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diff --git a/15700.txt b/15700.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9364d2e --- /dev/null +++ b/15700.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13389 @@ +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. 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