"V- 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 FREDERIC THOMAS BLANCHARD 
 ENDOWMENT FUND
 
 LETTERS 
 
 T O 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 EDMUND BURKE, 
 
 OCCASIONED BY HIS 
 
 REFLECTION S 
 
 REVOLUTION in FRANCE, &c. 
 
 By JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, L.L.D. F.R.S. 
 
 AC. IMP. PE TROP. R. PARIS. HOLM. TAURIN. ITAL. HAR LEM. AUK EL. MED. 
 FARIG. CANTAB. A.MER1C. ET PHI LAD. SOC. 
 
 Eloquence may exift without a proportionable degree of wifdom. 
 
 Mr. Burke's Refle&ions, p. 245. 
 
 Steady independent minds, when they have an object of fo ierious a 
 concern to mankind, as government, under their contemplation, 
 will difdaiii to alTumethc part of fjtyrijli and Jcclaimcrs. 
 
 Ibid. p. 187. 
 
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 THE 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 OF the numerous readers, and anfvverers, 
 of Mr. Burke's long expected Reflec- 
 tions on the Revolution in France, the atten- 
 tion of the greater part will be chiefly 
 drawn to thofe pafTages which more im- 
 mediately relate to the civil confiituticn of 
 that kingdom. Thefe I have not neglected. 
 But, what I have more particularly replied 
 to, is what he has advanced on civil efta- 
 blijhments of religion, which makes no fmall 
 figure in his performance, and which ap- 
 pears to be a fubject not generally under- 
 flood. 
 
 It is with very fenfible regret that I find 
 Mr. Burke and myfelf on the two oppofite 
 fides of any important queition, and efpeci- 
 ally that I muff now no longer clafs him 
 among the friends of what I deem to be 
 
 A 2 the
 
 IV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the cauje of liberty, civil or religious, af- 
 ter having, in a pleafmg occafional inter- 
 courfe of many years, confidered him in 
 this refpectable li^ht. In the courfe of 
 his public life, he has been greatly be- 
 friended by the DifTenters, many of whom 
 were entbufiaftically attached to him ; and 
 we always imagined that he was one on 
 whom we could depend, efpecially as he 
 fpoke in our favour in the bufinefs of fub- 
 icription, and he made a common caufe 
 with us in zealoufly patronizing the liberty 
 of America. 
 
 That an avowed friend of the American 
 revolution fhould bean enemy to that of the 
 French, which arofe from the fame general 
 principles, and in a great meafure fprung 
 from it, is to me unaccountable. Nor is it 
 much lefs difficult to conceive how any per- 
 fon, who has had America in his eye fo 
 long as Mr. Burke mull necefTarily have 
 contemplated it, could be fo impreffed, as 
 he appears to be, in favour of ecdefiajiical 
 cjlablijhments. That country he fees to flou- 
 rish
 
 PREFACE. y 
 
 rifh as much as any other in the annals of 
 hiftory, without any civil eftablifhment of 
 religion at all. There he mufl: fee the civil 
 government goes on very well without it. 
 It neither ftands in need of religion, nor 
 does religion {land in need of it. For Ame- 
 rica is fo far from being a country of athe- 
 ifts and unbelievers, that there is, I doubt 
 not, a ftronger general fenfe of reli- 
 gion there than in any other part of the 
 world. 
 
 In America alfo, and indeed in every other 
 part of the known world, except the fouthern 
 part of this particular ifland, Mr. Burke fees 
 all civil offices open to perfons of all religious 
 perfuafions without diflinction, and with- 
 out any inconvenience having been known 
 to arife from it ; and yet here lie joins with a 
 bigotted clergy, in rigorouily confining 
 them to the members of the eflablifhed 
 church. But even this is not fo extraor- 
 dinary as his not fcrupling to clafs all the 
 enemies of cftablimmcnts with cheats and 
 hypocrites, as if our opinions were fo 
 
 A 3 palpably
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 palpably abfurd, that no honeft man could 
 poflibly entertain them. 
 
 Some are difpofed to afcribe this change 
 in Mr. Burke's views and politics, to his 
 refentment of the treatment of the coa- 
 lition by the Diflenters. And certainly 
 fo fudden an union of Mr. Burke and his 
 friends with Lord North, with whom they 
 had been in a (late of violent oppofition dur- 
 ing the whole of the American war, did fill 
 the DifTenters, but not the DirTenters only 
 (for the mock affected the greater part of the 
 nation) with horror. In this it is poiTible 
 they might have judged wrong, lifteningto 
 no reafon againfl the effect: of the fir ft un- 
 favourable impreffion ; but they certainly 
 acted from the bell: principles, an attach- 
 ment to liberty, virtue, and confiilency ; 
 and they lamented the fall of Mr. Burke, as 
 that of a friend and a brother. 
 
 However, the queftion before the reader, 
 is not the propriety or impropriety of any 
 particular man's conduct, but the wifdom 
 
 of
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 of great meafures of government ; as whe- 
 ther it be right, and wife, to connect the 
 bulinefs of religion with that of the /late, in 
 the manner in which it is done in this coun- 
 try, and whether the French nation isjufti- 
 fiable in their attempts to change their arbi- 
 trary form of government for another which 
 they deem to be more favourable to their 
 interefts and natural rights. 
 
 The queftion alio with refpect to them, 
 is not whether they have taken the very bell 
 methods poflible to gain their end, but whe- 
 ther the thing itfelf was worth their aiming 
 at, and whether they have been thofe very 
 great fools that Mr. Burke makes them to be. 
 After all, mankind in general will judge 
 by the event. If they fucceed in efhiblifh- 
 ing a free government, they will be ap- 
 plauded for their judgment, as well as for 
 the /pi n't that they have (hewn ; and if they 
 fail, they will be condemned for their pre- 
 cipitancy and folly. Thus every fuccefsfu! 
 revolt is termed a revolution, and every un- 
 fuccefsful one a rebellion. 
 
 A 4 If
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 If the principles that Mr. Burke now ad- 
 vances (though it is by no means with per- 
 fect confiftency) be admitted, mankind are 
 always to be governed as they have been 
 governed, without any enquiry into the 
 nature, or origin, of their governments. The 
 choice of the people is not to be confidered, 
 and though their happinefs is aukwardly 
 enough made by him the end of govern- 
 ment ; yet, having no choice, they are not 
 to be the judges of what is for their good. 
 On thefe principles, the church, or the /fate, 
 once eftablifhed., mufl for ever remain the 
 fame. This is evidently the real fcope of 
 Mr. Burke's pamphlet, the principles of 
 it being, in fact, no other than thofe of pajjivc 
 obedience and non-refi fiance, peculiar to the 
 Tories and the friends of arbitrary power, 
 fuch as were echoed from the pulpits of 
 all the high church party, in the reigns of 
 the Stuarts, and of Queen Anne. Let them, 
 however, be produced again, and let us fee 
 in what manner they will be treated by 
 the good fcnfc and fpirit of Englifhmen 
 at the prefent day. 
 
 After
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 After the firft part of thefe letters relat- 
 ing more immediately to the French Revo- 
 lution were printed, I had an opportunity 
 of feeing the Memoir of the Compte De Lally 
 Tollendal, of whofe account of the tranf- 
 action of the fixth of October, Mr. Burke 
 has availed himfelf fo much, p. 109, &c. 
 calling him "one of the moft honeft, in- 
 ' telligent, and eloquent members of the 
 " National AiTembly." I have particularly 
 compared his account of this AfTembly, 
 with that of Mr. Burke, p. 24, where he 
 fays, " I confider this AfTembly as nothing 
 " elfe than a voluntary affociation of men 
 " who have availed themfelves of circurn- 
 " ftances to feize upon the power of the 
 " ftate, imd that they have not the fanction, 
 " and authority, of the character under 
 " which they firft met." 
 
 Mr. Tollendal's ideas were certainly very 
 different from theic of Mr. Burke. For, 
 fpeaking of his being chofen a member of 
 the AfTembly, he fays, p. 5, " it was, with- 
 " out doubt, a great occafion, and a great 
 
 " work
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 " work, to concur in the regeneration of 
 " France, in founding liberty there, and in 
 " creating laws and manners*!" What, 
 then, has the National AfTembly done, or 
 attempted to do, more than this, which 
 Mr. Tollendal clearly conceived to have 
 been the defign of their meeting ? Though 
 he thought proper to leave this AfTembly, 
 yet he acknowledges, p. 45, that *' the 
 " majority of the perfons who compofed 
 " it, had the pureft intentions-}-;" and he 
 fpeaks in the higheft terms of approba- 
 tion concerning the declaration of Rights, 
 which was their firft Act. After making 
 fome objections refpecting the form, more 
 than the fubftance, he fays, p. 125, <( it 
 " contains all the great principles which 
 " are the guards of focieties, which main- 
 
 * C'etoit, fans doute, une afTez grancle occafion ; 
 c'etoit un affez grand travail, que de concourir a re- 
 generer la France, a yfondre la liberte, & a y creer des 
 lois k des nioeurs. 
 
 + Une trcs petite portion d'individus pourroit ren- 
 dre inutiles les intentiones pures de la majorite. 
 
 1 " tain
 
 PREFACE. xi 
 
 " tain the rights of man, and of his dig- 
 " nity, and which fecure his tranquility 
 "and happinefs *." And thefe are thofe 
 rights cf men which Mr. Burke treats with 
 fo much ridicule. 
 
 In order to form a judgment whether the 
 National Affembly had actually exceeded 
 their commiffion, or had undertaken more 
 than was required of them, I alfo looked 
 into the King of France's circular Utter 
 for the convocation cf the States at Verfailles, 
 dated January 24, 1789, as it is contained 
 in the New Annual Regi/ier, for 1739, 
 p. in. According to it, this Affembly 
 was convened " to eflabliili a fteady, con- 
 " ftanr, and invariable order in every part 
 " of government, that intereffed the hap- 
 
 * II eft cepend.mt vrai de dire, que tous les grandes 
 principes, tons ces principes tute.laires des focietcs, 
 conlervatcnrs des droits de l'homme, & de fa dignitc, 
 proteteurs de Ion repos k de fonbonheur, y font ren- 
 fernics. Je crois que cette declaration pourra ttre 
 applaudie. le jour 01a les troubles qui s'elevoient, pen- 
 dant qucnou-j la rJdigions, fcront calmcs. 
 
 " pinefs
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 *' pinefs of the people, and the profperity 
 " of the kingdom -, that an effectual re- 
 * medy might be applied to the diforders 
 <{ of the Hate, and that abufes of every kind 
 " might be reformed and prevented, by good 
 " and folid means, proper to infure a per- 
 " manency of the public happinefs." And 
 laftly, it is faid to be " for every thing that 
 " might concern the prefent and future 
 " wants of the ftate." 
 
 Again, in the Kings letter to the Prep- 
 dent of the JJfcmbly, dated May 28, 1789, 
 he fays, "I cannot fee without pain the 
 " National AfTembly, which I have called 
 " together, to be concerned with me in the 
 *' new regulation of the kingdom, funk 
 " into inaction; which if continued, would 
 " caufe all the hopes which I have formed 
 " for the happinefs of my people, and the 
 " benefit of the flate to prove abortive." 
 
 Certainly, therefore, in the opinion of 
 the King, as well as that of the whole na- 
 tion, there was a want of a total reform in 
 
 the
 
 PREFACE. xiii 
 
 the conftitution of the French government, 
 and this reform was expected from the 
 National Affcmbly. This is the very thing 
 which they are endeavouring to effect, and 
 in which they have made confiderable pro- 
 grefs. What they have done gives the 
 greateft pleafure to the friends of univerfal 
 liberty, though unfortunately it gives pain 
 to Mr. Burke, and fome others.
 
 T II E 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Letter I. Of the general Principles of the French Re- 
 volution - - P a ge i 
 Letter II. Of fame Particulars in the new Confuta- 
 tion of France > andfome Circumflances attending the 
 Difclution of the old one - - 10 
 Letter III. Of the Nature of Government y and the 
 Rights of Men and of Kings - 22 
 Letter IV. Of the Revolution in England, compared 
 with that in France - - 34 
 Letter V. Of the Revolution Society in England, and 
 Mr. Burke's Reflexions on Dr. Price - 43 
 Letter V. Of the Interference of the State in Matters 
 of Religion in general - - 49 
 Letter VI. Of the Source of the Refpccl that is paid 
 to Re'igion - - - 6 j 
 Letter VII. Of a civil Fflablijhment being cffential 
 to Chriflianity - - 77 
 Letter VIII. Of the Ufes of civil Eflabliflrments of 
 Religion - - - S4 
 
 Letter
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Letter IX. Of an Elective Clergy p age - 
 
 Letter X. QfMonaftic Inftitutions, and Mr. Burke's 
 
 general Maxim that exifting Powers are not to be 
 
 deftroyed - _ 
 
 Letter XI. Of the Sacrednefs of the Revenues of the 
 Church 
 
 Letter XII. Of the Danger of the Church, and of the 
 TeftLaws ' - - 121 
 
 Letter XIII. Of the Profpecl of the general En- 
 largement of Liberty, civil and religious, opened by 
 
 the Revolution in France - 
 
 140 
 
 ERRATA. 
 N. B. (I) Ognifies from the bottom, 
 Page 1, 1. 7, for of read in. 
 33>l- 5 (.b) term terms. 
 41, I. 7 (b) with with the. 
 43, 1.4 {b)~ the a . 
 45> 1. a (b) all of. 
 50, 1. 5, . at as. 
 61, 1. 7, a t u p m 
 85 > 1. 6, of out of. 
 92, 1. 6, unftrained unref rained. 
 109,1. 7, of the of. 
 1*1,1.8(4) &?! _ fc w .
 
 LETTERS 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 ED MU XD B U RKE. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Of the general Principles of the French Re-volution. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I Do not wonder that the late revolution of the 
 French government, has excited your attention, 
 and that of a great part of the nation. " It is," 
 as you juftly fay, p. n, " all circum (lances taken 
 " together, the molt aftonifhing that has hitherto 
 " happened in the world." It is, therefore, a mod 
 interefting object both to philofophical and practi- 
 cal politicians. It behoves them to confider the 
 principles on which it has been made, that if the 
 conduct of die leaders in the bufmefs has been right, 
 
 B and
 
 1 LETTERS TO 
 
 and if the fcheme promifes to be beneficial to the 
 country, it may, as far as their fituations are fimi- 
 lar, be imitated in other countries ; and that, if their 
 conduct has been wrong, and the refult of it unpro- 
 mifing, the example may ferve to deter others from 
 any attempt of the like kind. 
 
 But though there is nothing extraordinary in this 
 revolution having excited fo much of your atten- 
 tion, I am furprifed that you fhould be fo much 
 alarmed and dijiurbed at it. You appear to me not 
 to be iuriiciently cool to enter into this ferious dif- 
 cuflion. Ycur imagination is evidently heated, and 
 your ideas conmfed. The objects before you do 
 not appear in their proper fhapes and colours; and, 
 without denying them, you lofe fight of the great 
 and the leading principles, on which all juft govern- 
 ments arc founded, principles which I imagined'had 
 been long fettled, and univerfally affented to, at leaft 
 by all who are denominated whigs, the friends of our 
 own revolution, and of that which has lately taken place 
 in America. To this clafs of politicians, you have 
 hitherto prcfelTed to belong, and traces cf thefe 
 principles may be pe/ceived in this work of yours. 
 
 Notwithstanding " t\\o. hcv^dnds" as you call it, 
 p. 29, " of an hereditary principle of fucceflion," 
 in our government, you allow of cf a power of 
 cc change in its application in cafes of extreme 
 Cf emergency j" adding, however, that " the change 
 
 " fliould
 
 MR. BURKE. 3 
 
 "mould be confined to the peccant part only." 
 Nor do you deny that the great end and object of 
 all government, that which makes it preferable to a 
 ftate of anarchy, is the good of the people. It is 
 better for them, and they are happier in a (late of 
 government. For the fame reafon, you mult allow 
 that that particular form cf government, which is 
 beft adapted to promote the happinefs of any people, 
 is the bed for that people. 
 
 If you admit thus much, you muft alfo allow 
 that, fince every private perfon is juftified in better- 
 ing his condition, and indeed commended for it ; a 
 nation is not to be condemned for endeavouring to 
 better theirs. Confequently, if they find their form 
 of Government to be a bad one, whether it was fo 
 originally, or became fo through abufe or accident, 
 they will do very well to change it for a better. A 
 partial change, no doubt, will be preferable to a 
 total one, if a partial change will be iufficient for 
 the purpofe. But if it appear that all attempts to 
 mend an old conltitution would be in vain, and the 
 people prefer a new one, their neighbours have no 
 morcbufinefs to find fault with them, than with any 
 individual, who mould think it more advifeable to 
 pull down an old and inconvenient houle, and build 
 another from the foundation, rather than lay out his 
 money in repairs. Nations, no doubt, as well as in- 
 dividuals, may judge wrong. They may act pre. 
 B 2 cipitately,
 
 4- LETTERS TO 
 
 cipitately, and they may differ in confequence of it : 
 but this is only a reafon for caution, and does not pre- 
 clude a right of judging and acting for themfelves, 
 in the beft manner they can. 
 
 tc The very idea," you fay, p. 44, " of the fabri- 
 fc cation of a new government is enough to fill us 
 " wiih difgufl and horror." It is, no doubt, far 
 from being a thing defirable in itfelfj but it may 
 neverthelefs be neceffary ; and for all the evils aris- 
 ing from the change, you mould blame not the 
 framers of the new government, but the wretched 
 Hate of the old one, and thofe who brought it into 
 thatftate. Thatfome very material change was want- 
 ing in the old government of France, you cannot 
 deny, after allowing, p. 195, that "in that country 
 <c the unlimited power of the fovereign over the 
 " perfons of his fubjects, was inconfiftcnt with law 
 " and liberty." On other occafions, I believe you 
 haveexpreffedyourfelf in a ftronger manner than this. 
 If law and liberty were wanting in the old conftitu- 
 tion, the peccant part mull have been the very foun- 
 dation of it; fo that nothing effectual could have 
 been done fhort of taking down the whole. 
 
 If thefe incontrovertible principles and faffs be 
 admitted, I can fee no reafon for your exclaiming 
 fo violently as you do againft the late revolution in 
 France. Befides, whatever has been done, and in 
 whatever manner it has been done, if the nation it- 
 
 fdf,
 
 MR. BURKE. 5 
 
 felf, whom alone it concerns, do not complain, we 
 have no bufinefs to complain for them, any farther 
 than the interefl we take in the welfare of others, 
 may lead us to feel for the diftreffes which we ap- 
 prehend their folly and precipitancy may bring 
 upon them. I mail, however, briefly confider the 
 principal of your objections to this revolution. 
 
 You confider the prefent National Affembly of 
 France as ufurpers, affuming a power that does 
 not belong to them. " I can never," you fay, 
 p. 242, " confider this affembly as any thing elfe 
 " than a voluntary affociation of men, who have 
 " availed themfelves of circumftances to feize upon 
 " the power of theflate. They have not the fanc- 
 " tion and authority of the character under which 
 " they firft met. They have affumed another, of a 
 " very different nature, and have completely al- 
 " tered and inverted all the relations in which they 
 " originally flood. They do not hold the authority 
 " they exercife under any conftitutional law of the 
 " ftate. They have departed from the inftruc- 
 " tions of the people by whom they were fent, 
 " which inftructions, as the affembly did not act in 
 " virtue of any ancient ufuage or fettled law, were 
 " the fole fource of their authority." 
 
 Now, Sir, even allowing this to be true; ad- 
 mitting this National Affembly to have had no re- 
 gular fummons to meet, or to do any bufinefs at all; 
 B 3 fuppof-
 
 6 LETTERS -TO 
 
 fuppofing them to have been men who rofe out of 
 the earth, or who dropped down from the clouds, 
 or that no body couid tell whence they came, and 
 that, without any authority whatever, they took 
 upon themfelves to frame a new conftitution of 
 government for the French nation ; if the nation 
 really approve of it, acquiefce in it, and actually 
 adopt it, it becomes from that time their own act, 
 and the Aflembly can only be confidered as the 
 propofers and advifers. It is the acquiefcence of 
 the people that gives any form of government its 
 proper fanction, and that legalizes it. Changes of 
 government cannot be brought about by efta- 
 bliflied forms and rules, becaufc there is no fupe- 
 rior power to prefcribe thofe rules. There are no 
 lirpreme courts comprehending thefe great objects. 
 Alfo, the cafes occur fo rarely, and they are fo unlike 
 to one another, that it would be to no purpofe to look 
 for precedents. 
 
 Now, that the French revolution is juftiflable on 
 this plain principle, is evident from the tingle cir- 
 cumfcance of the National Aflembly having conti- 
 nued their fittings without moleftation, and from 
 their decrees having been actually obeyed, for fome- 
 thing more than a year at leaft. This Aflembly 
 does not c^nfifc, I believe, of more than about one 
 thoufand perfons, and at full they had no army at 
 their command; whereas at prefent the whole force 
 
 of
 
 MR. BURKE. 7 
 
 of the ftate is in their hands. This force could not 
 have been transferred from the king to them, with- 
 out the confent both of the army, and of the nation 
 which fupports that army. As the nation does not 
 complain of this tranflation of power, it is evident 
 they do not think themfelves aggrieved, and that 
 the change has been made with their approbation. 
 Here, then, we fee all the marks of a legal govern- 
 ment, or a government that is really the choke of the 
 people. I do not fay what difficulties may hereafter arife 
 (which if they do, they will probably be the effect of 
 their former government) to induce them to change 
 their opinion. For neither that nation, nor any 
 other, is omnifcient and infallible. 
 
 Without examining into the former fyftem of 
 government, or the adminiftration of it, we may 
 take for granted, that it muft have become ex- 
 tremely odious to the country in general, from the 
 almort univerfal, and the very hearty, concurrence 
 with which the revolution was brought about. A 
 v, hole people is not apt to revolt, till oppreflion 
 has become extreme, and been long continued, fo 
 that they defpair of any other remedy than that def- 
 perate one. The ftrength of an efcablifhed go- 
 vernment, efpecially when it is in few hands, and 
 lias a large Handing army at its command, is almoft 
 infinite ; fo that many nations quietly fuffer every 
 evil, and the country becomes in a manner defolate, 
 B 4 without
 
 8 LETTERS TO 
 
 without their making any attempt to relieve them- 
 felves. This is the cafe in all the Turkifti domi- 
 nions, and is laid to be very nearly fo in Spain and 
 other countries. Whenever, therefore, we fee a 
 whole nation, or a great majority of it, rifing as one 
 man againft an old government, and overturning it, 
 we may fafely conclude that their provocation was 
 great, and their caufe good. 
 
 An opprefTed people do not, however, in gene- 
 ral fee any thing more than what they immediately 
 feel. All they think of is to make off the load which 
 they can no longer bear; and having thought of no- 
 thing but the particular evil that galled them, they 
 are very apt, in their future fettlement, to guard 
 againft that only, without attending to the whole of 
 their new fituation, and the greater evils that may 
 poffibly arife from it. Whether the French have 
 done fo or not, time muft difcover. But if the 
 people in general are well informed, and well dif- 
 pofed, they may make many experiments of new 
 forms of government without much inconvenience $ 
 and though beginning with a very imperfect one, 
 they may adopt a very good one at the laft. 
 
 Was it not predicted that the Americans, on 
 their breaking off from this country, would run into 
 univerfal confufion, and immediately fall to cutting 
 one another's throats ? But though that difrup- 
 tion was a violent one, and was effected by a war, 
 
 which
 
 MR. BURKE. 
 
 which drained all their refources, they never fuffered 
 for want of government. When the war was over 
 they bore very contentedly feveral imperfect and 
 disjointed forms j and now, having taken much 
 time to deliberate on the fubject, they have adopted 
 a more comprehenfive one. But of this they only 
 propofe to make a trial, and if it mould not anfwer, 
 they will, no doubt, endeavour to improve upon it. 
 Now, why may not this be the cafe with the 
 French, efpecially as they have no enemies to con- 
 tend with, and interrupt their proceedings. I do 
 not, I own, difiinctly perceive the wifdom of feve- 
 ral parts of the frame of government, at prefent 
 adopted by the National ArTembly, and many of 
 the remarks that you have made upon it, may, for 
 any thing that I know, be very juft; but not be- 
 ing a judge of their circumftances, and confequently 
 of all their reafons, I prefume that they could not for 
 the prefent do any better. In future time, how- 
 ever, whatever it be that is now deficient may be 
 fupplied. And confidering the apparent ftrcngth 
 of the ancient French government, and the great 
 numbers that depended upon it (far more, I 
 mould imagine, than upon our court and miniftry 
 in this country) I wonder that the revolution was 
 brought about with fo much eafe, and fo little blood- 
 flied. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 LETTER
 
 JO LET T E R S TO 
 
 LETTER IL 
 
 Of Jorae Particulars in the nezv Conftitution of France, 
 and fame Circumftances attending the Dijfolution of 
 the old ens. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 T is very poflible that the National AfTembly, 
 having entered upon the bufinefs of reforming 
 the whole ftate in a very unexpected manner, when 
 nothing could have been preconcerted, may have 
 acted injudicioufly in more refpects than one ; but 
 allowance fliould be made for their peculiar circum- 
 itances. The opportunity that was given them to 
 at was fudden, and fuch as they might in vain 
 have waited for, if they had done nothing till they 
 had been prepared to make the mod of it. They 
 did right, therefore, to do the belt they could, as 
 the occafion offered. 
 
 They might, for example, have divided them- 
 felves into two houfes, and, as in this country, have 
 given each houfe a negative in all their tranfactions, 
 and another to the king. But this might have ap- 
 peared too hazardous at that time ; and indeed it 
 is very probable that, upon that plan, nothing ef- 
 fectual
 
 MR. BURKE. II 
 
 fectual could have been done at all. But they may- 
 adopt this method if they fhould hereafter fee reafon 
 for it. Power is more eafily given than taken 
 away. 
 
 That they have nothing of the nature of a Senate, 
 as you complain, p. 287, I do not fee; while they 
 Hill retain a king, and allow him to appoint certain 
 minifters of ftate. 
 
 They may have left too little power in the hands 
 of the crown ; but kingly power is a plant which, 
 having once taken root, is very apt to grow too luxu- 
 riant , and this, though lopped, may fpront again. 
 As the French kings had gradually acquired, and 
 grofsly abufed, their power, it is not to be won- 
 dered at, if, in the fir ft inftance, the AlTembly 
 fhould have reduced it too low. 
 
 You particularly complain, p. 296, of the king not 
 having the power of peace and war. But was ever 
 any power more grofsly abufed than this has been ? 
 Infinite have been the evils brought upon whole 
 countries, by princes having it in their power 
 to involve them in war at their pleafure, from 
 motives of perfonal refentment and ambition, 
 or the mere caprice of thole about them i and in 
 France generally that of their miftreiTes. 
 
 " There is no other way," you fay, p. 296, " of 
 
 " keeping other potentates from intriguing diftincl:- 
 
 " ly and perfonally with the members of your af- 
 
 1 " fembly,
 
 12 LETTERS TO 
 
 tc fembly, from intermeddling in all your concerns, 
 " and fomenting in the heart of your country the 
 " molt pernicious of all factions ; factions in the 
 " intereft, and under the direction, of foreign 
 " powers." But even this is nothing, compared 
 with the evils that ftates have fuffered from the 
 power of peace and war being in the hands of the 
 prince, that is, of his miniflers ; and cannot foreign 
 powers intrigue with them as well as with the lead- 
 ers of a popular afTembly ? Did not the court of 
 France intrigue with the miniftry of our Charles II. 
 and is it not always done, more or lefs, by all am- 
 baffadors and their agents in all foreign courts ? But 
 if any people was fairly reprefented in a National 
 AfTembly, fo that their real interefts mould be better 
 confulted, caufes of war would feldom occur, and 
 confequently there would be but little temptation to 
 foreigners to intermeddle in their concerns. For ic 
 has been peace or war that has been the chief fub- 
 jec~r. of the intrigues that you complain of. 
 
 The mod ferious difficulty that appears to me 
 to threaten the French government, arifes from 
 their debts > a difficulty brought upon them by their 
 former government, and which indeed made it 
 impoffible to go on any farther with it. This, 
 therefore, is a difficulty that does not neceiTarily 
 attend the formation of the new government, but 
 has been occafioned by the unwillingnefs of the pre- 
 
 lent
 
 MR. BURKE. 13 
 
 lent governors, that thofe who have had confi- 
 dence in the ftate, mould fufFer from the errors of 
 their predeceffors. It is the cafe of an heir, who 
 will put himfelf to great inconvenience to pay the 
 debts of a profligate anceftor. 
 
 You cavil, among other things, at the low rank 
 of the members of the National AfTembly -, faying, 
 p. 61, " That the majority are of the inferior, un- 
 " learned, mechanical, merely inftru mental, mem- 
 " bers of the profeftion of the law," that is, fiich as 
 our attornies. " From the moment," you fay, <c I 
 *' read the lift, I faw diftinctly, and very nearly as 
 " it has happened, all that was to follow. It was 
 " not to be expected," you fay, p. 63, " that 
 '* they would attend to the (lability of property, 
 " whofe exiftence had always depended upon what- 
 " ever rendered property queflionable, ambiguous, 
 <{ and obfcure." 
 
 I mall not call in queftion your gift of prophecy. 
 It may be your peculiar talent to fee all events, pall, 
 prefent, and to come, in their mod concealed caufes, 
 nor fhall I queftion what you affert to be a fa<5t 
 But of whomfoever the National AfTembly of France 
 confiils, there cannot well be a doubt of their being 
 a truer reprefentation of the French nation than our 
 Houfe of Commons, becaufe there cannot well be 
 a worfe, being in the opinion of moft people, I doubt 
 not, as well as that of Dr. Price, a mere mockery of 
 
 reprefentatwt,
 
 14 LETTERS TO 
 
 reprefentation, notwithftanding the influence of thofe 
 caufes which I acknowledge to give it the effect of 
 a much better reprefentation. 
 
 It fignifies very little out of what clafs of men the 
 members of the National Affembly were chofen, 
 fince they mud have been perfons in whom their 
 conftituents thought they could bed confide. But 
 if your reafbning be good, that lawyers, " whofe ex- 
 < iftence depends upon rendering property queftion- 
 " able, ambiguous, and obfcure," will not attend to 
 the {lability of property, where is cur policy in 
 raifing fuch men to the rank of judges ? We do not 
 think our property lefs fafe in their hands, becauie 
 they have always lived by what has been called the 
 glorious uncertainty of the law. The firft American 
 Congrefs, I very well remember, was faid to con- 
 fid chiefly of lawyers ; nor is it to be wondered at' 
 that it mould be fo ; lawyers, who have the talent 
 and the habit of fpeaking in public, being generally 
 confpicuous characters in all places. The ftudy of 
 the law, moreover, leads them to underfland the 
 conftitution of the country, and their profeffion gives 
 them a knowledge of mankind, and the habits of 
 bufinefs. If the lawyers of France do as well as the 
 lawyers of America, they will foon wipe away the 
 reproach they may now lie under, and become the ob- 
 ject of refptct, perhaps of dread, to thofe who at pre- 
 fent defpife them. 
 
 It
 
 MR. BURKE. I "5 
 
 It is amufing to compare the Tentiments of dif- 
 ferent writers on the fame fubjecl:, and toobferve in 
 how different a light the fame thing appears to 
 different minds. I cannot give a better illuftration 
 of this, than by quoting what Dr. Ramfay, in his 
 Hifiory of the American Revolution, fays of the firft 
 Congrefs, as a contrail to what you fay of the Na- 
 tional Affembly of France. 
 
 " Of the whole number of deputies which form- 
 " ed the Continental Congrefs of 1774, one half 
 " were lawyers ; gentlemen of that profeflion had 
 * f acquired the confidence of the inhabitants by their 
 " exertions in the common caufe. The previous 
 " meafures in the refpeftive provinces, had been 
 " planned and carried into eftecl more by lawyers 
 " than by any other order of men. Profeffionally 
 tc taught the rights of the people, they were among 
 M the foreinoft to defcry every attack made on 
 " their liberties. Bred in the habits of public fpeak- 
 " ing, they made a diftinguifhed figure in the meet- 
 " ings of the people, and were particularly able to 
 *' explain to them the tendency of the late acts of 
 " parliament. Exerting their abilities and influ- 
 " ence in the caufe of their country, they were re- 
 " warded with its confidence," vol. 1. p. 134. 
 
 The miftakes you have fallen into, with reipeel: 
 to the prelent government of France, I am inform- 
 ed are grols, and your cenfures founded on them, 
 
 of
 
 l6 LETTERS TO 
 
 of courfe, mifplaced. You particularly amufe your- 
 felf and your readers with the divifion of the coun- 
 try, p. 254, into fquares, and a fub-divifion of fquares 
 within fquares, which has noexiftence but in your own 
 imagination, the actual divifion of the country being 
 no more fquares than our counties. 
 
 Taking it for granted, that the prefent members 
 of the National Affembly are not eligible into the 
 next, you deduce many alarming confequences 
 from fuch an ill-judged meafure. But the meafure 
 is your own, not theirs ; the prefent members be- 
 ing as eligible as any others, and, it is generally 
 fuppofed, that a great majority of them have given 
 fo much fatisfaction to their conftituents, that they 
 will not fail to be re-elected. As you took fo 
 much time in preparing your publication for the 
 prefs, you would have done well to have employed 
 part of it in procuring better information. How- 
 ever, your miftakes will be the means of our get- 
 ting more correct accounts of the real ftate of fads ; 
 and if any of your cenfures on the new conftitution 
 of France be juft, they may be an ufeful and fea- 
 fonable leffon to the great actors in the fcene 5 who, 
 I doubt not, will readily learn what they can, even 
 from an enemy. 
 
 You make the moft tragical reprefentation of 
 the degraded ftate of the prefent king of France, 
 calling it, p, yy, " the moft horrid, atrocious, and 
 
 " afflicting
 
 MR. BURKE. 17 
 
 " afflicYing fpe&acle, that perhaps ever was exhibit- 
 fc ed to the pity and indignation of mankind," con- 
 fidering him as a perfon who received his crown, 
 with all its powers, from his anceftors, and who 
 had himfelf done nothing to deferve the treatment 
 that he met with. Admitting this, if by afuccefiion 
 of incroachments, the power of the crown it/elf had 
 long been enormous, mould that be continued, to 
 the terror and diftrefs of the country, for the fake 
 of the innocent head that happens to wear it. And, 
 after all, what has this king fuffered ? He is ftill the 
 firft in rank, wealth, and power of any perfon in 
 France. If you fay that this power is only nominal, 
 Ianfwerthatthepower of the molt arbitrary princes 
 is little more. They are, in general, only in- 
 ftruments in the hands of thofe who are about them. 
 As to doing what a man really wifhes to do, the 
 laft king of France had very little of it ; and in 
 general, the higher any man (lands in the order of 
 fociety, the lefs power he has of doing what he 
 really likes, and the more of his time he fpends in 
 doing what he had rather wifh not to do, than other 
 men. 
 
 You make a ftill more lamentable defcription of 
 the indignities offered to the queen of France ; and 
 on this fubjecl: you give the molt unbounded fcope to 
 your eloquence *, as if you were her knight, pledged 
 
 * I am informed by a gentleman who was at Paris during the 
 whole of thefc tranfaftions, that there is no truth at all in what 
 
 C Mr.
 
 iS LETTERS TO 
 
 to defend her honour. Now, fuch is the natural 
 prepofleflion of mankind, at leaft in this part of the 
 world (in which the French nation has generally 
 been confidered as foremoft) in favour of the fe- 
 male fex, and efpecially in exalted ftations, that I 
 think it will not be eafy to account for the fall of 
 this queen from the height of popularity, to the ab- 
 horrence and contempt into which, you tell us, fhe 
 is funk, without fuppofing fomething very material 
 to her prejudice, though I do not pretend to fay 
 what that is. And if fhe was that intriguing wo- 
 man, and that enemy to their liberties, that the 
 French nation in general imagine her to have been, 
 fhe may think herfelf fortunate, in fuch a revolution 
 as this has been, to have efcapcd with life. But, 
 after all, is the liberty and happinefs of a whole na- 
 tion to be facrificed to female beauty and complai- 
 fance ? 
 
 Objects appear in very different lights to different 
 perfons, according to their refpective fituations, and 
 the opportunities they have of obferving them. To 
 you, Sir, feventeen years ago, the queen of France, 
 then the Dauphinefs, appeared in all her fplendour, 
 like " the morning fiar," p. 112, decorating the 
 
 Mr. Burke fays of the queen's bedchamber being broke into, or 
 the centinel killed. Nothing of the kind, he fays, was ever heard 
 of till aconfiderable time after the event, and the report arofe 
 from the Ariftocrates. 
 
 face
 
 MR. BURKE. 19 
 
 face of heaven. To the French themfelves, at that 
 time, me probably appeared in the fame light j but 
 in the courfe of fo many years progrefs, fhe has ap- 
 peared to them to be nothing better than a 
 cane!, foreboding every difafter, and bringing de- 
 flation and ruin on their country. You faw no- 
 thing but the fine features, and imagined them to 
 belong to a Venus, a Juno, or a Pallas. The 
 French, it feems, have difcovered the Jnaky hair, 
 and find her to be a mere Medufa 3 and the ten thou- 
 " fand fwords," that you fay were then ready "to leap 
 " from their fcabbards to avenge even a look that 
 " threatened her with infult," would now be drawn 
 againft any who would defend her conduct. 
 
 You will probably fay that fomething, at lead - , 
 mould have been proved againft the queen of France, 
 as well as againft the king. But where, Sir, was the 
 court of law, or juftice, in which fuch a fuit could be 
 inftituted ? When there are no ordinary means of 
 redrafting grievances, people who feel them, and 
 have no other remedy, will have recourfe to ex- 
 traordinary ones ; and if thirty millions find their 
 interefts incompatible with that of a few, they, of 
 courfe, being the judges, will not hefitate to decide 
 for themfelves, and carry that decifion into execu- 
 tion. In this they will, no doubt, proceed irregu- 
 larly. But you, Sir, fhould have been upon the 
 fpot, and have told them how to proceed in that 
 
 C 2 grave
 
 20 LETTERS TO 
 
 grave and decorous manner, in which you now fay 
 they ought to have acted on this great occafion ; 
 and at the fame time have obtained effectual redrefs 
 of their grievances. For without this, they would 
 have done worfe than nothing. 
 
 Kings and minifters of ftate are alone refponfible 
 for all the confufion and bloodfhed which attend 
 thole revolutions which their abufe of power has 
 rendered neceffary. They choak up the ordinary 
 channels ofjuftice, and then complain that it over- 
 flows its bounds, and that the country is deluged 
 by it. They who firft raife a florin are anfwerable 
 for all the devaluation that it may make. 
 
 You lay to the charge of the National AfTembly 
 what, it is evident, they never authorifed, and what, 
 I doubt not, they condemn and regret, even more 
 than you do. " Their cruelty, you fay, p. 58, has 
 tc not been even the bafe refult of fear. It has been 
 <c die effect of their fenfe of perfect fafety, in au- 
 " thorifing treafons, robberies, rapes, affaffinations, 
 " (laughters, and burnings, throughout their har- 
 " raffed land. But the caufe of all was plain from 
 ff the beginning. This unforced choice, this fond 
 " election, of evil, would appear perfectly unac- 
 u countable, if we did not conlider the compofition 
 "of the National Affembly, &c." 
 
 This, Sir, is charging upon the National Affem- 
 bly every outrage committed by Frenchmen (and 
 
 more
 
 MR. BURKE. 21 
 
 more, I believe, than ever were committed by them) 
 which were any way connected with the revolution. 
 But is this equitable ? Should any thing be laid to 
 the charge of any man, or any body of men, to 
 which they were no way acceffary, by their con- 
 currence at the time, or their approbation after- 
 wards ? Was the execution of perfons particularly 
 obnoxious to the populace, and effected by the po- 
 pulace, to be afcribed to the National AfTembly ? 
 Or were the infults which you have fo pathetically 
 defcribed, as offered to your adorable queen of 
 France, done by the orders of that body ? You 
 muft know that they were as innocent of them as 
 the parliament of Great Britain, or as yourfelf. 
 When any murder is committed, is the firft perfon 
 that you chufe to lay hold of, the guilty perfon , ? 
 
 In the fame rafh and indifcriminate manner you 
 defcribe Dr. Price as exulting in the above-men- 
 tioned horrid outrages, which, I dare fay, give him 
 much more ferious concern than they do you, and 
 for a very obvious reafon. He wifh.es to recom- 
 mend the revolution, and therefore is forry for eve- 
 ry thing that difgraces it ; whereas you wifh to 
 difcredit it, and are evidently not difpleafed with 
 any circumftance that favours your purpofe. Dr. 
 Price rejoices in the good, and you moil uncandidly 
 reprefent him as rejoicing in the evil that has nc- 
 ceffarily accompanied it. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, yours, &c.
 
 22 LETTERS TO 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Of the Nature of Government, and the Rights of Men 
 and of Kings. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 CONSIDERING how much has been written 
 on the fubject of government fince the Revo- 
 lution in this country, an event which more than 
 any thing elfe contributed to open the eyes of Eng- 
 lifhmen, with reipect to the true principles of it, it 
 is not a little extraordinary that any man of reading 
 and reflexion, as you are, mould depai t from them 
 fo much as you have done. 
 
 To vindicate this Revolution, Lord Somers, Bi- 
 fliop Hoadley, Mr. Locke, and many others, have 
 laid it down as a maxim, that all power in any ftate 
 is derived from the people, and that the great ob- 
 ject of all government, is the public good. As a 
 confcquence from thefe fundamental principles, they 
 maintain that all magiftrates, being originally ap- 
 pointed by the people, are anfwerable to them for 
 their conduct in office, and removeable at their 
 pkafure. The right of refilling an opprefllve go- 
 
 i vernment,
 
 MR. BURKE. 23 
 
 vernment, that is, fuch as the people fhall deem to 
 be opprefiive, they hold mod: facred. 
 
 You, Sir, do not directly, and in fa many words, 
 deny thefe great principles of all government, or the 
 general conclufion drawn from them. In faft, you 
 admit them all, when you allow, p. 87, that ff civil 
 " fociety is made for the advantage of man." But 
 you advance what is really inconfiftent with thefe 
 leading principles, and you would tie up our hands 
 from making any effectual ufe of them. . You 
 feem to have forgotten what you muft have for- 
 merly learned ; but it is too late for us to go to 
 fchool again, and relearn the firft elements of poli- 
 tical fcience. What our predecefibrs took great 
 pains to prove, we now receive as axioms, and with- 
 out hefitation ad upon them. 
 
 To make the public good the ftandard of right 
 or wrong, in whatever relates to fociety and go- 
 vernment, befides being the molt natural and ra- 
 tional of all rules, has the farther recommendation 
 of being the eafieft of application. Either what 
 Cod has ordained, or what antiquity authorifes, may 
 be very difficult to afcertain ; but what regulation 
 is moft conducive to the public good, though not 
 always without its difficulties, yet in general it is 
 much more eafy to determine. But fuppofe a na- 
 tion fhould never have had a free government, or 
 could not prove that they ever had one, are they 
 
 C 4 for
 
 24 LETTERS TO 
 
 for that reafon always to continue {laves ? Would 
 it be unlawful, or wrong, in the Turks to do what 
 the French nation has now done ? 
 
 You treat with ridicule the idea of the rights of 
 men, andfuppofe that mankind, when once they 
 have entered into a Hate of fociety, neceflarily 
 abandon all their proper natural rights, and thence- 
 forth have only fuch as they derive from fociety. 
 "As to the fhare of power," you fay, p. 87, <f au- 
 " thority and direction, which each individual 
 te ought to have in the management of the flate, 
 f that I mult deny to be among the direct original 
 cc rights of man in civil fociety ; for I have in my 
 " contemplation the civil, focial man, and no other. 
 " It is a thing to be fettled by convention." 
 
 But what does this convention refpect, befide 
 the fecure enjoyment of fuch advantages, or rights, as 
 have been ufually termed natural, as life, liberty, 
 and property, which men had from nature, without 
 focieties, or artificial combinations of men ? Men 
 cannot, furely, be faid to give up their natural rights 
 by entering into a compact for the better ft 'curing of 
 them? And if they make a wife compact, they will 
 never wholly exclude themfelves from all fhare in 
 the adminiftration of their government, or fome con- 
 trol over it. For without this their ftipulated rights 
 would be very infecure. 
 
 However,
 
 MR. BURKE. 25 
 
 However, mould any people be fo unwife as to 
 leave the whole adminifti ation of their government, 
 without any exprefs right of control, in the hands of 
 their magiftrates , if thofe magiftrates do not give 
 the people what they deem to be an equivalent for 
 what they gave up for the accommodation of others, 
 they are certainly at liberty to confider the original 
 compact as broken. They then revert to a ftate of 
 nature, and may enter into a new ftate of fociety, and 
 adopt a new form of government, in which they 
 may make better terms for thcmfelves. 
 
 It is one of the moft curious paradoxes in this 
 work of yours, which abounds with them, that the 
 rights of men above-mentioned, called by you, p. 91, 
 <c the pretended rights of the French theorifts, are 
 " all extremes, and in proportion as they are me- 
 " taphyfically true, they are morally and politically 
 " falfe." Now by me taphyfically true can only be 
 meant finally and properly true, and how this can be 
 in any fenfe/^, is to me incomprehenfible. If the 
 above-mentioned rights be the true, that is the ju/t, 
 and reasonable rights of men, they ought to be pro- 
 vided for in all Itates, and all forms of government; 
 and if they be not, the people have juft caufe to 
 complain, and to look out for fome mode of re- 
 drefs. 
 
 You ftrongly reprobate the doctrine of kings being 
 the choice of the people, a doctrine advanced, but not 
 
 "firft
 
 Z& LETTERS TO 
 
 firft advanced, by Dr. Price, in his Revolution Ser- 
 mon. "This doctrine," you fay, p. 17, " as ap- 
 " plied to the prince now on the Britifh throne, is 
 " either nonfenfe, and therefore neither true nor 
 " falfe, or it affirms a mofc unfounded, dangerous, 
 " illegal, and unconstitutional pofition. According 
 " to this fpiritual doctor of politics, if his majefty 
 " does not owe his crown to the choice of his peo- 
 " pie, he is no lawful king, &c." 
 
 On the fame principle you equally reprobate the 
 doctrine of the king being the fervant of- the people, 
 whereas the law, as you fay, p. 41, cails him our 
 Jcvereign lord the king*. But fince you allow, ibid. 
 that ".kings are in one fenfe, undoubtedly, the fer- 
 " vants of the people, becaufe their power has no 
 " other rational end than that of the general ad- 
 " vantage," it is evident that it is only Dr. Price's 
 words that you quarrel with. Your ideas are, in 
 fact, the very fame with his, though you call his 
 doctrine, p. 35, not only unconflitutional, but /edi- 
 tions ; adding, that "it is now publicly taught, 
 " avowed, and printed," whereas it was taught, 
 avowed, and even printed, before either you or Dr. 
 Price were born. 
 
 * This title of fovertign lord, derived from the Feudal fyftem, 
 given to a king of England, is by no means agreeable to the nature 
 andfpirit of our prelcnt confutation, which is a limited monarchy, 
 and not unlimited as that title implies. Our only proper Joveniga 
 is, the parliament. 
 
 Has
 
 MR. BURKE. Tj 
 
 Has not the chief magiftrate in every country, as 
 well as the chief officer in every town, a certain 
 duty to perform, with certain emoluments, and pri- 
 vileges, allowed him in confideration of the proper 
 difcharge of that duty? And if the town officer, 
 though having chief authority in his diflrict, yet, in 
 confequence of being appointed and paid for his 
 fervices by the town, is never confidered in any 
 other light than that of the fervant of the town, is not 
 the chief magiftrate in any country, let him be 
 called Jovereign, king, or what you pleafe (for that is 
 only a name) the fervant of the people? What real 
 difference can there be in the two cafes? They each 
 difcharge a certain duty, and have a certain ftipu- 
 lated reward for it. The office being hereditary, 
 makes no real difference. In our laws, and thofe of 
 other nations, there are precedents enow of men's 
 whole eftatcs being confifcated for crimes -, and this 
 of courle excludes the heir. 
 
 If, as you exprefsly acknowledge, the only ra- 
 tional end of the cc power of a king is the general 
 advantage, that is, the good of the people, mult not 
 the people be, of courle, the judges, whether they 
 derive advantage from him and his government or 
 not, that is, whether they be well or ill ferved by 
 him? Though, there is no exprefs, there is, you 
 muft acknowledge a virtual, contratt between the king 
 and the -people. This, indeed, is particularly men- 
 tioned
 
 23 LETTERS TO 
 
 tioned in the Act which implies the abdication of 
 king James, though you fay, p. 38, it is too guarded 
 and too circumft untied; and what can this contract 
 be, but a ftipulation for protection, &c. on the 
 part of the king, and allegiance on the part of the 
 people? If, therefore, inftead of protection, they find 
 cppre/Jion, certainly allegiance is no longer due. 
 Hence, according to common fenfe, and the prin- 
 ciples of the Revolution, the right of a fubjecl: to 
 refifr. a tyrant, and dethrone him; and what is this, 
 but in other words, Shocking as they may found to 
 your ears, difmiffing, or cajhiering a badfervant 3 as a 
 perfon who had abufed his truft ? 
 
 Sofafcinating is the fituation in which our kings 
 are placed, that it is of great importance to re- 
 mind them of the true relation they bear to the 
 people, or, as they are fond of calling them, their 
 people. They are too apt to imagine that their 
 rights are independent of the will of the people, and 
 confequently that they are not accountable to them 
 for any ufe they may make of their power; and 
 their numerous dependents, and efpecially the clergy, 
 are too apt to adminifter this pleafing intoxicating 
 poifon. This was the ruin of the Stuarts, and it 
 is a danger that threatens every prince, and every 
 country, from the fame quarter. Your whole book, 
 Sir, is little elfe than a vehicle for the fame poifon, 
 inculcating, but inconfiftently enough, a principle 
 
 of
 
 MR. BURKE. 29 
 
 of refpecl for princes, independent of their being ori- 
 ginally the choice of the people, as if they had 
 fome natural and indefeafible right to reign over 
 us, they being born to command, and we to obey; 
 and then, whether the origin of this power be di- 
 vine, or have any other fource independent of the 
 people, it makes no difference to us. 
 
 With the fuperftitious refpeit. for kings, and the 
 fpirit of chivalry, which nothing but an age of ex- 
 treme barbarifm recommended, and which civili- 
 zation has banifhed, you feem to think that every 
 thing great and dignified has left us, " Never, ne- 
 cc ver more," you fay, p. 113, " fhall we behold 
 " that generous loyalty to rank and fex, that proud 
 " fubmiflion, that dignified obedience, that fubor- 
 " dination of the heart, that kept alive even in fer- 
 " vitude itfelf the fpirit of an exalted freedom. 
 <c The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of 
 " nations, the nurfe of manly fentiment and he- 
 ff roic enterprize, is gone. It is gone; that fenfibi- 
 ic lity of principle, that chaftity of honour, which 
 c< felt a ftain like a wound, which infpircd courage 
 " whilft it mitigated ferocity, which enobled what- 
 " ever it touched, and under which vice itfelf loft 
 " half its evil, by lofing all its groflhefs." 
 
 This is perhaps the mod admired pafTage in your 
 whole performance; but it appears to me, that in 
 2 great pomp ofwerdV, it contains but few ideas, 
 
 and
 
 30 LETTERSTO 
 
 and fome of them inconfiftent and abfurd. So 
 different alfo are men's feelings, from the difference, 
 no doubt, of our educations, and the different fenti- 
 ments we voluntarily cherifh through life, that a 
 fituation which gives you the idea of pride, gives 
 me that of meannejs. You are proud of what, in 
 my opinion, you ought to be afhamed, the idolatry 
 of a fellow creature, and the abafement of yourfeif. 
 It difcovers a difpofition from which no " manly 
 " fentiment, or heroic enterprize" can be expected. 
 I fubmit to a king, or to any other civil magiftrate, 
 becaufe the good order of fociety requires it, but I 
 feel no pride in that JubmiJJion ; and the Cf fub- 
 tc ordination of my heart," I referve for cha- 
 racter only, not for flatten. As a citizen, the ob- 
 ject of my refpecl is the nation, and the laws. The 
 magijlrates, by whatever name they are called, I 
 refpecl only as the confidential fervants of the na- 
 tion, and the adminiftrators of the laws. 
 
 Thefe fentiments, juft in themfelves, and favour- 
 ing of no fuperftition, appear to me to become men, 
 whom nature has made equal, and whofe great 
 object, when formed into focieties, it fhould be to 
 promote their common happinefs. I am proud of 
 feeling my felftf man among men, and I leave it you, Sir, 
 to be c< proud of your obedience, and to keep alive," 
 as well as you can, " in fervitude itfelf the fpirit of 
 " an exalted freedom." I think it much eafier, at 
 leaft, to be preferred out of a (late of fervitude than 
 
 in
 
 MR. BURKE. 31 
 
 in it. You take much pains to gild your chains, 
 but they are chains ftill. 
 
 If, Sir, you profeis this " generous loyalty, this 
 " proud fubmilTion, this dignified obedience, and 
 " this fubordinationofthe heart," both to rank and 
 /ex, how concentrated and exalted mull be the fen- 
 timent, where rank and fex are united ! What an 
 exalted freedom would you have felt, had you had 
 the happinefs of being a fubjecl of the Em- 
 prefs of Rufiia; your fovereign, being then a 
 woman ? Fighting under her aufpices, you would 
 no doubt, have been the mod puiffant of knights 
 errant, and her redoubted champion, againft the 
 whole Turkifh empire, the fovereign of which is 
 only a man. 
 
 <c It is to no purpofe to fay," as you do, p. 19, 
 
 " that the king of Great Britain reigns at this day 
 
 " by a fixed rule of fucceflion, according to the 
 
 " laws of his country, and that he holds his crown 
 
 <c in contempt of the choice of the Revolution ib- 
 
 " ciety, which has not a fingle vote for a king 
 
 " among them, either individually or collectively ;" 
 
 when you acknowledge that " all the kingdoms 
 
 " of Europe w r ere, at a remote period, elective," 
 
 and that " the prefent king holds his rank no 
 
 " longer than while the legal conditions of the com- 
 
 " pact of fovereignty are performed by him." 
 
 This, Sir, is granting all that we, feditious as our 
 
 doctrine is, contend for. Here is, according to 
 
 youriclf,
 
 J2 LETTERSTO 
 
 yourfelf, a certain condition on which kings reign. 
 If, therefore, that condition be not performed, the 
 obligation of allegiance is difcharged. 
 
 Though we do not chufe any particular king, the 
 nation originally chofe to be governed by kings, 
 with fuch limitations, with refpect to their duty and 
 prerogatives, as they then chofe to prefcribe. And 
 whether the departure from the original and proper 
 duty of a king be made at once, or by degrees, which 
 has generally been the cafe; and though the people 
 may have been retrained by their circumftances 
 from checking the incroachments of their kings, the 
 right of doing it muft ever remain inherent in them. 
 They muft always have a power of refuming what 
 themfelves gave, when the condition on which it was 
 given is not performed. They can furely recal a 
 truft that has been abufed, and reinftatc themfelves 
 in their former fituation, or in a better, if they can 
 find one. 
 
 If there be, what you allow, a compact ofjovereign- 
 
 ty, who are the parties, but the people and the king ; 
 
 and if the compact be broken on his fide, are not 
 
 the rank and the privileges, which he held upon 
 
 the condition of obferving the term of the compact, 
 
 forfeited ? " The rule of fuccefilon," yon fay, " is 
 
 " according to the laws of his country." But 
 
 what, according to yourfelf, is the origin of both 
 
 our common and ftatutc law ? 
 
 " Both
 
 MR. BURKE. 33 
 
 " Both thefe defcriptions of law," you fay, p. 28, 
 cc are of the fame force, and are derived from an 
 " equal authority, emanating : the common 
 " agreement, and original compact of the (late 
 " (cemmum JpGtificKi rciTu^ic.f) and as fuch are 
 ** equally binding on king and people too, as long 
 " as the terms are obfervtd, and they continue the 
 ** the fame bod . c." Laws, then, not com- 
 
 ing down frc heaven, but being made by men, 
 may alfo be changed by them; and what is a . 
 Jiitkticn of gr^crwnr-A ', but the greaSer la-zcs of the 
 ilate : Kings, therefore, as well as the people, may 
 violate theie law?, by which they are equally bound, 
 and if other violators of law be punifhable, by de- 
 lation or otherwife, why fhould kings be ex- 
 cepted ? Are their violations or" the law or the con- 
 ftitution, lels injurious to the commonwealth than 
 thofe of other : r.ent of 
 
 kings be as f k! .;:;:'-:u, p. 2 w :. as you pleaie, 
 
 but letjuitice, iubiUntialjuilice, be done. 
 
 I am, Dzas. S:n, 
 
 Yours, Sec 
 
 D LETTER
 
 54 LETTERS fO 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Of the Revolution in England compared with that m 
 France. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 IT is impofiible to confider the late Revolution in 
 France without having in our eye that which 
 took place in England in 1688. This has had fo 
 much of the cordial approbation of all clafTes of 
 people here, at lead all thofe who are denominated 
 ivbigs, that you found yourfelf under the neceflity of 
 approving of it. But you wifh to diftinguifh be- 
 tween the principles on which the great actors in 
 that memorable event proceeded, and thofe of the 
 National AfTembly in France. The promoters of 
 the Engliih Revolution, you would have us under- 
 ftand, were not guided by any view to the natural 
 (or, as you affecl: to call them, the chimerical) rights 
 of men y but were influenced by a regard to rights 
 functioned by ancient poffejfwn, and confequently that 
 their example furnifhes no authority for any people 
 to chufe their own governors, or to difmifs them for 
 mifconducl:. 
 
 You
 
 MR. BURKE. 35 
 
 You appeal to Lord Somers, p. 27, for the 
 principles of the Englifli Revolution. Let his writ- 
 ings, then, explain his fentiments on the nature of 
 government. Now the very title page of a trafr 
 generally afcribed to him, entitled, the Judgment of 
 whole Kingdoms and Nations concerning the Rights, 
 Power ; and Prerogative of Kings, and the Rights, 
 Privileges, and Properties of the People, afferts, that 
 " all magiftrates and governors proceed from the 
 " people." This he proves at large in the courfe 
 of the work, in which he fhows, as an inference 
 from this great principle, that the people, when 
 opprefTed, are juftifiable in relieving themfelves by 
 a change of their governors, or of their government; 
 exploding, in a variety of lights, the flavifh doctrine, 
 to ufe his own terms, of paj/ive obedience and loy- 
 alty. 
 
 One of the moft extraordinary of your after- 
 tions, with refpedt to the Revolution in England, is 
 the following, " So far," you lay, p. 27, " is it 
 " from being true, that we acquired a right by the 
 rt Revolution to elect our kings, that if we had 
 " poflefTed it before, the Englifh nation did at that 
 " time moft folemnly renounce and abdicate it for 
 tc themfelves, and for all their pofterity, for ever." 
 But could they ferioufly mean to bind their pofte- 
 rity from ever doing again what they themfelves 
 then did? Did they not by changing the natural 
 
 D 2 fucceflion
 
 $6 LETTERS TO 
 
 fucceilion of the kings of this realm, actually exercife 
 the right of chufing kings, declaring what defcrip- 
 tion of perfons fhould from that time fucceed to 
 the crown? And what any one parliament did, a 
 fucceeding one might, no doubt, undo. 
 
 But that no fuch thing as a renunciation of a 
 right to do any thing of this kind, was really meant 
 by the legifiature of that age, is evident from the 
 Act of the fixth of Queen Anne, pointed out to 
 Dr. Price, by Lord Stanhope, from which it ap- 
 pears that your afiertion is even nothing lefs than 
 high treafon. The words of the Act are as follows, 
 " If any perfon ihall, by writing or printing, main- 
 <c tain, and affirm, that the kings or queens of this 
 " realm, with and by the authority of Parliament, 
 " are not able to make laws and ftatutes of fufficient 
 " validity, to limit the crown, and thedefcent, inhe- 
 " ritance, and government thereof, every fuch per- 
 <c fon fliall be guilty of high treafon." 
 
 Far am I from wifliing to bring you into any fe- 
 rious inconvenience by reprefenting you as having 
 offended againit the laws of your country; but I 
 wifh it may (ewe as a hint, to pay more attention 
 to the great principles of our conftitution, as well as 
 to the univerfal principles of government, and the 
 rights of men, offenfive as the term may be to you, 
 for the future. 
 
 You
 
 MR. BURKE. 37 
 
 You fay, p. 31. " The gentlemen of the Jociety 
 * c for revolutions" (as you contemptuoufly call it) 
 <c fee nothing of that in 1688, but the deviation 
 <c from the constitution; and they take the devia- 
 " tion from the principle, for the principle." Let 
 us then confider the fimple faff, that we may dif- 
 cover the true principle of the proceeding, and exa- 
 mine thejuftice of your complaint. A king had 
 abufed his truft, and, in the construction of the re- 
 maining governing powers of the countrv, had virtu- 
 ally abdicated the government. According to the 
 eftablifhed rule of fuccefTion, his fon Should have 
 Succeeded him, but they apprehended the fame 
 evils from the fon, which they had experienced from 
 the father, and likewife from all princes of the 
 fame defcription with the father, that is, all who 
 Should profefs the Roman Catholic religion. They 
 therefore, made a law to exclude all fuch princes, 
 and fixed the fuccefTion in the nearefl ProteStant 
 line. But, in conjunction with the firft of this line, 
 they chofe a perfon entirely foreign to it, who had 
 no legal pretenfions to the crown at all, being only 
 the hufband of Queen Mary, as Prince George of 
 Denmark was of Queen Anne. 
 
 Here, then, was a choice made, both of a par- 
 ticular king pro tempore, and alio of a new line of Juc~ 
 ccffion for future kings. Certainly, therefore, if the 
 conduct of our ancestors in that period b any pre- 
 
 D 3 cedent
 
 38 LETTERS TO 
 
 cedent for future proceedings, it authorizes the peo- 
 ple of this country not only to make any change in 
 the rule of fucceffion to the crown, but to do what- 
 ever they fhall think neceflary for the redrefs of their 
 grievances. This was unqueftionably the proper 
 reajon, motive, principle, or rule, of their condu6t; 
 and to act upon it in any future time cannot with 
 propriety be called taking tc the deviation from 
 " their principle for the principle." To do any 
 thing elfe that fhall be deemed neceflary to remove 
 any prefent evils, and to prevent the recurrence of 
 them, would be doing no more than they would 
 have done in our circumftances. 
 
 Confidering the reverence that is always paid to 
 whatever is ancient, it is certainly wife in any nation 
 to preferve old inftitutions as long as they are to- 
 lerable, becaufe the people will bear with them 
 better than with new ones. This principle no 
 doubt, influenced our anceftors at the Revolution, 
 and at other times. They contented themfelves 
 with removing the prefiing grievance, and kept as 
 near to the ancient fyftem as they could. At the 
 Revolution, there was no occaflon for any thing 
 more, at lead the country would not bear any thing 
 more, than a deviation from the line of fucceffion to 
 the crown, leaving the Popifh,and adopting the Pro- 
 teftant line. But if more had been wanted, they 
 would certainly have done more. 
 
 You
 
 MR. BURKE. 39 
 
 You call the Revolution, p. 24, " an act of ne- 
 " cefilty." But, what was it that made it necef- 
 fary? On what political principle was the neceffity 
 founded? Was it not deemed neceflary becaufe 
 the people apprehended that their liberties, and con- 
 fequently their happinefs, were endangered by the 
 meafures of the king j and therefore, though, as you 
 juftly fay, p. 44, " a revolution is the laft refource 
 " of the thinking and the good," it was what they 
 found themfelves driven to. It was the lefs of two 
 evils which they had in profpect ; and what they did 
 they thought to be necefiary for the removal, and 
 prevention, of the evil. And on the fame p-inciple 
 that they changed the order of fucceffion, they 
 would have changed the whole frame of the go- 
 vernment. Had they apprehended government by 
 kings in general to be as great a grievance as that 
 by Popifh kings, they would have abolifhed kingly 
 government altogether, and this country would now 
 have been a republic. 
 
 When ever circumftances have been favourable 
 to greater changes, wife nations have not failed to 
 adopt them. When America was driven, as you 
 will allow (for at that time you were very active in 
 the bufinefs, and many a time have I, with fingular 
 fatisfaction, heard you plead the caufe of American 
 liberty) by the oppreflion of this country, to break 
 entirely from it, the Americans, fenfible of more 
 
 D 4 evils
 
 40 LETTERS TO 
 
 evils attending their former government, than our 
 anceftors at the revolution, ventured to do a great 
 deal more, and fet a glorious example to France, 
 and to the world. They formed a completely new- 
 government on the principles of equal liberty, and 
 the rights of 'men, " without nobles," as Dr. Price 
 faid, " without bifhops, and without a king," which, 
 indeed, the Dutch, after their feparation from the 
 Spanifh monarchy, did in a great meafure before 
 them. If arbitrary princes tremble at thefe great ex- 
 amples (at the very idea of which you yourfelf, as if you 
 were a part of royalty, and appertaining to it, trem- 
 ble) it is time that they who fo long have made others 
 tremble, fhould, in their turn, tremble them- 
 felves. But let the people rejoice. It will either 
 make their princes keep within bounds, or encou- 
 rage them to hope that the time of their deliverance 
 is at hand. 
 
 That all perfons have not the fame dread of revo- 
 lutions which has feized on you, and that the genuine 
 principles of the Revolution are ftill preferved, 
 and taught in this country, will appear from the 
 following extracts from Mr. Paley's Principles of 
 Moral and political Philojophy, with which I fhall 
 clofe this letter. 
 
 " Government may be too fecure. The greateft ty- 
 " rants have been thofe, whofe titles were the moft 
 " unqueftioned. Whenever, therefore, the opinion 
 
 < f of
 
 MR. BURKE. 41 
 
 <c of right becomes too predominant and fuperftiti- 
 " ous, it is abated by breaking the cuftom. Thus 
 cc the Revolution broke the cuftom of Jucceflion, and 
 <f thereby moderated both in the prince and people, 
 " thofe lofty notions of hereditary right, which in 
 " the one were become a continual temptation to 
 <c tyranny, and difpofed the other to invite fervi- 
 " tude, by undue compliances and dangerous con- 
 " ceffions." p. 411, Quarto Edition. 
 
 " The true reafon why mankind hold in detefla- 
 <c tion the memory of thofe who have fold their li- 
 " berty to a tyrant, is, that together with their own, 
 " they fold commonly, or endangered, the liberty 
 fC of others ; which certainly they had no right to 
 " difpofeof." p. 77. 
 
 " No ufage, law, or authority whatever, is fo 
 " binding, that it need or ought to be continued, 
 ct when it may be changed with advantage to the 
 " community. The family of the prince, the or- 
 iC der of fucceffion, the prerogative of the crown, 
 cc the form and parts of the legiflature, together 
 cc with refpective powers, office, duration, and mu- 
 " tual dependency of the feveral parts, are all only 
 " fo many lazvs, mutable like other laws, whenever 
 <f expediency requires, either by the ordinary act of 
 " the legiflature, or if the occafion deferve it, by 
 [t the interpofition of the people. Thefe points are 
 " wont to be approached with a kind of awe, they 
 
 " are
 
 42 LETTERS TO 
 
 " are reprefented to the mind as principles of the 
 " conftitution, fettled by our anceflors, and being 
 " fettled to be no more committed to innovation 
 " or debate, as foundations never to be ftirredj as 
 " the terms and conditions of the focial compact, 
 " to which every citizen of the ftate has engaged 
 " his fidelity, by virtue of a promife, which he 
 tc cannot now recal. Such reafons have no place 
 w in our fyftem : to us, if there be any good rea- 
 " fon for treating thefe with more deference and 
 " refpect than other laws, it is either the advan- 
 <f tage of the prefent conftitution of government 
 * f which reafon muft be of different force in different 
 " countries) or becaufe, in all countries, it is of im- 
 " portance, that the form and ufage of governing 
 " be acknowledged and undei flood, as well by the 
 <f governors as the governed, and becaufe the Tel- 
 " domer it is changed the more it will be refpe&ed 
 " by both fides." p. 426. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 LETTER
 
 MR. BURKE. 4J 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Of the Revolution Society in England y and Mr, Burke's 
 Reflexions on Dr. Price. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 YOU are exceedingly offended at the conduct of 
 the Revolution Society in England, for fend- 
 ing congratulations to the National Afiembly in 
 France. " I fhould think it," you fay, p. 6, " at 
 " lead improper and irregular, to open a formal 
 " public correfpondence with the actual govern- 
 " ment of a foreign nation, without the exprefs au- 
 " thority of the government under which I live." 
 You think it was done " under an equivocal de- 
 " fcription, which to many, unacquainted with 
 " our ufages, might make the addrefs appear as 
 " the act of perfons in fome fort of a corporate bo- 
 " dy, acknowledged by the laws of the kingdom, 
 " and authorifed to fpeak the fenfe of fome part of 
 " it. It is the policy," you fay, p. 7, " that has 
 " very much the complexion of a fraud." 
 
 But what occafion could there be to aflc leave of 
 
 die government of one country to fend an addrefs 
 
 1 to
 
 44 LETTERS TO 
 
 to that of another, unlefs it had been affecled by 
 the correfpondence j and in this cafe the Englifh 
 government had nothing more to do with the trans- 
 action than any private individual in the country. 
 Was any thing faid by the Revolution Society, in 
 the name of the government of this country, or was 
 the latter at all pledged to do one thing or another 
 in the bufinefs ? 
 
 As to fuch a refpeclable body of men as the Na- 
 tional Affembly of France noticing the addrefs of 
 thofe who compofe the Revolution Society in 
 England ; it is nothing new or uncommon, either 
 for iinall bodies of men to addrefs large ones, or for 
 large focieties to notice fuch addreffes ; and what 
 material difference is there, whether the perfons ad- 
 dreffing, and thofe addreiTed, be of the fame coun- 
 try, or of different countries ? The only queftion 
 is, whether the addrefs, or the notice, were proper 
 or improper. 
 
 The National Affembly of France could not be 
 fo ignorant of the conftitution of England, as to 
 fuppofe that the Revolution Society was a body au- 
 thorized by the flate, or that it had any connexion 
 with the government of the country ; fo that there 
 could be no fraud or impojition in the cafe -, and it 
 may be eafily fuppofed, that, being the founders of 
 a new fyftem of government in France, which has 
 hitherto been confidered as the natural enemy cf 
 
 England,
 
 MR. BURKE. 45 
 
 England, they might think it wife to embrace the 
 firft opportunity of fhewing that they were difpofed 
 to be out friends, and that they took it kindly, that 
 any number of refpectable individuals in this coun- 
 try mould approve of their proceedings. As far as 
 the tranfaclion went, it afforded a profpeft of fu- 
 ture good neighbourhood. 
 
 The members of the French Affembly would 
 judge of the extent of the friendly difpofition of this 
 country towards them, by the names of the perfons 
 who promoted the meafure ; and when they faw 
 that of Dr. Price, fo well known, and fo favourably 
 known, for true patriotifm, difmterefted benevo- 
 lence, and public fpirit, both in France and Ame- 
 rica, they would naturally, and juftly, conclude, 
 that, though no great part of the Englifh nation 
 was prefent, thofe who were fpoke the fentiments 
 of great numbers, and thofe the mofl refpectable 
 in the country. The good will of fuch men as 
 Dr. Price (in whatever part of the globe, or for 
 whatever purpofe affembled) even the National 
 Affembly of France might conceive to be no in- 
 confiderable fantftion to their proceedings. 
 
 Where is the great impropriety of a nation re- 
 ceiving even advice, and much more accepting 
 congratulations, from (ingle men of eminent wifdom 
 an<ijvirtue ? And in this light thoufands regard Dr. 
 Price, and notwithstanding the odium which you, in 
 
 vain,
 
 46 LETTERS TO 
 
 vain, endeavour to throw upon him, and which only 
 recoils Upon yourfelf, his name will be known, and 
 refpected, as long as refpeet for religion, for virtue, 
 and for the juft rights of mankind, fhall exift. 
 
 The difcourfe which gives you fo much offence, 
 was indeed delivered from a pulpit, and is common- 
 ly called zjermon ; but this is all the impropriety 
 that belongs to it, and therefore affects the title on- 
 ly. It was delivered to a number of political 
 friends, on a week day, deftined to a political pur- 
 pofe, and might perhaps as well have been deli- 
 vered in the room in which the company dined. 
 No preacher, I will venture to fay, more fcrupu- 
 loufly adapts his ufual difcourfes to the real occafions 
 of a chriftian audience, than Dr. Price does ; and had 
 you, Sir, been one of his ftated hearers (though 
 you may fhudder at the idea of going into a Conven- 
 ticle) you would, I doubt not, have been both a 
 wifer and a better man than you now are, wife and 
 good as you, neverthelefs, may be; for I do not 
 judge of your ufual temper and difpofition from 
 the {train of this molt intemperate publication. 
 I know you, and I know it to be unworthy of 
 you. 
 
 Befides, the pulpit has not been thought pro- 
 faned by all fubjects of a political, if of a generally 
 ufeful, nature. Iffo, certainly the conduct m the 
 clergy muit be fevcrely cenfured for the ufual 
 
 drain
 
 MR. BURKE. 47 
 
 ftrain of their preaching on the 30th of January. 
 If they preach in defence o( arbitrary power, which 
 they generally have done on that day, why may not 
 we preach in defence of the great principle of equal 
 liberty, and the mod important right of refinance to 
 fuch governments as they recommend ? 
 
 You feem to take particular pleafure in compar- 
 ing Dr. Price to Hugh Peters, who expreffed himfelf 
 in the fame language with refpect to the death of 
 king Charles, that Dr. Price has made ufe of with 
 refpect to the glorious profpect of things that has 
 opened upon us by the late Revolution in France. 
 No doubt, a very handfome face may have fome 
 features refembling thofe in a very ugly one, and 
 therefore Dr. Price may, without any reflexion 
 upon him, refemble Hugh Peters in his abhorrence 
 of tyranny, though very different from him in other 
 refpects. Bifhop Burnet calls Peters " a fort of 
 " enthufiaftic buffoon preacher, and a very vitious 
 " man," and he reprefents him as dying in the moft 
 cowardly manner*. But will this character apply- 
 to Dr. Price, a man whom the Prefident of the Na- 
 
 * Nealc fays, that after the execution of his companion Mr. 
 Cooke, who fiiffcred with the great eft heroifm, he refumed his 
 courage, and laid to the ihcrift", " Sir, you have flaiii one of tiie 
 " fervants of the Lord, and made me behold if, on purpofc to tcr- 
 " rify and difcourage me ; but God has made it an ordinance for 
 " my ftrcngthening and encouragement." 
 
 lional
 
 4 LETTERS TO 
 
 tional AfTembly of France has fly led, and juftly 
 flyled, the Apflle of Liberty, though you call him 
 the Doclor of Politics, p. 17, the Political Divine, 
 p. 20, and load him with every other epithet of con- 
 tempt that your exuberant imagination, unreftrained 
 by any regard to decency, can fupply ; at the fame 
 time that you acknowledge, p. 13, that he has "the 
 " belt intentions in the world," though as an enemy 
 to civil eftablifhments of religion, you deny him, 
 p. 155, a place among honeji enthujiafls, and clafc 
 him with cheats and deceivers. 
 
 According to you, this Hugh Peters rode in a kind 
 of triumph on the bringing of king Charles a pri- 
 foner to London, and he may have triumphed in 
 an indecent and an improper manner ; but, in my 
 opinion, there was fufficient caufe for triumph. The 
 thirtieth of January was (to ufe a phrafe of Admiral 
 Keppel's) a proud day for England, as well as the 
 fourteenth of July for France; and it will be remem- 
 bered as fuch by the latefl pofterity of freemen. Let 
 all tyrants read the hiftory of both, and tremble. 
 Good princes will read it without any unpleafant 
 emotion. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir., 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 LETTER
 
 MR. BURKE. 49 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Of the Interference of the State in Matters of Religion 
 in general. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 IT was the devout wifh of Job, who, with ex- 
 emplary patience, had borne much calumny, 
 as well as fufferings of other kinds, that his adver- 
 fary had written a book. The favour which this 
 good man could not obtain, the defpifed and op- 
 prefled DifTenters have at length been indulged 
 with from you, at lead fo far as relates to the caufe 
 of your ftrong attachment to the eftablifhed church 
 of this country, which, no doubt, induced you to 
 enter fo warmly as you did into the oppofition to 
 our late claims in the Houfe of Commons. We 
 are now happy in having an opportunity of view- 
 ing, and examining, the true fprings of your con- 
 duct, and are not obliged to collect your arguments 
 from uncertain report, or the mutilated, and, no 
 doubt, very often falfe, accounts in the newfpapers. 
 We have now the reafoning of the fenator from the 
 fenator himfelf. 
 
 E I rather
 
 fO LETTERS TO 
 
 I rather wonder, however, at this conduct in 
 you, when I find you lamenting, p. 136, that " it 
 cc has been our misfortune, and not, as thefe gen- 
 " tlemen think it" (meaning, no doubt, myfelf as 
 well at others) " the glory of this age, that every 
 " thing is to be difcujfed" For certainly fuch a 
 publication as this of yours, you could not but 
 think, muft lead to much difcuffion. I therefore, 
 you thought this to be a dangerous procefs, with 
 refpect either to Church or Stale, you certainly 
 ought not to have entered upon it, by publifhing 
 any thing on the fubject j unlefs, indeed, you had 
 thought (which perhaps may have been the cafe) 
 that your publication would effectually deter all 
 opponents ; your reafoning being fo forcible as to 
 preclude, and be an effectual bar to, all farther dif- 
 cuffion on the fubject -, nor do I much wonder at 
 your entertaining this idea, from the exhibition you 
 have given us of the ftate of your own mind with 
 refpect to it. 
 
 " Our church eftablifhment," you fay, p. 136, 
 " is the firft of our prejudices. It is," you fay again, 
 " the firft, the laft, and the midft in our minds," 
 that is, it occupies the whole capacity of them, fo 
 that they cannot admit any thing elfe, at leaft any- 
 thing of an oppofite nature. Of courfe, the maxims 
 on which you proceed muft to you appear incontro- 
 vertible. You, therefore, very naturally add, " it 
 
 5 "is
 
 MR. BURKE. S 1 
 
 a is not a prejudice deftitute of reafon, but involving 
 "in it profound and extenfive wifdom." For fuch 
 is the opinion that we all entertain of prejudices 
 deeply rooted in our own minds ; though it is no 
 uncommon thing for what appears to be profound 
 and extenfive wifdom to one man, to appear the ex- 
 treme of folly to another ; and unfortunately (owing 
 perhaps to the difference of our educations, and 
 early habits) this is precifcly the difference between 
 you and me. What you admire I defpife, and what 
 you think highly ufeful, 1 am perfuaded is very mif- 
 chievous. 
 
 However, notwithstanding the great difference 
 in our ccnclufions, we have, I perceive, fome great 
 and leading common principles ; fo that it may not be 
 difficult to difcover which of us has departed the 
 fartheil from them. I fhall endeavour to fhew our 
 readers, that with thefe common principles, your 
 conclufions are wholly difcordant ; and I flatter my- 
 felf that, differently as we think on a variety of 
 fubjects, we have more common principles than 
 you have given fufficient attention to, and more 
 than you really act upon. You cannot, for exam- 
 ple, have that diflike to difcuffion which you profefs, 
 becaufe, in this and in other publications, as well 
 as in your fpecches in the Houfe of Commons, you 
 have entered largely into many difcuffions ; and you 
 muft alfo agree with me in thinking, that the more 
 
 E i important
 
 52 LETTERS TO 
 
 important any fubjeft is, or the more interefting it 
 is to men, either as individuals, or members offo- 
 ciety, the greater call there is for an accurate dif- 
 cufTion of every thing relating to it ; becauie, in 
 things of this nature, miftakes are the mod dan- 
 gerous, and you are far from fuppofing religion to 
 be a matter of indifference, either to individuals, 
 or to fociety. And how can we guard againft, 
 or indeed be apprized of, any miftakes, without 
 due examination, or difcuiTion ? 
 
 That our readers may fee at one view what it is 
 that you maintain with refpect to civil eftabliih- 
 ments of religion, I mall, before I enter upon the 
 difcuffion of them, give our readers a fummary 
 view of all your pofitions. Confounding, as you 
 evidently do, the idea of religion itfelf, with that of 
 the civil eftal/lijhment of it, you fay, "It is the 
 " bafis of civil fociety, and efiential to every ftate," 
 infomuch that you even queftion whether it be 
 lawful to be without one. So far, you think, is the 
 church from having any dependence upon the ftate, 
 that the ftate has not even " the property, or do- 
 " minion," of any thing belonging to the church, 
 being onlv the " guardian" of the revenues of the 
 church, and holding them in truft for its ufe. You, 
 therefore, hold that the property of the church is 
 unalienable, and net to be touched in any emer- 
 gency of ftate whatever. Religion, you maintain, 
 
 derives
 
 MR, BURKE. S3 
 
 derives its eftimation and effect, from the riches 
 and magnificence of its eftablifhment ; that fuch 
 eftablifhment is calculated for the multitude, that it 
 is peculiarly ufeful both to the poor and the rich, 
 and, though necefTary to all ftates, is more proper 
 for a democratical, than any odier form of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Now, Sir, ftrange as it may appear to you, my 
 ideas, in all thefe refpects, are the very reverfe of 
 yours. Religion I confider as a thing that requires 
 no civil eftablifhment whatever, and that its bene- 
 ficial operation is injured by fuch eftablifhment, 
 and the more in proportion to its riches. I am fa- 
 tisfied that fuch an eftabliihment, inftead of being 
 any advantage, is a great incumbrance to a ftate, 
 and in general highly unfavourable to its liberties. 
 Civil eftablifhments of chriftianity were altogether 
 unknown in the early ages, and gained ground by 
 very (low degrees, as other corruptions and abufes 
 in the fyftcm did. I am clearly of opinion, that 
 the ftate has a right to difpofe of all property within 
 itfelf i that of the church, as well as of every thing 
 elfe of a public nature, and that religion has na- 
 turally nothing at all to do with any particular form 
 of civil government ; being ufeful indeed to all per- 
 fons, the rich as well as the poor, but only as indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 E 3 Let
 
 54 LETTERS TO 
 
 Let us now trace our very different ideas to their 
 proper iburce, and compare them with our com- 
 mon principles j and I am happy to find that we 
 agree with refpect to the proper ufe and advantage 
 of government in general, which is a very material 
 circumftance in our difcuffion. Cf Government, 
 <c you fay, p. 88, is a contrivance of human wif- 
 " dom, to provide for human wants, and men have 
 {f a right that thefe wants be provided for by this 
 " wifdom." 
 
 You will not, however, fay that all human wants 
 are to be provided for by government j for it is 
 manifeftly only Jome of them that its great power 
 can reach, and therefore much muft be left to the 
 individuals themfelves. This you allow, when you 
 fay, p. 87, cc whatever each man can feparately 
 < do, without trefpaffing upon others, he has a right 
 " to do for himfelf." Since then I can eat and 
 drink whatever fuits my appetite, without trefpafling 
 upon any body, you will allow that the ftate has no 
 bufinefs to prefcribe what I mail eat or drink, or 
 when, or in what manner, I ihall do it. I imagine, 
 alfo, you will allow that my neighbours have 
 no right to complain of me, if, when I am indif- 
 pofed, I treat myfelf as I think proper, taking 
 whatever advice, or whatever medicines, I pleafe. 
 They may do the fame, and I fhall not complain 
 
 of
 
 MR. BURKE. 55 
 
 of them. Pray then, what right, on this plain and 
 obvious principle, advanced by yourfelf, has any 
 man to complain of me if I worjhip God in what 
 manner I pleafe, or if I do not chufe to worfhip God 
 at all ? Does my conduct in this refpect injure 
 them ? What, then, has the date, or my neigh- 
 bours, to do in this bufinefs, any more than with 
 my food or my medicine ? 
 
 In this, and many other things, government has 
 taken a great deal too much upon it ; and has by 
 this means brought itfelf into great and needlefs 
 embarrafTments. In many things befides the article 
 of religion, men have bufied themielves in legijlating 
 too much, and when it would have been better if 
 individuals had been left to think and act for 
 themfelves. 
 
 This, you will fay, amounts to nothing more 
 than a plea for toleration in matters of religion, 
 which you are ready to allow. As a foundation for 
 a civil cjlabli/hment of religion, you fay that cc man 
 " is by his constitution a religious animal j" for all 
 that follows in defence of eftabliihments, is imme- 
 diately connected with this. Now, admitting this, 
 which however is not true (becaufe we may ealily 
 conceive of a Being, poflefled of all die eMential pro- 
 perties of human nature, without ary knowledge 
 of religion at all) government can have no more- 
 right to interfere with refpect to this conftitutional 
 E 4 projx;rty
 
 $6 LETTERS TO 
 
 property of man, than any other conftitutional, or 
 effential property ; and with refped to many of 
 thefe, you muft allow that men fhould be left to 
 themfelves. For example, man is conftitutionally 
 and neceffarily an eating and zjleepng animal; but 
 does it therefore follow that civil government has 
 any thing to do with his eating or deeping ? And if 
 not, neither has it any right to prefcribe to him in 
 matters of religion, merely becaufe he is by confti- 
 tution a religious animal. Man is a thinking and rea- 
 soning animal ; but muft all his thinking and rea- 
 foning be fubject to the control of the ftate ? 
 Man has alfo been defined to be animal rifibile, but 
 muft we therefore never laugh but when our grave 
 and wife governors fhall give us leave ? We often 
 indulge ourfelves even in laughing at them. 
 
 As you do not deal much in definitions, or axioms, 
 I am obliged to collect your idea of the principle 
 on which church eftablifhments are founded, from 
 cafual exprefiions, and the general fcope of your 
 declamation. Syftematical divines, in this country, 
 have, in different circumftances of their affairs, 
 advanced two very different principles, as the bafis 
 of civil eftablifhments of religion. At firft it was 
 univerfally afferted that chriftianity, and fome par- 
 ticular form of it, ought to be eftablifhed, main- 
 tained, and protected, by the civil power, becaufe 
 it was true > that it became the civil magiftrate, as 
 
 the
 
 MR. BURKE. 57 
 
 the vicegerent of God, to ftand up for the honour 
 of God, and of his truth ; fo that it was of no 
 confequence at all what was the religion of his fub- 
 je6b. It was his duty to inforce truth, and to 
 bring them as foon as he could to the profeflion and 
 due maintenance of it. 
 
 But when it was urged that civil magiftrates 
 were not always the beft judges of religious truth, 
 that they had often little leifure for the ftudy of re- 
 ligion, and were apt to be impofed upon by priefls, 
 and others whofe intereft it was to miflead them; 
 befides that, upon this plan,th~ religion of every coun- 
 try, would be liable to be changed with every change 
 of governor;, as was the cafe in our own country, in 
 feveral fuccefTrve reigns after that of Henry VIII. 
 or rather Henry VII. this old ground was fhifted; 
 and of late it has been maintained by our high 
 church divines, and by yourfelf, who muft be 
 claffed with them, that the civil magiftrate has no- 
 thing to do with the truth of religion, being obliged 
 to provide for that which is profefTed by the majority 
 of the fubjecls, though he himfelf fhould be of a 
 different perfuafion. Thus they fay the king of Great 
 Britain, muft maintain epifcopacy in England, and 
 prefbyterianifm in Scotland, whether he be aprefby- 
 terian as king William, a Lutheran as George I. 
 or a true churchman as his prefent Majefty. 
 
 You,
 
 $% LETTERS TO 
 
 You, Sir, appear to defend church eftablifhments 
 on the latter of thefe principles. " The chriftian 
 " ftatefman," you fay, p. 151, "mult firft provide 
 " for the multitude, becaufe it is the multitude, and 
 " is therefore, as fuch, the firft object in the eccle- 
 <c fiaftical inftitution, and in all inftitutions." But 
 how does this apply to the cafe of your country of 
 Ireland. For the very fame reafon that epif- 
 copacy ought to be eftablifhed in England, and 
 prefbyterianifm in Scotland, the Roman catholic 
 ought to be the eftablifhed religion of Ireland, be- 
 caufe, as I apprehend, it is unqueftionably the re- 
 ligion of a very great majority of the inhabitants. 
 As to the great mafs of the oppreffed Irifh, if they 
 be afked whether it be their religion, that which 
 they really approve, that they are obliged to main- 
 tain, they will fay it is a. foreign one, one that they 
 difbelieve and deteft, and yet are compelled to fup- 
 port, whilft from genuine zeal, they think it their 
 duty to maintain their own. It is not fuppofed that 
 more than one in ten of the inhabitants of Ireland 
 are of the church of England, and yet the iron 
 hand of power compels them to maintain it. Is 
 this, think you, the way to recommend your reli- 
 gion ? Judge by the effect. What converts have 
 been made to it in the laft two centuries ? The- 
 zealous members of your church, in the reign of 
 
 the
 
 MR. BURKE. 59 
 
 the two Charles's of bleiTed memory, impofed epif- 
 copacy alio upon Scotland, when not more than 
 one in a hundred of the Scots would attend the 
 fervice ; but the generous fpirit of that nation at 
 length threw off the oppreflive yoke. The Irifh 
 alfo have the will, but, alas, not the power. 
 
 If you will have an eftablifhment, and aft upon 
 the principles that you profefs, viz. to provide for 
 the multitude, or the great mafs of the people, do 
 you, of your own accord, change the eftablifhed re- 
 ligion of Ireland, to one more confonant to the ge- 
 nius and wifhes of the nation; and let it not be faid 
 that the church of England would have the impu- 
 dence, if it had the power, to collect its tithes from 
 every country in chriftendom, though every parilh 
 fhould be a finecure, and all their biihops be deno- 
 minated in fartibus. Let there be an appearance at 
 leaft, which now there is not, of fomc regard to 
 religion in the cafe, and not to mere revenue. Of- 
 ten as I have urged this fubject, and many as have 
 been thole who have animadverted upon my writ- 
 ings, hardly any have touched upon this. They feci it 
 to be tender ground. They c;=.n, however, keep an 
 obftinate filence, they can ihut their ear:-, and turn 
 their eyes to other objects, when it u not to their 
 purpofe to attend to this. 
 
 Admitting that religion mufl be eftablifhed, or 
 fupported by civil power, in order to its eihciency, 
 
 wiU
 
 60 LETTERS TO 
 
 will any fpecies of religion anfwer the purpofe; the 
 heathen, or the Mahometan, as well as the chriftian, 
 and one fpecies of chriftianity as well as another ? 
 Mull we have no difcujfion concerning the nature, 
 and influence, of the different kinds of religion, in 
 order that, if we happen to have got a worfe, we may 
 relieve ourfelves by fubilituting a better in its place ? 
 Muft every thing once eftabliihed be, for that rea- 
 fon only, ever maintained ? This is faid, indeed, to 
 be your maxim, openly avowed in the Houfe of 
 Commons, and, it is perfectly agreeable to every 
 thing advanced in this publication. For you con- 
 demn the French National AfTembly, for innovat- 
 ing in their religion, which is Catholic, as much as 
 you could do the Englifh Parliament, for innovat- 
 ing in ours, which is Proteftant. You condemn 
 them for lowering the (late of archbifhops, bifhops, 
 and abbots, though they have improved that of the 
 lower orders of the clergy j and therefore you would, 
 no doubt, be equally offended at any diminution of 
 the power of cardinals, or of the pope. We may 
 therefore prefume, that had you lived in Turkey, 
 you would have been a mahometan, and in Tar- 
 tary, a devout worfhipperof the grand lama. 
 
 It is amufing to fee with what confidence, and 
 with what various expreftion, you deliver your fen- 
 timents on the fubjecT: of thefe civil eftablifhments 
 of religion, without diftinguifning one from an- 
 other.
 
 MR. BURKE. 6 1 
 
 other. " This principle," you fay. p. 147, <c runs 
 " through the whole fyftem of their" (the Britifh) 
 iC policy. They do not confider their church 
 " eftablifhment as convenient, but as efTential to 
 " their ftate, not as a thing heterogeneous and fe- 
 " parable, fomething added for accommodation, 
 <f what they may either keep at or lay afide, ac- 
 <c cording to their temporary ideas of convenience. 
 " They confider it as the foundation of their whole 
 " conftitution, with which, and with every part 
 " of which, it holds an indiflbluble union. Church 
 " and Jlate are ideas infeparable in their minds, and 
 " fcarcely is the one ever mentioned, without men- 
 cc tioning the other. It is on fuch principles," 
 you fay, f ' that the majority of the people of Eng- 
 " land, far from thinking a religious national efta- 
 " blifhment unlawful, hardly think it lawful to be 
 " without one. In France you are wholly mif- 
 " taken if you do not believe us above ail other 
 " tilings attached to it, and above all other na- 
 " tions." 
 
 Now you cannot be fo little read in the hiftory 
 of England, as not to know that the church and 
 ftate were as much connected before the Reforma- 
 tion as they have been fince, and while the eflabli/h- 
 ment was prefbyterian, as well as now that it is epif- 
 copalian. You mult know alfo that the inhabitants 
 of this country 7 , were at one time as zealous papifls
 
 62 LETTERS TO 
 
 as they now are proteftants, and yet they were 
 brought to make a change in their eftablifhed re- 
 ligion, and that this was done without making any 
 material change in the fyftem of civil government. 
 You muft know that the prefbyterians in Scotland, 
 and the epifcopalians in England, have at this very 
 time the fame king and the fame parliament. But 
 how do thefe facts agree with your favourite idea of 
 the infeparable union of church and ftate ? What, 
 then, is the foundation of the dread you have en- 
 tertained of any future change in the religion of our 
 country, when no harm, but, as all proteftants 
 think, much advantage, has been derived from pofl 
 changes in it ? 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 LETTER
 
 M R BURKE. 63 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Of the Source of the Refpeff that is paid to Religion* 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 THAT you make no difference between chrif- 
 tianity and the civil eftablifhment of it, is 
 evident from many parts of your performance, and 
 that you confider the refpett which it commands, 
 as intirely derived from the circumftances of its 
 eftablifhment, is equally evident. After reprefent- 
 ing the importance of chriftianity, as oppofed to 
 infidelity, you fay, in a peculiar ilrain of eloquence, 
 p. 135, " I fin the moment of riot, and in a drunken 
 " delirium, from the hot fpirit drawn out of the 
 " alembic of hell, which in France is now fo fu- 
 " rioufly boiling, we fhould uncover our naked- 
 " nefs, by throwing off that chriftian religion, 
 cc which has hitherto been our boaft and comfort, 
 " and one great fource of civilization among us, 
 Cf and among many other nations, we are apprc- 
 " henfive (being well aware that the mind will not 
 " endure a void) that fame uncouth, pernicious, 
 
 " and
 
 64 LETTERS TO 
 
 " and degrading fuperftition might take place of it, 
 <f For that reafon, before we take from our efta- 
 " blilliment the natural human means of eftimation, 
 <c and give it up to contempt, as you have done 
 " (and in doing it have incurred the penalties you 
 " well deferve to fuffer) we defire that fome other 
 " may be prefented to us in the place of it. We 
 " mall then form our judgment. On thefe ideas, 
 " inftead of quarrelling with eftablifhments, as fome 
 " do who have made a philofophy, and a religion, of 
 " their hoftility to fuch inftitutions, we cleave clofely 
 * c to them. We are refolved to keep an efta- 
 " blifhed church, an eftabliihed monarchy, an 
 " eftablifhed ariflocracy, and an eftablifhed demo- 
 tc cracy, each in the degree it exifts, and in no 
 <f greater." 
 
 It is evident from this pafTage (the whole of which 
 is fo fublimely rhetorical, that I could not help tranf- 
 cribing it, though not abfolutely neceiTary to my 
 purpofe) that you confider the chrittian religion as 
 having no refpecl ability^ or effeft, without being 
 eftablifljed, and that the natural human means of the 
 eftimation in which it is held, is the fplendour and 
 riches of fuch an eftablilriment ; and this will be Hill 
 more evident from fome paffages that I mall have 
 occafion to quote hereafter. Let us now confider 
 how this idea accords with the principles of chrif- 
 tianity, and the authentic records of it, which you 
 
 " will
 
 MR. BURKE. 6$ 
 
 will allow to be contained in the books of the New 
 Teftament, and alfo with its well known fubfequent 
 hiftory. 
 
 Did our Saviour give his apoftles any inftruc- 
 tions about connecting his religion with civil 
 power, as if it would ever ftand in need of fuch 
 aid j or did the apoftles, more fully inftructed after 
 his death and afcenfion, give any intimation of this 
 kind r On the contrary, our Saviour declared that 
 his kingdom was not of this world, which mult mean 
 that it did not referable other kingdoms, in being 
 fupported by public taxes, and having its laws 
 guarded by civil penalties. The apoftles, and all 
 chriftian minifters, for many centuries, lived on the 
 voluntary contributions of their refpective churches, 
 and they had no means of enforcing their ccnfures 
 befides exclufion from their focieties -, and can you 
 fay that chriftianity wanted any proper eftimation, or 
 ref peel ability, in that period? Did it not abundantly 
 recommend itfelf to every attentive candid obferver, 
 and to every impartial inquirer ; and did it not by 
 this means continually gain ground, notwithstand- 
 ing it was oppofed both by all the temporal powers 
 of the world, and by whatever was moil fplendid 
 and fafcinating in the eftablifhed fyftems of hea- 
 thenifm ? It was the virtue, it was the well known 
 piety and extenfive benevolence, of the primitive 
 chriftians, and L not wealth or power, that procured 
 
 F refpeel:
 
 66 LETTERS-TO 
 
 refpect to themfelves, and to their caufe. Read 
 only the letters of the Emperor Julian, and you 
 cannot but be fenfible of this. To this, and to this 
 alone, he afcribed the refpect that was then paid to 
 chriftianity, and the progrefs it had made in the 
 world. 
 
 If you fuppofe, as you really feem to do, that 
 chriftianity is now deftitute of thefe proper means of 
 ejlimation, you know little of its nature or power. 
 The truths and the promifes of the gofpel are the 
 fame now that they ever were, nor is its evidence at 
 all diminifhed; and human nature, on which it ope- 
 rates, you will not doubt, is alfo the fame. And if 
 you could look at any thing out of an eftablifh- 
 ment, you might fee that chriftianity even now 
 produces as difinterefted and heroic virtue as ever 
 it did. It forms men alike for the moil active ufe- 
 fulnefs, or the mod patient fuffering. But amuf- 
 ing yourfelf with the Jhadow you wholly neglect 
 xhsfubjiance. Looking at religion, you fee nothing 
 but the civil eftablifhments of it. Thus have I 
 fometimes feen an aged oak fo completely covered 
 with a luxuriant ivy, that it required feme attention 
 to diicernany thing elfe. 
 
 That wealth and fplcndour have not the charms 
 
 that you afcribe to them with the bulk of mankind, 
 
 is evident even from the hiftory of Monachijm, one of 
 
 the corruptions of chriftianity. The firft monks were 
 
 i not
 
 MR. BURKE. 67 
 
 not attracted by magnificent monafteries, and highly 
 ornamented churches, but were moft numerous, 
 when they had nothing but the deferts to retire to. 
 Then alio were they the moft refpefted ; and they 
 did not fink into contempt till they had acquired 
 what you call the natural human means of eftimation. 
 The fame has been the cafe with the fecular clergy, 
 in all countries. They were infinitely more re- 
 fpected, even by the rich and the great, while they 
 were poor, than they have ever been fince they have 
 gottheirprefentfplendideftablifhments; nor is it dif- 
 ficult to fee the caufe of this, and how it operates. 
 Eafe, affluence, and power, attract perfons who 
 have no fenfe or knowledge of religion; and when 
 mere men of the world get ecclefiaftical preferment, 
 they will, of courfe, difgrace their profefTion by 
 their vices. It was the unbounded luxury, profli- 
 gacy, and arrogance, of the court of Rome, pof- 
 feffed as you think of every natural human means 
 of eftimation, that was one of the principal caufes 
 of the reformation. 
 
 According to your maxims, a rich eftablifh- 
 ment fhould make its clergy more refpected then a 
 poor one. But does this appear to be the cafe, on 
 the comparifon of the ftate of the clergy in Scot- 
 land, and thole in tiiis country ? Dr. Adam Smith, 
 who well knew them both, was of a very different 
 opinion j and the molt fuperficial obferver muft be 
 
 F 2 fcn-
 
 68 LETTERS TO 
 
 fenfible that he is in the right. Nay, fo unfortunate 
 is the fituation of the clergy in this country (for it 
 cannot be any thing, but their fituation, men being the 
 fame in all countries) that, by the confeffion of 
 many perfons in the eftabliihment itfeif, there are 
 no clergy in chriftendom more negligent of their 
 proper duty, lefs ftrict in their morals, and confe- 
 quently more defpifed, than they are. Bifhop Bur- 
 net, who had been much abroad, and who was an 
 attentive obferver, was decidedly of this opinion ; 
 and the character of the clergy in general, is little, 
 if it all, improved fince his time. 
 
 The manner in which your imagination is (truck 
 with a fplendid church eftablifhment, makes you even 
 exceed yourfelf in eloquence; and, as I always admire 
 you in this field, though not in that of fober reason- 
 ing, I cannot forbear quoting a pretty long paragraph 
 ro this purpofe, as it is particularly excellent in its 
 kind. " He," ycu fay, p. 146, "who gave our 
 <c nature to be perfected by our virtue, willed alfo 
 cc the neceffary means of its perfection. He willed 
 " therefore the (bate. Ke willed its connection with 
 f; the fource and original archetype of all perfec- 
 " tion" (meaning, no doubt, the church, equally 
 the archetype of all perfection in Indoftan, in 
 Turkey, in Italy, in England, and even in Scot- 
 land) " They who are convinced of this his will, 
 " which is tire law of laws, and the I'overcign of 
 
 c - ibve reigns,
 
 MR. BURKE. 69 
 
 ff fovereigns, cannot think it reprehenfible that this 
 " our corporate fealty and homage, that this our 
 (i recognition of a figniory paramount, I had almoft 
 " faid this oblation of the ftate itfelf, as a worthy 
 " offering on the high altar of univerfal praife, 
 " (hould be performed, as all public folemn acts are 
 <f performed, in buildings, in mufic, in decoration, 
 " in fpeech, in the dignity of perfons, according to 
 " the cuftoms of mankind, taught by their nature ; 
 " that is, with modeft fplendour, with unafTuming 
 " ftate, with mild majefty, and fober pomp. For 
 " thole purpofes they think fome part of the wealth 
 iC of the country is as ufe fully employed as it can 
 " be in fomenting the luxury of individuals. It is 
 " the public confolation. It nourilh.es the public 
 <c hope. The pooreft man finds his own impor- 
 " tance and dignity in it, whilft the wealth and 
 " pride of individuals at every moment makes die 
 " man of humble rank and fortune fenfible of his 
 u inferiority, and degrades and vilifies his condition. 
 "It is for the man in humble life, and to raife his 
 " nature, and to put him in mind of a Rate in which 
 " the privileges of opulence vviilceafe, when he will 
 <( be equal by nature, and may be more than equal 
 " by virtue, that this portion of the general wealth 
 " of his country is employed and fanftificd." 
 
 Big with thefe ideas, you fay, p. 153, "as the 
 " mafsofany defcription of men are but men, ;u\d 
 
 F 3 " rhcir
 
 70 LETTERS TO 
 
 " their poverty" (namely that of the clergy) <c can- 
 <; not be voluntary, that difrefpecl which attends 
 cc upon all lay-poverty will not depart from the 
 " ecclefiaftical. Our conftitution has therefore 
 " taken care, thatthofe who are to inftruct prefump- 
 " tuous ignorance, thofe who are to be cenfors over 
 " infolent vice, mould neither incur their contempt, 
 " nor live upon their alms; nor will it tempt the 
 tc rich to a neglect of the true medicine of their 
 " minds. For thefe reafons, while we provide firft 
 " for the poor, with a parental folicitude, we have 
 <c not relegated religion, like fomething we were 
 " afhamed to fhew, to obfeure municipalities, or 
 " ruflic villages. No , we will have her to exalt 
 <c her mitred front in courts and parliaments. We 
 " will have her mixed throughout the whole mafs 
 " of life, and blended with all the clafles of fo- 
 " ciety. The people of England will fhew to the 
 " haughty potentates of the world, and to their 
 <c talking fophiflers, that a free, a generous, and in- 
 <l formed nation, honours the high magiftrates of 
 * c its church, that it will not fuffer the infolence 
 tc of wealth and titles, or any other fpecies of proud 
 " pretenfion, to look down with fcorn upon what 
 " they look up to with reverence, nor prefume to 
 " trample on that acquired perfonal nobility which 
 tc they intend always to be, and which often is, the 
 " fruit, not the . reward (for what can be the re- 
 
 " ward)
 
 MR. BURKE. 71 
 
 " ward) of learning, piety, and virtue. They can 
 " fee without pain or grudging an archbifhop pre- 
 " cede a duke. They can fee a bifhop of Dur- 
 " ham, or a bifhop of Wincheftcr, in poiTeftion of 
 " ten thoufand pounds a year," &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Pray, Sir, on what part of the New Teftament is 
 this a comment? Alas, it is the wjfdcm cfthezvcrlJ, 
 which is foolifonefs ivith Gcd, and even with feiious 
 and fenfible men? The wealth of the clergy, of 
 which you are fo proud, and the temporal power 
 with which you have invefted them, is the natural 
 fbtirce of their corruption, and what muft ever fink 
 them, and religion, into contempt. Has the fplen- 
 dour of the ecclefialtical eftablifhment in France, 
 which is much fuperior to any thing of the kind 
 in this country, prevented the fpread of the Re- 
 formation on the one hand, or of infidelity on the 
 other? By your own account, France is almoft a 
 nation of infidels, at lead their National Aflembly, 
 in your idea, confifts chiefly o[ them. I lave the 
 remains of this fplendour, refpectable Hill in your 
 eyes, prevented the rejection of chriftianity alto- 
 gether here? If you know the world, and even 
 what paOes at home, you mull know die contrary. 
 Infidelity lias made confiderable progrefs in rhi; 
 country, and efpecially in the upper clafies of life, 
 perfons to whom you imagine the wealth of the . 
 would naturally recommend their reli ion. But 
 
 F 4 thci'e
 
 72 LETTERS TO 
 
 thefe men do not frequent your churches, and they 
 regard your eftablifhment no farther than they can 
 avail themfelves of its emoluments, as it is a means 
 of providing for their younger fons and brothers. 
 If the Houfes of Lords and Commons were fairly 
 polled, after voting according to their real opinion, 
 whether, think you, would the majority be in fa- 
 vour of chriftianity, or againft it? Many, and 
 thofe not inattentive obfervers, think the latter. 
 
 If riches and power have the charms which you 
 afcribe to them in the bufmels of religion, how 
 came the reformation to take place? The power 
 and fplendour of the church of Rome was at its 
 height in the time of Luther and his followers ; yet, 
 without any aid of this kind to oppofe to it, in Ger- 
 many, in this country, or in Scotland, it gave way 
 to the efforts of men who had no advantage but 
 what they derived from reafon and piety. Surely, 
 Sir, the bulk of mankind do not fee with your eyes. 
 If they did, how can you account for the great 
 number of DifTenters in this country, from the 
 time of Queen Elizabeth, who had the fame ideas 
 that you have on thefe fubjects, down to the prefent 
 time] and what can be the caufe of the amazing 
 increafe of methodifm ? Neither their minifters 
 nor ours are rich. We have not the ftyle of my lord, 
 nor have v/e feats in parliament. But, deftitute as 
 we are of all thefe advantages, I will venture to 
 
 fay,
 
 MR. BURKE. 73 
 
 lay, that our minifters, as a body, are much more 
 refpected by their congregations than yours, pof- 
 feffed, in your idea, of all the natural human means of 
 eftimation. 
 
 Judging of us by yourfelves, you naturally fup- 
 
 pofe, that it is only through envy and malignity, that 
 
 we declaim againft the wealth and the power of the 
 
 clergy. " In England, you fay, p. 155, " moil 
 
 " of us conceive that it is envy and malignity to- 
 
 " wards thofe who are often the beginners of their 
 
 " own fortune, and not a love of the felf-denial 
 
 " and mortification of the ancient church, that makes 
 
 " fume look afkance at the distinctions, and honours, 
 
 " and revenues, which, taken from no perfon, are 
 
 " fet apart for virtue. The ears of the people of 
 
 " England are diftinguifhing. They hear theie 
 
 " men fpeak broad. Their tongue betrays them. 
 
 "Their language is in the patois of fraud, in the 
 
 " cant and gibberifh of hypocrify. The people of 
 
 " England mud think fo when thefe praters affect 
 
 " to carry back the clergy to that primitive evan- 
 
 " gtlic poverty, which, in the fpirit, ought always 
 
 " to exift in them (and in us too, however, we may 
 
 " like it) but the thing mult be varied, when the 
 
 " the relation of that body to the (late is altered, 
 
 " when manners, when modes of life, when indeed 
 
 " the whole order of human affairs, has undergone 
 
 " a total revolution. We fliall believe thefe rc- 
 
 " formers
 
 74 LETTERS TO 
 
 " formers to be then honeft enthujiafts, not, as now 
 " we think them, cheats and deceivers, when we fee 
 " them throwing their own goods into common, 
 " and fubmitting their own perfons to the auftere 
 " difcipline of the early church." 
 
 This, Sir, is a paragraph of which it is to be 
 hoped you will fome time hence be afhamed. You 
 do not give us the alternative of being either knaves 
 ox fools. You will not allow us any place in this 
 more refpectable, or rather lefs contemptible, clafs of 
 men. None of us who difapprove of eftablifhments, 
 Dr. Price, or myfelf, can have the honour of being 
 ranked with honeft enthufiafts. We are all abfo- 
 lutely, and without a fingle exception, cheats and 
 deceivers, who are faying one thing, and, at the 
 fame time, meaning another. But we are happy 
 in an appeal from your judgment, as you arc from 
 ours i though, judging from myfelf, we are by no 
 means difpofed to cenfure you with fo much feve- 
 rity as you do us. I do not fay that we are fo mor- 
 tified to the world, as that the good things with 
 which you tempt us, have no charms for us. We 
 are men, and have the feelings of men, as well as 
 yourfelves. But if they ftruck our imagination as 
 forcibly as they do yours, and if we were the knaves 
 and hypocrites that you fuppofe us to be, why do 
 we not make greater efforts to obtain them ? The 
 market is open, but we do not chvSe to give the 
 
 price.
 
 MR. BURKE. 75 
 
 price. If thcfe things be accefiible to fame, they 
 are no doubt to others, in proportion to their ability 
 or intereft, or whatever it be that affifts their pre- 
 ferment. 
 
 As to fubfcription to your articles, &c. if I be 
 fuch a perfon as you have defcribed, why might 
 not I declare my unfeigned ajfent and conjent to them, 
 as well as others ? Befides, if the advantages of an 
 eftablifhment were the things that we are aiming 
 at, why are we labouring at the fubvcrfion of all 
 cftablifhments, expofing their inutility, and even 
 their mifchievous nature and tendency ? If the 
 tree be cut down, how are we to live upon the fruit 
 of it ? And there are now, I believe, very few Dif- 
 fenters, who, if the preient eftablifhment was over- 
 turned, would wtfh to fubftitute any other in its 
 place. 
 
 Your idea of the Rate of things in the primitive 
 church, is altogether founded on miftake. It was 
 not, from the Hrft, materially different from what 
 it is, or at lead ought to be, at this day, and there- 
 fore did not require any great difference in the con- 
 dition of its ordinary minilters. There never was 
 any obligation on chriftians to throw their goods 
 into common. Whatever was done of this kind, ap- 
 pears from the hillory of Ananias and Sapphira, 
 to have been perfectly voluntary, and could not 
 have been univcrfal -, and we read of no fuch thing 
 
 iii
 
 76 LETTERS TO 
 
 in any of" the Gentile churches. Thefe, from the 
 firft, confided of rich and poor, and the rich amon 
 them made contributions to relieve the poor chrif- 
 tians at Jerufalem, which could not have been 
 wanted, if all the rich, even there, had given their 
 all. As to the difcipline of the primitive church, it 
 was fuch as I fhould have no objection to, but 
 have ftrongly recommended in my Effhy on Church 
 Difcipline ; nor was it more ftrict than is actually 
 exercifed in feveral chriitian churches, though not 
 in that of England, at this day. But of thefe things 
 you, Sir, feemto fpeak altogether at random, with- 
 out any particular knowledge of the fubject. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 LETTER
 
 MR. BURKE. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Of a civil EJtablijh:nmt being ejjential to ChrijYianitj, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 IF a civil eftablifhment be fo eftential as you re- 
 prefent it, to the eftimation and effect of chrif- 
 tianity, you mull, no doubt, imagine that it never 
 exifted without one, that it has grown with its 
 growth, and firengthened with its Jircngth. Hence 
 your apprehenfion that, if any thing affect the 
 one, it mult in proportion affect the other, and 
 that they muft both (land or fall together. Now, 
 being yourfelf nothing more than a Lay divine (as 
 you contemptuoufly characterife a perfbn of emi- 
 nence, who has prefumed to hint at lbme improve- 
 ments in your favourite fyftem, not calculated to 
 overturn, but to ftrengthen it) J, whom, together 
 with Dr. Price, you will clafs, p. 13, among poli- 
 tical theologians, and theological politicians, fhall give 
 you a little information on the fubject. Your ta- 
 lents, no doubt, are great ; but what are talents, 
 or powers ofreafoning, and combining particular 
 
 facts
 
 78 LE T TERS TO 
 
 fads into fyflems, if a man have no fa<5h to com- 
 bine, no proper knowledge of his fubjecl: ? In this 
 cafe his greater ingenuity will only ferve to mif- 
 lead him, and fix him in error. And it is very 
 evident that, whatever has been the compafs of 
 your Studies, ecclefiafiical hiftory has not been within 
 its range ; and facts, notorious facts, fuch as lye up- 
 on the very face and fur face of it, unfortunately 
 overturn your whole fyftem. 
 
 You have not been pleafed to give us the defini- 
 tion of an eftablijhed churchy though you enlarge fo 
 much in your encomiums upon it; but in this 
 we cannot much difagree. In its full extent, it is 
 a church defended, and even regulated, by the Hate, 
 which either wholly profcribes, tolerates, or barely 
 connives at, other religions. Now, what was the 
 fituation of the chriftian church with refpect to" the 
 State in the primitive times ? You mud know that, 
 fo far from being fupported by the civil powers 
 (which were then either Jewifh or Heathen) it was 
 frowned upon by them, and violently perfecuted, itfelf 
 being at that time nothing more than a feet, or a 
 herefy, fometimes connived at, but never openly 
 tolerated; and yet in thefe circumftances it exifted, 
 and flourished, gradually gaining ground by its own 
 evidence, till it triumphed over all oppofition, and 
 the Roman empire itfelf became chriftian. 
 
 What
 
 MR. BURKE. 79 
 
 What was it thefe chriftian emperors then did 
 for their religion ? They did little or nothing to- 
 wards its fujyporty becaufe they found it fufficiently 
 fupported by the voluntary contributions and bene- 
 factions of its friends. They did, however, what 
 they ought not to have done ; they influenced the de- 
 cifions of councils, and enforced them by temporal 
 pains and penalties. The State alfo protected pro- 
 perty given or bequeathed to the church, as well 
 as that which was appropriated to other ufes ; but 
 there was nothing like a tax levied for the fupport 
 of religion for many ages, nor is there any fuch 
 thing at this day in a very great part of the chriilian 
 world. Tithes are comparatively but a modern in- 
 vention, tlie payment of them being mil voluntary, 
 and afterwards obligatory j and the compulfory 
 payment of tithes did not take place in the whole 
 of this country till the time of King John, of glori- 
 ous and immortal memory > on that account. There 
 are now no tidies paid in the ecclefiaftical Hates of 
 Italy, or in Sicily, and though, as I have been late- 
 ly informed, there is what is called tithes in fomc 
 parts of Lombardy, it does not in general exceed 
 one thirtieth part of the produce, and is never one 
 tenth. 
 
 Another important article in our ecclefiaftical 
 effoblifhmcnr, is the right of our kings to the no- 
 mination
 
 SO LETTERS TO 
 
 ruination of bifhops*. But it is well known, that 
 the right of chufing the bifhops was originally, and 
 for many centuries, in their refbeclive churches, 
 the metropolitans fliewing their approbation by 
 joining in their ordination ; and that even the em- 
 perors themfelves, after they became chriftians, 
 never afiumed any fuch authority. It was firft 
 ufurped by the popes, in the plenitude of their 
 power, and by the feudal princes of Europe, in 
 confequence of their inverting bifhops with their 
 temporalities, and making them lords of territory. 
 The National Affembly of France have, to their 
 immortal honour (though they mould be diffolved 
 to-morrow, and never meet again) reftored to all 
 the chriftian churches in that country, their ori- 
 ginal right of appointing their own paftors, both 
 the ordinary clergy and the bifhops. 
 
 As to the claim of our princes to be the h:ads 
 of the church (which is an ufurpation from an usur- 
 per, the pope) and that of our parliament, to 
 enact what fhall be deemed articles cf faith, and 
 to give a form and conftitution to the whole 
 church, it is a thing not fo much as pretended to 
 
 * This is dene in England by the king iffuing a Conge d' Elire to 
 the chapters of each cathedral, impowering them to chufe fuch 
 perfons only as are named to them j but in Ireland it is done with- 
 out this form. 
 
 by
 
 MR. BURKE. 3 1 
 
 by any other temporal power in the world, and a 
 greater abfurdity and abufe than any thing fubfift- 
 ing in the fyftem of popery, where at lead the judges 
 in ecclefiaftical affairs are ecclefiaftical perfons. 
 
 The whole fyftem of the civil eftablifhment of 
 religion had its origin at a time when neither reli- 
 gion nor civil government was much undcrftood. It 
 was the confequence of the feudal dates of Europe 
 becoming chriftian in an age where we find little of 
 Chriftianity, befides the name ; its genuine doclrines 
 and its fpirit having equally difappeared. 
 
 Every article, therefore, within the compafs of 
 the civil eftablifhment of chriftianity, is evidently 
 an innovation -, and as fyftems are reformed by re- 
 verting to their firft principles, chriftianity can ne- 
 ver be reftored to its priftine ftate, and recover its 
 real dignity and efficiency, till it be difengaged from 
 all connexion with civil power. This eftablifh- 
 ment, therefore, may be compared to a fungus, or a 
 parafitical plant, which is fo far from being coeval 
 with the tree on which it has faftened itfelf, that 
 it feized upon it in its weak and languid ftate, and 
 if it be not cut oft' in time, will exhauftall its juices, 
 and deftroy it. 
 
 Writing to an orator, 1 naturally think of meta- 
 phors and companions, and therefore I will give you 
 twoor three more. Sofar is acivil eftablifhment from 
 being friendly to chriftianity, that it may be com- 
 
 G pared
 
 Si LETTERS TO 
 
 pared to the animal, called the Sloth, which, when ic 
 o-ets upon any tree, will not leave it till it has devoured 
 even the leaves and the bark, fo that it prefently 
 perifhes. Rather, it is the animal called a glutton, 
 which falling from a tree (in which it generally 
 conceals itfelf) upon fome noble animal, imme- 
 diately begins to tear it, and fuck its blood ; and 
 if it be not foon fhaken off (which fometimes eve- 
 ry effort fails to efie<5t) it infallibly kills its prey. 
 
 Now, when I fee this fungus of an eftablifhment 
 upon the noble plant of chriftianity, draining its beft 
 juices; when I fee this Sloth upon its ftately branches, 
 gnawing it, and ftripping it bare j or, to change 
 my companion, when I fee the Glutton upon the 
 fhoulders of this noble animal, the blood flowing 
 down, and its very vitals in danger j if I wilh to 
 preferve the tree, or the animal, muft I not, with- 
 out delay, extirpate the fungus, deftroy the Sloth, 
 and kill the Glutton. Indeed, Sir, fay, or write, 
 what you pleafe, fuch vermin deferve no mercy. 
 You may itand by, and weep for the fate of your 
 favourite fungus, your Sloth, or your Glutton, but 
 I fhaii not fpare them. 
 
 In your idea, a civil eftablifhment is the very 
 lafis, or foundation of religion. But when any ftruc- 
 ture is to be raifed, the foundation is the firft thing 
 that is laid \ whereas this was evidently the very 
 laft. Inftead, therefore, of its being the foundation, 
 
 i or
 
 MR. BURKE. 83 
 
 or even the buttrefs, it may rather be faid to refem- 
 ble the heavy ft one roof^ preffing with an enormous 
 weight upon the walls, which on that account re- 
 quire many buttreffes to fupport it, and after all 
 proves to be fo heavy, and is now become fo ruin- 
 ous, that it will be found abfolutely neceflary to take 
 it all down, if the building is to be preferved. Nay, 
 as in the late taking; down of the Hone roof of the 
 cathedral, I think, of Hereford, if the grcateft care 
 be not taken, the attempt to meddle with this cum- 
 brous roof will be hazardous, both to thofe who 
 remove it, and thofe who fland near it. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 G 2 LETTER
 
 84 LETTERS TO 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Of the Ufes of civil EJlabliJhments of Religion. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 YOU certainly magnify the benefits derived from 
 religion itfeif too much, valuable as I allow 
 it to be, when you fay, p. 134, cc We know, and 
 tf what is better, we feel, that religion is the bafis 
 " of civil fociety, and the fource of all good and of 
 <c all comfort." Here, furely, is more of the rhetori- 
 cian than of the reafoner^ even fuppofing you not to 
 mean, what you evidently do, the civil eftablifh- 
 ment of religion, but religion itfeif. Is there 
 no good, or comfort, in any thing but religion, 
 or what flows from it ? Will religion feed or cloath 
 us ; or is there no comfort in food or cloathing ? 
 Is it not poaible to make many wholefome laws to 
 prevent men from injuring one another, and is it 
 not pofiTole to execute thofe laws, fo as to preferve 
 the -peace offociety, which I conceive to be the pro- 
 per end of civil government, without calling in the 
 aid of religion ; or cannot religion operate in aid of 
 good laws, without the help of the magiftrate ? 
 
 Civil
 
 MR. B URKE. 85 
 
 Civil eftablifhments of religion, muft, however, 
 be imagined to be offome life to fociety, or it will 
 be of little confequence to defend them at all. If 
 the church, or the king, have nothing but divine 
 right to (land upon, the people, feeing their own in- 
 tereft to be of the queftion, would not, at this day, 
 fhew much zeal in their fupport. They muft, if 
 pofiible, be made to believe, that a fyftem fupport- 
 ed by their money, and the fweat of their brows, 
 is, in fome way or other, directly or indirectly, for 
 their advantage. Accordingly, you, Sir, have found 
 it necefiary to urge the utility of thefe eftablifhments, 
 and according to you, this utility is threefold. 
 They are of ufe to the poor, and to the rich, and 
 though they fuit all governments, they are more par- 
 ticularly neceffary in democratical ones. 
 
 "The chriftian ftatefmen," you fay, p. 151, " of 
 " this land have been taught, that the circumftance 
 " of the gofpel's being preached to the poor, was 
 <c one of the great tefts of its true miftion. They 
 " think, therefore, that thofe do not believe it who 
 " do not take care it fhould be preached to the 
 " poor." 
 
 Here, Sir, your argument, as far as there is 
 any thing of argument in it, is, that fince the poor 
 cannot afford to pay for religious inftruction, the 
 ftate fhould provide it for them. A very pious and 
 charitable defign, no doubt ; but at whole expence 
 G ;? is
 
 $6 LETTERS TO 
 
 is this provifion made ? If it were at the expence of 
 the rich only, there would be fomething of charity 
 in it; but is not all property, that of the poor as 
 well as that of the rich, taxed alike for this purpofe ? 
 Do not the clergy exact the payment ot'Jmall tithes, 
 and often with the utmoft rigour, from their poor- 
 eft parifhioners ? Do we not fometimes hear of 
 their being actually turned out of their little tene- 
 ments, by a diftrefs levied by their fpiritual inftruc- 
 tors , and are not the poor I riih, fome of the molt def- 
 titute and miferable of mankind, driven into al- 
 moil annual rebellions, by oppreflion from the ex- 
 action of tithes ? 
 
 This, I am told, is the true caufe of the rife of 
 thofe who are called White Boys, among the poor 
 catholics of Ireland ; and nothing but the terror of 
 military execution, can compel them to pay for 
 that inftruction which you would give us to under- 
 ftand is fo charitably afforded them. Thus, to be 
 compelled to pay for theinftruction which they deteft, 
 and receive no advantage from, and to be at the 
 fame time under another kind of neceffity of paying 
 for the instruction which they really value, is, in- 
 deed, a hard cafe. But this, according to you, is 
 preaching the go/pel to the poor. 
 
 The gofpel was, in its proper fenfe, preached to 
 the poor by our Saviour, the apoftles, and other 
 primitive chriftians, who were themfelves poor. 
 
 In
 
 MR. BURKE. 7 
 
 In thofe times, all the contributions for the main- 
 tenance of public worfhip, were made by the rich> 
 and they were as ample as they were voluntary. 
 Thofe who were lefs opulent gave as they thought 
 proper, and could afford, and the poor gave no- 
 thins ; for fmall tithes were then unknown. The 
 fame is the cafe with us Diflentcrs. All our places 
 of public worfhip are open to the poor, as well as 
 to the rich ; and not only are the poor accommo- 
 dated gratis, but their wants are attended to as far 
 as the funds of the congregation (and in all of them 
 there is one for this purpofc) can go towards their 
 relief. 
 
 The inftruclion of the poor is more attended to 
 by the Methodifts than by any other tlafs of chrif- 
 tians in this country. They not only make them 
 welcome, but they feek out, they invite, and prefs 
 them to receive indruction ; and if thofe of them, 
 who are comparatively poor, tax themfelvcs for the 
 maintenance of their preachers, and the building 
 of their places of worfhip, it is in i'v.ch a manner as 
 promotes induftry, and checks profligacy and extra- 
 gance. By this means, becoming more fobcr, and 
 more frugal, they grow comparatively rich, and 
 are better able to contribute their penny, their 
 two-pence, or their fix- pence a week, to fupply the 
 wants of others. I honour their wikiom and oeco- 
 nomy, and think moll highly of thofe perfons 
 G 4 whole
 
 88 LETTERS TO 
 
 whofe education and habits difpofe and enable them 
 to adapt themfelves to the inftruction of the loweft 
 and pooreft of the vulgar. They are civilizing and 
 christianizing that part of the community, which 
 is below the notice of your dignified clergy, but 
 whofe fouls, as the common phrafe is, are as pre- 
 cious in the fight of God, as thofe who are called their 
 betters. Such men will have their reward in hea- 
 ven. I only wifh they had more knowledge, and 
 more charity along with their zeal ; and thefe alio 
 will come in due time. 
 
 You think it equally neceffary, that public pro- 
 vifion mould be made for the inflruction of the 
 rich, and that, in order to engage their attention and 
 refpect, the civil eftablifhment of religion mould 
 be fplendid. " Such fublime principles," you fay, 
 p. 137, "ought to be infufed into perfons in ex- 
 " alted fituations, and religious eftablifhments pro- 
 " vided that may continually revive and enforce 
 "them. The people of England," you fay, p. 152, 
 " know how little influence the teachers of religion 
 " are likely to have with the wealthy and power- 
 " ful of long flanding, and how much lefs weight 
 " with the newly fortunate, if they appear no way 
 " afTorted to thofe with whom they muft afTociate, 
 * f and over whom they muft even exercife in fome 
 c< cafes fomething like an authority. What muft 
 " they think of that body of teachers, if they fee 
 
 " ir
 
 MR, BURKE. S 9 
 
 " it in no part above the eftablifhment of their do- 
 " meftic fervants ?" 
 
 On the effect of fplendid eftablifhments on the 
 minds of men I have enlarged before, and fhall now 
 only obferve that, through grofs inattention to the 
 principles of human nature, you have neither con- 
 fidered the effect of the fituation in which you have 
 placed the clergy of this country on their own 
 minds, or on thofe of the rich and the great, to 
 whom their miniftry is adapted. Is it not a fact, 
 that, fo fir from the former being independent of the 
 latter, in confequence of having great emolument 
 in continual profpect (which is the cafe of all the 
 clergy, the biihops themfelves not excepted) that 
 they muft continually look up to them, and court 
 them, in order to advance themfelves? Is not their 
 attention to the great in general extremely fervile 
 and debafing? Have you never heard of their con- 
 niving at, rather than reproving them for, their 
 vices and extravagancies, while they have the care 
 of their education at home, and abroad. Is not al- 
 moil every clergyman, whofe talents or connections 
 encourage him to afpire to a bifhopric, or any other 
 great preferment, ready to adopt the maxims, and 
 court the favour of the great, in whofe power alone 
 it is to aid their views ? Is it not notorious that the 
 bifhops in general fill in with the meafures of the 
 court, whatever they are, evidently becaufe they 
 
 cannot
 
 90 LETTERS TO 
 
 cannot rife higher, or provide for their dependants, 
 by any other means? For whenever the maxims 
 and meafures of the court change, the conduct of 
 the bifhops almoft univerfally, and even inftantly, 
 changes with them. 
 
 "When, after the Court was difpoied to favour 
 us, the diffenting miniflers waited by appointment 
 upon an archbifhop, in order to get his vote and 
 interefc for relief in the matter of fubfcription, 
 which was then under confideration in parliament, 
 after both himfelf and his brethren had voted 
 againft us uocn a former occafion, he affured them 
 that, though their bench had concurred in rejecting 
 their application before, it was no meafure of theirs, 
 but that they had been put upon it by the king's mi- 
 niilers. This he evidently thought a fufficient apo- 
 logy for his own conduit, and that of his brethren. 
 So valid did this excufe appear to him, that he had 
 no feeling; of the difhcncur which fuch conduct 
 refiected upon the whole bench, and what a de-* 
 fpicable idea he was giving of himfelf and of his 
 brethren to us DifTenters, who are ufed to think and 
 act for ourfelves, and not as we are put upon by- 
 others. Can fuch conduct as this, which the fitua- 
 tion of your dignified clergy neceiTarily leads them 
 into, infpire perfons of high rank, or of any rank, 
 with fentimcnts of refpccl? I will venture to fay it 
 is impoffible. Pretend what you will, you mud, 
 
 and
 
 MR. BURKE. 91 
 
 and you do, hold diem in contempt, as much as 
 we do ourfelves. It is the feeling of indignant ho- 
 nour. It is the natural fentiment of man towards 
 his degraded fellow creature, which in fome mea- 
 fure reflects dilhonour upon himfelf, as being of 
 the fame fpecies. 
 
 You, who are a lay divine, farther teach us, that 
 civil eftablifhments of religion are peculiarly ufeful 
 in free Governments. " The confecration of the 
 " ftate," you fay, p. 137, "by a Hate religi- 
 " ous eftabliihment, is neceflary alfo to operate 
 " with an wholefome awe upon free citizens, be- 
 " caufe, in order to fecure their freedom, they mud 
 " enjoy fome determinate portion of power. To 
 " them, therefore, a religion connected with the 
 " ftate, and with their duty towards it, becomes 
 tc even more neceflary, than in fuch focieties where 
 " the people, by the terms of their fubjeclion, are 
 " confined to private fentiments, and the manage- 
 " ment of their own family concerns. All pei fons 
 " pollcfiing any portion of power, ought to be 
 <c ftrongly and awfully imprcfled with an idea that 
 " they act in trull, and that they are to account for 
 <c their conduct in that trull to the one great maf- 
 " ter, author, and founder, of fociety. This prin- 
 " ciple ought even to be more ftrongly imprefted 
 cc upon the minds of tliofe who compofe the col- 
 <c leClive fovereignty, than upon thofe of fingle 
 
 <( princes.
 
 Cjl LETTERS TO 
 
 " princes. Without inftruments, thefe princes can 
 " do nothing. Whoever ufes inftruments, in find- 
 " ing helps, finds alfo impediments. Their power, 
 " therefore, is by no means complete, nor are they 
 
 <c fafe in extreme abufe. But where popular 
 
 " authority is abfolute and unftrained, the people 
 " have an infinitely greater, becaufe a far better 
 <c founded, confidence in their own power. It is 
 <c therefore of infinite importance that they fhould 
 " not be fuffered to imagine that their will, any 
 " more than that of kings, is the ftandard of right 
 " and wrong, &c. &c." 
 
 In all this, Sir, you, as ufual, confound religion 
 with the civil eftablijhment of it, and hence the ma- 
 nifest inconclufivenefs of your whole argument. 
 Religion, no doubt, is ufeful to all men, of all 
 ranks, in power, or fubject to it, as it furnifhes an 
 additional motive to good behaviour in every situa- 
 tion. But what has this to do with any civil efta~ 
 blifhment of it, with its being maintained by the 
 ftate, the officers of which ftate, will, of courfe, 
 have the fole power of ecclefiaftical as well as civil 
 preferment ? How will the members of a popular 
 afTembly be overawed by the admonitions of men 
 whofe falaries are fettled, and whofe places are dif- 
 pofed of, by themfelves, any more than a fingle ar- 
 bitrary fovereign ? Will not the clergy always look 
 up to that power, which has preferment at its dif- 
 
 pofa^
 
 MR. BURKE. 93 
 
 pofal, in whatever hands it be lodged? Are not the 
 eftabliflied minifters in Holland advocates for their 
 republican government, as much as the Englifh 
 bifhops of this day for the limited monarchy 
 of England, and as the bifhops of Charles I. and 
 II. were for abfolute monarchy, paflive obedience, 
 and non-refiftance ? 
 
 The clergy, or any other fet of men, in the pay 
 of a ftate, foon perceive what are the maxims of 
 the governing powers in that (late, and readily 
 adopt them. Are not the afpiring clergy of the 
 prefent reign, advocates for higher maxims of go- 
 vernment in church and ftate, than thofe of the two 
 preceding reigns? The fact is evident, and the dif- 
 ference is to be looked for in the different difpofi- 
 tions of the courts. The former were liberal, and 
 favourable to diffenters, and the prefent is lefs fo. 
 This alone accounts for the whole. If the gover- 
 nors of any country in which religion is eftabliflied, 
 have no motives to (land in awe of the minifters of 
 religion, which they evidently have not (as they al- 
 ways fee the minifters of religion (landing in awe of 
 them i and courting them) it is of no ufe to them 
 that it is eftabliflied at all. If it be of any ufe, it is 
 fimply as religion, as a principle operating upon 
 confeience, and influencing individuals, indepen- 
 dently of any civil efhblifhment of it. 
 
 Indeed,
 
 94 LETTERS TO 
 
 Indeed, Sir, you fee this whole bufmefs in a very 
 wrong point of light. The civil eftablifhment of 
 religion is fo far from making it refpeclable, that 
 it is the very thing that makes it contemptible ; be- 
 caufe it naturally tends to debafe the minds of thofe 
 who officiate in it, thofe to whom men will com- 
 monly look for examples of its proper fpirit and 
 tendency, and by whofe principles and conduct they 
 are too apt to form their opinion of it. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 LETTER
 
 MR. BURKE. 95 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Of an Ekolive Clergy. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 fTT^HE dread you exprefs of the clergy of this 
 JL country becoming elective, is extreme, and the 
 confequences which you imagine to flow from a 
 regulation of this kind in the conftitution of the 
 church, you exhibit in the mod alarming light. I 
 fhall felecr. the following, as fome of the fcrongefl: 
 paflages in your publication upon this fubject, and I 
 Hull then make a few remarks u::on them. 
 
 " The prefent ruling power" (viz. of France) 
 tc has," you fay, p. 217, <c made a degrading, pen- 
 <c fionary eftablifliment, to which no man of liberal 
 " ideas, or liberal condition, will deftine his children. 
 <c It mud fettle into the lowed claffes of the peo- 
 <c pie. As with you, the inferior clergy are not 
 <f numerous enough for their duty, as thefe duties 
 " are beyond meufure, minute, and toilfome ; as 
 " you have left no middle claffes of clergy at their 
 " eafc, in future nothing of fcience, or erudition, 
 * f can cxift in the Gallican church. To complete 
 " the project, without the lead attention to the 
 
 " ri'zhti
 
 9& LETTERS TO 
 
 " rights of patrons, the Affembly has provided in 
 ff future an elective clergy ; an arrangement which 
 " will drive out of the clerical profeffion all men of 
 <c fobriety, all who can pretend to independence in 
 " their function or their conduct, and which will 
 fC throw the whole direction of the public mind 
 <c into the hands of a fet of licentious, bold, crafty, 
 " factious, flattering wretches, of fuch condition, 
 " and fuch habits of life, as will make their con- 
 " temptible penfions (in comparifon of which 
 " the flipend of an excifeman is lucrative and 
 " honourable) an object of low and illiberal in- 
 " trigue." 
 
 " In fhort," you fay, p. 1 1 8, cc it feems to me, that 
 " this newecclefiaftical eftablifhment, is intended only 
 " to be temporary, and preparatory to the utter abo- 
 cc lition, under any of its forms, of the chriftian 
 <f religion, whenever the minds of men are prepar- 
 <c ed for this laft ftroke againft it, by the accom- 
 tc plifhment of the plan for bringing its minifters 
 " into univerfal contempt. I hope," you add, 
 p. 219, "their partizans in England, will fuc- 
 " ceed neither in the pillage of the ecclefiaftics, 
 " nor in the introduction of a principle of popu- 
 " lar election to our bifhoprics and parochial cures. 
 " This, in the prefent condition of the world, 
 <c would be the laft corruption of the church, the 
 " utter ruin of the clerical character, the moft dan- 
 
 gerous
 
 MR. BURKE. 97 
 
 <c gerous fliock that the ftate ever received 
 ** through a mifunderftood arrangement of reli- 
 " gion." 
 
 Now, Sir, had you reflected ever fo little on the 
 nature of the cafe, had you read ecclefiaftical hif- 
 tory, or had you opened your eyes to exifting facts, 
 fuch as almoft obtrude themfelves upon the mod 
 carelefs obferver every day, you muft have per- 
 ceived that an elective clergy muft have, always has 
 had, and at this prefent time actually has, effects the 
 very reverfe of thofe with which your imagination 
 (for here judgment is totally out of the queftion) is 
 haunted. 
 
 Is it not true that, in all cafes of a civil nature, 
 every perfon, who receives a falary for any duty 
 whatever, will be more attentive to that duty, when 
 the perfon who pays the falary, and who is interefted 
 in the proper difcharge of the duty, has the power 
 of appointing and difmiffing him? The reafon is 
 obvious. It then becomes the intereft both of the 
 perfon who performs the duty, and of the perfon 
 who is benefited by it, that it be well done. And can it 
 make any difference, whether the duty be of an 
 ecclefiaflical, or a civil nature, when botli are dis- 
 charged by men, beings of the fame paffions, and 
 Subject to the fame influences ? Every man will do 
 his duty beft when he has the eye of a matter im- 
 mediately upon him. Pleafe, Sir, to make the trial. 
 
 H Let
 
 98 LETTERS TO 
 
 Let your domeftic fervants, or your domeftic chap- 
 lain, be appointed not by yourfelf, but fome other 
 man, or body of men, and let it be as difficult and 
 as flow a procefs, to obtain a change of them, as 
 it now is for a parifh to get rid of a minifter whofe 
 conduct difgraces them, which is but too often the 
 cafe. I do not believe that, upon this plan, you 
 would have much expectation of being well ferved. 
 You dread a fcene of faSlion^ and low intrigue 
 among the clergy who mould be candidates for 
 places in the church. But what was the fact for 
 more than a thoufand years in the chriftian church 
 in general, when all the bifhops and clergy were 
 elective, when men were the fame as they are now, 
 and, when whatever you imagine of peculiar zeal, 
 and difintereftednels, in the primitive times of -the 
 church, was certainly abated ? Or what is now the 
 cafe with the Diffenters in this country, and through 
 all the dates of North America, where the officiat- 
 ing clergy of all denominations are now, and ever 
 have been, elective. In ancient times, where the 
 emoluments were great, as in the churches of Alex- 
 andria, Antioch, Conftantinople, and Rome, the 
 election of bifhops was fometimes attended with 
 factions, and dangerous ones ; but even there cafes 
 of this kind were rare, and in the ordinary fees they 
 feldcm or never happened. There are mere than 
 a thoufand diffenting miniflers in this kingdom, and 
 
 they
 
 MR. BURKE. 99 
 
 they are all elected by their refpective congrega- 
 tions ; but any great inconvenience attending an 
 election of this kind very feldom occurs. It is 
 probable that you, though living in the country, 
 never heard of any fuch thing, any more than in 
 America, or among the diffenters in Ireland. 
 
 So far is there from being any cabal, or intrigue, 
 to obtain places with us, that the perfon chofen 
 feldom hears of it, till his invitation is fent to him; 
 and any thing like canvaffmg would be an effectual 
 bar to his election. Indeed, it very feldom hap- 
 pens that there is more than one candidate named 
 at one time, and the members of any congregation 
 are confidered as very imprudent if they admit of 
 two. 
 
 You fay, that no perfon liberally educated, or 
 any other than thofe in the loweft claffes of life, will 
 be candidates for church preferment. This, Sir, 
 goes upon the idea that no perfon will officiate in 
 a chrifcian church but for the fake of the temporal 
 emolument which he receives from it, which is a 
 moftunjuftand ill-founded reflection on chriftianity, 
 and the minifters of it. It may be the cafe with a 
 church, the articles of which men of fenfe cannot 
 fubferibe, and the ftated duty of which is againft 
 their confeiences. For fuch fervices as thefe men 
 mult be paid, and very well paid too; and in gene- 
 ral it will be done for nothing but the pay. But 
 
 H 2 this
 
 100 LE TTERS TO 
 
 this is not the cafe with us, nor was it fo in the early 
 ages of the church. Though few of our falaries 
 will more than half maintain us, there are never 
 wanting perfons of independent fortune, and the 
 moft liberal education, who voluntarily devote them- 
 felves to the work of our miniftry. From un- 
 biased choice they give their time, and their for- 
 tunes, to an employment which they deem to be 
 moft honourable and important, in whatever light 
 it may appear to you-, and our fituation is fuch, 
 that few befides perfons of fome ability and piety 
 will think of the profefiion. 
 
 So refpected is the character of a minifter with 
 us, though the cafe may be different with you, that 
 whatever was his original rank in life, it places him 
 on a level with the moft opulent of his congrega- 
 tion] and it rarely happens but that, in all our congre- 
 gations, there are fome perfons of as good fortunes, 
 and as polifhed manners, as any others in the town 
 or neighbourhood. On this account, as well as 
 from a principle of genuine piety and benevolence, 
 the fituation of a diffenting minifter has many attrac- 
 tions, efpecially to a perfon of aferious andftudious 
 turn of mind. We think it greatly preferable to that 
 of the generality of theeftablifhed clergy, with all their 
 profpe6.3 of preferment, which often produce a 
 cringing and fervile difpofition. And I will ven- 
 ture to fay, that, independent of the private fortunes 
 
 which
 
 MR. BURKE. IOl 
 
 which many of our minifters have, their character 
 and conduct render them as truly refpectable, and 
 independent in mind, as any fet of clergy in the 
 world j far more fo, I am confident, than yours, with 
 all the advantages you boaft. 
 
 In confequence of the bifhops in France becom- 
 ing elective, you imagine that nothing of jrience, 
 or erudition) will henceforth exift in the Gallican 
 church. But did nothing of this kind exift in the 
 chriftian church before the bifhops ceafed to be 
 elective, which was a change made of late years in 
 companion ? Hiftory fhews the very reverfe to have 
 been the cafe. The dignified clergy, whom the court 
 makes independent of the people, arenotthofe who, 
 in any country, produce learned theological works, 
 but generally men in the lower orders, and who have 
 no motive to chufe their profeffion befides an at- 
 tachment to the duties and ftudies peculiar to it, and 
 who wifh to diftinguifh themfclves in it. Very few 
 of the bifhops of your church have been writers, 
 at lead after they were made bifhops. The greatell 
 works your church has to boail of were the pro- 
 ductions of obfeure clergymen; and, defpicable as 
 our fituation may appear to you, who certainly 
 know very little about us, an application to the 
 ftudies fuited to our profeflion, appears, by the 
 number of our writings, to be much greater than 
 among the clergy of the eltabliihed church. The 
 II 3 relation
 
 102 LETTERS TO 
 
 relation we ftand in to our congregations infures a 
 refpectable private character, and in a manner 
 obliges us to devote the leifure we have to litera- 
 ture, to fcience, and to profeflional ftudics. How 
 ftrangely, Sir, muft you be blinded by your high 
 church prejudices not to perceive that this both is, 
 and neceffarily muft be the difference between the 
 clergy of the eftablifhed church, and minifters with 
 us; a difference greatly to our advantage; and it 
 arifes wholly from our people having the choice of 
 their minifters, and of courfe a power of difmiffing 
 them when, on any account, they do not approve of 
 them. 
 
 You infinuate that the fcheme to render the clergy 
 of France elective, is preparatory to an intended abo- 
 lition of chriftianity, as if chriftianity did not exift, 
 and exift in infinitely greater purity, before any of 
 the clergy were otherwife than elective. On the 
 contrary, it is the fyftem of church eftablifhments 
 that always has produced, and that ever muft pro- 
 duce, unbelievers. You make it a mere engine of 
 ftate, a fource of wealth to fome of the clergy, and 
 of power to thofe who have the nomination of 
 them; and in both cafes the proper interefts of 
 religion are never thought of. In confequence of 
 this, it is notorious that the fuperior clergy in 
 France and Italy, have long been generally consi- 
 dered as unbelievers, as well as thofe who procure 
 
 them
 
 MR. BURKE. 103 
 
 them their preferment. That the church of Eng- 
 land is not exempt from the fame cenfure, I have 
 actually known myfelf; and it is highly probable 
 that, from fimilar caufes, it ftill exifts in a degree 
 which I have now no opportunity of knowing. 
 Yet though you clearly fee that a fplendid 
 church eftablifhment, with bifhops appointed by the 
 court, actually makes many of the clergy mere men 
 of the world, fo that they have nothing of the chriftian 
 minifter, befides the name, and the confequence of 
 this has been the difbelief and utter contempt of 
 chriftianity in men of rank and fortune, you would 
 pretend that the abolifhing of chriftianity would be 
 the confequence of their difiblution. Indeed, Sir, 
 both the nature of the cafe, and fafh, which are 
 obvious to the molt carelefs eye, fhew that chrif- 
 tianity cannot be preferved along with them. They 
 are a difeafe that mufc be extirpated, or the fubject 
 will be deftroyed. 
 
 I am, Dear Sin, 
 
 Yours, iXc. 
 
 II 4 Lr.TTEll
 
 104 LETTERS TO 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Of Monajiic Inftitutions 3 and Mr. Burke's general 
 Maxim that exijiing Powers are not to be dsftroyed. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 YOU enlarge much, p. 234, &c. on the ill po- 
 licy of the National AlTembly of France, 
 in diflblving the monajlic injiitutions of that country, 
 acknowledging, at the fame time, that " they favour 
 " of fu perflation. This," you fay, " ought not, 
 " however, to hinder them from deriving from fu- 
 " perflation itfelf any refources which from thence 
 " may be furnifhed for the public advantage." You 
 do not fay what ufes, leligious or political, you 
 would have made of the funds of thefe focieties ; 
 but as you acknowledge that " the body of all true 
 " religion conffts in obedience to the will of the 
 " Sovereign of the univerfe, in a confidence in his 
 tf declarations, and in an imitation of his perfec- 
 <c tions," it isfufficient, I fhould think, for a ftate to 
 provide for this. If the ftate give the body, let the 
 individuals themfelves provide the cloatbing, and to 
 
 what
 
 MR. BURKE. I05 
 
 what better ufe can public lands and funds be 
 applied, than to liquidate the debts of a (late ? 
 
 Monadic inftitutions have, no doubt, had their 
 ufes, and very great ufes, when there was no other 
 retreat for letters, or from the bufcle of a barbar- 
 ous age. But as literature and piety do not now 
 want that afylum, and every purpofe of ufeful re- 
 ligion may be gained as well, and even better, 
 without it, what reafon can there be for its 
 continuance ? Why preferve an old and incon- 
 venient road, when a better is actually gained ? 
 Rather convert it into good arable or pafture 
 land. 
 
 It is, befides, impoflible to encourage fupcrfti- 
 tion, but at the expence of true religion, as the ex- 
 perience of every age demonftrates. The duties of 
 fuperftition are better defined than thofe of religion. 
 Men know precifely when they have recited a cer- 
 tain number of prayers, or when they have receiv- 
 ed a certain number of lafhes ; but the great duties 
 of benevolence (which, indeed, can only be dis- 
 charged in fociety) aie indefinite, and withal re- 
 quire an attention to the inward temper of mind, 
 which is far more difficult than any ol the injunc- 
 tions of fuperflition. Will it not be natural, then, 
 for men to attach themfclvcs to the one, and 
 neglect the other, efpecially when they are 
 
 taught
 
 Io6 LETTERS TO 
 
 taught that the fame end may be gained by tU 
 
 ther ? 
 
 The very principle upon which monachifm is 
 founded, is falfe and delufive. It is that men, cap- 
 able of performing the duties of life, may become 
 fit for heaven by folitary meditation and prayer, 
 without mixing with the world at all. While mo- 
 nasteries are kept up, this idea is encouraged. I 
 cannot help thinking, therefore, that the National 
 Afiembly acted very wifely, when, in order to re- 
 lieve themfelves from the difficulties which the folly 
 and extravagance of a former government had 
 brought upon the country, they adopted the 
 meafure of abolifhing their monafteries, mak- 
 ing however a fufficient provifion for the inhabi- 
 tants of them. 
 
 You will not pretend to fay that monaftic infti- 
 tutions are any neceflary part of the chriftian fyftem, 
 fmce no mention is made of any fuch thing in the 
 New Teftament, fmce fuch eftablifhments as you 
 lament the fall of, are, in fact, but recent things, 
 and fmce chriftianity has not been found to fuffer 
 any thing by the demolition of them in this, or 
 any other proteftant country. 
 
 But <c in monaftic inftitutions," you fay, p. 232, 
 " in my opinion, was found a great power for the 
 " mechanifm of politic benevolence. There were 
 
 " reve-
 
 MR. BURKE. 107 
 
 te revenues with a public direction ; there were 
 <f men wholly fet apart and educated to public pur- 
 " pofes, without any other than public ties, and 
 " public principles ; men without a poflibility of 
 " converting the eftate of the community into a 
 " private fortune ; men denied to felf intereft, whole 
 <c avarice is for the community -, men to whom 
 " perfonal poverty is honour, and implicit obe- 
 tc dience ftands in the place of freedom. In vain 
 " mall a man rook to the pofiibility of making fuch 
 cc things when he wants them. The winds blow 
 " as they lift. Thcfe inftitutions are the products 
 " of enthufiafm ; they are the inftruments of wif- 
 " dom. Wifdom cannot create materials, they are 
 " the gifts of nature, or chance ; her pride is in the 
 tc ufe. To deftroy any power," you fay, p. 233, 
 " growing wild from the rank productive force of 
 " the human mind, is almoft tantamount in die 
 "moral world, to the dell ruction of the apparently 
 " active properties of bodies in the material. I lad 
 " you no way of ufing the men, but by convcrt- 
 " ing monks into penfioners ?" 
 
 Upon this principle, of no power being to be 
 deftroyedy but only to be rejuhitcd, the greatcft abufes 
 may be perpetuated ; becaufe, in many cafes, there- 
 is no preventing the abufe, without deftroying the 
 power itfelf. Such, for example, is the claim of 
 
 the
 
 108 LETTERS TO 
 
 the Popes to imiverfal dominion over the chriftian 
 church, and even over temporal princes; in fact, 
 the aftumption of all power in heaven and in earth. 
 Such, alfo, is the power of a prieft to give abfo- 
 lution of fins. To you it fignifi.es nothing to allege, 
 that thefe were altogether, and from the beginning, 
 innovations and abufes in the chriftian fyftem. You 
 anfwer that they were great powers, which cannot be 
 created at pleafure, and therefore that a wife ftates- 
 man would be an advocate for their prefervation, 
 and not for their deftru&ion. 
 
 To adopt your mode of reafoning, fuch deep 
 rooted opinions, as formerly prevailed in all the chrif- 
 tian world, of an immenfe power lodged for the 
 wifeft purpofes in one vilible head of the church, the 
 fublime idea of one spiritual father of all chriftian 
 princes, who had no other bond of union, and who 
 flood in great need of one, and the confidence that 
 all chriftians once had in the abfoiving power of 
 their priefts, authorifed to give advice and direc- 
 tion in all cafes in which conscience was concerned ; 
 fuch opinions as thefe, you will fay, cannot be pro- 
 duced at pleafure, they were the How growth of 
 ages, and a foundation of great powers, which, if 
 once deftroved, will never rife again. It was, 
 therefore, nothing elfe than madnefs, you would 
 fay, in the firft reformers, to aim at the fubverfion 
 
 of
 
 MR. BURKE. I09 
 
 of thefe powers, by refuting the opinions on which 
 they were founded. They fhould have contented 
 themfelves with preferving thefe powers, facred and 
 inviolable, and have contrived how to make a ripht 
 ufe of them. 
 
 For the fame reafon, had you, in any country, 
 as in Morocco, found the idea of the abfolute pow- 
 er in the prince, the facrednefs of his perfon, and 
 thehappinefs of dying by his hand, you would have 
 been careful not to deftroy that pozver, which you 
 might not be able to re-produce ; but, being hap- 
 pily in pofTcftion of it, would have made ic fub- 
 fervient to the good of the country. 
 
 I am glad, however, to find that, though all 
 powers are to be continued, you allow of fome im- 
 provement in the application of them, which im- 
 plies fome change for the better. This is alfo im- 
 plied in what you fay by way of apology for the old 
 church eftablifhment of France, p. 206, that <c it 
 " was an old one, and not frequently revifed," as if 
 fome revifal, at lead, would have been proper. 
 And if a revifal of this eftablifhment would have 
 been proper, why not that of guvs alio ? I las the 
 church of England acquired any prefcriptive right, 
 to ftand in no need of any farther revifion - 3 or are 
 you, Sir, authoriied to fay to reformation, Hitherto 
 jhah thou go, end no farther ? If not, why your 
 
 fncers,
 
 IIO LETTERS TO 
 
 fheers, p. 14, at a certain lay divine, who only pro- 
 pofed a revifal of the Englifh liturgy and articles, 
 which, in the opinion of many ferious and thinking 
 perfons, though not in yours, very much want re- 
 vifion ? Why, alfo, did you oppofe the petition of 
 a number of confcientious clergymen, to be releaf- 
 ed from their prefent obligation to fubfcribe to the 
 thirty-nine articles, many of which you muft your- 
 felf, furely, think are not abfolutely effential to chrif- 
 tianity ? Why, then, might not clergymen, as well 
 as others, have been at liberty to fpeculate freely, 
 and think as they faw reafon to do, with refpect 
 to them ? 
 
 On the fame principles on which you oppofed a 
 revifion of the church eftabliihment of this coun- 
 try, you would, no doubt, have oppofed a revi- 
 fion of that of France, of Turkey, or of Indoftan. 
 However, the fpirit of reformation, which is now 
 gone forth, is another great -power, as well as the 
 exifting Jyftems to be reformed by it ; and it is a 
 power which grows ftronger as they grow weaker - y 
 fo that there can be no doubt which of them will 
 finally prevail, notwithftanding the aid that your 
 potent arm may give them. 
 
 You boldly avow your attachment to old efta- 
 blifhments, becaufe they are old. " In this en- 
 " lightened age," you fay, p. 129, " I am bold 
 
 " enough
 
 MR. BURKE. Ill 
 
 Cf enough to confefs, that we are generally men of 
 "untaught feelings, that, inftead of calling away 
 cc all our old prejudices, we cherifh them to a very 
 <c confiderable degree, and to take more fhame to 
 <c ourfelves, we cherifh. them becaufe they are pre- 
 judices; and the longer they have lafted, and 
 " the more generally they have prevailed, the more 
 if we cherifii them." 
 
 On this principle, Sir, had you been a Pagan at 
 the time of the promulgation of chriftianity, you 
 would have continued one. You would alfo have 
 oppofed the reformation. You would, no doubt, 
 have cherifhed the long and deep rooted prejudice 
 of the earth being the center of our fyftem, and 
 every notion that was old j the creed of yournurfe, 
 and of your grandmother, in oppofition to every 
 thing new. 
 
 Cherifh them, then, Sir, as much as you pleafe. 
 Prejudice and error is only a mift, which the fun, 
 which has now rifen, will effectually difperfe. 
 Keep them about you as tight as the countryman 
 in the fable did his cloak ; the fame fun, without 
 any more violence than the warmth of his beams, 
 will compel you to throw it afide, unlefs you chufc 
 to fvveat under it, and bear the ridicule of all your 
 cooler and lefs encumbered companions. The 
 fpiritoffree and rational enquiry is now abroad, 
 
 and
 
 112 LETTERS TO 
 
 and without any aid from the powers of this world, 
 will not fail to overturn all error and falfe religion, 
 wherever it is found, and neither the church of 
 Rome, nor the church of England, will be able to 
 fiand before it. 
 
 Inftead of your chimerical idea of dejlroytng no 
 cxifting powers, but of converting them to fome 
 life, which may anfwer no better than an attempt to 
 tame a lion, or a tiger, adopt a plainer maxim, 
 infinitely better adapted to the weak faculties of 
 man, viz. to follow truth wherever it leads you, con- 
 fident that the interefts of truth will ever be infepa- 
 rable from thofe of virtue and happinefs, and equal- 
 ly fo to flates, as to individuals. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, Sec. 
 
 LETTER
 
 MR. BURKE. 113 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 Of the Sacrednefs of the Revenues of the Church. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 YOUR opinion of the facrednefs, and majefly, of 
 an eftablifhed church, is molt confpicuous in 
 what you fay of its revenues. On this fubject you 
 appear to have adopted maxims, which, I believe, 
 were never before avowed by any Proteflant, viz. 
 that the ftate has no power or authority over any 
 thing, that has once been the property of the 
 church. 
 
 " From the united confideration of religion and 
 1 conftitutional policy," you fay, p. 150, " from 
 c their opinion of a duty to make a fure provifion 
 c for the confolation of the feeble, and the inftruc- 
 c tion of the ignorant, they have incorporated and 
 c identified the eftate of the church with the 
 ' mafs of private property, of which the ftate 
 c is not the proprietor, either for ufe or domi- 
 1 nion, but the guardian only, and the regit- 
 c lator. They have ordained that the provifion of 
 c this eftabliihment might be as liable as the earth 
 I " on
 
 114 LETT ERS TO 
 
 <c on which it {lands, and mould not fluctuate witii 
 * f the Euripus of funds and actions." 
 
 If the Hate be not the proprietor^ of the church 
 lands, they muft be the abfolute unalienable property 
 of the churchy that is of churchmen only, and without 
 their confentno alienation of them is lawful. Con- 
 fequently, if all the members of the Houfe of Com- 
 mons, the king, and all the temporal lords, fhould 
 vote the alienation of any part of them, it would be 
 mere robbery without the confent of the bifhops, 
 or perhaps that of the whole convocation aiTembled 
 for the purpofe ; perhaps not even then, the pre- 
 fent clergy being only trujiees, or having a life 
 efiaie in a revenue which belongs to their fucceflbrs. 
 But, furely, if I have any knowledge of the Britifh 
 conilitution, this doctrine is abfolutely new to it, 
 and certainly not deduced from the actual conduct 
 of parliament, which has difpofed of a very great 
 proportion of what was once the property of the 
 church. I even queftion whether the principle you 
 here avow, would at this day be acknowledged at 
 St. Omers. The Catholics of France had evident- 
 ly no idea of the kind, and indeed it is for this that 
 you reproach them. 
 
 The Dutch, and other proteftant ftates, have con- 
 fifcated all the old church property, and pay their 
 clergy from the fame public treafury, out of which 
 the officers of the army and navy are paid ; and 
 
 they,
 
 MR. BURKE, 115 
 
 they, no doubt, think themfelves juftified in fo do- 
 ing. A great proportion of the tithes in this coun- 
 try, and, as I am informed, the whole of them in 
 Scotland, is now in the hands of lay proprietors, 
 who, in your opinion, muft all be guilty of facri- 
 kge, though their conduct be fanftioned by the law 
 of the land. 
 
 If the right of the church to its revenues is not 
 to be affected by any aft of a civil legiflature, if 
 this right be not derived from any ordinance of many 
 it muft come to them from the ordinance of God. 
 But where, Sir, do you find any record of this ? 
 There is no mention made of tithes, or of any per- 
 manent church property, in the New Teftamentj 
 and if it has been by the ordinance of God in any 
 period fubfequent to the writing of thofe books, it 
 is incumbent upon you, Sir, and other advocates 
 for the unalienable property of the church, to mew 
 when the grant was made, and by what miracle 
 (for nothing elfe can anfwer the purpofe) it was 
 confirmed. But every thing relative to the reve- 
 nues of the church, is eafily traced in hiftory. We 
 very well know when, and whence, every branch of 
 it arofe. It was altogether the ordinance of men, 
 and generally of weak, fuperftitious, and prieft- 
 ridden men. And furely the milchiefs which have 
 been found to arife from the folly of one age, ought 
 
 la to
 
 Il6 LETTERS TO 
 
 to be removed by the wifdom of a fubfequent one, 
 In one pafTage, indeed, you allow all that I contend 
 for, when you fay, p. 154, <c When once thecom- 
 " mon-weakh has eftablifhed the eftates of the 
 " church as property " for this implies that the 
 eftates of the church are the gift of the common- 
 wealth, or ftate ; and what the (late has given, it 
 may furely take away. This is one, among many 
 inconfiftencies, in your work. 
 
 Such, I flatter myfelf, is the light of the prefent 
 
 day, that, confident as you are of your maxim, 
 
 and of the members of our legiflature acting upon 
 
 it, you will fome time or other find yourfelf mif- 
 
 taken. " The Commons of Great Britain," you 
 
 fay, p. 156, " in a national emergency, will never 
 
 " feek their refource from the confifcation of the 
 
 " eftates of the church and poor. Sacrilege and 
 
 " profcription are not among the ways and means 
 
 " of our committee of fupply. The Jews, in 
 
 cc Change-alley, have not yet dared to hint their 
 
 " hopes of a mortgage on the revenues belonging 
 
 iC to the fee of Canterbury. I am not afraid that I 
 
 " fhall be difavowed, when I allure you, that there 
 
 " is not one public man in this kingdom whom 
 
 cc you would wifh to quote, no not one of any party 
 
 " or defcription, who does not reprobate the dif- 
 
 c< honeft, perfidious, and cruel confifcation which 
 
 " the
 
 MR. BURKE. 117 
 
 ** the National^ Affembly has been compelled to 
 <c make, of that property which it was their firft 
 " duty to protect." 
 
 I am furprized, Sir, that you mould not be fen- 
 fible that this declaration is by no means true in 
 fact. It is in my own power to quote many per- 
 fons in public life, who greatly approve that con- 
 duct of the National Affembly of France which 
 you fo ftrongly condemn. You forget that Solus 
 Reipublica? efi fuprema lex ; and if ever the circum- 
 stances of this country mould be fuch, as that either 
 the intereft of the church or the fate mud be aban- 
 doned, I have no doubt but the former would be 
 readily facrifked to the latter. 
 
 You have made the provifion for the poor as fa- 
 cred as that for the church. But certainly this was. 
 the inftitution of man y or rather of woman ; for it 
 took its rife in the time of queen Elizabeth, in this 
 country, and is not known in any other. To many 
 pcrfons,as well as to myfelf,our method of providing 
 for the poor, is no proof of the wifdom of our 
 anceflors. It takes from man the necefTity of ' fore- 
 fight y and inflead of being the moll provident, 
 makes him the moll improvident of all creatures. 
 So far are our poor laws from encouraging induflry, 
 that they encourage idlenefs, and of courfe profli- 
 gacy. Such is the (late of this country, buithened 
 with taxes to fupport the church, and the poor, and 
 
 I 3 to
 
 Il8 LETTERS TO 
 
 to pay the intereft (the principal is out of the 
 queftion) of debts contracted by the folly of our 
 ancestors, that its ability to fupport itfelf under 
 them, is very problematical *. 
 
 " It is," you fay, p. 149, " from our attach- 
 " ment to a church eftablifhment, that the Englifh 
 " nation did not think it wife to intruft that great 
 " fundamental intereft of the whole, to what they 
 " truft no part of their civil or military public 
 " fervice, that is, to the unfteady and precarious 
 " contribution of individuals. They go farther. 
 " They certainly never have fuffered, and never 
 " will fufFer, the fixed eftate of the church to be 
 " converted into apenfion, to depend on the Trea- 
 ff fury, &c. The people of England think that 
 " they have constitutional motives, as well as re- 
 " ligious, againft any project of turning their inde- 
 " pendent clergy into ecclefiaftical penfioners of 
 ft flate. They tremble for their liberty, from the 
 " influence of a clergy dependent on the crown j 
 " they tremble for the public tranquility, from the 
 " diforders of a factious clergy, if it were made to 
 iC depend upon any other than the crown. They 
 
 * Would it not be reafonable to fix fome time, beyond which 
 it fhould not be deemed right to bind pofterity ? If our anceftors 
 make a foclifh laiv , we fcruple not to repeal it ; but if they make 
 foolifh wars, and incur foolifh debts, we have, at prefent, no re- 
 medy whatever. 
 
 " therefore
 
 MR. BURKE. 119 
 
 '" therefore made their church, like their king, and 
 " their nobility, independent." 
 
 There are feveral pofitions in this paragraph, 
 that appear to me rather extraordinary. The 
 clergy, to be as independent as the crown, or the 
 nobility, fhould have a negative in all proceedings 
 in parliament. But the clergy are, in fact, de- 
 pendent upon the crown, and muft neceffarily be 
 fo, while the crown has the difpofal of all bishop- 
 ries, and other great preferments ; and the effect 
 of this is feen by their voting with the crown. It 
 is alfo no compliment to the general difpofition of 
 the clergy, that you fhould tremble for the effects 
 of their factions, if they were to depend upon any 
 other than the crown. I fhould think, however, 
 that, if they be fo dangerous a body of men, you 
 might make yourfelf rather eafier if they were made 
 to depend on the whole legislature, and not upon 
 the crown only, to which they now give a dan- 
 gerous acceffion of power. 
 
 But, Sir, only take away the emoluments of 
 the clergy, and leave them to fubfifl, as we dif- 
 fenting minifters do, and as the apoftlcs and bifhops 
 in primitive times did, on the voluntary contribu- 
 tions of thofe who are benefited by their miniflry, 
 and you will effectually remove all caufe of trem- 
 bling on their account. Let them be naturally as 
 I 4 quarrcllomc
 
 120 LETTERS TO 
 
 quarrellbme as dogs, they will be as quiet as lambs, 
 if no bone of contention be thrown among them. 
 What danger arifes from our divifions, or thofe 
 of the many difcordant feels which have ever exifted 
 in North America ? Be they ever fo great, we ne- 
 ver trouble the ftate with them, and we are una- 
 nimous and hearty in every common caufe, refpedt- 
 ing either chriftianity or public liberty. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 LETTER
 
 MR. BURKE. Ill 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 Of the Danger of the Churchy and of the TeftLazvs. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 THE cry of the church being in danger y is almofl 
 as old as the church itfelf, and has been 
 kept up by its friends, and phyficians, whenever it 
 has fuited their purpole, from the earlieft times to 
 the prefent day. This has ferved as an excufe for 
 every outrage upon others ; as if nothing was ever 
 meant by them, but to fecure itfelf. And thus the 
 moft bloody and offenfive wars are often made under 
 the cover of being merely defenfive ones, which are 
 always held to be lawful. Now, had this church of 
 yours, whofe fears and cries have always been the fignal 
 of alarm to all its neighbours, being made of pro- 
 per materials, and conftructed in a proper manner, 
 it would never have had any thing to fear. The 
 church of Chriji is built upon a rock, and we are 
 allured that the gates of hell 'J, hall not prevail againji it. 
 Had your church been built upon this rock of 
 truth, it would have had nothing to f;ar. Its own 
 evidence and excellence would have fupported ir. 
 i Should
 
 122. LETTERS TO 
 
 Should the Jiate itfelf be overturned, the people 
 would, of themfelves, and from predilection, rein- 
 itiate their favourite church in all its former rights and 
 privileges. But you are fenfible it has not this 
 hold on the minds of the people, and you juftly 
 fufpect that, if any misfortune fhould happen to it, 
 they would never rebuild it, but, if left to their 
 own free choice, would adopt fome other plan, 
 more ufeful and commodious. 
 
 Time was when your church pretended to fear 
 where no fear was, and being then vigorous, her 
 cries were heard as the roaring of a lion. Of late 
 ihe has been fo feeble, that we only amufe ourfelves 
 with them ; and now the danger is really trans- 
 ferred from us to herfelf. 
 
 As you, Sir, are fo tremblingly alive all over, for 
 the fate of this dear church of yours, I will tell 
 you two real caufes of apprehenfion with refpect 
 to it, the one from without, and the other from 
 within. 
 
 I. Be afraid of war, or any thing that fhall add 
 to the public burdens. For whenever the time 
 ihall come that the intereft of the national debt can- 
 not be paid (and that time certainly approaches) 
 facred as the property of the church might be in 
 your pious hands, in whofe mind, as you fay, 
 p. 147, " a continued and general approbation of 
 " the church eftablifhment is fo worked, that you 
 
 " are
 
 MR. BURKE. 123 
 
 Cf are not able to diilinguifh what you have learned 
 " from others from the refult of your own medita- 
 " tions ;" other perfons, having had a different edu- 
 cation, may be able to make this diftinclion, and 
 without any dread of divine judgments, may, while 
 you ftand agnail with horror, and expiring with dif- 
 may, apply the hallowed treafure to fome unhallowed 
 ufe. Had our prefent minifter actually entered 
 into the war that fome fuppofe he did not do wifely 
 to provoke, and the confequence had been, as it 
 probably would, the addition of another hundred 
 millions to our debt, though you might not tremble 
 for what you confider as the ark of God In this coun- 
 try, other perfons, whofe faith was not fo ftrong, 
 certainly would. 
 
 You, Sir, appear not to be infenfible of the new 
 and critical fituation into which immenfe public 
 debts have brought mod F.uropean nations, our 
 own not excepted. The apparent (lability of thefe 
 governments has encouraged them to venture upon 
 a fyflem, which, by calling forth the powers of fu- 
 ture generations in aid of the prefent, has enabled 
 them to make extraordinary exertions on particular 
 occafions. I lad there been wifdom in thefe exer- 
 tions, poflcrity, being benefited by them, would 
 have reafon to thank their anceftors. But exer- 
 tions of this kind exceeding the natural pow- 
 ers of the flate, have refembled thofe convulfivc 
 motions of the mufcles which exhauil their force, 
 
 and
 
 124 LETTERS TO 
 
 and debilitate them with refped to future exertions. 
 And if this fyftem be purfued, as in all probability- 
 it will, the time muft come when even thefe ex- 
 traordinary refources will fail, and we fhall then 
 find ourfelves in the very fame difficulties in which 
 the French are involved at prefent. 
 
 In this cafe (which it behoves us to be looking 
 forward to, that we may collect all our wifdom in or- 
 der to leffen the danger with which it threatens us) do 
 you imagine, Sir, that we fhall be able to prefcrve 
 our prefent governmentin all its forms, civil and ec- 
 clefiaftical, any more than the French have been able 
 to preferve theirs ? Do not flatter yourfelf fo much. 
 That great crifis will be the touchftone to our govern- 
 ment, as well as to that of France. Whatever fhall 
 be then thought to be unjound in the conftitution, 
 and to have contributed, directly or indirectly, j:o 
 bring us into our difficulties, will be marked for 
 excifion, and if we muft, as it were, begin again> as 
 the French have found themfelves under a neceffity 
 of doing, we fhall, no doubt, endeavour to beo-in 
 upon a better plan, and retain as few 2^ poflible of 
 the imperfections of which we now complain, and 
 fhall then complain of more. 
 
 Is it not our immenfe public debt, that has in 
 various ways contributed to the encreafed power of 
 the crown (of which you, Sir, among others, not 
 long ago complained) and is it pofiible, then, that 
 this mould continue the fame, when this debt, which 
 
 now
 
 MR. BURKE. 125 
 
 now fupports it, can no longer be fupported ? Is not 
 our prefent fhamefully unequal representation another 
 circumftance connected with the power of the 
 crown, giving it a decided majority in the Houfe 
 of Commons ? Can this, therefore, be continued, 
 when the power of the crown is diminifhed ; and 
 will not thefe great changes in the civil conflitution 
 be followed by many others ? 
 
 In this neceflfary reformation of the civil govern- 
 ment, will it be pofTible, think you, to prevent all 
 enquiry into ecclefiaftical matters, which are now fj 
 clofely connected with things of a civil nature? In 
 this cafe, is it a certainty that any church eftablifh- 
 ment will be continued; or if there be, will it be 
 precifely that which now fubfifts ? Will the bifliops 
 retain their feats in Parliament ? Will the fpiritual 
 courts be continued ? Will the clergy be main- 
 tained by tithes ? Will the doctrines of the church 
 undergo no change ? Will the fubfcrip:ion to all the 
 thirty-nine articles be ftill enforced ? Wiil the 
 univcrfities remain fhut to the DilYenters, who can- 
 not fubferi be to them! 1 Will the Left laws remain 
 in force, to exclude us f:om all civil offices, Sec. 
 &:c. &c. ? If this be your opinion, great, indeed, 
 Sir, is your faith , greater, I imagine, than that o( 
 many an archbifhop. Though however, i.fhould be 
 equal to the removing of all thefe mountains, you will, 
 I doubt not, imagine this favourite church of yours 
 to be rather fafer in times of p::ice, and without any 
 
 farther
 
 126 LETTERS TO 
 
 farther encreafe of our national debt, than with a 
 war that might double it. 
 
 II. This danger from without is uncertain, and 
 may be warded off; but not fo that from within. I 
 mean the growing light of the age, in confequence 
 of which we are more and more fenfible of the ab- 
 furdity of the doctrines, the infufficiency of the 
 difcipline, and the oppreffion of the revenues, of 
 your church. The people of this country will at 
 length difcover that what they have paid fo dearly 
 for, as a benefit, is really a nuifance, that it is hoftile 
 to the cleared truth, and fubverfive of rational li- 
 berty, that very liberty for which you, Sir, profefs to 
 be a warm advocate. 
 
 DhTenters of one denomination or other, are very- 
 much increafed of late years, and many of them 
 are avowedly hoftile to every eftablifhment. The 
 methodifts are by no means attached to it. Few 
 of them ever trouble your churches, and frequently 
 in great bodies become diffenters; and the far 
 greater part of the nominal churchmen only hold 
 to the church from form and cuftom ; the more 
 ferioua and intelligent of them earneftly wifhing for 
 a change, but defirous of promoting it without 
 noife or rifle. Few perfons of rank attend your 
 worfhip, or any worfhip, and are only attached to 
 the church for fecular purpofes. But this and every 
 thing tile, fhort of a real approbation and predi- 
 lection,
 
 MR. BURKE. 1 27 
 
 lecYion, are uncertain and poor props for fo old and 
 decayed a building as yours is. 
 
 The increafe of diffenters is a fact that you and 
 your clergy are either wholly ignorant of, or are 
 ftrangely inattentive to. I mall mention only one 
 inftance. I have refided in Birmingham only ten years, 
 and there are now building the eighth, ninth, and 
 tenth, new places of diflenting or rnethodift worlhip, 
 befides another building converted into a place of 
 worfhip, in this town, all within this friort period, 
 nine of them for new congregations, and the 
 others for increafed ones. Another is talked 
 of, and many have been built in the neighbourhood; 
 and in this time there has not been one additional 
 church, or chapel., for the members of die church 
 of England. The increafe of the diffenters and 
 methodifts in Sheffield, in Leeds, and, I have no 
 doubt, in other manufacturing towns, has been 
 nearly in the lame proportion. 
 
 Every controversy in which churchmen have 
 meddled has been to their difadvantage. The heads 
 of the church therefore now wifely difeourage all 
 controversy, but even this policy will not avail them 
 long. Every clergyman is not wife, and focls, as 
 they fay, -'// he meddling \ and every meddling is 
 to their hurt, and that of their caufe. 
 
 Let thinking people, then, judge what mull be 
 the fate of a church, whole fundamental d 
 
 are
 
 128 LETTERS TO 
 
 are difbelieved by men of fenfe and inquiry, whofe 
 articles are well known not to be fubfcribed bond 
 fide by thofe who officiate in it, while the truly en- 
 lightened and ferious either keep out of the church, 
 or relinquish their preferment in it. And this is 
 very much the cafe with the church of England at 
 prefent. 
 
 The alliance of any ftate with fo weak and tot- 
 tering a church as yours mull either be diffolved, 
 or both muft fall together. And, aftonifhed as you 
 are at " the fteady eye with which" you fay, p. 85, 
 "we are prepared to view the greateft calamity 
 <c that can befal this country," the diffolution of this 
 fatal alliance is (till the objeft of our molt ardent 
 wifhes. By the calmeft reprefentations, and the 
 moft earned remonftrances, we are endeavouring to 
 bring about a peaceable feparation, attended with 
 no calamity. We have therefore nothing to blame 
 ourfelves for, if that calamity, which we forefee, 
 and deplore, but which the obftinacy of others may 
 put it out of our power to prevent, fhould come. 
 Happy is fuch a country as America, where no 
 fuch alliance as that of church and ftate was ever 
 formed, where no fuch unnatural mixture of eccle- 
 fiaftical and civil polity was ever made. They fee 
 our errors, and wifely avoid them. We alfo may 
 fee them, but when it will be too late. 
 
 You
 
 MR. BURKE. 129 
 
 You, Sir, who with many others have lately 
 joined in the cry of the church being in danger, 
 have thought to guard it by laws and tejls, excluding 
 DifTenters from all places of truft and profit. Pay- 
 ing our full fhare to the public taxes, and having 
 always diftinguifhed ourfclves by our induftry, in 
 manufactures and commerce (all our trading towns 
 abounding with DifTenters) we thought it not un- 
 reafonable to requeft a right of admifllon, at the will 
 of the crown, or the election of our fellow fub- 
 jects, to fuch advantages as arife from that flouriih- 
 ing date of the country to which, it is not denied 
 that, we have eminently contributed. Thrice we 
 have made the application, and twice you, Sir, 
 made no oppofition to us. We therefore flattered 
 ourfelves that, having been in other refpe<ts a friend 
 to equal liberty, efpecially in America and Ireland, 
 and Scotland alfo, where no fuch tefts are known, 
 you would have been a friend to us. But it feems 
 that, after deeply ruminating on the fubjecl, and 
 having, no doubt, prayed for, and as you thought 
 obtained, more light than you had before, you moll 
 unexpectedly, and with peculiar warmth and fierce- 
 nefs, oppofed us *. 
 
 * Let Mr. Burke's conduct with refpeft to the Teft Atf, be 
 compared with the following paflage iti his prefent pamphlet. 
 " You do not imagine that I wilh to confine power, authority, and 
 " diftin&ion, to blood, and names, and titles. No Sir, there is
 
 I JO LETTERS TO 
 
 As you have given fome attention to the cafe 
 of the diffenters, and, in your fpeech in our favour, 
 complained of the hardihip of our being obliged to 
 fubfcribe to the articles of the church, from which 
 we derive no emolument, I wonder that you do not 
 likewife fee the unreafonablenefs of our beins fub- 
 jected to any other hardfhip on the fame principle. 
 As we derive no advantage from the eftablifhed 
 church, we ought not to fuffer any unneceiTary dif- 
 advantage from our nonconformity to it. But we 
 certainly do fo, if we be excluded from all civil 
 offices and emoluments on that account. Muft 
 the members of this favourite church of yours, en- 
 grofs all the good things of this life as well as thofe 
 of another, and muft we unfortunate DifTenters par- 
 take of neither ? 
 
 That there is danger threatening your church,! 
 clearly fee. But the method you have adopted has 
 no tendency to lefien, but only to increafe that dan- 
 ger. The old adage, which you had forgotten is 
 divide etimpera-, but by holding us all out as equally 
 
 " no qualification for government but true virtue and wifdom. 
 " Wherever they are actually found, they have, in whatever ftate, 
 " condition, profeffion, or trade, the paffport of heaven to human 
 " place, and honour. Woe to the country which would madly 
 " and impioufly rejcd the fervice of the talents and virtues, civil, 
 " military, or religious, that are given to grace, or to ferve it, and 
 " would condemn to obfcurity every thing formed to dilTufe luftrc 
 " and glory around a ftate." p. 74. 
 
 objects
 
 MR. BURKE. 131 
 
 objects of exclufion from places of truft and power, 
 you give us a common intereft, and a bond of union, 
 which we hardly thought of before. Far from 
 being difcouraged by our repulfes, we fhall not 
 fail to renew our application with more confidence 
 than ever, feeing nothing but juftice on our fide, 
 and jealous bigotry on yours. 
 
 Had you admitted us to an equal participation 
 of civil rights, we might have thought lefs of our 
 religious ones. Indeed, perfons who are candidates 
 for civil offices are not apt to be zealous in matters 
 of religion; or if they were, the DifTenters in office 
 being greatly out-numbered by the members of the 
 eftablifhed church, in the fame or fimilar offices, 
 and divided among themfelves, their power of 
 hurting the ftate would have been nothing. A child 
 in politics might have feen this, but you, Sir, did 
 not. 
 
 You alfo did not fee that, what we moft of all 
 wifh, and what you have the greateft reafon to dread, 
 is not any temporal power, or influence, that we have 
 any chance of acquiring. This we think little about, 
 but difcujfwny the free difcuflion of every thing re- 
 lating to religion. For, dillant as they may appear 
 in idea, all religious fubjedls have a relation 
 to each other, the doctrine of the ted and that 
 of the trinity, the power of a juftice of peace and 
 that of a bifhop or archbifhop. Touch but any 
 K 2 extremity
 
 132 LETTERS TO 
 
 extremity of the web, and the vibration will be 
 felt to the center, and to every other extremity. 
 
 Your clergy themfelves force this upon us. For 
 they cannot rail at us as DhTenters, but they muft needs 
 glance at our opinions, and efpecially fuch as they 
 imagine will render us moil obnoxious, never for- 
 getting unitarianifm. Confequently, when we de- 
 fend ourfelves, not being apt to entertain doubts 
 of the goodnefs of our caufe, we purfue our anta- 
 gonifts through the whole field of their argument. 
 We boldly affert the unity of God, and the purity 
 and fimplicity of his worfhip. We exclaim againft 
 all ufurpation of the rights of our only law- giver 
 Jefus Chrifl, by priefts or kings, by councils or 
 parliaments. On thefe topics we are always ready 
 to cry aloud and not/pare. In this manner, Sir, you 
 raile a ftorm the force of which you and your church 
 will not be able to (land. 
 
 It is amufing to obferve how very differently the 
 fame things flrike different perfons, according to 
 their previous educations and habits of thinking. 
 Dr. Price advifes thofe who object to the religion 
 prefcribed by public authority, and who yet cannot 
 altogether approve of any other, that is openly pro- 
 feffed in their country, to fet up a feparate worfhip 
 for themfelves. To me nothing appears more 
 reafonable than this conduct; and yet you, Sir, en- 
 deavour, p. 15, to turn it into ridicule j no doubt, 
 
 1 be caufe
 
 MR. BURKE. 133 
 
 becaufe to you it really appears in a ridiculous light. 
 But ridicule is not the t eft of truth, and if reafonand 
 common fenfe is to be heard, it muft furely appear even 
 to yourfelf, if you re fled; a moment on the fub- 
 ject, that upon any other principle than that of Dr. 
 Price, no reformation can be juftified. Becaufe, 
 upon the very fame principle, whatever it be, that 
 any perfon is authorifed to diffent from a mode of 
 worfhip fet up by the ftate, he is authorifed to diflent 
 from any that may be fet up by private perfons; 
 and if he think the public profeflion of religion in 
 the form of 'public zvorjhip to be a duty, he is obliged 
 in confeience to fet up one of his own, whether more 
 or fewer perfons, or any befides his own family, 
 will join him in it. And where, Sir, would be the 
 great inconvenience of mailers of families, of what- 
 ever rank, be'mgpriefts as well as kings in their own 
 houfhold? What is there in the duty of a teacher 
 of chriftianity, that you, Sir, are not qualified to dis- 
 charge ? And this age furnifhes abundant helps for 
 thofe who are not qualified. If any tiling elfe be 
 an obstruction to this fcheme, it muft arife from the 
 influence of mere faihion, or fuperftition. 
 
 You, Sir, feem to dread ^number of feels among 
 chriftians. But what ferious inconvenience would 
 arife from their being increafed even ten fold? It 
 would be much better for the ftate, than if there 
 were only two. Religious bigotry would alio be 
 K 3 diminilhed
 
 134 LETTERS TO 
 
 diminished by this means, and the members of thefe 
 fects would fooner learn to exercife charity for each 
 other, distinguishing the great things in which all 
 chriftians agree, from the comparatively fmaller 
 things in which any of them differ. In this way, 
 alfo, they would fooner arrive at a rational unifor- 
 mity \ the points of difference being freely can- 
 vafled, and truth prevailing, and eftablifhing itfel 
 as, no doubt, it will in the end. 
 
 I am now, Sir, about to relieve your attention, 
 and that of our readers, to the Subject of the con- 
 nexion, or, as it is called, the alliance, between the 
 church and the ftate, but I cannot wholly conclude 
 without exprefiing my earneft wifh that it may be 
 thoroughly confidered in every point of view. 
 
 It certainly opens a field of very important dif- 
 cufiion for philofophers, politicians, and divines; 
 and it is not to be treated in an authoritative dogma- 
 tical way. That christian ministers Should be 
 paid by the ftate, rather than by thofe who chule 
 to be instructed by them; that they ought to have 
 temporal courts, with the power of inflicting civil 
 penalties; that princes Should have the nomination 
 of them ; that fome of them Should be equal in 
 rank and power to temporal peers; and that arti- 
 cles of faith Should have the fanction of a tem- 
 poral legislature, are by no means axioms, or felf 
 evident truths, in a fyftem of civil policy. There 
 
 muft,
 
 MR. BURKE. 135 
 
 muft, therefore, be more fimple principles, from 
 v/hich, if they be proper expedients in government, 
 their neceffity, or expedience, may be deduced. 
 Let us then fee what thofe principles are, and in 
 what manner the deduction is made. 
 
 It cannot be faid, that the neceffity, or expe- 
 dience, of this mixture of civil and ecclefiaftical 
 power is to be taken for granted ; thefe things hav- 
 ing never been found afunder; becaufe, for many 
 centuries, as I have fhewn, all the particulars men- 
 tioned above were unknown in the chriitian world, 
 and fome of them are comparatively of very late 
 date. Let us then examine their real origin, and 
 confider the circumftances in which they arofe; and 
 let us fee whether our prefent circumftances really 
 require any fuch inftitutions. 
 
 It is time, however, to draw the attention of po- 
 liticians to the fubject, and to compare all the con- 
 fequences which either actually have attended, or 
 which may probably attend, each of the two 
 fchemes. 
 
 Infinite, as every perfon acquainted with hiflory 
 mutt acknowledge, have been the evils that have 
 refulted to mankind, and efpecially the chriitian 
 world, from the interference of civil power in mat- 
 ters of religion. Hence all petfecution in every 
 age, and almolt all the hatred and animofity that 
 has arifen among the different fects 2nd parties of 
 
 K4 ehrii-
 
 I36 LETTERS TO 
 
 Chriftians, for which there would have been very- 
 little food, or exercife, if civil magiftrates had not 
 interfered in the difputes of theologians. Hence a 
 great additional caufe of taxation, and generally in 
 the moft inconvenient form ; and hence the intro- 
 duction of a totally new -power ', which it has been 
 thought neceflary to combine with the old ones in 
 the fyftem of government, and which has gene- 
 rally been placed on a par with all the reft j the 
 church and the. ft ate having become correlative terms. 
 And as nothing is found more difficult to balance 
 than two powers , the one necefTarily gaining what 
 the other lofes, the ftruggle between thefe two was 
 incefTant, and productive of the worft effects, for 
 many centuries, in all parts of chriftendom. At 
 the reformation the power of the church was very 
 much broken, but Hill too much of it remains in 
 all countries, and more of it in this, than in any 
 Proteftant flate whatever. For in no other of 
 them have ecclefiaftics a feat in the fupreme le- 
 giflature of the nation. 
 
 But though the power of the church was derived 
 from the feudal fyftem, this moft abfurd of all its 
 parts ftill remains, when many other parts of it, 
 far lefs exceptionable and inconvenient, have been 
 abolifhed. But as the church cannot now fubfift of 
 itfelf, as it did formerly, when it overawed the 
 whole of the ftate -, it gives a vaft additional power 
 
 to
 
 MR. BURKE. 137 
 
 to the crown, on which it is now wholly de- 
 pendent j our princes having ailiimed that Jupre- 
 macy over the churchy which had been ufurped by 
 the popes. 
 
 Here, then, is an ample field of argument ; 
 and why may not the difcuffion be as cool and ami- 
 cable as any other ? You, Sir, have made it a fub- 
 jeft of popular declamation, rather than of difpaf- 
 fionate reafoning ; but that need not hinder others 
 from taking it up in a different and better manner : 
 and if you will pleafe to change your ftyle, and 
 affume the character of a philofopher, and not that 
 of a mere rhetorician, it will be very agreeable to 
 us to have you of the party. You arc now of an 
 age in which I fliould have imagined, that the pow- 
 ers of the imagination would have been more check- 
 ed by thofe of reajon. On this fubject, the paj/ions, 
 as well as the imagination, mould be abfolutely 
 filent, and the friends and enemies of church efta- 
 blifhments fliould fimply reajon together. 
 
 It is time that we no longer halt between two cpi- 
 nionsy fo very important and oppofite to each other, 
 as, whether religion fhould be left to every man's 
 Ike choice, like philofophy, or medicine, or 
 it fliould be impoied upon men, whether they 
 chufe it or not; whether any man, or body of 
 men, have a right to prefcribe articles of faith to 
 others, or whether every man fhould be left to think 
 and act fur himfelf in this refpect, accountable 
 
 only 
 
 lv
 
 133 LETTERS TO 
 
 only to God, and his own conference. Let us come 
 to a ferious ijfue in this bufinefs, and if chriftian 
 itates have gone upon wrong and erroneous prin- 
 ciples, neither agreeable to truth, nor favourable 
 to the interefts offociety, let them by all means be 
 reformed, and as fpeedily, and with as little incon- 
 venience, as poflible. Or, if the conftitution we 
 complain of be a good one, or the beft all things 
 confidered, let it appear to be fo, in fair and open 
 difcufTion, and we mail acquiefce in it. 
 
 In thefe Letter s, I have by no means exhausted 
 this fubject. Much more remains to be faid, and 
 much more I have myfelf advanced in other pub- 
 lications, efpecially in my EJJay on the principles of 
 civil government, the fecond edition, which includes 
 what I have advanced on church authority, in reply 
 to Dr. Balguy ; and in my Familiar letters addrejjed 
 to the inhabitants of Birmingham. 
 
 To fhew that I am not fingular in my opinion of 
 the impropriety of civil eftabliihments of religion, 
 I would more particularly recommend to your no- 
 tice, and that of my readers, an excellent tract of 
 Mr. Berrington's, intitled. The Rights of DiJJenters ; 
 nor is he the only Catholic who fees this bufi- 
 nefs of the alliance of church and fate in the fame 
 light that I do. Different as are our fyfiems of 
 religion, in a variety of important refpecls, we 
 are equally willing that they fhouid fland or fall 
 
 by
 
 MR. BURKE. 139 
 
 by their proper evidence, and we afk no aid of the 
 civil power to fupport them. 
 
 I fhall clofe this article with an extract from Dr. 
 Ram/ay's Hiftory of the American Revolution. Speakino- 
 of the new forms of government winch were framed 
 after the emancipation of the Americans from their 
 iubjeftion of this country, he fays, Vol. I. p. 3$$, 
 " It was one of the peculiarities of thefe forms of 
 " government, that all religious eltablifhments were 
 " abolifhed. Some retained a conftitutional dif- 
 " tinCtion between chriftians and others, with refpect 
 " to eligibility to office ; but the idea of fupport- 
 <c ing one denomination at the expence of others, 
 * c or of raifing any one feci of proteilants to a legal 
 " pre-eminence, was univerfally reprobated. The 
 " alliance between church and Jiate was compleatly 
 " broken, and each was left to fupport itfelf inde- 
 " pendent of the other. The world," he lays, 
 Vol. II. p. J 17, " will loon fee the refult of an 
 " experiment in politics, and be able to determine 
 "whether the happinefs of fociety is encreafed by 
 " religious ellablilhmcnts, or diminifhed by the 
 " want of them." It is an experiment, I will add, 
 on a fuffick itly large fcale, and in a very reason- 
 able time, we may expert to fee the refult of the 
 procefs. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, Sec.
 
 I4O LETTERS TO 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 Of the ProfpetJ of the general Enlargement of Liberty, 
 civil and religious, opened by the Revolution in 
 France. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I CANNOT conclude thefe Letters, without con- 
 gratulating, not you, Sir, or the many admirers of 
 your performance, who have no feeling of joy on the 
 occafion, but the French nation, and the world; I mean 
 the liberal, the rational, and the virtuous part of the 
 world, on the great revolution that has taken place 
 in France, as well as on that which fome time ago 
 took place in America. Such events as thefe teach 
 the doctrine of liberty, civil and religious, with in- 
 finitely greater clearnefs and force, than a thoufand 
 treatifes on the fubjecc. They fpeak a language 
 intelligible to all the world, and preach a doctrine 
 congenial to every human heart. 
 
 Thefe great events, in many refpects unparal- 
 leled in all hiftory, make a totally new, a moft won- 
 derful, and important, asra in the hiftory of man- 
 kind. It is, to adopt your own rhetorical ftyle, a 
 
 change
 
 MR. BURKE. 14.1 
 
 change from darknefs to light, from fuperftition to 
 found knowledge, and from a mod debating fervi- 
 tude to a ftate of the mod exalted freedom. It is 
 a liberating of all the powers of man from that 
 variety of fetters, by which they have hitherto been 
 held. So that, in comparifon with what has been, 
 now only can we expect to fee what men really 
 are, and what they can do. 
 
 The generality of governments have hitherto 
 been little more than a combination of the few 
 againfl the many ; and to the mean paffions and low 
 cunning of thefe few, have the great interefts of 
 mankind been too long facriflced. Whole nations 
 have been deluged with blood, and every fource 
 of future profperity has been drained, to gratify the 
 caprices of fome of the mod defpicable, or the 
 mod execrable, of the human fpecies. For what 
 elfe have been the generality of kings, their minis- 
 ters of ftate, or their miftreffes, to whole wills 
 whole kingdoms have been fubject ? What can we 
 fay of thofe who have hitherto taken the lead in 
 conducting the affairs of nations but that they 
 have commonly been cither weak or wicked, and 
 fomctimes both ? Hence the common reproach 
 of all hiftories, that they exhibit little more twin a 
 view of the vices and miferies of mankind. 
 
 Hitherto, alio, infinite have been the mifchiefs 
 in which all nations have been involved, on account 
 
 of
 
 I42 LETTERS TO 
 
 of religion^ with which, as it concerns only God 
 and men's own confciences, civil government, as 
 fuch, has nothing to do. Statefmen, milled by 
 ignorant or interefted priefts, have taken upon them 
 to prefcribe what men mould believe and practice, 
 in order to get to heaven, when they themfelves 
 have often neither believed, nor pra&ifed, any 
 thing under that defcription. They have fet up 
 idols, to which all men, under the fevered penal- 
 ties, have been compelled to bow j and the wealth 
 and power of populous nations, which might have 
 been employed in great and ufeful undertakings, 
 have been diverted from their proper channels, 
 to enforce their unrighteous decrees. By this 
 means have mankind been kept for ages in a ftate 
 of bondage worfe than Egyptian, the bondage of 
 the mind. 
 
 How glorious, then, is the profpecl, the re- 
 verfe of all the paft, which is now opening upon 
 us, and upon the world. Government, we may 
 now expect to fee, not only in theory, and in 
 books, but in actual practice, calculated for the 
 general good, and taking no more upon it than 
 the general good requires -, leaving all men the en- 
 joyment of as many of their natural rights as pof- 
 fible, and no more interfering with matters of reli- 
 gion, with men's notions concerning God, and a 
 future ftate, than with philofophy or medicine. 
 
 After
 
 MR. BURKE. I43 
 
 After the noble example of America, we may 
 expect, in due time, to fee the governing powers of 
 all nations confining their attention to the civil con- 
 cerns of them, and confulting their welfare in the 
 prefent ftate only; in confequence of which they 
 may all be flourifhing and happy. Truth of all 
 kinds, and efpecially religious truth > meeting with no 
 obstruction, and Handing in no need of heteroge- 
 neous fupports, will then eftablifh itfelf by its own 
 evidence ; and whatever is falfe and delufive, all the 
 forms of fuparftition, every corruption of true re- 
 ligion, and all ufurpation over the rights of con- 
 fcience, which have been Supported by power or 
 prejudice, will be univerfally exploded, as they ought 
 to be. 
 
 Together with the general prevalence of the 
 true principles of civil government, we may expe<ft 
 to fee the extinction of all national prejudice, and 
 enmity, and the eftablilhment of univerfal peace and 
 good will among all nations. When the affairs of 
 the various focieties of mankind fliall be conducted 
 by thofe who Shall truly rcprefent them, who fliall 
 feel as they feci, and think as they think; who fliall 
 really underitand, and confult their interefts, they 
 will no more engage in thofe mutually offenfive 
 wars, which the experience of many centuries has 
 fhown to be constantly expcnfive and ruinous. 
 They will no longer covet what belongs to others, 
 
 which
 
 144 LETTERS TO 
 
 which they have found to be of no real fervice to 
 them, but will content themfelves with making the 
 molt of their own. 
 
 The very idea of difiant pojpffions will be even 
 ridiculed. The Eaft and the Weft Indies, and 
 every thing without our/elves will be difregarded, 
 and wholly excluded from all European fyftems; and 
 only thofe divifions of men, and of territory, will 
 take place, which the common convenience re- 
 quires, and not fuch as the mad and infatiable am- 
 bition of princes demands. No part of America, 
 Africa, or Afia, will be held in fubjedtion to any 
 part of Europe, and all the intercourfe that will be 
 kept up among them, will be for their mutual ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 The caufes of civil wars, the rnofr. diflreiTing of 
 all others, will likewife ceafe, as well as thole of 
 foreign ones. They are chiefly contentions for 
 offices, on account of the power and emoluments 
 annexed to them. But when the nature and ufes 
 of all civil offices fhali be well underftood, the pow- 
 er and emoluments annexed to them, will not be 
 an object fufficient to produce a war. Is it at all 
 probable, that there will ever be a civil war in 
 America, about the prefidentfhip of the United States ? 
 And when the chief magiftracies in other countries 
 mail be reduced to their proper ftandard, they will 
 be no more worth contending for, than they are in 
 
 America.
 
 MR. BURKE. I45 
 
 America. If the actual bufinefs of a nation -be done 
 as well for the fmall emolument of that prefident- 
 fhip, as the fimilar bufinefs of other nations, there 
 will be no apparent reafon why more mould be 
 given for doing it. 
 
 If there be a fuperfluity of public money, it will not 
 be employed to augment the profufion, and increaie 
 the undue influence, of individuals, but in works 
 of great public utility, which are always wanted, 
 and which nothing but the enormous expences of 
 government, and of wars, chiefly occafioned by the 
 ambition of kings and courts, have prevented from 
 being carried into execution. The expence of the 
 late American war only would have converted all 
 the wafte grounds of this country into gardens. 
 What canals, bridges, and noble roads, &c. &c. 
 would it not have made for us ? If the pride of na- 
 tions muft be gratified, let it be in fuch things as 
 thefe, and not in the idle pageantry of a court, cal- 
 culated only to corrupt and enflave a nation. 
 
 Another caufe of civil wars has been an attach- 
 ment to certain perfons and families, as pofiefied 
 of fome inherent right to kingly power. Such were 
 the bloody wars between the houfes of York and 
 Lancafter, in this country. Bun when, belides 
 the reduction of the power of crowns within their 
 proper bounds (when it will be no greater than the 
 public good requires) that kind of rcfpe& for princes 
 
 I, which
 
 146 LETTERS TO 
 
 which is founded on mere fuperftition (exactly fimi- 
 lar to that which has been attached to priefts in all 
 countries) fhall vanifh, as all fuperftition certainly 
 will before real knowledge, wife nations will not 
 involve themfelves in war for the fake of any par- 
 ticular perfons, or families, who have never fhewn 
 an equal regard for them. They will confider their 
 own intereft more, and that of their magiftrates 
 lefs. 
 
 Other remaining caufes of civil war are different 
 opinions about modes of government, and differ- 
 ences of interefcs between provinces. But when 
 mankind fhall be a little more accuftomed to re- 
 flection, and confider the miferies of civil war, they 
 will have recourfe to any other method of deciding 
 their differences, in preference to that of the fword. It 
 was taken for granted, that the moment America had 
 thrown off the yoke of Great Britain, the different 
 Hates would go to war among themfelves, on fome 
 of thefe accounts. But the event has not verified 
 the prediction, nor is it at all probable that it ever 
 will. The people of that country are wifer than 
 fuch prophets in this. 
 
 \Uiaieht allowed for the difcuffion of differences, 
 lo great a majority will form one opinion, that the 
 minority will fee the neceffity of giving way. Thus 
 will reafon be the umpire in all difputes, and ex- 
 
 tinsuiih
 
 MR. BURKE. I47 
 
 tin<niifh civil wars as well as foreign ones. The 
 empire of reafon will ever be the reign of peace. 
 
 This, Sir, will be the happy Mate of things, dis- 
 tinctly and repeatedly foretold in many prophe- 
 cies, delivered more than two thoufand years ago ; 
 when the common parent of mankind will caufe 
 wars to ceafe to the ends of the earth, when men /ball 
 beat their fa or ds into plough -fhares, and their /pears 
 into pruning hooks ; when nation JJjall no more rife up 
 againjl nation, and when they ]h all learn war no mire. 
 If. ii. 4. Micah iv. 3. This is a (late of things 
 which good CcnW, and the prevailing fpirit of com- 
 merce, aided by chriilianity, and true philofophy, 
 cannot fail to efiett in time. But it can never take 
 place while mankind arc governed in the wretched 
 manner in which they now are. For peace can 
 never be eftabliflied, but upon the extinction of the 
 caufes of war, which exilt in all the prefent forms 
 of government, and in the political maxims which 
 will always be encouraged by them. I mention 
 this topic in a letter to you, on the ii a that you are 
 a real believer in revelation, though your defence 
 of all church eftablifhments, as inch, i no argu- 
 ' in favour of this opinion ; the moll zealous 
 abettors of them, and the mofl determined enemies 
 of all reformation, having been unbelievers in all 
 religion, which they have made ufc of merely as 
 an engine of Hate. 
 
 I. 9. in
 
 I48 LETTERS TO 
 
 In this new condition of the world, there may ftill 
 be kings, but they will be no longer Jovereigns, or 
 Jupreme lords, no human beings to whom will be 
 afcribed fuch titles as thofe of moft Jacred, or moft 
 excellent majefty. There will be no more fuch a 
 profanation of epithets, belonging to God only, by 
 the application of them to mortals like ourfelves. 
 There will be magifirates, appointed and paid for 
 the coniervation of order, but they will only be con- 
 sidered as the fcftijervants of the people, and account- 
 able to them. Standing armies, thofe inftruments 
 of tyranny, will be unknown, though the people 
 may be trained to the ufe of arms, for the purpofe 
 of repelling the invafion of Barbarians. For no 
 other defcription of men will have recourfe to war, 
 or think of diflurbing the repofe of others; and 
 till they become civilized, as in the natural progrefs 
 of things they neceffarily mull, they will be fuffi- 
 ciently overawed by the fuperior power of nations 
 that are ib. 
 
 There will fliil be religion, and of courfe mini/lers 
 of it; as there will be teachers of philofophy, and 
 practitioners in medicine ; but it will no longer be 
 rhe concern of the flate. There will be no mora 
 Lord BiJJjcps, or Archbifoops, with the titles, and 
 powers, of temporal princes. Every man will 
 provide religion for himfelf; and therefore it will 
 be fuch a c , after due enquiry, and examination, he 
 
 fhall
 
 MR. BURKE. 149 
 
 lhall think to be founded on truth, and beft calcu- 
 lated to make men good citizens, good friends, 
 and good neighbours in this world, as well as to fit 
 them for another. 
 
 Government, being thus fimple in its objects, 
 will be unfpeakably lefs expenfive than it is at pre- 
 fcnt, as well as far more effebliial in anfwering its 
 proper purpofe. There will then be little to provide 
 for befides the adminiftration of juftice, or the pre- 
 fervation of the peace, which it will be the intereft 
 of every man to attend to, in aid of government. 
 
 They are chiefly our vices and follies that lay us 
 under contribution, in the form of the taxes we now 
 pay ; and they will, of courfe, become fuperfluous, 
 as the world grows wifer and better. It is a molt 
 unreafonable fum that we now pay for the fingle ar- 
 ticle of government. We give, perhaps, the amount 
 of one half our property, for the fecure enjoyment 
 of the reft, which, after all, for want of a good po- 
 lice, is very infecure. 
 
 However, the enormous debts which our pre- 
 r ent fyftems of government, and the follies of our 
 governors, have intailed upon us, like all other 
 evils in the plan of providence, promife to be even- 
 tually the caufe of the greateft good, as necefTary 
 means of bringing about the happy Hate of things 
 above defcribed. And the improvement of Europe 
 may ferve as an example to the reft of the work!, 
 
 and
 
 150 LETTERS TO 
 
 and be the inftrument of other important changes, 
 which I fhall not dwell upon in this place. 
 
 By means of national debts, the wheels of feveral 
 European governments are already fo much clogged, 
 that it is impoilible they fhould go on much lon- 
 ger. We fee our taxes, even without war, con- 
 tinually increafing. The very peace eftabliihment 
 of France could not be kept up any longer, and 
 the fame muft foon be the fituation of other nati- 
 ons. All the caufes which have operated to the 
 incteafe of thefe debts, continue to operate, and 
 with increafed force ; fo that our approach to this 
 great crifis of our affairs, is not equable, but acce- 
 lerated. The prefent generation has feen the debt 
 of this nation rife from a mere trifle to an amount 
 that already threatens ruin. And will not the next 
 generation, if not the prefent, fee this ruin ? 
 
 If the prefent change of the French government, 
 brought on, to ufe a phrafe of yours, by fifcal dif- 
 ficulties, has been attended with inch a;. ',. iterruption 
 cf their manufactures, fbch a ftagnation of their 
 commerce, and fuch a diminution of their current 
 fpecie, as has greatly "added to the difficulties of 
 that country .; what are we to expect, in a fimilar 
 crifs, in this country, which depends {o much more 
 upon manufactures and commerce than France ever 
 did, and which has far lefs refource within itfelf ? 
 
 1:
 
 MR. BURKE. I51 
 
 If you, Sir, together with your old or your new 
 friends, can fteer the fhip of the ft ate through the 
 ftorm, which we all fee to be approaching, you will 
 have more wifdom and fteadinefs than has yet been 
 found in any who have hitherto been at the head of 
 our affairs. And if, in thefe circumftances, you 
 can Hive the church , as well as the /late, you will 
 deferve no lefs than canonization, and St. Edmund 
 will be the greatetl name in the calendar. But 
 great occafions call forth, and in a manner create, 
 great and unknown ability, as we have lately {'ecu 
 in the hiftory of the American revolution. A 
 providence alio governs the world, and tliei 
 we need not defpair. 
 
 If the condition of other nations be as much bet- 
 tered as that of France will probaoly be, by her 
 improved lyftem of government, this great crills, 
 dreadful as it appears in profpecr, will be a con- 
 [ummation .' illy tc -j:'i food for, and thou ea- 
 lamitou, to many, \ :r!iaps to many innoceiu per- 
 ions, will be eventually m >ll glorious and happy. 
 
 To you, Sir, all thi; may appear iuch wild de- 
 clamation, as yourtrej tears to me. But ("pe- 
 culations of t! bute to cxhiicrate my 
 mind, as t' :c 'nh\lerati in of the French revolution 
 has contributed to dilturb and diltrefs yours ; and 
 thus is veiuiul the common proverb, which lavs, 
 ;: : is another mans pcifon. If this be 
 
 a dream,
 
 152 LETTERS, &C. 
 
 a dream, it is, however, a pleafing one, and has 
 nothing in it malignant, or unfriendly to any. 
 AH that I look to promifes no exclufive advantage 
 to myfelf, or my friends ; but an equal field for 
 every generous exertion to all, and it makes the 
 great object of all our exertions to be the public good. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir> 
 
 Your very humble fervant, 
 
 J. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 Birmingham, J an, 1 , 1791. 
 
 H
 
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