</i> pride and impracticability that princes are most hurt.
+It is with <i>their</i> servility and baseness that they are most commonly
+disgusted. It is from their humors and cabals that <a name="Page_361" id="Page_361" title="361" class="pagenum"></a>they find their
+affairs most frequently troubled and distracted. But of the common
+people, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing;
+and therefore being unacquainted with their faults, (which are as many
+as those of the great, and much more decisive in their effects, when
+accompanied with power,) kings generally regard them with tenderness and
+favor, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects,
+particularly when hurt by opposition from the higher orders. It was thus
+that the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was
+ruined. I have it from very sure information, (and it was, indeed,
+obvious enough, from the measures which were taken previous to the
+assembly of the States and afterwards,) that the king's counsellors had
+filled him with a strong dislike to his nobility, his clergy, and the
+corps of his magistracy. They represented to him, that he had tried them
+all severally, in several ways, and found them all untractable: that he
+had twice called an assembly (the Notables) composed of the first men of
+the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had himself named
+every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he
+had not, in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a
+compliance with his will than they had been separately; that there
+remained for him, with the least prospect of advantage to his authority
+in the States-General, which were to be composed of the same sorts of
+men, but not chosen by him, only the <i>Tiers &Eacute;tat</i>: in this alone he
+could repose any hope of extricating himself from his difficulties, and
+of settling him in a clear and permanent authority. They represented,
+(these are the words of one of my <a name="Page_362" id="Page_362" title="362" class="pagenum"></a>informants,) &quot;that the royal
+authority, compressed with the weight of these aristocratic bodies, full
+of ambition and of faction, when once unloaded, would rise of itself,
+and occupy its natural place without disturbance or control&quot;; that the
+common people would protect, cherish, and support, instead of crushing
+it. &quot;The people&quot; (it was said) &quot;could entertain no objects of ambition&quot;;
+they were out of the road of intrigue and cabal, and could possibly have
+no other view than the support of the mild and parental authority by
+which they were invested, for the first time collectively, with real
+importance in the state, and protected in their peaceable and useful
+employments.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">King of France.</span>This unfortunate king (not without a large share of blame to himself)
+was deluded to his ruin by a desire to humble and reduce his nobility,
+clergy, and big corporate magistracy: not that I suppose he meant wholly
+to eradicate these bodies, in the manner since effected by the
+democratic power; I rather believe that even Necker's designs did not go
+to that extent. With his own hand, however, Louis the Sixteenth pulled
+down the pillars which upheld his throne; and this he did, because he
+could not bear the inconveniences which are attached to everything
+human,&mdash;because he found himself cooped up, and in durance, by those
+limits which Nature prescribes to desire and imagination, and was taught
+to consider as low and degrading that mutual dependence which Providence
+has ordained that all men should have on one another. He is not at this
+minute, perhaps, cured of the dread of the power and credit like to be
+acquired by those who would save and rescue him. He leaves those <a name="Page_363" id="Page_363" title="363" class="pagenum"></a>who
+suffer in his cause to their fate,&mdash;and hopes, by various mean, delusive
+intrigues, in which I am afraid he is encouraged from abroad, to regain,
+among traitors and regicides, the power he has joined to take from his
+own family, whom he quietly sees proscribed before his eyes, and called
+to answer to the lowest of his rebels, as the vilest of all criminals.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Emperor.</span>It is to be hoped that the Emperor may be taught better things by this
+fatal example. But it is sure that he has advisers who endeavor to fill
+him with the ideas which have brought his brother-in-law to his present
+situation. Joseph the Second was far gone in this philosophy, and some,
+if not most, who serve the Emperor, would kindly initiate him into all
+the mysteries of this freemasonry. They would persuade him to look on
+the National Assembly, not with the hatred of an enemy, but the jealousy
+of a rival. They would make him desirous of doing, in his own dominions,
+by a royal despotism, what has been done in France by a democratic.
+Rather than abandon such enterprises, they would persuade him to a
+strange alliance between those extremes. Their grand object being now,
+as in his brother's time, at any rate to destroy the higher orders, they
+think he cannot compass this end, as certainly he cannot, without
+elevating the lower. By depressing the one and by raising the other they
+hope in the first place to increase his treasures and his army; and with
+these common instruments of royal power they flatter him that the
+democracy, which they help in his name to create, will give him but
+little trouble. In defiance of the freshest experience, which might show
+him that old impossibilities are become modern probabilities, and that
+the <a name="Page_364" id="Page_364" title="364" class="pagenum"></a>extent to which evil principles may go, when left to their own
+operation, is beyond the power of calculation, they will endeavor to
+persuade him that such a democracy is a thing which cannot subsist by
+itself; that in whose ever hands the military command is placed, he must
+be, in the necessary course of affairs, sooner or later the master; and
+that, being the master of various unconnected countries, he may keep
+them all in order by employing a military force which to each of them is
+foreign. This maxim, too, however formerly plausible, will not now hold
+water. This scheme is full of intricacy, and may cause him everywhere to
+lose the hearts of his people. These counsellors forget that a corrupted
+army was the very cause of the ruin of his brother-in-law, and that he
+is himself far from secure from a similar corruption.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Brabant.</span>Instead of reconciling himself heartily and <i>bon&acirc; fide</i>, according to
+the most obvious rules of policy, to the States of Brabant, <i>as they are
+constituted</i>, and who in <i>the present state of things</i> stand on the same
+foundation with the monarchy itself, and who might have been gained with
+the greatest facility, they have advised him to the most unkingly
+proceeding which, either in a good or in a bad light, has ever been
+attempted. Under a pretext taken from the spirit of the lowest chicane,
+they have counselled him wholly to break the public faith, to annul the
+amnesty, as well as the other conditions through which he obtained an
+entrance into the Provinces of the Netherlands under the guaranty of
+Great Britain and Prussia. He is made to declare his adherence to the
+indemnity in a criminal sense, but he is to keep alive in his own name,
+and to encourage in others, a <i>civil</i> process in the nature of an
+<a name="Page_365" id="Page_365" title="365" class="pagenum"></a>action of damages for what has been suffered during the troubles.
+Whilst he keeps up this hopeful lawsuit in view of the damages he may
+recover against individuals, he loses the hearts of a whole people, and
+the vast subsidies which his ancestors had been used to receive from
+them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Emperor's conduct with regard to France.</span>This design once admitted unriddles the mystery of the whole conduct of
+the Emperor's ministers with regard to France. As soon as they saw the
+life of the king and queen of France no longer, as they thought, in
+danger, they entirely changed their plan with regard to the French
+nation. I believe that the chiefs of the Revolution (those who led the
+constituting Assembly) have contrived, as far as they can do it, to give
+the Emperor satisfaction on this head. He keeps a continual tone and
+posture of menace to secure this his only point. But it must be
+observed, that he all along grounds his departure from the engagement at
+Pilnitz to the princes on the will and actions of <i>the king</i> and the
+majority of the people, without any regard to the natural and
+constitutional orders of the state, or to the opinions of the whole
+House of Bourbon. Though it is manifestly under the constraint of
+imprisonment and the fear of death that this unhappy man has been guilty
+of all those humilities which have astonished mankind, the advisers of
+the Emperor will consider nothing but the <i>physical</i> person of Louis,
+which, even in his present degraded and infamous state, they regard as
+of sufficient authority to give a complete sanction to the persecution
+and utter ruin of all his family, and of every person who has shown any
+degree of attachment or fidelity to him or to his cause, as <a name="Page_366" id="Page_366" title="366" class="pagenum"></a>well as
+competent to destroy the whole ancient constitution and frame of the
+French monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>The present policy, therefore, of the Austrian politicians is, to
+recover despotism through democracy,&mdash;or, at least, at any expense,
+everywhere to ruin the description of men who are everywhere the objects
+of their settled and systematic aversion, but more especially in the
+Netherlands. Compare this with the Emperor's refusing at first all
+intercourse with the present powers in France, with his endeavoring to
+excite all Europe against them, and then, his not only withdrawing all
+assistance and all countenance from the fugitives who had been drawn by
+his declarations from their houses, situations, and military
+commissions, many even from the means of their very existence, but
+treating them with every species of insult and outrage.</p>
+
+<p>Combining this unexampled conduct in the Emperor's advisers with the
+timidity (operating as perfidy) of the king of France, a fatal example
+is held out to all subjects, tending to show what little support, or
+even countenance, they are to expect from those for whom their principle
+of fidelity may induce them to risk life and fortune. The Emperor's
+advisers would not for the world rescind one of the acts of this or of
+the late French Assembly; nor do they wish anything better at present
+for their master's brother of France than that he should really be, as
+he is nominally, at the head of the system of persecution of religion
+and good order, and of all descriptions of dignity, natural and
+instituted: they only wish all this done with a little more respect to
+the king's person, and with more appearance of consideration for his new
+subordinate office,&mdash;in <a name="Page_367" id="Page_367" title="367" class="pagenum"></a>hopes, that, yielding himself for the present
+to the persons who have effected these changes, he may be able to game
+for the rest hereafter. On no other principles than these can the
+conduct of the court of Vienna be accounted for. The subordinate court
+of Brussels talks the language of a club of Feuillants and Jacobins.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Moderate party.</span>In this state of general rottenness among subjects, and of delusion and
+false politics in princes, comes a new experiment. The king of France is
+in the hands of the chiefs of the regicide faction,&mdash;the Barnaves,
+Lameths, Fayettes, P&eacute;rigords, Duports, Robespierres, Camuses, &amp;c., &amp;c.,
+&amp;c. They who had imprisoned, suspended, and conditionally deposed him
+are his confidential counsellors. The next desperate of the desperate
+rebels call themselves the <i>moderate</i> party. They are the chiefs of the
+first Assembly, who are confederated to support their power during their
+suspension from the present, and to govern the existent body with as
+sovereign a sway as they had done the last. They have, for the greater
+part, succeeded; and they have many advantages towards procuring their
+success in future. Just before the close of their regular power, they
+bestowed some appearance of prerogatives on the king, which in their
+first plans they had refused to him,&mdash;particularly the mischievous, and,
+in his situation, dreadful prerogative of a <i>veto</i>. This prerogative,
+(which they hold as their bit in the mouth of the National Assembly for
+the time being,) without the direct assistance of their club, it was
+impossible for the king to show even the desire of exerting with the
+smallest effect, or even with safety to his person. However, by playing,
+through this <i>veto</i>, the Assembly against the <a name="Page_368" id="Page_368" title="368" class="pagenum"></a>king, and the king
+against the Assembly, they have made themselves masters of both. In this
+situation, having destroyed the old government by their sedition, they
+would preserve as much of order as is necessary for the support of their
+own usurpation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">French ambassador.</span>It is believed that this, by far the worst party of the miscreants of
+France, has received direct encouragement from the counsellors who
+betray the Emperor. Thus strengthened by the possession of the captive
+king, (now captive in his mind as well as in body,) and by a good hope
+of the Emperor, they intend to send their ministers to every court in
+Europe,&mdash;having sent before them such a denunciation of terror and
+superiority to every nation without exception as has no example in the
+diplomatic world. Hitherto the ministers to foreign courts had been of
+the appointment of the sovereign of France <i>previous to the Revolution</i>;
+and, either from inclination, duty, or decorum, most of them were
+contented with a merely passive obedience to the new power. At present,
+the king, being entirely in the hands of his jailors, and his mind
+broken to his situation, can send none but the enthusiasts of the
+system,&mdash;men framed by the secret committee of the Feuillants, who meet
+in the house of Madame de Sta&euml;l, M. Necker's daughter. Such is every man
+whom they have talked of sending hither. These ministers will be so many
+spies and incendiaries, so many active emissaries of democracy. Their
+houses will become places of rendezvous here, as everywhere else, and
+centres of cabal for whatever is mischievous and malignant in this
+country, particularly among those of rank and fashion. As the minister
+of the National Assembly will be <a name="Page_369" id="Page_369" title="369" class="pagenum"></a>admitted at this court, at least with
+his usual rank, and as entertainments will be naturally given and
+received by the king's own ministers, any attempt to discountenance the
+resort of other people to that minister would be ineffectual, and indeed
+absurd, and full of contradiction. The women who come with these
+ambassadors will assist in fomenting factions amongst ours, which cannot
+fail of extending the evil. Some of them I hear are already arrived.
+There is no doubt they will do as much mischief as they can.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Connection of clubs.</span>Whilst the public ministers are received under the general law of the
+communication between nations, the correspondences between the factious
+clubs in France and ours will be, as they now are, kept up; but this
+pretended embassy will be a closer, more steady, and more effectual link
+between the partisans of the new system on both sides of the water. I do
+not mean that these Anglo-Gallic clubs in London, Manchester, &amp;c., are
+not dangerous in a high degree. The appointment of festive anniversaries
+has ever in the sense of mankind been held the best method of keeping
+alive the spirit of any institution. We have one settled in London; and
+at the last of them, that of the 14th of July, the strong discountenance
+of government, the unfavorable time of the year, and the then
+uncertainty of the disposition of foreign powers, did not hinder the
+meeting of at least nine hundred people, with good coats on their backs,
+who could afford to pay half a guinea a head to show their zeal for the
+new principles. They were with great difficulty, and all possible
+address, hindered from inviting the French ambassador. His real
+indisposition, besides <a name="Page_370" id="Page_370" title="370" class="pagenum"></a>the fear of offending any party, sent him out of
+town. But when our court shall have recognized a government in France
+founded on the principles announced in Montmorin's letter, how can the
+French ambassador be frowned upon for an attendance on those meetings
+wherein the establishment of the government he represents is celebrated?
+An event happened a few days ago, which in many particulars was very
+ridiculous; yet, even from the ridicule and absurdity of the
+proceedings, it marks the more strongly the spirit of the French
+Assembly: I mean the reception they have given to the Frith Street
+Alliance. This, though the delirium of a low, drunken alehouse club,
+they have publicly announced as a formal alliance with the people of
+England, as such ordered it to be presented to their king, and to be
+published in every province in France. This leads, more directly and
+with much greater force than any proceeding with a regular and rational
+appearance, to two very material considerations. First, it shows that
+they are of opinion that the current opinions of the English have the
+greatest influence on the minds of the people in France, and indeed of
+all the people in Europe, since they catch with such astonishing
+eagerness at every the most trifling show of such opinions in their
+favor. Next, and what appears to me to be full as important, it shows
+that they are willing publicly to countenance, and even to adopt, every
+factious conspiracy that can be formed in this nation, however low and
+base in itself, in order to excite in the most miserable wretches here
+an idea of their own sovereign importance, and to encourage them to look
+up to France, whenever they may be matured into something of more force,
+for assistance in <a name="Page_371" id="Page_371" title="371" class="pagenum"></a>the subversion of their domestic government. This
+address of the alehouse club was actually proposed and accepted by the
+Assembly as an <i>alliance</i>. The procedure was in my opinion a high
+misdemeanor in those who acted thus in England, if they were not so very
+low and so very base that no acts of theirs can be called high, even as
+a description of criminality; and the Assembly, in accepting,
+proclaiming, and publishing this forged alliance, has been guilty of a
+plain aggression, which would justify our court in demanding a direct
+disavowal, if our policy should not lead us to wink at it.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst I look over this paper to have it copied, I see a manifesto of
+the Assembly, as a preliminary to a declaration of war against the
+German princes on the Rhine. This manifesto contains the whole substance
+of the French politics with regard to foreign states. They have ordered
+it to be circulated amongst the people in every country of Europe,&mdash;even
+previously to its acceptance by the king, and his new privy council, the
+club of the Feuillants. Therefore, as a summary of their policy avowed
+by themselves, let us consider some of the circumstances attending that
+piece, as well as the spirit and temper of the piece itself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Declaration against the Emperor.</span>It was preceded by a speech from Brissot, full of unexampled insolence
+towards all the sovereign states of Germany, if not of Europe. The
+Assembly, to express their satisfaction in the sentiments which it
+contained, ordered it to be printed. This Brissot had been in the lowest
+and basest employ under the deposed monarchy,&mdash;a sort of thief-taker, or
+spy of police,&mdash;in which character he acted after the manner of persons
+in that descrip<a name="Page_372" id="Page_372" title="372" class="pagenum"></a>tion. He had been employed by his master, the
+<i>Lieutenant de Police</i>, for a considerable time in London, in the same
+or some such honorable occupation. The Revolution, which has brought
+forward all merit of that kind, raised him, with others of a similar
+class and disposition, to fame and eminence. On the Revolution he became
+a publisher of an infamous newspaper, which he still continues. He is
+charged, and I believe justly, as the first mover of the troubles in
+Hispaniola. There is no wickedness, if I am rightly informed, in which
+he is not versed, and of which he is not perfectly capable. His quality
+of news-writer, now an employment of the first dignity in France, and
+his practices and principles, procured his election into the Assembly,
+where he is one of the leading members. M. Condorcet produced on the
+same day a draught of a declaration to the king, which the Assembly
+published before it was presented.</p>
+
+<p>Condorcet (though no marquis, as he styled himself before the
+Revolution) is a man of another sort of birth, fashion, and occupation
+from Brissot,&mdash;but in every principle, and every disposition to the
+lowest as well as the highest and most determined villanies, fully his
+equal. He seconds Brissot in the Assembly, and is at once his coadjutor
+and his rival in a newspaper, which, in his own name, and as successor
+to M. Garat, a member also of the Assembly, he has just set up in that
+empire of gazettes. Condorcet was chosen to draw the first declaration
+presented by the Assembly to the king, as a threat to the Elector of
+Treves, and the other princes on the Rhine. In that piece, in which both
+Feuillants and Jacobins concurred, they declared publicly, and most
+proudly <a name="Page_373" id="Page_373" title="373" class="pagenum"></a>and insolently, the principle on which they mean to proceed in
+their future disputes with any of the sovereigns of Europe; for they
+say, &quot;that it is not with fire and sword they mean to attack their
+territories, but by what will be <i>more dreadful</i> to them, the
+introduction of liberty.&quot;&mdash;I have not the paper by me, to give the exact
+words, but I believe they are nearly as I state them.&mdash;<i>Dreadful</i>,
+indeed, will be their hostility, if they should be able to carry it on
+according to the example of <i>their</i> modes of introducing liberty. They
+have shown a perfect model of their whole design, very complete, though
+in little. This gang of murderers and savages have wholly laid waste and
+utterly ruined the beautiful and happy country of the Comtat Venaissin
+and the city of Avignon. This cruel and treacherous outrage the
+sovereigns of Europe, in my opinion, with a great mistake of their honor
+and interest, have permitted, even without a remonstrance, to be carried
+to the desired point, on the principles on which they are now themselves
+threatened in their own states; and this, because, according to the poor
+and narrow spirit now in fashion, their brother sovereign, whose
+subjects have been thus traitorously and inhumanly treated in violation
+of the law of Nature and of nations, has a name somewhat different from
+theirs, and, instead of being styled King, or Duke, or Landgrave, is
+usually called Pope.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">State of the Empire.</span>The Electors of Treves and Mentz were frightened with the menace of a
+similar mode of war. The Assembly, however, not thinking that the
+Electors of Treves and Mentz had done enough under their first terror,
+have again brought forward Condorcet, preceded by Brissot, as I have
+just stated. The declaration, which they have ordered <a name="Page_374" id="Page_374" title="374" class="pagenum"></a>now to be
+circulated in all countries, is in substance the same as the first, but
+still more insolent, because more full of detail. There they have the
+impudence to state that they aim at no conquest: insinuating that all
+the old, lawful powers of the world had each made a constant, open
+profession of a design of subduing his neighbors. They add, that, if
+they are provoked, their war will be directed only against those who
+assume to be <i>masters</i>; but to the <i>people</i> they will bring peace, law,
+liberty, &amp;c., &amp;c. There is not the least hint that they consider those
+whom they call persons &quot;<i>assuming to be matters</i>&quot; to be the lawful
+government of their country, or persons to be treated with the least
+management or respect. They regard them as usurpers and enslavers of the
+people. If I do not mistake, they are described by the name of tyrants
+in Condorcet's first draught. I am sure they are so in Brissot's speech,
+ordered by the Assembly to be printed at the same time and for the same
+purposes. The whole is in the same strain, full of false philosophy and
+false rhetoric,&mdash;both, however, calculated to captivate and influence
+the vulgar mind, and to excite sedition in the countries in which it is
+ordered to be circulated. Indeed, it is such, that, if any of the
+lawful, acknowledged sovereigns of Europe had publicly ordered such a
+manifesto to be circulated in the dominions of another, the ambassador
+of that power would instantly be ordered to quit every court without an
+audience.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Effect of fear on the sovereign powers.</span>The powers of Europe have a pretext for concealing their fears, by
+saying that this language is not used by the king; though they well know
+that there is in effect no such person,&mdash;that the Assembly is in
+reality, and by that king is acknowl<a name="Page_375" id="Page_375" title="375" class="pagenum"></a>edged to be, <i>the master</i>,&mdash;that
+what he does is but matter of formality,&mdash;and that he can neither cause
+nor hinder, accelerate nor retard, any measure whatsoever, nor add to
+nor soften the manifesto which the Assembly has directed to be
+published, with the declared purpose of exciting mutiny and rebellion in
+the several countries governed by these powers. By the generality also
+of the menaces contained in this paper, (though infinitely aggravating
+the outrage,) they hope to remove from each power separately the idea of
+a distinct affront. The persons first pointed at by the menace are
+certainly the princes of Germany, who harbor the persecuted House of
+Bourbon and the nobility of France; the declaration, however, is
+general, and goes to every state with which they may have a cause of
+quarrel. But the terror of France has fallen upon all nations. A few
+months since all sovereigns seemed disposed to unite against her; at
+present they all seem to combine in her favor. At no period has the
+power of France ever appeared with so formidable an aspect. In
+particular the liberties of the Empire can have nothing more than an
+existence the most tottering and precarious, whilst France exists with a
+great power of fomenting rebellion, and the greatest in the
+weakest,&mdash;but with neither power nor disposition to support the smaller
+states in their independence against the attempts of the more powerful.</p>
+
+<p>I wind up all in a full conviction within my own breast, and the
+substance of which I must repeat over and over again, that the state of
+France is the first consideration in the politics of Europe, and of each
+state, externally as well as internally considered.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the topics I have used are drawn from fear and apprehension.
+Topics derived from fear or ad<a name="Page_376" id="Page_376" title="376" class="pagenum"></a>dressed to it are, I well know, of
+doubtful appearance. To be sure, hope is in general the incitement to
+action. Alarm some men,&mdash;you do not drive them to provide for their
+security; you put them to a stand; you induce them, not to take measures
+to prevent the approach of danger, but to remove so unpleasant an idea
+from their minds; you persuade them to remain as they are, from a new
+fear that their activity may bring on the apprehended mischief before
+its time. I confess freely that this evil sometimes happens from an
+overdone precaution; but it is when the measures are rash, ill-chosen,
+or ill-combined, and the effects rather of blind terror than of
+enlightened foresight. But the few to whom I wish to submit my thoughts
+are of a character which will enable them to see danger without
+astonishment, and to provide against it without perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>To what lengths this method of circulating mutinous manifestoes, and of
+keeping emissaries of sedition in every court under the name of
+ambassadors, to propagate the same principles and to follow the
+practices, will go, and how soon they will operate, it is hard to say;
+but go on it will, more or less rapidly, according to events, and to the
+humor of the time. The princes menaced with the revolt of their
+subjects, at the same time that they have obsequiously obeyed the
+sovereign mandate of the new Roman senate, have received with
+distinction, in a public character, ambassadors from those who in the
+same act had circulated the manifesto of sedition in their dominions.
+This was the only thing wanting to the degradation and disgrace of the
+Germanic body.</p>
+
+<p>The ambassadors from the rights of man, and their admission into the
+diplomatic system, I hold to be a <a name="Page_377" id="Page_377" title="377" class="pagenum"></a>new era in this business. It will be
+the most important step yet taken to affect the existence of sovereigns,
+and the higher classes of life: I do not mean to exclude its effects
+upon all classes; but the first blow is aimed at the more prominent
+parts in the ancient order of things.</p>
+
+<p>What is to be done?</p>
+
+<p>It would be presumption in me to do more than to make a case. Many
+things occur. But as they, like all political measures, depend on
+dispositions, tempers, means, and external circumstances, for all their
+effect, not being well assured of these, I do not know how to let loose
+any speculations of mine on the subject. The evil is stated, in my
+opinion, as it exists. The remedy must be where power, wisdom, and
+information, I hope, are more united with good intentions than they can
+be with me. I have done with this subject, I believe, forever. It has
+given me many anxious moments for the two last years. If a great change
+is to be made in human affairs, the minds of men will be fitted to it,
+the general opinions and feelings will draw that way. Every fear, every
+hope, will forward it; and then they who persist in opposing this mighty
+current in human affairs will appear rather to resist the decrees of
+Providence itself than the mere designs of men. They will not be
+resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate.<a name="Page_378" id="Page_378" title="378" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> See Vattel, B. II. c. 4, sect 56, and B. III. c 18, sect.
+296.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Originally called the Bengal Club; but since opened to
+persons from the other Presidencies, for the purpose of consolidating
+the whole Indian interest.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> &quot;Until now, they [the National Assembly] have prejudged
+nothing. Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a preceptor to the
+Dauphin, they did not declare <i>that this child was to reign</i>, but only
+that <i>possibly</i> the Constitution <i>might</i> destine him to it: they willed,
+that, while education should efface from his mind all the prejudices
+arising from <i>the delusions of the throne</i> respecting his pretended
+birthright, it should also teach him not to forget that it is <i>from the
+people</i> he is to receive the title of King, and that <i>the people do not
+even possess the right of giving up their power to take it from him</i>.
+</p><p>
+&quot;They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
+knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive <i>with submission</i> the
+dangerous burden of a crown, and <i>to resign it with pleasure</i> into the
+hands of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
+that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the duty
+and the glory of a king of a free people.
+</p><p>
+&quot;They willed that <i>the uselessness of a king</i>, the necessity of seeking
+means to establish something in lieu of <i>a power founded on illusions</i>,
+should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; <i>the obligation
+of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the
+desire of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious
+inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart</i>. They are not
+ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king
+than to teach him <i>that he should know how to wish no longer to be
+such</i>.&quot;</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379" title="379" class="pagenum"></a><a name="HEADS_FOR_CONSIDERATION" id="HEADS_FOR_CONSIDERATION" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON THE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1792.</span><br /></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380" title="380" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381" title="381" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>That France by its mere geographical position, independently of every
+other circumstance, must affect every state of Europe: some of them
+immediately, all of them through mediums not very remote.</p>
+
+<p>That the standing policy of this kingdom ever has been to watch over the
+<i>external</i> proceedings of France, (whatever form the <i>interior</i>
+government of that kingdom might take,) and to prevent the extension of
+its dominion or its ruling influence over other states.</p>
+
+<p>That there is nothing in the present <i>internal</i> state of things in
+France which alters the national policy with regard to the exterior
+relations of that country.</p>
+
+<p>That there are, on the contrary, many things in the internal
+circumstances of France (and perhaps of this country, too) which tend to
+fortify the principles of that fundamental policy, and which render the
+active assertion of those principles more pressing at this than at any
+former time.</p>
+
+<p>That, by a change effected in about three weeks, France has been able to
+penetrate into the heart of Germany, to make an absolute conquest of
+Savoy, to menace an immediate invasion of the Netherlands, and to awe
+and overbear the whole Helvetic body, which is in a most perilous
+situation: the great aristocratic Cantons having, perhaps, as much or
+more to dread from their own people, whom they <a name="Page_382" id="Page_382" title="382" class="pagenum"></a>arm, but do not choose
+or dare to employ, as from the foreign enemy, which against all public
+faith has butchered their troops serving by treaty in France. To this
+picture it is hardly necessary to add the means by which Prance has been
+enabled to effect all this,&mdash;namely, the apparently entire destruction
+of one of the largest and certainly the highest disciplined and best
+appointed army ever seen, headed by the first military sovereign in
+Europe, with a captain under him of the greatest renown; and that
+without a blow given or received on any side. This state of things seems
+to me, even if it went no further, truly serious.</p>
+
+<p>Circumstances have enabled France to do all this by <i>land</i>. On the other
+element she has begun to exert herself; and she must succeed in her
+designs, if enemies very different from those she has hitherto had to
+encounter do not resist her.</p>
+
+<p>She has fitted out a naval force, now actually at sea, by which she is
+enabled to give law to the whole Mediterranean. It is known as a fact,
+(and if not so known, it is in the nature of things highly probable,)
+that she proposes the ravage of the Ecclesiastical State and the pillage
+of Rome, as her first object; that nest she means to bombard Naples,&mdash;to
+awe, to humble, and thus to command, all Italy,&mdash;to force it to a
+nominal neutrality, but to a real dependence,&mdash;to compel the Italian
+princes and republics to admit the free entrance of the French commerce,
+an open intercourse, and, the sure concomitant of that intercourse, the
+<i>affiliated societies</i>, in a manner similar to those she has established
+at Avignon, the Comtat, Chamb&eacute;ry, London, Manchester, &amp;c., &amp;c., which are
+so many colonies planted in all these countries, <a name="Page_383" id="Page_383" title="383" class="pagenum"></a>for extending the
+influence and securing the dominion of the French republic.</p>
+
+<p>That there never has been hitherto a period in which this kingdom would
+have suffered a French fleet to domineer in the Mediterranean, and to
+force Italy to submit to such terms as France would think fit to
+impose,&mdash;to say nothing of what has been done upon land in support of
+the same system. The great object for which we preserved Minorca, whilst
+we could keep it, and for which we still retain Gibraltar, both at a
+great expense, was, and is, to prevent the predominance of France over
+the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far as to the certain and immediate effect of that armament upon
+the Italian States. The probable effect which that armament, and the
+other armaments preparing at Toulon and other ports, may have upon
+Spain, on the side of the Mediterranean, is worthy of the serious
+attention of the British councils.</p>
+
+<p>That it is most probable, we may say in a manner certain, that, if there
+should be a rupture between France and Spain, France will not confine
+her offensive piratical operations against Spain to her efforts in the
+Mediterranean; on which side, however, she may grievously affect Spain,
+especially if she excites Morocco and Algiers, which undoubtedly she
+will, to fall upon that power.</p>
+
+<p>That she will fit out armaments upon the ocean, by which the flota
+itself may be intercepted, and thus the treasures of all Europe, as well
+as the largest and surest resources of the Spanish monarchy, may be
+conveyed into France, and become powerful instruments for the annoyance
+of all her neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>That she makes no secret of her designs.<a name="Page_384" id="Page_384" title="384" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>That, if the inward and outward bound flota should escape, still France
+has more and better means of dissevering many of the provinces in the
+West and East Indies from the state of Spain than Holland had, when she
+succeeded in the same attempt. The French marine resembles not a little
+the old armaments of the Flibustiers, which about a century back, in
+conjunction with pirates of our nation, brought such calamities upon the
+Spanish colonies. They differ only in this,&mdash;that the present piratical
+force is out of all measure and comparison greater: one hundred and
+fifty ships of the line and frigates being ready-built, most of them in
+a manner new, and all applicable in different ways to that service.
+Privateers and Moorish corsairs possess not the best seamanship, and
+very little discipline, and indeed can make no figure in regular
+service; but in desperate adventures, and animated with a lust of
+plunder, they are truly formidable.</p>
+
+<p>That the land forces of France are well adapted to concur with their
+marine in conjunct expeditions of this nature. In such expeditions,
+enterprise supplies the want of discipline, and perhaps more than
+supplies it. Both for this, and for other service, (however contemptible
+their military is in other respects,) one arm is extremely good, the
+engineering and artillery branch. The old officer corps in both being
+composed for the greater part of those who were not gentlemen, or
+gentlemen newly such, few have abandoned the service, and the men are
+veterans, well enough disciplined, and very expert. In this piratical
+way they must make war with good advantage. They must do so, even on the
+side of Flanders, either offensively or defensively. This shows the
+difference <a name="Page_385" id="Page_385" title="385" class="pagenum"></a>between the policy of Louis the Fourteenth, who built a wall
+of brass about his kingdom, and that of Joseph the Second, who
+premeditatedly uncovered his whole frontier.</p>
+
+<p>That Spain, from the actual and expected prevalence of French power, is
+in a most perilous situation,&mdash;perfectly dependent on the mercy of that
+republic. If Austria is broken, or even humbled, she will not dare to
+dispute its mandates.</p>
+
+<p>In the present state of things, we have nothing at all to dread from the
+power of Spain by sea or by land, or from any rivalry in commerce.</p>
+
+<p>That we have much to dread from the connections into which Spain may be
+forced.</p>
+
+<p>From the circumstances of her territorial possessions, of her resources,
+and the whole of her civil and political state, we may be authorized
+safely and with undoubted confidence to affirm that</p>
+
+<p><i>Spain is not a substantive power</i>.</p>
+
+<p>That she must lean on France or on England.</p>
+
+<p>That it is as much for the interest of Great Britain to prevent the
+predominancy of a French interest in that kingdom as if Spain were a
+province of the crown of Great Britain, or a state actually dependent on
+it,&mdash;full as much so as ever Portugal was reputed to be. This is a
+dependency of much greater value; and its destruction, or its being
+carried to any other dependency, of much more serious misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>One of these two things must happen: either Spain must submit to
+circumstances and take such conditions as France will impose, or she
+must engage in hostilities along with the Emperor and the king of
+Sardinia.</p>
+
+<p>If Spain should be forced or awed into a treaty <a name="Page_386" id="Page_386" title="386" class="pagenum"></a>with the republic of
+France, she must open her ports and her commerce, as well as the land
+communication for the French laborers, who were accustomed annually to
+gather in the harvest in Spain. Indeed, she must grant a free
+communication for travellers and traders through her whole country. In
+that case it is not conjectural, it is certain, the clubs will give law
+in the provinces; Bourgoing, or some such miscreant, will give law at
+Madrid.</p>
+
+<p>In this England may acquiesce, if she pleases; and France will conclude
+a triumphant peace with Spain under her absolute dependence, with a
+broad highway into that, and into every state of Europe. She actually
+invites Great Britain to divide with her the spoils of the New World,
+and to make a partition of the Spanish monarchy. Clearly, it is better
+to do so than to suffer France to possess those spoils and that
+territory alone; which, without doubt, unresisted by us, she is
+altogether as able as she is willing to do.</p>
+
+<p>This plan is proposed by the French in the way in which they propose all
+their plans,&mdash;and in the only way in which, indeed, they can propose
+them, where there is no regular communication between his Majesty and
+their republic.</p>
+
+<p>What they propose is <i>a plan</i>. It is <i>a plan</i> also to resist their
+predatory project. To remain quiet, and to suffer them to make their own
+use of a naval power before our face, so as to awe and bully Spain into
+a submissive peace, or to drive them into a ruinous war, without any
+measure on our part, I fear is no plan at all.</p>
+
+<p>However, if the plan of co&ouml;peration which France desires, and which her
+affiliated societies here ardently wish and are constantly writing up,
+should not <a name="Page_387" id="Page_387" title="387" class="pagenum"></a>be adopted, and the war between the Emperor and France
+should continue, I think it not at all likely that Spain should not be
+drawn into the quarrel. In that case, the neutrality of England will be
+a thing absolutely impossible. The time only is the subject of
+deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>Then the question will be, whether we are to defer putting ourselves
+into a posture for the common defence, either by armament, or
+negotiation, or both, until Spain is actually attacked,&mdash;that is,
+whether our court will take a decided part for Spain, whilst Spain, on
+her side, is yet in a condition to act with whatever degree of vigor she
+may have, whilst that vigor is yet unexhausted,&mdash;or whether we shall
+connect ourselves with her broken fortunes, after she shall have
+received material blows, and when we shall have the whole slow length of
+that always unwieldy and ill-constructed, and then wounded and crippled
+body, to drag after us, rather than to aid us. Whilst our disposition is
+uncertain, Spain will not dare to put herself in such a state of defence
+as will make her hostility formidable or her neutrality respectable.</p>
+
+<p>If the decision is such as the solution of this question (I take it to
+be the true question) conducts to, no time is to be lost. But the
+measures, though prompt, ought not to be rash and indigested. They ought
+to be well chosen, well combined, and well pursued. The system must be
+general; but it must be executed, not successively, or with
+interruption, but all together, <i>uno flatu</i>, in one melting, and one
+mould.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose we must put Europe before us, which plainly is, just
+now, in all its parts, in a state of dismay, derangement, and confusion,
+and, very <a name="Page_388" id="Page_388" title="388" class="pagenum"></a>possibly amongst all its sovereigns, full of secret
+heartburning, distrust, and mutual accusation. Perhaps it may labor
+under worse evils. There is no vigor anywhere, except the distempered
+vigor and energy of France. That country has but too much life in it,
+when everything around is so disposed to tameness and languor. The very
+vices of the French system at home tend to give force to foreign
+exertions. The generals <i>must</i> join the armies. They must lead them to
+enterprise, or they are likely to perish by their hands. Thus, without
+law or government of her own, France gives law to all the governments in
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>This great mass of political matter must have been always under the view
+of thinkers for the public, whether they act in office or not. Amongst
+events, even the late calamitous events were in the book of contingency.
+Of course they must have been in design, at least, provided for. A plan
+which takes in as many as possible of the states concerned will rather
+tend to facilitate and simplify a rational scheme for preserving Spain
+(if that were our sole, as I think it ought to be our principal object)
+than to delay and perplex it.</p>
+
+<p>If we should think that a provident policy (perhaps now more than
+provident, urgent and necessary) should lead us to act, we cannot take
+measures as if nothing had been done. We must see the faults, if any,
+which have conducted to the present misfortunes: not for the sake of
+criticism, military or political, or from the common motives of blaming
+persons and counsels which have not been successful, but in order, if we
+can, to administer some remedy to these disasters, by the adoption of
+plans more bot<a name="Page_389" id="Page_389" title="389" class="pagenum"></a>tomed in principle, and built on with more discretion.
+Mistakes may be lessons.</p>
+
+<p>There seem, indeed, to have been several mistakes in the political
+principles on which the war was entered into, as well as in the plans
+upon which it was conducted,&mdash;some of them very fundamental, and not
+only visibly, but I may say palpably erroneous; and I think him to have
+less than the discernment of a very ordinary statesman, who could not
+foresee, from the very beginning, unpleasant consequences from those
+plans, though not the unparalleled disgraces and disasters which really
+did attend them: for they were, both principles and measures, wholly new
+and out of the common course, without anything apparently very grand in
+the conception to justify this total departure from all rule.</p>
+
+<p>For, in the first place, the united sovereigns very much injured their
+cause by admitting that they had nothing to do with the interior
+arrangements of France,&mdash;in contradiction to the whole tenor of the
+public law of Europe, and to the correspondent practice of all its
+states, from the time we have any history of them. In this particular,
+the two German courts seem to have as little consulted the publicists of
+Germany as their own true interests, and those of all the sovereigns of
+Germany and Europe. This admission of a false principle in the law of
+nations brought them into an apparent contradiction, when they insisted
+on the re&euml;stablishment of the royal authority in France. But this
+confused and contradictory proceeding gave rise to a practical error of
+worse consequence. It was derived from one and the same root: namely,
+that the person of the monarch of France was everything; and the
+monarchy, and the interme<a name="Page_390" id="Page_390" title="390" class="pagenum"></a>diate orders of the state, by which the
+monarchy was upheld, were nothing. So that, if the united potentates had
+succeeded so far as to re&euml;stablish the authority of that king, and that
+he should be so ill-advised as to confirm all the confiscations, and to
+recognize as a lawful body and to class himself with that rabble of
+murderers, (and there wanted not persons who would so have advised him,)
+there was nothing in the principle or in the proceeding of the united
+powers to prevent such an arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>An expedition to free a brother sovereign from prison was undoubtedly a
+generous and chivalrous undertaking. But the spirit and generosity would
+not have been less, if the policy had been more profound and more
+comprehensive,&mdash;that is, if it had taken in those considerations and
+those persons by whom, and, in some measure, for whom, monarchy exists.
+This would become a bottom for a system of solid and permanent policy,
+and of operations conformable to that system.</p>
+
+<p>The same fruitful error was the cause why nothing was done to impress
+the people of France (so far as we can at all consider the inhabitants
+of France as a people) with an idea that the government was ever to be
+really French, or indeed anything else than the nominal government of a
+monarch, a monarch absolute as over them, but whose sole support was to
+arise from foreign potentates, and who was to be kept on his throne by
+German forces,&mdash;in short, that the king of France was to be a viceroy to
+the Emperor and the king of Prussia.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time that foreign powers, interfering in the concerns
+of a nation divided into parties, have thought proper to thrust wholly
+out of their <a name="Page_391" id="Page_391" title="391" class="pagenum"></a>councils, to postpone, to discountenance, to reject, and,
+in a manner, to disgrace, the party whom those powers came to support.
+The single person of a king cannot be a party. Woe to the king who is
+himself his party! The royal party, with the king or his representatives
+at its head, is the <i>royal cause</i>. Foreign powers have hitherto chosen
+to give to such wars as this the appearance of a civil contest, and not
+that of an hostile invasion. When the Spaniards, in the sixteenth
+century, sent aids to the chiefs of the League, they appeared as allies
+to that league, and to the imprisoned king (the Cardinal de Bourbon)
+which that league had set up. When the Germans came to the aid of the
+Protestant princes, in the same series of civil wars, they came as
+allies. When the English came to the aid of Henry the Fourth, they
+appeared as allies to that prince. So did the French always, when they
+intermeddled in the affairs of Germany: they came to aid a party there.
+When the English and Dutch intermeddled in the succession of Spain, they
+appeared as allies to the Emperor, Charles the Sixth. In short, the
+policy has been as uniform as its principles were obvious to an ordinary
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>According to all the old principles of law and policy, a regency ought
+to have been appointed by the French princes of the blood, nobles, and
+parliaments, and then recognized by the combined powers. Fundamental law
+and ancient usage, as well as the clear reason of the thing, have always
+ordained it during an imprisonment of the king of France: as in the case
+of John, and of Francis the First. A monarchy ought not to be left a
+moment without a representative having an interest in the succession.
+The orders of the state ought also to have been recognized <a name="Page_392" id="Page_392" title="392" class="pagenum"></a>in those
+amongst whom alone they existed in freedom, that is, in the emigrants.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, laying down a firm foundation on the recognition of the
+authorities of the kingdom of France, according to Nature and to its
+fundamental laws, and not according to the novel and inconsiderate
+principles of the usurpation which the united powers were come to
+extirpate, the king of Prussia and the Emperor, as allies of the ancient
+kingdom of France, would have proceeded with dignity, first, to free the
+monarch, if possible,&mdash;if not, to secure the monarchy as principal in
+the design; and in order to avoid all risks to that great object, (the
+object of other ages than the present, and of other countries than that
+of France,) they would of course avoid proceeding with more haste or in
+a different manner than what the nature of such an object required.</p>
+
+<p>Adopting this, the only rational system, the rational mode of proceeding
+upon it was to commence with an effective siege of Lisle, which the
+French generals must have seen taken before their faces, or be forced to
+fight. A plentiful country of friends, from whence to draw supplies,
+would have been behind them; a plentiful country of enemies, from whence
+to force supplies, would have been before them. Good towns were always
+within reach to deposit their hospitals and magazines. The march from
+Lisle to Paris is through a less defensible country, and the distance is
+hardly so great as from Longwy to Paris.</p>
+
+<p>If the <i>old</i> politic and military ideas had governed, the advanced guard
+would have been formed of those who best knew the country and had some
+interest in it, supported by some of the best light troops and light
+artillery, whilst the grand solid body of an army dis<a name="Page_393" id="Page_393" title="393" class="pagenum"></a>ciplined to
+perfection proceeded leisurely, and in close connection with all its
+stores, provisions, and heavy cannon, to support the expedite body in
+case of misadventure, or to improve and complete its success.</p>
+
+<p>The direct contrary of all this was put in practice. In consequence of
+the original sin of this project, the army of the French princes was
+everywhere thrown into the rear, and no part of it brought forward to
+the last moment, the time of the commencement of the secret negotiation.
+This naturally made an ill impression on the people, and furnished an
+occasion for the rebels at Paris to give out that the faithful subjects
+of the king were distrusted, despised, and abhorred by his allies. The
+march was directed through a skirt of Lorraine, and thence into a part
+of Champagne, the Duke of Brunswick leaving all the strongest places
+behind him,&mdash;leaving also behind him the strength of his artillery,&mdash;and
+by this means giving a superiority to the French, in the only way in
+which the present France is able to oppose a German force.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the adoption of those false politics, which turned
+everything on the king's sole and single person, the whole plan of the
+war was reduced to nothing but a <i>coup de main</i>, in order to set that
+prince at liberty. If that failed, everything was to be given up.</p>
+
+<p>The scheme of a <i>coup de main</i> might (under favorable circumstances) be
+very fit for a partisan at the head of a light corps, by whose failure
+nothing material would be deranged. But for a royal army of eighty
+thousand men, headed by a king in person, who was to march an hundred
+and fifty miles through an enemy's country,&mdash;surely, this was a plan
+unheard of.<a name="Page_394" id="Page_394" title="394" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Although this plan was not well chosen, and proceeded upon principles
+altogether ill-judged and impolitic, the superiority of the military
+force might in a great degree have supplied the defects, and furnished a
+corrective to the mistakes. The greater probability was, that the Duke
+of Brunswick would make his way to Paris over the bellies of the rabble
+of drunkards, robbers, assassins, rioters, mutineers, and half-grown
+boys, under the ill-obeyed command of a theatrical, vaporing, reduced
+captain of cavalry, who opposed that great commander and great army.
+But&mdash;<i>Diis aliter visum</i>. He began to treat,&mdash;the winds blew and the
+rains beat,&mdash;the house fell, because it was built upon sand,&mdash;and great
+was the fall thereof. This march was not an exact copy of either of the
+two marches made by the Duke of Parma into France.</p>
+
+<p>There is some secret. Sickness and weather may defeat an army pursuing a
+wrong plan: not that I believe the sickness to have been so great as it
+has been reported; but there is a great deal of superfluous humiliation
+in this business, a perfect prodigality of disgrace. Some advantage,
+real or imaginary, must compensate to a great sovereign and to a great
+general for so immense a loss of reputation. Longwy, situated as it is,
+might (one should think) be evacuated without a capitulation with a
+republic just proclaimed by the king of Prussia as an usurping and
+rebellious body. He was not far from Luxembourg. He might have taken
+away the obnoxious French in his flight. It does not appear to have been
+necessary that those magistrates who declared for their own king, on the
+faith and under the immediate protection of the king of Prussia, should
+be <a name="Page_395" id="Page_395" title="395" class="pagenum"></a>delivered over to the gallows. It was not necessary that the
+emigrant nobility and gentry who served with the king of Prussia's army,
+under his immediate command, should be excluded from the cartel, and
+given up to be hanged as rebels. Never was so gross and so cruel a
+breach of the public faith, not with an enemy, but with a friend.
+Dumouriez has dropped very singular hints. Custine has spoken out more
+broadly. These accounts have never been contradicted. They tend to make
+an eternal rupture between the powers. The French have given out, that
+the Duke of Brunswick endeavored to negotiate some name and place for
+the captive king, amongst the murderers and proscribers of those who
+have lost their all for his cause. Even this has not been denied.</p>
+
+<p>It is singular, and, indeed, a thing, under all its circumstances,
+inconceivable, that everything should by the Emperor be abandoned to the
+king of Prussia. That monarch was considered as principal. In the nature
+of things, as well as in his position with regard to the war, he was
+only an ally, and a new ally, with crossing interests in many
+particulars, and of a policy rather uncertain. At best, and supposing
+him to act with the greatest fidelity, the Emperor and the Empire to him
+must be but secondary objects. Countries out of Germany must affect him
+in a still more remote manner. France, other than from the fear of its
+doctrinal principles, can to him be no object at all. Accordingly, the
+Rhine, Sardinia, and the Swiss are left to their fate. The king of
+Prussia has no <i>direct</i> and immediate concern with France;
+<i>consequentially</i>, to be sure, a great deal: but the Emperor touches
+France <i>directly</i> in many parts; he <a name="Page_396" id="Page_396" title="396" class="pagenum"></a>is a near neighbor to Sardinia, by
+his Milanese territories; he borders on Switzerland; Cologne, possessed
+by his uncle, is between Mentz, Treves, and the king of Prussia's
+territories on the Lower Rhine. The Emperor is the natural guardian of
+Italy and Germany,&mdash;the natural balance against the ambition of France,
+whether republican or monarchical. His ministers and his generals,
+therefore, ought to have had their full share in every material
+consultation,&mdash;which I suspect they had not. If he has no minister
+capable of plans of policy which comprehend the superintendency of a
+war, or no general with the least of a political head, things have been
+as they must be. However, in all the parts of this strange proceeding
+there must be a secret.</p>
+
+<p>It is probably known to ministers. I do not mean to penetrate into it.
+My speculations on this head must be only conjectural. If the king of
+Prussia, under the pretext or on the reality of some information
+relative to ill practice on the part of the court of Vienna, takes
+advantage of his being admitted into the heart of the Emperor's
+dominions in the character of an ally, afterwards to join the common
+enemy, and to enable France to seize the Netherlands, and to reduce and
+humble the Empire, I cannot conceive, upon every principle, anything
+more alarming for this country, separately, and as a part of the general
+system. After all, we may be looking in vain in the regions of politics
+for what is only the operation of temper and character upon accidental
+circumstances. But I never knew accidents to decide the <i>whole</i> of any
+great business; and I never knew temper to act, but that some system of
+politics agreeable to its peculiar spirit was blended with it,
+<a name="Page_397" id="Page_397" title="397" class="pagenum"></a>strengthened it, and got strength from it. Therefore the politics can
+hardly be put out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>Great mistakes have been committed: at least I hope so. If there have
+been none, the case in future is desperate. I have endeavored to point
+out some of those which have occurred to me, and most of them very
+early.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever may be the cause of the present state of things, on a full and
+mature view and comparison of the historical matter, of the transactions
+that have passed before our eyes, and of the future prospect, I think I
+am authorized to form an opinion without the least hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>That there never was, nor is, nor ever will be, nor ever can be, the
+least rational hope of making an impression on France by any Continental
+powers, if England is not a part, is not the directing part, is not the
+soul, of the whole confederacy against it.</p>
+
+<p>This, so far as it is an anticipation of future, is grounded on the
+whole tenor of former history. In speculation it is to be accounted for
+on two plain principles.</p>
+
+<p>First, That Great Britain is likely to take a more fair and equal part
+in the alliance than the other powers, as having less of crossing
+interest or perplexed discussion with any of them.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, Because France cannot have to deal with any of these
+Continental sovereigns, without their feeling that nation, as a maritime
+power, greatly superior to them all put together,&mdash;a force which is only
+to be kept in check by England.</p>
+
+<p>England, except during the eccentric aberration of Charles the Second,
+has always considered it as <a name="Page_398" id="Page_398" title="398" class="pagenum"></a>her duty and interest to take her place in
+such a confederacy. Her chief disputes must ever be with France; and if
+England shows herself indifferent and unconcerned, when these powers are
+combined against the enterprises of France, she is to look with
+certainty for the same indifference on the part of these powers, when
+she may be at war with that nation. This will tend totally to disconnect
+this kingdom from the system of Europe, in which if she ought not rashly
+to meddle, she ought never wholly to withdraw herself from it.</p>
+
+<p>If, then, England is put in motion, whether by a consideration of the
+general safety, or of the influence of France upon Spain, or by the
+probable operations of this new system on the Netherlands, it must
+embrace in its project the whole as much as possible, and the part it
+takes ought to be as much as possible a leading and presiding part.</p>
+
+<p>I therefore beg leave to suggest,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, That a minister should forthwith be sent to Spain, to encourage
+that court to persevere in the measures they have adopted against
+France,&mdash;to make a close alliance and guaranty of possessions, as
+against France, with that power,&mdash;and, whilst the formality of the
+treaty is pending, to assure them of our protection, postponing any
+lesser disputes to another occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, To assure the court of Vienna of our desire to enter into our
+ancient connections with her, and to support her effectually in the war
+which France has declared against her.</p>
+
+<p>Thirdly, To animate the Swiss and the king of Sardinia to take a part,
+as the latter once did on the principles of the Grand Alliance.<a name="Page_399" id="Page_399" title="399" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Fourthly, To put an end to our disputes with Russia, and mutually to
+forget the past. I believe, if she is satisfied of this oblivion, she
+will return to her old sentiments with regard to this court, and will
+take a more forward part in this business than any other power.</p>
+
+<p>Fifthly, If what has happened to the king of Prussia is only in
+consequence of a sort of panic or of levity, and an indisposition to
+persevere long in one design, the support and concurrence of Russia will
+tend to steady him, and to give him resolution. If he be ill-disposed,
+with that power on his back, and without one ally in Europe, I conceive
+he will not be easily led to derange the plan.</p>
+
+<p>Sixthly, To use the joint influence of our court, and of our then allied
+powers, with Holland, to arm as fully as she can by sea, and to make
+some addition by land.</p>
+
+<p>Seventhly, To acknowledge the king of France's next brother (assisted by
+such a council and such representatives of the kingdom of France as
+shall be thought proper) regent of France, and to send that prince a
+small supply of money, arms, clothing, and artillery.</p>
+
+<p>Eighthly, To give force to these negotiations, an instant naval armament
+ought to be adopted,&mdash;one squadron for the Mediterranean, another for
+the Channel. The season is convenient,&mdash;most of our trade being, as I
+take it, at home.</p>
+
+<p>After speaking of a plan formed upon the ancient policy and practice of
+Great Britain and of Europe, to which this is exactly conformable in
+every respect, with no deviation whatsoever, and which is, I conceive,
+much more strongly called for by the <a name="Page_400" id="Page_400" title="400" class="pagenum"></a>present circumstances than by any
+former, I must take notice of another, which I hear, but cannot persuade
+myself to believe, is in agitation. This plan is grounded upon the very
+same view of things which is here stated,&mdash;namely, the danger to all
+sovereigns, and old republics, from the prevalence of French power and
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>It is, to form a congress of all the European powers for the purpose of
+a general defensive alliance, the objects of which should be,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, The recognition of this new republic, (which they well know is
+formed on the principles and for the declared purpose of the destruction
+of all kings,) and, whenever the heads of this new republic shall
+consent to release the royal captives, to make peace with them.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, To defend themselves with their joint forces against the open
+aggressions, or the secret practices, intrigues, and writings, which are
+used to propagate the French principles.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to discover from whose shop this commodity comes. It is so
+perfectly absurd, that, if that or anything like it meets with a serious
+entertainment in any cabinet, I should think it the effect of what is
+called a judicial blindness, the certain forerunner of the destruction
+of all crowns and kingdoms.</p>
+
+<p>An <i>offensive</i> alliance, in which union is preserved by common efforts
+in common dangers against a common active enemy, may preserve its
+consistency, and may produce for a given time some considerable effect:
+though this is not easy, and for any very long period can hardly be
+expected. But a <i>defensive</i> alliance, formed of long discordant
+inter<a name="Page_401" id="Page_401" title="401" class="pagenum"></a>ests, with innumerable discussions existing, having no one pointed
+object to which it is directed, which is to be held together with an
+unremitted vigilance, as watchful in peace as in war, is so evidently
+impossible, is such a chimera, is so contrary to human nature and the
+course of human affairs, that I am persuaded no person in his senses,
+except those whose country, religion, and sovereign are deposited in the
+French funds, could dream of it. There is not the slightest petty
+boundary suit, no difference between a family arrangement, no sort of
+misunderstanding or cross purpose between the pride and etiquette of
+courts, that would not entirely disjoint this sort of alliance, and
+render it as futile in its effects as it is feeble in its principle. But
+when we consider that the main drift of that defensive alliance must be
+to prevent the operation of intrigue, mischievous doctrine, and evil
+example, in the success of unprovoked rebellion, regicide, and
+systematic assassination and massacre, the absurdity of such a scheme
+becomes quite lamentable. Open the communication with France, and the
+rest follows of course.</p>
+
+<p>How far the interior circumstances of this country support what is said
+with regard to its foreign polities must be left to bettor judgments. I
+am sure the French faction here is infinitely strengthened by the
+success of the assassins on the other side of the water. This evil in
+the heart of Europe must be extirpated from that centre, or no part of
+the circumference can be free from the mischief which radiates from it,
+and which will spread, circle beyond circle, in spite of all the little
+defensive precautions which can be employed against it.</p>
+
+<p>I do not put my name to these hints submitted to <a name="Page_402" id="Page_402" title="402" class="pagenum"></a>the consideration of
+reflecting men. It is of too little importance to suppose the name of
+the writer could add any weight to the state of things contained in this
+paper. That state of things presses irresistibly on my judgment, and it
+lies, and has long lain, with a heavy weight upon my mind. I cannot
+think that what is done in France is beneficial to the human race. If it
+were, the English Constitution ought no more to stand against it than
+the ancient Constitution of the kingdom in which the new system
+prevails. I thought it the duty of a man not unconcerned for the public,
+and who is a faithful subject to the king, respectfully to submit this
+state of facts, at this new step in the progress of the French arms and
+politics, to his Majesty, to his confidential servants, and to those
+persons who, though not in office, by their birth, their rank, their
+fortune, their character, and their reputation for wisdom, seem to me to
+have a large stake in the stability of the ancient order of things.</p>
+
+<p>BATH, November 5, 1792.<a name="Page_403" id="Page_403" title="403" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+<p><a name="REMARKS" id="REMARKS" /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>REMARKS<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">ON</span><br />
+<br />
+THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES<br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="font-size: 60%">BEGUN IN OCTOBER, 1793.</span></h2>
+
+<p><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404" title="404" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405" title="405" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>As the proposed manifesto is, I understand, to promulgate to the world
+the general idea of a plan for the regulation of a great kingdom, and
+through the regulation of that kingdom probably to decide the fate of
+Europe forever, nothing requires a more serious deliberation with regard
+to the time of making it, the circumstances of those to whom it is
+addressed, and the matter it is to contain.</p>
+
+<p>As to the time, (with the due diffidence in my own opinion,) I have some
+doubts whether it is not rather unfavorable to the issuing any manifesto
+with regard to the intended government of France, and for this reason:
+that it is (upon the principal point of our attack) a time of calamity
+and defeat. Manifestoes of this nature are commonly made when the army
+of some sovereign enters into the enemy's country in great force, and
+under the imposing authority of that force employs menaces towards those
+whom he desires to awe, and makes promises to those whom he wishes to
+engage in his favor.</p>
+
+<p>As to a party, what has been done at Toulon leaves no doubt that the
+party for which we declare must be that which substantially declares for
+royalty as the basis of the government.</p>
+
+<p>As to menaces, nothing, in my opinion, can contribute more effectually
+to lower any sovereign in the <a name="Page_406" id="Page_406" title="406" class="pagenum"></a>public estimation, and to turn his
+defeats into disgraces, than to threaten in a moment of impotence. The
+second manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick appeared, therefore, to the
+world to be extremely ill-timed. However, if his menaces in that
+manifesto had been seasonable, they were not without an object. Great
+crimes then apprehended, and great evils then impending, were to be
+prevented. At this time, every act which early menaces might possibly
+have <i>prevented</i> is done. Punishment and vengeance alone remain,&mdash;and
+God forbid that they should ever be forgotten! But the punishment of
+enormous offenders will not be the less severe, or the less exemplary,
+when it is not threatened at a moment when we have it not in our power
+to execute our threats. On the other side, to pass by proceedings of
+such a nefarious nature, in all kinds, as have been carried on in
+France, without any signification of resentment, would be in effect to
+ratify them, and thus to become accessaries after the fact in all those
+enormities which it is impossible to repeat or think of without horror.
+An absolute silence appears to me to be at this time the only safe
+course.</p>
+
+<p>The second usual matter of manifestoes is composed of <i>promises</i> to
+those who cooperate with our designs. These promises depend in a great
+measure, if not wholly, on the apparent power of the person who makes
+them to fulfil his engagements. A time of disaster on the part of the
+promiser seems not to add much to the dignity of his person or to the
+effect of his offers. One would hardly wish to seduce any unhappy
+persons to give the last provocation to a merciless tyranny, without
+very effectual means of protecting them.<a name="Page_407" id="Page_407" title="407" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>The time, therefore, seems (as I said) not favorable to a general
+manifesto, on account of the unpleasant situation of our affairs.
+However, I write in a changing scene, when a measure very imprudent
+to-day may be very proper to-morrow. Some great victory may alter the
+whole state of the question, so far as it regards our <i>power</i> of
+fulfilling any engagement we may think fit to make.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another consideration of far greater importance for all the
+purposes of this manifesto. The public, and the parties concerned, will
+look somewhat to the disposition of the promiser indicated by his
+conduct, as well as to his power of fulfilling his engagements.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of this nation as part of a general combination of powers, are
+we quite sure that others can believe us to be sincere, or that we can
+be even fully assured of our own sincerity, in the protection of those
+who shall risk their lives for the restoration of monarchy in France,
+when the world sees that those who are the natural, legal,
+constitutional representatives of that monarchy, if it has any, have not
+had their names so much as mentioned in any one public act, that in no
+way whatever are their persons brought forward, that their rights have
+not been expressly or implicitly allowed, and that they have not been in
+the least consulted on the important interests they have at stake? On
+the contrary, they are kept in a state of obscurity and contempt, and in
+a degree of indigence at times bordering on beggary. They are, in fact,
+little less prisoners in the village of Hanau than the royal captives
+who are locked up in the tower of the Temple. What is this, according to
+the common indications which guide the judgment <a name="Page_408" id="Page_408" title="408" class="pagenum"></a>of mankind, but, under
+the pretext of protecting the crown of France, in reality to usurp it?</p>
+
+<p>I am also very apprehensive that there are other circumstances which
+must tend to weaken the force of our declarations. No partiality to the
+allied powers can prevent great doubts on the fairness of our intentions
+as supporters of the crown of France, or of the true principles of
+legitimate government in opposition to Jacobinism, when it is visible
+that the two leading orders of the state of France, who are now the
+victims, and who must always be the true and sole supports of monarchy
+in that country, are, at best, in some of their descriptions, considered
+only as objects of charity, and others are, when employed, employed only
+as mercenary soldiers,&mdash;that they are thrown back out of all reputable
+service, are in a manner disowned, considered as nothing in their own
+cause, and never once consulted in the concerns of their king, their
+country, their laws, their religion, and their property. We even affect
+to be ashamed of them. In all our proceedings we carefully avoid the
+appearance of being of a party with them. In all our ideas of treaty we
+do not regard them as what they are, the two leading orders of the
+kingdom. If we do not consider them in that light, we must recognize the
+savages by whom they have been ruined, and who have declared war upon
+Europe, whilst they disgrace and persecute human nature, and openly defy
+the God that made them, as real proprietors of France.</p>
+
+<p>I am much afraid, too, that we shall scarcely be believed fair
+supporters of lawful monarchy against Jacobinism, so long as we continue
+to make and to observe cartels with the Jacobins, and on fair terms
+<a name="Page_409" id="Page_409" title="409" class="pagenum"></a>exchange prisoners with them, whilst the Royalists, invited to our
+standard, and employed under our public faith against the Jacobins, if
+taken by that savage faction, are given up to the executioner without
+the least attempt whatsoever at reprisal. For this we are to look at the
+king of Prussia's conduct, compared with his manifestoes about a
+twelvemonth ago. For this we are to look at the capitulations of Mentz
+and Valenciennes, made in the course of the present campaign. By those
+two capitulations the Christian Royalists were excluded from any
+participation in the cause of the combined powers. They were considered
+as the outlaws of Europe. Two armies were in effect sent against them.
+One of those armies (that which surrendered Mentz) was very near
+overpowering the Christians of Poitou, and the other (that which
+surrendered at Valenciennes) has actually crushed the people whom
+oppression and despair had driven to resistance at Lyons, has massacred
+several thousands of them in cold blood, pillaged the whole substance of
+the place, and pursued their rage to the very houses, condemning that
+noble city to desolation, in the unheard-of manner we have seen it
+devoted.</p>
+
+<p>It is, then, plain, by a conduct which overturns a thousand
+declarations, that we take the Royalists of France only as an instrument
+of some convenience in a temporary hostility with the Jacobins, but that
+we regard those atheistic and murderous barbarians as the <i>bon&acirc; fide</i>
+possessors of the soil of France. It appears, at least, that we consider
+them as a fair government <i>de facto</i>, if not <i>de jure</i>, a resistance to
+which, in favor of the king of Prance, by any man who happened to be
+born within that country, might equita<a name="Page_410" id="Page_410" title="410" class="pagenum"></a>bly be considered by other
+nations as the crime of treason.</p>
+
+<p>For my part, I would sooner put my hand into the fire than sign an
+invitation to oppressed men to fight under my standard, and then, on
+every sinister event of war, cruelly give them up to be punished as the
+basest of traitors, as long as I had one of the common enemy in my hands
+to be put to death in order to secure those under my protection, and to
+vindicate the common honor of sovereigns. We hear nothing of this kind
+of security in favor of those whom we invite to the support of our
+cause. Without it, I am not a little apprehensive that the proclamations
+of the combined powers might (contrary to their intention, no doubt) be
+looked upon as frauds, and cruel traps laid for their lives.</p>
+
+<p>So far as to the correspondence between our declarations and our
+conduct: let the declaration be worded as it will, the conduct is the
+practical comment by which, and which alone, it can be understood. This
+conduct, acting on the declaration, leaves a monarchy without a monarch,
+and without any representative or trustee for the monarch and the
+monarchy. It supposes a kingdom without states and orders, a territory
+without proprietors, and faithful subjects who are to be left to the
+fate of rebels and traitors.</p>
+
+<p>The affair of the establishment of a government is a very difficult
+undertaking for foreign powers to act in as <i>principals</i>; though as
+<i>auxiliaries and mediators</i> it has been not at all unusual, and may be a
+measure full of policy and humanity and true dignity.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing we ought to do, supposing us not giving the law as
+conquerors, but acting as friendly <a name="Page_411" id="Page_411" title="411" class="pagenum"></a>powers applied to for counsel and
+assistance in the settlement of a distracted country, is well to
+consider the composition, nature, and temper of its objects, and
+particularly of those who actually do or who ought to exercise power in
+that state. It is material to know who they are, and how constituted,
+whom we consider as <i>the people of France</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The next consideration is, through whom our arrangements are to be made,
+and on what principles the government we propose is to be established.</p>
+
+<p>The first question on the people is this: Whether we are to consider the
+individuals <i>now actually in France, numerically taken and arranged into
+Jacobin clubs</i>, as the body politic, constituting the nation of
+France,&mdash;or whether we consider the original individual proprietors of
+lands, expelled since the Revolution, and the states and the bodies
+politic, such as the colleges of justice called Parliaments, the
+corporations, noble and not noble, of bailliages and towns and cities,
+the bishops and the clergy, as the true constituent parts of the nation,
+and forming the legally organized parts of the people of France.</p>
+
+<p>In this serious concern it is very necessary that we should have the
+most distinct ideas annexed to the terms we employ; because it is
+evident that an abuse of the term <i>people</i> has been the original,
+fundamental cause of those evils, the cure of which, by war and policy,
+is the present object of all the states of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>If we consider the acting power in Prance, in any legal construction of
+public law, as the people, the question is decided in favor of the
+republic one and indivisible. But we have decided for monarchy. If so,
+we have a king and subjects; and that king and <a name="Page_412" id="Page_412" title="412" class="pagenum"></a>subjects have rights and
+privileges which ought to be supported at home: for I do not suppose
+that the government of that kingdom can or ought to be regulated by the
+arbitrary mandate of a foreign confederacy.</p>
+
+<p>As to the faction exercising power, to suppose that monarchy can be
+supported by principled regicides, religion by professed atheists, order
+by clubs of Jacobins, property by committees of proscription, and
+jurisprudence by revolutionary tribunals, is to be sanguine in a degree
+of which I am incapable. On them I decide, for myself, that these
+persons are not the legal corporation of France, and that it is not with
+them we can (if we would) settle the government of France.</p>
+
+<p>Since, then, we have decided for monarchy in that kingdom, we ought also
+to settle who is to be the monarch, who is to be the guardian of a
+minor, and how the monarch and monarchy is to be modified and supported;
+if the monarch is to be elected, who the electors are to be,&mdash;if
+hereditary, what order is established, corresponding with an hereditary
+monarchy, and fitted to maintain it; who are to modify it in its
+exercise; who are to restrain its powers, where they ought to be
+limited, to strengthen them, where they are to be supported, or, to
+enlarge them, where the object, the time, and the circumstances may
+demand their extension. These are things which, in the outline, ought to
+be made distinct and clear; for if they are not, (especially with regard
+to those great points, who are the proprietors of the soil, and what is
+the corporation of the kingdom,) there is nothing to hinder the complete
+establishment of a Jacobin republic, (such as that formed in 1790 and<a name="Page_413" id="Page_413" title="413" class="pagenum"></a>
+1791,) under the name of a <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale</i>. Jacobinism does not
+consist in the having or not having a certain pageant under the name of
+a king, but &quot;in taking the people as equal individuals, without any
+corporate name or description, without attention to property, without
+division of powers, and forming the government of delegates from a
+number of men so constituted,&mdash;in destroying or confiscating property,
+and bribing the public creditors, or the poor, with the spoils, now of
+one part of the community, now of another, without regard to
+prescription or possession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I hope no one can be so very blind as to imagine that monarchy can be
+acknowledged and supported in France upon any other basis than that of
+its property, <i>corporate and individual</i>,&mdash;or that it can enjoy a
+moment's permanence or security upon any scheme of things which sets
+aside all the ancient corporate capacities and distinctions of the
+kingdom, and subverts the whole fabric of its ancient laws and usages,
+political, civil, and religious, to introduce a system founded on the
+supposed <i>rights of man, and the absolute equality of the human race</i>.
+Unless, therefore, we declare clearly and distinctly in favor of the
+<i>restoration</i> of property, and confide to the hereditary property of the
+kingdom the limitation and qualifications of its hereditary monarchy,
+the blood and treasure of Europe is wasted for the establishment of
+Jacobinism in France. There is no doubt that Danton and Robespierre,
+Chaumette and Bar&egrave;re, that Condorcet, that Thomas Paine, that La
+Fayette, and the ex-Bishop of Autun, the <i>Abb&eacute; Gr&eacute;goire</i>, with all the
+gang of the Siey&egrave;ses, the Henriots, and the Santerres, if they could
+secure themselves in the fruits of their rebel<a name="Page_414" id="Page_414" title="414" class="pagenum"></a>lion and robbery, would
+be perfectly indifferent, whether the most unhappy of all infants, whom
+by the lessons of the shoemaker, his governor and guardian, they are
+training up studiously and methodically to be an idiot, or, what is
+worse, the most wicked and base of mankind, continues to receive his
+civic education in the Temple or the Tuileries, whilst they, and such as
+they, really govern the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>It cannot be too often and too strongly inculcated, that monarchy and
+property must, in France, go together, or neither can exist. To think of
+the possibility of the existence of a permanent and hereditary royalty,
+<i>where nothing else is hereditary or permanent in point either of
+personal or corporate dignity</i>, is a ruinous chimera, worthy of the Abb&eacute;
+Siey&egrave;s, and those wicked fools, his associates, who usurped power by the
+murders of the 19th of July and the 6th of October, 1789, and who
+brought forth the monster which they called <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale</i>, or the
+Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that most thinking men would prefer infinitely some sober and
+sensible form of a republic, in which there was no mention at all of a
+king, but which held out some reasonable security to property, life, and
+personal freedom, to a scheme of tilings like this <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale,</i>
+founded on impiety, immorality, fraudulent currencies, the confiscation
+of innocent individuals, and the pretended rights of man,&mdash;and which, in
+effect, excluding the whole body of the nobility, clergy, and landed
+property of a great nation, threw everything into the hands of a
+desperate set of obscure adventurers, who led to every mischief a blind
+and bloody band of <i>sans-culottes.</i> At the head, or rather at the tail,
+of this sys<a name="Page_415" id="Page_415" title="415" class="pagenum"></a>tem was a miserable pageant, as its ostensible instrument,
+who was to be treated with every species of indignity, till the moment
+when he was conveyed from the palace of contempt to the dungeon of
+horror, and thence led by a brewer of his capital, through the applauses
+of an hired, frantic, drunken multitude, to lose his head upon a
+scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>This is the Constitution, or <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale</i>; and this is what
+infallibly would be again set up in France, to run exactly the same
+round, if the predominant power should so far be forced to submit as to
+receive the name of a king, leaving it to the Jacobins (that is, to
+those who have subverted royalty and destroyed property) to modify the
+one and to distribute the other as spoil. By the Jacobins I mean
+indiscriminately the Brissotins and the Maratists, knowing no sort of
+difference between them. As to any other party, none exists in that
+unhappy country. The Royalists (those in Poitou excepted) are banished
+and extinguished; and as to what they call the Constitutionalists, or
+<i>Democrates Royaux</i>, they never had an existence of the smallest degree
+of power, consideration, or authority, nor, if they differ at all from
+the rest of the atheistic banditti, (which from their actions and
+principles I have no reason to think,) were they ever any other than the
+temporary tools and instruments of the more determined, able, and
+systematic regicides. Several attempts have been made to support this
+chimerical <i>D&eacute;mocratie Royale</i>: the first was by La Fayette, the last by
+Dumouriez: they tended only to show that this absurd project had no
+party to support it. The Girondists under Wimpfen, and at Bordeaux, have
+made some <a name="Page_416" id="Page_416" title="416" class="pagenum"></a>struggle. The Constitutionalists never could make any, and
+for a very plain reason: they were <i>leaders in rebellion</i>. All their
+principles and their whole scheme of government being republican, they
+could never excite the smallest degree of enthusiasm in favor of the
+unhappy monarch, whom they had rendered contemptible, to make him the
+executive officer in their new commonwealth. They only appeared as
+traitors to their own Jacobin cause, not as faithful adherents to the
+king.</p>
+
+<p>In an address to France, in an attempt to treat with it, or in
+considering any scheme at all relative to it, it is impossible we should
+mean the geographical, we must always mean the moral and political
+country. I believe we shall be in a great error, if we act upon an idea
+that there exists in that country any organized body of men who might be
+willing to treat on equitable terms for the restoration of their
+monarchy, but who are nice in balancing those terms, and who would
+accept such as to them appeared reasonable, but who would quietly submit
+to the predominant power, if they were not gratified in the fashion of
+some constitution which suited with their fancies.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">No individual influence, civil or military.</span>I take the state of France to be totally different. I know of no such
+body, and of no such party. So far from a combination of twenty men,
+(always excepting Poitou,) I never yet heard that <i>a single man</i> could
+be named of sufficient force or influence to answer for another man,
+much less for the smallest district in the country, or for the most
+incomplete company of soldiers in the army. We see every man that the
+Jacobins choose to apprehend taken up in his village or in his house,
+and conveyed to prison <a name="Page_417" id="Page_417" title="417" class="pagenum"></a>without the least shadow of resistance,&mdash;<i>and
+this indifferently</i>, whether he is suspected of Royalism, or Federalism,
+Moderantism, Democracy Royal, or any other of the names of faction which
+they start by the hour. What is much more astonishing, (and, if we did
+not carefully attend to the genius and circumstances of this Revolution,
+must indeed appear incredible,) all their most accredited military men,
+from a generalissimo to a corporal, may be arrested, (each in the midst
+of his camp, and covered with the laurels of accumulated victories,)
+tied neck and heels, thrown into a cart, and sent to Paris to be
+disposed of at the pleasure of the Revolutionary tribunals.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">No corporations of justice, commerce, or police.</span>As no individuals have power and influence, so there are no
+corporations, whether of lawyers or burghers, existing. The Assembly
+called Constituent, destroyed all such institutions very early. The
+primary and secondary assemblies, by their original constitution, were
+to be dissolved when they answered the purpose of electing the
+magistrates, and were expressly disqualified from performing any
+corporate act whatsoever. The transient magistrates have been almost all
+removed before the expiration of their terms, and new have been lately
+imposed upon the people without the form or ceremony of an election.
+These magistrates during their existence are put under, as all the
+executive authorities are from first to last, the popular societies
+(called Jacobin clubs) of the several countries, and this by an express
+order of the National Convention: it is even made a case of death to
+oppose or attack those clubs. They, too, have been lately subjected to
+an expurgatory scrutiny, to drive <a name="Page_418" id="Page_418" title="418" class="pagenum"></a>out from them everything savoring of
+what they call the crime of <i>moderantism</i>, of which offence, however,
+few were guilty. But as people began to take refuge from their
+persecutions amongst themselves, they have driven them from that last
+asylum.</p>
+
+<p>The state of France is perfectly simple. It consists of but two
+descriptions,&mdash;the oppressors and the oppressed.</p>
+
+<p>The first has the whole authority of the state in their hands,&mdash;all the
+arms, all the revenues of the public, all the confiscations of
+individuals and corporations. They have taken the lower sort from their
+occupations and have put them into pay, that they may form them into a
+body of janizaries to overrule and awe property. The heads of these
+wretches they never suffer to cool. They supply them with a food for
+fury varied by the day,&mdash;besides the sensual state of intoxication, from
+which they are rarely free. They have made the priests and people
+formally abjure the Divinity; they have estranged them from every civil,
+moral, and social, or even natural and instinctive sentiment, habit, and
+practice, and have rendered them systematically savages, to make it
+impossible for them to be the instruments of any sober and virtuous
+arrangement, or to be reconciled to any state of order, under any name
+whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>The other description&mdash;<i>the oppressed</i>&mdash;are people of some property:
+they are the small relics of the persecuted landed interest; they are
+the burghers and the farmers. By the very circumstance of their being of
+some property, though numerous in some points of view, they cannot be
+very considerable as <i>a number</i>. In cities the nature of their
+occupations <a name="Page_419" id="Page_419" title="419" class="pagenum"></a>renders them domestic and feeble; in the country it
+confines them to their farm for subsistence. The national guards are all
+changed and reformed. Everything suspicious in the description of which
+they were composed is rigorously disarmed. Committees, called of
+vigilance and safety, are everywhere formed: a most severe and
+scrutinizing inquisition, far more rigid than anything ever known or
+imagined. Two persons cannot meet and confer without hazard to their
+liberty, and even to their lives. Numbers scarcely credible have been
+executed, and their property confiscated. At Paris, and in most other
+towns, the bread they buy is a daily dole,&mdash;which they cannot obtain
+without a daily ticket delivered to them by their masters. Multitudes of
+all ages and sexes are actually imprisoned. I have reason to believe
+that in France there are not, for various state crimes, so few as twenty
+thousand<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor" title=" Some accounts make them five times as many.">[33]</a> actually in jail,&mdash;a large proportion of people of property
+in any state. If a father of a family should show any disposition to
+resist or to withdraw himself from their power, his wife and children
+are cruelly to answer for it. It is by means of these hostages that they
+keep the troops, which they force by masses (as they call it) into the
+field, true to their colors.</p>
+
+<p>Another of their resources is not to be forgotten. They have lately
+found a way of giving a sort of ubiquity to the supreme sovereign
+authority, which no monarch has been able yet to give to any
+representation of his.</p>
+
+<p>The commissioners of the National Convention, who are the members of the
+Convention itself, and really exercise all its powers, make continual
+circuits <a name="Page_420" id="Page_420" title="420" class="pagenum"></a>through every province, and visits to every army. There they
+supersede all the ordinary authorities, civil and military, and change
+and alter everything at their pleasure. So that, in effect, no
+deliberative capacity exists in any portion of the inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>Toulon, republican in principle, having taken its decision <i>in a moment
+under the guillotine</i>, and before the arrival of these
+commissioners,&mdash;Toulon, being a place regularly fortified, and having in
+its bosom a navy in part highly discontented, has escaped, though by a
+sort of miracle: and it would not have escaped, if two powerful fleets
+had not been at the door, to give them not only strong, but prompt and
+immediate succor, especially as neither this nor any other seaport town
+in France can be depended on, from the peculiarly savage dispositions,
+manners, and connections among the lower sort of people in those places.
+This I take to be the true state of things in France, <i>so far as it
+regards any existing bodies, whether of legal or voluntary association,
+capable of acting or of treating in corps</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As to the oppressed <i>individuals</i>, they are many, and as discontented as
+men must be under the monstrous and complicated tyranny of all sorts
+with which they are crushed. They want no stimulus to throw off this
+dreadful yoke; but they do want, not manifestoes, which they have had
+even to surfeit, but real protection, force, and succor.</p>
+
+<p>The disputes and questions of men at their ease do not at all affect
+their minds, or ever can occupy the minds of men in their situation.
+These theories are long since gone by; they have had their day, and have
+done their mischief. The question is not between the rabble of systems,
+Fayettism, Condorcet<a name="Page_421" id="Page_421" title="421" class="pagenum"></a>ism, Monarchism, or Democratism, or Federalism, on
+the one side, and the fundamental laws of France on the other,&mdash;or
+between all these systems amongst themselves. It is a controversy (weak,
+indeed, and unequal, on the one part) between the proprietor and the
+robber, between the prisoner and the jailer, between the neck and the
+guillotine. Four fifths of the French inhabitants would thankfully take
+protection from the emperor of Morocco, and would never trouble their
+heads about the abstract principles of the power by which they were
+snatched from imprisonment, robbery, and murder. But then these men can
+do little or nothing for themselves. They have no arms, nor magazines,
+nor chiefs, nor union, nor the possibility of these things within
+themselves. On the whole, therefore, I lay it down as a certainty, that
+in the Jacobins no change of mind is to be expected, and that no others
+in the territory of France have an independent and deliberative
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>The truth is, that France is out of itself,&mdash;the moral France is
+separated from the geographical. The master of the house is expelled,
+and the robbers are in possession. If we look for the <i>corporate people</i>
+of France, existing as corporate in the eye and intention of public law,
+(that corporate people, I mean, who are free to deliberate and to
+decide, and who have a capacity to treat and conclude,) they are in
+Flanders, and Germany, in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and England. There
+are all the princes of the blood, there are all the orders of the state,
+there are all the parliaments of the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>This being, as I conceive, the true state of France, as it exists
+<i>territorially</i>, and as it exists <i>morally</i>, the <a name="Page_422" id="Page_422" title="422" class="pagenum"></a>question will be, with
+whom we are to concert our arrangements, and whom we are to use as our
+instruments in the reduction, in the pacification, and in the settlement
+of France. The work to be done must indicate the workmen. Supposing us
+to have national objects, we have two principal and one secondary. The
+first two are so intimately connected as not to be separated even in
+thought: the re&euml;stablishment of royalty, and the re&euml;stablishment of
+property. One would think it requires not a great deal of argument to
+prove that the most serious endeavors to restore royalty will be made by
+Royalists. Property will be most energetically restored by the ancient
+proprietors of that kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>When I speak of Royalists, I wish to be understood of those who were
+always such from principle. Every arm lifted up for royalty from the
+beginning was the arm of a man so principled. I do not think there are
+ten exceptions.</p>
+
+<p>The principled Royalists are certainly not of force to effect these
+objects by themselves. If they were, the operations of the present great
+combination would be wholly unnecessary. What I contend for is, that
+they should be consulted with, treated with, and employed; and that no
+foreigners whatsoever are either in interest so engaged, or in judgment
+and local knowledge so competent to answer all these purposes, as the
+natural proprietors of the country.</p>
+
+<p>Their number, for an exiled party, is also considerable. Almost the
+whole body of the landed proprietors of France, ecclesiastical and
+civil, have been steadily devoted to the monarchy. This body does not
+amount to less than seventy thousand,&mdash;a very great number in the
+composition of the respectable <a name="Page_423" id="Page_423" title="423" class="pagenum"></a>classes in any society. I am sure, that,
+if half that number of the same description were taken out of this
+country, it would leave hardly anything that I should call the people of
+England. On the faith of the Emperor and the king of Prussia, a body of
+ten thousand nobility on horseback, with the king's two brothers at
+their head, served with the king of Prussia in the campaign of 1792, and
+equipped themselves with the last shilling of their ruined fortunes and
+exhausted credit.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor" title=" Before the Revolution, the French noblesse were so reduced
+in numbers that they did not much exceed twenty thousand at least of
+full-grown men. As they have been very cruelly formed into entire corps
+of soldiers, it is estimated, that, by the sword, and distempers in the
+field, they have not lost less than five thousand men; and if this
+course is pursued, it is to be feared that the whole body of the French
+nobility may be extinguished. Several hundreds have also perished by
+famine, and various accidents.">[34]</a> It is not now the question, how that great force
+came to be rendered useless and totally dissipated. I state it now, only
+to remark that a great part of the same force exists, and would act, if
+it were enabled. I am sure everything has shown us that in this war with
+France one Frenchman is worth twenty foreigners. La Vend&eacute;e is a proof of
+this.</p>
+
+<p>If we wish to make an impression on the minds of any persons in France,
+or to persuade them to join our standard, it is impossible that they
+should not be more easily led, and more readily formed and disciplined,
+(civilly and martially disciplined,) by those who speak their language,
+who are acquainted with their manners, who are conversant with their
+usages and habits of thinking, and who have a local knowledge of their
+country, and some remains of ancient credit and consideration, than with
+a body con<a name="Page_424" id="Page_424" title="424" class="pagenum"></a>gregated from all tongues and tribes. Where none of the
+respectable native interests are seen in the transaction, it is
+impossible that any declarations can convince those that are within, or
+those that are without, that anything else than some sort of hostility
+in the style of a conqueror is meant. At best, it will appear to such
+wavering persons, (if such there are,) whom we mean to fix with us, a
+choice whether they are to continue a prey to domestic banditti, or to
+be fought for as a carrion carcass and picked to the bone by all the
+crows and vultures of the sky. They may take protection, (and they
+would, I doubt not,) but they can have neither alacrity nor zeal in such
+a cause. When they see nothing but bands of English, Spaniards,
+Neapolitans, Sardinians, Prussians, Austrians, Hungarians, Bohemians,
+Slavonians, Croatians, <i>acting as principals</i>, it is impossible they
+should think we come with a beneficent design. Many of those fierce and
+barbarous people have already given proofs how little they regard any
+French party whatsoever. Some of these nations the people of France are
+jealous of: such are the English and the Spaniards;&mdash;others they
+despise: such are the Italians;&mdash;others they hate and dread: such are
+the German and Danubian powers. At best, such interposition of ancient
+enemies excites apprehension; but in this case, how can they suppose
+that we come to maintain their legitimate monarchy in a truly paternal
+French government, to protect their privileges, their laws, their
+religion, and their property, when they see us make use of no one person
+who has any interest in them, any knowledge of them, or any the least
+zeal for them? On the contrary, they see that we do not suffer any of
+those who have shown a zeal <a name="Page_425" id="Page_425" title="425" class="pagenum"></a>in that cause which we seem to make our own
+to come freely into any place in which the allies obtain any footing.</p>
+
+<p>If we wish to gain upon any people, it is right to see what it is they
+expect. We have had a proposal from the Royalists of Poitou. They are
+well entitled, after a bloody war maintained for eight months against
+all the powers of anarchy, to speak the sentiments of the Royalists of
+France. Do they desire us to exclude their princes, their clergy, their
+nobility? The direct contrary. They earnestly solicit that men of every
+one of these descriptions should be sent to them. They do not call for
+English, Austrian, or Prussian officers. They call for French emigrant
+officers. They call for the exiled priests. They have demanded the Comte
+d'Artois to appear at their head. These are the demands (quite natural
+demands) of those who are ready to follow the standard of monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>The great means, therefore, of restoring the monarchy, which we have
+made <i>the main object of the war</i>, is, to assist the dignity, the
+religion, and the property of France to repossess themselves of the
+means of their natural influence. This ought to be the primary object of
+all our politics and all our military operations. Otherwise everything
+will move in a preposterous order, and nothing but confusion and
+destruction will follow.</p>
+
+<p>I know that misfortune is not made to win respect from ordinary minds. I
+know that there is a leaning to prosperity, however obtained, and a
+prejudice in its favor. I know there is a disposition to hope something
+from the variety and inconstancy of villany, rather than from the
+tiresome uniformity of fixed <a name="Page_426" id="Page_426" title="426" class="pagenum"></a>principle. There have been, I admit,
+situations in which a guiding person or party might be gained over, and
+through him or them the whole body of a nation. For the hope of such a
+conversion, and of deriving advantage from enemies, it might be politic
+for a while to throw your friends into the shade. But examples drawn
+from history in occasions like the present will be found dangerously to
+mislead us. France has no resemblance to other countries which have
+undergone troubles and been purified by them. If France, Jacobinized as
+it has been for four full years, did contain any bodies of authority and
+disposition to treat with you, (most assuredly she does not,) such is
+the levity of those who have expelled everything respectable in their
+country, such their ferocity, their arrogance, their mutinous spirit,
+their habits of defying everything human and divine, that no engagement
+would hold with them for three months; nor, indeed, could they cohere
+together for any purpose of civilized society, if left as they now are.
+There must be a means, not only of breaking their strength within
+themselves, but of <i>civilizing</i> them; and these two things must go
+together, before we can possibly treat with them, not only as a nation,
+but with any division of them. Descriptions of men of their own race,
+but better in rank, superior in property and decorum, of honorable,
+decent, and orderly habits, are absolutely necessary to bring them to
+such a frame as to qualify them so much as to come into contact with a
+civilized nation. A set of those ferocious savages with arms in their
+hands, left to themselves in one part of the country whilst you proceed
+to another, would break forth into outrages at least as bad as their
+former. They must, as fast <a name="Page_427" id="Page_427" title="427" class="pagenum"></a>as gained, (if ever they are gained,) be put
+under the guide, direction, and government of better Frenchmen than
+themselves, or they will instantly relapse into a fever of aggravated
+Jacobinism.</p>
+
+<p>We must not judge of other parts of France by the temporary submission
+of Toulon, with two vast fleets in its harbor, and a garrison far more
+numerous than all the inhabitants able to bear arms. If they were left
+to themselves, I am quite sure they would not retain their attachment to
+monarchy of any name for a single week.</p>
+
+<p>To administer the only cure for the unheard-of disorders of that undone
+country, I think it infinitely happy for us that God has given into our
+hands more effectual remedies than human contrivance could point out. We
+have in our bosom, and in the bosom of other civilized states, nearer
+forty than thirty thousand persons, providentially preserved, not only
+from the cruelty and violence, but from the contagion of the horrid
+practices, sentiments, and language of the Jacobins, and even sacredly
+guarded from the view of such abominable scenes. If we should obtain, in
+any considerable district, a footing in France, we possess an immense
+body of physicians and magistrates of the mind, whom we now know to be
+the most discreet, gentle, well-tempered, conciliatory, virtuous, and
+pious persons who in any order probably existed in the world. You will
+have a missioner of peace and order in every parish. Never was a wiser
+national economy than in the charity of the English and of other
+countries. Never was money better expended than in the maintenance of
+this body of civil troops for re&euml;stablishing order in France, and for
+thus securing its civilization to Eu<a name="Page_428" id="Page_428" title="428" class="pagenum"></a>rope. This means, if properly used,
+is of value inestimable.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is this corps of instruments of civilization confined to the first
+order of that state,&mdash;I mean the clergy. The allied powers possess also
+an exceedingly numerous, well-informed, sensible, ingenious,
+high-principled, and spirited body of cavaliers in the expatriated
+landed interest of France, as well qualified, at least, as I (who have
+been taught by time and experience to moderate my calculation of the
+expectancy of human abilities) ever expected to see in the body of any
+landed gentlemen and soldiers by their birth. France is well winnowed
+and sifted. Its virtuous men are, I believe, amongst the most virtuous,
+as its wicked are amongst the most abandoned upon earth. Whatever in the
+territory of France may be found to be in the middle between these must
+be attracted to the better part. This will be compassed, when every
+gentleman, everywhere being restored to his landed estate, each on his
+patrimonial ground, may join the clergy in reanimating the loyalty,
+fidelity, and religion of the people,&mdash;that these gentlemen proprietors
+of land may sort that people according to the trust they severally
+merit, that they may arm the honest and well-affected, and disarm and
+disable the factious and ill-disposed. No foreigner can make this
+discrimination nor these arrangements. The ancient corporations of
+burghers according to their several modes should be restored, and placed
+(as they ought to be) in the hands of men of gravity and property in the
+cities or bailliages, according to the proper constitutions of the
+commons or third estate of France. They will restrain and regulate the
+seditious rabble there, as the gentlemen will on their <a name="Page_429" id="Page_429" title="429" class="pagenum"></a>own estates. In
+this way, and <i>in this way alone</i>, the country (once broken in upon by
+foreign force well directed) may be gained and settled. It must be
+gained and settled by <i>itself</i>, and through the medium of its <i>own</i>
+native dignity and property. It is not honest, it is not decent, still
+less is it politic, for foreign powers themselves to attempt anything in
+this minute, internal, local detail, in which they could show nothing
+but ignorance, imbecility, confusion, and oppression. As to the prince
+who has a just claim to exercise the regency of France, like other men
+he is not without his faults and his defects. But faults or defects
+(always supposing them faults of common human infirmity) are not what in
+any country destroy a legal title to government. These princes are kept
+in a poor, obscure, country town of the king of Prussia's. Their
+reputation is entirely at the mercy of every calumniator. They cannot
+show themselves, they cannot explain themselves, as princes ought to do.
+After being well informed as any man here can be, I do not find that
+these blemishes in this eminent person are at all considerable, or that
+they at all affect a character which is full of probity, honor,
+generosity, and real goodness. In some points he has but too much
+resemblance to his unfortunate brother, who, with all his weaknesses,
+had a good understanding, and many parts of an excellent man and a good
+king. But Monsieur, without supposing the other deficient, (as he was
+not,) excels him in general knowledge, and in a sharp and keen
+observation, with something of a better address, and an happier mode of
+speaking and of writing. His conversation is open, agreeable, and
+informed; his manners gracious and princely.<a name="Page_430" id="Page_430" title="430" class="pagenum"></a> His brother, the Comte
+d'Artois, sustains still better the representation of his place. He is
+eloquent, lively, engaging in the highest degree, of a decided
+character, full of energy and activity. In a word, he is a brave,
+honorable, and accomplished cavalier. Their brethren of royalty, if they
+were true to their own cause and interest, instead of relegating these
+illustrious persons to an obscure town, would bring them forward in
+their courts and camps, and exhibit them to (what they would speedily
+obtain) the esteem, respect, and affection of mankind.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Objection made to the regent's endeavor to go to Spain.</span>As to their knocking at every door, (which seems to give offence,) can
+anything be more natural? Abandoned, despised, rendered in a manner
+outlaws by all the powers of Europe, who have treated their unfortunate
+brethren with all the giddy pride and improvident insolence of blind,
+unfeeling prosperity, who did not even send them a compliment of
+condolence on the murder of their brother and sister, in such a state is
+it to be wondered at, or blamed, that they tried every way, likely or
+unlikely, well or ill chosen, to get out of the horrible pit into which
+they are fallen, and that in particular they tried whether the princes
+of their own blood might at length be brought to think the cause of
+kings, and of kings of their race, wounded in the murder and exile of
+the branch of France, of as much importance as the killing of a brace of
+partridges? If they were absolutely idle, and only eat in sloth their
+bread of sorrow and dependence, they would be forgotten, or at best
+thought of as wretches unworthy of their pretensions, which they had
+done nothing to support. If they err from <i>our</i> interests, what care has
+been taken to keep them in those in<a name="Page_431" id="Page_431" title="431" class="pagenum"></a>terests? or what desire has ever
+been shown to employ them in any other way than as instruments of their
+own degradation, shame, and ruin?</p>
+
+<p>The Parliament of Paris, by whom the title of the regent is to be
+recognized, (not made,) according to the laws of the kingdom, is ready
+to recognize it, and to register it, if a place of meeting was given to
+them, which might be within their own jurisdiction, supposing that only
+locality was required for the exercise of their functions: for it is one
+of the advantages of monarchy to have no local seat. It may maintain its
+rights out of the sphere of its territorial jurisdiction, if other
+powers will suffer it.</p>
+
+<p>I am well apprised that the little intriguers, and whisperers, and
+self-conceited, thoughtless babblers, worse than either, run about to
+depreciate the fallen virtue of a great nation. But whilst they talk, we
+must make our choice,&mdash;they or the Jacobins. We have no other option. As
+to those who in the pride of a prosperity not obtained by their wisdom,
+valor, or industry, think so well of themselves, and of their own
+abilities and virtues, and so ill of other men, truth obliges me to say
+that they are not founded in their presumption concerning themselves,
+nor in their contempt of the French princes, magistrates, nobility, and
+clergy. Instead of inspiring me with dislike and distrust of the
+unfortunate, engaged with us in a common cause against our Jacobin
+enemy, they take away all my esteem for their own characters, and all my
+deference to their judgment.</p>
+
+<p>There are some few French gentlemen, indeed, who talk a language not
+wholly different from this jargon. Those whom I have in my eye I respect
+as gallant soldiers, as much as any one can do; but on their <a name="Page_432" id="Page_432" title="432" class="pagenum"></a>political
+judgment and prudence I have not the slightest reliance, nor on their
+knowledge of their own country, or of its laws and Constitution. They
+are, if not enemies, at least not friends, to the orders of their own
+state,&mdash;not to the princes, the clergy, or the nobility; they possess
+only an attachment to the monarchy, or rather to the persons of the late
+king and queen. In all other respects their conversation is Jacobin. I
+am afraid they, or some of them, go into the closets of ministers, and
+tell them that the affairs of France will be better arranged by the
+allied powers than by the landed proprietors of the kingdom, or by the
+princes who have a right to govern; and that, if any French are at all
+to be employed in the settlement of their country, it ought to be only
+those who have never declared any decided opinion, or taken any active
+part in the Revolution.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor" title=" This was the language of the Ministerialists.">[35]</a></p>
+
+<p>I suspect that the authors of this opinion are mere soldiers of fortune,
+who, though men of integrity and honor, would as gladly receive military
+rank from Russia, or Austria, or Prussia, as from the regent of France.
+Perhaps their not having as much importance at his court as they could
+wish may incline them to this strange imagination. Perhaps, having no
+property in old France, they are more indifferent about its restoration.
+Their language is certainly flattering to all ministers in all courts.
+We all are men; we all love to be told of the extent of our own power
+and our own faculties. If we love glory, we are jealous of partners, and
+afraid even of our own instruments. It is of all modes of flattery the
+most effectual, to be told that you can regulate the affairs of another
+kingdom better than its hereditary proprie<a name="Page_433" id="Page_433" title="433" class="pagenum"></a>tors. It is formed to flatter
+the principle of conquest so natural to all men. It is this principle
+which is now making the partition of Poland. The powers concerned have
+been told by some perfidious Poles, and perhaps they believe, that their
+usurpation is a great benefit to the people, especially to the common
+people. However this may turn out with regard to Poland, I am quite sure
+that France could not be so well under a foreign direction as under that
+of the representatives of its own king and its own ancient estates.</p>
+
+<p>I think I have myself studied France as much as most of those whom the
+allied courts are likely to employ in such a work. I have likewise of
+myself as partial and as vain an opinion as men commonly have of
+themselves. But if I could command the whole military arm of Europe, I
+am sure that a bribe of the best province in that kingdom would not
+tempt me to intermeddle in their affairs, except in perfect concurrence
+and concert with the natural, legal interests of the country, composed
+of the ecclesiastical, the military, the several corporate bodies of
+justice and of burghership, making under a monarch (I repeat it again
+and again) <i>the French nation according to its fundamental
+Constitution</i>. No considerate statesman would undertake to meddle with
+it upon any other condition.</p>
+
+<p>The government of that kingdom is fundamentally monarchical. The public
+law of Europe has never recognized in it any other form of government.
+The potentates of Europe have, by that law, a right, an interest, and a
+duty to know with what government they are to treat, and what they are
+to admit into the federative society,&mdash;or, in other words, into the
+diplo<a name="Page_434" id="Page_434" title="434" class="pagenum"></a>matic republic of Europe. This right is clear and indisputable.</p>
+
+<p>What other and further interference they have a right to in the interior
+of the concerns of another people is a matter on which, as on every
+political subject, no very definite or positive rule can well be laid
+down. Our neighbors are men; and who will attempt to dictate the laws
+under which it is allowable or forbidden to take a part in the concerns
+of men, whether they are considered individually or in a collective
+capacity, whenever charity to them, or a care of my own safety, calls
+forth my activity? Circumstances perpetually variable, directing a moral
+prudence and discretion, the <i>general</i> principles of which never vary,
+must alone prescribe a conduct fitting on such occasions. The latest
+casuists of public law are rather of a republican cast, and, in my mind,
+by no means so averse as they ought to be to a right in the people (a
+word which, ill defined, is of the most dangerous use) to make changes
+at their pleasure in the fundamental laws of their country. These
+writers, however, when a country is divided, leave abundant liberty for
+a neighbor to support any of the parties according to his choice.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor" title=" Vattel.">[36]</a>
+This interference must, indeed, always be a right, whilst the privilege
+of doing good to others, and of averting from them every sort of evil,
+is a right: circumstances may render that right a duty. It depends
+wholly on this, whether it be a <i>bon&acirc; fide</i> charity to a party, and a
+prudent precaution with regard to yourself, or whether, under the
+pretence of aiding one of the parties in a nation, you act in such a
+manner as to aggravate its calamities and accomplish its final
+destruction. In truth, <a name="Page_435" id="Page_435" title="435" class="pagenum"></a>it is not the interfering or keeping aloof, but
+iniquitous intermeddling, or treacherous inaction, which is praised or
+blamed by the decision of an equitable judge.</p>
+
+<p>It will be a just and irresistible presumption against the fairness of
+the interposing power, that he takes with him no party or description of
+men in the divided state. It is not probable that these parties should
+all, and all alike, be more adverse to the true interests of their
+country, and less capable of forming a judgment upon them, than those
+who are absolute strangers to their affairs, and to the character of the
+actors in them, and have but a remote, feeble, and secondary sympathy
+with their interest. Sometimes a calm and healing arbiter may be
+necessary; but he is to compose differences, not to give laws. It is
+impossible that any one should not feel the full force of that
+presumption. Even people, whose politics for the supposed good of their
+own country lead them to take advantage of the dissensions of a
+neighboring nation in order to ruin it, will not directly propose to
+exclude the natives, but they will take that mode of consulting and
+employing them which most nearly approaches to an exclusion. In some
+particulars they propose what amounts to that exclusion, in others they
+do much worse. They recommend to ministry, &quot;that no Frenchman who has
+given a decided opinion or acted a decided part in this great
+Revolution, for or against it, should be countenanced, brought forward,
+trusted, or employed, even in the strictest subordination to the
+ministers of the allied powers.&quot; Although one would think that this
+advice would stand condemned on the first proposition, yet, as it has
+been made popular, and has been proceeded upon <a name="Page_436" id="Page_436" title="436" class="pagenum"></a>practically, I think it
+right to give it a full consideration.</p>
+
+<p>And first, I have asked myself who these Frenchmen are, that, in the
+state their own country has been in for these last five years, of all
+the people of Europe, have alone not been able to form a decided
+opinion, or have been unwilling to act a decided part?</p>
+
+<p>Looking over all the names I have heard of in this great revolution in
+all human affairs, I find no man of any distinction who has remained in
+that more than Stoical apathy, but the Prince de Conti. This mean,
+stupid, selfish, swinish, and cowardly animal, universally known and
+despised as such, has indeed, except in one abortive attempt to elope,
+been perfectly neutral. However, his neutrality, which it seems would
+qualify him for trust, and on a competition must set aside the Prince de
+Cond&eacute;, can be of no sort of service. His moderation has not been able to
+keep him from a jail. The allied powers must draw him from that jail,
+before they can have the full advantage of the exertions of this great
+neutralist.</p>
+
+<p>Except him, I do not recollect a man of rank or talents, who by his
+speeches or his votes, by his pen or by his sword, has not been active
+on this scene. The time, indeed, could admit no neutrality in any person
+worthy of the name of man. There were originally two great divisions in
+France: the one is that which overturned the whole of the government in
+Church and State, and erected a republic on the basis of atheism. Their
+grand engine was the Jacobin Club, a sort of secession from which, but
+exactly on the same principles, begat another short-lived one, <a name="Page_437" id="Page_437" title="437" class="pagenum"></a>called
+the Club of Eighty-Nine,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor" title=" The first object of this club was the propagation of
+Jacobin principles.">[37]</a> which was chiefly guided by the court
+rebels, who, in addition to the crimes of which they were guilty in
+common with the others, had the merit of betraying a gracious master and
+a kind benefactor. Subdivisions of this faction, which since we have
+seen, do not in the least differ from each other in their principles,
+their dispositions, or the means they have employed. Their only quarrel
+has been about power: in that quarrel, like wave succeeding wave, one
+faction has got the better and expelled the other. Thus, La Fayette for
+a while got the better of Orl&eacute;ans; and Orl&eacute;ans afterwards prevailed over
+La Fayette. Brissot overpowered Orl&eacute;ans; Bar&egrave;re and Robespierre, and
+their faction, mastered them both, and cut off their heads. All who were
+not Royalists have been listed in some or other of these divisions. If
+it were of any use to settle a precedence, the elder ought to have his
+rank. The first authors, plotters, and contrivers of this monstrous
+scheme seem to me entitled to the first place in our distrust and
+abhorrence. I have seen some of those who are thought the best amongst
+the original rebels, and I have not neglected the means of being
+informed concerning the others. I can very truly say, that I have not
+found, by observation, or inquiry, that any sense of the evils produced
+by their projects has produced in them, or any <i>one</i> of them, the
+smallest degree of repentance. Disappointment and mortification
+undoubtedly they feel; but to them repentance is a thing impossible.
+They are atheists. This wretched opinion, by which they are possessed
+even to the height of fanaticism, leading them to exclude <a name="Page_438" id="Page_438" title="438" class="pagenum"></a>from their
+ideas of a commonwealth the vital principle of the physical, the moral,
+and the political world engages them in a thousand absurd contrivances
+to fill up this dreadful void. Incapable of innoxious repose or
+honorable action or wise speculation in the lurking-holes of a foreign
+land, into which (in a common ruin) they are driven to hide their heads
+amongst the innocent victims of their madness, they are at this very
+hour as busy in the confection of the dirt-pies of their imaginary
+constitutions as if they had not been quite fresh from destroying, by
+their impious and desperate vagaries, the finest country upon earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is, however, out of these, or of such as these, guilty and
+impenitent, despising the experience of others, and their own, that some
+people talk of choosing their negotiators with those Jacobins who they
+suppose may be recovered to a sounder mind. They flatter themselves, it
+seems, that the friendly habits formed during their original partnership
+of iniquity, a similarity of character, and a conformity in the
+groundwork of their principles, might facilitate their conversion, and
+gain them over to some recognition of royalty. But surely this is to
+read human nature very ill. The several sectaries in this schism of the
+Jacobins are the very last men in the world to trust each other.
+Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence. The last quarrels
+are the sorest; and the injuries received or offered by your own
+associates are ever the most bitterly resented. The people of France, of
+every name and description, would a thousand times sooner listen to the
+Prince de Cond&eacute;, or to the Archbishop of Aix, or the Bishop of St. Pol,
+or to Monsieur de<a name="Page_439" id="Page_439" title="439" class="pagenum"></a> Cazal&egrave;s, then to La Fayette, or Dumouriez, or the
+Vicomte de Noailles, or the Bishop of Autun, or Necker, or his disciple
+Lally Tollendal. Against the first description they have not the
+smallest animosity, beyond that of a merely political dissension. The
+others they regard as traitors.</p>
+
+<p>The first description is that of the Christian Royalists, men who as
+earnestly wished for reformation, as they opposed innovation in the
+fundamental parts of their Church and State. <i>Their</i> part has been <i>very
+decided</i>. Accordingly, they are to be set aside in the restoration of
+Church and State. It is an odd kind of disqualification, where the
+restoration of religion and monarchy is the question. If England should
+(God forbid it should!) fall into the same misfortune with France, and
+that the court of Vienna should undertake the restoration of our
+monarchy, I think it would be extraordinary to object to the admission
+of Mr. Pitt or Lord Grenville or Mr. Dundas into any share in the
+management of that business, because in a day of trial they have stood
+up firmly and manfully, as I trust they always will do, and with
+distinguished powers, for the monarchy and the legitimate Constitution
+of their country. I am sure, if I were to suppose myself at Vienna at
+such a time, I should, as a man, as an Englishman, and as a Royalist,
+protest in that case, as I do in this, against a weak and ruinous
+principle of proceeding, which can have no other tendency than to make
+those who wish to support the crown meditate too profoundly on the
+consequences of the part they take, and consider whether for their open
+and forward zeal in the royal cause they may not be thrust out from any
+sort of confidence and employment, where the interest of crowned heads
+is concerned.<a name="Page_440" id="Page_440" title="440" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>These are the <i>parties</i>. I have said, and said truly, that I know of no
+neutrals. But, as a general observation on this general principle of
+choosing neutrals on such occasions as the present, I have this to say,
+that it amounts to neither more nor less than this shocking
+proposition,&mdash;that we ought to exclude men of honor and ability from
+serving theirs and our cause, and to put the dearest interests of
+ourselves and our posterity into the hands of men of no decided
+character, without judgment to choose and without courage to profess any
+principle whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>Such men can serve no cause, for this plain reason,&mdash;they have no cause
+at heart. They can, at best, work only as mere mercenaries. They have
+not been guilty of great crimes; but it is only because they have not
+energy of mind to rise to any height of wickedness. They are not hawks
+or kites: they are only miserable fowls whose flight is not above their
+dunghill or hen-roost. But they tremble before the authors of these
+horrors. They admire them at a safe and respectful distance. There never
+was a mean and abject mind that did not admire an intrepid and dexterous
+villain. In the bottom of their hearts they believe such hardy
+miscreants to be the only men qualified for great affairs. If you set
+them to transact with such persons, they are instantly subdued. They
+dare not so much as look their antagonist in the face. They are made to
+be their subjects, not to be their arbiters or controllers.</p>
+
+<p>These men, to be sure, can look at atrocious acts without indignation,
+and can behold suffering virtue without sympathy. Therefore they are
+considered as sober, dispassionate men. But they have their pas<a name="Page_441" id="Page_441" title="441" class="pagenum"></a>sions,
+though of another kind, and which are infinitely more likely to carry
+them out of the path of their duty. They are of a tame, timid, languid,
+inert temper, wherever the welfare of <i>others</i> is concerned. In such
+causes, as they have no motives to action, they never possess any real
+ability, and are totally destitute of all resource.</p>
+
+<p>Believe a man who has seen much and observed something. I have seen, in
+the course of my life, a great many of that family of men. They are
+generally chosen because they have no opinion of their own; and as far
+as they can be got in good earnest to embrace any opinion, it is that of
+whoever happens to employ them, (neither longer nor shorter, narrower
+nor broader,) with whom they have no discussion or consultation. The
+only thing which occurs to such a man, when he has got a business for
+others into his hands, is, how to make his own fortune out of it. The
+person he is to treat with is not, with him, an adversary over whom he
+is to prevail, but a new friend he is to gain; therefore he always
+systematically betrays some part of his trust. Instead of thinking how
+he shall defend his ground to the last, and, if forced to retreat, how
+little he shall give up, this kind of man considers how much of the
+interest of his employer he is to sacrifice to his adversary. Having
+nothing but himself in view, he knows, that, in serving his principal
+with zeal, he must probably incur some resentment from the opposite
+party. His object is, to obtain the good-will of the person with whom he
+contends, that, when an agreement is made, he may join in rewarding him.
+I would not take one of these as my arbitrator in a dispute for so much
+as a fish-pond; for, if he re<a name="Page_442" id="Page_442" title="442" class="pagenum"></a>served the mud to me, he would be sure to
+give the water that fed the pool to my adversary. In a great cause, I
+should certainly wish that my agent should possess conciliating
+qualities: that he should be of a frank, open, and candid disposition,
+soft in his nature, and of a temper to soften animosities and to win
+confidence. He ought not to be a man odious to the person he treats
+with, by personal injury, by violence, or by deceit, or, above all, by
+the dereliction of his cause in any former transactions. But I would be
+sure that my negotiator should be <i>mine</i>,&mdash;that he should be as earnest
+in the cause as myself, and known to be so,&mdash;that he should not be
+looked upon as a stipendiary advocate, but as a principled partisan. In
+all treaty it is a great point that all idea of gaining your agent is
+hopeless. I would not trust the cause of royalty with a man who,
+professing neutrality, is half a republican. The enemy has already a
+great part of his suit without a struggle,&mdash;and he contends with
+advantage for all the rest. The common principle allowed between your
+adversary and your agent gives your adversary the advantage in every
+discussion.</p>
+
+<p>Before I shut up this discourse about neutral agency, (which I conceive
+is not to be found, or, if found, ought not to be used,) I have a few
+other remarks to make on the cause which I conceive gives rise to it.</p>
+
+<p>In all that we do, whether in the struggle or after it, it is necessary
+that we should constantly have in our eye the nature and character of
+the enemy we have to contend with. The Jacobin Revolution is carried on
+by men of no rank, of no consideration, of wild, savage minds, full of
+levity, arrogance, and presumption, without morals, without probity,
+with<a name="Page_443" id="Page_443" title="443" class="pagenum"></a>out prudence. What have they, then, to supply their innumerable
+defects, and to make them terrible even to the firmest minds? <i>One</i>
+thing, and <i>one</i> thing only,&mdash;but that one thing is worth a
+thousand;&mdash;they have <i>energy</i>. In France, all things being put into an
+universal ferment, in the decomposition of society, no man comes forward
+but by his spirit of enterprise and the vigor of his mind. If we meet
+this dreadful and portentous energy, restrained by no consideration of
+God or man, that is always vigilant, always on the attack, that allows
+itself no repose, and suffers none to rest an hour with impunity,&mdash;if we
+meet this energy with poor commonplace proceeding, with trivial maxims,
+paltry old saws, with doubts, fears, and suspicions, with a languid,
+uncertain hesitation, with a formal, official spirit, which is turned
+aside by every obstacle from its purpose, and which never sees a
+difficulty but to yield to it, or at best to evade it,&mdash;down we go to
+the bottom of the abyss, and nothing short of Omnipotence can save us.
+We must meet a vicious and distempered energy with a manly and rational
+vigor. As virtue is limited in its resources, we are doubly bound to use
+all that in the circle drawn about us by our morals we are able to
+command.</p>
+
+<p>I do not contend against the advantages of distrust. In the world we
+live in it is but too necessary. Some of old called it the very sinews
+of discretion. But what signify commonplaces that always run parallel
+and equal? Distrust is good, or it is bad, according to our position and
+our purpose. Distrust is a defensive principle. They who have much to
+lose have much to fear. But in France we hold nothing. We are to break
+in upon a power in pos<a name="Page_444" id="Page_444" title="444" class="pagenum"></a>session; we are to carry everything by storm, or
+by surprise, or by intelligence, or by all. Adventure, therefore, and
+not caution, is our policy. Here to be too presuming is the better
+error.</p>
+
+<p>The world will judge of the spirit of our proceeding in those places of
+France which may fall into our power by our conduct in those that are
+already in our hands. Our wisdom should not be vulgar. Other times,
+perhaps other measures; but in this awful hour our politics ought to be
+made up of nothing but courage, decision, manliness, and rectitude. We
+should have all the magnanimity of good faith. This is a royal and
+commanding policy; and as long as we are true to it, we may give the
+law. Never can we assume this command, if we will not risk the
+consequences. For which reason we ought to be bottomed enough in
+principle not to be carried away upon the first prospect of any sinister
+advantage. For depend upon it, that, if we once give way to a sinister
+dealing, we shall teach others the game, and we shall be outwitted and
+overborne; the Spaniards, the Prussians, God knows who, will put us
+under contribution at their pleasure; and instead of being at the head
+of a great confederacy, and the arbiters of Europe, we shall, by our
+mistakes, break up a great design into a thousand little selfish
+quarrels, the enemy will triumph, and we shall sit down under the terms
+of unsafe and dependent peace, weakened, mortified, and disgraced,
+whilst all Europe, England included, is left open and defenceless on
+every part, to Jacobin principles, intrigues, and arms. In the case of
+the king of France, declared to be our friend and ally, we will still be
+considering ourselves in the contradictory character of an enemy. This
+contradic<a name="Page_445" id="Page_445" title="445" class="pagenum"></a>tion, I am afraid, will, in spite of us, give a color of fraud
+to all our transactions, or at least will so complicate our politics
+that we shall ourselves be inextricably entangled in them.</p>
+
+<p>I have Toulon in my eye. It was with infinite sorrow I heard, that, in
+taking the king of France's fleet in trust, we instantly unrigged and
+dismasted the ships, instead of keeping them in a condition to escape in
+case of disaster, and in order to fulfil our trust,&mdash;that is, to hold
+them for the use of the owner, and in the mean time to employ them for
+our common service. These ships are now so circumstanced, that, if we
+are forced to evacuate Toulon, they must fall into the hands of the
+enemy or be burnt by ourselves. I know this is by some considered as a
+fine thing for us. But the Athenians ought not to be better than the
+English, or Mr. Pitt less virtuous than Aristides.</p>
+
+<p>Are we, then, so poor in resources that we can do no better with
+eighteen or twenty ships of the line than to burn them? Had we sent for
+French Royalist naval officers, of which some hundreds are to be had,
+and made them select such seamen as they could trust, and filled the
+rest with our own and Mediterranean seamen, which are all over Italy to
+be had by thousands, and put them under judicious English
+commanders-in-chief, and with a judicious mixture of our own
+subordinates, the West Indies would at this day have been ours. It may
+be said that these French officers would take them for the king of
+France, and that they would not be in our power. Be it so. The islands
+would not be ours, but they would not be Jacobinized. This is, however,
+a thing impossible. They must in effect and <a name="Page_446" id="Page_446" title="446" class="pagenum"></a>substance be ours. But all
+is upon that false principle of distrust, which, not confiding in
+strength, can never have the full use of it. They that pay, and feed,
+and equip, must direct. But I must speak plain upon this subject. The
+French islands, if they were all our own, ought not to be all kept. A
+fair partition only ought to be made of those territories. This is a
+subject of policy very serious, which has many relations and aspects.
+Just here I only hint at it as answering an objection, whilst I state
+the mischievous consequences which suffer us to be surprised into a
+virtual breach of faith by confounding our ally with our enemy, because
+they both belong to the same geographical territory.</p>
+
+<p>My clear opinion is, that Toulon ought to be made, what we set out with,
+a royal French city. By the necessity of the case, it must be under the
+influence, civil and military, of the allies. But the only way of
+keeping that jealous and discordant mass from tearing its component
+parts to pieces, and hazarding the loss of the whole, is, to put the
+place into the nominal government of the regent, his officers being
+approved by us. This, I say, is absolutely necessary for a poise amongst
+ourselves. Otherwise is it to be believed that the Spaniards, who hold
+that place with us in a sort of partnership, contrary to our mutual
+interest, will see us absolute masters of the Mediterranean, with
+Gibraltar on one side and Toulon on the other, with a quiet and composed
+mind, whilst we do little less than declare that we are to take the
+whole West Indies into our hands, leaving the vast, unwieldy, and feeble
+body of the Spanish dominions in that part of the world absolutely at
+our mercy, without any power to balance us in the smallest de<a name="Page_447" id="Page_447" title="447" class="pagenum"></a>gree?
+Nothing is so fatal to a nation as an extreme of self-partiality, and
+the total want of consideration of what others will naturally hope or
+fear. Spain must think she sees that we are taking advantage of the
+confusions which reign in France to disable that country, and of course
+every country, from affording her protection, and in the end to turn the
+Spanish monarchy into a province. If she saw things in a proper point of
+light, to be sure, she would not consider any other plan of politics as
+of the least moment in comparison of the extinction of Jacobinism. But
+her ministers (to say the best of them) are vulgar politicians. It is no
+wonder that they should postpone this great point, or balance it by
+considerations of the common politics, that is, the questions of power
+between <i>state and state</i>. If we manifestly endeavor to destroy the
+balance, especially the maritime and commercial balance, both in Europe
+and the West Indies, (the latter their sore and vulnerable part,) from
+fear of what France may do for Spain hereafter, is it to be wondered
+that Spain, infinitely weaker than we are, (weaker, indeed, than such a
+mass of empire ever was,) should feel the same fears from our
+uncontrolled power that we give way to ourselves from a supposed
+resurrection of the ancient power of France under a monarchy? It
+signifies nothing whether we are wrong or right in the abstract; but in
+respect to our relation to Spain, with such principles followed up in
+practice, it is absolutely impossible that any cordial alliance can
+subsist between the two nations. If Spain goes, Naples will speedily
+follow. Prussia is quite certain, and thinks of nothing but making a
+market of the present confusions. Italy is broken and divided.
+Switzer<a name="Page_448" id="Page_448" title="448" class="pagenum"></a>land is Jacobinized, I am afraid, completely. I have long seen
+with pain the progress of French principles in that country. Things
+cannot go on upon the present bottom. The possession of Toulon, which,
+well managed, might be of the greatest advantage, will be the greatest
+misfortune that ever happened to this nation. The more we multiply
+troops there, the more we shall multiply causes and means of quarrel
+amongst ourselves. I know but one way of avoiding it, which is, to give
+a greater degree of simplicity to our politics. Our situation does
+necessarily render them a good deal involved. And to this evil, instead
+of increasing it, we ought to apply all the remedies in our power.</p>
+
+<p>See what is in that place the consequence (to say nothing of every
+other) of this complexity. Toulon has, as it were, two gates,&mdash;an
+English and a Spanish. The English gate is by our policy fast barred
+against the entrance of any Royalists. The Spaniards open theirs, I
+fear, upon no fixed principle, and with very little judgment. By means,
+however, of this foolish, mean, and jealous policy on our side, all the
+Royalists whom the English might select as most practicable, and most
+subservient to honest views, are totally excluded. Of those admitted the
+Spaniards are masters. As to the inhabitants, they are a nest of
+Jacobins, which is delivered into our hands, not from principle, but
+from fear. The inhabitants of Toulon may be described in a few words. It
+is <i>differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis</i>. The rest of the
+seaports are of the same description.</p>
+
+<p>Another thing which I cannot account for is, the sending for the Bishop
+of Toulon and afterwards forbidding his entrance. This is as directly
+contrary to <a name="Page_449" id="Page_449" title="449" class="pagenum"></a>the declaration as it is to the practice of the allied
+powers. The king of Prussia did better. When he took Verdun, he actually
+reinstated the bishop and his chapter. When he thought he should be the
+master of Chalons, he called the bishop from Flanders, to put him into
+possession. The Austrians have restored the clergy wherever they
+obtained possession. We have proposed to restore religion as well as
+monarchy; and in Toulon we have restored neither the one nor the other.
+It is very likely that the Jacobin <i>sans-culottes</i>, or some of them,
+objected to this measure, who rather choose to have the atheistic
+buffoons of clergy they have got to sport with, till they are ready to
+come forward, with the rest of their worthy brethren, in Paris and other
+places, to declare that they are a set of impostors, that they never
+believed in God, and never will preach any sort of religion. If we give
+way to our Jacobins in this point, it is fully and fairly putting the
+government, civil and ecclesiastical, not in the king of France, to
+whom, as the protector and governor, and in substance the head of the
+Gallican Church, the nomination to the bishoprics belonged, and who made
+the Bishop of Toulon,&mdash;it does not leave it with him, or even in the
+hands of the king of England, or the king of Spain,&mdash;but in the basest
+Jacobins of a low seaport, to exercise, <i>pro tempore</i>, the sovereignty.
+If this point of religion is thus given up, the grand instrument for
+reclaiming France is abandoned. We cannot, if we would, delude ourselves
+about the true state of this dreadful contest. <i>It is a religious war</i>.
+It includes in its object, undoubtedly, every other interest of society
+as well as this; but this is the principal and leading feature. It is
+through this <a name="Page_450" id="Page_450" title="450" class="pagenum"></a>destruction of religion that our enemies propose the
+accomplishment of all their other views. The French Revolution, impious
+at once and fanatical, had no other plan for domestic power and foreign
+empire. Look at all the proceedings of the National Assembly, from the
+first day of declaring itself such, in the year 1789, to this very hour,
+and you will find full half of their business to be directly on this
+subject. In fact, it is the spirit of the whole. The religious system,
+called the Constitutional Church, was, on the face of the whole
+proceeding, set up only as a mere temporary amusement to the people, and
+so constantly stated in all their conversations, till the time should
+come when they might with safety cast off the very appearance of all
+religion whatsoever, and persecute Christianity throughout Europe with
+fire and sword. The Constitutional clergy are not the ministers of any
+religion: they are the agents and instruments of this horrible
+conspiracy against all morals. It was from a sense of this, that, in the
+English addition to the articles proposed at St. Domingo, tolerating all
+religions, we very wisely refused to suffer that kind of traitors and
+buffoons.</p>
+
+<p>This religious war is not a controversy between sect and sect, as
+formerly, but a war against all sects and all religions. The question is
+not, whether you are to overturn the Catholic, to set up the Protestant.
+Such an idea, in the present state of the world, is too contemptible.
+Our business is, to leave to the schools the discussion of the
+controverted points, abating as much as we can the acrimony of
+disputants on all sides. It is for Christian statesmen, as the world is
+now circumstanced, to secure their common basis, and not to risk the
+subversion of the whole fabric <a name="Page_451" id="Page_451" title="451" class="pagenum"></a>by pursuing these distinctions with an
+ill-timed zeal. We have in the present grand alliance all modes of
+government, as well as all modes of religion. In government, we mean to
+restore that which, notwithstanding our diversity of forms, we are all
+agreed in as fundamental in government. The same principle ought to
+guide us in the religious part: conforming the mode, not to our
+particular ideas, (for in that point we have no ideas in common,) but to
+what will best promote the great, general ends of the alliance. As
+statesmen, we are to see which of those modes best suits with the
+interests of such a commonwealth as we wish to secure and promote. There
+can be no doubt but that the Catholic religion, which is fundamentally
+the religion of France, must go with the monarchy of France. We know
+that the monarchy did not survive the hierarchy, no, not even in
+appearance, for many months,&mdash;in substance, not for a single hour. As
+little can it exist in future, if that pillar is taken away, or even
+shattered and impaired.</p>
+
+<p>If it should please God to give to the allies the means of restoring
+peace and order in that focus of war and confusion, I would, as I said
+in the beginning of this memorial, first replace the whole of the old
+clergy; because we have proof more than sufficient, that, whether they
+err or not in the scholastic disputes with us, they are not tainted with
+atheism, the great political evil of the time. I hope I need not
+apologize for this phrase, as if I thought religion nothing but policy:
+it is far from my thoughts, and I hope it is not to be inferred from my
+expressions. But in the light of policy alone I am here considering the
+question. I speak of policy, too, in a large <a name="Page_452" id="Page_452" title="452" class="pagenum"></a>light; in which large
+light, policy, too, is a sacred thing.</p>
+
+<p>There are many, perhaps half a million or more, calling themselves
+Protestants, in the South of France, and in other of the provinces. Some
+raise them to a much greater number; but I think this nearer to the
+mark. I am sorry to say that they have behaved shockingly since the very
+beginning of this rebellion, and have been uniformly concerned in its
+worst and most atrocious acts. Their clergy are just the same atheists
+with those of the Constitutional Catholics, but still more wicked and
+daring. Three of their number have met from their republican associates
+the reward of their crimes.</p>
+
+<p>As the ancient Catholic religion is to be restored for the body of
+France, the ancient Calvinistic religion ought to be restored for the
+Protestants, with every kind of protection and privilege. But not one
+minister concerned in this rebellion ought to be suffered amongst them.
+If they have not clergy of their own, men well recommended, as untainted
+with Jacobinism, by the synods of those places where Calvinism prevails
+and French is spoken, ought to be sought. Many such there are. The
+Presbyterian discipline ought, in my opinion, to be established in its
+vigor, and the people professing it ought to be bound to its
+maintenance. No man, under the false and hypocritical pretence of
+liberty of conscience, ought to be suffered to have no conscience at
+all. The king's commissioner ought also to sit in their synods, as
+before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I am conscious that this
+discipline disposes men to republicanism: but it is still a discipline,
+and it is a cure (such as it is) for the perverse and undis<a name="Page_453" id="Page_453" title="453" class="pagenum"></a>ciplined
+habits which for some time have prevailed. Republicanism repressed may
+have its use in the composition of a state. Inspection may be
+practicable, and responsibility in the teachers and elders may be
+established, in such an hierarchy as the Presbyterian. For a time like
+ours, it is a great point gained, that people should be taught to meet,
+to combine, and to be classed and arrayed in some other way than in
+clubs of Jacobins. If it be not the best mode of Protestantism under a
+monarchy, it is still an orderly Christian church, orthodox in the
+fundamentals, and, what is to our point, capable enough of rendering men
+useful citizens. It was the impolitic abolition of their discipline,
+which exposed them to the wild opinions and conduct that have prevailed
+amongst the Huguenots. The toleration in 1787 was owing to the good
+disposition of the late king; but it was modified by the profligate
+folly of his atheistic minister, the Cardinal de Lom&eacute;nie. This
+mischievous minister did not follow, in the edict of toleration, the
+wisdom of the Edict of Nantes. But his toleration was granted to
+<i>non-Catholics</i>,&mdash;a dangerous word, which might signify anything, and
+was but too expressive of a fatal indifference with regard to all piety.
+I speak for myself: I do not wish any man to be converted from his sect.
+The distinctions which we have reformed from animosity to emulation may
+be even useful to the cause of religion. By some moderate contention
+they keep alive zeal. Whereas people who change, except under strong
+conviction, (a thing now rather rare,) the religion of their early
+prejudices, especially if the conversion is brought about by any
+political machine, are very apt to degenerate into indifference, laxity,
+and often downright atheism.<a name="Page_454" id="Page_454" title="454" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>Another political question arises about the mode of government which
+ought to be established. I think the proclamation (which I read before I
+had proceeded far in this memorial) puts it on the best footing, by
+postponing that arrangement to a time of peace.</p>
+
+<p>When our politics lead us to enterprise a great and almost total
+political revolution in Europe, we ought to look seriously into the
+consequences of what we are about to do. Some eminent persons discover
+an apprehension that the monarchy, if restored in France, may be
+restored in too great strength for the liberty and happiness of the
+natives, and for the tranquillity of other states. They are therefore of
+opinion that terms ought to be made for the modification of that
+monarchy. They are persons too considerable, from the powers of their
+mind, and from their situation, as well as from the real respect I have
+for them, who seem to entertain these apprehensions, to let me pass them
+by unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>As to the power of France as a state, and in its exterior relations, I
+confess my fears are on the part of its extreme reduction. There is
+undoubtedly something in the vicinity of France, which makes it
+naturally and properly an object of our watchfulness and jealousy,
+whatever form its government may take. But the difference is great
+between a plan for our own security and a scheme for the utter
+destruction of France. If there were no other countries in the political
+map but these two, I admit that policy might justify a wish to lower our
+neighbor to a standard which would even render her in some measure, if
+not wholly, our dependant. But the system of Europe is extensive and
+extremely complex. However formi<a name="Page_455" id="Page_455" title="455" class="pagenum"></a>dable to us, as taken in this one
+relation, France is not equally dreadful to all other states. On the
+contrary, my clear opinion is, that the liberties of Europe cannot
+possibly be preserved but by her remaining a very great and
+preponderating power. The design at present evidently pursued by the
+combined potentates, or of the two who lead, is totally to destroy her
+as such a power. For Great Britain resolves that she shall have no
+colonies, no commerce, and no marine. Austria means to take away the
+whole frontier, from the borders of Switzerland to Dunkirk. It is their
+plan also to render the interior government lax and feeble, by
+prescribing, by force of the arms of rival and jealous nations, and
+without consulting the natural interests of the kingdom, such
+arrangements as, in the actual state of Jacobinism in France, and the
+unsettled state in which property must remain for a long time, will
+inevitably produce such distraction and debility in government as to
+reduce it to nothing, or to throw it back into its old confusion. One
+cannot conceive so frightful a state of a nation. A maritime country
+without a marine and without commerce; a continental country without a
+frontier, and for a thousand miles surrounded with powerful, warlike,
+and ambitious neighbors! It is possible that she might submit to lose
+her commerce and her colonies: her security she never can abandon. If,
+contrary to all expectations, under such a disgraced and impotent
+government, any energy should remain in that country, she will make
+every effort to recover her security, which will involve Europe for a
+century in war and blood. What has it cost to France to make that
+frontier? What will it cost to recover it? Austria thinks that without a
+frontier she cannot secure <a name="Page_456" id="Page_456" title="456" class="pagenum"></a>the <i>Netherlands</i>. But without her frontier
+France cannot secure <i>herself</i>. Austria has been, however, secure for an
+hundred years in those very Netherlands, and has never been dispossessed
+of them by the chance of war without a moral certainty of receiving them
+again on the restoration of peace. Her late dangers have arisen not from
+the power or ambition of the king of France. They arose from her own ill
+policy, which dismantled all her towns, and discontented all her
+subjects by Jacobinical innovations. She dismantles her own towns, and
+then says, &quot;Give me the frontier of France!&quot; But let us depend upon it,
+whatever tends, under the name of security, to aggrandize Austria, will
+discontent and alarm Prussia. Such a length of frontier on the side of
+France, separated from itself, and separated from the mass of the
+Austrian country, will be weak, unless connected at the expense of the
+Elector of Bavaria (the Elector Palatine) and other lesser princes, or
+by such exchanges as will again convulse the Empire.</p>
+
+<p>Take it the other way, and let us suppose that France so broken in
+spirit as to be content to remain naked and defenceless by sea and by
+land. Is such a country no prey? Have other nations no views? Is Poland
+the only country of which it is worth while to make a partition? We
+cannot be so childish as to imagine that ambition is local, and that no
+others can be infected with it but those who rule within certain
+parallels of latitude and longitude. In this way I hold war equally
+certain. But I can conceive that both these principles may operate:
+ambition on the part of Austria to cut more and more from France; and
+French impatience under her degraded and unsafe condition. In such a
+contest will the other powers <a name="Page_457" id="Page_457" title="457" class="pagenum"></a>stand by? Will not Prussia call for
+indemnity, as well as Austria and England? Is she satisfied with her
+gains in Poland? By no means. Germany must pay; or we shall infallibly
+see Prussia leagued with France and Spain, and possibly with other
+powers, for the reduction of Austria; and such may be the situation of
+things, that it will not be so easy to decide what part England may take
+in such a contest.</p>
+
+<p>I am well aware how invidious a task it is to oppose anything which
+tends to the apparent aggrandizement of our own country. But I think no
+country can be aggrandized whilst France is Jacobinized. This post
+removed, it will be a serious question how far her further reduction
+will contribute to the general safety, which I always consider as
+included. Among precautions against ambition, it may not be amiss to
+take one precaution against our <i>own</i>. I must fairly say, I dread our
+<i>own</i> power and our <i>own</i> ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded.
+It is ridiculous to say we are not men, and that, as men, we shall never
+wish to aggrandize ourselves in some way or other. Can we say that even
+at this very hour we are not invidiously aggrandized? We are already in
+possession of almost all the commerce of the world. Our empire in India
+is an awful thing. If we should come to be in a condition not only to
+have all this ascendant in commerce, but to be absolutely able, without
+the least control, to hold the commerce of all other nations totally
+dependent upon our good pleasure, we may say that we shall not abuse
+this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of power. But every other nation
+will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or
+later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which
+may end in our ruin.<a name="Page_458" id="Page_458" title="458" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>As to France, I must observe that for a long time she has been
+stationary. She has, during this whole century, obtained far less by
+conquest or negotiation than any of the three great Continental powers.
+Some part of Lorraine excepted, I recollect nothing she has gained,&mdash;no,
+not a village. In truth, this Lorraine acquisition does little more than
+secure her barrier. In effect and substance it was her own before.</p>
+
+<p>However that may be, I consider these things at present chiefly in one
+point of view, as obstructions to the war on Jacobinism, which <i>must</i>
+stand as long as the powers think its extirpation but a <i>secondary</i>
+object, and think of taking advantage, under the name of <i>indemnity</i> and
+<i>security</i>, to make war upon the whole nation of France, royal and
+Jacobin, for the aggrandizement of the allies, on the ordinary
+principles of interest, as if no Jacobinism existed in the world.</p>
+
+<p>So far is France from being formidable to its neighbors for its domestic
+strength, that I conceive it will be as much as all its neighbors can
+do, by a steady guaranty, to keep that monarchy at all upon its basis.
+It will be their business to nurse France, not to exhaust it. France,
+such as it is, is indeed highly formidable: not formidable, however, as
+a great republic; but as the most dreadful gang of robbers and murderers
+that ever was embodied. But this distempered strength of France will be
+the cause of proportionable weakness on its recovery. Never was a
+country so completely ruined; and they who calculate the resurrection of
+her power by former examples have not sufficiently considered what is
+the present state of things. Without detailing the inventory of what
+organs of government have been destroyed, together with the very
+materials of which <a name="Page_459" id="Page_459" title="459" class="pagenum"></a>alone they can be recomposed, I wish it to be
+considered what an operose affair the whole system of taxation is in the
+old states of Europe. It is such as never could be made but in a long
+course of years. In France all taxes are abolished. The present powers
+resort to the capital, and to the capital in kind. But a savage,
+undisciplined people suffer a <i>robbery</i> with more patience than an
+<i>impost</i>. The former is in their habits and their dispositions. They
+consider it as transient, and as what, in their turn, they may exercise.
+But the terrors of the present power are such as no regular government
+can possibly employ. They who enter into France do not succeed to
+<i>their</i> resources. They have not a system to reform, but a system to
+begin. The whole estate of government is to be reacquired.</p>
+
+<p>What difficulties this will meet with in a country exhausted by the
+taking of the capital, and among a people in a manner new-principled,
+trained, and actually disciplined to anarchy, rebellion, disorder, and
+impiety, may be conceived by those who know what Jacobin France is, and
+who may have occupied themselves by revolving in their thoughts what
+they were to do, if it fell to their lot to re&euml;stablish the affairs of
+France. What support or what limitations the restored monarchy must have
+may be a doubt, or how it will pitch and settle at last. But one thing I
+conceive to be far beyond a doubt: that the settlement cannot be
+immediate; but that it must be preceded by some sort of power, equal at
+least in vigor, vigilance, promptitude, and decision, to a military
+government. For such a <i>preparatory</i> government, no slow-paced,
+methodical, formal, lawyer-like system, still less that of a showy,
+superficial, trifling, <a name="Page_460" id="Page_460" title="460" class="pagenum"></a>intriguing court, guided by cabals of ladies, or
+of men like ladies, least of all a philosophic, theoretic, disputatious
+school of sophistry,&mdash;none of these ever will or ever can lay the
+foundations of an order that can last. Whoever claims a right by birth
+to govern there must find in his breast, or must conjure up in it, an
+energy not to be expected, perhaps not always to be wished for, in
+well-ordered states. The lawful prince must have, in everything but
+crime, the character of an usurper. He is gone, if he imagines himself
+the quiet possessor of a throne. He is to contend for it as much after
+an apparent conquest as before. His task is, to win it: he must leave
+posterity to enjoy and to adorn it. No velvet cushions for him. He is to
+be always (I speak nearly to the letter) on horseback. This opinion is
+the result of much patient thinking on the subject, which I conceive no
+event is likely to alter.</p>
+
+<p>A valuable friend of mine, who I hope will conduct these affairs, so far
+as they fall to his share, with great ability, asked me what I thought
+of acts of general indemnity and oblivion, as a means of settling
+France, and reconciling it to monarchy. Before I venture upon any
+opinion of my own in this matter, I totally disclaim the interference of
+foreign powers in a business that properly belongs to the government
+which we have declared legal. That government is likely to be the best
+judge of what is to be done towards the security of that kingdom, which
+it is their duty and their interest to provide for by such measures of
+justice or of lenity as at the time they should find best. But if we
+weaken it not only by arbitrary limitations of our own, but preserve
+such persons in it as are disposed to disturb its future <a name="Page_461" id="Page_461" title="461" class="pagenum"></a>peace, as they
+have its past, I do not know how a more direct declaration can be made
+of a disposition to perpetual hostility against a government. The
+persons saved from the justice of the native magistrate by foreign
+authority will owe nothing to his clemency. He will, and must, look to
+those to whom he is indebted for the power he has of dispensing it. A
+Jacobin faction, constantly fostered with the nourishment of foreign
+protection, will be kept alive.</p>
+
+<p>This desire of securing the safety of the actors in the present scene is
+owing to more laudable motives. Ministers have been made to consider the
+brothers of the late merciful king, and the nobility of France who have
+been faithful to their honor and duty, as a set of inexorable and
+remorseless tyrants. How this notion has been infused into them I cannot
+be quite certain. I am sure it is not justified by anything they have
+done. Never were the two princes guilty, in the day of their power, of a
+single hard or ill-natured act. No one instance of cruelty on the part
+of the gentlemen ever came to my ears. It is true that the <i>English</i>
+Jacobins, (the natives have not thought of it,) as an excuse for their
+infernal system of murder, have so represented them. It is on this
+principle that the massacres in the month of September, 1792, were
+justified by a writer in the Morning Chronicle. <i>He</i> says, indeed, that
+&quot;the whole French nation is to be given up to the hands of an irritated
+and revengeful noblesse&quot;;&mdash;and, judging of others by himself and his
+brethren, he says, &quot;Whoever succeeds in a civil war will be cruel. But
+here the emigrants, flying to revenge in the cars of military victory,
+will almost insatiably call for <a name="Page_462" id="Page_462" title="462" class="pagenum"></a>their victims and their booty; and a
+body of emigrant traitors were attending the King of Prussia and the
+Duke of Brunswick, to suggest the most sanguinary counsels.&quot; So says
+this wicked Jacobin; but so cannot say the King of Prussia nor the Duke
+of Brunswick, who never did receive any sanguinary counsel; nor did the
+king's brothers, or that great body of gentlemen who attended those
+princes, commit one single cruel action, or hurt the person or property
+of one individual. It would be right to quote the instance. It is like
+the military luxury attributed to these unfortunate sufferers in our
+common cause.</p>
+
+<p>If these princes had shown a tyrannic disposition, it would be much to
+be lamented. We have no others to govern France. If we screened the body
+of murderers from their justice, we should only leave the innocent in
+future to the mercy of men of fierce and sanguinary dispositions, of
+which, in spite of all our intermeddling in their Constitution, we could
+not prevent the effects. But as we have much more reason to fear their
+feeble lenity than any blamable rigor, we ought, in my opinion, to leave
+the matter to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>If, however, I were asked to give an advice merely as such, here are my
+ideas. I am not for a total indemnity, nor a general punishment. And
+first, the body and mass of the people never ought to be treated as
+criminal. They may become an object of more or less constant
+watchfulness and suspicion, as their preservation may best require, but
+they can never become an object of punishment. This is one of the few
+fundamental and unalterable principles of politics.</p>
+
+<p>To punish them capitally would be to make massa<a name="Page_463" id="Page_463" title="463" class="pagenum"></a>cres. Massacres only
+increase the ferocity of men, and teach them to regard their own lives
+and those of others as of little value; whereas the great policy of
+government is, to teach the people to think both of great importance in
+the eyes of God and the state, and never to be sacrificed or even
+hazarded to gratify their passions, or for anything but the duties
+prescribed by the rules of morality, and under the direction of public
+law and public authority. To punish them with lesser penalties would be
+to debilitate the commonwealth, and make the nation miserable, which it
+is the business of government to render happy and flourishing.</p>
+
+<p>As to crimes, too, I would draw a strong line of limitation. For no one
+offence, <i>politically an offence of rebellion</i>, by council, contrivance,
+persuasion, or compulsion, for none properly a <i>military offence of
+rebellion</i>, or anything done by open hostility in the field, should any
+man at all be called in question; because such seems to be the proper
+and natural death of civil dissensions. The offences of war are
+obliterated by peace.</p>
+
+<p>Another class will of course be included in the indemnity,&mdash;namely, all
+those who by their activity in restoring lawful government shall
+obliterate their offences. The offence previously known, the acceptance
+of service is a pardon for crimes. I fear that this class of men will
+not be very numerous.</p>
+
+<p>So far as to indemnity. But where are the objects of justice, and of
+example, and of future security to the public peace? They are naturally
+pointed out, not by their having outraged political and civil laws, nor
+their having rebelled against the state as a state, but by their having
+rebelled against the law of Na<a name="Page_464" id="Page_464" title="464" class="pagenum"></a>ture and outraged man as man. In this
+list, all the regicides in general, all those who laid sacrilegious
+hands on the king, who, without anything in their own rebellious mission
+to the Convention to justify them, brought him to his trial and
+unanimously voted him guilty,&mdash;all those who had a share in the cruel
+murder of the queen, and the detestable proceedings with regard to the
+young king and the unhappy princesses,&mdash;all those who committed
+cold-blooded murder anywhere, and particularly in their revolutionary
+tribunals, where every idea of natural justice and of their own declared
+rights of man have been trod under foot with the most insolent
+mockery,&mdash;all men concerned in the burning and demolition of houses or
+churches, with audacious and marked acts of sacrilege and scorn offered
+to religion,&mdash;in general, all the leaders of Jacobin clubs,&mdash;not one of
+these should escape a punishment suitable to the nature, quality, and
+degree of their offence, by a steady, but a measured justice.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, no man ought to be subject to any penalty, from the
+highest to the lowest, but by a trial according to the course of law,
+carried on with all that caution and deliberation which has been used in
+the best times and precedents of the French jurisprudence, the criminal
+law of which country, faulty to be sure in some particulars, was highly
+laudable and tender of the lives of men. In restoring order and justice,
+everything like retaliation ought to be religiously avoided; and an
+example ought to be set of a total alienation from the Jacobin
+proceedings in their accursed revolutionary tribunals. Everything like
+lumping men in masses, and of forming tables of proscription, ought to
+be avoided.<a name="Page_465" id="Page_465" title="465" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<p>In all these punishments, anything which can be alleged in mitigation of
+the offence should be fully considered. Mercy is not a thing opposed to
+justice. It is an essential part of it,&mdash;as necessary in criminal cases
+as in civil affairs equity is to law. It is only for the Jacobins never
+to pardon. They have not done it in a single instance. A council of
+mercy ought therefore to be appointed, with powers to report on each
+case, to soften the penalty, or entirely to remit it, according to
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>With these precautions, the very first foundation of settlement must be
+to call to a strict account those bloody and merciless offenders.
+Without it, government cannot stand a year. People little consider the
+utter impossibility of getting those who, having emerged from very low,
+some from the lowest classes of society, have exercised a power so high,
+and with such unrelenting and bloody a rage, quietly to fall back into
+their old ranks, and become humble, peaceable, laborious, and useful
+members of society. It never can be. On the other hand, is it to be
+believed that any worthy and virtuous subject, restored to the ruins of
+his house, will with patience see the cold-blooded murderer of his
+father, mother, wife, or children, or perhaps all of these relations,
+(such things have been,) nose him in his own village, and insult him
+with the riches acquired from the plunder of his goods, ready again to
+head a Jacobin faction to attack his life? He is unworthy of the name of
+man who would suffer it. It is unworthy of the name of a government,
+which, taking justice out of the private hand, will not exercise it for
+the injured by the public arm.</p>
+
+<p>I know it sounds plausible, and is readily adopted <a name="Page_466" id="Page_466" title="466" class="pagenum"></a>by those who have
+little sympathy with the sufferings of others, to wish to jumble the
+innocent and guilty into one mass by a general indemnity. This cruel
+indifference dignifies itself with the name of humanity.</p>
+
+<p>It is extraordinary, that, as the wicked arts of this regicide and
+tyrannous faction increase in number, variety, and atrocity, the desire
+of punishing them becomes more and more faint, and the talk of an
+indemnity towards them every day stronger and stronger. Our ideas of
+justice appear to be fairly conquered and overpowered by guilt, when it
+is grown gigantic. It is not the point of view in which we are in the
+habit of viewing guilt. The crimes we every day punish are really below
+the penalties we inflict. The criminals are obscure and feeble. This is
+the view in which we see ordinary crimes and criminals. But when guilt
+is seen, though but for a time, to be furnished with the arms and to be
+invested with the robes of power, it seems to assume another nature, and
+to get, as it were, out of our jurisdiction. This I fear is the case
+with many. But there is another cause full as powerful towards this
+security to enormous guilt,&mdash;the desire which possesses people who have
+once obtained power to enjoy it at their ease. It is not humanity, but
+laziness and inertness of mind, which produces the desire of this kind
+of indemnities. This description of men love general and short methods.
+If they punish, they make a promiscuous massacre; if they spare, they
+make a general act of oblivion. This is a want of disposition to proceed
+laboriously according to the cases, and according to the rules and
+principles of justice on each case: a want of disposition to assort
+criminals, to discrimi<a name="Page_467" id="Page_467" title="467" class="pagenum"></a>nate the degrees and modes of guilt, to separate
+accomplices from principals, leaders from followers, seducers from the
+seduced, and then, by following the same principles in the same detail,
+to class punishments, and to fit them to the nature and kind of the
+delinquency. If that were once attempted, we should soon see that the
+task was neither infinite nor the execution cruel. There would be
+deaths, but, for the number of criminals and the extent of France, not
+many. There would be cases of transportation, cases of labor to restore
+what has been wickedly destroyed, cases of imprisonment, and cases of
+mere exile. But be this as it may, I am sure, that, if justice is not
+done there, there can be neither peace nor justice there, nor in any
+part of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>History is resorted to for other acts of indemnity in other times. The
+princes are desired to look back to Henry the Fourth. We are desired to
+look to the restoration of King Charles. These things, in my opinion,
+have no resemblance whatsoever. They were cases of a civil war,&mdash;in
+France more ferocious, in England more moderate than common. In neither
+country were the orders of society subverted, religion and morality
+destroyed on principle, or property totally annihilated. In England, the
+government of Cromwell was, to be sure, somewhat rigid, but, for a new
+power, no savage tyranny. The country was nearly as well in his hands as
+in those of Charles the Second, and in some points much better. The laws
+in general had their course, and were admirably administered. The king
+did not in reality grant an act of indemnity; the prevailing power, then
+in a manner the nation, in effect granted an indemnity to <i>him</i>. The
+idea of a preceding rebellion was not at all ad<a name="Page_468" id="Page_468" title="468" class="pagenum"></a>mitted in that
+convention and that Parliament. The regicides were a common enemy, and
+as such given up.</p>
+
+<p>Among the ornaments of their place which eminently distinguish them, few
+people are better acquainted with the history of their own country than
+the illustrious princes now in exile; but I caution them not to be led
+into error by that which has been supposed to be the guide of life. I
+would give the same caution to all princes. Not that I derogate from the
+use of history. It is a great improver of the understanding, by showing
+both men and affairs in a great variety of views. From this source much
+political wisdom may be learned,&mdash;that is, may be learned as habit, not
+as precept,&mdash;and as an exercise to strengthen the mind, as furnishing
+materials to enlarge and enrich it, not as a repertory of cases and
+precedents for a lawyer: if it were, a thousand times better would it be
+that a statesman had never learned to read,&mdash;<i>vellem nescirent literas</i>.
+This method turns their understanding from the object before them, and
+from the present exigencies of the world, to comparisons with former
+times, of which, after all, we can know very little and very
+imperfectly; and our guides, the historians, who are to give us their
+true interpretation, are often prejudiced, often ignorant, often fonder
+of system than of truth. Whereas, if a man with reasonable good parts
+and natural sagacity, and not in the leading-strings of any master, will
+look steadily on the business before him, without being diverted by
+retrospect and comparison, he may be capable of forming a reasonable
+good judgment of what is to be done. There are some fundamental points
+in which Nature never changes; but they are <a name="Page_469" id="Page_469" title="469" class="pagenum"></a>few and obvious, and belong
+rather to morals than to politics. But so far as regards political
+matter, the human mind and human affairs are susceptible of infinite
+modifications, and of combinations wholly new and unlooked-for. Very
+few, for instance, could have imagined that property, which has been
+taken for natural dominion, should, through the whole of a vast kingdom,
+lose all its importance, and even its influence. This is what history or
+books of speculation could hardly have taught us. How many could have
+thought that the most complete and formidable revolution in a great
+empire should be made by men of letters, not as subordinate instruments
+and trumpeters of sedition, but as the chief contrivers and managers,
+and in a short time as the open administrators and sovereign rulers? Who
+could have imagined that atheism could produce one of the most violently
+operative principles of fanaticism? Who could have imagined, that, in a
+commonwealth in a manner cradled in war, and in an extensive and
+dreadful war, military commanders should be of little or no account,
+&mdash;that the Convention should not contain one military man of name,&mdash;that
+administrative bodies, in a state of the utmost confusion, and of but a
+momentary duration, and composed of men with not one imposing part of
+character, should be able to govern the country and its armies with an
+authority which the most settled senates and the most respected monarchs
+scarcely ever had in the same degree? This, for one, I confess I did not
+foresee, though all the rest was present to me very early, and not out
+of my apprehension even for several years.</p>
+
+<p>I believe very few were able to enter into the effects of mere <i>terror</i>,
+as a principle not only for the <a name="Page_470" id="Page_470" title="470" class="pagenum"></a>support of power in given hands or
+forms, but in those things in which the soundest political speculators
+were of opinion that the least appearance of force would be totally
+destructive,&mdash;such is the market, whether of money, provision, or
+commodities of any kind. Yet for four years we have seen loans made,
+treasuries supplied, and armies levied and maintained, more numerous
+than France ever showed in the field, <i>by the effects of fear alone</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a state of things of which in its totality if history furnishes
+any examples at all, they are very remote and feeble. I therefore am not
+so ready as some are to tax with folly or cowardice those who were not
+prepared to meet an evil of this nature. Even now, after the events, all
+the causes may be somewhat difficult to ascertain. Very many are,
+however, traceable. But these things history and books of speculation
+(as I have already said) did not teach men to foresee, and of course to
+resist. Now that they are no longer a matter of sagacity, but of
+experience, of recent experience, of our own experience, it would be
+unjustifiable to go back to the records of other times to instruct us to
+manage what they never enabled us to foresee.<a name="Page_471" id="Page_471" title="471" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Some accounts make them five times as many.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Before the Revolution, the French noblesse were so reduced
+in numbers that they did not much exceed twenty thousand at least of
+full-grown men. As they have been very cruelly formed into entire corps
+of soldiers, it is estimated, that, by the sword, and distempers in the
+field, they have not lost less than five thousand men; and if this
+course is pursued, it is to be feared that the whole body of the French
+nobility may be extinguished. Several hundreds have also perished by
+famine, and various accidents.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> This was the language of the Ministerialists.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Vattel.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> The first object of this club was the propagation of
+Jacobin principles.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX" />APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>EXTRACTS FROM VATTEL'S LAW OF NATIONS.</h3>
+
+<p>[The Titles, Marginal Abstracts, and Notes are by Mr. BURKE, excepting
+such of the Notes as are here distinguished.]</p>
+
+
+<h3>CASES OF INTERFERENCE WITH INDEPENDENT POWERS.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;If, then, there is anywhere a nation of a <i>restless and mischievous</i>
+disposition, always ready <i>to injure others, to traverse their designs,
+and to raise domestic troubles</i><a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor" title=" This is the case of France:&mdash;Semonville at Turin,&mdash;Jacobin
+clubs,&mdash;Liegeois meeting,&mdash;Flemish meeting,&mdash;La Fayette's
+answer,&mdash;Clootz's embassy,&mdash;Avignon.">[38]</a> it is not to be doubted that all
+have a right to join <i>in order to repress, chastise, and put it ever
+after out of its power</i> to injure them. Such should be the just fruits
+of the policy which Machiavel praises in C&aelig;sar Borgia. The conduct
+followed by Philip the Second, King of Spain, <i>was adapted to unite all
+Europe against him</i>; and it was from just reasons that Henry the Great
+formed the design of humbling a power <i>formidable by its forces and
+pernicious by its maxims</i>.&quot;&mdash;Book II. ch. iv. &sect; 53.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let us apply to the unjust what we have said above (&sect; 53) of a
+mischievous or maleficent nation. If there be any that makes an open
+profession <i>of trampling justice under foot, of despising and <a name="Page_472" id="Page_472" title="472" class="pagenum"></a>violating
+the right of others</i>,<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor" title=" The French acknowledge no power not directly emanating
+from the people.">[39]</a> whenever it finds an opportunity, <i>the
+interest of human society will authorize all others to unite in order to
+humble and chastise it</i>. We do not here forget the maxim established in
+our preliminaries, that it does not belong to nations to usurp the power
+of being judges of each other. In particular cases, liable to the least
+doubt, it ought to be supposed that each of the parties may have some
+right; and the injustice of that which has committed the injury may
+proceed from error, and not from a general contempt of justice. <i>But if,
+by constant maxims, and by a continued conduct</i>, one nation shows that
+it has evidently this pernicious disposition, and that it considers no
+right as sacred, the safety of the human race requires that it should be
+suppressed. To form and support an unjust pretension is to do an injury
+<i>not only to him who is interested in this pretension, but to mock at
+justice in general, and to injure all nations</i>.&quot;&mdash;Ibid. ch. v. &sect; 70.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">To succor against tyranny.<br />
+Case of English Revolution.<br />
+An odious tyrant.<br />
+Rebellious people.<br />
+Case of civil war.<br />
+Sovereign and his people, when distinct powers.</span>&quot;If the prince, attacking the fundamental laws, gives his subjects a
+legal right to resist him, if tyranny, <i>becoming insupportable</i>, obliges
+the nation to rise in their defence, every foreign power has a right to
+succor an oppressed people who implore their assistance. The English
+justly complained of James the Second. <i>The nobility and the most
+distinguished patriots</i> resolved to put a check on his enterprises,
+which manifestly tended to overthrow the Constitution and to destroy the
+liberties and the religion of the people, <i>and therefore applied for
+assistance to the United Provinces</i>. The authority of the Prince of<a name="Page_473" id="Page_473" title="473" class="pagenum"></a>
+Orange had, doubtless, an influence on the deliberations of the
+States-General; but it did not make them commit injustice: for when a
+people, from good reasons, take up arms against an oppressor, <i>justice
+and generosity require that brave men should be assisted in the defence
+of their liberties</i>. Whenever, therefore, a civil war is kindled in a
+state, foreign powers may assist that party which appears to them to
+have justice on their side. <i>He who assists an odious tyrant, he who
+declares FOR AN UNJUST AND REBELLIOUS PEOPLE, offends against his duty</i>.
+When the bands of the political society are broken, or at least
+suspended between the sovereign and his people, they may then be
+considered as two distinct powers; and since each is independent of all
+foreign authority, nobody has a right to judge them. Either may be in
+the right, and each of those who grant their assistance may believe that
+he supports a good cause. It follows, then, in virtue of the voluntary
+law of nations, (see Prelim. &sect; 21,) that the two parties may act as
+having an equal right, and behave accordingly, till the decision of the
+affair.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Not to be pursued to an extreme.<br />
+Endeavor to persuade subjects to a revolt.</span>&quot;But we ought not to abuse this maxim for authorizing odious proceedings
+against the tranquillity of states. It is a violation of the law of
+nations <i>to persuade those subjects to revolt who actually obey their
+sovereign, though they complain of his government</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Attempt to excite subjects to revolt.</span>&quot;The practice of nations is conformable to our maxims. When the German
+Protestants came to the assistance of the Reformed in France, the court
+never undertook to treat them otherwise than as common enemies, and
+according to the laws of war. France <a name="Page_474" id="Page_474" title="474" class="pagenum"></a>at the same time assisted the
+Netherlands, which took up arms against Spain, and did not pretend that
+her troops should be considered upon any other footing than as
+auxiliaries in a regular war. <i>But no power avoids complaining of an
+atrocious injury, if any one attempts by his emissaries to excite his
+subjects to revolt</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Tyrants.</span>&quot;As to those monsters, who, under the title of sovereigns, render
+themselves the scourges and horror of the human race,&mdash;these are savage
+beasts, from which every brave man may justly purge the earth. All
+antiquity has praised Hercules for delivering the world from an Ant&aelig;us,
+a Busiris, and a Diomedes.&quot;&mdash;Ibid. ch. iv. &sect; 56.</p>
+
+<p>After stating that nations have no right to interfere in domestic
+concerns, he proceeds,&mdash;&quot;But this rule does not preclude them from
+espousing the quarrel of a dethroned king, and assisting him, if he
+appears to have justice on his side. They then declare themselves
+enemies of the nation which has acknowledged his rival; as, when two
+<i>different nations</i> are at war, they are at liberty to assist that whose
+quarrel they shall think has the fairest appearance.&quot;&mdash;Book IV. ch. ii.
+&sect; 14.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CASE OF ALLIANCES.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">When an alliance to preserve a king takes place. <br />
+King does not lose his quality by the loss of his kingdom.</span>&quot;It is asked if that alliance subsists with the king and the royal
+family when by some revolution they are deprived of their crown. We have
+lately remarked, (&sect; 194,) that a personal alliance expires with the
+reign of him who contracted it: but that is to be understood of an
+alliance with the state, limited, as to its duration, to the reign of
+the contracting king. This of which we are here speaking is of another
+na<a name="Page_475" id="Page_475" title="475" class="pagenum"></a>ture. For though it binds the state, since it is bound by all the
+public acts of its sovereign, it is made directly in favor of the king
+and his family; it would therefore be absurd for it to terminate <i>at the
+moment when they have need of it, and at an event against which it was
+made</i>. Besides, the king does not lose his quality merely by the loss of
+his kingdom. <i>If he is stripped of it unjustly by an usurper, or by
+rebels, he preserves his rights, in the number of which are his
+alliances</i>.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor" title=" By the seventh article of the Treaty of TRIPLE ALLIANCE,
+between France, England, and Holland, signed at the Hague, in the year
+1717, it is stipulated, &quot;that, if the kingdoms, countries, or provinces
+of any of the allies are disturbed by intestine quarrels, or _by
+rebellions, on account of the said successions_,&quot; (the Protestant
+succession to the throne of Great Britain, and the succession to the
+throne of France, as settled by the Treaty of Utrecht,) &quot;or _under any
+other pretext whatever_, the ally thus in trouble shall have full right
+to demand of his allies the succors above mentioned&quot;: that is to say,
+the same succors as in the case of an invasion from any foreign
+power,&mdash;8,000 foot and 2,000 horse to be furnished by France or England,
+and 4,000 foot and 1,000 horse by the States-General.
+
+By the fourth article of the Treaty of QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, between
+England, France, Holland, and the Emperor of Germany, signed in the year
+1718, the contracting powers &quot;promise and oblige themselves that they
+will and ought to maintain, guaranty, and defend the right of succession
+in the kingdom of France, according to the tenor of the treaties made at
+Utrecht the 11th day of April, 1713; ... and this they shall perform
+_against all persons whosoever who may presume to disturb the order of
+the said succession_, in contradiction to the previous acts and treaties
+subsequent thereon.&quot;
+
+The above treaties have been revived and confirmed by every subsequent
+treaty of peace between Great Britain and France.&mdash;EDIT.">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Case wherein aid may be given to a deposed king.</span>&quot;But who shall judge if the king be dethroned lawfully or by violence?
+An independent nation acknowledges no judge. If the body of the nation
+<a name="Page_476" id="Page_476" title="476" class="pagenum"></a>declares the king deprived of his rights by the abuse he has made of
+them, and deposes him, it may justly do it <i>when its grievances are well
+founded</i>, and no other power has a right to censure it. The personal
+ally of this king ought not then to assist him against the nation that
+has made use of its right in deposing him: if he attempts it, he injures
+that nation. England declared war against Louis the Fourteenth, in the
+year 1688, for supporting the interest of James the Second, who was
+deposed in form by the nation. The same country declared war against him
+a second time, at the beginning of the present century, because that
+prince acknowledged the son of the deposed James, under the name of
+James the Third. In doubtful cases, and <i>when the body of the nation has
+not pronounced, or HAS NOT PRONOUNCED FREELY</i>, a sovereign may naturally
+support and defend an ally; and it is then that the voluntary law of
+nations subsists between different states. The party that has driven out
+the king pretends to have right on its side; this unhappy king and his
+ally flatter themselves with having the same advantage; and as they have
+no common judge upon earth, they have no other method to take but to
+apply to arms to terminate the dispute; they therefore engage in a
+formal war.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Not obliged to pursue his right beyond a certain point.</span>&quot;In short, when the foreign prince has faithfully fulfilled his
+engagements towards an unfortunate monarch, when he has done in his
+defence, or to procure his restoration, all he was obliged to perform in
+virtue of the alliance, if his efforts are ineffectual, the dethroned
+prince cannot require him to support an endless war in his favor, or
+expect that he will eternally remain the enemy <a name="Page_477" id="Page_477" title="477" class="pagenum"></a>of the nation or of the
+sovereign who has deprived him of the throne. He must think of peace,
+abandon the ally, and consider him as having himself abandoned his right
+through necessity. Thus Louis the Fourteenth was obliged to abandon
+James the Second, and to acknowledge King William, though he had at
+first treated him as an usurper.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Case of defence against subjects.<br />
+Case where real alliances may be renounced.</span>&quot;The same question presents itself in real alliances, and, in general,
+in all alliances made with the state, and not in particular with a king
+for the defence of his person. An ally ought, doubtless, to be defended
+against every invasion, against every foreign violence, <i>and even
+against his rebellious subjects: in the same manner a republic ought to
+be defended against the enterprises of one who attempts to destroy the
+public liberty</i>. But it ought to be remembered that an ally of the state
+or the nation is not its judge. If the nation has deposed its king in
+form,&mdash;if the people of a republic have driven out their magistrates and
+set themselves at liberty, or acknowledged the authority of an usurper,
+either expressly or tacitly,&mdash;to oppose these domestic regulations, by
+disputing their justice or validity, would be to interfere in the
+government of the nation, and to do it an injury. (See &sect; 54, and
+following, of this Book.) The ally remains the ally of the state,
+notwithstanding the change that has happened in it. <i>However, when this
+change renders the alliance useless, dangerous, or disagreeable, it may
+renounce it; for it may say, upon a good foundation, that it would not
+have entered into an alliance with that nation, had it been under the
+present form of government.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Not an eternal war.</span>&quot;We may say here, what we have said on a per<a name="Page_478" id="Page_478" title="478" class="pagenum"></a>sonal alliance: however
+just the cause of that king may be who is driven from the throne either
+by his subjects or by a foreign usurper, his aides are not obliged to
+support <i>an eternal war</i> in his favor. After having made ineffectual
+efforts to restore him, they must at length give peace to their people,
+and come to an accommodation with the usurper, and for that purpose
+treat with him as with a lawful sovereign. Louis the Fourteenth,
+exhausted by a bloody and unsuccessful war, offered at Gertruydenberg to
+abandon his grandson, whom he had placed on the throne of Spain; and
+when affairs had changed their appearance, Charles of Austria, the rival
+of Philip, saw himself, in his turn, abandoned by his allies. They grew
+weary of exhausting their states in order to give him the possession of
+a crown which they believed to be his due, but which, to all appearance,
+they should never be able to procure for him.&quot;&mdash;Book II. ch. xii. &sect;&sect;
+196, 197.</p>
+
+
+<h3>DANGEROUS POWER.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">All nations may join.</span>&quot;It is still easier to prove, that, should this formidable power betray
+any unjust and ambitious dispositions by doing the least injustice to
+another, every nation may avail themselves of the occasion, and join
+their forces to those of the party injured, in order to reduce that
+ambitious power, and disable it from so easily oppressing its neighbors,
+or keeping them in continual awe and fear. For an injury gives a nation
+a right to provide for its future safety by taking away from the
+violator the means of oppression. It is lawful, and even praiseworthy,
+to assist those who are oppressed, or unjustly attacked.&quot;&mdash;Book III. ch.
+iii. &sect; 45.<a name="Page_479" id="Page_479" title="479" class="pagenum"></a></p>
+
+
+<h3>SYSTEM OF EUROPE.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">Europe a republic to preserve order and liberty.</span>&quot;Europe forms a political system, a body where the whole is connected by
+the relations and different interests of nations inhabiting this part of
+the world. It is not, as anciently, a confused heap of detached pieces,
+each of which thought itself very little concerned in the fate of
+others, and seldom regarded things which did not immediately relate to
+it. The continual attention of sovereigns to what is on the carpet, the
+constant residence of ministers, and <i>the perpetual negotiations, make
+Europe a kind of a republic, the members of which, though independent,
+unite, through the ties of common interest, for the maintenance of order
+and liberty</i>. Hence arose that famous scheme of the political
+equilibrium, or balance of power, by which is understood such a
+disposition of things as no power is able absolutely to predominate or
+to prescribe laws to others.&quot;&mdash;Book III. ch. iii. &sect; 47.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confederacies would be a sure way of preserving the equilibrium, and
+supporting the liberty of nations, did all princes thoroughly understand
+their true interests, and regulate all their steps for the good of the
+state.&quot;&mdash;Ibid. &sect; 49.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sidenote">To be moderate.</span>&quot;Instead of the pillage of the country and defenceless places, a custom
+has been substituted more humane and more advantageous to the sovereign
+making war: I mean that of contributions. Whoever carries on <i>a just
+war<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor" title=" Contributions raised by the Duke of Brunswick in France.
+Compare these with the contributions raised by the French in the
+Netherlands.&mdash;EDIT.">[41]</a> has a right of making the enemy's <a name="Page_480" id="Page_480" title="480" class="pagenum"></a>country contribute to the
+support of the army, and towards defraying all the charges of the war</i>.
+Thus he obtains a part of what is due to him, and the subjects of the
+enemy, on submitting to this imposition, are secured from pillage, and
+the country is preserved. But a general who would not sully his
+reputation is to moderate his contributions, and proportion them to
+those on whom they are imposed. An excess in this point is not without
+the reproach of cruelty and inhumanity: if it shows less ferocity than
+ravage and destruction, it glares with avarice.&quot;&mdash;Book III. ch. ix. &sect;
+165.</p>
+
+
+<h3>ASYLUM.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;If an exile or banished man is driven from his country for any crime,
+it does <i>not</i> belong to the nation in which he has taken refuge to
+punish him for a fault committed in a foreign country. For Nature gives
+to mankind and to nations the right of punishing only for their defence
+and safety (&sect; 169): whence it follows that he can only be punished by
+those he has offended.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But this reason shows, that, if the justice of each nation ought in
+general to be confined to the punishment of crimes committed in its own
+territories, we ought to except from this rule the villains who, by the
+quality and habitual frequency of their crimes, violate all public
+security, and declare themselves the enemies of the human race.
+Poisoners, assassins, and incendiaries by profession may be exterminated
+wherever they are seized; for they attack and injure all nations by
+trampling under foot the foundations of their common safety. Thus
+pirates are brought to the gibbet by the first into whose hands <a name="Page_481" id="Page_481" title="481" class="pagenum"></a>they
+fall. If the sovereign of the country where crimes of that nature have
+been committed reclaims the authors of them in order to bring them to
+punishment, they ought to be restored to him, as to one who is
+<i>principally</i> interested in punishing them in an exemplary manner: and
+it being proper to convict the guilty, and to try them according to some
+form of law, this is a <i>second</i> [not sole] reason why malefactors are
+usually delivered up at the desire of the state where their crimes have
+been committed.&quot;&mdash;Book I. ch. xix. &sect;&sect; 232, 233.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every nation has a right of refusing to admit a stranger into the
+country, when he cannot enter it without putting it in evident danger,
+or without doing it a remarkable prejudice.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor" title=" The third article of the Treaty of Triple Alliance and the
+latter part of the fourth article of the Treaty of Quadruple Alliance
+stipulate, that no kind of refuge or protection shall be given to
+rebellious subjects of the contracting powers.&mdash;EDIT.">[42]</a>&mdash;Ibid. &sect; 230.</p>
+
+
+<h3>FOREIGN MINISTERS.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;The obligation does not go so far as to suffer at all times perpetual
+ministers, who are desirous of residing with a sovereign, though they
+have nothing to negotiate. It is natural, indeed, and very agreeable to
+the sentiments which nations owe to each other, that these resident
+ministers, <i>when there it nothing to be feared from their stay</i>, should
+be friendly received; but if there be any solid reason against this,
+what is for the good of the state ought unquestionably to be preferred:
+and the foreign sovereign cannot take it amiss, if his minister, who has
+concluded the affairs of his commission, and has no other affairs to
+negotiate, be desired to depart.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor" title=" Dismission of M. Chauvelin.&mdash;EDIT.">[43]</a> The custom of keeping every<a name="Page_482" id="Page_482" title="482" class="pagenum"></a>where
+ministers continually resident is now so strongly established, that the
+refusal of a conformity to it would, without <i>very good reasons</i>, give
+offence. These reasons may arise from <i>particular</i> conjunctures; but
+there are also common reasons always subsisting, and such as relate to
+<i>the constitution of a government and the state of a nation</i>. The
+republics have often very good reasons of the latter kind to excuse
+themselves from continually suffering foreign ministers who <i>corrupt the
+citizens in order to gain them over to their masters, to the great
+prejudice of the republic and fomenting of the parties</i>, &amp;c. And should
+they only diffuse among a nation, formerly plain, frugal, and virtuous,
+a taste for luxury, avidity for money, and the manners of courts, these
+would be more than sufficient for wise and provident rulers to dismiss
+them.&quot;&mdash;Book IV. ch. v. &sect; 66.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> This is the case of France:&mdash;Semonville at Turin,&mdash;Jacobin
+clubs,&mdash;Liegeois meeting,&mdash;Flemish meeting,&mdash;La Fayette's
+answer,&mdash;Clootz's embassy,&mdash;Avignon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> The French acknowledge no power not directly emanating
+from the people.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> By the seventh article of the Treaty of TRIPLE ALLIANCE,
+between France, England, and Holland, signed at the Hague, in the year
+1717, it is stipulated, &quot;that, if the kingdoms, countries, or provinces
+of any of the allies are disturbed by intestine quarrels, or <i>by
+rebellions, on account of the said successions</i>,&quot; (the Protestant
+succession to the throne of Great Britain, and the succession to the
+throne of France, as settled by the Treaty of Utrecht,) &quot;or <i>under any
+other pretext whatever</i>, the ally thus in trouble shall have full right
+to demand of his allies the succors above mentioned&quot;: that is to say,
+the same succors as in the case of an invasion from any foreign
+power,&mdash;8,000 foot and 2,000 horse to be furnished by France or England,
+and 4,000 foot and 1,000 horse by the States-General.
+</p><p>
+By the fourth article of the Treaty of QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, between
+England, France, Holland, and the Emperor of Germany, signed in the year
+1718, the contracting powers &quot;promise and oblige themselves that they
+will and ought to maintain, guaranty, and defend the right of succession
+in the kingdom of France, according to the tenor of the treaties made at
+Utrecht the 11th day of April, 1713; ... and this they shall perform
+<i>against all persons whosoever who may presume to disturb the order of
+the said succession</i>, in contradiction to the previous acts and treaties
+subsequent thereon.&quot;
+</p><p>
+The above treaties have been revived and confirmed by every subsequent
+treaty of peace between Great Britain and France.&mdash;EDIT.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Contributions raised by the Duke of Brunswick in France.
+Compare these with the contributions raised by the French in the
+Netherlands.&mdash;EDIT.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> The third article of the Treaty of Triple Alliance and the
+latter part of the fourth article of the Treaty of Quadruple Alliance
+stipulate, that no kind of refuge or protection shall be given to
+rebellious subjects of the contracting powers.&mdash;EDIT.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Dismission of M. Chauvelin.&mdash;EDIT.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>END OF VOL. IV.</h3>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable
+Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12), by Edmund Burke
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