BURKE 
 
 SPEECH ON 
 CONCILIATION 
 
 WITH 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 WARD 
 
lake 
 
 REVISED EDITION WITH HELPS TO STUDY 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 ON 
 
 CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND BURKE 
 
 With Selections from 
 
 OTHER WRITINGS OF BURKE, SPEECHES BY PITT AND 
 
 FOX, AND EXTRACTS FROM TREVELYAN, LECKY, 
 
 AND THE PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 C. H. WARD 
 
 TAFT SCHOOL, WATERTOWN, CONN. 
 
 SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK 
 

 I M? 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1919 
 SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 
 
 ROBERT O. LAW COMPANY 
 
 EDITION BOOK MANUFACTURERS 
 CHICAGO. U. S. A. 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 If every high-school student knew that the govern 
 mental oppression that caused the American Revo 
 lution was made in Germany, our democracy would 
 be more secure. For as long as there lurks in the back 
 of the American consciousness a suspicion of English 
 tyranny in 1775, so long will misunderstanding pre 
 vent the English-speaking nations from working in 
 accord to develop Anglo-Saxon freedom. Not until 
 the younger generation has learned to distinguish be 
 tween the English freedom of 1775 and "the slavery 
 that they may have from Prussia," will America re 
 turn to that "unsuspecting confidence in the mother 
 country" which is vital to the future progress of 
 democracy throughout the world. To teach that dis 
 tinction is pre-eminently the task of the schools; on 
 every hand there is a demand that teaching should be 
 more in accord with the great fact of 1775 and that 
 textbooks should bring into relief this truth: The 
 American Revolution was not an attempt of England 
 to tyrannize over colonies, but was a quarrel fomented 
 by a German king as part of his program of despotic 
 ambition. 
 
 To some teachers that may sound like an extreme 
 statement adapted to the emotions of a new-found 
 gratitude to England. YetJ;here is nothing novel or 
 
 5^ i L \ b 
 
4 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 exaggerated about it. Burke analyzed it completely in 
 his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents; 
 Green explained it in the plainest terms; Fiske made 
 it obvious ; Trevelyan disclosed it fully. And if any 
 one supposes that these historians were making special 
 pleas for the sake of amity, he may read the most con 
 vincing and elaborate of all testimonies in the work of 
 a historian who was not swerved by any such motive 
 Lecky. There was no English tyranny over America 
 until a German king had tricked his colonists into 
 hating his ministry, until he had created a servile 
 House of Commons, and until he had inflamed against 
 each other his subjects on two sides of the Atlantic. 
 
 Burke was not pleading for America against an 
 English Toryism. He voiced the common feeling of 
 Englishmen who had any real ideas about America, of 
 most of the members of Commons who were not 
 hired " king s men." He spoke the common thought 
 of England as it was before public opinion had been 
 poisoned by a Hanoverian. He was pleading the cause 
 of English freedom against a despotism as Hunnish 
 as that which was recently plotted on Wilhelmstrasse. 
 His speech is a revelation of that ideal of democracy 
 of "Magnanimity as the truest wisdom" which 
 has guided England, which has guided America, and 
 by which both countries must henceforth be guided 
 in concord if they are to fulfil a useful destiny. 
 
 The nature of Burke s plea for conciliation cannot 
 be understood by any amount of study of the speech 
 itself, nor can any mere introduction and notes reveal 
 convincingly the amazing facts of 1775. An under- 
 
PREFACE 5 
 
 standing can be gained only by reading what typical 
 Englishmen said while the American Revolution was 
 being fomented, and by reading the judgments of vari 
 ous historians. This knowledge the ideal teacher seeks 
 and finds by many days of exploration in a library; 
 he sluices tons of irrelevant matter to acquire the pre 
 cious ounces of information. The ideal teacher does 
 this. The rest of us if I may judge by my own case 
 teach what an editor provides, because it seems even 
 more copious than a class has time for. Not till 1917 
 was I driven to learn more about this "slavery that 
 they may have from Prussia." The revelation has 
 made the Conciliation much more entertaining to me 
 and the students. For now there is a villain in the 
 story, and we learn a very useful truth about English 
 freedom. I feel touched and grieved because editors 
 have never given so much as an inkling of the vital 
 fact. I should suppose that all teachers of Burke would 
 feel the same. This material has not been available 
 to the student, and in many cases not even to the 
 teacher. For the first time it is presented in one handy 
 volume. The Collateral Readings from Burke s Works 
 and the Speeches of Pitt and Fox, and the extracts 
 from historians are not an appendix ; they are illumi 
 nating material intended to be read side by side with 
 the Burke. 
 
 I hope that the introduction and notes are contrived 
 to make the Conciliation appear like the human and 
 interesting document that it is. If that wish seems 
 excessive optimism to those of us who have taught 
 the speech for a decade or two, we should remember 
 
6 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 that the current of history now sets our way. For 
 every young American there is now a meaning in 
 Burke that did not exist in 1913. Never did a school 
 classic carry such a present-day message or furnish 
 so definite an answer to a national demand. 
 
 Grateful acknowledgment is made to Longmans, 
 Green and Co., who kindly gave us permission to use 
 the extracts from The American Revolution and 
 George the Third and Charles Fox by G. O. Trevelyan. 
 
 C. H. WARD. 
 WATERTOWN, CONN. 
 
 December 13, 1918. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION : 
 
 The German Foe of English Freedom, George III . . 9 
 
 The Champion of English Freedom, Edmund Burke 22 
 
 The Triumph of German Intrigue in 1775 29 
 
 BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA 41 
 
 IMPORTANT COLLATERAL READINGS 
 
 I How THE AMERICAN KEVOLUTION WAS REGARDED IN 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 From G. O. Trevelyan s American Eeiolution. . . . 129 
 II THE POWER OF GEORGE III 
 
 From G. O. Trevelyan s George the Third and 
 
 Charles Fox 146 
 
 From W. E. H. Lecky s A History of England in 
 
 tlie Eighteenth Century .- 156 
 
 III SELECTIONS FROM BURKE 
 
 Speech on American Taxation 169 
 
 The Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs 
 
 of America 193 
 
 Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents 218 
 IV BURKE S POWER AS AN ORATOR 
 
 Extracts from G. O. Trevelyan s George the Third 
 
 and Charles Fox 237 
 
 V SPEECH OF WILLIAM PITT, THE EARL OF CHATHAM, 
 
 MOVING THE REMOVAL OF TROOPS FROM BOSTON . 243 
 VI EXCERPTS FROM THE SPEECHES OF CHARLES JAMES 
 
 Fox 256 
 
 VII EXCERPTS FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY FOR 
 
 1775-1776 .265 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ,OF THfc SPEECH ON CONCILIATION .................. 283 
 
 WHERE BURKE SPOKE ................................. 284 
 
 NOTES .............................................. 286 
 
 i 
 
 A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................ 303 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Helps to Study ................................... 304 
 
 INDEX . . 311 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 An outline of those "amazing facts of 1775," re 
 ferred to in the next to the last paragraph of the 
 Preface, is given in this Introduction. The student 
 should read also the Collateral Readings, a compact 
 body of extracts from speeches by Burke, Pitt, and 
 Fox, and excerpts from Histories. 
 
 THE GERMAN FOE OP ENGLISH FREEDOM, 
 GEORGE in 
 
 The best introduction to Burke ? s Conciliation is a 
 picture of what happened in 1758, about Thanks 
 giving time, in the wild forest of western Pennsyl 
 vania. A stockaded fort named Duquesne, which 
 had been held by the French and Indians, was burned 
 at midnight, and the garrison retreated northward. 
 The next afternoon two regiments of English soldiers, 
 who had been toiling westward since early summer, 
 appeared at the edge of the clearing and viewed the 
 smoking ruins. One of the English colonels was 
 George Washington. He was a British officer leading 
 colonial Englishmen under a general from England. 
 If you had called him an American, he would have 
 thought you were using a kind of nickname. He and 
 his fellow colonists were proud that they were Eng 
 lishmen; they gladly and loyally served an English 
 
 9 
 
10 BTJE^E S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 king because he represented the freedom without 
 ; wMdx* toy."* thought life not worth living. 
 
 The capture of Duquesne was a victory near the end 
 of the French and Indian War. This was part of a 
 contest that England carried on for seven years to 
 preserve herself against the two great autocracies of 
 Europe, the Bourbons and the Hapsburgs. English 
 men at home and in the colonies were equally con 
 cerned in this struggle to make the world safe for 
 English freedom. No colonist felt secure as long as 
 a Bourbon monarch held the continent to the north 
 and west. The colonists rejoiced in 1763 when Eng 
 land won its long fight, when Canada became an 
 English province, and when their English liberties 
 were safe in the new world. When Fort Duquesne 
 was rebuilt, they named it Pittsburgh in honor of 
 William Pitt 1 , the greatest Englishman of that time, 
 who had done more than any other man to secure the 
 victory in the Seven Years War. Eight million peo 
 ple in England and two million in the colonies ad 
 mired him and honored him. Under his leadership 
 the colonists had spent their money and lives to destroy 
 the power of autocracy in the western hemisphere. 
 
 Though at this time, as Burke says, a fierce spirit 
 of liberty was stronger in the English colonies than 
 in any other people of the earth," the colonists felt 
 that they owed their liberty to the English govern 
 ment. Though they could " snuff the approach of 
 tyranny in every tainted breeze," they had no suspi 
 cion of the mother country ; indeed they felt an * * un- 
 
 See his speeches in the Collateral Headings, pp. 243-255. 
 
INTRODUCTION H 
 
 suspecting confidence" in it. They never dreamed of 
 a quarrel with their kindred in England. The foun 
 dation of Burke s Concilati&n is this strong attach 
 ment and affection which the colonists felt toward 
 their British empire. 
 
 Yet within sixteen years minute-men were organiz 
 ing at Lexington to meet British regulars, and Burke 
 rose in the House of Commons to plead against civil 
 war. What had brought about this disastrous change 1 
 The German king of England, George III. He hated 
 Pitt, hated English freedom, was resolved to be a 
 "real monarch," like the Stuart who had been be 
 headed. He became as persistent and dangerous an 
 enemy as England ever had. Twenty years after Pitt 
 had raised his country to pre-eminence, George III 
 brought it to shame and the verge of ruin. How a 
 German acquired such power in England is a long and 
 complicated story, but an outline of it can be presented 
 in a few paragraphs. 1 Without this much knowledge 
 of the historical setting Burke s speech has little 
 meaning. 
 
 The modern development of English liberties began 
 with the "Great Rebellion," at the end of which the 
 Stuart King, Charles I, was beheaded in 1649. Thirty- 
 nine years later another Stuart king, James II, was 
 deposed in the Great and Glorious Revolution. But 
 the nation was not prepared for the form of a repub 
 lic. Public opinion still wished the form of govern 
 ment to be a monarchy under a king who had a legal 
 right to the throne by descent, but who should have 
 
 See the Collateral Readings, pp. 146-155. 
 
12 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 no power for tyranny. William, the ruler of the Neth 
 erlands, was such a man ; he signed an agreement that 
 his only right to rule was the will of the people. In 
 1714 it became necessary to invite another king from 
 abroad. Curiously enough this man was the ruler of 
 the small German state of Hanover. Though he could 
 not speak English, he was invited to become the mon 
 archical figurehead because his grandmother had been 
 a daughter of the first Stuart king ; his blood was one- 
 fourth Stuart and three-fourths German. He had 
 small power in English politics ; his only hope of secur 
 ity was in the great Whig leaders who had managed 
 the Kevolution and were opposed to Stuart tyranny. 
 A group of these Whigs able and patriotic men- 
 formed a kind of committee of management of English 
 affairs. The Tory supporters of the Stuarts were 
 driven utterly out of power ; a thoroughly Whig House 
 of Commons was elected ; the government was carried 
 on by a Whig cabinet, or ministry. 
 
 The cabinet had to see to it that the Tories remained 
 in a very small minority, for there was real danger 
 of an attempt to restore the Stuarts. So they bought 
 enough seats for their purpose. For more than twenty 
 years one Whig leader, Robert Walpole, controlled 
 practically had in his pocket two-thirds of the mem 
 bership. Walpole was the real executive of the nation. 
 His official position was that of "prime minister." 
 In the system of government that developed while he 
 was in power a prime minister was appointed by the 
 king ; he was empowered to * * form a ministry that 
 is, to select a dozen leaders from the houses of Com- 
 
IXTKODUCTIOX 13 
 
 mons and Lords who would serve as an executive com 
 mittee for managing the kingdom. Naturally they 
 had to be chosen largely from the party that was in 
 the majority, for it was their business to shape legis 
 lation and to direct national affairs. (The minority 
 was called the "opposition.") If the ministry had 
 betrayed its trust, or if it had tried to lead where the 
 party would not follow, it would have made itself use 
 less; for it could not have managed the government 
 if the majority was against it. Or if the king had 
 appointed a prime minister who was opposed by the 
 majority, the king would have been powerless to en 
 force his policies. Thus the ministry became the regu 
 lator of the machinery of government. It could 
 continue in office as long as it could command a major 
 ity; if opposed by a majority, it had to resign, and 
 the king had to appoint a new minister. Walpole 
 had to resign when Commons wished a war to which 
 he was opposed. He was followed by the Duke of 
 Newcastle, who also was an unblushing owner of two- 
 thirds of the seats. "When the Seven Years "War 
 began, in 1756, Pitt was the real leader of the nation j 
 he was naturally made prime minister. But he con 
 trolled no votes and would have been helpless if he 
 had not combined his lofty energies with Newcastle s 
 political machine. 
 
 This method of governing by a ministry kept George 
 I from exercising any kingly power. George II, who 
 was one-eighth more German than his father and who 
 had never seen England till he was thirty-one years 
 old, was also obliged to be a figurehead. He hated the 
 
14 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 great Pitt and cared more for his native Hanover than 
 for England; but his German "will to power" was 
 helpless. 
 
 His grandson, George III, was the next king. He 
 was a tall, ruddy man, with a retreating chin and a 
 narrow forehead, who talked very rapidly and had 
 a habit of adding a sharp "what?" to the end of his 
 numerous questions. His mind was also narrow, but 
 he had a retentive memory for petty things. He had 
 considerable skill in the tricks of kingcraft and was 
 courageous in the face of danger. He was intensely 
 religious and lived a rigorous and frugal life. He 
 was the only one of the five Hanoverian kings of Eng 
 land whose life was clean. But his very morality made 
 him more dangerous 1 than if he had been idle or dis 
 sipated. 
 
 Though he had been born in England and had the 
 speech and manners of an Englishman, his blood was 
 31/32 German; and when he came to the throne in 
 1760, he showed a genuine Teutonic lust for power 
 and detestation of liberty. He had also the German 
 gift for hating had hated his grandfather, hated his 
 son, hated Pitt and all the Whigs, hated the mere 
 sound of "freedom." Methodically and relentlessly 
 he set about gaining control of the government. To 
 know how he worked and how far he had succeeded by 
 1775 is to understand the background of Burke s 
 speech. 
 
 Perfect control of the government could be gained 
 by the king if he could get control of the House of 
 
 See the Collateral Readings, pp. 156-168. 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 Commons. This corresponded in a way to our House 
 of Representatives, but with a great difference: its 
 members were not elected by a general vote of the 
 people. In choosing representatives for the counties 
 and cities there were real contests between candidates, 
 real elections. But the right to vote was very limited : 
 in the whole country there were only 160,000 men who 
 had the suffrage. More than two-thirds of the mem 
 bers were not elected at all; they were appointed by 
 men who owned the " seats" as so many pieces of 
 property. When the historian Gibbon, for example, 
 wished to sit in Commons, he bought his seat as nat 
 urally and as frankly as if he were bargaining for a 
 house; his uncle had inherited as part of his estate 
 the right to name two members. Thus anyone might 
 hope to control Commons if he could buy enough seats 
 and fill them with men who would be loyal to him. 
 
 When. George III became king in 1760, he at first 
 tried to manage Parliament through a minister who 
 was an out-and-out favorite and servile Tory. But 
 the country showed such a fury of scorn for this crea 
 ture (Bute) that the king had to go to work another 
 way. He set himself patiently and craftily at the long 
 task of building up the kind of control that Walpole 
 and Newcastle had wielded. Thus the great Whig 
 engine that had been devised to keep tyranny down 
 was now to be applied to put English freedom down. 
 The king spent for the purchase of seats and for bri 
 bery 1 more than his income of $4,000,000 a year ; here 
 and there and everywhere he got control of patronage ; 
 
 1 See the Collateral Readings, pp. 150-155, and 165-168. 
 
>6 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 he diverted public funds to buying support; he kept 
 records and scanned lists as if his life depended on it. 
 When his second minister was voted out after two 
 years, he tried another. In six years he made six min 
 istries. He stirred up quarrels among the Whigs ; 
 he richly rewarded any who would be subservient and 
 tried to make life unbearable for those who stood out 
 against him; he welcomed one after another those 
 Tories, who had so long lived in disgruntled retire 
 ment, and who were now astonished and gratified to 
 find that this "Whig importation" of a king was a 
 monarch after their own hearts. When he was forced 
 to make Pitt prime minister, he thwarted him as far 
 as he could. He was resolved to bend Englishmen to 
 his will at home by political control and in the colo 
 nies by a new system of taxation. For his prime pur 
 pose in coercing the colonies was not to get money, 
 but to get obedience, to make their government less 
 democratic. After ten years of shrewd and unremit 
 ting exertion he triumphed at home. He had built up 
 a control of Commons more absolute than Walpole s. 
 
 How deadly an attack this was upon English free 
 dom may be judged by a pamphlet that Burke wrote 
 in 1770, called Thoughts Upon the Caiise of the Pres 
 ent Discontents. 1 In that chaos of shifting enmities it 
 was hard to see the one cause. Even now, after histo 
 rians have been explaining for a century, we find an 
 ordinary account of the politics of that period a mazy 
 confusion. Burke dissected out the one simple cause, 
 traced its ramifications, and displayed it clearly: the 
 
 See pp. 218-236. 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 ambition of the crown to destroy the liberties of the 
 people. Though his style is measured and careful, he 
 uses such expressions as these : Our freedom is at 
 stake. " " Parliament will become the mere appendage 
 and support of the arbitrary power of the crown." 
 "The result of the court s purposes will be that the 
 sword will govern us." "The ministry has become a 
 garrison of king s men to enslave us." "This court 
 faction pursues a scheme for undermining all the foun 
 dations of our freedom. " "If the power of the court 
 is not checked, we must be hurried into all the rage 
 of civil violence, or sink into the dead repose of des 
 potism." Such statements might be called ranting if 
 they had been made by a colonist or an ordinary poli 
 tician, but they were made by Burke in a statesman s 
 analysis. 
 
 In Burke s American Taxation 1 (delivered in 1774) 
 he is outspoken and bitter against the King, the King s 
 ministry, the King s men, the King s treachery, the 
 King s scheme for fomenting discord between the colo 
 nists and the House of Commons. When he spoke on 
 conciliation in 1775, his convictions were even more 
 profound and bitter as we know from remarks 
 quoted in the Parliamentary History for January, 
 February, and March. But this bitterness is hardly 
 allowed to appear. Apparently he designed to have 
 the whole tone of his speech conciliatory; he wished 
 to be as winning and persuasive as possible in such a 
 crisis, not to disturb his serious plea by wrangling or 
 accusation. To be sure there is some sarcasm, yet his 
 
 See pp. 169-193. 
 
18 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 listeners must have been much more impressed by his 
 temperate tone; to them the contrast was the most 
 striking proof of Burke s earnestness in pleading for 
 conciliation. 
 
 This contrast is lost upon a reader who does not 
 know about the violent denunciations of the North 
 ministry that were usual 1 in Commons at that time. 
 This detestation of the King s methods of creating 
 rebellion is the background of the Conciliation. On 
 January 19 Burke was " sorry to hear how knavish 
 the noble lord has been, and kept the House in a con 
 tinual roar of laughter by his attack on North. On 
 January 24 : * I will not trouble the noble lord to walk 
 out every five minutes to inter petitions in his cemetery 
 of oblivion. And Fox charged North with * the most 
 unexampled treachery and falsehood." On February 
 13 Temple Luttrell said : * It is by the German policy 
 of dominion that British America is to be reduced to 
 vassalage. But let the all-potent minions beware lest 
 while they are bowing the stubborn necks of these 
 colonists to the yoke they find not their own necks bow 
 to the block of an executioner." On February 20 
 Burke said that North s project was " oppressive, ab 
 surd, like the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar. On Feb 
 ruary 24 he declared that the Penal Bill "tells the 
 starving Americans that they may poke in the brooks 
 and rake in the puddles. He spoke so hotly that he 
 was called to order by the chair. On March 15 he 
 spoke of North s "ruinous and mad career of vio 
 lence." 
 
 See the Collateral Readings, pp. 265-282. 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 All through the session the House had been kept 
 in ignorance of how many troops were being sent 
 against the colonies and of what military steps were 
 being taken. To this dastardly scheming the opposi 
 tion had continually objected. North said that Fox 1 
 and Burke "constantly made a point, not only of at 
 tacking, but of threatening me. ? On Feb. 2 Dunning 
 went so far as to say : * I insist that every appearance 
 of riot and sedition which the noble lord has so faith 
 fully recounted arises not from disobedience or re 
 bellion, but is created by the conduct of those who are 
 anxious to establish despotism, and whose views are 
 manifestly directed to reduce America to the most 
 abject state of servility, as a prelude to realizing the 
 same wicked system in the mother country. On Feb 
 ruary 6 Lord Irnham said : The making of our Prince 
 [George III] absolute and despotic over all his vast 
 American dominions may prove ruinous to our liberty, 
 property, and every civil right"; and he called the 
 King s men "a contemptible collection of servile cour 
 tiers, renegade "Whigs, and fawning, bigoted Tories." 
 In the House of Lords the Duke of Manchester, in a 
 "moderate and pathetic " speech, foretold "a civil war 
 which I fear will terminate in the inevitable destruc 
 tion of the whole empire." 2 
 
 The responsibility for this attack upon English free 
 dom was not charged against North or the servile 
 Tories. Governor Johnstone said on February 6: "I 
 
 See the Collateral Readings, pp. 256-264. 
 2 For further examples see Excerpts from Parliamentary His 
 tory, pp. 265-282. 
 
20 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 perceive from the noble lord s faint manner of stating 
 his propositions that they are not the dictates of his 
 own mind, and that they are forced on him that is, 
 by the King. Burke said (December 16) of the King s 
 speech from the throne, "It breathed nothing but 
 war. After war had begun Burke vented his feelings 
 in sentences like these : * War is at present carried on 
 by the King s natural and foreign troops on one side, 
 and the English in America on the other." "It tends 
 to make an eternal rent and schism in the British na 
 tion. " " The affection of the Americans is a thousand 
 times more worth to us than the mercenary zeal of all 
 the circles of Germany." 1 
 
 It was against this evil Hanoverian policy of dom 
 ination and frightfulness that Burke made his vain 
 plea for conciliation, picturing with prophetic wis 
 dom the power of affection, of love for English liber 
 ties. 
 
 Americans nowadays may suppose that Burke and 
 his colleagues overrated the power of a German king 
 and exaggerated the danger to English freedom. 2 But 
 that danger was quite as great as Burke pictured it. 
 A modern historian, Lecky, thus describes it: "The 
 period of the accession of George III was exceedingly 
 propitious to his design, which was in many respects 
 more plausible than is now generally admitted. . . . 
 
 See Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, pp. 193-217. 
 
 2 For an illuminating and stimulating summary of the nature- 
 of this contest for freedom in the eighteenth century see Edwin 
 Greenlaw s Builders of Democracy (Scott, Foresman and Com 
 pany), Part Two, Section XL 
 
INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 About the year 1770 there was grave danger that the 
 Crown would regain all, or nearly all, the power it had 
 lost by the Revolution. ... In the early years of 
 his reign representative institutions were the rare ex 
 ception, and the influence of foreign example and 
 opinion was almost wholly on the side of despotism. 
 Europe was strewn with the wrecks of the liberties of 
 the past. All the greatest states, all the rising and 
 most vigorous powers, were despotic, and the few re 
 maining sparks of liberty seemed flickering in the 
 socket. The prospects of liberty were very gloomy; 
 and during the American War it was the strong belief 
 of the chief Whig politicians that the defeat of the 
 Americans would probably be followed by a subver 
 sion of the Constitution of England. . . . He in 
 flicted more profound and enduring injuries upon his 
 country than any other modern English king. Re 
 solved at ail hazards to compel his ministers to adopt 
 his own views, he espoused with passionate eagerness 
 the American quarrel, resisted obstinately the meas 
 ures of conciliation by which it might easily have been 
 stifled, envenomed it by his glaring partisanship, and 
 protracted it for several years in opposition to the 
 advice of his own favorite minister." 1 
 
 It is no wonder that Burke called the American 
 question "an awful subject," that North called it "a 
 matter of the greatest magnitude ever debated within 
 these walls, that Burgoyne called it * an unparalleled 
 moment in English history." 
 
 See Extracts from Lecky, pp. 156-168. 
 
22 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 THE CHAMPION OF ENGLISH FREEDOM, 
 EDMUND BURKE 
 
 The most unrelenting opponent of the German king 
 was Edmund Burke. He was not a superman like the 
 eider Pitt ; he had no such strength in practical states 
 manship as the younger Pitt ; nor is he endeared to us 
 by any romance of life or splendor of career. But he 
 has commanded the respect we may even say the 
 awe of posterity by the grandeur and honest wisdom 
 of his speeches. He was the propagator of that 
 peculiarly English idea that magnanimity is the 
 truest wisdom. His greatest illustration of this prin 
 ciple is his Speech on Conciliation with America, de 
 livered in Commons about a month before the battle 
 of Lexington. This will seem much more alive to a 
 modern reader if he has in mind a sketch of Burke s 
 career. 
 
 Edmund Burke was an Irishman born in Dublin, 
 in 1729. His father (a lawyer) was a Protestant; 
 his mother and wife were Catholics ; and the teacher 
 who profoundly influenced him was a Quaker. Hence 
 he learned a sympathy with different religious 
 beliefs. And in most other matters his knowledge was 
 broad and many-sided. At Dublin University, which 
 he entered before he was fifteen, he eagerly read many 
 kinds of books. When at the age of twenty-one his 
 father sent him to study law in London, he devoted 
 much of his time to philosophy. He wrote a philo 
 sophical analysis of the nature of "The Sublime and 
 Beautiful, " and was a keen critic of art. He enjoyed 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 the theater, wrote a brief history of England, com 
 posed some verse, traveled a good deal, and had a plan 
 to visit the American colonies. 
 
 In them he had always felt a special interest; he 
 published a history and description of them as early 
 as 1757, and was always adding to his vast store of 
 information about them. This consisted of much more 
 than facts. His imagination was forever amplifying a 
 vivid picture of that distant and important people. 
 In his mind he could see them and feel with them. 
 Six years before he entered Parliament he began to 
 edit the Annual Register, a handbook of general infor 
 mation like the Statesman s Year Book. He familiar 
 ized himself in a marvelous way with all the ins and 
 outs of complicated government policies: his brain 
 became a kind of library and picture gallery of all 
 that Parliament and the ministries had done. 
 
 He had a gift for friendship. The most famous 
 actor of the day liked him ; the most learned and witty 
 woman of the day was attracted by him ; the greatest 
 painter loved him all his life and called him * the best 
 judge of a picture I ever knew ; Dr. Johnson, though 
 entirely opposed to Burke s politics, always admired 
 and esteemed him. If , " said Johnson, * * a man were 
 to go by chance at the same time with Burke under a 
 shed to shun a shower, he would say, * This is an extra 
 ordinary man. "When Johnson was on his death 
 bed, he was glad to have Burke beside him. 
 
 The impression of extraordinary was made upon 
 all who met him. In spite of his unassuming and 
 friendly manner he impressed people with the sense 
 
24 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 of force and genius. "His figure," says Fanny 
 Burney, "is noble; his air commanding; his address 
 graceful; his voice .clear, sonorous, powerful; his 
 manners attractive ; his conversation past all praise. 
 As early as 1759 he was recognized as having "a 
 most extensive knowledge, with extraordinary talents 
 for public business, and became secretary to a promi 
 nent member of Commons. In this position he became 
 acquainted with other members, who foresaw that the 
 nation would have need of him. So much did the fame 
 of his talents increase that the Marquis of Rocking- 
 ham, who formed a ministry in 1765, employed him as 
 a confidential adviser. The Marquis needed the coun 
 sel of someone who understood America. For the 
 Stamp Act, which had been put through Parliament 
 by a ministry of "king s men," had been received in 
 the colonies with an outburst of rebellious indignation ; 
 no stamps could be sold, no legal business transacted ; 
 the home government had been defied. Rockingham s 
 new ministry, which really represented the public 
 opinion of England, decided that the Stamp Act must 
 be repealed. Rockingham began to muster his forces 
 and lay his plans. One of his moves was to secure a 
 seat in Commons for Burke, who made his maiden 
 speech on January 27, 1766, arguing that the petition 
 from the colonial congress should be received. So suc 
 cessful was he that the great Pitt declared: "The 
 young member has anticipated me with such ingenuity 
 and eloquence that there is little left for me to say. 
 Within a few weeks Burke had taken a foremost place 
 in the House. 
 
INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 Yet he had certain marked defects as an orator. 
 He was careless in dress, rather awkward in manner, 
 and spoke very rapidly with a strong Irish accent. 
 He was too fond of philosophizing and too fond of 
 speaking at great length once imposing upon a weary 
 House a five-hour speech that began late at night. He 
 was, however, the leading oratorical genius of the 
 House. Horace Walpole said: "His wit excited the 
 warmest and most continued burst of laughter, even 
 from Lord North." 1 Gov. Johnstone testified of one 
 powerful speech: "If strangers had been admitted, 
 Burke would have excited them to tear the ministers 
 to pieces. n The Due de Levis declared : * Never was 
 the electric power of eloquence more imperiously felt. 
 I have witnessed many scenes where eloquence per 
 formed a noble part, but the whole of them appeared 
 insipid when compared with this amazing effort." 1 
 Morley says of his impeachment of Hastings: "He 
 spoke with such a pitch of eloquence and passion that 
 every listener, including the great criminal, held his 
 breath in an agony of horror. He had such marvelous 
 command of his thoughts and language that even his 
 extempore remarks were as finished in form and as 
 readily uttered as his prepared speeches. He did not 
 write out what he proposed to say, but simply planned 
 the order of ideas and illustrations, and then spoke 
 as the spirit of his eloquence moved him. Hence we 
 have no verbatim report of any of his speeches ; most 
 of them were never recorded. In only half a dozen 
 
 Quoted by Lecky. See the Burke s Power as an Orator, pp. 
 237-242. 
 
26 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 cases, when he had been urged to preserve what he had 
 spoken, did he write but his speeches after their deliv 
 ery relying on his notes, his memory, and his friends 
 memories. Yet we know that these written forms were 
 very closely like what he had said ; this Conciliation, 
 for example, sounds like the natural flow of talking 
 rather than like his systematic essays. 
 
 For thirty years he was an ardent force in Parlia 
 ment, becoming the leader and manager of the Whigs 
 who insistently opposed the influence of the court ; he 
 outlined policies, spurred his colleagues to their duty, 
 furnished arguments, and delivtered speeches that 
 gave him the rank of the greatest orator that England 
 ever produced. Nevertheless, this long career of dili 
 gent patriotism was a series of disappointments and 
 hardships. Only twice could he feel the pleasure of 
 direct victory ; after that auspicious beginning he was 
 always (except for a few months) "voting with a dis 
 pirited minority"; because he had no aristocratic 
 family connections and because he was a difficult man 
 to collaborate with, he was never given any prominent 
 office ; he was always looking in vain for the reward of 
 his useful genius ; he was always poor and in debt ; he 
 was forever persecuted by scandalous stories that he 
 was a Jesuit plotter, a dishonest speculator ; during a 
 period of eight years, late in life, he was so disap 
 pointed and bitter and imprudent that he was fre 
 quently jeered when he rose to speak. 
 
 This portion of failure, however, is no more than 
 the share that enters many great lives, even of such 
 men as Washington and Lincoln. From year to year 
 
INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 they seem to be hacking at various foes in an arena; 
 they do not live to see the outcome of the whole battle. 
 In the case of Burke the trial of Warren Hastings is 
 typical of his whole life. For fourteen years Burke 
 planned and conducted that most spectacular and 
 long-drawn-out impeachment in history. With pas 
 sionate energy he dramatized the w r rongs and brutali 
 ties committed by Hastings in gaining the empire of 
 India; with all his art and all his vast knowledge he 
 pressed the indictment. Yet Hastings was acquitted. 
 So Burke had labored in vain ? He may have felt so. 
 But the indirect result of all his zeal was to make 
 colonial brutality impossible for England in the 
 future ; he set up a standard of generous dealing with 
 dependencies, and so added incalculably to the strength 
 of the great fabric of the British empire and to the 
 world s conception of justice. So in other respects his 
 career, when seen in the perspective of history, appears 
 like a solid monument of usefulness and success. 
 
 Burke s achievements are not so attractive to Amer 
 ican eyes as the splendor of Pitt s fame. -They shine 
 less brightly because Burke was a conservative. Bril 
 liant schemes and hopes of reform do not glitter in 
 his record, nor does he ever dazzle us with projects for 
 revolutionizing society. He was too wise for that. 
 His sure instinct taught him that mankind can be im 
 proved only by slow experience, by careful adjustment 
 to each necessity as it arises. He wisely mistrusted 
 mere experiment, for he knew that English freedom 
 had never been advanced by experiment. His wisdom 
 clearly saw the danger of tampering with the Consti- 
 
28 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 tution on the basis of mere theory ; he knew that the 
 chances of doing harm in that way were very great. 
 In this he was like Washington, who wrote in the year 
 before Burke died these solemn words about preserving 
 liberty: "Resist the spirit of innovation upon the 
 authority of government. Remember that time and 
 habit are necessary to fix the true forms of government. 
 Experience is the surest standard." Burke s wisdom 
 was of a piece with Washington s. His sagacity, just 
 like Washington s, foresaw the evils of the French 
 Revolution. When Englishmen and Americans alike 
 were hailing with joy the fall of the Bastille in 1789, 
 Burke and Washington suspected the evils that were 
 to follow the butchery and the rise of a despotism. 
 If we wish that he had been more of a prophet of the 
 liberty that was having such a terrible birth, we must 
 remember that thirty years after he was dead our own 
 Daniel Webster was still lamenting at Bunker Hill 
 "the conflagration and terror" which the French 
 Revolution spread in the world. 
 
 It was unfailing sagacity that ennobled Burke s 
 oratory. All his structures were built on the enduring 
 foundations of a true knowledge of how social forces 
 act. Every resolution that he opposed was at the time 
 unwise; every measure that he fought for has been 
 shown by history to be wise. He was right in his idea 
 of treating Catholics and non-conformists more leni 
 ently, of reforming Parliament, of giving the dema 
 gogue Wilkes his seat, of abolishing brutal punish 
 ments for crime, of stopping the slave trade, of being 
 humane in India. And he was unfailingly wise in his 
 
INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 ideas about the colonies. "With breadth of vision and 
 warmth of deep feeling he foresaw the truth about 
 empire that was hidden from most of his contem 
 poraries : "My trust is in their interest in the British 
 Constitution," This faith for which he pleaded so 
 vainly in 1775 was richly verified by Canada and New 
 Zealand and Australia and South Africa and India 
 in 1914, when England began the struggle against 
 that slavery which they may have from Prussia. 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF GERMAN INTRIGUE IN 1775 
 
 In 1756 England began the Seven Years 7 "War a 
 fight for life against the autocracy of France and 
 Austria. The colonial Englishmen went into the war 
 heart and soul, contributing men and money beyond 
 their means, fighting under the leadership of generals 
 from England. At this time Washington, Gates, and 
 Putnam got their training. By 1759, when Quebec 
 was taken, the power of autocracy was dead in the 
 western hemisphere. The result among the colonists 
 was to make them feel more independent, for they 
 no longer needed the protection of the mother country. 
 England was victorious in 1763. But she had spent 
 such vast sums of money that she was in financial 
 straits and needed revenue. A very natural way of 
 adding to her income was to tax the colonies. 
 
 This was an entirely new policy. Up to that year all 
 income from the colonies had been obtained in an 
 entirely different way by trade laws. The nature 
 of these was to "restrain" (i. e., to limit) colonial 
 commerce to English ports: most exports had to be 
 
30 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 shipped to England, most imports had to come from 
 England, and the demand for English goods was main 
 tained by forbidding much manufacture in the 
 colonies. Thus the trade laws were not a form of tax 
 ation, but they increased England s wealth by increas 
 ing her commerce. With this "restraint" the colonies 
 had always been familiar. Although they had chafed 
 and grumbled at times, had smuggled on a grand scale, 
 and were resentful when trade laws were stringently 
 enforced, their resentment was never serious. The 
 Congress of 1774 formally pledged obedience to "such 
 acts as are ~bona fide restrained to the regulation of our 
 external commerce." 
 
 But taxation by revenue laws was an entirely dif 
 ferent matter. The instant a revenue tax was proposed 
 the colonies snuffed the approach of tyranny. And 
 their nostrils did not deceive them. If they could 
 have looked into the King s mind, they would have seen 
 that he cared less about an income than about his 
 royal prerogative. He and his creature Bute devised 
 a scheme of taxing Americans. They secured the 
 assistance of Grenville, an honest and industrious 
 man, but a Tory and a fool, despised by Pitt, "who 
 nicknamed him the "gentle shepherd." His small 
 equipment of common-sense may be gauged by his 
 announcement that he entered the ministry * to secure 
 the King from falling into the hands of the Whigs ! 
 It is easy to guess how such a person was manipulated 
 by a crafty king until he believed in all honesty that 
 the colonies should be taxed. Shrewd, practical states 
 men like Walpole and Pitt had declined to engage in 
 
INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 such folly, but Grenville was zealous for it. He intro 
 duced plans for getting revenue from the colonies. In 
 1763 he enforced with exasperating suddenness those 
 trade laws that had never before been enforced strictly ; 
 he proposed a scheme of taxation; and in order to 
 make sure of obedience he proposed to quarter troops 
 on the colonists. In 1765 he secured the passage of 
 the Stamp Act, a measure providing that all legal 
 documents and newspapers must be printed on special 
 stamped paper. His purpose was quite honest; his 
 measures were normal methods of finance and were 
 passed with few dissenting votes. But it is significant 
 that Col. Barre (a huge, scarred, swarthy soldier who 
 had fought at Quebec and who knew something about 
 American fighters) denounced the Act. Where this 
 warrior feared to tread, the "gentle shepherd" rushed 
 confidently in, arguing that taxes had been much in 
 creased in England and that it was natural to require 
 the colonies to bear their share in paying the expenses 
 of the war that had resulted so profitably to them. He 
 had consulted the colonial agents about his measure 
 and had postponed it a year while waiting for sug 
 gestions of some better way. Few people in England 
 suspected that there was anything momentous about 
 the Stamp Act. Even Burke, who heard the debate 
 from the visitors gallery, probably expected no 
 hideous harm. 
 
 But so violent and complete was the colonial hos 
 tility that in 1766 the Act was repealed under the 
 anti-king ministry of Rockingham. The King was then 
 obliged to make Pitt prime minister. Within one 
 
32 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 year the colonists were made joyful and as loyal as 
 ever. 
 
 The adroit King quickly turned his defeat into tri 
 umph. Pitt, who had suffered a nervous break-down, 
 refused to take any active part in leadership. The 
 ministry that conducted business in his name was a 
 political hodge-podge of men who believed in various 
 policies and who had enmities and jealousies among 
 themselves. The King artfully favored any minister 
 who would do his bidding, insulted or disgraced those 
 who would not, stirred up quarrels, maneuvered one 
 opponent of taxation into resigning, got a friend of 
 taxation in his place, played discordant factions 
 against each other, tampered with every sensible plan. 
 The king s men were united ; the others were all at 
 cross-purposes. One of these "men" was Townshend, 
 the wittiest member of Commons, a brilliant fellow, 
 called the * spoiled child of the House. While he was 
 temporarily in control of the ministry, he secured the 
 passage of an act to punish New York for disobedience 
 and to impose a revenue on certain articles imported 
 into tlie colonies one of which was tea. Again the 
 infuriated colonists petitioned and resisted. But the 
 only effect on the King was to make him more deter 
 mined to bring his transatlantic subjects to obedience. 
 He drove from the ministry all who withstood his pur 
 poses. 
 
 When Townshend died, in the fall of 1767, the King 
 filled his place with the tool for which he had been 
 searching, Frederick North, called Lord, by court 
 esy, because he was the son of an earl. This is "the 
 
INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 noble lord in the blue ribbon" to whom Burke refers 
 so frequently. His features, oddly enough, very much 
 resembled the King s. Personally he was a likable 
 man portly, humorous, with a never-ruffled temper. 
 But he is an odious figure in history because he lent 
 himself completely to carrying out his royal master s 
 pernicious designs. Against his own better judgment 
 he forced through Parliament the acts that alienated 
 the colonies. His first great service was to manage the 
 elections to Parliament in 1768 ; in a century that was 
 notoriously corrupt he succeeded in breaking the rec 
 ord for corruption. He had Commons in his pocket 
 and not for the use of a ruling class of Englishmen, 
 but for the use of a German king who was resolved to 
 have obedient subjects. George III was at last free 
 to deal with America as he would. Two regiments 
 of soldiers were sent to Boston to overawe the people. 
 In 1769 the colonies were menaced by an act providing 
 that traitors might be taken to England for trial. 
 The King was so gratified at having his purposes thus 
 thoroughly carried out that he procured for Lord 
 North (in 1772) the most coveted aristocratic honor in 
 England, a Knighthood of the Garter. In all Eng 
 lish history no commoner had ever worn across his 
 breast the blue ribbon of that order. 
 
 To Burke that blue ribbon was a sign and symbol of 
 a German despotism, which was increasing its power 
 every year by the most vicious methods. A good ex 
 ample of the King s Hunnish depravity is a letter 
 which he directed Hillsborough to write, and which 
 Burke refers to in paragraph 96. In the speech from 
 
34 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 the throne on May 9, 1769, the King had announced a 
 policy of firmness with the colonies; five days later 
 he told Hillsborough to write a secret letter to the 
 colonies, declaring that the King had never had a de 
 sign of taxing America, but that a t factious and sedi 
 tious" House of Commons had been responsible, and 
 that "the King would rather part with his crown than 
 preserve it by deceit ! Such malevolent and dastardly 
 crookedness could hardly be paralleled in English 
 history. This letter, said Burke, in his Speech on 
 American Taxation, was the work "of the noble lord 
 in the blue ribbon and of all the King s ministers." 
 (The rules of the House did not allow him to accuse 
 the King directly.) It showed that Commons had 
 become a mere tool in the hands of despotism useful 
 for infuriating the colonies, and then useful for send 
 ing an army against them. 
 
 The receipts from the first year of Townshend reve 
 nues were $1,500 ; the expense for maintaining the 
 system was $850,000. Even the subservient Tory min 
 istry weakened, and but for North they would have 
 rescinded the obnoxious measures. Finally even North 
 agreed to repeal the revenue law, except the tax on tea. 
 He and his master wished to establish the principle, 
 but saw that it was necessary to appear to yield for the 
 time being. So, in 1770, the tone toward the colonies 
 was decidedly conciliatory. The one duty retained 
 was so slight that tea could be bought cheaper in 
 America than in England ; the colonies were officially 
 notified that no other revenue would be imposed ; and 
 troops were no longer quartered on the people. 
 
; INTRODUCTION 35 
 
 You have noticed that in the four preceding para 
 graphs the policy toward the colonies has alternated : 
 it was coercive in 1763-65, conciliatory in 1766, 
 coercive in 1767-69, conciliatory in 1770. But the 
 colonies were not deceived by cheap tea. Every year 
 it became clearer that they would fight before sub 
 mitting to the principle of taxation. In 1770 the 
 "Boston Massacre" occurred; in 1771 there was a 
 pitched battle against the royal government in North 
 Carolina; the revenue cutter Gaspee was burned in 
 1772; at the end of 1773 came the "Boston Tea 
 Party " ; in 1774 Massachusetts was punished by hav 
 ing its port of Boston closed, by the destruction of its 
 representative government ("abrogating the char 
 ter"), by a provision that British soldiers were not an 
 swerable to American law, and by again having sol 
 diers quartered in Boston. In 1774 the other colonies 
 met in a formal congress to pledge their support to 
 Massachusetts. The situation grew constantly more 
 warlike. More soldiers and warships were sent over 
 from England. The colonies began to store up supplies 
 of ammunition. Minute-men began to train in New 
 England towns; as early as September 20,000 re 
 sponded to an alarm. This was the situation that Burke 
 "dared not name," for the only proper name was 
 "armed rebellion." 
 
 So very threatening was the aspect of American 
 affairs that Lord North once more tried to appear 
 friendly by offering on February 20, 1775, a resolution 
 to this effect : " If any colony makes such a contribu 
 tion to the empire as meets the approval of Parliament, 
 
36 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 it shall be free from all taxation." This was the 
 " project" that Burke refers to in paragraphs 10-13 
 and objects to in paragraphs 123-132. The futile 
 little piece of hypocrisy is interesting as being the last 
 conciliatory measure that passed in Parliament. 
 Burke made the most of it on March 22, when he pro 
 posed his own honest and statesmanlike resolutions 
 for real conciliation. But all his wisdom and brilliance 
 and fervor were in vain. He might as well have tried 
 to persuade a counting-machine, for the House of 
 Commons had become simply a machine for recording 
 the King s will. It counted with mechanical indiffer 
 ence an adverse vote of 270 to 78. 
 
 Twenty-seven days later the battle of Lexington was 
 fought. A German king had finally inflamed his sub 
 jects against each other and was profoundly grateful 
 that a civil war had begun. For fifteen years he had 
 built up his power at home by inciting quarrels among 
 statesmen ; he now had brought all his statesmen to 
 fight against all his colonists ; he thought his prospects 
 for despotic power were very bright. And so they 
 were if his troops could win in the civil war that he 
 had fomented between his people in England and his 
 people in America. 
 
 ENGLISH FREEDOM TRIUMPHS 
 
 So the American Kevolution was, as our American 
 historian Fiske has so well shown, a contest between 
 German tyranny and English freedom, although 
 neither party in the struggle knew that this was the 
 
INTRODUCTION 37 
 
 issue. After war has been declared, people cannot 
 examine causes; they have to fight. 
 
 Through the eight years of the Revolution North 
 continued to be a servile minister to his German mas 
 ter, and did not quail until he received the fearful 
 news that Cornwallis had surrendered. Then this 
 even-tempered humorist staggered as if he had been 
 shot, exclaiming, "Oh, God! it s all over!" 
 
 His words had a wider meaning than he knew. Not 
 only was it all over with a German king s effort to 
 destroy English freedom in America, but it was all 
 over with his effort to destroy English freedom in 
 England. North resigned, and from that day the 
 King s power for despotism was at an end. Within two 
 years North was in opposition to the King, in a min 
 istry that was headed by the son of that Pitt whom 
 Englishmen on both sides of the Atlantic had so ad 
 mired and trusted. And the son deserved the same 
 trust for the same reason : he represented that public 
 opinion which demanded a government by and for the 
 people. When our new-born states were forming 
 themselves into a republic, a new kind of House of 
 Commons was elected in England a kind that was 
 responsive to public opinion. 
 
 To be sure, the millennium had not come. Just as 
 English freedom had to develop slowly through the 
 preceding hundred and fifty years, against constant 
 difficulties and setbacks, so it was retarded during the 
 century following, especially after 1792, by a reaction 
 from the horrible excesses of the French Revolution. 
 But progress came with time. Parliament has grown 
 
38 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 steadily more responsive to the will of the people, 
 until now the English government is in some ways 
 more democratic than our own. 
 
 Yet, in spite of this growth of democracy in England, 
 in spite of the similarity of our national ideals, in 
 spite of our common aim and faith and common blood, 
 the animosity caused by the Revolution has never been 
 wholly removed. That civil war produced a deep and 
 lasting alienation, just as our American Civil War 
 caused hatreds that have not entirely died, even among 
 a people living in a Union of neighboring states. The 
 distrust roused by the Revolution was perpetuated 
 for a hundred and thirty years. Englishmen have 
 made fun of us, and our school histories have spoken 
 bitterly of them; national antipathies have been 
 strong. 
 
 But it needed only the common peril of 1914 to 
 show both countries how deep was our mutual desire 
 for English freedom. In 1918 an English editor, 
 speaking to American newspaper men in Paris, could 
 declare with truth: "A warm friendship has sprung 
 up between the British and the American soldiers who 
 have fought together at the front. And our Ameri 
 can Admiral Rodman could say with truth, when he 
 returned from England, "Our mutual association in 
 this war s work has drawn us so close together that 
 in the Grand Fleet it was instrumental in ripening 
 friendship into brotherhood." Americans can realize 
 now the truth of what the English historian Green 
 wrote, when the population of the United States was 
 only forty million : * * If American independence crip- 
 
INTRODUCTION 39 
 
 pled for a while the supremacy of the English nation, 
 it founded the supremacy of the English race. * . . 
 Every year proves more clearly that in spirit the 
 English People is one. The distance that parted Eng 
 land from America lessens every day. The ties that 
 unite them grow every day stronger. "... In the 
 centuries that lie before us the primacy of the world 
 will lie with the English people. " 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON 
 CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA 1 
 
 1. I hope, Sir, that notwithstanding the austerity 
 of the Chair your good nature will incline you to some 
 degree of indulgence towards human frailty. You 
 will not think it unnatural that those who have an 
 object depending which strongly engages their hopes 
 and fears should be somewhat inclined to superstition. 
 As I came into the House full of anxiety about the 
 event of my motion, I found, to my infinite surprise, 
 that the grand penal bill, by which we had passed 
 sentence on the trade and sustenance of America, is to 
 be returned to us from the other House. I do confess, 
 I could not help looking on this event as a fortunate 
 omen. I look upon it as a sort of providential favor, 
 by which we are put once more in possession of our 
 deliberative capacity, upon a business so very ques 
 tionable in its nature, so very uncertain in its issue. 
 By the return of this bill, which seemed to have taken 
 its flight for ever, we are at this very instant nearly 
 as free to choose a plan for our American government 
 as we were on the first day of the session. If, Sir, 
 we incline to the side of conciliation, we are not at all 
 embarrassed unless we please to make ourselves so 
 by any incongruous mixture of coercion and restraint. 
 
 ^he speech will be more interesting to the student if he reads 
 first " Where Burke Spoke," pp. 284-285. 
 
 41 
 
42 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 We are therefore called upon, as it were by a superior 
 warning voice, again to attend to America, to attend 
 to the whole of it together, and to review the subject 
 with an unusual degree of care and calmness. 
 
 2. Surely it is an awful subject, or there is none so 
 on this side of the grave. When I first had the honor 
 of a seat in this House, the affairs of that continent 
 pressed themselves upon us as the most important and 
 most delicate object of parliamentary attention. My 
 little share in this great deliberation oppressed me. I 
 found myself a partaker in a very high trust ; and hav 
 ing no sort of reason to rely on the strength of my 
 natural abilities for the proper execution of that trust, 
 I was obliged to take more than common pains to in 
 struct myself in everything which relates to our 
 colonies.. I was not less under the necessity of forming 
 some fixed ideas concerning the general policy of the 
 British Empire. Something of this sort seemed to be 
 indispensable, in order, amidst so vast a fluctuation of 
 passions and opinions, to concenter my thoughts, to 
 ballast my conduct, to preserve me from being blown 
 about by every wind of fashionable doctrine. I really 
 did not think it safe or manly to have fresh principles 
 to seek upon every fresh mail which should arrive from 
 America. 
 
 3. At that period I had the fortune to find myself 
 in perfect concurrence with a large majority in this 
 House. Bowing under that high authority, and pene 
 trated with the sharpness and strength of that early 
 impression, I have continued ever since, without the 
 least deviation, in my original sentiments. Whether 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 43 
 
 this be owing to an obstinate perseverance in error, or 
 to a religious adherence to what appears to me truth 
 and reason, it is in your equity to judge. 
 
 4. Sir, Parliament, having an enlarged view of 
 objects, made, during this interval, more frequent 
 changes in their sentiments and their conduct than, 
 could be justified in a particular person upon the con 
 tracted scale of private information. But though I 
 do not hazard anything approaching to censure on the 
 motives of former Parliaments to all those alterations, 
 one fact is undoubted that under them the state of 
 America has been kept in continual agitation. Every 
 thing administered as remedy to the public complaint, 
 if it did not produce, was at least followed by, an 
 heightening of the distemper; until, by a variety of 
 experiments, that important country has been brought 
 into her present situation a situation which I will not 
 miscall, which I dare not name, which I scarcely know 
 how to comprehend in the terms of any description. 
 
 5. In this posture, Sir, things stood at the begin 
 ning of the session. About that time a worthy member 
 of great parliamentary experience, who, in the year 
 1766, filled the chair of the American Committee with 
 much ability, took me aside, and, lamenting the present 
 aspect of our politics, told me things were come to 
 such a pass that our former methods of proceeding in 
 the House would be no* longer tolerated; that the 
 public tribunal never too indulgent to a long and 
 unsuccessful opposition would now scrutinize our 
 conduct with unusual severity; that the very vicissi 
 tudes and shiftings of ministerial measures, instead of 
 
46 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 You will see it just as it is, and you will treat it just 
 as it deserves. 
 
 9. The proposition is peace. Not peace through 
 the medium of war ; not peace to be hunted through the 
 labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not 
 peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from 
 principle in all parts of the empire; not peace to de 
 pend on the juridical determination of perplexing 
 questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boun 
 daries of a complex government. It is simple peace, 
 sought in its natural course, and in its ordinary 
 haunts it is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and 
 laid in principles purely pacific. I propose, by remov 
 ing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the 
 former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the 
 mother country, to give permanent satisfaction to your 
 people, and far from a scheme of ruling by discord 
 to reconcile them to each other in the same act, and 
 by the bond of the very same interest, which reconciles 
 them to British government. 
 
 10. My idea is nothing more. Refined policy ever 
 has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so, 
 as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, 
 which Is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud 
 is surely detected at last, is, let me say, of no mean 
 force in the government of mankind. Genuine sim 
 plicity of heart is a healing and cementing principle. 
 My plan, therefore, being formed upon the most simple 
 grounds imaginable, may disappoint some people when 
 they hear it. It has nothing to recommend it to the 
 pruriency of curious ears. There is nothing at all new 
 
BUKKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 47 
 
 and captivating in it. It has nothing of the splendor 
 of the project which has been lately laid upon your 
 table by the noble lord in the blue ribbon. It does not 
 propose to fill your lobby with squabbling colony 
 agents, who will require the interposition of your mace 
 at every instant, to keep the peace amongst them. It 
 does not institute a magnificent auction of finance, 
 where captivated provinces come to general ransom 
 by bidding against each other, until you knock down 
 the hammer, and determine a proportion of payments 
 beyond all the powers of algebra to equalize and settle. 
 
 11. The plan which I shall presume to suggest de 
 rives, however, one great advantage from the proposi 
 tion and registry of that noble lord s project. The 
 idea of conciliation is admissible. First, the House, 
 in accepting the resolution moved by the noble lord, 
 has admitted, notwithstanding the menacing front of 
 our address, notwithstanding our heavy bill of pains 
 and penalties, that we do not think ourselves precluded 
 from all ideas of free grace and bounty. 
 
 12. The House has gone farther : it has declared 
 conciliation admissible, previous to any submission on 
 the part of America. It has even shot a good deal 
 beyond that mark, and has admitted that the com 
 plaints of our former mode of exerting the right of 
 taxation were not wholly unfounded. That right thus 
 exerted is allowed to have had something reprehensible 
 in it, something unwise or something grievous, since, 
 in the midst of our heat and resentment, we of our 
 selves have proposed a capital alteration; and, in 
 order to get rid of what seemed so very exceptionable, 
 
48 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 have instituted a mode that is altogether new one 
 that is, indeed, wholly alien from all the ancient 
 methods and forms of Parliament. 
 
 13. The principle of this proceeding is large 
 enough for my purpose. The means proposed by the 
 noble lord for carrying his ideas into execution I think, 
 indeed, are very indifferently suited to the end, and 
 this I shall endeavor to show you before I sit down. 
 But, for the present, I take my ground on the admitted 
 principle. I mean to give peace. Peace implies recon 
 ciliation; and, where there has been a material dis 
 pute, reconciliation does in a manner always imply 
 concession on the one part or on the other. In this 
 state of things I make no difficulty in affirming that 
 the proposal ought to originate from us. Great and 
 acknowledged force is not impaired, either in effect or 
 in opinion, by an unwillingness to exert itself. The 
 superior power may offer peace with honor and with 
 safety. Such an offer from such a power will be at 
 tributed to magnanimity. But the concessions of the 
 weak are the concessions of fear. When such a one is 
 disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his superior; 
 and he loses forever that time and those chances, 
 which, as they happen to all men, are the strength and 
 resources of all inferior power. 
 
 14. The capital leading questions on which you 
 must this day decide are these two: first, whether 
 you ought to concede ; and, secondly, what your con 
 cession ought to be. On the first of these questions we 
 have gained as I have just taken the liberty of ob 
 serving to you some ground. But I am sensible that 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 49 
 
 a good deal more is still to be done. Indeed, Sir, to 
 enable us to determine both on the one and the other 
 of these great questions with a firm and precise judg 
 ment, I think it may, be necessary to consider distinctly 
 the true nature and the peculiar circumstances of the 
 object which we have before us. Because, after all our 
 struggle, whether we will or not, we must govern Amer 
 ica according to t^at nature and to those circum 
 stances, and not according to our own imaginations, 
 not according to abstract ideas of right ; by no means 
 according to mere general theories of government, the 
 resort to which appears to me, in our present situation, 
 no better than arrant trifling. I shall therefore en 
 deavor, with your leave, to lay before you some of the 
 most material of these circumstances in as full and as 
 clear a manner as I am able to state them. 
 
 15. The first thing that we have to consider with 
 regard to the nature of the object is the number of 
 people in the colonies. I have taken for some years a 
 good deal of pains on that point. I can by no calcula 
 tion justify myself in placing the number below two 
 millions of inhabitants of our own European blood 
 and color ; besides at least 500,000 others, who form no 
 inconsiderable part of the strength and opulence of the 
 whole. This, Sir, is, I believe, about the true number. 
 There is no occasion to exaggerate where plain truth 
 is of so much weight and importance. But whether I 
 put the present numbers too high or too low is a matter 
 of little moment. Such is the strength with which 
 population shoots in that part of the world that, state 
 the numbers as high as we will, whilst the dispute con- 
 
50 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 tinues, the exaggeration ends. Whilst we are discuss 
 ing any given magnitude, they are grown to it. Whilst 
 we spend our time in deliberating on the mode of gov 
 erning two millions, we shall find we have millions 
 more to manage. Your children do not grow faster 
 from infancy to manhood than they spread from fami 
 lies to communities, and from villages to nations. 
 
 16. I put this consideration of the present and the 
 growing numbers in the front of our deliberation; 
 because, Sir, this consideration will make it evident to 
 a blunter discernment than yours, that no partial, 
 narrow, contracted, pinched, occasional system will be 
 at all suitable to such an object. It will show you that 
 it is not to be considered as one of those minima which 
 are out of the eye and consideration of the law ; not a 
 paltry excrescence of the state ; not a mean dependent, 
 who may be neglected with little damage, and pro 
 voked with little danger. It will prove that some de 
 gree of care and caution is required in the handling 
 such an object; it will show that you ought not, in 
 reason, to trifle with so large a mass of the interests 
 and feelings of the human race. You could at no time 
 do so without guilt; and be assured you will not be 
 able to do it long with impunity. 
 
 17. But the population of this country, the great 
 and growing population, though a very important 
 consideration, will lose much of its weight if not com 
 bined with other circumstances. The commerce of 
 your colonies is out of all proportion beyond the num 
 bers of the people. This ground of their commerce 
 indeed has been trod some days ago, and with great 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 51 
 
 ability, by a distinguished person, at your bar. This 
 gentleman, after thirty-five years it is so long since 
 he first appeared at the same place to plead for the 
 commerce of Great Britain has come again before 
 you to plead the same cause, without any other effect 
 of time than that, to the fire of imagination and extent 
 of erudition which even then marked him as one of the 
 first literary characters of his age, he has added a 
 consummate knowledge in the commercial interest of 
 his country, formed by a long course of enlightened 
 and discriminating experience. 
 
 18. Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after 
 such a person with any detail, if a great part of the 
 members who now fill the House had not the misfor 
 tune to be absent when he appeared at your bar. Be 
 sides, Sir, I propose to take the matter at periods of 
 time somewhat different from his. There is, if I mis 
 take not, a point of view from whence if you will look 
 at this subject, it is impossible that it should not make 
 an impression upon you. 
 
 19. I have in my hand two accounts : one a com 
 parative state of the export trade of England to its 
 colonies, as it stood in the year 1704, and as it stood in 
 the year 1772 ; the other a state of the export trade of 
 this country to its colonies alone, as it stood in 1772, 
 compared with the whole trade of England to all parts 
 of the world the colonies included in the year 1704. 
 They are from good vouchers : the latter period from 
 the accounts on your table, the earlier from an original 
 manuscript of Davenant, who first established the In 
 spector-General s office, which has been ever since his 
 
52 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 time so abundant a source of parliamentary informa 
 tion. 
 
 20. The export trade to the colonies consists of 
 three great branches : the African, which, terminating 
 almost wholly in the colonies, must be put to the ac 
 count of their commerce; the West Indian; and the 
 North American. All these are so interwoven that the 
 attempt to separate them would tear to pieces the con 
 texture of the whole; and, if not entirely destroy, 
 would very much depreciate the value of all the parts. 
 I therefore consider these three denominations to be, 
 what in effect they are, one trade. 
 
 21. The trade to the colonies, taken on the export 
 side, at the beginning of this century that is, in the 
 year 1704 stood thus : 
 
 Exports to North America and the 
 
 West Indies 483,265 
 
 To Africa 86,665 
 
 569,930 
 
 22. In the year 1772, which I take as a middle 
 year between the highest and lowest of those lately 
 laid on your table, the account was as follows : 
 
 To North America and the West 
 
 Indies . 4,791,734 
 
 To Africa 866,398 
 
 To which if you add the export 
 trade from Scotland, which 
 had in 1704 no existence . . 364,000 
 
 6,022,132 
 
BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 53 
 
 23. From five hundred and odd thousands it has 
 grown to six millions. It has increased no less than 
 twelvefold. This is the state of the colony trade, as 
 compared with itself at these two periods, within this 
 century ; and this is matter for meditation. But this 
 is not all. Examine my second account. See how the 
 export trade to the colonies alone in 1772 stood in the 
 other point of view that is, as compared to the whole 
 trade of England in 1704. 
 
 The whole export trade of Eng 
 land, including that to the 
 colonies, in 1704 6,509,000 
 
 Export to the colonies alone, in 
 
 1772 6,022,000 
 
 Difference 487,000 
 
 24. The trade with America alone is now within 
 less than 500,000 of being equal to what this great 
 commercial nation, England, carried on at the begin 
 ning of this century with the whole world ! If I had 
 taken the largest year of those on your table, it would 
 rather have exceeded. But, it will be said, is not this 
 American trade an unnatural protuberance, that has 
 drawn the juices from the rest of the body? The 
 reverse. It is the very food that has nourished every 
 other part into its present magnitude. Our general 
 trade has been greatly augmented, and augmented 
 more or less in almost every part to which it ever ex 
 tended but with this material difference, that of the 
 six millions which in the beginning of the century 
 
54 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 constituted the whole mass of our export commerce, 
 the colony trade was but one twelfth part; it is now 
 (as a part of sixteen millions) considerably more than 
 a third of the whole. This is the relative proportion 
 of the importance of the colonies at these two periods ; 
 and all reasoning concerning our mode of treating 
 them must have this proportion as its basis, or it is a 
 reasoning weak, rotten, and sophistical. 
 
 25. Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself to 
 hurry over this great consideration. It is good for 
 us to be here. We stand where we have an immense 
 view of what is, and what is past. Clouds, indeed, and 
 darkness rest upon the future. Let us, however, be 
 fore we descend from this noble eminence, reflect that 
 this growth of our national prosperity has happened 
 within the short period of the life of man. It has 
 happened within sixty-eight years. There are those 
 alive whose memory might touch the two extremities. 
 For instance, my Lord Bathurst might remember all 
 the stages of the progress. He was in 1704 of an age 
 at least to be made to comprehend such things. He 
 was then old enough 
 
 acta parentum 
 Jam legere, et quse sit poterit cognoscere virtus. 
 
 Suppose, Sir, that the angel of this auspicious youth, 
 foreseeing the many virtues which made him one of 
 the most amiable, as he is one of the most fortunate, 
 men of his age, had opened to him in vision that 
 when, in the fourth generation, the third prince of the 
 House of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne 
 of that nation, which by the happy issue of moderate 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 55 
 
 and healing counsels was to be made Great Britain, 
 he should see his son, Lord Chancellor of England, 
 turn back the current of hereditary dignity to its 
 fountain, and raise him to a higher rank of peerage, 
 whilst he enriched the family with a new one if, 
 amidst these bright and happy scenes of domestic 
 honor and prosperity, that angel should have drawn 
 up the curtain, and unfolded the rising glories of his 
 country, and, whilst he was gazing with admiration 
 on the then commercial grandeur of England, the 
 Genius should point out to him a little speck, scarce 
 visible in the mass of the national interest, a small 
 seminal principle rather than a formed body, and 
 should tell him Young man, there is America, which 
 at this day serves for little more than to amuse you 
 with stories of savage men and uncouth manners, yet 
 shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to 
 the whole of that commerce which now attracts the 
 envy of the world. Whatever England has been grow 
 ing to by a progressive increase of improvement, 
 brought in by varieties of people, by succession of 
 civilizing conquests and civilizing settlements in a 
 series of seventeen hundred years, you shall see as 
 much added to her by America in the course of a 
 single life ! If this state of his country had been 
 foretold to him, would it not require all the sanguine 
 credulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of enthu 
 siasm, to make him believe it? Fortunate man, he 
 has lived to see it ! Fortunate indeed, if he lives to see 
 nothing that shall vary the prospect, and cloud the 
 setting of his day! 
 
56 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 ..... 
 
 26. Excuse me, Sir, if, turning from such thoughts, 
 I resume this comparative view once more. You have 
 seen it on a large scale ; look at it on a small one. I 
 will point out to your attention a particular instance 
 of it in the single Province of Pennsylvania. In the 
 year 1704 that Province called for 11,459 in value 
 of your commodities, native and foreign. This was 
 the whole. What did it demand in 1772? Why, 
 nearly fifty times as much ; for in that year the export 
 to Pennsylvania was 507,909 nearly equal to the 
 export to all the colonies together in the first period. 
 
 27. I choose, Sir, to enter into these minute and 
 particular details, because generalities, which in all 
 other cases are apt to heighten and raise the subject, 
 have here a tendency to sink it. When we speak of 
 the commerce with our colonies, fiction lags after 
 truth, invention is unfruitful, and imagination cold 
 and barren. 
 
 28. So far, Sir, as to the importance of the object, 
 in the view of its commerce, as concerned in the ex 
 ports from England. If I were to detail the imports, 
 I could show how many enjoyments they procure 
 which deceive the burthen of life ; how many materials 
 which invigorate the springs of national industry, and 
 extend and animate every part of our foreign and 
 domestic commerce. This would be a curious subject 
 indeed but I must prescribe bounds to myself in a 
 matter so vast and various. 
 
 29. I pass therefore to the colonies in another 
 point of view their agriculture. This they have 
 prosecuted with such a spirit that, besides feeding 
 
BUBKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 57 
 
 plentifully their own growing multitude, their annual 
 export of grain, comprehending rice, has some years 
 ago exceeded a million in value. Of their last harvest, 
 I am persuaded they will export much more. At the 
 beginning of the century some of these colonies im 
 ported corn from the mother country. For some time 
 past, the Old World has been fed from the New. The 
 scarcity which you have felt would have been a desolat 
 ing famine, if this child of your old age, with a true 
 filial piety, with a Roman charity, had not put the full 
 breast of its youthful exuberance to the mouth of its 
 exhausted parent. 
 
 30. As to the wealth which the colonies have 
 drawn from the sea by their fisheries, you had all that 
 matter fully opened at your bar. You surely thought 
 these acquisitions of value, for they seemed even to 
 excite your envy; and yet the spirit by which that 
 enterprising employment has been exercised ought 
 rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and 
 admiration. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal 
 to it ? Pass by the other parts, and look at the manner 
 in which the people of New England have of late car 
 ried on the whale fishery. Whilst we follow them 
 among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them 
 penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hud 
 son s Bay and Davis Straits, whilst we are looking for 
 them beneath the Arctic Circle, we hear that they have 
 pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that 
 they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the 
 frozen Serpent of the South. Falkland Island, which 
 seemed too remote and romantic an object for the 
 
58 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and resting- 
 place in the progress of their victorious industry. Nor 
 is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than 
 the accumulated winter of both the poles. We know 
 that whilst some of them draw the line and strike the 
 harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longi 
 tude and pursue their gigantic game along the coast 
 of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries ; 
 no climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither 
 the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of 
 France, nor the dextrous and firm sagacity of English 
 enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of 
 hardy industry to the extent to which it has been 
 pushed by this recent people a people who are still, 
 as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into, 
 the bone of manhood. 
 
 31. When I contemplate these things; when I 
 know that the colonies in general owe little or nothing 
 to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into 
 this happy form by the constraints of watchful and 
 suspicious government, but that, through a wise and 
 salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered 
 to take her own way to perfection ; when I reflect upon 
 these effects, when I see how profitable they have been 
 to us, I feel all the pride of power sink, and all pre 
 sumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt 
 and die away within me. My rigor relents. I pardon 
 something to the spirit of liberty. 
 
 32. I am sensible, Sir, that all which I have as 
 serted in my detail is admitted in the gross ; but that 
 quite a different conclusion is drawn from it. Amer- 
 
BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 59 
 
 ica, gentlemen say, is a noble object. It is an object 
 well worth fighting for. Certainly it is, if fighting a 
 people be the best way of gaining them. Gentlemen 
 in this respect will be led to their choice of means by 
 their complexions and their habits. Those who under 
 stand the military art will of course have some predi 
 lection for it. Those who wield the thunder of the 
 state may have more confidence in the efficacy of arms. 
 But I confess, possibly for want of this knowledge, my 
 opinion is much more in favor of prudent management 
 than of force ; considering force not as an odious, but 
 a feeble instrument, for preserving a people so numer 
 ous, so active, so growing, so spirited as this, in a profit 
 able and subordinate connection with us. 
 
 33. First, Sir, permit me to observe that the use 
 of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a 
 moment, but it does not remove the necessity of sub 
 duing again; and a nation is not governed which is 
 perpetually to be conquered. 
 
 34. My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror 
 is not always the effect of force ; and an armament is 
 not a victory. If you do not succeed, you are without 
 resource : for, conciliation failing, force remains ; but, 
 force failing, no further hope of reconciliation is left. 
 Power and authority are sometimes bought by kind 
 ness, but they can never be begged as alms by an im 
 poverished and defeated violence. 
 
 35. A further objection to force is that you impair 
 the object by your very endeavors to preserve it. The 
 thing you fought for is not the thing which you re 
 cover, but depreciated, sunk, wasted, and consumed 
 
6Q BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 in the contest. Nothing less will content me than whole 
 America. I do not choose to consume its strength 
 along with our own, because in all parts it is the 
 British strength that I consume. I do not choose to 
 be caught by a foreign enemy at the end of this ex 
 hausting conflict, and still less in the midst of it. I 
 may escape, but I can make no insurance against such 
 an event. Let me add that I do not choose wholly 
 to break the American spirit, because it is the spirit 
 that has made the country. 
 
 36. Lastly, we have no sort of experience in favor 
 of force as an instrument in the rule of our colonies. 
 Their growth and their utility has been owing to meth 
 ods altogether different. Our ancient indulgence has 
 been said to be pursued to a fault. It may be so. But 
 we know, if feeling is evidence, that our fault was more 
 tolerable than our attempt to mend it, and our sin far 
 more salutary than our penitence. 
 
 37. These, Sir, are my reasons for not entertaining 
 that high opinion of untried force by which many 
 gentlemen, for whose sentiments in other particulars 
 I have great respect, seem to be so greatly captivated. 
 But there is still behind a third consideration concern 
 ing this object, which serves to determine my opinion 
 on the sort of policy which ought to be pursued 
 in the management of America even more than its 
 population and its commerce I mean its temper and 
 character. 
 
 38. In this character of the Americans a love of 
 freedom is the predominating feature which marks 
 and distinguishes the whole ; and as an ardent is always 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 61 
 
 a jealous affection, your colonies become suspicious, 
 restive, and untractable whenever they see the least 
 attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from 
 them by chicane, what they think the only advantage 
 worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is 
 stronger in the English colonies probably than in any 
 other people of the earth, and this from a great variety 
 of powerful causes; which, to understand the true 
 temper of their minds, and the direction which this 
 spirit takes, it will not be amiss to lay open somewhat 
 more largely. 
 
 09. First, the people of the colonies are descend 
 ants of Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation, which 
 still I hope respects, and formerly adored, her free 
 dom. The colonists emigrated from you when this 
 part of your character was most predominant, and 
 they took this bias and direction the moment they 
 parted from your hands. They are therefore not only 
 devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English 
 ideas and on English principles. Abstract liberty, 
 like other mere abstractions, is not to be found. Lib 
 erty inheres in some sensible object ; and every nation 
 has formed to itself some favorite point which, by way 
 of eminence, becomes the criterion of their happiness. 
 It happened, you know, Sir, that the great contests 
 for freedom in this country were from the earliest 
 times chiefly upon the question of taxing. Most of 
 the contests in the ancient commonwealths turned pri 
 marily on the right of election of magistrates, or on 
 the balance among the several orders of the state. The 
 question of money was not with them so immediate. 
 
62 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 But in England it was otherwise. On this point of 
 taxes the ablest pens and most eloquent tongues have 
 been exercised; the greatest spirits have acted and 
 suffered. In order to give the fullest satisfaction con 
 cerning the importance of this point it was not only 
 necessary for those who in argument defended the 
 excellence of the English Constitution to insist on this 
 privilege of granting money as a dry point of fact, 
 and to prove that the right had been acknowledged 
 in ancient parchments and blind usages to reside in 
 a certain body called a House of Commons. They 
 went much further; they attempted to prove and 
 they succeeded that in theory it ought to be so, from 
 the particular nature of a House of Commons as an 
 immediate representative of the people, whether the 
 old records had delivered this oracle or not. They took 
 infinite pains to inculcate, as a fundamental principle, 
 that in all monarchies the people must in effect them 
 selves mediately or immediately, possess the power 
 of granting their own money, or no shadow of liberty 
 could subsist. The colonies draw from you, as with 
 their life-blood, these ideas and principles. Their love 
 of liberty, as with you, fixed and attached on this spe 
 cific point of taxing. Liberty might be safe, or might 
 be endangered, in twenty other particulars, without 
 their being much pleased or alarmed. Here they felt 
 its pulse; and as they found that beat, they thought 
 themselves sick or sound. I do not say whether they 
 were right or wrong in applying your general argu 
 ments to their own case. It is not easy, indeed, to 
 make a monopoly of theorems and corollaries. The 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 63 
 
 fact is that they did thus apply those general argu 
 ments; and your mode of governing them whether 
 through lenity or indolence, through wisdom or mis 
 take confirmed them in the imagination that they, as 
 well as you, had an interest in these common prin 
 ciples. 
 
 40. They were further confirmed in this pleasing 
 error by the form of their provincial legislative as 
 semblies. Their governments are popular in a high 
 degree ; some are merely popular ; in all, the popular 
 representative is the most weighty ; and this share of 
 the people in their ordinary government never fails 
 to inspire them with lofty sentiments, and with a 
 strong aversion from whatever tends to deprive them 
 of their chief importance. 
 
 41. If anything were wanting to this necessary 
 operation of the form of government, religion would 
 have given it a complete effect. Religion, always a 
 principle of energy, in this new people is no way worn 
 out or impaired; and their mode of professing it is 
 also one main cause of this free spirit. The people are 
 Protestants, and of that kind which is the most adverse 
 to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. This 
 is a persuasion not only favorable to liberty, but built 
 upon it. I do not think, Sir, that the reason of this 
 averseness in the dissenting churches from all that 
 looks like absolute government is so much to be sought 
 in their religious tenets as in their history. Every one 
 knows that the Roman Catholic religion is at least 
 coeval with most of the governments where it prevails, 
 that it has generally gone hand in hand with them, 
 
64 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 and received great favor and every kind of support 
 from authority. The Church of England, too, was 
 formed from her cradle under the nursing care of 
 regular government. But the dissenting interests have 
 sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary 
 powers of the world, and could justify that opposition 
 only on a strong claim to natural liberty. Their very 
 existence depended on the powerful and unremitted 
 assertion of that claim. All Protestantism, even the 
 most cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the 
 religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a 
 refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the 
 dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the 
 Protestant religion. This religion, under a variety of 
 denominations agreeing in nothing but in the com 
 munion of the spirit of liberty, is predominant in 
 most of the northern provinces, where the Church of 
 England, notwithstanding its legal rights, is in reality 
 no more than a sort of private sect, not composing, 
 most probably, the tenth of the people. The colonists 
 left England when this spirit was high, and in the 
 emigrants was the highest of all ; and even that stream 
 of foreigners which has been constantly flowing into 
 these colonies has, for the greatest part, been composed 
 of dissenters from the establishments of their several 
 countries, who have brought with them a temper and 
 character far from alien to that of the people with 
 whom they mixed. 
 
 42. Sir, I can perceive by their manner that some 
 gentlemen object to the latitude of this description, 
 because in the southern colonies the Church of Eng- 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 65 
 
 land forms a large body, and has a regular establish 
 ment. It is certainly true. There is, however, a circum 
 stance attending these colonies, which in my opinion 
 fully counterbalances this difference, and makes 
 the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than 
 in those to the northward. It is that in Virginia and 
 the Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves. 
 Where this is the case in any part of the world, those 
 who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of 
 their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an en 
 joyment, but a kind of rank and privilege. Not seeing 
 there that freedom, as in countries where it is a com 
 mon blessing and as broad and general as the air, 
 may be united with much abject toil, with great mis 
 ery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks 
 amongst them like something that is more noble and 
 liberal. I do not mean, Sir, to commend the superior 
 morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much 
 pride as virtue in it ; but I cannot alter the nature of 
 man. The fact is so : and these people of the southern 
 colonies are much more strongly, and with a higher 
 and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty, than 
 those to the northward. Such were all the ancient 
 commonwealths ; such were our Gothic ancestors ; such 
 in our days were the Poles ; and such will be all mas 
 ters of slaves, who are not slaves themselves. In such 
 a people, the haughtiness of domination combines with 
 the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it in 
 vincible. 
 
 43. Permit me. Sir, to add another circumstance 
 in our colonies which contributes no mean part towards 
 
66 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 the growth and effect of this untractable spirit. I 
 mean their education. In no country perhaps in the 
 world is the law so general a study. The profession 
 itself is numerous and powerful, and in most provinces 
 it takes the lead. The greater number of the deputies 
 sent to the Congress were lawyers. But all who read 
 and most do read endeavor to obtain some smattering 
 in that science. I have been told by an eminent book 
 seller that in no branch of his business, after tracts of 
 popular devotion, were so many books as those on the 
 law exported to the plantations. The colonists have 
 now fallen into the way of printing them for their own 
 use. I hear that they have sold nearly as many of 
 Blackstone s Commentaries in America as in England. 
 General Gage marks out this disposition very particu 
 larly in a letter on your table. He states that all the 
 people in his government are lawyers, or smatterers in 
 law; and that in Boston they have been enabled, by 
 successful chicane, wholly to evade many parts of one 
 of your capital penal constitutions. The smartness 
 of debate will say that this knowledge ought to teach 
 them more clearly the rights of legislature, their obli 
 gations to obedience, and the penalties of rebellion. 
 All this is mighty well. But my honorable and learned 
 friend on the floor, who condescends to mark what I 
 say for animadversion, will disdain that ground. He 
 has heard, as well as I, that when great honors and 
 great emoluments do not win over this knowledge to 
 the service of the state, it is a formidable adversary 
 to government. If the spirit be not tamed and broken 
 by these happy methods, it is stubborn and litigious. 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 67 
 
 Abeunt studia in mores. This study renders men 
 acute, inquisitive, dextrous, prompt in attack, ready 
 in defense, full of resources. In other countries the 
 people, more simple and of a less mercurial cast, judge 
 of an ill principle in government only by an actual 
 grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of 
 the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the 
 principle. -They augur misgovernment at a distance, 
 and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted 
 breeze. 
 
 44. The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the 
 colonies is hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is 
 not merely moral, but laid deep in the natural consti 
 tution of things. Three thousand miles of ocean lie 
 between you and them. No contrivance can prevent 
 the effect of this distance in weakening government. 
 Seas roll, and months pass, between the order and the 
 execution ; and the want of a speedy explanation of a 
 single point is enough to defeat a whole system. You 
 have, indeed, winged ministers of vengeance, who carry 
 your bolts in their pounces to the remotest verge of 
 the sea. But there a power steps in that limits the 
 arrogance of raging passions and furious elements, 
 and says, "So far shalt thou go, and no farther. * 
 Who are you that should fret and rage, and bite the 
 chains of nature ? Nothing worse happens to you than 
 does to all nations who have extensive empire ; and it 
 happens in all the forms into which empire can be 
 thrown. In large bodies the circulation of power must 
 be less vigorous at the extremities. Nature has said it. 
 The Turk cannot govern Egypt, and Arabia, and 
 
68 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Kurdistan, as he governs Thrace ; nor has he the same 
 dominion in Crimea and Algiers which he has at 
 Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism itself is obliged to 
 truck and huckster. The Sultan gets such obedience 
 as he can. He governs with a loose rein, that he may 
 govern at all ; and the whole of the force and vigor of 
 his authority in his center is derived from a prudent 
 relaxation in all his borders. Spain, in her provinces, 
 is perhaps not so well obeyed as you are in yours. She 
 complies too ; she submits ; she watches times. This is 
 the immutable condition, the eternal law, of extensive 
 and detached empire. 
 
 45. Then, Sir, from these six capital sources of 
 descent, of form of government, of religion in the 
 northern provinces, of manners in the southern, of 
 education, of the remoteness of situation from the first 
 mover of government from all these causes a fierce 
 spirit of liberty has grown up. It has grown with the 
 growth of the people in your colonies, and increased 
 with the increase of their wealth : a spirit that un 
 happily meeting with an exercise of power in England 
 which, however lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas 
 of liberty, much less with theirs has kindled this 
 flame that is ready to consume us. 
 
 46. I do not mean to commend either the spirit in 
 this excess or the moral causes which produce it. 
 Perhaps a more smooth and accommodating spirit of 
 freedom in them would be more acceptable to us. Per 
 haps ideas of liberty might be desired more reconcil 
 able with an arbitrary and boundless authority. Per 
 haps we might wish the colonists to be persuaded that 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 69 
 
 their liberty is more secure when held in trust for them 
 by us, as their guardians during a perpetual minority, 
 than with any part of it in their own hands. But the 
 question is not whether their spirit deserves praise or 
 blame. What, in the name of God, shall we do with 
 it ? You have before you the object, such as it is, with 
 all its glories, with all its imperfections on its head. 
 You see the magnitude, the importance, the temper, 
 the habits, the disorders. By all these considerations 
 we are strongly urged to determine something concern 
 ing it. "We are called upon to fix some rule and line 
 for our future conduct, which may give a little stabil 
 ity to our politics, and prevent the return of such un 
 happy deliberations as the present. Every such return 
 will bring the matter before us in a still more untract- 
 able form. For what astonishing and incredible things 
 have we not seen already! What monsters have not 
 been generated from this unnatural contention 1 
 Whilst every principle of authority and resistance has 
 been pushed, upon both sides, as far as it would go, 
 there is nothing so solid and certain, either in reason 
 ing or in practice, that has not been shaken. Until 
 very lately all authority in America seemed to be noth 
 ing but an emanation from yours. Even the popular 
 part of the colony constitution derived all its activity, 
 and its first vital movement, from the pleasure of the 
 crown. We thought, Sir, that the utmost which the 
 discontented colonists could do was to disturb author 
 ity ; we never dreamt they could of themselves supply 
 it, knowing in general what an operose business it is 
 to establish a government absolutely new. But having, 
 
70 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 for our purposes in this contention, resolved that none 
 but an obedient assembly should sit, the humors of the 
 people there, finding all passage through the legal 
 channel stopped, with great violence broke out another 
 way. Some provinces have tried their experiment, as 
 we have tried ours; and theirs has succeeded. They 
 have formed a government sufficient for its purposes, 
 without the bustle of a revolution or the troublesome 
 formality of an election. Evident necessity and tacit 
 consent have done the business in an instant. So well 
 they have done it that Lord Dunmore the account is 
 among the fragments on your table tells you that the 
 new institution is infinitely better obeyed than the 
 ancient government ever was in its most fortunate 
 periods. Obedience is what makes government, and 
 not the names by which it is called ; not the name of 
 Governor, as formerly, or Committee, as at present. 
 This new government has originated directly from the 
 people, and was not transmitted through any of the 
 ordinary artificial media of a positive constitution. It 
 was not a manufacture ready formed, and transmitted 
 to them in that condition from England. The evil 
 arising from hence is this: that the colonists having 
 once found the possibility of enjoying the advantages 
 of order in the midst of a struggle for liberty, such 
 struggles will not henceforward seem so terrible to 
 the settled and sober part of mankind as they had ap 
 peared before the trial. 
 
 47. Pursuing the same plan, of punishing by the 
 denial of the exercise of government, to still greater 
 lengths, we wholly abrogated the ancient government 
 
BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 71 
 
 of Massachusetts. We were confident that the first 
 feeling, if not the very prospect of anarchy would in 
 stantly enforce a. complete submission. The experi 
 ment was tried. A new, strange, unexpected face of 
 things appeared. Anarchy is found tolerable. A vast 
 province has now subsisted, and subsisted in a consid 
 erable degree of health and vigor, for near a twelve 
 month, without governor, without public council, with 
 out judges, without executive magistrates. How long 
 it will continue in this state, or what may arise out of 
 this unheard-of situation, how can the wisest of us 
 conjecture? Our late experience has taught us that 
 many of those fundamental principles, formerly be 
 lieved infallible, are either not of the importance they 
 were imagined to be, or that we have not at all ad 
 verted to some other far more important and far more 
 powerful principles which entirely overrule those we 
 had considered as omnipotent. I am much against any 
 further experiments which tend to put to the proof 
 any more of these allowed opinions which contribute 
 so much to the public tranquillity. In effect, we suffer 
 as much at home by this loosening of all ties, and this 
 concussion of all established opinions, as we do abroad. 
 For, in order to prove that the Americans have no 
 right to their liberties, we are every day endeavoring 
 to subvert the maxims which preserve the .whole spirit 
 of our own. To prove that the Americans ought not 
 to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of 
 freedom itself; and we never seem to gain a paltry 
 advantage over them in debate, without attacking some 
 of those principles, or deriding some of those feelings, 
 for which our ancestors have shed their blood. 
 
72 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 48. But, Sir, in wishing to put an end to pernicious 
 experiments I do not mean to preclude the fullest 
 inquiry. Far from it. Far from deciding on a sudden 
 or partial view, I would patiently go round and round 
 the subject, and survey it minutely in every possible 
 aspect. Sir, if I were capable of engaging you to an 
 equal attention, I would state that, as far as I am 
 capable of discerning, there are but three ways of pro 
 ceeding relative to this stubborn spirit which prevails 
 in your colonies and disturbs your government. These 
 are : to change that spirit, as inconvenient, by remov 
 ing the causes ; to prosecute it as criminal ; or to comply 
 with it as necessary. I would not be guilty of an im 
 perfect enumeration ; I can think of but these three. 
 Another has indeed been started, that of giving up the 
 colonies ; but it met so slight a reception that I do not 
 think myself obliged to dwell a great while upon it. 
 It is nothing but a little sally of anger, like the for 
 wardness of peevish children, who, when they cannot 
 get all they would have, are resolved to take nothing, 
 
 49. The first of these plans to change the spirit, as 
 inconvenient, by removing the causes I think is the 
 most like a systematic proceeding. It is radical in its 
 principle; but it is attended with great difficulties, 
 some of them little short, as I conceive, of impossibili 
 ties. This. will appear by examining into the plans 
 which have been proposed. 
 
 50. As the growing population of the colonies is 
 evidently one cause of their resistance, it was last 
 session mentioned in both Houses by men of weight, 
 and received not without applause, that, in order to 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 73 
 
 check this evil, it would be proper for the crown to 
 make no further grants of land. But to this scheme 
 there are two objections. The first, that there is al 
 ready so much unsettled land in private hands as to 
 afford room for an immense future population, 
 although the crown not only withheld its grants, but 
 annihilated its soil. If this be the case, then the only 
 effect of this avarice of desolation, this hoarding of a 
 royal wilderness, would be to raise the value of the 
 possessions in the hands of the great private monopo 
 lists, without any adequate check to the growing and 
 alarming mischief of population. 
 
 51. But if you stopped your grants, what would 
 be the consequence? The people would occupy with 
 out grants. They have already so occupied in many 
 places. You cannot station garrisons in every part 
 of these deserts. If you drive the people from one 
 place, they will carry on their annual tillage, and 
 remove with their flocks and herds to another. Many 
 of the people in the back settlements are already little 
 attached to particular situations. Already they have 
 topped the Appalachian mountains. From thence 
 they behold before them an immense plain one vast, 
 rich, level meadow a square of five hundred miles. 
 Over this they would wander without a possibility of 
 restraint ; they would change their manners with the 
 habits of their life; would soon forget a government 
 by which they were disowned ; would become hordes 
 of English Tartars ; and, pouring down upon your un 
 fortified frontiers a fierce and irresistible cavalry, be 
 come masters of your governors and your counsellors, 
 
74 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 your collectors and comptrollers, and of all the slaves 
 that adhered to them. Such would, and in no long 
 time must be, the effect of attempting to forbid as a 
 crime, and to suppress as an evil, the command and 
 blessing of Providence, " Increase and multiply." 
 Such would be the happy result of an endeavor to keep 
 as a lair of wild beasts that earth which God, by an 
 express charter, has given to the children of men. Far 
 different, and surely much wiser, has been our policy 
 hitherto. Hitherto we have invited our people, by 
 every kind of bounty, to fixed establishments. We 
 have invited the husbandman to look to authority for 
 his title. We have taught him piously to believe in the 
 mysterious virtue of wax and parchment. We have 
 thrown each tract of land, as it was peopled, into dis 
 tricts, that the ruling power should never be wholly 
 out of sight. We have settled all we could, and we 
 have carefully attended every settlement with govern 
 ment. 
 
 52. Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well 
 as for the reasons I have just given, I think this new 
 project of hedging in population to be neither prudent 
 nor practicable. 
 
 53. To impoverish the colonies in general, and in 
 particular to arrest the noble course of their marine 
 enterprises, would be a more easy task. I freely con 
 fess it. We have shown a disposition to a system of 
 this kind a disposition even to continue the restraint 
 after the offense ; looking on ourselves as rivals to our 
 colonies, and persuaded that of course we must gain 
 all that they shall lose. Much mischief we may cer- 
 
BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 75 
 
 tainly do. The power inadequate to all other things 
 is often more than sufficient for this. I do not look on 
 the direct and immediate power of the colonies to resist 
 our violence as very formidable. In this, however, I 
 may be mistaken. But when I consider that we have 
 colonies for no purpose but to be serviceable to us, it 
 seems to my poor understanding a little preposterous 
 to make them unserviceable in order to keep them 
 obedient. It is, in truth, nothing more than the old 
 and, as I thought, exploded problem of tyranny, which 
 proposes to beggar its subjects into submission. But 
 remember, when you have completed your system of 
 impoverishment, that nature still proceeds in her ordi 
 nary course ; that discontent will increase with misery ; 
 and that there are critical moments in the fortune of 
 all states when they who are too weak to contribute 
 to your prosperity may be strong enough to complete 
 your ruin. Spoliatis anna supersunt. 
 
 54. The temper and character which prevail in our 
 colonies are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human 
 art. We cannot, I fear, falsify the pedigree of this 
 fierce people, and persuade them that they are not 
 sprung from a nation in whose veins the blood of free 
 dom circulates. The language in which they would 
 hear you tell them this tale would detect the imposi 
 tion ; your speech would betray you. An Englishman 
 is the unfittest person on earth to argue another Eng 
 lishman into slavery. 
 
 55. I think it is nearly as little in our power to 
 change their republican religion as their free descent, 
 or to substitute the Roman Catholic as a penalty, or 
 
76 * BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 the Church of England as an improvement. The mode 
 of inquisition and dragooning is going out of fashion 
 in the Old World, and I should not confide much to 
 their efficacy in the New. The education of the Amer 
 icans is also on the same unalterable bottom with their 
 religion. You cannot persuade them to burn their 
 books of curious science, to banish their lawyers from 
 their courts of laws, or to quench the lights of their 
 assemblies by refusing to choose those persons who are 
 best read in their privileges. It would be no less im 
 practicable to think of wholly annihilating the popular 
 assemblies in which these lawyers sit. The army by 
 which we must govern in their place would be far more 
 chargeable to us, not quite so effectual, and perhaps, 
 in the end, full as difficult to be kept in obedience. 
 
 56. With regard to the high aristocratic spirit of 
 Virginia and the southern colonies it has been pro 
 posed, I know, to reduce it by declaring a general 
 enfranchisement of their slaves. This project has had 
 its advocates and panegyrists ; yet I never could argue 
 myself into any opinion of it. Slaves are often much 
 attached to their masters. A general wild offer of 
 liberty would not always be accepted. History fur 
 nishes few instances of it. It is sometimes as hard to 
 persuade slaves to be free as it is to compel freemen 
 to be slaves ; and in this auspicious scheme we should 
 have both these pleasing tasks on our hands at once. 
 But when we talk of enfranchisement, do we not per 
 ceive that the American master may enfranchise too, 
 and arm servile hands in defense of freedom ? a meas 
 ure to which other people have had recourse more 
 
BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 
 
 i i 
 
 than once, and not without success, in a desperate situ 
 ation of their affairs. 
 
 57. Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, 
 and dull as all men are from slavery, must they not a 
 little suspect the offer of freedom from that very na 
 tion which has sold them to their present masters? 
 from that nation one of whose causes of quarrel with 
 those masters is their refusal to deal any more in that 
 inhuman traffic ? An offer of freedom from England 
 would come rather oddly, shipped to them in an Afri 
 can vessel, which is refused an entry into the ports of 
 Virginia or Carolina with a cargo of three hundred 
 Angola negroes. It would be curious to see the Guinea 
 captain attempting at the same instant to publish his 
 proclamation of liberty, and to advertise his sale of 
 slaves. 
 
 58. But let us suppose all these moral difficulties 
 got over. The ocean remains. You cannot pump this 
 dry ; and as long as it continues in its present bed, so 
 long all the causes which weaken authority by distance 
 will continue. "Ye gods, annihilate but space and 
 time, and make two lovers happy ! was a pious and 
 passionate prayer; but just as reasonable as many of 
 the serious wishes of very grave and solemn politicians. 
 
 59. If then, Sir, it seems almost desperate to think 
 of any alterative course for changing the moral causes 
 and not quite easy to remove the natural which 
 produce prejudices irreconcilable to the late exercise 
 of our authority, but that the spirit infallibly will con 
 tinue, and, continuing, will produce such effects as now 
 embarrass us, the second mode under consideration is 
 to prosecute that spirit in its overt acts as criminal. 
 
78 BUBKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 60. At this proposition I must pause a moment. 
 The thing seems a great deal too big for my ideas of 
 jurisprudence. It should seem, to my way of conceiv 
 ing such matters, that there is a very wide difference 
 in reason and policy between the mode of proceeding 
 on the irregular conduct of scattered individuals, or 
 even of bands of men, who disturb order within the 
 state, and the civil dissensions which may, from time 
 to time, on great questions, agitate the several com 
 munities which compose a great empire. It looks to 
 me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary 
 ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. 
 I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment 
 against a whole people. I cannot insult and ridicule 
 the feelings of millions of my fellow-creatures as Sir 
 Edward Coke insulted one excellent individual Sir 
 Walter Raleigh at the bar. I hope I am not ripe to 
 pass sentence on the gravest public bodies, intrusted 
 with magistracies of great authority and dignity, and 
 charged with the safety of their fellow-citizens upon 
 the very same title that I am. I really think that for 
 wise men this is not judicious, for sober men not 
 decent, for minds tinctured with humanity not mild 
 and merciful. 
 
 61. Perhaps, Sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an 
 empire, as distinguished from a single state or king 
 dom. But my idea of it is this : that an empire is the 
 aggregate of many states under one common head, 
 whether this head be a monarch or a presiding repub 
 lic. It does in such constitutions frequently happen 
 and nothing but the dismal, cold, dead uniformity of 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 79 
 
 servitude caii prevent its happening that the sub 
 ordinate parts have many local, privileges and im 
 munities. Between these privileges and the supreme 
 common authority the line may be extremely nice. 
 Of course disputes often, too, very bitter disputes 
 and much ill blood will arise. But though every 
 privilege is an exemption in the case from the ordi 
 nary exercise of the supreme authority, it is no denial 
 of it. The claim of a privilege seems rather, ex vi 
 termini, to imply a superior power. For to talk of the 
 privileges of a state or of a person who has no superior 
 is hardly any better than speaking nonsense. Now 
 in such unfortunate quarrels among the component 
 parts of a great political union of communities I can 
 scarcely conceive anything more completely impru 
 dent than for the head of the empire to insist that, if . 
 any privilege is pleaded against his will or his acts, 
 his whole authority is denied; instantly to proclaim 
 rebellion, to beat to arms, and to put the offending 
 provinces under the ban. "Will not this, Sir, very soon 
 teach the provinces to make no distinctions on their 
 part ? Will it not teach them that the government 
 against which a claim of liberty is tantamount to high 
 treason is a government to which submission is equiva 
 lent to slavery ? It may not always be quite convenient 
 to impress dependent communities with such an idea. 
 62. We are, indeed, in all disputes with the col 
 onies by the necessity of things the judge. It is 
 true, Sir. But I confess that the character of judge 
 in my own cause is a thing that frightens me. Instead 
 of filling me with pride, I am exceedingly humbled by 
 
80 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 it. I cannot proceed with a stern, assured, judicial 
 confidence, until I find myself in something more like 
 a judicial character. I must have these hesitations as 
 long as I am compelled to recollect that, in my little 
 reading upon such contests as these, the sense of man 
 kind has at least as often decided against the superior 
 as the subordinate power. Sir, let me add, too, that the 
 opinion of my having some abstract right in my favor 
 would not put mie much at my ease in passing sentence, 
 unless I could be sure that there were no rights which, 
 in their exercise under certain circumstances, were not 
 the most odious of all wrongs, and the most vexatious 
 of all injustice. Sir, these considerations have great 
 weight with me when I find things so circumstanced 
 that I see the same party at once a civil litigant against 
 me in a point of right and a culprit before me, while 
 I sit as a criminal judge on acts of his whose moral 
 quality is to be decided upon the merits of that very 
 litigation. Men are every now and then put, by the 
 complexity of human affairs, into strange situations; 
 but justice is the same, let the judge be in what situa 
 tion he will. 
 
 63. There is, Sir, also a circumstance which con 
 vinces me that this mode of criminal proceeding is not 
 at least in the present stage of our contest alto 
 gether expedient ; which is nothing less than the con 
 duct of those very persons who have seemed to adopt 
 that mode by lately declaring a rebellion in Massa 
 chusetts Bay, as they had formerly addressed to have 
 traitors brought hither, under an act of Henry the 
 Eighth, for trial. For though rebellion is declared, it 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 81 
 
 is not proceeded against as such, nor have any steps 
 been taken towards the apprehension or conviction of 
 any individual offender, either on our late or our for 
 mer address ; but modes of public coercion have been 
 adopted, and such as have much more resemblance to 
 a sort of qualified hostility towards an independent 
 power than the punishment of rebellious subjects. All 
 this seems rather inconsistent ; but it shows how diffi 
 cult it is to apply these juridical ideas to our present 
 case. 
 
 64. In this situation let us seriously and coolly 
 ponder. What is it we have got by all our menaces, 
 which have been many and ferocious? "What advan 
 tage have we derived from the penal laws we have 
 passed, and which, for the time, have been severe and 
 numerous? What advances have we made towards 
 our object by the sending of a force which, by land 
 and sea, is no contemptible strength ? Has the disorder 
 abated ? Nothing less. When I see things in this situ 
 ation, after such confident hopes, bold promises, and 
 active exertions, I cannot, for my life, avoid a sus 
 picion that the plan itself is not correctly right. 
 
 65. If then the removal of the causes of this spirit 
 of American liberty be for the greater part or rather 
 entirely impracticable ; if the ideas of criminal 
 process be inapplicable, or if applicable, are in the 
 highest degree inexpedient, -what way yet remains? 
 No way is open but the third and last to comply with 
 the American spirit as necessary ; or, if you please, to 
 submit to it as a necessary evil. 
 
 66. If we adopt this mode, if we mean to conciliate 
 
82 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 and concede, let us see of what nature the concession 
 ought to be. To ascertain the nature of our concession, 
 we must look at their complaint. The colonies com 
 plain that they have not the characteristic mark and 
 seal of British freedom. They complain that they are 
 taxed in a Parliament in which they are not repre 
 sented. If you mean to satisfy them at all, you must 
 satisfy them with regard to this complaint. If you 
 mean to please any people, you must give them the 
 boon which they ask not what you may think better 
 for them, but of a kind totally different. Such an act 
 may be a wise regulation, but it is no concession; 
 whereas our present theme is the mode of giving satis 
 faction. 
 
 67. Sir, I think you must perceive that I am re 
 solved this day to have nothing at all to do with the 
 question of the right of taxation. Some gentlemen 
 startle but it is true ; I put it totally out of the ques 
 tion. It is less than nothing in my consideration. I 
 do not indeed wonder, nor will you, Sir, that gentle 
 men of profound learning are fond of displaying it on 
 this profound subject. But my consideration is nar 
 row, confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the 
 question. I do not examine whether the giving away 
 a man s money be a power excepted and reserved out 
 of the general trust of government, and how far all 
 mankind, in all forms of polity, are entitled to an 
 exercise of that right by the charter of nature ; or 
 whether, on the contrary, a right of taxation is neces 
 sarily involved in the general principle of legislation, 
 and inseparable from the ordinary supreme power. 
 
BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 83 
 
 These are deep questions, where great names militate 
 against each other, where reason is perplexed, and an 
 appeal to authorities only thickens the confusion. For 
 high and reverend authorities lift up their heads on 
 both sides, and there is no sure footing in the middle. 
 Tl^is point is the great 
 
 Serbonian bog, 
 
 Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, 
 Where armies whole have sunk. 
 
 I do not intend to be overwhelmed in that bog, though 
 in such respectable company. The question with me 
 is not whether you have a right to render your people 
 miserable, but whether it is not your interest to make 
 them happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I may 
 do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I 
 ought to do. Is a politic act the worse for being a 
 generous one ? Is no concession proper but that which 
 is made from your want of right to keep what you 
 grant ? Or does it lessen the grace or dignity of relax 
 ing in the exercise of an odious claim, because you have 
 your evidence-room full of titles, and your magazines 
 stuffed with arms to enforce them ? What signify all 
 those titles and all those arms ? Of what avail are they, 
 when the reason of the thing tells me that the assertion 
 of my title is the loss of my suit, and that I could do 
 nothing but wound myself by the use of my own 
 weapons ? 
 
 68. Such is steadfastly my opinion of the absolute 
 necessity of keeping up the concord of this empire by 
 a unity of spirit, though in a diversity of operations, 
 that if I were sure the colonists had at their leaving 
 
84 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 this country sealed a regular compact of servitude, 
 that they had solemnly abjured all the rights of citi 
 zens, that they had made a vow to renounce all ideas 
 of liberty for them and their posterity to all genera 
 tions yet I should hold myself obliged to conform to 
 the temper I found universally prevalent in my own 
 day, and to govern two million of men, impatient of 
 servitude, on the principles of freedom. I am not de 
 termining a point of law ; I am restoring tranquillity. 
 And the general character and situation of a people 
 must determine what sort of government is fitted for 
 them. That point nothing else can or ought to deter 
 mine. 
 
 69. My idea, therefore, without considering 
 whether we yield as matter of right, or grant as matter 
 of favor, is to admit the people of our colonies into an 
 interest in the Constitution; and, by recording that ad 
 mission in the journals of Parliament, to give them as 
 strong an assurance as the nature of the thing will 
 admit that we mean for ever to adhere to that solemn 
 declaration of systematic indulgence. 
 
 70. Some years ago the repeal of a revenue act, 
 upon its understood principle, might have served to 
 show that we intended an unconditional abatement of 
 the exercise of a taxing power. Such a measure was 
 then sufficient to remove all suspicion and to give per 
 fect content. But unfortunate events since that time 
 may make something further necessary and not more 
 necessary for the satisfaction of the colonies than for 
 the dignity and consistency of our own future pro 
 ceedings. 
 
BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 85 
 
 71. I have taken a very incorrect measure of the 
 disposition of the House if this proposal in itself 
 would be received with dislike. I think, Sir, we have 
 few American financiers. But our misfortune is we 
 are too acute ; we are too exquisite in our conjectures of 
 the future, for men oppressed with such great and 
 present evils. The more moderate among the opposers 
 of parliamentary concession freely confess that they 
 hope no good from taxation ; but they apprehend the 
 colonists have further views, and, if this point were 
 conceded, they would instantly attack the trade laws. 
 These gentlemen are convinced that this was the in 
 tention from the beginning, and the quarrel of the 
 Americans with taxation was no more than a cloak and 
 cover to this design. Such has been the language even 
 of a gentleman of real moderation, and of a natural 
 temper well adjusted to fair and equal government. I 
 am, however, Sir, not a little surprised at this kind of 
 discourse, whenever I hear it ; and I am the more sur 
 prised on account of the arguments which I constantly 
 find in company with it, and which are often urged 
 from the same mouths, and on the same day. 
 
 72. For instance, when we allege that it is against 
 reason to tax a people under so many restraints in 
 trade as the Americans, the noble lord in the blue rib 
 bon shall tell you that the restraints on trade are futile 
 and useless, of no advantage to us, and of no burthen 
 to those 011 whom they are imposed ; that the trade to 
 America is not secured by the acts of navigation, but 
 by the natural and irresistible advantage of a commer 
 cial preference. 
 
86 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 73. Such is the merit of the trade laws in this 
 posture of the debate. But when strong internal cir 
 cumstances are urged against the taxes; when the 
 scheme is dissected; when experience and the nature 
 of things are brought to prove, and do prove, the utter 
 impossibility of obtaining an effective revenue from 
 the colonies ; when these things are pressed, or rather 
 press themselves, so as to drive the advocates of colony 
 taxes to a clear admission of the futility of the scheme 
 then, Sir, the sleeping trade laws revive from their 
 trance ; and this useless taxation is to be kept sacred, 
 not for its own sake, but as a counter-guard and secur 
 ity of the laws of trade. 
 
 74. Then, Sir, you keep up revenue laws which 
 are mischievous in order to preserve trade laws that 
 are useless. Such is the wisdom of our plan in both its 
 members. They are separately given up as of no value, 
 and yet one is always to be defended for the sake of 
 the other. But I cannot agree with the noble lord, 
 nor with the pamphlet from whence he seems to have 
 borrowed these ideas, concerning the inutility of the 
 trade laws. For, without idolizing them, I am sure 
 they are still, in many ways, of great use to us ; and in 
 former times they have been of the greatest. They 
 do confine, and they do greatly narrow, the market for 
 the Americans. But my perfect conviction of this does 
 not help me in the least to discern how the revenue 
 laws form any security whatsoever to the commercial 
 regulations; or that these commercial regulations are 
 the true ground of the quarrel; or that the giving 
 way, in any one instance of authority, is to lose all 
 that may remain unconceded. 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 87 
 
 75. One fact is clear and indisputable. The public 
 and avowed origin of this quarrel was on taxation. 
 This quarrel has indeed brought on new disputes on 
 new questions, but certainly the least bitter, and the 
 fewest of all, on the trade laws. To judge which of 
 the two be the real, radical cause of quarrel, we have 
 to see whether the commercial dispute did, in order 
 of time, precede the dispute on taxation. There is not 
 a shadow of evidence for it. Next, to enable us to 
 judge whether at this moment a dislike to the trade 
 laws be the real cause of quarrel, it is absolutely neces 
 sary to put the taxes out of the question by a repeal. 
 See how the Americans act in this position, and then 
 you will be able to discern correctly what is the true 
 object of the controversy, or whether any controversy 
 at all will remain. Unless you consent to remove this 
 cause of difference, it is impossible, with decency, to 
 assert that the dispute is not upon what it is avowed 
 to be. And I would, Sir, recommend to your serious 
 consideration whether it be prudent to form a rule for 
 punishing people, not on their own acts, but on your 
 conjectures. Surely it is preposterous at the very best. 
 It is not justifying your anger by their misconduct; 
 but it is converting your ill-will into their delinquency. 
 
 76. "But the colonies will go further." Alas! 
 alas ! when will this speculating against fact and rea 
 son end ? What will quiet these panic fears which we 
 entertain of the hostile effect of a conciliatory con 
 duct ? Is it true that no case can exist in which it is 
 proper for the sovereign to accede to the desires of his 
 discontented subjects? Is there anything peculiar in 
 
this case to make a rule for itself? Is all authority 
 of course lost when it is not pushed to the extreme ? 
 Is it a certain maxim that, the fewer causes of dissatis 
 faction are left by government, the more the subject 
 will be inclined to resist and rebel ? 
 
 77. All these objections being in fact no more 
 than suspicions, conjectures, divinations, formed in 
 defiance of fact and experience, they did not, Sir, dis 
 courage me from entertaining the idea of a conciliatory 
 concession, founded on the principles which I have just 
 stated. 
 
 78. In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeav 
 ored to put myself in that frame of mind which was 
 the most natural and the most reasonable, and which 
 was certainly the most probable means of securing me 
 from all error. I set out with a perfect distrust of my 
 own abilities, a total renunciation of every speculation 
 of my own ; and with a profound reverence for the wis 
 dom of our ancestors, who have left us the inheritance 
 of so happy a Constitution and so flourishing an em 
 pire, and, what is a thousand times more valuable, the 
 treasury of the maxims and principles which formed 
 the one and obtained the other. 
 
 79. During the reigns of the kings of Spain of the 
 Austrian family, whenever they were at a loss in the 
 Spanish councils, it was common for their statesmen 
 to say that they ought to consult the genius of Philip 
 the Second. The genius of Philip the Second might 
 mislead them, and the issue of their affairs showed 
 that they had not chosen the most perfect standard. 
 But, Sir, I am sure that I shall not be misled when, in 
 
BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 89 
 
 a case of constitutional difficulty, I consult the genius 
 of the EnglisirConstitution. Consulting at that oracle 
 it was with all due humility and piety I found four 
 capital examples in a similar case before me : those 
 of Ireland, Wales, Chester, and Durham. 
 
 80. Ireland, before the English conquest, though 
 never governed by a despotic power, had no parlia 
 ment. How far the English Parliament itself was at 
 that time modeled according to the present form is 
 disputed among antiquarians. But we have all the 
 reason in the world to be assured that a form of par 
 liament such as England then enjoyed she instantly 
 communicated to Ireland; and we are equally sure 
 that almost every successive improvement in constitu 
 tional liberty, as fast as it was made here, was trans 
 mitted thither. The feudal baronage and the feudal 
 knighthood, the roots of our primitive constitution, 
 were early transplanted into that soil, and grew and 
 flourished there. Magna Charta, if it did not give us 
 originally the House of Commons, gave us at least a 
 House of Commons of weight and consequence. But 
 your ancestors did not churlishly sit down alone to 
 the feast of Magna Charta. Ireland was made imme 
 diately a partaker. This benefit of English laws and 
 liberties, I confess, was not at first extended to all 
 Ireland. Mark the consequence. English authority 
 and English liberties had exactly the same boundaries. 
 Your standard could never be advanced an inch before 
 your privileges. Sir John Davies shows, beyond a 
 doubt, that the refusal of a general communication of 
 these rights was the true cause why Ireland was five 
 
90 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 hundred years in subduing ; and after the vain projects 
 of a military government, attempted in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, it was soon discovered that nothing 
 could make that country English in civility and 
 allegiance but your laws and your forms of legislature. 
 It was not English arms, but the English Constitution, 
 that conquered Ireland. From that time Ireland has 
 ever had a general parliament, as she had before a 
 partial parliament. You changed the people; you 
 altered the religion ; but you never touched the form or \ 
 the vital substance of free government in that king 
 dom. You deposed kings; you restored them; you 
 altered the succession to theirs, as well as to your own 
 crown; but you never altered their constitution, the 
 principle of which was respected by usurpation, re 
 stored with the restoration of monarchy, and estab 
 lished, I trust for ever, by the glorious Revolution. 
 This has made Ireland the great and flourishing king 
 dom that it is; and from a disgrace and a burthen 
 intolerable to this nation, has rendered her a principal 
 part of our strength and ornament. This country can 
 not be said to have ever formally taxed her. The ir 
 regular things done in the confusion of mighty trou 
 bles, and on the hinge of great revolutions, even if all 
 were done that is said to have been done, form no 
 example. If they have any effect in argument, they 
 make an exception to prove the rule. None of your 
 own liberties could stand a moment if the casual devia 
 tions from them at such times were suffered to be used 
 as proofs of their nullity. By the lucrative amount 
 of such casual breaches in the Constitution judge what 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 91 
 
 the stated and fixed rule of supply has been in that 
 kingdom. Your Irish pensioners would starve if they 
 had no other. fund to live on than taxes granted by 
 English authority. Turn your eyes to those popular 
 grants from whence all your great supplies are come, 
 and learn to respect that only source of public wealth 
 in the British Empire. 
 
 81. My next example is Wales. This country was 
 said to be reduced by Henry the Third. It was said 
 more truly to be so by Edward the First. But though 
 then conquered, it was not looked upon as any part of 
 the realm of England. Its old constitution, whatever 
 that might have been, was destroyed ; and no good one 
 was substituted in its place. The care of that tract 
 was put into the hands of Lords Marchers a form of 
 government of a very singular kind, a strange hetero 
 geneous monster, something between hostility and 
 government ; perhaps it has a sort of resemblance, ac 
 cording to the modes of those times, to that of 
 commander-in-chief at present, to whom all civil power 
 is granted as secondary. The manners of the Welsh 
 nation followed the genius of the government: the 
 people were ferocious, restive, savage, and unculti 
 vated; sometimes composed, never pacified. Wales, 
 within itself, was in perpetual disorder; and it kept 
 the frontier of England in perpetual alarm. Benefits 
 from it to the state there were none. Wales was only 
 known to England by incursion and invasion. 
 
 82. Sir, during that state of things, Parliament 
 was not idle. They attempted to subdue the fierce 
 spirit of the Welsh by all sorts of rigorous laws. They 
 
92 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 prohibited by statute the sending all sorts of arms into 
 Wales, as you prohibit by proclamation with some 
 thing more of doubt on the legality the .sending arms 
 to America. They disarmed the Welsh by statute, as 
 you attempted but still with more question on the 
 legality to disarm New England by an instruction. 
 They made an act to drag offenders from Wales into 
 England for trial, as you have done but with more 
 hardship with regard to America. By another act, 
 where one of the parties was an Englishman they 
 ordained that his trial should be always by English. 
 They made acts to restrain trade, as you do ; and they 
 prevented the Welsh from the use of fairs and mar 
 kets, as you do the Americans from fisheries and for 
 eign ports. In short, when the statute-book was not 
 quite so much swelled as it is now, you find no less than 
 fifteen acts of penal regulation on the subject of Wales. 
 
 83. Here we rub our hands "A fine body of 
 precedents for the authority of Parliament and the 
 use of it!" I admit it fully; and pray add likewise 
 to these precedents that all the while Wales rid this 
 kingdom like an incubus, that it was an unprofitable 
 and oppressive burthen, and that an Englishman trav 
 eling in that country could not go six yards from the 
 high road without being* murdered. 
 
 84. The march of the human mind is slow. Sir, 
 it was not until after two hundred years discovered 
 that, by an eternal law, providence had decreed vexa 
 tion to violence, and poverty to rapine. Your ances 
 tors did, however, at length open their eyes to the ill 
 husbandry of injustice. They found that the tyranny 
 
BURKE ? S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 93 
 
 of a free people could of all tyrannies the least be 
 endured, and that laws made against a whole nation 
 were not the most effectual methods for securing its 
 obedience. Accordingly, in the twenty-seventh year 
 of Henry the Eighth, the course was entirely altered. 
 "With a preamble stating the entire and perfect rights 
 of the crown of England, it gave to the Welsh all the 
 rights and privileges of English subjects. A political 
 order was established ; the military power gave way to 
 the civil ; the marches were turned into counties. But 
 that a nation should have a right to English liberties, 
 and yet no share at all in the fundamental security of 
 these liberties the grant of their own property 
 seemed a, thing so incongruous that, eight years after 
 that is, in the thirty-fifth of that reign^-a complete 
 and not ill-proportioned representation by counties 
 and boroughs was bestowed upon "Wales by act of 
 Parliament. From that moment, as by a charm, the 
 tumults subsided; obedience was restored; peace, or 
 der, and civilization followed in the train of liberty. 
 "When the day-star of the English Constitution had 
 arisen in their hearts, all was harmony within and 
 without. 
 
 Simul alba nautis 
 Stella refulsit, 
 Defluit saxis agitatus umor, 
 Concidunt venti, fugiuntque nubes, 
 Et minax (quod sic voluere) ponto 
 Unda recumbit. 
 
 85, The very same year the County Palatine of 
 Chester received the same relief from its oppressions, 
 
94 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 and the same remedy to its disorders. Before this time 
 Chester was little less distempered than Wales. The 
 inhabitants, without rights themselves, were the fittest 
 to destroy the rights of others ; and from thence Rich 
 ard the Second drew the standing army of archers with 
 which for a time he oppressed England. The people 
 of Chester applied to Parliament in a petition penned 
 as I shall read to you : 
 
 To the King our Sovereign Lord, in most humble 
 wise she wen unto your most excellent Majesty the in 
 habitants of your Grace s County Palatine of Chester: 
 
 (1) That where the said County Palatine of Chester is 
 and hath been alway hitherto exempt, excluded, and 
 separated out and from your high court of Parliament, 
 to have any knights and burgesses within the said 
 court; by reason whereof the said inhabitants have 
 hitherto sustained manifold disherisons, losses, and 
 damages, as well in their lands, goods, and bodies, as 
 in the good, civil, and politic governance and main 
 tenance of the commonwealth of their said county j 
 
 (2) and forasmuch as the said inhabitants have always 
 hitherto been bound by the acts and statutes made and 
 ordained by your said Highness and your most noble 
 progenitors, by authority of the said court, as far forth 
 as other counties, cities, and boroughs have been, that 
 have had their knights and burgesses within your said 
 court of Parliament, and yet have had neither knight 
 ne burgess there for the said County Palatine ; the said 
 inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftentimes 
 touched and grieved with acts and statutes made with 
 in the said court, as well derogatory unto the most 
 ancient jurisdictions, liberties, and privileges of your 
 said County Palatine, as prejudicial unto the common 
 wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of your Grace s most 
 bounden subjects inhabiting within the same. 
 
BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 95 
 
 86. What did Parliament with this audacious ad 
 dress? Reject it as a libel? Treat it as an affront to 
 government ? Spurn it as a derogation from the rights 
 of legislature ? Did they toss it over the table ? Did 
 they burn it by the hands of the common hangman? 
 They took the petition of grievance, all rugged as it 
 was, without softening or temperament, unpurged of 
 the original bitterness and indignation of complaint; 
 they made it the very preamble to their act of redress, 
 and consecrated its principle to all ages in the sanctu 
 ary of legislation. 
 
 87. Here is my third example. It was attended 
 with the success of the two former. Chester, civilized 
 as well as Wales, has demonstrated that freedom, and 
 not servitude, is the cure of anarchy ; as religion, and 
 not atheism, is the true remedy for superstitition. 
 Sir, this pattern of Chester was followed in the reign 
 of Charles the Second with regard to the County Pal 
 atine of Durham, which is my fourth example. This 
 county had long lain out of the pale of free legislation. 
 So scrupulously was the example of Chester followed, 
 that the style of the preamble is nearly the same with 
 that of the Chester Act; and, without affecting the 
 abstract extent of the authority of Parliament, it recog 
 nizes the equity of not suffering any considerable dis 
 trict, in which the British subjects may act as a body, 
 to be taxed without their own voice in the grant. 
 
 88. Now if the doctrines of policy contained in 
 these preambles, and the force of these examples in 
 the acts of Parliament, avail anything, what can be 
 said against applying them with regard to America? 
 
96 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Are not the people of America as much Englishmen 
 as the Welsh ? The preamble of the act of Henry the 
 Eighth says the Welsh speaks a language no way re 
 sembling that of his Majesty s English subjects. Are 
 the Americans not as numerous? If we may trust 
 the learned and accurate Judge Harrington s account 
 of North Wales, and take that as a standard to meas 
 ure the rest, there is no comparison. The people can 
 not amount to above 200,000 not a tenth part of the 
 number in the colonies. Is America in rebellion? 
 Wales was hardly ever free from it. Have you at 
 tempted to govern America by penal statutes? You 
 made fifteen for Wales. But your * legislative author 
 ity is perfect with regard to America." Was it less 
 perfect in Wales, Chester, and Durham ? But * Amer 
 ica is virtually represented. What ! does the electric 
 force of virtual representation more easily pass over 
 the Atlantic than pervade Wales, which lies in your 
 neighborhood, or than Chester and Durham, sur 
 rounded by abundance of representation that is actual 
 and palpable ? But, Sir, your ancestors thought this 
 sort of virtual representation, however ample, to be 
 totally insufficient for the freedom of the inhabitants 
 of territories that are so near, and comparatively so 
 inconsiderable. How then can I think it sufficient 
 for those which are infinitely greater and infinitely 
 more remote ? 
 
 89. You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine that I am 
 on the point of proposing to you a scheme for a repre 
 sentation of the colonies in Parliament. Perhaps I 
 might be inclined to entertain some such thought ; but 
 
BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 97 
 
 a great flood stops me in my course. Opposuit natura. 
 I cannot remove the eternal barriers of the creation. 
 The thing, in that mode, I do not know to be possible. 
 As I meddle with no theory, I do not absolutely assert 
 the impracticability of such a representation. But I 
 do not see my way to it ; and those who have been more 
 confident have not been more successful. However, 
 the arm of public benevolence is not shortened; and 
 there are often several means to the same end. What 
 nature has disjoined in one way wisdom may unite in 
 another. When we cannot give the benefit as we would 
 wish, let us not refuse it altogether. If we cannot give 
 the principal, let us find a substitute. But how? 
 Where ? What substitute ? 
 
 90. Fortunately I am not obliged for the ways 
 and means of this substitute to tax my own unpro 
 ductive invention. I am not even obliged to go to the 
 rich treasury of the fertile framers of imaginary com 
 monwealths: not to the Republic of Plato, not to the 
 Utopia of More, not to the Oceana of Harrington. It 
 is before me ; it is at my feet, 
 
 and the rude swain 
 Treads daily on it with his clouted shoon. 
 
 I only wish you to recognize, for the theory, the an 
 cient constitutional policy of this kingdom with regard 
 to representation, as that policy has been declared in 
 acts of Parliament ; and, as to the practice, to return 
 to that mode which a uniform experience has marked 
 out to you as best, and in which you walked with 
 security, advantage, and honor, until the year 1763* 
 
98 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 91. My resolutions therefore mean to establish the 
 equity and justice of a taxation of America by grant, 
 and not by imposition; to mark the legal competency 
 of the colony assemblies for the support of their gov- 
 ernment in peace, and for public aids in time of war ; 
 to acknowledge that this legal competency has had a 
 dutiful and beneficial exercise; and that experience 
 has shown the benefit of their grants, and the futility 
 of parliamentary taxation as a method of supply. 
 
 92. These solid truths compose six fundamental 
 propositions. There are three more resolutions 
 corollary to these. If you admit the first set, you can 
 hardly reject the others. But if you admit the first, 
 I shall be far from solicitous whether you accept or 
 refuse the last. I think these six massive pillars will 
 be of strength sufficient to support the temple of Brit 
 ish concord. I have no more doubt than I entertain 
 of my existence that, if you admitted these, you would 
 command an immediate peace ; and, with but tolerable 
 future management, a lasting obedience in America. 
 I am not arrogant in this confident assurance. The 
 propositions are all mere matters of fact ; and if they 
 are such facts as draw irresistible conclusions even in 
 the stating, this is the power of truth, and not any 
 management of mine. 
 
 93. Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you, to 
 gether with such observations on the motions as may 
 tend to illustrate them where they may want explana 
 tion. The first is a resolution : 
 
 That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain 
 in North America, consisting of fourteen separate 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 99 
 
 governments, and containing two millions and upwards 
 of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privi 
 lege of electing and sending any knights and burgesses, 
 or others, to represent them in the high court of Parlia 
 ment. 
 
 This is a plain matter of fact, necessary to be laid 
 down, and excepting the description it is laid down 
 in the language of the Constitution ; it is taken nearly 
 verbatim from acts of Parliament. 
 
 94. The second is like unto the first : 
 
 That the said colonies and plantations have been 
 liable to, and bounden by, several subsidies, payments, 
 rates, and taxes, given and granted by Parliament, 
 though the said colonies and plantations have not their 
 knights and burgesses in the said high court of Parlia 
 ment, of their own election, to represent the condition 
 of their country; by lack whereof they have been often 
 times touched and grieved by subsidies given, granted, 
 and assented to in the said court, in a manner preju 
 dicial to the common wealth, quietness, rest, and peace 
 of the subjects inhabiting within the same. 
 
 95. Is this description too hot or too cold, too 
 strong or too weak ? Does it arrogate too much to the 
 supreme legislature? Does it lean too much to the 
 claims of the people ? If it runs into any of these er 
 rors, the fault is not mine. It is the language of your 
 own ancient acts of Parliament : 
 
 Non meus hie sermo, sed quae pra3cepit Ofellus, 
 Eusticus, abnormis sapiens. 
 
 It is the genuine produce of the ancient, rustic, manly, 
 home-bred sense of this country. I did not dare to 
 rub off a particle of the venerable rust that rather 
 
100 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 adorns and preserves than destroys the metal. It 
 would be a profanation to touch with a tool the stones 
 which construct the sacred altar of peace. I would not 
 violate with modern polish the ingenuous and noble 
 roughness of these truly constitutional materials. 
 Above all things, I was resolved not to be guilty of 
 tampering the odious vice of restless and unstable 
 minds. I put my foot in the tracks of our forefathers, 
 where I can neither wander nor stumble. Determining 
 to fix articles of peace, I was resolved not to be wise 
 beyond what was written ; I was resolved to use noth 
 ing else than the form of sound words; to let others 
 abound in their own sense, and carefully to abstain 
 from all expressions of my own. What the law has 
 said I say. In all things else I am silent. I have no 
 organ but for her words. This, if it be not ingenious, 
 I am sure is safe. 
 
 96. There are indeed words expressive of griev 
 ance in this second resolution, which those who are 
 resolved always to be in the right will deny to contain 
 matter of fact as applied to the present case, although 
 Parliament thought them true with regard to the coun 
 ties of Chester and Durham. They will deny that the 
 Americans were ever "touched and grieved" with the 
 taxes. If they consider nothing in taxes but their 
 weight as pecuniary impositions, there might be some 
 pretense for this denial. But men may be sorely 
 touched and deeply grieved in their privileges as well 
 as in their purses. Men may lose little in property by 
 the act which takes away all their freedom. When a 
 man is robbed of a trifle on the highway, it is not the 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCIIATION: rVljjtt; 
 
 twopence lost that constitutes the capital outrage. 
 This is not confined to privileges. Even ancient indul 
 gences withdrawn, without offense on the part of those 
 who enjoyed such favors, operate as grievances. But 
 were the Americans, then, not touched and grieved by 
 the taxes, in some measure, merely as taxes? If so, 
 why were they almost all either wholly repealed or 
 exceedingly reduced? Were, they not touched and 
 grieved even by the regulating duties of the sixth of 
 George the Second? Else why were the duties first 
 reduced to one-third in 1764, and afterwards to a 
 third of that third in the year 1766 ? Were they not 
 touched and grieved by the Stamp Act? I shall say 
 they were, until that tax is revived. Were they not 
 touched and grieved by the duties of 1767, which were 
 likewise repealed, and which Lord Hillsborough tells 
 you for the ministry! were laid contrary to the true 
 principle of commerce? Is not the assurance given 
 by that noble person to the colonies of a resolution to 
 lay no more taxes on them an admission that taxes 
 would touch and grieve them? Is not the resolution 
 of the noble lord in the blue ribbon, now standing on 
 your journals, the strongest of all proofs that parlia 
 mentary subsidies really touched and grieved them? 
 Else why all these changes, modifications, repeals, as 
 surances, and resolutions ? 
 97. The next proposition is : 
 
 That, from the distance of the said colonies, and 
 from other circumstances, no method hath hitherto been 
 devised for procuring a representation in Parliament 
 for the said colonies. 
 
1Q2 BURKS S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 This is an assertion of a fact. I go no further on the 
 paper, though, in my private judgment, a useful repre 
 sentation is impossible ; I am sure it is not desired by 
 them, nor ought it perhaps by us but I abstain from 
 opinions. 
 
 98. The fourth resolution is : 
 
 That each of the said colonies hath within itself a 
 body, chosen, in part or in the whole, by the freemen, 
 freeholders, or other free inhabitants thereof, com 
 monly called the General Assembly, or General Court; 
 with powers legally to raise, levy, and assess, according 
 to the several usage of such colonies, duties and taxes 
 towards defraying all sorts of public services. 
 
 99. This competence in the colony assemblies is 
 certain. It is proved by the whole tenor of their acts 
 of supply in all the assemblies, in which the constant 
 style of granting is "an aid to his Majesty"; and acts 
 granting to the crown have regularly for near a cen 
 tury passed the public offices without dispute. Those 
 who have been pleased paradoxically to deny this 
 right, holding that none but the British Parliament 
 can grant to the crown, are wished to look to what is 
 done, not only in the colonies, but in Ireland, in one 
 uniform, unbroken tenor every session. Sir, I am 
 surprised that this doctrine should come from some of 
 the law servants of the crown. I say that if the crown 
 could be responsible, his Majesty but certainly the 
 ministers, and even these law officers themselves, 
 through whose hands the acts pass biennially in Ire 
 land, or annually in the colonies, are in an habitual 
 course of committing impeachable offenses. What 
 
BURKE 1 S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 103 
 
 habitual offenders have been all presidents of the coun 
 cil, all secretaries of state, all first lords of trade, all 
 attorneys and all solicitors general! However, they 
 are safe, as no one impeaches them ; and there is no 
 ground of charge against them, except in their own 
 unfounded theories. 
 
 100. The fifth resolution is also a resolution of fact : 
 That the said general assemblies, general courts, or 
 
 other bodies legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sun 
 dry times freely granted several large subsidies and 
 public aids for his Majesty s service, according to their 
 abilities, when required thereto by letter from one of 
 his Majesty s principal secretaries of state; and that 
 their right to grant the same, and their cheerfulness 
 and sufficiency in the said grants, have been at sundry 
 times acknowledged by Parliament. 
 
 To say nothing of their great expenses in the Indian 
 wars, and not to take their exertion in foreign ones 
 so high as the supplies in the. year 1695, not to go back 
 to their public contributions in the year 1710 I shall 
 begin to travel only where the journals give me light, 
 resolving to deal in nothing but fact, authenticated by 
 parliamentary record, and to build myself wholly on 
 that solid basis. 
 
 101. On the 4th of April, 1748, a committee of this 
 House came to the following resolution : 
 
 Resolved : That it is the opinion of this Committee 
 that it is just and reasonable that the several provinces 
 and colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, 
 Connecticut, and Khode Island be reimbursed the ex 
 penses they have been at in taking and securing to 
 the crown of Great Britain the Island of Cape Breton 
 and its dependencies. 
 
134 EUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 These expenses were immense for such colonies. They 
 were above 200,000 sterling money first raised and 
 advanced on their public credit. 
 
 102. On the 28th of January, 1756, a message 
 from the king came to us, to this effect : 
 
 His Majesty, being sensible of the zeal and vigor 
 with which his faithful subjects of certain colonies 
 in North America have exerted themselves in defense of 
 his Majesty s just rights and possessions, recommends 
 it to this House to take the same into their considera 
 tion, and to enable his Majesty to give them such as 
 sistance as may be a proper reward and encouragement. 
 
 103. On the 3rd of February, 1756, the House 
 came to a suitable resolution, expressed in words 
 nearly the same as those of the message, but with the 
 further addition that the money then voted was an 
 encouragement to the colonies to exert themselves with 
 vigor. It will not be necessary to go through all the 
 testimonies which your own records have given to the 
 truth of my resolutions; I will only refer you to the 
 places in the journals : 
 
 Vol. xxvii. 16th and 19th May, 1757. 
 
 Vol. xxviii. June 1st, 1758 ; April 26th and 30th, 
 
 1759 ; March 26th and 31st, and April 28th, 1760 ; 
 
 Jan. 9th and 20th, 1761. 
 Vol. xxix. Jan. 22nd and 26th, 1762 ; March 14th 
 
 and 17th, 1763. 
 
 104. Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment of 
 Parliament that the colonies not only gave, but gave 
 to satiety. This nation has formerly acknowledged 
 two things : first, that the colonies had gone beyond 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 105 
 
 their abilities, Parliament having thought it necessary 
 to reimburse them; secondly, that they had acted 
 legally and laudably in their grants of money and 
 their maintenance of troops, since the compensation is 
 expressly given as reward and encouragement. Re 
 ward is not bestowed for acts that are unlawful, and 
 encouragement is not held out to things that deserve 
 reprehension. My resolution therefore does nothing 
 more than collect into one proposition what is scat 
 tered through your journals. I give you nothing but 
 your own; and you cannot refuse in the gross what 
 you have so often acknowledged in detail. The ad 
 mission of this, which will be so honorable to them and 
 to you, will indeed be mortal to all the miserable stories 
 by which the passions of the misguided people have 
 been engaged in an unhappy system. The people 
 heard indeed, from the beginning of these disputes, 
 one thing continually dinned in their ears : that rea 
 son and justice demanded that the Americans, who 
 paid 110 taxes, should be compelled to contribute. " 
 How did that fact of their paying nothing stand when 
 the taxing system began ? When Mr. Grenville began 
 to form his system of American revenue, he stated in 
 this House that the colonies were then in debt two 
 million six hundred thousand pounds sterling money, 
 and was of opinion they would discharge that debt in 
 four years. On this state those uiitaxed people were 
 actually subject to the payment of taxes to the amount 
 of six hundred and fifty thousand a year. In fact, 
 however, Mr. Grenville was mistaken. The funds 
 given for sinking the debt did not prove quite so am- 
 
106 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 pie as both the colonies and he expected. The calcu 
 lation was too sanguine; the reduction was not com 
 pleted till some years after, and at different times in 
 different colonies. However, the taxes after the war 
 continued too great to bear any addition with prudence 
 or propriety ; and when the burthens imposed in con 
 sequence of former requisitions were discharged, our 
 tone became too high to resort again to requisition. 
 No colony, since that time, ever has had any requisi 
 tion whatsoever made to it. 
 
 105. We see the sense of the crown, and the sense 
 of Parliament, on the productive nature of a revenue 
 by grant. Now search the same journals for the pro 
 duce of the revenue ~by imposition. Where is it ? Let 
 us know the volume and the page. What is the gross, 
 what is the net produce ? To what service is it applied ? 
 How have you appropriated its surplus ? What ! can 
 none of the many skilful index-makers that we are 
 now employing find any trace of it? Well, let them 
 and that rest together. But are the journals, which 
 say nothing of the revenue, as silent on the discontent ? 
 Oh, no ! a child may find it. It is the melancholy 
 burthen and blot of every page. 
 
 106. I think, then, I am, from those journals, jus 
 tified in the sixth and last resolution, which is : 
 
 That it hath been found by experience that the man 
 ner of granting the said supplies and aids by the said 
 general assemblies hath been more agreeable to the 
 said colonies, and more beneficial and conducive to the 
 public service, than the mode of giving and granting 
 aids in Parliament, to be raised and paid in the said 
 colonies. 
 
BUBKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 1Q7 
 
 107. This makes the whole of the fundamental 
 part of the plan. The conclusion is irresistible. You 
 cannot say that you were driven by any necessity to 
 an exercise of the utmost rights of legislature. You 
 cannot assert that you took on yourselves the task of 
 imposing colony taxes from the want of another legal 
 body that is competent to the purpose of supplying 
 the exigencies of the State without wounding the 
 prejudices of the people. Neither is it true that the 
 body so qualified and having that competence had 
 neglected the duty. 
 
 108. The question now on all this accumulated 
 matter is whether you will choose to abide by a profit 
 able experience, or a mischievous theory ; whether you 
 choose to build on imagination, or fact ; whether you 
 prefer enjoyment, or hope; satisfaction in your sub 
 jects, or discontent. 
 
 109. If these propositions are accepted, every 
 thing which has been made to enforce a contrary sys 
 tem must, I take it for granted, fall along with it. 
 On that ground I have drawn the following resolu 
 tion, which, when it comes to be moved, will naturally 
 be divided in a proper manner : 
 
 That it may be proper to repeal an act made in the 
 seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, inti 
 tuled: An act for granting certain duties in tlie British 
 colonies and plantations in America; for allowing a 
 drawback of the duties of customs upon the exportation 
 from this kingdom of coffee and cocoa-nuts of the pro 
 duce of the said colonies or plantations; for discontinu 
 ing the drawbacks payable on China earthenware ex 
 ported to America; and for more effectually preventing 
 
108 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies 
 and plantations. And that it may be proper to repeal 
 an act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his 
 present Majesty, intituled: An act to discontinue, in 
 such manner and for such time as are therein men 
 tioned, the landing and discharging, lading or ship 
 ping, of goods, wares, and merchandise at the town and 
 within the harbor of Boston, in the Province of Massa 
 chusetts Bay, in North America. And that it may be 
 proper to repeal an act made in the fourteenth year of 
 the reign of his present Majesty, intituled: An act for 
 the impartial administration of justice, in the cases 
 of persons questioned for any acts done by them in the 
 execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots 
 and tumults, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in 
 New England. And that it may be proper to repeal 
 an act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his 
 present Majesty, intituled: An act for the better regu 
 lating the government of the Province of the Massa 
 chusetts Bay, in New England. And also that it may 
 be proper to explain and amend an act made in the 
 thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the 
 Eighth, intituled: An act for the trial of treasons com 
 mitted out of the King s dominions. 
 
 110. I wish, Sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, 
 because independently of the dangerous precedent of 
 suspending the rights of the subject during the King s 
 pleasure it was passed, as I apprehend, with less 
 regularity, and on more partial principles, than it 
 ought. The corporation of Boston was not heard be 
 fore it was condemned. Other towns, full as guilty as 
 she was, have not had their ports blocked up. Even 
 the Restraining Bill of the present session does not 
 go to the length of the Boston Port Act. The same 
 
BUKKE S SPEECH OX COXCILIATIOX 1Q9 
 
 ideas of prudence which induced you not to extend 
 equal punishment to equal guilt, even when you were 
 punishing, induced me who mean not to chastise, but 
 to reconcile to be satisfied with the punishment 
 already partially inflicted. 
 
 111. Ideas of prudence and accommodation to 
 circumstances prevent you from taking away the char 
 ters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, as you have 
 taken away that of Massachusetts Colony, though the 
 crown has far less power in the two former provinces 
 than it enjoyed in the latter, and though the abuses 
 have been fully as great and as flagrant in the ex 
 empted as in the punished. The same reasons of 
 prudence and accommodation have weight with me 
 in restoring the charter of Massachusetts Bay. Be 
 sides, Sir, the act which changes the charter of Massa 
 chusetts is in many particulars so exceptionable that, 
 if I did not wish absolutely to repeal, I would by all 
 means desire to alter it, as several of its provisions 
 tend to the subversion of all public and private jus 
 tice. Such, among others, is the power in the governor 
 to change the sheriff at his pleasure, and to make a 
 new returning-officer for every special cause. It is 
 shameful to behold such a regulation standing among 
 English laws. 
 
 112. The act for bringing persons accused of com 
 mitting murder under the orders of government to 
 England for trial is but temporary. That act has 
 calculated the probable duration of our quarrel with 
 the colonies, and is accommodated to that supposed 
 duration. I would hasten the happy moment of recon- 
 
HO BUEKE S SPEECH. ON CONCILIATION 
 
 ciliation, and therefore must, on my principle, get rid 
 of that most justly obnoxious act. 
 
 113. The act of Henry the Eighth, for the trial of 
 treasons, I do not mean to take away, but to confine it 
 to its proper bounds and original intention; to make 
 it expressly for trial of treasons and the greatest 
 treasons may be committed in places where the, juris 
 diction of the crown does not extend. 
 
 114. Having guarded the privileges of local legis 
 lature, I would next secure to the colonies a fair and 
 unbiased judicature, for which purpose, Sir, I propose 
 the following resolution : 
 
 That, from the time when the general assembly or 
 general court of any colony or plantation in North 
 America shall have appointed, by act of assembly duly 
 confirmed, a settled salary to the offices of the chief 
 justice and other judges of the superior court, it may 
 be proper that the said chief justice and other judges 
 of the superior courts of such colony shall hold his and 
 their office and offices during their good behavior; and 
 shall not be removed therefrom but when the said 
 removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in council, 
 upon a hearing on complaint from the general assembly, 
 or on a complaint from the governor, or council, or the 
 house of representatives severally, of the colony in 
 which the said chief justice and other judges have 
 exercised the said offices. 
 
 115. The next resolution relates to the courts of 
 admiralty. It is this : 
 
 That it may be proper to regulate the courts of 
 admiralty, or vice-admiralty, authorized by the fif 
 teenth chapter of the fourth of George the Third, in 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION m 
 
 such a manner as to make the same more commodious 
 to those who sue or are sued in the said courts, and to 
 provide for the more decent maintenance of the judges 
 in the same. 
 
 116. These courts I do not wish to take away; 
 they are in themselves proper establishments. This 
 court is one of the capital securities of the Act of Navi 
 gation. The extent of its jurisdiction, indeed, has 
 been increased ; but this is altogether as proper, and is 
 indeed on many accounts more eligible, where new 
 powers were wanted, than a court absolutely new. But 
 courts incommodiously situated in effect deny justice, 
 and a court partaking in the fruits of its own condem 
 nation Is a robber. The Congress complain, and com 
 plain justly, of this grievance. 
 
 117. These are the three consequential proposi- 
 tiohs. I have thought of two or three more, but they 
 come rather too near detail and to the province of 
 executive government, which I wish Parliament always 
 to superintend, never to assume. If the first six are 
 granted, congruity will carry the latter three. If not, 
 the things that remain unrepealed will be, I hope, 
 rather unseemly encumbrances on the building than 
 very materially detrimental to its strength and sta 
 bility. 
 
 118. Here, Sir, I should close but I plainly per 
 ceive some objections remain, which I ought, if possi 
 ble, to remove. The first will be that, in resorting to 
 the doctrine of our ancestors as contained in the pre 
 amble to the Chester Act, I prove too much : that the 
 grievance from a want of representation, stated in that 
 
112 BUBKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 preamble, goes to the whole of legislation as well as to 
 taxation ; and that the colonies, grounding themselves 
 upon that doctrine, will apply it to all parts of legis 
 lative authority. 
 
 119. To this objection, with all possible deference 
 and humility, and wishing as little as any man living 
 to impair the smallest particle of our supreme author 
 ity, I answer, that the words are the words of Parlia 
 ment, and not mine; and that all false and inconclusive 
 inferences drawn from them are not mine, for I heart 
 ily disclaim any such inference. I have chosen the 
 words of an act of Parliament which Mr. Grenville, 
 surely a tolerably zealous and very judicious advocate 
 for the sovereignty of Parliament, formerly moved to 
 have read at your table in confirmation of his tenets. 
 It is true that Lord Chatham considered these pream 
 bles as declaring strongly in favor of his opinions. He 
 was a no less powerful advocate for the privileges of 
 the Americans. Ought I not from hence to presume 
 that these preambles are as favorable as possible to 
 both, when properly understood ; favorable both to the 
 rights of Parliament, and to the privilege of the de 
 pendencies of this crown? But, Sir, the object of 
 grievance in my resolution I have not taken from the 
 Chester, but from the Durham Act, which confines the 
 hardship of want of representation to the case of sub 
 sidies, and which therefore falls in exactly with the 
 case of the colonies. But whether the unrepresented 
 counties were, de jure or de facto, bound the pream 
 bles do not accurately distinguish, nor indeed was it 
 necessary; for whether de jure or de facto, the legis- 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION H3 
 
 lature thought the exercise of the power of taxing as 
 of right, or as of fact without right, equally a griev 
 ance and equally oppressive. 
 
 120. I do not know that the colonies have, in any 
 general way or in any cool hour, gone much beyond 
 the demand of immunity in relation to taxes. It is not 
 fair to judge of the temper or dispositions of any man, 
 or any set of men, when they are composed and at 
 rest, from their conduct or their expressions in a state 
 of disturbance and irritation. It is besides a very 
 great mistake to imagine that mankind follow up prac 
 tically any speculative principle, either of government 
 or of freedom, as far as it will go in argument and 
 logical illation. We Englishmen stop very short of 
 the principles upon which we support any given part 
 of our Constitution, or even the whole of it together. 
 I could easily, if I had not already tired you, give you 
 very striking and convincing instances of it. This is 
 nothing but what is natural and proper. All govern 
 ment indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, 
 every virtue, and every prudent act is founded on 
 compromise and barter. We balance inconveniences; 
 we give and take ; we remit some rights that we may 
 enjoy others; and we choose rather to be happy citi 
 zens than subtle disputants. As we must give away 
 some natural liberty to enjoy civil advantages, so we 
 must sacrifice some civil liberties for the advantages to 
 be derived from the communion and fellowship of a 
 great empire. But in all fair dealings the thing bought 
 must bear some proportion to the purchase paid. None 
 will barter away the immediate jewel of his soul. 
 
114 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Though a great house is apt to make slaves haughty, 
 yet it is purchasing a part of the artificial importance 
 of a great empire too dear to pay for it all essential 
 rights and all the intrinsic dignity of human nature. 
 None of us who would not risk his life rather than fall 
 under a government purely arbitrary. But although 
 there are some amongst us who think our Constitution 
 wants many improvements to make it a complete sys 
 tem of liberty, perhaps none who are of that opinion 
 would think it right to aim at such improvement by 
 disturbing his country and risking everything that 
 is dear to him. In every arduous enterprise we con 
 sider what we are to lose as well as what we are to 
 gain ; and the more and better stake of liberty every 
 people possess, the less they will hazard in a vain at 
 tempt to make it more. These are the cords of man. 
 Man acts from adequate motives relative to his inter 
 est, and not on metaphysical speculations. Aristotle, 
 the great master of reasoning, cautions us, and with 
 great weight and propriety, against this species of de 
 lusive geometrical accuracy in moral arguments, as 
 the most fallacious of all sophistry. 
 
 121. The Americans will have no interest contrary 
 to the grandeur and glory of England, when they are 
 not oppressed by the weight of it ; and they will rather 
 be inclined to respect the acts of a superintending 
 legislature when they see them the acts of that power 
 which is itself the security, not the rival, of their sec 
 ondary importance. In this assurance my mind most 
 perfectly acquiesces ; and I confess I feel not the least 
 alarm from the discontents which are to arise from 
 
BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 115 
 
 putting^ people at their ease ; nor do I apprehend the 
 destruction of this empire from giving, by an act of 
 free grace and indulgence, to two millions of my fel 
 low-citizens some share of those rights upon which I 
 have always been taught to value myself. 
 
 122. It is said, indeed, that this power of grant 
 ing, vested in American assemblies, would dissolve 
 the unity of the empire ; which was preserved entire, 
 although Wales and Chester and Durham were added 
 to it. Truly, Mr. Speaker, I do not know what this 
 " unity" means, nor has it ever been heard of, that 
 I know, in the constitutional policy of this country. 
 The very idea of subordination of parts excludes this 
 notion of simple and undivided unity. England is 
 the head ; but she is not the head and the members too. 
 Ireland has ever had from the beginning a separate, 
 but not an independent, legislature, which, far from 
 distracting, promoted the union of the whole. Every 
 thing was sweetly and harmoniously disposed through 
 both islands for the conservation of English dominion 
 and the communication of English liberties. I do not 
 see that the same principles might not be carried into 
 twenty islands, and with the same good effect. This 
 is my model with regard to America, as far as the 
 internal circumstances of the two countries are the 
 same. I know no other unity of this empire than I 
 can draw from its example during these periods when 
 it seemed to my poor understanding more united than 
 it is now, or than it is likely to be by the present 
 methods. 
 
 123. But since I speak of these methods, I recol- 
 
116 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 lect, Mr. Speaker, almost too late, that I promised, 
 before I finished, to say something of the proposition 
 of the noble lord on the floor, which has been so lately 
 received, and stands on your journals. I must be 
 deeply concerned, whenever it is my misfortune to con 
 tinue a difference with the majority of this House. 
 But as the reasons for that difference are my apology 
 for thus troubling you, suffer me to state them in a 
 very few words. I shall compress them into as small 
 a body as I possibly can, having already debated that 
 matter at large when the question was before the com 
 mittee. 
 
 124. First, then, I cannot admit that proposition 
 of a ransom by auction, because it is a mere project. 
 It is a thing new, unheard of, supported by no experi 
 ence, justified by no analogy, without example of our 
 ancestors or root in the Constitution. It is neither 
 regular parliamentary taxation nor colony grant. Ex- 
 perimentum in corpore vili is a good rule, which will 
 ever make me adverse to any trial of experiments on 
 what is certainly the most valuable of all subjects, the 
 peace of this empire. 
 
 125. Secondly, it is an experiment which must be 
 fatal in the end to our Constitution. For what is it but 
 a scheme for taxing the colonies in the antechamber 
 of the noble lord and his successors? To settle the 
 quotas and proportions in this House is clearly impos 
 sible. You, Sir, may flatter yourself you shall sit a 
 state auctioneer, with your hammer in your hand, and 
 knock down to each colony as it bids. But to settle 
 on the plan laid down by the noble lord the true 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION H7 
 
 proportional payment for four or five and twenty gov 
 ernments, according to the absolute and the relative 
 wealth of each, and according to the British propor 
 tion of wealth and burthen, is a wild and chimerical 
 notion. This new taxation must therefore come in by 
 the back-door of the Constitution. Each quota must 
 be brought to this House ready formed; you can 
 neither add nor alter. You must register it. You can 
 do nothing further. For on what grounds can you 
 deliberate either before or after the proposition ? You 
 cannot hear the counsel for all these provinces, quar 
 reling each on its own quantity of payment and its 
 proportion to others. If you should attempt it, the 
 Committee of Provincial Ways and Means, or by 
 whatever other name it will delight to be called, must 
 swallow up all the time of Parliament. 
 
 126. Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the 
 complaint of the colonies. They complain that they 
 are taxed without their consent ; you answer that you 
 will fix the sum at which they shall be taxed that is, 
 you give them the very grievance for the remedy. You 
 tell them, indeed, that you will leave the mode to them 
 selves. I really beg pardon it gives me pain to men 
 tion it but you must be sensible that you will not 
 perform this part of the compact. For suppose the col 
 onies were to lay the duties which furnished their 
 contingent upon the importation of your manufac 
 turers; you know you would never suffer such a tax 
 to be laid. You know, too, that you would not suffer 
 many other modes of taxation. So that, when you 
 come to explain yourself, it will be found that you 
 
118 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 will neither leave to themselves the quantum nor the 
 mode nor indeed anything. The whole is delusion 
 from one end to the other. 
 
 127. Fourthly, this method of ransom by auction, 
 unless it be universally accepted, will plunge you into 
 great and inextricable difficulties. In what year of our 
 Lord are the proportions of payments to be settled? 
 To say nothing of the impossibility that colony agents 
 should have general powers of taxing the colonies at 
 their discretion, consider, I implore you, that the com 
 munication by special messages, and orders between 
 these agents and their constituents on each variation 
 of the case, when the parties come to contend together 
 and to dispute on their relative proportions, will be 
 a matter of delay, perplexity, and confusion that never 
 can have an end. 
 
 128. If all the colonies do not appear at the out 
 cry, what is the condition of those assemblies who offer, 
 by themselves or their agents, to tax themselves up to 
 your ideas of their proportion? The refractory col 
 onies, who refuse all composition, will remain taxed 
 only to your old impositions, which, however grievous 
 in principle, are trifling as to production. The obedi 
 ent colonies in this scheme are heavily taxed ; the re 
 fractory remain unburthened. What will you do? 
 Will you lay new and heavier taxes by Parliament on 
 the disobedient? Pray consider in what way you can 
 do it. You are perfectly convinced that, in the way 
 of taxing, you can do nothing but at the ports. Now 
 suppose it is Virginia that refuses to appear at your 
 auction, while Maryland and North Carolina bid hand- 
 
BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION H9 
 
 somely for their ransom, and are taxed to your quota 
 how will you put these colonies on a par ? Will you 
 tax the tobacco of Virginia ? If you do, you give its 
 death-wound to your English revenue at home, and 
 to one of the very greatest articles of your own for 
 eign trade. If you tax the import of that rebellious 
 colony, what do you tax but your own manufactures, 
 or the goods of some other obedient and already well- 
 taxed colony? Who has said one word on this laby 
 rinth of detail, which bewilders you more and more 
 as you enter into it? Who has presented, who can 
 present you, with a clue to lead you out of it ? I think, 
 Sir, it is impossible that you should not recollect that 
 the colony bounds are so implicated in one another 
 you know it by your other experiments in the bill for 
 prohibiting the New England fishery that you can 
 lay no possible restraints on almost any of them which 
 may not be presently eluded, if you do not confound 
 the innocent with the guilty, and burthen those whom, 
 upon every principle, you ought to exonerate. He 
 must be grossly ignorant of America who thinks that, 
 without falling into this confusion of all rules of 
 equity and policy, you can restrain any single colony, 
 especially Virginia and Maryland, the central and 
 most important of them all. 
 
 129. Let it also be considered that either in the 
 present confusion you settle a permanent contingent, 
 which will and must be trifling, and then you have no 
 effectual revenue; or you change the quota at every 
 exigency, and then on every new repartition you will 
 have a new quarrel. 
 
120 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 130. Reflect besides that when you have fixed a 
 quota for every colony, you have not provided for 
 prompt and punctual payment. Suppose one, two, 
 five, ten years arrears. You cannot issue a treasury 
 extent against the failing colony. You must make 
 new Boston Port Bills, new restraining laws, new acts 
 for dragging men to England for trial. You must send 
 out new fleets, new armies. All is to begin again. 
 From this day forward the empire is never to know 
 an hour s tranquillity. An intestine fire will be kept 
 alive in the bowels of the colonies, which one time or 
 other must consume this whole empire. I allow indeed 
 that the empire of Germany raises her revenue and 
 her troops by quotas and contingents; but the revenue 
 of the empire, and the army of the empire, is the worst 
 revenue and the worst army in the world. 
 
 131. Instead of a standing revenue you will there- 
 fore have a perpetual quarrel. Indeed the noble lord, 
 who proposed this project of a ransom by auction, 
 seemed himself to be of that opinion. His project was 
 rather designed for breaking the union of the colonies 
 than for establishing a revenue. He confessed he ap 
 prehended that his proposal would not be to their 
 taste. I say, this scheme of disunion seems to be at 
 the bottom of the project ; for I will not suspect that 
 the noble lord meant nothing but merely to delude 
 the nation by an airy phantom which he never intended 
 to realize. But whatever his views may be, as I pro 
 pose the peace and union of the colonies as the very 
 foundation of my plan, it cannot accord with one 
 whose foundation is perpetual discord. 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 121 
 
 132. Compare the two. This I offer to give you is 
 plain and simple ; the other full of perplexed and intri 
 cate mazes. This is mild ; that harsh. This is found 
 by experience effectual for its purposes ; the other is a 
 new project. This is universal; the other calculated 
 for certain colonies only. This is immediate in its 
 conciliatory operation; the other remote, contingent, 
 full of hazard. Mine is what becomes the dignity of 
 a ruling people gratuitous, unconditional, and not 
 held out as matter of bargain and sale. I have done 
 my duty in proposing it to you. I have indeed tired 
 you by a long discourse ; but this is the misfortune of 
 those to whose influence nothing will be conceded, and 
 who must win every inch of their ground by argument. 
 You have heard me with goodness. May you decide 
 with wisdom ! For my part, I feel my mind greatly 
 disburthened by what I have done today. I have been 
 the less fearful of trying your patience because on this 
 subject I mean to spare it altogether in future. I 
 have this comfort, that in every stage of the American 
 affairs I have steadily opposed the measures that have 
 produced the confusion, and may bring on the destruc 
 tion, of this empire. I now go so far as to risk a pro 
 posal of my own. If I cannot give peace to my coun 
 try, I give it to my conscience. 
 
 133. "But what," says the financier, "is peace to 
 us without money ? Your plan gives us no revenue. 
 No! But it does; for it secures to the subject the 
 power of REFUSAL the first of all revenues. Ex 
 perience is a cheat, and fact a liar, if this power in the 
 
122 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 subject of proportioning his grant, or of not granting 
 at all, has not been found the richest mine of revenue 
 ever discovered by the skill or by the fortune of man. 
 It does not indeed vote you 152,750 :11 :23/4ths, nor 
 any other paltry, limited sum ; but it gives the strong 
 box itself, the fund, the bank, from whence only rev 
 enues can arise amongst a people sensible of freedom : 
 Posit a luditur area. Cannot you in England, cannot 
 you at this time of day, cannot you, a House of Com 
 mons, trust to the principle which has raised so mighty 
 a revenue, and accumulated a debt of near 140 millions 
 in this country? Is this principle to be true in Eng 
 land, and false everywhere else? Is it not true in 
 Ireland? Has it not hitherto been true in the col 
 onies ? Why should you presume that in any country 
 a body duly constituted for any function will neglect 
 to perform its duty, and abdicate its trust? Such a 
 presumption would go against all governments in all 
 modes. But, in truth, this dread of penury of supply 
 from a free assembly has no foundation in nature. 
 For first observe that, besides the desire which all 
 men have naturally of supporting the honor of their 
 own government, that sense of dignity and that secur 
 ity to property, which ever attends freedom, has a 
 tendency to increase the stock of the free community. 
 Most may be taken where most is accumulated. And 
 what is the soil or climate where experience has not 
 uniformly proved that the voluntary flow of heaped- 
 up plenty, bursting from the weight of its own rich 
 luxuriance, has ever run with a more copious stream 
 of revenue than could be squeezed from the dry husks 
 
BUKKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 123 
 
 of oppressed indigence, by the straining of all the 
 politic machinery in the world ? 
 
 134. Next, we know that parties must ever exist 
 in a free country. "We know, too, that the emulations 
 of such parties, their contradictions, their reciprocal 
 necessities, their hopes, and their fears, must send 
 them all in their turns to him that holds the balance 
 of the state. The parties are the gamesters ; but gov 
 ernment keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner 
 in the end. "When this game is played, I really think 
 it is more to be feared that the people will be ex 
 hausted than that government will not be supplied. 
 "Whereas whatever is got by acts of absolute power 
 ill obeyed because odious, or by contracts ill kept 
 because constrained, will be narrow, feeble, uncertain, 
 and precarious. 
 
 Ease would retract 
 Vows made in pain, as violent and void. 
 
 135. I, for one, protest against compounding our 
 demands: I declare against compounding, for a poor 
 limited sum, the immense, ever-growing, eternal debt, 
 which is due to generous government from protected 
 freedom. And so may I speed in the great object I 
 propose to you, as I think it would not only be an act 
 of injustice, but would be the worst economy in the 
 world, to compel the colonies to a sum certain, either 
 in the way of ransom or in the way of compulsory 
 compact. 
 
 136. But to clear up my ideas on this subject : a 
 revenue from America transmitted hither do not 
 delude yourselves you never can receive it ; no, not a 
 
124 BURKE 1 S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 shilling. We have experience that from remote coun 
 tries it is not to be expected. If, when you attempted 
 to extract revenue from Bengal, you were obliged to 
 return in loan what you had taken in imposition, what 
 can you expect from North America? For certainly, 
 if ever there was a country qualified to produce wealth, 
 it is India; or an institution fit for the transmission, 
 it is the East India Company. America has none of 
 these aptitudes. If America gives you taxable objects 
 on which you lay your duties here, and gives you at 
 the same time a surplus by a foreign sale of her com 
 modities to pay the duties on these objects which you 
 tax at home, she has performed her part to the British 
 revenue. But with regard to her own internal estab 
 lishments, she may I doubt not she will contribute 
 in moderation. I say in moderation ; for she ought not 
 to be permitted to exhaust herself. She ought to be 
 reserved to a war the weight of which, with the ene 
 mies that we are most likely to have, must be consider 
 able in her quarter of the globe. There she may serve 
 you, and serve you essentially. 
 
 137. For that service for all service, whether of 
 revenue, trade, or empire my trust is in her interest 
 in the British Constitution. My hold of the colonies 
 is in the close affection which grows from common 
 names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, 
 and equal protection. These are ties which, though 
 light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the 
 colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights asso 
 ciated with your government they will cling and 
 grapple to you, and no force under heaven will be of 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 125 
 
 power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it 
 be once understood that your government may be one 
 thing, and their privileges another; that these two 
 things may exist without any mutual relation the 
 cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and every 
 thing hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you 
 have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this 
 country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple 
 consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen 
 race and sons of England worship freedom, they will 
 turn their faces towards you. The more they multiply, 
 the more friends you will have; the more ardently 
 they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedi 
 ence. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed 
 that grows in every soil. They may have it from 
 Spain ; they may have it from Prussia. But, until you 
 become lost to all feeling of your true interest and 
 your natural dignity, freedom they can have from 
 none but you. This is the commodity of price, of 
 which you have the monopoly. This is the true Act 
 of Navigation, which binds to you the commerce of 
 the colonies, and through them secures to you the 
 wealth of the world. Deny them this participation 
 of freedom, and you break that sole bond which orig 
 inally made, and must still preserve, the unity of the 
 empire. Do not entertain so weak an imagination as 
 that your registers and your bonds, your affidavits and 
 your sufferances, your cockets and your clearances, are 
 what form the great securities of your commerce. Do 
 not dream that your letters of office and your instruc 
 tions and your suspending clauses are the things that 
 
126 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 hold together the great contexture of the mysterious 
 whole. These things do not make your government. 
 Dead instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the 
 spirit of English communion that gives all their life 
 and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the English 
 Constitution, which, infused through the mighty 
 mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every 
 part of the empire, even down to the minutest member. 
 
 138. Is it not the same virtue which does every 
 thing for us here in England ? Do you imagine then, 
 that it is the Land Tax Act which raises your revenue ? 
 that it is the annual vote in the Committee of Supply 
 which gives you your army ? or that it is the Mutiny 
 Bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? 
 No ! surely no ! It is the love of the people, it is their 
 attachment to their government from the sense of the 
 deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, 
 which gives you your army and your navy, and infuses 
 into both that liberal obedience without which your 
 army would be a base rabble and your navy nothing 
 but rotten timber. 
 
 139. All this, I know well enough, will sound wild 
 and chimerical to the profane herd of those vulgar 
 and mechanical politicians who have no place among 
 us a sort of people who think that nothing exists but 
 what is gross and material, and who therefore, far from 
 being qualified to be directors of the great movement 
 of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine. 
 But to men truly initiated and rightly taught, these 
 ruling and master principles, which in the opinion 
 of such men as I have mentioned have no substantial 
 
BURKE S SPEECH OX CONCILIATION 127 
 
 existence, are in truth everything, and all in all. Mag 
 nanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom ; 
 and a great empire and little minds go ill together. 
 If we are conscious of our situation, and glow with 
 zeal to fill our place as becomes our station and our 
 selves, we ought to auspicate all our public proceed 
 ings on America with the old warning of the church, 
 Surswn cor da! We ought to elevate our minds to the 
 greatness of that trust to which the order of providence 
 has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this high 
 calling our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness 
 into a glorious empire, and have made the most exten 
 sive, and the only honorable conquests, not by destroy 
 ing, but by promoting, the wealth, the number, the 
 happiness of the human race. Let us get an American 
 revenue as we have got an American empire. English 
 privileges have made it all that it is; English privi 
 leges alone will make it all it can be. 
 
 140. In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I 
 now quod felix faustumque sit! lay the first stone 
 of the Temple of Peace ; and I move you 
 
 That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain 
 in North America, consisting of fourteen separate 
 governments, and containing two millions and upwards 
 of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privi 
 lege of electing and sending any knights and burgesses, 
 or others, to represent them in the high court of Par 
 liament. 
 
IMPORTANT COLLATERAL READINGS 
 
 FROM THE SPEECHES OF EDMUND BURKE, WILLIAM PITT, 
 
 AND CHARLES JAMES FOX; FROM THE HISTORIANS 
 
 TREVELYAN AND LECKY; AND FROM THE 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, 1775-1776 
 
HOW THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION WAS 
 REGARDED IN ENGLAND 
 
 It must never be forgotten that many Englishmen 
 from the first and in the end a decided, and indeed a 
 very large, majority among them regarded the con 
 test which was being fought out in America not as a 
 foreign war, but as a civil war in which English liberty 
 was at stake. They held that a policy had been delib 
 erately initiated, and during half a generation had 
 been resolutely pursued, of which the avowed object 
 was to make the Royal power dominant in the State ; 
 and the historians in highest repute, who since have 
 treated of those times, unreservedly maintain the same 
 view. That policy had now 1 prevailed ; and Personal 
 Government, from a mischievous theory, had grown in 
 to a portentous reality. The victory of the Crown had 
 been preceded by an epoch of continuous and bitter 
 strife, every stage in which was marked by deplorable 
 incidents. The publication through the press of opin 
 ions obnoxious to the Court had been punished with 
 unsparing severity. The right of constituents to elect 
 a person of their choice had been denied in words, and 
 repeatedly violated in practice. The benches of the 
 Lords and the Commons swarmed with an ever increas 
 ing band of placemen and pensioners subsidized by 
 
 *In the spring of 1777. 
 
 129 
 
130 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 the King; and these gentlemen well knew the work 
 which the paymaster expected of them. Their vocation 
 was to harass any minister who conceived that he owed 
 a duty to the people as well as to the Sovereign ; and 
 to betray and ruin him if he proved incorrigible in 
 his notions of patriotism. The most famous English 
 statesmen all, it is not too much to say, who are now 
 remembered with pride by Englishmen of every party 
 were shut out from the opportunity, and even from 
 the hope, of office ; and our national qualities of man 
 liness and independence had come to be a standing 
 disqualification for employment in the nation s serv 
 ice. At last the Cabinet had picked a quarrel with 
 the colonies over the very same question which con 
 vulsed England in the days of Strafford and the ship- 
 money. In order to vindicate the doctrine that taxa 
 tion might be imposed without representation, the 
 servants of the Crown, or rather its bondsmen (for 
 the Prime Minister, and the most respectable of his 
 colleagues, were in this matter acting under compul 
 sion, and against their consciences), had undertaken 
 to coerce the communities in America with fire and 
 sword, and to visit individuals with the extreme pen 
 alties of rebellion. It followed, as a natural and certain 
 consequence, that the party, which resented the en 
 croachments of the Crown at home, sincerely and uni 
 versally entertained a belief which influenced their 
 whole view of the colonial controversy. That belief 
 had been placed on record, in quiet but expressive 
 language, by a nobleman who, in his honored age, lived 
 among us as the last of the old Whigs. Lord Albe- 
 
TKEVELYAN S AMERICAN REVOLUTION 131 
 
 marie distinctly states that in 1774, and for some years 
 afterwards, the Opposition were possessed by * a deep 
 and well-grounded conviction that, if despotism were 
 once established in America, arbitrary government 
 would at least be attempted in the mother country." 
 Those apprehensions were shared by men whose 
 judgment cannot lightly be set aside, and the strength. 
 of whose patriotism was many degrees above proof. 
 Chatham, when he spoke in public, dwelt mainly upon 
 the rights of the colonists, the duty of England, and 
 the appalling military dangers which would result to 
 the Empire if those rights were invaded and that duty 
 ignored. With the instinct of a great orator, he did 
 not willingly introduce fresh debatable matter into 
 a controversy where he had so many sufficient and 
 self-evident arguments ready to his hand; but his 
 private correspondence clearly indicates that the keen 
 ness of his emotion, and the warmth of his advocacy, 
 were closely connected with a profound belief that, if 
 America were subjugated, Britain would not long be 
 free. Would to heaven, he wrote, that England was 
 not doomed to bind round her own hands, and wear 
 patiently, the chains which she was forging for her 
 colonies ! And then he quoted, with telling effect, the 
 passage in which Juvenal described how the spread of 
 servility among the Roman people, and the corruption 
 of their public spirit, avenged the wrongs of the sub 
 ject world upon the conquerors themselves. 
 ******* 
 
 Horace "Walpole, with whom the chief men of both 
 parties freely conversed, had no doubt whither the 
 
132 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 road led which the stronger, and the worse, members 
 of the Cabinet joyfully followed ; and down which the 
 less perverse, and the more timid, were irresistibly 
 driven. He never was easy about the political future 
 of his country, until North s Government fell, and 
 the danger disappeared. During the winter when 
 Howe and Washington were contending in the Jerseys, 
 Walpole complained that his life at present consisted 
 in being wished joy over the defeat and slaughter 
 of fellow countrymen, who were fighting for his lib 
 erty as well as for their own. Thirty months after 
 wards he spoke still more gloomily. It was bad enough, 
 he said, to be at war with France and Spain because 
 we would not be content to let America send us half 
 the wealth of the world in her own way, instead of in 
 the way that pleased George Grenville and Charles 
 Townshend. But the subversion of a happy Constitu 
 tion, by the hands of domestic enemies, was a worse 
 fate than any which we could suffer from the for 
 eigner; and that fate, unless the nation recovered its 
 
 senses, only too surely awaited us. 
 
 ******* 
 
 When once the American war broke out, it became 
 evident to them 1 that there were no lengths to which 
 the King was not prepared to go : and there were most 
 certainly none to which they themselves would not 
 eagerly follow. Testimony to that effect was given by 
 a witness who knew, as well as anybody, what the 
 Jacobites were thinking. In one of the last letters 
 which he wrote, David Hume, with the solemnity of a 
 
 The Jacobite Tories. 
 
TREVELYAN S AMERICAN REVOLUTION 133 
 
 dying man, prophesied that, if the Court carried the 
 day in America, the English Constitution would infal 
 libly perish. 
 
 # * # # # * * 
 
 "It appears," Frederick the Great wrote in August, 
 1775, * * from all I hear, that the ancient British spirit 
 has almost entirely eclipsed itself, and that everything 
 tends to a change in the form of government, so that 
 the old constitution will exist only on the surface, and 
 the nation in effect will be nearer slavery than in any 
 preceding reign." 
 
 The Abbe Morellet wrote to Lord Shelburne in 1782 : 
 "Yes, my Lord, in spite of the war that divides us, I am 
 glad to see your country better administered. I rejoice, 
 in my quality of citizen of the world, that a great 
 people should resume their true place ; should regain 
 a clear view of their real interests ; and should employ 
 their resources, not in the pursuit of an end which can 
 not be attained, but for the conservation of that wealth 
 and influence which are naturally their due, and which, 
 for the sake of the world at large, it is all-important 
 that they should continue to possess. If the indepen 
 dence of America had perished, your constitution 
 would have been overthrown, and your freedom lost." 
 
 The Duke of Richmond wrote to Burke from Paris in 
 1776 : "Who knows that a time may not come when a 
 retreat to this country may not be a happy thing to 
 have ? We now hold our liberties merely by the mag 
 nanimity of the best of kings, who will not make use of 
 the opportunity he has to seize them ; for he has it in 
 
134 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 his power, with the greatest ease and qiiiet, to imitate 
 the King of Sweden. I have not the least doubt but that 
 his faithful peers and commons would by degrees 
 or at once if he liked it better vote him complete des 
 potism. I fear I see the time approaching when the 
 English, after having been guilty of every kind of 
 meanness and corruption, will at last own themselves, 
 like the Swedes, unworthy to be free. When that day 
 comes, our situation will be worse than France. Young 
 despotism, like a boy broke loose from school, will 
 indulge itself in every excess. Besides, if there is a 
 contest, though it be a feeble one, I, or mine, may be 
 among the proscribed. If such an event should happen, 
 and America not be open to receive us, France is some 
 retreat, and a peerage here is something." 
 ***** 
 
 Among London newspapers the largest, the most 
 attractive, and quite incomparably the most in request, 
 were opposed to the American policy of the Cabinet. 
 . . . The London "Evening Post," the "Public 
 Advertiser," the "Morning Chronicle and London 
 Advertiser, and the Gazetteer and New Daily Ad 
 vertiser," gave the Court and the Bedfords superabun 
 dant cause to regret that they had not left Wilkes 
 and his newspaper alone. 
 
 ******* 
 
 In estimating the balance of British opinion during 
 the American Revolution great importance must be 
 attached to the views expressed by the newspapers; 
 but not less significant was the impunity with which 
 those views were given to the world. It has happened 
 
TREVELYAN S AMEKICAN REVOLUTION 135 
 
 more than once that an Administration, already on 
 the decline, has become powerful and popular when 
 a war broke out, and has retained its advantage so 
 long as that war endured ; and, under the Georges, an 
 accession of strength, and of public favor, meant a 
 great deal more to a Government than it means now. 
 A war ministry then, which had the country with it, 
 was terribly formidable to political opponents at home. 
 It might have seemed likely that, after the colonists 
 had recourse to arms, journalists and pamphleteers 
 who went counter to the royal policy would soon have 
 had a very bad time in England ; but exactly the oppo 
 site result ensued. During the first fourteen years of 
 George the Third, the ministerial censorship of the 
 Press had been continuous, inquisitorial, and harsh 
 almost to barbarity. The most exalted magistrates had 
 placed themselves at the service of the executive with 
 culpable facility ; not for the first time in our history. 
 Roger North, in his picturesque and instructive family 
 biographies, reports how, throughout the civil dissen 
 sions of the seventeenth century, the time of the King s 
 Bench was taken up with factious contentions; and 
 he speaks of that Court as a* place where more news 
 than law was stirring. The law, as there laid down by 
 Lord Mansfield in 1763, was fraught with grave con 
 sequences to all men who gained their livelihood by 
 writing copy, or by setting up type. Informations 
 began to rain like hail upon authors, editors, pub 
 lishers, and printers. Crushing fines, protracted terms 
 of imprisonment, and the open shame of the pillory 
 were, for several years to come, the portion of those 
 
136 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 who criticized the Cabinet in earnest. Their plight 
 would have been hopeless if they had not sometimes 
 found a refuge in the Common Pleas, where the presi 
 dent of the tribunal was Lord Chief Justice Pratt; 
 who subsequently in the House of Peers, as Lord Cam- 
 den, ably supported Lord Chatham s endeavors to 
 reconcile Great Britain and America. Pratt, acting in 
 the true spirit of the law wherever liberty was at 
 hazard, and audaciously advancing the limits of his 
 own jurisdiction when he otherwise could not rescue a 
 victim, nobly vindicated the ancient reputation of his 
 Court. As time went on, the ministerial majority 
 in the House of Commons joined in the hunt ; and Par 
 liamentary Privilege, which had been devised for the 
 protection of freedom, was perverted, amid scenes of 
 scandalous uproar and irregularity, into an engine of 
 
 tyranny. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Ministers who had pursued such courses in a time 
 of peace when they could not excuse their arbitrary 
 measures by the plea of national danger, or the neces 
 sity for preserving an appearance of national unanim 
 ity might have been expected, when a war was raging, 
 to have strained and overridden legality more unscru 
 pulously than ever for the purpose of paying out old 
 scores, and repressing fresh ebullitions of hostile criti 
 cism. But, though the clamor against the King and 
 his ministers waxed ever more shrill and more perti 
 nacious, the censorship seemed to have lost its nerve, 
 and the Opposition press went forward on its boister 
 ous way unmenaced and almost unmolested. Political 
 
TREVELYAN S AMERICAN REVOLUTION 137 
 
 trials became infrequent, and, after a while, ceased. 
 The voice of the Attorney-General calling for ven 
 geance now upon grave constitutional essayists, or 
 vehement champions of freedom ; now upon some mis 
 erable bookseller s hack, and the compositors who had 
 deciphered and printed his lucubrations was hushed 
 and silent. Men wrote what they thought and felt, in 
 such terms as their indignation prompted and their 
 taste permitted. However crude and violent might be 
 the language in which the newspapers couched their 
 invectives, the legal advisers of the Government, when 
 it came to a question of prosecution, were awed and 
 scared by the consciousness that there existed immense 
 multitudes of people for whom diatribes against the 
 Court and the Cabinet could not be too highly flavored. 
 # # * # # * % 
 
 From 1775 onward the newspapers went straight 
 for- the King. The Empire, they declared, was under 
 the direction of a bigoted and vindictive prince, whose 
 administration was odious and corrupt in every part ; 
 so that the struggles of a handful of his subjects, made 
 furious by oppression, had proclaimed the weakness 
 of that Empire to the world. Those precise words were 
 printed at the beginning of 1776 ; and towards the end 
 of the year a Christian Soldier addressed George the 
 Third in a sermon of a couple of columns, headed by 
 the first seven verses of the Sixth Chapter in the Wis 
 dom of Solomon. The denunciation against wicked 
 rulers, which those verses contain, was a sufficient 
 sermon in itself ; but the preacher did not shrink from 
 the duty of pressing his text home. * Have you not, 
 
138 BUBKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 he asked the King, " called your own pretensions the 
 necessity of the State ? Have you chosen for your Min 
 isters and Counsellors men of the greatest piety and 
 courage and understanding? Have you not dreaded 
 to have such around you, because they would not flatter 
 you, and would oppose your unjust passions and your 
 misbecoming designs?" And so the argument con 
 tinued through a score of interrogatives, any one of 
 which, five years before, or ten years before, would 
 have sent the author, and his printer, and the print 
 er s devils as well, to think out the answer to that 
 string of irreverent queries in the solitude of Newgate. 
 Whenever the Ministry was mentioned in connection 
 with the King, it was not for the purpose of shielding 
 him from responsibility, but in order to upbraid him 
 for having entrusted the government of the country to 
 such a pack of reprobates. There could not, according 
 to one journalist, be anything more unfortunate for 
 a nation than for its Prince not to have one honest 
 man about him. "Americans," wrote another, "are 
 totally indifferent about every change of Ministers 
 which may happen in the Court system. They care not 
 who comes in. They know that a change of men im 
 plies nothing more than knaves succeeding to that 
 power which former knaves were fools enough to 
 
 abuse." 
 
 ******* 
 
 A certain sense of comradeship between the two 
 great branches of our people, which the war had not 
 extinguished, was manifested in the feelings enter 
 tained by many Englishmen in England towards the 
 
TREVELYAN S AMERICAN REVOLUTION 139 
 
 Revolutionary leaders who had displayed energy and 
 courage, and particularly towards such as had fallen 
 in battle. After the repulse of the Americans before 
 Quebec, Montgomery s body, by General Carleton s 
 order, was borne into the town with every mark of 
 reverence and regret, and buried with military hon 
 ors. When the tidings of his death reached the House 
 of Commons, the most powerful orators, not on one side 
 only, praised his virtues, and lamented his fate. 
 Burke spoke of him with admiration. Lord North 
 acknowledged that he was brave, able, and humane, 
 and deplored that those generous epithets must be 
 applied to one who had been a rebel ; to which Charles 
 Fox retorted that Montgomery was a rebel only in the 
 same sense as were the old Parliament men of a hun 
 dred years ago, to whom those he saw around him 
 owed it that they had a House of Commons in which 
 
 to sit. 
 
 ******* 
 
 The sentiments which were current in one famous 
 region of industry and enterprise have been recorded 
 by a witness whose evidence on this point is above 
 suspicion. Samuel Curwen, a prominent Massachu 
 setts Loyalist who had been a high official in his 
 native province, and now was an exile in England 
 made a tour in the Midland counties, and spent a week 
 at Birmingham. Walking there on the Lichfield road, 
 Curwen was invited indoors by a Quaker, and found 
 him "a warm American, as most of the middle classes 
 are through the Kingdom." He passed an agreeable 
 day with a merchant, who had been in America, and 
 
140 BURKE 7 S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 who was "her steady and ardent advocate." He 
 stepped into the shop of a gunmaker. The British 
 Ministry with foresight which, for the War Office, 
 might almost be called inspiration had given the man 
 an order to construct six hundred rifles for the use of 
 General Howe s army; and yet, said Curwen, "he 
 is an anti-ministerialist, as is the whole town. If such 
 was the case in a district where Government orders 
 for military supplies had been freely placed, it may 
 well be believed that political discontent and disgust 
 were not less acute in those commercial centers which 
 greatly suffered, and in no way profited, by the exist 
 ence of hostilities. 
 
 * * * * ** * 
 
 The Revolution was marked by a feature unique in 
 English history. Not a few officers of every grade, who 
 were for the most part distinguished by valor and 
 ability, flatly refused to serve against the colonists; 
 and their scruples were respected by their countrymen 
 in general, and by the King and his ministers as well. 
 An example was set in the highest quarters. The 
 sailor and the soldier who stood first in the public 
 esteem were Augustus Keppel, Vice Admiral of the 
 White, and Lieutenant General Sir Jeffrey Amherst. 
 Keppel made it known that he was ready as ever 
 to serve against a European enemy, but that, although 
 professional employment was the dearest object in his 
 life, he would not accept it "in the line of America. " 
 After that announcement was made, and to some de 
 gree on account of it, he enjoyed a great and indeed 
 an extravagant, popularity among all ranks of the 
 
TREVELYAN S AMERICAN REVOLUTION 141 
 
 Navy; and when a European war broke out, he was 
 promoted, and placed in command of the Channel 
 Fleet. Amherst had absolutely declined to sail for 
 New England in order to lead troops in the field. He 
 withstood the expostulations and entreaties of his Sov 
 ereign, who in a personal interview, as Dr. Johnson 
 truly testified, was as fine a gentleman as the world 
 could see; and who never was more persuasive and 
 impressive than when condescending to request one 
 of his subjects to undertake a public duty as a private 
 favor to himself. The circumstance was not remem 
 bered to Amherst s disadvantage. He was retained as 
 Commander-in-Chief of the forces ; within the ensuing 
 five years he became a peer, the Colonel of a regiment 
 of Household Cavalry, and a full General in the 
 army ; and he died a Field-Marshal. 
 ******* 
 
 Some military and naval men left the service out 
 right, and re-entered private life, with no diminution 
 to such popularity, or social predominance, as they had 
 hitherto enjoyed. Some remained on half-pay until 
 Great Britain was attacked by European enemies, 
 when they promptly and joyfully placed their swords 
 once more at the disposal of the Government. Others, 
 again, accepted a commission in the militia; a post 
 of unusual danger and importance at a moment when 
 England, stripped bare of regular troops, had tem 
 porarily lost command of the sea in consequence of 
 the scandalous improvidence of the Board at the head 
 of which Lord Sandwich sat. Whatever course they 
 adopted, their fidelity to principle appeared reason- 
 
142 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 able, and even laudable, to their countrymen of the 
 middle and lower classes; and in their intercourse 
 with equals they brought down upon themselves and 
 their families no penalties whatsoever. The American 
 war, from the outset to the finish, was an open question 
 in English society. A general or colonel, who had re 
 fused to take a command against the colonists, lived 
 comfortably and pleasantly with his country neigh 
 bors. The strong Tory politicians among them might 
 grumble against him as fanciful or factious; but 
 much harder things would have been said about him 
 if he had shot foxes, or given a piece of ground for 
 the site of a Nonconformist chapel. 
 
 1. Conway said that a military man, before he drew 
 his sword against his fellow-subjects, ought to ask 
 himself whether the cause were just or no. Unless his 
 mind was satisfied on that point, all emoluments nay, 
 the sacrifice of what people in his situation held dear 
 est, their honor would be nothing in the scale with 
 his conscience. He, for his part, never could draw 
 his sword in that cause. 
 
 2. Lady Chatham wrote: " Feeling all this, Sir, as 
 Lord Chatham does, you will tell yourself with what 
 concern he communicates to you a step that, from his 
 fixed opinion with regard to the continuance of the 
 unhappy war with our fellow-subjects of America, he 
 has found it necessary to take. It is that of withdraw- 
 ing his son from such a service. " 
 
TREVELYAN S AMERICAN REVOLUTION 143 
 
 3. Lord Effingham s highest ambition was to serve 
 his country in a military capacity. "When the 
 duties," he said, "of a soldier and a citizen become 
 inconsistent, I shall always think myself obliged to 
 sink the character of the soldier in that of the citizen, 
 till such time as those duties shall again, by the malice 
 of our real enemies, become united." Effingham sat 
 down as soon as he had made this remarkable confes 
 sion ; but none of his brother peers, who were present, 
 took exception to his speech; nor was he ever subse 
 quently taunted with it in debate, although he was a 
 frequent, a fiery, and a most provocative assailant of 
 the Government. Outside Parliament, not in any 
 way by his own seeking, he at once became celebrated, 
 and vastly popular. 
 
 4. Lord Frederic Cavendish allowed it to be known 
 that he would not apply for a command against the 
 colonists. Lord Frederic, however, continued in his 
 profession; and in subsequent years he was made a 
 full General by the Whigs, and a Field-Marshal by 
 the Tories. 
 
 5. Granville Sharp, a clerk in the Ordnance Depart 
 ment,, wrote in his diary, July 24, 1775 : "Account in 
 Gazette of the Battle at Charlestown, near Boston, and 
 letters with large demands for ordnance stores, being 
 received, which were ordered to be got with all expedi 
 tion, I thought it right to declare my objections to the 
 being any way concerned in that unnatural business." 
 
 6. In February, 1776, Lord Howe was appointed 
 to the American station; and he forthwith invited 
 Cartwright to call at his house in Grafton Street, and 
 
144 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 earnestly pressed him to embark on board the flag 
 ship. Cartwright, too deeply moved to argue with a 
 patron whom he almost worshipped, intimated that he 
 was unable to accept the offer, and placed in the Ad 
 miral s hands a letter which explained the reasons of 
 his decision ; and Lord Howe in reply acknowledged, 
 mournfully enough, that opinions in politics, on points 
 of such national moment as the differences subsisting 
 between England and America, should be treated like 
 opinions in religion, wherein everyone was at liberty 
 to regulate his conduct by those ideas which he had 
 adopted upon due reflection and enquiry. Cartwright 
 continued to reside in his native county, respected and 
 loved by young and old. 
 
 ###**** 
 
 It has happened again and again that, when a nation 
 is engaged in serious hostilities, the partisans of peace 
 have been exposed xo humiliating, and sometimes very 
 unmerciful, treatment from outbreaks of popular vio 
 lence. But opponents of the American war had in 
 this respect very little to complain about. ... It 
 must have been seldom indeed that any friend of 
 America, in any city of England, was harshly or dis 
 respectfully used by those among his neighbors who 
 belonged to the war party. . . . That such methods 
 [of openly defying the Court] , without entailing any 
 disagreeable consequences on those who employed 
 them, should have been put in practice against a Min 
 istry which was engaged in the conduct of an impor 
 tant war, is an indirect, but a most material, proof that 
 the war itself was disliked by the nation. The direct 
 
TREVELYAN S AMERICAN REVOLUTION 145 
 
 proof is stronger yet; for at many County meetings 
 there was a resolution, at most banquets a whole string 
 of flowery sentiments, and prominent in every petition 
 and address an emphatic paragraph, all of which de 
 noted friendliness towards America, and exhaled 
 hearty aspirations for an immediate peace. . . . 
 Anti-war meetings always passed off quietly [i. e., 
 without interruption] between 1776 and 1782. . . \ 
 There exists one tenable theory, and one only, to 
 account for the tranquillity and security amid which 
 those, who opposed the Government on the question 
 of America, were able to carry forward their political 
 operations. The rational explanation is that the dis 
 favor beneath which, from other causes, the Ministry 
 had long and deservedly labored, instead of being 
 diminished, was confirmed and aggravated by the war. 
 
II 
 
 THE POWER OF GEORGE III 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM G. O. TREVELYAN S GEORGE THE 
 THIRD AND CHARLES FOX. 
 
 . . . But corruption, and servility, and perverted 
 party spirit, were still 1 powerful enough to maintain 
 the ministerial members at their usual figure ; and the 
 address was carried by two hundred and forty-three 
 votes to eighty-six. Gibbon, who went with the ma 
 jority, told Horace Walpole that, if it had not been 
 for shame, there were hardly twenty men in the House 
 who were not ready to vote for peace. I did not, said 
 Walpole, " think it very decent for so sensible a man 
 to support the war, and make such a confession. 
 ***** * # 
 
 The House was terribly excited. It was one of those 
 sudden storms of passionate emotion when men of high 
 character and dignity are betrayed into actions which 
 they never afterwards love to remember. Burke taunted 
 the Solicitor-General with having accepted a retainer 
 as standing counsel for such a client as Lord George 
 Germaine; and Wedderburn told Burke that he did 
 not know how to behave himself, and must be taught 
 
 In the autumn of 1777. 
 
 146 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 147 
 
 to mend his manners. Burke walked out of the House, 
 making a sign for Wedderburn to follow; and their 
 friends had some difficulty in averting a duel which 
 might have resulted in a catastrophe almost too serious 
 to contemplate. 
 
 George the Third knew his House of Commons by 
 heart, and he could read the signs of the political 
 weather better than any of his Cabinet. He was too 
 strong a man to underrate the abilities of those whom 
 he disliked ; he recognized the extraordinary powers of 
 Charles Fox ; and he was not blind to the growing influ 
 ence of one in whom he had long seen an antagonist, 
 and now began to foresee a rival. Moreover he set great 
 store on Sandwich, who was a statesman exactly to 
 his mind. Subservient in the Closet, masterful and 
 overbearing in the Cabinet, and a fearless bully in 
 debate, the First Lord of the Admiralty was always 
 ready to accept the King s views on policy, to impose 
 them upon his own colleagues, and to champion them 
 against all comers in Parliament. Such a Minister was 
 too precious to be thrown away or abandoned, however 
 unseemly his private life, and however deplorably mis 
 managed might be the public department committed 
 to his care. George the Third had been greatly alarmed 
 when Fox so very nearly carried his first vote of cen 
 sure on the third of March. 1 As soon as the master 
 learned that a servant, whom he highly valued, had 
 
 1779. 
 
148 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 only been saved from a crushing condemnation by a 
 small margin of votes, he at once resolved upon sharp 
 and uncompromising action. The division had taken 
 place late at night ( ; and the next morning, before most 
 of those who bore a part in it had left their beds, King 
 George was already expressing to Lord North by letter 
 his indignation at the number of Ministerialists who 
 had shamefully failed in their duty, and his deter 
 mination to adopt any means, which he could person 
 ally take, in order to suppress such irregularities in 
 the future. "The list of the House of Commons," he 
 wrote, "has I trust been so accurately prepared that 
 there will be no difficulty in knowing whose attention 
 must be quickened. I trust Lord North will not let 
 his usual good nature accept excuses upon this occa 
 sion. It is the good of my service, that calls forth sever 
 ity. Severe enough, in all conscience, his Majesty 
 showed himself. He left it to the Prime Minister to 
 see that all defaulters in civil employment were 
 "strongly spoke to"; and meanwhile he took into his 
 own hands the officers of the Army, who abounded in 
 the House of Commons, and who for the most part 
 shared the feelings of the Navy with regard to Lord 
 Sandwich. The King desired the Acting Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Forces to call to account the colonels, cap 
 tains, and subalterns ; and he stated it as his decided 
 opinion that generals, who held those governorships of 
 fortresses which were the special prizes of the service, 
 should lose them for opposing the wishes of the Crown. 
 That trebling of the Government majority, which took 
 place on the second vote of censure, affords a remark- 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 149 
 
 able indication of the multitude of place-men who 
 then sat in Parliament, and a measure of the King s 
 industry and dexterity in manipulating a division-list. 
 His strength of will was seldom more effectually dis 
 played than when, with public sentiment almost unani 
 mously against him, he kept Lord Sandwich safe in 
 office on the morrow of a flagrant personal scandal, 
 and on the eve of a fresh naval war. England was con 
 demned to encounter Spain, as well as France, in 
 mortal combat, with that Old Man of the Sea triumph 
 antly and irremovably mounted on her shoulders. 
 
 The liberties of Britain had been in jeopardy from 
 the moment when George the Third, in the full vigor of 
 early manhood, and with a force of will, and determin 
 ation of purpose, which almost reached the level of 
 genius, set himself deliberately to build up a solid and 
 enduring structure of personal government. To main 
 tain in power ministers of his own choice, irrespective 
 of the estimation in which they were held by their 
 countrymen ; to exercise his veto on legislation, not by 
 announcing through the mouth of the Clerk of the Par 
 liaments that the King would further consider the 
 matter, but by contriving that the measures which 
 he disapproved should be defeated in the Lobby of one 
 or another of the two Houses ; " to secure to the Court 
 the unlimited and uncontrolled use of its vast influ 
 ence, under the sole direction of its private favor"; 
 those were the objects which he pursued, and attained, 
 by methods opposed to the spirit, but compatible with 
 
150 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 the processes, of the Constitution. The King had the 
 wit to see "that the forms of a free, and the ends of 
 an arbitrary, government," might be reconciled by a 
 course of action which avoided the outward show of 
 despotism. Before he had been ten years on the throne 
 he was in a fair way to succeed where Charles the 
 First and James the Second had failed; and his 
 policy, while less fraught with peril to the safety of 
 the monarch than was the policy of the Stuarts, 
 was infinitely more demoralizing to the character of the 
 nation. George the Third had no occasion to march 
 his Guards to Westminster, or commit the leaders of 
 the Opposition to the Tower of London, as long as he 
 could make sure of a parliamentary majority by an 
 unscrupulous abuse of Government patronage, and, 
 where need was, by direct and downright bribery. 
 1 The power of the Crown, said Burke, almost dead 
 and rotten as Prerogative, has grown up anew, with 
 much more strength, and far less odium, under the 
 name of Influence." Everything, so this famous pa 
 triot declared, had been drawn from its holdings in 
 the country to the personal favor of the prince. That 
 favor was the sole introduction to office, and the sole 
 tenure by which it was held; until at last servility 
 had become prevalent, and almost universal, * in spite 
 of the dead letter of any laws and institutions what 
 soever. 
 
 The machinery of corruption was worked under the 
 habitual and minute supervision of the King ; and with 
 good reason. In previous reigns the leaders of both 
 parties Harley and Bolingbroke, and Walpole and 
 
THE POWER OF GEOEGE III 151 
 
 Newcastle had bribed to keep themselves in office; 
 and now George the Third was bribing, on his own ac 
 count, in order to retain in his own hands the secure 
 possession of autocratic power. The unsavory reve 
 lations that appear on almost every page of the royal 
 letters to Lord North enable us faintly to conjecture 
 the character of those still less avowable secrets which 
 did not bear to be recorded in black and white, and 
 were reserved for a private conversation between the 
 monarch and the minister. The official correspondence 
 which the King most thoroughly enjoyed was that 
 which he exchanged with Mr. John Robinson, the Pa 
 tronage Secretary of the Treasury, who was prover 
 bially known for as shrewd and shameless a trafficker 
 in the human conscience as ever priced a rotten bor 
 ough, or slipped a bank bill into the palm of a waver 
 ing senator. All the departments of electoral and 
 parliamentary management were administered by this 
 adroit and devoted servant beneath the close and con 
 stant inspection of the master s eye. When a general 
 election was in prospect the King began to save up a 
 special fund to meet the initial expenses of the con 
 test. He knew the circumstances of all the landed pro 
 prietors who had a borough at their disposal which 
 of them could afford to keep back one of his two seats 
 for a son or a nephew, and which of them was pre 
 pared to part with both ; how many of them would be 
 content to take their money in pounds and how many 
 would stand out for guineas. He condescended even 
 to those ignoble details which the least fastidious of 
 parliamentary candidates leaves to the sinister indus- 
 
152 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 try of a subordinate agent. "Lord North," he wrote, 
 1 acquainted me with his wish of supporting Mr. Pow- 
 ney for the borough of New Windsor. I shall get my 
 tradesmen encouraged to appear for him. I shall order, 
 in consequence of Mr. Robinson s hint, the houses I 
 rent in Windsor to stand in the parish rate in different 
 names of my servants, so that will create six votes." 
 
 When the King had got his nominees duly elected to 
 Parliament he did not abandon them to their own 
 devices, but took excellent care that they should per 
 form his behests within the walls of Westminster. 
 Before he sat down to his early breakfast on the morn 
 ing after a critical division he already had looked to 
 see whether any of their names were missing on the 
 list of ministerial voters. Tellers of the Exchequer 
 and Storekeepers of the Ordnance, and Vice-Treas 
 urers of Ireland, and Paymasters of Marines, and 
 Rangers of the Royal Forests, and Registrars of the 
 Chancery of Barbadoes, and Grooms of the Bed 
 chamber, and holders of open pensions for life, and 
 holders of secret pensions during pleasure, and Clerks 
 of the Board of Green Cloth, and the eight Lords of 
 Trade marching to order like the section of an infan 
 try regiment, and the whole crowd of place-holders 
 from the King s Turnspit, who hired a poor wretch at 
 two shillings a week to perform his functions in the 
 Royal Kitchen, up to the Envoy Extraordinary at 
 the Court of Savoy, "who made a sinecure of his post, 
 and left a secretary at Turin, while he enjoyed his 
 friends and his bottle in London" these remarkable 
 senators, one and all, were perfectly aware that, while 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 153 
 
 they were free to neglect their official duties at Dublin, 
 or Portsmouth, or in the West Indies, or on the Con 
 tinent of Europe, they would have to be inside the 
 House of Commons when the door was shut, and the 
 question put, or their gracious sovereign would know 
 the reason why. When there were not enough well- 
 paid appointments to go round the whole circle of 
 expectants those left out in the cold were conciliated 
 by a round sum in hard cash. "Mr. Kobinson," said 
 his Majesty, "shewed his usual propriety in trans 
 mitting to me last night the list of speakers in the 
 debate, as well as of the division. I take this oppor 
 tunity of sending 6000 to be placed to the same ac 
 count as that sent on the 21st of August. " The means 
 which the King employed were sanctified in his own 
 mind by the ideal perfection of the object at which he 
 was aiming. "It is attachment to my country," he 
 wrote, "that alone actuates my purposes; and* Lord 
 North shall see that at least there is one person willing 
 to preserve unspoiled the most beautiful combination 
 that ever was." It was a combination which has pre 
 sented itself under a very different aspect to honest 
 and discerning Englishmen. "Of all ingenious instru 
 ments of despotism," said Sydney Smith, "I must 
 commend a popular assembly where the majority are 
 paid and hired, and a few bold and able men, by their 
 brave speeches, make the people believe that they are 
 free." 
 
 The enormous, and perpetually growing, cost of this 
 flagitious system, was ostensibly provided by the King 
 himself from the resources at his own command. George 
 
154 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 the Third called the tune, because he paid, or was sup 
 posed to pay, for the music. A Civil List of three-quar 
 ters of a million pounds a year had been settled on him, 
 once for all, at the commencement of his reign, and 
 was exempt thenceforward from the control of Par 
 liament. He enjoyed, on the same agreeable conditions, 
 the receipts from the Duchies of Cornwall and Lan 
 caster; whatever surplus he could draw from the 
 Kingdom of Hanover, and the Bishopric of Osnaburgh ; 
 lucrative Admiralty dues, and Crown rights, and 
 various odds and ends of taxation then regarded as 
 perquisites of the monarch as well as the hereditary 
 revenues of Scotland, and the Civil List of Ireland, 
 which was a veritable gold mine of pensions and sal 
 aries for obsequious English politicians who did as the 
 King bade them at Westminster. The entire sum ex 
 ceeded a million annually, at a time when the average 
 expenditure of the country, in a year of peace, fell con 
 siderably short of five millions. The English Civil 
 List was encumbered with the stipends of the Judges, 
 and with the outfit and maintenance of British Min 
 isters abroad, whether they were living at their posts 
 in the capitals to which they were accredited, or 
 whether they were tippling, and voting, with the Bed- 
 fords in London ; but otherwise the whole of this colos 
 sal fund was at the absolute and unfettered disposal 
 of the monarch. 
 
 The fact was that most of the ready cash which 
 ought by rights to have gone in paying the King s 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 155 
 
 butcher, and grocer, and coach-maker, had been con 
 sumed in buying Members of Parliament ; in corrupt 
 ing the daily Press; in subsidizing needy men of let 
 ters on a scale of remuneration much higher than 
 their pens would have commanded in the open market ; 
 and in persecuting authors, publishers, printers, com 
 positors, and printers devils for their respective shares 
 in the production of pamphlets and newspaper arti 
 cles which displeased the Court. Those ruinously ex 
 pensive operations had been in full swing ever since 
 the date when the young King first made up his mind 
 to assert the power of the Crown by putting Pitt out, 
 and Bute in. George the Third speedily exhausted the 
 hundred and seventy thousand pounds of savings left 
 him by his wise old grandfather, who found it cheaper, 
 as well as less troublesome, to govern through a Min 
 ister possessing the confidence of Parliament and the 
 country ; he emptied the Privy Purse ; and he incurred 
 in addition heavy obligations which he was totally un 
 able to meet. In February 1769 Parliament was asked 
 for a cool half million to defray the King s debts. The 
 essential nature of the demand was analyzed and ex 
 posed by George Grenville and Barre in the one House 
 and by Lord Chatham in the other. They openly af 
 firmed what every one of their hearers in his secret 
 conscience knew to be true that the money, which 
 the British people had contributed in perfect good 
 faith towards supporting their monarch in ease and 
 dignity, was used to debauch the virtue of their own 
 elected representatives, and to poison the wells of 
 politics. 
 
156 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 FROM w. E. H. LECKY S A HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN THE 
 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 George III mixed very little in the world scarcely 
 at all with the young nobility. His mother said that 
 their lax manners would probably corrupt her son. 
 Her enemies declared that the real explanation of this 
 strange seclusion was her own insatiable avarice of 
 power, which made her wish beyond all things to estab 
 lish a complete ascendency over his mind, and to with 
 draw him from every influence that could rival her 
 own. Like most members of German royal families, 
 she exaggerated the prerogative of monarchy to the 
 highest degree, and her favorite exhortation, "George, 
 be a king ! " is said to have left a deep impression on 
 
 the mind of her son. 
 
 **** 
 
 The new Sovereign came to the throne amid an en 
 thusiasm such as England had hardly seen since 
 Charles II restored the monarchy. By the common 
 consent of all parties the dynastic contest was regarded 
 as closed, and after two generations of foreign and 
 unsympathetic rulers, the nation, which has always 
 been peculiarly intolerant of strangers, accepted with 
 delight an English king. The favorable impression 
 was still further confirmed when the more salient 
 points of the private character of the King became 
 generally understood. Simple, regular, and abstemi 
 ous in all his tastes and habits, deeply religious with 
 out affectation of enthusiasm, a good son, a faithful 
 husband, a kind master, and (except when he had met 
 with erross ingratitude) an affectionate father, he ex- 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 157 
 
 hibited through his whole reign, and in a rare perfec 
 tion, that type of dercorous and domestic virtue which 
 the English middle classes most highly prize. The 
 proclamation against immorality with which he began 
 his reign ; the touching piety with which, at his corona 
 tion, he insisted on putting aside his crown when re 
 ceiving the sacrament ; his rebuke to a Court preacher 
 who had praised him in a sermon ; his suppression of 
 Sunday levees; his discouragement of gambling at 
 Court ; his letter of remonstrance to an Archbishop of 
 Canterbury who had allowed balls in his -palace; his 
 constant attendance and reverential manner at re 
 ligious services ; his solemn and pious resignation un 
 der great private misfortunes, contrasted admirably 
 with the open immorality of his father, his grand 
 father, and his great-grandfather, and with the 
 outrageous licentiousness of his own brothers and of 
 his own sons. He never sought for popularity ; but he 
 had many of the kingly graces, and many of the 
 national tastes that are most fitted to obtain it. He 
 went through public ceremonies with much dignity, 
 and although his manner in private was hurried and 
 confused, it was kind and homely, and not without a 
 certain unaffected grace. Unlike his two predecessors, 
 he was emphatically a gentleman, and he possessed to 
 a rare degree the royal art of enhancing small favors 
 by a gracious manner and a few well-chosen words. 
 His country tastes, his love of field sports, his keen 
 interest in the great public schools, endeared him to 
 large classes of his subjects ; and, though he was neither 
 brilliant nor witty, several of his terse and happy 
 
158 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 sayings are still remembered. He was also a very 
 brave man. In the Wilkes riots, in 1769, when his 
 palace was attacked ; in the Lord George Gordon riots, 
 in 1780, when his presence of mind contributed largely 
 to save London ; in 1786, when a poor madwoman at 
 tempted to stab him at the entrance of St. James s 
 Palace ; in 1795, when he was assailed on his way to 
 Parliament ; in 1800, when he was fired at in a theater, 
 he exhibited the most perfect composure amid danger. 
 His habit in dating his letters, of marking, not only 
 the day, but the hour and the minute in which he 
 wrote, illustrates not unhappily the microscopic at 
 tention which he paid to every detail of public busi 
 ness, and which was the more admirable because his 
 natural tendency was towards sloth. In matters that 
 were not connected with his political prejudices, Jris 
 sincere appreciation of piety, and his desire to do 
 good, sometimes overcame his religious bigotry and his 
 hatred of change. Thus he always spoke with respect 
 of the Methodists, and especially of Lady Huntingdon ; 
 he supported Howard, and subscribed to a statue in 
 his honor ; he supported the Lancaster system of edu 
 cation, though Lancaster was a Dissenter, and was 
 looked upon with disfavor by the bishops ; he encour 
 aged the movement for Sunday schools. He was sin 
 cerely desirous of doing his duty, and deeply attached 
 to his country, although stronger feelings often inter 
 fered both with his conscientiousness and with his 
 patriotism. 
 
 It is not surprising that a sovereign of whom all this 
 may be truly said should have obtained much respect 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 159 
 
 and admiration; and it must be added that, in his 
 hatred of innovation and in his vehement anti-Amer 
 ican, anti-Catholic, and anti-Gallican feelings, he rep 
 resented the sentiments of large sections perhaps of 
 the majority of his people. The party which he drew 
 from its depression has naturally revered his memory, 
 and old age, and blindness, and deafness, and depriva 
 tion of reason, and the base ingratitude of two sons, 
 have cast a deep pathos over his closing years. 
 
 All these things have contributed very naturally to 
 throw a delusive veil over the political errors of a sov 
 ereign of whom it may be said, without exaggeration, 
 that he inflicted more profound and enduring injuries 
 upon his country than any other modern English king, 
 Ignorant, narrow-minded, and arbitrary, with an un 
 bounded confidence in his own judgment and an ex 
 travagant estimate of his prerogative, resolved at all 
 hazards to compel his ministers to adopt his own views, 
 or to undermine them if they refused, he spent a long 
 life in obstinately resisting measures which are now 
 almost universally admitted to have been good, and 
 in supporting measures which are as universally ad 
 mitted to have been bad. He espoused with passionate 
 eagerness the American quarrel; resisted obstinately 
 the measures of conciliation by which at one time it 
 might easily have been stifled; envenomed it by his 
 glaring partisanship, and protracted it for several 
 years, in opposition to the wish and to the advice even 
 of his own favorite and responsible minister. He took 
 the warmest personal interest in the attempts that 
 were made, in the matter of general warrants, to men- 
 
160 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 ace the liberty of the subject, and in the case of the 
 Middlesex election to abridge the electoral rights of 
 constituencies, and in the other paltry, violent, and 
 arbitrary measures by which the country was inflamed 
 and Wilkes was converted into a hero. The last in 
 stance of an English officer deprived of his regiment 
 for his vote in Parliament was due to the personal in 
 tervention of the King; and the ministers whom he 
 most warmly favored were guilty of an amount and 
 audacity of corruption which is probably unequalled 
 in the parliamentary history of England. All the 
 measures that were carried or attempted with the 
 object of purifying the representative body the pub 
 lication of debates, the alteration of the mode of try 
 ing contested elections, the reduction of sinecures and 
 pensions, the enlargement of the constituencies were 
 contrary to the wishes of the King. Although his 
 income during the greater part of his reign was little 
 less than a million a year, although his Court was par 
 simonious to a fault, and his hospitality exceedingly 
 restricted, and although he succeeded to a considerable 
 sum that had been saved by his predecessor, he accumu 
 lated in the course of his reign debts to the amount of 
 no less than 3,398,061 ; and there can be little doubt 
 that contemporary public opinion was right in attrib 
 uting a great part of these debts to corrupt expendi 
 ture in Parliament or at elections. Of all the portions 
 of the Empire none was so impoverished, distracted, 
 and misgoverned as Ireland, but every attempt to 
 improve its condition found in the King a bitter ad 
 versary. He opposed the relaxation of the laws by 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 161 
 
 which Irish commerce had been crushed, although his 
 own Tory ministers were in favor of it. He opposed 
 Catholic emancipation with a persistent bitterness, 
 although that measure alone could have made the Irish 
 union acceptable to the people, and although his min 
 ister had virtually pledged himself to grant it, and by 
 his refusal he consigned the country to a prolonged and 
 disastrous agitation, the effects of which may never 
 disappear. He opposed the endowment of the Catholic 
 clergy, although statesmen of the most various schools 
 concurred in the belief that no other measure would 
 act so beneficially on the social condition of Ireland, 
 or would so effectually tranquilize the minds of people. 
 He refused to consent to throw open the higher ranks 
 in the army to the Catholics, although that measure 
 had already been conceded to the army in Ireland by 
 the Irish Parliament and he flung the country into 
 all the agonies of a "No Popery" dissolution at the 
 very time when a fearful struggle with France was 
 demanding the utmost unanimity, and when thousands 
 of Catholic soldiers were fighting bravely in his cause. 
 In the same spirit he supported the slave trade; he 
 described the Test and Corporation Acts as the palladi 
 um of the Constitution, and was inexorably opposed to 
 their abolition, and he created Tory peers in such 
 lavish numbers, and with such an exclusive view to 
 their political subserviency, that he seriously lowered 
 the character and fundamentally altered the tendencies 
 of the House of Lords. In a word, there is scarcely 
 a field of politics in which the hand of the King may 
 not be traced sometimes in postponing inevitable 
 
162 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 measures of justice and reform, sometimes in sowing 
 the seeds of enduring evil. 
 
 The relations of the Crown to the ministry were to 
 be changed. For a considerable time the Treasury, 
 the ecclesiastical patronage, the Cornish boroughs, and 
 all the other sources of influence which belonged nom 
 inally to the Crown, had been, with few exceptions, at 
 the disposal of the minister, and were employed to 
 strengthen his administration. They were now to be in 
 a great degree withdrawn from his influence, and to be 
 employed in maintaining in Parliament a body of men 
 whose political attachment centered in the King alone, 
 who looked to him alone for promotion, who, though 
 often holding places in the Government, were ex 
 pected rather to control than to support it, and, if it 
 diverged from the policy which was personally ac 
 ceptable to the King, to conspire against it and over 
 throw it. A Crown influence was thus to be estab 
 lished in Parliament as well as a ministerial influence, 
 and it was hoped that it would turn the balance of 
 parties and accelerate the downfall of any adminis 
 tration which was not favored by the King. 
 ******* 
 
 Lord Henley, a coarse, drunken, and unprincipled 
 lawyer, became one of the most docile and useful 
 agents of the policy of the King. The enterprise of 
 giving Bute high political office was found somewhat 
 difficult, but a characteristic method was adopted. 
 Lord Holdernesse, who, though a man of very insig- 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 163 
 
 nificant abilities, was a Secretary of State, agreed with 
 Bute, as early as November, 1760, to quarrel with his 
 colleagues, and throw up his office in seeming anger. 
 The resignation was for a time deferred ; but it was 
 accomplished in March 1761. Lord Holdernesse ob 
 tained a pension of 4,000 a year for life, and a rever 
 sion of the Cinque Ports, and his place was filled by the 
 favorite. Nearly at the same time, Legge, the Chan 
 cellor of the Exchequer, who had some time before 
 quarreled with Bute about a Hampshire election, was 
 dismissed with circumstances of great discourtesy, and 
 his place was filled by Lord Barrington an honest 
 man, but one who adopted and avowed the principle 
 that it was his duty always, except in case of the grav 
 est possible causes of difference, to support the minis 
 ters selected by the King, whatever party or connec 
 tion they belonged to, and whatever might be his 
 opinion of the men and of their measures. He was thus 
 completely identified with the King s friends, and by 
 the wish of the King was kept in office through sev 
 eral successive administrations. The brilliant but 
 versatile and unprincipled Charles Townshend filled 
 his place, and a few other changes were made which, 
 though unimportant in themselves, showed that Tory 
 tendencies, and especially personal devotion to the 
 Sovereign, had become the passports of favor. Not 
 withstanding the professions of purity that were made 
 by the King s friends, it was noticed that the general 
 election which now took place was one of the most cor 
 rupt ever known in England, that large sums were 
 issued by the Treasury, that the King took an active 
 
164 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 part in naming the candidates, and that boroughs at 
 tached to the Duchy of Cornwall, which had hitherto 
 been at the disposal of the ministry, were now treated 
 as solely at the disposal of the Crown. 
 
 It was evident that it was intended, in the first 
 place, to strike down Pitt; and an opportunity soon 
 
 occurred. 
 
 ******* 
 
 So far the policy of the secret counsellors of the 
 young King had been brilliantly successful. In less 
 than twelve months, and in the midst of the war, the 
 greatest war minister England had ever produced 
 was overthrown, and the party with which the King 
 personally sympathized had become the most powerful 
 
 in the State. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Newcastle, in the first exultation that followed the 
 resignation of Pitt, had anticipated a renewal of his 
 ascendency, but he soon learned how greatly he had 
 miscalculated. Although First Lord of the Treasury, 
 he found that he was powerless in the Government. 
 Even his own subordinates at the Treasury Bench are 
 said to have been instructed to slight him. The most 
 important political steps were taken without consult 
 ing him. Cabinet councils were summoned without 
 any notice of the subject for discussion being given 
 him. The King made no less than seven peers without 
 even informing Newcastle of his intention. Neither 
 his age, his rank, his position in the ministry, nor his 
 eminent services to the dynasty, could save him from 
 marked coldness on the part of the King, from con- 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 165 
 
 temptuous discourtesy and studied insults on the part 
 of the favorite. The situation soon became intolerable, 
 and when Bute announced his intention of withdraw 
 ing the subsidy which England paid to the King of 
 Prussia, Newcastle refused to consent. In May, 1762, 
 the old statesman resigned, refusing with some dignity 
 a pension that was offered him for the purpose of 
 recruiting a fortune which had been wrecked in the 
 public service. Bute then became in name, what since 
 the resignation of Pitt he had been in reality, the 
 head of the ministry, and Grenville became Secretary 
 of State in his stead. 
 
 [The Fox referred to in the following passage was 
 Henry Fox, the father of Charles James Fox.] 
 
 Then came a period of intimidation and corruption 
 compared with which the worst days of the Walpole 
 administration appeared pure. Bribes ranging from 
 200 and upwards were given almost publicly at the 
 pay office. Martin, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 afterwards acknowledged that no less than 25,000 
 were expended in a single morning in purchasing 
 votes. Larger sums are said to have been given to 
 corporations to petition for the peace. Urgent letters 
 were written to the lords lieutenant of the counties 
 calling on them to procure addresses with the same 
 object. From the very beginning of the ascendency 
 of Bute, patronage had been enlarged, and employed 
 with extravagant profusion for the purpose of increas 
 ing the political power of the Crown, and this process 
 
166 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 was rapidly extended. Bute did not venture, like 
 Harley, to create simultaneously twelve peers, but 
 sixteen were made in the space of two years. The 
 number of Lords of the Bedchamber was increased 
 from twelve to twenty-two, each with a salary of 500 
 a year, and they were selected exclusively from among 
 the members of Parliament. It was found necessary 
 to raise 3,500,000, and this was done partly by two 
 lotteries, and partly by a loan which was not thrown 
 open to public competition, and which was issued on 
 terms so shamefully improvident that the shares at 
 once rose ten per cent. A large proportion of these 
 shares were distributed among the friends of the 
 Government, and thus a new and most wasteful form 
 of bribery was introduced into English politics. 
 
 Intimidation of the grossest kind was at the same 
 time practiced. All the partisans of Newcastle were 
 at once driven from office, and some of the most prom 
 inent men in the country were treated with an ar 
 rogance that recalled the worst days of the Stuarts. 
 The Duke of Devonshire was expelled from the office 
 of Chamberlain with circumstances of the grossest 
 insult. The King refused even to see him on the 
 occasion, and with his own hand struck his name from 
 the list of Privy Councillors. The Dukes of Newcastle 
 and Grafton and the Marquis of Rockingham were 
 deprived of the lord-lieutenancies of their counties. 
 It has always been one of the most healthy features 
 of English political life that the public offices are filled 
 with permanent officials, who are unaffected by party 
 fluctuations, who instruct alike Whig and Tory min- 
 
THE POWER OF GEORGE III 167 
 
 isters, preserve unbroken the steady tendencies of 
 government, and from the stability of their position 
 acquire a knowledge of administrative details and an 
 independence and impartiality of judgment which 
 could never be reasonably expected from men whose 
 tenure of office was dependent on the ascendency of a 
 party. This system Fox and Bute resolved to break 
 down. They determined that every servant of the 
 Government, even to the very lowest, should be of 
 their own nomination. A persecution as foolish as it 
 was harsh was directed by Fox against the humblest 
 officials who had been appointed or recommended by 
 Whig statesmen, or were in any way connected with 
 them. Clerks, tidewaiters, and excisemen were in 
 cluded in the proscription. The widow of an admiral 
 who was distantly connected with the Duke of Devon 
 shire, a poor man who had been rewarded for bravery 
 against smugglers at the recommendation of the Duke 
 of Grafton, a schoolboy who was a nephew of Legge, 
 were among those who were deprived of places, pen 
 sions, or reversions. There was even a design of de 
 priving the members of the Opposition of the great 
 patent places they held, although the terms of the 
 patents distinctly asserted that the places were for 
 life. Fox wished to submit to the twelve judges the 
 question whether it was not in the power of the King 
 to annul the patents ; but the Chancellor, Lord North- 
 ington, declared that it would be as reasonable to ask 
 them to pronounce upon the validity of the Great 
 Charter. It was the aim of the Court party to crush 
 to the very dust, the great Whig connection, by show- 
 
168 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 ing that no person, however humble, who had received 
 favors from it could escape the vengeance of the 
 Crown, while every resource of patronage and place 
 was employed for the purpose of consolidating the 
 new interest. One official, who for seven years had 
 been of the King s bedchamber, was turned out solely 
 because he had no seat in Parliament, and could there 
 fore be f no use there. 
 
Ill 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM BURKE 
 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 
 
 On April 19, 1774, the worthy member to whom 
 Burke refers in paragraph 5 of the Conciliation 
 Ross Fuller moved to repeal the tax on tea. One of 
 the numerous King s men" who spoke against the 
 motion was Charles W. Cornwall, who had only re 
 cently entered the service of George III, and who ap 
 parently spoke with pompous and hypocritical zeal, 
 for Burke says: "The honorable gentleman has de 
 sired some of us to lay our hands upon our hearts, and 
 answer to his queries." Burke replied in a speech 
 nearly as long as the Conciliation : 
 
 SIB: I agree with the honorable gentleman who 
 spoke last, that this subject is not new in this House. 
 Very disagreeably to this House, very unfortunately 
 to this nation, and to the peace and prosperity of this 
 whole empire, no topic has been more familiar to us. 
 For nine long years, session after session, we have 
 been lashed round and round this miserable circle of 
 occasional arguments and temporary expedients. I 
 am sure our heads must turn, and our stomachs 
 nauseate with them. We have had them in every 
 shape ; we have looked at them in every point of view. 
 
 169 
 
170 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Invention is exhausted ; reason is fatigued ; experience 
 has given judgment; but obstinacy is not yet con 
 quered. 
 
 The honorable gentleman has made one endeavor 
 more to diversify the form of this disgusting argu 
 ment. He has thrown out a speech composed almost 
 entirely of challenges. Challenges are serious things ; 
 and as he is a man of prudence as well as resolution, I 
 dare say he has very well weighed those challenges be 
 fore he delivered them. I had long the happiness to 
 sit at the same side of the House, and to agree with 
 the honorable gentleman on all the American ques 
 tions. My sentiments, I am sure, are well known to 
 him; and I thought I had been perfectly acquainted 
 with his. Though I find myself mistaken, he will stitt 
 permit me to use the privilege of an old friendship ; 
 he will permit me to apply myself to the House under 
 the sanction of his authority; and, on the various 
 grounds he has measured out, to submit to you the poor 
 opinions which I have formed upon a matter of im 
 portance enough to demand the fullest consideration I 
 could bestow upon it. 
 
 But will you repeal the act, says the honorable gen 
 tleman, at this instant when America is in open re 
 sistance to your authority, and that you have just 
 revived your system of taxation? He thinks he has 
 driven us into a corner. But thus pent up, I am con 
 tent to meet him ; because I enter the lists supported 
 by my old authority, his new friends, the ministers 
 themselves. The honorable gentleman remembers 
 
AMERICAN TAXATION 171 
 
 that about five years ago as great disturbances as the 
 present prevailed in America on account of the new 
 taxes. The ministers represented these disturbances 
 as treasonable ; and this House thought proper, on that 
 representation, to make a famous address for a revival 
 and for a new application of a statute of Henry VIII. 
 We besought the king, in that well-considered address, 
 to inquire into treasons, and to bring the supposed 
 traitors from America to Great Britain for trial. His 
 Majesty was pleased graciously to promise a- compli 
 ance with our request. All the attempts from this side 
 of the House to resist these violences, and to bring 
 about a repeal, were treated with the utmost scorn. 
 An apprehension of the very consequences now stated 
 by the honorable gentleman, was then given as a rea 
 son for shutting the door against all hope of such an 
 alteration. And so strong was the spirit for support 
 ing the new taxes, that the session concluded with the 
 following remarkable declaration. After stating the 
 vigorous measures which had been pursued, the speech 
 from the throne proceeds: 
 
 "You have assured me of your firm support in the 
 prosecution of them. Nothing, in my opinion, could 
 be more likely to enable the well-disposed among my 
 subjects in that part of the world effectually to dis 
 courage and defeat the designs of the factious and 
 seditious than the hearty concurrence of every branch 
 of the legislature in maintaining the execution, of the 
 laws in every part of my dominions". 
 
 After this no man dreamt that a repeal under this 
 ministry could possibly take place. The honorable 
 
172 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 gentleman knows as well as I that the idea was utterly 
 exploded by those who sway the House. This speech 
 was made on the ninth day of May, 1769. Five days 
 after this speech that is, on the 13th of the same 
 month the public circular letter, a part of which I 
 am going to read to you, was written by Lord Hills- 
 borough, secretary of state for the colonies. After 
 reciting the substance of the king s speech, he goes 
 on thus : 
 
 I can take upon me to assure you, notwithstanding 
 insinuations to the contrary, from men with factious 
 and seditious views, that his Majesty s present ad 
 ministration have at no time entertained a design to 
 propose to Parliament to lay any further taxes upon 
 America for the purpose of RAISING A REVENUE; and 
 that it is at present their intention to propose, the next 
 session of Parliament, to take off the duties upon glass, 
 paper, and colors, upon consideration of such duties 
 having been laid contrary to the true principles of 
 commerce. 
 
 " These have always been, and still are, the senti 
 ments of his Majesty s present servants; and by which 
 their conduct in respect to America has been governed. 
 And his Majesty relies upon your prudence and fidelity 
 for such an explanation of his measures as may tend 
 to remove the prejudices which have been excited by 
 the misrepresentations of those who are enemies to the 
 peace and prosperity of Great Britain and her col 
 onies; and to re-establish that mutual confidence and 
 affection upon which the glory and safety of the Brit 
 ish empire depend." 
 
AMERICAN TAXATION 173 
 
 Here, Sir, is a canonical book of ministerial scrip 
 ture, the general epistle to the Americans. What does 
 the gentleman say to it ? Here a repeal is promised ; 
 promised without condition ; and while your authority 
 was actually resisted. I pass by the public promise of 
 a peer relative to the repeal of taxes by this House. I 
 pass by the use of the king s name in a matter of sup 
 ply, that sacred and reserved right of the Commons. 
 I conceal the ridiculous figure of Parliament, hurling 
 its thunders at the gigantic rebellion of America ; and 
 then five days after prostrate at the feet of those as 
 semblies we affected to despise ; begging them, by the 
 intervention of our ministerial sureties, to receive our 
 submission, and heartily promising amendment. These 
 might have been serious matters formerly ; but we are 
 grown wiser than our fathers. Passing, therefore, 
 from the constitutional consideration to the mere pol 
 icy, does not this letter imply that the idea of taxing 
 America for the purpose of revenue is an abominable 
 project; when the ministry suppose that none but 
 factious men, and with seditious views, could charge 
 them with it? does not this letter adopt and sanctify 
 the American distinction of taxing for a revenue? 
 does it not formally reject all future taxation on that 
 principle? does it not state the ministerial rejection of 
 such principle of taxation, not as the occasional, but 
 the constant, opinion of the king s servants? does it 
 not say (I care not how consistently), but does it not 
 say, that their conduct with regard to America has 
 been always governed by this policy ? It goes< a great 
 deal further. These excellent and trusty servants of 
 
174 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 the king, justly fearful lest they themselves should 
 have lost all credit with the world, bring out the im 
 age of their gracious sovereign from the inmost and 
 most sacred shrine, and they pawn him as a security 
 for their promises. * * His Majesty relies on your pru 
 dence and fidelity for such an explanation of his meas 
 ures." These sentiments of the minister, and these 
 measures of his Majesty, can only relate to the princi 
 ple and practice of taxing for a revenue ; and accord 
 ingly Lord Botetourt, stating it as such, did, with great 
 propriety, and in the exact spirit of his instructions, 
 endeavor to remove the fears of the Virginian assem 
 bly, lest the sentiments, which it seems (unknown to 
 the world) had always been those of the ministers, and 
 by which their conduct in respect to America had been 
 governed, should by some possible revolution, favor 
 able to wicked American taxes, be hereafter counter 
 acted. He addresses them in this manner : 
 
 "It may possibly be objected, that, as his Majesty s 
 present administration are not immortal, their suc 
 cessors may be inclined to attempt to undo what the 
 present ministers shall have attempted to perform ; and 
 to that objection I can give but this answer; that it 
 is my firm opinion that the plan I have stated to you 
 will certainly take place; and that it will never be 
 departed from; and so determined am I for ever to 
 abide by it that I will be content to be declared in 
 famous if I do not, to the last hour of my life, at all 
 times, in all places, and upon all occasions, exert every 
 power with which I either am or ever shall be legally 
 invested, in order to obtain and maintain for the con- 
 
AMERICAN TAXATION 175 
 
 tinent of America that satisfaction which I have been 
 authorized to promise this day, by the confidential 
 servants of our gracious sovereign, who to my certain 
 knowledge rates his honor so high, that he would rather 
 part with his crown, than preserve it by deceit". 
 
 A glorious and true character ! which (since we suf 
 fer his ministers with impunity to answer for his ideas 
 of taxation) we ought to make it our business to en 
 able his Majesty to preserve in all its luster. Let him 
 have character, since ours is no more ! Let some part 
 of government be kept in respect ! 
 
 This epistle was not the letter of Lord Hillsborough 
 solely; though he held the official pen. It was the 
 letter of the noble lord upon the floor, 1 and of all the 
 king s then ministers, who (with I think the exception 
 of two only) are his ministers at this hour. The very 
 first news that a British parliament heard of what it 
 was to do with the duties which it had given and 
 granted to the king, was by the publication of the votes 
 of American assemblies. It was in America that your 
 resolutions were pre-declared. It was from thence 
 that we knew to certainty how much exactly, and not 
 a scruple more or less, we were to repeal. We were 
 unworthy to be let into the secret of our own conduct. 
 The assemblies had confidential communications from 
 his Majesty s confidential servants. We were nothing 
 but instruments. Do you, after this, wonder that you 
 have no weight and no respect in the colonies ? After 
 this are you surprised, that Parliament is every day 
 and everywhere losing (I feel it with sorrow, I utter it 
 
 1. Lord North. 
 
176 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 with reluctance) that reverential affection, which so 
 endearing a name of authority ought ever to carry 
 with it ; that you are obeyed solely from respect to the 
 bayonet ; and that this House, the ground and pillar of 
 freedom, is itself held up only by the treacherous 
 under-pinning and clumsy buttresses of arbitrary 
 power ? 
 
 If this dignity, which is to stand in the place of just 
 policy and common sense, had been consulted, there 
 was a time for preserving it, and for reconciling it with 
 any concession. If in the session of 1768, that session 
 of idle terror and empty menaces, you had, as you 
 were often pressed to do, repealed these taxes; then 
 your strong operations would have come justified and 
 enforced, in case your concessions had been returned 
 by outrages. But, preposterously, you began with 
 violence; and before terrors could have any effect, 
 either good or bad, your ministers immediately begged 
 pardon, and promised that repeal to the obstinate 
 Americans, which they had refused in an easy, good- 
 natured, complying British parliament. The assem 
 blies, which had been publicly and avowedly dissolved 
 for their contumacy, are called together to receive your 
 submission. Your ministerial directors blustered like 
 tragic tyrants here; and then went mumping with a 
 sore leg in America, canting and whining, and com 
 plaining of faction, which represented them as friends 
 to a revenue from the colonies. I hope nobody in this 
 House will hereafter have the impudence to defend 
 American taxes in the name of ministry. The moment 
 they do, with this letter of attorney in my hand I will 
 
AMERICAN TAXATION 177 
 
 tell them, in the authorized terms, they are wretches, 
 "with factious and seditious views; enemies to the 
 peace and prosperity of the mother country and the 
 colonies, and subverters of the mutual affection and 
 confidence on which the glory and safety of the British 
 empire depend." 
 
 After this letter the question is no more on propri 
 ety or dignity. They are gone already. The faith 
 of your sovereign is pledged for the political principle. 
 The general declaration in the letter goes to the whole 
 of it. You must therefore either abandon the scheme 
 of taxing ; or you must send the ministers tarred and 
 feathered to America, who dared to hold out the royal 
 faith for a renunciation of all taxes for revenue. Them 
 you must punish, or this faith you must preserve. 
 The preservation of this faith is of more consequence 
 than the duties on red lead or white lead, or on broken 
 glass, or atlas-ordinary, or demy-fine, or blue royal, 
 or bastard, or fool s-cap, which you have given up ; or 
 the three-pence on tea which you retained. The letter 
 went stamped with the public authority of this king 
 dom. The instructions for the colony government go 
 under no other sanction ; and America cannot believe, 
 and will not obey you, if you do not preserve this chan 
 nel of communication sacred. You are now punishing 
 the colonies for acting on distinctions, held out by that 
 very ministry which is here shining in riches, in favor, 
 and in power ; and urging the punishment of the very 
 offence to which they had themselves been the tempters. 
 
 Sir, if reasons respecting simply your own com 
 merce, which is your own convenience, were the sole 
 
178 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 ground of the repeal of the five duties, why does 
 Lord Hillsborough, in disclaiming in the name of the 
 king and ministry their ever having had an intent to 
 tax for revenue, mention it as the means of re-estab 
 lishing the confidence and affection of the colonies"? 
 Is it a way of soothing others to assure them that you 
 will take good care of yourself? The medium, the only 
 medium, for regaining their affection and confidence 
 is that you will take off something oppressive to their 
 minds. Sir, the letter strongly enforces that idea ; for 
 though the repeal of the taxes is promised on commer 
 cial principles, yet the means of counteracting the 
 insinuations of men with factious and seditious views" 
 is by a disclaimer of the intention of taxing for reve 
 nue, as a constant, invariable sentiment and rule of 
 conduct in the government of America. 
 
 I remember that the noble lord on the floor, not in a 
 former debate to be sure (it would be disorderly to 
 refer to it; I suppose I read it somewhere), but the 
 noble lord was pleased to say that he did not conceive 
 how it could enter into the head of man to impose 
 such taxes as those of 1767 I mean those taxes which 
 he voted for imposing, and voted for repealing as 
 being taxes contrary to all the principles of commerce, 
 laid on British manufactures. 
 
 I dare say the noble lord is perfectly well read 
 because the duty of his particular office requires he 
 should be so in all our revenue laws and in the 
 policy which is to be collected out of them. Now, Sir, 
 when he had read this act of American revenue, and 
 a little recovered from his astonishment, I suppose 
 
AMERICAN TAXATION 179 
 
 he made one step retrograde (it is but one) and looked 
 at the act which stands just before in the statute-book. 
 The American revenue act is the forty-fifth chapter; 
 the other to which I refer is the forty-fourth of the 
 same session. These two acts are both to the same 
 purpose, both revenue acts, both taxing out of the 
 king-dona, and both taxing British manufactures ex 
 ported. As the forty-fifth is an act for raising a rev 
 enue in America, the forty-fourth is an act for raising 
 a revenue in the Isle of Man. The two acts perfectly 
 agree in all respects, except one. In the act for taxing 
 the Isle of Man, the noble lord will find (not, as in the 
 American act, four or jive articles), but almost the 
 whole body of British manufactures taxed from two 
 and a half to fifteen per cent, and some articles, such 
 as that of spirits, a great deal higher. You did not 
 think it uncommercial to tax the whole mass of your 
 manufactures, and, let me add, your agriculture too; 
 for, I now recollect, British corn is there also taxed 
 up to ten per cent, and this too in the very headquar 
 ters, the very citadel of smuggling, the Isle of Man. 
 Now will the noble lord condescend to tell me why he 
 repealed the taxes on your manufactures sent out to 
 America, and not the taxes on the manufactures ex 
 ported to the Isle of Man ? The principle was exactly 
 the same, the objects charged infinitely more extensive, 
 the duties, without comparison, higher. Why ? "Why, 
 notwithstanding all his childish pretexts, because the 
 taxes were quietly submitted to in the Isle of Man; 
 and because they raised a flame in America. Your 
 reasons were political, not commercial. The repeal 
 
180 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 was made, as Lord Hillsborough s letter well expresses 
 it, to regain the confidence and affection of the col 
 onies, on which the glory and safety of the British 
 empire depend." A wise and just motive surely, if 
 ever there was such. But the mischief and dishonor 
 is that you have not done what you had given the col 
 onies just cause to expect, when your ministers dis 
 claimed the idea of taxes for a revenue. There is noth 
 ing simple, nothing manly, nothing ingenuous, open, 
 decisive, or steady, in the proceeding, with regard 
 either to the continuance or the repeal of the taxes. 
 The whole has an air of littleness and fraud. The 
 article of tea is slurred over in the circular letter, as 
 it were by accident nothing is said of a resolution 
 either to keep that tax or to give it up. There is no 
 fair dealing in any part of the transaction. 
 
 If you mean to follow your true motive and your 
 public faith, give up your tax on tea for raising a 
 revenue, the principle of which has, in effect, been 
 disclaimed in your name, and which produces you no 
 advantage no, not a penny. Or, if you choose to go 
 on with a poor pretence instead of a solid reason, and 
 will still adhere to your cant of commerce, you have 
 ten thousand times more strong commercial reasons 
 for giving up this duty on tea than for abandoning 
 the five others that you have already renounced. 
 
 The American consumption of teas is annually, I 
 believe, worth 300,000 at the least farthing. If you 
 urge the American violence as a justification of your 
 perseverance in enforcing this tax, you know that you 
 can never answer this plain question: Why did you 
 
AMERICAN TAXATION 181 
 
 repeal the others given in the same act, whilst the very 
 same violence subsisted? But you did not find the 
 violence cease upon that concession. No! because 
 the concession was far short of satisfying the princi 
 ple which Lord Hillsborough had abjured; or even 
 the pretence on which the repeal of the other taxes 
 was announced; and because, by enabling the East 
 India Company to open a shop for defeating the Amer 
 ican resolution not to pay that specific tax, you mani 
 festly showed a hankering after the principle of the 
 act which you formerly had renounced. ^Yhatever 
 road you take leads to a compliance with this motion. 
 It opens to you at the end of every vista. Your com 
 merce, your policy, your promises, your reasons, your 
 pretences, your consistency, your inconsistency all 
 jointly oblige you to this repeal. 
 
 But still it sticks in our throats, If we go so far, the 
 Americans will go farther." "We do not know that. 
 "We ought, from experience, rather to presume the con 
 trary. Do we not know for certain that the Americans 
 are going on as fast as possible whilst we refuse to 
 gratify them? Can they do more, or can they do 
 worse, if we yield this point ? I think this concession 
 will rather fix a turnpike to prevent their further 
 progress. It is impossible to answer for bodies of men. 
 But I am sure the natural effect of fidelity, clemency, 
 kindness in governors is peace, good-will, order, and 
 esteem on the part of the governed. I would certainly, 
 at least, give these fair principles a fair trial, which, 
 since the making of this act to this hour, they never 
 have had. 
 
182 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 [The following passage refers to the repeal of the 
 Stamp Act in 1766.] 
 
 Sir, a partial repeal, or, as the bon ton of the court 
 then was, a modification, would have satisfied a timid, 
 unsystematic, procrastinating ministry, as such a 
 measure has since done such a ministry. A modifica 
 tion is the constant resource of weak, undeciding 
 minds. To repeal by the denial of our right to tax 
 in the preamble (and this too did not want advisers) 
 would have cut, in the heroic style, the Gordian knot 
 with a sword. Either measure would have cost no 
 more than a day s debate. But when the total repeal 
 was adopted and adopted on principles of policy, of 
 equity, and of commerce this plan made it necessary 
 to enter into many and difficult measures. 
 
 I think the inquiry lasted in the committee for six 
 weeks; and, at its conclusion, this House, by an in 
 dependent, noble, spirited, and unexpected majority, 
 by a majority that will redeem all the acts ever done 
 by majorities in Parliament, in the teeth of all the 
 old mercenary Swiss of state, in despite of all the spec 
 ulators and augurs of political events, in defiance of 
 the whole embattled legion of veteran pensioners and 
 practiced instruments of a court, gave a total repeal to 
 the stamp act, and (if it had been so permitted) a 
 lasting peace to this whole empire. 
 
 I state, Sir, these particulars, because this act of 
 spirit and fortitude has lately been, in the circulation 
 of the season, and in some hazarded declamations in 
 
AMEKICAN TAXATION 183 
 
 this House, attributed to timidity. If, Sir, the con 
 duct of ministry, in proposing the repeal, had arisen 
 from timidity with regard to themselves, it would have 
 been greatly to be condemned. Interested timidity 
 disgraces as much in the cabinet as personal timidity 
 does in the field. But timidity, with regard to the 
 well-being of our country, is heroic virtue. The noble 
 lord 1 who then conducted affairs, and his worthy col 
 leagues, whilst they trembled at the prospect of such 
 distresses as you have since brought upon yourselves, 
 were not afraid steadily to look in the face that glar 
 ing and dazzling influence at which the eyes of eagles 
 have blenched. He looked in the face one of the ablest, 
 and, let me say, not the most scrupulous, oppositions 
 that perhaps ever was in this House ; and withstood it, 
 unaided by even one of the usual supports of adminis 
 tration. He did this when he repealed the stamp act. 
 He looked in the face of a person he had long respected 
 and regarded, and whose aid was then particularly 
 wanting; I mean Lord Chatham. He did this when 
 he passed the declaratory act. 
 
 Everything, upon every side, was full of traps and 
 mines. Earth below shook; heaven above menaced; 
 all the elements of ministerial safety were dissolved. 
 It was in the midst of this chaos of plots and counter 
 plots ; it was in the midst of this complicated warfare 
 against public opposition and private treachery, that 
 the firmness of that noble person was put to the proof. 
 
 1 Rockingham. 
 
184 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 He never stirred from his ground no, not an inch. 
 He remained fixed and determined, in principle, in 
 measure, and in conduct. He practiced no manage 
 ments. He secured no retreat. He sought no apol 
 ogy. 
 
 I will likewise do justice I ought to do it to the 
 honorable gentleman who led us in this House. Far 
 from the duplicity wickedly charged on him, he acted 
 his part with alacrity and resolution. We all felt 
 inspired by the example he gave us, down even to my 
 self, the weakest in that phalanx. I declare, for one, 
 I knew well enough (it could not be concealed from 
 anybody) the true state of things; but in my life I 
 never came with so much spirits into this House. It 
 was a time for a man to act in. We had powerful 
 enemies, but we had faithful and determined friends 
 and a glorious cause. We had a great battle to fight, 
 but we had the means of fighting not as now, when 
 our arms are tied behind us. We did fight that day, 
 and conquer. 
 
 I remember, Sir, with a melancholy pleasure, the 
 situation of the honorable gentleman who made the 
 motion for the repeal ; in that crisis, when the whole 
 trading interest of this empire, crammed into your 
 lobbies, with a trembling and anxious expectation, 
 waited, almost to a winter s return of light, their fate 
 from your resolutions. When, at length, you had de 
 termined in their favor, and your doors, thrown open, 
 showed them the figure of their deliverer in the well- 
 earned triumph of his important victory, from the 
 whole of that grave multitude there arose an invol- 
 
AMERICAN TAXATION 185 
 
 untary burst of gratitude and transport. They 
 jumped upon him like children on a long absent father. 
 They clung about him as captives about their re 
 deemer. All England, all America, joined to his ap 
 plause. Nor did he seem insensible to the best of all 
 earthly rewards, the love and admiration of his fellow- 
 citizens. Hope elevated and joy brightened his crest. 
 I stood near him; and his face, to use the expression 
 of the Scripture of the first martyr, "his face was as 
 if it had been the face of an angel." I do not know 
 how others feel ; but if I had stood in that situation, I 
 never would have exchanged it for all that kings in 
 their profusion could bestow. I did hope that that 
 day s danger and honor would have been a bond to 
 hold us all together forever. But, alas! that, with 
 other pleasing visions, is long since vanished. 
 
 Sir, this act of supreme magnanimity has been rep 
 resented as if it had been a measure of an administra 
 tion, that having no scheme of their own, took a middle 
 line, pilfered a bit from one side and a bit from the 
 other. Sir, they took no middle lines. They differed 
 fundamentally from the schemes of both parties ; but 
 they preserved the objects of both. They preserved 
 the authority of Great Britain. They preserved the 
 equity of Great Britain. They made the declaratory 
 act ; they repealed the stamp act. They did both fully; 
 because the declaratory act was without qualification; 
 and the repeal of the stamp act total. This they did in 
 the situation I have described. 
 
 Now, Sir, what will the adversary say to both these 
 acts? If the principle of the declaratory act was not 
 
186 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 good, the principle we are contending for this day is 
 monstrous. If the principle of the repeal was not 
 good, why are we not at war for a real, substantial, 
 effective revenue? If both were bad, why has this 
 ministry incurred all the inconveniences of both and of 
 all schemes? Why have they enacted, repealed, en 
 forced, yielded, and now attempt to enforce again ? 
 
 Sir, the agents and distributors of falsehoods have, 
 with their usual industry, circulated another lie of the 
 same nature with the former. It is this, that the dis 
 turbances arose from the account which had been re 
 ceived in America of the change in the ministry. No 
 longer awed, it seems, with the spirit of the former 
 rulers, they thought themselves a match for what our 
 calumniators chose to qualify by the name of so feeble 
 a ministry as succeeded. Feeble in one sense these 
 men certainly may be called; for, with all their ef 
 forts and they have made many they have not been 
 able to resist the distempered vigor, and insane alac 
 rity, with which you are rushing to your ruin. But it 
 does so happen that the falsity of this circulation is, 
 like the rest, demonstrated by indisputable dates and 
 records. 
 
 So little was the change known in America that the 
 letters of your governors, giving an account of these 
 disturbances long after they had arrived at their high 
 est pitch, were all directed to the old ministry, and 
 particularly to the Earl of Halifax, the secretary of 
 state corresponding with the colonies, without once 
 
AMERICAN TAXATION 187 
 
 in :he smallest degree intimating the slightest sus 
 picion of any ministerial revolution whatsoever. The 
 ministry was not changed in England until the 10th 
 day of July, 1765. On the 14th of the preceding June, 
 Governor Fauquier from Virginia writes thus, and 
 writes thus to the Earl of Halifax : Government is set 
 at defiance, not having strength enough in her hands 
 to enforce obedience to the laws of the community. 
 The private distress which every man feels, increases 
 the general dissatisfaction, at the duties laid by the 
 stamp act, which breaks out and shows itself upon 
 every trifling occasion." The general dissatisfaction 
 had produced some time before that is, on the 29th 
 of May several strong public resolves against the 
 stamp act ; and those resolves are assigned by Governor 
 Bernard as the cause of the insurrections in Massa 
 chusetts Bay, in his letter of the 15th of August, still 
 addressed to the Earl of Halifax; and he continued to 
 address such accounts to that minister quite to the 7th 
 of September of the same year. Similar accounts, and 
 of as late a date, were sent from other governors, and 
 all directed to Lord Halifax. Not one of these letters 
 indicates the slightest idea of a change, either known, 
 or even apprehended. 
 
 Thus are blown away the insect race of courtly false 
 hoods! thus perish the miserable inventions of the 
 wretched runners for a wretched cause, which they 
 have fly-blown into every weak and rotten part of the 
 country, in vain hopes that when their maggots had 
 taken wing, their importunate buzzing might sound 
 something like the public voice! 
 
188 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION- 
 
 Sir, I have troubled you sufficiently with the state of 
 America before the repeal. Now I turn to the hon 
 orable gentleman who so stoutly challenges us to tell, 
 whether, after the repeal, the provinces were quiet? 
 This is coming home to the point. Here I meet him 
 directly; and answer most readily, They were quiet. 
 And I, in my turn, challenge him to prove when, and 
 where, and by w r hom, and in what numbers, and with 
 what violence, the other laws of trade, as gentlemen 
 assert, were violated in consequence of your conces 
 sion? or that even your other revenue laws were at 
 tacked? But I quit the vantage-ground on which I 
 stand, and where I might leave the burthen of the 
 proof upon him ; I walk down upon the open plain, and 
 undertake to show that they were not only quiet, but 
 showed many unequivocal marks of acknowledgment 
 and gratitude. And to give him every advantage, I 
 select the obnoxious colony of Massachusetts Bay, 
 which at this time (but without hearing her) is so heav 
 ily a culprit before Parliament I will select their pro 
 ceedings even under circumstances of no small irrita 
 tion. For, a little imprudently, I must say, Governor 
 Bernard mixed in the administration of the lenitive 
 of the repeal no small acrimony arising from matters 
 of a separate nature. Yet see, Sir, the effect of that 
 lenitive, though mixed with these bitter ingredients; 
 and how this rugged people can express themselves 
 on a measure of concession. 
 
 "If it is not in our power" (say they in their ad 
 dress to Governor Bernard) "in so full a manner as 
 will be expected to show our respectful gratitude to 
 
AMERICAX TAXATION 189 
 
 the mother country, or to make a dutiful and affection 
 ate return to the indulgence of the king and Parlia 
 ment, it shall be no fault of ours ; for this we intend, 
 and hope we shall be able fully to effect. " 
 
 Would to God that this temper had been cultivated, 
 managed, and set In action ! Other effects than those 
 
 which we have since felt would have resulted from it. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Let us, Sir, embrace some system or other before we 
 end this session. Do you mean to tax America, and 
 to draw a productive revenue from thence ? If you do, 
 speak out ; name, fix, ascertain this revenue ; settle its 
 quantity ; define its objects ; provide for its collection ; 
 and then fight when you have something to fight for. 
 If you murder, rob ; if you kill, tal^e possession : and 
 do not appear in the character of madmen, as well as 
 assassins violent, vindictive, bloody, and tyrannical, 
 without an object. But may better counsels guide 
 you! 
 
 Again and again revert to your own principles ; seek 
 peace and ensue it ; leave America, if she has taxable 
 matter in her, to tax herself. I am not here going into 
 the distinctions of rights, not attempting to mark their 
 boundaries. I do not enter into these metaphysical 
 distinctions; I hate the very sound of them. Leave 
 the Americans as they anciently stood, and these dis 
 tinctions, born of our unhappy contest, will die along 
 with it. They and we, and their and our ancestors, 
 have been happy under that system. Let the memory 
 of all actions, in contradiction to that good old mode, 
 on both sides be extinguished forever. Be content to 
 
190 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 bind America by laws of trade ; you have always done 
 it. Let this be your reason for binding their trade. 
 Do not burthen them by taxes ; you were not used to 
 do so from the beginning. Let this be your reason for 
 not taxing. These are the arguments of states and 
 kingdoms. Leave the rest to the schools ; for there 
 only they may be discussed with safety. But if in- 
 temperately, unwisely, fatally, you sophisticate and 
 poison the very source of government, by urging subtle 
 deductions and consequences odious to those you gov 
 ern, from the unlimited and illimitable nature of su 
 preme sovereignty you will teach them by these means 
 to call that sovereignty itself in question. When you 
 drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the 
 hunters. If that sovereignty and their freedom cannot 
 be reconciled, which will they take? They will cast 
 your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will be argued 
 into slavery. Sir, let the gentlemen on the other side 
 call forth all their ability; let the best of them get 
 up and tell me what one character of liberty the Amer 
 icans have, and what one brand of slavery they are 
 free from, if they are bound in their property and 
 industry by all the restraints you can imagine on com 
 merce, and at the same time are made pack-horses of 
 every tax you choose to impose, without the least share 
 in granting them. When they bear the burthens of 
 unlimited monopoly, will you bring them to bear the 
 burthens of unlimited revenue too ? The Englishman 
 in America will feel that this is slavery that it is legal 
 slavery, will be no compensation, either to his feelings 
 or his understanding. 
 
AMERICAN TAXATION 191 
 
 If this be the case, ask yourselves this question : Will 
 they be content in such a state of slavery? If not, 
 look to the consequences. Reflect how you are to gov 
 ern a people who thkik they ought to be free, and 
 think they are not. Your scheme yields no revenue ; 
 it yields nothing but discontent, disorder, disobedi 
 ence ; and such is the state of America that after wad 
 ing up to your eyes in blood, you could only end just 
 where you begun that is, to tax where no revenue is 
 
 to be found, to my voice fails me ; my inclination 
 
 indeed carries me no farther all is confusion beyond 
 
 it. 
 
 ****** * 
 
 I charge therefore to this new and unfortunate sys 
 tem the loss not only of peace, of union, and of com 
 merce, but even of revenue, which its friends are con 
 tending for. It is morally certain that we have lost 
 at least a million of free grants since the peace. I 
 think we have lost a great deal more and that those 
 who look for a revenue from the provinces never could 
 have pursued, even in that light, a course more directly 
 repugnant to their purposes. 
 
 Now, Sir, I trust I have shown, first on that narrow 
 ground which the honorable gentleman measured, that 
 you are likely to lose nothing by complying with the 
 motion, except what you have lost already. I have 
 shown afterward that in time of peace you flourished 
 in commerce and, when war required it, had sufficient 
 aid from the colonies while you pursued your ancient 
 policy ; that you threw everything into confusion when 
 you made the stamp act ; and that you restored every- 
 
192 BURKE 3 SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 thing to peace and order when you repealed it. I 
 have shown that the revival of the system of taxation 
 has produced the very worst effects ; and that the par 
 tial repeal has produced, not partial good, but uni 
 versal evil. Let these considerations, founded on 
 facts, not one of which can be denied, bring us back 
 to our reason by the road of our experience. 
 
 I cannot, as I have said, answer for mixed measures ; 
 but surely this mixture of lenity would give the whole 
 a better chance of success. When you once regain 
 confidence, the way will be clear before you. Then you 
 may enforce the act of navigation when it ought to be 
 enforced. You will yourselves open it where it ought 
 still further to be opened. Proceed in what you do, 
 whatever you do, from policy, and not from rancor. 
 Let us act like men ; let us act like statesmen. Let us 
 hold some sort of consistent conduct. It is agreed that 
 a revenue is not to be had in America. If we lose the 
 profit, let us get rid of the odium. 
 
 On this business of America I confess I am serious 
 even to sadness. I have had but one opinion concern 
 ing it since I sat, and before I sat, in Parliament. The 
 noble lord 1 will, as usual, probably attribute the part 
 taken by me and my friends in this business to a desire 
 of getting his places. Let him enjoy this happy and 
 original idea. If I deprived him of it, I should take 
 away most of his wit, and all his argument. But I 
 had rather bear the brunt of all his wit, and indeed 
 blows much heavier, than stand answerable to God 
 for embracing a system that tends to the destruction 
 
 1. Lord North. 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 193 
 
 of some of the very best and fairest of his works. But 
 I know the map of England, as well as the noble lord, 
 or as any other person, and I know that the way I take 
 is not the road to preferment. My excellent and hon 
 orable friend under me on the floor has trod that road 
 with great toil for upwards of twenty years together. 
 He is not yet arrived at the noble lord s destination. 
 However, the tracks of my worthy friend are those 
 I have ever wished to follow ; because I know they lead 
 to honor. Long may we tread the same road together ; 
 whoever may accompany us, or whoever may laugh at 
 us on our journey ! I honestly and solemnly declare 
 I have in all seasons adhered to the system of 1766, for 
 no other reason than that I think it laid deep in your 
 truest interest, and that by limiting the exercise it 
 fixes, on the firmest foundations, a real, consistent, well- 
 grounded authority in parliament. Until you come 
 back to that system, there will be no peace for Eng 
 land. 
 
 THE LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL ON THE 
 AFFAIRS OF AMERICA, WRITTEN APRIL 3, 1777 
 
 GENTLEMEN : I have the honor of sending you the 
 two last acts which have been passed with regard to 
 the troubles in America. These acts are similar to 
 all the rest which have been made on the same subject. 
 They operate by the same principle, and they are 
 derived from the very same policy. I think they com 
 plete the number of this sort of statutes to nine. It 
 affords no matter for very pleasing reflection to ob 
 serve that our subjects diminish as our laws increase. 
 
194 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 If I have the misfortune of differing with some of 
 my fellow-citizens on this great and arduous subject, 
 it is no small consolation to me that I do not differ 
 from you. With you I am perfectly united. We are 
 heartily agreed in our detestation of a civil war. We 
 have ever expressed the most unqualified disapproba 
 tion of all the steps which have led to it, and of all 
 those which tend to prolong it. And I have no doubt 
 that we feel exactly the same emotions of grief and 
 shame in all its miserable consequences ; whether they 
 appear, on the one side or the other, in the shape of 
 victories or defeats, or captures made from the English 
 on the continent, or from the English in these islands, 
 of legislative regulations which subvert the liberties 
 
 of our brethren, or which undermine our own. 
 ******* 
 
 That you may be enabled to enter into the true spirit 
 of the present law, it is necessary, gentlemen, to ap 
 prize you that there is an act, made so long ago as in 
 the reign of Henry the Eighth, before the existence or 
 thought of any English colonies in America, for the 
 trial in this kingdom of treasons committed out of the 
 realm. In the year 1769 Parliament thought proper 
 to acquaint the crown with their construction of that 
 act in a formal address, wherein they entreated his 
 Majesty to cause persons charged with high treason in 
 America, to be brought into this kingdom for trial. 
 By this act of Henry the Eighth, so construed and so 
 applied, almost all that is substantial and beneficial 
 in a trial by a jury is taken away from the subject in 
 the colonies. This is however saying too little ; for to 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 195 
 
 try a man under that act is, in effect, to condemn him 
 unheard. A person is brought hither in the dungeon 
 of a ship s hold ; thence he is vomited into a dungeon 
 on land ; loaded with irons, unfurnished with money, 
 unsupported by friends, three thousand miles from all 
 means of calling upon or confronting evidence, where 
 no one local circumstance that tends to detect perjury 
 can possibly be judged of. Such a person may be 
 executed according to form, but he can never be tried 
 according to justice. 
 
 I therefore could never reconcile myself to the bill 
 I send you, which is expressly provided to remove all 
 inconveniences from the establishment of a mode of 
 trial which has ever appeared to me most unjust and 
 most unconstitutional. Far from removing the diffi 
 culties which impede the execution of so mischievous 
 a project, I would heap new difficulties upon it, if it 
 were in my power. All the ancient, honest, juridical 
 principles and institutions of England are so many 
 clogs to check and retard the headlong course of vio 
 lence and oppression. They were invented for this one 
 good purpose, that what was not just should not be 
 convenient. Convinced of this, I would leave things 
 as I found them. The old, cool-headed, general law 
 
 is as good as any deviation dictated by present heat. 
 *** 
 
 I take it for granted, gentlemen, that we sympathize 
 in a proper horror of all punishment further than as 
 it serves for an example. To whom then does the 
 example of an execution in England for this American 
 rebellion apply? Remember you are told every day 
 
196 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 that the present is a contest between the two coun 
 tries, and that we in England are at war for our own 
 dignity against our rebellious children. Is this true ? 
 If it be, it is surely among such rebellious children 
 that examples for disobedience should be made, to be 
 in any degree instructive; for who ever thought of 
 teaching parents their duty by an example from the 
 punishment of an undutiful son? As well might the 
 execution of a fugitive negro in the plantations be 
 considered as a lesson to teach masters humanity to 
 their slaves. Such executions may indeed satiate our 
 revenge ; they may harden our hearts, and puff us up 
 with pride and arrogance. Alas ! this is not instruc 
 tion! 
 
 If anything can be drawn from such examples by a 
 parity of the case, it is to show how deep their crime 
 and how heavy their punishment will be who shall at 
 any time dare to resist a distant power actually dis 
 posing of their property, without their voice or consent 
 to the disposition, and overturning their franchises 
 without charge or hearing. God forbid that England 
 should ever read this lesson written in the blood of 
 any of her offspring ! 
 
 War is at present carried on between the king s 
 natural and foreign troops on one side, and the Eng 
 lish in America on the other, upon the usual footing 
 of other wars; and accordingly an exchange of pris 
 oners has been regularly made from the beginning. If 
 notwithstanding this hitherto equal procedure, upon 
 some prospect of ending the war with success (which 
 however may be delusive), administration prepares 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 197 
 
 to act against those as traitors who remain in their 
 hands at the end of the troubles, in my opinion we 
 shall exhibit to the world as indecent a piece of in 
 justice as ever civil fury has produced. If the prisoners 
 who have been exchanged have not by that exchange 
 been virtually pardoned, the cartel (whether avowed 
 or understood) is a cruel fraud ; for you have received 
 the life of a man, and you ought to return a life for it, 
 or there is no parity of fairness in the transaction. 
 
 The act of which I speak is among the fruits of the 
 American war ; a war in my humble opinion productive 
 of many mischiefs, of a kind which distinguish it from 
 all others. Not only our policy is deranged, and our 
 empire distracted, but our laws and our legislative 
 spirit appear to have been totally perverted by it. We 
 have made war on our colonies, not by arms only, but 
 by laws. As hostility and law are not very concordant 
 ideas, every step we have taken in this business has 
 been made by trampling on some maxim of justice, or 
 some capital principle of wise government. What prec 
 edents were established and what principles over 
 turned I will not say of English privilege, but of gen 
 eral justice in the Boston Port, the Massachusetts 
 Charter, the Military Bill, and all that long array of 
 hostile acts of Parliament by which the war with Amer 
 ica has been begun and supported ! Had the principles 
 of any of these acts been first exerted on English 
 ground, they would probably have expired as soon as 
 they touched it. But by being removed from our per- 
 
198 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 sons they have rooted in our laws, and the latest pos 
 terity will taste the fruits of them. 
 
 Nor is it the worst effect of this unnatural contention, 
 that our laws are corrupted. Whilst manners remain 
 entire, they will correct the vices of law, and soften it 
 at length to their own temper. But we have to lament 
 that in most of the late proceedings we see very few 
 traces of that generosity, humanity, and dignity of 
 mind which formerly characterized this nation. War 
 suspends the rules of moral obligation, and what is long 
 suspended is in danger of being totally abrogated. 
 Civil wars strike deepest of all into the manners of the 
 people. They vitiate their politics ; they corrupt their 
 morals ; they pervert even the natural taste and relish 
 of equity and justice. By teaching us to consider our 
 fellow-citizens in a hostile light the whole body of our 
 nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very 
 names of affection and kindred, which were the bond 
 of charity whilst we agreed, become new incentives 
 to hatred and rage when the communion of our coun 
 try is dissolved. We may flatter ourselves that we 
 shall not fall into this misfortune. But we have no 
 charter of exemption, that I know of, from the ordi 
 nary frailties of our nature. 
 
 What but that blindness of heart which arises from 
 the frenzy of civil contention, could have made any 
 persons conceive the present situation of the British 
 affairs as an object of triumph to themselves, or of con 
 gratulation to their sovereign? Nothing surely could 
 be more lamentable to those who remember the flour 
 ishing days of this kingdom than to see the insane joy 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 199 
 
 of several unhappy people, amidst the sad spectacle 
 which our affairs and conduct exhibit to the scorn of 
 Europe. We behold (and it seems some people rejoice 
 in beholding) our native land, which used to sit the 
 envied arbiter of all her neighbors, reduced to a 
 servile dependence on their mercy, acquiescing in as 
 surances of friendship which she does not trust, com 
 plaining of hostilities which she dares not resent, defi 
 cient to her allies, lofty to her subjects and submissive 
 to her enemies, whilst the liberal government of this 
 free nation is supported by the hireling sword of Ger 
 man boors and vassals, and three millions of the sub 
 jects of Great Britain are seeking for protection to 
 English privileges in the arms of France ! 
 
 These circumstances appear to me more like shock 
 ing prodigies than natural changes in human affairs. 
 Men of firmer minds may see them without staggering 
 or astonishment. Some may think them matters of con 
 gratulation and complimentary addresses ; but I trust 
 your candor will be so indulgent to my weakness, as 
 not to have the worse opinion of me for my declin 
 ing to participate in this joy, and my rejecting all 
 share whatsoever in such a triumph. I am too old, too 
 stiff in my inveterate partialities, to be ready at all 
 the fashionable evolutions of opinion. I scarcely know 
 how to adapt my mind to the feelings with which the 
 court gazettes mean to impress the people. It is not 
 instantly that I can be brought to rejoice when I hear 
 of the slaughter and captivity of long lists of those 
 names which have been familiar to my ears from my 
 infancy, and to rejoice that they have fallen under the 
 
200 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 sword of strangers whose barbarous appellations I 
 scarcely know how to pronounce. The glory acquired 
 at the White Plains by Colonel Raille has no charms 
 for me ; and I fairly acknowledge that I have not yet 
 learned to delight in finding Fort Kniphausen in the 
 heart of the British dominions. 
 
 It might be some consolation for the loss of our old 
 regards if our reason were enlightened in proportion 
 as our honest prejudices are removed. Wanting feel 
 ings for the honor of our country, we might then in 
 cold blood be brought to think a little of our interests 
 as individual citizens, and our private conscience as 
 moral agents. 
 
 Indeed our affairs are in a bad condition. I do assure 
 those gentlemen w r ho have prayed for war, and have 
 obtained the blessing they have sought, that they are 
 at this instant in very great straits. The abused wealth 
 of this country continues a little longer to feel its dis 
 temper. As yet they, and their German allies of twenty 
 hireling states, have contended only with the unpre 
 pared strength of our own infant colonies. But Amer 
 ica is not subdued. Not one unattacked village which 
 was originally adverse throughout that vast continent 
 has yet submitted from love or terror. You have the 
 ground you encamp on, and you have no more. The 
 cantonments of your troops and your dominions are 
 exactly of the same extent. You spread devastation, 
 but you do not enlarge the sphere of authority. 
 
 The events of this war are of so much greater mag 
 nitude than those who either wished or feared it ever 
 looked for that this alone ought to fill every consid- 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 201 
 
 erate mind with anxiety and diffidence. Wise men 
 often tremble at the very things which fill the thought 
 less with security. For many reasons I do not choose 
 to expose to public view all the particulars of the state 
 in which you stood with regard to foreign powers dur 
 ing the whole course of the last year. Whether you are 
 yet wholly out of danger from them is more than I 
 know, or than your rulers can divine. But even if I 
 were certain of my safety, I could not easily forgive 
 those who had brought me into the most dreadful perils, 
 because by accidents, unforeseen by them or me, I have 
 escaped. 
 
 Believe me, gentlemen, the way still before you is 
 intricate, dark, and full of perplexed and treacher 
 ous mazes. Those who think they have the clue may 
 lead us out of this labyrinth. We may trust them as 
 amply as we think proper ; but as they have most cer 
 tainly a call for all the reason which their stock can 
 furnish, why should we think it proper to disturb 
 its operation by inflaming their passions? I may be 
 unable to lend an helping hand to those who direct the 
 state, but I should be ashamed to make myself one of 
 a noisy multitude to halloo and hearten them into 
 doubtful and dangerous courses. A conscientious man 
 would be cautious how he dealt in blood. He would feel 
 some apprehension at being called to a tremendous 
 account for engaging in so deep a play, without any 
 sort of knowledge of the game. It is no excuse for 
 presumptuous ignorance that it is directed by insolent 
 passion. The poorest being that crawls on earth, con 
 tending to save itself from injustice and oppression, 
 
202 BUEKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 is an object respectable in the eyes of God and man. 
 But I cannot conceive any existence under heaven 
 (which, in the depths of its wisdom, tolerates all sorts 
 of things) that is more truly odious and disgusting, 
 than an impotent, helpless creature, without civil wis 
 dom or military skill, without a consciousness of any 
 other qualification for power but his servility to it, 
 bloated with pride and arrogance, calling for battles 
 which he is not to fight, contending for a violent do 
 minion which he can never exercise, and satisfied to 
 be himself mean and miserable, in order to render 
 others contemptible and wretched. 
 
 If you and I find our talents not of the great and 
 ruling kind, our conduct at least is conformable to our 
 faculties. No man s life pays the forfeit of our rash 
 ness. No desolate widow weeps tears of blood over our 
 ignorance. Scrupulous and sober in our well-grounded 
 distrust of ourselves, we would keep in the port of 
 peace and security ; and perhaps in recommending to 
 others something of the same diffidence we should show 
 ourselves more charitable in their welfare than injuri 
 ous to their abilities. 
 
 There are many circumstances in the zeal shown for 
 civil war which seem to discover but little of real mag 
 nanimity. The addressers offer their own persons, and 
 they are satisfied with hiring Germans. They promise 
 their private fortunes, and they mortgage their coun- 
 , try. They have all the merit of volunteers, without 
 risk of person or charge of contribution ; and when the 
 unfeeling arm of a foreign soldiery pours out their 
 kindred blood like water, they exult and triumph as 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 203 
 
 if they themselves had performed some notable ex 
 ploit. I am really ashamed of the fashionable language 
 which has been held for some time past, which, to say 
 the best of it, is full of levity. You know that I allude 
 to the general cry against the cowardice of the Amer 
 icans, as if we despised them for not making the king s 
 soldiery purchase the advantage they have obtained at 
 a dearer rate. It is not, gentlemen, it is not to respect 
 the dispensations of Providence, nor to provide any 
 decent retreat in the mutability of human affairs. It 
 leaves no medium between insolent victory and infam 
 ous defeat. It tends to alienate our minds farther and 
 farther from our natural regards, and to make an 
 eternal rent and schism in the British nation. Those 
 who do not wish for such a separation would not dis 
 solve that cement of reciprocal esteem and regard 
 which can alone bind together the parts of this great 
 fabric. It ought to be our wish, as it is our duty, not 
 only to forbear this style of outrage ourselves, but 
 to make every one as sensible as we can of the im 
 propriety and unworthiness of the tempers which give 
 rise to it, and which designing men are laboring with 
 such malignant industry to diffuse amongst us. It is 
 our business to counteract them if possible ; if possible, 
 to awake our natural regards; and to revive the old 
 partiality to the English name. Without something of 
 this kind I do not see how it is ever practicable really 
 to reconcile with those whose affection, after all, must 
 be the surest hold of our government ; and which is a 
 thousand times more worth to us that the mercenary 
 zeal of all the circles of Germany. 
 
204 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 I can well conceive a country completely overrun, 
 and miserably wasted, without approaching in the least 
 to settlement. In my apprehension, as long as Eng 
 lish government is attempted to be supported over 
 Englishmen by the sword alone, things will thus con 
 tinue. I anticipate in my mind the moment of the final 
 triumph of foreign military force. When that hour 
 arrives (for it may arrive) , then it is that all this mass 
 of weakness and violence will appear in its full light. 
 If we should be expelled from America, the delusion 
 of the partisans of military government might still 
 continue. They might still feed their imaginations 
 with the possible good consequences which might have 
 attended success. Nobody could prove the contrary by 
 facts. But in case the sword should do all that the 
 sword can do, the success of their arms and the de 
 feat of their policy will be one and the same thing. You 
 will never see any revenue from America. Some in 
 crease of the means of corruption, without ease of 
 the public burthens, is the very best that can happen. 
 
 Is it for this that we are at war and in such a war ? 
 
 ******* 
 
 This outrageous language, which has been encour 
 aged and kept alive by every art, has already done 
 incredible mischief. For a long time, even amidst the 
 desolations of war and the insults of hostile laws daily 
 accumulated on one another, the American leaders 
 seem to have had the greatest difficulty in bringing up 
 their people to a declaration of total independence. 
 But the court gazette accomplished what the abettors 
 of independence had attempted in vain. When that 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 205 
 
 disingenuous compilation, and strange medley of rail 
 ing and flattery, was adduced as a proof of the united 
 sentiments of the people of Great Britain, there was a 
 great change throughout all America. The tide of pop 
 ular affection, which had still set towards the parent 
 country, begun immediately to turn, and to flow with 
 great rapidity in a contrary course. Far from con 
 cealing these wild declarations of enmity, the author 
 of the celebrated pamphlet which prepared the minds 
 of the people for independence, insists largely on the 
 multitude and the spirit of these addresses; and he 
 draws an argument from them which, if the fact was 
 as he supposes, must be irresistible. For I never knew 
 a writer on the theory of government so partial to 
 authority as not to allow that the hostile mind of the 
 rulers to their people did fully justify a change of 
 government; nor can any reason whatever be given 
 why one people should voluntarily yield any degree 
 of pre-eminence to another, but on a supposition of 
 great affection and benevolence towards them. Unfor 
 tunately your rulers, trusting to other things, took 
 no notice of this great principle of connection. From 
 the beginning of this affair they have done all they 
 could to alienate your minds from your own kindred ; 
 and if they could excite hatred enough in one of the 
 parties towards the other, they seemed to be of opinion 
 that they had gone half the way towards reconciling 
 the quarrel. 
 
 Tolerated in their passions, let them learn not to 
 persecute the moderation of their fellow-citizens. If 
 
206 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 all the world joined them in a full cry against rebellion, 
 and were as hotly inflamed against the whole theory 
 and enjoyment of freedom as those who are the most 
 factious for servitude, it could not in my opinion an 
 swer any one end whatsoever in this contest. The 
 leaders of this war could not hire (to gratify their 
 friends) one German more than they do; or inspire 
 him with less feeling for the persons, or less value for 
 the privileges, of their revolted brethren. If we all 
 adopted their sentiments to a man, their allies, the 
 savage Indians, could not be more ferocious than they 
 are : they could not murder one more helpless woman 
 or child, or with more exquisite refinements of cruelty 
 torment to death one more of their English flesh and 
 blood than they do already. The public money is 
 given to purchase this alliance and they have their 
 bargain. 
 
 They are continually boasting of unanimity, or call 
 ing for it. But before this unanimity can be matter 
 either of wish or congratulation, we ought to be pretty 
 sure that we are engaged in a rational pursuit. Frenzy 
 does not become a slighter distemper on account of the 
 number of those who may be infected with it. Delusion 
 and weakness produce not one mischief the less because 
 they are universal. I declare that I cannot discern the 
 least advantage which could accrue to us if we were 
 able to persuade our colonies that they had not a single 
 friend in Great Britain. On the contrary, if the affec 
 tions and opinions of mankind be not exploded as 
 principles of connection, I conceive it would be happy 
 for us if they were taught to believe that there was 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 207 
 
 even a formed American party in England, to whom 
 they could always look for support ! Happy would it 
 be for us if, in all tempers, they might turn their eyes 
 to the parent state, so that their very turbulence and 
 sedition should find vent in no other place than this. I 
 believe there is not a man (except those who. prefer 
 the interest of some paltry faction to the very being 
 of their country) who would not wish that the Ameri 
 cans should from time to time carry many points, and 
 even some of them not quite reasonable, by the aid of 
 any denomination of men here, rather than they should 
 be driven to seek for protection against the fury of 
 foreign mercenaries, and the waste of savages, in the 
 
 arms of France. 
 
 ******* 
 
 If there be one fact in the world perfectly clear, it 
 is this : * l That the disposition of the people of America 
 is wholly averse to any other than a free government" ; 
 and this is indication enough to any honest statesman 
 how he ought to adapt whatever power he finds in his 
 hands to their case. If any ask me what a free govern 
 ment is, I answer that, for any practical purpose, it is 
 what the people think so; and that they, and not I, 
 are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this 
 matter. If they practically allow me a greater degree 
 of authority over them than is consistent with any 
 correct ideas of perfect freedom, I ought to thank them 
 for so great a trust, and not to endeavor to prove from 
 thence that they have reasoned amiss and that, having 
 gone so far, by analogy they must hereafter have no 
 enjoyment but by my pleasure. 
 
208 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 If we had seen this done by any others, we should 
 have concluded them far gone in madness. It is melan 
 choly as well as ridiculous to observe the kind of rea 
 soning with which the public has been amused, in order 
 to divert our minds from the common sense of our 
 American policy. There are people who have split and 
 anatomized the doctrine of free government as if it 
 were an abstract question concerning metaphysical 
 liberty and necessity, and not a matter of moral pru 
 dence and natural feeling. They have disputed whether 
 liberty be a positive or a negative idea; whether it 
 does not consist in being governed by laws, without 
 considering what are the laws, or who are the makers ; 
 whether man has any rights by nature ; and whether all 
 the property he enjoys be not the alms of his govern 
 ment, and his life itself their favor and indulgence. 
 Others, corrupting religion as these have perverted 
 philosophy, contend that Christians are redeemed into 
 captivity and the blood of the Savior of mankind has 
 been shed to make them the slaves of a few proud and 
 insolent sinners. These shocking extremes provoking 
 to extremes of another kind, speculations are let loose 
 as destructive to all authority as the former are to all 
 freedom ; and every government is called tyranny and 
 usurpation which is not formed on their fancies. In 
 this manner the stirrers-up of this contention, not sat 
 isfied with distracting our dependencies and filling 
 them with blood and slaughter, are corrupting our 
 understandings : they are endeavoring to tear up, along 
 with practical liberty, all the foundations of human 
 society, all equity and justice, religion and order. 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 209 
 
 The war is now of full two years standing; the 
 controversy of many more. In different periods of the 
 dispute different methods of reconciliation were to be 
 pursued. I mean to trouble you with a short state of 
 things at the most important of these periods, in order 
 to give you a more distinct idea of our policy with 
 regard to this most delicate of all objects. The col 
 onies were from the beginning subject to the legisla 
 ture of Great Britain, on principles which they never 
 examined ; and we permitted to them many local privi 
 leges, without asking how they agreed with that legis 
 lative authority. Modes of administration were formed 
 in an insensible and very unsystematic manner. But 
 they gradually adapted themselves to the varying 
 conditions of things. "What was first a single kingdom 
 stretched into an empire, and an imperial superin- 
 tendency of some kind or other became necessary. Par 
 liament, from a mere representative of the people and 
 a guardian of popular privileges for its own imme 
 diate constituents, grew into a mighty sovereign. In 
 stead of being a control on the crown on its own behalf 
 it communicated a sort of strength to the royal author 
 ity, which was wanted for the conservation of a new 
 object, but which could not be safely trusted to the 
 crown alone. On the other hand, the colonies, advan 
 cing by equal steps and governed by the same neces 
 sity, had formed within themselves, either by royal 
 instruction or royal charter, assemblies so exceedingly 
 resembling a parliament in all their forms, functions, 
 and powers that it was impossible they should not im 
 bibe some opinion of a similar authority. 
 
210 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 At the first designation of these assemblies they 
 were probably not intended for anything more (nor 
 perhaps did they think themselves much higher) than 
 the municipal corporations within this island, to which 
 some at present love to compare them. But nothing in 
 progression can rest on its original plan. We may as 
 well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an 
 infant. Therefore as the colonies prospered and in 
 creased to a numerous and mighty people, spreading 
 over a very great tract of the globe, it was natural 
 that they should attribute to assemblies so respectable 
 in their formal constitution some part of the dignity of 
 the great nations which they represented. No longer 
 tied to by-laws, these assemblies made acts of all sorts 
 and in all cases whatsoever. They levied money, not 
 for parochial purposes, but upon regular grants to 
 the crown, following all the rules and principles of a 
 parliament, to which they approached every day more 
 and more nearly. Those who think themselves wiser 
 than Providence, and stronger than the course of na 
 ture, may complain of all this variation, on the one 
 side or the other, as their several humors and preju 
 dices may lead them. But things could not be other 
 wise ; and English colonies must be had on these terms, 
 or not had at all. In the meantime, neither party felt 
 any inconvenience from this double legislature to which 
 they had been formed by imperceptible habits and old 
 custom, the great support of all the governments in 
 the world. Though these two legislatures were some 
 times found perhaps performing the very same func 
 tions, they did not very grossly or systematically clash. 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 211 
 
 In all likelihood this arose from mere neglect ; possibly 
 from the natural operation of things, which, left to 
 themselves, generally fall into their proper order. But 
 whatever was the cause, it is certain that a regular 
 revenue, by the authority of Parliament, for the sup 
 port of civil and military establishments, seems not to 
 have been thought of until the colonies were too proud 
 to submit, too strong to be forced, too enlightened not 
 to see all the consequences which must arise from such 
 a system. 
 
 If ever this scheme of taxation was to be pushed 
 against the inclinations of the people, it was evident 
 that discussions must arise which would let loose all 
 the elements that composed this double constitution; 
 would show how much each of their members had de 
 parted from its original principles ; and would discover 
 contradictions in each legislature, as well to its own 
 first principles as to its relation to the other, very diffi 
 cult, if not absolutely impossible, to be reconciled. 
 
 Therefore at the first fatal opening of this contest 
 the wisest course seemed to be to put an end as soon 
 as possible to the immediate causes of the dispute ; and 
 to quiet a discussion, not easily settled upon clear prin 
 ciples, and arising from claims which pride would per 
 mit neither party to abandon, by resorting as nearly 
 as possible to the old, successful course. A mere repeal 
 of the obnoxious tax, with a declaration of the legisla 
 tive authority of this kingdom, was then fully suffi 
 cient to procure peace to both sides. Man is a creature 
 of habit, and, the first breach being of very short con 
 tinuance, the colonies fell back exactly into their an- 
 
212 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 cient state. The congress has used an expression with 
 regard to this pacification which appears to me truly 
 significant. After the repeal of the stamp act "the 
 colonies fell," says this assembly, "into their ancient 
 state of unsuspecting confidence in the mother courir 
 try." This unsuspecting confidence is the true center 
 of gravity amongst mankind, about which all the parts 
 are at rest. It is this unsuspecting confidence that re 
 moves all difficulties, and reconciles all the contradic 
 tions which occur in the complexity of all ancient, 
 puzzled, political establishments. Happy are the rulers 
 which have the secret of preserving it ! 
 
 The whole empire has reason to remember, with eter 
 nal gratitude, the wisdom and temper of that man and 
 his excellent associates who, to recover this confidence, 
 formed a plan of pacification in 1766. That plan, being 
 built upon the nature of man, and the circumstances 
 and habits of the two countries, and not on any vision 
 ary speculations, perfectly answered its end as long 
 as it was thought proper to adhere to it. Without giv 
 ing a rude shock to the dignity (well or ill understood) 
 of this Parliament, they gave perfect content to ou* 
 dependencies. Had it not been for the mediatorial 
 spirit and talents of that great man, between such 
 clashing pretensions and passions, we should then have 
 rushed headlong (I know what I say) into the calami 
 ties of that civil war in which, by departing from his 
 system, we are at length involved ; and we should have 
 been precipitated into that war at a time when cir 
 cumstances both at home and abroad were far, very far, 
 more unfavorable unto us than they were at the break 
 ing out of the present troubles. 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 213 
 
 I had the happiness of giving my first votes in Par 
 liament for their pacification. I was one of those almost 
 unanimous members who, in the necessary concessions 
 of Parliament, would as much as possible have pre 
 served its authority and respected its honor. I could 
 not at once tear from my heart prejudices which were 
 dear to me, and which bore a resemblance to virtue. 
 I had then, and I have still, my partialities. What Par 
 liament gave up I wished to be given as of grace, and 
 favor, and affection, and not as a restitution of stolen 
 goods. High dignity relented as it was soothed; and 
 a benignity from old acknowledged greatness had its 
 full effect on our dependencies. Our unlimited declara 
 tion of legislative authority produced not a single mur 
 mur. If this undefined power has become odious since 
 that time, and full of horror to the colonies, it is be 
 cause the unsuspicious confidence is lost, and the pa 
 rental affection, in the bosom of whose boundless 
 authority they reposed their privileges, is become es 
 tranged and hostile. 
 
 It will be asked : If such was then my opinion of the 
 mode of pacification, how I came to be the very person 
 who moved, not only for a repeal of all the late coer 
 cive statutes, but for mutilating, by a positive law, 
 the entireness of the legislative power of Parliament, 
 and cutting off from it the whole right of taxation ? I 
 answer, Because a different state of things requires 
 a different conduct. When the dispute had gone to 
 these last extremities (which no man labored more to 
 prevent than I did), the concessions which had satis 
 fied in the beginning could satisfy no longer, because 
 
214 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 the violation of tacit faith required explicit security. 
 The same cause which has introduced all formal com 
 pacts and covenants among men made it necessary. I 
 mean habits of soreness, jealousy, and distrust. I parted 
 with it as with a limb, but as a limb to save the body ; 
 and I would have parted with more, if more had been 
 necessary anything rather than a fruitless, hopeless, 
 unnatural civil war. This mode of yielding would, 
 it is said, give way to independency, without a war. I 
 am persuaded from the nature of things, and from 
 every information, that it would have had a directly 
 contrary effect. But if it had this effect, I confess that 
 I should prefer independency without war to indepen 
 dency with it ; and I have so much trust in the inclina 
 tions and prejudices of mankind, and so little in any 
 thing else, that I should expect ten times more benefit 
 to this kingdom from the affection of America, though 
 under a separate establishment, than from her perfect 
 submission to the crown and Parliament, accompanied 
 with her terror, disgust, and abhorrence. Bodies tied 
 together by so unnatural a bond of union as mutual 
 hatred are only connected to their ruin. 
 
 One hundred and ten respectable members of Par 
 liament voted for that concession. Many not present 
 when the motion was made were of the sentiments of 
 those who voted. I knew it would then have made 
 peace. I am not without hopes that it would do so at 
 present if it were adopted. No benefit, no revenue, 
 could be lost by it ; something might possibly be gained 
 by its consequences. For be fully assured that, of all 
 the phantoms that ever deluded the fond hopes of a 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 215 
 
 credulous world, a parliamentary revenue in the col 
 onies is the most perfectly chimerical. Your breaking 
 them to any subjections, far from relieving your 
 burthens (the pretext for this war), will never pay 
 that military force which will be kept up to the de 
 struction of their liberties and yours. I risk nothing 
 
 in this prophecy. 
 
 e .** 4f 
 
 This, gentlemen, has been from the beginning the 
 rule of my conduct ; and I mean to continue it as long 
 as such a body as I have described can by any pos 
 sibility be kept together ; for I should think it the most 
 dreadful of all offenses, not only towards the present 
 generation, but to all the future, if I were to do any 
 thing which could make the minutest breach in this 
 great conservatory of free principles. Those who per 
 haps have the same intentions, but are separated by 
 some little political animosities, will I hope discern at 
 last how little conducive it is to any rational purpose 
 to lower its reputation. For my part, gentlemen, from 
 much experience, from no little thinking, and from 
 comparing a great variety of things, I am thoroughly 
 persuaded that the last hopes of preserving the spirit 
 of the English constitution, or of reuniting the dissi 
 pated members of the English race upon a common 
 plan of tranquillity and liberty, does entirely depend 
 on their firm and lasting union ; and above all on their 
 keeping themselves from that despair which is so very 
 apt to fall on those whom a violence of character and a 
 mixture of ambitious views do not support through a 
 long, painful, and unsuccessful struggle. 
 
216 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 There never, gentlemen, was a period in which the 
 steadfastness of some men has been put to so sore a 
 trial. It is not very difficult for well-formed minds to 
 abandon their interest ; but the separation of fame and 
 virtue is a harsh divorce. Liberty is in danger of 
 being made unpopular to Englishmen. Contending 
 for an imaginary power, we begin to acquire the spirit 
 of domination, and to lose the relish of honest equality. 
 The principles of our forefathers become suspected 
 to us, because we see them animating the present oppo 
 sition of our children. The faults which grow out of 
 the luxuriance of freedom appear much more shocking 
 to us than the base vices which are generated from 
 the rankness of servitude. Accordingly the least resist 
 ance to power appears more inexcusable in our eyes 
 than the greatest abuses of authority. All dread of a 
 standing military force is looked upon as a supersti 
 tious panic. All shame of calling in foreigners and sav 
 ages in a civil contest is worn off. We grow indifferent 
 to the consequences inevitable to ourselves from the 
 plan of ruling half the empire by a mercenary sword. 
 We are taught to believe that a desire of domineering 
 over our countrymen is love to our country ; that those 
 who hate civil war abet rebellion, and that the amiable 
 and conciliatory virtues of lenity, moderation, and ten 
 derness to the privileges of those who depend on this 
 kingdom are a sort of treason to the state. 
 
 It is impossible that we should remain long in a situ 
 ation which breeds such notions and dispositions, with 
 out some great alteration in the national character. 
 Those ingenuous and feeling minds who are so fortified 
 
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 217 
 
 against all other things, and so unarmed to whatever 
 approaches in the shape of disgrace, finding these prin 
 ciples, which they considered as sure means of honor, 
 to be grown into disrepute, will retire disheartened 
 and disgusted. Those of a more robust make the bold, 
 able, ambitious men, who pay some of their court to 
 power through the people, and substitute the voice of 
 transient opinion in the place of true glory will give 
 in to the general mode ; and those superior understand 
 ings which ought to correct vulgar prejudices will con 
 firm and aggravate its errors. Many things have been 
 long operating towards a gradual change in our prin 
 ciples. But this American war has done more in a 
 very few years than all the other causes could have 
 effected in a century. It is therefore not on its own 
 separate account, but because of its attendant cir 
 cumstances, that I consider its continuance, or its end 
 ing in any way but that of an honorable and liberal 
 accommodation, as the greatest evil which can befall 
 us. For that reason I have troubled you with this long 
 letter. For that reason I entreat you again and again, 
 neither to be persuaded, shamed, or frighted out of 
 the principles that have hitherto led so many of you to 
 abhor the war, its cause, and its consequences. Let us 
 not be among the first who renounce the maxims of 
 our forefathers. 
 
 I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obedi 
 ent and faithful humble servant, 
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 BEACONSFIELD, April 3, 1777. 
 
218 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF THE PRESENT 
 DISCONTENTS 
 
 Nobody, I believe, will consider it merely as the Ian- 
 gauge of spleen or disappointment if I say that there 
 is something particularly alarming in the present con 
 juncture. There is hardly a man, in or out of power, 
 who holds any other language. That government is 
 at once dreaded and contemned ; that the laws are des 
 poiled of all their respected and salutary terrors ; that 
 their inaction is a subject of ridicule, and their exer 
 tion of abhorrence ; that rank, and office and title, and 
 all the solemn plausibilities of the world have lost 
 their reverence and effect; that our foreign politics 
 are as much deranged as our domestic economy ; that 
 our dependencies are slackened in their affection, and 
 loosened from their obedience; that we know neither 
 how to yield nor how to enforce ; that hardly anything 
 above or below, abroad or at home, is sound and entire ; 
 but that disconnection and confusion, in offices, in 
 parties, in families, in Parliament, in the nation, pre 
 vail beyond the disorders of any former time these 
 are facts universally admitted and lamented. 
 
 This state of things is the more extraordinary, be 
 cause the great parties which formerly divided and 
 agitated the kingdom are known to be in a manner 
 entirely dissolved. No great external calamity has 
 visited our nation ; no pestilence or famine. We do not 
 labor at present under any scheme of taxation new or 
 oppressive in the quantity or in the mode. Nor are 
 we engaged in unsuccessful war, in which our misfor 
 tunes might easily pervert our judgment, and our 
 
THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 219 
 
 minds, sore from the loss of national glory, might feel 
 
 every blow of fortune as a crime in government. 
 
 ******* 
 
 The power of the crown, almost dead and rotten 
 as Prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more 
 strength, and far less odium, under the name of Influ 
 ence. An influence which operated without noise and 
 without violence, an influence which converted the 
 very antagonist into the instrument of power, which 
 contained in itself a perpetual principle of growth 
 and renovation, and which the distresses and the pros 
 perity of the country equally tended to augment, was 
 an admirable substitute for a prerogative, that, being 
 only the offspring of antiquated prejudices, had 
 moulded in its original stamina irresistible principles 
 of decay and dissolution. The ignorance of the people 
 is a bottom but for a temporary system ; the interest 
 of active men in the state is a foundation perpetual 
 and infallible. However, some circumstances, arising, 
 it must be confessed, in a great degree from accident, 
 prevented the effects of this influence for a long time 
 from breaking out in a manner capable of exciting 
 any serious apprehensions. Although government was 
 strong and flourished exceedingly, the court had drawn 
 far less advantage than one would imagine from this 
 
 great source of power. 
 
 ******* 
 
 To get rid of all this intermediate and independent 
 importance, and to secure to the court the unlimited 
 and uncontrolled use of its own vast influence, under 
 the sole direction of its own private favor, has for 
 
220 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 some years past been the great object of policy. If 
 this were compassed, the influence of the crown must 
 of course produce all the effects which the most san 
 guine partisans of the court could possibly desire. 
 Government might then be carried on without any 
 concurrence on the part of the people, without any 
 attention to the dignity of the greater, or to the 
 affections of the lower sorts. A new project was there 
 fore devised by a certain s%t of intriguing men, totally 
 different from the system of administration which had 
 prevailed since the accession of the House of Bruns 
 wick. This project, I have heard, was first conceived 
 by some persons in the court of Frederick, Prince of 
 Wales. 
 
 The earliest attempt in the execution of this design 
 was to set up for minister a person, in rank indeed 
 respectable, and very ample in fortune; but who, to 
 the moment of this vast and sudden elevation, was 
 little known or considered in the kingdom. To him the 
 whole nation was to yield an immediate and implicit 
 submission. But whether it was from want of firm 
 ness to bear up against the first opposition, or that 
 things were not yet fully ripened, or that this method 
 was not .found the most eligible, that idea was soon 
 abandoned. The instrumental part of the project was 
 a little altered, to accommodate it to the time and to 
 bring things more gradually and more surely to the 
 one great end proposed. 
 
 The first part of the reformed plan was to draw a 
 line which should separate the court from the ministry. 
 Hitherto these names had been looked upon as synon- 
 
THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 221 
 
 ymous; but for the future, court and administration 
 were to be considered as things totally distinct. By 
 this operation two systems of administration were to 
 be formed : one which should be in the real secret and 
 confidence, the other merely ostensible to perform the 
 official and executory duties of government. The latter 
 were alone to be responsible ; whilst the real advisers, 
 who enjoyed all the power, were effectually removed 
 from all the danger. 
 
 Secondly, a party under these leaders was to be 
 formed in favor of the court against the ministry: 
 this party was to have a large share in the emoluments 
 of government, and to hold it totally separate from, 
 and independent of, ostensible administration. 
 
 The third point, and that on which the success of 
 the whole scheme ultimately depended, was to bring 
 Parliament to an acquiescence in this project. Par 
 liament was therefore to be taught by degrees a total 
 indifference to the persons, rank, influence, abilities, 
 connections, and character of the ministers of the 
 crown. By means of a discipline, on which I shall say 
 more hereafter, that body was to be habituated to the 
 most opposite interests, and the most discordant poli 
 tics. All connections and dependencies among sub 
 jects were to be entirely dissolved. As hitherto busi 
 ness had gone through the hands of leaders of Whigs 
 or Tories, men of talents to conciliate the people and 
 to engage their confidence, now the method was to be 
 altered, and the lead was to be given to men of no 
 sort of consideration or credit in the country. This 
 want of natural importance was to be their very title 
 
222 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 to delegated power. Members of Parliament were to 
 be hardened into an insensibility to pride as well as to 
 duty. Those high and haughty sentiments, which are 
 the great support of independence, were to be let down 
 gradually. Points of honor and precedence were no 
 more to be regarded in Parliamentary decorum than 
 in a Turkish army. It was to be avowed, as a constitu 
 tional maxim, that the king might appoint one of his 
 footmen for minister ; and that he ought to be, and that 
 he would be, as well followed as the first name for rank 
 or wisdom in the nation. Thus Parliament was to look 
 on as if perfectly unconcerned while a cabal of the 
 closet and back-stairs was substituted in the place of 
 a national administration. 
 
 With such a degree of acquiescence, any measure of 
 any court might well be deemed thoroughly secure. 
 The capital objects, and by much the most flattering 
 characteristics of arbitrary power, would be obtained. 
 Everything would be drawn from its holdings in the 
 country to the personal favor and inclination of the 
 prince. This favor would be the sole introduction to 
 power, and the only tenure by which it was to be held ; 
 so that no person looking towards another, and all 
 looking toward the court, it was impossible but that 
 the motive which solely influenced every man s hopes 
 must come in time to govern every man s conduct; 
 till at last the servility became universal, in spite of 
 
 the dead letter of any laws or. institutions whatsoever. 
 
 ******* 
 
 In the first place, they proceeded gradually, but not 
 slowly, to destroy everything of strength which did not 
 
THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 223 
 
 derive its principal nourishment from the immediate 
 pleasure of the court. The greatest weight of popular 
 opinion and party connection were then with the Duke 
 of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt. Neither of these held their 
 importance by the new tenure of the court ; they were 
 not therefore thought to be so proper as others for the 
 services which were required by that tenure. It hap 
 pened very favorably for the new system that under 
 a forced coalition there rankled an incurable alienation 
 and disgust between the parties which composed the 
 administration. Mr. Pitt was first attacked. Not sat 
 isfied with removing him from power, they endeavored 
 by various artifices to ruin his character. The other 
 party seemed rather pleased to get rid of so oppressive 
 a support ; not perceiving, that their own fall was pre 
 pared by his, and involved in it. Many other reasons 
 prevented them from daring to look their true situation 
 in the face. To the great Whig families it was ex 
 tremely disagreeable, and seemed almost unnatural, to 
 oppose the administration of a prince of the House of 
 Brunswick. Day after day they hesitated, and doubted, 
 and lingered, expecting that other counsels would take 
 place; and were slow to be persuaded that all which 
 had been done by the cabal was the effect not of humor, 
 but of system. It was more strongly and evidently 
 the interest of the new court faction to get rid of the 
 great Whig connections than to destroy Mr. Pitt. The 
 power of that gentleman was vast indeed and merited ; 
 but it was in a great degree personal, and therefore 
 transient. Theirs was rooted in the country. For, 
 with a good deal less of popularity, they possessed a far 
 
224 BURKE T S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 more natural and fixed influence. Long possession 
 of government; vast property; obligations of favors 
 given and received ; connection of office ; ties of blood, 
 of alliance, of friendship (things at that time supposed 
 of some force) ; the name of Whig, dear to the majority 
 of the people ; the zeal early begun and steadily con 
 tinued to the royal family all these together formed 
 a body of power in the nation, which was criminal and 
 devoted. The great ruling principle of the cabal, and 
 that which animated and harmonized all their pro 
 ceedings, how various soever they may have been, was 
 to signify to the world that the court would proceed 
 upon its own proper forces only; and that the pre 
 tence of bringing any other into its service was an 
 affront to it, and not a support. Therefore when the 
 chiefs were removed, in order to go to the root, the 
 whole party was put under a proscription, so general 
 and severe as to take their hard-earned bread from 
 the lowest officers in a manner which had never been 
 known before, even in general revolutions. But it was 
 thought necessary effectually to destroy all dependen 
 cies but one, and to show an example of the firmness 
 and rigor with which the new system was to be sup 
 ported. 
 
 ******* 
 
 These were some of the many artifices used to recon 
 cile the people to the great change which was made in 
 the persons who composed the ministry, and the still 
 greater which was made and avowed in its constitu 
 tion. As to individuals, other methods were employed 
 with them; in order so thoroughly to disunite every 
 
THE PKESENT DISCONTENTS . 225 
 
 party, and even e very family, that no concert, order, 
 or effect, might appear in any future opposition. And 
 in this manner an administration without connection 
 with the people, or with one another, was first put in 
 possession of government. What good consequences 
 followed from it we have all seen ; whether with regard 
 to virtue, public or private, to the ease and happiness 
 of the sovereign, or to the real strength of government. 
 But as so much stress was then laid on the necessity 
 of this new project, it will not be amiss to take a view 
 of the effects of this royal servitude and vile durance, 
 which was so deplored in the reign of the late monarch, 
 and was so carefully to be avoided in the reign of his 
 
 successor. The effects were these. 
 
 ******* 
 
 It must be remembered that since the revolution, 
 until the. period we are speaking of, the influence of 
 the crown had been always employed in supporting the 
 ministers of state, and in carrying on the public busi 
 ness according to their opinions. But the party now 
 in question is formed upon a very different idea. It 
 is to intercept the favor, protection, and confidence of 
 the crown in the passage to its ministers ; it is to come 
 between them and their importance in Parliament ; it is 
 to separate them from all their natural and acquired 
 dependencies ; it is "intended as the control, not the sup 
 port, of administration. The machinery of this system 
 is perplexed in its movements, and false in principle. 
 It is formed on a supposition that the king is something 
 external to his government; and that he may be hon 
 ored and aggrandized, even by its debility and dis- 
 
226 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 grace. The plan proceeds expressly on the idea of 
 enfeebling the regular executory power. It proceeds 
 on the idea of weakening the state in order to 
 strengthen the court. The scheme depending entirely 
 on distrust, on disconnection, on mutability by prin 
 ciple, on systematic weakness in every particular mem 
 ber, it is impossible that the total result should be 
 substantial strength of any kind. 
 
 As a foundation of their scheme, the cabal have 
 established a sort of rota in the court. All sorts of 
 parties, by this means, have been brought into admin 
 istration; from whence few have had the good for 
 tune to escape without disgrace; none at all without 
 considerable losses. In the beginning of each arrange 
 ment no professions of confidence and support are 
 wanting to induce the leading men to engage. But 
 while the ministers of the day appear in all the pomp 
 and pride of power, while they have all their canvas 
 spread out to the wind, and every sail filled with the 
 fair and prosperous gale of royal favor, in a short time 
 they find, they know not how, a current, which sets 
 directly against them, which prevents all progress, 
 and even drives them backwards. They grow ashamed 
 and mortified in a situation which, by its vicinity to 
 power, only serves to remind them the more strongly of 
 their insignificance. They are obliged either to execute 
 the orders of their inferiors, or to see themselves op 
 posed by the natural instruments of their office. With 
 the loss of their dignity they lose their temper. In 
 their turn they grow troublesome to that cabal which, 
 whether it supports or opposes, equally disgraces and 
 
THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 227 
 
 equally betrays them. It is soon found necessary to 
 get rid of the heads of administration; but it is of 
 the heads only. As there always are many rotten mem 
 bers belonging to the best connections, it is not hard to 
 persuade .several to continue in office without their 
 leaders. By this means the party goes out much thinner, 
 than it came in; and is only reduced in strength by 
 its temporary possession of power. Besides, if by acci 
 dent, or in course of changes, that power should be 
 recovered, the junto have thrown up a retrenchment 
 of these carcasses, which may serve to cover themselves 
 in a day of danger. They conclude, not unwisely, that 
 such rotten members will become the first objects of 
 disgust and resentment to their ancient connections. 
 
 They contrive to form in the outward administration 
 two parties at the least ; which, whilst they are tearing 
 one another to pieces, are both competitors for the 
 favor and protection of the cabal ; and, by their emu 
 lation, contribute to throw everything more and more 
 into the hands of the interior managers. 
 
 A minister of state will sometimes keep himself 
 totally estranged from all his colleagues; will differ 
 from them in their councils, will privately traverse, 
 and publicly oppose, their measures. He will, however, 
 continue in his employment. Instead of suffering any 
 mark of displeasure, he will be distinguished by an 
 unbounded profusion of court rewards and caresses, 
 because he does what is expected, and all that is 
 expected, from men in office. He helps to keep some 
 form of administration in being, and keeps it at the 
 same time as weak and divided as possible. 
 
228 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 However, we must take care not to be mistaken, or 
 to imagine that such persons have any weight in their 
 opposition. When, by them, administration is con 
 vinced of its insignificancy, they are soon to be con 
 vinced of their own. They never are suffered to suc 
 ceed in their opposition. They and the world are to 
 be satisfied that neither office, nor authority, nor 
 property, nor ability, eloquence, skill, or union, are 
 of the least importance ; but that the mere influence of 
 the court, naked of all support and destitute of all 
 management, is abundantly sufficient for all its own 
 
 purposes. 
 
 ******* 
 
 The members of the court faction are fully indemni 
 fied for not holding places on the slippery heights of 
 the kingdom, not only by the lead in all affairs, but 
 also by the perfect security in which they enjoy less 
 conspicuous, but very advantageous situations. Their 
 places are in express legal tenure, or, in effect, all of 
 them for life. Whilst the first and most respectable 
 persons in the kingdom are tossed about like tennis- 
 balls, the sport of a blind and insolent caprice, no 
 minister dares even to cast an oblique glance at the 
 lowest of their body. If an attempt be made upon 
 one of this corps, immediately he flies to sanctuary, 
 and pretends to the most inviolable of all promises. 
 No conveniency of public arrangement is available to 
 remove any one of them from the specific situation he 
 holds ; and the slightest attempt upon one of them, by 
 the most powerful minister, is a certain preliminary 
 to his own destruction. 
 
THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 229 
 
 Conscious of their independence, they bear them 
 selves with a lofty air to the exterior ministers. Like 
 janissaries, they derive a kind of freedom from the 
 very condition of their servitude. They may act just 
 as they please, provided they are true to the great 
 ruling principle of their institution. It is, therefore, 
 not at all wonderful that people should be so desirous 
 of adding themselves to that body, in which they may 
 possess and reconcile satisfactions the most alluring, 
 and seemingly the most contradictory, enjoying at once 
 all the spirited pleasure of independence, and all the 
 gross lucre and fat emoluments of servitude. 
 
 Here is a sketch, though a slight one, of the con 
 stitution, laws, and policy of this new court corpora 
 tion. The name by which they choose to distinguish 
 themselves is that of king s men or the king s friends, 
 by an invidious exclusion of the rest of his Majesty s 
 most loyal and affectionate subjects. The whole sys 
 tem, comprehending the exterior and interior admin 
 istrations, is commonly called, in the technical lan 
 guage of the court, double cabinet ; in French or Eng 
 lish, as you choose to pronounce it. 
 
 Whether all this be a vision of a distracted brain, 
 or the invention of a malicious heart, or a real faction 
 in the country, must be judged by the appearances 
 which things have worn for eight years past. Thus far 
 I am certain that there is not a single public man, in 
 or out of office, who has not, at some time or other, 
 borne testimony to the truth of what I have now re 
 lated. In particular, no persons have been more 
 strong in their assertions, and louder and more in- 
 
230 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 decent in their complaints, than those who compose 
 all the exterior part of the present administration ; in 
 whose time that faction has arrived at such a height 
 of power, and of boldness in the use of it, as may, in 
 the end, perhaps bring about its total destruction. 
 
 It is true, that about four years ago, during the 
 administration of the Marquis of Rockingham, an 
 attempt was made to carry on government without 
 their concurrence. However, this was only a tran 
 sient cloud; they were hid but for a moment; and 
 their constellation blazed out with greater brightness, 
 and a far more vigorous influence, some time after 
 it was blown over. An attempt was at that time made 
 (but without any idea of proscription) to break their 
 corps, to discountenance their doctrines, to revive con 
 nections of a different kind, to restore the principles 
 and policy of the Whigs, to reanimate the cause of 
 liberty by ministerial countenance; and then for the 
 first time were men seen attached in office to every 
 principle they had maintained in opposition. No one 
 will doubt that such men were abhorred and vio 
 lently opposed by the court faction, and that such a 
 system could have but a short duration. 
 
 It may appear somewhat affected that in so much 
 discourse upon this extraordinary party I should say 
 so little of the Earl of Bute, who is the supposed head 
 of it. But this was neither owing to affectation nor 
 inadvertence. I have carefully avoided the introduc 
 tion of personal reflections of any kind. Much the 
 greater part of the topics which have been used to 
 blacken this nobleman are either unjust or frivolous. 
 
THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 231 
 
 At best, they have a tendency to give the resentment 
 of this bitter calamity a wrong direction, and to turn 
 a public grievance into a mean, personal, or a danger 
 ous national quarrel. Where there is a regular scheme 
 of operations carried on, it is the system, and not any 
 individual person who acts in it, that is truly danger 
 ous. This system has not arisen solely from the ambi 
 tion of Lord Bute, but from the circumstances which 
 favored it, and from an indifference to the constitu 
 tion which had been for some time growing among our 
 
 gentry. 
 
 # # * # # # * 
 
 We are at present at issue upon this point. We are 
 in the great crisis of this contention; and the part 
 which men take, one way or other, will serve to dis 
 criminate their characters and their principles. Until 
 the matter is decided, the country will remain in its 
 present confusion. For while a system of adminis 
 tration is attempted, entirely repugnant to the genius 
 of the people, and not conformable to the plan of their 
 government, everything must necessarily be disor 
 dered for a time, until this system destroys the con 
 stitution, or the constitution gets the better of this 
 system. 
 
 There is, in my opinion, a peculiar venom and 
 malignity in this political distemper beyond any that 
 I have heard or read of. In former times the projectors 
 of arbitrary government attacked only the liberties of 
 their country; a design surely mischievous enough to 
 have satisfied a mind of the most unruly ambition. 
 But a system unfavorable to freedom may be so 
 
232 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 formed as considerably to exalt the grandeur of the 
 state ; and men may find, in the pride and splendor of 
 that prosperity, some sort of consolation for the loss 
 of their solid privileges. Indeed the increase of the 
 power of the state has often been urged by artful men 
 as a pretext for some abridgment of the public lib 
 erty. But the scheme of the junto under considera 
 tion not only strikes a palsy into every nerve of our 
 free constitution, but in the same degree benumbs and 
 stupefies the whole executive power: rendering gov 
 ernment in all its grand operations languid, uncertain, 
 ineffective; making ministers fearful of attempting, 
 and incapable of executing, any useful plan of domes 
 tic arrangement, or of foreign politics. It tends to pro 
 duce neither the security of a free government, nor 
 
 the energy of a monarchy that is absolute. 
 
 ******* 
 
 It behooves the people of England to consider how 
 the House of Commons under the operation of these 
 examples must of necessity be constituted. On the 
 side of the court will be all honors, offices, emoluments, 
 every sort of personal gratification to avarice or van 
 ity ; and, what is of more moment to most gentlemen, 
 the means of growing, by innumerable petty services 
 to individuals, into a spreading interest in their coun 
 try. On the other hand, let us suppose a person un 
 connected with the court, and in opposition to its sys 
 tem. For his own person no office, or emolument, or 
 title ; no promotion, ecclesiastical, or civil, or military, 
 or naval, for children, or brothers, or kindred. In 
 vain an expiring interest in a borough calls for offices, 
 
THE PKESENT DISCONTENTS 233 
 
 or small livings, for the children of mayors, and alder 
 men, and capital burgesses. His court rival has them 
 all. He can do an infinite number of acts of generos 
 ity and kindness and even in public spirit. He can 
 procure indemnity from quarters. He can procure 
 advantages in trade. He can get pardons for offences. 
 He can obtain a thousand favors, and avert a thousand 
 evils. He may, while he betrays every valuable in 
 terest of the kingdom, be a benefactor, a patron, a 
 father, a guardian angel to his borough. The un 
 fortunate independent member has nothing to offer 
 but harsh refusal, or pitiful excuse, or despondent 
 representation of a hopeless interest. Except from 
 his private fortune, in which he may be equalled, 
 perhaps exceeded, by his court competitor, he has no 
 way of showing any one good quality, or of making 
 a single friend. In the House he votes forever in a 
 dispirited minority. If he speaks, the doors are locked. 
 A body of loquacious placemen go out to tell the 
 world that all he aims at is to get into office. If he 
 has not the talent of elocution, which is the case of 
 many as wise and knowing men as any in the House, 
 he is liable to all these inconveniences, without the 
 eclat which attends upon any tolerably successful ex 
 ertion of eloquence. Can we conceive a more discour 
 aging post of duty than this? Strip it of the poor 
 reward of popularity ; suffer even the excesses com 
 mitted in defense of the popular interest to become 
 a ground for the majority of that House to form a 
 disqualification out of the line of the law, and at their 
 pleasure, attended not only with the loss of the fran- 
 
234 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 chise, but with every kind of personal disgrace. If 
 this shall happen, the people of this kingdom may 
 be assured that they cannot be firmly or faithfully 
 served by any man. It is out of the nature of men 
 and things that they should; and their presumption 
 will be equal to their folly if they expect it. The 
 power of the people, within the laws, must show itself 
 sufficient to protect every representative in the ani 
 mated performance of his duty, or that duty cannot 
 be performed. The House of Commons can never be 
 a control on other parts of government, unless they 
 are controlled themselves by their constituents; and 
 unless these constituents possess some right in the 
 choice of that House which it is not in the power 
 of that House to take away. If they suffer this power 
 of arbitrary incapacitation to stand, they have utterly 
 perverted every other power of the House of Com 
 mons. The late proceeding I will not say is contrary 
 to law ; it must be so ; for the power which is claimed 
 cannot, by any possibility, be a legal power in any 
 
 limited member of government. 
 
 ******* 
 
 If the reader believes that there really exists such 
 a faction as I have described a faction ruling by the 
 private inclination of a court, against the general sense 
 of the people and that this faction, whilst it pursues 
 a scheme for undermining all the foundations of our 
 freedom, weakens (for the present at least) all the 
 powers of executory government, rendering us abroad 
 contemptible, and at home distracted ; he will believe 
 also that nothing but a firm combination of public men 
 
THE PEESENT DISCONTENTS 235 
 
 against this body and that, too, supported by the 
 hearty concurrence of the people at large can possibly 
 get the better of it. The people will see the necessity of 
 restoring public men to an attention to the public 
 opinion, and of restoring the constitution to its orig 
 inal principles. Above all, they will endeavor to keep 
 that House of Commons from assuming a character 
 which does not belong to it. They will endeavor to 
 keep that House, for its existence, for its powers, and 
 as dependent upon themselves as possible. This 
 servitude is to a House of Commons (like obedience 
 to the Divine Law) " perfect freedom." For if they 
 once quit this natural, rational, and liberal obedience, 
 having deserted the only proper foundation of their 
 power, they must seek a support in an abject and un 
 natural dependence somewhere else. When, through 
 the medium of this just connection with their constit 
 uents, the genuine ability of the House of Commons 
 is restored, it will begin to think of casting from it, 
 with scorn, as badges of servility, all the false orna 
 ments of illegal power with which it has been for 
 some time disgraced. It will begin to think of its old 
 office of Control. It will not suffer that last of 
 evils to predominate in the country: men without 
 popular confidence, public opinion, natural connec 
 tion, or mutual trust, invested with all the powers of 
 government. 
 
 When they have learned this lesson themselves, they 
 will be willing and able to teach the court that it is the 
 true interest of the prince to have but one administra 
 tion ; and that one composed of those who recommend 
 
236 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 themselves to their sovereign through the opinion of 
 their country, and not by their obsequiousness to a 
 favorite. Such men will serve their sovereign with 
 affection and fidelity, because his choice of them, upon 
 such principles, is a compliment to their virtue. They 
 will be able to serve him effectually ; because they will 
 add the weight of the country to the force of the 
 executory power. They will be able to serve their 
 king with dignity, because they will never abuse his 
 name to the gratification of their private spleen or 
 avarice. This, with allowances for human frailty, 
 may probably be the general character of a ministry 
 which thinks itself accountable to the House of Com 
 mons when the House of Commons thinks itself ac 
 countable to its constituents. If other ideals should 
 prevail, things must remain in their present confusion, 
 until they are hurried into all the rage of civil vio 
 lence, or until they sink into the dead repose of 
 despotism. 
 
IV 
 
 BURKE S POWER AS AN ORATOR 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM G. 0. TREVELYAX S GEORGE THE 
 THIRD AND CHARLES FOX. 
 
 . . . Before the year (1777) was out, full particu 
 lars of the catastrophe of Saratoga arrived in England. 
 The history of Burgoyne s expedition was one long 
 object lesson on the military value, and moral char 
 acteristics, of our Indian allies; and Burke chose an 
 early opportunity for driving that lesson home to the 
 conscience of Parliament. He spoke for more than 
 three hours to a crowded and entranced assembly. 
 Strangers, including of course the .newspaper re 
 porters, had been rigorously excluded from the Gal 
 lery; and, though Burke was urgently entreated to 
 publish his speech, he could not find the leisure, nor 
 perhaps the inclination, to rekindle in the solitude of 
 his study that flame of rhetoric which had blazed up 
 spontaneously under the genial influence of universal 
 admiration, and all but universal sympathy. It was 
 generally allowed that he had surpassed all his earlier 
 performances. He left no aspect of the question un 
 touched; he stated, in due sequence, every important 
 argument; and, when he let his fancy loose, he tra 
 versed the whole scale of oratorical emotion, from the 
 
238 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 depth of pathos to the height of unrestrained, auda 
 cious, and quite irresistible humor. 
 
 Burke began by laying the solid foundation for his 
 case in a series of closely-reasoned passages of which 
 only the outlines remain on record. These Indian 
 tribes, he said, had in the course of years been so 
 reduced in number and power that they were now only 
 formidable from their cruelty, and to use them for 
 warlike purposes was merely to be cruel ourselves in 
 their persons. He called attention to the salient dis 
 tinction between their employment "against armed 
 and trained soldiers, embodied and encamped, and 
 against unarmed and defenseless men, women, and 
 children, dispersed in their several habitations" over 
 the whole extent of a prosperous and industrious dis 
 trict. He attributed Burgoyne s defeat to the horror 
 excited in the American mind by the prospect of an 
 Indian invasion. The manly and resolute determina 
 tion of the New England farmers to save their families 
 and their homesteads from these barbarians led them 
 "without regard to party, or to political principle, and 
 in despite of military indisposition, to become sol 
 diers, and to unite as one man in the common defense. 
 Thus was the spectacle exhibited of a resistless army 
 springing up in the woods and deserts. Indians, said 
 Burke, were the most useless, and the most expensive, 
 of all auxiliaries. Each of their so-called braves cost 
 as much as five of the best European musketeers ; and, 
 after eating double rations so long as the provisions 
 lasted, they kept out of sight on a day of battle, and 
 deserted wholesale at the first appearance of ill-sue- 
 
BURKE S POWER AS AN ORATOR 239 
 
 cess. They were not less faithless than inefficacious. 
 When Colonel St. Leger found himself in difficulties 
 they turned their weapons, with insolent treachery, 
 against their civilized comrades ; and over a circuit of 
 many miles around Burgoyne s camp they plundered, 
 and butchered, and scalped with entire indifference to 
 the sex, the age, and the political opinions of their 
 victims. Burke told the story of a poor Scotch girl s 
 murder, on the eve of her intended marriage to an 
 officer of the King s troops, with an effect on the nerves 
 of his audience which perhaps was never equalled 
 except by his own description, during the trial of War 
 ren Hastings, of the treatment inflicted by the Nabob 
 Vizier on the Oude princesses. Many of his hearers 
 were moved to tears a spectacle which, in the British 
 Parliament, is seen hardly once in a generation ; and 
 Governor Johnstone congratulated the Ministry that 
 there were no strangers in the Gallery, because they 
 would have been worked up to such a pitch of excite 
 ment that Lord North, and Lord George Germaine, 
 must have run a serious risk from popular violence 
 as soon as they emerged into the street from the sanc 
 tuary of the House of Commons. 
 
 And then Burke changed his note, and convulsed his 
 audience by a parody of Burgoyne s address to the 
 Indians. It was a passage which Horace Walpole, who 
 had collected his knowledge of it in detached morsels 
 from many sources, pronounced to be a chef-d oeuvre 
 of wit, humor, and just satire. "I wish," he wrote, 
 I could give an idea of that superlative oration. How 
 cold, how inadequate will be my fragment of a sketch 
 
240 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 from second, third, and thousandth hands!" Burke 
 related how the British general harangued a throng 
 of warriors drawn from seventeen separate Indian 
 nations, who, so far from understanding the Bur- 
 goynese dialect, could not even follow the meaning of 
 a speech made in plain English ; how he invited them 
 by their reverence for the Christian religion, and theii 
 well-known, and well-considered, views on the right of 
 taxation inherent in the Parliament at Westminster 
 to grasp their tomahawks, and rally round his Ma 
 jesty s standard; and how he adjured them, "by the 
 same divine and human laws, not to touch a hair on 
 the head of man, woman, or child while living, though 
 he was willing to deal with them for scalps of the 
 dead, inasmuch as he was a nice and distinguished 
 judge between the scalp taken from a dead person, 
 and from the head of a person who had died of being 
 scalped. Let us illustrate this Christian exhortation, 
 and Christian injunction," said Burke, "by a more 
 familiar picture. Suppose the case of a riot on Tower 
 Hill. What would the keeper of his Majesty s lions 
 do? Would he not leave open the dens of the wild 
 beasts and address them thus: My gentle lions, my 
 humane bears, my tender-hearted hyenas, go forth 
 against the seditious mob on your mission of repres 
 sion and retribution; but I exhort you as you are 
 Christians, and members of a civilized society, to take 
 care not to hurt man, woman, or child. : Burke, like 
 Mr. Gladstone after him, was said to be deficient in 
 humor ; but a great orator depends for his lighter ef 
 fects not on a store of prepared jests and epigrams, but 
 
BURKE S POWER AS AN ORATOR 241 
 
 on the unforced gaiety by which he himself is swayed 
 at the moment, and which he has the art and the power 
 to diffuse among his hearers. The walls of the chamber 
 fairly shook with applause; Lord North himself was 
 almost suffocated by laughter"; and Colonel Barre 
 declared that, if Burke would only print the speech, he, 
 on his part, would undertake that it should be nailed 
 to the door of every parish church beneath the notice 
 proclaiming a day of general fasting and humiliation 
 on account of the surrender of Saratoga. That speech 
 would explain, far better than the homily of any 
 courtly bishop, the real causes of the disaster which 
 
 had brought the nation to dust and ashes. 
 
 ******* 
 
 ,. . . The reception accorded to Edmund Burke s 
 exposition of his plan of Economical Reform was of a 
 nature which left him nothing to desire. An immense 
 crowd of members sat and stood, listening, and learn 
 ing, and enjoying while he rolled out his vivid and 
 picturesque, but most accurate and businesslike, cata 
 logue of financial abuses, and while he descanted upon 
 their intimate relation to the good fame and efficiency 
 of Parliament. . . . After holding his audience 
 during more than three hours he wound up what he 
 had to say with a few unadorned sentences, pitched in 
 a quiet strain ; and, when Edmund Burke spoke calmly 
 and simply under the stress of deep emotion, his 
 words always possessed a strange and mysterious 
 charm. The House remained spell-bound. Fox took 
 off his hat to second the motion. North, embarrassed, 
 and a great deal more than half-convinced, stated it 
 
242 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 as his belief that no other gentleman could have been 
 equal to the task so ably performed by the Honorable 
 Member, * * although he had the happiness to know that 
 there were many then present who had very brilliant 
 parts." . . . Burke approached the subject in a 
 spirit of high comedy. He professed a desire to res 
 cue a company of eminent writers from dry and irk 
 some functions which distracted them from loftier 
 studies, and more congenial labors. As an Academy 
 of Belles Lettres, he said, he held them hallowed. As 
 a Board of Trade he wished to abolish them. That 
 Board, to his view, was a crow s nest in which night 
 ingales were kept prisoners; and his design was to 
 restore the nightingales to their liberty in the hope 
 that they might sing the more delightfully. Aroused 
 by the sympathy and applause of his audience, w r hich 
 has often inspired lesser men, Burke positively reveled 
 in the freedom and license of committee. He spoke 
 as often as he chose, and each successive apologist for 
 the Board of Trade was overwhelmed by the exuber 
 ance of his diction and imagination, and the irresist 
 ible play of his satire. "I can never," so Gibbon 
 confessed, forget the delight with which that diffu 
 sive and ingenious orator was heard by ail sides of 
 the House, and even by those whose existence he pro 
 scribed. The Lords of Trade blushed at their own 
 insignificancy; and Mr. Eden s appeal to the thousand 
 five hundred volumes of our reports served only to 
 excite a general laugh. " At a quarter past two in the 
 morning the Committee at length divided, and voted 
 for abolishing the Board by two hundred and seven 
 as against a hundred and ninety-nine. 
 
SPEECH OF WILLIAM PITT, THE EARL OF 
 CHATHAM 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, JANUARY 20, 1775, MOVING AN 
 ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY FOR THE IMMEDIATE REMOVAL 
 OF HIS TROOPS FROM BOSTON. 
 
 I congratulate your Lordships that the business is 
 at last entered upon by the noble Lord s laying the 
 papers before you. As I suppose your Lordships too 
 well apprised of their contents, I hope I am not pre 
 mature in submitting to you my present motion : 
 
 That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, 
 humbly to desire and beseech his Majesty that in order 
 to open the way towards a happy settlement of the 
 dangerous troubles in America, by beginning to allay 
 ferments and soften animosities there, and above all 
 for preventing in the meantime any sudden and fatal 
 catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under the daily 
 irritation of an army before their eyes, posted in their 
 town, it may graciously please his Majesty that imme 
 diate orders be despatched to General Gage for remov 
 ing his Majesty s forces from the town of Boston as 
 soon as the rigor of the season and other circumstances 
 indispensable to the safety and accommodation of the 
 said troops may render the same practicable. 
 
 243 
 
244 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 I wish, my Lords, not to lose a day in this urgent, 
 pressing crisis ; an hour now lost in allaying ferments 
 in America may produce years of calamity. For my 
 own part, I will not desert, for a moment, the conduct 
 of this weighty business, from the first to the last; 
 unless nailed to my bed by the extremity of sickness, 
 I will give it unremitted attention ; I will knock at the 
 door of this sleeping and confounded Ministry, and 
 will rouse them to a sense of their important danger. 
 
 When I state the importance of the colonies to this 
 country, and the magnitude of the danger hanging 
 over this country, from the present plan of mis-admin 
 istration practiced against them, I desire not to be 
 understood to argue for a reciprocity of indulgence 
 between England and America. I contend not for 
 indulgence, but for justice to America; and I shall 
 ever contend that the Americans justly owe obedience 
 to us in a limited degree, ^they owe obedience to our 
 ordinances of trade and navigation. But let the line 
 be skilfully drawn between the objects of those ordi 
 nances and their private, internal property; let the 
 sacredness of their property remain inviolate; let it 
 be taxable only by their own consent, given in their 
 provincial assemblies, else it will cease to be property. 
 As to the metaphysical refinements, attempting to show 
 that the Americans are equally free from obedience 
 and commercial restraints as from taxation for rev 
 enue, as being unrepresented here, I pronounce them 
 futile, frivolous, and groundless. 
 
 When I urge this measure of recalling the troops 
 from Boston, I urge it on this pressing principle, that 
 
SPEECHES OF WILLIAM PITT 245 
 
 it is necessarily preparatory to the restoration of your 
 peace, and the establishment of your prosperity. It 
 will then appear that you are disposed to treat am 
 icably and equitably, and to consider, revise, and re 
 peal, if it should be found necessary, as I affirm it will, 
 those violent acts and declarations which have dis 
 seminated confusion throughout your empire. 
 
 Resistance to your acts was necessary as it was just ; 
 and your vain declarations of the omnipotence of 
 Parliament, and your imperious doctrines of the neces 
 sity of submission, will be found equally impotent to 
 convince or to enslave your fellow-subjects in Amer 
 ica, who feel that tyranny, whether ambitioned by an 
 individual part of the legislature or the bodies who 
 compose it, is equally intolerable to British subjects. 
 
 The means of enforcing this thraldom are found to 
 be as ridiculous and weak in practice as they are un 
 just in principle. Indeed, I cannot but feel the most 
 anxious sensibility for the situation of General Gage 
 and the troops under his command ; thinking him, as 
 I do, a man of humanity and understanding; and 
 entertaining, as I ever will, the highest respect, the 
 warmest love, for the British troops. Their situation 
 is truly unworthy, penned up pining in inglorious 
 inactivity. They are an army of impotence. You may 
 call them an army of safety and of guard; but they 
 are in truth an army of impotence and contempt; 
 and to make the folly equal to the disgrace, they are 
 an army of irritation and vexation. 
 
 But I find a report creeping abroad that Ministers 
 censure General Gage s inactivity: let them censure 
 
246 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 him it becomes them it becomes their justice and 
 their honor. I mean not to censure his inactivity: 
 it is a prudent and necessary inaction. But what a 
 miserable condition is that where disgrace is prudence 
 and where it is necessary to be contemptible ! This 
 tameness, however contemptible, cannot be censured; 
 for the first drop of blood shed in civil and unnatural 
 war might be immedicabile vulnus. 
 
 I therefore urge and conjure your Lordships im 
 mediately to adopt this conciliating measure. I will 
 pledge myself for its immediately producing concil 
 iatory effects by its being thus well-timed ; but if you 
 delay till your vain hope shall be accomplished, of 
 triumphantly dictating reconciliation, you delay for 
 ever. But, admitting that this hope, which in truth 
 is desperate, should be accomplished, what do you gain 
 by the imposition of your victorious amity ? You will 
 be untrusted and unthanked. Adopt, then, the grace, 
 while you have the opportunity of reconcilement, or 
 at least prepare the way. Allay the ferment prevail 
 ing in America by removing, the obnoxious, hostile 
 cause obnoxious and unserviceable, for their merit 
 can be only in inaction: Non dimicare est vincere 
 their victory can never be by exertions. Their force 
 would be most disproportionately exerted against a 
 brave, generous, and united people, with arms in their 
 hands and courage in their hearts three millions of 
 people, the genuine descendants of a valiant and pious 
 ancestry, driven to those deserts by the narrow max 
 ims of a superstitious tyranny. And is the spirit of 
 persecution never to be appeased ? Are the brave sons 
 
SPEECHES OF WILLIAM PITT 247 
 
 of those brave forefathers to inherit the sufferings, as 
 they have inherited their virtues ? Are they to sustain 
 the infliction of the most oppressive and unexampled 
 severity, beyond the accounts of history or descrip 
 tion of poetry ? Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna, 
 castigatque, AUDITQUE. So says the wisest poet, 
 and perhaps the wisest statesman and politician of 
 antiquity. But our Ministers say, the Americans must 
 not be heard. They have been condemned unheard; 
 the discriminating hand of vengeance has lumped to 
 gether innocent and guilty ; w r ith all the formalities of 
 hostility has blocked up the town, and reduced to beg 
 gary and famine thirty thousand inhabitants. 
 
 But his Majesty is advised that the union in Amer 
 ica cannot last ! Ministers have more eyes than I, and 
 should have more ears, but, with all the information 
 I have been able to procure, I can pronounce it an 
 union solid, permanent, and effectual. Ministers may 
 satisfy themselves, and delude the public, with the re 
 port of what they call commercial bodies in America. 
 They are not commercial ; they are your packers and 
 factors : they live upon nothing for I call commission 
 nothing. I mean the Ministerial authority for this 
 American intelligence; the runners for Government, 
 who are paid for their intelligence. But these are not 
 the men, nor this the influence, to be considered in 
 America, when we estimate the firmness of their union : 
 even to extend the question, and to take in the really 
 mercantile circle, will be totally inadequate to the 
 consideration. Trade, indeed, increases the wealth 
 and glory of a country; but its real strength and 
 
248 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 stamina are to be looked for among the cultivators of 
 the land. In their simplicity of life is found the sim- 
 pleness of virtue the integrity and courage of free 
 dom. These true, genuine sons of the earth are in 
 vincible ; and they surround and hem in the mercantile 
 bodies ; even if these bodies, which supposition I totally 
 disclaim, could be supposed disaffected to the cause 
 of liberty. Of this general spirit existing in the Brit 
 ish nation for so I wish to distinguish the real and 
 genuine Americans from the pseudo-traders I have de 
 scribed of this spirit of independence, animating 
 the nation of America, I have the most authentic in-, 
 formation. It is not new among them ; it is, and has 
 ever been, their established principle, their confirmed 
 persuasion ; it is their nature and their doctrine. 
 
 I remember, some years ago, when the repeal of the 
 Stamp Act was in agitation, conversing in a friendly 
 confidence with a person of undoubted respect and 
 authenticity, on that subject ; and he assured me, with 
 a certainty which his judgment and opportunity gave 
 him, that these were the prevalent and steady princi 
 ples of America that you might destroy their towns, 
 and cut them off from the superfluities, and perhaps 
 the conveniences, of life ; but that they were prepared 
 to despise your power, and would not lament their loss, 
 whilst they had what, my Lords? their woods and 
 their liberty. The name of my authority, if I am 
 called upon, will authenticate the opinion irrefrag- 
 ably. 
 
 If illegal violences have been, as it is said, committed 
 in America, prepare the way open the door of pos- 
 
SPEECHES OF WILLIAM PITT 249 
 
 sibility for acknowledgment and satisfaction; but 
 proceed not to such coercion, such proscription ; cease 
 your indiscriminate inflictions; amerce not thirty 
 thousand ; oppress not three millions, for the fault of 
 forty or fifty. Such severity of injustice must forever 
 render incurable the wounds you have already given 
 your colonies. You irritate them to unappeasable 
 rancor. What though you march from town to town 
 and from province to province ; though you should be 
 able to enforce a temporary and local submission 
 which I only suppose, not admit how shall you be 
 able to secure the obedience of the country you leave 
 behind you in your progress, to grasp the dominion of 
 eighteen hundred miles of continent, populous in num 
 bers, possessing valor, liberty, and resistance? 
 
 This resistance to your arbitrary system of taxation 
 might have been foreseen. It was obvious, from the 
 nature of things and of mankind ; and, above all, from 
 the Whiggish spirit flourishing in that country. The 
 spirit which now resists your taxation in America is 
 the same which formerly opposed loans, benevolences, 
 and ship-money in England the same spirit which 
 called all England on its legs, and by the Bill of Rights 
 vindicated the English constitution; the same spirit 
 which established the great, fundamental, essential 
 maxim of your liberties, that no subject of England 
 shall be taxed but by his own consent. 
 
 This glorious spirit of Whiggism animates three 
 millions in America, who prefer poverty with liberty 
 to gilded chains and sordid affluence ; and who will die 
 in defense of their rights as men, as freemen. "What 
 
250 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 shall oppose this spirit, aided by the congenial flame 
 glowing in the breasts of every Whig in England, to 
 the amount, I hope, of double the American numbers ? 
 Ireland they have to a man. In that country, joined as 
 it is with the cause of the colonies, and placed at their 
 head, the distinction I contend for is and must be 
 observed. This country superintends and controls 
 their trade and navigation ; but they tax themselves. 
 And this distinction between external and internal 
 control is sacred and insurmountable; it is involved 
 in the abstract nature of things. Property is private, 
 individual, absolute. Trade is an extended and com 
 plicated consideration. It reaches as far as ships can 
 sail or winds can blow ; it is a great and various ma 
 chine. To regulate the numberless movements of its 
 several parts, and combine them into effect, for the 
 good of the whole, requires the superintending wisdom 
 and energy of the supreme power in the empire. But 
 this supreme power has no effect towards internal 
 taxation ; for it does not exist in that relation. There 
 is no such thing, no such idea in this constitution, as a 
 supreme power operating upon property. Let this 
 distinction then remain forever ascertained; taxation 
 is theirs, commercial regulation is ours. As an Amer 
 ican, I would recognize to England her supreme right 
 of regulating commerce and navigation ; as an English 
 man by birth and principle, I recognize to the Ameri 
 cans their supreme unalienable right in their property, 
 a right in which they are justified in the defense of to 
 the last extremity. To maintain this principle is the 
 common cause of the Whigs on the other side of the 
 
SPEECHES OF WILLIAM PITT 251 
 
 Atlantic and on this. " Tis liberty to liberty en 
 gaged," that they will defend themselves, their fam 
 ilies, and their country. In this great cause they are 
 immovably allied. It is the alliance of God and nature 
 immutable, eternal fixed as the firmament of 
 heaven. 
 
 To such united force, what force shall be opposed ? 
 What, my Lords ? A few regiments in America, and 
 seventeen or eighteen thousand men at home. The 
 idea is too ridiculous to take up a moment of your 
 Lordships time. Nor can such a national and princi 
 pled union be resisted by the tricks of office, of min 
 isterial maneuver. Laying of papers on your table, 
 or counting numbers on a division, will not avert or 
 postpone the hour of danger ; it must arrive, my Lords, 
 unless these fatal acts are done away; it must arrive 
 in all its horrors, and then these boastful Ministers, 
 spite of all their confidence and all their maneuvers, 
 shall be forced to hide their heads. They shall be 
 forced to a disgraceful abandonment of their present 
 measures and principles principles which they avow, 
 but cannot defend; measure which they presume to 
 attempt, but cannot hope to effectuate. They cannot, 
 my Lords, they cannot stir a step; they have not a 
 move left; they are checkmated. 
 
 But it is not repealing this or that act of Parliament, 
 it is not repealing a piece of parchment, that can re 
 store America to our bosom. You must repeal her 
 fears and her resentments; and you may then hope 
 for her love and gratitude. But now, insulted with 
 an armed force posted at Boston, irritated with an 
 
252 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 hostile array before her eyes, her concessions, if you 
 could force them, would be suspicious and insecure; 
 they will be irato animo; they will not be the sound, 
 honorable pactions of freemen ; they will be the dictates 
 of fear, and the extortions of force. But it is more 
 than evident that you cannot force them, principled 
 and united as they are, to your unworthy terms of sub 
 mission ; it is impossible : and, when I hear General 
 Gage censured for inactivity, I must retort with indig 
 nation on those whose intemperate measures and im 
 provident counsels have betrayed him into his present 
 situation. His situation reminds me, my Lords, of the 
 answer of a French General in the Civil Wars of 
 France; Monsieur Conde, opposed to Monsieur Tur- 
 enne, was asked how it happened that he did not take 
 his adversary prisoner, as he was often very near him ; 
 * J ai peur, replied Conde, very honestly, * j ai peur 
 qu il ne me prenne," I m afraid he ll take me. 
 
 When your Lordships look at the papers transmitted 
 to us from America, when you consider their decency, 
 firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their 
 cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I 
 must declare and avow that in all my reading and 
 observation and it has been my favorite study; I 
 have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired 
 the master-states of the world that for solidity of 
 reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, 
 under such a complication of difficult circumstances, 
 no nation, or body of men, can stand in preference to 
 the General Congress of Philadelphia. I trust it is 
 obvious to your Lordships that all attempts to impose 
 
SPEECHES OF WILLIAM PITT 253 
 
 servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over 
 such a mighty continental nation, must be vain, must 
 be fatal. We shall be forced ultimately to retract; 
 let us retract while we can, not when we must. I say 
 we must necessarily undo these violent oppressive 
 acts; they must be repealed. You will repeal them; 
 I pledge myself for it, that you will in the end repeal 
 them ; I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to 
 be taken for an idiot if they are not finally repealed. 
 Avoid, then, this humiliating, this disgraceful neces 
 sity. With the dignity becoming your exalted situa 
 tion make the first advances to concord, to peace, and 
 to happiness ; for that is your true dignity, to act with 
 prudence and justice. That you should first concede 
 is obvious, from sound and rational policy. Conces 
 sion comes with better grace and more salutary effect 
 from the superior power; it reconciles superiority of 
 power with the feelings of men ; and establishes solid 
 confidence on the foundations of affection and grati 
 tude. 
 
 So thought a wise poet and a wise man in political 
 sagacity; the friend of Maecenas, and the eulogist of 
 Augustus. To him, the adopted son and successor of 
 the first Caesar; to him, the master of the world, he 
 wisely urged this conduct of prudence and dignity: 
 
 Tuque prior, tu parce; genus qui duels Olympo; 
 Pro j ice tela manu. 
 
 Every motive, therefore, of justice and of policy, of 
 dignity and of prudence, urges you to allay the fer 
 ment in America by a removal of your troops from 
 
254 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Boston, by a repeal of your acts of Parliament, and by 
 demonstration of amicable dispositions towards your 
 colonies. On the other hand, every danger and every 
 hazard impend, to deter you from perseverance in 
 your present ruinous measures foreign war hanging 
 over your heads by a slight and brittle thread, France 
 and Spain watching your conduct, and waiting for the 
 maturity of your errors, with a vigilant eye to Amer 
 ica, and the temper of your colonies, more than to their 
 own concerns, be they what they may. 
 
 To conclude, my Lords: if the Ministers thus per 
 severe in misadvising and misleading the King, I will 
 not say that they can alienate the affections of his 
 subjects from his crown; but I will affirm that they 
 will make the crown not worth his wearing. I will 
 not say that the King is betrayed ; but I will pronounce 
 that the kingdom is undone. 
 
 FROM SPEECH OF PITT, Nov. 1777 
 
 I love and honor the British troops ; I know their 
 virtue and their valor ; I know they can achieve any 
 thing except impossibilities. And the conquest of 
 English America is an impossibility. You cannot I 
 venture to say it you cannot conquer America. . . 
 . You may swell every expense and every effort still 
 more extravagantly, pile and accumulate every assis 
 tance you can buy or barter, traffic and barter with 
 every little pitiful German Prince that sells and sends 
 his subjects to the shambles of a foreign country 
 your efforts are forever vain and impotent. Doubly so 
 
SPEECHES OF WILLIAM PITT 255 
 
 from this mercenary aid on which you rely ; for it irri 
 tates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your 
 enemies to over-run them with the sordid sons of 
 rapine and plunder, devoting them and their posses 
 sions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were 
 an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign 
 troop was landed in my country I would never lay 
 down my arms, never ! never ! never ! 
 
VI 
 
 EXCERPTS FROM THE SPEECHES OF 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX 
 
 [The Ministers tried every expedient to divert Fox 
 from his purpose. Welbore Ellis was put up to cajole 
 and entreat, and Thurlow to bully; but Fox replied 
 that no power on earth should induce him to withdraw 
 his motion. "He was satisfied" (so the report runs) 
 t that the House would never consent to their own deg 
 radation and disgrace in the person of their Speaker, 
 nor would contradict on a Friday what they had ap 
 proved on the Wednesday immediately preceding. 
 It had been said that the speech was not grammar. If 
 the speech was not grammar, it abounded in good sense, 
 and conveyed the true, unbiased sense of the House, 
 and of every man on either side who had not been 
 bought over to a sacrifice of his principles and his con 
 science." The fire and sincerity of the young orator 
 swept the air clear, and aroused cordial enthusiasm 
 in the virtuous and the honest, and a touch of peni 
 tence in some who had dallied with corruption. Rigby 
 himself was cowed, and grumbled out the semblance 
 of an apology ; Fox saw his Resolution passed without 
 a division ; and then, on the motion of an independent 
 member, the thanks of the House were specifically 
 and unanimously voted to Mr. Speaker for his speech 
 
 256 
 
SPEECHES OF CHARLES FOX 257 
 
 to His Majesty. That was the first defeat inflicted 
 upon the Court in the memorable series of parliamen 
 tary campaigns which was now opening. 1 ] 
 
 FROM SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT, FEBRUARY 2, 1778 
 
 . . . There was another circumstance, which tended 
 to mislead the House, and for which the Ministers and 
 not the House were entirely to blame, and that was the 
 partial manner in which they laid papers before the 
 House ; they laid the accounts of facts, but no opinions 
 of people upon the spot as to the extent of the resist 
 ance, the temper of the people, or any other circum 
 stance concerning it. 
 
 Now, Sir, if men are endued with passions, if they 
 are not mere machines, the knowledge of facts is noth 
 ing, unless it is accompanied with the springs and mo 
 tives from whence such motives proceeded. Suppose, 
 for instance, a person in a distant country had no other 
 way of judging of the temper of this House and of the 
 motives of their conduct, but from our printed votes ; 
 could such a man form any judgment of the reasons 
 why such a line of conduct was approved, and why 
 such a one was rejected ? Sir, it would be ridiculous 
 in the extreme to suppose it. Now, Sir, I will venture 
 to affirm, that this House was not, in the year 1775, 
 informed of the spirit of opposition there was in 
 America, and of their prejudices against taxation. If 
 they had, I should hope they would have thought it 
 wise, if not just, to have applied such remedies as 
 
 Described by G. 0. Trevelyan in George Third and Charles 
 Fox. 
 
258 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 might have healed rather than irritated the distemper. 
 But instead of anything of this sort, other bills were 
 immediately passed, showing that all was of a hostile 
 nature, and that nothing was to be expected of this 
 country but coercion and punishment. . . . 
 
 . . . It appears to me, that if gentlemen are not 
 blind, they will see that war is impracticable, and that 
 no good can come from force only. . . Every blow 
 you strike in America is against yourselves, even 
 though you should be able, which you never will be, to 
 force them to submit. 
 
 FROM SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT, NOVEMBER 26, 1778 
 
 The war of the Americans is a war of passion. It is of 
 such a nature as to be supported by the most powerful 
 virtues, love of liberty and of country, and at the same 
 time by those passions in the human heart which give 
 strength, perserverance, and courage to man ; the spirit 
 of revenge for the injuries you have done them, of re 
 taliation for the hardships inflicted on them, and of 
 opposition to the unjust powers you would have exer 
 cised over them. Everything combines to animate them 
 to this war, and such a war is without end ; for what 
 ever obstinacy enthusiasm ever inspired man with, 
 you will now have to contend with in America: no 
 matter what gives birth to that enthusiasm, whether 
 the name of religion or of liberty, the effects are the 
 same; it inspires a spirit that is unconquerable, and 
 solicitous to undergo difficulties and dangers; and as 
 long as there is a man in America, so long will you 
 have him against you in the field. 
 
SPEECHES OF CHARLES FOX 259 
 
 FROM SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT, NOVEMBER 6, 1779 
 
 Gentlemen had praised the efforts which this country 
 had made in the course of the war, and had argued well 
 from that circumstance, declaring that we had aston 
 ished all Europe by our exertions. It was most true. 
 The war was begun madly, the Ministers had made war 
 blindfold, and the efforts of this country so directed, 
 and so planned, like the efforts of a madman, which 
 were always more powerful than those of a reasonable 
 being, had astonished all Europe. But what good had 
 they done? They had only weakened and reduced 
 our resources. They had exhausted the spirit of the 
 people, and had almost annihilated the power of future 
 exertion. An honorable gentleman had said it was 
 improper to term the war unjust, excepting only 
 within these walls; he must beg leave to differ with 
 him in opinion. He thought the war unjust, he had 
 said so repeatedly in that House, he had said so else 
 where, and he would say so whenever and wherever 
 he had the opportunity. He would say so to the whole 
 world, if his voice had power and extent enough to 
 communicate the idea. But according to the argument 
 of the honorable gentleman to whom he was alluding, 
 what was unjust in its origin became just in its ad 
 vancement and prosecution. The honorable gentleman 
 thought he had got justice on his side, that he had got 
 all. Did the honorable gentleman think that the Ameri 
 cans, once driven by our injustice to assert their inde 
 pendency, ought, in justice, to relinquish that inde 
 pendency, and to alter their established government, 
 
260 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 and rely on our word for the performance of our 
 promises? . . . 
 
 . . . But a right honorable gentleman had asked, 
 would gentlemen refuse to thank Lord Cornwallis and 
 his officers for their extraordinary gallantry at Cam- 
 den? In answer to that question he, for one, made no 
 scruple to declare that he most certainly would. He 
 would not thank his own brother, who was now serving 
 in America, for any success he might obtain. As long 
 as he lived, he never would join in a vote of thanks 
 to any officer whose laurels were gathered in the Ameri 
 can war ; and his reason was that he hated and detested 
 the war ; he regarded it as the fountain-head of all the 
 mischief and all the calamities which this miserable 
 country labored under at this moment. 
 
 FROM SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT, MAY 30, 1781 
 
 The ministers found it necessary to protract the war, 
 to avoid every tendency to pacification, because they 
 knew the war was necessary to their continuance in 
 power and place. They sacrificed honor and duty; 
 they sacrificed the interests and, perhaps, the exis 
 tence of their country to the temporary gratification 
 of their avarice and their ambition, in the enjoyment 
 of the places and honors which they now held, and 
 which were so connected and interwoven with the 
 American war as to depend on its existence. The 
 minister, then, knowing this fact, knowing that he 
 lived, and must die, with the American war had en 
 countered shame and embraced it, in order to its con 
 tinuance. He had been forced into all those vile meas- 
 
SPEECHES OF CHARLES FOX 261 
 
 ures of contradiction and absurdity which had brought 
 infamy 011 the present age, and would bring ruin 
 on posterity. There was no accounting for the cred 
 ulity, the servility, and the meanness of Parliament, 
 in either believing or submitting to receive all the 
 monstrous and incredible stories which they had been 
 told by the minister, in any other way than by referring 
 to the means which influence possessed ; the emoluments 
 of contracts and the profits of a loan. It had, no doubt, 
 been the study of the minister to tell his friends that 
 their payment, like his own bread, depended on the 
 American war. . . . 
 
 With members of Parliament the noble lord held a 
 language that was as easily to be guessed at ... 
 supposing that any remonstrance should be made on 
 that score, what would the noble lord say? "Why, 
 you know that this war is a matter of necessity, and 
 not jof choice: you see the difficulties to which I am 
 driven, and to which I have reduced my country; 
 and you know also that in my own private character 
 I am a lover of peace. For what reasons, then, do I 
 persisfyin spite of conviction ? For your benefit alone ! 
 For you I have violated the most sacred engagements ! 
 for you rejected the suggestions of conscience and 
 reason ! for you a thousand times forfeited my honor 
 and veracity in this business, and for you I must still 
 persist ! Without the American war I shall have no 
 places, no emoluments to bestow: not a single loan 
 to negotiate, nor shall I even be able to retain this 
 poor situation o mine that I have thus long held 
 thus disinterestedly. You see me now in. the most 
 
262 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 elevated situation, with the disposal of pensions and 
 places, and with the whole of the nation in my hands ; 
 but make peace with America today, and tomorrow 
 I shall be reduced to the level of private life, retain 
 ing nothing but what is merely personal of all my 
 present advantages. If you do not vote with me," 
 continues the noble lord, against a peace with Amer 
 ica, how am I to give you anything ? It is true that my 
 position as minister is a respectable and elevated situa 
 tion, but it is the American war that enables me to 
 give you douceurs, and to put into your pockets eight 
 or nine hundred thousands pounds by a loan. Put an 
 end to that and you undo all. My power will be mis 
 erably lessened, and your pay as miserably reduced. 
 As to myself, why, I am perfectly indifferent about 
 that ; I get a little, and it is my happiness that a little, 
 thank Heaven, contents me. I therefore cannot be 
 supposed to care if a peace takes place with America 
 tomorrow, so far as I am personally concerned ; but 
 for your own sakes do not let such things come to pass. 
 Nay, were I to go out of office a situation I never 
 courted, always disliked, and heartily wished to be 
 rid of still I hope the American war would be con 
 tinued." Such pathetic reasoning could not fail to 
 have its effect. Thus it was the noble lord induced 
 members of that House to sacrifice the interests of 
 their constituents, by proving that their own interests 
 were essentially connected with the prosecution of the 
 war. Was it possible, therefore, that peace with Amer 
 ica could ever be obtained but by a renunciation of 
 that system which the present ministry had with so 
 
SPEECHES OF CHAKLES FOX 263 
 
 much obstinacy adhered to? And here was another 
 obstacle arising from the noble lord s feelings. "O 
 spare my beautiful system!" he would cry; "what! 
 shall I part with that ! with that which has been the 
 glory of the present reign, which has extended the 
 dominions, raised the reputation, and replenished the 
 finances of my country ! No, for God s sake, let this 
 be adhered to, and do with all the rest what you please ; 
 deprive me, if you please, of this poor situation ; take 
 all my power, all my honor and consequence, but spare 
 my beautiful system, O, spare my system ! 
 
 FROM SPEECH ix PARLIAMENT, NOVEMBER 27, 1781 
 
 . . It was his opinion that the day was now ap 
 proaching, that it was at hand, when the public would 
 no longer submit, nor the Ministry escape. Their con 
 duct was unprecedented in any age or in any history ; 
 it beggared the records of nations : for in all the annals 
 of kingdoms ruined by weakness or by treachery there 
 was not an instance so glaring as the present of a coun 
 try ruined by a set of men without the confidence, the 
 love, or the opinion of the people, and who yet re 
 mained secure amidst the storms of public disaster. The 
 honorable gentleman who had seconded the motion had 
 called for unanimity. He demanded to know if they 
 meant to insult that side of the House when they had 
 opposed it from its commencement ; they had opposed 
 it in all its progress; they had warned, supplicated, 
 and threatened; they had predicted every event, and 
 in no one instance had they failed in predicting the 
 fatal consequences that had ensued from their ob- 
 
264 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 stinacy or from their treason. If, in a moment like 
 the present, a moment of impending ruin, men who 
 loved their country could have any comfort, he con 
 fessed he must feel it as a comfort and consolation 
 that when the history of this dreadful period should 
 come to be written by a candid and impartial hand, 
 he must proclaim to posterity that the friends with 
 whom he had the honor to act were not to be charged 
 with the calamities of the system. In justice to them 
 he must declare that they did all that men could do 
 to avert the evils, to direct them to a more safe and 
 honorable track ; but they had failed in their anxious 
 endeavors to save their country. This much at least 
 the historian would say, and thus would they be ex 
 empted from sharing the condemnation, though they 
 now suffered the calamity, in common with the rest 
 of their unhappy fellow-subjects. . . . 
 
 . . . The ministers commenced war against Amer 
 ica after that country had offered the fairest proposi 
 tions, and extended her arms to receive us into the 
 closest and nearest connection. They did this con 
 trary to their own sentiments of what was right ; but 
 they were overruled by that high and secret authority 
 which they durst not disobey, and from which they 
 derive their situations. They were ordered to go on 
 with the American war or quit their places. They 
 preferred emolument to duty, and kept their ostensible 
 power at the expense of their country. 
 
VII 
 
 EXCERPTS FROM SPEECHES AS RECORDED 
 
 IN THE PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 
 
 FOR 1775-1776 
 
 GOVERNOR GEORGE JOHNSTONS 
 
 If we fail in the attempt, which is the happiest event 
 that can occur, what difficulties may not disgust, irri 
 tation, and all the horrors of civil war, engender? 
 (Feb. 6, 1775.) 
 
 But respecting general opinion, I still go further ; I 
 maintain that the sense of the best and wisest men in 
 this country, are on the side of the Americans. (Oct. 
 26, 1775.) 
 
 J. JOHNSTONE 
 
 Mr. J. Johnstone said that however unacquainted 
 he might be with parliamentary proceedings, he had 
 observed, since the commencement of the present ses 
 sion, it was expected by the friends of administration, 
 that no proposition of theirs, however wild, extrava 
 gance, or novel, should be questioned. This to him 
 was a most extraordinary procedure, nor could he see 
 to what end Parliament assembled, if they only assem 
 bled to vote, not to deliberate. (Nov. 13, 1775.) 
 
 SIR GEORGE SAVTLE 
 
 That if rebellion was resistance to government, he 
 could not consider all rebellions to be alike there must 
 
 265 
 
266 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 be such a thing as justifiable rebellion and submitted 
 to the House, whether a people taxed without their 
 consent, and their petitions against such taxation re 
 jected; their characters taken away without hearing; 
 and an army let loose upon them without a possibility 
 of obtaining justice whether a people under such cir 
 cumstances could not be said to be in justifiable 
 rebellion? (Feb. 10, 1775.) 
 
 TEMPLE LUTTRELL. 
 
 Sir, the far more considerable part of the people 
 of England do now wish us to use temper, moderation, 
 and forbearance towards America. (Feb. 13, 1775.) 
 
 The military coercion of America will be imprac 
 ticable. What has been the fate of your famous Bills 
 passed in the last session of the deceased Parliament ? 
 I mean, Sir, the Boston Port Bill, and the Bill for 
 altering the charter of Massachusetts Bay. America, 
 as an earnest of her triumph over the future labors 
 for which envy and malice may reserve her, has, like 
 another Hercules in the cradle, already grappled with 
 those two serpents sent for her destruction. Neither 
 shall we be long able to sustain the unhallowed war 
 at so remote a distance unexplored deserts, woodland 
 ambuscades, latitudes to which few of our soldiery 
 have been seasoned the southern provinces scarce to 
 be endured in the summer months, the northern prov 
 inces not approachable in the winter season ship 
 wrecks, pestilence, famine. The unrelenting inveter- 
 
PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 267 
 
 acy and carnage of York and Lancaster will here be 
 joined to all the elementary hardships and maladies 
 of a bigot crusade. Shall not such dreadful eras in 
 our earlier chronicle serve us for beacons at this peril 
 ous crisis? Those rash expeditions, indeed, under 
 taken by a few martial zealots on misconceived piety, 
 began to decline at the death of the hot-brained, sav 
 age-hearted king, under whom they were first enter- 
 prized ; and the sluices of kindred blood, which had 
 long inundated the land in the red and white roses, 
 were at length happily put a stop to, by a single matri 
 monial contract. Now, Sir, who can look forward to a 
 probable epoch in the red volume of time when the 
 sword drawn in this quarrel shall be sheathed in peace ! 
 I can see no end, till slaughter, proscription, extirpa 
 tion, shall totally have annihilated either one or the 
 other people. (Feb. 27, 1775.) 
 
 Sir, the noble lord who spoke last, and the right 
 honorable member who preceded him, have assured 
 you that the sense of this country is against the Amer 
 icans. I am confident, as well from the intelligence 
 I have been able to procure from a multitude of 
 persons widely differing in station and description, 
 as by my own remarks in the progress of many a jour 
 ney through the interior of this island during the 
 summer season, that the sense of the mass of the 
 people is in favor of the Americans. (Oct. 26, 
 1775.) 
 
 Certain I am, that the only fabricators of the Amer 
 ican war are in this island ; they are in this metropolis ; 
 they are most of them in this House. (Nov. 27, 1775.) 
 
268 BUBKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 DAVID HARTLEY (WHO WAS A FRIEND OF BENJAMIN 
 FRANKLIN, AND WITH HIM DREW UP THE TREATY OF 
 PEACE THAT ENDED THE REVOLUTION) 
 
 "When the debates and measures of this year are 
 transmitted to America, they may, perhaps, tell the 
 noble lord : Had you pursued a plan of equity and 
 justice, all had been peace. " At home, one plan of 
 conciliation has already been proposed, for which the 
 city of London, foreseeing the certain ruin of other 
 measures, has given thanks to its great and noble 
 author, as an earnest for the rest of the kingdom. If 
 Great Britain and America should come to one mind 
 of peace, they may unite to crush those men who keep 
 them asunder. (March 27, 1775.) 
 
 .... to perform the last ceremonial office of affec 
 tion and everlasting farewell to peace and to America. 
 The fate of America is cast. You may bruise its heel, 
 but you cannot crush its head. It will revive again. 
 The new world is before them. Liberty is theirs. They 
 have possession of a free government, their birthright 
 and inheritance, derived to them from their parent 
 state, which the hand of violence cannot wrest from 
 them. If you will cast them off, my last wish is to 
 them; may they go and prosper. (Dec. 21, 1775.) 
 
 What confidence can we then have in ministers who 
 are so grossly ignorant and deceived, or who conceal 
 the true state of things from this House and the pub 
 lic, perhaps with no better view than to trepan them 
 insidiously, and by gradual steps, into the support of 
 
PAKLIAMENTARY HISTORY 269 
 
 their own desperate and sanguinary designs? (Feb. 
 29, 1776.) 
 
 ... . The most profound secrecy and conceal 
 ment have been practiced to keep alarming truths from 
 the public eye, and false preferences have been thrown 
 out to amuse the credulous confidence of this House. 
 It is not many months ago (no longer than the last 
 session) that any member who got up to warn you of 
 the fatal consequence of the war then recommended 
 against America was laughed at in his place ; the very 
 suggestion was treated as being so ridiculous that the 
 minister proposed to you to begin by disarming; by 
 voting 4,000 seamen less than you had kept the year 
 before ; and not many days after the meeting of the 
 new Parliament a vote of 3s. land-tax was proposed, 
 with a view to soothe the landed men into the adoption 
 of this fatal war. That this step was taken with no 
 other view than to quiet the alarms of the landed in 
 terest is past dispute, because the vote for the 3s. land- 
 tax was passed before Christmas, though the Bill was 
 not brought in till after the holidays ; the vote there 
 fore was studiously thrown out beforehand, to prevent 
 the discontents that might happen, and to mislead the 
 public into a fallacious dependence, that a few unim 
 portant discontents in America, as they were then rep 
 resented to be, would soon be subdued. Where are 
 we now? Have not our forebodings been more than 
 realized? Has it been arrant folly in administration, 
 to plunge us into our present situation ? or, has it been 
 downright treachery aforethought, to lead their un 
 suspecting country, step by step, into an irreconcilable 
 
270 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 civil war, to dip Great Britain and America in blood, 
 and to cut off the retreat to peace and safety ? (April 
 1, 1776.) 
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX 
 
 Mr. Fox said the noble Lord from the beginning 
 had taken care to lead the House blindfold ; and would, 
 he was certain, continue to do so, till he found some 
 personal convenience in acting otherwise. 
 
 The fact was the very reverse, as his lordship had 
 been both the framer and approver; and by the arts 
 of misinformation on one hand, and want of any ma 
 terial information on the other, Parliament were per 
 suaded into an approbation of his measures. (March 
 8, 1775.) 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF GRANBY 
 
 In God s name, what language are you now holding 
 out to America? Resign your property, divest your 
 selves of your privileges and freedom, renounce every 
 thing that can make life comfortable, or we will 
 destroy your commerce, we will involve your country 
 in all the miseries of famine ; and if you express the 
 sensations of men at such harsh treatment, we will 
 then declare you in a state of rebellion, and put your 
 selves and your families, to fire and sword. And yet, 
 Sir, the noble lord on the floor, has just told this 
 House, that a reconciliation is the sole object of his 
 wishes. I hope the noble lord will pardon me if I 
 doubt the perfect sincerity of those wishes; at least, 
 Sir, his actions justify my doubts ; for every circum 
 stance in his whole conduct, with regard to America, 
 
PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 271 
 
 has directly militated against his present professions : 
 and what, Sir, must the Americans conclude ? Whilst 
 you are ravaging their coasts, and extirpating their 
 commerce, and are withheld only by your impotence 
 from spreading fresh ruin by the sword, can they, Sir, 
 suppose such chastisement is intended to promote a 
 reconciliation, and that you mean to restore to their 
 forlorn country those liberties you deny to their pres 
 ent possession ; and in the insolence of persecution, are 
 compassing earth and seas to destroy ? You can with 
 no more justice compel the Americans to your obedi 
 ence by the operation of the present measure, by mak 
 ing use of their necessities and withholding from them 
 that commerce on which their existence depends than 
 a ruffian can found an equitable claim to my posses 
 sions, when he forcibly enters my house, and with a 
 dagger at my throat, or a pistol at my breast, makes 
 me seal deeds which will convey to him my estate and 
 property. (April 5, 1775.) 
 
 I have a very clear, a very adequate idea of rebel 
 lion, at least according to my own principles; and 
 those are the principles on which the Revolution was 
 founded. It is not against whom a war is directed, 
 but it is the justice of that war that does, or does not, 
 constitute rebellion. If the innocent part of mankind 
 must tamely relinquish their freedom, their property, 
 and everything they hold dear, merely to avoid the 
 imputation of rebellion, I beg, Sir, it may be consid 
 ered, what kind of peace and loyalty there will then 
 exist in the world, which consists only in violence and 
 rapine, and is merely to be maintained for the benefit 
 
272 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 ,of robbers and oppressors. I hope, Sir, I shall be be 
 lieved when I assure you that I am as warm a friend 
 to the interests of my country as any man in this 
 House ; but then it must be understood when those in 
 terests are founded in justice. I am not attached to 
 any particular acre of land ; the farmer in Cumberland 
 or Durham is as little connected with me as the peasant 
 in America : it is not the ground a man stands on that 
 attaches me to him ; it is not the air he breathes that 
 connects me with him, but it is the principles of that 
 man, those independent, those generous principles of 
 liberty which he professes, co-operating with my own, 
 which call me forth as his advocate, and make me 
 glory in being considered his friend. (April 5, 1775.) 
 
 THE EARL OF EFFINGHAM 
 
 Ever since I was of an age to have any ambition at 
 all, my highest has been to serve my country in a mili 
 tary capacity. If there was on earth an event I 
 dreaded, it was to see this country so situated as to 
 make that profession incompatible with my duty as 
 a citizen. That period is, in my opinion, arrived ; and 
 I have thought myself bound to relinquish the hopes 
 I had formed, by a resignation which appeared to me 
 the only method of avoiding the guilt of enslaving my 
 country, and embruing my hands in the blood of her 
 sons. When the duties of a soldier and a citizen be 
 come inconsistent, I shall always think myself obliged 
 to sink the character of the soldier in that of the citi 
 zen, till such time as those duties shall again, by the 
 malice of our real enemies, become united. It is no 
 
PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 273 
 
 small sacrifice which a man makes who gives up his 
 profession ; but it is a much greater when a predilec 
 tion, strengthened by habit, has given him so strong 
 an attachment to his profession as I feel. I have, how- 
 eVer, this one consolation, that by making that sacri 
 fice I at least give to my country an unequivocal proof 
 of the sincerity of my principles. (May 18, 1775.) 
 
 The Earl of Effingham observed on the scarcity of 
 recruits, that from his own knowledge there was a 
 backwardness prevailed amongst the people to enlist in 
 those regiments destined for America. The fact being 
 admitted, the real disposition of the people was at once 
 apparent, and the prevalent inclination of the mass of 
 the people was a certain criterion, which should deter 
 mine the conduct of ministers. (Nov. 10, 1775.) 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKIXGHAM 
 
 The Marquis of Rockingham, after enumerating the 
 conduct of the several administrations for some years 
 past respecting America, condemned the speech, which 
 he called the speech of the minister, in very pointed 
 terms ; and contended that the measures recommended 
 from the throne were big with the most portentous 
 and ruinous consequences. (Oct. 26, 1775.) 
 
 THE EARL OF SHELBURXE 
 
 My lords, the ministers lament, that it is their task, 
 in this American business, to support the measure of 
 another administration. This is some acknowledg 
 ment, at least, that the measure was wrong. Why, 
 then, did they support it ? What secret influence has 
 
274 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 compelled them to heap errors on errors, grievance 
 upon grievance, till they have shaken the constitution 
 to its foundation, and brought the whole empire into 
 danger and confusion? The Americans judge from 
 facts. They have seen a uniform lurking spirit of 
 despotism pervade every administration. It has pre 
 vailed over the wisest and most constitutional coun 
 sels ; it has precipitated us into the most pernicious of 
 all wars; a war with our brothers, our friends, and 
 our fellow subjects. It was this lurking spirit of 
 despotism that produced the Stamp Act in 1765 ; that 
 fettered the repeal of that Act in 1766 ; that revived 
 the principles of it in 1767. (Oct. 26, 1775.) 
 
 THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON, MR. WILKES 
 
 I call the war with our brethern in America an un 
 just, felonious war ... I assert, Sir, that it is in 
 consequence a murderous war, because it is an effort 
 to deprive men of their lives for standing up in the 
 just cause of the defense of their property, and their 
 clear rights. It becomes no less a murderous war, with 
 respect to many of our fellow subjects of this island ; 
 for every man, either of the navy or army, who has 
 been sent by government to America, and fallen a vic 
 tim in this unnatural and unjust contest, has, in my 
 opinion, been murdered by administration, and his 
 blood lies at their door. Such a war, I fear, Sir, will 
 draw down the vengeance of Heaven upon this devoted 
 kingdom. (Oct. 26, 1775.) 
 
 I speak, Sir, as a firm friend to England and Amer 
 ica, but still more to universal liberty, and the rights 
 
PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 275 
 
 of all mankind. I trust no part of the subjects of this 
 vast empire will ever submit to be slaves. I am sure 
 the Americans are too high-spirited to brook the idea. 
 Your whole power and that of your allies, if you add 
 any, even of all the German troops, of all the ruffians 
 from the north whom you can hire, cannot effect so 
 wicked a purpose. (Oct. 26, 1775.) 
 
 GENERAL CONWAY 
 
 He condemned that war as cruel, unnecessary, and 
 unnatural ; called it a butchery of his fellow subjects, 
 to which his conscience forbade him to give his assent. 
 (Oct. 26, 1775.) 
 
 SERGEANT ADAIE 
 
 I am against the present war, Sir, because I think 
 it unjust in its commencement, injurious to both coun 
 tries in its prosecution, and ruinous in its event. . . . 
 
 This doubtful and unprofitable right has been at 
 tempted to be asserted and enforced by a series of 
 laws, the most oppressive, the most violent, the most 
 arbitrary, unjust and tyrannical, that ever disgraced 
 the annals of any civilized nation upon earth. . . . 
 
 Thinking them, as I now do, from the bottom of my 
 soul, engaged in a noble and glorious struggle .... 
 (Oct. 27, 1775.) 
 
 GEORGE DEMPSTER 
 
 .... That in my conscience I think the claim of the 
 Americans is just and well-founded. (Oct. 27, 
 
 1775.) 
 
276 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 SIR JOSEPH MAWBEY 
 
 Sir Joseph Mawbey said the American war was un 
 necessary and wanton ; and it was difficult to determine 
 whether it was most founded in folly or injustice. 
 (Nov. 13, 1775.) 
 
 THE DUKE OF GBAFTON 
 
 He explained the reasons upon which his motion 
 was founded ; and said, he thought such a motion ex 
 tremely necessary at this time, when not only the na 
 tion at large was kept in such profound ignorance, but 
 even the ancient hereditary council, his Majesty s 
 great constitutional advisers, knew no more of what 
 measures were intended to be pursued than they did 
 of what was transacting in any foreign cabinet in 
 Europe. (Nov. 15, 1775.) 
 
 LORD CAMDEN 
 
 Peace is still within our power ; nay, we may com 
 mand it. A suspension of arms on our part, if adopted 
 in time, will secure it for us ; and I may add, on our 
 own terms. From which it is plain, as we have been 
 the original aggressors in this business, if we obsti 
 nately persist, we are fairly answerable for all the 
 consequences. I again repeat, what I often urged 
 before, that I was against this unnatural war from 
 the beginning. I was equally against every measure 
 from the instant the first tax was proposed to this min 
 ute. When, therefore, it is insisted, that we aim only 
 to defend and enforce our own rights, I positively 
 
PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 277 
 
 deny it. I contend, that America has been driven, by 
 cruel necessity, to defend her rights from the united 
 attacks of violence, oppression, and injustice. I con 
 tend that America has been indisputably aggrieved. 
 Perhaps, as a domineering Englishman, wishing to 
 enjoy the ideal benefit of such a claim, I might urge it 
 with earnestness, and endeavor to carry my point ; but 
 if, on the other hand, I resided in America, that I felt 
 or was to feel the effects of such manifest injustice, 
 I certainly should resist the attempt with that degree 
 of ardor so daring a violation of what should be held 
 dearer than life itself ought to enkindle in the breast 
 of every freeman. Here, my lords, I speak as an 
 Americ an, or as one residing in America, who, finding 
 himself deprived of his liberty and his property at 
 tacked, would resist and with all his might repel the 
 aggressor. (Nov. 15, 1775.) 
 
 LORD HOWE 
 
 Lord Howe did not know any struggle an officer 
 could have, serving on the present occasion, so painful 
 as that between his duty as an officer and his duty as 
 a man. However he suffered, if commanded, his de 
 cided duty was to serve. He did apprehend that all 
 this an honorable relation of his had felt ; it was what 
 he himself felt very sensibly ; and if it were left to his 
 choice, he certainly should decline to serve. (Nov. 20, 
 1775.) 
 
 THE DUKE OF RICHMOND 
 
 On the whole, my lords, I pronounce this Bill to be 
 fraught with all possible injustice and cruelty. I do 
 
278 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 not think the people of America in rebellion, but re 
 sisting acts of the most unexampled cruelty and op 
 pression. (Dec. 15, 1775.) 
 
 For instance, I say the present Bill is cruel, oppres 
 sive, and tyrannic. I contend that the resistance made 
 by the colonists is in consequence of other acts, equally 
 oppressive, cruel, and tyrannic ; and thus I prove that 
 this resistance is not rebellion, but that the Americans 
 are resisting acts of violence and injustice; conse 
 quently, that such a resistance is neither treason nor 
 rebellion ; but is perfectly justifiable in every possible 
 political and moral sense. (Dec. 15, 1775.) 
 
 JOHN DUNNING 
 
 Mr. Dunning said that, whatever doubts prevailed 
 on the first day of the session, whether the speech from 
 the throne predicted war or peace, no one could now 
 be at a loss to know its genuine import. He was one 
 who looked upon it, from the very beginning, to be a 
 formal declaration of war against all America. He 
 was every day more and more satisfied that his sus 
 picions were well-founded; but now he has nothing 
 to prevent him from pronouncing with certainty that 
 he was fully justified in his opinion that war, and a 
 war of the most unrelenting and bloody complection, 
 was meant to be made on those devoted people. (Dec. 
 1, 1775.) 
 
 MR. CRUGER 
 
 If their claims of exemption from parliamentary 
 taxation are founded in equity and the principles of 
 the constitution ; if they have been driven by a wanton, 
 
PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 279 
 
 cruel, and impolitic attack on their privileges to their 
 present desperate defense, then the whole guilt and 
 censure is chargeable on those, and those alone, whose 
 ambition and ill-directed measures have forced them 
 to these extremities. {Feb. 20, 1776.) 
 
 COL. BARRE 
 
 But in a serious manner he charged the gentlemen 
 opposite to him with the loss of America. With an 
 emphasis he said, Give us back our colonies ! You have 
 lost America ! It is your ignorance, blunders, coward 
 ice, which have lost America. He had heard the noble 
 lord (George Germain) called "the Pitt of the day." 
 He saw no great sense in the words. They conveyed to 
 him that there had been a Mr. Pitt, a great man, but he 
 did not see how the noble lord was like him. He said 
 that the troops, from an aversion to the service, misbe 
 haved at Bunker s Hill on the 17th of June. He con 
 demned administration in the strongest terms, and told 
 them that their shiftings and evasions would not pro 
 tect them, though they should be changed every day, 
 and made to shift places at the pleasure, and sometimes 
 too for the sport of their secret directors. He observed 
 that the late appointment of a new secretary of state 
 was a proof that some weak, and perhaps foul, proceed 
 ings had happened, which made such an arrangement 
 necessary; but though changes might happen every 
 day, he was well convinced measures never would, till 
 the whole fabric of despotism fell at once, and buried 
 in its ruins the architects, with all those employed 
 under them. He reminded the House how often, in the 
 
280 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 course of the two last years, he had foretold almost 
 every matter that had happened. He begged once 
 more to assure them that America would never sub 
 mit to be taxed, though half Germany were to be trans 
 ported beyond the Atlantic, to effect it. (Feb. 20 r 
 1776.) 
 
 FREDERICK STUART 
 
 This I do say for the Americans, because I do be 
 lieve it, that had their real motives been fairly and 
 impartially laid before this House, and the Parliament 
 of Great Britain been called in as the mediators, not 
 the persecutors of the people, all would have ended 
 well; that good faith which had been wantonly vio 
 lated towards the colonies would have been restored 
 upon a more lasting foundation, and men s lives and 
 properties been safe at this very hour. (Feb. 29, 
 1776.) 
 
 EARL, TEMPLE 
 
 From these and other causes, together with the im 
 becility of administration, this country is reduced into 
 a situation so deplorable that the wisest man in the 
 kingdom can propose nothing that promises an honor 
 able issue. I feel that I speak in fetters. (March 5, 
 1776.) 
 
 PROTEST SIGNED BY SIXTEEN MEMBERS OF COMMONS 
 
 Because the attempt to coerce by famine the 
 whole body of the inhabitants of great and populous 
 provinces is without example in the history of this, or 
 
PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 281 
 
 perhaps of any civilized nation; and is one of those 
 unhappy inventions to which Parliament is driven by 
 the difficulties which daily multiply upon us, from an 
 obstinate adherence to an unwise plan of government. 
 . . . . That government which attempts to preserve 
 its authority by destroying the trade of its subjects, 
 and by involving the innocent and guilty in a common 
 ruin, if it acts from a choice of such means, confesses 
 itself unworthy; if from inability to find any other, 
 admits itself wholly incompetent to the ends of its 
 institution. (March 21, 1775.) 
 
 PROTEST SIGNED BY NINETEEN MEMBERS 
 
 "We have, on the other hand, beheld so large a part 
 of the empire, united in one common cause, really sac 
 rificing with cheerfulness their lives and fortunes, and 
 preferring all the horrors of a war raging in the very 
 heart of their country to ignominious ease. We have 
 beheld this part of his Majesty s subjects, thus irri 
 tated by resistance, and so successful in it, still making 
 professions in which we think it neither wise nor 
 decent to affect a disbelief of the utmost loyalty to his 
 Majesty; and unwearied with continued repulses, re 
 peatedly petitioning for conciliation, upon such terms 
 only as shall be consistent with the dignity and welfare 
 of the mother country. When we consider these 
 things, we cannot look upon our fellow-subjects in 
 America in any other light than that of freemen driven 
 to resistance by acts of oppression and violence. . . . 
 
 Because we conceive the calling in foreign forces 
 
282 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 to decide domestic quarrels, to be a measure both, dis 
 graceful and dangerous . . . 
 
 That Hanoverian troops should, at the mere pleasure 
 of the ministers, be considered as a part of the British 
 military establishment, and take a rotation of garrison 
 duties through these dominions is, in practice and 
 precedent, of the highest danger to the safety and lib 
 erties of this kingdom, and tends wholly to invalidate 
 the wise and salutary declaration of the grand funda 
 mental law of our glorious deliverer, King William, 
 which has bound together the rights of the subject 
 and the succession of the crown. . . . 
 
 The present ministers, who have deceived Parlia 
 ment, disgraced the nation, lost the colonies, and in 
 volved us in a civil war against our clearest interests ; 
 and, upon the most unjustifiable grounds, wantonly 
 spilling the blood of thousands of our fellow subjects. 
 (Oct. 26, 1775.) 
 
PLAN OF THE SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Some schools prepare a very elaborate outline of the Speech 
 on Conciliation. As an exercise in constructing a complete brief 
 this may have its advantages, but Burke would probably not 
 recognize his own mental processes in that formidable array 
 of sub-subheadings. The ordinary student gets a much truer 
 conception of the structure by referring to the simplest out 
 line; for the speech, like most great works of art, has a very 
 simple plan. Burke arranged the body of his argument 
 (paragraphs 14-117) in three natural divisions: (1) a descrip 
 tion of the colonies, (2) why we must concede to them, (3) in 
 what way we must concede. A scheme of all the paragraphs 
 may be exhibited thus: 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 a. Why he ventures to speak on this * awful sub 
 ject (1-8). 
 
 b. His proposition is to obtain peace by conceding 
 (9-13). 
 
 I. A description of the colonies and of the character of 
 the people (14-47). 
 
 II. Why we ought to "admit the colonists to an interest 
 in the British Constitution" (48-77). 
 
 III. The best way of "admitting to an interest" is to 
 allow them to grant their own money voluntarily (78-117). 
 
 OBJECTIONS 
 
 a. Answers two objections that may be made to 
 his own plan (118-122). 
 
 b. Gives four objections to Lord North s plan 
 (123-132). 
 
 Peroration: "Our country will be rich and strong if we 
 make it a sanctuary of English liberty" (133-140). 
 
 283 
 
284 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 WHERE BURKE SPOKE 
 
 All through the middle ages the palace of the Kings of Eng 
 land stood close to Westminster Abbey on the bank of the 
 Thames, about two miles west of the limits of London. Its 
 "great hall" was a noble room of oak, 300 feet long and 90 
 high, used for royal festivities and state trials. Projecting 
 from it was the royal chapel, named for St. Stephen, 90 feet 
 long and 30 wide. Two centuries before Burke s time the palace 
 was abandoned as a royal residence, but the hall continued 
 its stately functions: it was here that King Charles was con 
 demned to death and Warren Hastings was impeached. The 
 chapel was fitted up as a House of Commons and had been 
 so used for 220 years before Burke became a member. 
 
 The three windows that used to light the altar now lighted the 
 back of the speaker s chair, a massive ornamental panel of 
 gilded wood about ten feet high, surmounted by a carved scroll 
 and coat of arms. All around the room ran five rows of cush 
 ioned benches with high backs, like terraces of long pews. 
 Twelve feet above these on each side of the room was a very 
 narrow gallery for visitors, supported by iron pillars. From 
 the high ceiling three large chandeliers hung low in the room, 
 each holding a large cluster of candles. The speaker sat on 
 his throne-like chair, robed in a heavy gown of black and 
 wearing an ofiicial wig that reached below his shoulders. Before 
 him was a large table at which the clerks sat and on which the 
 great mace rested in its rack. As the speaker looked over this 
 table, down the length of the room, he saw a floor space about 
 50 feet long. 
 
 On his right sat the members of the majority. The ministers 
 and leaders were in the front row of benches on the floor level, 
 clothed in court dress of purple velvet knee-breeches and frock 
 coat, and wearing a small sword. On the speaker s left were 
 the members of the "opposition." Burke doubtless sat on 
 the front bench. As he rose to speak, he was within a dozen 
 feet of the member on the other side. All about him was a 
 crowd of some 350 aristocratic members: some men of literary 
 
BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 285 
 
 distinction, dozens of military and naval officers, many sons and 
 brothers of lords, many country gentlemen of great wealth and 
 influence. 
 
 When he said "Sir," the parliamentary fiction was that he 
 was beginning an address to the chair; it was customary to say 
 frequently during a speech "Sir" or "Mr. Speaker." The 
 man in the chair was Fletcher Norton, who had been elected 
 to the position as a "king s man" at the time when North 
 became prime minister. He was the most adroit and unprin 
 cipled lawyer in the country. He was not dispassionate as 
 a chairman should be, but rude and violent. Hence Burke knew 
 the members would relish the irony of his referring in the first 
 sentence to "the austerity of the chair." 
 
NOTES 
 
 The numbers refer to paragraphs 
 
 1. An object depending. For six weeks Burke had been 
 compelled to see North s grand penal bill paSsing through 
 Parliament a measure for punishing the colonies by forbid 
 ding them to fish off Newfoundland. It had passed Commons 
 by a large majority, was sure to pass the Lords, and so / seemed 
 to have taken its flight forever." But strangely enough the 
 Lords, wishing it to be more strict in one particular, had re 
 turned it to Commons, so that their amendment might be 
 adopted. When Burke came to the House, his mind was all 
 full of the speech which he had served formal notice that he 
 was going to give his motion. This was the object that 
 was "depending" (awaiting settlement). He was so much 
 wrought up over his purpose that this unexpected news of the 
 return of the penal bill seemed a good omen. (In his * frailty 
 he felt a bit " superstitious. ) 
 
 Incongruous mixture. Bestraint J was the ancient policy 
 of limiting commerce to the mother country, the policy of trade 
 laws ; coercion was the new policy of the King to compel 
 submission by punishment. The two were utterly incongruous, 
 would not mix. 
 
 2. Awful. Awesome, profoundly serious. 
 
 3. In February, 1766, General Conway moved that the Stamp 
 Act should be repealed. Burke used all his powers in support 
 ing the resolution, and Pitt supported it with all his weighty 
 and vehement influence. "The colonists," he said, "would 
 have been slaves if they had not enjoyed the right of granting 
 their own money. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three 
 millions of people, so dead to all feelings of liberty as volun 
 tarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments 
 
 286 
 
NOTES 287 
 
 to make slaves of the rest of us. All the commercial interests 
 of the country clamored for repeal. Parliament could not resist 
 such pressure; in March, 1766, the King was forced to sign the 
 repeal. Burke thus describes the emotions that were excited 
 when the vote passed the House: "When the multitude saw 
 General Conway, there arose an involuntary burst of gratulation 
 and transport. All England, all America, joined in the ap 
 plause. His face was as if it had been the face of an angel. 
 If I had stood in that situation, I would never have exchanged 
 it for all that kings in their profusion could bestow. 7 Burke 
 refers feelingly to that time. The "high authority " that he 
 then felt was one that genius might well "bow under." 
 
 4. Will not miscall, etc. The truth was that there was open 
 rebellion. Burke will not try to conceal the fact by using a 
 mild name, but he is unwilling to use the terrible name. 
 
 5. Beginning of jlie session. A new Parliament had been 
 elected four months previously. 
 
 Public tribunal. During eight years the King s ministers 
 had been in power; they had been alternately "vigorous" and 
 "lenient" toward the colonies. The minority (the "opposi 
 tion"), to which Burke belonged, had found fault with every 
 measure, alternately calling the ministers "cruel" and 
 "weak." Hence Burke s party had been as vacillating as 
 the ministers. The "worthy member" had told Burke that 
 the "public tribunal" (public opinion) would now expect the 
 opposition to develop some settled policy, to have some positive 
 plan of its own. 
 
 Produce our hand. Since gentlemen in Burke s time com 
 monly played cards for money, it was natural and dignified 
 for him to use figures of speech drawn from gambling, like 
 this one : f We can no longer hold our cards and bluff ; we must 
 show down." 
 
 6. Worse qualified. Burke knew, and the members knew, 
 that he was the one best qualified to speak on American affairsj 
 but here, as always, he takes pains to speak of himself with 
 exaggerated modesty. And we must remember that in the House 
 he was a poor Irishman who really had not the prestige to 
 
288 BUKKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 dispose the minds of aristocratic members to favor a motion 
 merely because he proposed it. 
 
 8. Adventitious. Due to chance e. g., being high-born or 
 in favor with the ministry. 
 
 9. Fomented from principle. To foment is to stimulate 
 craftily, to incite. The King s guiding principle in gaining 
 power had steadily been to " foment discord" among his 
 opposers, to foment discord among his subjects. By getting 
 them to quarrel with each other he acquired power. North s 
 "project" was intended to foment discord among the colonists. 
 Burke explains further in par. 131. 
 
 Unsuspecting confidence. Burke was fond of quoting this 
 phrase, which the Colonial Congress of 1774 had used in de 
 scribing American feelings after the repeal of the Stamp Act. 
 
 10. Refined. Over-subtle. 
 Pruriency. An itching to hear. 
 
 Agents. The colonies hired agents to lobby for them in Par 
 liament. 
 
 Mace. In case of a disturbance the speaker might order the 
 great mace carried down the floor to compel quiet. This was 
 a richly ornamented staff about five feet long, surmounted by 
 a heavy crown. 
 
 11. One great advantage. The greatest advantage to a de 
 bater is an admission by his opponent. If Lord North admitted 
 that conciliation was good policy, none of the "king s men" 
 could deny it. Even though Commons had "menaced" the 
 colonies by declaring in an "address" to the King that they 
 would "stand by him at the hazard of their lives and property 
 against all rebellious attempts," and even though they had 
 passed the penal bill named in the first paragraph, still North 
 had shown that conciliation was admissible. 
 
 12. Submission. This had always been the King s chief 
 demand : the colonies must submit. 
 
 Capital. Of prime importance. 
 
 14. General theories. The kernel of Burke s wisdom was 
 that no progress in government can ever be made by theorizing. 
 Again and again in his writings he expresses his detestation of 
 
NOTES 289 
 
 mere theories. The most useful lesson Americans can learn 
 from this speech is that the only path of progress is to "con 
 sider the true nature of things," to observe facts, to meet 
 actual conditions. Since most members of the House were 
 ignorant of the real nature of the colonies, Burke now pro 
 ceeds (pars. 15-45) to explain it. 
 
 15. 500,000 others. Negro slaves. 
 
 16. Occasional. Devised merely for an occasion, a -make 
 shift. 
 
 Minima. Petty matters; the law can provide only for gen 
 eral conditions. 
 
 17. A distinguished person. Burke had a fondness for 
 digressing to pay compliments to people whom he mentioned, 
 or to expose their weaknesses. This Kichard Glover had been a 
 king s man in Commons, but as he was not then a member, 
 he could not speak from the floor; he had to stand outside the 
 bar at the end of the room opposite the speaker. Burke s flat 
 tery is one of many indications of the conciliatory tone of the 
 speech ; for Glover s huge poems had no fire of imagination, 
 and his knowledge of commerce was not consummate. 
 
 19. State. Statement. 
 
 20. African. The carrying of negro slaves to America. 
 Slavery was abhorred in England and had frequently been pro 
 tested against in the colonies; Burke avoids naming the dis 
 agreeable subject. 
 
 25. It is good for -MS to ~be here. Peter said this to Christ 
 on the Mount of Transfiguration. By merely applying the words 
 to his subject Burke elevates the minds of his hearers for his 
 oratorical flight that follows. 
 
 Lord Bathurst. This is more flattery. Bathurst was a Tory 
 and a king s man, who had been made an earl in the same 
 year (and for the same reason) that North was given his blue 
 ribbon. He was over 90 years old; his career in Commons be 
 gan before the first George came to England; and he was an 
 interesting old ornament among the Lords. The Latin means 
 literally : "To read about the affairs of his ancestors, and he 
 will be able to understand what virtue is." 
 
288 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 dispose the minds of aristocratic members to favor a motion 
 merely because he proposed it. 
 
 8. Adventitious. Due to chance e. g., being high-born or 
 in favor with the ministry. 
 
 9. Fomented from principle. To foment is to stimulate 
 craftily, to incite. The King s guiding ( t principle in gaining 
 power had steadily been to "foment discord" among his 
 opposers, to foment discord among his subjects. By getting 
 them to quarrel with each other he acquired power. North s 
 " project " was intended to foment discord among the colonists. 
 Burke explains further in par. 131. 
 
 Unsuspecting confidence. Burke was fond of quoting this 
 phrase, which the Colonial Congress of 1774 had used in de 
 scribing American feelings after the repeal of the Stamp Act. 
 
 10. Refined. Over-subtle. 
 Pruriency. An itching to hear. 
 
 Agents. The colonies hired agents to lobby for them in Par 
 liament. 
 
 Mace. In case of a disturbance the speaker might order the 
 great mace carried down the floor to compel quiet. This was 
 a richly ornamented staff about five feet long, surmounted by 
 & heavy crown. 
 
 11. One great advantage. The greatest advantage to a de 
 bater is an admission by his opponent. If Lord North admitted 
 that conciliation was good policy, none of the "king s men" 
 could deny it. Even though Commons had "menaced" the 
 colonies by declaring in an "address" to the King that they 
 would stand by him at the hazard of their lives and property 
 against all rebellious attempts, and even though they had 
 passed the penal bill named in the first paragraph, still North 
 had shown that conciliation was admissible. 
 
 12. Submission. This had always been the King s chief 
 demand: the colonies must "submit." 
 
 Capital. Of prime importance. 
 
 14. General theories. The kernel of Burke s wisdom was 
 that no progress in government can ever be made by theorizing. 
 Again and again in his writings he expresses his detestation of 
 
NOTES 289 
 
 mere theories. The most useful lesson Americans can learn 
 from this speech is that the only path of progress is to "con 
 sider the true nature of things," to observe facts, to meet 
 actual conditions. Since most members of the House were 
 ignorant of the real nature of the colonies, Burke now pro 
 ceeds (pars. 15-45) to explain it. 
 
 15. 500,000 others. Negro slaves. 
 
 16. Occasional. Devised merely for an occasion, a make 
 shift. 
 
 Minima. Petty matters; the law can provide only for gen 
 eral conditions. 
 
 17. A distinguished person. Burke had a fondness for 
 digressing to pay compliments to people whom he mentioned, 
 or to expose their weaknesses. This Kichard Glover had been a 
 1 king s man in Commons, but as he was not then a member, 
 he could not speak from the floor; he had to stand outside the 
 bar at the end of the room opposite the speaker. Burke s flat 
 tery is one of many indications of the conciliatory tone of the 
 speech ; for Glover s huge poems had no 1 1 fire of imagination, 
 and his knowledge of commerce was not consummate. 
 
 19. State. Statement. 
 
 20. African. The carrying of negro slaves to America. 
 Slavery was abhorred in England and had frequently been pro 
 tested against in the colonies; Burke avoids naming the dis 
 agreeable subject. 
 
 25. It is good for its to ~be here. Peter said this to Christ 
 on the Mount of Transfiguration. By merely applying the words 
 to his subject Burke elevates the minds of his hearers for his 
 oratorical flight that follows. 
 
 Lord Bathurst. This is more flattery. Bathurst was a Tory 
 and a king s man, who had been made an earl in the same 
 year (and for the same reason) that North was given his blue 
 ribbon. He was over 90 years old; his career in Commons be 
 gan before the first George came to England; and he was an 
 interesting old ornament among the Lords. The Latin means 
 literally: "To read about the affairs of his ancestors, and he 
 will be able to understand what virtue is." 
 
290 
 
 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 His son. The younger Bathurst was a peculiarly incompetent 
 judge whom the King made Lord Chancellor in 1771. He used 
 his influence with the King (who is "the fountain of hereditary 
 dignity " because he creates lords) to get his father raised to 
 a higher rank in the peerage i. e., from baron to earl in 
 1772. Burke might have waxed sarcastic about this on another 
 occasion, but here uses only a tinge of irony. 
 
 29. Roman charity. Referring to a story of a young Roman 
 woman who kept her imprisoned father alive with the milk from 
 her breast. 
 
 30. Excite your envy. In discussing the penal bill some 
 members had shown the feeling that if the cod fisheries of 
 Newfoundland were so valuable, England could profit by de 
 priving the colonies of the use of them. 
 
 Frozen Serpent. A group of stars about as near the south 
 pole as the Big Dipper is near the north pole. 
 
 Falkland Island. These islands in the Atlantic, off the tip 
 of South America, were so barren that until 1763 no " nation s 
 ambition " had thought it worth while to claim them. Burke 
 mentions them because in 1770 the Spaniards had destroyed the 
 English garrison, and war had been imminent. 
 
 "Run the longitude. In nautical language "to run down the 
 longitude " means to sail east or west until the longitude of a 
 given place is reached. 
 
 32. When Burke has completed his description of the popu 
 lation and wealth of the colonies, he turns aside (pars. 32-36) 
 to give four objections to the policy of coercing them. This 
 is a kind of punctuation mark between his array of facts just 
 given and his analysis of "the temper and character" that 
 follows in paragraphs 37-45. 
 
 Complexions. Characters. Even General Gage, who had com 
 manded colonial soldiers and had been liked at Boston, thought 
 that a military force should be used to bring the colonies to 
 submission. His opinions had weight in Commons; Burke 
 refers to his testimony (par. 43). 
 
 38. Jealous affection. Burke speaks in another speech about 
 
NOTES 291 
 
 "men of a jealous honor," meaning "anxiously concerned 
 about their honor." 
 
 Shuffle by chicane. To remove in an underhand way by legal 
 trickery. 
 
 39. The topic of this paragraph is announced as "English 
 descent," but the real subject is "English freedom has always 
 been measured by the principle of taxation." Fix your mind 
 on taxation." "When this part of your character was most 
 predominant" means from 1620 to 1650 the time during which 
 Hampden refused to pay the ship-money. This was not a matter 
 of money with Hampden ; he was one of the greatest spirits 
 who were establishing liberty. 
 
 40. Popular .... merely .... representative. The colon 
 ial legislatures ("assemblies") consisted of two houses. The 
 lower was elected by the people ("popular") ; the upper was in 
 most colonies appointed by the king. But in some colonies the 
 legislature was entirely ("merely") elected by the people. In 
 all the colonies the lower house (the "popular representative") 
 was the more influential ("weighty"). 
 
 41. As in their history. The point is this: since the church 
 has usually in European history been supported by the govern 
 ment, membership in the church has usually taught obedience 
 to government; but the Protestant dissenters who emigrated 
 to New England originated their church in opposition to gov 
 ernment. 
 
 43. Education. The subject of the paragraph is not "edu 
 cation" in general; that was not in Burke s mind. He is 
 talking about legal training. Blackstone s Commentaries on the 
 Laws of England was published while Burke was a new mem 
 ber of Commons. It was so thorough and useful a book that it 
 is still used in American law schools. 
 
 On the floor. Some one who sat opposite Burke was taking 
 notes; he sat on the front, the lowest bench, the one on the 
 floor. 
 
 Litigious. Eager to go to law. 
 
 Abeunt, etc. What men study is transformed into their cus 
 toms. 
 
292 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Mercurial cast. A lively temperament. 
 Augur. To foretell by signs or omens. 
 
 44. Disobedient. The King s majority in Parliament felt 
 that the colonies must be made "obedient." Burke merely 
 waters to their way of thinking when he says "disobedient 
 spirit. 
 
 Moral. In the Latin sense of "pertaining to customs," as 
 in the mores of his Latin quotation. The colonies are "accus 
 tomed" to popular government, dissident religion, etc. 
 
 Winged ministers, etc. Jove s eagle carried the thunderbolts 
 in his claws ("pounces"); Burke means by this allusion the 
 warships that carried munitions to America. 
 
 Truck and huckster. To bargain in a petty way and to haggle 
 about a price. 
 
 45. Power in England. The King s ministry may have been 
 within the law, but the way they used their power was not in 
 accordance with English ideas of freedom. 
 
 46. Burke now (pars. 46-64) proposes the only three possible 
 ways of dealing with America, and shows that the first two are 
 absurd. 
 
 Politics. General ideas about government. 
 
 Monsters. It is difficult for a young American to see what 
 "monster" is described in this paragraph and the next. Con 
 sider, in the first place, that even nowadays it is an extremely 
 "laborious business to establish a government wholly new." 
 In 1918 three nations (Mexico, China, and Eussia) were show 
 ing themselves unable even to change their governments suc 
 cessfully. Government is an extremely complicated adjustment 
 of millions of selfish interests; it is almost like a living crea 
 ture, almost as impossible to make as it would be to create an 
 animal. In the second place, Burke was forever trying to teach 
 his generation this truth, forever inveighing against the fools 
 who wanted to tamper and experiment with government. He 
 knew the immense evil that may be done by upsetting long- 
 established beliefs about religion or government. For these 
 are the old wisdom of the whole race; they can safely be 
 changed only gradually and naturally. Hence he felt that a 
 
NOTES 293 
 
 successful rebellion in the colonies would be "a concussion of 
 established opinions" at home. He was not merely a conserva 
 tive; he expected development and reform. But his keen senses 
 perceived the fearful dangers. A "loosening of all ties" was 
 to him a destructive monster. And, in the third place, he was 
 thinking of a much less philosophical monster: if the colonies 
 discovered that they could get along perfectly well without the 
 guardianship of the mother country, they would have less fear 
 of internal disorder in case they wanted a revolution. 
 
 Emanation. The only legal basis for government in the col 
 onies was the charters by which they were established. If these 
 were removed, no machinery of government would be left; there 
 would be, theoretically, no way of enforcing law and order. 
 
 Operose. Laboriously difficult. 
 
 Humors. Dispositions or moods as in "an ugly humor." 
 
 47. Abrogated government. Abolished (in 1774), so that 
 the King s power was supreme and the government was no 
 longer representative. 
 
 Anarchy. If you can imagine a city in which the police 
 force and all the law courts are paralyzed, you can feebly real 
 ize how terrified the ministry supposed the colonists would be. 
 
 The last sentence of the paragraph states exactly why the 
 Revolution was a civil war: every argument against the free 
 dom of the English in America was equally an argument against 
 the liberties of the people in England. 
 
 48. Giving up the colonies. This idea was advanced by the 
 dean of Gloucester, whom Burke called "an advocate of the 
 court faction, a Dr. Tucker, whose earnest labors in this vine 
 yard [of pamphleteering] will, I suppose, raise him to a 
 bishopric. 
 
 49. Radical. Going to the root of a matter. 
 
 50. In paragraphs 50-58 Burke reviews his three considera 
 tions of population, wealth, and character; and the six causes 
 of the character. But the six causes are not taken up in just 
 their original order. 
 
 53. System of this kind. The over-stringent trade regula 
 tions. 
 
294 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Spoliatis, etc. Those who have been despoiled still have arms. 
 
 60. England was dealing at home with great mobs and an 
 organized system of smuggling; she applied to these law-break 
 ers the ordinary ideas of criminal justice. But the colonial 
 disturbances even the Boston Tea Party represented the uni 
 fied, sober opinion of a whole people; it was "a great public 
 contest. The sentence about an indictment against a whole 
 people " has been constantly quoted, and is frequently seen in 
 American editorials. 
 
 Sir Edward Coke. That great oracle of the English law, 
 as Burke elsewhere calls him, addressed to Ealeigh such expres 
 sions as "Thou art a spider of hell"; " there never lived a 
 viler viper." But probably no member of Commons in 1775 
 knew what Coke had said nearly two centuries before. Why 
 should Burke mention those unknown insults? Because every 
 one who heard him thought instantly of Wedderburn, a "king s 
 man," who, in 1771, deserted Burke s party, sold himself to 
 North, was made solicitor-general, and in 1774, at a state trial 
 before the privy council of the kingdom, most vilely insulted one 
 excellent individual Benjamin Franklin. This venerable Amer 
 ican, honored everywhere in Europe and loved in England, was 
 compelled to stand for a whole hour before the laughing coun 
 cillors while the renegade judge used such expressions as "He 
 had the most malignant of purposes"; "lie expresses the cool 
 est and most deliberate malice"; "is not the revengeful temper 
 of the bloody African surpassed by the coolness of the wily 
 American?" Burke was horror-struck by this address. Even 
 Lord North saw the insane folly of it. Twenty years after the 
 Revolution was over Fox could rouse the House by describing 
 this scene infinitely more shameful and less excusable than 
 the one in which Raleigh was insulted. It is possible that Burke 
 used Franklin s name in speaking, but changed to Raleigh when 
 he wrote his speech. 
 
 61. Nice. Delicate and difficult to adjust. 
 
 Ex m termini. From the very meaning of the expression. 
 63. On our address. Because of addresses to the King, put 
 through Commons by North, urging him to coerce the colonies. 
 
NOTES 295 
 
 66. Fix your attention on "are taxed." Burke s argument 
 has nothing to say about representation for the colonies except 
 to deny that representation is desirable. 
 
 67. Fix your attention on the italicized word right. Burke 
 has a great deal to say about taxation, but nothing about the 
 question of the abstract right. 
 
 Polity. Government. 
 
 Great names. Pitt and Lord Chancellor Camden believed 
 that England had not even the abstract right to tax the col 
 onies. Burke and most thoughtful men believed the contrary. 
 
 The quotation is from Paradise Lost, Book II. 
 
 68. Notice that the whole point depends upon the if in the 
 first sentence; Burke names an utterly impossible condition. 
 
 69. "Admitting to an interest" is not representation. 
 High-school students naturally jump to that conclusion, but 
 Burke s method of admitting to an interest is entirely different. 
 
 70. Understood principle. The repeal of the Stamp Act was 
 an announcement that England did not intend to exercise the 
 right of taxing. But the repeal was accompanied by an act 
 declaring that the right to tax still remained that "the prin 
 ciple was understood." 
 
 71. Financiers. Men who had charge of national finances 
 no longer expected income from American taxation; they were 
 simply afraid of losing control in all ways if they yielded in 
 this particular. 
 
 Exquisite. Anxious about the future. 
 
 Paragraphs 72-74 are a very pretty demonstration that the 
 King s ministers had never been primarily concerned with an 
 income from American taxation; their royal master wanted 
 submission. When the trade laws had been enforced with a 
 fierce stringency, the reason avowed in Commons was the need 
 of an income from America. North had repeatedly argued that 
 the purpose of trade laws was income. So paragraph 72 means: 
 Very well, my lord, if the Americans yield so much from their 
 commerce, surely it is unreasonable to tax them in addition"; 
 to which the noble lord replies, "Oh, trade laws don t really 
 restrict, don t really extract money from the Colonists." And 
 
296 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 paragraph 73 is like this bit of dialogue: "But you see, my 
 lord, that it is utterly impossible to get any income from tax 
 ation " ; to which North replies, Oh, I know, but we must pre 
 serve our precious trade laws that bring in so much money." 
 
 74. The pamphlet. North had used arguments from a 
 pamphlet by Dr. Tucker. 
 
 Laws, regulations. The " revenue laws" are laws for taxa 
 tion ; the * commercial regulations are for restraining trade. 
 
 75. Not a shadow of evidence. In his great speech on Amer 
 ican Taxation, delivered eleven months previously, Burke had 
 argued this point at great length, vehemently and conclusively; 
 he exposed the whole pitiful series of lies and quibbles and 
 evasions by which the King s mouthpieces had defended their 
 schemes for taxation. 
 
 76. The colonies will go further. In American Taxation 
 Burke had said: "But still it sticks in our throats if we go 
 so far, the Americans will go further." It was an argument 
 that the ministers had continually used for a decade. 
 
 79. Philip the Second. The powerful and despotic king of 
 Spain, who sent the Armada against England. 
 
 Four examples. In paragraphs 78-88 there are four exam 
 ples of admitting to an interest in the British Constitution. 
 They are simply examples of admitting to an interest. The 
 way in which these four places were admitted has nothing to 
 do with the case. 
 
 80. The English conquest. In the twelfth century. 
 
 Irish pensioners. Men whose pensions were paid out of the 
 grants made by the Irish parliament. 
 
 81. Lords Marchers. Lords of the borders between Eng 
 land and her dependencies on the west and north i. e., Wales 
 and Scotland. 
 
 83. Incubus. A demon that caused nightmare. 
 
 84. In the twelfth ode of his first book Horace is describing 
 the power that Castor and Pollux have over the stormy sea: 
 "As soon as their clear star shines upon the sailors, the spray 
 flows down from the rocks, the winds die down, the clouds flee 
 
NOTES 297 
 
 away, and (since it is their will) the wave subsides upon the 
 sea." 
 
 85. The petition of Chester is composed of two reasons and 
 a therefore: "The inhabitants of Chester show to your 
 majesty that (1) whereas we have had no representatives in 
 Parliament, and (2) whereas we have been bound by the laws 
 just as much as the counties that have representatives, there 
 fore we have been touched and grieved." 
 
 86. These questions are repetitions of violent expressions 
 used by "king s -men" in advising Parliament how to treat 
 petitions from the Americans. 
 
 87. Abstract extent. That is, Parliament remedied the 
 grievance "on the understood principle" that it still had the 
 abstract right to collect subsidies if it chose. 
 
 89. Students who have not been specially warned almost 
 always suppose, as Burke s auditors did, that we are now going 
 to hear about a scheme for giving representation to the colonies. 
 Nothing of the sort. 
 
 Opposuit. Nature has raised a barrier. 
 
 90. Republic, etc. These are the names of three books that 
 describe ideal governments. They were written twenty-one 
 centuries, three centuries, and one century, respectively, before 
 Burke s time. 
 
 The quotation is from Comus. 
 
 Representation. The emphasis is not upon this word, but 
 upon the "policy" namely, that taxation was unjust unless 
 there was representation. 
 
 91. By grant. Here is Burke s method of admitting the 
 colonies to an interest in the Constitution by allowing them 
 to grant their own money voluntarily. "Taxation by grant" 
 is a very peculiar expression, for the two nouns have exactly 
 opposite meanings. It is somewhat like an Irish bull, meaning : 
 The just way to tax America is not to tax her at all. * 
 
 Imposition. Taxation imposed by Parliament. 
 The six italicized expressons do not correspond to the six 
 propositions that he announces in the next paragraph. 
 
 93-108. Students are often puzzled by the nature of these 
 
298 BUBKE S SPEECH ON COJN FILIATION 
 
 resolutions. Any ordinary motion offered in a meeting proposes 
 eome action; it is debatable. But why should anyone ever 
 "move that 2+3=5"? The colonies had never had repre 
 sentatives in Parliament; why "resolve that they never have 
 had"? The answer is brief: customary forms are strange 
 things, and parliamentary form made it natural for Burke to 
 put his propositions in this shape. The first five are statements 
 of merest fact except possibly for "touched and grieved" 
 in the second; that is why Burke devotes a long paragraph 
 (96) to showing that the colonies were touched and grieved. 
 But the sixth contains a real resolution; to have carried that 
 would have been to defeat George III. 
 
 95. Horace begins a satire by remarking in parenthesis, 
 * This is no discourse of mine, but what Of ellus teaches, a 
 rustic, self-taught fellow." So Burke says that he is offering 
 what is taught by the rustic, home-bred sense of his country 
 (not by the craft of a king from Hanover). 
 
 96. The sixth. Parliamentary acts were numbered by the 
 year of the reign; the sixth year of George the Second s reign 
 was 1733. 
 
 For the ministry. A whole chapter of Germanic lying and 
 intriguing is implied in those three words. In American Taxa 
 tion there is a long and bitter passage in which Burke flays 
 Lord Hillsborough. See introduction, page 34, for an account 
 of the secret letter which Hillsborough wrote to trick the 
 colonists. Of course this letter was ultimately known about in 
 England. It became a public acknowledgment by the ministry 
 that * duties had been laid contrary to the true principle of 
 commerce," and that "only men with factious and seditious 
 views could propose to tax America." The lying letter could 
 never have been written, would have had no point, unless the 
 ministers knew that the colonies were touched and grieved. 
 
 97. Is impossible. In his Observations on The Present 
 State of the Nation Burke draws an amusing picture of how 
 impossible representation would have been in an age when 
 six weeks was record time for a trip across the Atlantic, and 
 twenty (or even forty) not unusual. Here is one extract: 
 
NOTES 299 
 
 " However, we will suppose the American candidates once more 
 elected [after two round trips of 6000 miles each] and steering 
 again to old England with a good heart and a fair westerly 
 wind in their stern. On their arrival they find all in a hurry and 
 bustle. The King is dead! Another parliament is to be called. 
 Away back to America again on a third voyage and to a third 
 election. 
 
 99. Competence. This legal distinction of the " competence 
 of the colonies to grant seems to us now like an empty theory 
 or quibble. But it went to the root of the whole matter. To 
 admit formally such a legal competence was to admit that the 
 colonial assemblies were legally on a level with Parliament. 
 Such competence had never been admitted, though England 
 had accepted the grants. 
 
 His Majesty . Burke pretends that he was about to say, 
 "His Majesty has committed impeachable offenses," but that 
 he changes to "the ministers" so as not to use unparliamentary 
 language. Legally the king can do no wrong " j his ministers 
 are responsible. 
 
 100. So high as. So far back as. 
 
 Taxes. These were taxes that the colonies laid upon them 
 selves. 
 
 106. The sixth resolution is the one that counts, for the 
 whole struggle reduced to this question : Does taxation conduce 
 to public benefit ("service") I 
 
 109. Of the five resolutions here lumped together the first 
 is for removing the obnoxious duties; the other four are for 
 removing penal acts. 
 
 110-113. The five resolutions are not commented on in the 
 order in which they are given, but in the order 2, 4, 3, 5. 
 
 110. Partial. Prejudiced, unfair. The same meaning is in 
 partially at the end of the paragraph. 
 
 111. Eeturning-offi-cer, cause. The officer who selected a 
 jury, a law-case. 
 
 112. Murder. This refers to soldiers who, under military 
 orders, killed Americans. 
 
 114. Judicature. System of courts. The point of the reso- 
 
300 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 lution is that Americans could not be sure of just judges un 
 less two conditions were fulfilled: (1) that the judges got 
 their pay from the colonists, (2) that they held office until 
 the colonists complained of them. Under these two conditions 
 the king could have no power over a judge. 
 
 115. The courts of admiralty tried all cases under the trade 
 laws. Two reforms are proposed: (1) to locate them at such 
 ports that captains could have their cases tried promptly, (2) 
 to give the judges salaries instead of letting them derive their 
 income "indecently" from the share of the smuggled goods 
 that they condemned. 
 
 119. Lord Chatham. The elder Pitt. 
 
 Not from the Chester act. Because the people of Chester had 
 made a general complaint against being bound by English laws; 
 Durham had, like the colonies, complained only of a form of 
 taxation. 
 
 De jwre, de facto. Legally, as a matter of fact. 
 
 120. Illation. Inference. 
 
 To make slaves haughty. A slave -in the house of a wealthy 
 patrician may feel haughty when he compares himself with a 
 freeman who is a poor laborer; yet, even if this is so, we need 
 not expect that the colonists will care to be slaves in the proud 
 household of our empire. 
 
 Cords of a man. In the llth chapter of Hosea God describes 
 how he tried to keep the love of the Israelites: "I drew them 
 with cords of a man, with bands of love." 
 
 122. "Would dissolve the unity" is the second objection. 
 Burke said some in 118, but he names only two. In the 
 Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol he spoke sarcastically (as he 
 does here) about "troubling our understandings with specu 
 lations concerning the unity of empire." To him this talk 
 about "unity" was silly metaphysics. 
 
 124. Experimentum, etc. Experiment upon some worthless 
 object. 
 
 125. Here is a demonstration of how the project would 
 cause a most dangerous increase of the King a power. 
 
 126. Contingent. Quota of revenue. 
 
BUB-KE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 3Q1 
 
 127. Five difficulties are discussed, one in each of para 
 graphs 127-131. 
 
 128. Outcry. Announcement that an auction is to be held. 
 Composition. Terms of agreement by which a creditor ac 
 cepts a smaller payment than is due. 
 
 130. Extent. A legal process for seizing a debtor s property 
 to compel payment. 
 
 132. Contingent. Depending on chance. 
 
 .To spare it altogether. He did speak on the subject at least 
 twice more, though never in a long, formal effort. In November 
 of 1776 he withdrew for fifteen months from all discussions of 
 American affairs, because he wanted the world to know that 
 he had no hand in such ruinous legislation. 
 
 133. Posita, etc. The game is played with the whole money- 
 chest at stake. 
 
 Accumulated a debt. People had shown their patriotism by 
 lending money; the country owed the debt to its citizens. 
 
 134. Absolute power. These words here and "a, govern 
 ment purely arbitrary" in 120 are colorless for us today, but 
 to Burke they were the lurid realities of the ambition of a 
 German king. 
 
 The quotation is from the fourth book of Paradise Lost. 
 
 135. Compounding. See composition, paragraph 128. 
 Speed. Succeed. 
 
 136. Taxable objects. For example, on tobacco shipped 
 from Virginia a duty was paid at London by the English mer 
 chant; then the merchant shipped to France and sold for a 
 price that would pay the duty and yield him a good profit in 
 addition. 
 
 137. In this peroration we see why Burke was so scornful 
 of the arguments of "king s men" about "unity" of empire. 
 He says in this burst of feeling as true and sensible as it is 
 eloquent that participation of freedom is the sole bond 
 that made and must always preserve the unity of empire. This 
 single sentence sums up the whole difference between the Han 
 over conception of empire and the Anglo-Saxon conception. 
 
302 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 138. Land Tax Act, etc. These three acts, providing for 
 revenue and an army, had to be passed every year; hence Par 
 liament had to be summoned every year, and a king had no 
 chance to rule without Commons. It was therefore natural for 
 Englishmen to think that these bills were the guaranty of their 
 liberties. 
 
 139. Burke here carries out his figure of a "temple of 
 concord " (92) and an "altar of peace" (95) by using profane 
 and initiated. Men like North and Hillsborough were "unfit 
 to enter the temple"; men of Burke s party had been "ad 
 mitted to the sacred rites." If all the members had glowed 
 with zeal for wise government, they would have begun their 
 proceedings with a sacred rite ("auspicate"), saying, as a 
 priest does when he prepares the sacrament, Lift tip your 
 hearts." 
 
 140. Quod felix, etc. May it be prosperous and of good 
 omen. 
 
A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 1. Some of the best descriptions of the nature of the Amer 
 ican Revolution: 
 
 Tlie American Revolution, by John Fiske, vol. I, chapters 
 
 1-3. 
 The American Revolution, by G. O. Trevelyan, Part I, 
 
 chapters 2-8; Part II, vol. I. 
 
 George the Third and Charles Fox, by G. O. Trevelyan. 
 A History of the English People, by J. R. Green, Book IX, 
 
 chapter 2. 
 History of England in the Eighteenth Century, by W. E. H. 
 
 Lecky, vol. Ill, chapters 10, 11, and 12. 
 History of the American People, by Woodrow Wilson, vol. 
 
 II, chapter 3. 
 
 Lecky gives the most detailed account of the power of 
 George III. 
 
 2. A striking (and quite reliable) revelation of the power 
 of George III is Burke s Thoughts on the Cause of the Present 
 Discontents. His speech on American Taxation illuminates 
 many parts of the Conciliation, and his Letter to tfa Sheriffs 
 of Bristol shows his bitter feeling against -the Teutonic machina 
 tions that had made conciliation almost impossible. 
 
 3. Better insight into the conditions that produced the Concili 
 ation can be gained by reading about prominent statesmen of 
 the time in the Dictionary of National Biography, the Encyclo 
 pedia Britannica, or any other good encyclopedia. Most en 
 lightening are the lives of John Stuart (third Earl of Bute) 
 and Frederick North. Others (approximately in order of direct 
 usefulness) are Alexander Wedderburn, Fletcher Norton, John 
 Dunning, William Pitt (the elder), the two Bathursts, Charles 
 James Fox, Charles Townshend, George Grenville. 
 
 4. Anyone who can get access to the Parliamentary Hi-story 
 will be abundantly repaid for looking through the recorded 
 speeches of the session from December, 1774, to April, 1776. 
 
 303 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 (Adapted, and enlarged, from the Manual for the Study of 
 English Classics, by George L. Marsh) 
 
 HELPS TO STUDY 
 LIFE AND WORKS OF BURKE 
 
 When and where was Burke born (p. 22) ? Where was he 
 educated? For what purpose and when did he go to London? 
 
 What was his first literary work (p. 22) ? 
 
 What annual publication was he associated with for many 
 years? In what ways did he prepare himself for his future 
 work? 
 
 Who were the most important of his associates (p. 23) ? 
 
 When was he first seated in Parliament (p. 24), and what was 
 the subject of his tl maiden speech"? 
 
 For how long was he prominent in politics? With what 
 general success (p. 26) ? 
 
 What three .great subjects was Burke particularly interested 
 in during his political career? 
 
 What was his general attitude toward the policies of George 
 III? 
 
 Summarize Burke s work on behalf of the American colonies, 
 naming two important speeches and one letter which he wrote 
 on the question. 
 
 What was Burke s most important work on the Indian ques 
 tion (p. 27) ? The immediate result? The result in the long 
 run? 
 
 What was his attitude toward the French Kevolution (p. 28) ? 
 
 What is the common estimate of Burke as an orator and po 
 litical philosopher (pp. 25, 26, 28)? 
 
 An interesting estimate of Burke may be found in Gold 
 smith s "Retaliation" (Newcomer and Andrews, Twelve Cen 
 turies of English Poetry and Prose, p. 380). 
 
 304 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 305 
 
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE SPEECH ox CONCILIATION 
 
 What error as to the causes of the American Revolution has 
 persisted in school books, but is corrected in this edition (p. 3) ? 
 Collect from the various parts of this book the evidences of the 
 editor s fundamental contention, and classify the evidence. 
 
 When did the modern development of English liberties" 
 begin (p. 11) ? How was real popular rule enforced even under 
 the first two German kings (George I and II) ? Did the cabinet 
 government then differ materially from English cabinet govern 
 ment now? Specify differences if you find them. 
 
 What relation does the capture of Fort Duquesne, or the 
 war of which it was an event, bear to the struggle against 
 autocracy (p. 10) ? 
 
 What are the main facts as to George Ill s race and char 
 acter (pp. 14-21, 146-162) ? How did he proceed to procure 
 absolute control even under a parliamentary government? 
 
 Why did England begin to tax the colonies in America (p. 
 29) ? What had been the previous method of getting money 
 from them ? Note the use of these facts in the Speech on Con 
 ciliation. 
 
 By whom was the Stamp Act devised (p. 31) ? What was its 
 nature? Why did the colonies object to it? What was its fate? 
 After how long an attempt to enforce it? 
 
 When did Lord North come into power (p. 32) ? What sort 
 of person was he? How long was he head of the administration? 
 
 Note carefully the series of events indicating the colonies 
 attitude toward the principle of taxation (p. 35). 
 
 What was the "one simple cause" (p. 16) elucidated by 
 Burke in his Tlionglits on Hie Cause of the Present Discontents, 
 1770? Do you find in the extracts from this pamphlet (pp. 
 218-236) material directly bearing on the American Revolution? 
 Answer specifically. 
 
 When was Burke s Speech on American Taxation (pp. 169- 
 193) delivered the specific occasion (p. 169)? Find examples 
 of the difference in tone between this speech and the Speech on 
 Conciliation, as indicated on page 17. 
 
306 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 From a study of the Collateral Eeadings (particularly pp. 
 129-145 and 265-282) what do you conclude as to the feeling 
 of the English people in general regarding the trouble with the 
 American colonies? 
 
 What impressions of Lord Chatham, the elder Pitt, do you get 
 from Burke s comments (p. 185) and from the extracts from 
 Pitt s speeches (pp. 243-255)? What impressions of Fox (pp. 
 256-264) ? 
 
 What, in the long run, was the result in England of George 
 Ill s attempts to tyrannize over the people (p. 37)? 
 
 When and where was the Speech on Conciliation delivered 
 (pp. 36, 284) ? What was the direct occasion for it? The re 
 sult of it? Show why this result reflects in no way on the 
 effectiveness of the speech. 
 
 What was the occasion of Burke s Letter to the Sheriffs of 
 Bristol (pp. 193-217) ? The status of the American Kevolution 
 at that time? 
 
 DETAILS OF THE SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 What do you find to be the purpose of Burke s introduction ? 
 Do you notice any devices to indicate that the speech was un 
 prepared (par. 1) ? Was Burke really superstitious? 
 
 What is the effect of the hesitation for a proper word at the 
 end of paragraph 4? Of the familiar colloquial expressions in 
 paragraph 5? 
 
 What subtle irony do you find in paragraph 7? Point out 
 other examples of the same quality later on. 
 
 What great governmental principle is at the bottom of para 
 graph 10? 
 
 How has the House admitted what Burke, in paragraph 12, 
 says it has admitted? 
 
 Why is the population of the colonies an argument in favor 
 of conciliation (pp. 49, 50)? The commerce? What is the 
 substance of Burke s evidence regarding commerce? 
 
 Is paragraph 25 in any sense a digression? What, pre 
 cisely, is its relation to the course of the argument? 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 307 
 
 Why should Burke turn again to specific figures in paragraph 
 26? 
 
 What is the argumentative effect of paragraph 28? 
 
 What literary qualities do you find in paragraph 30? 
 
 What universal political principles are stated in paragraphs 
 32-36? 
 
 What is the function, as a paragraph, of paragraph 37? Find 
 similar examples farther on. 
 
 Why do the references to the history of England in paragraph 
 39 apply specifically to the American colonies? 
 
 In what ways is force secured in paragraph 44? 
 
 What is the purpose, as a paragraph, of paragraph 45 ? Show 
 how it differs from paragraph 37. Find similar examples 
 farther on. 
 
 Can you think of any other feasible ways of proceeding be 
 sides those mentioned by Burke in paragraph 48? 
 
 Why should paragraph 52 be set off as a paragraph? 
 
 How had England shown the disposition to impoverish the 
 colonies mentioned in paragraph 53? 
 
 What powerful bits of sarcasm do you find in paragraphs 54, 
 57, 58? 
 
 State in substance the sound political wisdom underlying 
 paragraphs 60 and 61. 
 
 What does Burke gain by leaving out of consideration the 
 right of taxation (par. 67)? To what feeling is the appeal 
 of this paragraph? 
 
 Explain in your own words the inconsistency which Burke 
 points out in paragraphs 72-74. On this matter see the Speech 
 on American Taxation (pp. 169-193). 
 
 Explain all historical references of importance in paragraphs 
 80-87. 
 
 Consider paragraphs 80 in the light of the present " Irish 
 question. * 
 
 Summarize the points of similarity between England s treat 
 ment of Wales and of the American colonies, as given in para 
 graph 82. 
 
308 APPENDIX 
 
 "Why should Burke, in paragraph 85, quote the exact lan 
 guage of the people of Chester? 
 
 Do the questions in paragraph 86 indicate anything as to the 
 course of procedure adopted by Parliament with relation to 
 American petitions? 
 
 Is paragraph 87 a unit? 
 
 Explain carefully the actual concession which Burke proposes 
 in paragraph 91. 
 
 What is the effect of paragraph 92, followed by resolutions 
 all but one embodying mere matters of fact, couched in the 
 language of previous Parliaments? 
 
 Name all the literary effects you find prominent in paragraph 
 95. 
 
 What historical events were the basis for the resolution of 
 1748 (par. 101)? That of 1756? 
 
 Why should Burke precede his sixth resolution by the bit 
 of argument contained in paragraph 105? 
 
 Which of the acts mentioned for repeal in paragraph 109 
 does Burke discuss specifically in the following paragraphs? 
 Can you tell why he does not discuss all? 
 
 For more details as to paragraph 113, see Burke s Letter to 
 the Sheriffs of Bristol (pp. 194, 195). 
 
 Explain the resolutions as to courts (pars. 114-15). 
 
 What is the essential point of paragraph 120? 
 
 Do you think Burke really almost forgot his purpose to com 
 ment on the plan of Lord North, as referred to in paragraph 
 123? Does he, however, give sufficient attention to it? State 
 clearly all his points against it- 
 
 How would Lord North s plan break the union of the colo 
 nies (par. 131) ? 
 
 Note the effective antithesis of paragraph 132. 
 
 Explain the figure at the end of paragraph 133. 
 
 What is the nature and purpose of Burke s concluding ap 
 peal? Is it necessary to the argument? 
 
 What was the "ideal of democracy" expressed by Burke 
 (p. 6), and how does this speech bring it out? 
 
BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 399 
 
 THEME SUBJECTS 
 
 1. Burke s life (pp. 22-29). See also reference works and 
 biographies. 
 
 2. Burke s literary friends (p. 23; cf. Boswell s Life of 
 Johnson, Irving s Oliver Goldsmith, etc.). 
 
 3. Burke s work in behalf of the American colonies. 
 
 4. Burke and Indian affairs (cf. Macaulay s Warren Hast 
 ings) . 
 
 5. Burke and the French Revolution (p. 28). 
 
 6. Summary of the historical events leading up to the Speech 
 on Conciliation. 
 
 7. The character and aims of George III (pp. 14-21, 146- 
 162). 
 
 8. English opinion in relation to the American colonies (pp. 
 129-145, 248-282). 
 
 9. Explanation of the measures Burke wished repealed. 
 
 10. Arguments on the measures separately. 
 
 11. The growth of the American colonies (pp. 49-56). (Con 
 trast the America Burke thought so wonderful with America 
 today.) 
 
 12. The causes of the American love of freedom (pp. 60 ff.). 
 Can additions be made to Burke s list ? 
 
 13. Historical precedents in favor of conciliation (pp. 89 ff.). 
 
 14. Parallels between the case of Wales and that of America 
 (pp. 91 ff.). 
 
 15. Characteristics of Burke s choice of words. 
 
 16. Sarcasm in this speech. (Is it effective? Cite examples.) 
 
 17. Burke s principles of government (pp. 46, 59 ff., 124 ff., 
 etc.). 
 
 18. Burke s character as indicated by this speech. 
 
 19. The paragraph structure of this speech. 
 
 20. How the speech was received and what it accomplished. 
 (Would & similar speech be effective if delivered in our United 
 States House of Representatives, in the face of a hostile ma 
 jority?) 
 
310 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 SELECTIONS FOE CLASS EEADING 
 
 1. Burke s reasons for speaking (pp. 41-46). 
 
 2. The growth of America (pp. 53-55, 57-58). 
 
 3. The American love of freedom (pp. 60-68). 
 
 4. Possible ways of dealing with the colonies (pp. 72-80). 
 
 5. Burke s general proposition (pp. 81-84). 
 
 6. Precedents for conciliation (pp. 89-95). 
 
 7. The first two resolutions (pp. 98-101). 
 
 8. Objections to Lord North s plan (pp. 115-121). 
 
 9. Conclusion (pp. 124-127). 
 
 10. English views of the American Kevolution (pp. 129-132). 
 
 11. How officers viewed the service against America (pp. 
 140-144). 
 
 12. How George III built up his power (pp. 149-154). 
 
 13. Lecky s characterization of George III (pp. 3J56-161). 
 
 14. The repeal of the Stamp Act (pp. 183-186). 
 
 15. Burke s view of taxation (pp. 189-193). 
 
 16. Evil results of the American war (pp. 197-202). 
 
 17. The Earl of Chatham s view (pp. 244-249). 
 
INDEX 
 
 Numbers refer to pages. Numbers 5-39 refer to Preface 
 and Introduction, 41-127 to the text of the Speech, 129-282 to 
 the Collateral Readings, 283-303 to the Notes. 
 
 Abeunt studia, 67, 291 
 Abrogated charter of Mass., 
 
 35, 70, 108, 109, 197, 293 
 Absolute power, 123 
 Abstract extent, 95, 297 
 Abstract right, see Eights, 
 
 Theories 
 Act of Henry Till, 80, see 
 
 Trials in England 
 Act of navigation, 85, 111, 
 
 125, 192 
 
 Ada parentum, 54, 289 
 Addresses to King, 47, 80, 194, 
 
 243, 288, 294 
 
 Admiralty courts, 110, 111, 300 
 Admit to an interest, 84, 295, 
 
 296, 297 
 
 Advantage, one great, 47, 288 
 Adventitious, 45, 288 
 African trade, 52, 58, 289 
 Agents colony, 47, 118, 288 
 Agriculture, 56-57 
 Algiers, 68 
 America, Burke s references to 
 
 in the Conciliation, 42, 43, 
 
 47, 49, 52, 53, 55, 59, 60, 62 
 American Taxation, excerpts 
 
 169-193; references to, 17, 
 
 34, 296, 298, 303 
 Anarchy, 71, 95, 293 
 Angola, 77 
 Annual Eegister, 23 
 Appalachian, 73 
 Arabia, 67 
 Aristotle, 114 
 Armada, 296 
 Assemblies, colonial, 63, 66, 70, 
 
 71, 76, 78, 98, 102-106, 110, 
 
 122, 209, 210, 291, 299 
 Auction, 47, 116, 117, 118, 120 
 Augur, 67, 292 
 Auspicate, 302 
 Austerity, 41, 285 
 Austria, 29 
 Awful, 42, 286 
 
 Bank, 122 
 Bar, 51, 57 
 Barre, 31, 241, 279 
 Bastille, 28 
 
 Bathurst, 54, 289, 290, 303 
 Bengal, 124 
 Bibliography, 303 
 Blackstone, 66, 291 
 
 311 
 
312 
 
 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Blue ribbon, 33, 47 
 
 Board of Trade, Burke s 
 speech on, 242 
 
 Boston, 33, 66, 243, 251 ; Mas 
 sacre, 35; Port Bill, 35, 108, 
 120, 197; see Tea Party 
 
 Bourbon, 10 
 
 Brazil, 58 
 
 British, see Empire, Freedom, 
 Privileges, Constitution 
 
 Brunswick, 54, 220, 223 
 
 Brusa, 68 
 
 Builders of Democracy, 20 
 
 Burgoyne, 21; Burke s speech 
 on defeat, 237-242 
 
 Burke, sketches of life, 22-29, 
 31, 146, 301 ; selections, 169- 
 236; power of oratory, 25, 
 237-242; see names of his 
 speeches and essays 
 
 Burney, 24 
 
 Bute, 15, 30, 162-163, 165, 
 167, 230, 231, 303 
 
 Cabal (court faction), 222, 
 
 224, 226-228 
 Cabinet, double, 229 
 Camden, 276, 295 
 Canada, 10, 29 
 Cape Breton, 103 
 Capital, 47, 288 
 Carolinas, 35, 65, 77, 118 
 Catholics, 22, 28, 63, 75, 161 
 Cause, 109, 299 
 Chair, 285, see Norton 
 Charter of Mass., see Abro 
 gated 
 
 Chatham, speeches quoted, 243- 
 255; referred to, 10, 11, 13, 
 14,16/22,27,30,31,32,112, 
 131, 142, 164, 183, 223, 286, 
 295, 300, 303 
 
 Chester, 93-95, 100, 111, 112, 
 
 115, 297, 300 
 Chicane, 61, 291 
 
 Church of England, 64, 76 
 Civil War, American, 38 
 Coke, 78, 294 
 Coercion, 35, 41, 81, 130, 280, 
 
 290, see Eestraint 
 1 Colonies will go further, 
 
 85, 87, 112, 113, 181, 188, 
 
 296 
 Colonies, see America, see 
 
 names of colonies 
 Commerce, 50-56 
 Commercial regulations, 296 
 Commons described, 15, 129- 
 
 130, 148, 152, 284-285; 
 
 Burke on nature of, 234- 
 
 236; Burke s references to, 
 
 41, 43, 51, 62, 85, 89, 104, 
 
 116, 117, 122 
 Competence of assemblies, 102, 
 
 29 
 
 Complexions, 59, 290 
 Composition, 118, 301 
 Compounding, 123, 301 
 Compromise and barter, 113 
 Comus, 97, 297 
 Concession from superior 
 
 power, 48, 253 
 
INDEX 
 
 313 
 
 Conciliation, 35, 46, 47, 48, 
 59, 81, 88, 109, 121, 246, 251, 
 270 
 
 Conde, 252 
 
 Confidence, 46, see Unsuspect 
 ing 
 
 Congress, 24, 66, 111, 252, 288 
 
 Connecticut, 103, 109 
 
 Considerations three, 49, 50, 
 54, 60, 290, 293 
 
 Constitution, 21, 29, 62, 88, 
 89, 99, 114, 116, 124-126, 
 215, 249, 250, 290 
 
 Contingent (adj.), 121, 301; 
 (noun), 117, 300 
 
 Conway, 142, 275, 286, 287 
 
 Cords of a man, 114, 300 
 
 Corn, 57, 179 
 
 Cornwall, 166, 184 
 
 Cornwallis, 37 
 
 County palatine, 93 
 
 Courts in America, 110, 111 
 
 Crimea, 68 
 
 Criminal, treating colonies as, 
 77-81 
 
 Davenant, 51 
 Davies, 89 
 Davis Straits, 57 
 Debt, English public, 122, 301 
 Decent maintenance, 111, 300 
 De jure, 112, 300 
 Difficulties great, 118-120, 301 
 Disobedient, 67, 292 
 Dissidence of dissent, 64 
 Distance of colonies, 67, 77, 
 96, 97, 101, 102, 118, 298 
 
 Distinguished person (Glover), 
 
 51, 289 
 Dunmore, 70 
 Dunning, 19, 278, 303 
 Duquesne, 9, 10 
 Durham, 96, 100, 112, 115 
 
 Ease would retract, 123 
 
 East India Company, 124, 181 
 
 Economical Eeform, 241 
 
 Education, 66, 76, 291 
 
 Edward I, 91 
 
 Effingham, 143, 272 
 
 Egypt, 67 
 
 Elizabeth, 90 
 
 Emanation, 69, 293 
 
 Empire, defined, 78; Ameri 
 can, 127; British, 27, 42, 45, 
 46, 55, 78, 83, 88, 114, 115, 
 120, 121, 125, 127, 209; see 
 Unity 
 
 Envy, 57, 290 
 
 Experience, 116, 121 ; see The 
 ories 
 
 Experimentum, 116, 300 
 
 Exquisite, 85, 295 
 
 Extent, 120, 301 
 
 Ex vi termini, 79, 294 
 
 Falkland Island, 57, 290 
 Financi-ers, 85, 121, 295 
 First had the honor of a seat, 
 
 42, 43 ; see Session 
 Fisheries, 57, 74, 92, 119, 290 
 Fiske, 6, 303 
 Floor, 66, 291 
 
314 
 
 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Fomented, 46, 288 
 
 For the ministry, 101; see 
 Hillsborough 
 
 Force, 59-60, 204 
 
 Force sent to America, 81 
 
 Foreign mercenaries, see Ger 
 man 
 
 Four examples, 89, 296 
 
 Fox, Charles J., extracts from 
 speeches, 256-265; referred 
 to, 18, 19. 139, 147, 241, 
 270, 303 
 
 Fox, Henry, 165, 167 
 
 Frailty, 41, 286 
 
 France, 29, 149, 199 
 
 Franklin, 268, 294 
 
 Frederick the Great, 133 
 
 Freedom (a few references to 
 Liberty, Eights), 5, 7,10, 14, 
 15, 20, 27, 30, 36, 37, 60, 65, 
 66, 71, 75, 82, 84, 89, 93, 
 114, 115, 123, 124-127, 149, 
 207, 215, 216, 291, 293, 301 
 
 French and Indian War, 10 
 
 Gage, 66, 243, 245, 252 
 
 Gambling, 287; see Bank, 
 Table, Hand, Game 
 
 Game, 44 
 
 Garter, 33 
 
 Gaspee, 35 
 
 Gates, 29 
 
 George I, 13 
 
 George II, 13, 101, 104, 225 
 
 George III, 11, 13-21, 30-34, 
 36, 37, 54, 102, 110, 130- 
 134, 137, 147-155, 156-168, 
 
 172, 196, 254, 288, 290, 298, 
 
 300, 301, 303 
 German, Germany, 5, 11, 12, 
 
 13, 14, 20, 33, 120, 156, 199, 
 
 200, 202, 206, 207, 254, 275, 
 
 280, 282, 290, 297, 298, 299 
 Gibbon 15, 146, 242 
 Giving up the colonies, 72, 293 
 Glover, 51, 289 
 
 Good for us to be here, 54, 289 
 Gothic, 65 
 Grand Penal Bill, 18, 41, 47, 
 
 286 
 Grants of land, 73 ; of money, 
 
 91, 93, 95, 98, 102-107, 122, 
 
 210, 295 
 Green, 6, 303 
 Greenlaw, 20 
 
 Grenville, 30, 31, 105, 112, 303 
 Guinea, 77 
 
 Halifax, Earl, 186, 187 
 
 Hampden, 291 
 
 Hand, 44, 287 
 
 Hanover, 12, 14 
 
 Hapsburg, 10 
 
 Harrington, 97 
 
 Hartley, 268 
 
 Hastings, 25, 27, 284 
 
 Henry III, 91 
 
 Henry VIII, 93, 108, 110; see 
 Trials in England 
 
 House, see Commons, Parlia 
 ment 
 
 High, 103, 299 
 
 Hillsborough, 34, 101; letter 
 of, 172-178; 181, 298, 302 
 
INDEX 
 
 315 
 
 Holland, 58 
 Horace, 296, 298 
 Howe, 277 
 Hudson s Bay, 57 
 Hume, 132 
 Humors, 70, 293 
 
 Illation, 113, 300 
 Impeachable offenses, 102 
 Imports to England, 56 
 Imposition, 98, 106, 118, 297 
 Incongruous mixture, 41, 286; 
 
 see Kestraint 
 Incubus, 92 
 India, 27, 28, 29, 124 
 Indian -wars, 103 
 Indictment of whole people, 
 
 78, 93, 294 
 Influence, 219 
 Initiated, 302 
 Inquisition, 76 
 Ireland, 89, 115, 122, 160, 250, 
 
 296 
 
 Irish pensioners, 154, 296 
 Irnham, 19 
 Isle of Man, 179 
 
 Jealous, 61, 290 
 Jewel of his soul, 113 
 Johnson, Dr., 23 
 Johnatone, Gov., 19, 25, 239, 
 
 265 
 
 Judge, acting as, 79 
 Judges in America, 110, 111 
 Judicature, 110, 299 
 Junto, 232 
 
 King, see George III 
 
 King s men (some references 
 are to king s friends, Swiss 
 of state, etc.), 4, 17, 19, 32, 
 130, 162, 166, 182, 183, 187, 
 220, 229, 232, 233, 234, 285, 
 288, 289, 294, 297, 301 
 
 Kurdistan, 68 
 
 Labyrinth, 119, 201 
 
 Land Tax Act, 126, 302 
 
 Law, 66, 76, 291 
 
 Lecky, quoted, 156-168; re 
 ferred to, 4, 20, 303 
 
 Letter to the Sheriffs of Bris 
 tol, extracts, 193-217; re 
 ferred to, 300, 303 
 
 Levis, Due de, 25 
 
 Lexington, 11, 22, 36 
 
 Liberty, see Spirit of Liberty, 
 Freedom 
 
 Lincoln, 26 
 
 Links of iron, 124 
 
 Litigious, 66, 291 
 
 Lords Marchers, 91, 296 . 
 
 Luttrell, 18, 266 
 
 Mace, 47, 284, 288 
 
 Magna Charta, 89 
 
 Magnanimity, 4, 22, 127 
 
 Majesty, 102 
 
 Manchester, Duke of, 19 
 
 Manners in South, 68 
 
 Manufactures, 30, 117, 119, 
 178 
 
 Marine enterprises, see Fish 
 eries 
 
316 
 
 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Maryland, 118 
 Massachusetts, 35, 71, 80, 103, 
 
 108, 109, 187, 188; charter 
 
 of, see Abrogated 
 Menaces, 76, 288 
 Mercenaries, see German 
 Mercurial, 67, 292 
 Merely, 63 
 Metaphysical, 114, 189, 208, 
 
 244, 300 ; see Theories 
 Minima, 50, 289 
 Ministry defined, 12; North s 
 
 ministry, "18, 44, 101, 102, 
 
 135, 136, 138, 145, 244, 247, 
 
 251, 259, 263, 287, 292, 298 
 Monopolists, 73 
 Monsters, 69, 292 
 Moral, 67, 77, 114, 292 
 More, 97 
 Mr. Speaker, 54, 285 ; se* ^r- 
 
 ton 
 
 Murder, 109, 299 
 Mutiny Bill, 126 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 18 
 
 Neglect salutary, 58, 211 
 
 Negroes, 49, 77 
 
 Newcastle, 13, 15, 164-165, 223 
 
 Newfoundland, 286, 290 
 
 New Hampshire, 103 
 
 New York, 32 
 
 Nice, 79, 294 
 
 Noble lord in the blue ribbon, 
 47 ; see North ; see Blue rib 
 bon 
 
 Non meus, 99 
 
 North, 18-21, 32-37, 47, 48, 
 85, 86, 101, 116, 120, 139, 
 148, 151-153, 175, 178, 192, 
 193, 239, 241, 260, 263, 270, 
 288, 289, 294, 295, 302, 303 
 
 Norton, 18, 256, 285, 303 
 
 Objections, to force, 59-60 ; to 
 
 stopping grants of land, 73; 
 
 to Burke s resolutions, 111- 
 
 115; to North s project, 
 
 116-120 
 Observations on the Present 
 
 State of the Nation, 298 
 Occasional, 50, 289 
 Oceana, 97 
 Operose, 69, 293 
 Opinions allowed, established, 
 
 71, 74, 190, 208, 211, 218, 
 
 292 
 Opposition, denned, 13 ; " us, " 
 
 44, 284, 287 
 
 Opposuit natura, 97, 297 
 Outcry, 118, 301 
 Outline of Conciliation, 283 
 
 Pamphlet (Tucker s), 86, 296 
 Paradise Lost, 301 
 Parties in America, 123 
 Parliament ( Burke s refer 
 ences to), 43, 48, 72, 82, 84, 
 89, 91, 92, 95, 100, 102, 104, 
 111, 112, 117, 118 
 Parliamentary History, ex 
 tracts, 265-282; referred to, 
 17, 303 
 Partial, 108, 299 
 
INDEX 
 
 317 
 
 Peace, 46, 48, 116, 120 
 
 Penal laws, 81, 96; in Wales, 
 92; see Grand Penal Bill, 
 Repeal of Penal Acts 
 
 Pennsylvania, 56 
 
 Pensioners, Irish, 91, 296 
 
 Peroration, 124-127, 283, 301 
 
 Philip II, 88, 296 
 
 Pitt, the elder, see Chatham; 
 the younger, 22, 37 
 
 Platform, 44 
 
 Plato, 97 
 
 Poles, 65 
 
 Polity, 82, 295 
 
 Politics, 69, 292 
 
 Popular, 63, 69, 291 
 
 Population, 49, 72-74, 96 
 
 Posita luditur, 122, 301 
 
 Prime minister, 12 
 
 Privileges, 79, 127; see Free 
 dom 
 
 Profane, 126, 302 
 
 Project (North s), 35, 47, 48, 
 116, 288 
 
 Protestants, 63, 291 
 
 Pruriency, 46, 288 
 
 Prussia, 3, 5, 29, 125 
 
 Public tribunal, 43, 287 
 
 Putnam, 29 
 
 Quakers, 22 
 Quebec, 29, 31 
 Questions, two capital, 48 
 Quod felix, 127, 302 
 
 Radical, 72, 293 
 Raleigh, 78, 294 
 
 Ransom, 116, 123; see Auction 
 Rebellion in America, 35, 43, 
 
 79, 80, 96, 195, 206, 216, 
 
 265, 271, 287 
 Rebellion, " Great, " 11 
 Reconciliation, see Conciliation 
 Refined policy, 46, 288 
 Refractory colonies, 118 
 Refusal, 121 
 
 Religion, 63, 75, 90, 95, 208 
 Repeal of penal acts, 107-111, 
 
 254, 299 
 Representation, 62, 63, 93, 94, 
 
 96, 97, 98-101, 111, 291, 295, 
 
 297, 298 
 
 Republic, 97, 297 
 Requisition, 106 
 Resolutions, Burke s, 98-111, 
 
 298 
 
 Restraint, 29, 41, 74, 286 
 Returning officer, 109, 299 
 Revenue laws, 86, 121, 127, 
 
 178, 296 
 
 Revenue by grant, by imposi 
 tion, 106; see Grants of 
 
 Money, Imposition 
 Revolution, American, 36, 37, 
 
 38; see extracts from 
 
 Trevelyan, 129-145, Fox s 
 
 speeches, Letter to Sheriffs 
 Revolution, English, 11, 12, 90, 
 
 225 
 
 Revolution, French, 28, 37 
 Rhode Island, 103, 109 
 Rice, 57 
 Richard II, 94 
 Richmond, Duke of, 133, 277 
 
318 
 
 BURKE S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 
 
 Bights, abstract, 80, 295; see 
 Theories; English, see Free 
 dom 
 
 Eobinson, 151-153 
 
 Kockingham, 24, 31, 166, 183, 
 230, 273 
 
 Rodman, 38 
 
 Eoman charity, 57, 290 
 
 Run the longitude, 58, 290 
 
 St. Stephen s, 284 
 
 Sandwich, 141, 147, 149 
 
 Serbonian bog, 83 
 
 Serpent, 57, 290 
 
 Session, Burke a first, 212, 213, 
 
 182-185 
 Session, "the present," 43, 
 
 287 
 
 Seven Years War, 10, 13, 29 
 Simplicity, 46 
 Simul alba, 93, 296 
 Sir, 285; see Norton 
 Sixth of George II, 101, 298 
 Slavery, arguing or forcing 
 
 Americans into, 75, 79, 125, 
 
 190, 245 
 Slaves, negro, in America, 49, 
 
 52, 65, 76, 77, 289 
 Slaves, make haughty, 114, 300 
 Smyrna, 68 
 Sophistry, 114 
 Spain, 68, 88, 125, 149, 254, 
 
 296 
 
 Spare it altogether, 121, 301 
 Speed, 123, 301 
 Spirit of liberty, 10, 58, 61, 
 
 68, 72, 77, 81 
 
 Spoliatis arma, 75, 294 
 Stamp Act, 24, 31, 101, 182- 
 
 191, 211, 248, 286, 288, 295 
 State, 105, 299 
 Stuarts, 11, 12, 95, 150, 156, 
 
 166, 284 
 
 Sublime and Beautiful, 22 
 Submission, 47, 70, 271, 275, 
 
 286, 288, 295 
 Subsidies, 99, 103 
 Sultan, 68 
 
 Superstition, 41, 95, 286 
 Sursum corda, 127, 302 
 
 Table, 123 
 Tartars, English, 73 
 Taxable objects, 124, 301 
 Taxation, 29-32, 35, 36, 82, 
 
 84-87, 94, 95, 98-101, 104- 
 
 107, 112-114, 117-120, 124, 
 
 218, 244, 249, 291, 295, 297, 
 
 299 
 Taxation of Americans by 
 
 themselves, 105, 124, 250, 
 
 299 
 
 Taxation by grant, 98, 297 <] 
 Taxation a test of liberty, 61- 
 
 62 
 
 Taxation in Ireland, 90 
 Tea, 32, 34, 177 
 Tea Party, 35, 294 
 Temper and character, 60-68 
 Temple of Peace, Concord, 98, 
 
 100, 111, 125, 127, 302 
 Theories, Burke s dislike for 
 
 mere, 27, 45, 49, 60, 80, 88, 
 
INDEX 
 
 319 
 
 97, 100, 107, 113, 116, 189, 
 288, 295; see Metaphysical 
 
 Thoughts on the Cause of the 
 Present Discontents, ex 
 tracts, 218-236; referred to, 
 6, 16, 303 
 
 Tobacco, 119, 301 
 
 Touched and grieved, 94, 99, 
 100, 298 
 
 Townshend, 32, 34, 163, 303 
 
 Trade, see Commerce 
 
 Trade laws, 29, 85-87, 250, 293 
 
 Traitors, see Trials in England 
 
 Treason, see Trials in England 
 
 Trevelyan, extracts, 129-155, 
 237-242; cited, 303 
 
 Trials for treason in England, 
 33, 92, 108, 109, 120, 171, 
 194 
 
 Truck and huckster, 68, 292 
 
 Tucker, 293, 296 
 
 Turk, 67 
 
 Understood principle, 84, 295, 
 
 297 
 Unity of Empire, 115, 120, 
 
 125, 300 
 
 Unsuspecting confidence, 3, 11, 
 46, 84, 172, 178, 212, 213, 
 288 
 
 Utopia, 97 
 
 Virginia, 65, 76, 77, 118, 119, 
 
 187 
 Virtually represented, 96 
 
 Wales, 91-93, 115, 296 
 Walpole, Horace, 25, 131, 146, 
 
 239 
 Walpole, Robert, 12, 13, 15, 
 
 16, 30 
 
 Washington, 9, 26, 28, 29 
 Webster, 28 
 Wedderburn, 146, 303 
 West Indian, 52 
 Westminster, 284 
 Wilkes, John, 28 
 Wilkes, Lord Mayor, 274 
 Will not miscall, 43, 287 
 W T illiam of Orange, 12 
 Wind of doctrine, 42 
 Winged ministers, 67, 292 
 Worse qualified, 44 
 Worthy member, 43, 169, 287 
 
 Ye gods, annihilate, 77 
 
I M 
 
 
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