,,selections ,,from ,,the ,,speeches ,,and ,,writings ,,of ,,edmund ,,burke4 ,by ,edmund ,burke ,,introductory ,,essay4 444 ,id dico1 eum qui sit orator1 virum bonum esse oportere4 ,in omnibus quae dicit tanta auctoritas inest1 ut dissentire pudeat2 nec advocati studium1 sed testis aut judicis afferat fidem4--,quintilianus4 ,democracy is the most monstrous of all governments1 because it is impossible at once to act and control2 and1 consequently1 the ,sovereign ,power is then left without any restraint whatever4 ,that form of government is the best which places the efficient direction in the hands of the aristocracy1 subjecting them in its exercise to the control of the people at large4--,sir ,james ,mackintosh4 444 ,the intellectual homage of more than half a century has assigned to ,edmund ,burke a lofty pre-eminence in the aristocracy of mind1 and we may justly assume succeeding ages will confirm the judgment which the ,past has thus pronounced4 ,his biographical history is so popularly known1 that it is almost superfluous to record it in this brief introduction4 ,it may1 however1 be summed up in a few sentences4 ,he was born at ,dublin in #agcj4 ,his father was an attorney in extensive practice1 and his mother's maiden name was ,nogle1 whose family was respectable1 and resided near ,castletown1 ,roche1 where ,burke himself received five years of boyish education under the guidance of a rustic schoolmaster4 ,he was entered at ,trinity ,college1 ,dublin1 in #agdf1 but only remained there until #agdi4 ,in #agec he became a member of the ,middle ,temple1 and maintained himself chiefly by literary toil4 ,bristol did itself the honour to elect him for her representative in #aggd1 and after years of splendid usefulness and mental triumph1 as an orator1 statesman1 and patriot1 he retired to his favourite retreat1 ,beaconsfield1 in ,buckinghamshire1 where he died on ,july #ith1 #agig4 ,he was buried here2 and the pilgrim who visits the grave of this illustrious man1 when he gazes on the simple tomb which marks the earthly resting place of himself1 brother1 son1 and widow1 may feelingly recall his own pathetic wish uttered some forty years before1 in ,london3--,i would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard1 than in the tomb of the ,capulets4 ,i should like1 however1 that my dust should mingle with kindred dust4 ,the good old expression1 'family burying-ground1' has something pleasing in it1 at least to me4 ,alluding to his approaching dissolution1 he thus speaks1 in a letter addressed to a relative of his earliest schoolmaster3--,i have been at ,bath these four months for no purpose1 and am therefore to be removed to my own house at ,beaconsfield to-morrow1 to be nearer a habitation more permanent1 humbly and fearfully hoping that my better part may find a better mansion4 ,it is a source of deep thankfulness for those who reverence the genius and eloquence of this great man1 to state1 that ,burke's religion was that of the ,cross1 and to find him speaking of the ,intercession of our ,redeeming ,lord1 as what he had long sought with unfeigned anxiety1 and to which he looked with trembling hope4 ,the commencing paragraph in his ,will also authenticates the genuine character of his personal ,christianity4 ,according to the ancient1 good1 and laudable custom1 of which my heart and understanding recognise the propriety1 ,i ,,bequeath ,,my ,,soul ,,to ,,god1 ,,hoping ,,for ,,his ,,mercy ,,only ,,through ,,the ,,merits ,,of ,,our ,,lord ,,and ,,saviour ,,jesus ,,christ4 ,my body ,i desire to be buried in the church of ,beaconsfield1 near to the bodies of my dearest brother1 and my dearest son1 in all humility praying1 that as we have lived in perfect unity together1 we may together have part in the resurrection of the just4 7,in the ,epistolary ,correspondence of the ,right ,hon4 ,edmund ,burke and ,dr4 ,french ,laurence1 ,rivingtons1 ,london1 #ahbg71 are several touching allusions to that master-grief which threw a mournful shadow over the closing period of ,burke's life4 ,in one letter the anxious father says1 ,the fever continues much as it was4 ,he sleeps in a very uneasy way from time to time8-but his strength decays visibly1 and his voice is1 in a manner1 gone4 ,but ,god is all-sufficient--and surely ,his goodness and his mother's prayers may do much 7page #cj74 ,again1 in another communication addressed to his revered correspondent1 we find a beautiful allusion to his departed son1 which involves his belief in that most soothing doctrine of the ,church1--a recognition of souls in the kingdom of the ,beatified4 ,here ,i am in the last retreat of hunted infirmity2 ,i am indeed 'aux abois4' ,but1 as through the whole of a various and long life ,i have been more indebted than thankful to ,providence1 so ,i am now singularly so1 in being dismissed1 as hitherto ,i appear to be1 so gently from life1 ,,and ,,sent ,,to ,,follow ,,those ,,who ,,in ,,course ,,ought ,,to ,,have ,,followed ,,me1 ,,whom1 ,i ,,trust1 ,i ,,shall ,,yet1 ,,in ,,some ,,inconceivable ,,manner1 ,,see ,,and ,,know2 ,,and ,,by ,,whom ,i ,,shall ,,be ,,seen ,,and ,,known 7pages #ec1 #ed74 ,in reference to the intellectual grandeur1 the eloquent genius1 and prophetic wisdom of ,burke1 which have caused his writings to become oracles for future statesmen to consult1 it is quite unnecessary for contemporary criticism to speak4 ,by the concurring judgment1 both of political friends and foes1 as well as by the highest arbiters of taste throughout the civilized world1 ,burke has been pronounced1 not only primus inter pares1 but facile omnium princeps4 ,at the termination of these introductory remarks1 the reader will be presented with critical portraitures of ,burke from the writings and speeches of men1 who1 while opposed to him in their principles of legislative policy1 with all the chivalry and candour of genius paid a noble homage to the vastness and variety of his unrivalled powers4 ,meanwhile1 it may not be presumptuous for a writer1 on an occasion like the present1 to contemplate this great man under certain aspects1 which1 perhaps1 are not sufficiently regarded in their ,,distinctive bearings on the worth and wisdom of his character and writings4 ,we say distinctive1 because the eloquence of ,burke1 beyond that of all other orators and statesmen which ,great ,britain has produced1 is featured with expressions1 and characterised by qualities1 as peculiar as they are immortal4 ,so far as invention1 imagination1 moral fervour1 and metaphorical richness of illustration1 combined with that intense pathos and ethos1 which the ,roman critic describes 7,huc igitur incumbat orator3 hoc opus ejus1 hic labor est2 sine quo caetera nuda1 jejuna1 infirma1 ingrata sunt3 adeo velut spiritus operis hujus atque animus est ,,in ,,affectibus4 ,horum autem1 sicut antiquitus traditum accepimus1 duae sunt species3 alteram ,graeci pathos vocant1 quem nos vertentes recte ac proprie ,,affectum dicimus2 alteram ethos1 cujus nomine 7ut ego quidem sentio7 caret sermo ,romanus1 mores appellantur4--,quintilian1 ,instit4 ,orat4 lib4 vi4 cap4 #b47 as essential to the true orator1 are concerned1 the author of ,reflections on the ,french ,revolution1 and ,letters on a ,regicide ,peace1 is justly admired and appreciated4 ,moreover1 if what we understand by the sublime in eloquence has ever been embodied1 the speeches and writings of ,burke appear to have been drawn from those five sources 7pegai7 to which ,longinus alludes4 ,in the #hth chapter of his fragment ,on the ,sublime1 he observes1 that if we assume an ability for speaking well1 as a common basis1 there are five copious fountains from whence sublimity in eloquence may be said to flow2 viz4 #a4 ,boldness and grandeur of thought4 #b4 ,the pathetic1 or the power of exciting the passions into an enthusiastic reach and noble degree4 #c4 ,a skilful application of figures1 both from sentiment and language4 #d4 ,a graceful1 finished1 and ornate style1 embellished by tropes and metaphors4 #e4 ,lastly1 as that which completes all the rest1--the structure of periods1 in dignity and grandeur4 ,these five sources of the sublime1 the same philosophical critic distinguishes into two classes2 the first two he asserts to be gifts of nature1 and the remaining three are considered to depend1 in a great measure1 upon literature and art4 ,again1 if we may linger for a moment in the attractive region of classical authorship1 how justly applicable are the words of ,cicero in his ,de ,oratore1 to the vastness and variety of ,burke's attainments6 ,ac mea quidem sententia1 nemo poterit esse omni laude cumulatus orator1 nisi erit ,,omnium ,,rerum ,,magnarum ,,atque ,,artium ,,scientiam ,,consecutus4--,cic4 ,de ,orat4 lib4 i4 cap4 #f4 ,equally descriptive of ,burke's power in raising the dormant sensibilities of our moral nature by his intuitive perception of what that nature really and fundamentally is1 are the following expressions of the same great authority3--,quis enim nescit1 maximam vim existere oratoris1 in hominum mentibus vel ad iram aut ad odium1 aut dolorem incitandis1 vel1 ab hisce1 iisdem permonitionibus1 ad lenitatem misericordiamque revocandis8 ,quare1 ,,nisi ,,qui ,,naturas ,,hominum1 ,,vimque ,,omnem ,,humanitatis1 ,,causasque ,,eas ,,quibus ,,mentes ,,aut ,,excitantur1 ,,aut ,,reflectuntur1 ,,penitus ,,perspexerit1 ,,dicendo1 ,,quod ,,volet1 ,,perficere ,,non ,,poterit4--,cic4 ,de ,orat4 lib4 i4 cap4 #ab4 ,but to return4 ,if a critical analysis of ,burke1 as an exhibition of genius1 be attempted1 his characteristic endowments may1 probably1 be not incorrectly represented by the following succinct statement4 #a4 ,endless variety in connection with exhaustless vigour of mind4 #b4 ,a lofty power of generalisation1 both in speculative views and in his argumentative process4 #c4 ,vivid intensity of conception1 which caused abstractions to stand out with almost living force and visible feature1 in his impassioned moments4 #d4 ,an imagination of oriental luxuriance1 whose incessant play in tropes1 metaphors1 and analogies1 frequently causes his speeches to gleam on the intellectual eye1 as ,aeschylus says the ocean does1 when the ,sun irradiates its bosom with the anerithmon gelasma of countless beams4 #e4 ,his positive acquirements in all the varied realms of art1 science1 and literature1 endowed him with such vast funds of knowledge 7,in the wealth of his multitudinous acquirements1 ,burke seems to realise ,cicero's ideal of what a perfect orator should know3--,equidem omnia1 quae pertinent ad usum civium1 morem hominum1 quae versantur in consuetudine vitae1 in ratione reipublicae1 in hac societate civili1 in sensu hominum communi1 in natura1 in moribus1 co hendenda esse oratori puto4--,cicero ,de ,orat4 lib4 ii4 cap4 #af471 that ,johnson declared of ,burke--,enter upon what subject you will1 and ,burke is ready to meet you4 #f4 ,in addition to these high gifts1 may be added1 an ability to wield the weapons of sarcasm and irony1 with a keenness of application and effect rarely equalled4 ,but1 in all candour1 it may be added1 that just as a profusion of figures and metaphors sometimes tempted this great orator into incongruous images and coarse analogies1 so his passion for irony was occasionally too intense4 ,hence1 there are occasions where his pungency is embittered into acrimony1 strength degenerates into vulgarism1 and the vehemence of satire is infuriated with the fierceness of invective4 #g4 ,with regard to language and style1 it may be truly said1 they were the absolute vassals of his ,genius1 and did homage to its command in every possible mode by which it chose to employ them4 ,thus1 in his ,letters on a ,regicide ,peace1 and above all1 in ,french ,revolutions1 the reader will find almost every conceivable manner of style and mode of expression the ,english language can develop2 and what is more1--together with classical richness1 there are also the pointed seriousness and persuasive simplicity of our own vernacular ,saxon1 which increase the attractions of ,burke's style to a wonderful extent4 ,but1 beyond controversy1 among these great endowments1 the imaginative faculty is that which appears to be the most transcendent in the mental constitution of ,burke4 ,and so truly is this the case1 that both among his contemporaries1 as well as among his successors1 this predominance of imagination has caused his just claims as a philosophic thinker and statesman to be partially overlooked4 ,the union of ideal theory and practical realisation1 of imaginative creation with logical induction1 is indeed so rare1 we cannot be surprised at the injustice which the genius of ,burke has had to endure in this respect4 ,and yet1 in the nature of our faculties themselves1 there exists no necessity why a vivid power to conceive ideas1 should ,,not be combined with a dialectic skill in expressing them4 ,degerando1 an admirable ,french writer1 in one of his ,treatises1 has some profound observations on this subject2 and does not hesitate to define poetry itself as a species of logique cachee4 ,but when we assert that these excellencies1 which have thus been succinctly exhibited1 characterise the mental constitution of ,burke1 we do not mean that others have not1 in their degree1 possessed similar endowments4 ,such an inference would be an absurd extravagance4 ,but what we mean to affirm is--the qualifications enumerated have never been combined into co-operative harmony1 and developed in proportionable effect1 as they appear in the speeches and writings of this wonderful man4 ,but after all1 we have not reached what may be considered a peerless excellence1 the peculiar gift1--the one great and glorious distinction1 which separates ,burke's oratory from that of all others1 and which has caused his speeches to be blended with political ,history1 and to incorporate themselves with the moral destiny of ,europe1--namely1 ,,his ,,intuitive ,,perception ,,of ,,universal ,,principles4 ,the truth of this statement may be verified1 by comparing the eloquence of ,burke with specimens of departed orators2 or by a reference to existing standards in the parliamentary debates4 ,compared1 then1 either with the speeches of ,chatham1 ,holland1 ,pitt1 ,fox1 etc4 etc41 we perceive at once the grand distinction to which we refer4 ,these illustrious men were effective debaters1 and1 in various senses1 orators of surpassing excellency4 ,but how is it1 that with all their allowed grandeur of intellect and political eminence1 they have ceased to operate upon the hearts and minds of the present ,age1 either as teachers of political ,truth1 or oracles of legislative ,wisdom8 ,simply1 ,,because they were too popular in temporary effect1 ever to become influential by permanent inspiration4 ,in their highest moods1 and amid their noblest hours of triumph1 they were of the earth earthy4 ,party2 personality2 crushing rejoinders1 or satirical attacks2 a felicitous exposure of inconsistency1 or a triumphant self-vindication2 brilliant repartees1 and logical gladiatorship1--such are among the prominent characteristics which caused parliamentary debates in ,burke's day to be so animating and interesting to those who heard1 or perused them1 amid the excitements of the hour4 ,it is not to be denied that commanding eloquence1 vast genius1 political ardour1 intellectual enthusiasm1 together with indignant denunciation and argumentative subtlety1 were thus summoned into exercise by the perils of the ,nation1 and the contentions of ,party4 ,nevertheless1 the local1 the temporal1 the conventional1 and the individual1 in all which relates to the science of politics or the tactics of partisanship1--are sufficient to excite and employ the energies and qualities which made the general parliamentary debates of ,burke's period so captivating4 ,but when we revert to his own speeches and writings1 we at once perceive ,,why1 as long as the mind can comprehend what is true1 the heart appreciate what is pure1 or the conscience authenticate the sanction of heaven and the distinctions between right and wrong1--,edmund ,burke will continue to be admired1 revered1 and consulted1 not only as the greatest of ,english orators1 but as the profoundest teacher of political ,science4 ,it was not that he despised the arrangement of facts1 or overlooked the minutiae of detail2 on the contrary1 as may be proved by his speeches on economical reform1 and ,warren ,hastings2 in these respects his research was boundless1 and his industry inexhaustible4 ,moreover1 he was quite alive to the claims of a crisis1 and with the coolness and calm of a practical statesman1 knew how to confront a sudden emergency1 and to contend with a gigantic difficulty4 ,yet all these qualifications recede before ,burke's amazing power of expanding particulars into universals1 and of associating the accidents of a transient discussion with the essential properties of some permanent ,law in policy1 or abstract ,truth in morals4 ,his genius looked through the local to the universal2 in the temporal perceived the eternal2 and while facing the features of the ,individual1 was enabled to contemplate the attributes of a ,race4 7,cicero1 in many respects a counterpart of ,burke1 both in statesmanship and oratory1 appears to recognise what is here expressed when he says3--,plerique duo genera ad dicendum dederunt2 ,,unum ,,de ,,certa ,,definitaque ,,causa1 quales sunt quae in litibus1 quae in deliberationibus versantur2--alterum1 quod appellant omnes fere scriptores1 explicat nemo1 ,,infinitam ,,generis ,,sine ,,tempore1 ,,et ,,sine ,,persona quaestionem4--,de ,orat4 lib4 ii4 cap4 #ae47 ,hence his speeches are virtual prophecies2 and his writings a storehouse of pregnant axioms and predictive enunciations1 as limitless in their range as they are undying in duration4 ,in one word1 no speeches delivered in the ,english ,parliament1 are so likely to be eternalized as ,burke's1 because he has combined with his treatment of some especial case or contingency before him1 the assertion of immutable ,principles1 which can be detached from what is local and national1 and thus made to stand forth alone in all the naked grandeur of their truth and their tendency4 ,let us be permitted to investigate this topic a little further4 ,if1 then1 what ,quintilian asserted of the ,roman orator may be applied to our own ,british ,cicero1--,ille se profecisse sciat1 cui ,cicero valde placebit2 and if1 moreover1 this pre-eminence be chiefly discovered in ,burke's instinctive grasp of that moral essence which is incorporated with all questions of political ,science1 and social ,ethics--from ,,whence came this diviner energy of his ,genius8 ,no believer in ,christian revelation will hesitate to appropriate1 even to this subject1 the apostolic axiom1 ,,every good gift1 and ,,every perfect gift is from above4 ,but while we subscribe with reverential sincerity to this announcement1 it is equally true1 that the ,infinite ,inspirer of all good adjusts ,his secret energies by certain laws1 and condescends to work by analogous means4 ,bearing this in mind1 we venture to think ,burke's gift of almost prescient insight into the recesses of our common nature1 and his consummate faculty of instructing the ,future through the medium of the ,present1--were partly derived from the elevation of his sentiments1 and the purity of his private life4 7,the action and reaction maintained between our moral and intellectual elements is but remotely discussed by ,quintilian in his ,institutes4 ,but still1 in more than one passage1 he most impressively declares1 that mental proficiency is greatly retarded by perversity of heart and will4 ,for instance1 on one occasion we find him speaking thus3--,nihil enim est tam occupatum1 tam multiforme1 tot ac tam variis affectibus concisum1 atque laceratum1 quam mala ac improba mens4 ,quis inter haec1 literis1 aut ulli bonae arti1 locus8 ,non hercle magis quam frugibus1 in terra sentibus ac rubis occupata4--,nothing is so flurried and agitated1 so self-contradictory1 or so violently rent and shattered by conflicting passions1 as a bad heart4 ,in the distractions which it produces1 what room is there for the cultivation of letters1 or the pursuits of any honourable art8 ,assuredly1 no more than there is for the growth of corn in a field overrun with thorns and brambles47 ,it would be unwise to draw invidious comparisons1 but no student of the period in which ,burke was in ,parliament1 can deny that1 compared with ,,some of his illustrious contemporaries1 he was indeed a model of what reason and conscience alike approve in all the relative duties and personal conduct of a man1 when beheld in his domestic career4 ,it is1 indeed1 a source of deep thankfulness1 the admirer of ,burke's genius in public1 has no reason to blush for his character in private2 and that when we have listened to his matchless oratory upon the arena of the ,house of ,commons1 we have not to mourn over dissipation1 impurity1 and depravity amid the circles of private history4 ,our theory1 then1 is1 that beyond what his distinctive genius inspired1 ,burke's wondrous power of enunciating everlasting principles and of associating the loftiest abstractions of wisdom with the commonest themes of the hour1--was sustained and strengthened by the purity of his heart1 and the subjection of passion to the law of conscience4 ,and if the worshippers of mere intellect1 apart from1 or as opposed to1 moral elevation1 are inclined to ridicule this view of ,burke's genius1 we beg to remind them1 that ,one greater than the ,temple of mortal ,wisdom1 and all the idols enshrined therein1 has asserted a positive connection to exist between mental insight and moral purity4 ,we allude to the ,redeemer's words1 when ,he declares1--,if any man ,,wills to do ,his will1 he shall ,,know of the doctrine4 ,,how the passions act upon our perceptions1 and by what process the motions of the ,will elevate or depress the forces of the ,intellect1 is beyond our metaphysics to analyse4 ,but that there exists a real1 active1 and influential connection between our moral and mental life1 is undeniable3 and since ,burke's power of seizing the essential ,idea1 or fundamental ,principle of every complex detail which came before him1 was pre-eminently his gift1--the intellectual insight such gift developed1 was not only an expression of senatorial wisdom1 but also a witness for the elevation of his moral character4 ,we must now allude to the public conduct of ,burke1 as a ,statesman and ,politician1 and only regret the limited range of a popular essay confines us to one view1 namely1 his alleged inconsistency4 ,there ,,was a period when charges of apostasy were brought against him with reckless audacity3 but ,time1 the instructor of ignorance1 and the subduer of prejudice1 is now beginning to place the conduct of ,burke in its true light4 ,the facts of the case are briefly these4 ,up to the period of #agia1 ,fox and ,burke fought in the same rank of opposition1 and stood together upon a basis of complete identity in principle and sentiment4 ,but even before the celebrated disruption of #agia1 the progress of ,republicanism in ,america1 and the approaching separation of the colonies from their parent state1 ,burke's views of political liberty had received extensive modifications2 and the ardour of his confidence in the so-called friends of freedom had been greatly cooled4 ,but in #agia1 the disruption between ,burke and ,fox became open1 absolute1 and final1 when the latter statesman uttered1 in the hearing of his friend1 this fearful eulogium on the ,french ,revolution3--,the new constitution of ,france is the most stupendous and glorious edifice of liberty which had been erected on the foundation of human integrity in any age or country6 7,that ancient ,sage unto whose political wisdom frequent reference has been made in this essay1 thus speaks on the reverence due unto an existing government1 even when contemplated from its weakest side3--,formidable as these arguments seem1 they may be opposed by others of not less weight2 arguments which prove that even the rust of government is to be respected1 and that its fabric is never to be touched but with a fearful and trembling hand4 ,when the evil of persevering in hereditary institutions is small1 it ought always to be endured1 because the evil of departing from them is certainly very great4 ,slight imperfections1 therefore1 whether in the laws themselves1 or in those who administer and execute the laws1 ought always to be overlooked1 because they cannot be corrected without occasioning a much greater mischief1 and tending to weaken that reverence which the safety of all governments requires that the citizens at large should entertain1 cultivate1 and cherish for the hereditary institutions of their country4 ,the comparison drawn from the improvement of arts does not apply to the amendment of laws4 ,to change or improve an art1 and to alter or amend a law1 are things as dissimilar in their operation as different in their tendency2 for laws operate as practical principles of moral action2 and1 like all the rules of morality1 derive their force and efficacy1 as even the name imports1 from the customary repetition of habitual acts1 and the slow operation of time4 ,every alteration of the laws1 therefore1 tends to subvert that authority on which the persuasive agency of all laws is founded1 and to abridge1 weaken1 and destroy the power of the law itself4--,aristotle's ,politics47 ,the reply of ,burke to this burst of ,jacobinism1 with all its consequences in the political history of ,europe1 is far too well known to be quoted here4 ,but1 since it was at this point in the career of ,burke the charge of apostasy was commenced1 and which has never quite died away1 even in existing times1 we may be permitted1 first1 to cite a noble passage from ,burke's self-vindication2 and secondly1 to adduce a still more impressive evidence of his political rectitude and wisdom1 derived from the admission of those who were once his uncompromising opponents4 ,in relation to the attacks of ,fox upon his supposed inconsistency1 ,mr4 ,burke thus replies3-- ,i pass to the next head of charge1--,mr4 ,burke's inconsistency4 ,it is certainly a great aggravation of his fault in embracing false opinions1 that in doing so he is not supposed to fill up a void1 but that he is guilty of a dereliction of opinions that are true and laudable4 ,this is the great gist of the charge against him4 ,it is not so much that he is wrong in his book 7that however is alleged also71 as that he has therein belied his whole life4 ,i believe1 if he could venture to value himself upon anything1 it is on the virtue of consistency that he would value himself the most4 ,strip him of this1 and you leave him naked indeed4 ,in the case of any man who had written something1 and spoken a great deal1 upon very multifarious matter1 during upwards of twenty-five years' public service1 and in as great a variety of important events as perhaps have ever happened in the same number of years1 it would appear a little hard1 in order to charge such a man with inconsistency1 to see collected by his friend1 a sort of digest of his sayings1 even to such as were merely sportive and jocular4 ,this digest1 however1 has been made1 with equal pains and partiality1 and without bringing out those passages of his writings which might tend to show with what restrictions any expressions1 quoted from him1 ought to have been understood4 ,from a great statesman he did not quite expect this mode of inquisition4 ,if it only appeared in the works of common pamphleteers1 ,mr4 ,burke might safely trust to his reputation4 ,when thus urged1 he ought1 perhaps1 to do a little more4 ,it shall be as little as possible1 for ,i hope not much is wanting4 ,to be totally silent on his charges would not be respectful to ,mr4 ,fox4 ,accusations sometimes derive a weight from the persons who make them1 to which they are not entitled for their matter4 ,a man who1 among various objects of his equal regard1 is secure of some1 and full of anxiety for the fate of others1 is apt to go to much greater lengths in his preference of the objects of his immediate solicitude than ,mr4 ,burke has ever done4 ,a man so circumstanced often seems to undervalue1 to vilify1 almost to reprobate and disown1 those that are out of danger4 ,this is the voice of nature and truth1 and not of inconsistency and false pretence4 ,the danger of anything very dear to us removes1 for the moment1 every other affection from the mind4 ,when ,priam had his whole thoughts employed on the body of his ,hector1 he repels with indignation1 and drives from him with a thousand reproaches1 his surviving sons1 who with an officious piety crowded about him to offer their assistance4 ,a good critic 7there is no better than ,mr4 ,fox7 would say1 that this is a master-stroke1 and marks a deep understanding of nature in the father of poetry4 ,he would despise a ,zoilus1 who would conclude from this passage that ,homer meant to represent this man of affliction as hating1 or being indifferent and cold in his affections to the poor relics of his house1 or that he preferred a dead carcass to his living children4 ,mr4 ,burke does not stand in need of an allowance of this kind1 which1 if he did1 by candid critics ought to be granted to him4 ,if the principles of a mixed constitution be admitted1 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 close4 ,i believe that gentleman has kept himself more clear of running into the fashion of wild1 visionary theories1 or of seeking popularity through every means1 than any man perhaps ever did in the same situation4 ,he was the first man who1 on the hustings1 at a popular election1 rejected the authority of instructions from constituents2 or who1 in any place1 has argued so fully against it4 ,perhaps the discredit into which that doctrine of compulsive instructions under our constitution is since fallen1 may be due1 in a great degree1 to his opposing himself to it in that manner1 and on that occasion4 ,the reformers in representation1 and the ,bills for shortening the duration of ,parliaments1 he uniformly and steadily opposed for many years together1 in contradiction to many of his best friends4 ,these friends1 however1 in his better days1 when they had more to hope from his service and more to fear from his loss than now they have1 never chose to find any inconsistency between his acts and expressions in favour of liberty1 and his votes on those questions4 ,but there is a time for all things4 ,we need not1 however1 confine our vindication of ,burke to his own eloquence1 but invite the especial attention of his accusers and defamers unto two forgotten facts3 #ast4 ,a few weeks before ,fox died1 he dictated a despatch to ,lord ,yarmouth1 which confirmed all the policy for which ,pitt for fifteen years had contended3 moreover1 in a debate on ,wyndham's ,military ,system1 #ahjf1 ,fox thus delivered his own recantation3--,indeed1 by the circumstances of ,europe1 ,i ,,am ,,ready ,,to ,,confess ,i ,,have ,,been ,,weaned ,,from ,,the ,,opinions ,i ,,formerly ,,held ,,with ,,respect ,,to ,,the ,,force ,,which ,,might ,,suffice ,,in ,,time ,,of ,,peace3 nor do ,i consider this any inconsistency1 because ,i see no rational prospect of any peace1 which would exempt us from the necessity of watchful preparation and powerful establishment4 ,but the change of ,fox's opinions1 and their similarity to those maintained by ,pitt1 with reference to our war with ,france1 are by no means ,,all which history can produce in justification of ,burke's political wisdom and consistency4 ,the whole civilized world has read the ,reflections on the ,french ,revolution1 whose sale1 in one year1 achieved the enormous number of #cj1jjj copies1 in connection with medals or marks of honour from almost every ,court in ,europe4 ,now1 of all the replies made to this masterpiece of reasoning and reflection1 ,mackintosh's ,vindiciae ,gallicae was incontestably the ablest and profoundest4 ,and yet1 the greatest of all his intellectual opponents thus addresses ,burke1 as appears from ,memoirs of ,mackintosh1 volume i4 page #hg3--,the enthusiasm with which ,i once embraced the instruction conveyed in your writings is now ripened into solid conviction by the experience and conviction of more mature age4 ,for a time1 ,,seduced ,,by ,,the ,,love ,,of ,,what ,i ,,thought ,,liberty1 ,i ventured to oppose1 without ceasing to venerate1 that writer who had nourished my understanding with the most wholesome principles of political wisdom444,since that time1 ,a ,,melancholy ,,experience ,,has ,,undeceived ,,me ,,on ,,many ,,subjects1 ,,in ,,which ,i ,,was ,,the ,,dupe ,,of ,,my ,,own ,,enthusiasm4 ,let us part from this branch of our subject by quoting ,burke's own words1 uttered1 as it were1 on the very brink of eternity4 ,they attest1 to the latest moment of his life1 with what a sacred intensity and unflinching sincerity he clung to his original sentiments touching the ,french ,revolution4 ,nor let the present writer shrink from adding1 they constitute but one of the many specimens of that instinctive prescience1 whereby this profoundest of philosophical statesmen was enabled to herald from afar the final triumphs of courage1 patriotism1 and truth4 ,the passage occurs towards the conclusion of his ,letters on a ,regicide ,peace1 and is as follows3--,never succumb4 ,it is a struggle for your existence as a nation4 ,if you must die1 die with the sword in your hand4 ,but ,i have no fear whatever for the result4 ,there is a salient living principle of energy in the public mind of ,england1 which only requires proper direction to enable her to withstand this1 or any other ferocious foe4 ,persevere1 therefore1 till this tyranny be over-past4 ,if from the glare of public history1 we follow this great man into the shades of domestic seclusion1 or watch the features of his social character unfolding themselves in the varied circle which he graced by his presence1 or dignified by his worth1--he is alike the object of respectful esteem and love4 ,warmth of heart1 chivalry of sentiment1 and that true high-breeding which springs from the soul rather than a pedigree1 eminently characterise the history of ,burke in private life4 ,above all1 a sympathising tendency for the children of ,genius1 and a catholic largeness of view in all which relates unto mental effort1 combined with the utmost charity for human failings and infirmities1--cannot but endear him to our deepest affections1 while his unrivalled endowments command our highest admiration4 ,to illustrate what is here alluded to1 let the reader recall ,burke's noble generosity towards that erratic victim of genius and grief1--the painter ,barry2 or his instantaneous sympathy in behalf of ,crabbe the poet1 when almost a foodless wanderer in our vast metropolis2 and our estimate of ,burke's excellencies as a man1 will not be deemed overdrawn4 ,it now remains for the selector of the following pages to offer a few remarks on their nature1 and design4 ,accustomed1 from the earliest period of his mental life to read and study the writings of ,edmund ,burke1 he has long wished that such a selection as now appears1 should be published4 ,the works of ,burke extend through a vast range of large volumes2 and it is feared thousands have been deterred from holding communion with a master-spirit of ,british literature1 by the magnitude of his labours4 ,hence1 a concentrated specimen of his intellect may not only tempt the reading public 7,coleridge's horror1 yet an author's friend67 to study some of ,burke's noblest passages1 but even ultimately to introduce them into a full acquaintance with his entire products4 ,let it be distinctly understood1 the selection now published1 is not a second-hand one1 grafted on some pre-existing volume2 but the result of a diligent1 careful1 and analytical perusal of ,burke's writings4 ,in attempting such a work1 there was one difficulty1 which none but those who have intimately studied this great orator can appreciate1--we allude to the giving general titles1 or descriptive headings1 to passages selected for quotation4 ,there is a mental fulness1 a moral variety1 and such a rapid transition of idea1 in most of ,burke's speeches1 that it almost baffles ability to abbreviate the spirit of his paragraphs1 so as to exhibit under some general head the bearing of the whole4 ,the selector1 in this respect1 can only say1 he has done his best2 and those who are most competent to appreciate difficulty1 will be least inclined to criticise failure4 ,finally1 as to the leading design of this volume1 its title1 ,first ,principles1 is sufficiently descriptive to save much explanation4 ,burke represents an unrivalled combination of patriot1 senator1 and orator2 and as such1 the moral and intellectual nature of the ,age will be purified and expanded1 when brought into contact with the attributes of his character1 and the productions of his mind4 ,nor can the meditative statesman1 whose party is his country1 and whose political creed is based upon a true philosophy of human nature1 forget1--that while the ,french revolution1 as involving ,,facts1 belongs to ,history1 as enclosing ,,principles1 it appertains to ,humanity3 and hence1 the abiding application of ,burke's profound views1 not only to ,france and ,england1 but to the world4 ,of course1 those who reverence the majesty of eloquence1 and are fascinated by a florid richness of style1 boundless imagination1 inexhaustible metaphor1 and all the attending graces of consummate rhetoric1 will also be charmed by the appropriate supply these pages afford4 ,but1 without seeking to be homiletical1 let the writer be permitted to add1 a far higher purpose than mere literary amusement1 or the gratification of taste1 is designed by the present volume4 ,it is the selector's most earnest hope1 that the ,first ,principles these pages so eloquently inculcate1 may be transcribed in all their purity1 loftiness1 and truth1 into the ,reason and ,conscience of his countrymen4 ,and among these1 for whose especial guidance he ventures to think the profound wisdom of these pages to be invaluable1 are the rising statesmen and senators of the day1 who are either being trained in our ,public ,schools1 at the ,universities1 or about to enter upon the difficult but inspiring arena of the ,house of ,commons4 ,in reference to this sphere of legislative action1 with all reverence to its claims and character1 let it be said1--material ends 7a boundless passion for physical good1 whether indulged in by a nation1 or professed by an individual1 is rebuked with solemn wisdom in the following passage from ,aristotle3--,the external advantages of power and fortune are acquired and maintained by virtue1 but virtue is not acquired and maintained by them2 and whether we consider the virtuous energies themselves1 or the fruits which they unceasingly produce1 ,,the ,,sovereign ,,good ,,of ,,life ,,must ,,evidently ,,be ,,found ,,in ,,moral ,,and ,,intellectual ,,excellence1 ,,moderately ,,supplied ,,with ,,external ,,accommodations1 ,,rather ,,than ,,in ,,the ,,greatest ,,accumulation ,,of ,,external ,,advantages1 ,,unimproved ,,and ,,unadorned ,,by ,,virtue4 ,external prosperity is1 indeed1 instrumental in producing happiness1 and1 therefore1 like every other instrument1 must have its assigned limits1 beyond which it is inconvenient or hurtful4 ,but to mental excellence no limit can be assigned2 the further it extends the more ,,useful it becomes1 if the epithet of ',,useful' need ever be added to that of ,,honourable4 ,besides this1 the relative importance of qualities is best estimated by that of their respective subjects4 ,but the mind1 both in itself and in reference to man1 is far better than the body1 or than property4 ,the excellencies of the mind1 therefore1 are in the same proportion to be preferred to the highest perfection of the body1 and the best disposition of external circumstances4 ,the two last are of a far inferior1 and merely subservient nature2 since no man of sense covets or pursues them1 but for the sake of the mind1 with a view to promote its genuine improvement and augment its native joys4 ,let this great truth then be acknowledged1--,a ,,truth ,,evinced ,,by ,,the ,,deity ,,himself1 ,,who ,,is ,,happy1 ,,not ,,from ,,any ,,external ,,cause1 ,,but ,,through ,,the ,,inherent ,,attributes ,,of ,,his ,,divine ,,nature4--,politics1 lib4 iv471 commercial objects1 and secular aggrandizement1 are now receiving an idolatrous homage and passionate regard1 which no ,christian patriot can contemplate without anxiety4 ,the ideal1 the imaginative1 and the religious element1 is almost sneered out of the ,house of ,commons at the existing moment2 and any glowing exhibition of oratory1 or splendid manifestation of intellect1 is derided1 as being unpractical and ill-adapted to the sobriety of the ,english ,senate6 ,against this heartless materialism and unholy mammon-worship1 ,burke's pages are a magnificent protest2 and are admirably suited to protect the political youth and dawning statesmen of our country1 from the blight and the blast of doctrines which decry ,enthusiasm as folly1 and condemn the ,beautiful as worthless and untrue4 ,ships1 colonies1 and commerce2 exports and imports2 taxes and imposts2 charters and civic arrangements1--none but a madman will depreciate what such themes involve1 of duty1 energy1 and zeal1 in political life4 ,still1 let it be fearlessly maintained1 neither wealth1 nor commerce1 ,,in ,,themselves1 can constitute the real greatness of an empire2 it is only because they stand in relation to the higher destinies and holier responsibilities of an ,empire1 that a true statesman will regard them as vitally wound up with the vigour and prosperity of national development4 ,such1 at least1 is the philosophy of ,politics1 breathed from the undying pages of ,edmund ,burke4 ,he who studies this great writer1 will1 more and more1 sympathise with what ,hooker taught1 and ,bishop ,sanderson inculcates4 ,in one word1 he will learn to venerate with increasing reverence ,,the ,,british ,,constitution1 as ,that peerless growth of patriotic mind1 ,the great eternal ,wonder of mankind6 ,burke traced the ultimate origin of civil government to the ,divine ,will1 both as declared in ,revelation1 and imaged forth by the moral ,constitution of man4 ,in this respect1 it is well-known how fundamentally he differs from the theories of ,hobbes1 ,mandeville1 ,shaftesbury1 and ,hutcheson4 ,not less also1 is he opposed to ,locke1 who tells us1--,the original compact which begins and ,,actually ,,constitutes ,,any ,,political ,,society1 ,,is ,,nothing ,,but ,,the ,,consent ,,of ,,any ,,number ,,of ,,freemen ,,capable ,,of ,a ,,majority1 ,,to ,,unite ,,and ,,incorporate ,,into ,,such ,a ,,society4 ,,and ,,this ,,is ,,that1 ,,and ,,that ,,only1 ,,which ,,could ,,give ,,beginning ,,to ,,any ,,lawful ,,government ,,in ,,the ,,world4 ,in one word1 ,locke declares that civil government is not from ,god in the way of principle1 but from man in the way of fact2 and thus1 being a mere contingency1 or moral accident in the history of human development1 self-government is the essential prerogative of our nature4 ,in accordance with this irrational and unscriptural hypothesis1 we find ,price and ,priestly expanding ,locke's views at the period of ,burke2 while in the writings of that apostle of political ,antinomianism1 ,rousseau1 and his ,english counterpart ,tom ,paine1--the principles of the ,,assumed ,,contrat ,,social display their utmost virulence4 ,this is not the place to discuss the origin of ,civil ,government2 but the classical reader1 who has been taught to revere the political wisdom of those ancient ,teachers1 whose insight was almost prophetical in abstract science1 will thank us for an extract from ,aristotle's ,politics1 which bears upon this subject4 ,it presents a most striking coincidence of sentiment between two master-spirits on the philosophy of government2 and will at once remind the reader of ,burke's memorable passage1 beginning with1 ,society is a partnership1 etc4 etc4 ,the passage to which we allude in ,aristotle's ,politics1 begins thus3 ,ote men oun e polis phusei proteron e ekastos1 k4t4l4 ,the whole passage may be thus freely translated4 ,a participation in rights and advantages forms the bond of political society2 ,,an ,,institution ,,prior1 ,,in ,,the ,,intention ,,of ,,nature1 ,,to ,,the ,,families ,,and ,,individuals ,,from ,,whom ,,it ,,is ,,constituted4 ,what members are to the body1 that citizens are to a commonwealth4 ,the hands or foot1 when separated from the body1 retains its name1 but totally changes its nature1 because it is completely divested of its uses and powers4 ,in the same manner a citizen is a constituent part of a whole system1 which invests him with powers and qualifies him for functions for which1 in his individual capacity1 he is totally unfit2 and independently of such system1 he might subsist indeed as a lonely savage1 but could never attain that improved and happy state to which his progressive nature invariably tends4 ,perfected by the offices and duties of social life1 man is the best2 but1 rude and undisciplined1 he is the very worst1 of animals4 ,for nothing is more detestable than armed improbity2 and man is armed with craft and courage1 which1 uncontrolled by justice1 he will most wickedly pervert1 and become at once the most impious and fiercest of monsters1 the most abominable in gluttony1 and shameless in personality4 ,but justice is the fundamental virtue of political society1 since the order of ,society cannot be maintained without law1 and laws are constituted to proclaim what is just4 ,let us add to this noble passage1 ,aristotle remarks in his ,ethics 7lib4 x4 c4 #h71 that a higher destination than political virtue is the true end of man4 ,in this respect1 he concurs with ,plato2 who teaches us in his ,theaetetus1 the main object of human pursuit ought to be omoiosis to theo kata to dunaton1 etc4 etc42 i4e4 ,a similitude unto ,god as far as possible2 which similitude consists in an imitation of ,his justice1 holiness1 and wisdom4 ,to conclude3 the noblest end of all ,policy on earth1 is to educate ,human ,nature for that august politeuma 7,phil4 iii4 v4 #bj71 that ,eternal ,commonwealth which awaits perfected ,spirits above1 when1 through infinite grace1 they are finally admitted into a ,,city which hath foundations1 whose builder and maker is ,god4 7,heb4 xi4 #aj47 7,the dim approximations of ,platonic philosophy to certain discoveries in ,divine ,revelation1 have rightly challenged the attention of theological enquirers4 ,the above quotation from ,st4 ,paul suggests a reference to one of these1 which occurs towards the termination of ,plato's ninth book of ,the ,republic4 ,he is uttering a protest against our concluding1 that because degeneracy appears to be the invariable law or destiny of all human commonwealths1 ,,therefore1 no ,archetypal ,model exists of any perfect state1 or polity3 and then1 in opposition to this political scepticism1 ,plato adds these remarkable words3--en ourano isos paradeigma anakeitai to boulomeno oran kai oronti eauton katoikizein1 etc4 etc4--,the state we have here established1 which exists only in our reasoning1 but it seems to me1 ,,has ,,no ,,existence ,,on ,,earth4 ,,but ,,in ,,heaven1 ,,probably1 ,i ,,replied1 ,,there ,,is ,a ,,model ,,of ,,it ,,for ,,any ,,one ,,inclined ,,to ,,contemplate ,,the ,,same1 ,,and ,,by ,,so ,,contemplating ,,it1 ,,to ,,regulate ,,himself ,,accordingly47 ,,appendix4 ,the following are the critical sketches of ,burke's character1 alluded to in the commencement of this ,essay4 ,they are from the pens of his most distinguished contemporaries1 ,,who ,,were ,,opposed ,,to ,,him in their political views and public career4 7,from ,,sir ,,james ,,mackintosh47 ,there can be no hesitation in according to him a station among the most extraordinary men that ever appeared2 and we think there is now but little diversity of opinion as to the kind of place which it is fit to assign him4 ,he was a writer of the first class1 and excelled in almost every kind of composition4 ,possessed of most extensive knowledge1 and of the most various description2 acquainted alike with what different classes of men knew1 each in his own province1 and with much that hardly any one ever thought of learning2 he could either bring his masses of information to bear directly upon the subjects to which they severally belonged1--or he could avail himself of them generally to strengthen his faculties1 and enlarge his views1--or he could turn any of them to account for the purpose of illustrating his theme1 or enriching his diction4 ,hence1 when he is handling any one matter1 we perceive that we are conversing with a reasoner or a teacher1 to whom almost every other branch of knowledge is familiar3 his views range over all the cognate objects2 his reasonings are derived from principles applicable to other themes1 as well as the one in hand2 arguments pour in from all sides1 as well as those which start up under our feet1--the natural growth of the path he is leading us over2 while to throw light round our steps1 and either explore its darkest places1 or serve for our recreation2 illustrations are fetched from a thousand quarters1 and an imagination marvellously quick to descry unthought of resemblances1 points to our use the stores1 which a love yet more marvellously has gathered from all ages and nations1 and arts and tongues4 ,we are1 in respect of the argument1 reminded of ,bacon's multifarious knowledge1 and the exuberance of his learned fancy2 whilst the many-lettered diction recalls to mind the first of ,english poets1 and his immortal verse1 rich with the spoils of all sciences and all times4 444 ,he produced but one philosophical treatise2 but no man lays down abstract principles more soundly1 or better traces their application4 ,all his works1 indeed1 even his controversial1 are so infused with general reflection1 so variegated with speculative discussion1 that they wear the air of the ,lyceum1 as well as the ,academy4 7,from ,,lord ,,erskine47 ,i shall take care to put ,burke's work on the ,french ,revolution into the hands of those whose principles are left to my protection4 ,i shall take care that they have the advantage of doing1 in the regular progression of youthful studies1 what ,i have done even in the short intervals of laborious life2 that they shall transcribe with their own hands from all the works of this most extraordinary person1 and from this last1 among the rest1 the soundest truths of religion1 the justest principles of morals1 inculcated and rendered delightful by the most sublime eloquence2 the highest reach of philosophy brought down to the level of common minds by the most captivating taste2 the most enlightened observations on history1 and the most copious collection of useful maxims for the experience of common life4 7,from ,,king1 ,bishop of ,rochester47 ,in the mind of ,mr4 ,burke political principles were not objects of barren speculation4 ,wisdom in him was always practical4 ,whatever his understanding adopted as truth1 made its way to his heart1 and sank deep into it2 and his ardent and generous feelings seized with promptitude every occasion of applying it to mankind4 ,where shall we find recorded exertions of active benevolence at once so numerous1 so varied1 and so important1 made by one man8 ,among those1 the redress of wrongs1 and the protection of weakness from the oppression of power1 were most conspicuous4 444 ,the assumption of arbitrary power1 in whatever shape it appeared1 whether under the veil of legitimacy1 or skulking in the disguise of ,state necessity1 or presenting the shameless front of usurpation--whether the prescriptive claim of ascendancy1 or the career of official authority1 or the newly-acquired dominion of a mob1--was the pure object of his detestation and hostility2 and this is not a fanciful enumeration of possible cases1 etc4 ,,selections ,,from ,,the ,,speeches ,,and ,,writings ,,of ,,edmund ,,burke4 ,,nature ,,and ,,functions ,,of ,,the ,,house ,,of ,,commons4 ,whatever alterations time and the necessary accommodation of business may have introduced1 this character can never be sustained1 unless the ,house of ,commons shall be made to bear some stamp of the actual disposition of the people at large4 ,it would 7among public misfortunes7 be an evil more natural and tolerable1 that the ,house of ,commons should be infected with every epidemical frenzy of the people1 as this would indicate some consanguinity1 some sympathy of nature with their constituents1 than that they should in all cases be wholly untouched by the opinions and feelings of the people out of doors4 ,by this want of sympathy they would cease to be a house of commons4 ,for it is not the derivation of the power of that house from the people1 which makes it in a distinct sense their representative4 ,the king is the representative of the people2 so are the lords1 so are the judges4 ,they all are trustees for the people1 as well as the commons2 because no power is given for the sole sake of the holder2 and although government certainly is an institution of ,divine authority1 yet its forms1 and the persons who administer it1 all originate from the people4 ,a popular origin cannot therefore be the characteristical distinction of a popular representative4 ,this belongs equally to all parts of government1 and in all forms4 ,the virtue1 spirit1 and essence of a house of commons consists in its being the express image of the feelings of the nation4 ,it was not instituted to be a control ,,upon the people1 as of late it has been taught1 by a doctrine of the most pernicious tendency4 ,it was designed as a control ,,for the people4 ,other institutions have been formed for the purpose of checking popular excesses2 and they are1 ,i apprehend1 fully adequate to their object4 ,if not1 they ought to be made so4 ,the ,house of ,commons1 as it was never intended for the support of peace and subordination1 is miserably appointed for that service2 having no stronger weapon than its mace1 and no better officer than its serjeant-at-arms1 which it can command of its own proper authority4 ,a vigilant and jealous eye over executory and judicial magistracy2 an anxious care of public money2 an openness1 approaching towards facility1 to public complaint2 these seem to be the true characteristics of a house of commons4 ,but an addressing house of commons1 and a petitioning nation2 a house of commons full of confidence1 when the nation is plunged in despair2 in the utmost harmony with ministers1 whom the people regard with the utmost abhorrence2 who vote thanks1 when the public opinion calls upon them for impeachments2 who are eager to grant1 when the general voice demands account2 who1 in all disputes between the people and administration1 presume against the people2 who punish their disorders1 but refuse even to inquire into the provocations to them2 this is an unnatural1 a monstrous state of things in this constitution4 ,such an assembly may be a great1 wise1 awful senate2 but it is not1 to any popular purpose1 a house of commons4 ,this change from an immediate state of procuration and delegation to a course of acting as from original power1 is the way in which all the popular magistracies in the world have been perverted from their purposes4 ,it is indeed their greatest and sometimes their incurable corruption4 ,for there is a material distinction between that corruption by which particular points are carried against reason 7this is a thing which cannot be prevented by human wisdom1 and is of less consequence71 and the corruption of the principle itself4 ,for then the evil is not accidental1 but settled4 ,the distemper becomes the natural habit4 ,,retrospect ,,and ,,resignation4 ,you are but just entering into the world2 ,i am going out of it4 ,i have played long enough to be heartily tired of the drama4 ,whether ,i have acted my part in it well or ill1 posterity will judge with more candour than ,i1 or than the present age1 with our present passions1 can possibly pretend to4 ,for my part1 ,i quit it without a sigh1 and submit to the sovereign order without murmuring4 ,the nearer we approach to the goal of life1 the better we begin to understand the true value of our existence1 and the real weight of our opinions4 ,we set out much in love with both3 but we leave much behind us as we advance4 ,we first throw away the tales along with the rattles of our nurses2 those of the priest keep their hold a little longer2 those of our governors the longest of all4 ,but the passions which prop these opinions are withdrawn one after another2 and the cool light of reason1 at the setting of our life1 shows us what a false splendour played upon these objects during our more sanguine seasons4 ,,modesty ,,of ,,mind4 ,if any inquiry thus carefully conducted should fail at last of discovering the truth1 it may answer an end perhaps as useful1 in discovering to us the weakness of our own understanding4 ,if it does not make us knowing1 it may make us modest4 ,if it does not preserve us from error1 it may at least from the spirit of error2 and may make us cautious of pronouncing with positiveness or with haste1 when so much labour may end in so much uncertainty4 ,,newton ,,and ,,nature4 ,when ,newton first discovered the property of attraction1 and settled its laws1 he found it served very well to explain several of the most remarkable phenomena in nature2 but yet with reference to the general system of things1 he could consider attraction but as an effect1 whose cause at that time he did not attempt to trace4 ,but when he afterwards began to account for it by a subtle elastic aether1 this great man 7if in so great a man it be not impious to discover anything like a blemish7 seemed to have quitted his usual cautious manner of philosophising3 since1 perhaps1 allowing all that has been advanced on this subject to be sufficiently proved1 ,i think it leaves us with as many difficulties as it found us4 ,that great chain of causes1 which linking one to another even to the throne of ,god himself1 can never be unravelled by any industry of ours4 ,when we go but one step beyond the immediate sensible qualities of things1 we go out of our depth4 ,all we do after is but a faint struggle1 that shows we are in an element which does not belong to us4 ,,theory ,,and ,,practice4 ,it is1 ,i own1 not uncommon to be wrong in theory1 and right in practice2 and we are happy that it is so4 ,men often act right from their feelings1 who afterwards reason but ill on them from principle3 but as it is impossible to avoid an attempt at such reasoning1 and equally impossible to prevent its having some influence on our practice1 surely it is worth taking some pains to have it just1 and founded on the basis of sure experience4 ,,induction ,,and ,,comparison4 ,we must not attempt to fly1 when we can scarcely pretend to creep4 ,in considering any complex matter1 we ought to examine every distinct ingredient in the composition1 one by one2 and reduce everything to the utmost simplicity2 since the condition of our nature binds us to a strict law and vary narrow limits4 ,we ought afterwards to re-examine the principles by the effect of the composition1 as well as the composition by that of the principles4 ,we ought to compare our subject with things of a similar nature1 and even with things of a contrary nature2 for discoveries may be1 and often are1 made by the contrast1 which would escape us on the single view4 ,the greater number of the comparisons we make1 the more general and the more certain our knowledge is likely to prove1 as built upon a more extensive and perfect induction4 ,,divine ,,power ,,on ,,the ,,human ,,idea4 ,whilst we consider the ,godhead merely as he is an object of the understanding1 which forms a complex idea of power1 wisdom1 justice1 goodness1 all stretched to a degree far exceeding the bounds of our comprehension1 whilst we consider the ,divinity in this refined and abstracted light1 the imagination and passions are little or nothing affected4 ,but because we are bound1 by the condition of our nature1 to ascend to these pure and intellectual ideas1 through the medium of sensible images1 to judge of these divine qualities by their evident acts and exertions1 it becomes extremely hard to disentangle our idea of the cause from the effect by which we are led to know it4 ,thus1 when we contemplate the ,deity1 his attributes and their operation1 coming united on the mind1 form a sort of sensible image1 and as such are capable of affecting the imagination4 ,now1 though in a just idea of the ,deity1 perhaps none of his attributes are predominant1 yet1 to our imagination1 his power is by far the most striking4 ,some reflection1 some comparing1 is necessary to satisfy us of his wisdom1 his justice1 and his goodness4 ,to be struck with his power1 it is only necessary that we should open our eyes4 ,but whilst we contemplate so vast an object1 under the arm1 as it were of almighty power1 and invested upon every side with omnipresence1 we shrink into the minuteness of our own nature1 and are1 in a manner1 annihilated before him4 ,,union ,,of ,,love ,,and ,,dread ,,in ,,religion4 ,true religion has1 and must have1 a large mixture of salutary fear2 and false religions have generally nothing else but fear to support them4 ,before the ,christian religion had1 as it were1 humanized the idea of the ,divinity1 and brought it somewhat nearer to us1 there was very little said of the love of ,god4 ,the followers of ,plato have something of it1 and only something2 the other writers of pagan antiquity1 whether poets or philosophers1 nothing at all4 ,and they who consider with what infinite attention1 by what a disregard of every perishable object1 through what long habits of piety and contemplation it is that any man is able to attain an entire love and devotion to the ,deity1 will easily perceive that it is not the first1 the most natural and the most striking1 effect which proceeds from that idea4 ,,office ,,of ,,sympathy4 ,whenever we are formed by nature to any active purpose1 the passion which animates us to it is attended with delight1 or a pleasure of some kind1 let the subject-matter be what it will2 and as our ,creator had designed that we should be united by the bond of sympathy1 he has strengthened that bond by a proportionable delight2 and there most where our sympathy is most wanted1--in the distresses of others4 ,,words4 ,natural objects affect us1 by the laws of that connexion which ,providence has established between certain motions and configurations of bodies1 and certain consequent feelings in our mind4 ,painting affects in the same manner1 but with the superadded pleasure of imitation4 ,architecture affects by the laws of nature1 and the law of reason2 from which latter result the rules of proportion1 which make a work to be praised or censured1 in the whole or in some part1 when the end for which it was designed is or is not properly answered4 ,but as to words2 they seem to me to affect us in a manner very different from that in which we are affected by natural objects1 or by painting or architecture2 yet words have as considerable a share in exciting ideas of beauty and of the sublime as many of those1 and sometimes a much greater than any of them4 ,,nature ,,anticipates ,,man4 ,whenever the wisdom of our ,creator intended that we should be affected with anything1 he did not confide the execution of his design to the languid and precarious operation of our reason2 but he endued it with powers and properties that prevent the understanding1 and even the will2 which1 seizing upon the senses and imagination1 captivate the soul before the understanding is ready either to join with them1 or to oppose them4 ,it is by a long deduction1 and much study1 that we discover the adorable wisdom of ,god in his works3 when we discover it1 the effect is very different1 not only in the manner of acquiring it1 but in its own nature1 from that which strikes us without any preparation from the sublime or the beautiful4 ,,self-,,inspection4 ,whatever turns the soul inward on itself1 tends to concentre its forces1 and to fit it for greater and stronger flights of science4 ,by looking into physical causes our minds are opened and enlarged2 and in this pursuit1 whether we take or whether we lose our game1 the chase is certainly of service4 ,,power ,,of ,,the ,,obscure4 ,poetry1 with all its obscurity1 has a more general1 as well as a more powerful1 dominion over the passions1 than the other art4 ,and ,i think there are reasons in nature1 why the obscure idea1 when properly conveyed1 should be more affecting than the clear4 ,it is our ignorance of things that causes all our admiration1 and chiefly excites our passions4 ,knowledge and acquaintance make the most striking causes affect but little4 ,it is thus with the vulgar2 and all men are as the vulgar in what they do not understand4 ,the ideas of eternity and infinity1 are among the most affecting we have3 and yet perhaps there is nothing of which we really understand so little1 as of infinity and eternity4 ,,female ,,beauty4 ,the object therefore of this mixed passion1 which we call love1 is the ,,beauty of the ,,sex4 ,men are carried to the sex in general1 as it is the sex1 and by the common law of nature2 but they are attached to particulars by personal ,,beauty4 ,i call beauty a social quality2 for where women and men1 and not only they1 but when other animals give us a sense of joy and pleasure in beholding them 7and there are many that do so71 they inspire us with sentiments of tenderness and affection towards their persons2 we like to have them near us1 and we enter willingly into a kind of relation with them1 unless we should have strong reasons to the contrary4 ,,novelty ,,and ,,curiosity4 ,curiosity is the most superficial of all the affections2 it changes its object perpetually1 it has an appetite which is very sharp1 but very easily satisfied2 and it has always an appearance of giddiness1 restlessness1 and anxiety4 ,curiosity1 from its nature1 is a very active principle2 it quickly runs over the greatest part of its objects1 and soon exhausts the variety which is commonly to be met with in nature2 the same things make frequent returns1 and they return with less and less of any agreeable effect4 ,in short1 the occurrences of life1 by the time we come to know it a little1 would be incapable of affecting the mind with any other sensations than those of loathing and weariness1 if many things were not adapted to affect the mind by means of other powers besides novelty in them1 and of other passions besides curiosity in ourselves4 ,,pleasures ,,of ,,analogy4 ,the mind of man has naturally a far greater alacrity and satisfaction in tracing resemblances than in searching for differences3 because by making resemblances we produce ,,new ,,images2 we unite1 we create1 we enlarge our stock2 but in making distinctions we offer no food at all to the imagination2 the task itself is more severe and irksome1 and what pleasure we derive from it is something of a negative and indirect nature4 ,,ambition4 ,god has planted in man a sense of ambition1 and a satisfaction arising from the contemplation of his excelling his fellows in something deemed valuable amongst them4 ,it is this passion that drives men to all the ways we see in use of signalizing themselves1 and that tends to make whatever excites in a man the idea of this distinction so very pleasant4 ,it has been so strong as to make very miserable men take comfort1 that they were supreme in misery2 and certain it is1 that1 where we cannot distinguish ourselves by something excellent1 we begin to take a complacency in some singular infirmities1 follies1 or defects of one kind or other4 ,it is on this principle that flattery is so prevalent2 for flattery is no more than what raises in a man's mind an idea of a preference which he has not4 ,,extensions ,,of ,,sympathy4 ,for sympathy must be considered as a sort of substitution1 by which we are put into the place of another man1 and affected in many respects as he is affected2 so that this passion may either partake of the nature of those which regard self-preservation1 and turning upon pain may be a source of the sublime2 or it may turn upon ideas of pleasure2 and then whatever has been said of the social affections1 whether they regard society in general1 or only some particular modes of it1 may be applicable here4 ,it is by this principle chiefly that poetry1 painting1 and other affecting arts1 transfuse their passions from one breast to another1 and are often capable of grafting a delight on wretchedness1 misery1 and death itself4 ,,philosophy ,,of ,,taste4 ,so far1 then1 as taste belongs to the imagination1 its principle is the same in all men2 there is no different in the manner of their being affected1 nor in the causes of the affection2 but in the ,,degree there is a difference1 which arises from two causes principally2 either from a greater degree of natural sensibility1 or from a closer and longer attention to the object4 ,,clearness ,,and ,,strength ,,in ,,style4 ,we do not sufficiently distinguish1 in our observations upon language1 between a clear expression and a strong expression4 ,these are frequently confounded with each other1 though they are in reality extremely different4 ,the former regards the understanding2 the latter belongs to the passions4 ,the one describes a thing as it is2 the latter describes it as it is felt4 ,now1 as there is a moving tone of voice1 an impassioned countenance1 an agitated gesture1 which affect independently of the things about which they are exerted1 so there are words1 and certain dispositions of words1 which being peculiarly devoted to passionate subjects1 and always used by those who are under the influence of any passion1 touch and move us more than those which far more clearly and distinctly express the subject-matter4 ,we yield to sympathy what we refuse to description4 ,the truth is1 all verbal description1 merely as naked description1 though never so exact1 conveys so poor and insufficient an idea of the thing described1 that it could scarcely have the smallest effect1 if the speaker did not call in to his aid those modes of speech that mark a strong and lively feeling in himself4 ,then1 by the contagion of our passions1 we catch a fire already kindled in another1 which probably might never have been struck out by the object described4 ,words1 by strongly conveying the passions1 by those means which we have already mentioned1 fully compensate for their weakness in other respects4 ,,unity ,,of ,,imagination4 ,since the imagination is only the representation of the senses1 it can only be pleased or displeased with the images1 from the same principle on which the sense is pleased or displeased with the realities2 and consequently there must be just as close an agreement in the imaginations as in the senses of men4 ,a little attention will convince us that this must of necessity be the case4 ,,effect ,,of ,,words4 ,if words have all their possible extent of power1 three effects arise in the mind of the hearer4 ,the first is1 the ,,sound2 the second1 the ,,picture1 or representation of the thing signified by the sound2 the third is1 the ,,affection of the soul produced by one or by both of the foregoing4 ,,compounded ,,abstract words1 of which we have been speaking 7honour1 justice1 liberty1 and the like71 produce the first and the last of these effects1 but not the second4 ,,simple ,,abstracts1 are used to signify some one simple idea without much adverting to others which may chance to attend it1 as blue1 green1 hot1 cold1 and the like2 these are capable of effecting all three of the purposes of words2 as the ,,aggregate words1 man1 castle1 horse1 etc4 are in a yet higher degree4 ,but ,i am of opinion1 that the most general effect1 even of these words1 does not arise from their forming pictures of the several things they would represent in the imagination2 because1 on a very diligent examination of my own mind1 and getting others to consider theirs1 ,i do not find that once in twenty times any such picture is formed1 and1 when it is1 there is most commonly a particular effort of the imagination for that purpose4 ,but the aggregate words operate1 as ,i said of the compound-abstracts1 not by presenting any image to the mind1 but by having from use the same effect on being mentioned1 that their original has when it is seen4 ,,investigation4 ,i am convinced that the method of teaching which approaches most nearly to the method of investigation is incomparably the best2 since1 not content with serving up a few barren and lifeless truths1 it leads to the stock on which they grew2 it tends to set the reader himself in the track of invention1 and to direct him into those paths in which the author has made his own discoveries1 if he should be so happy as to have made any that are valuable4 ,,the ,,sublime4 ,whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain1 and danger1 that is to say1 whatever is in any sort terrible1 or is conversant about terrible objects1 or operates in a manner analogous to terror1 is a source of the ,,sublime2 that is1 it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling4 ,,obscurity4 ,those despotic governments which are founded on the passions of men1 and principally upon the passion of fear1 keep their chief as much as may be from the public eye4 ,the policy has been the same in many cases of religion4 ,almost all the heathen temples were dark4 ,even in the barbarous temples of the ,americans at this day1 they keep their idol in a dark part of the hut which is consecrated to his worship4 ,for this purpose too the ,druids performed all their ceremonies in the bosom of the darkest woods1 and in the shade of the oldest and most spreading oaks4 ,no person seems better to have understood the secret of heightening1 or of setting terrible things1 if ,i may use the expression1 in their strongest light1 by the force of a judicious obscurity1 than ,milton4 ,,principles ,,of ,,taste4 ,whatever certainty is to be acquired in morality and the science of life2 just the same degree of certainty have we in what relates to them in works of imitation4 ,indeed1 it is for the most part in our skill in manners1 and in the observances of time and place1 and of decency in general1 which is only to be learned in those schools to which ,horace recommends us1 that what is called taste1 by way of distinction1 consists2 and which is in reality no other than a more refined judgment4 ,on the whole it appears to me1 that what is called taste1 in its most general acceptation1 is not a simple idea1 but is partly made up of a perception of the primary pleasures of sense1 of the secondary pleasures of the imagination1 and of the conclusions of the reasoning faculty1 concerning the various relations of these1 and concerning the human passions1 manners1 and actions4 ,all this is requisite to form taste1 and the ground-work of all these is the same in the human mind2 for as the senses are the great originals of all our ideas1 and consequently of all our pleasures1 if they are not uncertain and arbitrary1 the whole ground-work of taste is common to all1 and therefore there is a sufficient foundation for a conclusive reasoning on these matters4 ,,the ,,beautiful4 ,beauty is a thing much too affecting not to depend upon some positive qualities4 ,and1 since it is no creature of our reason1 since it strikes us without any reference to use1 and even where no use at all can be discerned1 since the order and method of nature is generally very different from our measures and proportions1 we must conclude that beauty is1 for the greater part1 some quality in bodies acting mechanically upon the human mind by the intervention of the senses4 ,,the ,,real ,,and ,,the ,,ideal4 ,choose a day on which to represent the most sublime and affecting tragedy we have3 appoint the most favourite actors2 spare no cost upon the scenes and decorations2 unite the greatest efforts of poetry1 painting1 and music2 and when you have collected your audience1 just at the moment when their minds are erect with expectation1 let it be reported that a state criminal of high rank is on the point of being executed in the adjoining square2 in a moment the emptiness of the theatre would demonstrate the comparative weakness of the imitative arts1 and proclaim the triumph of the real sympathy4 ,i believe that this notion of our having a simple pain in the reality1 yet a delight in the representation1 arises from hence1 that we do not sufficiently distinguish what we would by no means choose to do1 from what we should be eager enough to see if it was once done4 ,we delight in seeing things1 which so far from doing1 our heartiest wishes would be to see redressed4 ,this noble capital1 the pride of ,england and of ,europe1 ,i believe no man is so strangely wicked as to desire to see destroyed by a conflagration or an earthquake1 though he should be removed himself to the greatest distance from the danger4 ,but suppose such a fatal accident to have happened1 what numbers from all parts would crowd to behold the ruins1 and amongst them many who would have been content never to have seen ,london in its glory6 ,,judgment ,,in ,,art4 ,a rectitude of judgment in the arts1 which may be called a good taste1 does in a great measure depend upon sensibility2 because1 if the mind has no bent to the pleasures of the imagination1 it will never apply itself sufficiently to works of that species to acquire a competent knowledge in them4 ,but1 though a degree of sensibility is requisite to form a good judgment1 yet a good judgment does not necessarily arise from a quick sensibility of pleasure4 ,,moral ,,effects ,,of ,,language4 ,this arises chiefly from these three causes4 ,first4 ,that we take an extraordinary part in the passions of others1 and that we are easily affected and brought into sympathy by any tokens which are shown of them2 and there are no tokens which can express all the circumstances of most passions so fully as words2 so that if a person speaks upon any subject1 he can not only convey the subject to you1 but likewise the manner in which he is himself affected by it4 ,certain it is1 that the influence of most things on our passions is not so much from the things themselves1 as from our opinions concerning them2 and these again depend very much on the opinions of other men1 conveyable for the most part by words only4 ,secondly4 ,there are many things of a very affecting nature1 which can seldom occur in the reality1 but the words that represent them often do2 and thus they have an opportunity of making a deep impression and taking root in the mind1 whilst the idea of the reality was transient2 and to some perhaps never really occurred in any shape1 to whom it is notwithstanding very affecting1 as war1 death1 famine1 etc4 ,besides1 many ideas have never been at all presented to the senses of any men but by words1 as ,god1 angels1 devils1 heaven1 and hell1 all of which have1 however1 a great influence over the passions4 ,thirdly4 ,by words we have it in our power to make such ,,combinations as we cannot possibly do otherwise4 ,by this power of combining1 we are able1 by the addition of well-chosen circumstances1 to give a new life and force to the simple object4 ,in painting we may represent any fine figure we please2 but we never can give it those enlivening touches which it may receive from words4 ,to represent an angel in a picture1 you can only draw a beautiful young man winged3 but what painting can furnish out anything so grand as the addition of one word1 the angel of the ,,lord8 ,,security ,,of ,,truth4 ,i then thought1 and am still of the same opinion1 that error1 and not truth of any kind1 is dangerous2 that ill conclusions can only flow from false propositions2 and that1 to know whether any proposition be true or false1 it is a preposterous method to examine it by its apparent consequences4 ,,imitation ,,an ,,instinctive ,,law4 ,for as sympathy makes us take a concern in whatever men feel1 so this affection prompts us to copy whatever they do2 and consequently we have a pleasure in imitating1 and in whatever belongs to imitation merely as it is such1 without any intervention of the reasoning faculty1 but solely from our natural constitution1 which ,providence has framed in such a manner as to find either pleasure or delight1 according to the nature of the object1 in whatever regards the purposes of our being4 ,it is by imitation far more than by precept1 that we learn everything2 and what we learn thus1 we acquire not only more effectually1 but more pleasantly4 ,this forms our manners1 our opinions1 our lives4 ,it is one of the strongest links of society2 it is a species of mutual compliance1 which all men yield to each other1 without constraint to themselves1 and which is extremely flattering to all4 ,,standard ,,of ,,reason ,,and ,,taste4 ,it is probable that the standard both of reason and taste is the same in all human creatures4 ,for if there were not some principles of judgment as well as of sentiment common to all mankind1 no hold could possibly be taken either on their reason or their passions1 sufficient to maintain the ordinary correspondence of life4 ,,use ,,of ,,theory4 ,a theory founded on experiment1 and not assumed1 is always good for so much as it explains4 ,our inability to push it indefinitely is no argument at all against it4 ,this inability may be owing to our ignorance of some necessary ,,mediums2 to a want of proper application2 to many other causes besides a defect in the principles we employ4 ,,political ,,outcasts4 ,in the mean time1 that power1 which all these changes aimed at securing1 remains still as tottering and as uncertain as ever4 ,they are delivered up into the hands of those who feel neither respect for their persons1 nor gratitude for their favours2 who are put about them in appearance to serve1 in reality to govern them2 and1 when the signal is given1 to abandon and destroy them1 in order to set up some new dupe of ambition1 who in his turn is to be abandoned and destroyed4 ,thus1 living in a state of continual uneasiness and ferment1 softened only by the miserable consolation of giving now and then preferments to those for whom they have no value2 they are unhappy in their situation1 yet find it impossible to resign4 ,until1 at length1 soured in temper1 and disappointed by the very attainment of their ends1 in some angry1 in some haughty1 or some negligent moment1 they incur the displeasure of those upon whom they have rendered their very being dependent4 ,then perierunt tempora longi servitii2 they are cast off with scorn2 they are turned out1 emptied of all natural character1 of all intrinsic worth1 of all essential dignity1 and deprived of every consolation of friendship4 ,having rendered all retreat to old principles ridiculous1 and to old regards impracticable1 not being able to counterfeit pleasure1 or to discharge discontent1 nothing being sincere or right1 or balanced in their minds1 it is more than a chance1 that1 in the delirium of the last stage of their distempered power1 they make an insane political testament1 by which they throw all their remaining weight and consequence into the scale of their declared enemies1 and the avowed authors of their destruction4 ,,injustice ,,to ,,our ,,own ,,age4 ,if these evil dispositions should spread much farther they must end in our destruction2 for nothing can save a people destitute of public and private faith4 ,however1 the author1 for the present state of things1 has extended the charge by much too widely2 as men are but too apt to take the measure of all mankind from their own particular acquaintance4 ,barren as this age may be in the growth of honour and virtue1 the country does not want1 at this moment1 as strong1 and those not a few1 examples as were ever known1 of an unshaken adherence to principle1 and attachment to connexion1 against every allurement of interest4 ,those examples are not furnished by the great alone2 nor by those1 whose activity in public affairs may render it suspected that they make such a character one of the rounds in their ladder of ambition2 but by men more quiet1 and more in the shade1 on whom an unmixed sense of honour alone could operate4 ,,false ,,coalitions4 ,no system of that kind can be formed1 which will not leave room fully sufficient for healing coalitions3 but no coalition which1 under the specious name of independency1 carries in its bosom the unreconciled principles of the original discord of parties1 ever was1 or will be1 an healing coalition4 ,nor will the mind of our sovereign ever know repose1 his kingdom settlement1 or his business order1 in efficiency or grace with his people1 until things are established upon the basis of some set of men1 who are trusted by the public1 and who can trust one another4 ,,political ,,empiricism4 ,men of sense1 when new projects come before them1 always think a discourse proving the mere right or mere power of acting in the manner proposed1 to be no more than a very unpleasant way of mispending time4 ,they must see the object to be of proper magnitude to engage them2 they must see the means of compassing it to be next to certain3 the mischiefs not to counterbalance the profit2 they will examine how a proposed imposition or regulation agrees with the opinion of those who are likely to be affected by it2 they will not despise the consideration even of their habitudes and prejudices4 ,they wish to know how it accords or disagrees with the true spirit of prior establishments1 whether of government or of finance2 because they well know1 that in the complicated economy of great kingdoms1 and immense revenues1 which in a length of time1 and by a variety of accidents1 have coalesced into a sort of body1 an attempt towards a compulsory equality in all circumstances1 and an exact practical definition of the supreme rights in every case1 is the most dangerous and chimerical of all enterprises4 ,the old building stands well enough1 though part ,gothic1 part ,grecian1 and part ,chinese1 until an attempt is made to square it into uniformity4 ,then it may come down upon our heads altogether1 in much uniformity of ruin2 and great will be the fall thereof4 ,a ,,visionary4 ,enough of this visionary union2 in which much extravagance appears without any fancy1 and the judgment is shocked without anything to refresh the imagination4 ,it looks as if the author had dropped down from the moon1 without any knowledge of the general nature of this globe1 of the general nature of its inhabitants1 without the least acquaintance with the affairs of this country4 ,,party ,,divisions4 ,party divisions1 whether on the whole operating for good or evil1 are things inseparable from free government4 ,this is a truth which1 ,i believe1 admits little dispute1 having been established by the uniform experience of all ages4 ,the part a good citizen ought to take in these divisions has been a matter of much deeper controversy4 ,but ,god forbid that any controversy relating to our essential morals should admit of no decision4 ,it appears to me1 that this question1 like most of the others which regard our duties in life1 is to be determined by our station in it4 ,private men may be wholly neutral1 and entirely innocent2 but they who are legally invested with public trust1 or stand on the high ground of rank and dignity1 which is trust implied1 can hardly in any case remain indifferent1 without the certainty of sinking into insignificance2 and thereby in effect deserting that post in which1 with the fullest authority1 and for the wisest purposes1 the laws and institutions of their country have fixed them4 ,however1 if it be the office of those who are thus circumstanced1 to take a decided part1 it is no less their duty that it should be a sober one4 ,,decorum ,,in ,,party4 ,it ought to be circumscribed by the same laws of decorum1 and balanced by the same temper1 which bound and regulate all the virtues4 ,in a word1 we ought to act in party with all the moderation which does not absolutely enervate that vigour1 and quench that fervency of spirit1 without which the best wishes for the public good must evaporate in empty speculation4 ,,not ,,so ,,bad ,,as ,,we ,,seem4 ,our circumstances are indeed critical2 but then they are the critical circumstances of a strong and mighty nation4 ,if corruption and meanness are greatly spread1 they are not spread universally4 ,many public men are hitherto examples of public spirit and integrity4 ,whole parties1 as far as large bodies can be uniform1 have preserved character4 ,however they may be deceived in some particulars1 ,i know of no set of men amongst us which does not contain persons on whom the nation1 in a difficult exigence1 may well value itself4 ,private life1 which is the nursery of the commonwealth1 is yet in general pure1 and on the whole disposed to virtue2 and the people at large want neither generosity nor spirit4 ,no small part of that very luxury1 which is so much the subject of the author's declamation1 but which1 in most parts of life1 by being well balanced and diffused1 is only decency and convenience1 has perhaps as many or more good than evil consequences attending it4 ,it certainly excites industry1 nourishes emulation1 and inspires some sense of personal value into all ranks of people4 ,what we want is to establish more fully an opinion of uniformity1 and consistency of character1 in the leading men of the state2 such as will restore some confidence to profession and appearance1 such as will fix subordination upon esteem4 ,without this all schemes are begun at the wrong end4 ,,politics ,,without ,,principle4 ,people not very well grounded in the principles of public morality find a set of maxims in office ready made for them1 which they assume as naturally and inevitably1 as any of the insignia or instruments of the situation4 ,a certain tone of the solid and practical is immediately acquired4 ,every former profession of public spirit is to be considered as a debauch of youth1 or1 at best1 as a visionary scheme of unattainable perfection4 ,the very idea of consistency is exploded4 ,the convenience of the business of the day is to furnish the principle for doing it4 ,then the whole ministerial cant is quickly got by heart4 ,the prevalence of faction is to be lamented4 ,all opposition is to be regarded as the effect of envy and disappointed ambition4 ,all administrations are declared to be alike4 ,the same necessity justifies all their measures4 ,it is no longer a matter of discussion1 who or what administration is2 but that administration is to be supported1 is a general maxim4 ,flattering themselves that their power is become necessary to the support of all order and government1 everything which tends to the support of that power is sanctified1 and becomes a part of the public interest4 ,,moral ,,debasement ,,progressive4 ,i believe the instances are exceedingly rare of men immediately passing over a clear1 marked line of virtue into declared vice and corruption4 ,there are a sort of middle tints and shades between the two extremes2 there is something uncertain on the confines of the two empires which they first pass through1 and which renders the change easy and imperceptible4 ,there are even a sort of splendid impositions so well contrived1 that1 at the very time the path of rectitude is quitted for ever1 men seem to be advancing into some higher and nobler road of public conduct4 ,not that such impositions are strong enough in themselves2 but a powerful interest1 often concealed from those whom it affects1 works at the bottom1 and secures the operation4 ,men are thus debauched away from those legitimate connexions1 which they had formed on a judgment1 early perhaps but sufficiently mature1 and wholly unbiassed4 ,,despotism4 ,it is the nature of despotism to abhor power held by any means but its own momentary pleasure2 and to annihilate all intermediate situations between boundless strength on its own part1 and total debility on the part of the people4 ,,judgment ,,and ,,policy4 ,nothing can render this a point of indifference to the nation1 but what must either render us totally desperate1 or sooth us into the security of idiots4 ,we must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy1 to think all men virtuous4 ,we must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical1 to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt4 ,men are in public as in private1 some good1 some evil4 ,the elevation of the one1 and the depression of the other1 are the first objects of all true policy4 ,but that form of government1 which1 neither in its direct institutions1 nor in their immediate tendency1 has contrived to throw its affairs into the most trustworthy hands1 but has left its whole executory system to be disposed of agreeably to the uncontrolled pleasures of any one man1 however excellent or virtuous1 is a plan of polity defective not only in that member1 but consequentially erroneous in every part of it4 ,,popular ,,discontent4 ,to complain of the age we live in1 to murmur at the present possessors of power1 to lament the past1 to conceive extravagant hopes of the future1 are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind2 indeed1 the necessary effects of the ignorance and levity of the vulgar4 ,such complaints and humours have existed in all times2 yet as all times have ,,not been alike1 true political sagacity manifests itself in distinguishing that complaint which only characterises the general infirmity of human nature1 from those which are symptoms of the particular distemperature of our own air and season4 ,,the ,,people ,,and ,,their ,,rulers4 ,i am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong4 ,they have been so1 frequently and outrageously1 both in other countries and in this4 ,but ,i do say1 that in all disputes between them and their rulers1 the presumption is at least upon a par in favour of the people4 ,experience may perhaps justify me in going farther4 ,when popular discontents have been very prevalent1 it may well be affirmed and supported1 that there has been generally something found amiss in the constitution1 or in the conduct of government4 ,the people have no interest in disorder4 ,when they do wrong1 it is their error1 and not their crime4 ,,government ,,favouritism4 ,it is this unnatural infusion of a government which in a great part of its constitution is popular1 that has raised the present ferment in the nation4 ,the people1 without entering deeply into its principles1 could plainly perceive its effects1 in much violence1 in a great spirit of innovation1 and a general disorder in all the functions of government4 ,i keep my eye solely on this system2 if ,i speak of those measures which have arisen from it1 it will be so far only as they illustrate the general scheme4 ,this is the fountain of all those bitter waters1 of which1 through an hundred different conduits1 we have drunk until we are ready to burst4 ,the discretionary power of the ,crown in the formation of ministry1 abused by bad or weak men1 has given rise to a system which1 without directly violating the letter of any law1 operates against the spirit of the whole constitution4 ,a plan of favouritism for our executory government is essentially at variance with the plan of our legislature4 ,one great end undoubtedly of a mixed government like ours1 composed of monarchy1 and of controls1 on the part of the higher people and the lower1 is that the prince shall not be able to violate the laws4 ,this is useful indeed and fundamental4 ,but this1 even at first view1 in no more than a negative advantage2 an armour merely defensive4 ,it is therefore next in order1 and equal in importance1 ,,that ,,the ,,discretionary ,,powers ,,which ,,are ,,necessarily ,,vested ,,in ,,the ,,monarch1 ,,whether ,,for ,,the ,,execution ,,of ,,the ,,laws1 ,,or ,,for ,,the ,,nomination ,,to ,,magistracy ,,and ,,office1 ,,or ,,for ,,conducting ,,the ,,affairs ,,of ,,peace ,,and ,,war1 ,,or ,,for ,,ordering ,,the ,,revenue1 ,,should ,,all ,,be ,,exercised ,,upon ,,public ,,principles ,,and ,,national ,,grounds1 ,,and ,,not ,,on ,,the ,,likings ,,or ,,prejudices1 ,,the ,,intrigues ,,or ,,policies1 ,,of ,a ,,court4 ,,administration ,,and ,,legislation4 ,in arbitrary governments1 the constitution of the ministry follows the constitution of the legislature4 ,both the law and the magistrate are the creatures of will4 ,it must be so4 ,nothing1 indeed1 will appear more certain1 on any tolerable consideration of this matter1 than that ,,every ,,sort ,,of ,,government ,,ought ,,to ,,have ,,its ,,administration ,,correspondent ,,to ,,its ,,legislature4 ,if it should be otherwise1 things must fall into a hideous disorder4 ,the people of a free commonwealth1 who have taken such care that their laws should be the result of general consent1 cannot be so senseless as to suffer their executory system to be composed of persons on whom they have no dependence1 and whom no proofs of the public love and confidence have recommended to those powers1 upon the use of which the very being of the state depends4 ,,influence ,,of ,,the ,,crown4 ,the power of the ,crown1 almost dead and rotten as ,prerogative1 has grown up anew1 with much more strength1 and far less odium1 under the name of ,influence4 ,an influence1 which operated without noise and without violence2 an influence which converted the very antagonist into the instrument of power2 which contained in itself a perpetual principle of growth and renovation2 and which the distresses and the prosperity of the country equally tend to augment1 was an admirable substitute for a prerogative1 that1 being only the offspring of antiquated prejudices1 had moulded into its original stamina irresistible principles of decay and dissolution4 ,the ignorance of the people is a bottom but for a temporary system2 the interest of active men in the state is a foundation perpetual and infallible4 ,,voice ,,of ,,the ,,people4 ,government is deeply interested in everything which1 even through the medium of some temporary uneasiness1 may tend finally to compose the minds of the subjects1 and to conciliate their affections4 ,i have nothing to do here with the abstract value of the voice of the people4 ,but as long as reputation1 the most precious possession of every individual1 and as long as opinion1 the great support of the state1 depend entirely upon that voice1 it can never be considered as a thing of little consequence either to individuals or to governments4 ,nations are not primarily ruled by laws2 less by violence4 ,whatever original energy may be supposed either in force or regulation1 the operation of both is1 in truth1 merely instrumental4 ,nations are governed by the same methods1 and on the same principles1 by which an individual without authority is often able to govern those who are his equals or his superiors--by a knowledge of their temper1 and by a judicious management of it2 ,i mean1 when public affairs are steadily and quietly conducted2 and when government is nothing but a continued scuffle between the magistrate and the multitude2 in which sometimes the one and sometimes the other is uppermost2 in which they alternately yield and prevail1 in a series of contemptible victories1 and scandalous submissions4 ,the temper of the people amongst whom he presides ought therefore to be the first study of a statesman4 ,and the knowledge of this temper it is by no means impossible for him to attain1 if he has not an interest in being ignorant of what it is his duty to learn4 ,,fallacy ,,of ,,extremes4 ,it is a fallacy in constant use with those who would level all things1 and confound right with wrong1 to insist upon the inconveniences which are attached to every choice1 without taking into consideration the different weight and consequence of those inconveniences4 ,the question is not concerning ,,absolute discontent or ,,perfect satisfaction in government2 neither of which can be pure and unmixed at any time1 or upon any system4 ,the controversy is about that degree of good humour in the people1 which may possibly be attained1 and ought certainly to be looked for4 ,while some politicians may be waiting to know whether the sense of every individual be against them1 accurately distinguishing the vulgar from the better sort1 drawing lines between the enterprises of a faction and the efforts of a people1 they may chance to see the government1 which they are so nicely weighing1 and dividing1 and distinguishing1 tumble to the ground in the midst of their wise deliberation4 ,prudent men1 when so great an object as the security of government1 or even its peace1 is at stake1 will not run the risk of a decision which may be fatal to it4 ,they who can read the political sky will see a hurricane in a cloud no bigger than a hand at the very edge of the horizon1 and will run into the first harbour4 ,no lines can be laid down for civil or political wisdom4 ,they are a matter incapable of exact definition4 ,but1 though no man can draw a stroke between the confines of day and night1 yet light and darkness are1 upon the whole1 tolerably distinguishable4 ,nor will it be impossible for a prince to find out such a mode of government1 and such persons to administer it1 as will give a great degree of content to his people2 without any curious and anxious research for that abstract1 universal1 perfect harmony1 which1 while he is seeking1 he abandons those means of ordinary tranquillity which are in his power without any research at all4 ,,private ,,character ,a ,,basis ,,for ,,public ,,confidence4 ,before men are put forward into the great trusts of the state1 they ought1 by their conduct1 to have obtained such a degree of estimation in their country1 as may be some sort of pledge and security to the public1 that they will not abuse those trusts4 ,it is no mean security for a proper use of power1 that a man has shown by the general tenor of his actions1 that the affection1 the good opinion1 the confidence of his fellow citizens1 have been among the principal objects of his life2 and that he has owed none of the degradations of his power or fortune to a settled contempt1 or occasional forfeiture of their esteem4 ,that man who before he comes into power has no friends1 or who coming into power is obliged to desert his friends1 or who losing it has no friends to sympathise with him2 he who has no sway among any part of the landed or commercial interest1 but whose whole importance has begun with his office1 and is sure to end with it2 is a person who ought never to be suffered by a controlling parliament to continue in any of those situations which confer the lead and direction of all our public affairs2 because such a man ,,has ,,no ,,connection ,,with ,,the ,,interest ,,of ,,the ,,people4 ,those knots or cabals of men who have got together avowedly without any public principle1 in order to sell their conjunct iniquity at the higher rate1 and are therefore universally odious1 ought never to be suffered to domineer in the state2 because they have ,,no ,,connection ,,with ,,the ,,sentiments ,,and ,,opinions ,,of ,,the ,,people4 ,,prevention4 ,every good political institution must have a preventive operation as well as a remedial4 ,it ought to have a natural tendency to exclude bad men from government1 and not to trust for the safety of the state to subsequent punishment alone3 punishment1 which has ever been tardy and uncertain1 and which1 when power is suffered in bad hands1 may chance to fall rather on the injured than the criminal4 ,,confidence ,,in ,,the ,,people4 ,they may be assured1 that however they amuse themselves with a variety of projects for substituting something else in the place of that great and only foundation of government1 the confidence of the people1 every attempt will but make their condition worse4 ,when men imagine that their food is only a cover for poison1 and when they neither love nor trust the hand that serves it1 it is not the name of the roast beef of ,old ,england1 that will persuade them to sit down to the table that is spread for them4 ,when the people conceive that laws1 and tribunals1 and even popular assemblies1 are perverted from the ends of their institution1 they find in those names of degenerated establishments only new motives to discontent4 ,those bodies which1 when full of life and beauty1 lay in their arms1 and were their joy and comfort1 when dead and putrid1 become but the more loathsome from remembrance of former endearments4 ,a sullen gloom and furious disorder prevail by fits3 the nation loses its relish for peace and prosperity2 as it did in that season of fulness which opened our troubles in the time of ,charles the ,first4 ,a species of men to whom a state of order would become a sentence of obscurity1 are nourished into a dangerous magnitude by the heat of intestine disturbances2 and it is no wonder that1 by a sort of sinister piety1 they cherish1 in their turn1 the disorders which are the parents of all their consequence4 ,,false ,,maxims ,,assumed ,,as ,,first ,,principles4 ,it is an advantage to all narrow wisdom and narrow morals1 that their maxims have a plausible air2 and1 on a cursory view1 appear equal to first principles4 ,they are light and portable4 ,they are as current as copper coin2 and about as valuable4 ,they serve equally the first capacities and the lowest2 and they are1 at least1 as useful to the worst men as to the best4 ,of this stamp is the cant of ,,not ,,men1 ,,but ,,measures2 a sort of charm by which many people get loose from every honourable engagement4 ,when ,i see a man acting this desultory and disconnected part1 with as much detriment to his own fortune as prejudice to the cause of any party1 ,i am not persuaded that he is right2 but ,i am ready to believe he is in earnest4 ,i respect virtue in all its situations2 even when it is found in the unsuitable company of weakness4 ,i lament to see qualities rare and valuable1 squandered away without any public utility4 ,but when a gentleman with great visible emoluments abandons the party in which he has long acted1 and tells you1 it is because he proceeds upon his own judgment2 that he acts on the merits of the several measures as they arise2 and that he is obliged to follow his own conscience1 and not that of others2 he gives reasons which it is impossible to controvert1 and discovers a character which it is impossible to mistake4 ,what shall we think of him who never differed from a certain set of men until the moment they lost their power1 and who never agreed with them in a single instance afterwards8 ,would not such a coincidence of interest and opinion be rather fortunate8 ,would it not be an extraordinary cast upon the dice1 that a man's connexions should degenerate into faction1 precisely at the critical moment when they lose their power1 or he accepts a place8 ,when people desert their connexions1 the desertion is a manifest ,,fact1 upon which a direct simple issue lies1 triable by plain men4 ,whether a ,,measure of government be right or wrong1 ,,is ,,no ,,matter ,,of ,,fact1 but a mere affair of opinion1 on which men may1 as they do1 dispute and wrangle without end4 ,but whether the individual ,,thinks the measure right or wrong1 is a point at still a greater distance from the reach of all human decision4 ,it is therefore very convenient to politicians1 not to put the judgment of their conduct on overt acts1 cognizable in any ordinary court1 but upon such matter as can be triable only in that secret tribunal1 where they are sure of being heard with favour1 or where at worst the sentence will be only private whipping4 ,,lord ,,chatham4 ,another scene was opened1 and other actors appeared on the stage4 ,the ,state1 in the condition ,i have described it1 was delivered into the hands of ,lord ,chatham--a great and celebrated name2 a name that keeps the name of this country respectable in every other on the globe4 ,it may be truly called-- ,clarum et venerabile nomen ,gentibus1 et multum nostrae quod proderat urbi4 ,sir1 the venerable age of this great man1 his merited rank1 his superior eloquence1 his splendid qualities1 his eminent services1 the vast space he fills in the eye of mankind2 and1 more than all the rest1 his fall from power1 which1 like death1 canonizes and sanctifies a great character1 will not suffer me to censure any part of his conduct4 ,i am afraid to flatter him2 ,i am sure ,i am not disposed to blame him4 ,let those1 who have betrayed him by their adulation1 insult him with their malevolence4 ,but what ,i do not presume to censure1 ,i may have leave to lament4 ,for a wise man1 he seemed to me at that time to be governed too much by general maxims4 ,i speak with the freedom of history1 and ,i hope without offence4 ,one or two of these maxims1 flowing from an opinion not the most indulgent to our unhappy species1 and surely a little too general1 led him into measures that were greatly mischievous to himself2 and for that reason1 among others1 perhaps fatal to his country2 measures1 the effects of which1 ,i am afraid1 are for ever incurable4 ,he made an administration1 so checkered and speckled2 he put together a piece of joinery1 so crossly indented and whimsically dove-tailed2 a cabinet so variously inlaid2 such a piece of diversified mosaic2 such a tesselated pavement without cement2 here a bit of black stone1 and there a bit of white2 patriots and courtiers1 king's friends and republicans2 ,whigs and ,tories2 treacherous friends and open enemies2 that it was indeed a very curious show2 but utterly unsafe to touch1 and unsure to stand on4 ,the colleagues whom he had assorted at the same boards1 stared at each other1 and were obliged to ask1 ,sir1 your name8--,sir1 you have the advantage of me--,mr4 ,such-a-one--,i beg a thousand pardons-- ,i venture to say1 it did so happen1 that persons had a single office divided between them1 who had never spoken to each other in their lives1 until they found themselves1 they knew not how1 pigging together1 heads and points1 in the same truckle-bed4 ,sir1 in consequence of this arrangement1 having put so much the larger part of his enemies and opposers into power1 the confusion was such1 that his own principles could not possibly have any effect or influence in the conduct of affairs4 ,if ever he fell into a fit of the gout1 or if any other cause withdrew him from public cares1 principles directly the contrary were sure to predominate4 ,when he had executed his plan1 he had not an inch of ground to stand upon4 ,when he had accomplished his scheme of administration1 he was no longer a minister4 ,when his face was hid but for a moment1 his whole system was on a wide sea1 without chart or compass4 ,the gentlemen1 his particular friends1 who1 with the names of various departments of ministry1 were admitted to seem as if they acted a part under him1 with a modesty that becomes all men1 and with a confidence in him1 which was justified even in its extravagance by his superior abilities1 had never1 in any instance1 presumed upon any opinion of their own4 ,deprived of his guiding influence1 they were whirled about1 the sport of every gust1 and easily driven into any port2 and as those who joined with them in manning the vessel were the most directly opposite to his opinions1 measures1 and character1 and far the most artful and most powerful of the set1 they easily prevailed1 so as to seize upon the vacant1 unoccupied1 and derelict minds of his friends2 and instantly they turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy4 ,as if it were to insult as well as to betray him1 even long before the close of the first session of his administration1 when everything was publicly transacted1 and with great parade1 in his name1 they made an act1 declaring it highly just and expedient to raise a revenue in ,america4 ,for even then1 ,sir1 even before this splendid orb was entirely set1 and while the western horizon was in a blaze with his descending glory1 on the opposite quarter of the heavens arose another luminary1 and1 for his hour1 became lord of the ascendant4 ,,grenville4 ,mr4 ,grenville was a first-rate figure in this country4 ,with a masculine understanding1 and a stout and resolute heart1 he had an application undissipated and unwearied4 ,he took public business not as a duty which he was to fulfil1 but as a pleasure he was to enjoy2 and he seemed to have no delight out of this house1 except in such things as some way related to the business that was to be done within it4 ,if he was ambitious1 ,i will say this for him1 his ambition was of a noble and generous strain4 ,it was to raise himself1 not by the low1 pimping politics of a court1 but to win his way to power1 through the laborious gradations of public service2 and to secure himself a well-earned rank in ,parliament1 by a thorough knowledge of its constitution1 and a perfect practice in all its business4 ,sir1 if such a man fell into errors1 it must be from defects not intrinsical2 they must be rather sought in the particular habits of his life2 which though they do not alter the ground-work of character1 yet tinge it with their own hue4 ,he was bred in a profession4 ,he was bred to the law1 which is1 in my opinion1 one of the first and noblest of human sciences2 a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the understanding1 than all the other kinds of learning put together2 but it is not apt1 except in persons very happily born1 to open and to liberalize the mind exactly in the same proportion4 ,passing from that study he did not go very largely into the world2 but plunged into business2 ,i mean into the business of office2 and the limited and fixed methods and forms established there4 ,much knowledge is to be had undoubtedly in that line2 and there is no knowledge which is not valuable4 ,but it may be truly said1 that men too much conversant in office are rarely minds of remarkable enlargement4 ,their habits of office are apt to give them a turn to think the substance of business not to be much more important than the forms in which it is conducted4 ,these forms are adapted to ordinary occasions2 and therefore persons who are nurtured in office do admirably well as long as things go on in their common order2 but when the high roads are broken up1 and the waters out1 when a new and troubled scene is opened1 and the file affords no precedent1 then it is that a greater knowledge of mankind1 and a far more extensive comprehension of things1 is requisite1 than ever office gave1 or than office can ever give4 ,,charles ,,townshend4 ,this light too is passed and set for ever4 ,you understand1 to be sure1 that ,i speak of ,charles ,townshend1 officially the reproducer of this fatal scheme2 whom ,i cannot even now remember without some degree of sensibility4 ,in truth1 ,sir1 he was the delight and ornament of this house1 and the charm of every private society which he honoured with his presence4 ,perhaps there never arose in this country1 nor in any country1 a man of a more pointed and finished wit2 and 7where his passions were not concerned7 of a more refined1 exquisite1 and penetrating judgment4 ,if he had not so great a stock1 as some have had who flourished formerly1 of knowledge long treasured up1 he knew better by far1 than any man ,i ever was acquainted with1 how to bring together within a short time1 all that was necessary to establish1 to illustrate1 and to decorate that side of the question he supported4 ,he stated his matter skilfully and powerfully4 ,he particularly excelled in a most luminous explanation and display of his subject4 ,his style of argument was neither trite and vulgar1 nor subtle and abstruse4 ,he hit the house just between wind and water4 ,and not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any matter in question1 he was never more tedious1 or more earnest1 than the pre-conceived opinions and present temper of his hearers required2 to whom he was always in perfect unison4 ,he conformed exactly to the temper of the house2 and he seemed to guide1 because he was always sure to follow it4 ,,party ,,and ,,place4 ,party is a body of men united1 for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest1 upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed4 ,for my part1 ,i find it impossible to conceive that any one believes in his own politics1 or thinks them to be of any weight1 who refuses to adopt the means of having them reduced into practice4 ,it is the business of the speculative philosopher to mark the proper ends of government4 ,it is the business of the politician1 who is the philosopher in action1 to find out proper means towards those ends1 and to employ them with effect4 ,therefore every honourable connection will avow it is their first purpose to pursue every just method to put the men who hold their opinions into such a condition as may enable them to carry their common plans into execution1 with all the power and authority of the state4 ,as this power is attached to certain situations1 it is their duty to contend for these situations4 ,without a proscription of others1 they are bound to give to their own party the preference in all things2 and by no means1 for private considerations1 to accept any offers of power in which the whole body is not included2 nor to suffer themselves to be led1 or to be controlled1 or to be overbalanced1 in office or in council1 by those who contradict the very fundamental principles on which their party is formed1 and even those upon which every fair connection must stand4 ,such a generous contention for power1 on such manly and honourable maxims1 will easily be distinguished from the mean and interested struggle for place and emolument4 ,the very style of such persons will serve to discriminate them from those numberless imposters who have deluded the ignorant with professions incompatible with human practice1 and have afterwards incensed them by practices below the level of vulgar rectitude4 ,,political ,,connections4 ,every profession1 not excepting the glorious one of a soldier1 or the sacred one of a priest1 is liable to its own particular vices1 which1 however1 form no argument against those ways of life2 nor are the vices themselves inevitable to every individual in those professions4 ,of such a nature are connections in politics2 essentially necessary for the full performance of our public duty1 accidentally liable to degenerate into faction4 ,commonwealths are made of families1 free commonwealths of parties also2 and we may as well affirm1 that our natural regards and ties of blood tend inevitably to make men bad citizens1 as that the bonds of our party weaken those by which we are held to our country4 ,some legislators went so far as to make neutrality in party a crime against the state4 ,i do not know whether this might not have been rather to overstrain the principle4 ,certain it is1 the best patriots in the greatest commonwealths have always commended and promoted such connections4 ,idem sentire de republica1 was with them a principal ground of friendship and attachment2 nor do ,i know any other capable of forming firmer1 dearer1 more pleasing1 more honourable1 and more virtuous habitudes4 ,the ,romans carried this principle a great way4 ,even the holding of offices together1 the disposition of which arose from chance1 not selection1 gave rise to a relation which continued for life4 ,it was called necessitudo sortis2 and it was looked upon with a sacred reverence4 ,breaches of any of these kinds of civil relation were considered as acts of the most distinguished turpitude4 ,the whole people was distributed into political societies1 in which they acted in support of such interests in the state as they severally affected4 ,for it was then thought no crime to endeavour1 by every honest means1 to advance to superiority and power those of your own sentiments and opinions4 ,this wise people was far from imagining that those connections had no tie1 and obliged to no duty2 but that men might quit them without shame1 upon every call of interest4 ,they believed private honour to be the great foundation of public trust2 that friendship was no mean step towards patriotism2 that he who1 in the common intercourse of life1 showed he regarded somebody besides himself1 when he came to act in a public situation1 might probably consult some other interest than his own4 ,,neutrality4 ,they were a race of men 7,i hope in ,god the species is extinct7 who1 when they rose in their place1 no man living could divine1 from any known adherence to parties1 to opinions1 or to principles1 from any order or system in their politics1 or from any sequel or connection in their ideas1 what part they were going to take in any debate4 ,it is astonishing how much this uncertainty1 especially at critical times1 called the attention of all parties on such men4 ,all eyes were fixed on them1 all ears open to hear them2 each party gaped1 and looked alternately for their vote1 almost to the end of their speeches4 ,while the house hung on this uncertainty1 now the ,,hear ,,hims rose from this side--now they rebellowed from the other2 and that party1 to whom they fell at length from their tremulous and dancing balance1 always received them in a tempest of applause4 ,the fortune of such men was a temptation too great to be resisted by one to whom a single whiff of incense withheld gave much greater pain than he received delight in the clouds of it which daily rose about him from the prodigal superstition of innumerable admirers4 ,he was a candidate for contradictory honours2 and his great aim was to make those agree in admiration of him who never agreed in anything else4 ,,weakness ,,in ,,government4 ,let us learn from our experience4 ,it is not support that is wanting to government1 but reformation4 ,when ministry rests upon public opinion1 it is not indeed built upon a rock of adamant2 it has1 however1 some stability4 ,but when it stands upon private humour1 its structure is of stubble1 and its foundation is on quicksand4 ,i repeat it again--,he that supports every administration subverts all government4 ,the reason is this3 ,the whole business in which a court usually takes an interest goes on at present equally well1 in whatever hands1 whether high or low1 wise or foolish1 scandalous or reputable2 there is nothing1 therefore1 to hold it firm to any one body of men1 or to any one consistent scheme of politics4 ,nothing interposes to prevent the full operation of all the caprices and all the passions of a court upon the servants of the public4 ,the system of administration is open to continual shocks and changes1 upon the principles of the meanest cabal1 and the most contemptible intrigue4 ,nothing can be solid and permanent4 ,all good men at length fly with horror from such a service4 ,men of rank and ability1 with the spirit which ought to animate such men in a free state1 while they decline the jurisdiction of dark cabal on their actions and their fortunes1 will1 for both1 cheerfully put themselves upon their country4 ,they will trust an inquisitive and distinguishing parliament2 because it does inquire1 and does distinguish4 ,if they act well1 they know that1 in such a parliament1 they will be supported against any intrigue2 if they act ill1 they know that no intrigue can protect them4 ,this situation1 however awful1 is honourable4 ,but in one hour1 and in the self-same assembly1 without any assigned or assignable cause1 to be precipitated from the highest authority to the most marked neglect1 possibly into the greatest peril of life and reputation1 is a situation full of danger1 and destitute of honour4 ,it will be shunned equally by every man of prudence1 and every man of spirit4 ,,american ,,progress4 ,nothing in the history of mankind is like their progress4 ,for my part1 ,i never cast an eye on their flourishing commerce1 and their cultivated and commodious life1 but they seem to me rather ancient nations grown to perfection through a long series of fortunate events1 and a train of successful industry1 accumulating wealth in many centuries1 than the colonies of yesterday2 than a set of miserable outcasts1 a few years ago1 not so much sent as thrown out1 on the bleak and barren shore of a desolate wilderness1 three thousand miles from all civilized intercourse4 ,,combination1 ,,not ,,faction4 ,that connection and faction are equivalent terms1 is an opinion which has been carefully inculcated at all times by unconstitutional statesmen4 ,the reason is evident4 ,whilst men are linked together1 they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design4 ,they are enabled to fathom it with common counsel1 and to oppose it with united strength4 ,whereas1 when they lie dispersed1 without concert1 order1 or discipline1 communication is uncertain1 counsel difficult1 and resistance impracticable4 ,where men are not acquainted with each other's principles1 nor experienced in each other's talents1 nor at all practised in their mutual habitudes and dispositions by joint efforts in business2 no personal confidence1 no friendship1 no common interest1 subsisting among them2 it is evidently impossible that they can act a public part with uniformity1 perseverance1 or efficacy4 ,in a connection1 the most inconsiderable man1 by adding to the weight of the whole1 has his value1 and his use2 out of it1 the greatest talents are wholly unserviceable to the public4 ,no man1 who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm1 can flatter himself that his single1 unsupported1 desultory1 unsystematic endeavours1 are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens4 ,when bad men combine1 the good must associate2 else they will fall1 one by one1 an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle4 ,,great ,,men4 ,great men are the guide-posts and land-marks in the state4 ,the credit of such men at court1 or in the nation1 is the sole cause of all the public measures4 ,it would be an invidious thing 7most foreign1 ,i trust1 to what you think my disposition7 to remark the errors into which the authority of great names has brought the nation1 without doing justice at the same time to the great qualities whence that authority arose4 ,the subject is instructive to those who wish to form themselves on whatever of excellence has gone before them4 ,there are many young members in the house 7such of late has been the rapid succession of public men7 who never saw that prodigy1 ,charles ,townshend2 nor of course know what a ferment he was able to excite in everything by the violent ebullition of his mixed virtues and failings4 ,for failings he had undoubtedly--many of us remember them2 we are this day considering the effect of them4 ,but he had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause2 to an ardent1 generous1 perhaps an immoderate1 passion for fame2 a passion which is the instinct of all great souls4 ,,power ,,of ,,constituents4 ,the power of the people1 within the laws1 must show itself sufficient to protect every representative in the animated performance of his duty1 or that duty cannot be performed4 ,the ,house of ,commons can never be a control on other parts of government1 unless they are controlled themselves by their constituents2 and unless these constituents possess some right in the choice of that house1 which it is not in the power of that house to take away4 ,if they suffer this power of arbitrary incapacitation to stand1 they have utterly perverted every other power of the ,house of ,commons4 ,the late proceeding ,i will not say ,,is contrary to law1 it ,,must be so2 for the power which is claimed cannot1 by any possibility1 be a legal power in any limited member of government4 ,,influence ,,of ,,place ,,in ,,government4 ,it is no inconsiderable part of wisdom1 to know how much of an evil ought to be tolerated2 lest1 by attempting a degree of purity impracticable in degenerate times and manners1 instead of cutting off the subsisting ill practices1 new corruptions might be produced for the concealment and security of the old4 ,it were better1 undoubtedly1 that no influence at all could affect the mind of a member of ,parliament4 ,but of all modes of influence1 in my opinion1 a place under the government is the least disgraceful to the man who holds it1 and by far the most safe to the country4 ,i would not shut out that sort of influence which is open and visible1 which is connected with the dignity and the service of the state1 when it is not in my power to prevent the influence of contracts1 of subscriptions1 of direct bribery1 and those innumerable methods of clandestine corruption1 which are abundantly in the hands of the court1 and which will be applied as long as these means of corruption1 and the disposition to be corrupted1 have existence among us4 ,our constitution stands on a nice equipoise1 with steep precipices and deep waters upon all sides of it4 ,in removing it from a dangerous leaning towards one side1 there may be a risk of oversetting it on the other4 ,every project of a material change in a government so complicated as ours1 combined at the same time with external circumstances1 still more complicated1 is a matter full of difficulties3 in which a considerate man will not be too ready to decide2 a prudent man too ready to undertake2 or an honest man too ready to promise4 ,they do not respect the public nor themselves1 who engage for more than they are sure that they ought to attempt1 or that they are able to perform4 ,,taxation ,,involves ,,principle4 ,no man ever doubted that the commodity of tea could bear an imposition of threepence4 ,but no commodity will bear threepence1 or will bear a penny1 when the general feelings of men are irritated1 and two millions of people are resolved not to pay4 ,the feelings of the colonies were formerly the feelings of ,great ,britain4 ,theirs were formerly the feelings of ,mr4 ,hampden when called upon for the payment of twenty shillings4 ,would twenty shillings have ruined ,mr4 ,hampden's fortune8 ,no6 but the payment of half twenty shillings1 on the principle it was demanded1 would have made him a slave4 ,,good ,,member ,,of ,,parliament4 ,to be a good member of parliament is1 let me tell you1 no easy task2 especially at this time1 when there is so strong a disposition to run into the perilous extremes of servile compliance or wild popularity4 ,to unite circumspection with vigour is absolutely necessary2 but it is extremely difficult4 ,we are now members for a rich commercial ,,city2 this city1 however1 is but a part of a rich commercial ,,nation1 the interests of which are various1 multiform1 and intricate4 ,we are members for that great nation1 which however is itself but part of a great ,,empire1 extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest limits of the east and of the west4 ,all these wide-spread interests must be considered2 must be compared2 must be reconciled1 if possible4 ,we are members for a ,,free country2 and surely we all know1 that the machine of a free constitution is no simple thing2 but as intricate and as delicate as it is valuable4 ,we are members in a great and ancient ,,monarchy2 and we must preserve religiously the true legal rights of the sovereign1 which form the key-stone that binds together the noble and well-constructed arch of our empire and our constitution4 ,,fisheries ,,of ,,new ,,england4 ,as to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the sea by their fisheries1 you had all that matter fully opened at your bar4 ,you surely thought those acquisitions of value1 for they seemed even to excite your envy2 and yet the spirit by which that enterprising employment has been exercised ought rather1 in my opinion1 to have raised your esteem and admiration4 ,and pray1 ,sir1 what in the world is equal to it6 ,pass by the other parts1 and look at the manner in which the people of ,new ,england have of late carried on the whale fishery4 ,whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice1 and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of ,hudson's ,bay and ,davis's ,straits1 whilst we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle1 we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold1 that they are at the antipodes1 and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south4 ,falkland ,island1 which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition1 is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of their victorious industry4 ,nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them1 than the accumulated winter of both the poles4 ,we know that whilst some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of ,africa1 others run the longitude1 and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of ,brazil4 ,no sea but what is vexed by their fisheries4 ,no climate that is not witness to their toils4 ,neither the perseverance of ,holland1 nor the activity of ,france1 nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of ,english enterprise1 ever carried this most perilous mode of hard industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people2 a people who are still1 as it were1 but in the gristle1 and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood4 ,,preparation ,,for ,,parliament4 ,when ,i first devoted myself to the public service1 ,i considered how ,i should render myself fit for it2 and this ,i did by endeavouring to discover what it was that gave this country the rank it holds in the world4 ,i found that our prosperity and dignity arose principally1 if not solely1 from two sources2--our constitution and commerce4 ,both these ,i have spared no study to understand1 and no endeavour to support4 ,the distinguishing part of our constitution is its liberty4 ,to preserve that liberty inviolate1 seems the particular duty and proper trust of a member of the ,house of ,commons4 ,but the liberty1 the only liberty ,i mean1 is a liberty connected with order2 that not only exists along with order and virtue1 but which cannot exist at all without them4 ,it inheres in good and steady government1 as in its substance and vital principle4 ,the other source of our power is commerce1 of which you are so large a part1 and which cannot exist1 no more than your liberty1 without a connection with many virtues4 ,it has ever been a very particular and a very favourite object of my study1 in its principles1 and in its details4 ,i think many here are acquainted with the truth of what ,i say4 ,this ,i know1 that ,i have ever had my house open1 and my poor services ready1 for traders and manufacturers of every denomination4 ,my favourite ambition is to have those services acknowledged4 ,i now appear before you to make trial1 whether my earnest endeavours have been so wholly oppressed by the weakness of my abilities as to be rendered insignificant in the eyes of a great trading city2 or whether you choose to give a weight to humble abilities1 for the sake of the honest exertions with which they are accompanied4 ,this is my trial to-day4 ,my industry is not on trial4 ,of my industry ,i am sure1 as far as my constitution of mind and body admitted4 ,,bathurst ,,and ,,america',s ,,future4 ,let us1 however1 before with descend from this noble eminence1 reflect that this growth of our national prosperity has happened within the short period of the life of man4 ,it has happened within sixty-eight years4 ,there are those alive whose memory might touch the two extremities4 ,for instance1 my ,lord ,bathurst might remember all the stages of the progress4 ,he was1 in #agjd1 of an age at least to be made to comprehend such things4 ,he was then old enough acta parentum jam legere1 et quae sit poterit cognoscere virtus4 ,suppose1 ,sir1 that the angel of this auspicious youth1 foreseeing the many virtues which made him one of the most amiable1 as he is one of the most fortunate1 men of his age1 had opened to him in vision1 that when1 in the fourth generation1 the third prince of the house of ,brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne of that nation1 which 7by the happy issue of moderate and healing councils7 was to be made ,great ,britain1 he should see his son1 lord chancellor of ,england1 turn back the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain1 and raise him to a higher rank of peerage1 whilst he enriched the family with a new one4 ,if amidst these bright and happy scenes of domestic honour and prosperity1 that angel should have drawn up the curtain1 and unfolded the rising glories of his country1 and whilst he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial grandeur of ,england1 the genius should point out to him a little speck1 scarce visible in the mass of the national interest1 a small seminal principle1 rather than a formed body1 and should tell him--,young man1 there is ,america--which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men1 and uncouth manners2 yet shall1 before you taste of death1 show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world4 ,whatever ,england has been growing to by a progressive increase of improvement1 brought in by varieties of people1 by succession of civilizing conquests and civilizing settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years1 you shall see as much added to her by ,america in the course of a single life6 ,if this state of his country had been foretold to him1 would it not require all the sanguine credulity of youth1 and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm1 to make him believe it8 ,fortunate man1 he has lived to see it6 ,fortunate1 indeed1 if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the prospect1 and cloud the setting of his day6 ,,candid ,,policy4 ,refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion2 and ever will be so1 as long as the world endures4 ,plain good intention1 which is as easily discovered at the first view1 as fraud is surely detected at last1 is1 let me say1 of no mean force in the government of mankind4 ,genuine simplicity of heart is a healing and cementing principle4 ,my plan1 therefore1 being formed upon the most simple grounds imaginable1 may disappoint some people1 when they hear it4 ,it has nothing to recommend it to the pruriency of curious ears4 ,there is nothing at all new and captivating in it4 ,it has nothing of the splendour of the project which has been lately laid upon your table by the noble lord in the blue riband4 ,it does not propose to fill your lobby with squabbling colony agents1 who will require the interposition of your mace1 at every instant1 to keep the peace amongst them4 ,it does not institute a magnificent auction of finance1 where captivated provinces come to general ransom by bidding against each other1 until you knock down the hammer1 and determine a proportion of payments beyond all the powers of algebra to equalize and settle4 ,,wisdom ,,of ,,concession4 ,peace implies reconciliation2 and where there has been a material dispute1 reconciliation does in a manner always imply concession on the one part or the other4 ,in this state of things ,i make no difficulty in affirming that the proposal ought to originate from us4 ,great and acknowledged force is not impaired1 either in effect or in opinion1 by an unwillingness to exert itself4 ,the superior power may offer peace with honour and with safety4 ,such an offer from such a power will be attributed to magnanimity4 ,but the concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear4 ,when such a one is disarmed1 he is wholly at the mercy of his superior2 and he loses for ever that time and those chances which1 as they happen to all men1 are the strength and resources of all inferior power4 ,,magnanimity4 ,as for the trifling petulance which the rage of party stirs up in little minds1 though it should show itself even in this court1 it has not made the slightest impression on me4 ,the highest flight of such clamorous birds is winged in an inferior region of the air4 ,we hear them1 and we look upon them1 just as you1 gentlemen1 when you enjoy the serene air on your lofty rocks1 look down upon the gulls that skim the mud of your river1 when it is exhausted of its tide4 ,,duty ,,of ,,representatives4 ,it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union1 the closest correspondence1 and the most unreserved communication with his constituents4 ,their wishes ought to have great weight with him2 their opinion high respect2 their business unremitted attention4 ,it is his duty to sacrifice his repose1 his pleasures1 his satisfactions1 to theirs2 and above all1 ever1 and in all cases1 to prefer their interest to his own4 ,but1 his unbiassed opinion1 his mature judgment1 his enlightened conscience1 he ought not to sacrifice to you1 to any man1 or to any set of men living4 ,these he does not derive from your pleasure2 no1 nor from the law and the constitution4 ,they are a trust from ,providence1 for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable4 ,your representative owes you1 not his industry only1 but his judgment2 and he betrays1 instead of serving you1 if he sacrifices it to your opinion4 ,,prudential ,,silence4 ,though ,i gave so far into his opinion1 that ,i immediately threw my thoughts into a sort of parliamentary form1 ,i was by no means equally ready to produce them4 ,it generally argues some degree of natural impotence of mind1 or some want of knowledge of the world1 to hazard plans of government except from a seat of authority4 ,propositions are made1 not only ineffectually1 but somewhat disreputably1 when the minds of men are not properly disposed for their reception3 and for my part1 ,i am not ambitious of ridicule2 not absolutely a candidate for disgrace4 ,,colonial ,,ties4 ,they are our children2 but when children ask for bread1 we are not to give a stone4 ,is it because the natural resistance of things1 and the various mutations of time1 hinders our government1 or any scheme of government1 from being any more than a sort of approximation to the right1 is it therefore that the colonies are to recede from it infinitely8 ,when this child of ours wishes to assimilate to its parent1 and to reflect with a true filial resemblance the beauteous countenance of ,british liberty1 are we to turn to them the shameful parts of our constitution8 are we to give them our weakness for their strength8 our opprobrium for their glory8 and the slough of slavery1 which we are not able to work off1 to serve them for their freedom8 ,,government ,,and ,,legislation4 ,if government were a matter of will upon any side1 yours1 without question1 ought to be superior4 ,but government and legislation are matters of reason and judgment1 and not of inclination2 and what sort of reason is that1 in which the determination precedes the discussion2 in which one set of men deliberate1 and another decide2 and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those who hear the arguments8 ,,parliament4 ,parliament is not a ,,congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests1 which interests each must maintain1 as an agent and advocate1 against other agents and advocates2 but parliament is a ,,deliberative assembly of ,,one nation1 with ,,one interest1 that of the whole2 where1 not local purposes1 not local prejudices1 ought to guide1 but the general good1 resulting from the general reason of the whole4 ,you choose a member indeed2 but when you have chosen him1 he is not member of ,bristol1 but he is a member of ,,parliament4 ,,moral ,,levellers4 ,this moral levelling is a ,,servile ,,principle4 ,it leads to practical passive obedience far better than all the doctrines which the pliant accommodation of theology to power has ever produced4 ,it cuts up by the roots1 not only all idea of forcible resistance1 but even of civil opposition4 ,it disposes men to an abject submission1 not by opinion1 which may be shaken by argument or altered by passion1 but by the strong ties of public and private interest4 ,for if all men who act in a public situation are equally selfish1 corrupt1 and venal1 what reason can be given for desiring any sort of change1 which1 besides the evils which must attend all changes1 can be productive of no possible advantage8 ,the active men in the state are true samples of the mass4 ,if they are universally depraved1 the commonwealth itself is not sound4 ,we may amuse ourselves with talking as much as we please of the virtue of middle or humble life2 that is1 we may place our confidence in the virtue of those who have never been tried4 ,but if the persons who are continually emerging out of that sphere be no better than those whom birth has placed above it1 what hopes are there in the remainder of the body1 which is to furnish the perpetual succession of the state8 ,all who have ever written on government are unanimous1 that among a people generally corrupt1 liberty cannot long exist4 ,and indeed how is it possible8 when those who are to make the laws1 to guard1 to enforce1 or to obey them1 are1 by a tacit confederacy of manners1 indisposed to the spirit of all generous and noble institutions4 ,,public ,,salary ,,and ,,patriotic ,,service4 ,i am not possessed of an exact common measure between real service and its reward4 ,i am very sure that states do sometimes receive services which it is hardly in their power to reward according to their worth4 ,if ,i were to give my judgment with regard to this country1 ,i do not think the great efficient offices of the state to be overpaid4 ,the service of the public is a thing which cannot be put to auction1 and struck down to those who will agree to execute it the cheapest4 ,when the proportion between reward and service is our object1 we must always consider of what nature the service is1 and what sort of men they are that must perform it4 ,what is just payment for one kind of labour1 and full encouragement for one kind of talents1 is fraud and discouragement to others4 ,many of the great offices have much duty to do1 and much expense of representation to maintain4 ,a secretary of state1 for instance1 must not appear sordid in the eyes of the ministers of other nations2 neither ought our ministers abroad to appear contemptible in the courts where they reside4 ,in all offices of duty1 there is1 almost necessarily1 a great neglect of all domestic affairs4 ,a person in high office can rarely take a view of his family house4 ,if he sees that the state takes no detriment1 the state must see that his affairs should take as little4 ,i will even go so far as to affirm1 that if men were willing to serve in such situations without salary1 they ought not to be permitted to do it4 ,ordinary service must be secured by the motives to ordinary integrity4 ,i do not hesitate to say1 that that state which lays its foundations in rare and heroic virtues1 will be sure to have its superstructure in the basest profligacy and corruption4 ,an honourable and fair profit is the best security against avarice and rapacity2 as in all things else1 a lawful and regulated enjoyment is the best security against debauchery and excess4 ,for as wealth is power1 so all power will infallibly draw wealth to itself by some means or other3 and when men are left no way of ascertaining their profits but by their means of obtaining them1 those means will be increased to infinity4 ,this is true in all the parts of administration1 as well as in the whole4 ,if any individual were to decline his appointments1 it might give an unfair advantage to ostentatious ambition over unpretending service2 it might breed invidious comparisons2 it might tend to destroy whatever little unity and agreement may be found among ministers4 ,and1 after all1 when an ambitious man had run down his competitors by a fallacious show of disinterestedness1 and fixed himself in power by that means1 what security is there that he would not change his course1 and claim as an indemnity ten times more than he has given up8 ,,rational ,,liberty4 ,liberty1 too1 must be limited in order to be possessed4 ,the degree of restraint it is impossible in any case to settle precisely4 ,but it ought to be the constant aim of every wise public council to find out by cautious experiments1 and rational1 cool endeavours1 with how little1 not how much1 of this restraint the community can subsist4 ,for liberty is a good to be improved1 and not an evil to be lessened4 ,it is not only a private blessing of the first order1 but the vital spring and energy of the state itself1 which has just so much life and vigour as there is liberty in it4 ,but whether liberty be advantageous or not 7for ,i know it is a fashion to decry the very principle71 none will dispute that peace is a blessing2 and peace must in the course of human affairs be frequently bought by some indulgence and toleration at least to liberty4 ,for as the sabbath 7though of ,divine institution7 was made for man1 not man for the sabbath1 government1 which can claim no higher origin or authority1 in its exercise at least1 ought to conform to the exigencies of the time1 and the temper and character of the people with whom it is concerned2 and not always to attempt violently to bend the people to their theories of subjection4 ,the bulk of mankind on their part are not excessively curious concerning any theories whilst they are really happy2 and one sure symptom of an ill-conducted state is the propensity of the people to resort to them4 ,,ireland ,,and ,,magna ,,charta4 ,the feudal baronage and the feudal knighthood1 the roots of our primitive constitution1 were early transplanted into that soil1 and grew and flourished there4 ,magna ,charta1 if it did not give us originally the ,house of ,commons1 gave us at least a house of commons of weight and consequence4 ,but your ancestors did not churlishly sit down alone to the feast of ,magna ,charta4 ,ireland was made immediately a partaker4 ,this benefit of ,english laws and liberties1 ,i confess1 was not at first extended to ,,all ,ireland4 ,mark the consequence4 ,english authority and ,english liberty had exactly the same boundaries4 ,your standard could never be advanced an inch beyond your privileges4 ,sir ,john ,davis shows1 beyond a doubt1 that the refusal of a general communication of these rights was the true cause why ,ireland was five hundred years in subduing2 and after the vain projects of a military government1 attempted in the reign of ,queen ,elizabeth1 it was soon discovered that nothing could make that country ,english1 in civility and allegiance1 but your laws and your forms of legislature4 ,it was not ,english arms1 but the ,english constitution1 that conquered ,ireland4 ,from that time ,ireland has ever had a general parliament1 as she had before a partial parliament4 ,you changed the people2 you altered the religion2 but you never touched the form or the vital substance of free government in that kingdom4 ,you deposed kings2 you restored them2 you altered the succession to theirs1 as well as to your own crown2 but you never altered their constitution2 the principle of which was respected by usurpation2 restored with the restoration of monarchy1 and established1 ,i trust1 for ever1 by the glorious ,revolution4 ,,colonies ,,and ,,british ,,constitution4 ,for that service1 for all service1 whether of revenue1 trade1 or empire1 my trust is in her interest in the ,british constitution4 ,my hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names1 from kindred blood1 from similar privileges1 and equal protection4 ,these are ties1 which1 though light as air1 are as strong as links of iron4 ,let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government2--they will cling and grapple to you2 and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance4 ,but let it be once understood that your government may be one thing1 and their privileges another2 that these two things may exist without any mutual relation2 the cement is gone2 the cohesion is loosened2 and everything hastens to decay and dissolution4 ,as long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty1 the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith1 wherever the chosen race and sons of ,england worship freedom1 they will turn their faces towards you4 ,the more they multiply1 the more friends you will have2 the more ardently they love liberty1 the more perfect will be their obedience4 ,slavery they can have anywhere4 ,it is a weed that grows in every soil4 ,they may have it from ,spain1 they may have it from ,prussia4 ,but1 until you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity1 freedom they can have from none but you4 ,this is the commodity of price1 of which you have the monopoly4 ,this is the true act of navigation1 which binds to you the commerce of the colonies1 and through them secures to you the wealth of the world4 ,deny them this participation of freedom1 and you break that sole bond1 which originally made1 and must still preserve1 the unity of the empire4 ,do not entertain so weak an imagination1 as that your registers and your bonds1 your affidavits and your sufferances1 your cockets and your clearances1 are what form the great securities of your commerce4 ,do not dream that your letters of office1 and your instructions1 and your suspending clauses1 are the things that hold together the great contexture of this mysterious whole4 ,these things do not make your government4 ,dead instruments1 passive tools as they are1 it is the spirit of the ,english communion that gives all their life and efficacy to them4 ,it is the spirit of the ,english constitution1 which1 infused through the mighty mass1 pervades1 feeds1 unites1 invigorates1 vivifies every part of the empire1 even down to the minutest member4 ,,reciprocal ,,confidence4 ,at the first fatal opening of this contest1 the wisest course seemed to be to put an end as soon as possible to the immediate causes of the dispute2 and to quiet a discussion1 not easily settled upon clear principles1 and arising from claims1 which pride would permit neither party to abandon1 by resorting as nearly as possible to the old1 successful course4 ,a mere repeal of the obnoxious tax1 with a declaration of the legislative authority of this kingdom1 was then fully sufficient to procure peace to ,,both ,,sides4 ,man is a creature of habit1 and1 the first breach being of very short continuance1 the colonies fell back exactly into their ancient state4 ,the congress has used an expression with regard to this pacification1 which appears to me truly significant4 ,after the repeal of the ,stamp ,act1 the colonies fell1 says this assembly1 into their ancient state of ,,unsuspecting ,,confidence ,,in ,,the ,,mother ,,country4 ,this unsuspecting confidence is the true centre of gravity amongst mankind1 about which all the parts are at rest4 ,it is this ,,unsuspecting ,,confidence that removes all difficulties1 and reconciles all the contradictions which occur in the complexity of all ancient1 puzzled1 political establishments4 ,happy are the rulers which have the secret of preserving it6 ,,pensions ,,and ,,the ,,crown4 ,when men receive obligations from the ,crown1 through the pious hands of fathers1 or of connections as venerable as the paternal1 the dependencies which arise from thence are the obligations of gratitude1 and not the fetters of servility4 ,such ties originate in virtue1 and they promote it4 ,they continue men in those habitudes of friendship1 those political connexions1 and those political principles1 in which they began life4 ,they are antidotes against a corrupt levity1 instead of causes of it4 ,what an unseemly spectacle would it afford1 what a disgrace would it be to the commonwealth that suffered such things1 to see the hopeful son of a meritorious minister begging his bread at the door of that treasury1 from whence his father dispensed the economy of an empire1 and promoted the happiness and glory of his country6 ,why should he be obliged to prostrate his honour1 and to submit his principles at the levee of some proud favourite1 shouldered and thrust aside by every impudent pretender1 on the very spot where a few days before he saw himself adored8--obliged to cringe to the author of the calamities of his house1 and to kiss the hands that are red with his father's blood4 ,,colonial ,,progress4 ,but nothing in progression can rest on its original plan4 ,we may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant4 ,therefore as the colonies prospered and increased to a numerous and mighty people1 spreading over a very great tract of the globe2 it was natural that they should attribute to assemblies1 so respectable in their formal constitution1 some part of the dignity of the great nations which they represented4 ,no longer tied to by-laws1 these assemblies made acts of all sorts and in all cases whatsoever4 ,they levied money1 not for parochial purposes1 but upon regular grants to the ,crown1 following all the rules and principles of a parliament to which they approached every day more and more nearly4 ,those who think themselves wiser than ,providence1 and stronger than the course of nature1 may complain of all this variation1 on the one side or the other1 as their several humours and prejudices may lead them4 ,but things could not be otherwise2 and ,english colonies must be had on these terms1 or not had at all4 ,,feudal ,,principles ,,and ,,modern ,,times4 ,in the first place1 it is formed1 in many respects1 upon ,,feudal ,,principles4 ,in the feudal times1 it was not uncommon1 even among subjects1 for the lowest offices to be held by considerable persons2 persons as unfit by their incapacity1 as improper from their rank1 to occupy such employments4 ,they were held by patent1 sometimes for life1 and sometimes by inheritance4 ,if my memory does not deceive me1 a person of no slight consideration held the office of patent hereditary cook to an earl of ,warwick4 ,the earl of ,warwick's soups1 ,i fear1 were not the better for the dignity of his kitchen4 ,i think it was an earl of ,gloucester1 who officiated as steward of the household to the archbishops of ,canterbury4 ,instances of the same kind may in some degree be found in the ,northumberland house-book1 and other family records4 ,there was some reason in ancient necessities1 for these ancient customs4 ,protection was wanted2 and the domestic tie1 thought not the highest1 was the closest4 ,the king's household has not only several strong traces of this ,,feudality1 but it is formed also upon the principles of a ,,body ,,corporate2 it has its own magistrates1 courts1 and by-laws4 ,this might be necessary in the ancient times1 in order to have a government within itself1 capable of regulating the vast and often unruly multitude which composed and attended it4 ,this was the origin of the ancient court called the ,,green ,,cloth--composed of the marshal1 treasurer1 and other great officers of the household1 with certain clerks4 ,the rich subjects of the kingdom who had formerly the same establishments 7only on a reduced scale7 have since altered their economy2 and turned the course of their expense from the maintenance of vast establishments within their walls1 to the employment of a great variety of independent trades abroad4 ,their influence is lessened2 but a mode of accommodation1 and a style of splendour1 suited to the manners of the times1 has been increased4 ,royalty itself has insensibly followed2 and the royal household has been carried away by the resistless tide of manners3 but with this very material difference2--private men have got rid of the establishments along with the reasons of them2 whereas the royal household has lost all that was stately and venerable in the antique manners1 without retrenching anything of the cumbrous charge of a ,gothic establishment4 ,it is shrunk into the polished littleness of modern elegance and personal accommodation2 it has evaporated from the gross concrete into an essence and rectified spirit of expense1 where you have tuns of ancient pomp in a vial of modern luxury4 ,,restrictive ,,virtues4 ,i know1 that all parsimony is of a quality approaching to unkindness2 and that 7on some person or other7 every reform must operate as a sort of punishment4 ,indeed1 the whole class of the severe and restrictive virtues are at a market almost too high for humanity4 ,what is worse1 there are very few of those virtues which are not capable of being imitated1 and even outdone1 in many of their most striking effects1 by the worst of vices4 ,malignity and envy will carve much more deeply1 and finish much more sharply1 in the work of retrenchment1 than frugality and providence4 ,i do not1 therefore1 wonder that gentlemen have kept away from such a task1 as well from good-nature as from prudence4 ,private feeling might1 indeed1 be overborne by legislative reason2 and a man of a longd-sighted and a strong-nerved humanity might bring himself1 not so much to consider from whom he takes a superfluous enjoyment1 as for whom in the end he may preserve the absolute necessaries of life4 ,,libellers ,,of ,,human ,,nature4 ,i hope there are none of you corrupted with the doctrine taught by wicked men for the worst purposes1 and received by the malignant credulity of envy and ignorance1 which is1 that the men who act upon the public stage are all alike2 all equally corrupt2 all influenced by no other views than the sordid lure of salary and pension4 ,the thing ,i know by experience to be false4 ,never expecting to find perfection in men1 and not looking for divine attributes in created beings1 in my commerce with my contemporaries1 ,i have found much human virtue4 ,i have seen not a little public spirit2 a real subordination of interest to duty2 and a decent and regulated sensibility to honest fame and reputation4 ,the age unquestionably produces 7whether in a greater or less number than former times1 ,i know not7 daring profligates1 and insidious hypocrites4 ,what then8 ,am ,i not to avail myself of whatever good is to be found in the world1 because of the mixture of evil that will always be in it8 ,the smallness of the quantity in currency only heightens the value4 ,they who raise suspicions on the good on account of the behaviour of ill men1 are of the party of the latter4 ,the common cant is no justification for taking this party4 ,i have been deceived1 say they1 by ,titius and ,maevius2 ,i have been the dupe of this pretender or of that mountebank2 and ,i can trust appearances no longer4 ,but my credulity and want of discernment cannot1 as ,i conceive1 amount to a fair presumption against any man's integrity4 ,a conscientious person would rather doubt his own judgment1 than condemn his species4 ,he would say1 ,i have observed without attention1 or judged upon erroneous maxims2 ,i trusted to profession1 when ,i ought to have attended to conduct4 ,such a man will grow wise1 not malignant1 by his acquaintance with the world4 ,but he that accuses all mankind of corruption1 ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one4 ,in truth ,i should much rather admit those1 whom at any time ,i have disrelished the most1 to be patterns of perfection1 than seek a consolation to my own unworthiness1 in a general communion of depravity with all about me4 ,,refusal ,a ,,revenue4 ,what 7says the financier7 is peace to us without money8 ,your plan gives us no revenue4 ,no6 ,but it does--for it secures to the subject the power of ,,refusal2 the first of all revenues4 ,experience is a cheat1 and fact a liar1 if this power in the subject of proportioning his grant1 or of not granting at all1 has not been found the richest mine of revenue ever discovered by the skill or by the fortune of man4 ,it does not indeed vote you #aeb1geb pounds 3 #aa 3 #b #c_/dths1 nor any other paltry limited sum4 ,but it gives the strong box itself1 the fund1 the bank1 from whence only revenues can arise amongst a people sensible of freedom3 ,posita luditur arca4 ,cannot you in ,england2 cannot you at this time of day2 cannot you1 a ,house of ,commons1 trust to the principle which has raised so mighty a revenue1 and accumulated a debt of near #adj millions in this country8 ,is this principle to be true in ,england1 and false everywhere else8 ,is it not true in ,ireland8 ,has it not hitherto been true in the colonies8 ,why should you presume1 that1 in any country1 a body duly constituted for any function1 will neglect to perform its duty1 and abdicate its trust8 ,such a presumption would go against all governments in all modes4 ,but1 in truth1 this dread of penury of supply1 from a free assembly1 has no foundation in nature4 ,for first observe1 that besides the desire which all men have naturally of supporting the honour of their own government1 that sense of dignity1 and that security to property1 which ever attend freedom1 have a tendency to increase the stock of the free community4 ,most may be taken where most is accumulated4 ,and what is the soil or climate where experience has not uniformly proved1 that the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty1 bursting from the weight of its own rich luxuriance1 has ever run with a more copious stream of revenue1 than could be squeezed from the dry husks of oppressed indigence1 by the straining of all the politic machinery in the world4 ,a ,,party ,,man4 ,the only method which has ever been found effectual to preserve any man against the corruption of nature and example1 is a habit of life and communication of counsels with the most virtuous and public-spirited men of the age you live in4 ,such a society cannot be kept without advantage or deserted without shame4 ,for this rule of conduct ,i may be called in reproach a ,,party ,,man2 but ,i am little affected with such aspersions4 ,in the way which they call party1 ,i worship the constitution of your fathers2 and ,i shall never blush for my political company4 ,all reverence to honour1 all idea of what it is1 will be lost out of the world1 before it can be imputed as a fault to any man1 that he has been closely connected with those incomparable persons1 living and dead1 with whom for eleven years ,i have constantly thought and acted4 ,if ,i have wandered out of the paths of rectitude into those of interested faction1 it was in company with the ,saviles1 the ,dowdeswells1 the ,wentworths1 the ,bentincks2 with the ,lenoxes1 the ,manchesters1 the ,keppels1 the ,saunderses2 with the temperate1 permanent1 hereditary virtue of the whole house of ,cavendish2 names1 among which1 some have extended your fame and empire in arms1 and all have fought the battle of your liberties in fields not less glorious4 ,these1 and many more like these1 grafting public principles on private honour1 have redeemed the present age1 and would have adorned the most splendid period in your history4 ,,patriotism ,,and ,,public ,,income4 ,is it not the same virtue which does everything for us here in ,england8 ,do you imagine1 then1 that it is the land-tax which raises your revenue8 that it is the annual vote in the committee of supply1 which gives you your army8 or that it is the ,mutiny ,bill1 which inspires it with bravery and discipline8 ,no6 surely no6 ,it is the love of the people2 it is their attachment to their government1 from the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution1 which gives you your army and your navy1 and infuses into both that liberal obedience1 without which your army would be a base rabble1 and your navy nothing but rotten timber4 ,all this1 ,i know well enough1 will sound wild and chimerical to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians1 who have no place among us2 a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what is gross and material2 and who therefore1 far from being qualified to be directors of the great movement of empire1 are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine4 ,but to men truly initiated and rightly taught1 these ruling and master principles1 which1 in the opinion of such men as ,i have mentioned1 have no substantial existence1 are in truth everything1 and all in all4 ,magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom2 and a great empire and little minds go ill together4 ,if we are conscious of our situation1 and glow with zeal to fill our places as becomes our station and ourselves1 we ought to auspicate all our public proceedings on ,america1 with the old warning of the ,church1 ,sursum corda6 ,we ought to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of ,providence has called us4 ,by adverting to the dignity of this high calling1 our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire2 and have made the most extensive1 and the only honourable conquests1 not by destroying1 but by promoting the wealth1 the number1 the happiness of the human race4 ,let us get an ,american revenue as we have got an ,american empire4 ,english privileges have made it all that it is2 ,english privileges alone will make it all it can be4 ,,american ,,protestantism4 ,if anything were wanting to this necessary operation of the form of government1 religion would have given it a complete effect4 ,religion1 always a principle of energy1 in this new people is no way worn out or impaired2 and their mode of professing it is also one main cause of this free spirit4 ,the people are ,protestants2 and of that kind which is the most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion4 ,this is a persuasion not only favourable to liberty1 but built upon it4 ,i do not think1 ,sir1 that the reason of this averseness in the dissenting churches1 from all that looks like absolute government1 is so much to be sought in their religious tenets1 as in their history4 ,every one knows that the ,roman ,catholic religion is at least coeval with most of the governments where it prevails2 that it has generally gone hand in hand with them1 and received great favour and every kind of support from authority4 ,the ,church of ,england1 too1 was formed from her cradle1 under the nursing care of regular government4 ,but the dissenting interests have sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers of the world2 and could justify that opposition only on a strong claim to natural liberty4 ,their very existence depended on the powerful and unremitted assertion of that claim4 ,all ,protestantism1 even the most cold and passive1 is a sort of dissent4 ,but the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance2 it is the dissidence of dissent1 and the ,protestantism of the ,protestant religion4 ,,right ,,of ,,taxation4 ,i am resolved this day to have nothing at all to do with the question of the right of taxation4 ,some gentlemen startle1 but it is true2 ,i put it totally out of the question4 ,it is less than nothing in my consideration4 ,i do not indeed wonder1 nor will you1 ,sir1 that gentlemen of profound learning are fond of displaying it on this profound subject4 ,but my consideration is narrow1 confined1 and wholly limited to the policy of the question4 ,i do not examine whether the giving away a man's money be a power excepted and reserved out of the general trust of government2 and how far all mankind1 in all forms of polity1 are entitled to an exercise of that right by the charter of nature4 ,or whether1 on the contrary1 a right of taxation is necessarily involved in the general principle of legislation1 and inseparable from the ordinary supreme power4 ,these are deep questions1 where great names militate against each other2 where reason is perplexed2 and an appeal to authorities only thickens the confusion4 ,for high and reverend authorities lift up their heads on both sides2 and there is no sure footing in the middle4 ,this point is the ,,great ,,serbonian ,,bog1 ,,betwixt ,,damiata ,,and ,,mount ,,casius ,,old1 ,,where ,,armies ,,whole ,,have ,,sunk4 ,i do not intend to be overwhelmed in that bog1 though in such respectable company4 ,the question with me is1 not whether you have a right to render your people miserable2 but whether it is not your interest to make them happy4 ,it is not what a lawyer tells me ,i ,,may do2 but what humanity1 reason1 and justice tell me ,i ought to do4 ,is a politic act the worse for being a generous one8 ,is no concession proper1 but that which is made from your want of right to keep what you grant8 ,or does it lessen the grace or dignity of relaxing in the exercise of an odious claim1 because you have your evidence-room full of titles1 and your magazines stuffed with arms to enforce them8 ,what signify all those titles1 and all those arms8 ,of what avail are they1 when the reason of the thing tells me1 that the assertion of my title is the loss of my suit2 and that ,i could do nothing but wound myself by the use of my own weapons8 ,,contracted ,,views4 ,it is exceedingly common for men to contract their love to their country into an attachment to its petty subdivisions2 and they sometimes even cling to their provincial abuses1 as if they were franchises and local privileges4 ,accordingly1 in places where there is much of this kind of estate1 persons will be always found who would rather trust to their talents in recommending themselves to power for the renewal of their interests1 than to incumber their purses1 though never so lightly1 in order to transmit independence to their posterity4 ,it is a great mistake1 that the desire of securing property is universal among mankind4 ,gaming is a principle inherent in human nature4 ,it belongs to us all4 ,i would therefore break those tables2 ,i would furnish no evil occupation for that spirit4 ,i would make every man look everywhere1 except to the intrigue of a court1 for the improvement of his circumstances1 or the security of his fortune4 ,,assimilating ,,power ,,of ,,contact4 ,i am sure that the only means of checking precipitate degeneracy is heartily to concur with whatever is the best in our time2 and to have some more correct standard of judging what that best is1 than the transient and uncertain favour of a court4 ,if once we are able to find1 and can prevail on ourselves to strengthen1 a union of such men1 whatever accidentally becomes indisposed to ill-exercised power1 even by the ordinary operation of human passions1 must join with that society1 and cannot long be joined without in some degree assimilating to it4 ,virtue will catch as well as vice by contact2 and the public stock of honest1 manly principle will daily accumulate4 ,we are not too nicely to scrutinize motives as long as action is irreproachable4 ,it is enough 7and for a worthy man perhaps too much7 to deal out its infamy to convicted guilt and declared apostacy4 ,,prudence ,,of ,,timely ,,reform4 ,but there is a time when men will not suffer bad things because their ancestors have suffered worse4 ,there is a time when the hoary head of inveterate abuse will neither draw reverence nor obtain protection4 ,if the noble lord in the blue riband pleads not guilty to the charges brought against the present system of public economy1 it is not possible to give a fair verdict by which he will not stand acquitted4 ,but pleading is not our present business4 ,his plea or his traverse may be allowed as an answer to a charge1 when a charge is made4 ,but if he puts himself in the way to obstruct reformation1 then the faults of his office instantly become his own4 ,instead of a public officer in an abusive department1 whose province is an object to be regulated1 he becomes a criminal who is to be punished4 ,i do most seriously put it to administration1 to consider the wisdom of a timely reform4 ,early reformations are amicable arrangements with a friend in power2 late reformations are terms imposed upon a conquered enemy3 early reformations are made in cool blood2 late reformations are made under a state of inflammation4 ,in that state of things people behold in government nothing that is respectable4 ,they see the abuse1 and they will see nothing else3 they fall into the temper of a furious populace provoked at the disorder of a house of ill-fame2 they never attempt to correct or regulate2 they go to work by the shortest way--they abate the nuisance1 they pull down the house4 ,,difficulties ,,of ,,reformers4 ,nothing1 you know1 is more common than for men to wish1 and call loudly1 too1 for a reformation1 who1 when it arrives1 do by no means like the severity of its aspect4 ,reformation is one of those pieces which must be put at some distance in order to please4 ,its greatest favourers love it better in the abstract than in the substance4 ,when any old prejudice of their own1 or any interest that they value1 is touched1 they become scrupulous1 they become captious1 and every man has his separate exception4 ,some pluck out the black hairs1 some the gray2 one point must be given up to one2 another point must be yielded to another2 nothing is suffered to prevail upon its own principle2 the whole is so frittered down1 and disjointed1 that scarcely a trace of the original scheme remains6 ,thus1 between the resistance of power1 and the unsystematical process of popularity1 the undertaker and the undertaking are both exposed1 and the poor reformer is hissed off the stage both by friends and foes4 ,,philosophy ,,of ,,commerce4 ,if honesty be true policy with regard to the transient interest of individuals1 it is much more certainly so with regard to the permanent interests of communities4 ,i know1 that it is but too natural for us to see our own ,,certain ruin in the ,,possible prosperity of other people4 ,it is hard to persuade us1 that everything which is ,,got by another is not ,,taken from ourselves4 ,but it is fit that we should get the better of these suggestions1 which come from what is not the best and soundest part of our nature1 and that we should form to ourselves a way of thinking1 more rational1 more just1 and more religious4 ,trade is not a limited thing2 as if the objects of mutual demand and consumption could not stretch beyond the bounds of our jealousies4 ,god has given the earth to the children of men1 and he has undoubtedly1 in giving it to them1 given them what is abundantly sufficient for all their exigencies2 not a scanty1 but a most liberal1 provision for them all4 ,the author of our nature has written it strongly in that nature1 and has promulgated the same law in his written word1 that man shall eat his bread by his labour2 and ,i am persuaded1 that no man1 and no combination of men1 for their own ideas of their particular profit1 can1 without great impiety1 undertake to say1 that he ,,shall ,,not do so2 that they have no sort of right1 either to prevent the labour1 or to withhold the bread4 ,,theorizing ,,politicians4 ,there are people who have split and anatomised the doctrine of free government1 as if it were an abstract question concerning metaphysical liberty and necessity2 and not a matter of moral prudence and natural feeling4 ,they have disputed1 whether liberty be a positive or a negative idea2 whether it does not consist in being governed by laws1 without considering what are the laws1 or who are the makers2 whether man has any rights by nature2 and whether all the property he enjoys be not the alms of his government1 and his life itself their favour and indulgence4 ,others corrupting religion1 as these have perverted philosophy1 contend1 that ,christians are redeemed into captivity2 and the blood of the ,saviour of mankind has been shed to make them the slaves of a few proud and insolent sinners4 ,these shocking extremes provoking to extremes of another kind1 speculations are let loose as destructive to all authority1 as the former are to all freedom2 and every government is called tyranny and usurpation which is not formed on their fancies4 ,in this manner the stirrers-up of this contention1 not satisfied with distracting our dependencies and filling them with blood and slaughter1 are corrupting our understandings2 they are endeavouring to tear up1 along with practical liberty1 all the foundations of human society1 all equity and justice1 religion and order4 ,,economy ,,and ,,public ,,spirit4 ,economy and public spirit have made a beneficent and an honest spoil2 they have plundered from extravagance and luxury1 for the use of substantial service1 a revenue of near four hundred thousand pounds4 ,the reform of the finances1 joined to this reform of the court1 gives to the public nine hundred thousand pounds a year and upwards4 ,the minister who does these things is a great man--but the king who desires that they should be done is a far greater4 ,we must do justice to our enemies--these are the acts of a patriot king4 ,i am not in dread of the vast armies of ,france2 ,i am not in dread of the gallant spirit of its brave and numerous nobility2 ,i am not alarmed even at the great navy which has been so miraculously created4 ,all these things ,louis the ,fourteenth had before4 ,with all these things1 the ,french monarchy has more than once fallen prostrate at the feet of the public faith of ,great ,britain4 ,it was the want of public credit which disabled ,france from recovering after her defeats1 or recovering even from her victories and triumphs4 ,it was a prodigal court1 it was an ill-ordered revenue1 that sapped the foundations of all her greatness4 ,credit cannot exist under the arm of necessity4 ,necessity strikes at credit1 ,i allow1 with a heavier and quicker blow under an arbitrary monarchy1 than under a limited and balanced government2 but still necessity and credit are natural enemies1 and cannot be long reconciled in any situation4 ,from necessity and corruption1 a free state may lose the spirit of that complex constitution which is the foundation of confidence4 ,,reform ,,ought ,,to ,,be ,,progressive4 ,whenever we improve1 it is right to leave room for a further improvement4 ,it is right to consider1 to look about us1 to examine the effect of what we have done4 ,then we can proceed with confidence1 because we can proceed with intelligence4 ,whereas in hot reformations1 in what men1 more zealous than considerate1 call ,,making ,,clear ,,work1 the whole is generally so crude1 so harsh1 so indigested2 mixed with so much imprudence1 and so much injustice2 so contrary to the whole course of human nature and human institutions1 that the very people who are most eager for it are among the first to grow disgusted at what they have done4 ,then some part of the abdicated grievance is recalled from its exile in order to become a corrective of the correction4 ,then the abuse assumes all the credit and popularity of a reform4 ,the very idea of purity and disinterestedness in politics falls into disrepute1 and is considered as a vision of hot and inexperienced men2 and thus disorders become incurable1 not by the virulence of their own quality1 but by the unapt and violent nature of the remedies4 ,a great part1 therefore1 of my idea of reform is meant to operate gradually2 some benefits will come at a nearer1 some at a more remote period4 ,we must no more make haste to be rich by parsimony1 than by intemperate acquisition4 ,,civil ,,freedom4 ,civil freedom1 gentlemen1 is not1 as many have endeavoured to persuade you1 a thing that lies hid in the depth of abstruse science4 ,it is a blessing and a benefit1 not an abstract speculation2 and all the just reasoning that can be upon it is of so coarse a texture1 as perfectly to suit the ordinary capacities of those who are to enjoy1 and of those who are to defend it4 ,far from any resemblance to those propositions in geometry and metaphysics1 which admit no medium1 but must be true or false in all their latitude2 social and civil freedom1 like all other things in common life1 are variously mixed and modified1 enjoyed in very different degrees1 and shaped into an infinite diversity of forms1 according to the temper and circumstances of every community4 ,the ,,extreme of liberty 7which is its abstract perfection1 but its real fault7 obtains nowhere1 nor ought to obtain anywhere4 ,because extremes1 as we all know1 in every point which relates either to our duties or satisfactions in life1 are destructive both to virtue and enjoyment4 ,,tendencies ,,of ,,power4 ,when any community is subordinately connected with another1 the great danger of the connection is the extreme pride and self-complacency of the superior1 which in all matters of controversy will probably decide in its own favour4 ,it is a powerful corrective to such a very rational cause of fear if the inferior body can be made to believe that the party inclination1 or political views1 of several in the principal state will induce them in some degree to counteract this blind and tyrannical partiality4 ,there is no danger that any one acquiring consideration or power in the presiding state should carry this leaning to the inferior too far4 ,the fault of human nature is not of that sort4 ,power1 in whatever hands1 is rarely guilty of too strict limitations on itself4 ,but one great advantage to the support of authority attends such an amicable and protecting connection1 that those who have conferred favours obtain influence2 and from the foresight of future events can persuade men who have received obligations1 sometimes to return them4 ,thus1 by the mediation of those healing principles 7call them good or evil71 troublesome discussions are brought to some sort of adjustment1 and every hot controversy is not a civil war4 ,,individual ,,good ,,and ,,public ,,benefit4 ,the individual good felt in a public benefit is comparatively so small1 comes round through such an involved labyrinth of intricate and tedious revolutions2 whilst a present1 personal detriment is so heavy where it falls1 and so instant in its operation1 that the cold commendation of a public advantage never was1 and never will be a match for the quick sensibility of a private loss3 and you may depend upon it1 sir1 that when many people have an interest in railing1 sooner or later1 they will bring a considerable degree of unpopularity upon any measure1 ,so that1 for the present at least1 the reformation will operate against the reformers1 and revenge 7as against them at the least7 will produce all the effects of corruption4 ,,public ,,corruption4 ,nor is it the worst effect of this unnatural contention1 that our ,,laws are corrupted4 ,whilst ,,manners remain entire1 they will correct the vices of law1 and soften it at length to their own temper4 ,but we have to lament1 that in most of the late proceedings we see very few traces of that generosity1 humanity1 and dignity of mind which formerly characterized this nation4 ,war suspends the rules of moral obligation1 and what is long suspended is in danger of being totally abrogated4 ,civil wars strike deepest of all into the manners of the people4 ,they vitiate their politics2 they corrupt their morals2 they pervert even the natural taste and relish of equity and justice4 ,by teaching us to consider our fellow-citizens in a hostile light1 the whole body of our nation becomes gradually less dear to us4 ,the very names of affection and kindred1 which were the bond of charity whilst we agreed1 become new incentives to hatred and rage when the communion of our country is dissolved4 ,we may flatter ourselves that we shall not fall into this misfortune4 ,but we have no charter of exemption1 that ,i know of1 from the ordinary frailties of our nature4 ,,cruelty ,,and ,,cowardice4 ,a conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood4 ,he would feel some apprehension at being called to a tremendous account for engaging in so deep a play1 without any sort of knowledge of the game4 ,it is no excuse for presumptuous ignorance1 that it is directed by insolent passion4 ,the poorest being that crawls on earth1 contending to save itself from injustice and oppression1 is an object respectable in the eyes of ,god and man4 ,but ,i cannot conceive any existence under heaven 7which1 in the depths of its wisdom1 tolerates all sorts of things7 that is more truly odious and disgusting1 than an impotent helpless creature1 without civil wisdom or military skill1 without a consciousness of any other qualification for power but his servility to it1 bloated with pride and arrogance1 calling for battles which he is not to fight1 contending for a violent dominion which he can never exercise1 and satisfied to be himself mean and miserable1 in order to render others contemptible and wretched4 ,,bad ,,laws ,,produce ,,base ,,subserviency4 ,bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny4 ,in such a country as this they are of all bad things the worst1 worse by far than anywhere else2 and they derive a particular malignity even from the wisdom and soundness of the rest of our institutions4 ,for very obvious reasons you cannot trust the crown with a dispensing power over any of your laws4 ,however1 a government1 be it as bad as it may1 will1 in the exercise of a discretionary power1 discriminate times and persons2 and will not ordinarily pursue any man when its own safety is not concerned4 ,a mercenary informer knows no distinction4 ,under such a system1 the obnoxious people are slaves1 not only to the government1 but they live at the mercy of every individual2 they are at once the slaves of the whole community1 and of every part of it2 and the worst and most unmerciful men are those on whose goodness they most depend4 ,in this situation men not only shrink from the frowns of a stern magistrate1 but they are obliged to fly from their very species4 ,the seeds of destruction are sown in civil intercourse1 in social habitudes4 ,the blood of wholesome kindred is infected4 ,their tables and beds are surrounded with snares4 ,all the means given by ,providence to make life safe and comfortable are perverted into instruments of terror and torment4 ,this species of universal subserviency1 that makes the very servant who waits behind your chair the arbiter of your life and fortune1 has such a tendency to degrade and abase mankind1 and to deprive them of that assured and liberal state of mind which alone can make us what we ought to be1 that ,i vow to ,god ,i would sooner bring myself to put a man to immediate death for opinions ,i disliked1 and so to get rid of the man and his opinions at once1 than to fret him with a feverish being1 tainted with the jail-distemper of a contagious servitude1 to keep him above ground an animated mass of putrefaction1 corrupted himself1 and corrupting all about him4 ,,false ,,regret4 ,if we repent of our good actions1 what1 ,i pray you1 is left for our faults and follies8 ,it is not the beneficence of the laws1 it is the unnatural temper which beneficence can fret and sour that is to be lamented4 ,it is this temper which1 by all rational means1 ought to be sweetened and corrected4 ,if froward men should refuse this cure1 can they vitiate anything but themselves8 ,does evil so react upon good1 as not only to retard its motion1 but to change its nature8 ,if it can so operate1 then good men will always be in the power of the bad2 and virtue1 by a dreadful reverse of order1 must lie under perpetual subjection and bondage to vice4 ,,british ,,dominion ,,in ,,east ,,india4 ,with very few1 and those inconsiderable1 intervals1 the ,british dominion1 either in the ,company's name1 or in the names of princes absolutely dependent upon the ,company1 extends from the mountains that separate ,india from ,tartary to ,cape ,comorin1--that is1 one-and-twenty degrees of latitude6 ,in the northern parts it is a solid mass of land1 about eight hundred miles in length1 and four or five hundred broad4 ,as you go southward1 it becomes narrower for a space4 ,it afterwards dilates2 but1 narrower or broader1 you possess the whole eastern and north-eastern coast of that vast country1 quite from the borders of ,pegu4 ,bengal1 ,bahar1 and ,orissa1 with ,benares 7now unfortunately in our immediate possession71 measure #afa1igh square ,english miles2 a territory considerably larger than the whole kingdom of ,france4 ,oude1 with its dependent provinces1 is #ec1bhf square miles1 not a great deal less than ,england4 ,the ,carnatic1 with ,tanjore and the ,circars1 is #fe1idh square miles1 very considerably larger than ,england2 and the whole of the ,company's dominions1 comprehending ,bombay and ,salsette1 amounts to #bha1dab square miles2 which forms a territory larger than any ,european dominion1 ,russia and ,turkey excepted4 ,through all that vast extent of country there is not a man who eats a mouthful of rice but by permission of the ,east-,india ,company4 ,so far with regard to the extent4 ,the population of this great empire is not easily to be calculated4 ,when the countries1 of which it is composed1 came into our possession1 they were all eminently peopled1 and eminently productive2 though at that time considerably declined from their ancient prosperity4 ,but1 since they are come into our hands6--6 ,however1 if we make the period of our estimate immediately before the utter desolation of the ,carnatic1 and if we allow for the havoc which our government had even then made in these regions1 we cannot1 in my opinion1 rate the population at much less than thirty millions of souls1--more than four times the number of persons in the ,island of ,great ,britain4 ,my next inquiry to that of the number1 is the quality and description of the inhabitants4 ,this multitude of men does not consist of an abject and barbarous populace2 much less of gangs of savages1 like the ,guaranies and ,chiquitos1 who wander on the waste borders of the river of ,amazons1 or the ,plate2 but a people for ages civilized and cultivated2 cultivated by all the arts of polished life1 whilst we were yet in the woods4 ,there have been 7and still the skeletons remain7 princes once of great dignity1 authority1 and opulence4 ,there are to be found the chiefs of tribes and nations4 ,there is to be found an ancient and venerable priesthood1 the depository of their laws1 learning1 and history1 the guides of the people whilst living1 and their consolation in death2 a nobility of great antiquity and renown2 a multitude of cities1 not exceeded in population and trade by those of the first class in ,europe2 merchants and bankers1 individual houses of whom have once vied in capital with the ,bank of ,england2 whose credit had often supported a tottering state1 and preserved their governments in the midst of war and desolation2 millions of ingenious manufacturers and mechanics2 millions of the most diligent1 and not the least intelligent1 tillers of the earth4 ,there are to be found almost all the religions professed by men1--the ,brahminical1 the ,mussulman1 the ,eastern and the ,western ,christian4 ,if ,i were to take the whole aggregate of our possessions there1 ,i should compare it1 as the nearest parallel ,i can find1 with the empire of ,germany4 ,our immediate possessions ,i should compare with the ,austrian dominions1--and they would not suffer in the comparison4 ,the nabob of ,oude might stand for the king of ,prussia2 the nabob of ,arcot ,i would compare1 as superior in territory and equal in revenue1 to the elector of ,saxony4 ,cheyt ,sing1 the rajah of ,benares1 might well rank with the prince of ,hesse1 at least2 and the rajah of ,tanjore 7though hardly equal in extent of dominion1 superior in revenue71 to the elector of ,bavaria4 ,the ,polygars and the northern ,zemindars1 and other great chiefs1 might well class with the rest of the princes1 dukes1 counts1 marquises1 and bishops1 in the empire2 all of whom ,i mention to honour1 and surely without disparagement to any or all of those most respectable princes and grandees4 ,all this vast mass1 composed of so many orders and classes of men1 is again infinitely advocated by manners1 by religion1 by hereditary employment1 through all their possible combinations4 ,this renders the handling of ,india a matter in a high degree critical and delicate4 ,but oh6 it has been handled rudely indeed4 ,even some of the reformers seem to have forgot that they had anything to do but to regulate the tenants of a manor1 or the shopkeepers of the next county town4 ,it is an empire of this extent1 of this complicated nature1 of this dignity and importance1 that ,i have compared to ,germany1 and the ,german government2 not for an exact resemblance1 but as a sort of a middle term1 by which ,india might be approximated to our understandings1 and if possible to our feelings2 in order to awaken something of sympathy for the unfortunate natives1 of which ,i am afraid we are not perfectly susceptible1 whilst we look at this very remote object through a false and cloudy medium4 ,,political ,,charity4 ,honest men will not forget either their merit or their sufferings4 ,there are men 7and many1 ,i trust1 there are7 who1 out of love to their country and their kind1 would torture their invention to find excuses for the mistakes of their brethren2 and who1 to stifle dissension1 would construe even doubtful appearances with the utmost favour3 such men will never persuade themselves to be ingenious and refined in discovering disaffection and treason in the manifest1 palpable signs of suffering loyalty4 ,persecution is so unnatural to them1 that they gladly snatch the very first opportunity of laying aside all the tricks and devices of penal politics2 and of returning home1 after all their irksome and vexatious wanderings1 to our natural family mansion1 to the grand social principle1 that unites all men1 in all descriptions1 under the shadow of an equal and impartial justice4 ,,evils ,,of ,,distraction4 ,the very attempt towards pleasing everybody discovers a temper always flashy1 and often false and insincere4 ,therefore as ,i have proceeded straight onward in my conduct1 so ,i will proceed in my account of those parts of it which have been most excepted to4 ,but ,i must first beg leave just to hint to you1 that we may suffer very great detriment by being open to every talker4 ,it is not to be imagined how much of service is lost from spirits full of activity and full of energy1 who are pressing1 who are rushing forward1 to great and capital objects1 when you oblige them to be continually looking back4 ,whilst they are defending one service1 they defraud you of an hundred4 ,applaud us when we run2 console us when we fall2 cheer us when we recover2 but let us pass on--for ,god's sake let us pass on4 ,,charles ,,fox4 ,and now1 having done my duty to the bill1 let me say a word to the author4 ,i should leave him to his own noble sentiments1 if the unworthy and illiberal language with which he has been treated1 beyond all example of parliamentary liberty1 did not make a few words necessary2 not so much in justice to him1 as to my own feelings4 ,i must say1 then1 that it will be a distinction honourable to the age1 that the rescue of the greatest number of the human race that ever were so grievously oppressed1 from the greatest tyranny that was ever exercised1 has fallen to the lot of abilities and dispositions equal to the task2 that it has fallen to one who has the enlargement to comprehend1 the spirit to undertake1 and the eloquence to support1 so great a measure of hazardous benevolence4 ,his spirit is not owing to his ignorance of the state of men and things2 he well knows what snares are spread about his path1 from personal animosity1 from court intrigues1 and possibly from popular delusion4 ,but he has put to hazard his ease1 his security1 his interest1 his power1 even his darling popularity1 for the benefit of a people whom he has never seen4 ,this is the road that all heroes have trod before him4 ,he is traduced and abused for his supposed motives4 ,he will remember1 that obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the composition of all true glory3 he will remember1 that it was not only in the ,roman customs1 but it is in the nature and constitution of things1 that calumny and abuse are essential parts of triumph4 ,these thoughts will support a mind1 which only exists for honour1 under the burthen of temporary reproach4 ,he is doing indeed a great good2 such as rarely falls to the lot1 and almost as rarely coincides with the desires1 of any man4 ,let him use his time4 ,let him give the whole length of the reins to his benevolence4 ,he is now on a great eminence1 where the eyes of mankind are turned to him4 ,he may live long1 he may do much4 ,but here is the summit4 ,he never can exceed what he does this day4 ,he has faults2 but they are faults that1 though they may in a small degree tarnish the lustre1 and sometimes impede the march1 of his abilities1 have nothing in them to extinguish the fire of great virtues4 ,in those faults there is no mixture of deceit1 of hypocrisy1 of pride1 of ferocity1 of complexional despotism1 or want of feeling for the distresses of mankind4 ,his are faults which might exist in a descendant of ,henry the ,fourth of ,france1 as they did exist in that father of his country4 ,henry the ,fourth wished that he might live to see a fowl in the pot of every peasant in his kingdom4 ,that sentiment of homely benevolence was worth all the splendid sayings that are recorded of kings4 ,but he wished perhaps for more than could be obtained1 and the goodness of the man exceeded the power of the king4 ,but this gentleman1 a subject1 may this day say this at least1 with truth1 that he secures the rice in his pot to every man in ,india4 ,a poet of antiquity thought it one of the first distinctions to a prince whom he meant to celebrate1 that through a long succession of generations1 he had been the progenitor of an able and virtuous citizen1 who by force of the arts of peace1 had corrected governments of oppression1 and suppressed wars of rapine4 ,indole proh quanta juvenis1 quantumque daturus ,ausoniae populis ventura in saecula civem4 ,ille super ,gangem1 super exauditus et ,indos1 ,implebit terras voce2 et furialia bella ,fulmine compescet linguae4-- ,this was what was said of the predecessor of the only person to whose eloquence it does not wrong that of the mover of this bill to be compared4 ,but the ,ganges and the ,indus are the patrimony of the fame of my honourable friend1 and not of ,cicero4 ,i confess1 ,i anticipate with joy the reward of those1 whose whole consequence1 power1 and authority1 exist only for the benefit of mankind2 and ,i carry my mind to all the people1 and all the names and descriptions1 that1 relieved by this bill1 will bless the labours of this parliament1 and the confidence which the best ,house of ,commons has given to him who the best deserves it4 ,the little cavils of party will not be heard1 where freedom and happiness will be felt4 ,there is not a tongue1 a nation1 or religion in ,india which will not bless the presiding care and manly beneficence of this house1 and of him who proposes to you this great work4 ,your names will never be separated before the throne of the ,divine goodness1 in whatever language1 or with whatever rites1 pardon is asked for sin1 and reward for those who imitate the ,godhead in his universal bounty to his creatures4 ,these honours you deserve1 and they will surely be paid1 when all the jargon of influence1 and party1 and patronage1 are swept into oblivion4 ,,the ,,impracticable ,,undesirable4 ,i know it is common for men to say1 that such and such things are perfectly right--very desirable2 but that1 unfortunately1 they are not practicable4 ,oh6 no1 sir1 no4 ,those things1 which are not practicable1 are not desirable4 ,there is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding1 and a well-directed pursuit4 ,there is nothing that ,god has judged good for us that he has not given us the means to accomplish1 both in the natural and the moral world4 ,if we cry1 like children1 for the moon1 like children we must cry on4 ,,constitution ,,of ,,the ,,commons4 ,the late ,house of ,commons has been punished for its independence4 ,that example is made4 ,have we an example on record of a ,house of ,commons punished for its servility8 ,the rewards of a senate so disposed are manifest to the world4 ,several gentlemen are very desirous of altering the constitution of the ,house of ,commons2 but they must alter the frame and constitution of human nature itself before they can so fashion it by any mode of election that its conduct will not be influenced by reward and punishment1 by fame1 and by disgrace4 ,if these examples take root in the minds of men1 what members hereafter will be bold enough not to be corrupt8 ,especially as the king's highway of obsequiousness is so very broad and easy4 ,to make a passive member of parliament1 no dignity of mind1 no principles of honour1 no resolution1 no ability1 no industry1 no learning1 no experience1 are in the least degree necessary4 ,to defend a post of importance against a powerful enemy1 requires an ,elliot2 a drunken invalid is qualified to hoist a white flag1 or to deliver up the keys of the fortress on his knees4 ,,emoluments ,,of ,,office4 ,no man knows1 when he cuts off the incitements to a virtuous ambition1 and the just rewards of public service1 what infinite mischief he may do his country1 through all generations4 ,such saving to the public may prove the worst mode of robbing it4 ,the crown1 which has in its hands the trust of the daily pay for national service1 ought to have in its hands also the means for the repose of public labour1 and the fixed settlement of acknowledged merit4 ,there is a time when the weather-beaten vessels of the state ought to come into harbour4 ,they must at length have a retreat from the malice of rivals1 from the perfidy of political friends1 and the inconstancy of the people4 ,many of the persons1 who in all times have filled the great offices of state1 have been younger brothers1 who had originally little1 if any1 fortune4 ,these offices do not furnish the means of amassing wealth4 ,there ought to be some power in the crown of granting pensions out of the reach of its own caprices4 ,an entail of dependence is a bad reward of merit4 ,,moral ,,distinctions4 ,those who are least anxious about your conduct are not those that love you most4 ,moderate affection and satiated enjoyment are cold and respectful2 but an ardent and injured passion is tempered up with wrath1 and grief1 and shame1 and conscious worth1 and the maddening sense of violated right4 ,a jealous love lights his torch from the firebrands of the furies4 ,they who call upon you to belong ,,wholly to the people1 are those who wish you to return to your ,,proper home2 to the sphere of your duty1 to the post of your honour1 to the mansion-house of all genuine1 serene1 and solid satisfaction4 ,,electors ,,and ,,representatives4 ,look1 gentlemen1 to the ,,whole ,,tenour of your member's conduct4 ,try whether his ambition or his avarice have jostled him out of the straight line of duty2 or whether that grand foe of the offices of active life1 that master vice in men of business1 a degenerate and inglorious sloth--has made him flag and languish in his course4 ,this is the object of our inquiry4 ,if our member's conduct can bear this touch1 mark it for sterling4 ,he may have fallen into errors2 he must have faults2 but our error is greater1 and our fault is radically ruinous to ourselves1 if we do not bear1 if we do not even applaud1 the whole compound and mixed mass of such a character4 ,not to act thus is folly2 ,i had almost said it is impiety4 ,he censures ,god1 who quarrels with the imperfections of man4 ,gentlemen1 we must not be peevish with those who serve the people4 ,for none will serve us whilst there is a court to serve but those who are of a nice and jealous honour4 ,they who think everything1 in comparison of that honour1 to be dust and ashes1 will not bear to have it soiled and impaired by those for whose sake they make a thousand sacrifices to preserve it immaculate and whole4 ,we shall either drive such men from the public stage1 or we shall send them to the court for protection2 where1 if they must sacrifice their reputation1 they will at least secure their interest4 ,depend upon it1 that the lovers of freedom will be free4 ,none will violate their conscience to please us1 in order afterwards to discharge that conscience1 which they have violated1 by doing us faithful and affectionate service4 ,if we degrade and deprave their minds by servility1 it will be absurd to expect1 that they who are creeping and abject towards us1 will ever be bold and incorruptible assertors of our freedom1 against the most seducing and the most formidable of all powers4 ,no6 human nature is not so formed2 nor shall we improve the faculties or better the morals of public men1 by our possession of the most infallible receipt in the world for making cheats and hypocrites4 ,let me say with plainness1 ,i who am no longer in a public character1 that if by a fair1 by an indulgent1 by a gentlemanly behaviour to our representatives1 we do not give confidence to their minds1 and a liberal scope to their understandings2 if we do not permit our members to act upon a ,,very enlarged view of things2 we shall at length infallibly degrade our national representation into a confused and scuffling bustle of local agency4 ,when the popular member is narrowed in his ideas1 and rendered timid in his proceedings1 the service of the crown will be the sole nursery of statesmen4 ,among the frolics of the court1 it may at length take that of attending to its business4 ,then the monopoly of mental power will be added to the power of all other kinds it possesses4 ,on the side of the people there will be nothing but impotence3 for ignorance is impotence2 narrowness of mind is impotence2 timidity is itself impotence1 and makes all other qualities that go along with it1 impotent and useless4 ,,popular ,,opinion ,a ,,fallacious ,,standard4 ,when we know1 that the opinions of even the greatest multitudes are the standard of rectitude1 ,i shall think myself obliged to make those opinions the masters of my conscience4 ,but if it may be doubted whether ,omnipotence itself is competent to alter the essential constitution of right and wrong1 sure ,i am that such ,,things1 as they and ,i1 are possessed of no such power4 ,no man carries further than ,i do the policy of making government pleasing to the people4 ,but the widest range of this politic complaisance is confined within the limits of justice4 ,i would not only consult the interest of the people1 but ,i would cheerfully gratify their humours4 ,we are all a sort of children that must be soothed and managed4 ,i think ,i am not austere or formal in my nature4 ,i would bear1 ,i would even myself play my part in any innocent buffooneries to divert them4 ,but ,i never will act the tyrant for their amusement4 ,if they will mix malice in their sports1 ,i shall never consent to throw them any living1 sentient creature whatsoever--no1 not so much as a kitling1 to torment4 ,,english ,,reformation4 ,the condition of our nature is such1 that we buy our blessings at a price4 ,the ,reformation1 one of the greatest periods of human improvement1 was a time of trouble and confusion4 ,the vast structure of superstition and tyranny1 which had been for ages in rearing1 and which was combined with the interest of the great and of the many1 which was moulded into the laws1 the manners1 and civil institutions of nations1 and blended with the frame and policy of states1 could not be brought to the ground without a fearful struggle2 nor could it fall without a violent concussion of itself and all about it4 ,when this great revolution was attempted in a more regular mode by government1 it was opposed by plots and seditions of the people2 when by popular efforts1 it was repressed as a rebellion by the hand of power2 and bloody executions 7often bloodily returned7 marked the whole of its progress through all its stages4 ,the affairs of religion1 which are no longer heard of in the tumult of our present contentions1 made a principal ingredient in the wars and politics of that time2 the enthusiasm of religion threw a gloom over the politics2 and political interests poisoned and perverted the spirit of religion upon all sides4 ,the ,protestant religion in that violent struggle1 infected1 as the ,popish had been before1 by worldly interests and worldly passions1 became a persecutor in its turn1 sometimes of the new sects1 which carried their own principles further than it was convenient to the original reformers2 and always of the body from whom they parted3 and this persecuting spirit arose1 not only from the bitterness of retaliation1 but from the merciless policy of fear4 ,it was long before the spirit of true piety and true wisdom1 involved in the principles of the ,reformation1 could be depurated from the dregs and feculence of the contention with which it was carried through4 ,however1 until this be done1 the ,reformation is not complete2 and those who think themselves good ,protestants1 from their animosity to others1 are in that respect no ,protestants at all4 ,,proscription4 ,this way of ,,proscribing ,,the ,,citizens ,,by ,,denominations ,,and ,,general ,,descriptions1 dignified by the name of reason of state1 and security for constitutions and commonwealths1 is nothing better at bottom1 than the miserable invention of an ungenerous ambition1 which would fain hold the sacred trust of power1 without any of the virtues or any of the energies that give a title to it3 a receipt of policy1 made up of a detestable compound of malice1 cowardice1 and sloth4 ,they would govern men against their will2 but in that government they would be discharged from the exercise of vigilance1 providence1 and fortitude2 and therefore1 that they may sleep on their watch1 they consent to take some one division of the society into partnership of the tyranny over the rest4 ,but let government1 in what form it may be1 comprehend the whole in its justice1 and restrain the suspicious by its vigilance2 let it keep watch and ward2 let it discover by its sagacity1 and punish by its firmness1 all delinquency against its power1 whenever delinquency exists in the overt acts2 and then it will be as safe as ever ,god and nature intended it should be4 ,crimes are the acts of individuals1 and not of denominations2 and therefore arbitrarily to class men under general descriptions1 in order to proscribe and punish them in the lump for a presumed delinquency1 of which perhaps but a part1 perhaps none at all1 are guilty1 is indeed a compendious method1 and saves a world of trouble about proof2 but such a method1 instead of being law1 is an act of unnatural rebellion against the legal dominion of reason and justice2 and this vice1 in any constitution that entertains it1 at one time or other will certainly bring on its ruin4 ,,just ,,freedom4 ,i must fairly tell you1 that so far as my principles are concerned1 7principles that ,i hope will only depart with my last breath71 ,i have no idea of a liberty unconnected with honesty and justice4 ,nor do ,i believe that any good constitutions of government1 or of freedom1 can find it necessary for their security to doom any part of the people to a permanent slavery4 ,such a constitution of freedom1 if such can be1 is in effect no more than another name for the tyranny of the strongest faction2 and factions in republics have been1 and are1 full as capable as monarchs of the most cruel oppression and injustice4 ,it is but too true1 that the love1 and even the very idea of genuine liberty is extremely rare4 ,it is but too true1 that there are many whose whole scheme of freedom is made up of pride1 perverseness1 and insolence4 ,they feel themselves in a state of thraldom1 they imagine that their souls are cooped and cabined in1 unless they have some man1 or some body of men1 dependent on their mercy4 ,the desire of having some one below them descends to those who are the very lowest of all1--and a ,protestant cobbler1 debased by his poverty1 but exalted by his share of the ruling church1 feels a pride in knowing it is by his generosity alone that the peer1 whose footman's instep he measures1 is able to keep his chaplain from a gaol4 ,,england',s ,,embassy ,,to ,,america4 ,they enter the capital of ,america only to abandon it2 and these assertors and representatives of the dignity of ,england1 at the tail of a flying army1 let fly their ,parthian shafts of memorials and remonstrances at random behind them4 ,their promises and their offers1 their flatteries and their menaces1 were all despised2 and we were saved from the disgrace of their formal reception1 only because the congress scorned to receive them2 whilst the state-house of independent ,philadelphia opened her doors to the public entry of the ambassador of ,france4 ,from war and blood we went to submission2 and from submission plunged back again to war and blood2 to desolate and be desolated1 without measure1 hope1 or end4 ,i am a ,royalist1 ,i blushed for this degradation of the crown4 ,i am a ,whig1 ,i blushed for the dishonour of parliament4 ,i am a true ,englishman1 ,i felt to the quick for the disgrace of ,england4 ,i am a man1 ,i felt for the melancholy reverse of human affairs in the fall of the first power in the world4 ,,howard1 ,,the ,,philanthropist4 ,i cannot name this gentleman without remarking that his labours and writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind4 ,he has visited all ,europe1--not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces1 or the stateliness of temples2 not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur1 nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art2 not to collect medals1 or collate manuscripts3--but to dive into the depths of dungeons2 to plunge into the infection of hospitals2 to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain2 to take the gauge and dimensions of misery1 depression1 and contempt2 to remember the forgotten1 to attend to the neglected1 to visit the forsaken1 and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries4 ,his plan is original2 and is as full of genius as it is of humanity4 ,it was a voyage of discovery2 a circumnavigation of charity4 ,already the benefit of his labour is felt more or less in every country2 ,i hope he will anticipate his final reward by seeing all its effects fully realized in his own4 ,he will receive1 not by detail1 but in gross1 the reward of those who visit the prisoner2 and he has so forestalled and monopolized this branch of charity1 that there will be1 ,i trust1 little room to merit by such acts of benevolence hereafter4 ,,parliamentary ,,retrospect4 ,it is certainly not pleasing to be put out of the public service4 ,but ,i wish to be a member of parliament1 to have my share of doing good and resisting evil4 ,it would therefore be absurd to renounce my objects in order to obtain my seat4 ,i deceive myself indeed most grossly if ,i had not much rather pass the remainder of my life hidden in the recesses of the deepest obscurity1 feeding my mind even with the visions and imaginations of such things1 than to be placed on the most splendid throne of the universe1 tantalized with a denial of the practice of all which can make the greatest situation any other than the greatest curse4 ,gentlemen1 ,i have had my day4 ,i can never sufficiently express my gratitude to you for having set me in a place wherein ,i could lend the slightest help to great and laudable designs4 ,if ,i have had my share in any measure giving quiet to private property1 and private conscience2 if by my vote ,i have aided in securing to families the best possession1 peace2 if ,i have joined in reconciling kings to their subjects1 and subjects to their prince2 if ,i have assisted to loosen the foreign holdings of the citizen1 and taught him to look for his protection to the laws of his country1 and for his comfort to the goodwill of his countrymen--if ,i have thus taken my part with the best of men in the best of their actions1 ,i can shut the book2--,i might wish to read a page or two more--but this is enough for my measure1--,i have not lived in vain4 ,,people ,,and ,,parliament4 ,let the commons in parliament assembled be one and the same thing with the commons at large4 ,the distinctions that are made to separate us are unnatural and wicked contrivances4 ,let us identify1 let us incorporate1 ourselves with the people4 ,let us cut all the cables and snap the chains which tie us to an unfaithful shore1 and enter the friendly harbour that shoots far out into the main its moles and jettees to receive us4--,war with the world1 and peace with our constituents4 ,be this our motto1 and our principle4 ,then1 indeed1 we shall be truly great4 ,respecting ourselves1 we shall be respected by the world4 ,at present all is troubled1 and cloudy1 and distracted1 and full of anger and turbulence1 both abroad and at home2 but the air may be cleared by this storm1 and light and fertility may follow it4 ,let us give a faithful pledge to the people1 that we honour indeed the crown1 but that we ,,belong to them2 that we are their auxiliaries1 and not their task-masters1--the fellow-labourers in the same vineyard1--not lording over their rights1 but helpers of their joy3 that to tax them is a grievance to ourselves2 but to cut off from our enjoyments to forward theirs1 is the highest gratification we are capable of receiving4 ,,reformed ,,civil ,,list4 ,as things now stand1 every man1 in proportion to his consequence at court1 tends to add to the expense of the civil list1 by all manner of jobs1 if not for himself1 yet for his dependents4 ,when the new plan is established1 those who are now suitors for jobs will become the most strenuous opposers of them4 ,they will have a common interest with the minister in public economy4 ,every class1 as it stands low1 will become security for the payment of the preceding class2 and1 thus1 the persons whose insignificant services defraud those that are useful1 would then become interested in their payment4 ,then the powerful1 instead of oppressing1 would be obliged to support the weak2 and idleness would become concerned in the reward of industry4 ,the whole fabric of the civil economy would become compact and connected in all its parts2 it would be formed into a well-organized body1 where every member contributes to the support of the whole2 and where even the lazy stomach secures the vigour of the active arm4 ,,french ,,and ,,english ,,revolution4 ,he felt some concern that this strange thing1 called a ,revolution in ,france1 should be compared with the glorious event commonly called the ,revolution in ,england2 and the conduct of the soldiery1 on that occasion1 compared with the behaviour of some of the troops of ,france in the present instance4 ,at that period the prince of ,orange1 a prince of the blood-royal in ,england1 was called in by the flower of the ,english aristocracy to defend its ancient constitution1 and not to level all distinctions4 ,to this prince1 so invited1 the aristocratic leaders who commanded the troops went over with their several corps1 in bodies1 to the deliverer of their country4 ,aristocratic leaders brought up the corps of citizens who newly enlisted in this cause4 ,military obedience changed its object2 but military discipline was not for a moment interrupted in its principle4 ,the troops were ready for war1 but indisposed to mutiny4 ,but as the conduct of the ,english armies was different1 so was that of the whole ,english nation at that time4 ,in truth1 the circumstances of our revolution 7as it is called7 and that of ,france1 are just the reverse of each other in almost every particular1 and in the whole spirit of the transaction4 ,with us it was the case of a legal monarch attempting arbitrary power--in ,france it is the case of an arbitrary monarch1 beginning1 from whatever cause1 to legalize his authority4 ,the one was to be resisted1 the other was to be managed and directed2 but in neither case was the order of the state to be changed1 lest government might be ruined1 which ought only to be corrected and legalized4 ,with us we got rid of the man1 and preserved the constituent parts of the state4 ,there they get rid of the constituent parts of the state1 and keep the man4 ,what we did was in truth and substance1 and in a constitutional light1 a revolution1 not made1 but prevented4 ,we took solid securities2 we settled doubtful questions2 we corrected anomalies in our law4 ,in the stable1 fundamental parts of our constitution we made no revolution2 no1 nor any alteration at all4 ,we did not impair the monarchy4 ,perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very considerably4 ,the nation kept the same ranks1 the same orders1 the same privileges1 the same franchises1 the same rules for property1 the same subordinations1 the same order in the law1 in the revenue1 and in the magistracy2 the same lords1 the same commons1 the same corporations1 the same electors4 ,the church was not impaired4 ,her estates1 her majesty1 her splendour1 her orders and gradations1 continued the same4 ,she was preserved in her full efficiency1 and cleared only of a certain intolerance1 which was her weakness and disgrace4 ,the church and the state were the same after the revolution that they were before1 but better secured in every part4 ,was little done because a revolution was not made in the constitution8 ,no6 ,everything was done2 because we commenced with reparation1 not with ruin4 ,accordingly the state flourished4 ,instead of laying as dead1 in a sort of trance1 or exposed1 as some others1 in an epileptic fit1 to the pity or derision of the world1 for her wild1 ridiculous1 convulsive movements1 impotent to every purpose but that of dashing out her brains against the pavement1 ,great ,britain rose above the standard even of her former self4 ,an era of a more improved domestic prosperity then commenced1 and still continues not only unimpaired1 but growing1 under the wasting hand of time4 ,all the energies of the country were awakened4 ,england never preserved a firmer countenance1 nor a more vigorous arm1 to all her enemies1 and to all her rivals4 ,europe under her respired and revived4 ,everywhere she appeared as the protector1 assertor1 or avenger1 of liberty4 ,a war was made and supported against fortune itself4 ,the treaty of ,ryswick1 which first limited the power of ,france1 was soon after made2 the grand alliance very shortly followed1 which shook to the foundations the dreadful power which menaced the independence of mankind4 ,the states of ,europe lay happy under the shade of a great and free monarchy1 which knew how to be great without endangering its own peace at home1 or the internal or external peace of any of its neighbours4 ,,armed ,,discipline4 ,he knew too well1 and he felt as much as any man1 how difficult it was to accommodate a standing army to a free constitution1 or to any constitution4 ,an armed1 disciplined1 body is1 in its essence1 dangerous to liberty2 undisciplined1 it is ruinous to society4 ,its component parts are1 in the latter case1 neither good citizens nor good soldiers4 ,what have they thought of in ,france1 under such a difficulty as almost puts the human faculties to a stand8 ,they have put their army under such a variety of principles of duty1 that it is more likely to breed litigants1 pettifoggers1 and mutineers1 than soldiers4 ,they have set up1 to balance their crown army1 another army1 deriving under another authority1 called a municipal army--a balance of armies1 not of orders4 ,these latter they have destroyed with every mark of insult and oppression4 ,states may1 and they will best1 exist with a partition of civil powers4 ,armies cannot exist under a divided command4 ,this state of things he thought1 in effect1 a state of war1 or1 at best1 but a truce instead of peace1 in the country4 ,,gilded ,,despotism4 ,in the last century1 ,louis the ,fourteenth had established a greater and better disciplined military force than ever had been before seen in ,europe1 and with it a perfect despotism4 ,though that despotism was proudly arrayed in manners1 gallantry1 splendour1 magnificence1 and even covered over with the imposing robes of science1 literature1 and arts1 it was1 in government1 nothing better than a painted and gilded tyranny2 in religion1 a hard1 stern intolerance1 the fit companion and auxiliary to the despotic tyranny which prevailed in its government4 ,the same character of despotism insinuated itself into every court of ,europe1 the same spirit of disproportioned magnificence--the same love of standing armies1 above the ability of the people4 ,in particular1 our then sovereigns1 ,king ,charles and ,king ,james1 fell in love with the government of their neighbour1 so flattering to the pride of kings4 ,a similarity of sentiments brought on connections equally dangerous to the interests and liberties of their country4 ,it were well that the infection had gone no farther than the throne4 ,the admiration of a government flourishing and successful1 unchecked in its operations1 and seeming therefore to compass its objects more speedily and effectually1 gained something upon all ranks of people4 ,the good patriots of that day1 however1 struggled against it4 ,they sought nothing more anxiously than to break off all communication with ,france1 and to be get a total alienation from its councils and its example2 which1 by the animosity prevalent between the abettors of their religious system and the assertors of ours1 was in some degree effected4 ,,our ,,french ,,dangers4 ,in the last age we were in danger of being entangled by the example of ,france in the net of a relentless despotism4 ,it is not necessary to say anything upon that example4 ,it exists no longer4 ,our present danger from the example of a people1 whose character knows no medium1 is1 with regard to government1 a danger from anarchy2 a danger of being led through an admiration of successful fraud and violence1 to an imitation of the excesses of an irrational1 unprincipled1 proscribing1 confiscating1 plundering1 ferocious1 bloody1 and tyrannical democracy4 ,on the side of religion1 the danger of their example is no longer from intolerance1 but from atheism2 a foul1 unnatural vice1 foe to all the dignity and consolation of mankind2 which seems in ,france1 for a long time1 to have been embodied into a faction1 accredited1 and almost avowed4 ,,sir ,,george ,,saville4 ,when an act of great and signal humanity was to be done1 and done with all the weight and authority that belonged to it1 the world would cast its eyes upon none but him4 ,i hope that few things which have a tendency to bless or to adorn life have wholly escaped my observation in my passage through it4 ,i have sought the acquaintance of that gentleman1 and have seen him in all situations4 ,he is a true genius2 with an understanding vigorous1 and acute1 and refined1 and distinguishing even to excess2 and illuminated with a most unbounded1 peculiar1 and original cast of imagination4 ,with these he possesses many external and instrumental advantages2 and he makes use of them all4 ,his fortune is among the largest2 a fortune which1 wholly unincumbered1 as it is1 with one single charge from luxury1 vanity1 or excess1 sinks under the benevolence of its dispenser4 ,this private benevolence1 expanding itself into patriotism1 renders his whole being the estate of the public1 in which he has not reserved a peculium for himself of profit1 diversion1 or relaxation4 ,during the session1 the first in1 and the last out of the ,house of ,commons2 he passes from the senate to the camp2 and1 seldom seeing the seat of his ancestors1 he is always in the senate to serve his country1 or in the field to defend it4 ,,corruption ,,not ,,self-,,reformed4 ,those1 who would commit the reformation of ,india to the destroyers of it1 are the enemies to that reformation4 ,they would make a distinction between directors and proprietors1 which1 in the present state of things1 does not1 cannot exist4 ,but a right honourable gentleman says1 he would keep the present government of ,india in the court of directors2 and would1 to curb them1 provide salutary regulations2--wonderful6 ,that is1 he would appoint the old offenders to correct the old offences2 and he would render the vicious and the foolish wise and virtuous1 by salutary regulations4 ,he would appoint the wolf as guardian of the sheep2 but he has invented a curious muzzle1 by which this protecting wolf shall not be able to open his jaws above an inch or two at the utmost4 ,thus his work is finished4 ,but ,i tell the right honourable gentleman1 that controlled depravity is not innocence2 and that it is not the labour of delinquency in chains that will correct abuses4 ,will these gentlemen of the direction animadvert on the partners of their own guilt8 ,never did a serious plan of amending any old tyrannical establishment propose the authors and abettors of the abuses as the reformers of them4 ,,the ,,bribed ,,and ,,the ,,bribers4 ,if ,i am to speak my private sentiments1 ,i think that in a thousand cases for one it would be far less mischievous to the public1 and full as little dishonourable to themselves1 to be polluted with direct bribery1 than thus to become a standing auxiliary to the oppression1 usury1 and peculation1 of multitudes1 in order to obtain a corrupt support to their power4 ,it is by bribing1 not so often by being bribed1 that wicked politicians bring ruin on mankind4 ,avarice is a rival to the pursuits of many4 ,it finds a multitude of checks1 and many opposers1 in every walk of life4 ,but the objects of ambition are for the few2 and every person who aims at indirect profit1 and therefore wants other protection1 than innocence and law1 instead of its rival becomes its instrument4 ,there is a natural allegiance and fealty do you to this domineering1 paramount evil1 from all the vassal vices1 which acknowledge its superiority1 and readily militate under its banners2 and it is under that discipline alone that avarice is able to spread to any considerable extent1 or to render itself a general1 public mischief4 ,,hyder ,,ali4 ,when at length ,hyder ,ali found that he had to do with men who either would sign no convention1 or whom no treaty and no signature could bind1 and who were the determined enemies of human intercourse itself1 he decreed to make the country possessed by these incorrigible and predestinated criminals a memorable example to mankind4 ,he resolved1 in the gloomy recesses of a mind capacious of such things1 to leave the whole ,carnatic an everlasting monument of vengeance1 and to put perpetual desolation as a barrier between him and those1 against whom the faith which holds the moral elements of the world together1 was no protection4 ,he became at length so confident of his force1 so collected in his might1 that he made no secret whatsoever of his dreadful resolution4 ,having terminated his disputes with every enemy1 and every rival1 who buried their mutual animosities in their common detestation against the creditors of the nabob of ,arcot1 he drew from every quarter whatever a savage ferocity could add to his new rudiments in the arts of destruction2 and compounding all the materials of fury1 havoc1 and desolation1 into one black cloud1 he hung for a while on the declivities of the mountains4 ,whilst the authors of all these evils were idly and stupidly gazing on this menacing meteor1 which blackened all their horizon1 it suddenly burst1 and poured down the whole of its contents upon the plains of the ,carnatic4 ,then ensued a scene of woe1 the like of which no eye had seen1 no heart conceived1 and which no tongue can adequately tell4 ,all the horrors of war before known or heard of1 were mercy to that new havoc4 ,a storm of universal fire blasted every field1 consumed every house1 destroyed every temple4 ,the miserable inhabitants flying from their flaming villages1 in part were slaughtered2 others1 without regard to sex1 to age1 to the respect of rank1 or sacredness of function1 fathers torn from children1 husbands from wives1 enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry1 and amidst the goading spears of drivers1 and the trampling of pursuing horses1 were swept into captivity1 in an unknown and hostile land4 ,those who were able to evade the tempest fled to the walled cities4 ,but escaping from fire1 sword1 and exile1 they fell into the jaws of famine4 ,the alms of the settlement in this dreadful exigency1 were certainly liberal2 and all was done by charity that private charity could do2 but it was a people in beggary2 it was a nation which stretched out its hands for food4 ,for months together these creatures of sufferance1 whose very excess and luxury in their most plenteous days had fallen short of the allowance of our austerest fasts1 silent1 patient1 resigned1 without sedition or disturbance1 almost without complaint1 perished by an hundred a day in the streets of ,madras2 every day seventy at least laid their bodies in the streets1 or on the glacis of ,tanjore1 and expired of famine in the granary of ,india4 ,i was going to awake your justice towards this unhappy part of our fellow-citizens1 by bringing before you some of the circumstances of this plague of hunger4 ,of all the calamities which beset and waylay the life of man1 this comes the nearest to our heart1 and is that wherein the proudest of us all feels himself to be nothing more than he is3 but ,i find myself unable to manage it with decorum3 these details are of a species of horror so nauseous and disgusting2 they are so degrading to the sufferers and to the hearers2 they are so humiliating to human nature itself1 that1 on better thoughts1 ,i think it more advisable to throw a pall over this hideous object1 and to leave it to your general conceptions4 ,,reformation ,,and ,,anarchy ,,contrasted ,,and ,,compared4 ,that the house must perceive1 from his coming forward to mark an expression or two of his best friend1 how anxious he was to keep the distemper of ,france from the least countenance in ,england1 where he was sure some wicked persons had shown a strong disposition to recommend an imitation of the ,french spirit of reform4 ,he was so strongly opposed to any the least tendency towards the ,,means of introducing a democracy like theirs1 as well as to the ,,end itself1 that much as it would afflict him1 if such a thing could be attempted1 and that any friend of his could concur in such measures 7he was far1 very far1 from believing they could71 he would abandon his best friends1 and join with his worst enemies to oppose either the means or the end2 and to resist all violent exertions of the spirit of innovation1 so distant from all principles of true and safe reformation2 a spirit well calculated to overturn states1 but perfectly unfit to amend them4 ,that he was no enemy to reformation4 ,almost every business in which he was much concerned1 from the first day he sat in that house to that hour1 was a business of reformation2 and when he had not been employed in correcting1 he had been employed in resisting1 abuses4 ,some traces of this spirit in him now stand on their statute-book4 ,in his opinion1 anything which unnecessarily tore to pieces the contexture of the state1 not only prevented all real reformation1 but introduced evils which would call1 but perhaps call in vain1 for new reformation4 ,that he thought the ,french nation very unwise4 ,what they valued themselves on1 was a disgrace to them4 ,they had gloried 7and some people in ,england had thought fit to take share in that glory7 in making a revolution2 as if revolutions were good things in themselves4 ,all the horrors1 and all the crimes of the anarchy which led to their revolution1 which attend its progress1 and which may virtually attend it in its establishment1 pass for nothing with the lovers of revolutions4 ,the ,french have made their way1 through the destruction of their country1 to a bad constitution1 when they were absolutely in possession of a good one4 ,they were in possession of it the day the states met in separate orders4 ,their business1 had they been either virtuous or wise1 or had they been left to their own judgment1 was to secure the stability and independence of the states1 according to those orders1 under the monarch on the throne4 ,it was then their duty to redress grievances4 ,instead of redressing grievances1 and improving the fabric of their state1 to which they were called by their monarch1 and sent by their country1 they were made to take a very different course4 ,they first destroyed all the balances and counterpoises which serve to fix the state1 and to give it a steady direction1 and which furnish sure correctives to any violent spirit which may prevail in any of the orders4 ,these balances existed in their oldest constitution2 and in the constitution of this country2 and in the constitution of all the countries in ,europe4 ,these they rashly destroyed1 and then they melted down the whole into one incongruous1 ill-connected mass4 ,when they had done this1 they instantly1 and with the most atrocious perfidy and breach of all faith among men1 laid the axe to the root of all property1 and consequently of all national prosperity1 by the principles they established1 and the example they set1 in confiscating all the possessions of the church4 ,they made and recorded a sort of ,,institute and ,,digest of anarchy1 called the rights of man1 in such a pedantic abuse of elementary principles as would have disgraced boys at school2 but this declaration of rights was worse than trifling and pedantic in them1 as by their name and authority they systematically destroyed every hold of authority by opinion1 religious or civil1 on the minds of the people4 ,by this mad declaration they subverted the state1 and brought on such calamities as no country1 without a long war1 has ever been known to suffer2 and which may in the end produce such a war1 and perhaps many such4 ,with them the question was not between despotism and liberty4 ,the sacrifice they made of the peace and power of their country was not made on the altar of freedom4 ,freedom1 and a better security for freedom than that they have taken1 they might have had without any sacrifice at all4 ,they brought themselves into all the calamities they suffer1 not that through them they might obtain a ,british constitution2 they plunged themselves headlong into those calamities to prevent themselves from settling into that constitution1 or into anything resembling it4 ,,confidence ,,and ,,jealousy4 ,confidence might become a vice1 and jealousy a virtue1 according to circumstances4 ,that confidence1 of all public virtues1 was the most dangerous1 and jealousy in a house of commons1 of all public vices1 the most tolerable2 especially where the number and the charge of standing armies in time of peace was the question4 ,,economy ,,of ,,injustice4 ,strange as this scheme of conduct in ministry is1 and inconsistent with all just policy1 it is still true to itself1 and faithful to its own perverted order4 ,those who are bountiful to crimes1 will be rigid to merit1 and penurious to service4 ,their penury is even held out as a blind and cover to their prodigality4 ,the economy of injustice is1 to furnish resources for the fund of corruption4 ,then they pay off their protection to great crimes and great criminals by being inexorable to the paltry frailties of little men2 and these modern flagellants are sure1 with a rigid fidelity1 to whip their own enormities on the vicarious back of every small offender4 ,,subsistence ,,and ,,revenue4 ,the benefits of heaven to any community ought never to be connected with political arrangements1 or made to depend on the personal conduct of princes2 in which the mistake1 or error1 or neglect1 or distress1 or passion of a moment on either side1 may bring famine on millions1 and ruin an innocent nation perhaps for ages4 ,the means of the subsistence of mankind should be as immutable as the laws of nature1 let power and dominion take what course they may4 ,,authority ,,and ,,venality4 ,it is difficult for the most wise and upright government to correct the abuses of remote1 delegated power1 productive of unmeasured wealth1 and protected by the boldness and strength of the same ill-got riches4 ,these abuses1 full of their own wild native vigour1 will grow and flourish under mere neglect4 ,but where the supreme authority1 not content with winking at the rapacity of its inferior instruments1 is so shameless and corrupt as openly to give bounties and premiums for disobedience to its laws1 when it will not trust to the activity of avarice in the pursuit of its own gains1 when it secures public robbery by all the careful jealousy and attention with which it ought to protect property from such violence1 the commonwealth then is become totally perverted from its purposes2 neither ,god nor man will long endure it2 nor will it long endure itself4 ,in that case there is an unnatural infection1 a pestilential taint fermenting in the constitution of society1 which fever and convulsions of some kind or other must throw off2 or in which the vital powers1 worsted in an unequal struggle1 are pushed back upon themselves1 and1 by a reversal of their whole functions1 fester to gangrene1 to death2 and instead of what was but just now the delight and boast of the creation1 there will be cast out in the face of the sun a bloated1 putrid1 noisome carcass1 full of stench1 and poison1 an offence1 a horror1 a lesson to the world4 ,,prerogative ,,of ,,the ,,crown ,,and ,,privilege ,,of ,,parliament4 ,it is the undoubted prerogative of the crown to dissolve parliament2 but we beg leave to lay before his majesty1 that it is1 of all the trusts vested in his majesty1 the most critical and delicate1 and that in which this house has the most reason to require1 not only the good faith1 but the favour of the crown4 ,his commons are not always upon a par with his ministers in an application to popular judgment3 it is not in the power of the members of this house to go to their election at the moment the most favourable to them4 ,it is in the power of the crown to choose a time for their dissolution whilst great and arduous matters of state and legislation are depending1 which may be easily misunderstood1 and which cannot be fully explained before that misunderstanding may prove fatal to the honour that belongs1 and to the consideration that is due1 to members of parliament4 ,with his majesty is the gift of all the rewards1 the honours1 distinctions1 favour1 and graces of the state2 with his majesty is the mitigation of all the rigours of the law3 and we rejoice to see the crown possessed of trusts calculated to obtain goodwill1 and charged with duties which are popular and pleasing4 ,our trusts are of a different kind4 ,our duties are harsh and invidious in their nature2 and justice and safety is all we can expect in the exercise of them4 ,we are to offer salutary1 which is not always pleasing1 counsel2 we are to inquire and to accuse3 and the objects of our inquiry and charge will be for the most part persons of wealth1 power1 and extensive connections3 we are to make rigid laws for the preservation of revenue1 which of necessity more or less confine some action1 or restrain some function1 which before was free3 what is the most critical and invidious of all1 the whole body of the public impositions originate from us1 and the hand of the ,house of ,commons is seen and felt in every burthen that presses on the people4 ,whilst1 ultimately1 we are serving them1 and in the first instance whilst we are serving his majesty1 it will be hard1 indeed1 if we should see a ,house of ,commons the victim of its zeal and fidelity1 sacrificed by his ministers to those very popular discontents1 which shall be excited by our dutiful endeavours for the security and greatness of his throne4 ,no other consequence can result from such an example1 but that1 in future1 the ,house of ,commons1 consulting its safety at the expense of its duties1 and suffering the whole energy of the state to be relaxed1 will shrink from every service1 which1 however necessary1 is of a great and arduous nature2 or that1 willing to provide for the public necessities1 and1 at the same time1 to secure the means of performing that task1 they will exchange independence for protection1 and will court a subservient existence through the favour of those ministers of state1 or those secret advisers1 who ought themselves to stand in awe of the commons of this realm4 ,a ,house of ,commons respected by his ministers is essential to his majesty's service3 it is fit that they should yield to parliament1 and not that parliament should be new modelled until it is fitted to their purposes4 ,if our authority is only to be held up when we coincide in opinion with his majesty's advisers1 but is to be set at nought the moment it differs from them1 the ,house of ,commons will sink into a mere appendage of administration2 and will lose that independent character which1 inseparably connecting the honour and reputation with the acts of this house1 enables us to afford a real1 effective1 and substantial support to his government4 ,it is the deference shown to our opinion when we dissent from the servants of the crown1 which alone can give authority to the proceedings of this house when it concurs with their measures4 ,that authority once lost1 the credit of his majesty's crown will be impaired in the eyes of all nations4 ,foreign powers1 who may yet wish to revive a friendly intercourse with this nation1 will look in vain for that hold which gave a connection with ,great ,britain the preference to an alliance with any other state4 ,a ,house of ,commons1 of which ministers were known to stand in awe1 where everything was necessarily discussed1 on principles fit to be openly and publicly avowed1 and which could not be retracted or varied without danger1 furnished a ground of confidence in the public faith1 which the engagement of no state dependent on the fluctuation of personal favour1 and private advice1 can ever pretend to4 ,if faith with the ,house of ,commons1 the grand security for the national faith itself1 can be broken with impunity1 a wound is given to the political importance of ,great ,britain1 which will not easily be healed4 ,,burke ,,and ,,fox4 ,his confidence in ,mr4 ,fox was such1 and so ample1 as to be almost implicit4 ,that he was not ashamed to avow that degree of docility4 ,that when the choice is well made1 it strengthens instead of oppressing our intellect4 ,that he who calls in the aid of an equal understanding doubles his own4 ,he who profits of a superior understanding raises his powers to a level with the height of the superior understanding he unites with4 ,he had found the benefit of such a junction1 and would not lightly depart from it4 ,he wished almost1 on all occasions1 that his sentiments were understood to be conveyed in ,mr4 ,fox's words2 and he wished1 as amongst the greatest benefits he could wish the country1 an eminent share of power to that right honourable gentleman2 because he knew1 that1 to his great and masterly understanding1 he had joined the greatest possible degree of that natural moderation1 which is the best corrective of power2 that he was of the most artless1 candid1 open1 and benevolent disposition2 disinterested in the extreme2 of a temper mild and placable even to a fault2 without one drop of gall in his whole constitution4 ,,peers ,,and ,,commons4 ,the commons have the deepest interest in the purity and integrity of the peerage4 ,the peers dispose of all the property in the kingdom1 in the last resort2 and they dispose of it on their honour and not on their oaths1 as all the members of every other tribunal in the kingdom must do2 though in them the proceeding is not conclusive4 ,we have1 therefore1 a right to demand that no application shall be made to peers of such a nature as may give room to call in question1 much less to attaint1 our sole security for all that we possess4 ,this corrupt proceeding appeared to the ,house of ,commons1 who are the natural guardians of the purity of parliament1 and of the purity of every branch of judicature1 a most reprehensible and dangerous practice1 tending to shake the very foundation of the authority of the ,house of ,peers3 and they branded it as such by their resolution4 ,,natural ,,self-,,destruction4 ,the ,french had shown themselves the ablest architects of ruin that had hitherto existed in the world4 ,in that very short space of time they had completely pulled down to the ground their monarchy1 their church1 their nobility1 their law1 their revenue1 their army1 their navy1 their commerce1 their arts1 and their manufactures4 ,they had done their business for us as rivals1 in a way in which twenty ,ramilies or ,blenheims could never have done it4 ,were we absolute conquerors1 and ,france to lie prostrate at our feet1 we should be ashamed to send a commission to settle their affairs which could impose so hard a law upon the ,french1 and so destructive of all their consequence as a nation1 as that they had imposed on themselves4 ,,the ,,carnatic4 ,the ,carnatic is a country not much inferior in extent to ,england4 ,figure to yourself1 ,mr4 ,speaker1 the land in whose representative chair you sit2 figure to yourself the form and fashion of your sweet and cheerful country from ,thames to ,trent1 north and south1 and from the ,irish to the ,german sea east and west1 emptied and embowelled 7may ,god avert the omen of our crimes67 by so accomplished a desolation4 ,extend your imagination a little further1 and then suppose your ministers taking a survey of this scene of waste and desolation2 what would be your thoughts if you should be informed1 that they were computing how much had been the amount of the excises1 how much the customs1 how much the land and malt-tax1 in order that they should charge 7take it in the most favourable light7 for public service1 upon the relics of the satiated vengeance of relentless enemies1 the whole of what ,england had yielded in the most exuberant seasons of peace and abundance8 ,what would you call it8 ,to call it tyranny sublimed into madness1 would be too faint an image2 yet this very madness is the principle upon which the ministers at your right hand have proceeded in their estimate of the revenues of the ,carnatic1 when they were providing1 not supply for the establishments of its protection1 but1 rewards for the authors of its ruin4 ,every day you are fatigued and disgusted with this cant1 the ,carnatic is a country that will soon recover1 and become instantly as prosperous as ever4 ,they think they are talking to innocents1 who will believe that1 by sowing of dragons' teeth1 men may come up ready grown and ready armed4 ,they who will give themselves the trouble of considering 7for it requires no great reach of thought1 no very profound knowledge7 the manner in which mankind are increased1 and countries cultivated1 will regard all this raving as it ought to be regarded4 ,in order that the people1 after a long period of vexation and plunder1 may be in a condition to maintain government1 government must begin by maintaining them4 ,here the road to economy lies not through receipt1 but through expense2 and in that country nature has given no short cut to your object4 ,men must propagate like other animals1 by the mouth4 ,never did oppression light the nuptial torch2 never did extortion and usury spread out the genial bed4 ,does any one of you think that ,england1 so wasted1 would1 under such a nursing attendance1 so rapidly and cheaply recover8 ,but he is meanly acquainted with either ,england or ,india1 who does not know that ,england would a thousand times sooner resume population1 fertility1 and what ought to be the ultimate secretion from both--revenue1 than such a country as the ,carnatic4 ,the ,carnatic is not by the bounty of nature a fertile soil4 ,the general size of its cattle is proof enough that it is much otherwise4 ,it is some days since ,i moved1 that a curious and interesting map1 kept in the ,india house1 should be laid before you4 ,the ,india ,house is not yet in readiness to send it2 ,i have therefore brought down my own copy1 and there it lies for the use of any gentleman who may think such a matter worthy of his attention4 ,it is indeed a noble map1 and of noble things2 but it is decisive against the golden dreams and sanguine speculations of avarice run mad4 ,in addition to what you know must be the case in every part of the world 7the necessity of a previous provision of habitation1 seed1 stock1 capital71 that map will show you1 that the uses of the influences of ,heaven itself are in that country a work of art4 ,the ,carnatic is refreshed by few or no living brooks or running streams1 and it has rain only at a season2 but its product of rice exacts the use of water subject to perpetual command4 ,this is the national bank of the ,carnatic1 on which it must have a perpetual credit1 or it perishes irretrievably4 ,for that reason1 in the happier times of ,india1 a number1 almost incredible1 of reservoirs have been made in chosen places throughout the whole country2 they are formed for the greater part of mounds of earth and stones1 with sluices of solid masonry2 the whole constructed with admirable skill and labour1 and maintained at a mighty charge4 ,in the territory contained in that map alone1 ,i have been at the trouble of reckoning the reservoirs1 and they amount to upwards of eleven hundred1 from the extent of two or three acres to five miles in circuit4 ,from these reservoirs currents are occasionally drawn over the fields1 and these watercourses again call for a considerable expense to keep them properly scoured and duly leveled4 ,taking the district in that map as a measure1 there cannot be in the ,carnatic and ,tanjore fewer than ten thousand of these reservoirs of the larger and middling dimensions1 to say nothing of those for domestic services1 and the uses of religious purification4 ,these are not the enterprises of your power1 nor in a style of magnificence suited to the taste of your minister4 ,these are the monuments of real kings1 who were the fathers of their people2 testators to a posterity which they embraced as their own4 ,these were the grand sepulchres built by ambition2 but by the ambition of an insatiable benevolence1 which1 not contented with reigning in the dispensation of happiness during the contracted term of human life1 had strained1 with all the reachings and graspings of a vivacious mind1 to extend the dominion of their bounty beyond the limits of nature1 and to perpetuate themselves through generations of generations1 the guardians1 the protectors1 the nourishers of mankind4 ,,abstract ,,theory ,,of ,,human ,,liberty4 ,i love a manly1 moral1 regulated liberty as well as any gentleman of that society1 be he who he will3 and perhaps ,i have given as good proofs of my attachment to that cause in the whole course of my public conduct4 ,i think ,i envy liberty as little as they do1 to any other nation4 ,but ,i cannot stand forward1 and give praise or blame to anything which relates to human actions1 and human concerns1 on a simple view of the object1 as it stands stripped of every relation1 in all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction4 ,circumstances 7which with some gentlemen pass for nothing7 give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing colour and discriminating effect4 ,the circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind4 ,abstractedly speaking1 government1 as well as liberty1 is good2 yet could ,i1 in common sense1 ten years ago1 have felicitated ,france on her enjoyment of a government 7for she then had a government7 without inquiry what the nature of that government was1 or how it was administered8 ,can ,i now congratulate the same nation upon its freedom8 ,is it because liberty in the abstract may be classed amongst the blessings of mankind that ,i am seriously to felicitate a madman1 who has escaped from the protecting restraint and wholesome darkness of his cell1 on his restoration to the enjoyment of light and liberty8 ,am ,i to congratulate a highwayman and murderer1 who has broken prison1 upon the recovery of his natural rights8 ,this would be to act over again the scene of the criminals condemned to the galleys1 and their heroic deliverer1 the metaphysic knight of the sorrowful countenance4 ,when ,i see the spirit of liberty in action1 ,i see a strong principle at work2 and this1 for a while1 is all ,i can possibly know of it4 ,the wild ,,gas1 the fixed air1 is plainly broke loose3 but we ought to suspend our judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided1 till the liquor is cleared1 and until we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled and frothy surface4 ,i must be tolerably sure1 before ,i venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing1 that they have really received one4 ,flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver2 and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings4 ,i should therefore suspend my congratulations on the new liberty of ,france1 until ,i was informed how it had been combined with government2 with public force2 with the discipline and obedience of armies2 with the collection of an effective and well-distributed revenue2 with morality and religion2 with solidity and property2 with peace and order2 with civil and social manners4 ,all these 7in their way7 are good things too2 and1 without them1 liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts1 and is not likely to continue long4 ,the effect of liberty to individuals1 is1 that they may do what they please3 we ought to see what it will please them to do before we risk congratulations1 which may be soon turned into complaints4 ,prudence would dictate this in the case of separate1 insulated1 private men2 but liberty1 when men act in bodies1 is ,,power4 ,considerate people1 before they declare themselves1 will observe the use which is made of ,,power2 and particularly of so trying a thing as ,,new power in ,,new persons1 of whose principles1 tempers1 and dispositions1 they have little or no experience1 and in situations where those who appear the most stirring in the scene may possibly not be the real movers4 ,,politics ,,and ,,the ,,pulpit4 ,supposing1 however1 that something like moderation were visible in this political sermon2 yet politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement4 ,no sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of ,christian charity4 ,the cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties4 ,those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them1 are1 for the greater part1 ignorant both of the character they leave1 and of the character they assume4 ,wholly unacquainted with the world in which they are so fond of meddling1 and inexperienced in all its affairs1 on which they pronounce with so much confidence1 they have nothing of politics but the passions they excite4 ,surely the church is a place where one day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosities of mankind4 ,,idea ,,of ,,french ,,revolution4 ,it appears to me as if ,i were in a great crisis1 not of the affairs of ,france alone1 but of all ,europe1 perhaps of more than ,europe4 ,all circumstances taken together1 the ,french revolution is the most astonishing that has hitherto happened in the world4 ,the most wonderful things are brought about in many instances by means the most absurd and ridiculous2 in the most ridiculous modes2 and1 apparently1 by the most contemptible instruments4 ,everything seems out of nature in this strange chaos of levity and ferocity1 and of all sorts of crimes jumbled together with all sorts of follies4 ,in viewing this monstrous tragi-comic scene1 the most opposite passions necessarily succeed1 and sometimes mix with each other in the mind2 alternate contempt and indignation2 alternate laughter and tears2 alternate scorn and horror4 ,,patriotic ,,distinction4 ,i certainly have the honour to belong to more clubs than one in which the constitution of this kingdom and the principles of the glorious ,revolution are held in high reverence2 and ,i reckon myself among the most forward in my zeal for maintaining that constitution and those principles in their utmost purity and vigour4 ,it is because ,i do so that ,i think it necessary for me that there should be no mistake4 ,those who cultivate the memory of our revolution1 and those who are attached to the constitution of this kingdom1 will take good care how they are involved with persons1 who1 under the pretext of zeal towards the ,revolution and constitution1 too frequently wander from their true principles2 and are ready on every occasion to depart from the firm but cautious and deliberate spirit which produced the one1 and which presides in the other4 ,,kingly ,,power ,,not ,,based ,,on ,,popular ,,choice4 ,according to this spiritual doctor of politics1 if his majesty does not owe his crown to the choice of his people1 he is no ,,lawful ,,king4 ,now nothing can be more untrue than that the crown of this kingdom is so held by his majesty4 ,therefore1 if you follow their rule1 the king of ,great ,britain1 who most certainly does not owe his high office to any form of popular election1 is in no respect better than the rest of the gang of usurpers1 who reign1 or rather rob1 all over the face of this our miserable world1 without any sort of right or title to the allegiance of their people4 ,the policy of this general doctrine1 so qualified1 is evident enough4 ,the propagators of this political gospel are in hopes that their abstract principle 7their principle that a popular choice is necessary to the legal existence of the sovereign magistracy7 would be overlooked1 whilst the king of ,great ,britain was not affected by it4 ,in the mean time the ears of their congregations would be gradually habituated to it1 as if it were a first principle admitted without dispute4 ,for the present it would only operate as a theory1 pickled in the preserving juices of pulpit eloquence1 and laid by for future use4 ,condo et compono quae mox depromere possim4 ,by this policy1 whilst our government is soothed with a reservation in its favour to which it has no claim1 the security1 which it has in common with all governments1 so far as opinion is security1 is taken away4 ,thus these politicians proceed1 whilst little notice is taken of their doctrines2 but when they come to be examined upon the plain meaning of their words1 and the direct tendency of their doctrines1 then equivocations and slippery construction come into play4 ,when they say the king owes his crown to the choice of his people1 and is1 therefore1 the only lawful sovereign in the world1 they will perhaps tell us they mean to say no more than that some of the king's predecessors have been called to the throne by some sort of choice2 and therefore he owes his crown to the choice of his people4 ,thus1 by a miserable subterfuge1 they hope to render their proposition safe by rendering it nugatory4 ,they are welcome to the asylum they seek for their offence1 since they take refuge in their folly4 ,for1 if you admit this interpretation1 how does their idea of election differ from our idea of inheritance8 ,and how does the settlement of the crown in the ,brunswick line derived from ,james ,i4 come to legalize our monarchy1 rather than that of any of the neighbouring countries8 ,at some time or other1 to be sure1 all the beginners of dynasties were chosen by those who called them to govern4 ,there is ground enough for the opinion that all the kingdoms of ,europe were1 at a remote period1 elective1 with more or fewer limitations in the objects of choice4 ,but whatever kings might have been here or elsewhere a thousand years ago1 or in whatever manner the ruling dynasties of ,england or ,france may have begun1 the king of ,great ,britain is1 at this day1 king by a fixed rule of succession1 according to the laws of his country2 and whilst the legal conditions of the compact of sovereignty are performed by him 7as they are performed71 he holds his crown in contempt of the choice of the ,revolution ,society1 who have not a single vote for a king amongst them1 either individually or collectively2 though ,i make no doubt they would soon erect themselves into an electoral college1 if things were ripe to give effect to their claim4 ,his majesty's heirs and successors1 each in his time and order1 will come to the crown with the same contempt of their choice with which his majesty has succeeded to that he wears4 ,whatever may be the success of evasion in explaining away the gross error of ,,fact1 which supposes that his majesty 7though he holds it in concurrence with the wishes7 owes his crown to the choice of his people1 yet nothing can evade their full explicit declaration concerning the principle of a right in the people to choose2 which right is directly maintained1 and tenaciously adhered to4 ,all the oblique insinuations concerning election bottom in this proposition1 and are referable to it4 ,lest the foundation of the king's exclusive legal title should pass for a mere rant of adulatory freedom1 the political divine proceeds dogmatically to assert1 that1 by the principles of the ,revolution1 the people of ,england have acquired three fundamental rights1 all of which1 with him1 compose one system1 and lie together in one short sentence2 namely1 that we have acquired a right1 #a4 ,to choose our own governors4 #b4 ,to cashier them for misconduct4 #c4 ,to frame a government for ourselves4 ,this new1 and hitherto unheard of1 bill of rights1 though made in the name of the whole people1 belongs to those gentlemen and their faction only4 ,the body of the people of ,england have no share in it4 ,they utterly disclaim it4 ,they will resist the practical assertion of it with their lives and fortunes4 ,they are bound to do so by the laws of their country1 made at the time of that very ,revolution which is appealed to in favour of the fictitious rights claimed by the society which abuses its name4 ,,preaching ,,democracy ,,of ,,dissent4 ,if the noble ,,seekers should find nothing to satisfy their pious fancies in the old staple of the national church1 or in all the rich variety to be found in the well-assorted warehouses of the dissenting congregations1 ,dr4 ,price advises them to improve upon non-conformity2 and to set up1 each of them1 a separate meeting-house upon his own particular principles4 ,it is somewhat remarkable that this reverend divine should be so earnest for setting up new churches1 and so perfectly indifferent concerning the doctrine which may be taught in them4 ,his zeal is of a curious character4 ,it is not for the propagation of his own opinions1 but of any opinions4 ,it is not for the diffusion of truth1 but for the spreading of contradiction4 ,let the noble teachers but dissent1 it is no matter from whom or from what4 ,this great point once secured1 it is taken for granted their religion will be rational and manly4 ,i doubt whether religion would reap all the benefits which the calculating divine computes from this great company of great preachers4 ,it would certainly be a valuable addition of nondescripts to the ample collection of known classes1 genera and species1 which at present beautify the hortus siccus of dissent4 ,a sermon from a noble duke1 or a noble marquis1 or a noble earl1 or baron bold1 would certainly increase and diversify the amusements of this town1 which begins to grow satiated with the uniform round of its vapid dissipations4 ,i should only stipulate that these new ,mess-,johns in robes and coronets should keep some sort of bounds in the democratic and levelling principles which are expected from their titled pulpits4 ,the new evangelists will1 ,i dare say1 disappoint the hopes that are conceived of them4 ,they will not become1 literally as well as figuratively1 polemic divines1 nor be disposed so to drill their congregations1 that they may1 as in former blessed times1 preach their doctrines to regiments of dragoons and corps of infantry and artillery4 ,such arrangements1 however favourable to the cause of compulsory freedom1 civil and religious1 may not be equally conducive to the national tranquillity4 ,these few restrictions ,i hope are no great stretches of intolerance1 no very violent exertions of despotism4 ,,jargon ,,of ,,republicanism4 ,dr4 ,price1 in this sermon1 condemns very properly the practice of gross1 adulatory addresses to kings4 ,instead of this fulsome style1 he proposes that his majesty should be told1 on occasions of congratulation1 that he is to consider himself as more properly the servant than the sovereign of his people4 ,for a compliment1 this new form of address does not seem to be very soothing4 ,those who are servants in name1 as well as in effect1 do not like to be told of their situation1 their duty and their obligations4 ,the slave1 in the old play1 tells his master1 ,haec commemoratio est quasi exprobatio4 ,it is not pleasant as compliment2 it is not wholesome as instruction4 ,after all1 if the king were to bring himself to echo this new kind of address1 to adopt it in terms1 and even to take the appellation of ,servant of the ,people as his royal style1 how either he or we should be much mended by it1 ,i cannot imagine4 ,i have seen very assuming letters1 signed1 ,your most obedient1 humble servant4 ,the proudest denomination that ever was endured on earth took a title of still greater humility than that which is now proposed for sovereigns by the ,apostle of ,liberty4 ,kings and nations were trampled upon by the foot of one calling himself the ,servant of ,servants2 and mandates for deposing sovereigns were sealed with the signet of the ,fisherman4 ,i should have considered all this as no more than a sort of flippant1 vain discourse1 in which1 as in an unsavoury fume1 several persons suffer the spirit of liberty to evaporate1 if it were not plainly in support of the idea1 and a part of the scheme1 of cashiering kings for misconduct4 ,in that light it is worth some observation4 ,kings1 in one sense1 are undoubtedly the servants of the people1 because their power has no other rational end than that of the general advantage2 but it is not true that they are1 in the ordinary sense 7by our constitution at least71 anything like servants2 the essence of whose situation is to obey the commands of some other1 and to be removable at pleasure4 ,but the king of ,great ,britain obeys no other person2 all other persons are individually1 and collectively too1 under him1 and owe to him a legal obedience4 ,the law1 which knows neither to flatter nor to insult1 calls this high magistrate1 not our servant1 as this humble divine calls him1 but ,,our ,,sovereign ,,lord ,,the ,,king2 and we1 on our parts1 have learned to speak only the primitive language of the law1 and not the confused jargon of their ,babylonian pulpits4 ,,conservative ,,progress ,,of ,,inherited ,,freedom4 ,the policy appears to me to be the result of profound reflection2 or rather the happy effect of following nature1 which is wisdom without reflection1 and above it4 ,a spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper1 and confined views4 ,people will not look forward to posterity1 who never look backward to their ancestors4 ,besides1 the people of ,england well know that the idea of inheritance furnishes a sure principle of conservation1 and a sure principle of transmission1 without at all excluding a principle of improvement4 ,it leaves acquisition free2 but it secures what it acquires4 ,whatever advantages are obtained by a state proceeding on these maxims1 are locked fast as in a sort of family settlement2 grasped as in a kind of mortmain for ever4 ,by a constitutional policy working after the pattern of nature1 we receive1 we hold1 we transmit our government and our privileges1 in the same manner in which we enjoy and transmit our property and our lives4 ,the institutions of policy1 the goods of fortune1 the gifts of ,providence1 are handed down to us1 and from us1 in the same course and order4 ,our political system is placed in a just correspondence and symmetry with the order of the world1 and with the mode of existence decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts2 wherein1 by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom1 moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race1 the whole1 at one time1 is never old1 or middle-aged1 or young1 but1 in a condition of unchangeable constancy1 moves on through the varied tenour of perpetual decay1 fall1 renovation1 and progression4 ,thus1 by preserving the method of nature in the conduct of the state1 in what we improve1 we are never wholly new2 in what we retain1 we are never wholly obsolete4 ,by adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers1 we are guided not by the superstition of antiquarians1 but by the spirit of philosophic analogy4 ,in this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood2 binding up the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties2 adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections2 keeping inseparable1 and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities1 our state1 our hearths1 our sepulchres1 and our altars4 ,through the same plan of a conformity to nature in our artificial institutions1 and by calling in the aid of her unerring and powerful instincts to fortify the fallible and feeble contrivances of our reason1 we have derived several other1 and those no small benefits1 from considering our liberties in the light of an inheritance4 ,always acting as if in the presence of canonized forefathers1 the spirit of freedom1 leading in itself to misrule and excess1 is tempered with an awful gravity4 ,this idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity1 which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction4 ,by this means our liberty becomes a noble freedom4 ,it carries an imposing and majestic aspect4 ,it has a pedigree and illustrating ancestors4 ,it has its bearings and its ensigns armorial4 ,it has its gallery of portraits2 its monumental inscriptions2 its records1 evidences1 and titles4 ,we procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which nature teaches us to revere individual men2 on account of their age1 and on account of those from whom they are descended4 ,all your sophisters cannot produce anything better adapted to preserve a rational and manly freedom than the course that we have pursued1 who have chosen our nature rather than our speculations1 our breasts rather than our inventions1 for the great conservatories and magazines of our rights and privileges4 ,,conservation ,,and ,,correction4 ,a state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation4 ,without such means it might even risk the loss of that part of the constitution which it wished the most religiously to preserve4 ,the two principles of conservation and correction operated strongly at the two critical periods of the ,restoration and ,revolution1 when ,england found itself without a king4 ,at both those periods the nation had lost the bond of union in their ancient edifice2 they did not1 however1 dissolve the whole fabric4 ,on the contrary1 in both cases they regenerated the deficient part of the old constitution through the parts which were not impaired4 ,they kept these old parts exactly as they were1 that the part recovered might be suited to them4 ,they acted by the ancient organized states in the shape of their old organization1 and not by the organic moleculae of a disbanded people4 ,at no time1 perhaps1 did the sovereign legislature manifest a more tender regard to that fundamental principle of ,british constitutional policy than at the time of the ,revolution1 when it deviated from the direct line of hereditary succession4 ,the crown was carried somewhat out of the line in which it had before moved2 but the new line was derived from the same stock4 ,it was still a line of hereditary descent2 still an hereditary descent in the same blood1 though an hereditary descent qualified with ,protestantism4 ,when the legislature altered the direction1 but kept the principle1 they showed that they held it inviolable4 ,,hereditary ,,succession ,,of ,,english ,,crown4 ,unquestionably there was at the ,revolution1 in the person of ,king ,william1 a small and a temporary deviation from the strict order of a regular hereditary succession2 but it is against all genuine principles of jurisprudence to draw a principle from a law made in a special case1 and regarding an individual person4 ,privilegium non transit in exemplum4 ,if ever there was a time favourable for establishing the principle1 that a king of popular choice was the only legal king1 without all doubt it was at the ,revolution4 ,its not being done at that time is a proof that the nation was of opinion it ought not to be done at any time4 ,there is no person so completely ignorant of our history as not to know that the majority in parliament of both parties were so little disposed to anything resembling that principle1 that at first they were determined to place the vacant crown1 not on the head of the prince of ,orange1 but on that of his wife ,mary1 daughter of ,king ,james1 the eldest born of the issue of that king1 which they acknowledged as undoubtedly his4 ,it would be to repeat a very trite story1 to recall to your memory all those circumstances which demonstrated that their accepting ,king ,william was not properly a ,,choice2 but to all those who did not wish1 in effect1 to recall ,king ,james1 or to deluge their country in blood1 and again to bring their religion1 laws1 and liberties into the peril they had just escaped1 it was an act of ,,necessity1 in the strictest moral sense in which necessity can be taken4 ,so far is it from being true1 that we acquired a right by the ,revolution to elect our kings1 that if we had possessed it before1 the ,english nation did at that time most solemnly renounce and abdicate it1 for themselves1 and for all their posterity for ever4 ,these gentlemen may value themselves as much as they please on their ,whig principles2 but ,i never desire to be thought a better ,whig than ,lord ,somers2 or to understand the principles of the ,revolution better than those by whom it was brought about2 or to read in the ,declaration of ,right any mysteries unknown to those whose penetrating style has engraved in our ordinances1 and in our hearts1 the words and spirit of that immortal law4 ,it is true that1 aided with the powers derived from force and opportunity1 the nation was at that time1 in some sense1 free to take what course it pleased for filling the throne2 but only free to do so upon the same grounds on which they might have wholly abolished their monarchy1 and every other part of their constitution4 ,however1 they did not think such bold changes within their commission4 ,it is indeed difficult1 perhaps impossible1 to give limits to the mere ,,abstract competence of the supreme power1 such as was exercised by parliament at that time2 but the limits of a ,,moral competence1 subjecting1 even in powers more indisputably sovereign1 occasional will to permanent reason1 and to the steady maxims of faith1 justice1 and fixed fundamental policy1 are perfectly intelligible1 and perfectly binding upon those who exercise any authority1 under any name1 or under any title1 in the state4 ,the ,house of ,lords1 for instance1 is not morally competent to dissolve the ,house of ,commons2 no1 nor even to dissolve itself1 nor to abdicate1 if it would1 its portion in the legislature of the kingdom4 ,though a king may abdicate for his own person1 he cannot abdicate for the monarchy4 ,by as strong1 or by a stronger reason1 the ,house of ,commons cannot renounce its share of authority4 ,the engagement and pact of society1 which generally goes by the name of the constitution1 forbids such invasion and such surrender4 ,the constituent parts of a state are obliged to hold their public faith with each other1 and with all those who derive any serious interest under their engagements1 as much as the whole state is bound to keep its faith with separate communities4 ,otherwise competence and power would soon be confounded1 and no law be left but the will of a prevailing force4 ,on this principle the succession of the crown has always been what it now is1 an hereditary succession by law3 in the old line it was a succession by the common law2 in the new by the statute law1 operating on the principles of the common law1 not changing the substance1 but regulating the mode and describing the persons4 ,both these descriptions of law are of the same force1 and are derived from an equal authority1 emanating from the common agreement and original compact of the state1 communi sponsione reipublicae1 and as such are equally binding on king people too1 as long as the terms are observed1 and they continue the same body politic4 ,,limits ,,of ,,legislative ,,capacity4 ,if we were to know nothing of this assembly but by its title and function1 no colours could paint to the imagination anything more venerable4 ,in that light the mind of an inquirer1 subdued by such an awful image as that of the virtue and wisdom of a whole people collected into one focus1 would pause and hesitate in condemning things even of the very worst aspect4 ,instead of blameable1 they would appear only mysterious4 ,but no name1 no power1 no function1 no artificial institution whatsoever1 can make the men of whom any system of authority is composed1 any other than ,god1 and nature1 and education1 and their habits of life have made them4 ,capacities beyond these the people have not to give4 ,virtue and wisdom may be the objects of their choice2 but their choice confers neither the one nor the other on those upon whom they lay their ordaining hands4 ,they have not the engagement of nature1 they have not the promise of revelation1 for any such power4 ,,our ,,constitution1 ,,not ,,fabricated1 ,,but ,,inherited4 ,the ,revolution was made to preserve our ,,ancient1 indisputable laws and liberties1 and that ,,ancient constitution of government which is our only security for law and liberty4 ,if you are desirous of knowing the spirit of our constitution1 and the policy which predominated in that great period which has secured it to this hour1 pray look for both in our histories1 in our records1 in our acts of parliament1 and journals of parliament1 and not in the sermons of the ,old ,jewry1 and the after-dinner toasts of the ,revolution ,society4 ,in the former you will find other ideas and another language4 ,such a claim is as ill suited to our temper and wishes as it is unsupported by any appearance of authority4 ,the very idea of the fabrication of a new government is enough to fill us with disgust and horror4 ,we wished at the period of the ,revolution1 and do now wish1 to derive all we possess as ,,an ,,inheritance ,,from ,,our ,,forefathers4 ,upon that body and stock of inheritance1 we have taken care not to inoculate any scion alien to the nature of the original plant4 ,all the reformations we have hitherto made have proceeded upon the principle of reverence to antiquity2 and ,i hope1 nay1 ,i am persuaded1 that all those which possibly may be made hereafter1 will be carefully formed upon analogical precedent1 authority1 and example4 ,our oldest reformation is that of ,magna ,charta4 ,you will see that ,sir ,edward ,coke1 that great oracle of our law1 and indeed all the great men who follow him1 to ,blackstone1 are industrious to prove the pedigree of our liberties4 ,they endeavour to prove1 that the ancient charter1 the ,magna ,charta of ,king ,john1 was connected with another positive charter from ,henry ,i41 and that both the one and the other were nothing more than a re-affirmance of the still more ancient standing law of the kingdom4 ,in the matter of fact1 for the greater part1 these authors appear to be in the right2 perhaps not always2 but if the lawyers mistake in some particulars1 it proves my position still the more strongly1 because it demonstrates the powerful prepossession towards antiquity1 with much the minds of all our lawyers and legislators1 and of all the people whom they wish to influence1 have been always filled2 and the stationary policy of this kingdom in considering their most sacred rights and franchises as an ,,inheritance4 ,in the famous law of the #crd of ,charles ,i41 called the ,,petition ,,of ,,right1 the parliament says to the king1 ,your subjects have ,,inherited this freedom1 claiming their franchises not on abstract principles as the rights of men1 but as the rights of ,englishmen1 and as a patrimony derived from their forefathers4 ,selden1 and the other profoundly learned men1 who drew this petition of right1 were as well acquainted1 at least1 with all the general theories concerning the rights of men1 as any of the discoursers in our pulpits1 or on your tribune2 full as well as ,dr4 ,price1 or as the ,abbe ,sieyes4 ,but1 for reasons worthy of that practical wisdom which superseded their theoretic science1 they preferred this positive1 recorded1 ,,hereditary title to all which can be dear to the man and the citizen1 to that vague speculative right1 which exposed their sure inheritance to be scrambled for and torn to pieces by every wild1 litigious spirit4 ,the same policy pervades all the laws which have since been made for the preservation of our liberties4 ,in the #ast of ,william and ,mary1 in the famous statute called the ,declaration of ,right1 the two houses utter not a syllable of a right to frame a government for themselves4 ,you will see1 that their whole care was to secure the religion1 laws1 and liberties1 that had been long possessed1 and had been lately endangered4 ,taking into their most serious consideration the ,,best means for making such an establishment that their religion1 laws1 and liberties1 might not be in danger of being again subverted1 they auspicate all their proceedings1 by stating as some of those ,,best means1 in the ,,first ,,place to do as their ,,ancestors ,,in ,,like ,,cases ,,have ,,usually done for vindicating their ,,ancient rights and liberties1 to ,,declare2--and then they pray the king and queen1 that it may be ,,declared and enacted1 that ,,all ,,and ,,singular the rights and liberties ,,asserted ,,and ,,declared1 are the true ,,ancient and indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this kingdom4 ,you will observe1 that from ,magna ,charta to the ,declaration of ,right1 it has been the uniform policy of our constitution to claim and assert our liberties1 as an ,,entailed ,,inheritance derived to us from our forefathers1 and to be transmitted to our posterity1 as an estate specially belonging to the people of this kingdom1 without any reference whatever to any other more general or prior right4 ,by this means our constitution preserves a unity in so great a diversity of its parts4 ,we have an inheritable crown2 an inheritable peerage2 and a house of commons and a people inheriting privileges1 franchises1 and liberties1 from a long line of ancestors4 ,,low ,,aims ,,and ,,low ,,instruments4 ,when men of rank sacrifice all ideas of dignity to an ambition without a distinct object1 and work with low instruments and for low ends1 the whole composition becomes low and base4 ,does not something like this now appear in ,france8 ,does it not produce something ignoble and inglorious8 a kind of meanness in all the prevalent policy8 a tendency in all that is done to lower along with individuals all the dignity and importance of the state8 ,other revolutions have been conducted by persons1 who1 whilst they attempted or affected changes in the commonwealth1 sanctified their ambition by advancing the dignity of the people whose peace they troubled4 ,they had long views4 ,they aimed at the rule1 not at the destruction1 of their country4 ,they were men of great civil and great military talents1 and if the terror1 the ornament of their age4 ,they were not like ,jew brokers1 contending with each other who could best remedy with fraudulent circulation and depreciated paper the wretchedness and ruin brought on their country by their degenerate councils4 ,the compliment made to one of the great bad men of the old stamp 7,cromwell7 by his kinsman1 a favourite poet of that time1 shows what it was he proposed1 and what indeed to a great degree he accomplished1 in the success of his ambition3-- ,still as ,,you rise1 the ,,state exalted too1 ,finds no distemper whilst 'tis changed by ,,you3 ,changed like the world's great scene1 when without noise ,the rising sun night's ,,vulgar lights destroys4 ,these disturbers were not so much like men usurping power1 as asserting their natural place in society4 ,their rising was to illuminate and beautify the world4 ,their conquest over their competitors was by outshining them4 ,the hand that1 like a destroying angel1 smote the country1 communicated to it the force and energy under which it suffered4 ,i do not say 7,god forbid71 ,i do not say1 that the virtues of such men were to be taken as a balance to their crimes3 but they were some corrective to their effects4 ,such was1 as ,i said1 our ,cromwell4 ,such were your whole race of ,guises1 ,condes1 and ,colignis4 ,such the ,richelieus1 who in more quite times acted in the spirit of a civil war4 ,such1 as better men1 and in a less dubious cause1 were your ,henry the ,fourth and your ,sully1 though nursed in civil confusions1 and not wholly without some of their taint4 ,it is a thing to be wondered at1 to see how very soon ,france1 when she had a moment to respire1 recovered and emerged from the longest and most dreadful civil war that ever was known in any nation4 ,why8 ,because among all their massacres1 they had not slain the ,,mind in their country4 ,a conscious dignity1 a noble pride1 a generous sense of glory and emulation1 was not extinguished4 ,on the contrary1 it was kindled and enflamed4 ,the organs also of the state1 however shattered1 existed4 ,all the prizes of honour and virtue1 all the rewards1 all the distinctions1 remained4 ,but your present confusion1 like a palsy1 has attacked the fountain of life itself4 ,every person in your country1 in a situation to be actuated by a principle of honour1 is disgraced and degraded1 and can entertain no sensation of life1 except in a mortified and humiliated indignation4 ,but this generation will quickly pass away4 ,the next generation of the nobility will resemble the artificers and clowns1 and money-jobbers1 usurers1 and ,jews1 who will be always their fellows1 sometimes their masters4 ,believe me1 ,sir1 those who attempt to level1 never equalise4 ,in all societies1 consisting of various descriptions of citizens1 some description must be uppermost4 ,the levellers therefore only change and pervert the natural order of things2 they load the edifice of society1 by setting up in the air what the solidity of the structure requires to be on the ground4 ,the associations of tailors and carpenters1 of which the republic 7of ,paris1 for instance71 is composed1 cannot be equal to the situation into which1 by the worst of usurpations1 a usurpation on the prerogatives of nature1 you attempt to force them4 ,the ,chancellor of ,france1 at the opening of the states1 said1 in a tone of oratorical flourish1 that all occupations were honourable4 ,if he meant only1 that no honest employment was disgraceful1 he would not have gone beyond the truth4 ,but in asserting that anything is honourable1 we imply some distinction in its favour4 ,the occupation of a hair-dresser1 or of a working tallow-chandler1 cannot be a matter of honour to any person--to say nothing of a number of other more servile employments4 ,such descriptions of men ought not to suffer oppression from the state2 but the state suffers oppression1 if such as they1 either individually or collectively1 are permitted to rule4 ,in this you think you are combating prejudice1 but you are at war with nature4 ,,house ,,of ,,commons ,,contrasted ,,with ,,national ,,assembly4 ,the ,british ,house of ,commons1 without shutting its doors to any merit in any class1 is1 by the sure operation of adequate causes1 filled with everything illustrious in rank1 in descent1 in hereditary and in acquired opulence1 in cultivated talents1 in military1 civil1 naval1 and politic distinction1 that the country can afford4 ,but supposing1 what hardly can be supposed as a case1 that the ,house of ,commons should be composed in the same manner with the ,tiers-,etat in ,france1 would this dominion of chicane be borne with patience1 or even conceived without horror8 ,god forbid ,i should insinuate anything derogatory to that profession1 which is another priesthood1 administering the rights of sacred justice4 ,but whilst ,i revere men in the functions which belong to them1 and would do as much as one man can do to prevent their exclusion from any1 ,i cannot1 to flatter them1 give the lie to nature4 ,they are good and useful in the composition2 they must be mischievous if they preponderate so as virtually to become the whole4 ,their very excellence in their peculiar functions may be far from a qualification for others4 ,it cannot escape observation1 that when men are too much confined to professional and faculty habits1 and as it were inveterate in the recurrent employment of that narrow circle1 they are rather disabled than qualified for whatever depends on the knowledge of mankind1 on experience in mixed affairs1 on a comprehensive1 connected view of the various1 complicated1 external1 and internal interests1 which go to the formation of that multifarious thing called a state4 ,after all1 if the ,house of ,commons were to have a wholly professional and faculty composition1 what is the power of the ,house of ,commons1 circumscribed and shut in by the immoveable barriers of law1 usages1 positive rules of doctrine and practice1 counterpoised by the ,house of ,lords1 and every moment of its existence at the discretion of the crown to continue1 prorogue1 or dissolve us8 ,the power of the ,house of ,commons1 direct or indirect1 is indeed great2 and long may it be able to preserve its greatness1 and the spirit belonging to true greatness1 at the full2 and it will do so1 as long as it can keep the breakers of law in ,india from becoming the makers of law for ,england4 ,the power1 however1 of the ,house of ,commons1 when least diminished1 is as a drop of water in the ocean1 compared to that residing in a settled majority of your ,national ,assembly4 ,that assembly1 since the destruction of the orders1 has no fundamental law1 no strict convention1 no respected usage to restrain it4 ,instead of finding themselves obliged to conform to a fixed constitution1 they have a power to make a constitution which shall conform to their designs4 ,nothing in heaven or upon earth can serve as a control on them4 ,what ought to be the heads1 the hearts1 the dispositions1 that are qualified1 or that dare1 not only to make laws under a fixed constitution1 but at one heat to strike out a totally new constitution for a great kingdom1 and every part of it1 from the monarch on the throne to the vestry of a parish8 ,but--fools rush in where angels fear to tread4 ,in such a state of unbounded power1 for undefined and indefinable purposes1 the evil of a moral and almost physical inaptitude of the man to the function1 must be the greatest we can conceive to happen in the management of human affairs4 ,,property1 ,,more ,,than ,,ability1 ,,represented ,,in ,,parliament4 ,nothing is a due and adequate representation of a state that does not represent its ability1 as well as its property4 ,but as ability is a vigorous and active principle1 and as property is sluggish1 inert1 and timid1 it never can be safe from the invasions of ability1 unless it be1 out of all proportion1 predominant in the representation4 ,it must be represented too in great masses of accumulation1 or it is not rightly protected4 ,the characteristic essence of property1 formed out of the combined principles of its acquisition and conservation1 is to be ,,unequal4 ,the great masses1 therefore1 which excite envy1 and tempt rapacity1 must be put out of the possibility of danger4 ,then they form a natural rampart about the lesser properties in all their gradations4 ,the same quantity of property1 which is by the natural course of things divided among many1 has not the same operation4 ,its defensive power is weakened as it is diffused4 ,in this diffusion each man's portion is less than what1 in the eagerness of his desires1 he may flatter himself to obtain by dissipating the accumulations of others4 ,the plunder of the few would1 indeed1 give but a share inconceivably small in the distribution to the many4 ,but the many are not capable of making this calculation2 and those who lead them to rapine never intend this distribution4 ,the power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it1 and that which tends the most to the perpetuation of society itself4 ,it makes our weakness subservient to our virtue2 it grafts benevolence even upon avarice4 ,the possessors of family wealth1 and of the distinction which attends hereditary possession 7as most concerned in it71 are the natural securities for this transmission4 ,with us the ,house of ,peers is formed upon this principle4 ,it is wholly composed of hereditary property and hereditary distinction2 and made1 therefore1 the third of the legislature2 and1 in the last event1 the sole judge of all property in all its subdivisions4 ,the ,house of ,commons1 too1 though not necessarily1 yet in fact1 is always so composed1 in the far greater part4 ,let those large proprietors be what they will1 and they have their chance of being among the best1 they are1 at the very worst1 the ballast in the vessel of the commonwealth4 ,for though hereditary wealth1 and the rank which goes with it1 are too much idolized by creeping sycophants1 and the blind1 abject admirers of power1 they are too rashly slighted in shallow speculations of the petulant1 assuming1 short-sighted coxcombs of philosophy4 ,some decent1 regulated pre-eminence1 some preference 7not exclusive appropriation7 given to birth1 is neither unnatural1 nor unjust1 nor impolitic4 ,it is said1 that twenty-four millions ought to prevail over two hundred thousand4 ,true2 if the constitution of a kingdom be a problem of arithmetic4 ,this sort of discourse does well enough with the lamp-post for its second3 to men who ,,may reason calmly1 it is ridiculous4 ,the will of the many1 and their interest1 must very often differ2 and great will be the difference when they make an evil choice4 ,,virtue ,,and ,,wisdom ,,qualify ,,for ,,government4 ,i do not1 my dear sir1 conceive you to be of that sophistical1 captious spirit1 or of that uncandid dulness1 as to require1 for every general observation or sentiment1 an explicit detail of the correctives and exceptions which reason will presume to be included in all the general propositions which come from reasonable men4 ,you do not imagine that ,i wish to confine power1 authority1 and distinction to blood1 and names1 and titles4 ,no1 sir4 ,there is no qualification for government but virtue and wisdom1 actual or presumptive4 ,wherever they are actually found1 they have1 in whatever state1 condition1 profession1 or trade1 the passport of heaven to human place and honour4 ,woe to that country which would madly and impiously reject the service of the talents and virtues1 civil1 military1 or religious1 that are given to grace and to serve it2 and would condemn to obscurity everything formed to diffuse lustre and glory around a state4 ,woe to that country1 too1 that1 passing into the opposite extreme1 considers a low education1 a mean1 contracted view of things1 a sordid1 mercenary occupation1 as a preferable title to command4 ,everything ought to be open2 but not indifferently to every man4 ,no rotation2 no appointment by lot2 no mode of election operating in the spirit of sortition1 or rotation1 can be generally good in a government conversant in extensive objects4 ,because they have no tendency1 direct or indirect1 to select the man with a view to the duty1 or to accommodate the one to the other4 ,i do not hesitate to say1 that the road to eminence and power1 from obscure condition1 ought not to be made too easy1 nor a thing too much of course4 ,if rare merit be the rarest of all rare things1 in ought to pass through some sort of probation4 ,the temple of honour ought to be seated on an eminence4 ,if it be opened through virtue1 let it be remembered1 too1 that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle4 ,,natural ,,and ,,civil ,,rights4 ,far am ,i from denying in theory1 full as far as is my heart from withholding in practice 7if ,i were of power to give or to withhold71 the ,,real rights of men4 ,in denying their false claims of right1 ,i do not mean to injure those which are real1 and are such as their pretended rights would totally destroy4 ,if civil society be made for the advantage of man1 all the advantages for which it is made become his right4 ,it is an institution of beneficence2 and law itself is only beneficence acting by a rule4 ,men have a right to live by that rule2 they have a right to do justice1 as between their fellows1 whether their fellows are in politic function1 or in ordinary occupation4 ,they have a right to the fruits of their industry1 and to the means of making their industry fruitful4 ,they have a right to the acquisitions of their parents2 to the nourishment and improvement of their offspring2 to instruction in life1 and to consolation in death4 ,whatever each man can separately do1 without trespassing upon others1 he has a right to do for himself2 and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society1 with all its combinations of skill and force1 can do in his favour4 ,in this partnership all men have equal rights2 but not to equal things4 ,he that has but five shillings in the partnership1 has as good a right to it1 as he that has five hundred pounds has to his larger proportion4 ,but he has not a right to an equal dividend in the product of the joint-stock2 and as to the share of power1 authority1 and direction which each individual ought to have in the management of the state1 that ,i must deny to be amongst the direct original rights of man in civil society2 for ,i have in my contemplation the civil social man1 and no other4 ,it is a thing to be settled by convention4 ,if civil society be the offspring of convention1 that convention must be its law4 ,that convention must limit and modify all the descriptions of constitution which are formed under it4 ,every sort of legislature1 judicial1 or executory power1 are its creatures4 ,they can have no being in any other state of things2 and how can any man claim1 under the conventions of civil society1 rights which do not so much as suppose its existence8 ,rights which are absolutely repugnant to it8 ,one of the first motives to civil society1 and which becomes one of its fundamental rules1 is1 ,,that ,,no ,,man ,,should ,,be ,,judge ,,in ,,his ,,own ,,cause4 ,by this each person has at once divested himself of the first fundamental right of uncovenanted man1 that is1 to judge for himself1 and to assert his own cause4 ,he abdicates all right to be his own governor4 ,he inclusively1 in a great measure1 abandons the right of self-defence1 the first law of nature4 ,men cannot enjoy the rights of an uncivil and of a civil state together4 ,that he may obtain justice1 he gives up his right of determining what it is in points the most essential to him4 ,that he may secure some liberty1 he makes a surrender in trust of the whole of it4 ,government is not made in virtue of natural rights1 which may and do exist in total independence of it2 and exist in much greater clearness1 and in a much greater degree of abstract perfection3 but their abstract perfection is their practical defect4 ,by having a right to everything they want everything4 ,government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human ,,wants4 ,men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom4 ,among these wants is to be reckoned the want1 out of civil society1 of a sufficient restraint upon their passions4 ,society requires not only that the passions of individuals should be subjected1 but that even in the mass and body1 as well as in the individuals1 the inclinations of men should frequently be thwarted1 their will controlled1 and their passions brought into subjection4 ,this can only be done ,,by ,a ,,power ,,out ,,of ,,themselves1 and not1 in the exercise of its function1 subject to that will and to those passions which it is its office to bridle and subdue4 ,in this sense the restraints on men1 as well as their liberties1 are to be reckoned among their rights4 ,but as the liberties and the restrictions vary with times and circumstances1 and admit of infinite modifications1 they cannot be settled upon any abstract rule2 and nothing is so foolish as to discuss them upon that principle4 ,the moment you abate anything from the full rights of men1 each to govern himself1 and suffer any artificial1 positive limitation upon those rights1 from that moment the whole organization of government becomes a consideration of convenience4 ,this it is which makes the constitution of a state1 and the due distribution of its powers1 a matter of the most delicate and complicated skill4 ,it requires a deep knowledge of human nature and human necessities1 and of the things which facilitate or obstruct the various ends1 which are to be pursued by the mechanism of civil institutions4 ,the state is to have recruits to its strength1 and remedies to its distempers4 ,what is the use of discussing a man's abstract right to food or medicine8 ,the question is upon the method of procuring and administering them4 ,in that deliberation ,i shall always advise to call in the aid of the farmer and the physician1 rather than the professor of metaphysics4 ,the science of constructing a commonwealth1 or renovating it1 or reforming it1 is1 like every other experimental science1 not to be taught a priori4 ,nor is it a short experience that can instruct us in that practical science1 because the real effects of moral causes are not always immediate2 but that which in the first instance is prejudicial may be excellent in its remoter operation2 and its excellence may arise even from the ill effects it produces in the beginning4 ,the reverse also happens2 and very plausible schemes1 with very pleasing commencements1 have often shameful and lamentable conclusions4 ,in states there are often some obscure and almost latent causes1 things which appear at first view of little moment1 on which a very great part of its prosperity or adversity may most essentially depend4 ,the science of government being therefore so practical in itself1 and intended for such practical purposes1 a matter which requires experience1 and even more experience than any person can gain in his whole life1 however sagacious and observing he may be1 it is with infinite caution that any man ought to venture upon pulling down an edifice1 which has answered in any tolerable degree for ages the common purposes of society1 or on building it up again1 without having models and patterns of approved utility before his eyes4 ,these metaphysic rights entering into common life1 like rays of light which pierce into a dense medium1 are1 by the laws of nature1 refracted from their straight line4 ,indeed in the gross and complicated mass of human passions and concerns1 the primitive rights of men undergo such a variety of refractions and reflections1 that it becomes absurd to talk of them as if they continued in the simplicity of their original direction4 ,the nature of man is intricate2 the objects of society are of the greatest possible complexity3 and therefore no simple disposition or direction of power can be suitable either to man's nature1 or to the quality of his affairs4 ,when ,i hear the simplicity of contrivance aimed at and boasted of in any new political constitutions1 ,i am at no loss to decide that the artificers are grossly ignorant of their trade1 or totally negligent of their duty4 ,the simple governments are fundamentally defective1 to say no worse of them4 ,if you were to contemplate society in but one point of view1 all these simple modes of polity are infinitely captivating4 ,in effect each would answer its single end much more perfectly than the more complex is able to attain all its complex purposes4 ,but it is better that the whole should be imperfectly and anomalously answered1 than that1 while some parts are provided for with great exactness1 others might be totally neglected1 or perhaps materially injured1 by the over-care of a favourite member4 ,the pretended rights of these theorists are all extremes3 and in proportion as they are metaphysically true1 they are morally and politically false4 ,the rights of men are in a sort of ,,middle1 incapable of definition1 but not impossible to be discerned4 ,the rights of men in governments are their advantages1 and these are often in balances between differences of good2 in compromises sometimes between good and evil1 and sometimes between evil and evil4 ,political reason is a computing principle1 adding1 subtracting1 multiplying1 and dividing1 morally and not metaphysically or mathematically1 true moral denominations4 ,by these theorists the right of the people is almost always sophistically confounded with their power4 ,the body of the community1 whenever it can come to act1 can meet with no effectual resistance2 but till power and right are the same1 the whole body of them has no right inconsistent with virtue1 and the first of all virtues--prudence4 ,,marie ,,antoinette4 ,it is now sixteen or seventeen years since ,i saw the queen of ,france1 then the dauphiness1 at ,versailles2 and surely never lighted on this orb1 which she hardly seemed to touch1 a more delightful vision4 ,i saw her just above the horizon1 decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in1--glittering like the morning-star1 full of life1 and splendour1 and joy4 ,oh6 what a revolution6 and what a heart must ,i have1 to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall6 ,little did ,i dream when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic1 distant1 respectful love1 that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom2 little did ,i dream that ,i should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men1 in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers4 ,i thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult4 ,but the age of chivalry is gone4 ,that of sophisters1 economists1 and calculators1 has succeeded2 and the glory of ,europe is extinguished for ever4 ,never1 never more shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex1 that proud submission1 that dignified obedience1 that subordination of the heart1 which kept alive1 even in servitude itself1 the spirit of an exalted freedom4 ,the unbought grace of life1 the cheap defence of nations1 the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise1 is gone6 ,it is gone1 that sensibility of principle1 that chastity of honour1 which felt a stain like a wound1 which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity1 which ennobled whatever it touched1 and under which vice itself lost half its evil1 by losing all its grossness4 ,,spirit ,,of ,a ,,gentleman ,,and ,,the ,,spirit ,,of ,,religion4 ,how much of that prosperous state was owing to the spirit of our old manners and opinions is not easy to say2 but as such causes cannot be indifferent in their operation1 we must presume that1 on the whole1 their operation was beneficial4 ,we are but too apt to consider things in the state in which we find them1 without sufficiently adverting to the causes by which they have been produced1 and possibly may be upheld4 ,nothing is more certain1 than that our manners1 our civilization1 and all the good things which are connected with manners and with civilization1 have1 in this ,european world of ours1 depended for ages upon two principles1 and were indeed the result of both combined2 ,i mean the spirit of a gentleman and the spirit of religion4 ,the nobility and the clergy1 the one by profession1 the other by patronage1 kept learning in existence1 even in the midst of arms and confusions1 and whilst governments were rather in their causes1 than formed4 ,learning paid back what it received to nobility and to priesthood2 and paid it with usury1 by enlarging their ideas1 and by furnishing their minds4 ,happy if they had all continued to know their indissoluble union1 and their proper place6 ,happy if learning1 not debauched by ambition1 had been satisfied to continue the instructor1 and not aspired to be the master6 ,along with its natural protectors and guardians1 learning will be cast into the mire1 and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude4 ,if1 as ,i suspect1 modern letters owe more than they are always willing to own to ancient manners1 so do other interests which we value full as much as they are worth4 ,even commerce1 and trade1 and manufacture1 the gods of our economical politicians1 are themselves1 perhaps1 but creatures2 are themselves but effects1 which1 as first causes1 we choose to worship4 ,they certainly grew under the same shade in which learning flourished4 ,they too may decay with their natural protecting principles4 ,with you1 for the present at least1 they all threaten to disappear together4 ,where trade and manufactures are wanting to a people1 and the spirit of nobility and religion remains1 sentiment supplies1 and not always ill supplies1 their place2 but if commerce and the arts should be lost in an experiment to try how well a state may stand without these old fundamental principles1 what sort of a thing must be a nation of gross1 stupid1 ferocious1 and1 at the same time1 poor and sordid barbarians1 destitute of religion1 honour1 or manly pride1 possessing nothing at present1 and hoping for nothing hereafter8 ,,power ,,survives ,,opinion4 ,but power1 of some kind or other1 will survive the shock in which manners and opinions perish6 ,and it will find other and worse means for its support4 ,the usurpation which1 in order to subvert ancient institutions1 has destroyed ancient principles1 will hold power by arts similar to those by which it has acquired it4 ,when the old feudal and chivalrous spirit of ,,fealty1 which1 by freeing kings from fear1 freed both kings and subjects from the precaution of tyranny1 shall be extinct in the minds of men1 plots and assassinations will be anticipated by preventive murder and preventive confiscation1 and that long roll of grim and bloody maxims1 which form the political code of all power1 not standing on its own honour1 and the honour of those who are to obey it4 ,kings will be tyrants from policy1 when subjects are rebels from principle4 ,,chivalry ,a ,,moralizing ,,charm4 ,this mixed system of opinion and sentiment had its origin in the ancient chivalry2 and the principle1 though varied in its appearance by the varying state of human affairs1 subsisted and influenced through a long succession of generations1 even to the time we live in4 ,if it should ever be totally extinguished1 the loss ,i fear will be great4 ,it is this which has given its character to modern ,europe4 ,it is this which has distinguished it under all its forms of government1 and distinguished it1 to its advantage1 from the states of ,asia1 and possibly from those states which flourished in the most brilliant periods of the antique world4 ,it was this which1 without confounding ranks1 had produced a noble equality1 and handed it down through all the gradations of social life4 ,it was this opinion which mitigated kings into companions1 and raised private men to be fellows with kings4 ,without force or opposition1 it subdued the fierceness of pride and power2 it obliged sovereigns to submit to the soft collar of social esteem1 compelled stern authority to submit to elegance1 and gave a dominating vanquisher of laws to be subdued by manners4 ,but now all is to be changed4 ,all the pleasing illusions1 which made power gentle1 and obedience liberal1 which harmonized the different shades of life1 and which1 by a bland assimilation1 incorporated into politics the sentiments which beautify and soften private society1 are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason4 ,all the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off4 ,all the superadded ideas1 furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imagination1 which the heart owns and the understanding ratifies as necessary to cover the defects of our naked1 shivering nature1 and to raise it to dignity in our own estimation1 are to be exploded as a ridiculous1 absurd1 and antiquated fashion4 ,on this scheme of things1 a king is but a man1 a queen is but a woman2 a woman is but an animal1--and an animal not of the highest order4 ,all homage paid to the sex in general as such1 and without distinct views1 is to be regarded as romance and folly4 ,regicide1 and parricide1 and sacrilege are but fictions of superstition1 corrupting jurisprudence by destroying its simplicity4 ,the murder of a king1 or a queen1 or a bishop1 or a father1 are only common homicide2 and if the people are by any chance1 or in any way1 gainers by it1 a sort of homicide much the most pardonable1 and into which we ought not to make too severe a scrutiny4 ,on the scheme of this barbarous philosophy1 which is the offspring of cold hearts and muddy understandings1 and which is as void of solid wisdom as it is destitute of all taste and elegance1 laws are to be supported only by their own terrors1 and by the concern which each individual may find in them from his own private speculations1 or can spare to them from his own private interests4 ,in the groves of ,,their academy1 at the end of every vista1 you see nothing but the gallows4 ,nothing is left which engages the affections on the part of the commonwealth4 ,on the principles of this mechanic philosophy1 our institutions can never be embodied1 if ,i may use the expression1 in persons1 so as to create in us love1 veneration1 admiration1 or attachment4 ,but that sort of reason which banishes the affections is incapable of filling their place4 ,these public affections1 combined with manners1 are required sometimes as supplements1 sometimes as correctives1 always as aids to law4 ,the precept given by a wise man1 as well as a great critic1 for the construction of poems1 is equally true as to states3--,non satis est pulchra esse poemata1 dulcia sunto4 ,there ought to be a system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish4 ,to make us love our country1 our country ought to be lovely4 ,,sacredness ,,of ,,moral ,,instincts4 ,why do ,i feel so differently from the ,reverend ,dr4 ,price1 and those of his lay flock1 who will choose to adopt the sentiments of his discourse8 ,for this plain reason--because it is ,,natural ,i should2 because we are so made1 as to be affected at such spectacles with melancholy sentiments upon the unstable condition of mortal prosperity and the tremendous uncertainty of human greatness2 because in those natural feelings we learn great lessons2 because in events like these our passions instruct our reason2 because when kings are hurled from their thrones by the ,supreme ,director of this great drama1 and become the objects of insult to the base1 and of pity to the good1 we behold such disasters in the moral1 as we should behold a miracle in the physical1 order of things4 ,we are alarmed into reflection2 our minds 7as it has long since been observed7 are purified by terror and pity2 our weak1 unthinking pride is humbled under the dispensations of a mysterious wisdom4 ,some tears might be drawn from me1 if such a spectacle were exhibited on the stage4 ,i should be truly ashamed of finding in myself that superficial1 theatric sense of painted distress1 whilst ,i could exult over it in real life4 ,with such a perverted mind1 ,i could never venture to show my face at a tragedy4 ,people would think the tears that ,garrick formerly1 or that ,siddons not long since1 have extorted from me1 were the tears of hypocrisy2 ,i should know them to be the tears of folly4 ,indeed the theatre is a better school of moral sentiments than churches1 where the feelings of humanity are thus outraged4 ,poets who have to deal with an audience not yet graduated in the school of the rights of men1 and who must apply themselves to the moral constitution of the heart1 would not dare to produce such a triumph as a matter of exultation4 ,there1 where men follow their natural impulses1 they would not bear the odious maxims of a ,machiavelian policy1 whether applied to the attainment of monarchical or democratic tyranny4 ,they would reject them on the modern1 as they once did on the ancient stage1 where they could not bear even the hypothetical proposition of such wickedness in the mouth of a personated tyrant1 though suitable to the character he sustained4 ,no theatric audience in ,athens would bear what has been borne1 in the midst of the real tragedy of this triumphal day2 a principal actor weighing1 as it were in scales hung in a shop of horrors1 so much actual crime against so much contingent advantage1 and after putting in and out weights1 declaring that the balance was on the side of the advantages4 ,they would not bear to see the crimes of new democracy posted as in a ledger against the crimes of old despotism1 and the book-keepers of politics finding democracy still in debt1 but by no means unable or unwilling to pay the balance4 ,in the theatre1 the first intuitive glance1 without any elaborate process of reasoning1 will show1 that this method of political computation would justify every extent of crime4 ,they would see1 that on these principles1 even where the very worst acts were not perpetrated1 it was owing rather to the fortune of the conspirators1 than to their parsimony in the expenditure of treachery and blood4 ,they would soon see1 that criminal means once tolerated are soon preferred4 ,they present a shorter cut to the object than through the highway of the moral virtues4 ,justifying perfidy and murder for public benefit1 public benefit would soon become the pretext1 and perfidy and murder the end2 until rapacity1 malice1 revenge1 and fear more dreadful than revenge1 could satiate their insatiable appetites4 ,such must be the consequences of losing1 in the splendour of these triumphs of the rights of men1 all natural sense of wrong and right4 ,,parental ,,experience4 ,had it pleased ,god to continue to me the hopes of succession1 ,i should have been1 according to my mediocrity1 and the mediocrity of the age ,i live in1 a sort of founder of a family3 ,i should have left a son1 who1 in all the points in which personal merit can be viewed1--in science1 in erudition1 in genius1 in taste1 in honour1 in generosity1 in humanity1 in every liberal sentiment1 and every liberal accomplishment1--would not have shown himself inferior to the duke of ,bedford1 or to any of those whom he traces in his line4 ,his grace very soon would have wanted all plausibility in his attack upon that provision which belonged more to mine than to me4 ,he would soon have supplied every deficiency1 and symmetrized every disproportion4 ,it would not have been for that successor to resort to any stagnant wasting reservoir of merit in me1 or in any ancestry4 ,he had in himself a salient1 living spring of generous and manly action4 ,every day he lived he would have re-purchased the bounty of the ,crown1 and ten times more1 if ten times more he had received4 ,he was made a public creature1 and had no enjoyment whatever but in the performance of some duty4 ,at this exigent moment1 the loss of a finished man is not easily supplied4 ,but a ,disposer whose power we are little able to resist1 and whose wisdom it behoves us not at all to dispute1 has ordained it in another manner1 and 7whatever my querulous weakness might suggest7 a far better4 ,the storm has gone over me1 and ,i lie like one of those old oaks which the late hurricane has scattered about me4 ,i am stripped of all my honours1 ,i am torn up by the roots1 and lie prostrate on the earth6 ,there1 and prostrate there1 ,i most unfeignedly recognise the divine justice1 and in some degree submit to it4 ,but whilst ,i humble myself before ,god1 ,i do not know that it is forbidden to repel the attacks of unjust and inconsiderate men4 ,the patience of ,job is proverbial4 ,after some of the convulsive struggles of our irritable nature1 he submitted himself1 and repented in dust and ashes4 ,but even so1 ,i do not find him blamed for reprehending1 and with a considerable degree of verbal asperity1 those ill-natured neighbours of his1 who visited his dunghill to read moral1 political1 and economical lectures on his misery4 ,i am alone4 ,i have none to meet my enemies in the gate4 ,indeed1 my ,lord1 ,i greatly deceive myself1 if in this hard season ,i would give a peck of refuse wheat for all that is called fame and honour in the world4 ,this is the appetite but of a few4 ,it is a luxury1 it is a privilege1 it is an indulgence for those who are at their ease4 ,but we are all of us made to shun disgrace1 as we are made to shrink from pain1 and poverty1 and disease4 ,it is an instinct2 and under the direction of reason1 instinct is always in the right4 ,i live in an inverted order4 ,they who ought to have succeeded me have gone before me4 ,they who should have been to me as posterity are in the place of ancestors4 ,i owe to the dearest relation 7which ever must subsist in memory7 that act of piety which he would have performed to me2 ,i owe it to him to show that he was not descended1 as the duke of ,bedford would have it1 from an unworthy parent4 ,,revolutionary ,,scene4 ,history1 who keeps a durable record of all our acts1 and exercises her awful censure over the proceedings of all sorts of sovereigns1 will not forget either those events or the era of this liberal refinement in the intercourse of mankind4 ,history will record1 that on the morning of the #fth of ,october1 #aghi1 the king and queen of ,france1 after a day of confusion1 alarm1 dismay1 and slaughter1 lay down1 under the pledged security of public faith1 to indulge nature in a few hours of respite1 and troubled1 melancholy repose4 ,from this sleep the queen was first startled by the voice of the sentinel at her door1 who cried out to her to save herself by flight--that this was the last proof of fidelity he could give--that they were upon him1 and he was dead4 ,instantly he was cut down4 ,a band of cruel ruffians and assassins1 reeking with his blood1 rushed into the chamber of the queen1 and pierced with a hundred strokes of bayonets and poniards the bed from whence this persecuted woman had but just time to fly almost naked1 and1 through ways unknown to the murderers1 had escaped to seek refuge at the feet of a king and husband1 not secure of his own life for a moment4 ,this king1 to say no more of him1 and this queen1 and their infant children 7who once would have been the pride and hope of a great and generous people71 were then forced to abandon the sanctuary of the most splendid palace in the world1 which they left swimming in blood1 polluted by massacre1 and strewed with scattered limbs and mutilated carcases4 ,thence they were conducted into the capital of their kingdom4 ,two had been selected from the unprovoked1 unresisted1 promiscuous slaughter1 which was made of the gentlemen of birth and family who composed the king's body-guard4 ,these two gentlemen1 with all the parade of an execution of justice1 were cruelly and publicly dragged to the block1 and beheaded in the great court of the palace4 ,their heads were stuck upon spears1 and led the procession2 whilst the royal captives who followed in the train were slowly moved along1 amidst the horrid yells1 and shrilling screams1 and frantic dances1 and infamous contumelies1 and all the unutterable abominations of the furies of hell1 in the abused shape of the vilest of women4 ,after they had been made to taste1 drop by drop1 more than the bitterness of death1 in the slow torture of a journey of twelve miles1 protracted to six hours1 they were1 under a guard composed of those very soldiers who had thus conducted them through this famous triumph1 lodged in one of the old palaces of ,paris1 now converted into a ,bastille for kings4 ,is this a triumph to be consecrated at altars8 to be commemorated with grateful thanksgiving8 to be offered to the divine humanity with fervent prayer and enthusiastic ejaculation8--,these ,theban and ,thracian orgies1 acted in ,france1 and applauded only in the ,old ,jewry1 ,i assure you1 kindle prophetic enthusiasm in the minds but of very few people in this kingdom3 although a saint and apostle1 who may have revelations of his own1 and who has so completely vanquished all the mean superstitions of the heart1 may incline to think it pious and decorous to compare it with the entrance into the world of the ,prince of ,peace1 proclaimed in a holy temple by a venerable sage1 and not long before not worse announced by the voice of angels to quiet the innocence of shepherds4 ,,economy ,,on ,,state ,,principles4 ,economy in my plans was1 as it ought to be1 secondary1 subordinate1 instrumental4 ,i acted on state principles4 ,i found a great distemper in the commonwealth2 and1 according to the nature of the evil and of the object1 ,i treated it4 ,the malady was deep2 it was complicated1 in the causes and in the symptoms4 ,throughout it was full of contra-indicants4 ,on one hand government1 daily growing more invidious from an apparent increase of the means of strength1 was every day growing more contemptible by real weakness4 ,nor was this dissolution confined to government commonly so called4 ,it extended to parliament2 which was losing not a little in its dignity and estimation1 by an opinion of its not acting on worthy motives4 ,on the other hand1 the desires of the people 7partly natural and partly infused into them by art7 appeared in so wild and inconsiderate a manner1 with regard to the economical object 7for ,i set aside for a moment the dreadful tampering with the body of the constitution itself71 that1 if their petitions had literally been complied with1 the state would have been convulsed1 and a gate would have been opened through which all property might be sacked and ravaged4 ,nothing could have saved the public from the mischiefs of the false reform but its absurdity1 which would soon have brought itself1 and with it all real reform1 into discredit4 ,this would have left a rankling wound in the hearts of the people1 who would know they had failed in the accomplishment of their wishes1 but who1 like the rest of mankind in all ages1 would impute the blame to anything rather than to their own proceedings4 ,but there were then persons in the world who nourished complaint1 and would have been thoroughly disappointed if the people were ever satisfied4 ,i was not of that humour4 ,i wished that they ,,should be satisfied4 ,it was my aim to give to the people the substance of what ,i knew they desired1 and what ,i thought was right1 whether they desired or not1 before it had been modified for them into senseless petitions4 ,i knew that there is a manifest1 marked distinction1 which ill men with ill designs1 or weak men incapable of any design1 will constantly be confounding1 that is a marked distinction between change and reformation4 ,the former alters the substance of the objects themselves1 and gets rid of all their essential good1 as well as of all the accidental evil1 annexed to them4 ,change is novelty2 and whether it is to operate any one of the effects of reformation at all1 or whether it may not contradict the very principle upon which reformation is desired1 cannot be certainly known beforehand4 ,reform is not a change in the substance1 or in the primary modification of the object1 but a direct application of a remedy to the grievance complained of4 ,so far as that is removed1 all is sure4 ,it stops there2 and if it fails1 the substance which underwent the operation1 at the very worst1 is but where it was4 ,all this1 in effect1 ,i think1 but am not sure1 ,i have said elsewhere4 ,it cannot at this time be too often repeated2 line upon line2 precept upon precept2 until it comes into the currency of a proverb1 ,,to ,,innovate ,,is ,,not ,,to ,,reform4 ,the ,french revolutionists complained of everything2 they refused to reform anything2 and they left nothing1 no1 nothing at all1 ,,unchanged4 ,the consequences are ,,before us1--not in remote history2 not in future prognostication3 they are about us2 they are upon us4 ,they shake the public security2 they menace private enjoyment4 ,they dwarf the growth of the young2 they break the quiet of the old4 ,if we travel1 they stop our way4 ,they infest us in town2 they pursue us to the country4 ,our business is interrupted2 our repose is troubled2 our pleasures are saddened2 our very studies are poisoned and perverted1 and knowledge is rendered worse than ignorance by the enormous evils of this dreadful innovation4 ,the revolution harpies of ,france1 sprung from night and hell1 or from that chaotic anarchy which generates equivocally all monstrous1 all prodigious things1 cuckoo-like1 adulterously lay their eggs1 and brood over1 and hatch them in the nest of every neighbouring state4 ,these obscene harpies1 who deck themselves in ,i know not what divine attributes1 but who in reality are foul and ravenous birds of prey 7both mothers and daughters71 flutter over our heads1 and souse down upon our tables1 and leave nothing unrent1 unrifled1 unravaged1 or unpolluted with the slime of their filthy offal4 ,,philosophical ,,vanity2 ,,its ,,maxims1 ,,and ,,effects4 ,the ,assembly recommends to its youth a study of the bold experimenters in morality4 ,everybody knows that there is a great dispute amongst their leaders1 which of them is the best resemblance of ,rousseau4 ,in truth1 they all resemble him4 ,his blood they transfuse into their minds and into their manners4 ,him they study2 him they meditate2 him they turn over in all the time they can spare from the laborious mischief of the day1 or the debauches of the night4 ,rousseau is their canon of holy writ2 in his life he is their canon of ,polycletus2 he is their standard figure of perfection4 ,to this man and this writer1 as a pattern to authors and to ,frenchmen1 the foundries of ,paris are now running for statues1 with the kettles of their poor and the bells of their churches4 ,if an author had written like a great genius on geometry1 though its practical and speculative morals were vicious in the extreme1 it might appear1 that in voting the statue1 they honoured only the geometrician4 ,but ,rousseau is a moralist1 or he is nothing4 ,it is impossible1 therefore1 putting the circumstances together1 to mistake their design in choosing the author1 with whom they have begun to recommend a courses studies4 ,their great problem is to find a substitute for all the principles which hitherto have been employed to regulate the human will and action4 ,they find dispositions in the mind of such force and quality as may fit men1 far better than the old morality1 for the purposes of such a state as theirs1 and may go much further in supporting their power and destroying their enemies4 ,they have therefore chosen a selfish1 flattering1 seductive1 ostentatious vice1 in the place of plain duty4 ,true humility1 the basis of the ,christian system1 is the low1 but deep and firm1 foundation of all real virtue4 ,but this1 as very painful in the practice1 and little imposing in the appearance1 they have totally discarded4 ,their object is to merge all natural and all social sentiment in inordinate vanity4 ,in a small degree1 and conversant in little things1 vanity is of little moment4 ,when full grown1 it is the worst of vices1 and the occasional mimic of them all4 ,it makes the whole man false4 ,it leaves nothing sincere or trustworthy about him4 ,his best qualities are poisoned and perverted by it1 and operate exactly as the worst4 ,when your lords had many writers as immoral as the object of their statue 7such as ,voltaire and others7 they chose ,rousseau1 because in him that peculiar vice1 which they wished to erect into ruling virtue1 was by far the most conspicuous4 ,we have had the great professor and founder of ,,the ,,philosophy ,,of ,,vanity in ,england4 ,as ,i had good opportunities of knowing his proceedings almost from day to day1 he left no doubt on my mind that he entertained no principle either to influence his heart1 or to guide his understanding1 but ,,vanity4 ,with this vice he was possessed to a degree little short of madness4 ,it is from the same deranged1 eccentric vanity1 that this1 the insane ,socrates of the ,national ,assembly1 was impelled to publish a mad confession of his mad faults1 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 talents4 ,he has not observed on the nature of vanity who does not know that it is omnivorous2 that it has no choice in its food2 that it is fond to talk even of its own faults and vices1 as what will excite surprise and draw attention1 and what will pass at worst for openness and candour4 ,it was this abuse and perversion1 which vanity makes even of hypocrisy1 that has driven ,rousseau to record a life not so much as chequered1 or spotted here and there1 with virtues1 or even distinguished by a single good action4 ,it is such a life he chooses to offer to the attention of mankind4 ,it is such a life that1 with a wild defiance1 he flings in the face of his ,creator1 whom he acknowledges only to brave4 ,your ,assembly1 knowing how much more powerful example is found than precept1 has chosen this man 7by his own account without a single virtue7 for a model4 ,to him they erect their first statue4 ,from him they commence their series of honours and distinctions4 ,it is that new-invented virtue1 which your masters canonize1 that led their model hero constantly to exhaust the stores of his powerful rhetoric in the expression of universal benevolence2 whilst his heart was incapable of harbouring one spark of common parental affection4 ,benevolence to the whole species1 and want of feeling for every individual with whom the professors come in contact1 form the character of the new philosophy4 ,setting up for an unsocial independence1 this their hero of vanity refuses the just price of common labour1 as well as the tribute which opulence owes to genius1 and which1 when paid1 honours the giver and the receiver3 and then he pleads his beggary as an excuse for his crimes4 ,he melts with tenderness for those only who touch him by the remotest relation1 and then1 without one natural pang1 casts away1 as a sort of offal and excrement1 the spawn of his disgustful amours1 and sends his children to the hospital of foundlings4 ,the bear loves1 licks1 and forms her young2 but bears are not philosophers4 ,vanity1 however1 finds its account in reversing the train of our natural feelings4 ,thousands admire the sentimental writer2 the affectionate father is hardly known in his parish4 ,under this philosophic instructor in the ,,ethics ,,of ,,vanity1 they have attempted in ,france a regeneration of the moral constitution of man4 ,statesmen1 like your present rulers1 exist by everything which is spurious1 fictitious1 and false2 by everything which takes the man from his house1 and sets him on a stage2 which makes him up an artificial creature1 with painted theatric sentiments1 fit to be seen by the glare of candlelight1 and formed to be contemplated at a due distance4 ,vanity is too apt to prevail in all of us1 and in all countries4 ,to the improvement of ,frenchmen it seems not absolutely necessary that it should be taught upon system4 ,but it is plain that the present rebellion was its legitimate offspring1 and it is piously fed by that rebellion with a daily dole4 ,if the system of institution recommended by the ,assembly be false and theatric1 it is because their system of government is of the same character4 ,to that1 and to that alone1 it is strictly conformable4 ,to understand either1 we must connect the morals with the politics of the legislators4 ,your practical philosophers1 systematic in everything1 have wisely begun at the source4 ,as the relation between parents and children is the first amongst the elements of vulgar1 natural morality 7,filiola tua te delectari laetor et probari tibi phusiken esse ten pros ta tekna3 etenim1 si haec non est1 nulla potest homini esse ad hominem naturae adjunctio3 qua sublata vitae societas tollitur4 ,valete ,patron 7,rousseau7 et tui condiscipuli 7l',assemblee ,national74--,cic4 ,ep4 ad ,atticum471 they erect statues to a wild1 ferocious1 low-minded1 hard-hearted father1 of fine general feelings2 a lover of his kind1 but a hater of his kindred4 ,your masters reject the duties of his vulgar relation1 as contrary to liberty2 as not founded in the social compact2 and not binding according to the rights of men2 because the relation is not1 of course1 the result of ,,free ,,election2 never so on the side of the children1 not always on the part of the parents4 ,the next relation which they regenerate by their statues to ,rousseau is that which is next in sanctity to that of a father4 ,they differ from those old-fashioned thinkers1 who considered pedagogues as sober and venerable characters1 and allied to the parental4 ,the moralists of the dark times1 preceptorum sancti voluere parentis esse loco4 ,in this age of light1 they teach the people that preceptors ought to be in the place of gallants4 ,they systematically corrupt a very corruptible race 7for some time a growing nuisance amongst you71 a set of pert1 petulant literators1 to whom1 instead of their proper1 but severe1 unostentatious duties1 they assign the brilliant part of men of wit and pleasure1 of gay1 young1 military sparks1 and danglers at toilets4 ,they call on the rising generation in ,france to take a sympathy in the adventures and fortunes1 and they endeavour to engage their sensibility on the side of pedagogues who betray the most awful family trusts1 and vitiate their female pupils4 ,they teach the people that the debauchers of virgins1 almost in the arms of their parents1 may be safe inmates in the houses1 and even fit guardians of the honour of those husbands who succeed legally to the office which the young literators had preoccupied1 without asking leave of law or conscience4 ,thus they dispose of all the family relations of parents and children1 husbands and wives4 ,through this same instructor1 by whom they corrupt the morals1 they corrupt the taste4 ,taste and elegance1 though they are reckoned only among the smaller and secondary morals1 yet are of no mean importance in the regulation of life4 ,a moral taste is not of force to turn vice into virtue2 but it recommends virtue with something like the blandishments of pleasure2 and it infinitely abates the evils of vice4 ,rousseau1 a writer of great force and vivacity1 is totally destitute of taste in any sense of the word4 ,your masters1 who are his scholars1 conceive that all refinement has an aristocratic character4 ,the last age had exhausted all its powers in giving a grace and nobleness to our mutual appetites1 and in raising them into a higher class and order than seemed justly to belong to them4 ,through ,rousseau1 your masters are resolved to destroy these aristocratic prejudices4 ,the passion called love has so general and powerful an influence2 it makes so much of the entertainment1 and indeed so much of the occupation of that part of life which decides the character for ever1 that the mode and the principles on which it engages the sympathy1 and strikes the imagination1 become of the utmost importance to the morals and manners of every society4 ,your rulers were well aware of this2 and in their system of changing your manners to accommodate them to their politics1 they found nothing so convenient as ,rousseau4 ,through him they teach men to love after the fashion of philosophers2 that is1 they teach to men1 to ,frenchmen1 a love without gallantry2 a love without anything of that fine flower of youthfulness and gentility1 which places it1 if not among the virtues1 among the ornaments of life4 ,instead of this passion1 naturally allied to grace and manners1 they infuse into their youth an unfashioned1 indelicate1 sour1 gloomy1 ferocious medly of pedantry and lewdness2 of metaphysical speculations blended with the coarsest sensuality4 ,such is the general morality of the passions to be found in their famous philosopher1 in his famous work of philosophic gallantry the ,nouvelle ,eloise4 ,when the fence from the gallantry of preceptors is broken down1 and your families are no longer protected by decent pride1 and salutary domestic prejudice1 there is but one step to a frightful corruption4 ,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-masters1 fiddlers1 pattern-drawers1 friseurs1 and valets de chambre1 and other active citizens of that description1 who having the entry into your houses1 and being half domesticated by their situation1 may be blended with you by regular and irregular relations4 ,by a law they have made these people their equals4 ,by adopting the sentiments of ,rousseau they have made them your rivals4 ,in this manner these great legislators complete their plan of levelling1 and establish their rights of men on a sure foundation4 ,i am certain that the writings of ,rousseau lead directly to this kind of shameful evil4 ,i have often wondered how he comes to be so much more admired and followed on the continent than he is here4 ,perhaps a secret charm in the language may have its share in this extraordinary difference4 ,we certainly perceive1 and to a degree we feel1 in this writer1 a style glowing1 animated1 enthusiastic2 at the same time that we find it lax1 diffuse1 and not in the best taste of composition2 all the members of the piece being pretty equally laboured and expanded1 without any due selection or subordination of parts4 ,he is generally too much on the stretch1 and his manner has little variety4 ,we cannot rest upon any of his works1 though they contain observations which occasionally discover a considerable insight into human nature4 ,but his doctrines1 on the whole1 are so inapplicable to real life and manners1 that we never dream of drawing from them any rule for laws or conduct1 or for fortifying or illustrating anything by a reference to his opinions4 ,they have with us the fate of older paradoxes4 ,cum ventum ad ,,verum est1 ,,sensus ,,moresque repugnant1 ,atque ipsa utilitas1 justi prope mater et aequi4 ,perhaps bold speculations are more acceptable because more new to you than to us1 who have been long since satiated with them4 ,we continue1 as in the two last ages1 to read1 more generally than ,i believe is now done on the continent1 the authors of sound antiquity4 ,these occupy our minds4 ,they give us another taste and turn1 and will not suffer us to be more than transiently amused with paradoxical morality4 ,it is not that ,i consider this writer as wholly destitute of just notions4 ,amongst his irregularities1 it must be reckoned that he is sometimes moral1 and moral in a very sublime strain4 ,but the ,,general ,,spirit ,,and ,,tendency of his works is mischievous2 and the more mischievous for this mixture3 for perfect depravity of sentiment is not reconcileable with eloquence2 and the mind 7though corruptible1 not complexionally vicious7 would reject1 and throw off with disgust1 a lesson of pure and unmixed evil4 ,these writers make even virtue a pander to vice4 ,however1 ,i less consider the author than the system of the ,assembly in perverting morality through his means4 ,this ,i confess makes me nearly despair of any attempt upon the minds of their followers1 through reason1 honour1 or conscience4 ,the great object of your tyrants is to destroy the gentlemen of ,france2 and for that purpose they destroy1 to the best of their power1 all the effect of those relations which may render considerable men powerful or even safe4 ,to destroy that order1 they vitiate the whole community4 ,that no means may exist of confederating against their tyranny1 by the false sympathies of this ,nouvelle ,eloise they endeavour to subvert those principles of domestic trust and fidelity1 which form the discipline of social life4 ,they propagate principles by which every servant may think it1 if not his duty1 at least his privilege1 to betray his master4 ,by these principles1 every considerable father of a family loses the sanctuary of his house4 ,debet sua cuique domus esse perfugium tutissimum1 says the law1 which your legislators have taken so much pains first to decry1 then to repeal4 ,they destroy all the tranquillity and security of domestic life2 turning the asylum of the house into a gloomy prison1 where the father of the family must drag out a miserable existence1 endangered in proportion to the apparent means of his safety2 where he is worse than solitary in a crowd of domestics1 and more apprehensive from his servants and inmates1 than from the hired1 bloodthirsty mob without doors1 who are ready to pull him to the lanterne4 ,it is thus1 and for the same end1 that they endeavour to destroy that tribunal of conscience which exists independently of edicts and decrees4 ,your despots govern by terror4 ,they know that he who fears ,god fears nothing else3 and therefore they eradicate from the mind1 through their ,voltaire1 their ,helvetius1 and the rest of that infamous gang1 that only sort of fear which generates true courage4 ,their object is1 that their fellow-citizens may be under the dominion of no awe1 but that of their committee of research1 and of their lanterne4 ,having found the advantage of assassination in the formation of their tyranny1 it is the grand resource in which they trust for the support of it4 ,whoever opposes any of their proceedings1 or is suspected of a design to oppose them1 is to answer it with his life1 or the lives of his wife and children4 ,this infamous1 cruel1 and cowardly practice of assassination they have the imprudence to call ,,merciful4 ,they boast that they operated their usurpation rather by terror than by force2 and that a few seasonable murders have prevented the bloodshed of many battles4 ,there is no doubt they will extend these acts of mercy whenever they see an occasion4 ,dreadful1 however1 will be the consequences of their attempt to avoid the evils of war by the merciful policy of murder4 ,if1 by effectual punishment of the guilty1 they do not wholly disavow that practice1 and the threat of it too1 as any part of their policy2 if ever a foreign prince enters into ,france1 he must enter it as into a country of assassins4 ,the mode of civilized war will not be practised2 nor are the ,french who act on the present system entitled to expect it4 ,they1 whose known policy is to assassinate every citizen whom they suspect to be discontented by their tyranny1 and to corrupt the soldiery of every open enemy1 must look for no modified hostility4 ,all war1 which is not battle1 will be military execution4 ,this will beget acts of retaliation from you2 and every retaliation will beget a new revenge4 ,the hell-hounds of war1 on all sides1 will be uncoupled and unmuzzled4 ,the new school of murder and barbarism1 set up in ,paris1 having destroyed 7so far as in it lies7 all the other manners and principles which have hitherto civilized ,europe1 will destroy also the mode of civilized war1 which1 more than anything else1 has distinguished the ,christian world4 ,such is the approaching golden age1 which the ,virgil of your assembly has sung to his ,pollios6 7,mirabeau's speech concerning universal peace47 ,,unity ,,between ,,church ,,and ,,state4 ,they take this tenet of the head and heart1 not from the great name which it immediately bears1 nor from the greater from whence it is derived2 but from that which alone can give true weight and sanction to any learned opinion1 the common nature and common relation of men4 ,persuaded that all things ought to be done with reference1 and referring all to the point of reference to which all should be directed1 they think themselves bound1 not only as individuals in the sanctuary of the heart1 or as congregated in that personal capacity1 to renew the memory of their high origin and caste2 but also in their corporate character to perform their national homage to the institutor1 and author1 and protector of civil society2 without which civil society man could not by any possibility arrive at the perfection of which his nature is capable1 nor even make a remote and faint approach to it4 ,they conceive that ,he who gave our nature to be perfected by our virtue1 willed also the necessary means of its perfection4--,he willed therefore the state--,he willed its connection with the source and original archetype of all perfection4 ,they who are convinced of this his will1 what is the law of laws1 and the sovereign of sovereigns1 cannot think it reprehensible that this our corporate fealty and homage1 that this our recognition of a signiory paramount1 ,i had almost said this oblation of the state itself1 as a worthy offering on the high altar of universal praise1 should be performed as all public1 solemn acts are performed1 in buildings1 in music1 in decoration1 in speech1 in the dignity of persons1 according to the customs of mankind1 taught by their nature2 that is1 with modest splendour and unassuming state1 with mild majesty and sober pomp4 ,for those purposes they think some part of the wealth of the country is as usefully employed as it can be1 in fomenting the luxury of individuals4 ,it is the public ornament4 ,it is the public consolation4 ,it nourishes the public hope4 ,the poorest man finds his own importance and dignity in it1 whilst the wealth and pride of individuals at every moment makes the man of humble rank and fortune sensible of his inferiority1 and degrades and vilifies his condition4 ,it is for the man in humble life1 and to raise his nature1 and to put him in mind of a state in which the privileges of opulence will cease1 when he will be equal by nature1 and may be more than equal by virtue1 that this portion of the general wealth of his country is employed and sanctified4 ,i assure you ,i do not aim at singularity4 ,i give you opinions which have been accepted amongst us1 from very early times to this moment1 with a continued and general approbation1 and which indeed are so worked into my mind1 that ,i am unable to distinguish what ,i have learned from others from the results of my own meditation4 ,it is on some such principles that the majority of the people of ,england1 far from thinking a religious national establishment unlawful1 hardly think it lawful to be without one4 ,in ,france you are wholly mistaken if you do not believe us above all other things attached to it1 and beyond all other nations2 and when this people has acted unwisely and unjustifiably in its favour 7as in some instances they have done most certainly7 in their very errors you will at least discover their zeal4 ,this principle runs through the whole system of their polity4 ,they do not consider their church establishment as convenient1 but as essential to their state2 not as a thing heterogeneous and inseparable2 something added for accommodation2 what they may either keep or lay aside1 according to their temporary ideas of convenience4 ,they consider it as the foundation of their whole constitution1 with which1 and with every part of which1 it holds an indissoluble union4 ,church and state are ideas inseparable in their minds1 and scarcely is the one ever mentioned without mentioning the other4 7,in preparing these pages for publication1 the selector has discovered how unconsciously he was indebted to the intellectual inspiration of ,burke1 in the following extract3-- ,founded in ,christ1 and by ,apostles form'd1 ,glory of ,england6 oh1 my ,mother ,church1 ,hoary with time1 but all untouched in creed1 ,firm to thy ,master1 by as fond a grasp ,of faith as ,luther1 with his free-born mind ,clung to ,emmanuel1--doth thy soul remain4 ,but yet around ,thee scowls a fierce array ,of ,foes and ,falsehoods2 must'ring each their powers1 ,triumphantly4 ,and well may thoughtful ,hearts ,heave with foreboding swell and heavy fears1 ,to mark1 how mad opinion doth infect ,thy children2 how thine apostolic claims ,and love maternal are regarded now1 ,by creedless ,vanity1 or careless ,vice4 ,for time there was1 when peerless ,hooker wrote1 ,and deep-soul'd ,bacon taught the world to think1 ,when thou wert paramount1--thy cause sublime6 ,and in ,,thy life1 all ,polity and ,powers ,the throne securing1 or in law enshrined1 ,with all estates our balanced ,realm contains1 ,in thee supreme1 a master-virtue own'd ,and honour'd4 ,church and ,state could then co-work1 ,like soul and body in one breathing ,form ,distinct1 but undivided2 each with rule ,essential to the kingdom's healthful frame1 ,yet ,,both1 in unity august and good ,together1 under ,christ their living ,head1 ,a hallow'd commonwealth of powers achieved4 ,but now1 in evil times1 sectarian ,will ,would split the ,body1 and to sects reduce ,our sainted ,mother of th'imperial ,isles1 ,which have for ages from ,her bosom drank ,those truths immortal1 ,life and ,conscience need4 ,but never may the rude assault of hearts ,self-blinded1 or the autocratic pride ,of ,reason1 by no hallowing faith subdued1 ,one lock of glory from ,her rev'rend head ,succeed in tearing3 ,love1 and ,awe1 and ,truth ,her doctrines preach1 with apostolic force3 ,her creed is ,unity1 her head is ,christ1 ,her ,forms primeval1 and her ,creed divine1 ,and ,catholic1 that crowning name she wears4 ,luther1 #fth edition #aheb47 ,,triple ,,basis ,,of ,,french ,,revolution4 ,instead of the religion and the law by which they were in a great politic communion with the ,christian world1 they have constructed their republic on three bases1 all fundamentally opposite to those on which the communities of ,europe are built4 ,its foundation is laid in regicide1 in jacobinism1 and in atheism2 and it has joined to those principles a body of systematic manners1 which secures their operation4 ,if ,i am asked1 how ,i would be understood in the use of these terms1 regicide1 jacobinism1 atheism1 and a system of corresponding manners1 and their establishment8 ,i will tell you3-- ,i4--,,regicide4 ,i call a commonwealth ,,regicide1 which lays it down as a fixed law of nature1 and a fundamental right of man1 that all government1 not being a democracy1 is a usurpation4 ,that all kings1 as such1 are usurpers2 and for being kings may and ought to be put to death1 with their wives1 families1 and adherents4 ,the commonwealth which acts uniformly upon those principles1 and which1 after abolishing every festival of religion1 chooses the most flagrant act of a murderous regicide treason for a feast of eternal commemoration1 and which forces all her people to observe it--this ,i call ,,regicide ,,by ,,establishment4 ,,ii4--,,jacobinism4 ,jacobinism is the revolt of the enterprising talents of a country against its property4 ,when private men form themselves into associations for the purpose of destroying the pre-existing laws and institutions of their country2 when they secure to themselves an army1 by dividing amongst the people of no property the estates of the ancient and lawful proprietors2 when a state recognises those acts2 when it does not make confiscations for crimes1 but makes crimes for confiscations2 when it has its principal strength1 and all its resources1 in such a violation of property2 when it stands chiefly upon such a violation1 massacring by judgments1 or otherwise1 those who make any struggle for their old legal government1 and their legal1 hereditary1 or acquired possessions--,i call this ,,jacobinism ,,by ,,establishment4 ,,iii4--,,atheism4 ,i call it ,,atheism ,,by ,,establishment1 when any state1 as such1 shall not acknowledge the existence of ,god as a moral governor of the world2 when it shall offer to him no religious or moral worship2--when it shall abolish the ,christian religion by a regular decree2--when it shall persecute with a cold1 unrelenting1 steady cruelty1 by every mode of confiscation1 imprisonment1 exile1 and death1 all its ministers2--when it shall generally shut up or pull down churches2 when the few buildings which remain of this kind shall be opened only for the purpose of making a profane apotheosis of monsters1 whose vices and crimes have no parallel amongst men1 and whom all other men consider as objects of general detestation1 and the severest animadversion of law4 ,when1 in the place of that religion of social benevolence1 and of individual self-denial1 in mockery of all religion1 they institute impious1 blasphemous1 indecent theatric rites1 in honour of their vitiated1 perverted reason1 and erect altars to the personification of their own corrupted and bloody republic2--when schools and seminaries are founded at the public expense to poison mankind1 from generation to generation1 with the horrible maxims of this impiety2--when wearied out with incessant martyrdom1 and the cries of a people hungering and thirsting for religion1 they permit it only as a tolerated evil--,i call this ,,atheism ,,by ,,establishment4 ,,correspondent ,,system ,,of ,,manners ,,and ,,morals4 ,when to these establishments of regicide1 of jacobinism1 and of atheism1 you add the ,,correspondent ,,system ,,of ,,manners1 no doubt can be left on the mind of a thinking man concerning their determined hostility to the human race4 ,manners are of more importance than laws4 ,upon them1 in a great measure1 the laws depend4 ,the law touches us but here and there1 and now and then4 ,manners are what vex or soothe1 corrupt or purify1 exalt or debase1 barbarize or refine us1 by a constant1 steady1 uniform1 insensible operation1 like that of the air we breathe in4 ,they give their whole form and colour to our lives4 ,according to their quality1 they aid morals1 they supply them1 or they totally destroy them4 ,of this the new ,french legislators were aware2 therefore1 with the same method1 and under the same authority1 they settled a system of manners1 the most licentious1 prostitute1 and abandoned that ever has been known1 and at the same time the most coarse1 rude1 savage1 and ferocious4 ,nothing in the ,revolution1 no1 not to a phrase or gesture1 not to the fashion of a hat or a shoe1 was left to accident4 ,all has been the result of design2 all has been matter of institution4 ,no mechanical means could be devised in favour of this incredible system of wickedness and vice1 that has not been employed4 ,the noblest passions1 the love of glory1 the love of country1 have been debauched into means of its preservation and its propagation4 ,all sorts of shows and exhibitions1 calculated to inflame and vitiate the imagination1 and pervert the moral sense1 have been contrived4 ,they have sometimes brought forth five or six hundred drunken women1 calling at the bar of the ,assembly for the blood of their own children1 as being royalists or constitutionalists4 ,sometimes they have got a body of wretches1 calling themselves fathers1 to demand the murder of their sons1 boasting that ,rome had but one ,brutus1 but that they could show five hundred4 ,there were instances in which they inverted1 and retaliated the impiety1 and produced sons1 who called for the execution of their parents4 ,the foundation of their republic is laid in moral paradoxes4 ,their patriotism is always prodigy4 ,all those instances to be found in history1 whether real or fabulous1 of a doubtful public spirit1 at which morality is perplexed1 reason is staggered1 and from which affrighted nature recoils1 are their chosen1 and almost sole examples for the instruction of their youth4 ,the whole drift of their institution is contrary to that of the wise legislators of all countries1 who aimed at improving instincts into morals1 and at grafting the virtues on the stock of the natural affections4 ,they1 on the contrary1 have omitted no pains to eradicate every benevolent and noble propensity in the mind of men4 ,in their culture it is a rule always to graft virtues on vices4 ,they think everything unworthy of the name of public virtue1 unless it indicates violence on the private4 ,all their new institutions 7and with them everything is new7 strike at the root of our social nature4 ,other legislators1 knowing that marriage is the origin of all relations1 and consequently the first element of all duties1 have endeavoured1 by every art1 to make it sacred4 ,the ,christian religion1 by confining it to the pairs1 and by rendering that relation indissoluble1 has by these two things done more towards the peace1 happiness1 settlement1 and civilization of the world1 than by any other part in this whole scheme of ,divine ,wisdom4 ,the direct contrary course has been taken in the synagogue of antichrist1 ,i mean in that forge and manufactury of all evil1 the sect which predominated in the ,constituent ,assembly of #aghi4 ,those monsters employed the same1 or greater industry1 to desecrate and degrade that state1 which other legislators have used to render it holy and honourable4 ,,ferocity ,,of ,,jacobinism4 ,as to those whom they suffer to die a natural death1 they do not permit them to enjoy the last consolations of mankind1 or those rights of sepulture1 which indicate hope1 and which mere nature has taught to mankind1 in all countries1 to soothe the afflictions1 and to cover the infirmity1 of mortal condition4 ,they disgrace men in the entry into life1 they vitiate and enslave them through the whole course of it1 and they deprive them of all comfort at the conclusion of their dishonoured and depraved existence4 ,endeavouring to persuade the people that they are no better than beasts1 the whole body of their institution tends to make them beasts of prey1 furious and savage4 ,for this purpose the active part of them is disciplined into a ferocity which has no parallel4 ,to this ferocity there is joined not one of the rude1 unfashioned virtues1 which accompany the vices1 where the whole are left to grow up together in the rankness of uncultivated nature4 ,but nothing is left to nature in their systems4 ,the same discipline which hardens their hearts relaxes their morals4 ,whilst courts of justice were thrust out by revolutionary tribunals1 and silent churches were only the funeral monuments of departed religion1 there were no fewer than nineteen or twenty theatres1 great and small1 most of them kept open at the public expense1 and all of them crowded every night4 ,among the gaunt1 haggard forms of famine and nakedness1 amidst the yells of murder1 the tears of affliction1 and the cries of despair1 the song1 the dance1 the mimic scene1 the buffoon laughter1 went on as regularly as in the gay hour of festive peace4 ,i have it from good authority1 that under the scaffold of judicial murder1 and the gaping planks that poured down blood on the spectators1 the space was hired out for a show of dancing dogs4 ,i think1 without concert1 we have made the very same remark on reading some of their pieces1 which being written for other purposes1 let us into a view of their social life4 ,it struck us that the habits of ,paris had no resemblance to the finished virtues1 or to the polished vice1 and elegant1 though not blameless1 luxury1 of the capital of a great empire4 ,their society was more like that of a den of outlaws upon a doubtful frontier2 of a lewd tavern for the revels and debauches of banditti1 assassins1 bravos1 smugglers1 and their more desperate paramours1 mixed with bombastic players1 the refuse and rejected offal of strolling theatres1 puffing out ill-sorted verses about virtue1 mixed with the licentious and blasphemous songs1 proper to the brutal and hardened course of life belonging to that sort of wretches4 ,this system of manners in itself is at war with all orderly and moral society1 and is in its neighbourhood unsafe4 ,if great bodies of that kind were anywhere established in a bordering territory1 we should have a right to demand of their governments the suppression of such a nuisance4 ,,voice ,,of ,,oppression4 ,should we not obtest ,heaven1 and whatever justice there is yet on earth8 ,oppression makes wise men mad2 but the distemper is still the madness of the wise1 which is better than the sobriety of fools4 ,the cry is the voice of sacred misery1 exalted not into wild raving1 but into the sanctified frenzy of prophecy and inspiration--in that bitterness of soul1 in that indignation of suffering virtue1 in that exaltation of despair1 would not persecuted ,english loyalty cry out1 with an awful warning voice1 and denounce the destruction that waits on monarchs1 who consider fidelity to them as the most degrading of all vices2 who suffer it to be punished as the most abominable of all crimes2 and who have no respect but for rebels1 traitors1 regicides1 and furious negro slaves1 whose crimes have broken their chains8 ,would not this warm language of high indignation have more of sound reason in it1 more of real affection1 more of true attachment1 than all the lullabies of flatterers1 who would hush monarchs to sleep in the arms of death4 ,,britain ,,vindicated ,,in ,,her ,,war ,,with ,,france4 ,there is one thing in this business which appears to be wholly unaccountable1 or accountable on a supposition ,i dare not entertain for a moment4 ,i cannot help asking1 ,why all this pains1 to clear the ,british nation of ambition1 perfidy1 and the insatiate thirst of war8 ,at what period of time was it that our country has deserved that load of infamy1 of which nothing but preternatural humiliation in language and conduct can serve to clear us8 ,if we have deserved this kind of evil fame from anything we have done in a state of prosperity1 ,i am sure that it is not an abject conduct in adversity than can clear our reputation4 ,well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar4 ,the pride of no person in a flourishing condition is more justly to be dreaded1 than that of him who is mean and cringing under a doubtful and unprosperous fortune4 ,but it seems it was thought necessary to give some out-of-the-way proofs of our sincerity1 as well as of our freedom from ambition4 ,is then fraud and falsehood become the distinctive character of ,englishmen8 ,whenever your enemy chooses to accuse you of perfidy and ill faith1 will you put it into his power to throw you into the purgatory of self-humiliation8 ,is his charge equal to the finding of the grand jury of ,europe1 and sufficient to put you upon your trial8 ,but on that trial ,i will defend the ,english ministry4 ,i am sorry that on some points ,i have1 on the principles ,i have always opposed1 so good a defence to make4 ,,they ,,were ,,not ,,the ,,first ,,to ,,begin ,,the ,,war4 ,,they ,,did ,,not ,,excite ,,the ,,general ,,confederacy ,,in ,,europe1 ,,which ,,was ,,so ,,properly ,,formed ,,on ,,the ,,alarm ,,given ,,by ,,the ,,jacobinism ,,of ,,france4 ,,they ,,did ,,not ,,begin ,,with ,,an ,,hostile ,,aggression ,,on ,,the ,,regicides1 ,,are ,,any ,,of ,,their ,,allies4 ,,these ,,parricides ,,of ,,their ,,own ,,country1 ,,disciplining ,,themselves ,,for ,,foreign ,,by ,,domestic ,,violence1 ,,were ,,the ,,first ,,to ,,attack ,a ,,power ,,that ,,was ,,our ,,ally ,,by ,,nature1 ,,by ,,habit1 ,,and ,,by ,,the ,,sanction ,,of ,,multiplied ,,treaties4 7,the ,editor has ventured to print these lines in italics1 because it appears1 while this selection from ,burke is preparing for the press1 an inflated demagogue has not only dared to deny the claims of the duke of ,wellington to be the ,hero of a nation's heart1 but has also accused the illustrious ,burke of misrepresenting historical facts connected with our war in the ,french revolution4 ,on which side both the truth and integrity of history are to be found1 may safely be left to the moral decision of men who do ,,not look at ,history through the exclusive medium of the market1 and in listening to the voice of instruction are1 at least1 enabled to distinguish the bray of an ass from the peal of a trumpet47 ,is it not true1 that they were the first to declare war upon this kingdom8 ,is every word in the declaration from ,downing-,street1 concerning their conduct1 and concerning ours and that of our allies1 so obviously false1 that it is necessary to give some new-invented proofs of our good faith in order to expunge the memory of all this perfidy8 ,,polish ,,and ,,french ,,revolution4 ,a king without authority2 nobles without union or subordination2 a people without arts1 industry1 commerce1 or liberty2 no order within1 no defence without2 no effective public force1 but a foreign force1 which entered a naked country at will1 and disposed of everything at pleasure4 ,here was a state of things which seemed to invite1 and might perhaps justify1 bold enterprise and desperate experiment4 ,but in what manner was this chaos brought into order8 ,the means were as striking to the imagination1 as satisfactory to the reason1 and soothing to the moral sentiments4 ,in contemplating that change1 humanity has everything to rejoice and to glory in2 nothing to be ashamed of1 nothing to suffer4 ,so far as it has gone1 it probably is the most pure and defecated public good which ever has been conferred on mankind4 ,we have seen anarchy and servitude at once removed2 a throne strengthened for the protection of the people1 without trenching on their liberties2 all foreign cabal banished1 by changing the crown from elective to hereditary2 and what was a matter of pleasing wonder1 we have seen a reigning king1 from an heroic love to his country1 exerting himself with all the toil1 the dexterity1 the management1 the intrigue1 in favour of a family of strangers1 with which ambitious men labour for the aggrandizement of their own4 ,ten millions of men in a way of being freed gradually1 and therefore safely to themselves and the state1 not from civil or political chains1 which1 bad as they are1 only fetter the mind1 but from substantial personal bondage4 ,inhabitants of cities1 before without privileges1 placed in the consideration which belongs to that improved and connecting situation of social life4 ,one of the most proud1 numerous1 and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known in the world1 arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous citizens4 ,not one man incurred loss1 or suffered degradation4 ,all1 from the king to the day-labourer1 were improved in their condition4 ,everything was kept in its place and order2 but in that place and order everything was betterd4 ,to add to this happy wonder 7this unheard-of conjunction of wisdom and fortune71 not one drop of blood was spilled2 no treachery2 no outrage2 no system of slander more cruel than the sword2 no studied insults on religion1 morals1 or manners2 no spoil2 no confiscation2 no citizen beggared2 none imprisoned2 none exiled3 the whole was effected with a policy1 a discretion1 a unanimity and secrecy1 such as have never been before known on any occasion2 but such wonderful conduct was reserved for this glorious conspiracy in favour of the true and genuine rights and interests of men4 ,happy people1 if they know how to proceed as they have begun6 ,happy prince1 worthy to begin with splendour1 or to close with glory1 a race of patriots and of kings3 and to leave ,a name1 which ev'ry wind to heav'n would bear1 ,which men to speak1 and angels joy to hear4 ,to finish all--this great good1 as in the instant it is1 contains in it the seeds of all further improvement1 and may be considered as in a regular progress1 because founded on similar principles1 towards the stable excellency of a ,british constitution4 ,here was a matter for congratulation and for festive remembrance through ages4 ,here moralists and divines might indeed relax in their temperance1 to exhilarate their humanity4 ,but mark the character of our faction4 ,all their enthusiasm is kept for the ,french revolution4 ,they cannot pretend that ,france had stood so much in need of a change as ,poland4 ,they cannot pretend that ,poland has not obtained a better system of liberty1 or of government1 than it enjoyed before4 ,they cannot assert1 that the ,polish revolution cost more dearly than that of ,france to the interests and feelings of multitudes of men4 ,but the cold and subordinate light in which they look upon the one1 and the pains they take to preach up the other of these revolutions1 leave us no choice in fixing on their motives4 ,both revolutions profess liberty as their object2 but in obtaining this object the one proceeds from anarchy to order2 the other from order to anarchy4 ,the first secures its liberty by establishing its throne2 the other builds its freedom on the subversion of its monarchy4 ,in the one their means are unstained by crimes1 and their settlement favours morality4 ,in the other1 vice and confusion are in the very essence of their pursuit1 and of their enjoyment4 ,the circumstances in which these two events differ1 must cause the difference we make in their comparative estimation4 ,these turn the scale with the societies in favour of ,france4 ,ferrum est quod amant4 ,the frauds1 the violences1 the sacrileges1 the havoc and ruin of families1 the dispersion and exile of the pride and flower of a great country1 the disorder1 the confusion1 the anarchy1 the violation of property1 the cruel murders1 the inhuman confiscations1 and in the end the insolent domination of bloody1 ferocious1 and senseless clubs--these are the things which they love and admire4 ,what men admire and love1 they would surely act4 ,let us see what is done in ,france2 and then let us undervalue any the slightest danger of falling into the hands of such a merciless and savage faction6 ,,europe ,,in #aghi4 ,in the long series of ages which have furnished the matter of history1 never was so beautiful and so august a spectacle presented to the moral eye1 as ,europe afforded the day before the revolution in ,france4 ,i knew indeed that this prosperity contained in itself the seeds of its own danger4 ,in one part of the society it caused laxity and debility2 in the other it produced bold spirits and dark designs4 ,a false philosophy passed from academies into courts2 and the great themselves were infected with the theories which conducted to their ruin4 ,knowledge1 which in the two last centuries either did not exist at all1 or existed solidly on right principles and in chosen hands1 was now diffused1 weakened1 and perverted4 ,general wealth loosened morals1 relaxed vigilance1 and increased presumption4 ,men of talent began to compare1 in the partition of the common stock of public prosperity1 the proportions of the dividends with the merits of the claimants4 ,as usual1 they found their portion not equal to their estimate 7or perhaps to the public estimate7 of their own worth4 ,when it was once discovered by the revolution in ,france1 that a struggle between establishment and rapacity could be maintained1 though but for one year1 and in one place1 ,i was sure that a practicable breach was made in the whole order of things and in every country4 ,religion1 that held the materials of the fabric together1 was first systematically loosened4 ,all other opinions1 under the name of prejudices1 must fall along with it2 and property1 left undefended by principles1 became a repository of spoils to tempt cupidity1 and not a magazine to furnish arms for defence4 ,i knew that1 attacked on all sides by the infernal energies of talents set in action by vice and disorder1 authority could not stand upon authority alone4 ,it wanted some other support than the poise of its own gravity4 ,situations formerly supported persons4 ,it now became necessary that personal qualities should support situations4 ,formerly1 where authority was found1 wisdom and virtue were presumed4 ,but now the veil was torn1 and1 to keep off sacrilegious intrusion1 it was necessary that in the sanctuary of government something should be disclosed not only venerable1 but dreadful4 ,government was at once to show itself full of virtue and full of force4 ,it was to invite partisans1 by making it appear to the world that a generous cause was to be asserted2 one fit for a generous people to engage in4 ,from passive submission was it to expect resolute defence8 ,no6 ,it must have warm advocates and passionate defenders1 which a heavy1 discontented acquiescence never could produce4 ,what a base and foolish thing is it for any consolidated body of authority to say1 or to act as if it said1 ,i will put my trust not in my own virtue1 but in your patience2 ,i will indulge in effeminacy1 in indolence1 in corruption2 ,i will give way to all my perverse and vicious humours1 because you cannot punish me without the hazard of ruining yourselves8 ,,atheism ,,cannot ,,repent4 ,disappointment and mortification undoubtedly they feel2 but to them1 repentance is a thing impossible4 ,they are atheists4 ,this wretched opinion1 by which they are possessed even to the height of fanaticism1 leading them to exclude from their ideas of a commonwealth the vital principle of the physical1 the moral1 and the political world1 engages them in a thousand absurd contrivances to fill up this dreadful void4 ,incapable of innoxious repose1 or honourable action1 or wise speculation1 in the lurking-holes of a foreign land1 into which 7in a common ruin7 they are driven to hide their heads amongst the innocent victims of their madness1 they are at this very hour as busy in the confection of the dirt-pies of their imaginary constitutions1 as if they had not been quite fresh from destroying1 by their impious and desperate vagaries1 the finest country upon earth4 ,,outward ,,dignity ,,of ,,the ,,church ,,defended4 ,the ,english people are satisfied1 that to the great the consolations of religion are as necessary as its instructions4 ,they too are among the unhappy4 ,they feel personal pain1 and domestic sorrow4 ,in these they have no privilege1 but are subject to pay their full contingent to the contributions levied on mortality4 ,they want this sovereign balm under their gnawing cares and anxieties1 which1 being less conversant about the limited wants of animal life1 range without limit1 and are diversified by infinite combinations in the wild and unbounded regions of imagination4 ,some charitable dole is wanting to these1 our often very unhappy brethren1 to fill the gloomy void that reigns in minds which have nothing on earth to hope or fear2 something to relieve in the killing languor and over-laboured lassitude of those who have nothing to do2 something to excite an appetite to existence in the palled satiety which attends on all pleasures which may be bought1 where nature is not left to her own process1 where even desire is anticipated1 and therefore fruition defeated by meditated schemes and contrivances of delight2 and no interval1 no obstacle1 is interposed between the wish and the accomplishment4 ,the people of ,england know how little influence the teachers of religion are likely to have with the wealthy and powerful of long standing1 and how much less with the newly fortunate1 if they appear in a manner no way assorted to those with whom they must associate1 and over whom they must even exercise1 in some cases1 something like an authority4 ,what must they think of that body of teachers1 if they see it in no part above the establishment of their domestic servants8 ,if the poverty were voluntary1 there might be some difference4 ,strong instances of self-denial operate powerfully on our minds2 and a man who has no wants has obtained great freedom1 and firmness1 and even dignity4 ,but as the mass of any description of men are but men1 and their poverty cannot be voluntary1 that disrespect1 which attends upon all lay property1 will not depart from the ecclesiastical4 ,our provident constitution has therefore taken care that those who are to instruct presumptuous ignorance1 those who are to be censors over insolent vice1 should neither incur their contempt1 nor live upon their alms2 nor will it tempt the rich to a neglect of the true medicine of their minds4 ,for these reasons1 whilst we provide first for the poor1 and with a parental solicitude1 we have not relegated religion 7like something we were ashamed to show7 to obscure municipalities1 or rustic villages4 ,no6 ,we will have her to exalt her mitred front in courts and parliaments4 ,we will have her mixed throughout the whole mass of life1 and blended with all the classes of society4 ,the people of ,england will show to the haughty potentates of the world1 and to their talking sophisters1 that a free1 a generous1 an informed nation honours the high magistrates of its church2 that it will not suffer the insolence of wealth and titles1 or any other species of proud pretension1 to look down with scorn upon what they look up to with reverence2 nor presume to trample on that acquired personal nobility1 which they intend always to be1 and which often is1 the fruit1 not the reward 7for what can be the reward71 of learning1 piety1 and virtue4 ,they can see1 without pain or grudging1 an archbishop precede a duke4 ,they can see a bishop of ,durham1 or a bishop of ,winchester1 in possession of ten thousand pounds a year2 and cannot conceive why it is in worse hands than estates to the like amount in the hands of this earl1 or that squire2 although it may be true1 that so many dogs and horses are not kept by the former1 and fed with the victuals which ought to nourish the children of the people4 ,it is true1 the whole church revenue is not always employed1 and to every shilling1 in charity2 nor perhaps ought it2 but something is generally so employed4 ,it is better to cherish virtue and humanity by leaving much to free will1 even with some loss to the object1 than to attempt to make men mere machines and instruments of a political benevolence4 ,the world on the whole will gain by a liberty1 without which virtue cannot exist4 ,when once the commonwealth has established the estates of the church as property1 it can1 consistently1 hear nothing of the more or the less4 ,too much and too little are treason against property4 ,what evil can arise from the quantity in any hand1 whilst the supreme authority has the full1 sovereign superintendence over this1 as over any property1 to prevent every species of abuse2 and1 whenever it notably deviates1 to give to it a direction agreeable to the purposes of its institution4 ,in ,england most of us conceive that it is envy and malignity towards those who are often the beginners of their own fortune1 and not a love of the self-denial and mortification of the ancient church1 that makes some look askance at the distinctions1 and honours1 and revenues1 which1 taken from no person1 are set apart for virtue4 ,the ears of the people of ,england are distinguishing4 ,they hear these men speak broad4 ,their tongue betrays them4 ,their language is in the patois of fraud2 in the cant and gibberish of hypocrisy4 ,the people of ,england must think so1 when these praters affect to carry back the clergy to that primitive1 evangelic poverty1 which1 in the spirit1 ought always to exist in them 7and in us too1 however we may like it71 but in the thing must be varied1 when the relation of that body to the state is altered2 when manners1 when modes of life1 when indeed the whole order of human affairs1 has undergone a total revolution4 ,we shall believe those reformers then to be honest enthusiasts1 not1 as now we think them1 cheats and deceivers1 when we see them throwing their own goods into common1 and submitting their own persons to the austere discipline of the early church4 ,,danger ,,of ,,abstract ,,views4 ,it is not worth our while to discuss1 like sophisters1 whether1 in no case1 some evil1 for the sake of some benefit1 is to be tolerated4 ,nothing universal can be rationally affirmed on any moral or any political subject4 ,pure metaphysical abstraction does not belong to these matters4 ,the lines of morality are not like ideal lines of mathematics4 ,they are broad and deep as well as long4 ,they admit of exceptions2 they demand modifications4 ,these exceptions and modifications are not made by the process of logic1 but by the rules of prudence4 ,prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral1 but she is the director1 the regulator1 the standard of them all4 ,metaphysics cannot live without definition2 but prudence is cautious how she defines4 ,our courts cannot be more fearful in suffering fictitious cases to be brought before them for eliciting their determination on a point of law1 than prudent moralists are in putting extreme and hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not existing4 ,without attempting therefore to define1 what never can be defined1 the case of a revolution in government1 this1 ,i think1 may be safely affirmed1 that a sore and pressing evil is to be removed1 and that a good1 great in its amount1 and unequivocal in its nature1 must be probable almost to certainty1 before the inestimable price of our own morals1 and the well-being of a number of our fellow-citizens1 is paid for a revolution4 ,if ever we ought to be economists even to parsimony1 it is in the voluntary production of evil4 ,every revolution contains in it something of evil4 ,,appeal ,,to ,,impartiality4 ,the quality of the sentence does not however decide on the justice of it4 ,angry friendship is sometimes as bad as calm enmity4 ,for this reason the cold neutrality of abstract justice is1 to a good and clear cause1 a more desirable thing than an affection liable to be any way disturbed4 ,when the trial is by friends1 if the decision should happen to be favourable1 the honour of the acquittal is lessened2 if adverse1 the condemnation is exceedingly embittered4 ,it is aggravated by coming from lips professing friendship1 and pronouncing judgment with sorrow and reluctance4 ,taking in the whole view of life1 it is more safe to live under the jurisdiction of severe but steady reason1 than under the empire of indulgent but capricious passion4 ,it is certainly well for ,mr4 ,burke that there are impartial men in the world4 ,to them ,i address myself1 pending the appeal which on his part is made from the living to the dead1 from the modern ,whigs to the ancient4 ,,historical ,,estimate ,,of ,,louis ,,xvi4 ,the unhappy ,louis ,,xvi4 was a man of the best intentions that probably ever reigned4 ,he was by no means deficient in talents4 ,he had a most laudable desire to supply by general reading1 and even by the acquisition of elemental knowledge1 an education in all points originally defective2 but nobody told him 7and it was no wonder he should not himself divine it7 that the world of which he read1 and the world in which he lived1 were no longer the same4 ,desirous of doing everything for the best1 fearful of cabal1 distrusting his own judgment1 he sought his ministers of all kinds upon public testimony4 ,but as courts are the field for caballers1 the public is the theatre for mountebanks and imposters4 ,the cure for both those evils is in the discernment of the prince4 ,but an accurate and penetrating discernment is what in a young prince could not be looked for4 ,his conduct in its principle was not unwise2 but1 like most other of his well-meant designs1 it failed in his hands4 ,it failed partly from mere ill fortune1 to which speculators are rarely pleased to assign that very large share to which she is justly entitled in human affairs4 ,the failure1 perhaps1 in part was owing to his suffering his system to be vitiated and disturbed by those intrigues1 which it is1 humanly speaking1 impossible wholly to prevent in courts1 or indeed under any form of government4 ,however1 with these aberrations1 he gave himself over to a succession of the statesmen of public opinion4 ,in other things he thought that he might be a king on the terms of his predecessors4 ,he was conscious of the purity of his heart1 and the general good tendency of his government4 ,he flattered himself1 as most men in his situation will1 that he might consult his ease without danger to his safety4 ,it is not at all wonderful that both he and his ministers1 giving way abundantly in other respects to innovation1 should take up in policy with the tradition of their monarchy4 ,under his ancestors the monarchy had subsisted1 and even been strengthened1 by the generation or support of republics4 ,first1 the ,swiss republics grew under the guardianship of the ,french monarchy4 ,the ,dutch republics were hatched and cherished under the same incubation4 ,afterwards1 a republican constitution was1 under the influence of ,france1 established in the empire against the pretensions of its chief4 ,even whilst the monarchy of ,france1 by a series of wars and negociations1 and lastly1 by the treaties of ,westphalia1 had obtained the establishment of the ,protestants in ,germany as a law of the empire1 the same monarchy under ,louis the ,thirteenth1 had force enough to destroy the republican system of the ,protestants at home4 ,louis the ,sixteenth was a diligent reader of history4 ,but the very lamp of prudence blinded him4 ,the guide of human life led him astray4 ,a silent revolution in the moral world preceded the political1 and prepared it4 ,it became of more importance than ever what examples were given1 and what measures were adopted4 ,their causes no longer lurked in the recesses of cabinets1 or in the private conspiracies of the factious4 ,they were no longer to be controlled by the force and influence of the grandees1 who formerly had been able to stir up troubles by their discontents1 and to quiet them by their corruption4 ,the chain of subordination1 even in cabal and sedition1 was broken in its most important links4 ,it was no longer the great and the populace4 ,other interests were formed1 other dependencies1 other connections1 other communications4 ,the middle classes had swelled far beyond their former proportion4 ,like whatever is the most effectively rich and great in society1 these classes became the seat of all the active politics2 and the preponderating weight to decide on them4 ,there were all the energies by which fortune is acquired2 there the consequence of their success4 ,there were all the talents which assert their pretensions1 and are impatient of the place which settled society prescribes to them4 ,these descriptions had got between the great and the populace2 and the influence on the lower classes was with them4 ,the spirit of ambition had taken possession of this class as violent as ever it had done of any other4 ,they felt the importance of this situation4 ,the correspondence of the monied and the mercantile world1 the literary intercourse of academies1 but1 above all1 the press1 of which they had in a manner entire possession1 made a kind of electric communication everywhere4 ,the press in reality has made every government1 in its spirit1 almost democratic4 ,without it the great1 the first movements in this ,revolution could not1 perhaps1 have been given4 ,but the spirit of ambition1 now for the first time connected with the spirit of speculation1 was not to be restrained at will4 ,there was no longer any means of arresting a principle in its course4 ,when ,louis the ,sixteenth1 under the influence of the enemies to monarchy1 meant to found but one republic1 he set up two4 ,when he meant to take away half the crown of his neighbour1 he lost the whole of his own4 ,louis the ,sixteenth could not with impunity countenance a new republic3 yet between his throne and that dangerous lodgment for an enemy1 which he had erected1 he had the whole ,atlantic for a ditch4 ,he had for an outwork the ,english nation itself1 friendly to liberty1 adverse to that mode of it4 ,he was surrounded by a rampart of monarchies1 most of them allied to him1 and generally under his influence4 ,yet even thus secured1 a republic erected under his auspices1 and dependent on his power1 became fatal to his throne4 ,the very money which he had lent to support this republic1 by a good faith1 which to him operated as perfidy1 was punctually paid to his enemies1 and became a resource in the hands of his assassins4 ,,negative ,,religion ,a ,,nullity4 ,if mere dissent from the church of ,rome be a merit1 he that dissents the most perfectly is the most meritorious4 ,in many points we hold strongly with that church4 ,he that dissents throughout with that church will dissent with the church of ,england1 and then it will be a part of his merit that he dissents with ourselves3--a whimsical species of merit for any set of men to establish4 ,we quarrel to extremity with those who we know agree with us in many things1 but we are to be so malicious even in the principle of our friendships1 that we are to cherish in our bosom those who accord with us in nothing1 because whilst they despise ourselves1 they abhor1 even more than we do1 those with whom we have some disagreement4 ,a man is certainly the most perfect ,protestant who protests against the whole ,christian religion4 ,whether a person's having no ,christian religion be a title to favour1 in exclusion to the largest description of ,christians who hold all the doctrines of ,christianity1 though holding along with them some errors and some superfluities1 is rather more than any man1 who has not become recreant and apostate from his baptism1 will1 ,i believe1 choose to affirm4 ,the countenance given from a spirit of controversy to that negative religion may1 by degrees1 encourage light and unthinking people to a total indifference to everything positive in matters of doctrine2 and1 in the end1 of practice too4 ,if continued1 it would play the game of that sort of active1 proselytizing1 and persecuting atheism1 which is the disgrace and calamity of our time1 and which we see to be as capable of subverting a government1 as any mode can be of misguided zeal for better things4 ,,antechamber ,,of ,,regicide4 ,to those who do not love to contemplate the fall of human greatness1 ,i do not know a more mortifying spectacle1 than to see the assembled majesty of the crowned heads of ,europe waiting as patient suitors in the antechamber of regicide4 ,they wait1 it seems1 until the sanguinary tyrant ,carnot shall have snorted away the fumes of the indigested blood of his sovereign4 ,then1 when1 sunk on the down of usurped pomp1 he shall have sufficiently indulged his meditations with what monarch he shall next glut his ravening maw1 he may condescend to signify that it is his pleasure to be awake2 and that he is at leisure to receive the proposals of his high and mighty clients for the terms on which he may respite the execution of the sentence he has passed upon them4 ,at the opening of those doors1 what a sight it must be to behold the plenipotentiaries of royal impotence1 in the precedency which they will intrigue to obtain1 and which will be granted to them according to the seniority of their degradation1 sneaking into the regicide presence1 and with the relics of the smile1 which they had dressed up for the levee of their masters1 still flickering on their curled lips1 presenting the faded remains of their courtly graces1 to meet the scornful1 ferocious1 sardonic grin of a bloody ruffian1 who1 whilst he is receiving their homage1 is measuring them with his eye1 and fitting to their size the slider of his guillotine6 ,these ambassadors may easily return as good courtiers as they went2 but can they ever return from that degrading residence1 loyal and faithful subjects2 or with any true affection to their master1 or true attachment to the constitution1 religion1 or laws of their country8 ,there is great danger that they1 who enter smiling into this ,trophonian cave1 will come out of it sad and serious conspirators2 and such will continue as long as they live4 ,they will become true conductors of contagion to every country which has had the misfortune to send them to the source of that electricity4 ,at best they will become totally indifferent to good and evil1 to one institution or another4 ,this species of indifference is but too generally distinguishable in those who have been much employed in foreign courts2 but in the present case the evil must be aggravated without measure2 for they go from their country1 not with the pride of the old character1 but in a state of the lowest degradation1 and what must happen in their place of residence can have no effect in raising them to the level of true dignity1 or of chaste self-estimation1 either as men1 or as representatives of crowned heads4 ,,tremendousness ,,of ,,war4 ,as if war was a matter of experiment6 ,as if you could take it up or lay it down as an idle frolic6 ,as if the dire goddess that presides over it1 with her murderous spear in hand1 and her gorgon at her breast1 was a coquette to be flirted with6 ,we ought with reverence to approach that tremendous divinity1 that loves courage1 but commands counsel4 ,war never leaves where it found a nation4 ,it is never to be entered into without mature deliberation2 not a deliberation lengthened out into a perplexing indecision1 but a deliberation leading to a sure and fixed judgment4 ,when so taken up1 it is not to be abandoned without reason as valid1 as fully1 and as extensively considered4 ,peace may be made as unadvisedly as war4 ,nothing is so rash as fear2 and the councils of pusillanimity very rarely put off1 whilst they are always sure to aggravate1 the evils from which they would fly4 ,,english ,,officers4 ,there is no want of officers1 that ,i have ever understood1 for the new ships which we commission1 or the new regiments which we raise4 ,in the nature of things it is not with their persons1 that the higher classes principally pay their contingent to the demands of war4 ,there is another1 and not less important part1 which rests with almost exclusive weight upon them4 ,they furnish the means1 ,how war may best upheld ,move by her two main nerves1 iron and gold1 ,in all her equipage4 ,not that they are exempt from contributing also by their personal service in the fleets and armies of their country4 ,they do contribute1 and in their full and fair proportion1 according to the relative proportion of their numbers in the community4 ,they contribute all the mind that actuates the whole machine4 ,the fortitude required of them is very different from the unthinking alacrity of the common soldier1 or common sailor1 in the face of danger and death2 it is not a passion1 it is not an impulse1 it is not a sentiment2 it is a cool1 steady1 deliberate principle1 always present1 always equable2 having no connection with anger2 tempering honour with prudence2 incited1 invigorated1 and sustained1 by a generous love of fame2 informed1 moderated1 and directed by an enlarged knowledge of its own great public ends2 flowing in one blended stream from the opposite sources of the heart and the head2 carrying in itself its own commission1 and proving its title to every other command1 by the first and most difficult command1 that of the bosom in which it resides3 it is a fortitude1 which unites with the courage of the field the more exalted and refined courage of the council2 which knows as well to retreat1 as to advance2 which can conquer as well by delay1 as by the rapidity of a march1 or the impetuosity of an attack2 which can be1 with ,fabius1 the black cloud that lowers on the tops of the mountains1 or with ,scipio1 the thunderbolt of war2 which1 undismayed by false shame1 can patiently endure the severest trial that a gallant spirit can undergo1 in the taunts and provocations of the enemy1 the suspicions1 the cold respect1 and mouth-honour of those1 from whom it should meet a cheerful obedience2 which1 undisturbed by false humanity1 can calmly assume that most awful moral responsibility of deciding1 when victory may be too dearly purchased by the loss of a single life1 and when the safety and glory of their country may demand the certain sacrifice of thousands4 ,different stations of command may call for different modifications of this fortitude2 but the character ought to be the same in all4 ,and never1 in the most palmy state of our martial renown1 did it shine with brighter lustre than in the present sanguinary and ferocious hostilities1 wherever the ,british arms have been carried4 ,,diplomacy ,,of ,,humiliation4 ,it happens frequently that pride may reject a public advance1 while interest listens to a secret suggestion of advantage4 ,the opportunity has been afforded4 ,at a very early period in the diplomacy of humiliation1 a gentleman was sent on an errand1 of which1 from the motive of it1 whatever the event might be1 we can never be ashamed4 ,humanity cannot be degraded by humiliation4 ,it is its very character to submit to such things4 ,there is a consanguinity between benevolence and humility4 ,they are virtues of the same stock4 ,dignity is of as good a race2 but it belongs to the family of fortitude4 ,in the spirit of that benevolence we sent a gentleman to beseech the ,directory of regicide not to be quite so prodigal as their republic had been of judicial murder4 ,we solicited them to spare the lives of some unhappy persons of the first distinction1 whose safety at other times could not have been an object of solicitation4 ,they had quitted ,france on the faith of the declaration of the rights of citizens4 ,they never had been in the service of the regicides1 nor at their hands had received any stipend4 ,the very system and constitution of government that now prevails was settled subsequently to their emigration4 ,they were under the protection of ,great ,britain1 and in his majesty's pay and service4 ,not an hostile invasion1 but the disasters of the sea1 had thrown them upon a shore more barbarous and inhospitable than the inclement ocean under the most pitiless of its storms4 ,here was an opportunity to express a feeling for the miseries of war2 and to open some sort of conversation1 which 7after our public overtures had glutted their pride71 at a cautious and jealous distance1 might lead to something like an accommodation4 ,what was the event8 ,a strange uncouth thing1 a theatrical figure of the opera1 his head shaded with three-coloured plumes1 his body fantastically habited1 strutted from the back scenes1 and1 after a short speech1 in the mock heroic falsetto of stupid tragedy1 delivered the gentleman who came to make the representation into the custody of a guard1 with directions not to lose sight of him for a moment2 and then ordered him to be sent from ,paris in two hours4 ,,relation ,,of ,,wealth ,,to ,,national ,,dignity4 ,we have a vast interest to preserve1 and we possess great means of preserving it3 but it is to be remembered that the artificer may be encumbered by his tools1 and that resources may be among impediments4 ,if wealth is the obedient and laborious slave of virtue and of public honour1 then wealth is in its place1 and has its use3 but if this order is changed1 and honour is to be sacrificed to the conservation of riches1--riches1 which have neither eyes nor hands1 nor anything truly vital in them1 cannot long survive the being of their vivifying powers1 their legitimate masters1 and their potent protectors4 ,if we command our wealth1 we shall be rich and free3 if our wealth command us1 we are poor indeed4 ,we are bought by the enemy with the treasure from our own coffers4 ,too great a sense of the value of a subordinate interest may be the very source of its danger1 as well as the certain ruin of interests of a superior order4 ,often has a man lost his all because he would not submit to hazard all in defending it4 ,a display of our wealth before robbers is not the way to restrain their boldness1 or to lessen their rapacity4 ,this display is made1 ,i know1 to persuade the people of ,england that thereby we shall awe the enemy1 and improve the terms of our capitulation3 it is made1 not that we should fight with more animation1 but that we should supplicate with better hopes4 ,we are mistaken4 ,we have an enemy to deal with who never regarded our contest as a measuring and weighing of purses4 ,he is the ,gaul that puts his ,,sword into the scale4 ,he is more tempted with our wealth as booty1 than terrified with it as power4 ,but let us be rich or poor1 let us be either in what proportion we may1 nature is false or this is true1 that where the essential public force 7of which money is but a part7 is in any degree upon a par in a conflict between nations1 that state1 which is resolved to hazard its existence rather than to abandon its objects1 must have an infinite advantage over that which is resolved to yield rather than to carry its resistance beyond a certain point4 ,humanly speaking1 that people which bounds its efforts only with its being1 must give the law to that nation which will not push its opposition beyond its convenience4 ,,ambassadors ,,of ,,infamy4 ,on this their gaudy day the new regicide ,directory sent for their diplomatic rabble1 as bad as themselves in principle1 but infinitely worse in degradation4 ,they called them out by a sort of roll of their nations1 one after another1 much in the manner in which they called wretches out of their prison to the guillotine4 ,when these ambassadors of infamy appeared before them1 the chief director1 in the name of the rest1 treated each of them with a short1 affected1 pedantic1 insolent1 theatric laconium3 a sort of epigram of contempt4 ,when they had thus insulted them in a style and language which never before was heard1 and which no sovereign would for a moment endure from another1 supposing any of them frantic enough to use it2 to finish their outrage1 they drummed and trumpeted the wretches out of their hall of audience4 ,among the objects of this insolent buffoonery was a person supposed to represent the king of ,prussia4 ,to this worthy representative they did not so much as condescend to mention his master2 they did not seem to know that he had one2 they addressed themselves solely to ,prussia in the abstract1 notwithstanding the infinite obligation they owed to their early protector for their first recognition and alliance1 and for the part of his territory he gave into their hands for the first-fruits of his homage4 ,none but dead monarchs are so much as mentioned by them1 and those only to insult the living by an invidious comparison4 ,they told the ,prussians they ought to learn1 after the example of ,frederick the ,great1 a love for ,france4 ,what a pity it is1 that he1 who loved ,france so well as to chastise it1 was not now alive1 by an unsparing use of the rod 7which indeed he would have spared little7 to give them another instance of his paternal affection4 ,but the ,directory were mistaken4 ,these are not days in which monarchs value themselves upon the title of ,,great3 they are grown ,,philosophic3 they are satisfied to be good4 ,your lordship will pardon me for this no very long reflection on the short but excellent speech of the plumed director to the ambassador of ,cappadocia4 ,the imperial ambassador was not in waiting1 but they found for ,austria a good ,judean representation4 ,with great judgment his highness the ,grand ,duke had sent the most atheistic coxcomb to be found in ,florence to represent1 at the bar of impiety1 the house of apostolic majesty1 and the descendants of the pious1 though high-minded1 ,maria ,theresa4 ,he was sent to humble the whole race of ,austria before those grim assassins1 reeking with the blood of the daughter of ,maria ,theresa1 whom they sent1 half-dead1 in a dung-cart1 to a cruel execution2 and this true-born son of apostasy and infidelity1 this renegado from the faith1 and from all honour and all humanity1 drove an ,austrian coach over the stones which were yet wet with her blood2--with that blood which dropped every step through her tumbril1 all the way she was drawn from the horrid prison1 in which they had finished all the cruelty and horrors1 not executed in the face of the sun6 ,the ,hungarian subjects of ,maria ,theresa1 when they drew their swords to defend her rights against ,france1 called her1 with correctness of truth1 though not with the same correctness1 perhaps1 of grammar1 a king3 ,moriamur pro rege nostro ,maria ,theresa4--,she lived and died a king1 and others will have subjects ready to make the same vow1 when1 in either sex1 they show themselves real kings4 ,,difficulty ,,the ,,path ,,to ,,glory4 ,when you choose an arduous and slippery path1 ,god forbid that any weak feelings of my declining age1 which calls for soothings and supports1 and which can have none but from you1 should make me wish that you should abandon what you are about1 or should trifle with it4 ,in this house we submit1 though with troubled minds1 to that order which has connected all great duties with toils and with perils1 which has conducted the road to glory through the regions of obloquy and reproach1 and which will never suffer the disparaging alliance of spurious1 false1 and fugitive praise with genuine and permanent reputation4 ,we know that the ,power which has settled that order1 and subjected you to it by placing you in the situation you are in1 is able to bring you out of it with credit and with safety4 ,his will be done4 ,all must come right4 ,you may open the way with pain1 and under reproach4 ,others will pursue it with ease and with applause4 ,,robespierre ,,and ,,his ,,counterparts4 ,they have murdered one ,robespierre4 ,this ,robespierre they tell us was a cruel tyrant1 and now that he is put out of the way1 all will go well in ,france4 ,astraea will again return to that earth from which she has been an emigrant1 and all nations will resort to her golden scales4 ,it is very extraordinary1 that the very instant the mode of ,paris is known here1 it becomes all the fashion in ,london4 ,this is their jargon4 ,it is the old bon ton of robbers1 who cast their common crimes on the wickedness of their departed associates4 ,i care little about the memory of this same ,robespierre4 ,i am sure he was an execrable villain4 ,i rejoiced at his punishment neither more nor less than ,i should at the execution of the present ,directory1 or any of its members4 ,but who gave ,robespierre the power of being a tyrant8 and who were the instruments of his tyranny8 ,the present virtuous constitution-mongers4 ,he was a tyrant1 they were his satellites and his hangmen4 ,their sole merit is in the murder of their colleague4 ,they have expiated their other murders by a new murder4 ,it has always been the case among this banditti4 ,they have always had the knife at each other's throats1 after they had almost blunted it at the throats of every honest man4 ,these people thought that1 in the commerce of murder1 he was like to have the better of the bargain if any time was lost2 they therefore took one of their short revolutionary methods1 and massacred him in a manner so perfidious and cruel1 as would shock all humanity1 if the stroke was not struck by the present rulers on one of their own associates4 ,but this last act of infidelity and murder is to expiate all the rest1 and to qualify them for the amity of a humane and virtuous sovereign and civilized people4 ,i have heard that a ,tartar believes1 when he has killed a man1 that all his estimable qualities pass with his clothes and arms to the murderer3 but ,i have never heard that it was the opinion of any savage ,scythian1 that1 if he kills a brother villain1 he is1 ipso facto1 absolved of all his own offences4 ,the ,tartarian doctrine is the most tenable opinion4 ,the murderers of ,robespierre1 besides what they are entitled to by being engaged in the same tontine of infamy1 are his representatives1 have inherited all his murderous qualities in addition to their own private stock4 ,but it seems we are always to be of a party with the last and victorious assassins4 ,i confess ,i am of a different mind1 and am rather inclined1 of the two1 to think and speak less hardly of a dead ruffian1 than to associate with the living4 ,i could better bear the stench of the gibbeted murderer than the society of the bloody felons who yet annoy the world4 ,whilst they wait the recompense due to their ancient crimes1 they merit new punishment by the new offences they commit4 ,there is a period to the offences of ,robespierre4 ,they survive in his assassins4 ,better a living dog1 says the old proverb1 than a dead lion2 not so here4 ,murderers and hogs never look well till they are hanged4 ,from villany no good can arise1 but in the example of its fate4 ,so ,i leave them their dead ,robespierre1 either to gibbet his memory1 or to deify him in their ,pantheon with their ,marat and their ,mirabeau4 ,,accumulation1 ,a ,,state ,,principle4 ,there must be some impulse besides public spirit to put private interest into motion along with it4 ,monied men ought to be allowed to set a value on their money2 if they did not1 there could be no monied men4 ,this desire of accumulation is a principle without which the means of their service to the state could not exist4 ,the love of lucre1 though sometimes carried to a ridiculous1 sometimes to a vicious excess1 is the grand cause of prosperity to all states4 ,in this natural1 this reasonable1 this powerful1 this prolific principle1 it is for the satirist to expose the ridiculous3 it is for the moralist to censure the vicious2 it is for the sympathetic heart to reprobate the hard and cruel2 it is for the judge to animadvert on the fraud1 the extortion1 and the oppression2 but it is for the statesman to employ it as he finds it1 with all its concomitant excellencies1 with all its imperfections on its head4 ,it is his part1 in this case1 as it is in all other cases where he is to make use of the general energies of nature1 to take them as he finds them4 ,,warning ,,for ,a ,,nation4 ,with all these causes of corruption1 we may well judge what the general fashion of mind will be through both sexes and all conditions4 ,such spectacles and such examples will overbear all the laws that ever blackened the cumbrous volumes of our statutes4 ,when royalty shall have disavowed itself2 when it shall have relaxed all the principles of its own support2 when it has rendered the system of regicide fashionable1 and received it as triumphant in the very persons who have consolidated that system by the perpetration of every crime2 who have not only massacred the prince1 but the very laws and magistrates which were the support of royalty1 and slaughtered1 with an indiscriminate proscription1 without regard to either sex or age1 every person that was suspected of an inclination to king1 law1 or magistracy1--,i say1 will any one dare to be loyal8 ,will any one presume1 against both authority and opinion1 to hold up this unfashionable1 antiquated1 exploded constitution8 ,the ,jacobin faction in ,england must grow in strength and audacity2 it will be supported by other intrigues1 and supplied by other resources than yet we have seen in action4 ,confounded at its growth1 the government may fly to parliament for its support4 ,but who will answer for the temper of a house of commons elected under these circumstances8 ,who will answer for the courage of a house of commons to arm the crown with the extraordinary powers that it may demand8 ,but the ministers will not venture to ask half of what they know they want4 ,they will lose half of that half in the contest3 and when they have obtained their nothing1 they will be driven by the cries of faction either to demolish the feeble works they have thrown up in a hurry1 or1 in effect1 to abandon them4 ,as to the ,house of ,lords1 it is not worth mentioning4 ,the peers ought naturally to be the pillars of the crown2 but when their titles are rendered contemptible1 and their property invidious1 and a part of their weakness1 and not of their strength1 they will be found so many degraded and trembling individuals1 who will seek by evasion to put off the evil day of their ruin4 ,both houses will be in perpetual oscillation between abortive attempts at energy1 and still more unsuccessful attempts at compromise4 ,you will be impatient of your disease1 and abhorrent of your remedy4 ,a spirit of subterfuge and a tone of apology will enter into all your proceedings1 whether of law or legislation4 ,your judges1 who now sustain so masculine an authority1 will appear more on their trial than the culprits they have before them4 ,the awful frown of criminal justice will be smoothed into the silly smile of seduction4 ,judges will think to insinuate and soothe the accused into conviction and condemnation1 and to wheedle to the gallows the most artful of all delinquents4 ,but they will not be so wheedled4 ,they will not submit even to the appearance of persons on their trial4 ,their claim to this exception will be admitted4 ,the place in which some of the greatest names which ever distinguished the history of this country have stood1 will appear beneath their dignity4 ,the criminal will climb from the dock to the side-bar1 and take his place and his tea with the counsel4 ,from the bar of the counsel1 by a natural progress1 he will ascend to the bench1 which long before had been virtually abandoned4 ,they who escape from justice will not suffer a question upon reputation4 ,they will take the crown of the causeway3 they will be revered as martyrs2 they will triumph as conquerors4 ,nobody will dare to censure that popular part of the tribunal1 whose only restraint on misjudgment is the censure of the public4 ,they who find fault with the decision will be represented as enemies to the institution4 ,juries that convict for the crown will be loaded with obloquy4 ,the juries who acquit will be held up as models of justice4 ,if parliament orders a prosecution1 and fails 7as fail it will71 it will be treated to its face as guilty of a conspiracy maliciously to prosecute4 ,its care in discovering a conspiracy against the state will be treated as a forged plot to destroy the liberty of the subject2 every such discovery1 instead of strengthening government1 will weaken its reputation4 ,in this state things will be suffered to proceed1 lest measures of vigour should precipitate a crisis4 ,the timid will act thus from character2 the wise from necessity4 ,our laws had done all that the old condition of things dictated to render our judges erect and independent2 but they will naturally fail on the side upon which they had taken no precautions4 ,the judicial magistrates will find themselves safe as against the crown1 whose will is not their tenure2 the power of executing their office will be held at the pleasure of those who deal out fame or abuse as they think fit4 ,they will begin rather to consult their own repose and their own popularity1 than the critical and perilous trust that is in their hands4 ,they will speculate on consequences when they see at court an ambassador whose robes are lined with a scarlet dyed in the blood of judges4 ,it is no wonder1 nor are they to blame1 when they are to consider how they shall answer for their conduct to the criminal of to-day turned into the magistrate of to-morrow4 ,,santerre ,,and ,,tallien4 ,is it only an oppressive nightmare with which we have been loaded8 ,is it then all a frightful dream1 and are there no regicides in the world8 ,have we not heard of that prodigy of a ruffian1 who would not suffer his benignant sovereign1 with his hands tied behind him1 and stripped for execution1 to say one parting word to his deluded people2--of ,santerre1 who commanded the drums and trumpets to strike up to stifle his voice1 and dragged him backward to the machine of murder8 ,this nefarious villain 7for a few days ,i may call him so7 stands high in ,france1 as in a republic of robbers and murderers he ought4 ,what hinders this monster from being sent as ambassador to convey to his majesty the first compliments of his brethren1 the regicide ,directory8 ,they have none that can represent them more properly4 ,i anticipate the day of his arrival4 ,he will make his public entry into ,london on one of the pale horses of his brewery4 ,as he knows that we are pleased with the ,paris taste for the orders of knighthood1 he will fling a bloody sash across his shoulders with the order of the ,holy ,guillotine1 surmounting the ,crown1 appendant to the riband4 ,thus adorned1 he will proceed from ,whitechapel to the further end of ,pall ,mall1 all the music of ,london playing the ,marseillais hymn before him1 and escorted by a chosen detachment of the ,legion de l',echaffaud4 ,it were only to be wished1 that no ill-fated loyalist for the imprudence of his zeal may stand in the pillory at ,charing ,cross1 under the statue of ,king ,charles the ,first1 at the time of this grand procession1 lest some of the rotten eggs1 which the constitutional society shall let fly at his indiscreet head1 may hit the virtuous murderer of his king4 ,they might soil the state dress1 which the ministers of so many crowned heads have admired1 and in which ,sir ,clement ,cotterel is to introduce him at ,st4 ,james's4 ,if ,santerre cannot be spared from the constitutional butcheries at home1 ,tallien may supply his place1 and1 in point of figure1 with advantage4 ,he has been habituated to commissions2 and he is as well qualified as ,santerre for this4 ,nero wished the ,roman people had but one neck4 ,the wish of the more exalted ,tallien1 when he sat in judgment1 was1 that his sovereign had eighty-three heads1 that he might send one to every one of the departments4 ,tallien will make an excellent figure at ,guildhall at the next sheriff's feast4 ,he may open the ball with my ,lady ,mayoress4 ,but this will be after he has retired from the public table1 and gone into the private room for the enjoyment of more social and unreserved conversation with the ministers of state and the judges of the bench4 ,there these ministers and magistrates will hear him entertain the worthy aldermen with an instructing and pleasing narrative of the manner in which he made the rich citizens of ,bordeaux squeak1 and gently led them by the public credit of the guillotine to disgorge their anti-revolutionary pelf4 ,all this will be the display1 and the town-talk1 when our regicide is on a visit of ceremony4 ,at home nothing will equal the pomp and splendour of the ,hotel de la ,republique4 ,there another scene of gaudy grandeur will be opened4 ,when his citizen excellency keeps the festival1 which every citizen is ordered to observe1 for the glorious execution of ,louis the ,sixteenth1 and renews his oath of detestation of kings1 a grand ball1 of course1 will be given on the occasion4 ,then what a hurly-burly2--what a crowding2--what a glare of a thousand flambeaux in the square2--what a clamour of footmen contending at the door2--what a rattling of a thousand coaches of duchesses1 countesses1 and ,lady ,marys1 choking the way1 and overturning each other1 in a struggle who should be first to pay her court to the ,citoyenne1 the spouse of the twenty-first husband1 he the husband of the thirty-first wife1 and to hail her in the rank of honourable matrons1 before the four days' duration of marriage is expired6--,morals1 as they were3--decorum1 the great outguard of the sex1 and the proud sentiment of honour1 which makes virtue more respectable where it is1 and conceals human frailty where virtue may not be1 will be banished from this land of propriety1 modesty1 and reserve4 ,,sir ,,sydney ,,smith4 ,this officer having attempted1 with great gallantry1 to cut out a vessel from one of the enemy's harbours1 was taken after an obstinate resistance1 such as obtained him the marked respect of those who were witnesses of his valour1 and knew the circumstances in which it was displayed4 ,upon his arrival at ,paris1 he was instantly thrown into prison2 where the nature of his situation will best be understood1 by knowing1 that amongst its ,,mitigations1 was the permission to walk occasionally in the court1 and to enjoy the privilege of shaving himself4 ,on the old system of feelings and principles1 his sufferings might have been entitled to consideration1 and even in a comparison with those of citizen ,la ,fayette1 to a priority in the order of compassion4 ,if the ministers had neglected to take any steps in his favour1 a declaration of the sense of the ,house of ,commons would have stimulated them to their duty4 ,if they had caused a representation to be made1 such a proceeding would have added force to it4 ,if reprisal should be thought advisable1 the address of the ,house would have given an additional sanction to a measure which would have been1 indeed1 justifiable without any other sanction than its own reason4 ,but1 no4 ,nothing at all like it4 ,in fact1 the merit of ,sir ,sydney ,smith1 and his claim on ,british compassion1 was of a kind altogether different from that which interested so deeply the authors of the motion in favour of citizen ,la ,fayette4 ,in my humble opinion1 ,captain ,sir ,sydney ,smith has another sort of merit with the ,british nation1 and something of a higher claim on ,british humanity1 than citizen ,la ,fayette4 ,faithful1 zealous1 and ardent1 in the service of his king and country2 full of spirit2 full of resources2 going out of the beaten road1 but going right1 because his uncommon enterprise was not conducted by a vulgar judgment2--in his profession1 ,sir ,sydney ,smith might be considered as a distinguished person1 if any person could well be distinguished in a service in which scarcely a commander can be named without putting you in mind of some action of intrepidity1 skill1 and vigilance1 that has given them a fair title to contend with any men1 and in any age4 ,but ,i will say nothing farther of the merits of ,sir ,sydney ,smith3 the mortal animosity of the regicide enemy supersedes all other panegyric4 ,their hatred is a judgment in his favour without appeal4 ,at present he is lodged in the tower of the ,temple1 the last prison of ,louis the ,sixteenth1 and the last but one of ,maria ,antonietta of ,austria2 the prison of ,louis the ,seventeenth2 the prison of ,elizabeth of ,bourbon4 ,there he lies1 unpitied by the grand philanthropy1 to meditate upon the fate of those who are faithful to their king and country4 ,whilst this prisoner1 secluded from intercourse1 was indulging in these cheering reflections1 he might possibly have had the further consolation of learning 7by means of the insolent exultation of his guards71 that there was an ,english ambassador at ,paris2 he might have had the proud comfort of hearing1 that this ambassador had the honour of passing his mornings in respectful attendance at the office of a regicide pettifogger2 and that in the evening he relaxed in the amusements of the opera1 and in the spectacle of an audience totally new2 an audience in which he had the pleasure of seeing about him not a single face that he could formerly have known in ,paris2 but in the place of that company1 one indeed more than equal to it in display of gaiety1 splendour1 and luxury2 a set of abandoned wretches1 squandering in insolent riot the spoils of their bleeding country4 ,a subject of profound reflection both to the prisoner and to the ambassador4 ,a ,,moral ,,distinction4 ,i think we might have found1 before the rude hand of insolent office was on our shoulder1 and the staff of usurped authority brandished over our heads1 that contempt of the suppliant is not the best forwarder of a suit2 that national disgrace is not the high road to security1 much less to power and greatness4 ,patience1 indeed1 strongly indicates the love of peace2 but mere love does not always lead to enjoyment4 ,it is the power of winning that palm which ensures our wearing it4 ,virtues have their place2 and out of their place they hardly deserve the name4 ,they pass into the neighbouring vice4 ,the patience of fortitude and the endurance of pusillanimity are things very different1 as in their principle1 so in their effects4 ,,infidels ,,and ,,their ,,policy4 ,in the revolution of ,france two sorts of men were principally concerned in giving a character and determination to its pursuits3 the philosophers and the politicians4 ,they took different ways1 but they met in the same end4 ,the philosophers had one predominant object1 which they pursued with a fanatical fury2 that is1 the utter extirpation of religion4 ,to that every question of empire was subordinate4 ,they had rather domineer in a parish of atheists than rule over a ,christian world4 ,their temporal ambition was wholly subservient to their proselytizing spirit1 in which they were not exceeded by ,mahomet himself4 ,they who have made but superficial studies in the natural history of the human mind1 have been taught to look on religious opinions as the only cause of enthusiastic zeal and sectarian propagation4 ,but there is no doctrine whatever1 on which men can warm1 that is not capable of the very same effect4 ,the social nature of man impels him to propagate his principles1 as much as physical impulses urge him to propagate his kind4 ,the passions give zeal and vehemence4 ,the understanding bestows design and system4 ,the whole man moves under the discipline of his opinions4 ,religion is among the most powerful causes of enthusiasm4 ,when anything concerning it becomes an object of much meditation1 it cannot be indifferent to the mind4 ,they who do not love religion1 hate it4 ,the rebels to ,god perfectly abhor the author of their being4 ,they hate him with all their heart1 with all their mind1 with all their soul1 and with all their strength4 ,he never presents himself to their thoughts1 but to menace and alarm them4 ,they cannot strike the sun out of heaven1 but they are able to raise a smouldering smoke that obscures him from their own eyes4 ,not being able to revenge themselves on ,god1 they have a delight in vicariously defacing1 degrading1 torturing1 and tearing in pieces his image in man4 ,let no one judge of them by what he has conceived of them1 when they were not incorporated1 and had no lead4 ,they were then only passengers in a common vehicle4 ,they were then carried along with the general motion of religion in the community1 and1 without being aware of it1 partook of its influence4 ,in that situation1 at worst1 their nature was left free to counter-work their principles4 ,they despaired of giving any very general currency to their opinions4 ,they considered them as a reserved privilege for the chosen few4 ,but when the possibility of dominion1 lead1 and propagation1 presented itself1 and that the ambition1 which before had so often made them hypocrites1 might rather gain than lose by a daring avowal of their sentiments1 then the nature of this infernal spirit1 which has evil for its good1 appeared in its full perfection4 ,nothing indeed but the possession of some power can with any certainty discover what at the bottom is the true character of any man4 ,without reading the speeches of ,vergniaud1 ,francian of ,nantes1 ,isnard1 and some others of that sort1 it would not be easy to conceive the passion1 rancour1 and malice of their tongues and hearts4 ,they worked themselves up to a perfect frenzy against religion and all its professors4 ,they tore the reputation of the clergy to pieces by their infuriated declamations and invectives1 before they lacerated their bodies by their massacres4 ,this fanatical atheism left out1 we omit the principal feature in the ,french revolution1 and a principal consideration with regard to the effects to be expected from a peace with it4 ,the other sort of men were the politicians4 ,to them1 who had little or not at all reflected on the subject1 religion was in itself no object of love or hatred4 ,they disbelieved it1 and that was all4 ,neutral with regard to that object1 they took the side which in the present state of things might best answer their purposes4 ,they soon found that they could not do without the philosophers2 and the philosophers soon made them sensible that the destruction of religion was to supply them with means of conquest1 first at home1 and then abroad4 ,the philosophers were the active internal agitators1 and supplied the spirit and principles3 the second gave the practical direction4 ,sometimes the one predominated in the composition1 sometimes the other4 ,the only difference between them was in the necessity of concealing the general design for a time1 and in their dealing with foreign nations2 the fanatics going straightforward and openly1 the politicians by the surer mode of zigzag4 ,in the course of events1 this1 among other causes1 produced fierce and bloody contentions between them4 ,but at the bottom they thoroughly agreed in all the objects of ambition and irreligion1 and substantially in all the means of promoting these ends4 ,,what ,a ,,minister ,,should ,,attempt4 ,after such an elaborate display had been made of the injustice and insolence of an enemy1 who seems to have been irritated by every one of the means which had been commonly used with effect to soothe the rage of intemperate power1 the natural result would be1 that the scabbard1 in which we in vain attempted to plunge our sword1 should have been thrown away with scorn4 ,it would have been natural that1 rising in the fulness of their might1 insulted majesty1 despised dignity1 violated justice1 rejected supplication1 patience goaded into fury1 would have poured out all the length of the reins upon all the wrath which they had so long restrained4 ,it might have been expected that1 emulous of the glory of the youthful hero in alliance with him1 touched by the example of what one man1 well formed and well placed1 may do in the most desperate state of affairs1 convinced there is a courage of the cabinet full as powerful1 and far less vulgar than that of the field1 our minister would have changed the whole line of that useless1 prosperous prudence1 which had hitherto produced all the effects of the blindest temerity4 ,if he found his situation full of danger 7and ,i do not deny that it is perilous in the extreme71 he must feel that it is also full of glory2 and that he is placed on a stage1 than which no muse of fire that had ascended the highest heaven of invention could imagine anything more awful and august4 ,it was hoped that1 in this swelling scene in which he moved with some of the first potentates of ,europe for his fellow-actors1 and with so many of the rest for the anxious spectators of a part1 which1 as he plays it1 determines for ever their destiny and his own1 like ,ulysses in the unravelling point of the epic story1 he would have thrown off his patience and his rags together2 and1 stripped of unworthy disguises1 he would have stood forth in the form and in the attitude of a hero4 ,on that day it was thought he would have assumed the port of ,mars2 that he would bid to be brought forth from their hideous kennel 7where his scrupulous tenderness had too long immured them7 those impatient dogs of war1 whose fierce regards affright even the minister of vengeance that feeds them2 that he would let them loose1 in famine1 fever1 plagues1 and death1 upon a guilty race1 to whose frame1 and to all whose habit1 order1 peace1 religion1 and virtue are alien and abhorrent4 ,it was expected that he would at last have thought of active and effectual war2 that he would no longer amuse the ,british lion in the chase of mice and rats2 that he would no longer employ the whole naval power of ,great ,britain1 once the terror of the world1 to prey upon the miserable remains of a peddling commerce1 which the enemy did not regard1 and from which none could profit4 ,it was expected that he would have re-asserted the justice of his cause2 that he would have re-animated whatever remained to him of his allies1 and endeavoured to recover those whom their fears had led astray2 that he would have rekindled the martial ardour of his citizens2 that he would have held out to them the example of their ancestry1 the assertor of ,europe1 and the scourge of ,french ambition2 that he would have reminded them of a posterity1 which1 if this nefarious robbery under the fraudulent name and false colour of a government1 should in full power be seated in the heart of ,europe1 must for ever be consigned to vice1 impiety1 barbarism1 and the most ignominious slavery of body and mind4 ,in so holy a cause it was presumed that he would 7as in the beginning of the war he did7 have opened all the temples2 and with prayer1 with fasting1 and with supplication 7better directed than to the grim ,moloch of regicide in ,france71 have called upon us to raise that united cry which has so often stormed heaven1 and with a pious violence forced down blessings upon a repentant people4 ,it was hoped that when he had invoked upon his endeavours the favourable regard of the ,protector of the human race1 it would be seen that his menaces to the enemy1 and his prayers to the ,almighty1 were not followed1 but accompanied1 with correspondent action4 ,it was hoped that his shrilling trumpet should be heard1 not to announce a show1 but to sound a charge4 ,,law ,,of ,,vicinity4 ,this violent breach in the community of ,europe we must conclude to have been made 7even if they had not expressly declared it over and over again7 either to force mankind into an adoption of their system1 or to live in perpetual enmity with a community the most potent we have ever known4 ,can any person imagine1 that1 in offering to mankind this desperate alternative1 there is no indication of a hostile mind1 because men in possession of the ruling authority are supposed to have a right to act without coercion in their own territories4 ,as to the right of men to act anywhere according to their pleasure1 without any moral tie1 no such right exists4 ,men are never in a state of ,,total independence of each other4 ,it is not the condition of our nature3 nor is it conceivable how any man can pursue a considerable course of action without its having some effect upon others2 or1 of course1 without producing some degree of responsibility for his conduct4 ,the ,,situations in which men relatively stand produce the rules and principles of that responsibility1 and afford directions to prudence in exacting it4 ,distance of place does not extinguish the duties or the rights of men2 but it often renders their exercise impracticable4 ,the same circumstance of distance renders the noxious effects of an evil system in any community less pernicious4 ,but there are situations where this difficulty does not occur2 and in which1 therefore1 these duties are obligatory1 and these rights are to be asserted4 ,it has ever been the method of public jurists to draw a great part of the analogies1 on which they form the law of nations1 from the principles of law which prevail in civil community4 ,civil laws are not all of them merely positive4 ,those1 which are rather conclusions of legal reason than matters of statutable provision1 belong to universal equity1 and are universally applicable4 ,almost the whole praetorian law is such4 ,there is a ,law of ,neighbourhood which does not leave a man perfectly master on his own ground4 ,when a neighbour sees a ,,new ,,erection1 in the nature of a nuisance1 set up at his door1 he has a right to represent it to the judge2 who1 on his part1 has a right to order the work to be stayed2 or1 if established1 to be removed4 ,on this head the parent law is express and clear1 and has made many wise provisions1 which1 without destroying1 regulate and restrain the right of ,,ownership1 by the right of ,,vicinage4 ,no ,,innovation is permitted that may redound1 even secondarily1 to the prejudice of a neighbour4 ,the whole doctrine of that important head of praetorian law1 ,de novi operis nunciatione1 is founded on the principle1 that no ,,new use should be made of a man's private liberty of operating upon his private property1 from whence a detriment may be justly apprehended by his neighbour4 ,this law of denunciation is prospective4 ,it is to anticipate what is called damnum infectum1 or damnum nondum factum1 that is1 a damage justly apprehended1 but not actually done4 ,even before it is clearly known whether the innovation be damageable or not1 the judge is competent to issue a prohibition to innovate1 until the point can be determined4 ,this prompt interference is grounded on principles favourable to both parties4 ,it is preventive of mischief difficult to be repaired1 and of ill blood difficult to be softened4 ,the rule of law1 therefore1 which comes before the evil1 is amongst the very best parts of equity1 and justifies the promptness of the remedy2 because1 as it is well observed1 ,res damni infecti celeritatem desiderat1 et periculosa est dilatio4 ,this right of denunciation does not hold1 when things continue1 however inconveniently to the neighbourhood1 according to the ,,ancient mode4 ,for there is a sort of presumption against novelty1 drawn out of a deep consideration of human nature1 and human affairs2 and the maxim of jurisprudence is well laid down1 ,vetustas pro lege semper habetur4 ,such is the law of civil vicinity4 ,now where there is no constituted judge1 as between independent states there is not1 the vicinage itself is the natural judge4 ,it is1 preventively1 the assertor of its own rights1 or remedially1 their avenger4 ,neighbours are presumed to take cognizance of each other's acts4 ,vicini vicinorum facta praesumuntur scire4 ,this principle1 which1 like the rest1 is as true of nations as of individual men1 has bestowed on the grand vicinage of ,europe a duty to know1 and a right to prevent1 any capital innovation which may amount to the erection of a dangerous nuisance4 ,,european ,,community4 ,the operation of dangerous and delusive first principles obliges us to have recourse to the true ones4 ,in the intercourse between nations1 we are apt to rely too much on the instrumental part4 ,we lay too much weight upon the formality of treaties and compacts4 ,we do not act much more wisely when we trust to the interests of men as guarantees of their engagements4 ,the interests frequently tear to pieces the engagements2 and the passions trample upon both4 ,entirely to trust to either1 is to disregard our own safety1 or not to know mankind4 ,men are not tied to one another by papers and seals4 ,they are led to associate by resemblances1 by conformities1 by sympathies4 ,it is with nations as with individuals4 ,nothing is so strong a tie of amity between nation and nation as correspondence in laws1 customs1 manners1 and habits of life4 ,they have more than the force of treaties in themselves4 ,they are obligations written in the heart4 ,they approximate men to men1 without their knowledge1 and sometimes against their intentions4 ,the secret1 unseen1 but irrefragable bond of habitual intercourse holds them together1 even when their perverse and litigious nature sets them to equivocate1 scuffle1 and fight1 about the terms of their written obligations4 ,as to war1 if it be the means of wrong and violence1 it is the sole means of justice amongst nations4 ,nothing can banish it from the world4 ,they who say otherwise1 intending to impose upon us1 do not impose upon themselves4 ,but it is one of the greatest objects of human wisdom to mitigate those evils which we are unable to remove4 ,the conformity and analogy of which ,i speak1 incapable1 like everything else1 of preserving perfect trust and tranquillity among men1 has a strong tendency to facilitate accommodation1 and to produce a generous oblivion of the rancour of their quarrels4 ,with this similitude1 peace is more of peace1 and war is less of war4 ,i will go further4 ,there have been periods of time in which communities1 apparently in peace with each other1 have been more perfectly separated than1 in latter times1 many nations in ,europe have been in the course of long and bloody wars4 ,the cause must be sought in the similitude throughout ,europe of religion1 laws1 and manners4 ,at bottom1 these are all the same4 ,the writers on public law have often called this ,,aggregate of nations a commonwealth4 ,they had reason4 ,it is virtually one great state having the same basis of general law1 with some diversity of provincial customs and local establishments4 ,the nations of ,europe have had the very same ,christian religion1 agreeing in the fundamental parts1 varying a little in the ceremonies and in the subordinate doctrines4 ,the whole of the polity and economy of every country in ,europe has been derived from the same sources4 ,it was drawn from the old ,germanic or ,gothic custumary1 from the feudal institutions which must be considered as an emanation from that custumary2 and the whole has been improved and digested into system and discipline by the ,roman law4 ,from hence arose the several orders1 with or without a monarch 7which are called states71 in every ,european country2 the strong traces of which1 where monarchy predominated1 were never wholly extinguished or merged in despotism4 ,in the few places where monarchy was cast off1 the spirit of ,european monarchy was still left4 ,those countries still continued countries of states2 that is1 of classes1 orders1 and distinctions such as had before subsisted1 or nearly so4 ,indeed1 the force and form of the institution called states continued in greater perfection in those republican communities than under monarchies4 ,from all those sources arose a system of manners and of education which was nearly similar in all this quarter of the globe2 and which softened1 blended1 and harmonized the colours of the whole4 ,,perils ,,of ,,jacobin ,,peace4 ,the same temper which brings us to solicit a ,jacobin peace1 will induce us to temporize with all the evils of it4 ,by degrees our minds will be made to our circumstances4 ,the novelty of such things1 which produces half the horror1 and all the disgust1 will be worn off4 ,our ruin will be disguised in profit1 and the sale of a few wretched baubles will bribe a degenerate people to barter away the most precious jewel of their souls4 ,our constitution is not made for this kind of warfare4 ,it provides greatly for our happiness1--it furnishes few means for our defence4 ,it is formed1 in a great measure1 upon the principle of jealousy of the crown2 and1 as things stood when it took that turn1 with very great reason4 ,i go further2 it must keep alive some part of that fire of jealousy eternally and chastely burning1 or it cannot be the ,british constitution4 ,at various periods we have had tyranny in this country1 more than enough4 ,we have had rebellions1 with more or less justification4 ,some of our kings have made adulterous connections abroad1 and trucked away for foreign gold the interests and glory of their crown4 ,but before this time our liberty has never been corrupted4 ,i mean to say1 that it has never been debauched from its domestic relations4 ,to this time it has been ,english liberty1 and ,english liberty only4 ,our love of liberty and our love of our country were not distinct things4 ,liberty is now1 it seems1 put upon a larger and more liberal bottom4 ,we are men1 and as men1 undoubtedly nothing human is foreign to us4 ,we cannot be too liberal in our general wishes for the happiness of our kind4 ,but in all questions on the mode of procuring it for any particular community1 we ought to be fearful of admitting those who have no interest in it1 or who have1 perhaps1 an interest against it1 into the consultation4 ,above all1 we cannot be too cautious in our communication with those who seek their happiness by other roads than those of humanity1 morals1 and religion1 and whose liberty consists1 and consists alone1 in being free from those restraints which are imposed by the virtues upon the passions4 ,when we invite danger from a confidence in defensive measures1 we ought1 first of all1 to be sure that it is a species of danger against which any defensive measures that can be adopted will be sufficient4 ,next we ought to know that the spirit of our laws1 or that our own dispositions1 which are stronger than laws1 are susceptible of all those defensive measures which the occasion may require4 ,a third consideration is1 whether these measures will not bring more odium than strength to government2 and the last1 whether the authority that makes them1 in a general corruption of manners and principles1 can insure their execution8 ,let no one argue from the state of things1 as he sees them at present1 concerning what will be the means and capacities of government1 when the time arrives1 which shall call for remedies commensurate to enormous evils4 ,it is an obvious truth that no constitution can defend itself3 it must be defended by the wisdom and fortitude of men4 ,these are what no constitution can give3 they are the gifts of ,god2 and he alone knows whether we shall possess such gifts at the time when we stand in need of them4 ,constitutions furnish the civil means of getting at the natural2 it is all that in this case they can do4 ,but our constitution has more impediments than helps4 ,its excellencies1 when they come to be put to this sort of proof1 may be found among its defects4 ,nothing looks more awful and imposing than an ancient fortification4 ,its lofty1 embattled walls1 its bold1 projecting1 rounded towers1 that pierce the sky1 strike the imagination1 and promise inexpugnable strength4 ,but they are the very things that make its weakness4 ,you may as well think of opposing one of these old fortresses to the mass of artillery brought by a ,french irruption into the field1 as to think of resisting1 by your old laws1 and your old forms1 the new destruction which the corps of ,jacobin engineers of to-day prepare for all such forms and all such laws4 ,besides the debility and false principle of their construction to resist the present modes of attack1 the fortress itself is in ruinous repair1 and there is a practicable breach in every part of it4 ,such is the work4 ,but miserable works have been defended by the constancy of the garrison4 ,weather-beaten ships have been brought safe to port by the spirit and alertness of the crew4 ,but it is here that we shall eminently fail4 ,the day that1 by their consent1 the seat of regicide has its place among the thrones of ,europe1 there is no longer a motive for zeal in their favour2 it will at best be cold1 unimpassioned1 dejected1 melancholy duty4 ,the glory will seem all on the other side4 ,the friends of the crown will appear1 not as champions1 but as victims2 discountenanced1 mortified1 lowered1 defeated1 they will fall into listlessness and indifference4 ,they will leave things to take their course2 enjoy the present hour1 and submit to the common fate4 ,,parliamentary ,,and ,,regal ,,prerogative4 ,your throne cannot stand secure upon the principles of unconditional submission and passive obedience2 on powers exercised without the concurrence of the people to be governed2 on acts made in defiance of their prejudices and habits2 on acquiescence procured by foreign mercenary troops1 and secured by standing armies4 ,these may possibly be the foundation of other thrones3 they must be the subversion of yours4 ,it was not to passive principles in our ancestors that we owe the honour of appearing before a sovereign1 who cannot feel that he is a prince1 without knowing that we ought to be free4 ,the revolution is a departure from the ancient course of the descent of this monarchy4 ,the people at that time re-entered into their original rights2 and it was not because a positive law authorized what was then done1 but because the freedom and safety of the subject1 the origin and cause of all laws1 required a proceeding paramount and superior to them4 ,at that ever-memorable and instructive period1 the letter of the law was superseded in favour of the substance of liberty4 ,to the free choice1 therefore1 of the people1 without either king or parliament1 we owe that happy establishment1 out of which both king and parliament were regenerated4 ,from that great principle of liberty have originated the statutes1 confirming and ratifying the establishment1 from which your majesty derives your right to rule over us4 ,those statutes have not given us our liberties2 our liberties have produced them4 ,every hour of your majesty's reign your title stands upon the very same foundation on which it was at first laid2 and we do not know a better on which it can possibly be placed4 ,convinced1 sir1 that you cannot have different rights and a different security in different parts of your dominions1 we wish to lay an even platform for your throne2 and to give it an unmovable stability1 by laying it on the general freedom of your people2 and by securing to your majesty that confidence and affection in all parts of your dominions1 which makes your best security and dearest title in this the chief seat of your empire4 ,such1 sir1 being amongst us the foundation of monarchy itself1 much more clearly and much more peculiarly is it the ground of all parliamentary power4 ,parliament is a security provided for the protection of freedom1 and not a subtile fiction1 contrived to amuse the people in its place4 ,the authority of both houses can1 still less than that of the crown1 be supported upon different principles in different places1 so as to be1 for one part of your subjects1 a protector of liberty1 and for another a fund of despotism1 through which prerogative is extended by occasional powers1 whenever an arbitrary will finds itself straitened by the restrictions of law4 ,had it seemed good to parliament to consider itself as the indulgent guardian and strong protector of the freedom of the subordinate popular assemblies1 instead of exercising its power to their annihilation1 there is no doubt that it never could have been their inclination1 because not their interest1 to raise questions on the extent of parliamentary rights1 or to enfeeble privileges which were the security of their own4 ,powers evident from necessity1 and not suspicious from an alarming mode or purpose in the exertion1 would1 as formerly they were1 be cheerfully submitted to2 and these would have been fully sufficient for conservation of unity in the empire1 and for directing its wealth to one common centre4 ,another use has produced other consequences2 and a power which refuses to be limited by moderation must either be lost1 or find other more distinct and satisfactory limitations4 ,,burke',s ,,design ,,in ,,his ,,greatest ,,work4 ,he had undertaken to demonstrate by arguments which he thought could not be refuted1 and by documents which he was sure could not be denied1 that no comparison was to be made between the ,british government and the ,french usurpation4 ,that they who endeavoured madly to compare them1 were by no means making the comparison of one good system with another good system1 which varied only in local and circumstantial differences2 much less1 that they were holding out to us a superior pattern of legal liberty1 which we might substitute in the place of our old1 and1 as they described it1 superannuated constitution4 ,he meant to demonstrate that the ,french scheme was not a comparative good1 but a positive evil4 ,that the question did not at all turn1 as had been stated1 on a parallel between a monarchy and a republic4 ,he denied that the present scheme of things in ,france did at all deserve the respectable name of a republic3 he had therefore no comparison between monarchies and republics to make4 ,that what was done in ,france was a wild attempt to methodize anarchy2 to perpetuate and fix disorder4 ,that it was a foul1 impious1 monstrous thing1 wholly out of the course of moral nature4 ,he undertook to prove that it was generated in treachery1 fraud1 falsehood1 hypocrisy1 and unprovoked murder4 ,he offered to make out that those who had led in that business had conducted themselves with the utmost perfidy to their colleagues in function1 and with the most flagrant perjury both towards their king and their constituents2 to the one of whom the ,assembly had sworn fealty1 and to the other1 when under no sort of violence or constraint1 they had sworn a full obedience to instructions4--,that1 by the terror of assassination1 they had driven away a very great number of the members1 so as to produce a false appearance of a majority4--,that this fictitious majority had fabricated a constitution1 which1 as now it stands1 is a tyranny far beyond any example that can be found in the civilized ,european world of our age2 that therefore the lovers of it must be lovers1 not of liberty1 but if they really understand its nature1 of the lowest and basest of all servitude4 ,he proposed to prove that the present state of things in ,france is not a transient evil1 productive1 as some have too favourably represented it1 of a lasting good2 but that the present evil is only the means of producing future and 7if that were possible7 worse evils4--,that it is not an undigested1 imperfect1 and crude scheme of liberty1 which may gradually be mellowed and ripened into an orderly and social freedom2 but that it is so fundamentally wrong1 as to be utterly incapable of correcting itself by any length of time1 or of being formed into any mode of polity of which a member of the ,house of ,commons could publicly declare his approbation4 ,,lord ,,keppel4 ,i ever looked on ,lord ,keppel as one of the greatest and best men of his age2 and ,i loved and cultivated him accordingly4 ,he was much in my heart1 and ,i believe ,i was in his to the very last beat4 ,it was at his trial at ,portsmouth that he gave me this picture4 ,with what zeal and anxious affection ,i attended him through that his agony of glory1 what part my son took in the early flush and enthusiasm of his virtue1 and the pious passion with which he attached himself to all my connections1 with what prodigality we both squandered ourselves in courting almost every sort of enmity for his sake1 ,i believe he felt1 just as ,i should have felt such friendship on such an occasion4 ,i partook indeed of this honour with several of the first1 and best1 and ablest in the kingdom1 but ,i was behindhand with none of them2 and ,i am sure1 that if to the eternal disgrace of this nation1 and to the total annihilation of every trace of honour and virtue in it1 things had taken a different turn from what they did1 ,i should have attended him to the quarter-deck with no less good-will and more pride1 though with far other feelings1 than ,i partook of the general flow of national joy that attended the justice that was done to his virtue4 ,pardon1 my lord1 the feeble garrulity of age1 which loves to diffuse itself in discourse of the departed great4 ,at my years we live in retrospect alone2 and1 wholly unfitted for the society of vigorous life1 we enjoy1 the best balm to all wounds1 the consolation of friendship in those only whom we have lost for ever4 ,feeling the loss of ,lord ,keppel at all times1 at no time did ,i feel it so much as on the first day when ,i was attacked in the ,house of ,lords4 ,had he lived1 that reverend form would have risen in its place1 and1 with a mild1 parental reprehension to his nephew the duke of ,bedford1 he would have told him that the favour of that gracious prince1 who had honoured his virtues with the government of the navy of ,great ,britain1 and with a seat in the hereditary great council of his kingdom1 was not undeservedly shown to the friend of the best portion of his life1 and his faithful companion and counsellor under his rudest trials4 ,he would have told him1 that to whomever else these reproaches might be becoming1 they were not decorous in his near kindred4 ,he would have told him that when men in that rank lose decorum they lose everything4 ,on that day ,i had a loss in ,lord ,keppel2 but the public loss of him in this awful crisis--6 ,i speak from much knowledge of the person1 he never would have listened to any compromise with the rabble rout of this sans-culotterie of ,france4 ,his goodness of heart1 his reason1 his taste1 his public duty1 his principles1 his prejudices1 would have repelled him for ever from all connection with that horrid medley of madness1 vice1 impiety1 and crime4 ,lord ,keppel had two countries2 one of descent1 and one of birth4 ,their interest and their glory are the same2 and his mind was capacious of both4 ,his family was noble1 and it was ,dutch3 that is1 he was the oldest and purest nobility that ,europe can boast1 among a people renowned above all others for love of their native land4 ,though it was never shown in insult to any human being1 ,lord ,keppel was something high4 ,it was a wild stock of pride1 on which the tenderest of all hearts had grafted the milder virtues4 ,he valued ancient nobility2 and he was not disinclined to augment it with new honours4 ,he valued the old nobility and the new1 not as an excuse for inglorious sloth1 but as an incitement to virtuous activity4 ,he considered it as a sort of cure for selfishness and a narrow mind2 conceiving that a man born in an elevated place in himself was nothing1 but everything in what went before1 and what was to come after him4 ,without much speculation1 but by the sure instinct of ingenuous feelings1 and by the dictates of plain1 unsophisticated1 natural understanding1 he felt that no great commonwealth could by any possibility long subsist without a body of some kind or other of nobility1 decorated with honour1 and fortified by privilege4 ,this nobility forms the chain that connects the ages of a nation1 which otherwise 7with ,mr4 ,paine7 would soon be taught that no one generation can bind another4 ,he felt that no political fabric could be well made without some such order of things as might1 through a series of time1 afford a rational hope of securing unity1 coherence1 consistency1 and stability to the state4 ,he felt that nothing else can protect it against the levity of courts1 and the greater levity of the multitude4 ,that to talk of hereditary monarchy1 without anything else of hereditary reverence in the commonwealth1 was a low-minded absurdity1 fit only for those detestable fools aspiring to be knaves1 who began to forge in #aghi the false money of the ,french constitution4--,that it is one fatal objection to all ,,new fancied and ,,new ,,fabricated republics 7among a people who1 once possessing such an advantage1 have wickedly and insolently rejected it71 that the ,,prejudice of an old nobility is a thing that ,,cannot be made4 ,it may be improved1 it may be corrected1 it may be replenished3 men may be taken from it or aggregated to it1 but the ,,thing ,,itself is matter of ,,inveterate opinion1 and therefore ,,cannot be matter of mere positive institution4 ,he felt that this nobility in fact does not exist in wrong of other orders of the state1 but by them1 and for them4 ,,labouring ,,poor4 ,let government protect and encourage industry1 secure property1 repress violence1 and discountenance fraud1 it is all that they have to do4 ,in other respects1 the less they meddle in these affairs the better2 the rest is in the hands of our ,master and theirs4 ,we are in a constitution of things wherein--,modo sol nimius1 modo corripit imber4 ,but ,i will push this matter no further4 ,as ,i have said a good deal upon it at various times during my public service1 and have lately written something on it which may yet see the light1 ,i shall content myself now with observing1 that the vigorous and laborious class of life has lately got1 from the bon ton of the humanity of this day1 the name of the labouring poor4 ,we have heard many plans for the relief of the labouring poor4 ,this puling jargon is not as innocent as it is foolish4 ,in meddling with great affairs1 weakness is never innoxious4 ,hitherto the name of poor 7in the sense in which it is used to excite compassion7 has not been used for those who can1 but for those who cannot1 labour--for the sick and infirm1 for orphan infancy1 for languishing and decrepit age3 but when we affect to pity1 as poor1 those who must labour1 or the world cannot exist1 we are trifling with the condition of mankind4 ,it is the common doom of man that he must eat his bread by the sweat of his brow1 that is1 by the sweat of his body1 or the sweat of his mind4 ,if this toil was inflicted as a curse1 it is1 as might be expected from the curses of the ,father of all blessings--it is tempered with many alleviations1 many comforts4 ,every attempt to fly from it1 and to refuse the very terms of our existence1 becomes much more truly a curse2 and heavier pains and penalties fall upon those who would elude the tasks which are put upon them by the great ,master ,workman of the world1 who1 in his dealings with his creatures1 sympathizes with their weakness1 and speaking of a creation wrought by mere will out of nothing1 speaks of six days of ,,labour and one of ,,rest4 ,i do not call a healthy young man1 cheerful in his mind1 and vigorous in his arms1 ,i cannot call such a man ,,poor2 ,i cannot pity my kind as a kind1 merely because they are men4 ,this affected pity only tends to dissatisfy them with their condition1 and to teach them to seek resources where no resources are to be found1 in something else than their own industry1 and frugality1 and sobriety4 ,whatever may be the intention 7which1 because ,i do not know1 ,i cannot dispute7 of those who would discontent mankind by this strange pity1 they act towards us1 in the consequences1 as if they were our worst enemies4 ,,state ,,consecrated ,,by ,,the ,,church4 ,i beg leave to speak of our church establishment1 which is the first of our prejudices1 not a prejudice destitute of reason1 but involving in it profound and extensive wisdom4 ,i speak of it first4 ,it is first1 and last1 and midst in our minds4 ,for1 taking ground on that religious system1 of which we are now in possession1 we continue to act on the early received and uniformly continued sense of mankind4 ,that sense not only1 like a wise architect1 hath built up the august fabric of states1 but like a provident proprietor1 to preserve the structure from profanation and ruin1 as a sacred temple purged from all the impurities of fraud1 and violence1 and injustice1 and tyranny1 hath solemnly and for ever consecrated the commonwealth1 and all that officiate in it4 ,this consecration is made1 that all who administer in the government of men1 in which they stand in the person of ,god himself1 should have high and worthy notions of their function and destination2 that their hope should be full of immortality2 that they should not look to the paltry pelf of the moment1 nor to the temporary and transient praise of the vulgar1 but to a solid1 permanent existence1 in the permanent part of their nature1 and to a permanent fame and glory1 in the example they leave as a rich inheritance to the world4 ,such sublime principles ought to be infused into persons of exalted situations2 and religious establishments provided1 that may continually revive and enforce them4 ,every sort of moral1 every sort of civil1 every sort of politic institution1 aiding the rational and natural ties that connect the human understanding and affections to the divine1 are not more than necessary1 in order to build up that wonderful structure1 ,man2 whose prerogative it is1 to be in a great degree a creature of his own making2 and who1 when made as he ought to be made1 is destined to hold no trivial place in the creation4 ,but whenever man is put over men1 as the better nature ought ever to preside1 in that case more particularly1 he should as nearly as possible be approximated to his perfection4 ,the consecration of the state1 by a state religious establishment1 is necessary also to operate with a wholesome awe upon free citizens2 because in order to secure their freedom1 they must enjoy some determinate portion of power4 ,to them therefore a religion connected with the state1 and with their duty towards it1 becomes even more necessary than in such societies1 where the people1 by the terms of their subjection1 are confined to private sentiments1 and the management of their own family concerns4 ,all persons possessing any portion of power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust2 and that they are to account for their conduct in that trust to the one great ,master1 ,author1 and ,founder of society4 ,this principle ought even to be more strongly impressed upon the minds of those who compose the collective sovereignty1 than upon those of single princes4 ,without instruments1 these princes can do nothing4 ,whoever uses instruments1 in finding helps1 finds also impediments4 ,their power is therefore by no means complete2 nor are they safe in extreme abuse4 ,such persons1 however elevated by flattery1 arrogance1 and self-opinion1 must be sensible that whether covered or not by positive law1 in some way or other they are accountable even here for the abuse of their trust4 ,if they are not cut off by a rebellion of their people1 they may be strangled by the very janissaries kept for their security against all other rebellion4 ,thus we have seen the king of ,france sold by his soldiers for an increase of pay4 ,but where popular authority is absolute and unrestrained1 the people have an infinitely greater1 because a far better founded1 confidence in their own power4 ,they are themselves1 in a great measure1 their own instruments4 ,they are nearer to their objects4 ,besides1 they are less under responsibility to one of the greatest controlling powers on earth1 the sense of fame and estimation4 ,the share of infamy1 that is likely to fall to the lot of each individual in public acts1 is small indeed2 the operation of opinion being in the inverse ratio to the number of those who abuse power4 ,their own approbation of their own acts has to them the appearance of a public judgment in their favour4 ,a perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world4 ,as it is the most shameless1 it is also the most fearless4 ,no man apprehends in his person that he can be made subject to punishment4 ,certainly the people at large never ought3 for as all punishments are for example towards the conservation of the people at large1 the people at large can never become the subject of punishment by any human hand4 7,quicquid multis peccatur inultum47 ,it is therefore of infinite importance that they should not be suffered to imagine that their will1 any more than that of kings1 is the standard of right and wrong4 ,they ought to be persuaded that they are full as little entitled1 and far less qualified1 with safety to themselves1 to use any arbitrary power whatsoever2 that therefore they are not1 under a false show of liberty1 but in truth1 to exercise an unnatural1 inverted domination1 tyranically to exact from those who officiate in the state1 not an entire devotion to their interest1 which is their right1 but an abject submission to their occasional will2 extinguishing thereby1 in all those who serve them1 all moral principle1 all sense of dignity1 all use of judgment1 and all consistency of character2 whilst by the very same process they give themselves up a proper1 a suitable1 but a most contemptible prey to the servile ambition of popular sycophants1 or courtly flatterers4 ,,fate ,,of ,,louis ,,xviii4 ,let those who have the trust of political or of natural authority ever keep watch against the desperate enterprises of innovation3 let even their benevolence be fortified and armed4 ,they have before their eyes the example of a monarch1 insulted1 degraded1 confined1 deposed2 his family dispersed1 scattered1 imprisoned2 his wife insulted to his face like the vilest of the sex1 by the vilest of all populace2 himself three times dragged by these wretches in an infamous triumph2 his children torn from him1 in violation of the first right of nature1 and given into the tuition of the most desperate and impious of the leaders of desperate and impious clubs2 his revenues dilapidated and plundered2 his magistrates murdered2 his clergy proscribed1 persecuted1 famished2 his nobility degraded in their rank1 undone in their fortunes1 fugitives in their persons2 his armies corrupted and ruined2 his whole people impoverished1 disunited1 dissolved2 whilst through the bars of his prison1 and amidst the bayonets of his keepers1 he hears the tumult of two conflicting factions1 equally wicked and abandoned1 who agree in principles1 in dispositions1 and in objects1 but who tear each other to pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining their common end2 the one contending to preserve for a while his name1 and his person1 the more easily to destroy the royal authority--the other clamouring to cut off the name1 the person1 and the monarchy together1 by one sacrilegious execution4 ,all this accumulation of calamity1 the greatest that ever fell upon one man1 has fallen upon his head1 because he had left his virtues unguarded by caution2 because he was not taught that1 where power is concerned1 he who will confer benefits must take security against ingratitude4 ,,nobility4 ,all this violent cry against the nobility ,i take to be a mere work of art4 ,to be honoured and even privileged by the laws1 opinions1 and inveterate usages of our country1 growing out of the prejudice of ages1 has nothing to provoke horror and indignation in any man4 ,even to be too tenacious of those privileges is not absolutely a crime4 ,the strong struggle in every individual to preserve possession of what he has found to belong to him1 and to distinguish him1 is one of the securities against injustice and despotism implanted in our nature4 ,it operates as an instinct to secure property1 and to preserve communities in a settled state4 ,what is there to shock in this8 ,nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order4 ,it is the ,corinthian capital of polished society4 ,omnes boni nobilitati semper favemus1 was the saying of a wise and good man4 ,it is indeed one sign of a liberal and benevolent mind to incline to it with some sort of partial propensity4 ,he feels no ennobling principle in his own heart who wishes to level all the artificial institutions which have been adopted for giving a body to opinion1 and permanence to fugitive esteem4 ,it is a sour1 malignant1 envious disposition1 without taste for the reality1 or for any image or representation of virtue1 that sees with joy the unmerited fall of what had long flourished in splendour and in honour4 ,i do not like to see anything destroyed2 any void produced in society2 any ruin on the face of the land4 ,it was therefore with no disappointment or dissatisfaction that my inquiries and observations did not present to me any incorrigible vices in the noblesse of ,france1 or any abuse which could not be removed by a reform very short of abolition4 ,your noblesse did not deserve punishment3 but to degrade is to punish4 ,it was with the same satisfaction ,i found that the result of my inquiry concerning your clergy was not dissimilar4 ,it is no soothing news to my ears1 that great bodies of men are incurably corrupt4 ,it is not with much credulity ,i listen to any when they speak evil of those whom they are going to plunder4 ,i rather suspect that vices are feigned or exaggerated when profit is looked for in their punishment4 ,an enemy is a bad witness2 a robber is a worse4 ,vices and abuses there were undoubtedly in that order1 and must be4 ,it was an old establishment1 and not frequently revised4 ,but ,i saw no crimes in the individuals that merited confiscation of their substance1 nor those cruel insults and degradations1 and that unnatural persecution1 which have been substituted in the place of meliorating regulation4 ,if there had been any just cause for this new religious persecution1 the atheistic libellers1 who act as trumpeters to animate the populace to plunder1 do not love anybody so much as not to dwell with complacence on the vices of the existing clergy4 ,this they have not done4 ,they find themselves obliged to rake into the histories of former ages 7which they have ransacked with a malignant and profligate industry7 for every instance of oppression and persecution which has been made by that body or in its favour1 in order to justify1 upon very iniquitous1 because very illogical1 principles of retaliation1 their own persecutions and their own cruelties4 ,after destroying all other genealogies and family distinctions1 they invent a sort of pedigree of crimes4 ,it is not very just to chastise men for the offences of their natural ancestors3 but to take the fiction of ancestry in a corporate succession as a ground for punishing men who have no relation to guilty acts1 except in names and general descriptions1 is a sort of refinement in injustice belonging to the philosophy of this enlightened age4 ,the ,assembly punishes men1 many1 if not most1 of whom abhor the violent conduct of ecclesiastics in former times as much as their present persecutors can do1 and who would be as loud and as strong in the expression of that sense1 if they were not well aware of the purposes for which all this declamation is employed4 ,corporate bodies are immortal for the good of the members1 but not for their punishment4 ,nations themselves are such corporations4 ,as well might we in ,england think of waging inexpiable war upon all ,frenchmen for the evils which they have brought upon us in the several periods of our mutual hostilities4 ,you might1 on your part1 think yourselves justified in falling upon all ,englishmen on account of the unparalleled calamities brought upon the people of ,france by the unjust invasions of our ,henries and our ,edwards4 ,indeed1 we should be mutually justified in this exterminatory war upon each other1 full as much as you are in the unprovoked persecution of your present countrymen1 on account of the conduct of men of the same name in other times4 ,,legislation ,,and ,,republicans4 ,the legislators who framed the ancient republics knew that their business was too arduous to be accomplished with no better apparatus than the metaphysics of an undergraduate1 and the mathematics and arithmetic of an exciseman4 ,they had to do with men1 and they were obliged to study human nature4 ,they had to do with citizens1 and they were obliged to study the effects of those habits which are communicated by the circumstances of civil life4 ,they were sensible that the operation of this second nature on the first produced a new combination2 and thence arose many diversities amongst men1 according to their birth1 their education1 their professions1 the periods of their lives1 their residence in towns or in the country1 their several ways of acquiring and of fixing property1 and according to the quality of the property itself1 all which rendered them as it were so many different species of animals4 ,from hence they thought themselves obliged to dispose their citizens into such classes1 and to place them in such situations in the state as their peculiar habits might qualify them to fill1 and to allot to them such appropriated privileges as might secure to them what their specific occasions required1 and which might furnish to each description such force as might protect it in the conflict caused by the diversity of interests that must exist1 and must contend1 in all complex society2 for the legislator would have been ashamed that the coarse husbandman should well know how to assort and to use his sheep1 horses1 and oxen1 and should have enough of common sense not to abstract and equalize them all into animals1 without providing for each kind an appropriate food1 care1 and employment2 whilst he1 the economist1 disposer1 and shepherd of his own kindred1 subliming himself into an airy metaphysician1 was resolved to know nothing of his flocks but as men in general4 ,it is for this reason that ,montesquieu observed1 very justly1 that in their classification of the citizens1 the great legislators of antiquity made the greatest display of their powers1 and even soared above themselves4 ,it is here that your modern legislators have gone deep into the negative series1 and sunk even below their own nothing4 ,as the first sort of legislators attended to the different kinds of citizens1 and combined them into one commonwealth1 the others1 the metaphysical and alchemistical legislators1 have taken the directly contrary course4 ,they have attempted to confound all sorts of citizens1 as well as they could1 into one homogeneous mass2 and then they divided this their amalgama into a number of incoherent republics4 ,they reduce men to loose counters1 merely for the sake of simple telling1 and not to figures whose power is to arise from their place in the table4 ,the elements of their own metaphysics might have taught them better lessons4 ,the troll of their categorical table might have informed them that there was something else in the intellectual world besides ,,substance and ,,quantity4 ,they might learn from the catechism of metaphysics that there were eight heads more1 in every complex deliberation1 which they have never thought of2 though these1 of all the ten1 are the subjects on which the skill of man can operate anything at all4 ,so far from this able disposition of some of the old republican legislators1 which follows with a solicitous accuracy the moral conditions and propensities of men1 they have leveled and crushed together all the orders which they found1 even under the coarse1 unartificial arrangement of the monarchy1 in which mode of government the classing of the citizens is not of so much importance as in a republic4 ,it is true1 however1 that every such classification1 if properly ordered1 is good in all forms of government2 and composes a strong barrier against the excesses of despotism1 as well as it is the necessary means of giving effect and permanence to a republic4 ,for want of something of this kind1 if the present project of a republic should fail1 all securities to a moderated freedom fail along with it2 all the indirect restraints which mitigate despotism are removed2 insomuch that if monarchy should ever again obtain an entire ascendancy in ,france1 under this or under any other dynasty1 it will probably be1 if not voluntarily tempered at setting out by the wise and virtuous counsels of the prince1 the most completely arbitrary power that has ever appeared on earth4 ,this is to play a most desperate game4 ,,principle ,,of ,,state-,,consecration4 ,but one of the first and most leading principles on which the commonwealth and the laws are consecrated1 is lest the temporary possessors and life-renters in it1 unmindful of what they have received from their ancestors1 or of what is due to their posterity1 should act as if they were the entire masters2 that they should not think it amongst their rights to cut off the entail1 or commit waste on the inheritance1 by destroying at their pleasure the whole original fabric of their society2 hazarding to leave to those who come after them a ruin instead of an habitation--and teaching these successors as little to respect their contrivances1 as they had themselves respected the institutions of their forefathers4 ,by this unprincipled facility of changing the state as often1 and as much1 and in as many ways1 as there are floating fancies or fashions1 the whole chain and continuity of the commonwealth would be broken4 ,no one generation could link with the other4 ,men would become little better than the flies of a summer4 ,and first of all1 the science of jurisprudence1 the pride of the human intellect1 which1 with all its defects1 redundancies1 and errors1 is the collected reason of ages1 combining the principles of original justice with the infinite variety of human concerns1 as a heap of old exploded errors1 would be no longer studied4 ,personal self-sufficiency and arrogance 7the certain attendants upon all those who have never experienced a wisdom greater than their own7 would usurp the tribunal4 ,of course no certain laws1 establishing invariable grounds of hope and fear1 would keep the actions of men in a certain course1 or direct them to a certain end4 ,nothing stable in the modes of holding property1 or exercising function1 could form a solid ground on which any parent could speculate in the education of his offspring1 or in a choice for their future establishment in the world4 ,no principles would be early worked into the habits4 ,as soon as the most able instructor had completed his laborious course of institution1 instead of sending forth his pupil1 accomplished in a virtuous discipline1 fitted to procure him attention and respect in his place in society1 he would find everything altered2 and that he had turned out a poor creature to the contempt and derision of the world1 ignorant of the true grounds of estimation4 ,who would insure a tender and delicate sense of honour to beat almost with the first pulses of the heart1 when no man could know what would be the test of honour in a nation1 continually varying the standard of its coin8 ,no part of life would retain its acquisitions4 ,barbarism with regard to science and literature1 unskilfulness with regard to arts and manufactures1 would infallibly succeed to the want of a steady education and settled principle2 and thus the commonwealth itself would1 in a few generations1 crumble away1 be disconnected into the dust and powder of individuality1 and at length dispersed to all the winds of heaven4 ,to avoid therefore the evils of inconstancy and versatility1 ten thousand times worse than those of obstinacy and the blindest prejudice1 we have consecrated the state1 that no man should approach to look into its defects or corruptions but with due caution2 that he should never dream of beginning its reformation by its subversion2 that he should approach to the faults of the state as to the wounds of a father1 with pious awe1 and trembling solicitude4 ,by this wise prejudice we are taught to look with horror on those children of their country1 who are prompt rashly to hack that aged parent in pieces1 and put him into the kettle of magicians1 in hopes that by their poisonous weeds1 and wild incantations1 they may regenerate the paternal constitution1 and renovate their father's life4 ,,british ,,stability4 ,four hundred years have gone over us2 but ,i believe we are not materially changed since that period4 ,thanks to our sullen resistance to innovation1 thanks to the cold sluggishness of our national character1 we still bear the stamp of our forefathers4 ,we have not 7as ,i conceive7 lost the generosity and dignity of thinking of the fourteenth century2 nor as yet have we subtilized ourselves into savages4 ,we are not the converts of ,rousseau2 we are not the disciples of ,voltaire2 ,helvetius has made no progress amongst us4 ,atheists are not our preachers2 madmen are not our lawgivers4 ,we know that ,,we have made no discoveries2 and we think that no discoveries are to be made in morality2 nor many in the great principles of government1 nor in the ideas of liberty2 which were understood long before we were born1 altogether as well as they will be after the grave has heaped its mould upon our presumption1 and the silent tomb shall have imposed its law on our pert loquacity4 ,in ,england we have not yet been completely embowelled of our natural entrails2 we still feel within us1 and we cherish and cultivate1 those inbred sentiments which are the faithful guardians1 the active monitors of our duty1 the true supporters of all liberal and manly morals4 ,we have not been drawn and trussed1 in order that we may be filled1 like stuffed birds in a museum1 with chaff and rags and paltry blurred shreds of paper about the rights of man4 ,we preserve the whole of our feelings still native and entire1 unsophisticated by pedantry and infidelity4 ,we have real hearts of flesh and blood beating in our bosoms4 ,we fear ,god2 we look up with awe to kings2 with affection to parliaments2 with duty to magistrates2 with reverence to priests2 and with respect to nobility4 ,why8 ,because when such ideas are brought before our minds1 it is ,,natural to be so affected2 because all other feelings are false and spurious1 and tend to corrupt our minds1 to vitiate our primary morals1 to render us unfit for rational liberty2 and by teaching us a servile1 licentious1 and abandoned insolence1 to be our low sport for a few holidays1 to make us perfectly fit for1 and justly deserving of1 slavery1 through the whole course of our lives4 ,you see1 sir1 that in this enlightened age ,i am bold enough to confess1 that we are generally men of untaught feelings2 that instead of casting away all our old prejudices1 we cherish them to a very considerable degree1 and1 to take more shame to ourselves1 we cherish them because they are prejudices2 and the longer they have lasted1 and the more generally they have prevailed1 the more we cherish them4 ,we are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason2 because we suspect that the stock in each man is small1 and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages4 ,many of our men of speculation1 instead of exploding general prejudices1 employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them4 ,if they find what they seek1 and they seldom fail1 they think it more wise to continue the prejudice1 with the reason involved1 than to cast away the coat of prejudice1 and to leave nothing but the naked reason2 because prejudice1 with its reason1 has a motive to give action to that reason1 and an affection which will give it permanence4 ,prejudice is of ready application to the emergency2 it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue1 and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision1 sceptical1 puzzled1 and unresolved4 ,prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit2 and not a series of unconnected acts4 ,through just prejudice1 his duty becomes a part of his nature4 ,,literary ,,atheists4 ,the literary cabal had some years ago formed something like a regular plan for the destruction of the ,christian religion4 ,this object they pursued with a degree of zeal which hitherto had been discovered only in the propagators of some system of piety4 ,they were possessed with a spirit of proselytism in the most fanatical degree2 and from thence1 by an easy progress1 with the spirit of persecution according to their means4 ,what was not to be done towards their great end by any direct or immediate act1 might be wrought by a longer process through the medium of opinion4 ,to command that opinion1 the first step is to establish a dominion over those who direct it4 ,they contrived to possess themselves1 with great method and perseverance1 of all the avenues to literary fame4 ,many of them indeed stood high in the ranks of literature and science4 ,the world had done them justice2 and in favour of general talents forgave the evil tendency of their peculiar principles4 ,this was true liberality2 which they returned by endeavouring to confine the reputation of sense1 learning1 and taste to themselves or their followers4 ,i will venture to say that this narrow1 exclusive spirit has not been less prejudicial to literature and to taste1 than to morals and true philosophy4 ,those atheistical fathers have a bigotry of their own2 and they have learnt to talk against monks with the spirit of a monk4 ,but in some things they are men of the world4 ,the resources of intrigue are called in to supply the defects of argument and wit4 ,to this system of literary monopoly was joined an unremitting industry to blacken and discredit in every way1 and by every means1 all those who did not hold to their faction4 ,to those who have observed the spirit of their conduct1 it has long been clear that nothing was wanted but the power of carrying the intolerance of the tongue and of the pen into a persecution which would strike at property1 liberty1 and life4 ,the desultory and faint persecution carried on against them1 more from compliance with form and decency1 than with serious resentment1 neither weakened their strength1 nor relaxed their efforts4 ,the issue of the whole was1 that1 what with opposition1 and what with success1 a violent and malignant zeal1 of a kind hitherto unknown in the world1 had taken an entire possession of their minds1 and rendered their whole conversation1 which otherwise would have been pleasing and instructive1 perfectly disgusting4 ,a spirit of cabal1 intrigue1 and proselytism1 pervaded all their thoughts1 words1 and actions4 ,and1 as controversial zeal soon turns its thoughts on force1 they began to insinuate themselves into a correspondence with foreign princes2 in hopes1 through their authority1 which at first they flattered1 they might bring about the changes they had in view4 ,to them it was indifferent whether these changes were to be accomplished by the thunderbolt of despotism1 or by the earthquake of popular commotion4 ,the correspondence between this cabal and the late king of ,prussia1 will throw no small light upon the spirit of all their proceedings4 ,for the same purpose for which they intrigued with princes1 they cultivated1 in a distinguished manner1 the monied interest of ,france2 and partly through the means furnished by those whose peculiar offices gave them the most extensive and certain means of communication1 they carefully occupied all the avenues to opinion4 ,writers1 especially when they act in a body1 and with one direction1 have great influence on the public mind2 the alliance1 therefore1 of these writers with the monied interest1 had no small effect in removing the popular odium and envy which attended that species of wealth4 ,these writers1 like the propagators of all novelties1 pretended to a great zeal for the poor1 and the lower orders1 whilst in their satires they rendered hateful1 by every exaggeration1 the faults of courts1 of nobility1 and of priesthood4 ,they became a sort of demagogues4 ,they served as a link to unite1 in favour of one object1 obnoxious wealth to restless and desperate poverty4 ,,city ,,of ,,paris4 ,the second material of cement for their new republic is the superiority of the city of ,paris3 and this ,i admit is strongly connected with the other cementing principle of paper circulation and confiscation4 ,it is in this part of the project we must look for the cause of the destruction of all the old bounds of provinces and jurisdictions1 ecclesiastical and secular1 and the dissolution of all ancient combinations of things1 as well as the formation of so many small unconnected republics4 ,the power of the city of ,paris is evidently one great spring of all their politics4 ,it is through the power of ,paris1 now become the centre and focus of jobbing1 that the leaders of this faction direct1 or rather command1 the whole legislative and the whole executive government4 ,everything therefore must be done which can confirm the authority of that city over the other republics4 ,paris is compact2 she has an enormous strength1 wholly disproportioned to the force of any of the square republics2 and this strength is collected and condensed within a narrow compass4 ,paris has a natural and easy connection of its parts1 which will not be affected by any scheme of a geometrical constitution1 nor does it much signify whether its proportion of representation be more or less1 since it has the whole draft of fishes in its drag-net4 ,the other divisions of the kingdom being hackled and torn to pieces1 and separated from all their habitual means1 and even principles of union1 cannot1 for some time at least1 confederate against her4 ,nothing was to be left in all the subordinate members1 but weakness1 disconnection1 and confusion4 ,to confirm this part of the plan1 the ,assembly has lately come to a resolution1 that no two of their republics shall have the same commander-in-chief4 ,to a person who takes a view of the whole1 the strength of ,paris1 thus formed1 will appear a system of general weakness4 ,it is boasted that the geometrical policy has been adopted1 that all local ideas should be sunk1 and that the people should be no longer ,gascons1 ,picards1 ,bretons1 ,normans2 but ,frenchmen1 with one country1 one heart1 and one ,assembly4 ,but instead of being all ,frenchmen1 the greater likelihood is1 that the inhabitants of that region will shortly have no country4 ,no man ever was attached by a sense of pride1 partiality1 or real affection1 to a description of square measurements4 ,he never will glory in belonging to the ,chequer ,no4 #ga1 or to any other badge-ticket4 ,we begin our public affections in our families4 ,no cold relation is a zealous citizen4 ,we pass on to our neighbourhoods1 and our habitual provincial connections4 ,these are inns and resting-places4 ,such divisions of our country as have been formed by habit1 and not by a sudden jerk of authority1 were so many little images of the great country in which the heart found something which it could fill4 ,the love to the whole is not extinguished by this subordinate partiality4 ,perhaps it is a sort of elemental training to those higher and more large regards1 by which alone men come to be affected1 as with their own concern1 in the prosperity of a kingdom so extensive as that of ,france4 ,in that general territory itself1 as in the old name of provinces1 the citizens are interested from old prejudices and unreasoned habits1 and not on account of the geometric properties of its figure4 ,the power and pre-eminence of ,paris does certainly press down and hold these republics together as long as it lasts4 ,but1 for the reasons ,i have already given you1 ,i think it cannot last very long4 ,,principle ,,of ,,church ,,property4 ,why should the expenditure of a great landed property1 which is a dispersion of the surplus product of the soil1 appear intolerable to you or to me1 when it takes its course through the accumulation of vast libraries1 which are the history of the force and weakness of the human mind2 through great collections of ancient records1 medals1 and coins1 which attest and explain laws and customs2 through paintings and statues1 that1 by imitating nature1 seem to extend the limits of creation2 through grand monuments of the dead1 which continue the regards and connections of life beyond the grave2 through collections of the specimens of nature1 which become a representative assembly of all the classes and families of the world1 that by disposition facilitate1 and1 by exciting curiosity1 open the avenues to science8 ,if by great permanent establishments1 all these objects of expense are better secured from the inconstant sport of personal caprice and personal extravagance1 are they worse than if the same tastes prevailed in scattered individuals8 ,does not the sweat of the mason and carpenter1 who toil in order to partake the sweat of the peasant1 flow as pleasantly and as salubriously1 in the construction and repair of the majestic edifices of religion1 as in the painted booths and sordid sties of vice and luxury2 as honourably and as profitably in repairing those sacred works1 which grow hoary with innumerable years1 as on the momentary receptacles of transient voluptuousness2 in opera-houses1 and brothels1 and gaming-houses1 and club-houses1 and obelisks in the ,champ de ,mars8 ,is the surplus product of the olive and the vine worse employed in the frugal sustenance of persons1 whom the fictions of a pious imagination raise to dignity by construing in the service of ,god1 than in pampering the innumerable multitude of those who are degraded by being made useless domestics1 subservient to the pride of man8 ,are the decorations of temples an expenditure less worthy a wise man1 than ribbons1 and laces1 and national cockades1 and petites maisons1 and petits soupers1 and all the innumerable fopperies and follies1 in which opulence sports away the burthen of its superfluity8 ,we tolerate even these2 not from love of them1 but for fear of worse4 ,we tolerate them1 because property and liberty1 to a degree1 acquire that toleration4 ,but why proscribe the other1 and surely1 in every point of view1 the more laudable use of estates8 ,why1 through the violation of all property1 through an outrage upon every principle of liberty1 forcibly carry them from the better to the worse8 ,this comparison between the new individuals and the old corps1 is made upon a supposition that no reform could be made in the latter4 ,but1 in a question of reformation1 ,i always consider corporate bodies1 whether sole or consisting of many1 to be much more susceptible of a public direction by the power of the state1 in the use of their property1 and in the regulation of modes and habits of life in their members1 than private citizens ever can be1 or perhaps ought to be3 and this seems to me a very material consideration for those who undertake anything which merits the name of a politic enterprise4 ,so far as to the estates of monasteries4 ,with regard to the estates possessed by bishops and canons1 and commendatory abbots1 ,i cannot find out for what reason some landed estates may not be held otherwise than by inheritance4 ,can any philosophic spoiler undertake to demonstrate the positive or the comparative evil of having a certain1 and that too a large1 portion of landed property1 passing in succession through persons whose title to it is1 always in theory1 and often1 in fact1 an eminent degree of piety1 morals1 and learning2 a property1 which1 by its destination1 in their turn1 and on the score of merit1 gives to the noblest families renovation and support1 to the lowest the means of dignity and elevation2 a property the tenure to which is the performance of some duty 7whatever value you may choose to set upon that duty71 and the character of whose proprietors demands1 at least1 an exterior decorum1 and gravity of manners2 who are to exercise a generous but temperate hospitality2 part of whose income they are to consider as a trust for charity2 and who1 even when they fail in their trust1 when they slide from their character1 and degenerate into a mere common secular nobleman or gentleman1 are in no respect worse than those who may succeed them in their forfeited possessions8 ,is it better that estates should be held by those who have no duty1 than by those who have one8--by those whose character and destination point to virtues1 than by those who have no rule and direction in the expenditure of their estates but their own will and appetite8 ,nor are these estates held altogether in the character or with the evils supposed inherent in mortmain4 ,they pass from hand to hand with a more rapid circulation than any other4 ,no excess is good2 and therefore too great a proportion of landed property may be held officially for life3 but it does not seem to me of material injury to any commonwealth1 that there should exist some estates that have a chance of being acquired by other means than the previous acquisition of money4 ,,parsimony ,,not ,,economy4 ,i beg leave to tell him1 that mere parsimony is not economy4 ,it is separable in theory from it2 and in fact it may1 or it may not1 be a ,,part of economy1 according to circumstances4 ,expense1 and great expense1 may be an essential part in true economy4 ,if parsimony were to be considered as one of the kinds of that virtue1 there is1 however1 another and a higher economy4 ,economy is a distributive virtue1 and consists not in saving1 but in selection4 ,parsimony requires no providence1 no sagacity1 no powers of combination1 no comparison1 no judgment4 ,mere instinct1 and that not an instinct of the noblest kind1 may produce this false economy in perfection4 ,the other economy has larger views4 ,it demands a discriminating judgment1 and a firm1 sagacious mind4 ,it shuts one door to impudent importunity1 only to open another1 and a wider1 to unpresuming merit4 ,if none but meritorious service or real talent were to be rewarded1 this nation has not wanted1 and this nation will not want1 the means of rewarding all the service it ever will receive1 and encouraging all the merit it ever will produce4 ,no state1 since the foundation of society1 has been impoverished by that species of profusion4 ,had the economy of selection and proportion been at all times observed1 we should not now have had an overgrown duke of ,bedford1 to oppress the industry of humble men1 and to limit1 by the standard of his own conceptions1 the justice1 the bounty1 or1 if he pleases1 the charity of the crown4 ,,majesty ,,of ,,the ,,british ,,constitution4 ,i wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbours the example of the ,british constitution1 than to take models from them for the improvement of our own4 ,in the former they have got an invaluable treasure4 ,they are not1 ,i think1 without some causes of apprehension and complaint2 but these they do not owe to their constitution1 but to their own conduct4 ,i think our happy situation owing to our constitution2 but owing to the whole of it1 and not to any part singly2 owing1 in a great measure1 to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations1 as well as to what we have altered or superadded4 ,our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic1 free1 and independent spirit1 in guarding what they possess from violation4 ,i would not exclude alteration neither2 but even when ,i changed1 it should be to preserve4 ,i should be led to my remedy by a great grievance4 ,in what ,i did1 ,i should follow the example of our ancestors4 ,i would make the reparation as nearly as possible in the style of the building4 ,a politic caution1 a guarded circumspection1 a moral rather than a complexional timidity1 were among the ruling principles of our forefathers in their most decided conduct4 ,not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of ,france tell us they have got so abundant a share1 they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind4 ,he that had made them thus fallible1 rewarded them for having in their conduct attended to their nature4 ,let us imitate their caution1 if we wish to deserve their fortune1 or to retain their bequests4 ,let us add1 if we please1 but let us preserve what they have left2 and1 standing on the firm ground of the ,british constitution1 let us be satisfied to admire1 rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights the aeronauts of ,france4 ,i have told you candidly my sentiments4 ,i think they are not likely to alter yours4 ,i do not know that they ought4 ,you are young2 you cannot guide1 but must follow the fortune of your country4 ,but hereafter they may be of some use to you1 in some future form which your commonwealth may take4 ,in the present it can hardly remain2 but before its final settlement it may be obliged to pass1 as one of our poets says1 through great varieties of untried being1 and in all its transmigrations to be purified by fire and blood4 ,,duty ,,not ,,based ,,on ,,will4 ,i cannot too often recommend it to the serious consideration of all men1 who think civil society to be within the province of moral jurisdiction1 that if we owe to it any duty1 it is not subject to our will4 ,duties are not voluntary4 ,duty and will are even contradictory terms4 ,now1 though civil society might be at first a voluntary act 7which in many cases it undoubtedly was71 its continuance is under a permanent1 standing covenant1 co-existing with the society2 and it attaches upon every individual of that society1 without any formal act of his own4 ,this is warranted by the general practice1 arising out of the general sense of mankind4 ,men without their choice derive benefits from that association2 without their choice they are subjected to duties in consequence of these benefits2 and without their choice they enter into a virtual obligation as binding as any that is actual4 ,look through the whole of life and the whole system of duties4 ,much the strongest moral obligations are such as were never the results of our option4 ,i allow1 that if no supreme ruler exists1 wise to form1 and potent to enforce1 the moral law1 there is no sanction to any contract1 virtual or even actual1 against the will of prevalent power4 ,on that hypothesis1 let any set of men be strong enough to set their duties at defiance1 and they cease to be duties any longer4 ,we have but this one appeal against irresistible power-- ,si genus humanum et mortalia temnitis arma1 ,at sperate ,deos memores fandi atque nefandi4 ,taking it for granted that ,i do not write to the disciples of the ,parisian philosophy1 ,i may assume1 that the awful ,author of our being is the ,author of our place in the order of existence2 and that1 having disposed and marshalled us by a divine tactic1 not according to our will1 but according to his1 he has1 in and by that disposition1 virtually subjected us to act the part which belongs to the place assigned us4 ,we have obligations to mankind at large1 which are not in consequence of any special voluntary pact4 ,they arise from the relation of man to man1 and the relation of man to ,god1 which relations are not matters of choice4 ,on the contrary1 the force of all the pacts which we enter into with any particular person1 or number of persons1 amongst mankind1 depends upon those prior obligations4 ,in some cases the subordinate relations are voluntary1 in others they are necessary--but the duties are all compulsive4 ,when we marry1 the choice is voluntary1 but the duties are not matter of choice4 ,they are dictated by the nature of the situation4 ,dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come into the world4 ,the instincts which give rise to this mysterious process of nature are not of our making4 ,but out of physical causes1 unknown to us1 perhaps unknowable1 arise moral duties1 which1 as we are able perfectly to comprehend1 we are bound indispensably to perform4 ,parents may not be consenting to their moral relation2 but consenting or not1 they are bound to a long train of burthensome duties towards those with whom they have never made a convention of any sort4 ,children are not consenting to their relation1 but their relation1 without their actual consent1 binds them to its duties2 or rather it implies their consent1 because the presumed consent of every rational creature is in unison with the predisposed order of things4 ,men come in that manner into a community with the social state of their parents1 endowed with all the benefits1 loaded with all the duties1 of their situation4 ,if the social ties and ligaments1 spun out of those physical relations which are the elements of the commonwealth1 in most cases begin1 and alway continue1 independently of our will1 so1 without any stipulation on our own part1 are we bound by that relation called our country1 which comprehends 7as it has been well said7 all the charities of all4 ,nor are we left without powerful instincts to make this duty as dear and grateful to us1 as it is awful and coercive4 ,it consists1 in a great measure1 in the ancient order into which we are born4 ,we may have the same geographical situation1 but another country2 as we may have the same country in another soil4 ,the place that determines our duty to our country is a social1 civil relation4 ,,ecclesiastical ,,confiscation4 ,the confiscators truly have made some allowance to their victims from the scraps and fragments of their own tables1 from which they have been so harshly driven1 and which have been so bountifully spread for a feast to the harpies of usury4 ,but to drive men from independence to live on alms is itself great cruelty4 ,that which might be a tolerable condition to men in one state of life1 and not habituated to other things1 may1 when all these circumstances are altered1 be a dreadful revolution2 and one to which a virtuous mind would feel pain in condemning any guilt1 except that which would demand the life of the offender4 ,but to many minds this punishment of ,,degradation and ,,infamy is worse than death4 ,undoubtedly it is an infinite aggravation of this cruel suffering1 that the persons who were taught a double prejudice in favour of religion1 by education and by the place they held in the administration of its functions1 are to receive the remnants of the property as alms from the profane and impious hands of those who had plundered them of all the rest2 to receive 7if they are at all to receive7 not from the charitable contributions of the faithful1 but from the insolent tenderness of known and avowed atheism1 the maintenance of religion1 measured out to them on the standard of the contempt in which it is held2 and for the purpose of rendering those who receive the allowance vile1 and of no estimation1 in the eyes of mankind4 ,but this act of seizure of property1 it seems1 is a judgment in law1 and not a confiscation4 ,they have1 it seems1 found out in the academies of the ,palais ,royal and the ,jacobins1 that certain men had no right to the possessions which they held under law1 usage1 the decisions of courts1 and the accumulated prescription of a thousand years4 ,they say that ecclesiastics are fictitious persons1 creatures of the state1 whom at pleasure they may destroy1 and of course limit and modify in every particular2 that the goods they possess are not properly theirs1 but belong to the state which created the fiction2 and we are therefore not to trouble ourselves with what they may suffer in their natural feelings and natural persons1 on account of what is done towards them in this their constructive character4 ,of what import is it under what names you injure men1 and deprive them of the just emoluments of a profession1 in which they were not only permitted but encouraged by the state to engage2 and upon the supposed certainty of which emoluments they had formed the plan of their lives1 contracted debts1 and led multitudes to an entire dependence upon them8 ,you do not imagine1 sir1 that ,i am going to compliment this miserable distinction of persons with any long discussion4 ,the arguments of tyranny are as contemptible as its force is dreadful4 ,had not your confiscators1 by their early crimes1 obtained a power which secures indemnity to all the crimes of which they have since been guilty1 or that they can commit1 it is not the syllogism of the logician1 but the lash of the executioner1 that would have refuted a sophistry which becomes an accomplice of theft and murder4 ,the sophistic tyrants of ,paris are loud in their declamations against the departed regal tyrants1 who in former ages have vexed the world4 ,they are thus bold1 because they are safe from the dungeons and iron cages of their old masters4 ,shall we be more tender of the tyrants of our own time1 when we see them acting worse tragedies under our eyes8 shall we not use the same liberty that they do1 when we can use it with the same safety8 when to speak honest truth only requires a contempt of the opinion of those whose actions we abhor8 ,,moral ,,of ,,history4 ,we do not draw the moral lessons we might from history4 ,on the contrary1 without care it may be used to vitiate our minds and to destroy our happiness4 ,in history a great volume is unrolled for our instruction1 drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind4 ,it may1 in the perversion1 serve for a magazine1 furnishing offensive and defensive weapons for parties in church and state1 and supplying the means of keeping alive1 or reviving1 dissensions and animosities1 and adding fuel to civil fury4 ,history consists1 for the greater part1 of the miseries brought upon the world by pride1 ambition1 avarice1 revenge1 lust1 sedition1 hypocrisy1 ungoverned zeal1 and all the train of disorderly appetites which shake the public with the same --troublous storms that toss ,the private state1 and render life unsweet4 ,these vices are the ,,causes of those storms4 ,religion1 morals1 laws1 prerogatives1 privileges1 liberties1 rights of men1 are the ,,pretexts4 ,the pretexts are always found in some specious appearance of a real good4 ,you would not secure men from tyranny and sedition1 by rooting out of the mind the principles to which these fraudulent pretexts apply8 ,if you did1 you would root out everything that is valuable in the human breast4 ,as these are the pretexts1 so the ordinary actors and instruments in great public evils are kings1 priests1 magistrates1 senates1 parliaments1 national assemblies1 judges1 and captains4 ,you would not cure the evil by resolving that there should be no more monarchs1 nor ministers of state1 nor of the gospel2 no interpreters of law2 no general officers2 no public councils4 ,you might change the names4 ,the things in some shape must remain4 ,a certain quantum of power must always exist in the community1 in some hands1 and under some appellation4 ,wise men will apply their remedies to vices1 not to names2 to the causes of evil which are permanent1 not to the occasional organs by which they act1 and the transitory modes in which they appear4 ,otherwise you will be wise historically1--a fool in practice4 ,seldom have two ages the same fashion in their pretexts and the same modes of mischief4 ,wickedness is a little more inventive4 ,whilst you are discussing fashion1 the fashion is gone by4 ,the very same vice assumes a new body4 ,the spirit transmigrates2 and1 far from losing its principle of life by the change of its appearance1 it is renovated in its new organs with the fresh vigour of a juvenile activity4 ,it walks abroad1 it continues its ravages1 whilst you are gibbeting the carcase1 or demolishing the tomb4 ,you are terrifying yourselves with ghosts and apparitions1 whilst your house is the haunt of robbers4 ,it is thus with all those who1 attending only to the shell and husk of history1 think they are waging war with intolerance1 pride1 and cruelty1 whilst1 under colour of abhorring the ill principles of antiquated parties1 they are authorizing and feeding the same odious vices in different factions1 and perhaps in worse4 ,,use ,,of ,,defects ,,in ,,history4 ,not that ,i derogate from the use of history4 ,it is a great improver of the understanding1 by showing both men and affairs in a great variety of views4 ,from this source much political wisdom may be learned2 that is1 may be learned as habit1 not as precept2 and as an exercise to strengthen the mind1 as furnishing materials to enlarge and enrich it1 not as a repertory of cases and precedents for a lawyer3 if it were1 a thousand times better would it be that a statesman had never learned to read--vellem nescirent literas4 ,this method turns their understanding from the object before them1 and from the present exigencies of the world1 to comparisons with former times1 of which1 after all1 we can know very little1 and very imperfectly2 and our guides1 the historians1 who are to give us their true interpretation1 are often prejudiced1 often ignorant1 often fonder of system than of truth4 ,whereas1 if a man with reasonably good parts and natural sagacity1 and not in the leading-strings of any master1 will look steadily on the business before him1 without being diverted by retrospect and comparison1 he may be capable of forming a reasonably good judgment of what is to be done4 ,there are some fundamental points in which nature never changes--but they are few and obvious1 and belong rather to morals than to politics4 ,but so far as regards political matter1 the human mind and human affairs are susceptible of infinite modifications1 and of combinations wholly new and unlooked for4 ,very few1 for instance1 could have imagined that property1 which has been taken for natural dominion1 should1 through the whole of a vast kingdom1 lose all its importance and even its influence4 ,this is what history or books of speculation could hardly have taught us4 ,how many could have thought1 that the most complete and formidable revolution in a great empire should be made by men of letters1 not as subordinate instruments and trumpeters of sedition1 but as the chief contrivers and managers1 and in a short time as the open administrators and sovereign rulers8 ,who could have imagined that atheism could produce one of the most violently operative principles of fanaticism8 ,who could have imagined that1 in a commonwealth in a manner cradled in war1 and in extensive and dreadful war1 military commanders should be of little or no account8 ,that the ,convention should not contain one military man of name8 ,that administrative bodies in a state of the utmost confusion1 and of but a momentary duration1 and composed of men with not one imposing part of character1 should be able to govern the country and its armies with an authority which the most settled senates1 and the most respected monarchs1 scarcely ever had in the same degree8 ,this1 for one1 ,i confess ,i did not foresee1 though all the rest was present to me very early1 and not out of my apprehension even for several years4 ,,social ,,contract4 ,society is indeed a contract4 ,subordinate contracts for objects of mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure--but the state ought not to be considered nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee1 calico or tobacco1 or some other such low concern1 to be taken up for a little temporary interest1 and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties4 ,it is to be looked on with other reverence2 because it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature4 ,it is a partnership in all science2 a partnership in all art2 a partnership in every virtue1 and in all perfection4 ,as the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations1 it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living1 but between those who are living1 those who are dead1 and those who are to be born4 ,each contract of each particular state is but a clause in the great primeval contract of eternal society1 linking the lower with the higher natures1 connecting the visible and invisible world1 according to a fixed compact sanctioned by the inviolable oath which holds all physical and all moral natures each in their appointed place4 ,this law is not subject to the will of those1 who by an obligation above them1 and infinitely superior1 are bound to submit their will to that law4 ,the municipal corporations of that universal kingdom are not morally at liberty at their pleasure1 and on their speculations of a contingent improvement1 wholly to separate and tear asunder the bands of their subordinate community1 and to dissolve it into an unsocial1 uncivil1 unconnected chaos of elementary principles4 ,it is the first and supreme necessity only1 a necessity that is not chosen1 but chooses1 a necessity paramount to deliberation1 that admits no discussion1 and demands no evidence1 which alone can justify a resort to anarchy4 ,this necessity is no exception to the rule2 because this necessity itself is a part too of that moral and physical disposition of things to which man must be obedient by consent of force3 but if that which is only submission to necessity should be made the object of choice1 the law is broken1 nature is disobeyed1 and the rebellious are outlawed1 cast forth1 and exiled from this world of reason1 and order1 and peace1 and virtue1 and fruitful penitence1 into the antagonist world of madness1 discord1 vice1 confusion1 and unavailing sorrow4 ,,prescriptive ,,rights4 ,the crown has considered me after long service2 the crown has paid the duke of ,bedford by advance4 ,he has had a long credit for any service which he may perform hereafter4 ,he is secure1 and long may he be secure1 in his advance1 whether he performs any services or not4 ,but let him take care how he endangers the safety of that constitution which secures his own utility or his own insignificance2 or how he discourages those who take up even puny arms to defend an order of things which1 like the sun of heaven1 shines alike on the useful and the worthless4 ,his grants are engrafted on the public law of ,europe1 covered with the awful hoar of innumerable ages4 ,they are guarded by the sacred rules of prescription1 found in that full treasury of jurisprudence from which the jejuneness and penury of our municipal law has1 by degrees1 been enriched and strengthened4 ,this prescription ,i had my share 7a very full share7 in bringing to its perfection4 ,the duke of ,bedford will stand as long as prescriptive law endures2 as long as the great stable laws of property1 common to us with all civilized nations1 are kept in their integrity1 and without the smallest intermixture of laws1 maxims1 principles1 or precedents1 of the grand revolution4 ,they are secure against all changes but one4 ,the whole revolutionary system1 institutes1 digest1 code1 novels1 text1 gloss1 comment1 are not only not the same1 but they are the very reverse1 and the reverse fundamentally1 of all the laws1 on which civil life has hitherto been upheld in all the governments of the world4 ,the learned professors of the rights of man regard prescription not as a title to bar all claim1 set up against all possession1 but they look on prescription as itself a bar against the possessor and proprietor4 ,they hold an immemorial possession to be no more than a long-continued1 and therefore an aggravated injustice4 ,such are ,,their ideas1 such ,,their religion1 and such ,,their law4 ,but as to ,,our country and ,,our race1 as long as the well-compacted structure of our church and state1 the sanctuary1 the holy of holies of that ancient law1 defended by reverence1 defended by power1 a fortress at once and a temple1 shall stand inviolate on the brow of the ,british ,sion2 as long as the ,british monarchy1 not more limited than fenced by the orders of the state1 shall1 like the proud ,keep of ,windsor1 rising in the majesty of proportion1 and girt with the double belt of its kindred and coeval towers1--as long as this awful structure shall oversee and guard the subjected land--so long the mounds and dykes of the low1 fat ,bedford ,level will have nothing to fear from all the pickaxes of all the levellers of ,france4 ,as long as our sovereign lord the king1 and his faithful subjects1 the lords and commons of this realm1--the triple cord1 which no man can break2 the solemn1 sworn1 constitutional frank-pledge of this nation2 the firm guarantees of each other's being1 and each other's rights2 the joint and several securities1 each in its place and order1 for every kind and every quality1 of property and of dignity3--as long as these endure1 so long the duke of ,bedford is safe3 and we are all safe together--the high from the blights of envy and the spoliations of rapacity2 the low from the iron hand of oppression and the insolent spurn of contempt4 ,amen6 and so be it3 and so it will be1-- ,dum domus ,aeneae ,capitoli immobile saxum ,accolet2 imperiumque pater ,romanus habebit4 ,,madness ,,of ,,innovation4 ,novelty is not the only source of zeal4 ,why should not a ,maccabeus and his brethren arise to assert the honour of the ancient law1 and to defend the temple of their forefathers1 with as ardent a spirit as can inspire any innovator to destroy the monuments of the piety and the glory of ancient ages8 ,it is not a hazarded assertion1 it is a great truth1 that when once things are gone out of their ordinary course1 it is by acts out of the ordinary course they can alone be re-established4 ,republican spirit can only be combated by a spirit of the same nature3 of the same nature1 but informed with another principle1 and pointing to another end4 ,i would persuade a resistance1 both to the corruption and to the reformation that prevails4 ,it will not be the weaker1 but much the stronger1 for combating both together4 ,a victory over real corruptions would enable us to baffle the spurious and pretended reformations4 ,i would not wish to excite1 or even to tolerate1 that kind of evil spirit which invokes the powers of hell to rectify the disorders of the earth4 ,no6 ,i would add my voice with better1 and ,i trust1 more potent charms1 to draw down justice and wisdom and fortitude from heaven1 for the correction of human vice1 and the recalling of human error from the devious ways into which it has been betrayed4 ,i would wish to call the impulses of individuals at once to the aid and to the control of authority4 ,by this1 which ,i call the true republican spirit1 paradoxical as it may appear1 monarchies alone can be rescued from the imbecility of courts and the madness of the crowd4 ,this republican spirit would not suffer men in high place to bring ruin on their country and on themselves4 ,it would reform1 not by destroying1 but by saving1 the great1 the rich1 and the powerful4 ,such a republican spirit1 we perhaps fondly conceive to have animated the distinguished heroes and patriots of old1 who knew no mode of policy but religion and virtue4 ,these they would have paramount to all constitutions2 they would not suffer monarchs1 or senates1 or popular assemblies1 under pretences of dignity1 or authority1 or freedom1 to shake off those moral riders which reason has appointed to govern every sort of rude power4 ,these1 in appearance loading them by their weight1 do by that pressure augment their essential force4 ,the momentum is increased by the extraneous weight4 ,it is true in moral1 as it is in mechanical science4 ,it is true1 not only in the draught1 but in the race4 ,these riders of the great1 in effect1 hold the reins which guide them in their course1 and wear the spur that stimulates them to the goals of honour and of safety4 ,the great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue1 or none will long submit to the dominion of the great4 ,dis te minorem quod geris imperas4 ,this is the feudal tenure which they cannot alter4 ,,the ,,state1 ,,its ,,own ,,revenue4 ,the revenue of the state is the state4 ,in effect all depends upon it1 whether for support or for reformation4 ,the dignity of every occupation wholly depends upon the quantity and the kind of virtue that may be exerted in it4 ,as all great qualities of the mind which operate in public1 and are not merely suffering and passive1 require force for their display1 ,i had almost said for their unequivocal existence1 the revenue1 which is the spring of all power1 becomes in its administration the sphere of every active virtue4 ,public virtue1 being of a nature magnificent and splendid1 instituted for great things1 and conversant about great concerns1 requires abundant scope and room1 and cannot spread and grow under confinement1 and in circumstances straitened1 narrow1 and sordid4 ,through the revenue alone the body politic can act in its true genius and character1 and therefore it will display just as much of its collective virtue1 and as much of that virtue which may characterize those who move it1 and are1 as it were1 its life and guiding principle1 as it is possessed of a just revenue4 ,for from hence not only magnanimity1 and liberality1 and beneficence1 and fortitude1 and providence1 and the tutelary protection of all good arts1 derive their food1 and the growth of their organs1 but continence1 and self-denial1 and labour1 and vigilance1 and frugality1 and whatever else there is in which the mind shows itself above the appetite1 are nowhere more in their proper element than in the provision and distribution of the public wealth4 ,it is therefore not without reason that the science of speculative and practical finance1 which must take to its aid so many auxiliary branches of knowledge1 stands high in the estimation1 not only of the ordinary sort1 but of the wisest and best men2 and as this science has grown with the progress of its object1 the prosperity and improvement of nations has generally increased with the increase of their revenues2 and they will both continue to grow and flourish1 as long as the balance between what is left to strengthen the efforts of individuals1 and what is collected for the common efforts of the state1 bear to each other a due reciprocal proportion1 and are kept in a close correspondence and communication4 ,,metaphysical ,,depravity4 ,these philosophers are fanatics2 independent of any interest1 which if it operated alone would make them much more tractable1 they are carried with such a headlong rage towards every desperate trial1 that they would sacrifice the whole human race to the slightest of their experiments4 ,i am better able to enter into the character of this description of men than the noble duke can be4 ,i have lived long and variously in the world4 ,without any considerable pretensions to literature in myself1 ,i have aspired to the love of letters4 ,i have lived for a great many years in habitudes with those who professed them4 ,i can form a tolerable estimate of what is likely to happen from a character chiefly dependent for fame and fortune on knowledge and talent1 as well in its morbid and perverted state as in that which is sound and natural4 ,naturally1 men so formed and finished are the first gifts of ,providence to the world4 ,but when they have once thrown off the fear of ,god1 which was in all ages too often the case1 and the fear of men1 which is now the case1 and when in that state they come to understand one another1 and to act in corps1 a more dreadful calamity cannot arise out of hell to scourge mankind4 ,nothing can be conceived more hard than the heart of a thorough-bred metaphysician4 ,it comes nearer to the cold malignity of a wicked spirit than to the frailty and passion of a man4 ,it is like that of the principle of evil himself1 incorporeal1 pure1 unmixed1 dephlegmated1 defecated evil4 ,it is no easy operation to eradicate humanity from the human breast4 ,what ,shakespeare calls the compunctious visitings of nature1 will sometimes knock at their hearts1 and protest against their murderous speculations4 ,but they have a means of compounding with their nature4 ,their humanity is not dissolved4 ,they only give it a long prorogation4 ,they are ready to declare1 that they do not think two thousand years too long a period for the good that they pursue4 ,it is remarkable1 that they never see any way to their projected good but by the road of some evil4 ,their imagination is not fatigued with the contemplation of human suffering through the wild waste of centuries added to centuries of misery and desolation4 ,their humanity is at their horizon--and1 like the horizon1 it always flies before them4 ,the geometricians and the chemists bring the one from the dry bones of their diagrams1 and the other from the soot of their furnaces1 dispositions that make them worse than indifferent about those feelings and habitudes which are the supports of the moral world4 ,ambition is come upon them suddenly2 they are intoxicated with it1 and it has rendered them fearless of the danger which may from thence arise to others or to themselves4 ,these philosophers consider men in their experiments no more than they do mice in an air-pump1 or in a recipient of mephitic gas4 ,whatever his grace may think of himself1 they look upon him1 and everything that belongs to him1 with no more regard than they do upon the whiskers of that little long-tailed animal1 that has been long the game of the grave1 demure1 insidious1 spring-nailed1 velvet-pawed1 green-eyed philosophers1 whether going upon two legs or upon four4 ,,personal ,,and ,,ancestral ,,claims4 ,i really am at a loss to draw any sort of parallel between the public merits of his grace1 by which he justifies the grants he holds1 and these services of mine1 on the favourable construction of which ,i have obtained what his grace so much disapproves4 ,in private life1 ,i have not at all the honour of acquaintance with the noble duke4 ,but ,i ought to presume1 and it costs me nothing to do so1 that he abundantly deserves the esteem and love of all who live with him4 ,but as to public service1 why truly it would not be more ridiculous for me to compare myself in rank1 in fortune1 in splendid descent1 in youth1 strength1 or figure1 with the duke of ,bedford1 than to make a parallel between his services and my attempts to be useful to my country4 ,it would not be gross adulation1 but uncivil irony1 to say1 that he has any public merit of his own to keep alive the idea of the services by which his vast landed pensions were obtained4 ,my merits1 whatever they are1 are original and personal2 his are derivative4 ,it is his ancestor1 the original pensioner1 that has laid up this inexhaustible fund of merit1 which makes his grace so very delicate and exceptious about the merit of all other grantees of the crown4 ,had he permitted me to remain in quiet1 ,i should have said1 ',tis his estate2 that's enough4 ,it is his by law2 what have ,i to do with it or its history8 ,he would naturally have said on his side1 ',tis this man's fortune4 ,he is as good now as my ancestor was two hundred and fifty years ago4 ,i am a young man with very old pensions3 he is an old man with very young pensions1--that's all4 ,why will his grace1 by attacking me1 force me reluctantly to compare my little merit with that which obtained from the crown those prodigies of profuse donation by which he tramples on the mediocrity of humble and laborious individuals8 ,i would willingly leave him to the herald's college1 which the philosophy of the sans culottes 7prouder by far than all the ,garters1 and ,norroys1 and ,clarencieux1 and ,rouge ,dragons1 that ever pranced in a procession of what his friends call aristocrats and despots7 will abolish with contumely and scorn4 ,these historians1 recorders1 and blazoners of virtues and arms1 differ wholly from that other description of historians1 who never assign any act of politicians to a good motive4 ,these gentle historians1 on the contrary1 dip their pens in nothing but the milk of human kindness4 ,they seek no further for merit than the preamble of a patent1 or the inscription of a tomb4 ,with them every man created a peer is first a hero ready made4 ,they judge of every man's capacity for office by the offices he has filled2 and the more offices1 the more ability4 ,every general-officer with them is a ,marlborough2 every statesman a ,burleigh2 every judge a ,murray or a ,yorke4 ,they who1 alive1 were laughed at or pitied by all their acquaintance1 make as good a figure as the best of them in the pages of ,guillim1 ,edmondson1 and ,collins4 ,,monastic ,,and ,,philosophic ,,superstition4 ,but the institutions savour of superstition in their very principle2 and they nourish it by a permanent and standing influence4 ,this ,i do not mean to dispute2 but this ought not to hinder you from deriving from superstition itself any resources which may thence be furnished for the public advantage4 ,you derive benefits from many dispositions and many passions of the human mind1 which are of as doubtful a colour1 in the moral eye1 as superstition itself4 ,it was your business to correct and mitigate everything which was noxious in this passion1 as in all the passions4 ,but is superstition the greatest of all possible vices8 ,in its possible excess ,i think it becomes a very great evil4 ,it is1 however1 a moral subject2 and of course admits of all degrees and all modifications4 ,superstition is the religion of feeble minds2 and they must be tolerated in an intermixture of it1 in some trifling or some enthusiastic shape or other1 else you will deprive weak minds of a resource found necessary to the strongest4 ,the body of all true religion consists1 to be sure1 in obedience to the will of the ,sovereign of the world2 in a confidence in his declarations1 and in imitation of his perfections4 ,the rest is our own4 ,it may be prejudicial to the great end2 it may be auxiliary4 ,wise men1 who as such are not ,,admirers 7not admirers at least of the munera terrae71 are not violently attached to these things1 nor do they violently hate them4 ,wisdom is not the most severe corrector of folly4 ,they are the rival follies1 which mutually wage so unrelenting a war2 and which make so cruel a use of their advantages1 as they can happen to engage the immoderate vulgar1 on the one side1 or the other1 in their quarrels4 ,prudence would be neuter2 but if1 in the contention between fond attachment and fierce antipathy concerning things in their nature not made to produce such heats1 a prudent man were obliged to make a choice of what errors and excesses of enthusiasm he would condemn or bear1 perhaps he would think the superstition which builds1 to be more tolerable than that which demolishes2 that which adorns a country1 than that which deforms it2 that which endows1 than that which plunders2 that which disposes to mistaken beneficence1 than that which stimulates to real injustice2 that which leads a man to refuse to himself lawful pleasures1 than that which snatches from others the scanty subsistence of their self-denial4 ,such1 ,i think1 is very nearly the state of the question between the ancient founders of monkish superstition1 and the superstition of the pretended philosophers of the hour4 ,,difficulty ,,and ,,wisdom ,,of ,,corporate ,,reform4 ,there are moments in the fortune of states when particular men are called to make improvements by great mental exertion4 ,in those moments1 even when they seem to enjoy the confidence of their prince and country1 and to be invested with full authority1 they have not always apt instruments4 ,a politician1 to do great things1 looks for a ,,power1 what our workmen call a ,,purchase2 and if he finds that power1 in politics as in mechanics1 he cannot be at a loss to apply it4 ,in the monastic institutions1 in my opinion1 was found a great ,,power for the mechanism of politic benevolence4 ,there were revenues with a public direction2 there were men wholly set apart and dedicated to public purposes1 without any other than public ties and public principles2 men without the possibility of converting the estate of the community into a private fortune2 men denied to self-interests1 whose avarice is for some community2 men to whom personal poverty is honour1 and implicit obedience stands in the place of freedom4 ,in vain shall a man look to the possibility of making such things when he wants them4 ,the winds blow as they list4 ,these institutions are the products of enthusiasm2 they are the instruments of wisdom4 ,wisdom cannot create materials2 they are the gifts of nature or of chance2 her pride is in the use4 ,the perennial existence of bodies corporate and their fortunes are things particularly suited to a man who has long views2 who meditates designs that require time in fashioning1 and which propose duration when they are accomplished4 ,he is not deserving to rank high1 or even to be mentioned in the order of great statesmen1 who1 having obtained the command and direction of such a power as existed in the wealth1 the discipline1 and the habits of such corporations1 as those which you have rashly destroyed1 cannot find any way of converting it to the great and lasting benefit of his country4 ,on the view of this subject1 a thousand uses suggest themselves to a contriving mind4 ,to destroy any power1 growing wild from the rank productive force of the human mind1 is almost tantamount1 in the moral world1 to the destruction of the apparently active properties of bodies in the material4 ,it would be like the attempt to destroy 7if it were in our competence to destroy7 the expansive force of fixed air in nitre1 or the power of steam1 or of electricity1 or of magnetism4 ,these energies always existed in nature1 and they were always discernible4 ,they seemed1 some of them unserviceable1 some noxious1 some no better than a sport to children2 until contemplative ability1 combining with practic skill1 tamed their wild nature1 subdued them to use1 and rendered them at once the most powerful and the most tractable agents1 in subservience to the great views and designs of men4 ,did fifty thousand persons1 whose mental and whose bodily labour you might direct1 and so many hundred thousand a year of a revenue1 which was neither lazy nor superstitious1 appear too big for your abilities to wield8 ,had you no way of using the men but by converting monks into pensioners8 ,had you no way of turning the revenue to account but through the improvident resource of a spendthrift sale8 ,if you were thus destitute of mental funds1 the proceeding is in its natural course4 ,your politicians do not understand their trade2 and therefore they sell their tools4 ,,distinctive ,,character ,,of ,,english ,,protestantism4 ,protestantism of the ,english ,church1 very indefinite1 because the term ,,protestant1 which you apply1 is too general for the conclusions which one of your accurate understanding would wish to draw from it2 and because a great deal of argument will depend on the use that is made of that term4 ,it is ,,not a fundamental part of the settlement at the ,revolution1 that the state should be protestant without ,,any ,,qualification ,,of ,,the ,,term4 ,with a qualification it is unquestionably true2 not in all its latitude4 ,with the qualification1 it was true before the ,revolution4 ,our predecessors in legislation were not so irrational 7not to say impious7 as to form an operose ecclesiastical establishment1 and even to render the state itself in some degree subservient to it1 when their religion 7if such it might be called7 was nothing but a mere ,,negation of some other--without any positive idea either of doctrine1 discipline1 worship1 or morals1 in the scheme which they professed themselves1 and which they imposed upon others1 even under penalties and incapacities4--,no6 no6 ,this never could have been done even by reasonable atheists4 ,they who think religion of no importance to the state1 have abandoned it to the conscience or caprice of the individual2 they make no provision for it whatsoever1 but leave every club to make1 or not1 a voluntary contribution towards its support1 according to their fancies4 ,this would be consistent4 ,the other always appeared to me to be a monster of contradiction and absurdity4 ,it was for that reason that1 some years ago1 ,i strenuously opposed the clergy who petitioned1 to the number of about three hundred1 to be freed from the subscription to the thirty-nine articles1 without proposing to substitute any other in their place4 ,there never has been a religion of the state 7the few years of the ,parliament only excepted71 but that of ,,the ,,espiscopal ,,church ,,of ,,england2 the ,episcopal ,church of ,england1 before the ,reformation1 connected with the see of ,rome1 since then1 disconnected and protesting against some of her doctrines1 and against the whole of her authority1 as binding in our national church3 nor did the fundamental laws of this kingdom 7in ,ireland it has been the same7 ever know1 at any period1 any other church ,,as ,,an ,,object ,,of ,,establishment2 or in that light1 any other protestant religion4 ,nay1 our protestant ,,toleration itself at the ,revolution1 and until within a few years1 required a signature of thirty-six1 and a part of the thirty-seventh1 out of the thirty-nine articles4 ,so little idea had they at the ,revolution of ,,establishing ,protestantism indefinitely1 that they did not indefinitely ,,tolerate it under that name4 ,i do not mean to praise that strictness1 where nothing more than merely religious toleration is concerned4 ,toleration1 being a part of moral and political prudence1 ought to be tender and large4 ,a tolerant government ought not to be too scrupulous in its investigations2 but may bear without blame1 not only very ill-grounded doctrines1 but even many things that are positively vices1 where they are adulta et praevalida4 ,the good of the commonwealth is the rule which rides over the rest2 and to this every other must completely submit4 ,,fictitious ,,liberty4 ,a brave people will certainly prefer liberty accompanied with a virtuous poverty to a depraved and wealthy servitude4 ,but before the price of comfort and opulence is paid1 one ought to be pretty sure it is real liberty which is purchased1 and that she is to be purchased at no other price4 ,i shall always1 however1 consider that liberty as very equivocal in her appearance1 which has not wisdom and justice for her companions1 and does not lead prosperity and plenty in her train4 ,,french ,,ignorance ,,of ,,english ,,character4 ,when ,i assert anything else1 as concerning the people of ,england1 ,i speak from observation1 not from authority2 but ,i speak from the experience ,i have had in a pretty extensive and mixed communication with the inhabitants of this kingdom1 of all descriptions and ranks1 and after a course of attentive observation1 begun in early life1 and continued for nearly forty years4 ,i have often been astonished1 considering that we are divided from you but by a slender dyke of about twenty-four miles1 and that the mutual intercourse between the two countries has lately been very great1 to find how little you seem to know of us4 ,i suspect that this is owing to your forming a judgment of this nation from certain publications1 which do1 very erroneously1 if they do at all1 represent the opinions and dispositions generally prevalent in ,england4 ,the vanity1 restlessness1 petulance1 and spirit of intrigue1 of several petty cabals1 who attempt to hide their total want of consequence in bustle and noise1 and puffing1 and mutual quotation of each other1 makes you imagine that our contemptuous neglect of their abilities is a general mark of acquiescence in their opinions4 ,no such thing1 ,i assure you4 ,because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink1 whilst thousands of great cattle1 reposed beneath the shadow of the ,british oak1 chew the cud and are silent1 pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field2 that1 of course1 they are many in number2 or that1 after all1 they are other than the little1 shrivelled1 meagre1 hopping1 though loud and troublesome insects of the hour4 ,,the ,,people1 ,,and ,,omnipotence ,,of ,,parliament4 ,when the supreme authority of the people is in question1 before we attempt to extend or to confine it1 we ought to fix in our minds1 with some degree of distinctness1 an idea of what it is we mean when we say the ,,people4 ,in a state of ,,rude nature there is no such thing as a people4 ,a number of men in themselves have no collective capacity4 ,the idea of a people is the idea of a corporation4 ,it is wholly artificial2 and made like all other legal fictions by common agreement4 ,what the particular nature of that agreement was1 is collected from the form into which the particular society has been cast4 ,any other is not ,,their covenant4 ,when men1 therefore1 break up the original compact or agreement1 which gives its corporate form and capacity to a state1 they are no longer a people2 they have no longer a corporate existence2 they have no longer a legal1 coactive force to bind within1 nor a claim to be recognised abroad4 ,they are a number of vague1 loose individuals1 and nothing more4 ,with them all is to begin again4 ,alas6 they little know how many a weary step is to be taken before they can form themselves into a mass1 which has a true1 politic personality4 ,we hear much from men1 who have not acquired their hardness of assertion from the profundity of their thinking1 about the omnipotence of a ,,majority1 in such a dissolution of an ancient society as hath taken place in ,france4 ,but amongst men so disbanded1 there can be no such thing as majority or minority2 or power in any one person to bind another4 ,the power of acting by a majority1 which the gentlemen theorists seem to assume so readily1 after they have violated the contract out of which it has arisen 7if at all it existed71 must be grounded on two assumptions2 first1 that of an incorporation produced by unanimity2 and1 secondly1 an unanimous agreement1 that the act of a mere majority 7say of one7 shall pass with them and with others as the act of the whole4 ,we are so little affected by things which are habitual1 that we consider this idea of the decision of a ,,majority as if it were a law of our original nature2 but such constructive whole1 residing in a part only1 is one of the most violent fictions of positive law that ever has been or can be made on the principles of artificial incorporation4 ,out of civil society nature knows nothing of it2 nor are men1 even when arranged according to civil order1 otherwise than by very long training1 brought at all to submit to it4 ,the mind is brought far more easily to acquiesce in the proceedings of one man1 or a few1 who act under a general procuration for the state1 than in the vote of a victorious majority in councils1 in which every man has his share in the deliberation4 ,for there the beaten party are exasperated and soured by the previous contention1 and mortified by the conclusive defeat4 ,this mode of decision1 where wills may be so nearly equal1 where1 according to circumstances1 the smaller number may be the stronger force1 and where apparent reason may be all upon one side1 and on the other little else than impetuous appetite2 all this must be the result of a very particular and special convention1 confirmed afterwards by long habits of obedience1 by a sort of discipline in society1 and by a strong hand1 vested with stationary1 permanent power1 to enforce this sort of constructive general will4 ,what organ it is that shall declare the corporate mind is so much a matter of positive arrangement1 that several states1 for the validity of several of their acts1 have required a proportion of voices much greater than that of a mere majority4 ,these proportions are so entirely governed by convention1 that in some cases the minority decides4 ,,magnanimity ,,of ,,english ,,people4 ,i do not accuse the people of ,england4 ,as to the great majority of the nation1 they have done whatever in their several ranks1 and conditions1 and descriptions1 was required of them by their relative situations in society2 and from those the great mass of mankind cannot depart1 without the subversion of all public order4 ,they look up to that government which they obey that they may be protected4 ,they ask to be led and directed by those rulers whom ,providence and the laws of their country have set over them1 and under their guidance to walk in the ways of safety and honour4 ,they have again delegated the greatest trust which they have to bestow to those faithful representatives who made their true voice heard against the disturbers and destroyers of ,europe4 ,they suffered1 with unapproving acquiescence1 solicitations which they had in no shape desired1 to an unjust and usurping power whom they had never provoked1 and whose hostile menaces they did not dread4 ,when the exigencies of the public service could only be met by their voluntary zeal1 they started forth with an ardour which out-stripped the wishes of those who had injured them by doubting whether it might not be necessary to have recourse to compulsion4 ,they have1 in all things1 reposed an enduring1 but not an unreflecting1 confidence4 ,that confidence demands a full return1 and fixes a responsibility on the ministers entire and undivided4 ,the people stands acquitted1 if the war is not carried on in a manner suited to its objects4 ,if the public honour is tarnished1 if the public safety suffers any detriment1 the ministers1 not the people1 are to answer it1 and they alone4 ,its armies1 its navies1 are given to them without stint or restriction4 ,its treasures are poured out at their feet4 ,its constancy is ready to second all their efforts4 ,they are not to fear a responsibility for acts of manly adventure4 ,the responsibility which they are to dread is1 lest they should show themselves unequal to the expectation of a brave people4 ,the more doubtful may be the constitutional and economical questions upon which they have received so marked a support1 the more loudly they are called upon to support this great war1 for the success of which their country is willing to supersede considerations of no slight importance4 ,where ,i speak of responsibility1 ,i do not mean to exclude that species of it which the legal powers of the country have a right finally to exact from those who abuse a public trust2 but high as this is1 there is a responsibility which attaches on them1 from which the whole legitimate power of this kingdom cannot absolve them3 there is a responsibility to conscience and to glory2 a responsibility to the existing world1 and to that posterity which men of their eminence cannot avoid for glory or for shame2 a responsibility to a tribunal at which not only ministers1 but kings and parliaments1 but even nations themselves1 must one day answer4 ,,true ,,basis ,,of ,,civil ,,society4 ,we know1 and what is better1 we feel inwardly1 that religion is the basis of civil society1 and the source of all good and of all comfort4 ,in ,england we are so convinced of this1 that there is no rust of superstition with which the accumulated absurdity of the human mind might have crusted it over in the course of ages1 that ninety-nine in a hundred of the people of ,england would not prefer to impiety4 ,we shall never be such fools as to call in an enemy to the substance of any system to remove its corruptions1 to supply its defects1 or to perfect its construction4 ,if our religious tenets should ever want a further elucidation1 we shall not call on atheism to explain them4 ,we shall not light up our temple from that unhallowed fire4 ,it will be illuminated with other lights4 ,it will be perfumed with other incense than the infectious stuff which is imported by the smugglers of adulterated metaphysics4 ,if our ecclesiastical establishment should want a revision1 it is not avarice or rapacity1 public or private1 that we shall employ for the audit1 or receipt1 or application of its consecrated revenue4 ,violently condemning neither the ,greek nor the ,armenian1 nor1 since heats are subsided1 the ,roman system of religion1 we prefer the ,protestant2 not because we think it has less of the ,christian religion in it1 but because1 in our judgment1 it has more4 ,we are ,protestants1 not from indifference1 but from zeal4 ,we know1 and it is our pride to know1 that man is by his constitution a religious animal2 that atheism is against1 not only our reason1 but our instincts2 and that it cannot prevail long4 ,but if1 in the moment of riot1 and in a drunken delirium from the hot spirit drawn out of the alembic of hell1 which in ,france is now so furiously boiling1 we should uncover our nakedness1 by throwing off that ,christian religion which has hitherto been our boast and comfort1 and one great source of civilization amongst us1 and among many other nations1 we are apprehensive 7being well aware that the mind will not endure a void7 that some uncouth1 pernicious1 and degrading superstition might take place of it4 ,,rousseau4 ,it is undoubtedly true1 though it may seem paradoxical1 but in general1 those who are habitually employed in finding and displaying faults1 are unqualified for the work of reformation2 because their minds are not only unfurnished with patterns of the fair and good1 but by habit they come to take no delight in the contemplation of those things4 ,by hating vices too much1 they come to love men too little4 ,it is therefore not wonderful that they should be indisposed and unable to serve them4 ,from hence arises the complexional disposition of some of your guides to pull everything in pieces4 ,at this malicious game they display the whole of their quadrimanous activity4 ,as to the rest1 the paradoxes of eloquent writers1 brought forth purely as a sport of fancy1 to try their talents1 to rouse attention and excite surprise1 are taken up by these gentleman1 not in the spirit of the original authors1 as means of cultivating their taste and improving their style4 ,these paradoxes become with them serious grounds of action1 upon which they proceed in regulating the most important concerns of the state4 ,cicero ludicrously describes ,cato as endeavouring to act1 in the commonwealth1 upon the school paradoxes1 which exercised the wits of the junior students in the ,stoic philosophy4 ,if this was true of ,cato1 these gentlemen copy after him in the manner of some persons who lived about his time--pede nudo ,catonem4 ,mr4 ,hume told me that he had from ,rousseau himself the secret of his principles of composition4 ,that acute1 though eccentric observer1 had perceived1 that to strike and interest the public1 the marvellous must be produced2 that the marvellous of the heathen mythology had long since lost its effects2 that giants1 magicians1 fairies1 and heroes of romance which succeeded1 had exhausted the portion of credulity which belonged to their age2 that now nothing was left to a writer but that species of the marvellous which might still be produced1 and with as great an effect as ever1 though in another way2 that is1 the marvellous in life1 in manners1 in characters1 and in extraordinary situations1 giving rise to new and unlooked-for strokes in politics and morals4 ,i believe1 that were ,rousseau alive1 and in one of his lucid intervals1 he would be shocked at the practical frenzy of his scholars1 who in their paradoxes are servile imitators1 and even in their incredulity discover an implicit faith4 ,,moral ,,heroes4 ,mankind has no title to demand that we should be slaves to their guilt and insolence2 or that we should serve them in spite of themselves4 ,minds1 sore with the poignant sense of insulted virtue1 filled with high disdain against the pride of triumphant baseness1 often have it not in their choice to stand their ground4 ,their complexion 7which might defy the rack7 cannot go through such a trial4 ,something very high must fortify men to that proof4 ,but when ,i am driven to comparison1 surely ,i cannot hesitate for a moment to prefer to such men as are common1 those heroes who1 in the midst of despair1 perform all the tasks of hope2 who subdue their feelings to their duties2 who1 in the cause of humanity1 liberty1 and honour1 abandon all the satisfactions of life1 and every day incur a fresh risk of life itself4 ,do me the justice to believe that ,i never can prefer any fastidious virtue 7virtue still7 to the unconquered perseverance1 to the affectionate patience of those who watch day and night by the bedside of their delirious country1 who1 for their love to that dear and venerable name1 bear all the disgusts and all the buffets they receive from their frantic mother4 ,sir1 ,i do look on you as true martyrs2 ,i regard you as soldiers who act far more in the spirit of our ,commander-in-,chief and the ,captain of our salvation1 than those who have left you2 though ,i must first bolt myself very thoroughly1 and know that ,i could do better1 before ,i can censure them4 ,i assure you1 sir1 that1 when ,i consider your unconquerable fidelity to your sovereign1 and to your country2 the courage1 fortitude1 magnanimity1 and long-suffering of yourself1 and the ,abbe ,maury1 and of ,mr4 ,cazales1 and of many worthy persons of all orders in your ,assembly1 ,i forget1 in the lustre of these great qualities1 that on your side has been displayed an eloquence so rational1 manly1 and convincing1 that no time or country1 perhaps1 has ever excelled4 ,but your talents disappear in my admiration of your virtues4 ,,kingdom ,,of ,,france4 ,when ,i consider the face of the kingdom of ,france2 the multitude and opulence of her cities2 the useful magnificence of her spacious high-roads and bridges2 the opportunity of her artificial canals and navigations1 opening the conveniences of maritime communication through a solid continent of so immense an extent2 when ,i turn my eyes to the stupendous works of her ports and harbours1 and to her whole naval apparatus1 whether for war or trade2 when ,i bring before my view the number of her fortifications1 constructed with so bold and masterly a skill1 and made and maintained at so prodigious a charge1 presenting an armed front and impenetrable barrier to her enemies upon every side2 when ,i recollect how very small a part of that extensive region is without cultivation1 and to what complete perfection the culture of many of the best productions of the earth have been brought in ,france2 when ,i reflect on the excellence of her manufactures and fabrics1 second to none but ours1 and in some particulars not second2 when ,i contemplate the grand foundations of charity1 public and private2 when ,i survey the state of all the arts that beautify and polish life2 when ,i reckon the men she has bred for extending her fame in war1 her able statesmen1 the multitude of her profound lawyers and theologians1 her philosophers1 her critics1 her historians and antiquaries1 her poets and her orators1 sacred and profane2 ,i behold in all this something which awes and commands the imagination1 which checks the mind on the brink of precipitate and indiscriminate censure1 and which demands that we should very seriously examine1 what and how great are the latent vices that could authorize us at once to level so specious a fabric with the ground4 ,i do not recognise in this view of things1 the despotism of ,turkey4 ,nor do ,i discern the character of a government that has been1 on the whole1 so oppressive1 or so corrupt1 or so negligent1 as to be utterly ,,unfit ,,for ,,all ,,reformation4 ,i must think such a government well deserved to have its excellences heightened1 its faults corrected1 and its capacities improved into a ,british constitution4 ,,grievance ,,and ,,opinion4 ,this shows1 in my opinion1 how very quick and awakened all men ought to be who are looked up to by the public1 and who deserve that confidence1 to prevent a surprise on their opinions1 when dogmas are spread1 and projects pursued1 by which the foundations of society may be affected4 ,before they listen even to moderate alterations in the government of their country1 they ought to take care that principles are not propagated for that purpose1 which are too big for their object4 ,doctrines limited in their present application1 and wide in their general principles1 are never meant to be confined to what they at first pretend4 ,if ,i were to form a prognostic of the effect of the present machinations on the people1 from their sense of any grievance they suffer under this constitution1 my mind would be at ease4 ,but there is a wide difference between the multitude1 when they act against their government from a sense of grievance1 or from zeal for some opinions4 ,when men are thoroughly possessed with that zeal1 it is difficult to calculate its force4 ,it is certain that its power is by no means in exact proportion to its reasonableness4 ,it must always have been discoverable by persons of reflection1 but it is now obvious to the world1 that a theory concerning government may become as much a cause of fanaticism as a dogma in religion4 ,there is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feeling2 none when they are under the influence of imagination4 ,remove a grievance1 and1 when men act from feeling1 you go a great way towards quieting a commotion4 ,but the good or bad conduct of a government1 the protection men have enjoyed1 or the oppression they have suffered1 under it1 are of no sort of moment when a faction1 proceeding upon speculative grounds1 is thoroughly heated against its form4 ,when a man is1 from system1 furious against monarchy or episcopacy1 the good conduct of the monarch or the bishop has no other effect than further to irritate the adversary4 ,he is provoked at it1 as furnishing a plea for preserving the thing which he wishes to destroy4 ,his mind will be heated as much by the sight of a sceptre1 a mace1 or a verge1 as if he had been daily bruised and wounded by these symbols of authority4 ,mere spectacles1 mere names1 will become sufficient causes to stimulate the people to war and tumult4 ,,perplexity ,,and ,,policy4 ,let us not deceive ourselves3 we are at the beginning of great troubles4 ,i readily acknowledge that the state of public affairs is infinitely more unpromising than at the period ,i have just now alluded to2 and the position of all the powers of ,europe1 in relation to us1 and in relation to each other1 is more intricate and critical beyond all comparison4 ,difficult indeed is our situation4 ,in all situations of difficulty men will be influenced in the part they take1 not only by the reason of the case1 but by the peculiar turn of their own character4 ,the same ways to safety do not present themselves to all men1 nor to the same men in different tempers4 ,there is a courageous wisdom2 there is also a false1 reptile prudence1 the result not of caution1 but of fear4 ,under misfortunes it often happens that the nerves of the understanding are so relaxed1 the pressing peril of the hour so completely confounds all the faculties1 that no future danger can be properly provided for1 can be justly estimated1 can be so much as fully seen4 ,the eye of the mind is dazzled and vanquished4 ,an abject distrust of ourselves1 an extravagant admiration of the enemy1 present us with no hope but in a compromise with his pride1 by a submission to his will4 ,this short plan of policy is the only counsel which will obtain a hearing4 ,we plunge into a dark gulf with all the rash precipitation of fear4 ,the nature of courage is1 without a question1 to be conversant with danger3 but in the palpable night of their terrors1 men under consternation suppose1 not that it is the danger1 which1 by a sure instinct1 calls out the courage to resist it1 but that it is the courage which produces the danger4 ,they therefore seek for a refuge from their fears in the fears themselves1 and consider a temporizing meanness as the only source of safety4 ,the rules and definitions of prudence can rarely be exact2 never universal4 ,i do not deny1 that1 in small1 truckling states1 a timely compromise with power has often been the means1 and the only means1 of drawling out their puny existence3 but a great state is too much envied1 too much dreaded1 to find safety in humiliation4 ,to be secure1 it must be respected4 ,power1 and eminence1 and consideration1 are things not to be begged4 ,they must be commanded3 and they who supplicate for mercy from others1 can never hope for justice through themselves4 ,what justice they are to obtain1 as the alms of an enemy1 depends upon his character2 and that they ought well to know before they implicitly confide4 ,,historical ,,instruction4 ,such is the effect of the perversion of history1 by those1 who1 for the same nefarious purposes1 have perverted every other part of learning4 ,but those who will stand upon that elevation of reason1 which places centuries under our eye1 and brings things to the true point of comparison1 which obscures little names1 and effaces the colours of little parties1 and to which nothing can ascend but the spirit and moral quality of human actions1 will say to the teachers of the ,palais ,royal1--the cardinal of ,lorraine was the murderer of the sixteenth century1 you have the glory of being the murderers in the eighteenth2 and this is the only difference between you4 ,but history1 in the nineteenth century1 better understood1 and better employed1 will1 ,i trust1 teach a civilized posterity to abhor the misdeeds of both these barbarous ages4 ,it will teach future priests and magistrates not to retaliate upon the speculative and inactive atheists of future times1 the enormities committed by the present practical zealots and furious fanatics of that wretched error1 which1 in its quiescent state1 is more than punished1 whenever it is embraced4 ,it will teach posterity not to make war upon either religion or philosophy1 for the abuse which the hypocrites of both have made of the two most valuable blessings conferred upon us by the bounty of the universal ,patron1 who in all things eminently favours and protects the race of man4 ,,montesquieu4 ,place1 for instance1 before your eyes1 such a man as ,montesquieu4 ,think of a genius not born in every country1 or every time2 a man gifted by nature with a penetrating1 aquiline eye2 with a judgment prepared with the most extensive erudition2 with an herculean robustness of mind1 and nerves not to be broken with labour2 a man who could spend twenty years in one pursuit4 ,think of a man1 like the universal patriarch in ,milton 7who had drawn up before him in his prophetic vision the whole series of the generations which were to issue from his loins71 a man capable of placing in review1 after having brought together from the east1 the west1 the north1 and the south1 from the coarseness of the rudest barbarism to the most refined and subtle civilization1 all the schemes of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind1 weighing1 measuring1 collating1 and comparing them all1 joining fact with theory1 and calling into council1 upon all this infinite assemblage of things1 all the speculations which have fatigued the understandings of profound reasoners in all times6 ,let us then consider1 that all these were but so many preparatory steps to qualify a man1 and such a man1 tinctured with no national prejudice1 with no domestic affection1 to admire1 and to hold out to the admiration of mankind1 the constitution of ,england6 ,and shall we ,englishmen revoke to such a suit8 ,shall we1 when so much more than he has produced remains still to be understood and admired1 instead of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science1 choose for our teachers men incapable of being taught1 whose only claim to know is1 that they have never doubted2 from whom we can learn nothing but their own indocility2 who would teach us to scorn what in the silence of our hearts we ought to adore8 ,,articles1 ,,and ,,scripture4 ,if you will have religion publicly practised and publicly taught1 you must have a power to say what that religion will be1 which you will protect and encourage2 and to distinguish it by such marks and characteristics1 as you in your wisdom shall think fit4 ,as ,i said before1 your determination may be unwise in this as in other matters2 but it cannot be unjust1 hard1 or oppressive1 or contrary to the liberty of any man1 or in the least degree exceeding your province4 ,it is therefore as a grievance fairly none at all1 nothing but what is essential not only to the order1 but to the liberty of the whole community4 ,the petitioners are so sensible of the force of these arguments1 that they do admit of one subscription1 that is1 to the ,scripture4 ,i shall not consider how forcibly this argument militates with their whole principle against subscription as an usurpation on the rights of ,providence3 ,i content myself with submitting to the consideration of the house1 that1 if that rule were once established1 it must have some authority to enforce the obedience2 because you well know1 a law without a sanction will be ridiculous4 ,somebody must sit in judgment on his conformity2 he must judge on the charge2 if he judges1 he must ordain execution4 ,these things are necessary consequences one of the other2 and then this judgment is an equal and a superior violation of private judgment2 the right of private judgment is violated in a much greater degree than it can be by any previous subscription4 ,you come round again to subscription1 as the best and easiest method2 men must judge of his doctrine1 and judge definitively2 so that either his test is nugatory1 or men must first or last prescribe his public interpretation of it4 ,,problem ,,of ,,legislation4 ,it is one of the finest problems in legislation1 and what has often engaged my thoughts whilst ,i followed that profession1 ,what the state ought to take upon itself to direct by the public wisdom1 and what it ought to leave1 with as little interference as possible1 to individual discretion4 ,nothing1 certainly1 can be laid down on the subject that will not admit of exceptions1 many permanent1 some occasional4 ,but the clearest line of distinction which ,i could draw1 whilst ,i had my chalk to draw any line1 was this2 that the state ought to confine itself to what regards the state1 or the creatures of the state2--namely1 the exterior establishment of its religion2 its magistracy2 its revenue2 its military force by sea and land2 the corporations that owe their existence to its fiat2 in a word1 to everything that is ,,truly ,,and ,,properly public2 to the public peace1 to the public safety1 to the public order1 to the public prosperity4 ,in its preventive police it ought to be sparing of its efforts1 and to employ means1 rather few1 unfrequent1 and strong1 than many and frequent1 and1 of course1 as they multiply their puny politic race1 and dwindle1 small and feeble4 ,statesmen who know themselves will1 with the dignity which belongs to wisdom1 proceed only in this the superior orb and first mover of their duty steadily1 vigilantly1 severely1 courageously3 whatever remains will1 in a manner1 provide for itself4 ,but as they descend from the state to a province1 from a province to a parish1 and from a parish to a private house1 they go on accelerated in their fall4 ,they ,,cannot do the lower duty2 and1 in proportion as they try it1 they will certainly fail in the higher4 ,they ought to know the different departments of things2 what belongs to laws1 and what manners alone can regulate4 ,to these1 great politicians may give a leaning1 but they cannot give a law4 ,,order1 ,,labour1 ,,and ,,property4 ,to tell the people that they are relieved by the dilapidation of their public estate1 is a cruel and insolent imposition4 ,statesmen1 before they valued themselves on the relief given to the people by the destruction of their revenue1 ought first to have carefully attended to the solution of this problem3--,whether it be more advantageous to the people to pay considerably1 and to gain in proportion2 or to gain little or nothing1 and to be disburthened of all contribution8 ,my mind is made up to decide in favour of the first proposition4 ,experience is with me1 and1 ,i believe1 the best opinions also4 ,to keep a balance between the power of acquisition on the part of the subject1 and the demands he is to answer on the part of the state1 is the fundamental part of the skill of a true politician4 ,the means of acquisition are prior in time and in arrangement4 ,good order is the foundation of all good things4 ,to be enabled to acquire1 the people1 without being servile1 must be tractable and obedient4 ,the magistrate must have his reverence1 the laws their authority4 ,the body of the people must not find the principles of natural subordination by art rooted out of their minds4 ,they must respect that property of which they cannot partake4 ,they must labour to obtain what by labour can be obtained2 and when they find1 as they commonly do1 the success disproportioned to the endeavour1 they must be taught their consolation in the final proportions of eternal justice4 ,of this consolation whoever deprives them1 deadens their industry1 and strikes at the root of all acquisition as of all conservation4 ,he that does this is the cruel oppressor1 the merciless enemy of the poor and wretched2 at the same time that by his wicked speculations he exposes the fruits of successful industry1 and the accumulations of fortune1 to the plunder of the negligent1 the disappointed1 and the unprosperous4 ,,regicidal ,,legislature4 ,this strange law is not made for a trivial object1 not for a single port1 or for a single fortress1 but for a great kingdom2 for the religion1 the morals1 the laws1 the liberties1 the lives and fortunes of millions of human creatures1 who without their consent1 or that of their lawful government1 are1 by an arbitrary act of this regicide and homicide government1 which they call a law1 incorporated into their tyranny4 ,in other words1 their will is the law1 not only at home1 but as to the concerns of every nation4 ,who has made that law but the regicide republic itself1 whose laws1 like those of the ,medes and ,persians1 they cannot alter or abrogate1 or even so much as take into consideration8 ,without the least ceremony or compliment1 they have sent out of the world whole sets of laws and lawgivers4 ,they have swept away the very constitutions under which the legislators acted1 and the laws were made4 ,even the fundamental sacred rights of man they have not scrupled to profane4 ,they have set this holy code at naught with ignominy and scorn4 ,thus they treat all their domestic laws and constitutions1 and even what they had considered as a law of nature2 but whatever they have put their seal on for the purposes of their ambition1 and the ruin of their neighbours1 this alone is invulnerable1 impassible1 immortal4 ,assuming to be masters of everything human and divine1 here1 and here alone1 it seems they are limited1 cooped and cabined in2 and this omnipotent legislature finds itself wholly without the power of exercising its favourite attribute1 the love of peace4 ,in other words1 they are powerful to usurp1 impotent to restore2 and equally by their power and their impotence they aggrandize themselves1 and weaken and impoverish you and all other nations4 ,,government ,,not ,,to ,,be ,,rashly ,,censured4 ,the ,,purpose for which the abuses of government are brought into view1 forms a very material consideration in the mode of treating them4 ,the complaints of a friend are things very different from the invectives of an enemy4 ,the charge of abuses on the late monarchy of ,france was not intended to lead to its reformation1 but to justify its destruction4 ,they1 who have raked into all history for the faults of kings1 and who have aggravated every fault they have found1 have acted consistently2 because they acted as enemies4 ,no man can be a friend to a tempered monarchy who bears a decided hatred to monarchy itself4 ,he1 who at the present time1 is favourable1 or even fair1 to that system1 must act towards it as towards a friend with frailties1 who is under the prosecution of implacable foes4 ,i think it a duty1 in that case1 not to inflame the public mind against the obnoxious person by any exaggeration of his faults4 ,it is our duty rather to palliate his errors and defects1 or to cast them into the shade1 and industriously to bring forward any good qualities that he may happen to possess4 ,but when the man is to be amended1 and by amendment to be preserved1 then the line of duty takes another direction4 ,when his safety is effectually provided for1 it then becomes the office of a friend to urge his faults and vices with all the energy of enlightened affection1 to paint them in their most vivid colours1 and to bring the moral patient to a better habit4 ,thus ,i think with regard to individuals2 thus ,i think with regard to ancient and respected governments and orders of men4 ,a spirit of reformation is never more consistent with itself than when it refuses to be rendered the means of destruction4 ,,etiquette4 ,etiquette1 if ,i understand rightly the term1 which in any extent is of modern usage1 had its original application to those ceremonial and formal observances practised at courts1 which had been established by long usage1 in order to preserve the sovereign power from the rude intrusion of licentious familiarity1 as well as to preserve majesty itself from a disposition to consult its ease at the expense of its dignity4 ,the term came afterwards to have a greater latitude1 and to be employed to signify certain formal methods used in the transactions between sovereign states4 ,in the more limited1 as well as in the larger sense of the term1 without knowing what the etiquette is1 it is impossible to determine whether it is a vain and captious punctilio1 or a form necessary to preserve decorum in character and order in business4 ,i readily admit1 that nothing tends to facilitate the issue of all public transactions more than a mutual disposition in the parties treating to waive all ceremony4 ,but the use of this temporary suspension of the recognised modes of respect consists in its being mutual1 and in the spirit of conciliation1 in which all ceremony is laid aside4 ,on the contrary1 when one of the parties to a treaty intrenches himself up to the chin in these ceremonies1 and will not on his side abate a single punctilio1 and that all the concessions are upon one side only1 the party so conceding does by this act place himself in a relation of inferiority1 and thereby fundamentally subverts that equality which is of the very essence of all treaty4 ,,ancient ,,establishments4 ,old establishments are tried by their effects4 ,if the people are happy1 united1 wealthy1 and powerful1 we presume the rest4 ,we conclude that to be good1 from whence good is derived4 ,in old establishments1 various correctives have been found for their aberrations from theory4 ,indeed1 they are the results of various necessities and expediencies4 ,they are not often constructed after any theory2 theories are rather drawn from them4 ,in them we often see the end best obtained1 where the means seem not perfectly reconcilable to what we may fancy was the original scheme4 ,the means taught by experience may be better suited to political ends than those contrived in the original project4 ,they again re-act upon the primitive constitution2 and sometimes improve the design itself1 from which they seem to have departed4 ,i think all this might be curiously exemplified in the ,british constitution4 ,at worst1 the errors and deviations of every kind in reckoning are found and computed1 and the ship proceeds in her course4 ,this is the case of old establishments2 but in a new and merely theoretic system1 it is expected that every contrivance shall appear1 on the face of it1 to answer its ends2 especially where the projectors are no way embarrassed with an endeavour to accommodate the new building to an old one1 either in the walls or on the foundations4 ,,sentiment ,,and ,,policy4 ,never was there a jar or discord between genuine sentiment and sound policy4 ,never1 no never1 did ,nature say one thing and ,wisdom say another4 ,nor are sentiments of elevation in themselves turgid and unnatural4 ,nature is never more truly herself than in her grandest form4 ,the ,apollo of ,belvedere 7if the universal robber has yet left him at ,belvedere7 is as much in nature as any figure from the pencil of ,rembrandt1 or any clown in the rustic revels of ,teniers4 ,indeed1 it is when a great nation is in great difficulties that minds must exalt themselves to the occasion1 or all is lost4 ,strong passion1 under the direction of a feeble reason1 feeds a low fever1 which serves only to destroy the body that entertains it4 ,but vehement passion does not always indicate an infirm judgment4 ,it often accompanies1 and actuates1 and is even auxiliary to a powerful understanding2 and when they both conspire and act harmoniously1 their force is great to destroy disorder within1 and to repel injury from abroad4 ,if ever there was a time that calls on us for no vulgar conception of things1 and for exertions in no vulgar strain1 it is the awful hour that ,providence has now appointed to this nation4 ,every little measure is a great error2 and every great error will bring on no small ruin4 ,nothing can be directed above the mark that we must aim at3 everything below it is absolutely thrown away4 ,,patriotism4 ,i have little to recommend my opinions but long observation and much impartiality4 ,they come from one who has been no tool of power1 no flatterer of greatness2 and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life4 ,they come from one1 almost the whole of whose public exertions has been a struggle for the liberty of others2 from one in whose breast no anger durable or vehement has ever been kindled1 but by what he considered as tyranny2 and who snatches from his share in the endeavours which are used by good men to discredit opulent oppression1 the hours he has employed on your affairs2 and who in so doing persuades himself he has not departed from his usual office3 they come from one who desires honours1 distinctions1 and emoluments1 but little1 and who expects them not at all2 who has no contempt for fame1 and no fear of obloquy2 who shuns contention1 though he will hazard an opinion2 who would preserve consistency by varying his means to secure the unity of his end2 and1 when the equipoise of the vessel in which he sails may be endangered by overloading it upon one side1 is desirous of carrying the small weight of his reasons to that which may preserve its equipoise4 ,,necessity1 ,a ,,relative ,,term4 ,the only excuse to be made for all our mendicant diplomacy is the same as in the case of all other mendicancy2--namely1 that it has been founded on absolute necessity4 ,this deserves consideration4 ,necessity1 as it has no law1 so it has no shame3 but moral necessity is not like metaphysical1 or even physical4 ,in that category it is a word of loose signification1 and conveys different ideas to different minds4 ,to the low-minded1 the slightest necessity becomes an invincible necessity4 ,the slothful man saith1 ,there is a lion in the way1 and ,i shall be devoured in the streets4 ,but when the necessity pleaded is not in the nature of things1 but in the vices of him who alleges it1 the whining tones of commonplace beggarly rhetoric produce nothing but indignation2 because they indicate a desire of keeping up a dishonourable existence1 without utility to others1 and without dignity to itself2 because they aim at obtaining the dues of labour without industry2 and by frauds would draw from the compassion of others what men ought to owe to their own spirit and their own exertions4 ,,king ,,john ,,and ,,the ,,pope4 ,he began with exacting an oath from the king1 by which1 without showing the extent of his design1 he engaged him to everything he could ask4 ,john swore to submit to the legate in all things relating to his excommunication4 ,and first he was obliged to accept ,langton as archbishop2 then to restore the monks of ,canterbury1 and other deprived ecclesiastics1 and to make them a full indemnification for all their losses4 ,and now1 by these concessions1 all things seemed to be perfectly settled4 ,the cause of the quarrel was entirely removed4 ,but when the king expected for so perfect a submission a full absolution1 the legate began a laboured harangue on his rebellion1 his tyranny1 and the innumerable sins he had committed2 and in conclusion declared1 that there was no way left to appease ,god and the ,church but to resign his crown to the ,holy ,see1 from whose hands he should receive it purified from all pollutions1 and hold it for the future by homage1 and an annual tribute4 ,john was struck motionless at a demand so extravagant and unexpected4 ,he knew not on which side to turn4 ,if he cast his eyes toward the coast of ,france1 he there saw his enemy ,philip1 who considered him as a criminal as well as an enemy1 and who aimed not only at his crown but his life1 at the head of an innumerable multitude of fierce people1 ready to rush in upon him4 ,if he looked at his own army1 he saw nothing there but coldness1 disaffection1 uncertainty1 distrust1 and a strength1 in which he knew not whether he ought most to confide or fear4 ,on the other hand1 the papal thunders1 from the wounds of which he was still sore1 were leveled full at his head4 ,he could not look steadily at these complicated difficulties2 and truly it is hard to say what choice he had1 if any choice were left to kings in what concerns the independence of their crown4 ,surrounded1 therefore1 with these difficulties2 and that all his late humiliations might not be rendered as ineffectual as they were ignominious1 he took the last step2 and1 in the presence of a numerous assembly of his peers and prelates1 who turned their eyes from this mortifying sight1 formally resigned his crown to the pope's legate2 to whom at the same time he did homage1 and paid the first fruits of his tribute4 ,nothing could be added to the humiliation of the king upon this occasion1 but the insolence of the legate1 who spurned the treasure with his foot1 and let the crown remain a long time on the ground before he restored it to the degraded owner4 ,in this proceeding the motives of the king may be easily discovered2 but how the barons of the kingdom1 who were deeply concerned1 suffered1 without any protestation1 the independency of the crown to be thus forfeited1 is mentioned by no historian of that time4 ,in civil tumults it is astonishing how little regard is paid by all parties to the honour or safety of their country4 ,the king's friends were probably induced to acquiesce by the same motives that had influenced the king4 ,his enemies1 who were the most numerous1 perhaps saw his abasement with pleasure1 as they knew this action might be one day employed against him with effect4 ,to the bigots it was enough1 that it aggrandized the pope4 ,it is1 perhaps1 worthy of observation1 that the conduct of ,pandulph towards ,king ,john bore a very great affinity to that of the ,roman consuls to the people of ,carthage in the last ,punic war2 drawing them from concession to concession1 and carefully concealing their design1 until they made it impossible for the ,carthaginians to resist4 ,such a strong resemblance did the same ambition produce in such distant times2 and it is far from the sole instance1 in which we may trace a similarity between the spirit and conduct of the former and latter ,rome in their common design on the liberties of mankind4 ,,consumption ,,and ,,produce4 ,the balance between consumption and production makes price4 ,the market settles1 and alone can settle1 that price4 ,market is the meeting and conference of the ,,consumer and ,,producer1 when they mutually discover each other's wants4 ,nobody1 ,i believe1 has observed with any reflection what market is1 without being astonished at the truth1 the correctness1 the celerity1 the general equity1 with which the balance of wants is settled4 ,they1 who wish the destruction of that balance1 and would fain by arbitrary regulation decree1 that defective production should not be compensated by increased price1 directly lay their ,,axe to the root of production itself4 ,,priests ,,of ,,the ,,rights ,,of ,,man4 ,his ,grace1 like an able orator1 as he is1 begins with giving me a great deal of praise for talents which ,i do not possess4 ,he does this to entitle himself1 on the credit of this gratuitous kindness1 to exaggerate my abuse of the parts which his bounty1 and not that of nature1 has bestowed upon me4 ,in this1 too1 he has condescended to copy ,mr4 ,erskine4 ,these priests 7,i hope they will excuse me2 ,i mean priests of the rights of man7 begin by crowning me with their flowers and their fillets1 and bedewing me with their odours1 as a preface to the knocking me on the head with their consecrated axes4 ,i have injured1 say they1 the constitution2 and ,i have abandoned the ,whig party and the ,whig principles that ,i professed4 ,i do not mean1 my dear sir1 to defend myself against his ,grace4 ,i have not much interest in what the world shall think or say of me2 as little has the world an interest in what ,i shall think or say of any one in it2 and ,i wish that his ,grace had suffered an unhappy man to enjoy1 in his retreat1 the melancholy privileges of obscurity and sorrow4 ,at any rate1 ,i have spoken1 and ,i have written1 on the subject4 ,if ,i have written or spoken so poorly as to be quite forgot1 a fresh apology will not make a more lasting impression4 ,i must let the tree lie as it falls4 ,perhaps ,i must take some shame to myself4 ,i confess that ,i have acted on my own principles of government1 and not on those of his ,grace1 which are1 ,i dare say1 profound and wise2 but which ,i do not pretend to understand4 ,as to the party to which he alludes1 and which has long taken its leave of me1 ,i believe the principles of the book which he condemns are very conformable to the opinions of many of the most considerable and most grave in that description of politicians4 ,a few indeed1 who1 ,i admit1 are equally respectable in all points1 differ from me1 and talk his ,grace's language4 ,i am too feeble to contend with them4 ,they have the field to themselves4 ,there are others1 very young and very ingenious persons1 who form1 probably1 the largest part of what his ,grace1 ,i believe1 is pleased to consider as that party4 ,some of them were not born into the world1 and all of them were children1 when ,i entered into that connection4 ,i give due credit to the censorial brow1 to the broad phylacteries1 and to the imposing gravity1 of those magisterial rabbins and doctors in the cabala of political science4 ,i admit that wisdom is as the gray hair to man1 and that learning is like honourable old age4 ,but1 at a time when liberty is a good deal talked of1 perhaps ,i might be excused1 if ,i caught something of the general indocility4 ,it might not be surprising1 if ,i lengthened my chain a link or two1 and in an age of relaxed discipline1 gave a trifling indulgence to my own notions4 ,if that could be allowed1 perhaps ,i might sometimes 7by accident1 and without an unpardonable crime7 trust as much to my own very careful1 and very laborious1 though1 perhaps1 somewhat purblind disquisitions1 as to their soaring1 intuitive1 eagle-eyed authority4 ,but the modern liberty is a precious thing4 ,it must not be profaned by too vulgar an use4 ,it belongs only to the chosen few1 who are born to the hereditary representation of the whole democracy1 and who leave nothing at all1 no1 not the offal1 to us poor outcasts of the plebeian race4 ,,his ,,grace4 ,amongst those gentlemen who came to authority1 as soon1 or sooner than they came of age1 ,i do not mean to include his ,grace4 ,with all those native titles to empire over our minds which distinguish the others1 he has a large share of experience4 ,he certainly ought to understand the ,british constitution better than ,i do4 ,he has studied it in the fundamental part4 ,for one election ,i have seen1 he has been concerned in twenty4 ,nobody is less of a visionary theorist2 nobody has drawn his speculations more from practice4 ,no peer has condescended to superintend with more vigilance the declining franchises of the poor commons4 ,with thrice great ,hermes he has outwatched the bear4 ,often have his candles been burned to the snuff1 and glimmered and stunk in the sockets1 whilst he grew pale at his constitutional studies2 long sleepless nights has he wasted2 long1 laborious1 shiftless journeys has he made1 and great sums has he expended in order to secure the purity1 the independence1 and the sobriety of elections1 and to give a check1 if possible1 to the ruinous charges that go nearly to the destruction of the right of election itself4 ,amidst these his labours1 his ,grace will be pleased to forgive me1 if my zeal1 less enlightened to be sure than his by midnight lamps and studies1 has presumed to talk too favourably of this constitution1 and even to say something sounding like approbation of that body which has the honour to reckon his ,grace at the head of it4 ,those1 who dislike this partiality1 or1 if his ,grace pleases1 this flattery of mine1 have a comfort at hand4 ,i may be refuted and brought to shame by the most convincing of all refutations--a practical refutation4 ,every individual peer for himself may show that ,i was ridiculously wrong3 the whole body of those noble persons may refute me for the whole corps4 ,if they please1 they are more powerful advocates against themselves1 than a thousand scribblers like me can be in their favour4 ,if ,i were even possessed of those powers which his ,grace1 in order to heighten my offence1 is pleased to attribute to me1 there would be little difference4 ,the eloquence of ,mr4 ,erskine might save ,mr4-- from the gallows1 but no eloquence could save ,mr4 ,jackson from the effects of his own potion4 ,,speculation ,,and ,,history4 ,i shall not live to behold the unravelling of the intricate plot which saddens and perplexes the awful drama of ,providence now acting on the moral theatre of the world4 ,whether for thought or for action1 ,i am at the end of my career4 ,you are in the middle of yours4 ,in what part of its orbit the nation1 with which we are carried along1 moves at this instant1 it is not easy to conjecture4 ,it may1 perhaps1 be far advanced in its aphelion4--,but when to return8 ,not to lose ourselves in the infinite void of the conjectural world1 our business is with what is likely to be affected1 for the better or the worse1 by the wisdom or weakness of our plans4 ,in all speculations upon men and human affairs1 it is of no small moment to distinguish things of accident from permanent causes1 and from effects that cannot be altered4 ,it is not every irregularity in our movement that is a total deviation from our course4 ,i am not quite of the mind of those speculators who seem assured that1 necessarily1 and by the constitution of things1 all states have the same periods of infancy1 manhood1 and decrepitude that are found in the individuals who compose them4 ,parallels of this sort rather furnish similitudes to illustrate or to adorn1 than supply analogies from whence to reason4 ,the objects which are attempted to be forced into an analogy are not found in the same classes of existence4 ,individuals are physical beings subject to laws universal and invariable4 ,the immediate cause acting in these laws may be obscure2 the general results are subjects of certain calculation4 ,but commonwealths are not physical but moral essences4 ,they are artificial combinations1 and1 in their proximate efficient cause1 the arbitrary productions of the human mind4 ,we are not yet acquainted with the laws which necessarily influence the stability of that kind of work made by that kind of agent4 ,there is not in the physical order 7with which they do not appear to hold any assignable connection7 a distinct cause by which any of those fabrics must necessarily grow1 flourish1 or decay2 nor1 in my opinion1 does the moral world produce anything more determinate on that subject than what may serve as an amusement 7liberal1 indeed1 and ingenious1 but still only an amusement7 for speculative men4 ,i doubt whether the history of mankind is yet complete enough1 if ever it can be so1 to furnish grounds for a sure theory on the internal causes which necessarily affect the fortune of a state4 ,i am far from denying the operation of such causes3 but they are infinitely uncertain and much more obscure1 and much more difficult to trace1 than the foreign causes that tend to raise1 to depress1 and sometimes to overwhelm1 a community4 ,it is often impossible in these political inquiries to find any proportion between the apparent force of any moral causes we may assign and their known operation4 ,we are therefore obliged to deliver up that operation to mere chance1 or1 more piously 7perhaps1 more rationally71 to the occasional interposition and irresistible hand of the ,great ,disposer4 ,we have seen states of considerable duration1 which for ages have remained nearly as they have begun1 and could hardly be said to ebb or flow4 ,some appear to have spent their vigour at their commencement4 ,some have blazed out in their glory a little before their extinction4 ,the meridian of some has been the most splendid4 ,others1 and they the greatest number1 have fluctuated1 and experienced at different periods of their existence a great variety of fortune4 ,at the very moment when some of them seemed plunged in unfathomable abysses of disgrace and disaster1 they have suddenly emerged4 ,they have begun a new course and opened a new reckoning2 and1 even in the depths of their calamity1 and on the very ruins of their country1 have laid the foundations of a towering and durable greatness4 ,all this has happened without any apparent previous change in the general circumstances which had brought on their distress4 ,the death of a man at a critical juncture1 his disgust1 his retreat1 his disgrace1 have brought innumerable calamities on a whole nation4 ,a common soldier1 a child1 a girl at the door of an inn1 have changed the face of fortune1 and almost of nature4 ,such1 and often influenced by such causes1 has commonly been the fate of monarchies of long duration4 ,they have their ebbs and their flows4 ,this has been eminently the fate of the monarchy of ,france4 ,there have been times in which no power has ever been brought so low4 ,few have ever flourished in greater glory4 ,by turns elevated and depressed1 that power had been1 on the whole1 rather on the increase2 and it continued not only powerful but formidable to the hour of the total ruin of the monarchy4 ,this fall of the monarchy was far from being preceded by any exterior symptoms of decline4 ,the interior were not visible to every eye2 and a thousand accidents might have prevented the operation of what the most clear-sighted were not able to discern1 nor the most provident to divine4 ,a very little time before its dreadful catastrophe there was a kind of exterior splendour in the situation of the ,crown1 which usually adds to government strength and authority at home4 ,the ,crown seemed then to have obtained some of the most splendid objects of state ambition4 ,none of the continental powers of ,europe were the enemies of ,france4 ,they were all either tacitly disposed to her1 or publicly connected with her2 and in those who kept the most aloof there was little appearance of jealousy2 of animosity there was no appearance at all4 ,the ,british nation1 her great preponderating rival2 she had humbled2 to all appearance she had weakened2 certainly had endangered1 by cutting off a very large1 and by far the most growing part of her empire4 ,in that its acme of human prosperity and greatness1 in the high and palmy state of the monarchy of ,france1 it fell to the ground without a struggle4 ,it fell without any of those vices in the monarch which have sometimes been the causes of the fall of kingdoms1 but which existed1 without any visible effect on the state1 in the highest degree in many other princes2 and1 far from destroying their power1 had only left some slight stains on their character4 ,the financial difficulties were only pretexts and instruments of those who accomplished the ruin of that monarchy4 ,they were not the causes of it4 ,deprived of the old government1 deprived in a manner of all government1 ,france1 fallen as a monarchy1 to common speculators might have appeared more likely to be an object of pity or insult1 according to the disposition of the circumjacent powers1 than to be the scourge and terror of them all3 but out of the tomb of the murdered monarchy in ,france has arisen a vast1 tremendous unformed spectre1 in a far more terrific guise than any which ever yet have overpowered the imagination and subdued the fortitude of man4 ,going straight forward to its end1 unappalled by peril1 unchecked by remorse1 despising all common maxims and all common means1 that hideous phantom overpowered those who could not believe it was possible she could at all exist1 except on the principles which habit rather than nature had persuaded them were necessary to their own particular welfare1 and to their own ordinary modes of action4 ,but the constitution of any political being1 as well as that of any physical being1 ought to be known1 before one can venture to say what is fit for its conservation1 or what is the proper means of its power4 ,the poison of other states is the food of the new republic4 ,that bankruptcy1 the very apprehension of which is one of the causes assigned for the fall of the monarchy1 was the capital on which she opened her traffic with the world4 ,,labour ,,and ,,wages4 ,in the case of the farmer and the labourer1 their interests are always the same1 and it is absolutely impossible that their free contracts can be onerous to either party4 ,it is the interest of the farmer1 that his work should be done with effect and celerity3 and that cannot be1 unless the labourer is well fed1 and otherwise found with such necessaries of animal life1 according to his habitudes1 as may keep the body in full force1 and the mind gay and cheerful4 ,for of all the instruments of his trade1 the labour of man 7what the ancient writers have called the instrumentum vocale7 is that on which he is most to rely for the repayment of his capital4 ,the other two1 the semivocale in the ancient classification1 that is1 the working stock of cattle1 and the instrumentum mutum1 such as carts1 ploughs1 spades1 and so forth1 though not all inconsiderable in themselves1 are very much inferior in utility or in expense2 or1 without a given portion of the first1 are nothing at all4 ,for1 in all things whatever1 the mind is the most valuable and the most important2 and in this scale the whole of agriculture is in a natural and just order2 the beast is as an informing principle to the plough and cart2 the labourer is as reason to the beast2 and the farmer is as a thinking and presiding principle to the labourer4 ,an attempt to break this chain of subordination in any part is equally absurd2 but the absurdity is the most mischievous in practical operation1 where it is the most easy1 that is1 where it is the most subject to an erroneous judgment4 ,it is plainly more the farmer's interest that his men should thrive1 than that his horses should be well fed1 sleek1 plump1 and fit for use1 or than that his waggons and ploughs should be strong1 in good repair1 and fit for service4 ,on the other hand1 if the farmer cease to profit of the labourer1 and that his capital is not continually manured and fructified1 it is impossible that he should continue that abundant nutriment1 and clothing1 and lodging1 proper for the protection of the instruments he employs4 ,it is therefore the first and fundamental interest of the labourer1 that the farmer should have a full incoming profit on the product of his labour4 ,the proposition is self-evident1 and nothing but the malignity1 perverseness1 and ill-governed passions of mankind1 and particularly the envy they bear to each other's prosperity1 could prevent their seeing and acknowledging it1 with thankfulness to the benign and wise ,disposer of all things1 who obliges men1 whether they will or not1 in pursuing their own selfish interests1 to connect the general good with their own individual success4 ,but who are to judge what that profit and advantage ought to be8 ,certainly no authority on earth4 ,it is a matter of convention dictated by the reciprocal conveniences of the parties1 and indeed by their reciprocal necessities4--,but1 if the farmer is excessively avaricious8--why so much the better--the more he desires to increase his gains1 the more interested is he in the good condition of those upon whose labour his gains must principally depend4 ,i shall be told by the zealots of the sect of regulation1 that this may be true1 and may be safely committed to the convention of the farmer and the labourer1 when the latter is in the prime of his youth1 and at the time of his health and vigour1 and in ordinary times of abundance4 ,but in calamitous seasons1 under accidental illness1 in declining life1 and with the pressure of a numerous offspring1 the future nourishers of the community1 but the present drains and blood-suckers of those who produce them1 what is to be done8 ,when a man cannot live and maintain his family by the natural hire of his labour1 ought it not to be raised by authority8 ,on this head ,i must be allowed to submit1 what my opinions have ever been2 and somewhat at large4 ,and1 first1 ,i premise that labour is1 as ,i have already intimated1 a commodity1 and1 as such1 an article of trade4 ,if ,i am right in this notion1 then labour must be subject to all the laws and principles of trade1 and not to regulation foreign to them1 and that may be totally inconsistent with those principles and those laws4 ,when any commodity is carried to market1 it is not the necessity of the vender1 but the necessity of the purchaser1 that raises the price4 ,the extreme want of the seller has rather 7by the nature of things with which we shall in vain contend7 the direct contrary operation4 ,if the goods at market are beyond the demand1 they fall in their value2 if below it1 they rise4 ,the impossibility of the subsistence of a man1 who carries his labour to a market1 is totally beside the question in his way of viewing it4 ,the only question is1 what is it worth to the buyer8 ,but if the authority comes in and forces the buyer to a price1 who is this in the case 7say7 of a farmer who buys the labour of ten or twelve labouring men1 and three or four handicrafts1 what is it1 but to make an arbitrary division of his property among them8 ,the whole of his gains1 ,i say it with the most certain conviction1 never do amount anything like in value to what he pays to his labourers and artificers1 so that a very small advance upon what ,,one man pays to ,,many may absorb the whole of what he possesses1 and amount to an actual partition of all his substance among them4 ,a perfect equality will indeed be produced2--that is to say1 equal want1 equal wretchedness1 equal beggary1 and on the part of the petitioners1 a woeful1 helpless1 and desperate disappointment4 ,such is the event of all compulsory equalizations4 ,they pull down what is above4 ,they never raise what is below3 and they depress high and low together beneath the level of what was originally the lowest4 ,if a commodity is raised by authority above what it will yield with a profit to the buyer1 that commodity will be the less dealt in4 ,if a second blundering interposition be used to correct the blunder of the first1 and an attempt is made to force the purchase of the commodity 7of labour for instance71 the one of these two things must happen1 either that the forced buyer is ruined1 or the price of the product of the labour1 in that proportion1 is raised4 ,then the wheel turns round1 and the evil complained of falls with aggravated weight on the complainant4 ,the price of corn1 which is the result of the expense of all the operations of husbandry taken together1 and for some time continued1 will rise on the labourer1 considered as a consumer4 ,the very best will be1 that he remains where he was4 ,but if the price of the corn should not compensate the price of labour1 what is far more to be feared1 the most serious evil1 the very destruction of agriculture itself1 is to be apprehended4 ,nothing is such an enemy to accuracy of judgment as a coarse discrimination3 a want of such classification and distribution as the subject admits of4 ,increase the rate of wages to the labourer1 say the regulators--as if labour was but one thing1 and of one value4 ,but this very broad1 generic term1 ,,labour1 admits1 at least1 of two or three specific descriptions3 and these will suffice1 at least1 to let gentlemen discern a little the necessity of proceeding with caution in their coercive guidance of those whose existence depends upon the observance of still nicer distinctions and subdivisions than commonly they resort to in forming their judgments on this very enlarged part of economy4 ,the labourers in husbandry may be divided3 #ast1 into those who are able to perform the full work of a man2 that is1 what can be done by a person from twenty-one years of age to fifty4 ,i know no husbandry-work 7mowing hardly excepted7 that is not equally within the power of all persons within those ages1 the more advanced fully compensating by knack and habit what they lose in activity4 ,unquestionably1 there is a good deal of difference between the value of one man's labour and that of another1 from strength1 dexterity1 and honest application4 ,but ,i am quite sure1 from my best observation1 that any given five men will1 in their total1 afford a proportion of labour equal to any other five within the periods of life ,i have stated2 that is1 that among such five men there will be one possessing all the qualifications of a good workman1 one bad1 and the other three middling1 and approximating to the first and the last4 ,so that in so small a platoon as that of even five1 you will find the full complement of all that five men ,,can earn4 ,taking five and five throughout the kingdom1 they are equal3 therefore1 an error with regard to the equalization of their wages by those who employ five1 as farmers do at the very least1 cannot be considerable4 #bndly4 ,those who are able to work1 but not the complete task of a day-labourer4 ,this class is infinitely diversified1 but will aptly enough fall into principal divisions4 ,,men1 from the decline1 which after fifty becomes every year more sensible to the period of debility and decrepitude1 and the maladies that precede a final dissolution4 ,,women1 whose employment on husbandry is but occasional1 and who differ more in effective labour one from another1 than men do1 on account of gestation1 nursing1 and domestic management1 over and above the difference they have in common with men in advancing1 in stationary1 and in declining life4 ,,children1 who proceed on the reverse order1 growing from less to greater utility1 but with a still greater disproportion of nutriment to labour than is found in the second of these subdivisions3 as is visible to those who will give themselves the trouble of examining into the interior economy of a poor-house4 ,this inferior classification is introduced to show1 that laws prescribing1 or magistrates exercising1 a very stiff and often inapplicable rule1 or a blind and rash discretion1 never can provide the just proportions between earning and salary on the one hand1 and nutriment on the other3 whereas interest1 habit1 and the tacit convention1 that arise from a thousand nameless circumstances1 produce a ,,tact that regulates without difficulty1 what laws and magistrates cannot regulate at all4 ,the first class of labour wants nothing to equalize it2 it equalizes itself4 ,the second and third are not capable of any equalization4 ,but what if the rate of hire to the labourer comes far short of his necessary subsistence1 and the calamity of the time is so great as to threaten actual famine8 ,is the poor labourer to be abandoned to the flinty heart and griping hand of base self-interest1 supported by the sword of law1 especially when there is reason to suppose that the very avarice of farmers themselves has concurred with the errors of government to bring famine on the land8 ,a ,,complete ,,revolution4 ,before this of ,france1 the annals of all time have not furnished an instance of a ,,complete revolution4 ,that ,revolution seems to have extended even to the constitution of the mind of man4 ,it has this of wonderful in it1 that it resembles what ,lord ,verulam says of the operations of nature4 ,it was perfect1 not only in its elements and principles1 but in all its members and its organs from the very beginning4 ,the moral scheme of ,france furnishes the only pattern ever known1 which they who admire will ,,instantly resemble4 ,it is indeed an inexhaustible repertory of one kind of examples4 ,in my wretched condition1 though hardly to be classed with the living1 ,i am not safe from them4 ,they have tigers to fall upon animated strength4 ,they have hyaenas to prey upon carcasses4 ,the national menagerie is collected by the first physiologists of the time2 and it is defective in no description of savage nature4 ,they pursue even such as me1 into the obscurest retreats1 and haul them before their revolutionary tribunals4 ,neither sex1 nor age1--nor the sanctuary of the tomb1 is sacred to them4 ,they have so determined a hatred to all privileged orders1 that they deny even to the departed the sad immunities of the grave4 ,they are not wholly without an object4 ,their turpitude purveys to their malice2 and they unplumb the dead for bullets to assassinate the living4 ,if all revolutionists were not proof against all caution1 ,i should recommend it to their consideration1 that no persons were ever known in history1 either sacred or profane1 to vex the sepulchre1 and1 by their sorceries1 to call up the prophetic dead1 with any other event1 than the prediction of their own disastrous fate4--,leave me1 oh leave me to repose6 ,,british ,,government ,,in ,,india4 ,the ,british government in ,india being a subordinate and delegated power1 it ought to be considered as a fundamental principle in such a system1 that it is to be preserved in the strictest obedience to the government at home4 ,administration in ,india1 at an immense distance from the seat of the supreme authority2 intrusted with the most extensive powers2 liable to the greatest temptations2 possessing the amplest means of abuse2 ruling over a people guarded by no distinct or well-ascertained privileges1 whose language1 manners1 and radical prejudices render not only redress1 but all complaint on their part1 a matter of extreme difficulty2 such an administration1 it is evident1 never can be made subservient to the interests of ,great ,britain1 or even tolerable to the natives1 but by the strictest rigour in exacting obedience to the commands of the authority lawfully set over it4 ,,money ,,and ,,science4 ,my exertions1 whatever they have been1 were such as no hopes of pecuniary reward could possibly excite2 and no pecuniary compensation can possibly reward them4 ,between money and such services1 if done by abler men than ,i am1 there is no common principle of comparison3 they are quantities incommensurable4 ,money is made for the comfort and convenience of animal life4 ,it cannot be a reward for what mere animal life must indeed sustain1 but never can inspire4 ,with submission to his ,grace1 ,i have not had more than sufficient4 ,as to any noble use1 ,i trust ,i know how to employ1 as well as he1 a much greater fortune than he possesses4 ,in a more confined application1 ,i certainly stand in need of every kind of relief and easement much more than he does4 ,when ,i say ,i have not received more than ,i deserve1 is this the language ,i hold to majesty8 ,no6 ,far1 very far1 from it6 ,before that presence1 ,i claim no merit at all4 ,everything towards me is favour1 and bounty4 ,one style to a gracious benefactor2 another to a proud and insulting foe4 ,his ,grace is pleased to aggravate my guilt1 by charging my acceptance of his majesty's grant as a departure from my ideas1 and the spirit of my conduct with regard to economy4 ,if it be1 my ideas of economy were false and ill-founded4 ,but they are the ,duke of ,bedford's ideas of economy ,i have contradicted1 and not my own4 ,if he means to allude to certain bills brought in by me on a message from the throne in #aghb1 ,i tell him1 that there is nothing in my conduct that can contradict either the letter or the spirit of those acts4 ,does he mean the ,pay-office ,act8 ,i take it for granted he does not4 ,the act to which he alludes1 is1 ,i suppose1 the ,establishment ,act4 ,i greatly doubt whether his ,grace has ever read the one or the other4 ,the first of these systems cost me1 with every assistance which my then situation gave me1 pains incredible4 ,i found an opinion common through all the offices1 and general in the public at large1 that it would prove impossible to reform and methodize the office of paymaster-general4 ,i undertook it1 however2 and ,i succeeded in my undertaking4 ,whether the military service1 or whether the general economy of our finances1 have profited by that act1 ,i leave to those who are acquainted with the army1 and with the treasury1 to judge4 ,,political ,,axioms4 ,i4 ,of all things1 an indiscreet tampering with the trade of provisions is the most dangerous1 and it is always worst in the time when men are most disposed to it3 that is1 in the time of scarcity4 ,because there is nothing on which the passions of men are so violent1 and their judgment so weak1 and on which there exists such a multitude of ill-founded popular prejudices4 ,,ii4 ,the great use of government is as a restraint2 and there is no restraint which it ought to put upon others1 and upon itself too1 rather than that which is imposed on the fury of speculating under circumstances of irritation4 ,the number of idle tales1 spread about by the industry of faction1 and by the zeal of foolish good-intention1 and greedily devoured by the malignant credulity of mankind1 tends infinitely to aggravate prejudices1 which1 in themselves1 are more than sufficiently strong4 ,in that state of affairs1 and of the public with relation to them1 the first thing that government owes to us1 the people1 is ,,information2 the next is timely coercion3--the one to guide our judgment2 the other to regulate our tempers4 ,,iii4 ,to provide for us in our necessities is not in the power of government4 ,it would be a vain presumption in statesmen to think they can do it4 ,the people maintain them1 and not they the people4 ,it is in the power of government to prevent much evil2 it can do very little positive good in this1 or perhaps in anything else4 ,it is not only so of the state and statesmen1 but of all the classes and descriptions of the rich--they are the pensioners of the poor1 and are maintained by their superfluity4 ,they are under an absolute1 hereditary1 and indefeasible dependence on those who labour1 and are miscalled the poor4 ,,iv4 ,the labouring people are only poor1 because they are numerous4 ,numbers in their nature imply poverty4 ,in a fair distribution among a vast multitude none can have much4 ,that class of dependent pensioners called the rich is so extremely small1 that if all their throats were cut1 and a distribution made of all they consume in a year1 it would not give a bit of bread and cheese for one night's supper to those who labour1 and who in reality feed both the pensioners and themselves4 ,v4 ,but the throats of the rich ought not to be cut1 nor their magazines plundered2 because in their persons they are trustees for those who labour1 and their hoards are the banking-houses of these latter4 ,whether they mean it or not1 they do1 in effect1 execute their trust--some with more1 some with less1 fidelity and judgment4 ,but1 on the whole1 the duty is performed1 and everything returns1 deducting some very trifling commission and discount1 to the place from whence it arose4 ,when the poor rise to destroy the rich1 they act as wisely for their own purposes as when they burn mills1 and throw corn into the river1 to make bread cheap4 ,,vi4 ,when ,i say1 that we of the people ought to be informed1 inclusively ,i say1 we ought not to be flattered2 flattery is the reverse of instruction4 ,the ,,poor in that case would be rendered as improvident as the rich1 which would not be at all good for them4 ,,vii4 ,nothing can be so base and so wicked as the political canting language1 ,the labouring ,,poor4 ,let compassion be shown in action1 the more the better1 according to every man's ability2 but let there be no lamentation of their condition4 ,it is no relief to their miserable circumstances2 it is only an insult to their miserable understandings4 ,it arises from a total want of charity1 or a total want of thought4 ,want of one kind was never relieved by want of any other kind4 ,patience1 labour1 sobriety1 frugality1 and religion1 should be recommended to them2 all the rest is downright ,,fraud4 ,it is horrible to call them ,the ,,once ,,happy labourer4 ,,viii4 ,whether what may be called the moral or philosophical happiness of the laborious classes is increased or not1 ,i cannot say4 ,the seat of that species of happiness is in the mind2 and there are few data to ascertain the comparative state of the mind at any two periods4 ,philosophical happiness is to want little4 ,civil or vulgar happiness is to want much1 and to enjoy much4 ,,ix4 ,if the happiness of the animal man 7which certainly goes somewhere towards the happiness of the rational man7 be the object of our estimate1 then ,i assert without the least hesitation1 that the condition of those who labour 7in all descriptions of labour1 and in all gradations of labour1 from the highest to the lowest inclusively7 is on the whole extremely meliorated1 if more and better food is any standard of melioration4 ,they work more1 it is certain1 but they have the advantage of their augmented labour2 yet whether that increase of labour be on the whole a ,,good or an ,,evil1 is a consideration that would lead us a great way1 and is not for my present purpose4 ,but as to the fact of the melioration of their diet1 ,i shall enter into the detail of proof whenever ,i am called upon3 in the mean time1 the known difficulty of contenting them with anything but bread made of the finest flour1 and meat of the first quality1 is proof sufficient4 ,x4 ,i further assert1 that even under all the hardships of the last year1 the labouring people did1 either out of their direct gains1 or from charity 7which it seems is now an insult to them71 in fact1 fare better than they did in seasons of common plenty1 fifty or sixty years ago2 or even at the period of my ,english observation1 which is about forty-four years4 ,i even assert1 that full as many in that class as ever were known to do it before continued to save money2 and this ,i can prove1 so far as my own information and experience extend4 ,,xi4 ,it is not true that the rate of wages has not increased with the nominal price of provisions4 ,i allow it has not fluctuated with that price1 nor ought it2 and the squires of ,norfolk had dined when they gave it as their opinion1 that it might or ought to rise and fall with the market of provisions4 ,the rate of wages in truth has no ,,direct relation to that price4 ,labour is a commodity like every other1 and rises or falls according to the demand4 ,this is in the nature of things2 however1 the nature of things has provided for their necessities4 ,wages have been twice raised in my time3 and they bear a full proportion or even a greater than formerly1 to the medium of provision during the last bad cycle of twenty years4 ,they bear a full proportion to the result of their labour4 ,if we were wildly to attempt to force them beyond it1 the stone which we had forced up the hill would only fall back upon them in a diminished demand1 or what indeed is the far lesser evil1 an aggravated price1 of all the provisions which are the result of their manual toil4 ,,xii4 ,there is an implied contract1 much stronger than any instrument or article of agreement between the labourer in any occupation and his employer--that the labour1 so far as that labour is concerned1 shall be sufficient to pay to the employer a profit on his capital1 and a compensation for his risk2 in a word1 that the labour shall produce an advantage equal to the payment4 ,whatever is above that1 is a direct ,,tax2 and if the amount of that tax be left to the will and pleasure of another1 it is an ,,arbitrary ,,tax4 ,,disappointed ,,ambition4 ,the true cause of his drawing so shocking a picture is no more than this1 and it ought rather to claim our pity than excite our indignation2--he finds himself out of power2 and this condition is intolerable to him4 ,the same sun which gilds all nature1 and exhilarates the whole creation1 does not shine upon disappointed ambition4 ,it is something that rays out of darkness1 and inspires nothing but gloom and melancholy4 ,men in this deplorable state of mind find a comfort in spreading the contagion of their spleen4 ,they find an advantage too2 for it is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare4 ,if such persons can answer the ends of relief and profit to themselves1 they are apt to be careless enough about either the means or the consequences4 ,,difficulty ,,an ,,instructor4 ,their purpose everywhere seems to have been to evade and slip aside from ,,difficulty4 ,this it has been the glory of the great masters in all the arts to confront1 and to overcome2 and when they had overcome the first difficulty1 to turn it into an instrument for new conquests over new difficulties2 thus to enable them to extend the empire of their science2 and even to push forward1 beyond the reach of their original thoughts1 the landmarks of the human understanding itself4 ,difficulty is a severe instructor1 set over us by the supreme ordinance of a parental ,guardian and ,legislator1 who knows us better than we know ourselves1 as he loves us better too4 ,pater ipse colendi haud facilem esse viam voluit4 ,he that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves1 and sharpens our skill4 ,our antagonist is our helper4 ,this amicable conflict with difficulty obliges us to an intimate acquaintance with our object1 and compels us to consider it in all its relations4 ,it will not suffer us to be superficial4 ,it is the want of nerves of understanding for such a task1 it is the degenerate fondness for tricking short-cuts1 and little fallacious facilities1 that has in so many parts of the world created governments with arbitrary powers4 ,they have created the late arbitrary monarchy of ,france2 they have created the arbitrary republic of ,paris4 ,with them defects in wisdom are to be supplied by the plenitude of force4 ,they get nothing by it4 ,commencing their labours on a principle of sloth1 they have the common fortune of slothful men4 ,the difficulties1 which they rather had eluded than escaped1 meet them again in their course2 they multiply and thicken on them2 they are involved1 through a labyrinth of confused detail1 in an industry without limit1 and without direction2 and1 in conclusion1 the whole of their work becomes feeble1 vicious1 and insecure4 ,it is this inability to wrestle with difficulty which has obliged the arbitrary ,assembly of ,france to commence their schemes of reform with abolition and total destruction4 ,but is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed8 ,your mob can do this as well at least as your assemblies4 ,the shallowest understanding1 the rudest hand1 is more than equal to that task4 ,rage and phrensy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence1 deliberation1 and foresight can build up in a hundred years4 ,the errors and defects of old establishments are visible and palpable4 ,it calls for little ability to point them out2 and where absolute power is given1 it requires but a word wholly to abolish the vice and the establishment together4 ,the same lazy but restless disposition1 which loves sloth and hates quiet1 directs these politicians1 when they come to work for supplying the place of what they have destroyed4 ,to make everything the reverse of what they have seen1 is quite as easy as to destroy4 ,no difficulties occur in what has never been tried4 ,criticism is almost baffled in discovering the defects of what has not existed2 and eager enthusiasm and cheating hope have all the wide field of imagination1 in which they may expatiate with little or no opposition4 ,,sovereign ,,jurisdictions4 ,with regard to the sovereign jurisdictions1 ,i must observe1 ,sir1 that whoever takes a view of this kingdom in a cursory manner will imagine1 that he beholds a solid1 compacted1 uniform system of monarchy2 in which all inferior jurisdictions are but as rays diverging from one centre4 ,but on examining it more nearly1 you find much eccentricity and confusion4 ,it is not a monarchy in strictness4 ,but1 as in the ,saxon times this country was an heptarchy1 it is now a strange sort of ,,pentarchy4 ,it is divided into five several distinct principalities1 besides the supreme4 ,there is indeed this difference from the ,saxon times1 that as in the itinerant exhibitions of the stage1 for want of a complete company1 they are obliged to throw a variety of parts on their chief performer2 so our sovereign condescends himself to act not only the principal1 but all the subordinate1 parts in the play4 ,he condescends to dissipate the royal character1 and to trifle with those light1 subordinate1 lacquered sceptres in those hands that sustain the ball representing the world1 or which wield the trident that commands the ocean4 ,cross a brook1 and you lose the king of ,england2 but you have some comfort in coming again under his majesty1 though shorn of his beams1 and no more than prince of ,wales4 ,go to the north1 and you find him dwindled to a duke of ,lancaster2 turn to the west of that north1 and he pops upon you in the humble character of earl of ,chester4 ,travel a few miles on1 the earl of ,chester disappears2 and the king surprises you again as count palatine of ,lancaster4 ,if you travel beyond ,mount ,edgecombe1 you find him once more in his incognito1 and he is duke of ,cornwall4 ,so that1 quite fatigued and satiated with this dull variety1 you are infinitely refreshed when you return to the sphere of his proper splendour1 and behold your amiable sovereign in his true1 simple1 undisguised1 native character of majesty4 ,,prudery ,,of ,,false ,,reform4 ,every one must remember that the cabal set out with the most astonishing prudery1 both moral and political4 ,those1 who in a few months after soused over head and ears into the deepest and dirtiest pits of corruption1 cried out violently against the indirect practices in the electing and managing of parliaments1 which had formerly prevailed4 ,this marvellous abhorrence which the court had suddenly taken to all influence1 was not only circulated in conversation through the kingdom1 but pompously announced to the public1 with many other extraordinary things1 in a pamphlet which had all the appearance of a manifesto preparatory to some considerable enterprise4 ,throughout it was a satire1 though in terms managed and decent enough1 on the politics of the former reign4 ,it was indeed written with no small art and address4 ,in this piece appeared the first dawning of the new system2 there first appeared the idea 7then only in speculation7 of ,,separating ,,the ,,court ,,from ,,the ,,administration2 of carrying everything from national connection to personal regards2 and of forming a regular party for that purpose1 under the name of ,,king',s ,,men4 ,to recommend this system to the people1 a perspective view of the court1 gorgeously painted1 and finely illuminated from within1 was exhibited to the gaping multitude4 ,party was to be totally done away1 with all its evil works4 ,corruption was to be cast down from court1 as ,ate was from heaven4 ,power was thenceforward to be the chosen residence of public spirit2 and no one was to be supposed under any sinister influence1 except those who had the misfortune to be in disgrace at court1 which was to stand in lieu of all vices and all corruptions4 ,a scheme of perfection to be realized in a monarchy far beyond the visionary republic of ,plato4 ,the whole scenery was exactly disposed to captivate those good souls1 whose credulous morality is so invaluable a treasure to crafty politicians4 ,indeed there was wherewithal to charm everybody1 except those few who are not much pleased with professions of supernatural virtue1 who know of what stuff such professions are made1 for what purposes they are designed1 and in what they are sure constantly to end4 ,many innocent gentlemen1 who had been talking prose all their lives without knowing anything of the matter1 began at last to open their eyes upon their own merits1 and to attribute their not having been lords of the treasury and lords of trade many years before1 merely to the prevalence of party1 and to the ministerial power1 which had frustrated the good intentions of the court in favour of their abilities4 ,now was the time to unlock the sealed fountain of royal bounty1 which had been infamously monopolized and huckstered1 and to let it flow at large upon the whole people4 ,the time was come to restore royalty to its original splendour4 ,,exaggeration4 ,if a few puny libellers1 acting under a knot of factious politicians1 without virtue1 parts1 or character 7such they are constantly represented by these gentlemen71 are sufficient to excite this disturbance1 very perverse must be the disposition of that people amongst whom such a disturbance can be excited by such means4 ,it is besides no small aggravation of the public misfortune1 that the disease1 on this hypothesis1 appears to be without remedy4 ,if the wealth of the nation be the cause of its turbulence1 ,i imagine it is not proposed to introduce poverty1 as a constable to keep the peace4 ,if our dominions abroad are the roots which feed all this rank luxuriance of sedition1 it is not intended to cut them off in order to famish the fruit4 ,if our liberty has enfeebled the executive power1 there is no design1 ,i hope1 to call in the aid of despotism1 to fill up the deficiencies of law4 ,whatever may be intended1 these things are not yet professed4 ,we seem therefore to be driven to absolute despair3 for we have no other materials to work upon but those out of which ,god has been pleased to form the inhabitants of this island4 ,if these be radically and essentially vicious1 all that can be said is1 that those men are very unhappy1 to whose fortune or duty it falls to administer the affairs of this untoward people4 ,i hear it indeed sometimes asserted1 that a steady perseverance in the present measures1 and a rigorous punishment of those who oppose them1 will in course of time infallibly put an end to these disorders4 ,but this1 in my opinion1 is said without much observation of our present disposition1 and without any knowledge at all of the general nature of mankind4 ,if the matter of which this nation is composed be so very fermentable as these gentlemen describe it1 leaven never will be wanting to work it up1 as long as discontent1 revenge1 and ambition1 have existence in the world4 ,particular punishments are the cure for accidental distempers in the state2 they inflame rather than allay those heats which arise from the settled mismanagement of the government1 or from a natural indisposition in the people4 ,it is of the utmost moment not to make mistakes in the use of strong measures2 and firmness is then only a virtue when it accompanies the most perfect wisdom4 ,in truth1 inconstancy is a sort of natural corrective of folly and ignorance4 ,,tactics ,,of ,,cabal4 ,it is a law of nature1 that whoever is necessary to what we have made our object1 is sure1 in some way1 or in some time or other1 to become our master4 ,all this1 however1 is submitted to1 in order to avoid that monstrous evil of governing in concurrence with the opinion of the people4 ,for it seems to be laid down as a maxim1 that a king has some sort of interest in giving uneasiness to his subjects3 that all who are pleasing to them1 are to be of course disagreeable to him3 that as soon as the persons who are odious at court are known to be odious to the people1 it is snatched at as a lucky occasion of showering down upon them all kinds of emoluments and honours4 ,none are considered as well-wishers to the crown1 but those who advised to some unpopular course of action2 none capable of serving it1 but those who are obliged to call at every instant upon all its power for the safety of their lives4 ,none are supposed to be fit priests in the temple of government1 but the persons who are compelled to fly into it for sanctuary4 ,such is the effect of this refined project2 such is ever the result of all the contrivances1 which are used to free men from the servitude of their reason and from the necessity of ordering their affairs according to their evident interests4 ,these contrivances oblige them to run into a real and ruinous servitude1 in order to avoid a supposed restraint that might be attended with advantage4 ,,government1 ,,relative1 ,,not ,,absolute4 ,i never govern myself--no rational man ever did govern himself--by abstractions and universals4 ,i do not put abstract ideas wholly out of any question1 because ,i well know1 that under that name ,i should dismiss principles2 and that without the guide and light of sound1 well-understood principles1 all reasonings in politics1 as in everything else1 would be only a confused jumble of particular facts and details1 without the means of drawing out any sort of theoretical or practical conclusion4 ,a statesman differs from a professor in an university3 the latter has only the general view of society2 the former--the statesmen--has a number of circumstances to combine with those general ideas1 and to take into his consideration4 ,circumstances are infinite1 are infinitely combined2 are variable and transient2 he who does not take them into consideration is not erroneous1 but stark mad--dat operam ut cum ratione insaniat--he is metaphysically mad4 ,a statesman1 never losing sight of principles1 is to be guided by circumstances2 and judging contrary to the exigencies of the moment he may ruin his country for ever4 ,i go on this ground1 that government1 representing the society1 has a general superintending control over all the actions1 and over all the publicly propagated doctrines of men1 without which it never could provide adequately for all the wants of society2 but then it is to use this power with an equitable discretion1 the only bond of sovereign authority4 ,for it is not1 perhaps1 so much by the assumption of unlawful powers1 as by the unwise or unwarrantable use of those which are most legal1 that governments oppose their true end and object2 for there is such a thing as tyranny as well as usurpation4 ,you can hardly state to me a case1 to which legislature is the most confessedly competent1 in which1 if the rules of benignity and prudence are not observed1 the most mischievous and oppressive things may not be done4 ,so that after all1 it is a moral and virtuous discretion1 and not any abstract theory of right1 which keeps governments faithful to their ends4 ,crude1 unconnected truths are in the world of practice what falsehoods are in theory4 ,a reasonable1 prudent1 provident1 and moderate coercion may be a means of preventing acts of extreme ferocity and rigour2 for by propagating excessive and extravagant doctrines1 such extravagant disorders take place1 as require the most perilous and fierce corrections to oppose them4 ,it is not morally true1 that we are bound to establish in every country that form of religion which in ,,our minds is most agreeable to truth1 and conduces most to the eternal happiness of mankind4 ,in the same manner it is not true that we are1 against the conviction of our own judgment1 to establish a system of opinions and practises directly contrary to those ends1 only because some majority of the people1 told by the head1 may prefer it4 ,no conscientious man would willingly establish what he knew to be false and mischievous in religion1 or in anything else4 ,no wise man1 on the contrary1 would tyrannically set up his own sense so as to reprobate that of the great prevailing body of the community1 and pay no regard to the established opinions and prejudices of mankind or refuse to them the means of securing a religious instruction suitable to these prejudices4 ,a great deal depends on the state in which you find men4 ,,general ,,views4 ,the foundations on which obedience to governments is founded1 are not to be constantly discussed4 ,that we are here1 supposes the discussion already made and the dispute settled4 ,we must assume the rights of what represents the public to control the individual1 to make his will and his acts to submit to their will1 until some intolerable grievance shall make us know that it does not answer its end1 and will submit neither to reformation nor restraint4 ,otherwise we should dispute all the points of morality before we can punish a murderer1 robber1 and adulterer2 we should analyze all society4 ,dangers by being despised grow great2 so they do by absurd provision against them4 ,stulti est dixisse non putaram4 ,whether an early discovery of evil designs1 an early declaration1 and an early precaution against them1 be more wise than to stifle all inquiry about them1 for fear they should declare themselves more early than otherwise they would1 and therefore precipitate the evil--all this depends on the reality of the danger4 ,is it only an unbookish jealousy1 as ,shakspeare calls it8 ,it is a question of fact4 ,does a design against the constitution of this country exist8 ,if it does1 and if it is carried on with increasing vigour and activity by a restless faction1 and if it receives countenance by the most ardent and enthusiastic applauses of its object1 in the great council of this kingdom1 by men of the first parts1 which this kingdom produces1 perhaps by the first it has ever produced1 can ,i think that there is no danger8 ,if there be danger1 must there be no precaution at all against it8 ,if you ask whether ,i think the danger urgent and immediate1 ,i answer1 thank ,god1 ,i do not4 ,the body of the people is yet sound1 the constitution is in their hearts1 while wicked men are endeavouring to put another into their heads4 ,but if ,i see the very same beginnings1 which have commonly ended in great calamities1 ,i ought to act as if they might produce the very same effects4 ,early and provident fear is the mother of safety2 because in that state of things the mind is firm and collected1 and the judgment unembarrassed4 ,but when the fear1 and the evil feared1 come on together1 and press at once upon us1 deliberation itself is ruinous1 which saves upon all other occasions2 because when perils are instant1 it delays decision2 the man is in a flutter1 and in a hurry1 and his judgment is gone1 as the judgment of the deposed king of ,france and his ministers was gone1 if the latter did not premeditately betray him4 ,he was just come from his usual amusement of hunting1 when the head of the column of treason and assassination was arrived at his house4 ,let not the king1 let not the prince of ,wales1 be surprised in this manner4 ,let not both houses of parliament be led in triumph along with him1 and have law dictated to them by the constitutional1 the revolution1 and the ,unitarian societies4 ,these insect reptiles1 whilst they go on only caballing and toasting1 only fill us with disgust2 if they get above their natural size1 and increase the quantity1 whilst they keep the quality1 of their venom1 they become objects of the greatest terror4 ,a spider in his natural size is only a spider1 ugly and loathsome2 and his flimsy net is only fit for catching flies4 ,but1 good ,god6 suppose a spider as large as an ox1 and that he spread cables about us1 all the wilds of ,africa would not produce anything so dreadful-- ,quale portentum neque militaris ,daunia in latis alit esculetis1 ,nec ,jubae tellus generat leonum ,arida nutrix4 ,think of them1 who dare menace in the way they do in their present state1 what would they do if they had power commensurate to their malice4 ,god forbid ,i ever should have a despotic master2 but if ,i must1 my choice is made4 ,i will have ,louis ,,xvi4 rather than ,monsieur ,bailly1 or ,brissot1 or ,chabot2 rather ,george ,,iii41 or ,george ,,iv41 than ,dr4 ,priestley or ,dr4 ,kippis1 persons who would not load a tyrannous power by the poisoned taunts of a vulgar1 low-bred insolence4 ,i hope we have still spirit enough to keep us from the one or the other4 ,the contumelies of tyranny are the worst parts of it4 ,,magnitude ,,in ,,building4 ,to the sublime in building1 greatness of dimension seems requisite2 for on a few parts1 and those small1 the imagination cannot rise to any idea of infinity4 ,no greatness in the manner can effectually compensate for the want of proper dimensions4 ,there is no danger of drawing men into extravagant designs by this rule2 it carries its own caution along with it4 ,because too great a length in buildings destroys the purpose of greatness1 which it was intended to promote2 the perspective will lessen it in height as it gains in length1 and will bring it at last to a point2 turning the whole figure into a sort of triangle1 the poorest in its effect of almost any figure that can be presented to the eye4 ,i have ever observed1 that colonnades and avenues of trees of a moderate length were1 without comparison1 far grander than when they were suffered to run to immense distances4 ,a true artist should put a generous deceit on the spectators1 and effect the noblest designs by easy methods4 ,designs that are vast only by their dimensions1 are always the sign of a common and low imagination4 ,no work of art can be great1 but as it deceives2 to be otherwise is the prerogative of nature only4 ,a good eye will fix the medium betwixt an excessive length or height 7for the same objection lies against both71 and a short or broken quantity3 and perhaps it might be ascertained to a tolerable degree of exactness1 if it was my purpose to descend far into the particulars of any art4 ,,society ,,and ,,solitude4 ,the second branch of the social passions is that which administers to ,,society ,,in ,,general4 ,with regard to this1 ,i observe1 that society1 merely as society1 without any particular heightenings1 gives us no positive pleasure in the enjoyment2 but absolute and entire ,,solitude1 that is1 the total and perpetual exclusion from all society1 is as great a positive pain as can almost be conceived4 ,therefore in the balance between the pleasure of general ,,society1 and the pain of absolute solitude1 ,,pain is the predominant idea4 ,but the pleasure of any particular social enjoyment outweighs very considerably the uneasiness caused by the want of that particular enjoyment2 so that the strongest sensations relative to the habitudes of ,,particular ,,society are sensations of pleasure4 ,good company1 lively conversations1 and the endearments of friendship1 fill the mind with great pleasure2 a temporary solitude1 on the other hand1 is itself agreeable4 ,this may perhaps prove that we are creatures designed for contemplation as well as action2 since solitude as well as society has its pleasures2 as from the former observation we may discern1 that an entire life of solitude contradicts the purposes of our being1 since death itself is scarcely an idea of more terror4 ,,east-,,india ,,bill ,,and ,,company4 ,i therefore freely admit to the ,east-,india their claim to exclude their fellow-subjects from the commerce of half the globe4 ,i admit their claim to administer an annual territorial revenue of seven millions sterling2 to command an army of sixty thousand men2 and to dispose 7under the control of a sovereign1 imperial discretion1 and with the due observance of the natural and local law7 of the lives and fortunes of thirty millions of their fellow-creatures4 ,all this they possess by charter1 and by acts of parliament 7in my opinion71 without a shadow of controversy4 ,those who carry the rights and claims of the company the furthest do not contend for more than this2 and all this ,i freely grant4 ,but granting all this1 they must grant to me1 in my turn1 that all political power which is set over men1 and that all privilege claimed or exercised in exclusion of them1 being wholly artificial1 and for so much a derogation from the natural quality of mankind at large1 ought to be some way or other exercised ultimately for their benefit4 ,if this is true with regard to every species of political dominion1 and every description of commercial privilege1 none of which can be original1 self-derived rights1 or grants for the mere private benefit of the holders1 then such rights1 or privileges1 or whatever else you choose to call them1 are all in the strictest sense a ,,trust2 and it is of the very essence of every trust to be rendered ,,accountable2 and even totally to ,,cease1 when it substantially varies from the purposes for which alone it could have a lawful existence4 ,this ,i conceive1 ,sir1 to be true of trusts of power vested in the highest hands1 and of such as seem to hold of no human creature4 ,but about the application of this principle to subordinate1 ,,derivative trusts1 ,i do not see how a controversy can be maintained4 ,to whom then would ,i make the ,east-,india ,company accountable8 ,why1 to parliament1 to be sure2 to parliament1 from which their trust was derived2 to parliament1 which alone is capable of comprehending the magnitude of its object1 and its abuse2 and alone capable of an effectual legislative remedy4 ,the very charter1 which is held out to exclude parliament from correcting malversation with regard to the high trust vested in the company1 is the very thing which at once gives a title and imposes on us a duty to interfere with effect1 wherever power and authority originating from ourselves are perverted from their purposes1 and become instruments of wrong and violence4 ,if parliament1 ,sir1 had nothing to do with this charter1 we might have some sort of ,epicurean excuse to stand aloof1 indifferent spectators of what passes in the company's name in ,india and in ,london4 ,but if we are the very cause of the evil1 we are in a special manner engaged to the redress2 and for us passively to bear with oppressions committed under the sanction of our own authority1 is in truth and reason for this house to be an active accomplice in the abuse4 ,that the power1 notoriously1 grossly abused1 has been bought from us is very certain4 ,but this circumstance1 which is urged against the bill1 becomes an additional motive for our interference2 lest we should be thought to have sold the blood of millions of men1 for the base consideration of money4 ,we sold1 ,i admit1 all that we had to sell2 that is1 our authority1 not our control4 ,we had not a right to make a market of our duties4 ,i ground myself therefore on this principle--that if the abuse is proved1 the contract is broken1 and we re-enter into all our rights2 that is1 into the exercise of all our duties4 ,our own authority is indeed as much a trust originally1 as the company's authority is a trust derivatively2 and it is the use we make of the resumed power that must justify or condemn us in the resumption of it4 ,when we have perfected the plan laid before us by the right honourable mover1 the world will then see what it is we destroy1 and what it is we create4 ,by that test we stand or fall2 and by that test ,i trust that it will be found in the issue1 that we are going to supersede a charter abused to the full extent of all the powers which it could abuse1 and exercised in the plenitude of despotism1 tyranny1 and corruption2 and that in one and the same plan1 we provide a real chartered security for the ,,rights ,,of ,,men1 cruelly violated under that charter4 ,this bill1 and those connected with it1 are intended to form the magna charta of ,hindostan4 ,whatever the treaty of ,westphalia is to the liberty of the princes and free cities of the empire1 and to the three religions there professed2 whatever the great charter1 the statute of tallege1 the petition of right1 and the declaration of right1 are to ,great ,britain1 these bills are to the people of ,india4 ,of this benefit1 ,i am certain1 their condition is capable2 and when ,i know that they are capable of more1 my vote shall most assuredly be for our giving to the full extent of their capacity of receiving2 and no charter of dominion shall stand as a bar in my way to their charter of safety and protection4 ,the strong admission ,i have made of the company's rights 7,i am conscious of it7 binds me to do a great deal4 ,i do not presume to condemn those who argue a priori1 against the propriety of leaving such extensive political powers in the hands of a company of merchants4 ,i know much is1 and much more may be1 said against such a system4 ,but1 with my particular ideas and sentiments1 ,i cannot go that way to work4 ,i feel an insuperable reluctance in giving my hand to destroy any established institution of government1 upon a theory1 however plausible it may be4 ,my experience in life teaches me nothing clear upon the subject4 ,i have known merchants with the sentiments and the abilities of great statesmen2 and ,i have seen persons in the rank of statesmen1 with the conceptions and characters of pedlars4 ,indeed1 my observation has furnished me with nothing that is to be found in any habits of life or education1 which tends wholly to disqualify men for the functions of government1 but that by which the power of exercising those functions is very frequently obtained1 ,i mean a spirit and habits of low cabal and intrigue2 which ,i have never1 in one instance1 seen united with a capacity for sound and manly policy4 ,to justify us in taking the administration of their affairs out of the hands of the ,east-,india ,company1 on my principles1 ,i must see several conditions4 #ast4 ,the object affected by the abuse should be great and important4 #bnd4 ,the abuse affecting this great object ought to be a great abuse4 #crd4 ,it ought to be habitual1 and not accidental4 #dth4 ,it ought to be utterly incurable in the body as it now stands constituted4 ,all this ought to be made as visible to me as the light of the sun1 before ,i should strike off an atom of their charter4 ,,parliaments ,,and ,,elections4 ,all are agreed1 that parliaments should not be perpetual2 the only question is1 what is the most convenient time for their duration8 ,on which there are three opinions4 ,we are agreed1 too1 that the term ought not to be chosen most likely in its operation to spread corruption1 and to augment the already overgrown influence of the ,crown4 ,on these principles ,i mean to debate the question4 ,it is easy to pretend a zeal for liberty4 ,those1 who think themselves not likely to be encumbered with the performance of their promises1 either from their known inability1 or total indifference about the performance1 never fail to entertain the most lofty ideas4 ,they are certainly the most specious1 and they cost them neither reflection to frame1 nor pains to modify1 nor management to support4 ,the task is of another nature to those1 who mean to promise nothing that it is not in their intention1 or may possibly be in their power1 to perform2 to those1 who are bound and principled no more to delude the understandings than to violate the liberty of their fellow-subjects4 ,faithful watchmen we ought to be over the rights and privileges of the people4 ,but our duty1 if we are qualified for it as we ought1 is to give them information1 and not to receive it from them2 we are not to go to school to them to learn the principles of law and government4 ,in doing so1 we should not dutifully serve1 but we should basely and scandalously betray1 the people1 who are not capable of this service by nature1 nor in any instance called to it by the constitution4 ,i reverentially look up to the opinion of the people1 and with an awe that is almost superstitious4 ,i should be ashamed to show my face before them1 if ,i changed my ground1 as they cried up or cried down men1 or things1 or opinions2 if ,i wavered and shifted about with every change1 and joined in it1 or opposed1 as best answered any low interest or passion2 if ,i held them up hopes1 which ,i knew ,i never intended1 or promised what ,i well knew ,i could not perform4 ,of all these things they are perfect sovereign judges1 without appeal2 but as to the detail of particular measures1 or to any general schemes of policy1 they have neither enough of speculation in the closet1 nor of experience in business1 to decide upon it4 ,they can well see whether we are tools of a court1 or their honest servants4 ,of that they can well judge2 and ,i wish1 that they always exercised their judgment2 but of the particular merits of a measure ,i have other standards499999999 ,that the frequency of elections proposed by this bill has a tendency to increase the power and consideration of the electors1 not lessen corruptibility1 ,i do most readily allow2 so far it is desirable2 this is what it has1 ,i will tell you now what it has not3 #ast4 ,it has no sort of tendency to increase their integrity and public spirit1 unless an increase of power has an operation upon voters in elections1 that it has in no other situation in the world1 and upon no other part of mankind4 #bnd4 ,this bill has no tendency to limit the quantity of influence in the ,crown1 to render its operation more difficult1 or to counteract that operation1 which it cannot prevent1 in any way whatsoever4 ,it has its full weight1 its full range1 and its uncontrolled operation on the electors exactly as it had before4 #crd4 ,nor1 thirdly1 does it abate the interest or inclination of ministers to apply that influence to the electors3 on the contrary1 it renders it much more necessary to them1 if they seek to have a majority in parliament to increase the means of that influence1 and redouble their diligence1 and to sharpen dexterity in the application4 ,the whole effect of the bill is therefore the removing the application of some part of the influence from the elected to the electors1 and further to strengthen and extend a court interest already great and powerful in boroughs2 here to fix their magazines and places of arms1 and thus to make them the principal1 not the secondary theatre of their manoeuvres for securing a determined majority in parliament4 ,i believe nobody will deny1 that the electors are corruptible4 ,they are men2 it is saying nothing worse of them2 many of them are but ill informed in their minds1 many feeble in their circumstances1 easily over-reached1 easily seduced4 ,if they are many1 the wages of corruption are the lower2 and would to ,god it were not rather a contemptible and hypocritical adulation than a charitable sentiment to say1 that there is already no debauchery1 no corruption1 no bribery1 no perjury1 no blind fury1 and interested faction among the electors in many parts of this kingdom3 nor is it surprising1 or at all blamable1 in that class of private men1 when they see their neighbours aggrandised1 and themselves poor and virtuous without that eclat or dignity1 which attends men in higher situations4 ,but admit it were true1 that the great mass of the electors were too vast an object for court influence to grasp1 or extend to1 and that in despair they must abandon it2 he must be very ignorant of the state of every popular interest1 who does not know1 that in all the corporations1 all the open boroughs1 indeed in every district of the kingdom1 there is some leading man1 some agitator1 some wealthy merchant1 or considerable manufacturer1 some active attorney1 some popular preacher1 some money-lender1 etc4 etc4 who is followed by the whole flock4 ,this is the style of all free countries4 --,multum in ,fabia valet hic1 valet ille ,velina2 ,cuilibet hic fasces dabit eripietque curule4 ,these spirits1 each of which informs and governs his own little orb1 are neither so many1 nor so little powerful1 nor so incorruptible1 but that a minister may1 as he does frequently1 find means of gaining them1 and through them all their followers4 ,to establish1 therefore1 a very general influence among electors will no more be found an impracticable project1 than to gain an undue influence over members of parliament4 ,therefore ,i am apprehensive1 that this bill1 though it shifts the place of the disorder1 does by no means relieve the constitution4 ,i went through almost every contested election in the beginning of this parliament1 and acted as a manager in very many of them2 by which1 though as at a school of pretty severe and rugged discipline1 ,i came to have some degree of instruction concerning the means1 by which parliamentary interests are in general procured and supported4 ,theory1 ,i know1 would suppose1 that every general election is to the representative a day of judgment1 in which he appears before his constituents to account for the use of the talent1 with which they intrusted him1 and for the improvement he has made of it for the public advantage4 ,it would be so1 if every corruptible representative were to find an enlightened and incorruptible constituent4 ,but the practice and knowledge of the world will not suffer us to be ignorant1 that the constitution on paper is one thing1 and in fact and experience is another4 ,we must know1 that the candidate1 instead of trusting at his election to the testimony of his behaviour in parliament1 must bring the testimony of a large sum of money1 the capacity of liberal expense in entertainments1 the power of serving and obliging the rulers of corporations1 of winning over the popular leaders of political clubs1 associations1 and neighbourhoods4 ,it is ten thousand times more necessary to show himself a man of power1 than a man of integrity1 in almost all the elections with which ,i have been acquainted4 ,elections1 therefore1 become a matter of heavy expense2 and if contests are frequent1 to many they will become a matter of an expense totally ruinous1 which no fortunes can bear2 but least of all the landed fortunes1 encumbered as they often1 indeed as they mostly1 are with debts1 with portions1 with jointures2 and tied up in the hands of the possessor by the limitations of settlement4 ,it is a material1 it is in my opinion a lasting1 consideration in all the questions concerning election4 ,let no one think the charges of elections a trivial matter4 ,the charge therefore of elections ought never to be lost sight of in a question concerning their frequency2 because the grand object you seek is independence4 ,independence of mind will ever be more or less influenced by independence of fortune2 and if1 every three years1 the exhausting sluices of entertainments1 drinkings1 open houses1 to say nothing of bribery1 are to be periodically drawn up and renewed2--if government-favours1 for which now1 in some shape or other1 the whole race of men are candidates1 are to be called for upon every occasion1 ,i see that private fortunes will be washed away1 and every1 even to the least1 trace of independence borne down by the torrent4 ,i do not seriously think this constitution1 even to the wrecks of it1 could survive five triennial elections4 ,if you are to fight the battle1 you must put on the armour of the ministry2 you must call in the public1 to the aid of private1 money4 ,the expense of the last election has been computed 7and ,i am persuaded that it has not been over-rated7 at #a1ejj1jjj pounds2--three shillings in the pound more in the land tax4 ,about the close of the last parliament1 and the beginning of this1 several agents for boroughs went about1 and ,i remember well1 that it was in every one of their mouths--,sir1 your election will cost you three thousand pounds1 if you are independent2 but if the ministry supports you1 it may be done for two1 and perhaps for less2 and1 indeed1 the thing spoke itself4 ,where a living was to be got for one1 a commission in the army for another1 a lift in the navy for a third1 and custom-house offices scattered about without measure or number1 who doubts but money may be saved8 ,the treasury may even add money2 but indeed it is superfluous4 ,a gentleman of two thousand a year1 who meets another of the same fortune1 fights with equal arms2 but if to one of the candidates you add a thousand a-year in places for himself1 and a power of giving away as much among others1 one must1 or there is no truth in arithmetical demonstration1 ruin his adversary1 if he is to meet him and to fight with him every third year4 ,it will be said1 ,i do not allow for the operation of character2 but ,i do2 and ,i know it will have its weight in most elections2 perhaps it may be decisive in some4 ,but there are few in which it will be prevent great expenses4 ,the destruction of independent fortunes will be the consequence on the part of the candidate4 ,what will be the consequence of triennial corruption1 triennial drunkenness1 triennial idleness1 triennial law-suits1 litigations1 prosecutions1 triennial phrensy1 of society dissolved1 industry interrupted1 ruined2 of those personal hatreds1 that will never be suffered to soften2 those animosities and feuds1 which will be rendered immortal2 those quarrels1 which are never to be appeased2 morals vitiated and gangrened to the vitals8 ,i think no stable and useful advantages were ever made by the money got at elections by the voter1 but all he gets is doubly lost to the public2 it is money given to diminish the general stock of the community1 which is in the industry of the subject4 ,i am sure1 that it is a good while before he or his family settle again to their business4 ,their heads will never cool2 the temptations of elections will be for ever glittering before their eyes4 ,they will all grow politicians2 every one1 quitting his business1 will choose to enrich himself by his vote4 ,they will all take the gauging-rod2 new places will be made for them2 they will run to the custom-house quay1 their looms and ploughs will be deserted4 ,so was ,rome destroyed by the disorders of continual elections1 though those of ,rome were sober disorders4 ,they had nothing but faction1 bribery1 bread1 and stage plays1 to debauch them4 ,we have the inflammation of liquor superadded1 a fury hotter than any of them4 ,there the contest was only between citizen and citizen2 here you have the contest of ambitious citizens on one side1 supported by the ,crown1 to oppose to the efforts 7let it be so7 of private and unsupported ambition on the other4 ,yet ,rome was destroyed by the frequency and charge of elections1 and the monstrous expense of an unremitted courtship to the people4 ,i think1 therefore1 the independent candidate and elector may each be destroyed by it2 the whole body of the community be an infinite sufferer2 and a vitious ministry the only gainer4 ,,religion ,,and ,,magistracy4 ,in a ,christian commonwealth the church and the state are one and the same thing1 being different integral parts of the same whole4 ,for the church has been always divided into two parts1 the clergy and the laity2 of which the laity is as much an essential integral part1 and has as much its duties and privileges1 as the clerical member2 and in the rule1 order1 and government of the church has its share4 ,religion is so far1 in my opinion1 from being out of the province of the duty of a ,christian magistrate1 that it is1 and it ought to be1 not only his care1 but the principal thing in his care2 because it is one of the great bonds of human society2 and its object the supreme good1 the ultimate end and object of man himself4 ,the magistrate1 who is a man1 and charged with the concerns of men1 and to whom very specially nothing human is remote and indifferent1 has a right and a duty to watch over it with an unceasing vigilance1 to protect1 to promote1 to forward it by every rational1 just1 and prudent means4 ,it is principally his duty to prevent the abuses1 which grow out of every strong and efficient principle1 that actuates the human mind4 ,as religion is one of the bonds of society1 he ought not to suffer it to be made the pretext of destroying its peace1 order1 liberty1 and its security4 ,above all1 he ought strictly to look to it when men begin to form new combinations1 to be distinguished by new names1 and especially when they mingle a political system with their religious opinions1 true or false1 plausible or implausible4 ,it is the interest1 and it is the duty1 and because it is the interest and the duty1 it is the right of government to attend much to opinions2 because1 as opinions soon combine with passions1 even when they do not produce them1 they have much influence on actions4 ,factions are formed upon opinions2 which factions become in effect bodies corporate in the state2--nay1 factions generate opinions in order to become a centre of union1 and to furnish watch-words to parties2 and this may make it expedient for government to forbid things in themselves innocent and neutral4 ,i am not fond of defining with precision what the ultimate rights of the sovereign supreme power in providing for the safety of the commonwealth may be1 or may not extend to4 ,it will signify very little what my notions1 or what their own notions1 on the subject may be2 because1 according to the exigence1 they will take1 in fact1 the steps which seem to them necessary for the preservation of the whole2 for as self-preservation in individuals is the first law of nature1 the same will prevail in societies1 who will1 right or wrong1 make that an object paramount to all other rights whatsoever4 ,,persecution1 ,,false ,,in ,,theory4 ,the bottom of this theory of persecution is false4 ,it is not permitted to us to sacrifice the temporal good of any body of men to our own ideas of the truth and falsehood of any religious opinions4 ,by making men miserable in this life1 they counteract one of the great ends of charity2 which is1 inasmuch as in us lies1 to make men happy in every period of their existence1 and most in what most depends upon us4 ,but give to these old persecutors their mistaken principle1 in their reasoning they are consistent1 and in their tempers they may be even kind and good-natured4 ,but whenever a faction would render millions of mankind miserable1 some millions of the race co-existent with themselves1 and many millions in their succession1 without knowing1 or so much as pretending to ascertain1 the doctrines of their own school 7in which there is much of the lash and nothing of the lesson71 the errors1 which the persons in such a faction fall into1 are not those that are natural to human imbecility1 nor is the least mixture of mistaken kindness to mankind an ingredient in the severities they inflict4 ,the whole is nothing but pure and perfect malice4 ,it is1 indeed1 a perfection in that kind belonging to beings of a higher order than man1 and to them we ought to leave it4 ,this kind of persecutors1 without zeal1 without charity1 know well enough1 that religion1 to pass by all questions of the truth or falsehood of any of its particular systems 7a matter ,i abandon to the theologians on all sides71 is a source of great comfort to us mortals in this our short but tedious journey through the world4 ,they know1 that to enjoy this consolation1 men must believe their religion upon some principle or other1 whether of education1 habit1 theory1 or authority4 ,when men are driven from any of those principles1 on which they have received religion1 without embracing with the same assurance and cordiality some other system1 a dreadful void is left in their minds1 and a terrible shock is given to their morals4 ,they lose their guide1 their comfort1 their hope4 ,none but the most cruel and hard-hearted of men1 who had banished all natural tenderness from their minds1 such as those beings of iron1 the atheists1 could bring themselves to any persecution like this4 ,strange it is1 but so it is1 that men1 driven by force from their habits in one mode of religion1 have1 by contrary habits1 under the same force1 often quietly settled in another4 ,they suborn their reason to declare in favour of their necessity4 ,man and his conscience cannot always be at war4 ,if the first races have not been able to make a pacification between the conscience and the convenience1 their descendants come generally to submit to the violence of the laws1 without violence to their minds4 ,,irish ,,legislation4 ,the legislature of ,ireland1 like all legislatures1 ought to frame its laws to suit the people and the circumstances of the country1 and not any longer to make it their whole business to force the nature1 the temper1 and the inveterate habits of a nation to a conformity to speculative systems concerning any kind of laws4 ,ireland has an established government1 and a religion legally established1 which are to be preserved4 ,it has a people1 who are to be preserved too1 and to be led by reason1 principle1 sentiment1 and interest to acquiesce in that government4 ,ireland is a country under peculiar circumstances4 ,the people of ,ireland are a very mixed people2 and the quantities of the several ingredients in the mixture are very much disproportioned to each other4 ,are we to govern this mixed body as if it were composed of the most simple elements1 comprehending the whole in one system of benevolent legislation2 or are we not rather to provide for the several parts according to the various and diversified necessities of the heterogeneous nature of the mass8 ,would not common reason and common honesty dictate to us the policy of regulating the people in the several descriptions of which they are composed1 according to the natural ranks and classes of an orderly civil society1 under a common protecting sovereign1 and under a form of constitution favourable at once to authority and to freedom2 such as the ,british constitution boasts to be1 and such as it is1 to those who enjoy it8 ,,henry ,,of ,,navarre4 ,i have observed the affectation which1 for many years past1 has prevailed in ,paris even to a degree perfectly childish1 of idolizing the memory of your ,henry the ,fourth4 ,if anything could put any one out of humour with that ornament to the kingly character1 it would be this overdone style of insidious panegyric4 ,the persons who have worked this engine the most busily are those who have ended their panegyrics in dethroning his successor and descendant2 a man1 as good natured1 at the least1 as ,henry the ,fourth2 altogether as fond of his people2 and who has done infinitely more to correct the ancient vices of the state than that great monarch did1 or we are sure he ever meant to do4 ,well it is for his panegyrists that they have not him to deal with4 ,for ,henry of ,navarre was a resolute1 active1 and politic prince4 ,he possessed indeed great humanity and mildness2 but a humanity and mildness that never stood in the way of his interests4 ,he never sought to be loved without putting himself first in a condition to be feared4 ,he used soft language with determined conduct4 ,he asserted and maintained his authority in the gross1 and distributed his acts of concession only in the detail4 ,he spent the income of his prerogative nobly2 but he took care not to break in upon the capital2 never abandoning for a moment any of the claims which he made under the fundamental laws1 nor sparing to shed the blood of those who opposed him1 often in the field1 sometimes upon the scaffold4 ,because he knew how to make his virtues respected by the ungrateful1 he has merited the praises of those1 whom if they had lived in his time1 he would have shut up in the ,bastile1 and brought to punishment along with the regicides whom he hanged after he had famished ,paris into a surrender4 ,,test ,,acts4 ,in a discussion which took place in the year #agij1 ,mr4 ,burke declared his intention1 in case the motion for repealing the ,test ,acts had been agreed to1 of proposing to substitute the following test in the room of what was intended to be repealed4 ,i1 ,a4,b4 do1 in the presence of ,god1 sincerely profess and believe1 that a religious establishment in this state is not contrary to the law of ,god1 or disagreeable to the law of nature1 or to the true principles of the ,christian religion1 or that it is noxious to the community2 and ,i do sincerely promise and engage1 before ,god1 that ,i never will1 by any conspiracy1 contrivance1 or political device whatever1 attempt1 or abet others in any attempt1 to subvert the constitution of the church of ,england1 as the same is now by law established1 and that ,i will not employ any power or influence1 which ,i may derive from any office corporate1 or any other office which ,i hold1 or shall hold1 under his majesty1 his heirs and successors1 to destroy and subvert the same2 or1 to cause members to be elected into any corporation1 or into parliament1 give my vote in the election of any member or members of parliament1 or into any office1 for or on account of their attachment to any other or different religious opinions or establishments1 or with any hope1 that they may promote the same to the prejudice of the established church2 but will dutifully and peaceably content myself with my private liberty of conscience1 as the same is allowed by law4 ,so help me ,god4 ,,what ,,faction ,,ought ,,to ,,teach4 ,if1 however1 you could find out these pedigrees of guilt1 ,i do not think the difference would be essential4 ,history records many things1 which ought to make us hate evil actions2 but neither history1 nor morals1 nor policy1 can teach us to punish innocent men on that account4 ,what lesson does the iniquity of prevalent factions read to us8 ,it ought to lesson us into an abhorrence of the abuse of our own power in our own day2 when we hate its excesses so much in other persons and in other times4 ,to that school true statesmen ought to be satisfied to leave mankind4 ,they ought not to call from the dead all the discussions and litigations which formerly inflamed the furious factions1 which had torn their country to pieces2 they ought not to rake into the hideous and abominable things1 which were done in the turbulent fury of an injured1 robbed1 and persecuted people1 and which were afterwards cruelly revenged in the execution1 and as outrageously and shamefully exaggerated in the representation1 in order1 a hundred and fifty years after1 to find some colour for justifying them in the eternal proscription and civil excommunication of a whole people4 ,,grievances ,,by ,,law4 ,this business appears in two points of view4 #a4 ,whether it is a matter of grievance4 #b4 ,whether it is within our province to redress it with propriety and prudence4 ,whether it comes properly before us on a petition upon matter of grievance1 ,i would not inquire too curiously4 ,i know1 technically speaking1 that nothing agreeable to law can be considered as a grievance4 ,but an over-attention to the rules of any act does sometimes defeat the ends of it1 and ,i think it does so in this parliamentary act1 as much at least as in any other4 ,i know many gentlemen think1 that the very essence of liberty consists in being governed according to law2 as if grievances had nothing real and intrinsic2 but ,i cannot be of that opinion4 ,grievances may subsist by law4 ,nay1 ,i do not know whether any grievance can be considered as intolerable until it is established and sanctified by law4 ,if the act of toleration were not perfect1 if there were a complaint of it1 ,i would gladly consent to amend it4 ,but when ,i heard a complaint of a pressure on religious liberty1 to my astonishment1 ,i find that there was no complaint whatsoever of the insufficiency of the act of ,king ,william1 nor any attempt to make it more sufficient4 ,the matter therefore does not concern toleration1 but establishment2 and it is not the rights of private conscience that are in question1 but the propriety of the terms1 which are proposed by law as a title to public emoluments2 so that the complaint is not1 that there is not toleration of diversity in opinion1 but that diversity in opinion is not rewarded by bishoprics1 rectories1 and collegiate stalls4 ,when gentlemen complain of the subscription as matter of grievance1 the complaint arises from confounding private judgment1 whose rights are anterior to law1 and the qualifications1 which the law creates for its own magistracies1 whether civil or religious4 ,to take away from men their lives1 their liberty1 or their property1 those things1 for the protection of which society was introduced1 is great hardship and intolerable tyranny2 but to annex any condition you please to benefits1 artificially created1 is the most just1 natural1 and proper thing in the world4 ,when e novo you form an arbitrary benefit1 an advantage1 pre-eminence1 or emolument1 not by nature1 but institution1 you order and modify it with all the power of a creator over his creature4 ,such benefits of institution are royalty1 nobility1 priesthood2 all of which you may limit to birth2 you might prescribe even shape and stature4 ,the ,jewish priesthood was hereditary4 ,founders' kinsmen have a preference in the election of ,fellows in many colleges of our universities2 the qualifications at ,all ,souls are1 that they should be--optime nati1 bene vestiti1 mediocriter docti4 ,by contending for liberty in the candidate for orders1 you take away the liberty of the elector1 which is the people2 that is1 the state4 ,if they can choose1 they may assign a reason for their choice2 if they can assign a reason1 they may do it in writing1 and prescribe it as a condition2 they may transfer their authority to their representatives1 and enable them to exercise the same4 ,in all human institutions a great part1 almost all regulations1 are made from the mere necessity of the case1 let the theoretical merits of the question be what they will4 ,for nothing happened at the reformation1 but what will happen in all such revolutions4 ,when tyranny is extreme1 and abuses of government intolerable1 men resort to the rights of nature to shake it off4 ,when they have done so1 the very same principle of necessity of human affairs1 to establish some other authority1 which shall preserve the order of this new institution1 must be obeyed1 until they grow intolerable2 and you shall not be suffered to plead original liberty against such an institution4 ,see ,holland1 ,switzerland4 ,if you will have religion publicly practised and publicly taught1 you must have a power to say what that religion will be which you will protect and encourage2 and to distinguish it by such marks and characteristics1 as you in your wisdom shall think fit4 ,as ,i said before1 your determination may be unwise in this as in other matters1 but it cannot be unjust1 hard1 or oppressive1 or contrary to the liberty of any man1 or in the least degree exceeding your province4 ,it is therefore as a grievance fairly none at all1 nothing but what is essential not only to the order1 but to the liberty1 of the whole community4 ,,revolutionary ,,politics4 ,in ,france you are now in the crisis of a revolution1 and in the transit from one form of government to another--you cannot see that character of men exactly in the same situation in which we see it in this country4 ,with us it is militant2 with you it is triumphant2 and you know how it can act when its power is commensurate to its will4 ,i would not be supposed to confine those observations to any description of men1 or to comprehend all men of any description within them--,no6 far from it4 ,i am as incapable of that injustice1 as ,i am of keeping terms with those who profess principles of extremes2 and who1 under the name of religion1 teach little else than wild and dangerous politics4 ,the worst of these politics of revolution is this3 they temper and harden the breast1 in order to prepare it for the desperate strokes which are sometimes used in extreme occasions4 ,but as these occasions may never arrive1 the mind receives a gratuitous taint2 and the moral sentiments suffer not a little1 when no political purpose is served by the depravation4 ,this sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man1 that they have totally forgotten his nature4 ,without opening one new avenue to the understanding1 they have succeeded in stopping up those that lead to the heart4 ,they have perverted in themselves1 and in those that attend to them1 all the well-placed sympathies of the human breast4 ,this famous sermon of the ,old ,jewry breathes nothing but this spirit through all the political part4 ,plots1 massacres1 assassinations1 seem to some people a trivial price for obtaining a revolution4 ,a cheap1 bloodless reformation1 a guiltless liberty1 appear flat and vapid to their taste4 ,there must be a great change of scene2 there must be a magnificent stage effect2 there must be a grand spectacle to rouse the imagination1 grown torpid with the lazy enjoyment of sixty years' security1 and the still unanimating repose of public prosperity4 ,the preacher found them all in the ,french revolution4 ,this inspires a juvenile warmth through his whole frame4 ,his enthusiasm kindles as he advances2 and when he arrives at his peroration it is in a full blaze4 ,then viewing1 from the ,pisgah of his pulpit1 the free1 moral1 happy1 flourishing1 and glorious state of ,france1 as in a bird-eye landscape of a promised land1 he breaks out into rapture4 ,,toleration ,,become ,,intolerant4 ,when any dissenters1 or any body of people1 come here with a petition1 it is not the number of people1 but the reasonableness of the request1 that should weigh with the house4 ,a body of dissenters come to this house1 and say1 ,tolerate us--we desire neither the parochial advantage of tithes1 nor dignities1 nor the stalls of your cathedrals4 ,no6 let the venerable orders of the hierarchy exist with all their advantages4 ,and shall ,i tell them1 ,i reject your just and reasonable petition1 not because it shakes the church1 but because there are others1 while you lie grovelling upon the earth1 that will kick and bite you8 ,judge which of these descriptions of men comes with a fair request--that1 which says1 ,sir1 ,i desire liberty for my own1 because ,i trespass on no man's conscience2--or the other1 which says1 ,i desire that these men should not be suffered to act according to their consciences1 though ,i am tolerated to act according to mine4 ,but ,i sign a body of articles1 which is my title to toleration2 ,i sign no more1 because more are against my conscience4 ,but ,i desire that you will not tolerate these men1 because they will not go so far as ,i1 though ,i desire to be tolerated1 who will not go as far as you4 ,no1 imprison them1 if they come within five miles of a corporate town1 because they do not believe what ,i do in point of doctrines4 ,shall ,i not say to these men1 ,arrangez-vous1 canaille8 ,you1 who are not the predominant power1 will not give to others the relaxation1 under which you are yourself suffered to live4 ,i have as high an opinion of the doctrines of the church as you4 ,i receive them implicitly1 or ,i put my own explanation on them1 or take that which seems to me to come best recommended by authority4 ,there are those of the dissenters1 who think more rigidly of the doctrine of the articles relative to predestination1 than others do4 ,they sign the article relative to it ex animo1 and literally4 ,others allow a latitude of construction4 ,these two parties are in the church1 as well as among the dissenters2 yet in the church we live quietly under the same roof4 ,i do not see why1 as long as ,providence gives us no further light into this great mystery1 we should not leave things as the ,divine wisdom has left them4 ,but suppose all these things to me to be clear 7which ,providence however seems to have left obscure71 yet whilst dissenters claim a toleration in things which1 seeming clear to me1 are obscure to them1 without entering into the merit of the articles1 with what face can these men say1 ,tolerate us1 but do not tolerate them8 ,toleration is good for all1 or it is good for none4 ,the discussion this day is not between establishment on one hand1 and toleration on the other1 but between those1 who being tolerated themselves1 refuse toleration to others4 ,that power should be puffed up with pride1 that authority should degenerate into rigour1 if not laudable1 is but too natural4 ,but this proceeding of theirs is much beyond the usual allowance to human weakness2 it not only is shocking to our reason1 but it provokes our indignation4 ,quid domini facient1 audent cum talia fures8 ,it is not the proud prelate thundering in his commission court1 but a pack of manumitted slaves with the lash of the beadle flagrant on their backs1 and their legs still galled with their fetters1 that would drive their brethren into that prison-house from whence they have just been permitted to escape4 ,if1 instead of puzzling themselves in the depths of the ,divine counsels1 they would turn to the mild morality of the ,gospel1 they would read their own condemnation3--,o thou wicked servant1 ,i forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me3 shouldest not thou also have compassion on thy fellow-servant1 even as ,i had pity on thee8 ,,wilkes ,,and ,,right ,,of ,,election4 ,in the last session1 the corps called the king's friends made a hardy attempt1 all at once1 ,,to ,,alter ,,the ,,right ,,of ,,election ,,itself2 to put it into the power of the ,house of ,commons to disable any person disagreeable to them from sitting in parliament1 without any other rule than their own pleasure2 to make incapacities1 either general for descriptions of men1 or particular for individuals2 and to take into their body1 persons who avowedly never been chosen by the majority of legal electors1 nor agreeably to any known rule of law4 ,the arguments upon which this claim was founded and combated1 are not my business here4 ,never has a subject been more amply and more learnedly handled1 nor upon one side1 in my opinion1 more satisfactorily2 they who are not convinced by what is already written would not receive conviction ,,though ,,one ,,arose ,,from ,,the ,,dead4 ,i too have thought on this subject3 but my purpose here1 is only to consider it as a part of the favourite project of government2 to observe on the motives which led to it2 and to trace its political consequences4 ,a violent rage for the punishment of ,mr4 ,wilkes was the pretence of the whole4 ,this gentleman1 by setting himself strongly in opposition to the court cabal1 had become at once an object of their persecution1 and of the popular favour4 ,the hatred of the court party pursuing1 and the countenance of the people protecting him1 it very soon became not at all a question on the man1 but a trial of strength between the two parties4 ,the advantage of the victory in this particular contest was the present1 but not the only1 nor by any means the principal1 object4 ,its operation upon the character of the ,house of ,commons was the great point in view4 ,the point to be gained by the cabal was this2 that a precedent should be established1 tending to show1 ,,that ,,the ,,favour ,,of ,,the ,,people ,,was ,,not ,,so ,,sure ,a ,,road ,,as ,,the ,,favour ,,of ,,the ,,court ,,even ,,to ,,popular ,,honours ,,and ,,popular ,,trusts4 ,a strenuous resistance to every appearance of lawless power2 a spirit of independence carried to some degree of enthusiasm2 an inquisitive character to discover1 and a bold one to display1 every corruption and every error of government2 these are the qualities which recommend a man to a seat in the ,house of ,commons1 in open and merely popular elections4 ,an indolent and submissive disposition2 a disposition to think charitably of all the actions of men in power1 and to live in a mutual intercourse of favours with them2 an inclination rather to countenance a strong use of authority1 than to bear any sort of licentiousness on the part of the people2 these are unfavourable qualities in an open election for members of parliament4 ,the instinct which carries the people towards the choice of the former1 is justified by reason2 because a man of such a character1 even in its exorbitances1 does not directly contradict the purposes of a trust1 the end of which is a control on power4 ,the latter character1 even when it is not in its extreme1 will execute this trust but very imperfectly2 and1 if deviating to the least excess1 will certainly frustrate instead of forwarding the purposes of a control on government4 ,but when the ,house of ,commons was to be new modelled1 is principle was not only to be changed but reversed4 ,whilst any errors committed in support of power were left to the law1 with every advantage of favourable construction1 of mitigation1 and finally of pardon3 all excesses on the side of liberty1 or in pursuit of popular favour1 or in defence of popular rights and privileges1 were not only to be punished by the rigour of the known law1 but by a ,,discretionary proceeding1 which brought on ,,the ,,loss ,,of ,,the ,,popular ,,object ,,itself4 ,popularity was to be rendered1 if not directly penal1 at least highly dangerous4 ,the favour of the people might lead even to a disqualification of representing them4 ,their odium might become1 strained through the medium of two or three constructions1 the means of sitting as the trustee of all that was dear to them4 ,this is punishing the offence in the offending part4 ,until this time1 the opinion of the people1 through the power of an assembly1 still in some sort popular1 led to the greatest honours and emoluments in the gift of the crown4 ,now the principle is reversed2 and the favour of the court is the only sure way of obtaining and holding those honours which ought to be in the disposal of the people4 ,it signifies very little how this matter may be quibbled away4 ,example1 the only argument of effect in civil life1 demonstrates the truth of my proposition4 ,nothing can alter my opinion concerning the pernicious tendency of this example1 until ,i see some man for his indiscretion in the support of power1 for his violent and intemperate servility1 rendered incapable of sitting in parliament4 ,for as it now stands1 the fault of overstraining popular qualities1 and1 irregularly if you please1 asserting popular privileges1 has led to disqualification2 the opposite fault never has produced the slightest punishment4 ,resistance to power has shut the door of the ,house of ,commons to one man2 obsequiousness and servility1 to none4 ,not that ,i would encourage popular disorder1 or any disorder4 ,but ,i would leave such offences to the law1 to be punished in measure and proportion4 ,the laws of this country are for the most part constituted1 and wisely so1 for the general ends of government1 rather than for the preservation of our particular liberties4 ,whatever1 therefore1 is done in support of liberty1 by persons not in public trust1 or not acting merely in that trust1 is liable to be more or less out of the ordinary course of the law2 and the law itself is sufficient to animadvert upon it with great severity4 ,nothing indeed can hinder that severe letter from crushing us1 except the temperaments it may receive from a trial by jury4 ,but if the habit prevail ,,of ,,going ,,beyond ,,the ,,law1 and superseding this judicature1 of carrying offences1 real or supposed1 into the legislative bodies1 who shall establish themselves into ,,courts ,,of ,,criminal ,,equity 7so ,,the ,,star ,,chamber has been called by ,lord ,bacon71 all the evils of the ,,star ,,chamber are revived4 ,a large and liberal construction in ascertaining offences1 and a discretionary power in punishing them1 is the idea of ,,criminal ,,equity2 which is in truth a monster in jurisprudence4 ,it signifies nothing whether a court for this purpose be a committee of council1 or a house of commons1 or a house of lords2 the liberty of the subject will be equally subverted by it4 ,the true end and purpose of that house of parliament which entertains such a jurisdiction1 will be destroyed by it4 ,i will not believe1 what no other man living believes1 that ,mr4 ,wilkes was punished for the indecency of his publications1 or the impiety of his ransacked closet4 ,if he had fallen in a common slaughter of libellers and blasphemers1 ,i could well believe that nothing more was meant than was pretended4 ,but when ,i see1 that1 for years together1 full as impious1 and perhaps more dangerous1 writings to religion1 and virtue1 and order1 have not been punished1 nor their authors discountenanced2 that the most audacious libels on royal majesty have passed without notice2 that the most treasonable invectives against the laws1 liberties1 and constitution of the country1 have not met with the slightest animadversion2 ,i must consider this as a shocking and shameless pretence4 ,never did an envenomed scurrility against everything sacred and civil1 public and private1 rage through the kingdom with such a furious and unbridled licence4 ,all this while the peace of the nation must be shaken1 to ruin one libeller1 and to tear from the populace a single favourite4 ,nor is it that vice merely skulks in an obscure and contemptible impunity4 ,does not the public behold with indignation1 persons not only generally scandalous in their lives1 but the identical persons who1 by their society1 their instruction1 their example1 their encouragement1 have drawn this man into the very faults which have furnished the cabal with a pretence for his persecution1 loaded with every kind of favour1 honour1 and distinction1 which a court can bestow8 ,add but the crime of servility 7the foedum crimen servitutis7 to every other crime1 and the whole mass is immediately transmuted into virtue1 and becomes the just subject of reward and honour4 ,when therefore ,i reflect upon this method pursued by the cabal in distributing rewards and punishments1 ,i must conclude that ,mr4 ,wilkes is the object of persecution1 not on account of what he has done in common with others who are the objects of reward1 but for that in which he differs from many of them3 that he is pursued for the spirited dispositions which are blended with his vices2 for his unconquerable firmness1 for his resolute1 indefatigable1 strenuous resistance against oppression4 ,in this case1 therefore1 it was not the man that was to be punished1 nor his faults that were to be discountenanced4 ,opposition to acts of power was to be marked by a kind of civil proscription4 ,the popularity which should arise from such an opposition was to be shown unable to protect it4 ,the qualities by which court is made to the people1 were to render every fault inexpiable1 and every error irretrievable4 ,the qualities by which court is made to power1 were to cover and to sanctify everything4 ,he that will have a sure and honourable seat in the ,house of ,commons1 must take care how he adventures to cultivate popular qualities2 otherwise he may remember the old maxim1 ,breves et infaustos populi ,romani amores4 ,if1 therefore1 a pursuit of popularity expose a man to greater dangers than a disposition to servility1 the principle which is the life and soul of popular elections will perish out of the constitution4 ,,rockingham ,,and ,,conway4 ,it is now given out for the usual purposes1 by the usual emissaries1 that ,lord ,rockingham did not consent to the repeal of this act until he was bullied into it by ,lord ,chatham2 and the reporters have gone so far as publicly to assert1 in a hundred companies1 that the honourable gentleman under the gallery1 who proposed the repeal in the ,american committee1 had another set of resolutions in his pocket directly the reverse of those he moved4 ,these artifices of a desperate cause are at this time spread abroad1 with incredible care1 in every part of the town1 from the highest to the lowest companies2 as if the industry of the circulation were to make amends for the absurdity of the report4 ,sir1 whether the noble lord is of a complexion to be bullied by ,lord ,chatham1 or by any man1 ,i must submit to those who know him4 ,i confess1 when ,i look back to that time1 ,i consider him as placed in one of the most trying situations in which1 perhaps1 any man ever stood4 ,in the ,house of ,peers there were very few of the ministry1 out of the noble lord's own particular connection 7except ,lord ,egmont1 who acted1 as far as ,i could discern1 an honourable and manly part71 that did not look to some other future arrangement1 which warped his politics4 ,there were in both houses new and menacing appearances1 that might very naturally drive any other1 than a most resolute minister1 from his measure or from his station4 ,the household troops openly revolted4 ,the allies of ministry 7those1 ,i mean1 who supported some of their measures1 but refused responsibility for any7 endeavoured to undermine their credit1 and to take ground that must be fatal to the success of the very cause which they would be thought to countenance4 ,the question of the repeal was brought on by ministry in the committee of this house1 in the very instant when it was known that more than one court negotiation was carrying on with the heads of the opposition4 ,everything1 upon every side1 was full of traps and mines4 ,earth below shook2 heaven above menaced2 all the elements of ministerial safety were dissolved4 ,it was in the midst of this chaos of plots and counterplots2 it was in the midst of this complicated warfare against public opposition and private treachery1 that the firmness of that noble person was put to the proof4 ,he never stirred from his ground3 no1 not an inch4 ,he remained fixed and determined1 in principle1 in measure1 and in conduct4 ,he practised no managements4 ,he secured no retreat4 ,he sought no apology4 ,i will likewise do justice1 ,i ought to do it1 to the honourable gentlemen who led us in this house4 ,far from the duplicity wickedly charged on him1 he acted his part with alacrity and resolution4 ,we all felt inspired by the example he gave us1 down even to myself1 the weakest in that phalanx4 ,i declare for one1 ,i knew well enough 7it could not be concealed from anybody7 the true state of things2 but1 in my life1 ,i never came with so much spirits into this house4 ,it was a time for a ,,man to act in4 ,we had powerful enemies1 but we had faithful and determined friends2 and a glorious cause4 ,we had a great battle to fight1 but we had the means of fighting2 not as now1 when our arms are tied behind us4 ,we did fight that day1 and conquer4 ,i remember1 ,sir1 with a melancholy pleasure1 the situation of the honourable gentleman 7,general ,conway47 who made the motion for the repeal2 in that crisis when the whole trading interest of this empire1 crammed into your lobbies1 with a trembling and anxious expectation1 waited1 almost to a winter's return of light1 their fate from your resolutions4 ,when1 at length1 you had determined in their favour1 and your doors1 thrown open1 showed them the figure of their deliverer in the well-earned triumph of his important victory1 from the whole of that grave multitude there arose an involuntary burst of gratitude and transport4 ,they jumped upon him like children on a long-absent father4 ,they clung about him as captives about their redeemer4 ,all ,england1 all ,america joined to his applause4 ,nor did he seem insensible to the best of all earthly rewards1 the love and admiration of his fellow-citizens4 ,,hope ,,elevated1 ,,and ,,joy ,,brightened ,,his ,,crest4 ,i stood near him2 and his face1 to use the expression of the scripture of the first martyr1 his face was as if it had been the face of an angel4 ,i do not know how others feel2 but if ,i had stood in that situation1 ,i never would have exchanged it for all that kings in their profusion could bestow4 ,i did hope that that day's danger and honour would have been a bond to hold us all together for ever4 ,but1 alas6 that1 with other pleasing visions1 is long since vanished4 ,sir1 this act of supreme magnanimity has been represented1 as if it had been a measure of an administration1 that having no scheme of their own1 took a middle line1 pilfered a bit from one side and a bit from the other4 ,sir1 they took ,,no middle lines4 ,they differed fundamentally from the schemes of both parties2 but they preserved the objects of both4 ,they preserved the authority of ,great ,britain4 ,they made the ,declaratory ,act2 they repealed the ,stamp ,act4 ,they did both ,,fully2 because the ,declaratory ,act was without ,,qualification2 and the repeal of the ,stamp ,act ,,total4 ,this they did in the situation ,i have described4 ,,politics ,,in ,,the ,,pulpit4 ,it is plain that the mind of this ,,political preacher was at the time big with some extraordinary design2 and it is very probable that the thoughts of his audience1 who understood him better than ,i do1 did all along run before him in his reflection1 and in the whole train of consequences to which it led4 ,before ,i read that sermon1 ,i really thought ,i had lived in a free country2 and it was an error ,i cherished1 because it gave me a greater liking to the country ,i lived in4 ,i was indeed aware1 that a jealous1 ever-waking vigilance1 to guard the treasure of our liberty1 not only from invasion1 but from decay and corruption1 was our best wisdom1 and our first duty4 ,however1 ,i considered that treasure rather as a possession to be secured1 than as a prize to be contended for4 ,i did not discern how the present time came to be so very favourable to all ,,exertions in the cause of freedom4 ,the present time differs from any other only by the circumstance of what is doing in ,france4 ,if the example of that nation is to have an influence on this1 ,i can easily conceive why some of their proceedings which have an unpleasant aspect1 and are not quite reconcilable to humanity1 generosity1 good faith1 and justice1 are palliated with so much milky good-nature towards the actors1 and born with so much heroic fortitude towards the sufferers4 ,it is certainly not prudent to discredit the authority of an example we mean to follow4 ,but allowing this1 we are led to a very natural question3--,what is that cause of liberty1 and what are those exertions in its favour1 to which the example of ,france is so singularly auspicious8 ,is our monarchy to be annihilated1 with all the laws1 all the tribunals1 and all the ancient corporations of the kingdom8 ,is every land-mark of the country to be done away in favour of a geometrical and arithmetical constitution8 ,is the ,house of ,lords to be voted useless8 ,is episcopacy to be abolished8 ,are the church lands to be sold to ,jews and jobbers2 or given to bribe new-invented municipal republics into a participation in sacrilege8 ,are all the taxes to be voted grievances1 and the revenue reduced to a patriotic contribution1 or patriotic presents8 ,are silver shoe-buckles to be substituted in the place of the land-tax and the malt-tax1 for the support of the naval strength of this kingdom8 ,are all orders1 ranks1 and distinctions to be confounded1 that out of universal anarchy1 joined to national bankruptcy1 three or four thousand democracies should be formed into eighty-three1 and that they may all1 by some sort of unknown attractive power1 be organized into one8 ,for this great end is the army to be seduced from its discipline and its fidelity1 first by every kind of debauchery1 and then by the terrible precedent of a donative in the increase of pay8 ,are the curates to be secluded from their bishops1 by holding out to them the delusive hope of a dole out of the spoils of their own order8 ,are the citizens of ,london to be drawn from their allegiance by feeding them at the expense of their fellow-subjects8 ,is a compulsory paper currency to be substituted in the place of the legal coin of this kingdom8 ,is what remains of the plundered stock of public revenue to be employed in the wild project of maintaining two armies to watch over and to fight with each other8 ,if these are the ends and means of the ,revolution ,society1 ,i admit they are well assorted2 and ,france may furnish them for both with precedents in point4 ,i see that your example is held out to shame us4 ,i know that we are supposed a dull1 sluggish race1 rendered passive by finding our situation tolerable1 and prevented by a mediocrity of freedom from ever attaining to its full perfection4 ,your leaders in ,france began by affecting to admire1 almost to adore1 the ,british constitution2 but1 as they advanced1 they came to look upon it with a sovereign contempt4 ,the friends of your ,national ,assembly amongst us have full as mean an opinion of what was formerly thought the glory of their country4 ,the ,revolution ,society has discovered that the ,english nation is not free4 ,they are convinced that the inequality in our representation is adefect in our constitution ,,so ,,gross ,,and ,,palpable1 as to make it excellent chiefly in ,,form and ,,theory4 7,discourse on the ,love of our ,country1 #crd edition page #ci47 ,that a representation in the legislature of a kingdom is not only the basis of all constitutional liberty in it1 but of ,,all ,,legitimate ,,government2 that without it a ,,government is nothing but a ,,usurpation2--that when the representation is ,,partial1 the kingdom possesses liberty only ,,partially2 and if extremely partial it gives only a ,,semblance2 and if not only extremely partial1 but corruptly chosen1 it becomes a ,,nuisance4 ,dr4 ,price considers this inadequacy of representation as our ,,fundamental ,,grievance2 and though1 as to the corruption of this semblance of representation1 he hopes it is not yet arrived to its full perfection of depravity1 he fears that nothing will be done towards gaining for us this ,,essential ,,blessing1 until some ,,great ,,abuse ,,of ,,power again provokes our resentment1 or some ,,great ,,calamity again alarms our fears1 or perhaps till the acquisition of a ,,pure ,,and ,,equal ,,representation ,,by ,,other ,,countries1 whilst we are ,,mocked with the ,,shadow1 kindles our shame4 ,to this he subjoins a note in these words4 ,a representation chosen chiefly by the treasury1 and a ,,few thousands of the ,,dregs of the people1 who are generally paid for their votes4 ,you will smile here at the consistency of those democratists1 who1 when they are not on their guard1 treat the humbler part of the community with the greatest contempt1 whilst1 at the same time1 they pretend to make them the depositories of all power4 ,it would require a long discourse to point out to you the many fallacies that lurk in the generality and equivocal nature of the terms inadequate representation4 ,i shall only say here1 in justice to that old-fashioned constitution1 under which we have long prospered1 that our representation has been found perfectly adequate to all the purposes for which a representation of the people can be desired or devised4 ,i defy the enemies of our constitution to show the contrary4 ,to detail the particulars in which it is found so well to promote its ends1 would demand a treatise on our practical constitution4 ,i state here the doctrine of the revolutionists1 only that you and others may see1 what an opinion these gentlemen entertain of the constitution of their country1 and why they seem to think that some great abuse of power1 or some great calamity1 as giving a chance for the blessing of a constitution according to their ideas1 would be much palliated to their feelings2 you see ,,why ,,they are so much enamoured of your fair and equal representation1 which being once obtained1 the same effects might follow4 ,you see they consider our ,house of ,commons as only a semblance1 a form1 a theory1 a shadow1 a mockery1 perhaps a nuisance4 ,,william ,,the ,,conqueror4 ,there is nothing more memorable in history than the actions1 fortunes1 and character of this great man2 whether we consider the grandeur of the plans he formed1 the courage and wisdom with which they were executed1 or the splendour of that success1 which1 adorning his youth1 continued without the smallest reserve to support his age even to the last moments of his life4 ,he lived above seventy years1 and reigned within ten years as long as he lived3 sixty over his dukedom1 above twenty over ,england2 both of which he acquired or kept by his own magnanimity1 with hardly any other title than he derived from his arms2 so that he might be reputed1 in all respects1 as happy as the highest ambition1 the most fully gratified1 can make a man4 ,the silent inward satisfactions of domestic happiness he neither had nor sought4 ,he had a body suited to the character of his mind1 erect1 firm1 large1 and active2 whilst to be active was a praise2 a countenance stern1 and which became command4 ,magnificent in his living1 reserved in his conversation1 grave in his common deportment1 but relaxing with a wise facetiousness1 he knew how to relieve his mind and preserve his dignity2 for he never forfeited by a personal acquaintance that esteem he had acquired by his great actions4 ,unlearned in books1 he formed his understanding by the rigid discipline of a large and complicated experience4 ,he knew men much1 and therefore generally trusted them but little2 but when he knew any man to be good1 he reposed in him an entire confidence1 which prevented his prudence from degenerating into a vice4 ,he had vices in his composition1 and great ones2 but they were the vices of a great mind3 ambition1 the malady of every extensive genius2 and avarice1 the madness of the wise3 one chiefly actuated his youth2 the other governed his age4 ,the vices of young and light minds1 the joys of wine1 and the pleasures of love1 never reached his aspiring nature4 ,the general run of men he looked on with contempt1 and treated with cruelty when they opposed him4 ,nor was the rigour of his mind to be softened but with the appearance of extraordinary fortitude in his enemies1 which1 by a sympathy congenial to his own virtues1 always excited his admiration1 and insured his mercy4 ,so that there were often seen in this one man1 at the same time1 the extremes of a savage cruelty1 and a generosity1 that does honour to human nature4 ,religion1 too1 seemed to have a great influence on his mind from policy1 or from better motives2 but his religion was displayed in the regularity with which he performed his duties1 not in the submission he showed to its ministers1 which was never more than what good government required4 ,yet his choice of a counsellor and favourite was not1 according to the mode of the time1 out of that order1 and a choice that does honour to his memory4 ,this was ,lanfranc1 a man of great learning for the times1 and extraordinary piety4 ,he owed his elevation to ,william2 but1 though always inviolably faithful1 he never was the tool or flatterer of the power which raised him2 and the greater freedom he showed1 the higher he rose in the confidence of his master4 ,by mixing with the concerns of state he did not lose his religion and conscience1 or make them the covers or instruments of ambition2 but tempering the fierce policy of a new power by the mild lights of religion1 he became a blessing to the country in which he was promoted4 ,the ,english owed to the virtue of this stranger1 and the influence he had on the king1 the little remains of liberty they continued to enjoy2 and at last such a degree of his confidence1 as in some sort counterbalanced the severities of the former part of his reign4 ,,king ,,alfred4 ,when ,alfred had once more reunited the kingdoms of his ancestors1 he found the whole face of things in the most desperate condition2 there was no observance of law and order2 religion had no force2 there was no honest industry2 the most squalid poverty1 and the grossest ignorance1 had overspread the whole kingdom4 ,alfred at once enterprised the cure of all these evils4 ,to remedy the disorders in the government1 he revived1 improved1 and digested all the ,saxon institutions2 insomuch that he is generally honoured as the founder of our laws and constitution4 7,historians1 copying after one another1 and examining little1 have attributed to this monarch the institution of juries2 an institution which certainly did never prevail amongst the ,saxons4 ,they have likewise attributed to him the distribution of ,england into shires1 hundreds1 and tithings1 and of appointing officers over these divisions4 ,but it is very obvious that the shires were never settled upon any regular plan1 nor are they the result of any single design4 ,but these reports1 however ill imagined1 are a strong proof of the high veneration in which this excellent prince has always been held2 as it has been thought that the attributing these regulations to him would endear them to the nation4 ,he probably settled them in such an order1 and made such reformations in his government1 that some of the institutions themselves1 which he improved1 have been attributed to him2 and indeed there was one work of his1 which serves to furnish us with a higher idea of the political capacity of that great man than any of these fictions4 ,he made a general survey and register of all the property in the kingdom1 who held it1 and what it was distinctly2 a vast work for an age of ignorance and time of confusion1 which has been neglected in more civilized nations and settled times4 ,it was called the ,roll of ,winton1 and served as a model of a work of the same kind made by ,william the ,conqueror47 ,the shire he divided into hundreds2 the hundreds into tithings2 every freeman was obliged to be entered into some tithing1 the members of which were mutually bound for each other for the preservation of the peace1 and the avoiding theft and rapine4 ,for securing the liberty of the subject1 he introduced the method of giving bail1 the most certain fence against the abuses of power4 ,it has been observed1 that the reigns of weak princes are times favourable to liberty2 but the wisest and bravest of all the ,english princes is the father of their freedom4 ,this great man was even jealous of the privileges of his subjects2 and as his whole life was spent in protecting them1 his last will breathes the same spirit1 declaring1 that he had left his people as free as their own thoughts4 ,he not only collected with great care a complete body of laws1 but he wrote comments on them for the instruction of his judges1 who were in general by the misfortune of the time ignorant2 and if he took care to correct their ignorance1 he was rigorous towards their corruption4 ,he inquired strictly into their conduct2 he heard appeals in person2 he held his ,wittena-,gemotes1 or parliaments1 frequently1 and kept every part of his government in health and vigour4 ,nor was he less solicitous for the defence1 than he had shown himself for the regulation1 of his kingdom4 ,he nourished with particular care the new naval strength1 which he had established2 he built forts and castles in the most important posts2 he settled beacons to spread an alarm on the arrival of an enemy2 and ordered his militia in such a manner1 that there was always a great power in readiness to march1 well appointed and well disciplined4 ,but that a suitable revenue might not be wanting for the support of his fleets and fortifications1 he gave great encouragement to trade2 which by the piracies on the coasts1 and the rapine and injustice exercised by the people within1 had long become a stranger to this island4 ,in the midst of these various and important cares1 he gave a peculiar attention to learning1 which by the rage of the late wars had been entirely extinguished in his kingdom4 ,very few there were 7says this monarch7 on this side the ,humber1 that understood their ordinary prayers2 or that were able to translate any ,latin book into ,english2 so few1 that ,i do not remember even one qualified to the southward of the ,thames when ,i began my reign4 ,to cure this deplorable ignorance1 he was indefatigable in his endeavours to bring into ,england men of learning in all branches from every part of ,europe2 and unbounded in his liberality to them4 ,he enacted by a law1 that every person possessed of two hides of land should send their children to school until sixteen4 ,wisely considering where to put a stop to his love even of the liberal arts1 which are only suited to a liberal condition1 he enterprised yet a greater design than that of forming the growing generation1--to instruct even the grown2 enjoining all his earldormen and sheriffs immediately to apply themselves to learning or to quit their offices4 ,to facilitate these great purposes1 he made a regular foundation of a university1 which with great reason is believed to have been at ,oxford4 ,whatever trouble he took to extend the benefits of learning amongst his subjects1 he showed the example himself1 and applied to the cultivation of his mind with unparalleled diligence and success4 ,he could neither read nor write at twelve years old2 but he improved his time in such a manner that he became one of the most knowing men of his age1 in geometry1 in philosophy1 in architecture1 and in music4 ,he applied himself to the improvement of his native language2 he translated several valuable works from ,latin1 and wrote a vast number of poems in the ,saxon tongue with a wonderful facility and happiness4 ,he not only excelled in the theory of the arts and sciences1 but possessed a great mechanical genius for the executive part2 he improved the manner of ship-building1 introduced a more beautiful and commodious architecture1 and even taught his countrymen the art of making bricks1 most of the buildings having been of wood before his time2 in a word1 he comprehended in the greatness of his mind the whole of government and all its parts at once2 and what is most difficult to human frailty1 was the same time sublime and minute4 ,religion1 which in ,alfred's father was so prejudicial to affairs1 without being in him at all inferior in its zeal and fervour1 was of a more enlarged and noble kind2 far from being a prejudice to his government1 it seems to have been the principle that supported him in so many fatigues1 and fed like an abundant source his civil and military virtues4 ,to his religious exercises and studies he devoted a full third part of his time4 ,it is pleasant to trace a genius even in its smallest exertions2 in measuring and allotting his time for the variety of business he was engaged in4 ,according to his severe and methodical custom1 he had a sort of wax candles1 made of different colours1 in different proportions1 according to the time he allotted to each particular affair2 as he carried these about with him wherever he went1 to make them burn evenly1 he invented horn lanthorns4 ,one cannot help being amazed1 that a prince1 who lived in such turbulent times1 who commanded personally in fifty-four pitched battles1 who had so disordered a province to regulate1 who was not only a legislator but a judge1 and who was continually superintending his armies1 his navies1 the traffic of his kingdom1 his revenues1 and the conduct of all his officers1 could have bestowed so much of his time on religious exercises and speculative knowledge2 but the exertion of all his faculties and virtues seemed to have given a mutual strength to all of them4 ,thus all historians speak of this prince1 whose whole history was one panegyric2 and whatever dark spots of human frailty may have adhered to such a character1 they are entirely hid in the splendour of his many shining qualities and grand virtues1 that throw a glory over the obscure period in which he lived1 and which is for no other reason worthy of our knowledge4 ,,druids4 ,the ,druids are said to be very expert in astronomy1 in geography1 and in all parts of mathematical knowledge4 ,and authors speak1 in a very exaggerated strain1 of their excellence in these1 and in many other sciences4 ,some elemental knowledge ,i suppose they had2 but ,i can scarcely be persuaded that their learning was either deep or extensive4 ,in all countries where ,druidism was professed1 the youth were generally instructed by that order2 and yet was there little either in the manners of the people1 in their way of life1 or their works of art1 that demonstrates profound science1 or particularly mathematical skill4 ,britain1 where their discipline was in its highest perfection1 and which was therefore resorted to by the people of ,gaul1 as an oracle in ,druidical questions1 was more barbarous in all other respects than ,gaul itself1 or than any other country then known in ,europe4 ,those piles of rude magnificence1 ,stonehenge and ,abury1 are in vain produced in proof of their mathematical abilities4 ,these vast structures have nothing which can be admired1 but the greatness of the work2 and they are not the only instances of the great things1 which the mere labour of many hands united1 and persevering in their purpose1 may accomplish with very little help from mechanics4 ,this may be evinced by the immense buildings1 and the low state of the sciences1 among the original ,peruvians4 ,the ,druids were eminent1 above all the philosophic lawgivers of antiquity1 for their care in impressing the doctrine of the soul's immortality on the minds of their people1 as an operative and leading principle4 ,this doctrine was inculcated on the scheme of transmigration1 which some imagine them to have derived from ,pythagoras4 ,but it is by no means necessary to resort to any particular teacher for an opinion which owes its birth to the weak struggles of unenlightened reason1 and to mistakes natural to the human mind4 ,the idea of the soul's immortality is indeed ancient1 universal1 and in a manner inherent in our nature2 but it is not easy for a rude people to conceive any other mode of existence than one similar to what they had experienced in life2 nor any other world as the scene of such an existence1 but this we inhabit1 beyond the bounds of which the mind extends itself with great difficulty4 ,admiration1 indeed1 was able to exalt to heaven a few selected heroes2 it did not seem absurd1 that those1 who in their mortal state had distinguished themselves as superior and overruling spirits1 should after death ascend to that sphere1 which influences and governs everything below2 or that the proper abode of beings1 at once so illustrious and permanent1 should be in that part of nature1 in which they had always observed the greatest splendour and the least mutation4 ,but on ordinary occasions it was natural some should imagine1 that the dead retired into a remote country1 separated from the living by seas or mountains4 ,it was natural1 that some should follow their imagination with a simplicity still purer1 and pursue the souls of men no further than the sepulchres1 in which their bodies had been deposited2 whilst others of deeper penetration1 observing that bodies1 worn out by age1 or destroyed by accidents1 still afforded the materials for generating new ones1 concluded likewise1 that a soul being dislodged did not wholly perish1 but was destined1 by a similar revolution in nature1 to act again1 and to animate some other body4 ,this last principle gave rise to the doctrine of transmigration2 but we must not presume of course1 that where it prevailed it necessarily excluded the other opinions2 for it is not remote from the usual procedure of the human mind1 blending1 in obscure matters1 imagination and reasoning together1 to unite ideas the most inconsistent4 ,when ,homer represents the ghosts of his heroes appearing at the sacrifices of ,ulysses1 he supposes them endued with life1 sensation1 and a capacity of moving1 but he has joined to these powers of living existence uncomeliness1 want of strength1 want of distinction1 the characteristics of a dead carcass4 ,this is what the mind is apt to do2 it is very apt to confound the ideas of the surviving soul and the dead body4 ,the vulgar have always1 and still do confound these very irreconcilable ideas4 ,they lay the scene of apparitions in churchyards2 they habit the ghost in a shroud2 and it appears in all the ghastly paleness of a corpse4 ,a contradiction of this kind has given rise to a doubt1 whether the ,druids did in reality hold the doctrine of transmigration4 ,there is positive testimony1 that they did hold it4 ,there is also testimony as positive1 that they buried1 or burned with the dead1 utensils1 arms1 slaves1 and whatever might be judged useful to them1 as if they were to be removed into a separate state4 ,they might have held both these opinions2 and we ought not to be surprised to find error inconsistent4 ,,saxon ,,conquest ,,and ,,conversion4 ,but whatever was the condition of the other parts of ,europe1 it is generally agreed that the state of ,britain was the worst of all4 ,some writers have asserted1 that except those who took refuge in the mountains of ,wales and ,cornwall1 or fled into ,armorica1 the ,british race was1 in a manner1 destroyed4 ,what is extraordinary1 we find ,england in a very tolerable state of population in less than two centuries after the first invasion of the ,saxons2 and it is hard to imagine either the transplantation1 or the increase1 of that single people to have been1 in so short a time1 sufficient for the settlement of so great an extent of country4 ,others speak of the ,britons1 not as extirpated1 but as reduced to a state of slavery2 and here these writers fix the origin of personal and predial servitude in ,england4 ,i shall lay fairly before the reader all ,i have been able to discover concerning the existence or condition of this unhappy people4 ,that they were much more broken and reduced than any other nation which had fallen under the ,german power1 ,i think may be inferred from two considerations3 first1 that in all other parts of ,europe the ancient language subsisted after the conquest1 and at length incorporated with that of the conquerors2 whereas in ,england1 the ,saxon language received little or no tincture from the ,welsh2 and it seems1 even among the lowest people1 to have continued a dialect of pure ,teutonic to the time in which it was itself blended with the ,norman4 ,secondly1 that on the continent1 the ,christian religion1 after the northern irruptions1 not only remained1 but flourished4 ,it was very early and universally adopted by the ruling people4 ,in ,england it was so entirely extinguished1 that1 when ,augustin undertook his mission1 it does not appear that among all the ,saxons there was a single person professing ,christianity4 ,the sudden extinction of the ancient religion and language appears sufficient to show that ,britain must have suffered more than any of the neighbouring nations on the continent4 ,but it must not be concealed1 that there are likewise proofs1 that the ,british race1 though much diminished1 was not wholly extirpated2 and that those who remained1 were not merely as ,britons reduced to servitude2 for they are mentioned as existing in some of the earlier ,saxon laws4 ,in these laws they are allowed a compensation on the footing of the meaner kind of ,english2 and they are even permitted1 as well as the ,english1 to emerge out of that low rank into a more liberal condition4 ,this is degradation1 but not slavery4 7,leges ,inae #cb de ,cambrico homine agrum possidente4 ,id4 #ed47 ,the affairs of that whole period are1 however1 covered with an obscurity not to be dissipated4 ,the ,britons had little leisure or ability to write a just account of a war by which they were ruined2 and the ,anglo-,saxons1 who succeeded them1 attentive only to arms1 were until their conversion1 ignorant of the use of letters4 ,it is on this darkened theatre that some old writers have introduced those characters and actions1 which have afforded such ample matter to poets1 and so much perplexity to historians4 ,this is the fabulous and heroic age of our nation4 ,after the natural and just representations of the ,roman scene1 the stage is again crowded with enchanters1 giants1 and all the extravagant images of the wildest and most remote antiquity4 ,no personage makes so conspicuous a figure in these stories as ,king ,arthur2 a prince1 whether of ,british or ,roman origin1 whether born on this island or in ,armorica1 is uncertain2 but it appears that he opposed the ,saxons with remarkable virtue1 and no small degree of success1 which has rendered him and his exploits so large an argument of romance1 that both are almost disclaimed by history4 ,light scarce begins to dawn until the introduction of ,christianity1 which1 bringing with it the use of letters1 and the arts of civil life1 affords at once a juster account of things and facts that are more worthy of relation2 nor is there1 indeed1 any revolution so remarkable in the ,english story4 ,the bishops of ,rome had for sometime meditated the conversion of the ,anglo-,saxons4 ,pope ,gregory1 who is surnamed the ,great1 affected that pious design with an uncommon zeal2 and he at length found a circumstance highly favourable to it in the marriage of a daughter of ,charibert1 a king of the ,franks1 to the reining monarch of ,kent4 ,this opportunity induced ,pope ,gregory to commission ,augustin1 a monk of ,rheims1 and a man of distinguished piety1 to undertake this arduous enterprise4 ,it was in the year of ,christ #fjj1 and #aej years after the coming of the first ,saxon colonies into ,england1 that ,ethelbert1 king of ,kent1 received intelligence of the arrival in his dominions of a number of men in a foreign garb1 practising several strange and unusual ceremonies1 who desired to be conducted to the king's presence1 declaring that they had things to communicate to him and to his people of the utmost importance to their eternal welfare4 ,this was ,augustin1 with forty of the associates of his mission1 who now landed in the ,isle of ,thanet1 the same place by which the ,saxons had before entered1 when they extirpated ,christianity4 ,,ministerial ,,responsibility4 ,it is no excuse at all for a minister1 who at our desire takes a measure contrary to our safety1 that it is our own act4 ,he who does not stay the hand of suicide1 is guilty of murder4 ,on our part1 ,i say1 that to be instructed1 is not to be degraded or enslaved4 ,information is an advantage to us2 and we have a right to demand it4 ,he that is bound to act in the dark cannot be said to act freely4 ,when it appears evident to our governors that our desires and our interests are at variance1 they ought not to gratify the former at the expense of the latter4 ,statesmen are placed on an eminence1 that they may have a larger horizon than we can possibly command4 ,they have a whole before them1 which we can contemplate only in the parts1 and often without the necessary relations4 ,ministers are not only our natural rulers but our natural guides4 ,reason clearly and manfully delivered1 has in itself a mighty force3 but reason in the mouth of legal authority1 is1 ,i may fairly say1 irresistible4 ,i admit that reason of state will not1 in many circumstances1 permit the disclosure of the true ground of a public proceeding4 ,in that case silence is manly and it is wise4 ,it is fair to call for trust when the principle of reason itself suspends its public use4 ,i take the distinction to be this3 ,the ground of a particular measure1 making a part of a plan1 it is rarely proper to divulge2 all the broader grounds of policy1 on which the general plan is to be adopted1 ought as rarely to be concealed4 ,they1 who have not the whole cause before them1 call them politicians1 call them people1 call them what you will1 are no judges4 ,the difficulties of the case1 as well as its fair side1 ought to be presented4 ,this ought to be done2 and it is all that can be done4 ,when we have our true situation distinctly presented to us1 if then we resolve1 with a blind and headlong violence1 to resist the admonitions of our friends1 and to cast ourselves into the hands of our potent and irreconcilable foes1 then1 and not till then1 the ministers stand acquitted before ,god and man1 for whatever may come4 ,,monastic ,,institutions ,,and ,,their ,,results4 ,in the change of religion1 care was taken to render the transit from falsehood to truth as little violent as possible4 ,though the first proselytes were kings1 it does not appear that there was any persecution4 ,it was a precept of ,pope ,gregory1 under whose auspices this mission was conducted1 that the heathen temples should not be destroyed1 especially where they were well built2 but that1 first removing the idols1 they should be consecrated anew by holier rites1 and to better purposes 7,bed4 ,hist4 ,eccl4 l4 i4 c4 #cj471 in order that the prejudices of the people might not be too rudely shocked by a declared profanation of what they had so long held sacred2 and that everywhere beholding the same places1 to which they had formerly resorted for religious comfort1 they might be gradually reconciled to the new doctrines and ceremonies which were there introduced2 and as the sacrifices used in the ,pagan worship were always attended with feasting1 and consequently were highly grateful to the multitude1 the pope ordered1 that oxen should as usual be slaughtered near the church1 and the people indulged in their ancient festivity4 7,id4 c4 eod47 ,whatever popular customs of heathenism were found to be absolutely not incompatible with ,christianity were retained2 and some of them were continued to a very late period4 ,deer were at a certain season brought into ,st4 ,paul's ,church in ,london1 and laid on the altar 7,dugdale's ,history of ,st4 ,paul's472 and this custom subsisted until the ,reformation4 ,the names of some of the church festivals were1 with a similar design1 taken from those of the heathen1 which had been celebrated at the same time of the year4 ,nothing could have been more prudent than these regulations2 they were indeed formed from a perfect understanding of human nature4 ,whilst the inferior people were thus insensibly led into a better order1 the example and countenance of the great completed the work4 ,for the ,saxon kings and ruling men embraced religion with so signal1 and in their rank so unusual1 a zeal1 that in many instances they even sacrificed to its advancement the prime objects of their ambition4 ,wulfere1 king of the ,west ,saxons1 bestowed the ,isle of ,wight on the king of ,sussex1 to persuade him to embrace ,christianity4 7,bed4 ,hist4 ,eccl4 l4 iv4 c4 #ac47 ,this zeal operated in the same manner in favour of their instructors4 ,the greatest kings and conquerors frequently resigned their crowns1 and shut themselves up in monasteries4 ,when kings became monks1 a high lustre was reflected upon the monastic state1 and great credit accrued to the power of their doctrine1 which was able to produce such extraordinary effects upon persons1 over whom religion has commonly the slightest influence4 ,the zeal of the missionaries was also much assisted by their superiority in the arts of civil life4 ,at their first preaching in ,sussex1 that country was reduced to the greatest distress from a drought1 which had continued for three years4 ,the barbarous inhabitants1 destitute of any means to alleviate the famine1 in an epidemic transport of despair frequently united forty and fifty in a body1 and joining their hands1 precipitated themselves from the cliffs1 and were either drowned or dashed to pieces on the rocks4 ,though a maritime people1 they knew not how to fish2 and this ignorance probably arose from a remnant of ,druidical superstition1 which had forbidden the use of that sort of diet4 ,in this calamity1 ,bishop ,wilfred1 their first preacher1 collecting nets1 at the head of his attendants1 plunged into the sea2 and having opened this great resource of food1 he reconciled the desperate people to life1 and their minds to the spiritual care of those who had shown themselves so attentive to their temporal preservation4 7,bed4 ,hist4 ,eccl4 l4 iv4 c4 #ac47 ,the same regard to the welfare of the people appeared in all their actions4 ,the ,christian kings sometimes made donations to the church of lands conquered from their heathen enemies4 ,the clergy immediately baptized and manumitted their new vassals4 ,thus they endeared to all sorts of men doctrines and teachers1 which could mitigate the rigorous law of conquest2 and they rejoiced to see religion and liberty advancing with an equal progress4 ,nor were the monks in this time in anything more worthy of their praise than in their zeal for personal freedom4 ,in the canon1 wherein they provided against the alienation of their lands1 among other charitable exceptions to this restraint1 they particularize the purchase of liberty4 7,spelm4 ,concil4 ,page #cbi47 ,in their transactions with the great the same point was always strenuously laboured4 ,when they imposed penance1 they were remarkably indulgent to persons of that rank4 ,but they always made them purchase the remission of corporal austerity by acts of beneficence4 ,they urged their powerful penitents to the enfranchisement of their own slaves1 and to the redemption of those which belonged to others2 they directed them to the repair of highways1 and to the construction of churches1 bridges1 and other works of general utility4 7,instauret etiam ,dei ecclesiam2 et instauret vias publicas1 pontibus super aquas profundas et super caenosas vias2 et manumittat servos suos proprios1 et redimat ab aliis hominibus servos suos ad libertatem4--,l4 ,eccl4 ,edgari #ad47 ,they extracted the fruits of virtue even from crimes1 and whenever a great man expiated his private offences1 he provided in the same act for the public happiness4 ,the monasteries were then the only bodies corporate in the kingdom2 and if any persons were desirous to perpetuate their charity by a fund for the relief of the sick or indigent1 there was no other way than to confide this trust to some monastery4 ,the monks were the sole channel1 through which the bounty of the rich could pass in any continued stream to the poor2 and the people turned their eyes towards them in all their distresses4 ,we must observe1 that the monks of that time1 especially those from ,ireland 7,aidanus ,finam et ,colmanus mirae sanctitatis fuerunt et parsimoniae4 ,adeo enim sacerdotes erant illius temporis ab avaritia immunes1 ut nec territoria nisi coacti acciperent4--,hen4 ,hunting4 apud ,decem4 l4 iii4 page #ccc4 ,bed4 ,hist4 ,eccl4 l4 iii4 c4 #bf471 who had a considerable share in the conversion of all the northern parts1 did not show that rapacious desire of riches1 which long disgraced1 and finally ruined1 their successors4 ,not only did they not seek1 but seemed even to shun1 such donations4 ,this prevented that alarm1 which might have arisen from an early and declared avarice4 ,at this time the most fervent and holy anchorites retired to places the furthest that could be found from human concourse and help1 to the most desolate and barren situations1 which even from their horror seemed particularly adapted to men who had renounced the world4 ,many persons followed them in order to partake of their instructions and prayers1 or to form themselves upon their example4 ,an opinion of their miracles after their death drew still greater numbers4 ,establishments were gradually made4 ,the monastic life was frugal1 and the government moderate4 ,these causes drew a constant concourse4 ,sanctified deserts assumed a new face2 the marshes were drained1 and the lands cultivated4 ,and as this revolution seemed rather the effect of the holiness of the place than of any natural causes1 it increased their credit2 and every improvement drew with it a new donation4 ,in this manner the great abbeys of ,croyland and ,glastonbury1 and many others1 from the most obscure beginnings1 were advanced to a degree of wealth and splendour little less than royal4 ,in these rude ages1 government was not yet fixed upon solid principles1 and everything was full of tumult and distraction4 ,as the monasteries were better secured from violence by their character1 than any other places by laws1 several great men1 and even sovereign princes1 were obliged to take refuge in convents1 who1 when by a more happy revolution in their fortunes they were reinstated in their former dignities1 thought they could never make a sufficient return for the safety they had enjoyed under the sacred hospitality of these roofs4 ,not content to enrich them with ample possessions1 that others also might partake of the protection they had experienced1 they formally erected into an asylum those monasteries1 and their adjacent territory4 ,so that all thronged to that refuge1 who were rendered unquiet by their crimes1 their misfortunes1 or the severity of their lords2 and content to live under a government1 to which their minds were subject1 they raised the importance of their masters by their numbers1 their labour1 and above all1 by an inviolable attachment4 ,the monastery was always the place of sepulture for the greatest lords and kings4 ,this added to the other causes of reverence a sort of sanctity1 which1 in universal opinion1 always attends the repositories of the dead2 and they acquired also thereby a more particular protection against the great and powerful2 for who would violate the tomb of his ancestors1 or his own8 ,it was not an unnatural weakness to think1 that some advantage might be derived from lying in holy places1 and amongst holy persons3 and this superstition was fomented with the greatest industry and art4 ,the monks of ,glastonbury spread a notion1 that it was almost impossible any person should be damned1 whose body lay in their cemetery4 ,this must be considered as coming in aid of the amplest of their resources1 prayer for the dead4 ,but there was no part of their policy1 of whatever nature1 that procured to them a greater or juster credit1 than their cultivation of learning and useful arts4 ,for if the monks contributed to the fall of science in the ,roman empire1 it is certain1 that the introduction of learning and civility into this northern world is entirely owing to their labours4 ,it is true1 that they cultivated letters only in a secondary way1 and as subsidiary to religion4 ,but the scheme of ,christianity is such1 that it almost necessitates an attention to many kinds of learning4 ,for the ,scripture is by no means an irrelative system of moral and divine truths2 but it stands connected with so many histories1 and with the laws1 opinions1 and manners of so many various sorts of people1 and in such different times1 that it is altogether impossible to arrive to any tolerable knowledge of it1 without having recourse to much exterior inquiry4 ,for which reason the progress of this religion has always been marked by that of letters4 ,there were two other circumstances at this time1 that contributed no less to the revival of learning4 ,the sacred writings had not been translated into any vernacular language1 and even the ordinary service of the church was still continued in the ,latin tongue2 all1 therefore1 who formed themselves for the ministry1 and hoped to make any figure in it1 were in a manner driven to the study of the writers of polite antiquity1 in order to qualify themselves for their most ordinary functions4 ,by this means a practice1 liable in itself to great objections1 had a considerable share in preserving the wrecks of literature2 and was one means of conveying down to our times those inestimable monuments1 which otherwise1 in the tumult of barbarous confusion on one hand1 and untaught piety on the other1 must inevitably have perished4 ,the second circumstance1 the pilgrimages of that age1 if considered in itself1 was as liable to objection as the former2 but it proved of equal advantage to the cause of literature4 ,a principal object of these pious journeys was ,rome1 which contained all the little that was left in the western world1 of ancient learning and taste4 ,the other great object of those pilgrimages was ,jerusalem2 this led them into the ,grecian empire1 which still subsisted in the ,east with great majesty and power4 ,here the ,greeks had not only not discontinued the ancient studies1 but they added to the stock of arts many inventions of curiosity and convenience that were unknown to antiquity4 ,when1 afterwards1 the ,saracens prevailed in that part of the world1 the pilgrims had also1 by the same means1 an opportunity of profiting from the improvements of that laborious people2 and however little the majority of these pious travellers might have had such objects in their view1 something useful must unavoidably have stuck to them2 a few certainly saw with more discernment1 and rendered their travels serviceable to their country by importing other things besides miracles and legends4 ,thus a communication was opened between this remote island and countries1 of which it otherwise could then scarcely have heard mention made2 and pilgrimages thus preserved that intercourse amongst mankind1 which is now formed by politics1 commerce1 and learned curiosity4 ,it is not wholly unworthy of observation1 that ,providence1 which strongly appears to have intended the continual intermixture of mankind1 never leaves the human mind destitute of a principle to effect it4 ,this purpose is sometimes carried on by a sort of migratory instinct1 sometimes by the spirit of conquest2 at one time avarice drives men from their homes1 at another they are actuated by a thirst of knowledge2 where none of these causes can operate1 the sanctity of particular places attracts men from the most distant quarters4 ,it was this motive which sent thousands in those ages to ,jerusalem and ,rome2 and now1 in a full tide1 impels half the world annually to ,mecca4 ,by those voyages1 the seeds of various kinds of knowledge and improvement were at different times imported into ,england4 ,they were cultivated in the leisure and retirement of monasteries2 otherwise they could not have been cultivated at all3 for it was altogether necessary to draw certain men from the general rude and fierce society1 and wholly to set a bar between them and the barbarous life of the rest of the world1 in order to fit them for study1 and the cultivation of arts and science4 ,accordingly1 we find everywhere1 in the first institutions for the propagation of knowledge amongst any people1 that those1 who followed it1 were set apart and secluded from the mass of the community4 ,the great ecclesiastical chair of this kingdom1 for near a century1 was filled by foreigners2 they were nominated by the popes1 who were in that age just or politic enough to appoint persons of a merit in some degree adequate to that important charge4 ,through this series of foreign and learned prelates1 continual accessions were made to the originally slender stock of ,english literature4 ,the greatest and most valuable of these accessions was made in the time and by the care of ,theodorus1 the seventh archbishop of ,canterbury4 ,he was a ,greek by birth2 a man of a high ambitious spirit1 and of a mind more liberal1 and talents better cultivated1 than generally fell to the lot of the western prelates4 ,he first introduced the study of his native language into this island4 ,he brought with him a number of valuable books in many faculties2 and amongst them a magnificent copy of the works of ,homer2 the most ancient and best of poets1 and the best chosen to inspire a people1 just initiated into letters1 with an ardent love1 and with a true taste for the sciences4 ,under his influence a school was formed at ,canterbury2 and thus the other great fountain of knowledge1 the ,greek tongue1 was opened in ,england in the year of our ,lord #ffi4 ,,common ,,law ,,and ,,magna ,,charta4 ,the common law1 as it then prevailed in ,england1 was in a great measure composed of some remnants of the old ,saxon customs1 joined to the feudal institutions brought in at the ,norman conquest4 ,and it is here to be observed1 that the constitutions of ,magna ,charta are by no means a renewal of the laws of ,st4 ,edward1 or the ancient ,saxon laws1 as our historians and law-writers generally1 though very groundlessly1 assert4 ,they bear no resemblance1 in any particular1 to the laws of ,st4 ,edward1 or to any other collection of these ancient institutions4 ,indeed1 how should they8 ,the object of ,magna ,charta is the correction of the feudal policy1 which was first introduced1 at least in any regular form1 at the ,conquest1 and did not subsist before it4 ,it may be further observed1 that in the preamble to the ,great ,charter it is stipulated1 that the barons shall ,,hold the liberties1 there granted ,,to ,,them ,,and ,,their ,,heirs1 from ,,the ,,king ,,and ,,his ,,heirs2 which shows1 that the doctrine of an unalienable tenure was always uppermost in their minds4 ,their idea even of liberty was not 7if ,i may use the expression7 perfectly free2 and they did not claim to possess their privileges upon any natural principle or independent bottom1 but1 just as they held their lands1 from the king4 ,this is worthy of observation4 ,by the feudal law all landed property is1 by a feigned conclusion1 supposed to be derived1 and therefore to be mediately or immediately held1 from the ,crown4 ,if some estates were so derived1 others were certainly procured by the same original title of conquest1 by which the crown itself was acquired2 and the derivation from the king could in reason only be considered as a fiction of law4 ,but its consequent rights being once supposed1 many real charges and burthens grew from a fiction made only for the preservation of subordination2 and in consequence of this1 a great power was exercised over the persons and estates of the tenants4 ,the fines on the succession to an estate1 called in the feudal language ,reliefs1 were not fixed to any certainty2 and were therefore frequently made so excessive1 that they might rather be considered as redemptions1 or new purchases1 than acknowledgments of superiority and tenure4 ,with respect to that most important article of marriage1 there was1 in the very nature of the feudal holding1 a great restraint laid upon it4 ,it was of importance to the lord1 that the person1 who received the feud1 should be submissive to him2 he had therefore a right to interfere in the marriage of the heiress1 who inherited the feud4 ,this right was carried further than the necessity required2 the male heir himself was obliged to marry according to the choice of his lord3 and even widows1 who had made one sacrifice to the feudal tyranny1 were neither suffered to continue in the widowed state1 nor to choose for themselves the partners of their second bed4 ,in fact1 marriage was publicly set up to sale4 ,the ancient records of the exchequer afford many instances where some women purchased1 by heavy fines1 the privilege of a single life2 some the free choice of a husband2 others the liberty of rejecting some person particularly disagreeable4 ,and1 what may appear extraordinary1 there are not wanting examples1 where a woman has fined in a considerable sum1 that she might not be compelled to marry a certain man2 the suitor on the other hand has outbid her2 and solely by offering more for the marriage than the heiress could to prevent it1 he carried his point directly and avowedly against her inclinations4 ,now1 as the king claimed no right over his immediate tenants1 that they did not exercise in the same1 or in a more oppressive manner over their vassals1 it is hard to conceive a more general and cruel grievance than this shameful market1 which so universally outraged the most sacred relations among mankind4 ,but the tyranny over women was not over with the marriage4 ,as the king seized into his hands the estate of every deceased tenant in order to secure his relief1 the widow was driven often by a heavy composition to purchase the admission to her dower1 into which it should seem she could not enter without the king's consent4 ,all these were marks of a real and grievous servitude4 ,the ,great ,charter was made not to destroy the root1 but to cut short the overgrown branches1 of the feudal service2 first1 in moderating1 and in reducing to a certainty1 the reliefs1 which the king's tenants paid on succeeding to their estate according to their rank2 and secondly1 in taking off some of the burthens1 which had been laid on marriage1 whether compulsory or restrictive1 and thereby preventing that shameful market1 which had been made in the persons of heirs1 and the most sacred things amongst mankind4 ,there were other provisions made in the ,great ,charter1 that went deeper than the feudal tenure1 and affected the whole body of the civil government4 ,a great part of the king's revenue then consisted in the fines and amercements1 which were imposed in his courts4 ,a fine was paid there for liberty to commence1 or to conclude a suit4 ,the punishment of offences by fine was discretionary2 and this discretionary power had been very much abused4 ,but by ,magna ,charta things were so ordered1 that a delinquent might be punished1 but not ruined1 by a fine or amercement1 because the degree of his offence1 and the rank he held1 were to be taken into consideration4 ,his freehold1 his merchandise1 and those instruments1 by which he obtained his livelihood1 were made sacred from such impositions4 ,a more grand reform was made with regard to the administration of justice4 ,the kings in those days seldom resided long in one place1 and their courts followed their persons4 ,this erratic justice must have been productive of infinite inconvenience to the litigants4 ,it was now provided1 that civil suits1 called ,,common ,,pleas1 should be fixed to some certain place4 ,thus one branch of jurisdiction was separated from the king's court1 and detached from his person4 ,they had not yet come to that maturity of jurisprudence as to think this might be made to extend to criminal law also2 and that the latter was an object of still greater importance4 ,but even the former may be considered as a great revolution4 ,a tribunal1 a creature of mere law1 independent of personal power1 was established1 and this separation of a king's authority from his person was a matter of vast consequence towards introducing ideas of freedom1 and confirming the sacredness and majesty of laws4 ,but the grand article1 and that which cemented all the parts of the fabric of liberty1 was this3 that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned1 or disseized1 or outlawed1 or banished1 or in any wise destroyed1 but by judgment of his peers4 ,there is another article of nearly as much consequence as the former1 considering the state of the nation at that time1 by which it is provided1 that the barons shall grant to their tenants the same liberties which they had stipulated for themselves4 ,this prevented the kingdom from degenerating into the worst imaginable government1 a feudal aristocracy4 ,the ,english barons were not in the condition of those great princes1 who had made the ,french monarchy so low in the preceding century2 or like those1 who reduced the imperial power to a name4 ,they had been brought to moderate bounds by the policy of the first and second ,henrys1 and were not in a condition to set up for petty sovereigns by an usurpation equally detrimental to the ,crown and the people4 ,they were able to act only in confederacy2 and this common cause made it necessary to consult the common good1 and to study popularity by the equity of their proceedings4 ,this was a very happy circumstances to the growing liberty4 ,,europe ,,and ,,the ,,norman ,,invasion4 ,before the period of which we are going to treat1 ,england was little known or considered in ,europe4 ,their situation1 their domestic calamities1 and their ignorance1 circumscribed the views and politics of the ,english within the bounds of their own island4 ,but the ,norman conqueror threw down all these barriers4 ,the ,english laws1 manners1 and maxims1 were suddenly changed2 the scene was enlarged2 and the communication with the rest of ,europe being thus opened1 has been preserved ever since in a continued series of wars and negotiations4 ,that we may therefore enter more fully into the matters which lie before us1 it is necessary that we understand the state of the neighbouring continent at the time when this island first came to be interested in its affairs4 ,the northern nations1 who had overrun the ,roman empire1 were at first rather actuated by avarice than ambition1 and were more intent upon plunder than conquest2 they were carried beyond their original purposes1 when they began to form regular governments1 for which they had been prepared by no just ideas of legislation4 ,for a long time1 therefore1 there was little of order in their affairs1 or foresight in their designs4 ,the ,goths1 the ,burgundians1 the ,franks1 the ,vandals1 the ,suevi1 after they had prevailed over the ,roman empire1 by turns prevailed over each other in continual wars1 which were carried on upon no principles of a determinate policy1 entered into upon motives of brutality and caprice1 and ended as fortune and rude violence chanced to prevail4 ,tumult1 anarchy1 confusion1 overspread the face of ,europe2 and an obscurity rests upon the transactions of that time1 which suffers us to discover nothing but its extreme barbarity4 ,before this cloud could be dispersed1 the ,saracens1 another body of barbarians from the south1 animated by a fury not unlike that1 which gave strength to the northern irruptions1 but heightened by enthusiasm1 and regulated by subordination and uniform policy1 began to carry their arms1 their manners1 and religion into every part of the universe4 ,spain was entirely overwhelmed by the torrent of their armies2 ,italy1 and the islands1 were harassed by their fleets1 and all ,europe alarmed by their vigorous and frequent enterprises4 ,italy1 who had so long sat the mistress of the world1 was by turns the slave of all nations4 ,the possession of that fine country was hotly disputed between the ,greek emperor and the ,lombards1 and it suffered infinitely by that contention4 ,germany1 the parent of so many nations1 was exhausted by the swarms she had sent abroad4 ,however1 in the midst of this chaos there were principles at work1 which reduced things to a certain form1 and gradually unfolded a system1 in which the chief movers and main springs were the papal and the imperial powers2 the aggrandisement or diminution of which have been the drift of almost all the politics1 intrigues1 and wars1 which have employed and distracted ,europe to this day4 ,from ,rome the whole western world had received its ,christianity4 ,she was the asylum of what learning had escaped the general desolation2 and even in her ruins she preserved something of the majesty of her ancient greatness4 ,on these accounts she had a respect and a weight1 which increased every day amongst a simple religious people1 who looked but a little way into the consequences of their actions4 ,the rudeness of the world was very favourable for the establishment of an empire of opinion4 ,the moderation with which the popes at first exerted this empire1 made its growth unfelt until it could no longer be opposed4 ,and the policy of later popes1 building on the piety of the first1 continually increased it2 and they made use of every instrument but that of force4 ,they employed equally the virtues and the crimes of the great2 they favoured the lust of kings for absolute authority1 and the desire of subjects for liberty2 they provoked war1 and mediated peace2 and took advantage of every turn in the minds of men1 whether of a public or private nature1 to extend their influence1 and push their power from ecclesiastical to civil2 from subjection to independency2 from independency to empire4 ,france had many advantages over the other parts of ,europe4 ,the ,saracens had no permanent success in that country4 ,the same hand1 which expelled those invaders1 deposed the last of a race of heavy and degenerate princes1 more like eastern monarchs than ,german leaders1 and who had neither the force to repel the enemies of their kingdom1 nor to assert their own sovereignty4 ,this usurpation placed on the throne princes of another character2 princes1 who were obliged to supply their want of title by the vigour of their administration4 ,the ,french monarch had need of some great and respected authority to throw a veil over his usurpation1 and to sanctify his newly-acquired power by those names and appearances1 which are necessary to make it respectable to the people4 ,on the other hand1 the pope1 who hated the ,grecian empire1 and equally feared the success of the ,lombards1 saw with joy this new star arise in the north1 and gave it the sanction of his authority4 ,presently after he called it to his assistance4 ,pepin passed the ,alps1 relieved the pope1 and invested him with the dominion of a large country in the best part of ,italy4 ,charlemagne pursued the course which was marked out for him1 and put an end to the ,lombard kingdom1 weakened by the policy of his father1 and the enmity of the popes1 who never willingly saw a strong power in ,italy4 ,then he received from the hand of the pope the imperial crown1 sanctified by the authority of the ,holy ,see1 and with it the title of emperor of the ,romans2 a name venerable from the fame of the old empire1 and which was supposed to carry great and unknown prerogatives2 and thus the empire rose again out of its ruins in the ,west2 and what is remarkable1 by means of one of those nations which had helped to destroy it4 ,if we take in the conquests of ,charlemagne1 it was also very near as extensive as formerly2 though its constitution was altogether different1 as being entirely on the northern model of government4 ,from ,charlemagne the pope received in return an enlargement and a confirmation of his new territory4 ,thus the papal and imperial powers mutually gave birth to each other4 ,they continued for some ages1 and1 in some measure1 still continue closely connected1 with a variety of pretensions upon each other1 and on the rest of ,europe4 ,though the imperial power had its origin in ,france1 it was soon divided into two branches1 the ,gallic and the ,german4 ,the latter alone supported the title of empire2 but the power being weakened by this division1 the papal pretensions had the greater weight4 ,the pope1 because he first revived the imperial dignity1 claimed a right of disposing of it1 or at least of giving validity to the election of the emperor4 ,the emperor1 on the other hand1 remembering the rights of those sovereigns1 whose title he bore1 and how lately the power1 which insulted him with such demands1 had arisen from the bounty of his predecessors1 claimed the same privileges in the election of a pope4 ,the claims of both were somewhat plausible2 and they were supported1 the one by force of arms1 and the other by ecclesiastical influence1 powers which in those days were very nearly balanced4 ,italy was the theatre upon which this prize was disputed4 ,in every city the parties in favour of each of the opponents were not far from an equality in their numbers and strength4 ,whilst these parties disagreed in the choice of a master1 by contending for a choice in their subjection1 they grew imperceptibly into freedom1 and passed through the medium of faction and anarchy into regular commonwealths4 ,thus arose the republics of ,venice1 of ,genoa1 of ,florence1 ,sienna1 and ,pisa1 and several others4 ,these cities1 established in this freedom1 turned the frugal and ingenious spirit contracted in such communities to navigation and traffic2 and pursuing them with skill and vigour1 whilst commerce was neglected and despised by the rustic gentry of the martial governments1 they grew to a considerable degree of wealth1 power1 and civility4 ,the ,danes1 who in this latter time preserved the spirit and the numbers of the ancient ,gothic people1 had seated themselves in ,england1 in the ,low ,countries1 and in ,normandy4 ,they passed from thence to the southern part of ,europe1 and in this romantic age gave rise in ,sicily and ,naples to a new kingdom1 and a new line of princes4 ,all the kingdoms on the continent of ,europe were governed nearly in the same form2 from whence arose a great similitude in the manners of their inhabitants4 ,the feodal discipline extended itself everywhere1 and influenced the conduct of the courts1 and the manners of the people1 with its own irregular martial spirit4 ,subjects1 under the complicated laws of a various and rigorous servitude1 exercised all the prerogatives of sovereign power4 ,they distributed justice1 they made war and peace at pleasure4 ,the sovereign1 with great pretensions1 had but little power2 he was only a greater lord among great lords1 who profited of the differences of his peers2 therefore no steady plan could be well pursued1 either in war or peace4 ,this day a prince seemed irresistible at the head of his numerous vassals1 because their duty obliged them to war1 and they performed this duty with pleasure4 ,the next day saw this formidable power vanish like a dream1 because this fierce undisciplined people had no patience1 and the time of the feudal service was contained within very narrow limits4 ,it was therefore easy to find a number of persons at all times ready to follow any standard1 but it was hard to complete a considerable design1 which required a regular and continued movement4 ,this enterprising disposition in the gentry was very general1 because they had little occupation or pleasure but in war2 and the greatest rewards did then attend personal valour and prowess4 ,all that professed arms1 became in some sort on an equality4 ,a knight was the peer of a king2 and men had been used to see the bravery of private persons opening a road to that dignity4 ,the temerity of adventurers was much justified by the ill order of every state1 which left it a prey to almost any who should attack it with sufficient vigour4 ,thus1 little checked by any superior power1 full of fire1 impetuosity1 and ignorance1 they longed to signalize themselves wherever an honourable danger called them2 and wherever that invited1 they did not weigh very deliberately the probability of success4 ,the knowledge of this general disposition in the minds of men will naturally remove a great deal of our wonder at seeing an attempt1 founded on such slender appearances of right1 and supported by a power so little proportioned to the undertaking as that of ,william1 so warmly embraced and so generally followed1 not only by his own subjects1 but by all the neighbouring potentates4 ,the counts of ,anjou1 ,bretagne1 ,ponthieu1 ,boulogne1 and ,poictou1 sovereign princes2 adventurers from every quarter of ,france1 the ,netherlands1 and the remotest parts of ,germany1 laying aside their jealousies and enmities to one another1 as well as to ,william1 ran with an inconceivable ardour into this enterprise2 captivated with the splendour of the object1 which obliterated all thoughts of the uncertainty of the event4 ,william kept up this fervour by promises of large territories to all his allies and associates in the country to be reduced by their united efforts4 ,but after all it became equally necessary to reconcile to his enterprise the three great powers1 of whom we have just spoken1 whose disposition must have had the most influence on his affairs4 ,his feudal lord the king of ,france was bound by his most obvious interests to oppose the further aggrandisement of one already too potent for a vassal2 but the king of ,france was then a minor2 and ,baldwin1 earl of ,flanders1 whose daughter ,william had married1 was regent of the kingdom4 ,this circumstance rendered the remonstrance of the ,french council against his design of no effect2 indeed the opposition of the council itself was faint2 the idea of having a king under vassalage to their crown might have dazzled the more superficial courtiers2 whilst those1 who thought more deeply1 were unwilling to discourage an enterprise1 which they believed would probably end in the ruin of the undertaker4 ,the emperor was in his minority1 as well as the king of ,france2 but by what arts the duke prevailed upon the imperial council to declare in his favour1 whether or no by an idea of creating a balance to the power of ,france1 if we can imagine that any such idea then subsisted1 is altogether uncertain2 but it is certain1 that he obtained leave for the vassals of the empire to engage in his service1 and that he made use of this permission4 ,the pope's consent was obtained with still less difficulty4 ,william had shown himself in many instances a friend to the church1 and a favourer of the clergy4 ,on this occasion he promised to improve those happy beginnings in proportion to the means he should acquire by the favour of the ,holy ,see4 ,it is said that he even proposed to hold his new kingdom as a fief from ,rome4 ,the pope1 therefore1 entered heartily into his interests2 he excommunicated all those that should oppose his enterprise1 and sent him1 as a means of ensuring success1 a consecrated banner4 ,,ancient ,,inhabitants ,,of ,,britain4 ,that ,britain was first peopled from ,gaul1 we are assured by the best proofs3 proximity of situation1 and resemblance in language and manners4 ,of the time in which this event happened1 we must be contented to remain in ignorance1 for we have no monuments4 ,but we may conclude that it was a very ancient settlement1 since the ,carthaginians found this island inhabited when they traded hither for tin2 as the ,phoenicians1 whose tracks they followed in this commerce1 are said to have done long before them4 ,it is true1 that when we consider the short interval between the universal deluge and that period1 and compare it with the first settlement of men at such a distance from this corner of the world1 it may seem not easy to reconcile such a claim to antiquity with the only authentic account we have of the origin and progress of mankind2 especially as in those early ages the whole face of nature was extremely rude and uncultivated2 when the links of commerce1 even in the countries first settled1 were few and weak2 navigation imperfect2 geography unknown2 and the hardships of travelling excessive4 ,but the spirit of migration1 of which we have now only some faint ideas1 was then strong and universal2 and it fully compensated all these disadvantages4 ,many writers indeed imagine1 that these migrations1 so common in the primitive times1 were caused by the prodigious increase of people beyond what their several territories could maintain4 ,but this opinion1 far from being supported1 is rather contradicted by the general appearance of things in that early time1 when in every country vast tracts of land were suffered to lie almost useless in morasses and forests4 ,nor is it1 indeed1 more countenanced by the ancient modes of life1 no way favourable to population4 ,i apprehend that these first settled countries1 so far from being overstocked with inhabitants1 were rather thinly peopled2 and that the same causes1 which occasioned that thinness1 occasioned also those frequent migrations1 which make so large a part of the first history of almost all nations4 ,for in these ages men subsisted chiefly by pasturage or hunting4 ,these are occupations which spread the people without multiplying them in proportion2 they teach them an extensive knowledge of the country1 they carry them frequently and far from their homes1 and weaken those ties which might attach them to any particular habitation4 ,it was in a great degree from this manner of life1 that mankind became scattered in the earliest times over the whole globe4 ,but their peaceful occupations did not contribute so much to that end1 as their wars1 which were not the less frequent and violent because the people were few1 and the interests for which they contended of but small importance4 ,ancient history has furnished us with many instances of whole nations1 expelled by invasion1 falling in upon others1 which they have entirely overwhelmed2 more irresistible in their defeat and ruin than in their fullest prosperity4 ,the rights of war were then exercised with great inhumanity4 ,a cruel death1 or a servitude scarcely less cruel1 was the certain fate of all conquered people2 the terror of which hurried men from habitations to which they were but little attached1 to seek security and repose under any climate1 that however in other respects undesirable1 might afford them refuge from the fury of their enemies4 ,thus the bleak and barren regions of the north1 not being peopled by choice1 were peopled as early1 in all probability1 as many of the milder and more inviting climates of the southern world1 and thus1 by a wonderful disposition of the ,divine ,providence1 a life of hunting1 which does not contribute to increase1 and war1 which is the great instrument in the destruction of men1 were the two principal causes of their being spread so early and so universally over the whole earth4 ,from what is very commonly known of the state of ,north ,america1 it need not be said1 how often1 and to what distance1 several of the nations on that continent are used to migrate2 who1 though thinly scattered1 occupy an immense extent of country4 ,nor are the causes of it less obvious--their hunting life1 and their inhuman wars4 ,such migrations1 sometimes by choice1 more frequently from necessity1 were common in the ancient world4 ,frequent necessities introduced a fashion1 which subsisted after the original causes4 ,for how could it happen1 but from some universally established public prejudice1 which always overrules and stifles the private sense of men1 that a whole nation should deliberately think it a wise measure to quit their country in a body1 that they might obtain in a foreign land a settlement1 which must wholly depend upon the chance of war8 ,yet this resolution was taken1 and actually pursued by the entire nation of the ,helvetii1 as it is minutely related by ,caesar4 ,the method of reasoning which led them to it1 must appear to us at this day utterly inconceivable2 they were far from being compelled to this extraordinary migration by any want of subsistence at home2 for it appears that they raised without difficulty as much corn in one year as supported them for two2 they could not complain of the barrenness of such a soil4 ,this spirit of migration1 which grew out of the ancient manners and necessities1 and sometimes operated like a blind instinct1 such as actuates birds of passage1 is very sufficient to account for the early habitation of the remotest parts of the earth2 and in some sort also justifies that claim which has been so fondly made by almost all nations to great antiquity4 ,gaul1 from whence ,britain was originally peopled1 consisted of three nations2 the ,belgae towards the north2 the ,celtae in the middle countries2 and the ,aquitani to the south4 ,britain appears to have received its people only from the two former4 ,from the ,celtae were derived the most ancient tribes of the ,britons1 of which the most considerable were called ,brigantes4 ,the ,belgae1 who did not even settle in ,gaul until after ,britain had been peopled by colonies from the former1 forcibly drove the ,brigantes into the inland countries1 and possessed the greatest part of the coast1 especially to the south and west4 ,these latter1 as they entered the island in a more improved age1 brought with them the knowledge and practice of agriculture1 which however only prevailed in their own countries2 the ,brigantes still continued their ancient way of life by pasturage and hunting4 ,in this respect alone they differed2 so that what we shall say in treating of their manners is equally applicable to both4 ,and though the ,britons were further divided into an innumerable multitude of lesser tribes and nations1 yet all being the branches of these two stocks1 it is not to our purpose to consider them more minutely4 ,britain was in the time of ,julius ,caesar1 what it is at this day in climate and natural advantages1 temperate1 and reasonably fertile4 ,but destitute of all those improvements1 which in a succession of ages it has received from ingenuity1 from commerce1 from riches and luxury1 it then wore a very rough and savage appearance4 ,the country1 forest or marsh2 the habitations1 cottages2 the cities1 hiding-places in woods2 the people1 naked1 or only covered with skins2 their sole employment1 pasturage and hunting4 ,they painted their bodies for ornament or terror1 by a custom general among all savage nations2 who being passionately fond of show and finery1 and having no object but their naked bodies on which to exercise this disposition1 have in all times painted or cut their skins1 according to their ideas of ornament4 ,they shaved the beard on the chin2 that on the upper lip was suffered to remain1 and grow to an extraordinary length1 to favour the martial appearance1 in which they placed their glory4 ,they were in their natural temper not unlike the ,gauls2 impatient1 fiery1 inconstant1 ostentatious1 boastful1 fond of novelty2 and like all barbarians1 fierce1 treacherous1 and cruel4 ,their arms were short javelins1 small shields of a slight texture1 and great cutting swords with a blunt point1 after the ,gaulish fashion4 ,their chiefs went to battle in chariots1 not unartfully contrived1 nor unskilfully managed4 ,i cannot help thinking it something extraordinary1 and not easily to be accounted for1 that the ,britons should have been so expert in the fabric of those chariots1 when they seem utterly ignorant in all other mechanic arts3 but thus it is delivered to us4 ,they had also horse1 though of no great reputation in their armies4 ,their foot was without heavy armour2 it was no firm body2 nor instructed to preserve their ranks1 to make their evolutions1 or to obey their commanders2 but in tolerating hardships1 in dexterity of forming ambuscades 7the art military of savages71 they are said to have excelled4 ,a natural ferocity1 and an impetuous onset1 stood them in the place of discipline4 ,,public ,,prosecutions4 ,public prosecutions are become little better than schools for treason2 of no use but to improve the dexterity of criminals in the mystery of evasion2 or to show with what complete impunity men may conspire against the commonwealth2 with what safety assassins may attempt its awful head4 ,everything is secure1 except what the laws have made sacred2 everything is tameness and languor that is not fury and faction4 ,whilst the distempers of a relaxed fibre prognosticate and prepare all the morbid force of convulsion in the body of the state1 the steadiness of the physician is overpowered by the very aspect of the disease4 ,the doctor of the constitution1 pretending to underrate what he is not able to contend with1 shrinks from his own operation4 ,he doubts and questions the salutary but critical terrors of the cautery and the knife4 ,he takes a poor credit even from his defeat1 and covers impotence under the mask of lenity4 ,he praises the moderation of the laws1 as1 in his hands1 he sees them baffled and despised4 ,is all this1 because in our day the statutes of the kingdom are not engrossed in as firm a character1 and imprinted in as black and legible a type as ever8 ,no6 the law is a clear1 but it is a dead letter4 ,dead and putrid1 it is insufficient to save the state1 but potent to infect and to kill4 ,living law1 full of reason1 and of equity and justice 7as it is1 or it should not exist71 ought to be severe and awful too2 or the words of menace1 whether written on the parchment roll of ,england1 or cut into the brazen tablet of ,rome1 will excite nothing but contempt4 ,how comes it1 that in all the state prosecutions of magnitude1 from the ,revolution to within these two or three years1 the ,crown has scarcely ever retired disgraced and defeated from its courts8 ,whence this alarming change8 ,by a connection easily felt1 and not impossible to be traced to its cause1 all the parts of the state have their correspondence and consent4 ,they who bow to the enemy abroad1 will not be of power to subdue the conspirator at home4 ,it is impossible not to observe1 that1 in proportion as we approximate to the poisonous jaws of anarchy1 the fascination grows irresistible4 ,in proportion as we are attracted towards the focus of illegality1 irreligion1 and desperate enterprise1 all the venomous and blighting insects of the state are awakened into life4 ,the promise of the year is blasted1 and shrivelled and burned up before them4 ,our most salutary and most beautiful institutions yield nothing but dust and smut2 the harvest of our law is no more than stubble4 ,it is in the nature of these eruptive diseases in the state to sink in by fits1 and re-appear4 ,but the fuel of the malady remains2 and in my opinion is not in the smallest degree mitigated in its malignity1 though it waits the favourable moment of a freer communication with the source of regicide to exert and to increase its force4 ,is it that the people are changed1 that the commonwealth cannot be protected by its laws8 ,i hardly think it4 ,on the contrary1 ,i conceive that these things happen because men are not changed1 but remain always what they always were2 they remain what the bulk of us ever must be1 when abandoned to our vulgar propensities1 without guide1 leader1 or control2 that is1 made to be full of a blind elevation in prosperity2 to despise untried dangers2 to be overpowered with unexpected reverses2 to find no clue in a labyrinth of difficulties1 to get out of a present inconvenience with any risk of future ruin2 to follow and to bow to fortune2 to admire successful though wicked enterprise1 and to imitate what we admire2 to contemn the government which announces danger from sacrilege and regicide1 whilst they are only in their infancy and their struggle1 but which finds nothing that can alarm in their adult state1 and in the power and triumph of those destructive principles4 ,in a mass we cannot be left to ourselves4 ,we must have leaders4 ,if none will undertake to lead us right1 we shall find guides who will contrive to conduct us to shame and ruin4 ,,true ,,nature ,,of ,a ,,jacobin ,,war4 ,as to me1 ,i was always steadily of opinion1 that this disorder was not in its nature intermittent4 ,i conceived that the contest1 once begun1 could not be laid down again1 to be resumed at our discretion2 but that our first struggle with this evil would also be our last4 ,i never thought we could make peace with the system2 because it was not for the sake of an object we pursued in rivalry with each other1 but with the system itself1 that we were at war4 ,as ,i understood the matter1 we were at war not with its conduct1 but with its existence2 convinced that its existence and its hostility were the same4 ,the faction is not local or territorial4 ,it is a general evil4 ,where it least appears in action1 it is still full of life4 ,in its sleep it recruits its strength1 and prepares its exertion4 ,its spirit lies deep in the corruption of our common nature4 ,the social order which restrains it1 feeds it4 ,it exists in every country in ,europe2 and among all orders of men in every country1 who look up to ,france as to a common head4 ,the centre is there4 ,the circumference is the world of ,europe wherever the race of ,europe may be settled4 ,everywhere else the faction is militant2 in ,france it is triumphant4 ,in ,france is the bank of deposit1 and the bank of circulation1 of all the pernicious principles that are forming in every state4 ,it will be a folly scarcely deserving of pity1 and too mischievous for contempt1 to think of restraining it in any other country whilst it is predominant there4 ,war1 instead of being the cause of its force1 has suspended its operation4 ,it has given a reprieve1 at least1 to the ,christian world4 ,the true nature of a ,jacobin war1 in the beginning1 was1 by most of the ,christian powers1 felt1 acknowledged1 and even in the most precise manner declared4 ,in the joint manifesto1 published by the emperor and the king of ,prussia1 on the #dth of ,august1 #agib1 it is expressed in the clearest terms1 and on principles which could not fail1 if they had adhered to them1 of classing those monarchs with the first benefactors of mankind4 ,this manifesto was published1 as they themselves express it1 to lay open to the present generation1 as well as to posterity1 their motives1 their intentions1 and the ,,disinterestedness of their personal views2 taking up arms for the purpose of preserving social and political order amongst all civilized nations1 and to secure to ,,each state its religion1 happiness1 independence1 territories1 and real constitution4--,on this ground1 they hoped that all empires and all states would be unanimous2 and becoming the firm guardians of the happiness of mankind1 that they could not fail to unite their efforts to rescue a numerous nation from its own fury1 to preserve ,europe from the return of barbarism1 and the universe from the subversion and anarchy with which it was threatened4 ,the whole of that noble performance ought to be read at the first meeting of any congress1 which may assemble for the purpose of pacification4 ,in that peace these powers expressly renounce all views of personal aggrandisement1 and confine themselves to objects worthy of so generous1 so heroic1 and so perfectly wise and politic an enterprise4 ,it was to the principles of this confederation1 and to no other1 that we wished our sovereign and our country to accede1 as a part of the commonwealth of ,europe4 ,to these principles1 with some trifling exceptions and limitations1 they did fully accede4 7,see ,declaration1 ,whitehall1 ,october #bi1 #agic47 ,and all our friends who took office acceded to the ministry 7whether wisely or not71 as ,i always understood the matter1 on the faith and on the principles of that declaration4 ,as long as these powers flattered themselves that the menace of force would produce the effect of force1 they acted on those declarations3 but when their menaces failed of success1 their efforts took a new direction4 ,it did not appear to them that virtue and heroism ought to be purchased by millions of rix-dollars4 ,it is a dreadful truth1 but it is a truth that cannot be concealed2 in ability1 in dexterity1 in the distinctness of their views1 the ,jacobins are our superiors4 ,they saw the thing right from the very beginning4 ,whatever were the first motives to the war among politicians1 they saw that in its spirit1 and for its objects1 it was a ,,civil ,,war2 and as such they pursued it4 ,it is a war between the partisans of the ancient1 civil1 moral1 and political order of ,europe1 against a sect of fanatical and ambitious atheists which means to change them all4 ,it is not ,france extending a foreign empire over other nations3 it is a sect aiming at universal empire1 and beginning with the conquest of ,france4 ,the leaders of that sect secured the ,,centre ,,of ,,europe2 and that secured1 they knew1 that whatever might be the event of battles and sieges1 their ,,cause was victorious4 ,whether its territory had a little more or a little less peeled from its surface1 or whether an island or two was detached from its commerce1 to them was of little moment4 ,the conquest of ,france was a glorious acquisition4 ,that once well laid as a basis of empire1 opportunities never could be wanting to regain or to replace what had been lost1 and dreadfully to avenge themselves on the faction of their adversaries4 ,they saw it was a ,,civil ,,war4 ,it was their business to persuade their adversaries that it ought to be a ,,foreign war4 ,the ,jacobins everywhere set up a cry against the new crusade2 and they intrigued with effect in the cabinet1 in the field1 and in every private society in ,europe4 ,their task was not difficult4 ,the condition of princes1 and sometimes of first ministers too1 is to be pitied4 ,the creatures of the desk1 and the creatures of favour1 had no relish for the principles of the manifestoes4 ,they promised no governments1 no regiments1 no revenues from whence emoluments might arise by perquisite or by grant4 ,in truth1 the tribe of vulgar politicians are the lowest of our species4 ,there is no trade so vile and mechanical as government in their hands4 ,virtue is not their habit4 ,they are out of themselves in any course of conduct recommended only by conscience and glory4 ,a large1 liberal1 and prospective view of the interests of states passes with them for romance2 and the principles that recommend it1 for the wanderings of a disordered imagination4 ,the calculators compute them out of their senses4 ,the jesters and buffoons shame them out of everything grand and elevated4 ,littleness in object and in means1 to them appears soundness and sobriety4 ,they think there is nothing worth pursuit1 but that which they can handle2 which they can measure with a two-foot rule2 which they can tell upon ten fingers4 ,without the principles of the ,jacobins1 perhaps without any principles at all1 they played the game of that faction4 ,there was a beaten road before them4 ,the powers of ,europe were armed2 ,france had always appeared dangerous2 the war was easily diverted from ,france as a faction1 to ,france as a state4 ,the princes were easily taught to slide back into their old1 habitual course of politics4 ,they were easily led to consider the flames that were consuming ,france1 not as a warning to protect their own buildings 7which were without any party-wall1 and linked by a contignation into the edifice of ,france71 but as a happy occasion for pillaging the goods1 and for carrying off the materials1 of their neighbour's house4 ,their provident fears were changed into avaricious hopes4 ,they carried on their new designs without seeming to abandon the principles of their old policy4 ,they pretended to seek1 or they flattered themselves that they sought1 in the accession of new fortresses1 and new territories1 a ,,defensive security4 ,but the security wanted was against a kind of power1 which was not so truly dangerous in its fortresses nor in its territories1 as in its spirit and its principles4 ,they aimed1 or pretended to aim1 at ,,defending themselves against a danger from which there can be no security in any ,,defensive plan4 ,if armies and fortresses were a defence against jacobinism1 ,louis the ,sixteenth would this day reign a powerful monarch over a happy people4 ,this error obliged them1 even in their offensive operations1 to adopt a plan of war1 against the success of which there was something little short of mathematical demonstration4 ,they refused to take any step which might strike at the heart of affairs4 ,they seemed unwilling to wound the enemy in any vital part4 ,they acted through the whole1 as if they really wished the conservation of the ,jacobin power1 as what might be more favourable than the lawful government to the attainment of the petty objects they looked for4 ,they always kept on the circumference2 and the wider and remoter the circle was1 the more eagerly they chose it as their sphere of action in this centrifugal war4 ,the plan they pursued1 in its nature demanded great length of time4 ,in its execution1 they1 who went the nearest way to work1 were obliged to cover an incredible extent of country4 ,it left to the enemy every means of destroying this extended line of weakness4 ,ill success in any part was sure to defeat the effect of the whole4 ,this is true of ,austria4 ,it is still more true of ,england4 ,on this false plan1 even good fortune1 by further weakening the victor1 put him but the further off from his object4 ,as long as there was any appearance of success1 the spirit of aggrandisement1 and consequently the spirit of mutual jealousy1 seized upon all the coalesced powers4 ,some sought an accession of territory at the expense of ,france1 some at the expense of each other1 some at the expense of third parties2 and when the vicissitude of disaster took its turn1 they found common distress a treacherous bond of faith and friendship4 ,the greatest skill conducting the greatest military apparatus has been employed2 but it has been worse than uselessly employed1 through the false policy of the war4 ,the operations of the field suffered by the errors of the cabinet4 ,if the same spirit continues when peace is made1 the peace will fix and perpetuate all the errors of the war2 because it will be made upon the same false principle4 ,what has been lost in the field1 in the field may be regained4 ,an arrangement of peace in its nature is a permanent settlement2 it is the effect of counsel and deliberation1 and not of fortuitous events4 ,if built upon a basis fundamentally erroneous1 it can only be retrieved by some of those unforeseen dispensations1 which the all-wise but mysterious ,governor of the world sometimes interposes1 to snatch nations from ruin4 ,it would not be pious error1 but mad and impious presumption1 for any one to trust in an unknown order of dispensations1 in defiance of the rules of prudence1 which are formed upon the known march of the ordinary providence of ,god4 ,,national ,,dignity4 ,national dignity in all treaties ,i do admit is an important consideration4 ,they have given us a useful hint on that subject3 but dignity1 hitherto1 has belonged to the mode of proceeding1 not to the matter of a treaty4 ,never before has it been mentioned as the standard for rating the conditions of peace2 no1 never by the most violent of conquerors4 ,indemnification is capable of some estimate3 dignity has no standard4 ,it is impossible to guess what acquisitions pride and ambition may think fit for their ,,dignity4 ,,principles ,,of ,,government ,,not ,,absolute1 ,,but ,,relative4 ,i reprobate no form of government merely upon abstract principles4 ,there may be situations in which the purely democratic form will become necessary4 ,there may be some 7very few1 and very particularly circumstanced7 where it would be clearly desirable4 ,this ,i do not take to be the case of ,france1 or of any other great country4 ,until now1 we have seen no examples of considerable democracies4 ,the ancients were better acquainted with them4 ,not being wholly unread in the authors1 who had seen the most of those constitutions1 and who best understood them1 ,i cannot help concurring with their opinion1 that an absolute democracy1 no more than absolute monarchy1 is to be reckoned among the legitimate forms of government4 ,they think it rather the corruption and degeneracy1 than the sound constitution of a republic4 ,if ,i recollect rightly1 ,aristotle observes1 that a democracy has many striking points of resemblance with a tyranny4 7,when ,i wrote this1 ,i quoted from memory1 after many years had elapsed from my reading the passage4 ,a learned friend has found it1 and it is as follows3-- ,to ethos to auto1 kai ampho despotika ton ,beltionon1 kai ta psephismata1 osper ekei ta epitagmata kai o demagogos kai o kolax1 oi autoi kai analogoi kai malista ekateroi par ekaterois ischuousin1 oi men kolakes para turannois1 oi de demagogoi para tois demois tois toioutois4-- ,the ethical character is the same2 both exercise despotism over the better class of citizens2 and decrees are in the one1 what ordinances and arrets are in the other3 the demagogue too1 and the court favourite1 are not unfrequently the same identical men1 and always bear a close analogy2 and these have the principal power1 each in their respective forms of government1 favourites with the absolute monarch1 and demagogues with a people such as ,i have described4--,arist4 ,politic4 lib4 iv4 cap #d47 ,of this ,i am certain1 that in a democracy1 the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority1 whenever strong divisions prevail in that kind of polity1 as they often must2 and that oppression of the minority will extend to far greater numbers1 and will be carried on with much greater fury1 than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre4 ,in such a popular persecution1 individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable condition than in any other4 ,under a cruel prince they have the balmy compassion of mankind to assuage the smart of their wounds2 they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings3 but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes1 are deprived of all external consolation4 ,they seem deserted by mankind1 overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species4 ,but admitting democracy not to have that inevitable tendency to party tyranny1 which ,i suppose it to have1 and admitting it to possess as much good in it when unmixed1 as ,i am sure it possesses when compounded with other forms2 does monarchy1 on its part1 contain nothing at all to recommend it8 ,i do not often quote ,bolingbroke1 nor have his works in general left any permanent impression on my mind4 ,he is a presumptuous and a superficial writer4 ,but he has one observation1 which1 in my opinion1 is not without depth and solidity4 ,he says1 that he prefers a monarchy to other governments1 because you can better ingraft any description of republic on a monarchy1 than anything of monarchy upon the republican forms4 ,i think him perfectly in the right4 ,the fact is so historically2 and it agrees well with the speculation4 ,i know how easy a topic it is to dwell on the faults of departed greatness4 ,by a revolution in the state1 the fawning sycophant of yesterday is converted into the austere critic of the present hour4 ,but steady1 independent minds1 when they have an object of so serious a concern to mankind as government under their contemplation1 will disdain to assume the part of satirists and declaimers4 ,they will judge of human institutions as they do of human characters4 ,they will sort out the good from the evil1 which is mixed in mortal institutions1 as it is in mortal men4 ,,declaration ,,of #agic4 ,it is not difficult to discern what sort of humanity our government is to learn from these syren singers4 ,our government also1 ,i admit with some reason1 as a step towards the proposed fraternity1 is required to abjure the unjust hatred which it bears to this body1 of honour and virtue4 ,i thank ,god ,i am neither a minister nor a leader of opposition4 ,i protest ,i cannot do what they desire4 ,i could not do it if ,i were under the guillotine2 or as they ingeniously and pleasantly express it1 looking out of the little national window4 ,even at that opening ,i could receive none of their light4 ,i am fortified against all such affections by the declaration of the government1 which ,i must yet consider as lawful1 made on the #bith of ,october1 #agic1 and still ringing in my ears4 7,in their place has succeeded a system destructive of all public order1 maintained by proscriptions1 exiles1 and confiscations without number2 by arbitrary imprisonment2 by massacres which cannot be remembered without horror2 and at length by the execrable murder of a just and beneficent sovereign1 and of the illustrious princess1 who1 with an unshaken firmness1 has shared all the misfortunes of her royal consort1 his protracted sufferings1 his cruel captivity1 and ignominious death4 ,they 7the allies7 have had to encounter acts of aggression without pretext1 open violation of all treaties1 unprovoked declarations of war2 in a word1 whatever corruption1 intrigue1 or violence1 could effect for the purpose1 openly avowed1 of subverting all the institutions of society1 and of extending over all the nations of ,europe that confusion1 which has produced the misery of ,france4--,this state of things cannot exist in ,france without involving all the surrounding powers in one common danger1 without giving them the right1 without imposing it upon them as a duty1 to stop the progress of an evil1 which exists only by the successive violation of all law and all property1 and which attacks the fundamental principles by which mankind is united in the bonds of civil society4--,the king would impose none other than equitable and moderate conditions1 not such as the expense1 the risks1 and the sacrifices of the war might justify2 but such as his majesty thinks himself under the indispensable necessity of requiring1 with a view to these considerations1 and still more to that of his own security and of the future tranquillity of ,europe4 ,his majesty desires nothing more sincerely than thus to terminate a war1 which he in vain endeavoured to avoid1 and all the calamities of which1 as now experienced by ,france1 are to be attributed only to the ambition1 the perfidy1 and the violence of those1 whose crimes have involved their own country in misery1 and disgraced all civilized nations4--,the king promises1 on his part1 the suspension of hostilities1 friendship1 and 7as far as the course of events will allow1 of which the will of man cannot dispose7 security and protection to all those who1 by declaring for a monarchical form of government1 shall shake off the yoke of sanguinary anarchy2 of that anarchy which has broken all the most sacred bonds of society1 dissolved all the relations of civil life1 violated every right1 confounded every duty2 which uses the name of liberty to exercise the most cruel tyranny1 to annihilate all property1 to seize on all possessions3 which founds its power on the pretended consent of the people1 and itself carries fire and sword through extensive provinces for having demanded their laws1 their religion1 and their ,,lawful ,,sovereign4 ,declaration sent by his majesty's command to the commanders of his majesty's fleets and armies employed against ,france1 and to his majesty's ministers employed at foreign courts47 ,this declaration was transmitted not only to our commanders by sea and land1 but to our ministers in every court of ,europe4 ,it is the most eloquent and highly-finished in the style1 the most judicious in the choice of topics1 the most orderly in the arrangement1 and the most rich in the colouring1 without employing the smallest degree of exaggeration1 of any state paper that has ever yet appeared4 ,an ancient writer1 ,plutarch1 ,i think it is1 quotes some verses on the eloquence of ,pericles1 who is called the only orator that left stings in the minds of his hearers4 ,like his1 the eloquence of the declaration1 not contradicting1 but enforcing sentiments of the truest humanity1 has left stings that have penetrated more than skin-deep into my mind2 and never can they be extracted by all the surgery of murder1 never can the throbbings they have created be assuaged by all the emolient cataplasms of robbery and confiscation4 ,i ,,cannot love the republic4 ,,moral ,,diet4 ,to diet a man into weakness and languor1 afterwards to give him the greater strength1 has more of the empiric than the rational physician4 ,it is true that some persons have been kicked into courage2 and this is no bad hint to give to those who are too forward and liberal in bestowing insults and outrages on their passive companions4 ,but such a course does not at first view appear a well-chosen discipline to form men to a nice sense of honour1 or a quick resentment of injuries4 ,a long habit of humiliation does not seem a very good preparative to manly and vigorous sentiment4 ,it may not leave1 perhaps1 enough of energy in the mind fairly to discern what are good terms or what are not4 ,men low and dispirited may regard those terms as not at all amiss1 which in another state of mind they would think intolerable3 if they grow peevish in this state of mind1 they may be roused1 not against the enemy whom they have been taught to fear1 but against the ministry1 who are more within their reach1 and who have refused conditions that are not unreasonable1 from power that they have been taught to consider as irresistible4 ,,king ,,william',s ,,policy4 ,his majesty did determine2 and did take and pursue his resolution4 ,in all the tottering imbecility of a new government1 and with parliament totally unmanageable1 he persevered4 ,he persevered to expel the fears of his people by his fortitude--to steady their fickleness by his constancy--to expand their narrow prudence by his enlarged wisdom--to sink their factious temper in his public spirit4 ,in spite of his people he resolved to make them great and glorious2 to make ,england1 inclined to shrink into her narrow self1 the arbitress of ,europe1 the tutelary angel of the human race4 ,in spite of the ministers1 who staggered under the weight that his mind imposed upon theirs1 unsupported as they felt themselves by the popular spirit1 he infused into them his own soul1 he renewed in them their ancient heart1 he rallied them in the same cause4 ,it required some time to accomplish this work4 ,the people were first gained1 and through them their distracted representatives4 ,under the influence of ,king ,william1 ,holland had rejected the allurements of every seduction1 and had resisted the terrors of every menace4 ,with ,hannibal at her gates1 she had nobly and magnanimously refused all separate treaty1 or anything which might for a moment appear to divide her affection or her interest1 or even to distinguish her in identity from ,england4 ,having settled the great point of the consolidation 7which he hoped would be eternal7 of the countries made for a common interest1 and common sentiment1 the king1 in his message to both houses1 calls their attention to the affairs of the ,,states-,,general4 ,the ,house of ,lords was perfectly sound1 and entirely impressed with the wisdom and dignity of the king's proceedings4 ,in answer to the message1 which you will observe was narrowed to a single point 7the danger of the ,states-,general71 after the usual professions of zeal for his service1 the lords opened themselves at large4 ,they go far beyond the demands of the message4 ,they express themselves as follows3 ,we take this occasion ,,further to assure your majesty1 that we are sensible of the ,,great ,,and ,,imminent ,,danger ,,to ,,which ,,the ,,states-,,general ,,are ,,exposed4 ,,and ,,we ,,perfectly ,,agree ,,with ,,them ,,in ,,believing ,,that ,,their ,,safety ,,and ,,ours ,,are ,,so ,,inseparably ,,united1 ,,that ,,whatsoever ,,is ,,ruin ,,to ,,the ,,one ,,must ,,be ,,fatal ,,to ,,the ,,other4 ,we humbly desire your majesty will be pleased ,,not ,,only to made good all the articles of any ,,former treaties to the ,states-,general1 but that you will enter into a strict league1 offensive and defensive1 with them1 ,,for ,,their ,,common ,,preservation2 ,,and ,,that ,,you ,,will ,,invite ,,into ,,it ,,all ,,princes ,,and ,,states ,,who ,,are ,,concerned ,,in ,,the ,,present ,,visible ,,danger1 ,,arising ,,from ,,the ,,union ,,of ,,france ,,and ,,spain4 ,and we further desire your majesty1 that you will be pleased to enter into such alliances with the ,,emperor as your majesty shall think fit1 pursuant to the ends of the treaty of #afhi2 towards all which we assure your majesty of our hearty and sincere assistance2 not doubting1 but whenever your majesty shall be obliged to be engaged for the defence of your allies1 ,,and ,,securing ,,the ,,liberty ,,and ,,quiet ,,of ,,europe1 ,almighty ,god will protect your sacred person in so righteous a cause4 ,and that the unanimity1 wealth1 and courage1 of your subjects will carry your majesty with honour and success ,,through ,,all ,,the ,,difficulties ,,of ,a ,,just ,,war4 ,the ,house of ,commons was more reserved2 the late popular disposition was still in a great degree prevalent in the representative1 after it had been made to change in the constituent body4 ,the principle of the grand alliance was not directly recognised in the resolution of the ,commons1 nor the war announced1 though they were well aware the alliance was formed for the war4 ,however1 compelled by the returning sense of the people1 they went so far as to fix the three great immovable pillars of the safety and greatness of ,england1 as they were then1 as they are now1 and as they must ever be to the end of time4 ,they asserted in general terms the necessity of supporting ,holland1 of keeping united with our allies1 and maintaining the liberty of ,europe2 though they restricted their vote to the succours stipulated by actual treaty4 ,but now they were fairly embarked1 they were obliged to go with the course of the vessel2 and the whole nation1 split before into a hundred adverse factions1 with a king at its head evidently declining to his tomb1 the whole nation1 lords1 commons1 and people1 proceeded as one body1 informed by one soul4 ,under the ,british union1 the union of ,europe was consolidated2 and it long held together with a degree of cohesion1 firmness1 and fidelity1 not known before or since in any political combination of that extent4 ,just as the last hand was given to this immense and complicated machine1 the master workman died3 but the work was formed on true mechanical principles1 and it was as truly wrought4 ,it went by the impulse it had received from the first mover4 ,the man was dead2 but the grand alliance survived in which ,king ,william lived and reigned4 ,that heartless and dispirited people1 whom ,lord ,somers had represented about two years before as dead in energy and operation1 continued that war to which it was supposed they were unequal in mind1 and in means1 for nearly thirteen years4 ,for what have ,i entered into all this detail8 ,to what purpose have ,i recalled your view to the end of the last century8 ,it has been done to show that the ,british nation was then a great people--to point out how and by what means they came to be exalted above the vulgar level1 and to take that lead which they assumed among mankind4 ,to qualify us for that pre-eminence1 we had then a high mind and a constancy unconquerable2 we were then inspired with no flashy passions1 but such as were durable as well as warm1 such as corresponded to the great interests we had at stake4 ,this force of character was inspired1 as all such spirit must ever be1 from above4 ,government gave the impulse4 ,as well may we fancy1 that of itself the sea will swell1 and that without winds the billows will insult the adverse shore1 as that the gross mass of the people will be moved1 and elevated1 and continue by a steady and permanent direction to bear upon one point1 without the influence of superior authority1 or superior mind4 ,this impulse ought1 in my opinion1 to have been given in this war2 and it ought to have been continued to it at every instant4 ,it is made1 if ever war was made1 to touch all the great springs of action in the human breast4 ,it ought not to have been a war of apology4 ,the minister had1 in this conflict1 wherewithal to glory in success2 to be consoled in adversity2 to hold high his principle in all fortunes4 ,if it were not given him to support the falling edifice1 he ought to bury himself under the ruins of the civilized world4 ,all the art of ,greece1 and all the pride and power of eastern monarchs1 never heaped upon their ashes so grand a monument4 ,,distemper ,,of ,,remedy4 ,this distemper of remedy1 grown habitual1 relaxes and wears out1 by a vulgar and prostituted use1 the spring of that spirit which is to be exerted on great occasions4 ,it was in the most patient period of ,roman servitude that themes of tyrannicide made the ordinary exercise of boys at school--cum perimit saevos classis numerosa tyrannos4 ,in the ordinary state of things1 it produces in a country like ours the worst effects1 even on the cause of that liberty which it abuses with the dissoluteness of an extravagant speculation4 ,almost all the high-bred republicans of my time have1 after a short space1 become the most decided1 thorough-paced courtiers2 they soon left the business of a tedious1 moderate1 but practical resistance1 to those of us whom1 in the pride and intoxication of their theories1 they have slighted as not much better than ,tories4 ,hypocrisy1 of course1 delights in the most sublime speculations2 for1 never intending to go beyond speculation1 it costs nothing to have it magnificent4 ,but even in cases where rather levity than fraud was to be suspected in these ranting speculations1 the issue has been much the same4 ,these professors1 finding their extreme principles not applicable to cases which call only for a qualified1 or1 as ,i may say1 civil1 and legal resistance1 in such cases employ no resistance at all4 ,it is with them a war or a revolution1 or it is nothing4 ,finding their schemes of politics not adapted to the state of the world in which they live1 they often come to think lightly of all public principle2 and are ready1 on their part1 to abandon for a very trivial interest what they find of very trivial value4 ,some indeed are of more steady and persevering natures2 but these are eager politicians out of parliament1 who have little to tempt them to abandon their favourite projects4 ,they have some change in the ,church or ,state1 or both1 constantly in their view4 ,when that is the case1 they are always bad citizens1 and perfectly unsure connections4 ,for1 considering their speculative designs as of infinite value1 and the actual arrangement of the state as of no estimation1 they are at best indifferent about it4 ,they see no merit in the good1 and no fault in the vicious management of public affairs2 they rather rejoice in the latter1 as more propitious to revolution4 ,they see no merit or demerit in any man1 or any action1 or any political principle1 any further than as they may forward or retard their design of change3 they therefore take up1 one day1 the most violent and stretched prerogative1 and another time the wildest democratic ideas of freedom1 and pass from the one to the other without any sort of regard to cause1 to person1 or to party4 ,,war ,,and ,,will ,,of ,,the ,,people4 ,in matters of state1 a constitutional competence to act is in many cases the smallest part of the question4 ,without disputing 7,god forbid ,i should dispute7 the sole competence of the king and the parliament1 each in its province1 to decide on war and peace1 ,i venture to say1 no war ,,can be long carried on against the will of the people4 ,this war1 in particular1 cannot be carried on unless they are enthusiastically in favour of it4 ,acquiescence will not do4 ,there must be zeal4 ,universal zeal in such a cause1 and at such a time as this is1 cannot be looked for2 neither is it necessary4 ,zeal in the larger part carries the force of the whole4 ,without this1 no government1 certainly not our government1 is capable of a great war4 ,none of the ancient regular governments have wherewithal to fight abroad with a foreign foe1 and at home to overcome repining1 reluctance1 and chicane4 ,it must be some portentous thing1 like regicide ,france1 that can exhibit such a prodigy4 ,yet even she1 the mother of monsters1 more prolific than the country of old called ,ferax monstrorum1 shows symptoms of being almost effete already2 and she will be so1 unless the fallow of a peace comes to recruit her fertility4 ,but whatever may be represented concerning the meanness of the popular spirit1 ,i1 for one1 do not think so desperately of the ,british nation4 ,our minds1 as ,i said1 are light1 but they are not depraved4 ,we are dreadfully open to delusion and to dejection2 but we are capable of being animated and undeceived4 ,it cannot be concealed3 we are a divided people4 ,but in divisions1 where a part is to be taken1 we are to make a muster of our strength4 ,i have often endeavoured to compute and to class those who1 in any political view1 are to be called the people4 ,without doing something of this sort we must proceed absurdly4 ,we should not be much wiser1 if we pretended to very great accuracy in our estimate2 but ,i think1 in the calculation ,i have made1 the error cannot be very material4 ,in ,england and ,scotland1 ,i compute that those of adult age1 not declining in life1 of tolerable leisure for such discussions1 and of some means of information1 more or less1 and who are above menial dependence 7or what virtually is such71 may amount to about four hundred thousand4 ,there is such a thing as a natural representative of the people4 ,this body is that representative2 and on this body1 more than on the legal constituent1 the artificial representative depends4 ,this is the ,british public2 and it is a public very numerous4 ,the rest1 when feeble1 are the objects of protection2 when strong1 the means of force4 ,they who affect to consider that part of us in any other light1 insult while they cajole us2 they do not want us for counsellors in deliberation1 but to list us as soldiers for battle4 ,of these four hundred thousand political citizens1 ,i look upon one-fifth1 or about eighty thousand1 to be pure ,jacobins2 utterly incapable of amendment2 objects of eternal vigilance1 and1 when they break out1 of legal constraint4 ,on these1 no reason1 no argument1 no example1 no venerable authority1 can have the slightest influence4 ,they desire a change2 and they will have it if they can4 ,if they cannot have it by ,english cabal1 they will make no sort of scruple of having it by the cabal of ,france1 into which already they are virtually incorporated4 ,it is only their assured and confident expectation of the advantages of ,french fraternity1 and the approaching blessings of regicide intercourse1 that skins over their mischievous dispositions with a momentary quiet4 ,this minority is great and formidable4 ,i do not know whether if ,i aimed at the total overthrow of a kingdom1 ,i should wish to be encumbered with a larger body of partisans4 ,they are more easily disciplined and directed than if the number were greater4 ,these1 by their spirit of intrigue1 and by their restless agitating activity1 are of a force far superior to their numbers2 and1 if times grew the least critical1 have the means of debauching or intimidating many of those who are now sound1 as well as of adding to their force large bodies of the more passive part of the nation4 ,this minority is numerous enough to make a mighty cry for peace1 or for war1 or for any object they are led vehemently to desire4 ,by passing from place to place with a velocity incredible1 and diversifying their character and description1 they are capable of mimicking the general voice4 ,we must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation4 ,,false ,,policy ,,in ,,our ,,french ,,war4 ,we have never put forth half the strength which we have exerted in ordinary wars4 ,in the fatal battles which have drenched the continent with blood1 and shaken the system of ,europe to pieces1 we have never had any considerable army of a magnitude to be compared to the least of those by which1 in former times1 we so gloriously asserted our place as protectors1 not oppressors1 at the head of the great commonwealth of ,europe4 ,we have never manfully met the danger in front3 and when the enemy1 resigning to us our natural dominion of the ocean1 and abandoning the defence of his distant possessions to the infernal energy of the destroying principles which he had planted there for the subversion of the neighbouring colonies1 drove forth1 by one sweeping law of unprecedented despotism1 his armed multitudes on every side1 to overwhelm the countries and states which had for centuries stood the firm barriers against the ambition of ,france2 we drew back the arm of our military force1 which had never been more than half raised to oppose him4 ,from that time we have been combating only with the other arm of our naval power2 the right arm of ,england ,i admit2 but which struck almost unresisted with blows that could never reach the heart of the hostile mischief4 ,from that time1 without a single effort to regain those outworks1 which ever till now we so strenuously maintained1 as the strong frontier of our own dignity and safety1 no less than the liberties of ,europe2 with but one feeble attempt to succour those brave1 faithful1 and numerous allies1 whom1 for the first time since the days of our ,edwards and ,henrys1 we now have in the bosom of ,france itself2 we have been intrenching1 and fortifying1 and garrisoning ourselves at home3 we have been redoubling security on security1 to protect ourselves from invasion1 which has now become to us a serious object of alarm and terror4 ,alas6 the few of us who have protracted life in any measure near to the extreme limits of our short period1 have been condemned to see strange things2 new systems of policy1 new principles1 and not only new men1 but what might appear a new species of men4 ,i believe that any person who was of age to take a part in public affairs forty years ago 7if the intermediate space of time were expunged from his memory7 would hardly credit his senses1 when he should hear from the highest authority1 that an army of two hundred thousand men was kept up in this island1 and that in the neighbouring island there were at least fourscore thousand more4 ,but when he had recovered from his surprise on being told of this army1 which has not its parallel1 what must be his astonishment to be told again1 that this mighty force was kept up for the mere purpose of an inert and passive defence1 and that in its far greater part1 it was disabled by its constitution and very essence from defending us against an enemy by any one preventive stroke1 or any one operation of active hostility8 ,what must his reflections be on learning further1 that a fleet of five hundred men of war1 the best appointed1 and to the full as ably commanded as any this country ever had upon the sea1 was for the greater part employed in carrying on the same system of unenterprising defence8 what must be the sentiments and feelings of one who remembers the former energy of ,england1 when he is given to understand that these two islands1 with their extensive and everywhere vulnerable coast1 should be considered as a garrisoned sea-town2 what would such a man1 what would any man think1 if the garrison of so strange a fortress should be such1 and so feebly commanded1 as never to make a sally2 and that1 contrary to all which has hitherto been seen in war1 an infinitely inferior army1 with the shattered relics of an almost annihilated navy1 ill found and ill manned1 may with safety besiege this superior garrison1 and1 without hazarding the life of a man1 ruin the place1 merely by the menaces and false appearances of an attack8 ,indeed1 indeed1 my dear friend1 ,i look upon this matter of our defensive system as much the most important of all considerations at this moment4 ,it has oppressed me with many anxious thoughts1 which1 more than any bodily distemper1 have sunk me to the condition in which you know that ,i am4 ,should it please ,providence to restore to me even the late weak remains of my strength1 ,i propose to make this matter the subject of a particular discussion4 ,i only mean here to argue1 that the mode of conducting the war on our part1 be it good or bad1 has prevented even the common havoc of war in our population1 and especially among that class whose duty and privilege of superiority it is to lead the way amidst the perils and slaughter of the field of battle4 ,,moral ,,essence ,,makes ,a ,,nation4 ,mere locality does not constitute a body politic4 ,had ,cade and his gang got possession of ,london1 they would not have been the lord mayor1 aldermen1 and common council4 ,the body politic of ,france existed in the majesty of its throne1 in the dignity of its nobility1 in the honour of its gentry1 in the sanctity of its clergy1 in the reverence of its magistracy1 in the weight and consideration due to its landed property in the several bailliages1 in the respect due to its moveable substance represented by the corporations of the kingdom4 ,all these particular moleculae united form the great mass of what is truly the body politic in all countries4 ,they are so many deposits and receptacles of justice2 because they can only exist by justice4 ,nation is a moral essence1 not a geographical arrangement1 or a denomination of the nomenclator4 ,france1 though out of her territorial possession1 exists2 because the sole possible claimant1 ,i mean the proprietary1 and the government to which the proprietary adheres1 exists1 and claims4 ,god forbid1 that if you were expelled from your house by ruffians and assassins1 that ,i should call the material walls1 doors1 and windows of--1 the ancient and honourable family of--4 ,am ,i to transfer to the intruders1 who1 not content to turn you out naked to the world1 would rob you of your very name1 all the esteem and respect ,i owe to you8 ,the regicides in ,france are not ,france4 ,france is out of her bounds1 but the kingdom is the same4 ,,public ,,spirit4 ,other great states1 having been without any regular1 certain course of elevation or decline1 we may hope that the ,british fortune may fluctuate also2 because the public mind1 which greatly influences that fortune1 may have its changes4 ,we are therefore never authorised to abandon our country to its fate1 or to act or advise as if it had no resource4 ,there is no reason to apprehend1 because ordinary means threaten to fail1 that no others can spring up4 ,whilst our heart is whole1 it will find means1 or make them4 ,the heart of the citizen is a perennial spring of energy to the state4 ,because the pulse seems to intermit1 we must not presume that it will cease instantly to beat4 ,the public must never be regarded as incurable4 ,i remember in the beginning of what has lately been called the ,seven ,years' ,war1 that an eloquent writer and ingenious speculator1 ,dr4 ,brown1 upon some reverses which happened in the beginning of that war1 published an elaborate philosophical discourse to prove that the distinguishing features of the people of ,england have been totally changed1 and that a frivolous effeminacy was become the national character4 ,nothing could be more popular than that work4 ,it was thought a great consolation to us1 the light people of this country 7who were and are light1 but who were not and are not effeminate71 that we had found the causes of our misfortunes in our vices4 ,pythagoras could not be more pleased with his leading discovery4 ,but whilst in that splenetic mood we amused ourselves in a sour1 critical speculation1 of which we were ourselves the objects1 and in which every man lost his particular sense of the public disgrace in the epidemic nature of the distemper2 whilst1 as in the ,alps1 goitre i circumflex kept goitre i acute in countenance2 whilst we were thus abandoning ourselves to a direct confession of our inferiority to ,france1 and whilst many1 very many1 were ready to act upon a sense of that inferiority1 a few months effected a total change in our variable minds4 ,we emerged from the gulf of that speculative despondency1 and were buoyed up to the highest point of practical vigour4 ,never did the masculine spirit of ,england display itself with more energy1 nor ever did its genius soar with a prouder pre-eminence over ,france1 than at the time when frivolity and effeminacy had been at least tacitly acknowledged as their national character by the good people of this kingdom4 ,,progressive ,,growth ,,of ,,christian ,,states4 ,when ,i contemplate the scheme on which ,france is formed1 and when ,i compare it with these systems1 with which it is1 and ever must be1 in conflict1 those things1 which seem as defects in her polity1 are the very things which make me tremble4 ,the states of the ,christian world have grown up to their present magnitude in a great length of time1 and by a great variety of accidents4 ,they have been improved to what we see them with greater or less degrees of felicity and skill4 ,not one of them has been formed upon a regular plan or with any unity of design4 ,as their constitutions are not systematical1 they have not been directed to any ,,peculiar end1 eminently distinguished1 and superseding every other4 ,the objects which they embrace are of the greatest possible variety1 and have become in a manner infinite4 ,in all these old countries1 the state has been made to the people1 and not the people conformed to the state4 ,every state has pursued not only every sort of social advantage1 but it has cultivated the welfare of every individual4 ,his wants1 his wishes1 even his tastes1 have been consulted4 ,this comprehensive scheme virtually produced a degree of personal liberty in forms the most adverse to it4 ,that liberty was found1 under monarchies styled absolute1 in a degree unknown to the ancient commonwealths4 ,from hence the powers of all our modern states meet1 in all their movements1 with some obstruction4 ,it is therefore no wonder1 that1 when these states are to be considered as machines to operate for some one great end1 this dissipated and balanced force is not easily concentrated1 or made to bear with the whole force of the nation upon one point4 ,the ,british state is1 without question1 that which pursues the greatest variety of ends1 and is the least disposed to sacrifice any one of them to another1 or to the whole4 ,it aims at taking in the entire circle of human desires1 and securing for them their fair enjoyment4 ,our legislature has been ever closely connected1 in its most efficient part1 with individual feeling1 and individual interest4 ,personal liberty1 the most lively of these feelings and the most important of these interests1 which in other ,european countries has rather arisen from the system of manners and the habitudes of life1 than from the laws of the state 7in which it flourished more from neglect than attention71 in ,england1 has been a direct object of government4 ,on this principle ,england would be the weakest power in the whole system4 ,fortunately1 however1 the great riches of this kingdom arising from a variety of causes1 and the disposition of the people1 which is as great to spend as to accumulate1 has easily afforded a disposable surplus that gives a mighty momentum to the state4 ,this difficulty1 with these advantages to overcome it1 has called forth the talents of the ,english financiers1 who1 by the surplus of industry poured out by prodigality1 have outdone everything which has been accomplished in other nations4 ,the present minister has outdone his predecessors2 and1 as a minister of revenue1 is far above my power of praise4 ,but still there are cases in which ,england feels more than several others 7though they all feel7 the perplexity of an immense body of balanced advantages1 and of individual demands1 and of some irregularity in the whole mass4 ,france differs essentially from all those governments1 which are formed without system1 which exist by habit1 and which are confused with the multitude1 and with the perplexity of their pursuits4 ,what now stands as government in ,france is struck out at a heat4 ,the design is wicked1 immoral1 impious1 oppressive2 but it is spirited and daring2 it is systematic2 it is simple in its principle2 it has unity and consistency in perfection4 ,,petty ,,interests4 ,it is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the inclinations of the people1 but they ought to take great care that they do not receive that inclination from the few persons who may happen to approach them4 ,the petty interests of such gentlemen1 the low conceptions of things1 their fears arising from the danger to which the very arduous and critical situation of public affairs may expose their places2 their apprehensions from the hazards to which the discontents of a few popular men at elections may expose their seats in parliament2 all these causes trouble and confuse the representations which they make to ministers of the real temper of the nation4 ,if ministers1 instead of following the great indications of the constitution1 proceed on such reports1 they will take the whispers of a cabal for the voice of the people1 and the counsels of imprudent timidity for the wisdom of a nation4 ,,pius ,,vii4 ,it is not for his ,holiness we intend this consolatory declaration of our own weakness1 and of the tyrannous temper of his grand enemy4 ,that prince has known both the one and the other from the beginning4 ,the artists of the ,french revolution had given their very first essays and sketches of robbery and desolation against his territories1 in a far more cruel murdering piece than had ever entered into the imagination of painter or poet4 ,without ceremony they tore from his cherishing arms the possessions which he held for five hundred years1 undisturbed by all the ambition of all the ambitious monarchs who1 during that period1 have reigned in ,france4 ,is it to him1 in whose wrong we have in our late negotiation ceded his now unhappy countries near the ,rhone1 lately amongst the most flourishing 7perhaps the most flourishing for their extent7 of all the countries upon earth1 that we are to prove the sincerity of our resolution to make peace with the republic barbarism8 ,that venerable potentate and pontiff is sunk deep into the vale of years2 he is half disarmed by his peaceful character2 his dominions are more than half disarmed by a peace of two hundred years1 defended as they were1 not by forces1 but by reverence2 yet in all these straits1 we see him display1 amidst the recent ruins and the new defacements of his plundered capital1 along with the mild and decorated piety of the modern1 all the spirit and magnanimity of ancient ,rome6 ,does he1 who1 though himself unable to defend them1 nobly refused to receive pecuniary compensations for the protection he owed to his people of ,avignon1 ,carpentras1 and the ,venaisin2--does he want proofs of our good disposition to deliver over that people without any security for them1 or any compensation to their sovereign1 to this cruel enemy8 ,does he want to be satisfied of the sincerity of our humiliation to ,france1 who has seen his free1 fertile1 and happy city and state of ,bologna1 the cradle of regenerated law1 the seat of sciences and of arts1 so hideously metamorphosed1 whilst he was crying to ,great ,britain for aid1 and offering to purchase that aid at any price8 ,is it him1 who sees that chosen spot of plenty and delight converted into a ,jacobin ferocious republic1 dependent on the homicides of ,france8 ,is it him1 who1 from the miracles of his beneficent industry1 has done a work which defied the power of the ,roman emperors1 though with an enthralled world to labour for them2 is it him1 who has drained and cultivated the ,,pontine ,,marshes1 that we are to satisfy of our cordial spirit of conciliation1 with those who1 in their equity1 are restoring ,holland again to the seas1 whose maxims poison more than the exhalations of the most deadly fens1 and who turn all the fertilities of nature and of art into a howling desert8 ,is it to him1 that we are to demonstrate the good faith of our submissions to the cannibal republic2 to him who is commanded to deliver into their hands ,ancona and ,civita ,vecchia1 seats of commerce1 raised by the wise and liberal labours and expenses of the present and late pontiffs2 ports not more belonging to the ,ecclesiastical ,state than to the commerce of ,great ,britain2 thus wresting from his hands the power of the keys of the centre of ,italy1 as before they had taken possession of the keys of the northern part1 from the hands of the unhappy king of ,sardinia1 the natural ally of ,england8 ,is it to him we are to prove our good faith in the peace which we are soliciting to receive from the hands of his and our robbers1 the enemies of all arts1 all sciences1 all civilization1 and all commerce8 ,,extinction ,,of ,,local ,,patriotism4 ,that day was1 ,i fear1 the fatal term of ,,local patriotism4 ,on that day1 ,i fear1 there was an end of that narrow scheme of relations called our country1 with all its pride1 its prejudices1 and its partial affections4 ,all the little quiet rivulets1 that watered an humble1 a contracted1 but not an unfruitful field1 are to be lost in the waste expanse1 and boundless1 barren ocean of the homicide philanthropy of ,france4 ,it is no longer an object of terror1 the aggrandizement of a new power1 which teaches as a professor that philanthropy in their chair2 whilst it propagates by arms1 and establishes by conquest1 the comprehensive system of universal fraternity4 ,in what light is all this viewed in a great assembly8 ,the party which takes the lead there has no longer any apprehensions1 except those that arise from not being admitted to the closest and most confidential connections with the metropolis of that fraternity4 ,that reigning party no longer touches on its favourite subject1 the display of those horrors1 that must attend the existence of a power1 with such dispositions and principles1 seated in the heart of ,europe4 ,it is satisfied to find some loose1 ambiguous expressions in its former declarations1 which may set it free from its professions and engagements4 ,it always speaks of peace with the regicides as a great and an undoubted blessing2 and such a blessing as1 if obtained1 promises1 as much as any human disposition of things can promise1 security and permanence4 ,it holds out nothing at all definite towards this security4 ,it only seeks1 by a restoration1 to some of their former owners1 of some fragments of the general wreck of ,europe1 to find a plausible plea for a present retreat from an embarrassing position4 ,as to the future1 that party is content to leave it1 covered in a night of the most palpable obscurity4 ,it never once has entered into a particle of detail of what our own situation1 or that of other powers1 must be1 under the blessings of the peace we seek4 ,this defect1 to my power1 ,i mean to supply2 that if any persons should still continue to think an attempt at foresight is any part of the duty of a statesman1 ,i may contribute my trifle to the materials of his speculation4 ,as to the other party1 the minority of to-day1 possibly the majority of to-morrow1 small in number but full of talents and every species of energy1 which1 upon the avowed ground of being more acceptable to ,france1 is a candidate for the helm of this kingdom1 it has never changed from the beginning4 ,it has preserved a perennial consistency4 ,this would be a never-failing source of true glory1 if springing from just and right2 but it is truly dreadful if it be an arm of ,styx1 which springs out of the profoundest depths of a poisoned soil4 ,the ,french maxims were by these gentlemen at no time condemned4 ,i speak of their language in the most moderate terms4 ,there are many who think that they have gone much further2 that they have always magnified and extolled the ,french maxims2 that not in the least disgusted or discouraged by the monstrous evils1 which have attended these maxims from the moment of their adoption both at home and abroad1 they still continue to predict1 that in due time they must produce the greatest good to the poor human race4 ,they obstinately persist in stating those evils as matter of accident2 as things wholly collateral to the system4 ,it is observed1 that this party has never spoken of an ally of ,great ,britain with the smallest degree of respect or regard2 on the contrary1 it has generally mentioned them under opprobrious appellations1 and in such terms of contempt or execration1 as never had been heard before1 because no such would have formerly been permitted in our public assemblies4 ,the moment1 however1 that any of those allies quitted this obnoxious connection1 the party has instantly passed an act of indemnity and oblivion in their favour4 ,after this1 no sort of censure on their conduct2 no imputation on their character6 ,from that moment their pardon was sealed in a reverential and mysterious silence4 ,with the gentlemen of this minority1 there is no ally1 from one end of ,europe to the other1 with whom we ought not to be ashamed to act4 ,the whole college of the states of ,europe is no better than a gang of tyrants4 ,with them all our connexions were broken off at once4 ,we ought to have cultivated ,france1 and ,france alone1 from the moment of her revolution4 ,on that happy change1 all our dread of that nation as a power was to cease4 ,she became in an instant dear to our affections1 and one with our interests4 ,all other nations we ought to have commanded not to trouble her sacred throes1 whilst in labour to bring into a happy birth her abundant litter of constitutions4 ,,walpole ,,and ,,his ,,policy4 ,there has not been in this century any foreign peace or war1 in its origin1 the fruit of popular desire2 except the war that was made with ,spain in #agci4 ,sir ,robert ,walpole was forced into the war by the people1 who were inflamed to this measure by the most leading politicians1 by the first orators1 and the greatest poets1 of the time4 ,for that war1 ,pope sung his dying notes4 ,for that war1 ,johnson1 in more energetic strains1 employed the voice of his early genius4 ,for that war1 ,glover distinguished himself in the way in which his muse was the most natural and happy4 ,the crowd readily followed the politicians in the cry for a war1 which threatened little bloodshed1 and which promised victories that were attended with something more solid than glory4 ,a war with ,spain was a war of plunder4 ,in the present conflict with regicide1 ,mr4 ,pitt has not hitherto had1 nor will1 perhaps1 for a few days have1 many prizes to hold out in the lottery of war1 to attempt the lower part of our character4 ,he can only maintain it by an appeal to the higher2 and to those1 in whom that higher part is the most predominant1 he must look the most for his support4 ,whilst he holds out no inducements to the wise1 nor bribes to the avaricious1 he may be forced by a vulgar cry into a peace ten times more ruinous than the most disastrous war4 ,the weaker he is in the fund of motives which apply to our avarice1 to our laziness1 and to our lassitude1 if he means to carry the war to any end at all1 the stronger he ought to be in his addresses to our magnanimity and to our reason4 ,in stating that ,walpole was driven by a popular clamour into a measure not to be justified1 ,i do not mean wholly to excuse his conduct4 ,my time of observation did not exactly coincide with that event3 but ,i read much of the controversies then carried on4 ,several years after the contests of parties had ceased1 the people were amused1 and in a degree warmed1 with them4 ,the events of that era seemed then of magnitude1 which the revolutions of our time have reduced to parochial importance2 and the debates1 which then shook the nation1 now appear of no higher moment than a discussion in a vestry4 ,when ,i was very young1 a general fashion told me ,i was to admire some of the writings against that minister2 a little more maturity taught me as much to despise them4 ,i observed one fault in his general proceeding4 ,he never manfully put forward the entire strength of his cause4 ,he temporised1 he managed1 and1 adopting very nearly the sentiments of his adversaries1 he opposed their inferences4 ,this1 for a political commander1 is the choice of a weak post4 ,his adversaries had the better of the argument1 as he handled it1 not as the reason and justice of his cause enabled him to manage it4 ,i say this1 after having seen1 and with some care examined1 the original documents concerning certain important transactions of those times4 ,they perfectly satisfied me of the extreme injustice of that war1 and of the falsehood of the colours which1 to his own ruin1 and guided by a mistaken policy1 he suffered to be daubed over that measure4 ,some years after1 it was my fortune to converse with many of the principal actors against that minister1 and with those who principally excited that clamour4 ,none of them1 no not one1 did in the least defend the measure1 or attempt to justify their conduct4 ,they condemned it as freely as they would have done in commenting upon any proceeding in history1 in which they were totally unconcerned4 ,thus it will be4 ,they who stir up the people to improper desires1 whether of peace or war1 will be condemned by themselves4 ,they who weakly yield to them will be condemned by history4 ,,political ,,peace4 ,how a question of peace can be discussed without having them in view1 ,i cannot imagine4 ,if you or others see a way out of these difficulties1 ,i am happy4 ,i see1 indeed1 a fund from whence equivalents will be proposed4 ,i see it1 but ,i cannot just now touch it4 ,it is a question of high moment4 ,it opens another ,iliad of woes to ,europe4 ,such is the time proposed for making ,a ,,common ,,political ,,peace2 to which no one circumstance is propitious4 ,as to the grand principle of the peace1 it is left1 as if by common consent1 wholly out of the question4 ,viewing things in this light1 ,i have frequently sunk into a degree of despondency and dejection hardly to be described2 yet out of the profoundest depths of this despair1 an impulse1 which ,i have in vain endeavoured to resist1 has urged me to raise one feeble cry against this unfortunate coalition which is formed at home1 in order to make a coalition with ,france1 subversive of the whole ancient order of the world4 ,no disaster of war1 no calamity of season1 could ever strike me with half the horror which ,i felt from what is introduced to us by this junction of parties1 under the soothing name of peace4 ,we are apt to speak of a low and pusillanimous spirit as the ordinary cause by which dubious wars terminated in humiliating treaties4 ,it is here the direct contrary4 ,i am perfectly astonished at the boldness of character1 at the intrepidity of mind1 the firmness of nerve1 in those who are able with deliberation to face the perils of ,jacobin fraternity4 ,this fraternity is indeed so terrible in its nature1 and in its manifest consequences1 that there is no way of quieting our apprehensions about it1 but by totally putting it out of sight1 by substituting for it1 through a sort of periphrasis1 something of an ambiguous quality1 and describing such a connection under the terms of ,,the ,,usual ,,relations ,,of ,,peace ,,and ,,amity4 ,by this means the proposed fraternity is hustled in the crowd of those treaties1 which imply no change in the public law of ,europe1 and which do not upon system affect the interior condition of nations4 ,it is confounded with those conventions in which matters of dispute among sovereign powers are compromised1 by the taking off a duty more or less1 by the surrender of a frontier town1 or a disputed district1 on the one side or the other2 by pactions in which the pretensions of families are settled 7as by a conveyancer1 making family substitutions and successions71 without any alterations in the laws1 manners1 religion1 privileges1 and customs1 of the cities1 or territories1 which are the subject of such arrangements4 ,all this body of old conventions1 composing the vast and voluminous collection called the corps diplomatique1 forms the code or statute law1 as the methodised reasonings of the great publicists and jurists form the digest and jurisprudence of the ,christian world4 ,in these treasures are to be found the ,,usual relations of peace and amity in civilized ,europe2 and there the relations of ancient ,france were to be found amongst the rest4 ,the present system in ,france is not the ancient ,france4 ,it is not the ancient ,france with ordinary ambition and ordinary means4 ,it is not a new power of an old kind4 ,it is a new power of a new species4 ,when such a questionable shape is to be admitted for the first time into the brotherhood of ,christendom1 it is not a mere matter of idle curiosity to consider how far it is in its nature alliable with the rest1 or whether the relations of peace and amity with this new state are likely to be of the same nature with the ,,usual relations of the states of ,europe4 ,,public ,,loans4 ,it is never1 therefore1 wise to quarrel with the interested views of men1 whilst they are combined with the public interest and promote it3 it is our business to tie the knot1 if possible1 closer4 ,resources that are derived from extraordinary virtues1 as such virtues are rare1 so they must be unproductive4 ,it is a good thing for a monied man to pledge his property on the welfare of his country2 he shows that he places his treasure where his heart is2 and1 revolving in this circle1 we know that wherever a man's treasure is1 there his heart will be also4 ,for these reasons1 and on these principles1 ,i have been sorry to see the attempts which have been made1 with more good meaning than foresight and consideration1 towards raising the annual interest of this loan by private contributions4 ,wherever a regular revenue is established1 there voluntary contribution can answer no purpose1 but to disorder and disturb it in its course4 ,to recur to such aids is1 for so much1 to dissolve the community1 and to return to a state of unconnected nature4 ,and even if such a supply should be productive1 in a degree commensurate to its object1 it must also be productive of much vexation1 and much oppression4 ,either the citizens1 by the proposed duties1 pay their proportion according to some rate made by public authority1 or they do not4 ,if the law be well made1 and the contributions founded on just proportions1 everything superadded by something that is not as regular as law1 and as uniform in its operation1 will become more or less out of proportion4 ,if1 on the contrary1 the law be not made upon proper calculation1 it is a disgrace to the public wisdom1 which fails in skill to assess the citizen in just measure1 and according to his means4 ,but the hand of authority is not always the most heavy hand4 ,it is obvious1 that men may be oppressed by many ways1 besides those which take their course from the supreme power of the state4 ,suppose the payment to be wholly discretionary4 ,whatever has its origin in caprice1 is sure not to improve in its progress1 nor to end in reason4 ,it is impossible for each private individual to have any measure conformable to the particular condition of each of his fellow-citizens1 or to the general exigencies of his country4 ',tis a random shot at best4 ,when men proceed in this irregular mode1 the first contributor is apt to grow peevish with his neighbours4 ,he is but too well disposed to measure their means by his own envy1 and not by the real state of their fortunes1 which he can rarely know1 and which it may in them be an act of the grossest imprudence to reveal4 ,hence the odium and lassitude1 with which people will look upon a provision for the public1 which is bought by discord at the expense of social quiet4 ,hence the bitter heart-burnings1 and the war of tongues1 which is so often the prelude to other wars4 ,nor is it every contribution1 called voluntary1 which is according to the free will of the giver4 ,a false shame1 or a false glory1 against his feelings and his judgment1 may tax an individual to the detriment of his family1 and in wrong of his creditors4 ,a pretence of public spirit may disable him from the performance of his private duties4 ,it may disable him even from paying the legitimate contributions which he is to furnish according to the prescript of the law2 but what is the most dangerous of all is1 that malignant disposition to which this mode of contribution evidently tends1 and which at length leaves the comparatively indigent to judge of the wealth1 and to prescribe to the opulent1 or those whom they conceive to be such1 the use they are to make of their fortunes4 ,from thence it is but one step to the subversion of all property4 ,,historical ,,strictures4 ,the author does not confine the benefit of the regicide lesson to kings alone4 ,he has a diffusive bounty4 ,nobles1 and men of property1 will likewise be greatly reformed4 ,they too will be led to a review of their social situation and duties2 and will reflect1 that their large allotment of worldly advantages is for the aid and benefit of the whole4 ,is it then from the fate of ,juignie1 archbishop of ,paris1 or of the cardinal de ,rochefoucault1 and of so many others1 who gave their fortunes1 and1 ,i may say1 their very beings1 to the poor1 that the rich are to learn1 that their fortunes are for the aid and benefit of the whole8 ,i say nothing of the liberal persons of great rank and property1 lay and ecclesiastic1 men and women1 to whom we have had the honour and happiness of affording an asylum1--,i pass by these1 lest ,i should never have done1 or lest ,i should omit some as deserving as any ,i might mention4 ,why will the author then suppose1 that the nobles and men of property in ,france have been banished1 confiscated1 and murdered1 on account of the savageness and ferocity of their character1 and their being tainted with vices beyond those of the same order and description in other countries8 ,no judge of a revolutionary tribunal1 with his hands dipped in their blood1 and his maw gorged with their property1 has yet dared to assert what this author has been pleased1 by way of a moral lesson1 to insinuate4 ,their nobility1 and their men of property1 in a mass1 had the very same virtues and the very same vices1 and in the very same proportions1 with the same description of men in this and in other nations4 ,i must do justice to suffering honour1 generosity1 and integrity4 ,i do not know1 that any time1 or any country1 has furnished more splendid examples of every virtue1 domestic and public4 ,i do not enter into the councils of ,providence3 but1 humanly speaking1 many of these nobles and men of property1 from whose disastrous fate we are1 it seems1 to learn a general softening of character1 and a revision of our social situations and duties1 appear to me full as little deserving of that fate1 as the author1 whoever he is1 can be4 ,many of them1 ,i am sure1 were such1 as ,i should be proud indeed to be able to compare myself with1 in knowledge1 in integrity1 and in every other virtue4 ,my feeble nature might shrink1 though theirs did not1 from the proof2 but my reason and my ambition tell me1 that it would be a good bargain to purchase their merits with their fate4 ,for which of his vices did that great magistrate1 ,d',espremenil1 lose his fortune and his head8 ,what were the abominations of ,malesherbes1 that other excellent magistrate1 whose sixty years of uniform virtue was acknowledged1 in the very act of his murder1 by the judicial butchers1 who condemned him8 ,on account of what misdemeanors was he robbed of his property1 and slaughtered with two generations of his offspring2 and the remains of the third race1 with a refinement of cruelty1 and lest they should appear to reclaim the property forfeited by the virtues of their ancestor1 confounded in an hospital with the thousands of those unhappy foundling infants1 who are abandoned1 without relation1 and without name1 by the wretchedness or by the profligacy of their parents8 ,is the fate of the queen of ,france to produce this softening of character8 ,was she a person so very ferocious and cruel as1 by the example of her death1 to frighten us into common humanity8 ,is there no way to teach the emperor a softening of character1 and a review of his social situation and duty1 but his consent1 by an infamous accord with regicide1 to drive a second coach with the ,austrian arms through the streets of ,paris1 along which1 after a series of preparatory horrors1 exceeding the atrocities of the bloody execution itself1 the glory of the imperial race had been carried to an ignominious death8 ,is this a lesson of ,,moderation to a descendant of ,maria ,theresa1 drawn from the fate of the daughter of that incomparable woman and sovereign8 ,if he learns this lesson from such an object1 and from such teachers1 the man may remain1 but the king is deposed4 ,if he does not carry quite another memory of that transaction in the inmost recesses of his heart1 he is unworthy to reign2 he is unworthy to live4 ,in the chronicle of disgrace he will have but this short tale told of him1 he was the first emperor of his house that embraced a regicide3 he was the last that wore the imperial purple4--,far am ,i from thinking so ill of this august sovereign1 who is at the head of the monarchies of ,europe1 and who is the trustee of their dignities and his own4 ,what ferocity of character drew on the fate of ,elizabeth1 the sister of ,king ,louis the ,sixteenth8 ,for which of the vices of that pattern of benevolence1 of piety1 and of all the virtues1 did they put her to death8 ,for which of her vices did they put to death the mildest of all human creatures1 the duchess of ,biron8 ,what were the crimes of those crowds of matrons and virgins of condition1 whom they massacred1 with their juries of blood1 in prisons and on scaffolds8 ,what were the enormities of the infant king1 whom they caused1 by lingering tortures1 to perish in their dungeon1 and whom1 if at last they despatched by poison1 it was in that detestable crime the only act of mercy they have ever shown8 ,what softening of character is to be had1 what review of their social situations and duties is to be taught1 by these examples1 to kings1 to nobles1 to men of property1 to women1 and to infants8 ,the royal family perished1 because it was royal4 ,the nobles perished1 because they were noble4 ,the men1 women1 and children1 who had property1 because they had property to be robbed of4 ,the priests were punished1 after they had been robbed of their all1 not for their vices1 but for their virtues and their piety1 which made them an honour to their sacred profession1 and to that nature1 of which we ought to be proud1 since they belong to it4 ,my ,lord1 nothing can be learned from such examples1 except the danger of being kings1 queens1 nobles1 priests1 and children1 to be butchered on account of their inheritance4 ,these are things1 at which not vice1 not crime1 not folly1 but wisdom1 goodness1 learning1 justice1 probity1 beneficence1 stand aghast4 ,by these examples our reason and our moral sense are not enlightened1 but confounded2 and there is no refuge for astonished and affrighted virtue1 but being annihilated in humility and submission1 sinking into a silent adoration of the inscrutable dispensations of ,providence1 and flying1 with trembling wings1 from this world of daring crimes1 and feeble1 pusillanimous1 half-bred1 bastard justice1 to the asylum of another order of things1 in an unknown form1 but in a better life4 ,whatever the politician or preacher of ,september or of ,october may think of the matter1 it is a most comfortless1 disheartening1 desolating example4 ,dreadful is the example of ruined innocence and virtue1 and the completest triumph of the completest villainy1 that ever vexed and disgraced mankind6 ,the example is ruinous in every point of view1 religious1 moral1 civil1 political4 ,it establishes that dreadful maxim of ,machiavel1 that in great affairs men are not to be wicked by halves4 ,this maxim is not made for a middle sort of beings1 who1 because they cannot be angels1 ought to thwart their ambition1 and not endeavour to become infernal spirits4 ,it is too well exemplified in the present time1 where the faults and errors of humanity1 checked by the imperfect timorous virtues1 have been overpowered by those who have stopped at no crime4 ,it is a dreadful part of the example1 that infernal malevolence has had pious apologists1 who read their lectures on frailties in favour of crimes2 who abandon the weak1 and court the friendship of the wicked4 ,to root out these maxims1 and the examples that support them1 is a wise object of years of war4 ,this is that war4 ,this is that moral war4 ,it was said by old ,trivulzio1 that the battle of ,marignan was the battle of the giants1 that all the rest of the many he had seen were those of the cranes and pigmies4 ,this is true of the objects1 at least1 of the contest4 ,for the greater part of those1 which we have hitherto contended for1 in comparison1 were the toys of children4 ,the ,october politician is so full of charity and good nature1 that he supposes1 that these very robbers and murderers themselves are in a course of melioration2 on what ground ,i cannot conceive1 except on the long practice of every crime1 and by its complete success4 ,he is an ,origenist1 and believes in the conversion of the devil4 ,all that runs in the place of blood in his veins is nothing but the milk of human kindness4 ,he is as soft as a curd1 though1 as a politician1 he might be supposed to be made of sterner stuff4 ,he supposes 7to use his own expression7 that the salutary truths1 which he inculcates1 are making their way into their bosoms4 ,their bosom is a rock of granite1 on which falsehood has long since built her stronghold4 ,poor truth has had a hard work of it with her little pickaxe4 ,nothing but gunpowder will do4 ,as a proof1 however1 of the progress of this sap of ,truth1 he gives us a confession they had made not long before he wrote4 ,their fraternity 7as was lately stated by themselves in a solemn report7 has been the brotherhood of ,cain and ,abel1 and they have organized nothing but ,bankruptcy and ,famine4 ,a very honest confession1 truly2 and much in the spirit of their oracle1 ,rousseau4 ,yet1 what is still more marvellous than the confession1 this is the very fraternity to which our author gives us such an obliging invitation to accede4 ,there is1 indeed1 a vacancy in the fraternal corps2 a brother and a partner is wanted4 ,if we please1 we may fill up the place of the butchered ,abel2 and1 whilst we wait the destiny of the departed brother1 we may enjoy the advantages of the partnership1 by entering1 without delay1 into a shop of ready-made bankruptcy and famine4 ,these are the douceurs1 by which we are invited to regicide fraternity and friendship4 ,but still our author considers the confession as a proof1 that truth is making its way into their bosoms4 ,no6 ,it is not making its way into their bosoms4 ,it has forced its way into their mouths6 ,the evil spirit1 by which they are possessed1 though essentially a liar1 is forced1 by the tortures of conscience1 to confess the truth3 to confess enough for their condemnation1 but not for their amendment4 ,shakspeare very aptly expresses this kind of confession1 devoid of repentance1 from the mouth of a usurper1 a murderer1 and a regicide-- ,we are ourselves compelled1 ,even to the teeth and forehead of our faults1 ,to give in evidence4 ,whence is their amendment8 ,why1 the author writes1 that1 on their murderous insurrectionary system1 their own lives are not sure for an hour2 nor has their power a greater stability4 ,true4 ,they are convinced of it2 and accordingly the wretches have done all they can to preserve their lives1 and to secure their power2 but not one step have they taken to amend the one1 or to make a more just use of the other4 ,,constitution ,,not ,,the ,,people',s ,,slave4 ,there is one topic upon which ,i hope ,i shall be excused in going a little beyond my design4 ,the factions1 now so busy amongst us1 in order to divest men of all love for their country1 and to remove from their minds all duty with regard to the state1 endeavour to propagate an opinion1 that the ,,people1 in forming their commonwealth1 have by no means parted with their power over it4 ,this is an impregnable citadel1 to which these gentlemen retreat whenever they are pushed by the battery of laws and usages1 and positive conventions4 ,indeed1 it is such and of so great force1 that all they have done1 in defending their outworks1 is so much time and labour thrown away4 ,discuss any of their schemes--their answer is--,it is the act of the ,,people1 and that is sufficient4 ,are we to deny to a ,,majority of the people the right of altering even the whole frame of their society1 if such should be their pleasure8 ,they may change it1 say they1 from a monarchy to a republic to-day1 and to-morrow back again from a republic to a monarchy1 and so backward and forward as often as they like4 ,they are masters of the commonwealth2 because in substance they are themselves the commonwealth4 ,the ,french revolution1 say they1 was the act of the majority of the people2 and if the majority of any other people1 the people of ,england for instance1 wish to make the same change1 they have the same right4 ,just the same1 undoubtedly4 ,that is1 none at all4 ,neither the few nor the many have a right to act merely by their will1 in any matter connected with duty1 trust1 engagement1 or obligation4 ,the constitution of a country being once settled upon some compact1 tacit or expressed1 there is no power existing of force to alter it1 without the breach of the covenant1 or the consent of all the parties4 ,such is the nature of a contract4 ,and the votes of a majority of the people1 whatever their infamous flatterers may teach in order to corrupt their minds1 cannot alter the moral any more than they can alter the physical essence of things4 ,the people are not to be taught to think lightly of their engagements to their governors2 else they teach governors to think lightly of their engagements towards them4 ,in that kind of game in the end the people are sure to be losers4 ,to flatter them into a contempt of faith1 truth1 and justice1 is to ruin them2 for in these virtues consist their whole safety4 ,to flatter any man1 or any part of mankind1 in any description1 by asserting1 that in engagements he or they are free whilst any other human creature is bound1 is ultimately to vest the rule of morality in the pleasure of those who ought to be rigidly submitted to it2 to subject the sovereign reason of the world to the caprices of weak and giddy men4 ,but1 as no one of us men can dispense with public or private faith1 or with any other tie of moral obligation1 so neither can any number of us4 ,the number engaged in crimes1 instead of turning them into laudable acts1 only augments the quantity and intensity of the guilt4 ,i am well aware that men love to hear of their power1 but have an extreme disrelish to be told of their duty4 ,this is of course1 because every duty is a limitation of some power4 ,indeed arbitrary power is so much to the depraved taste of the vulgar1 of the vulgar of every description1 that almost all the dissensions1 which lacerate the commonwealth1 are not concerning the manner in which it is to be exercised1 but concerning the hands in which it is to be placed4 ,somewhere they are resolved to have it4 ,whether they desire it to be vested in the many or the few1 depends with most men upon the chance which they imagine they themselves may have of partaking in the exercise of that arbitrary sway1 in the one mode or in the other4 ,it is not necessary to teach men to thirst after power4 ,but it is very expedient that by moral instruction1 they should be taught1 and by their civil constitutions they should be compelled1 to put many restrictions upon the immoderate exercise of it1 and the inordinate desire4 ,the best method of obtaining these two great points forms the important1 but at the same time the difficult1 problem to the true statesman4 ,he thinks of the place in which political power is to be lodged1 with no other attention1 than as it may render the more or the less practicable1 its salutary restraint1 and its prudent direction4 ,for this reason no legislator1 at any period of the world1 has willingly placed the seat of active power in the hands of the multitude3 because there it admits of no control no regulation1 no steady direction whatsoever4 ,the people are the natural control on authority2 but to exercise and to control together is contradictory and impossible4 ,as the exorbitant exercise of power cannot1 under popular sway1 be effectually restrained1 the other great object of political arrangement1 the means of abating an excessive desire of it1 is in such a state still worse provided for4 ,the democratic commonwealth is the foodful nurse of ambition4 ,under the other forms it meets with many restraints4 ,whenever1 in states which have had a democratic basis1 the legislators have endeavoured to put restraints upon ambition1 their methods were as violent1 as in the end they were ineffectual3 as violent indeed as any the most jealous despotism could invent4 ,the ostracism could not very long save itself1 and much less the state which it was meant to guard1 from the attempts of ambition1 one of the natural1 inbred1 incurable distempers of a powerful democracy4 ,,modern ,,lights4 ,great lights they say are lately obtained in the world2 and ,mr4 ,burke1 instead of shrouding himself in exploded ignorance1 ought to have taken advantage of the blaze of illumination which has been spread about him4 ,it may be so4 ,the enthusiasts of this time1 it seems1 like their predecessors in another faction of fanaticism1 deal in lights4--,hudibras pleasantly says to them1 they ,have ,,lights1 where better eyes are blind1 ,as pigs are said to see the wind4 ,the author of the ,reflections has ,,heard a great deal concerning the modern lights2 but he has not yet had the good fortune to ,,see much of them4 ,he has read more than he can justify to anything but the spirit of curiosity1 of the works of these illuminators of the world4 ,he has learned nothing from the far greater number of them1 than a full certainty of their shallowness1 levity1 pride1 petulance1 presumption1 and ignorance4 ,where the old authors whom he has read1 and the old men whom he has conversed with1 have left him in the dark1 he is in the dark still4 ,if others1 however1 have obtained any of this extraordinary light1 they will use it to guide them in their researches and their conduct4 ,i have only to wish1 that the nation may be as happy and as prosperous under the influence of the new light1 as it has been in the sober shade of the old obscurity4 ,,republics ,,in ,,the ,,abstract4 ,in the same debate1 ,mr4 ,burke was represented by ,mr4 ,fox as arguing in a manner which implied that the ,british constitution could not be defended1 but by abusing all republics ancient and modern4 ,he said nothing to give the least ground for such a censure4 ,he never abused all republics4 ,he has never professed himself a friend or an enemy to republics or to monarchies in the abstract4 ,he thought that the circumstances and habits of every country1 which it is always perilous and productive of the greatest calamities to force1 are to decide upon the form of its government4 ,there is nothing in his nature1 his temper1 or his faculties1 which should make him an enemy to any republic modern or ancient4 ,far from it4 ,he has studied the form and spirit of republics very early in life2 he has studied them with great attention2 and with a mind undisturbed by affection or prejudice4 ,he is indeed convinced that the science of government would be poorly cultivated without that study4 ,but the result in his mind from that investigation has been1 and is1 that neither ,england nor ,france1 without infinite detriment to them1 as well in the event as in the experiment1 could be brought into a republican form2 but that everything republican which can be introduced with safety into either of them1 must be built upon a monarchy2 built upon a real1 not a nominal1 monarchy1 ,,as ,,its ,,essential ,,basis2 that all such institutions1 whether aristocratic or democratic1 must originate from the crown1 and in all their proceedings must refer to it2 that by the energy of that main spring alone those republican parts must be set in action1 and from thence must derive their whole legal effect 7as amongst us they actually do71 or the whole will fall into confusion4 ,these republican members have no other point but the crown in which they can possibly unite4 ,this is the opinion expressed in ,mr4 ,burke's book4 ,he has never varied in that opinion since he came to years of discretion4 ,but surely1 if it any time of his life he had entertained other notions 7which however he has never held or professed to hold71 the horrible calamities brought upon a great people1 by the wild attempt to force their country into a republic1 might be more than sufficient to undeceive his understanding1 and to free it for ever from such destructive fancies4 ,he is certain1 that many1 even in ,france1 have been made sick of their theories by their very success in realizing them4 ,,an ,,english ,,monarch4 ,he is a real king1 and not an executive officer4 ,if he will not trouble himself with contemptible details1 nor wish to degrade himself by becoming a party in little squabbles1 ,i am far from sure1 that a king of ,great ,britain1 in whatever concerns him as a king1 or indeed as a rational man1 who combines his public interest with his personal satisfaction1 does not possess a more real1 solid1 extensive power1 than the king of ,france was possessed of before this miserable revolution4 ,the direct power of the king of ,england is considerable4 ,his indirect1 and far more certain power1 is great indeed4 ,he stands in need of nothing towards dignity2 of nothing towards splendour2 of nothing towards authority2 of nothing at all towards consideration abroad4 ,when was it that a king of ,england wanted wherewithal to make him respected1 courted1 or perhaps even feared1 in every state of ,europe8 ,,physiognomy4 ,the ,,physiognomy has a considerable share in beauty1 especially in that of our own species4 ,the manners give a certain determination to the countenance2 which1 being observed to correspond pretty regularly with them1 is capable of joining the effect of certain agreeable qualities of the mind to those of the body4 ,so that to form a finished human beauty1 and to give it its full influence1 the face must be expressive of such gentle and amiable qualities1 as correspond with the softness1 smoothness1 and delicacy of the outward form4 ,,the ,,eye4 ,i have hitherto purposely omitted to speak of the ,,eye1 which has so great a share in the beauty of the animal creation1 as it did not fall so easily under the foregoing heads1 though in fact it is reducible to the same principles4 ,i think then1 that the beauty of the eye consists1 first1 in its ,,clearness2 what ,,coloured eye shall please most1 depends a good deal on particular fancies2 but none are pleased with an eye whose water 7to use that term7 is dull and muddy4 ,we are pleased with the eye in this view1 on the principle upon which we like diamonds1 clear water1 glass1 and such-like transparent substances4 ,secondly1 the motion of the eye contributes to its beauty1 by continually shifting its direction2 but a slow and languid motion is more beautiful than a brisk one2 the latter is enlivening2 the former lovely4 ,thirdly1 with regard to the union of the eye with the neighbouring parts1 it is to hold the same rule that is given of other beautiful ones2 it is not to make a strong deviation from the line of the neighbouring parts2 nor to verge into any exact geometrical figure4 ,besides all this1 the eye affects1 as it is expressive of some qualities of the mind1 and its principal power generally arises from this2 so that what we have just said of the physiognomy is applicable here4 ,,abolition ,,and ,,use ,,of ,,parliaments4 ,according to their invariable course1 the framers of your constitution have begun with the outer abolition of the parliaments4 ,these venerable bodies1 like the rest of the old government1 stood in need of reform1 even though there should be no change made in the monarchy4 ,they required several more alterations to adapt them to the system of a free constitution4 ,but they had particulars in their constitution1 and those not a few1 which deserved approbation from the wise4 ,they possessed one fundamental excellence1--they were independent4 ,the most doubtful circumstance attendant on their office1 that of its being vendible1 contributed however to this independency of character4 ,they held for life4 ,indeed they may be said to have held by inheritance4 ,appointed by the monarch1 they were considered as nearly out of his power4 ,the most determined exertions of that authority against them only showed their radical independence4 ,they composed permanent bodies politic1 constituted to resist arbitrary innovation2 and from that corporate constitution1 and from most of their forms1 they were well calculated to afford both certainty and stability to the laws4 ,they had been a safe asylum to secure these laws1 in all the revolutions of humour and opinion4 ,they had saved that sacred deposit of the country during the reigns of arbitrary princes1 and the struggles of arbitrary factions4 ,they kept alive the memory and record of the constitution4 ,they were the great security to private property2 which might be said 7when personal liberty had no existence7 to be1 in fact1 as well guarded in ,france as in any other country4 ,whatever is supreme in a state1 ought to have1 as much as possible1 its judicial authority so constituted as not only not to depend upon it1 but in some sort to balance it4 ,it ought to give a security to its justice against its power4 ,it ought to make its judicature1 as it were1 something exterior to the state4 ,these parliaments had furnished1 not the best certainly1 but some considerable corrective to the excesses and vices of the monarchy4 ,such an independent judicature was ten times more necessary when a democracy became the absolute power of the country4 ,in that constitution1 elective1 temporary1 local judges1 such as you have contrived1 exercising their dependent functions in a narrow society1 must be the worst of all tribunals4 ,in them it will be vain to look for any appearance of justice towards strangers1 towards the obnoxious rich1 towards the minority of routed parties1 towards all those who in the election have supported unsuccessful candidates4 ,it will be impossible to keep the new tribunals clear of the worst spirit of faction4 ,all contrivances by ballot we know experimentally to be vain and childish to prevent a discovery of inclinations4 ,where they may the best answer the purposes of concealment1 they answer to produce suspicion2 and this is a still more mischievous cause of partiality4 ,if the parliaments had been preserved1 instead of being dissolved at so ruinous a change to the nation1 they might have served in this new commonwealth1 perhaps not precisely the same 7,i do not mean an exact parallel71 but nearly the same1 purposes as the court and senate of ,areopagus did in ,athens2 that is1 as one of the balances and correctives to the evils of a light and unjust democracy4 ,every one knows that this tribunal was the great stay of that state2 every one knows with what a care it was upheld1 and with what a religious awe it was consecrated4 ,the parliaments were not wholly free from faction1 ,i admit2 but this evil was exterior and accidental1 and not so much the vice of their constitution itself1 as it must be in your new contrivance of sexennial elective judicatories4 ,several ,english commend the abolition of the old tribunals1 as supposing that they determined everything by bribery and corruption4 ,but they have stood the test of monarchic and republican scrutiny4 ,the court was well disposed to prove corruption on those bodies when they were dissolved in #agga4--,those who have again dissolved them would have done the same if they could--but both inquisitions having failed1 ,i conclude1 that gross pecuniary corruption must have been rather rare amongst them4 ,it would have been prudent1 along with the parliaments1 to preserve their ancient power of registering1 and of remonstrating at least1 upon all the decrees of the ,national ,assembly1 as they did upon those which passed in the time of the monarchy4 ,it would be a means of squaring the occasional decrees of a democracy to some principles of general jurisprudence4 ,the vice of the ancient democracies1 and one cause of their ruin1 was1 that they ruled1 as you do1 by occasional decrees1--psephismata4 ,this practice soon broke in upon the tenor and consistency of the laws2 it abated the respect of the people towards them2 and totally destroyed them in the end4 ,your vesting the power of remonstrance1 which1 in the time of the monarchy1 existed in the parliament of ,paris1 in your principal executive officer1 whom1 in spite of common sense1 you persevere in calling king1 is the height of absurdity4 ,you ought never to suffer remonstrance from him who is to execute4 ,this is to understand neither counsel nor execution2 neither authority nor obedience4 ,the person whom you call king1 ought not to have this power1 or he ought to have more4 ,,cromwell ,,and ,,his ,,contrasts4 ,cromwell1 when he attempted to legalize his power1 and to settle his conquered country in a state of order1 did not look for dispensers of justice in the instruments of his usurpation4 ,quite the contrary4 ,he sought out1 with great solicitude and selection1 and even from the party most opposite to his designs1 men of weight and decorum of character2 men unstained with the violence of the times1 and with hands not fouled with confiscation and sacrilege3 for he chose an ,,hale for his chief justice1 though he absolutely refused to take his civic oaths1 or to make any acknowledgment whatsoever of the legality of his government4 ,cromwell told this great lawyer1 that since he did not approve his title1 all he required of him was1 to administer1 in a manner agreeable to his pure sentiments and unspotted character1 that justice without which human society cannot subsist3 that it was not his particular government1 but civil order itself1 which1 as a judge1 he wished him to support4 ,cromwell knew how to separate the institutions expedient to his usurpation from the administration of the public justice of his country4 ,for ,cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not wholly suppressed1 but only suspended1 the sentiments of religion1 and the love 7as far as it could consist with his designs7 of fair and honourable reputation4 ,accordingly1 we are indebted to this act of his for the preservation of our laws1 which some senseless assertors of the rights of men were then on the point of entirely erasing1 as relics of feudality and barbarism4 ,besides1 he gave in the appointment of that man1 to that age1 and to all posterity1 the most brilliant example of sincere and fervent piety1 exact justice1 and profound jurisprudence4 7,see ,burnet's ,life of ,hale47 ,but these are not the things in which your philosophic usurpers choose to follow ,cromwell4 ,one would think1 that after an honest and necessary revolution 7if they had a mind that theirs should pass for such7 your masters would have imitated the virtuous policy of those who have been at the head of revolutions of that glorious character4 ,burnet tells us1 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 learning1 eloquence1 and piety1 and1 above all1 by their known moderation in the state4 ,with you1 in your purifying revolution1 whom have you chosen to regulate the church8 ,mr4 ,mirabeau is a fine speaker--and a fine writer1--and a fine--a very fine man2--but really nothing gave more surprise to everybody here1 than to find him the supreme head of your ecclesiastical affairs4 ,the rest is of course4 ,your ,assembly addresses a manifesto to ,france1 in which they tell the people1 with an insulting irony1 that they have brought the church to its primitive condition4 ,in one respect their declaration is undoubtedly true2 for they have brought it to a state of poverty and persecution4 ,what can be hoped for after this8 ,have not men 7if they deserve the name71 under this new hope and head of the church1 been made bishops for no other merit than having acted as instruments of atheists2 for no other merit than having thrown the children's bread to dogs2 and in order to gorge the whole gang of usurers1 pedlars1 and itinerant ,jew-discounters at the corners of streets1 starved the poor of their ,christian flocks1 and their own brother pastors8 ,have not such men been made bishops to administer in temples1 in which 7if the patriotic donations have not already stripped them of their vessels7 the churchwardens ought to take security for the altar-plate1 and not so much as to trust the chalice in their sacrilegious hands1 so long as ,jews have assignats on ecclesiastic plunder1 to exchange for the silver stolen from churches8 ,,delicacy4 ,an air of robustness and strength is very prejudicial to beauty4 ,an appearance of ,,delicacy1 and even of fragility1 is almost essential to it4 ,whoever examines the vegetable or animal creation will find this observation to be founded in nature4 ,it is not the oak1 the ash1 or the elm1 or any of the robust trees of the forest1 which we consider as beautiful2 they are awful and majestic2 their inspire a sort of reverence4 ,it is the delicate myrtle1 it is the orange1 it is the almond1 it is the jasmine1 it is the vine1 which we look on as vegetable beauties4 ,it is the flowery species1 so remarkable for its weakness and momentary duration1 that gives us the liveliest idea of beauty and elegance4 ,among animals1 the greyhound is more beautiful than the mastiff2 and the delicacy of a gennet1 a barb1 or an ,arabian horse1 is much more amiable than the strength and stability of some horses of war or carriage4 ,i need here say little of the fair sex1 where ,i believe the point will be easily allowed me4 ,the beauty of women is considerably owing to their weakness or delicacy1 and is even enhanced by their timidity1 a quality of mind analogous to it4 ,i would not here be understood to say1 that weakness betraying very bad health has any share in beauty2 but the ill effect of this is not because it is weakness1 but because the ill state of health1 which produces such weakness1 alters the other conditions of beauty2 the parts in such a case collapse2 the bright colour1--the lumen purpureum juventae1 is gone2 and the fine variation is lost in wrinkles1 sudden breaks1 and right lines4 ,,confiscation ,,and ,,currency4 ,as to the operation of the first 7the confiscation and paper currency7 merely as a cement1 ,i cannot deny that these1 the one depending on the other1 may for some time compose some sort of cement1 if their madness and folly in the management1 and in the tempering of the parts together1 does not produce a repulsion in the very outset4 ,but allowing to the scheme some coherence and some duration1 it appears to me1 that if1 after a while1 the confiscation should not be found sufficient to support the paper coinage 7as ,i am morally certain it will not71 then1 instead of cementing1 it will add infinitely to the dissociation1 distraction1 and confusion of these confederate republics1 both with relation to each other1 and to the several parts within themselves4 ,but if the confiscation should so far succeed as to sink the paper currency1 the cement is gone with the circulation4 ,in the mean time its binding force will be very uncertain1 and it will straiten or relax with every variation in the credit of the paper4 ,one thing only is certain in this scheme1 which is an effect seemingly collateral1 but direct1 ,i have no doubt1 in the minds of those who conduct this business1 that is1 its effect in producing an ,,oligarchy in every one of the republics4 ,a paper circulation1 not founded on any real money deposited or engaged for1 amounting already to four-and-forty millions of ,english money1 and this currency by force substituted in the place of the coin of the kingdom1 becoming thereby the substance of its revenue1 as well as the medium of all its commercial and civil intercourse1 must put the whole of what power1 authority1 and influence1 is left1 in any form whatsoever it may assume1 into the hands of the managers and conductors of this circulation4 ,in ,england we feel the influence of the bank2 though it is only the centre of a voluntary dealing4 ,he knows little indeed of the influence of money upon mankind1 who does not see the force of the management of a monied concern1 which is so much more extensive1 and in its nature so much more depending on the managers than any of ours4 ,but this is not merely a money concern4 ,there is another member in the system inseparably connected with this money management4 ,it consists in the means of drawing out at discretion portions of the confiscated lands for sale2 and carrying on a process of continual transmutation of paper into land1 and of land into paper4 ,when we follow this process in its effects1 we may conceive something of the intensity of the force with which this system must operate4 ,by this means the spirit of money-jobbing and speculation goes into the mass of land itself1 and incorporates with it4 ,by this kind of operation1 that species of property becomes 7as it were7 volatilized2 it assumes an unnatural and monstrous activity1 and thereby throws into the hands of the several managers1 principal and subordinate1 ,parisian and provincial1 all the representative of money1 and perhaps a full tenth part of all the land in ,france1 which has now acquired the worst and most pernicious part of the evil of a paper circulation1--the greatest possible uncertainty in its value4 ,they have reversed the ,latonian kindness to the landed property of ,delos4 ,they have sent theirs to be blown about1 like the light fragments of a wreck1 oras et littora circum4 ,the new dealers1 being all habitually adventurers1 and without any fixed habits or local predilections1 will purchase to job out again1 as the market of paper1 or of money1 or of land1 shall present an advantage4 ,for though a holy bishop thinks that agriculture will derive great advantage from the ,,enlightened usurers who are to purchase the church confiscations1 ,i1 who am not a good1 but an old farmer1 with great humility beg leave to tell his late lordship1 that usury is not tutor of agriculture2 and if the word enlightened be understood according to the new dictionary1 as it always is in your new schools1 ,i cannot conceive how a man's not believing in ,god can teach him to cultivate the earth with the least of any additional skill or encouragement4 ,diis immortalibus sero1 said an old ,roman1 when he held one handle of the plough1 whilst ,death held the other4 ,though you were to join in the commission all the directors of the two academies to the directors of the ,caisse d',escompte1 an old experienced peasant is worth them all4 ,i have got more information upon a curious and interesting branch of husbandry1 in one short conversation with an old ,carthusian monk1 than ,i have derived from all the ,bank directors that ,i have ever conversed with4 ,however1 there is no cause for apprehension from the meddling of money-dealers with rural economy4 ,these gentlemen are too wise in their generation4 ,at first1 perhaps1 their tender and susceptible imaginations may be captivated with the innocent and unprofitable delights of a pastoral life2 but in a little time they will find that agriculture is a trade much more laborious1 and much less lucrative1 than that which they had left4 ,after making its panegyric1 they will turn their backs on it like their great precursor and prototype4 ,they may1 like him1 begin by singing ,beatus ille--but what will be the end8 ,haec ubi locutus foenerator ,alphius1 ,jamjam futurus rusticus ,omnem relegit ,idibus pecuniam2 ,quaerit ,calendis ponere4 ,they will cultivate the ,caisse d',eglise1 under the sacred auspices of this prelate1 with much more profit than its vineyards and its corn-fields4 ,they will employ their talents according to their habits and their interests4 ,they will not follow the plough whilst they can direct treasuries1 and govern provinces4 ,your legislators1 in everything new1 are the very first who have founded a commonwealth upon gaming1 and infused this spirit into it1 as its vital breath4 ,the great object in these politics is to metamorphose ,france from a great kingdom into one great play-table3 to turn its inhabitants into a nation of gamesters2 to make speculation as extensive as life2 to mix it with all its concerns2 and to divert the whole of the hopes and fears of the people from their usual channels into the impulses1 passions1 and superstitions of those who live on chances4 ,they loudly proclaim their opinion1 that this their present system of a republic cannot possibly exist without this kind of gaming fund2 and that the very thread of its life is spun out of the staple of these speculations4 ,the old gaming in funds was mischievous enough undoubtedly2 but it was so only to individuals4 ,even when it had its greatest extent in the ,mississippi and ,south ,sea1 it affected but few1 comparatively2 where it extends further1 as in lotteries1 the spirit has but a single object4 ,but where the law1 which in most circumstances forbids1 and in none countenances1 gaming1 is itself debauched1 so as to reverse its nature and policy1 and expressly to force the subject to this destructive table1 by bringing the spirit and symbols of gaming into the minutest matters1 and engaging everybody in it1 and in everything1 a more dreadful epidemic distemper of that kind is spread than yet has appeared in the world4 ,with you a man can neither earn nor buy his dinner without a speculation4 ,what he receives in the morning will not have the same value at night4 ,what he is compelled to take as pay for an old debt will not be received as the same when he comes to pay a debt contracted by himself2 nor will it be the same when by prompt payment he would avoid contracting any debt at all4 ,industry must wither away4 ,economy must be driven from your country4 ,careful provision will have no existence4 ,who will labour without knowing the amount of his pay8 ,who will study to increase what none can estimate8 ,who will accumulate1 when he does not know the value of what he saves8 ,if you abstract it from its uses in gaming1 to accumulate your paper wealth1 would be not the providence of a man1 but the distempered instinct of a jackdaw4 ,,omnipotence ,,of ,,church ,,plunder4 ,their fanatical confidence in the omnipotence of church plunder has induced these philosophers to overlook all care of the public estate1 just as the dream of the philosopher's stone induces dupes1 under the more plausible delusion of the hermetic art1 to neglect all rational means of improving their fortunes4 ,with these philosophic financiers1 this universal medicine made of church mummy is to cure all the evils of the state4 ,these gentlemen1 perhaps1 do not believe a great deal in the miracles of piety2 but it cannot be questioned1 that they have an undoubting faith in the prodigies of sacrilege4 ,is there a debt which presses them8--,issue assignats4 ,are compensations to be made1 or a maintenance decreed to those whom they have robbed of their freehold in their office1 or expelled from their profession8--,assignats4 ,is a fleet to be fitted out8--,assignats4 ,if sixteen millions sterling of these assignats1 forced on the people1 leave the wants of the state as urgent as ever--issue1 says one1 thirty millions sterling of assignats--says another1 issue fourscore millions more of assignats4 ,the only difference among their financial factions is on the greater or the lesser quantity of assignats to be imposed on the public sufferance4 ,they are all professors of assignats4 ,even those1 whose natural good sense and knowledge of commerce1 not obliterated by philosophy1 furnish decisive arguments against this delusion conclude their arguments by proposing the emission of assignats4 ,i suppose they must talk of assignats1 as no other language would be understood4 ,all experience of their inefficacy does not in the least discourage them4 ,are the old assignats depreciated at market8 ,what is the remedy8 ,issue new assignats4--,mais si maladia opiniatria1 non vult se garire1 quid illi facere8 assignare--postea assignare2 ensuita assignare4 ,the word is a trifle altered4 ,the ,latin of your present doctors may be better than that of your old comedy2 their wisdom and the variety of their resources are the same4 ,they have not more notes in their song than the cuckoo2 though1 far from the softness of that harbinger of summer and plenty1 their voice is as harsh and as ominous as that of the raven4 ,,ugliness4 ,it may1 perhaps1 appear like a sort of repetition of what we have before said1 to insist here upon the nature of ,,ugliness2 as ,i imagine it to be in all respects the opposite to those qualities which we have laid down for the constituents of beauty4 ,but though ugliness be the opposite to beauty1 it is not the opposite to proportion and fitness4 ,for it is possible that a thing may be very ugly with any proportions1 and with a perfect fitness to any uses4 ,ugliness ,i imagine likewise to be consistent enough with an idea of the sublime4 ,but ,i would by no means insinuate that ugliness of itself is a sublime idea1 unless united with such qualities as excite a strong terror4 ,,grace4 ,,gracefulness is an idea not very different from beauty2 it consists in much the same things4 ,gracefulness is an idea belonging to ,,posture and ,,motion4 ,in both these1 to be graceful1 it is requisite that there be no appearance of difficulty2 there is required a small inflection of the body2 and a composure of the parts in such a manner1 as not to encumber each other1 not to appear divided by sharp and sudden angles4 ,in this ease1 this roundness1 this delicacy of attitude and motion1 it is that all the magic of grace consists1 and what is called its je ne sais quoi2 as will be obvious to any observer1 who considers attentively the ,venus de ,medicis1 the ,antinous1 or any statue generally allowed to be graceful in a high degree4 ,,elegance ,,and ,,speciousness4 ,when any body is composed of parts smooth and polished1 without pressing upon each other1 without showing any ruggedness or confusion1 and at the same time affecting some ,,regular ,,shape1 ,i call it ,,elegant4 ,it is closely allied to the beautiful1 differing from it only in this ,,regularity2 which1 however1 as it makes a very material difference in the affection produced1 may very well constitute another species4 ,under this head ,i rank those delicate and regular works of art1 that imitate no determinate object in nature1 as elegant buildings1 and pieces of furniture4 ,when any object partakes of the above-mentioned qualities1 are of those of beautiful bodies1 and is withal of great dimensions1 it is full as remote from the idea of mere beauty3 ,i call it ,,fine or ,,specious4 ,,the ,,beautiful ,,in ,,feeling4 ,the foregoing description of beauty1 so far as it is taken in by the eye1 may be greatly illustrated by describing the nature of objects which produce a similar effect through the touch4 ,this ,i call the beautiful in ,,feeling4 ,it corresponds wonderfully with what causes the same species of pleasure to the sight4 ,there is a chain in all our sensations2 they are all but different sorts of feelings calculated to be affected by various sorts of objects1 but all to be affected after the same manner4 ,all bodies that are pleasant to the touch1 are so by the slightness of the resistance they make4 ,resistance is either to motion along the surface1 or to the pressure of the parts on one another3 if the former be slight1 we call the body smooth2 if the latter1 soft4 ,the chief pleasure we receive by feeling1 is in the one or the other of these qualities2 and if there be a combination of both1 our pleasure is greatly increased4 ,this is so plain1 that it is rather more fit to illustrate other things1 than to be illustrated itself by an example4 ,the next source of pleasure in this sense1 as in every other1 is the continually presenting somewhat new2 and we find that bodies which continually vary their surface1 are much the most pleasant or beautiful to the feeling1 as any one that pleases may experience4 ,the third property in such objects is1 that though the surface continually varies its direction1 it never varies it suddenly4 ,the application of anything sudden1 even though the impression itself have little or nothing of violence1 is disagreeable4 ,the quick application of a finger a little warmer or colder than usual1 without notice1 makes us start2 a slight tap on the shoulder1 not expected1 has the same effect4 ,hence it is that angular bodies1 bodies that suddenly vary the direction of the outline1 afford so little pleasure to the feeling4 ,every such change is a sort of climbing or falling in miniature2 so that squares1 triangles1 and other angular figures1 are neither beautiful to the sight nor feeling4 ,whoever compares his state of mind1 on feeling soft1 smooth1 variated1 unangular bodies1 with that in which he finds himself on the view of a beautiful object1 will perceive a very striking analogy in the effects of both2 and which may go a good way towards discovering their common cause4 ,feeling and sight1 in this respect1 differ in but a few points4 ,the touch takes in the pleasure of softness1 which is not primarily an object of sight2 the sight1 on the other hand1 comprehends colour1 which can hardly be made perceptible to the touch3 the touch again has the advantage in a new idea of pleasure resulting from a moderate degree of warmth2 but the eye triumphs in the infinite extent and multiplicity of its objects4 ,but there is such a similitude in the pleasures of these senses1 that ,i am apt to fancy1 if it were possible that one might discern colour by feeling 7as it is said some blind men have done71 that the same colours1 and the same disposition of colouring1 which are found beautiful to the sight1 would be found likewise most grateful to the touch4 ,but1 setting aside conjectures1 let us pass to the other sense3 of ,hearing4 ,,the ,,beautiful ,,in ,,sounds4 ,in this sense we find an equal aptitude to be affected in a soft and delicate manner2 and how far sweet or beautiful sounds agree with our descriptions of beauty in other senses1 the experience of every one must decide4 ,milton has described this species of music in one of his juvenile poems4 7,l',allegro47 ,i need not say that ,milton was perfectly well versed in that art2 and that no man had a finer ear1 with a happier manner of expressing the affections of one sense by metaphors taken from another4 ,the description is as follows3-- --,and ever against eating cares1 ,lap me in ,,soft ,lydian airs3 ,in notes with many a ,,winding bout ,of ,,linked ,,sweetness ,,long ,,drawn out2 ,with wanton heed1 and giddy cunning1 ,the ,,melting voice through ,,mazes running2 ,,untwisting all the chains that tie ,the hidden soul of harmony4 ,let us parallel this with the softness1 the winding surface1 the unbroken continuance1 the easy gradation of the beautiful in other things2 and all the diversities of the several senses1 with all their several affections2 will rather help to throw lights from one another to finish one clear1 consistent idea of the whole1 than to obscure it by their intricacy and variety4 ,to the above-mentioned description ,i shall add one or two remarks4 ,the first is2 that the beautiful in music will not bear that loudness and strength of sounds1 which may be used to raise other passions2 nor notes which are shrill or harsh1 or deep2 it agrees best with such as are clear1 even1 smooth1 and weak4 ,the second is3 that great variety1 and quick transitions from one measure or tone to another1 are contrary to the genius of the beautiful in music4 ,such transitions often excite mirth1 or other sudden or tumultuous passions2 but not that sinking1 that melting1 that languor1 which is the characteristical effect of the beautiful as it regards every sense4 7,i ne'er am merry when ,i hear sweet music4--,shakspeare47 ,the passion excited by beauty is in fact nearer to a species of melancholy1 than to jollity and mirth4 ,i do not here mean to confine music to any one species of notes1 or tones1 neither is it an art in which ,i can say ,i have any great skill4 ,my sole design in this remark is1 to settle a consistent idea of beauty4 ,the infinite variety of the affections of the soul will suggest to a good head1 and skilful ear1 a variety of such sounds as are fitted to raise them4 ,it can be no prejudice to this1 to clear and distinguish some few particulars1 that belong to the same class1 and are consistent with each other1 from the immense crowd of different1 and sometimes contradictory1 ideas1 that rank vulgarly under the standard of beauty4 ,and of these it is my intention to mark such only of the leading points as show the conformity of the sense of hearing with the other senses1 in the article of their pleasures4 ,,british ,,church4 ,it is something extraordinary1 that the only symptom of alarm in the ,church of ,england should appear in the petition of some dissenters2 with whom1 ,i believe1 very few in this house are yet acquainted2 and of whom you know no more than that you are assured by the honourable gentleman1 that they are not ,mahometans4 ,of the ,church we know they are not1 by the name that they assume4 ,they are then dissenters4 ,the first symptom of an alarm comes from some dissenters assembled round the lines of ,chatham2 these lines become the security of the ,church of ,england6 ,the honourable gentleman1 in speaking of the lines of ,chatham1 tells us that they serve not only for the security of the wooden walls of ,england1 but for the defence of the ,church of ,england4 ,i suspect the wooden walls of ,england secure the lines of ,chatham1 rather than the lines of ,chatham secure the wooden walls of ,england4 ,sir1 the ,church of ,england1 if only defended by this miserable petition upon your table1 must1 ,i am afraid1 upon the principles of true fortification1 be soon destroyed4 ,but fortunately her walls1 bulwarks1 and bastions1 are constructed of other materials than of stubble and straw2 are built up with the strong and stable matter of the gospel of liberty1 and founded on a true1 constitutional1 legal establishment4 ,but1 ,sir1 she has other securities2 she has the security of her own doctrines2 she has the security of the piety1 the sanctity of her own professors2 their learning is a bulwark to defend her2 she has the security of the two universities1 not shook in any single battlement1 in any single pinnacle4 444 ,but if1 after all1 this danger is to be apprehended1 if you are really fearful that ,christianity will indirectly suffer by this liberty1 you have my free consent2 go directly1 and by the straight way1 and not by a circuit1 in which in your road you may destroy your friends1 point your arms against these men who do the mischief you fear promoting2 point your arms against men1 who1 not contented with endeavouring to turn your eyes from the blaze and effulgence of light1 by which life and immortality is so gloriously demonstrated by the ,gospel1 would even extinguish that faint glimmering of nature1 that only comfort supplied to ignorant man before this great illumination--them who1 by attacking even the possibility of all revelation1 arraign all the dispensations of ,providence to man4 ,these are the wicked dissenters you ought to fear2 these are the people against whom you ought to aim the shafts of law2 these are the men to whom1 arrayed in all the terrors of government1 ,i would say1 ,you shall not degrade us into brutes2 these men1 these factious men1 as the honourable gentleman properly called them1 are the just objects of vengeance1 not the conscientious dissenter2 these men1 who would take away whatever ennobles the rank or consoles the misfortunes of human nature1 by breaking off that connection of observations1 of affections1 of hopes and fears1 which bind us to the ,divinity1 and constitute the glorious and distinguishing prerogative of humanity1 that of being a religious creature2 against these ,i would have the laws rise in all their majesty of terrors1 to fulminate such vain and impious wretches1 and to awe them into impotence by the only dread they can fear or believe1 to learn that eternal lesson--,discite justitiam moniti1 et non temnere ,divos4 ,at the same time that ,i would cut up the very root of atheism1 ,i would respect all conscience2 all conscience1 that is really such1 and which perhaps its very tenderness proves to be sincere4 ,i wish to see the established ,church of ,england great and powerful2 ,i wish to see her foundations laid low and deep1 that she may crush the giant powers of rebellious darkness2 ,i would have her head raised up to that heaven to which she conducts us4 ,i would have her open wide her hospitable gates by a noble and liberal comprehension2 but ,i would have no breaches in her wall2 ,i would have her cherish all those who are within1 and pity all those who are without2 ,i would have her a common blessing to the world1 an example1 if not an instructor1 to those who have not the happiness to belong to her2 ,i would have her give a lesson of peace to mankind1 that a vexed and wandering generation might be taught to seek for repose and toleration in the maternal bosom of ,christian charity1 and not in the harlot lap of infidelity and indifference4 ,,index4 ,abstract views1 on the danger of4 ,abstract words1 effects of4 ,accumulation a state principle4 ,administration and legislation1 on the due balance of4 ,age1 our own1 on the injustice paid to4 ,alfred the ,great1 political genius of4--the promoter of learning4--his religious character4 ,ambassadors of infamy1 their tyranny4 ,ambition1 incentives of4--disappointed1 picture of4 ,america1 great national progress of4--on her resistance to taxation4--on her early colonization1 and the greatness of her future4--on the ,protestantism of4--on the embassy of ,england to4 ,analogy1 on the pleasures of4 ,anarchy contrasted and compared with reformation4 ,architecture1 influence of4 ,armed discipline1 necessity of4 ,art1 on correct judgment in4 ,articles of the ,church1 necessity of the4 ,atheism1 atrocious principles of4--incapable of repentance4 ,atheists1 literary1 their proselytism and bigotry4 ,attraction1 ,newton's discovery of the property of4 ,authority1 abuses of1 dangerous4 ,axioms1 political4 ,barons1 ,english1 on the restraints imposed upon the4 ,bathurst1 ,lord1 on his recollections of ,american colonization4 ,beautiful1 what constitutes the4--in feeling1 ,burke's ideas of4--in sounds1 on our general ideas of4 ,beauty1 delicacy essential to4--female1 on the influence of4 ,bedford1 duke of1 on the royal grants to4--on his attacks on ,mr4 ,burke4--reply to his ,grace4 ,bribery1 objects and evils of4 ,britain1 her war with ,france vindicated4--state of1 at the time of the ,saxon conquest4--the ancient inhabitants of4 ,british dominion in the ,east ,indies1 on the extent of4 ,british stability1 on the principles and duration of4 ,building1 on magnitude in1 necessary to sublimity4 ,burke1 ,edmund1 his defence of his political principles4--the design of1 in his greatest work4 ,cabal1 on the tactics of4 ,candid policy1 on the advantages of1 to a government4 ,carnatic1 dreadful scenes in the4--war and desolation of the4 ,carnot1 the sanguinary tyranny of4 ,character1 private1 a basis for public confidence4 ,charlemagne1 on the conquests of4 ,chatham1 ,lord1 his great qualities4--his political errors4 ,chivalry1 on the moralizing charm of4 ,christian religion1 the idea of divinity humanized by the4 --state of1 at the time of the ,saxon conquest4 ,christianity1 on the profession of4--means adopted for its early establishment4 ,church of ,england1 its outward dignity defended4--the state consecrated by the4--on the ,articles of the4--eulogy on the4 ,church and ,state1 on the unity between4--one and the same in a ,christian commonwealth4 ,church plunder1 omnipotence of6 ,church property1 on the existence and preservation of4 ,circumstances1 on the nature of4 ,civil freedom a blessing1 and not an abstract speculation4 ,civil list1 advantages of reform in the4 ,civil rights1 on the nature of4 ,civil society1 on the true basis of4 ,claims1 personal and ancestral4 ,coalitions1 false1 instability of4 ,colonies1 on the art of cementing the ties of4--on their right to the advantages of the ,british constitution4--on their progress4 ,combination1 distinct from faction4 ,commerce1 one of the great sources of our power4--on the philosophy of4 ,common law1 on its ancient constitution4 ,common ,pleas1 on the early establishment of4 ,commons4 ,see ,house of4 ,commonwealth1 on the science of constructing a4 ,comparison1 utility and advantages of4 ,concession1 on the wisdom of1 on the part of a government4 ,confidence of the people1 necessity of the4--political1 dangers of4--public1 private character a basis for4--reciprocal1 on the necessity of4 ,confiscation1 arising from the paper currency4 ,conservation1 progress and principles of4 ,constituents1 on the power and control of4 ,constitution of ,england1 liberty its distinguishing feature4--on the right of the colonies to its advantages4--not fabricated but inherited4--majesty of the4--not the slave of the people4 ,consumption and produce1 the balance between settles the price of4 ,contact1 on the assimilating power of4 ,contracted views1 on the pettiness of4 ,conway1 ,general1 eulogy on4 ,corporate reform1 on the difficulty and wisdom of4 ,correction1 on the principle of1 in connection with conservation4 ,corruption1 public1 evil consequences of4--cannot be self-reformed4 ,cowardice1 political1 contemptibility of4 ,credit1 national1 on the advantages of4 ,cromwell1 the government of1 contrasted with that of the ,french revolution4 ,crown1 its influence4--on pensions from the4--its prerogative4--on the hereditary succession of the4 ,cruelty1 political1 reckless oppression of4 ,curiosity1 the most superficial of all the affections4 ,danes1 their early dominion4 ,declaration of #agic1 against ,france4 ,deity1 contemplation of his attributes4 ,delicacy essential to beauty4 ,democracy1 a perfect one the most shameless thing in the world4--its resemblance to tyranny4 ,democrats1 inconsistency of4 ,despotism courts obscurity1 and shuns the light4--on the defective policy of4--of the age of ,louis ,,xiv41 a mere gilded tyranny4--monarchical1 preferable to republican4 ,d',espremenil1 sacrifice of4 ,difficulty1 on contentions with4 ,directory of ,france1 its insolent assumption4 ,dissent1 on ,dr4 ,price's preaching the democracy of4 ,dissenters1 animadversions on the4 ,distraction1 on the evils of4 ,divine power1 its influences on the human idea4 ,divinity1 our idea of the1 humanized by the ,christian religion4 ,druids1 their knowledge and influence4 ,duty1 not based on will4 ,east-,india ,company1 on the bill for controlling the political power of4--,see ,india4 ,ecclesiastical confiscation1 on the injustice of4 ,economy1 on the state principles of4--does not consist of parsimony4--and public spirit1 advantage of4 ,election1 on ,wilkes's right of4 ,elections1 frequent1 on the evil tendency of4--expenses of4 ,electors1 on the conduct and duties of4 ,elegance1 ,burke's ideas of4 ,elizabeth1 ,princess1 of ,france1 sanguinary treatment of4 ,england1 on the magnanimity of her people4 ,english character1 on ,french ignorance of4 ,establishments1 ancient1 on the advantages of4 ,eternity little understood4 ,etiquette1 on its ancient and modern application4 ,europe1 on the state of1 in #aghi4--;at the time of the ,norman invasion4 ,european community1 on the principles of4 ,exaggeration1 evils of4 ,extremes1 on the fallacy of4 ,eye1 the1 its characteristics of beauty4 ,faction1 combination distinct from4--what it ought to teach4 ,falkland ,island1 fisheries extended to4 ,false regret1 to be lamented4 ,favouritism of government the cause of popular ferment4 ,female beauty1 on the influence of4 ,feudal baronage1 the root of our primitive constitution4--principles1 their history and application to modern times4--changes effected in4--law1 principles of the4 ,fisheries of ,new ,england2 on the hardy spirit with which they are conducted4 ,flattery1 the reverse of instruction4 ,fox1 ,right ,hon4 ,charles1 eulogy on4--,burke's confidence in4 ,france1 on the dangers arising from4--her revolution of #aghi4--;frightful scenes of the4--founded on regicide1 ,jacobinism1 and atheism4--war with1 vindicated4--reflections on her revolution4--the existing state of things in1 productive of the worst evils4--on the political and intellectual greatness of4--the great political changes of4--revolution of1 a complete one4--early conquests and dominion of4--declaration of ,england against1 in #agic4--;false policy in our war with4--historical strictures on4--atrocities perpetrated in4 ,freedom1 a blessing and not an abstract speculation4--character of just freedom4--on the conservative progress of4 ,french1 natural self-destruction of the4 ,gaul1 the ancient inhabitants of4 ,gentleman1 our civilization dependent on the spirit of a4 ,glory1 difficulty the path to4 ,god1 contemplations of ,his attributes2--on the adorable wisdom of4 ,government1 on the evils of weakness in4--on the influence of place in4--on the advantages of candid policy in4--virtue and wisdom qualify for4--not made in virtue of natural rights4--not to be rashly censured4--on the duties of4--principles of1 not absolute but relative4--general views of the foundations of4--and legislation1 matters of reason and judgment4--favouritism1 the cause of popular ferment4 ,gracefulness1 on our ideas of4 ,grant1 on ,burke's acceptance of a4 ,great men1 the guide-posts and landmarks of the ,state4 ,green ,cloth1 origin of the ancient ,court of4 ,grenville1 ,right ,hon4 ,mr41 his great political qualities and character4 ,grievance and opinion1 on the different qualities of4 ,grievances by law1 on the different views of4 ,henry ,,iv4 of ,france1 sovereign qualities of4 ,heroism1 moral1 on the virtues of4 ,his ,grace1 ,burke's reply to4 ,history1 on the moral of4--on the use of defects in4--on the perversion of4--speculations on4--strictures on1 as connected with ,france4 ,house of ,commons1 its nature and functions4--on the control of the constituency over4--,mr4 ,burke's preparation for the4--its constitution4--privilege of the4--contrasted with the ,national ,assembly of ,france4 ,howard1 the philanthropist1 his genius and humanity4 ,human ideas1 on the influence of divine power on4 ,human nature1 on the libellers of4 ,humiliation1 on the diplomacy of4 ,hyder ,ali1 on his formidable military operations in the ,carnatic4 ,ideal1 definition of the4 ,imagination1 unity of4 ,imitation an instructive law4 ,impartiality1 appeal to4 ,imperial power1 its establishment in ,western ,europe4 ,impracticable1 the1 not to be desired4 ,india1 ,east1 on the territorial extent of ,british dominion in4--on its opulence and importance4--necessity of reforming the government of4--,hyder ,ali's formidable military resistance4--on the ,british government in4 ,individual good and public benefit1 a comparison of4 ,induction1 on the process of4 ,infidels1 on the policy of4 ,infinity1 little understood4 ,injustice1 economy of4 ,innovation1 on the madness of4 ,investigation1 the best method of teaching4 ,ireland1 on the legislation of4 ,ireland and ,magna ,charta1 historical notices of4 ,jacobin peace1 on the perils of4 ,jacobin war1 on the true nature of a4 ,jacobinism1 atrocious principles of4--ferocity of4 ,jealousy1 political1 different under different circumstances4 ,john1 ,king1 on his difficulties with the pope4 ,jurisprudence1 on the science of4 ,justice1 early reform in the administration of4 ,keppel1 ,lord1 one of the greatest and best men of his age4--his exalted virtues4 ,kings1 the power of1 not based on popular choice4 ,labour1 on the necessity of4--on the importance of4--rises or falls according to the demand4 ,labouring classes poor1 because they are numerous4--on the moral happiness of the4 ,labouring poor1 on the puling jargon respecting the4--on the canting phraseology of4--on the melioration of their condition4 ,language1 on the moral effects of4 ,laws1 when bad1 are productive of base subserviency4 ,legislation1 on the due balance of1 with the administration4--on the problem of4 ,legislation and government1 matters of reason and judgment4 ,legislative capacity1 on the limits of4 ,legislators of the ancient republics4 ,legislature of ,france1 regicidal character of the4 ,levellers1 moral1 the representatives of a servile principle4 ,libellers of human nature1 falsity of the term4 ,liberty1 its preservation the duty of a member of the ,house of ,commons4--in what it consists2--character of just liberty4--on the abstract theory of4--on fictitious liberty4 ,lights1 modern1 on the petulance and ignorance of4 ,loans1 public1 on the policy of4 ,louis ,,xvi41 on his cruel treatment4--historical estimate of4--his mistaken views of society4--on the fate of4 ,love1 a mixed passion4 ,love and dread1 their union in religion4 ,low aims and low instruments1 the baseness of4 ,magistracy1 religious duties of the4 ,magna ,charta1 ,ireland a partaker of4--the oldest reformation of ,england4--on the early constitutions of4 ,magnanimity1 on its superiority4 ,malesherbes1 atrocious treatment of4 ,man1 ,nature anticipates the desires of4 ,mankind1 ancient state of4 ,manners and morals1 correspondent systems of4--more important than laws4 ,maria ,antoinette1 her beauty and misfortunes4--sanguinary treatment of4 ,maria ,theresa1 her high-minded principles4 ,marriage1 feudal restraints on4 ,maxims1 false1 evils of1 when assumed as first principles4 ,measures of government1 on judging of the4 ,member of ,parliament1 difficulties of becoming a good one4 ,metaphysical depravity1 on the dangers of4 ,migrations of ancient history4 ,minister of state1 what he ought to attempt4 ,ministers1 on the responsibility of4 ,missionaries1 their early zeal in propagating ,christianity4 ,monarch of ,england1 on the sovereign power of the4 ,monastic institutions1 on the results of4 ,money and science4 ,monks1 their early zeal in the cause of ,christianity4 ,montesquieu1 on the genius of4 ,moral debasement1 a progressive principle4 ,moral diet1 on the use of4 ,moral distinctions defined4 ,moral effects resulting from language4 ,moral essence constitutes a nation4 ,moral heroism1 on the virtues of4 ,moral instincts1 on the sacredness of4 ,moral levelling1 a servile principle4 ,nation1 moral essence constitutes a4 ,national ,assembly of ,france1 the ,house of ,commons contrasted with4 ,national ,assembly1 on its philosophic vanity4 ,national dignity1 importance of1 in all treaties4 ,nature1 ,sir ,i4 ,newton's discoveries of the phenomena of4--anticipates the desires of man4 ,necessity1 a relative term4 ,neighbourhood1 on the law of4 ,neutrality1 on the uncertainty and contemptibility of4 ,new ,england1 fisheries of1 on the hardy spirit of the4 ,newton1 ,sir ,isaac1 his discoveries of the phenomena of nature4 ,nobility a graceful ornament to the civil order4 ,norman invasion1 state of ,europe and of ,england at the time of the4 ,not so bad as we seem1 justificatory remarks on4 ,novelty1 its effects on the mind4 ,obscure1 powerful influence of the4 ,obscurity1 courted by despotism and all false religions4 ,office1 on the emoluments of4 ,officers1 ,english1 on the admirable qualifications of4 ,opinion1 on acting from1 against the government4 ,opinions1 power survives the shock of4 ,oppression1 on the voice of4 ,order1 the foundation of all things4 ,outcasts1 political1 on the usual treatment of4 ,painting1 influence of4 ,paper currency1 confiscation arising from4 ,parental experience1 reflections on4 ,paris1 on the boasted superiority of4 ,parliament1 difficulties of becoming a good member of4--,mr4 ,burke's preparation for4--a deliberative assembly4--on its identity with the people4--on the privilege of4--property more than ability represented in4 --on the omnipotence of4 ,parliamentary prerogative1 on the principles of4 ,parliamentary retrospect4 ,parliaments1 on the proper period of their duration4--on the abolition and use of4 ,parsimony is not economy4 ,party1 on decorum in4--character and objects of4--political connections of4 ,party divisions1 inseparable from a free government4 ,party man1 character of a1 vindicated4 ,patriotic distinction4 ,patriotic services1 on the justice of public salary for4 ,patriotism1 the true source of public income4--on the true characteristics of4--local1 on the extinction of4 ,peace1 political1 on the difficulties of4 ,peers1 privileges of the4 ,pensions from the crown the obligations of gratitude1 and not the fetters of servility4 ,people1 on their disputes with their rulers4--voice of the1 to be consulted4--necessity of securing their confidence4--on their identity with parliament4--kingly power not based on their choice4--on the true meaning of the term4--war1 and will of the4--the constitution not the slave of the4 ,perplexity1 on the political state of4 ,persecution1 theory of1 its falsity4 ,petty interests1 against being influenced by4 ,philosophic vanity of the ,french ,national ,assembly4 ,physiognomy1 on the influence of4 ,pictures represented by words4 ,pilgrimages advantageous to the cause of literature4 ,pius ,,vii41 territories of1 assailed by ,france4 ,place the object of party4--on the influence of1 in government4 ,poetry1 its dominion over the passions4 ,policy1 genuine sentiment not discordant with4--national4 ,polish revolution1 reflections on the4 ,political axioms4 ,political charity1 characteristics of4 ,political connections1 on the nature of4 ,political empiricism1 its character4 ,political outcasts1 on the usual treatment of4 ,politicians1 theorizing1 on the follies of4 ,politics1 without principle4--remarks on4--on the state of feeling with regard to4--in connection with the pulpit4 ,poor1 on the folly of their overthrowing the rich4 ,pope1 his exactions from ,king ,john4 ,popular discontent1 on the general prevalence of1 in all times4 ,popular opinion1 on the fallacy of1 as a standard4 ,power1 on the tendencies of4--survives the shock of opinions4 ,practice more certain than theory4 ,prerogative of the crown4--parliamentary and regal4 ,prescriptive rights1 on the justice and necessity of4 ,prevention1 principle of1 necessary for every political institution4 ,price1 ,dr41 on his preaching the democracy of ,dissent4 ,priests of the ,rights of ,man4 ,principle1 on the absence of1 in politics4 ,privilege of ,parliament4 ,proscription1 the miserable invention of ungenerous ambition4 ,prosecutions1 public1 little better than schools of treason4 ,protestantism of ,america4--,english1 on the distinctive character of4 ,provisions1 danger of tampering with the trade of4--rate of wages no direct relation to4 ,prudence of timely reform4--rules and definitions of4 ,public benefit1 as compared with individual good4 ,public corruption1 evil consequences of4 ,public income1 patriotism the true source of4 ,public men1 on the libellers of4 ,public spirit united with economy1 advantages of4--a part of our national character4 ,pulpit1 politics in the4 ,real and ideal1 definition of the4 ,reason and taste1 on the standard of4 ,reform1 timely1 on the prudence of4--false1 on the prudery of4 ,reformation1 ,english1 a time of trouble and confusion4--contrasted and compared with anarchy4 ,reformations in ,england1 principles of the4 ,reformers1 on the difficulties of4 ,refusal1 productive of a revenue4 ,regal prerogative1 on the principles of4 ,regicidal legislature of ,france4 ,regicide1 atrocious principles of4--the sanguinary ante-chamber of4 ,reliefs1 on the ancient customs of4 ,religion1 on the union of love and dread in4--our civilization dependent on the spirit of4--within the province of a ,christian magistrate4--false1 courts obscurity4--negative1 a nullity4 ,remedy1 on the distemper of4 ,representatives1 on the conduct and duty of4 ,republicanism1 on the jargon of4 ,republicans1 on the legislation of4 ,republics1 on the character of1 in the abstract4 ,resignation of the mind4 ,restrictive virtues too high for humanity4 ,retrospect of the memory4--parliamentary4 ,revenue1 refusal productive of a4--the state its own4--necessity of its payment4--on the best mode of raising the4 ,revolution of ,france1 horrors of the4--,burke's idea of4--its frightful scenes4--founded on regicide1 ,jacobinism1 and atheism4--reflections on4--causes of the4--evils of4--on the politics of the4--specious justification of4 ,revolution1 the ,glorious1 of ,england in #afhh4--;its objects4--principles of the4 ,revolution ,society1 dangerous objects of the4 ,revolutions of ,france and ,england compared4 ,right1 ,declaration of1 its objects4 ,right1 ,petition of1 on the famous law of4 ,rights1 natural and civil4--prescriptive1 on the justice and necessity of4 ,robespierre1 on the instruments of his tyranny4 ,rockingham1 ,lord1 vindication of his measures4 ,rome1 the great centre of early ,christianity in the western world4--assailed by ,france4 ,rousseau1 philosophic vanity of4--paradoxical writings of4 ,rulers1 on the disputes of the people with4 ,salaries1 public1 on the justice of1 for particular service4 ,santerre1 the regicide atrocity of4 ,saracens1 irruptions of the4 ,saville1 ,sir ,george1 his intellectual and moral character4 ,saxon conquests1 state of ,britain at the time of4--religious conversion of the ,saxons4 ,self-inspection tends to concentrate the forces of the soul4 ,sentiment1 genuine1 not discordant with sound policy4 ,silence1 prudential advantages of4 ,simon1 the son of ,onias1 scriptural panegyric on4 ,smith1 ,sir ,sidney1 on his treatment as a ,french prisoner4 ,social contract1 definition of the4 ,society and solitude1 on the balance between4 ,solitude a positive pain4 ,sound of words1 its effect4 ,sovereign jurisdictions1 on the advantage of4 ,speciousness1 ideas of4 ,speculation and history1 general disquisition on4 ,state1 the1 on the union of the ,church with4--consecrated by the ,church4--the revenue of1 its own4 ,state-consecration1 on the principles of4 ,style1 on clearness and strength in4 ,sublime1 sources of1 and what constitutes the4 ,subserviency1 base1 bad laws productive of4 ,subsistence1 means of1 should be certain4 ,superstition1 monastic and philosophic4 ,sympathy1 on the bond of4--extensions of4--its influences4 ,tallien1 the regicide atrocity of4 ,taste1 philosophy of4--principles of4--standard of4 ,taxation1 on the principle involved in4--on the right of4 ,test ,acts1 ,burke's proposed oath on the4 ,theodorus1 archbishop of ,canterbury1 the great promoter of ,english literature4 ,theory1 liability to error in4 --on the proper use of4 ,toleration1 on the intolerancy of4 ,townshend1 ,right ,hon4 ,charles1 his character and great acquirements4 ,truth1 on the security of4 ,ugliness1 on the nature of4 ,vanity1 philosophic1 ethics of4 ,venality1 dangers of4 ,virtues1 the restrictive1 almost too high for humanity4 ,visionary1 character of the4 ,voice of the people to be consulted4 ,vulgar1 conceptions of the4 ,wages1 on their connection with labour4 ,walpole1 ,sir ,robert1 on the policy of4 ,war1 on the tremendous consequences of4 ,war and will of the people4 ,warning for a nation1 founded on the state of public affairs4 ,weakness in government1 on the evils of4 ,wealth1 on the relation of1 to national dignity4 ,wilkes1 ,john1 on his right of election to ,parliament4 ,william the ,conqueror1 on the sovereign qualities of2--his policy4 ,william ,,iii41 on his succession to the ,english crown4--his vigorous policy against ,france4 ,words1 their power and influence4--effect of4--various qualities of4