A Letter from Mr. 3urke to
. Meaber of the National Assembly
LETTER
FROM
MR. BURKE,
TO A
IN ANSWER TO
SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS
BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
THE SECOND EDITION.
PARIS, PRINTED,
AND LONDON RE-PRINTED FOR J. DODSLEY, PALL-MALL.
M.DCC.XCI.
DC
ffo
mi
S I R,
T HAD the honour to receive your letter of the
jyth of November laft, in which, with fome
exceptions, you are pleafed to confider favour-
ably the letter I have written on the affairs of
France. I fhall ever accept any mark of appro-
bation, attended with inftruction, with more
pleafure than general and unqualified praifes.
The latter can ferve only to flatter our vanity 5
the former, whilft it encourages us to proceed,
may help to improve us in our progrefs.
Some of the errors you point out to me in my
printed letter are really fuch. -One only I find
to be material. It is corrected in the edition
which I take the liberty of fending to you. As
to the cavils which may be made on fome part
of my remarks, whh regard to the gradations
in your new confthution, you obferve juftly,
B that
I 1
:-&-
that they do not affeft the fubftance of my ob-
jeftions. Whether there be a round more or
iefs in the ladder of reprefentation, by which your
workmen afcend from their parochial tyranny to
their federal anarchy, when the whole fcale is
falfe, appears to me of little or no impor-
tance.
I publilhed my thoughts on that conftitution,
that my countrymen might be enabled to efti-
mate the wifdom of the plans which were held
out to their imitation. I conceived that the true
character of thofe plans would be beft collected
from the committee appointed to prepare them.
I thought that the fcheme of their building would
be better comprehended in the defign of the ar-
chitects than in the execution of the mafons. It
was not worth my reader's while to occupy him-
felf with the alterations by which bungling prac-
tice corrects abfurd theory. Such an inveftiga-
tion would be endlefs : becaufe every day's paft
experience of impracticability has driven, and
every day's future experience will drive, thofe
men to new devices as exceptionable as the old ;
and which are no otherwife worthy of obferva-
tion than as they give a daily proof of the delu-
fion of their promifes, and the falfehood of their
profefiions. Had I followed all thefe changes,
my
( 3 )
my letter would have been only a gazette of
their wanderings ; a journal of their march from
error to error, through a dry dreary defart, un-
guided by the lights of heaven, or by the con-
trivance which wifdom ha invented to fupply
their place.
I am unalterably perfuaded, that the attempt
to opprefs, degrade, impoverifh, confifcate, and
extinguifh the original gentlemen, and landed
property of an whole nation, cannot be jufli-
fied under any form it may aflume. I am fatif-
fied beyond a doubt, that the project of turn-
ing a great empire into a veftry, or into a col-
lection of veftries, and of governing it in the
fpirit of a parochial adminiftration, is fenfelefs
and abfurd, in any mode, or with any qualifica-
tions. I can never be convinced, that the fcheme
of placing the higheft powers of the ftate in
churchwardens and conftablcs, and other fuch
officers, guided by the prudence of litigious
attornies and Jew brokers, and fet in action by
fhamelefs women of the loweft condition, by
keepers of hotels, taverns, and brothels, by pert
apprentices, by clerks, Ihop-boys, hair-drefiers,
fidlers, and dancers on the ftage, (who, in fuch
a commonwealth as your's, will in future cfrer-
bear, as already they have overborne, the fober in-
B 2 capacity
( 4 )
capacity of dull uninftructed men, of uieful but la-
borious occupations) can never be put into any
fliape, that muft not be both difgraceful and
deftructive. The whole of this project, even if
it were what it pretends to be, and was not in
reality the dominion, through that difgraceful
medium, of half a dozen, or perhaps fewer, in-
triguing politicians, is fo mean, fo low-minded,
fo ftupid a contrivance, in point of wifdom, as
well as fo perfectly deteftable for its wickednefs,
that I muft always confider the correctives which
might make it in any degree practicable, to be
fo many new objections to it.
In that wretched ftate of things, fome are
afraid that the authors of your miferies may be
led to precipitate their further defigns, by the
hints they may receive from the very arguments
ufed to expofe the abfurdity of their fyftem, to
mark the incongruity of its parts, and its
inconfiftency with their own principles j and
that your mailers may be led to render their
fchemes more confiftent, by rendering them
more mifchievous. Excufe the liberty which
your indulgence authorifes me to take, when I
obferve to you, that fuch apprehenfions as thefe
would prevent all exertion of our faculties in
this -great caufe of mankind.
Arafh
( 5 )
A rafli recourfe to force is not to be juftified
in a ftate of real weaknefe. Such attempts bring
on difgrace j and, in their failure, difcounte-
nance and difcourage more rational endeavours.
But reafon is to be hazarded, though it may be
perverted by craft and fophiftry ; for reafon can
fuffer no lofs nor fhame, nor can it impede any
ufeful plan of future policy; In the unavoidable
uncertainty, as to the effect, which attends on
every meafure of human prudence, nothing leems
a furer antidote to the poifon of fraud than its
detection. It is true the fraud may be fwal-
lowed after this difcovery; and perhaps even
fwallowed the more greedily for being a detected
fraud. Men fometimes make a point of honour
not to be difabufed j and they had rather fall into
an hundred errors than confefs one. But after
all, when neither our principles nor our dif-
pofitions, nor, perhaps, our talents, enable us to
encounter delufion with delufion, we muft ufc
our beft reafon to thofe that ought to be reafon-
able creatures, and to take our chance for the
event. We cannot act on thefe anomalies in
the minds of men. I do not conceive that the
perfons who have contrived thefe things can
be made much the better or the worfe for
any thing which can be faid to them. They
B 3 are
( 6 )
are rcafbn proof. Here and there, fome men,
who were at firft carried away by wild good
intentions, may be led, when their firft fervors
are abated, to join in a fober furvey of the
Schemes into which they have been deluded.
To thofe only (and I am forry to fay they are
not likely to make a large defcription) we
apply with any hope. I may fpeak it upon an
affurance almoft approaching to abfolute know-
ledge, that nothing has been done that has not
been contrived from the beginning, even before
the ftates had afiembled. Nulla nova mibi res
inopinave Jurgit. They are the fame men and
the fame defigns that they were from the firft,
though varied in their appearance. It was the
very fame animal that at firft crawled about in the
fhape of a caterpillar, that you now fee rife into
the air, and expand his wings to the fun.
Proceeding, therefore, as we are obliged to
proceed, that is upon an hypothefis that we addrefs
rational men, can falfe political principles be more
effe&ually expofed, than by demonftrating that
they lead to confequences directly inconfiftent
with and fubverfive of the arrangements ground-
ed upon them ? If this kind of demonftration is
not permitted, the procefs of Teafoning called
deduftia
( 7 )
deduRio ad abfurdum y which even the fe verity of
geometry does not reject, could not be employ-
ed at all in legiflative difcufiions. One of our
ftrongeit weapons againft folly acting with autho-
rity, would be loft.
You know, Sir, that even the virtuous efforts
of you patriots to prevent the ruin of your coun-
try have had this very turn given to them. It
has been faid here, and in France too, that the
reigning ufurpers would not have carried their
tyranny to fuch deftruftive lengths, if they had
not been ftimulated and provoked to it by the
acrimony of your oppofition. There is a dilem-
ma to which every oppofition to fuccefsful ini-
quity muft, in the nature of things, be liable.
If you lieftill,you are confidered as an accomplice
in the meafures in which you filently acquiefce.
If you refift, you are accufed of provoking ir-
ritable power to new excelTes. The conduct of
a lofing party never appears right : at leaft it
never can poflefs the only infallible criterion of
wifdom to vulgar judgments -fuccefs.
The indulgence of a fort of undefined hope,
an obfcure confidence, that fome lurking re-
mains of virtue, fome degree of fhame, might
exift in the breads of the oppreffors of France,
has been among the caufes which have helped to
B 4 bring
( 8 )
bring on the common ruin of king and people.
There is no fafety for honeft men, but by believ-
ing all poffible evil of evil men, and by acting
with promptitude, decifion, and fteadinefs on
that belief. I well remember, at every epocha of
this wonderful hiftory, in every fcene of this
tragic bufinefs, that when your fophiftic ufur-
pers were laying down mifchievous principles,
and even applying them in direct refolutions, it
was the fafhion to fay, that they never intended
to execute thofe declarations in their rigour.
This made men cautious in their oppofltion, and
remifs in early precaution. By holding out this
fallacious hope, the importers deluded fome-
times one defcription of men, and fometimes
another, fo that no means of refiilance were pro-
vided againft them, when they came to execute
in cruelty what they 'had planned in fraud.
There are cafes in which a man would be
afhamed not to have been impofed on. There
is a confidence neceffary to human intercourfe,
and without which men are often more injured
by their own fufpicions than they could be by
the perfidy of others. But when men, whom
we know to be wicked, impofe upon us, we are
fomething worfe than dupes. When we know
them, their fair pretences become new motives
4 for
( 9 >
for diftruft. There is one cafe, indeed, ia which
it would be madnefs not to give the fulleft credit
to the moft deceitful of men, that is, when they
make declarations of hoftility againft us.
I find, that fome perfons entertain other hopes,
which I confels appear more fpecious than thole
by which at firft fo many were deluded and dif-
armed. They flatter themfelves that the extreme
mifery brought upon the people by their folly,
will at laft open the eyes of the multitude, if not
of their leaders. Much the contrary, I fear. As
to the leaders in this fyftem of impofture, you
know, that cheats and deceivers never can repent.
The fraudulent have no refource but in fraud.
They have no other goods in their magazine.
They have no virtue or wifdom in their minds, to
which, in a difappointment concerning the pro-
fitable effects of fraud and cunning, they can
retreat. The wearing out of an old, ferves only
to put them upon the invention of a new delu-
fion. Unludkily too, the credulity of dupes is
as inexhauftible as the invention of knaves. They
never give people poflefiion; but they always
keep them in hope. T our ftate doctors do not
fo much as pretend that any good whatfbever has
hitherto been derived from their operations, or
that the public has prolpered in any one inflance,
under their management. The nation is fick,
very
very Tick, by their medicines. But the charlatan
tells them that what is pad cannot be helped j
they have taken the draught, and they muft wait
its operation with patience j that the firft effects
indeed are unpleafant, but that the very fick-
nefs is a proof that the dofe is of no flug-
gifh operations thatfickncfs is inevitable in all
conftitutional revolutions j that the body muft
pais through pain to eafe ; that the prefcriber is
not an empirick who proceeds by vulgar expe-
rience, but one who grounds his practice on
* die fure rules of art, which cannot pofllbly fail.
You have read Sir, the laft Manifefto, or Moun-
tebank's bill, of the National Aflerr.bly. You
fee their prefumption in their promifes is not
leflened by all their failures in the performance.
Compare this laft addrefs of the Affembly, and
the prefent ftate of your afrairswith the early en-
gagements of that body; engagements which,
not content with declaring, they folemnly de-
poled upon oath, fwearing luftily that if they
were fupported they would make their country
glorious and happy j and then judge whether thofe
who can write fuch things, or thbfe who can bear
* It is faid in the laft quackifli addrefs of the National
Aflenobly to the people of France ; that they have not
formed their arrangements upon vulgar praftice ; but on a
theory uiiich cannot fail> or fomething to that efFeft.
( It )
to read them, are of tbetnfehes to be brought to
any reafonable courfe of thought or action.
As to the people at large, when once thefe
miferable fheep have broken the fold, and have
got themfelves loofe, not from the reftraint, but
from the protection of all the principles of na-
tural authority, and legitimate fubordination, they
became the natural prey of impoftors. When
they have once tafted of the flattery of knaves,
they can no longer endure reafon, which appears
to them only in the form of cenfure and reproach.
Great diftrefs has never hitherto taught, and
whilft the world lafts it never will teach, wife
leflbns to any part of mankind. Men are as
much blinded by the extremes of mifery as by
the extremes of profperity. Delperate fituations
produce defperate councils, and delperate mea-
fures. The people of France, almoft generally,
have been taught to look for other refources
than thofe which can be derived from order,
frugality, and induftry. They are generally
armed i and they are made to expect much
from the ufe of arms. Nihil ncn arrogant armis.
Befides this, the retrograde order of fociety has
fomething flattering to the difpofitions of man-
kind. The life of adventurers, gamefters,. gip-
fies, beggars, and robbers, is not unpleafant.
It requires reftraint to keep men from falling
into
into that habit. The fhifting tides of fear and
hope, the flight and purfuit, the peril and efcape,
the alternate famine and feaft, of the favage and
the thief, after a time, render all courfe of flow,
fteady, progreflive, unvaried occupation, and the
profpect only of a limited mediocrity at the end
of long labour, to the laft degree tame, languid,
and infipid. Thofe who have been once in-
toxicated with power, and have derived any
kind of emolument from it, even though but for
one year, never can willingly abandon it. They
may be diftrefied in the midft of all their power;
but they will never look to any thing but power
for their relief. When did diftrefs ever oblige a
prince to abdicate his authority ? And what
effect will it have upon thofe who are made
to believe themfelves a people of princes ?
The more active and {lining part of the
lower orders having got government, and the
diftribution of plunder, into their hands, they will
ufe its refources in each municipality to form
a body of adherents. Thefe rulers, and their
adherents, will be ftrong enough to overpower
the difcontents of thofe who have not been able
to aflert their fhare of the fpoil. The unfor-
tunate adventurers in the cheating lottery of
plunder will probably be the leaft fagacious, or
the moft inactive and irrefolute of the gang.
( 3 )
If, on difappointment, they ftiould dare to ftir,
they will foon be fupprefied as rebels and muti-
neers by their brother rebels. Scantily fed for
a while, with the orTal of plunder, they will
drop off by degrees j they will be driven out of
fight, and out of thought; and they will be
left to perifh obfcureiy, like rats, in holes and
corners.
From the forced repentance of invalid muti-
neers and difbanded thieves, you can hope for
no refource. Government itfelfj which ought
to conftrain the more bold and dextrous of
thefe robbers, is their accomplice. Its arms,
its treafures, its all, are in their hands. Judi-
cature, which above all things fhould awe them,
is their creature and their inftrument. Nothino-
o
feems to me to render your internal fituation
more defperate than this one circumftance of the
ftate of your judicature. Many days are not
paft fince we have feen a fet of men brought
forth by your rulers for a moft critical function.
Your rulers brought forth a fet of men, {learning
from the fweat and drudgery, and all black with
the fmoak and foot of the forge of confifcation
and robbery ardentls majfe fuligine lippos, a fet
of men brought forth from the trade of ham-
mering arms of proof, offenfive and defenfive,
in
( 14 )
in aid of the enterprizes, and for the fubiequent
protection of houfebreakers, murderers, traitors,
and malefactors j men, who had their minds fea-
foned with theories perfectly conformable to their
practice, and who had always laughed at pof-
fefllon and prefcripdon, and defied all the
fundamental maxims of jurifprudence. To the
horror and ftupefaction of all the honeft part
of this nation, and indeed of all nations who
are fpectators, we have feen, on the credit of
thofe very practices and principles, and to carry
them further into effect, thefe very men placed
on the facred feat of juftice in the capital city of
your late kingdom. We fee, that in future,
you are to be deftroycd with more form and re-
gularity. This is not peace ; it is only the in-
troduflion of a fort of difcipline in their hoftility.
Their tyranny is complete, in their juftice ; and
their lanthorn is not half fo dreadful as their
court.
One would think that out of common de-
cency they would have given you men who had
not been in the habit of trampling upon law
and juftice in the aflembly, neutral men, or
men apparently neutral, for judges, who are to
difpofe of your lives and fortunes.
Cromwell, when he attempted to legalize his
power, and to fettle his conquered country in a
ftate
ftate of order, did not look for his difpenfers of
juftice in the inftruments of his ufurpation.
Quite the contrary. He fought out with great
follicitude and feledYion, and even from the party
moft oppofite to his defigns, men of weight,
and decorum of character ; men unfbined with
the violence of the times, and with hands not
fouled with confifcation and facrilege : for he
chofe an Hales for his chief juftice, though he
abfolutely refufed to take his civic oaths, or to
make any acknowledgment whatfoever of the
legality of his government. Cromwell told
this great lawyer, that fmce he did not approve
his title, all he required of him was, to adminif-
ter, in a manner agreeable to his pure fentiments
and unfpotted character, that juftice without
which human fociety cannot fubfift : that it was
not his particular government, but civil order
itfelf, which as a judge he wifhed him to fupport.
Cromwell knew how to feparate the inftitutions
expedient to his ufurpation from the adminiftra-
tion of the public juftice of his country. For
Cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not
wholly fupprefied, but only fufpended the fenti-
ments of religion, and the love (as far it could
confift with his defigns) of fair and honourable
reputation. Accordingly, we are indebted to
this act of his for the prefervation of our Jaws,
which
which fbme fenfelefs afiertors of the rights of
men were then on the point of entirely erafmg,
as relicks of feudality and barbarifm. Befides,
he gave in the appointment of that man, to that
age, and to all poflerity, the moft brilliant ex-
ample of fincere and fervent piety, exact juftice,
and profound jurifprudence *. But thefe are not
the things in which your philofophic ufurpers
choofe to follow Cromwell.
One would think, that after an honeft and ne-
ceffary Revolution (if they had a mind that
theirs fhould pafs for fuch) your mafters would
have imitated the virtuous policy of thofe who
have been at the head of revolutions of that
glorious character. Burnet tells us, that no-
thing tended to reconcile the Englifh nation to
the government of King William fo much as
the care he took to fill the vacant bifhoprics
with men who had attracted the public efteem
by their learning, eloquence, and piety, and
above all, by their known moderation in the
ftate. With you, in your purifying Revolu-
tion, whom have you chofen to regulate the
church ? Mr. Mirabeau is a fine fpeaker and
a fine writer, and a fine a very fine mani -
but really nothing gave more furprize to every
* See Burner's life of Hales.
body
t 7 )
body here, than to find him the fupreme head
of your ecclefiaftical affairs. The reft is of courfe.
Your Afiembly addrefies a manifefto to France
in which they tell the people, with an infulting
irony, that they have brought the church to its
primitive condition. In one refpe<5t their de-
claration is undoubtedly true; for they have
brought it to a ftate of poverty and perfecution.
What can be hoped for after this ? Have not
men (if they deferve the name) under this new
hope and head of the church, been made bi-
fliops, for no other merit than having acted as
inftruments of atheifts j for no other merit than
having thrown the children's bread to dogs ; and
in order to gorge the whole gang ofufurers;
pedlars, and itinerant Jew-difcounters at the
corners of ftreets, fbarved the poor of their
Chriftian flocks, and their own brother pallors ?
Have not fuch men been made bifhops to ad-
minifter in temples, in which (if the patriotic
donations have not already ftripped them of their
Veffels) the churchwardens ought to take fecurity
for the altar plate, and not fo much as to truft
the chalice in their facrilegious hands, fo long at
jews have affignats on ecclefiaftic plunder, to
exchange for the fijlver ftolen from churches ?
C I am
( 18 )
I am told, that the very fons of fuch Jew-
iobbers have been made bifhops; perfons not to
be fufpected of any fort of Chriftian fuperftition,
fit colleagues to the holy prelate of Autun ; and
bred at the feet of that Gamaliel. We know
who it was that drove the money-changers out
of the temple. We fee too who it is that brings
them in again. We have in London very re-
Ipectable perfons of the Jewilh nation, whom we
will keep: but we have of the fame tribe others
of a very different defcription, houfebreakers,
and receivers of ftolen goods, and forgers of
paper currency, more than we can conveniently
hang. Thefe we can fpare to France, to fill the
new epifcopal thrones : men well verled in Iwear-
ing; and who will fcruple no oath which the fer-
tile genius of any of your reformers can de-
vife.
In matters fo ridiculous, it is hard to be grave.
On a view of their confequences it is almoil
inhuman to treat them lightly. To what a flate
of favage, flupid, fervile infenfibility mufl your
people be reduced, who can endure fuch .pro-
ceedings in their church, their flate, and their
judicature, even for a moment! But the de-
luded people of France are like other madmen,
who, to a miracle, bear hunger, and thirft, and
cold,
( 19 )
cold, and confinement, and the chains and lalh
of their keeper, whilft all the while they fup-
port themfelves by the imagination that they are
general's of armies, prophets, kings, and em-
perors. As to a change of mind in thefe men,
who confider infamy as honour, degradation -as
preferment, bondage to low tyrants as liberty,
and the practical fcorn and contumely of their
upftart matters, as marks of refpect and homage,
I look upon it as abfolutely impracticable. Thefe
madmen, to be cured, . muft firft, like other
madmen, be fubdued. The found part of the
community, which I believe to be large, but by
no means the largeft part, has been taken by
furprize, and is disjointed, terrified, and dif-
armed. That found part of the community
muft firft be put into a better condition, before
it can do any thing in the way of deliberation or
perfuafion. This muft be an act of power, as
well as of wilclom; of power, in the hands of
firm, determined patriots, who can diftinguifh
the mifled from traitors, who will regulate the
ftate (if fuch (hould be their fortune) with
a difcriminating, manly, and provident mer-
cy ; men who are purged of the furfeit
and indigeftion of iyftems, if ever they have
been admitted into the habit of their minds;
men who will lay the foundation of a real re-*
C -2 form,
form, in effacing every veftige of that philofo*
phy which pretends to have made difcoveries in
the terra aujiralis of morality ; men who will
fix the ftate upon thefe bafes of morals and po-
litics, which are our old, and immemorial, and,
I hope, will be our eternal pofiefiion.
This power, to fuch men, muft come from
without. It may be given to you in pity; for
furely no nation ever called fo pathetically on
the companion of all its neighbours. It may be
given by thofe neighbours on motives of fafety
to themfelves. Never fliall I think any country
in Europe to be fecure, whilft there is eftabliihed,
in the very centre of it, a ftate (if fo it may be
called) founded on principles of anarchy, and
which is, in reality, a college of armed fanatics,
for the propagation of the principles of affaf-
finaticn, robbery, rebellion, fraud, faction, op-
preflion, and impiety. Mahomet, hid, as for a time
he was, in the bottom of the fands of Arabia,
had his fpirit and character been difcovered,
would have been an object of precaution to pro-
vident minds. What if he had erected his fa-
natic ftandard for the deftru6lion of the Chrif-
tian religion in luce df:<e t in the midft of the then
noon-day fplendour of the then civilized world ?
The princes of Europe, in the beginning of this
century, did well not to fuffqr the monarchy of
France
France to fwallow up the others. They ought
not now, in my opinion, to fuffer all the mo-
narchies and commonwealths to be fwallowecl up
in the gulph of this polluted anarchy. They
may be tolerably fafe at prefent,' becaufe the
comparative power of France for the pre-
fent is little. But times and occalions make
dangers. Inteftine troubles may arife in other
countries. There is a power always on the
watch, qualified and dilpofed to profit of every
conjuncture, to eftablilh its own principles and
modes of mifchief, wherever it can hope for
fuccefs. What mercy would thefe ufurpers have
on other fovereigns, and on other nations, when
they treat their own king with fuch unparalleled
indignities, and fo cruelly opprefs their own
countrymen ?
The king of Pruflla, in concurrence with us,
nobly interfered to fave Holland from confufion.
The fame power, joined with the refcued Hol-
land and with Great Britain, has put the em-
peror in the pofiefiion of the Netherlands ; and
fecured, under that prince, from all arbitrary in-
novation, the antient, hereditary conftitution of
thofe provinces. The chamber of Wetzlar has
reftored the Bifhop of Leige, unjuftly difpoflefT-
cd by the rebellion of his fubjects. The king
C of
of Pruffia was bound by no treaty, nor alli-
ance of blood, nor had any particular reafons
for thinking the emperor's government would
be more mifchievous or more oppreffive to hu-
man nature than that of the Turk ; yet on
mere motives of policy that prince has in-
terpofed with the threat of all his force, to
ihatch even the Turk from the pounces of
the imperial eagle. If this is done in favour of
a barbarous nation, with a barbarous neglect
of police, fatal to the human race, in favour
of a nation, by principle in eternal enmity
with the Chriftian name; a nation which will
not fo much as give the falutation of peace
(Salam) to any of us; nor make any pact
with any Chriftian nation beyond a truce ; if
this be done in favour of the Turk, lhall it
be thought either impolitic, or unjuft, or un-
charitable, to employ the fame power, to refcue
from captivity a virtuous monarch (by the
courtefy of Europe confidered as Moll Chriftian)
who, after an intermiffion of 175 years, had
called together the ftates of his kingdom, to re-
form abufes, to eftablifh a free government,
and to ftrengthen his throne; a monarch, who
at the very outfet^ without force, even without
ibllicitatipn, had given to his people fuch a
Magna
Magna Charta of privileges, as never was given
by any king to any iubjects ? Is it to be tamely
borne by kings who love their fubjedls, or by
fubjects who love their kings, that this monarch,
in the midft of thefe gracious afts, was info-
lently and cruelly torn from his palace, by
a gang of traitors and afTafiins, and kept in " dole
prifon to this very hour, whilft his royal name
and facred character were ufed for the total ruin
of thofe whom the laws had appointed him
to prote<5b ?
The only offence of this unhappy monarch
towards his people, was his attempt, under a
monarchy, to give them a free conftitution. For
this, by an example hitherto unheard of in
the world, he has been depofed. It might well
difgrace fovereigns to take part with a depofed
tyrant. It would fuppofe in them avitious fym-
pathy. But not to make a common caufe with
a juft prince, dethroned by traitors and rebels,
who prolcribe, plunder, confifcate, and in every
way cruelly opprefs their fellow citizens, in my
opinion is to forget what is due to the honour,
.and to the rights of all virtuous and legal
government.
I think the king of France to be as much an
object both of policy and companion as the
C 4 Grand
( 14 )
Grand Seignor or his ftates. I do not conceive^
that the total annihilation of France (if that could
be effected) is a defirable thing to Europe;
or even to this its rival nation. Provident
patriots did not think it good for Rome, that
even Carthage fhould be quite deftroyed ; and
he was a wife Greek, wife for the general
Grecian interefts, as well as a brave Lacedemo-
nian enemy, and generous conqueror, who did
not wifh, by the deftru&ion of Athens, to pluck
out the other eye of Greece.
However, Sir, what I have here faid of the
interference of foreign princes is only the opinion
of a private individual; who is neither the re-
prefentative of any ftate, nor the organ of any
party j but who thinks himfelf bound to exprefs
his own fentiments with freedom and energy
in a crifis of fuch importance to the whole human,
race.
I am not apprehenfive that in fpeaking freely
on the fubjecl: of the King and Queen of France,
I fhall accelerate (as you fear) the execution of
traiterous defigns againft them. You are of
opinion, Sir, that the ufurpers may, and that they
will, gladly lay hold of any pretext to throw off
the very name of a king; afluredly I do not
v/ifh ill to your king ; but better for him not to
Jive (he does not reign) than to live the paflivc
jnftrument of tyranny and ufurpation.
I certainly meant to fliew, to the beft of
my power, that the exiftence of fuch an exe-
cutive officer, in fuch a fyftern of republic as
theirs, is abfurd in the higheft degree. But in
demonftrating this to them, at leaft, I can have
made no difcovery. They only held out the
royal name to catch thofe Frenchmen to whom
the name of king is ftill venerable. They calcu-
Jate the duration of that fentiment ; and when
they find it nearly expiring, they will not trouble
themfelves with excufes for extinguifhing the
name, as they have the thing. They ufed it as
a fort of navel-ftring to nourifh their unnatural
offspring from the bowels of royalty itfelf. Now
that the monfter can purvey for its own fubfift-
ence, it will only carry the mark about it, as a
token of its having torn the womb it came
from. Tyrants feldom want pretexts. Fraud
is the ready rainifter of injufticei and whilft the
currency of falfe pretence and fophiftic reafbning
was expedient to their defigns, they were under
no necefiity of drawing % upon me to furnifh them
with that coin. But pretexts and fophifms have
jiad their day j and have done their work. The
ufurpation
ufurpation no longer fecks' plaufibility. It trufts
to power.
Nothing that I can fay, or that you can fay,
will haften them by a fmgle hour, in the execu-
tion of a defign which they have long fmce en-
tertained. In fpite of their folemn declarations,
their foothing addreffes, and the multiplied oaths
which they have taken, and forced others to
take, they will affafTmate the king when his name
will no longer be necefiary to their defigns ; but
not a moment fooner. They will probably firft ,.
afifaflinate the queen, whenever the renewed
menace of fuch an aflaflination lofes its effecT:
upon the anxious mind of an affectionate hufband.
At prefent, the advantage which they derive
from the daily threats againft her life, is her only
fecurity for preferving it. They keep their fo-
vereign alive for the purpofe of exhibiting him,
like fome wild beaft at a fairj as if they had a
Bajazet in a cage. They choofe to make monar-
chy contemptible by expofmg it to derifion, in the
perfonof the moft benevolent of their kings.
In my opinion, their infolence appears more
odious even than their crimes. The horrors of
the fth and 6th of October were lefs deteftable
than die feftival of the I4th of July. There are
filiations
fituations (God forbid I fliould think that of the
5th and 6th of October one of them) in which the
beft men may be confounded with the worft, and
in the darknefs and confufion, in the prefs and
medley of fuch extremities, it may not be fb
eafy to difcriminate the one from the other.
The neceffities created, even by ill defigns, have
their excufe. They may be forgotten by others,
when the guilty themfelves do not choofe to
cherifh their recollection, and by ruminating
their offences, nourifh themfelves through the
example of their paft, to the perpetration of
future crimes. It is in the relaxation of fecurity,
it is in the expanfion of profperity, it is in the
hour of dilatation of the heart, and of its foften-
ing into feftivity and pleafure, that the real
character of men is difcerned. If there is any
good in them, it appears then or never. Even
wolves and tygers, when gorged with their prey,
are fafe and gentle. It is at fuch times that
noble minds give all the reins to their good-na-
ture. They indulge their genius even to intem-
perance, in kindnefs to the afflicted, in generofity
to the conquered j forbearing infults, forgiving
injuries, overpaying benefits. Full of dignity
themfelves, they refpect dignity in all, but they
feel it iacred in the unhappy. But it is then, and
balking
bafldng in the funfhine of unmerited fortune,
that low, fordid, ungenerous, and reptile fouls
fwell with their hoarded poifons; it is then that
they djfplay their odious fplendor, and fhine out
in the full luftre of their native villainy and bafe-
nefs. It is in that feafon that no man of fenfe or
honour can be miftaken for one of them. It
was in fuch a feafon, for them of political eafe
and fecurity, tho' their people were but juft
emerged from actual famine, and were ready to
be plunged into a gulph of penury and beggary,
that your philofophic lords chofe, with an.
oftentatious pomp and luxury, to feaft an in-i
credible number of idle and thoughtlefs people
collected with art and pains, from all quarters of
the world. They conftructed a vaft amphi-
theatre in which they raifed a fpecies of* pillory.
On this pillory they fet their lawful king and
queen, with an infulting figure over their heads.
There they expofed thefe objects of pity and re-
fpect to all good minds, to the derifion of an
unthinking and unprincipled multitude, dege-
perated even from the verfatile tendernefs which
marks the irregular and capricious feelings of the
populace. That their cruel infult might have
* The pillory (carcan) in England is generally made
yery high> like that raifed for expofing the King of France.
7 nothing
nothing wanting to complete it, they chofe the
anniverfary of that day in which the^ expofed
the life of their prince to the moft imminent
dangers, and the vileft indignities, juft following
the inftant when the affafilns, whom they had hired
without owning, firft openly took up arms againft
their king, corrupted his guards, furprized his
caftle, butchered fome of the poor invalids of
his garrifon, murdered his governor, and, like
wild beafts, tore to pieces the chief magiftrate
of his capital city, on account of his fidelity to
his fervice.
Till thejufticeof the world is awakened, fuch
as thefe will go on, without admonition, and
without provocation, to every extremity. Thofe
who have made the exhibition of .the i4th of
July, are capable of every evil. They do not
commit crimes for their defigns j but they form
defigns that they may commit crimes. It is not
their neceflity, but their nature, that impels them.
They are modern philofophers, which when you
fay of them, you exprefs every thing that is ig-
noble, favage, and hard-hearted.
Befides the fure tokens which are given
by the fpirit of their particular arrangements,
there are fome characteriftic lineaments in
the general policy of your tumultuous defpo-
tifm,
( 30 )
tifm, which, in my opinion, indicate beyond a
doubt that no revolution whatfoever in their dij-
fofition is to be expected. I mean their fcheine of
educating the rifing generation, the principles
which they intend to inftil, and the fympathies
which they wifh to form in the mind, at the
feafon in which it is the moft fufceptible. In-
ftead of forming their young minds to that do-
cility, to that modefly, which are the grace and
charm of youth, to an admiration of famous ex-
amples, and to an averfenefs to any thing which
approaches to pride, petulance, and felf-conceit,
(diftempers to which that time of life is of it-
felf fufficiently liable) they artificially foment
thefe evil difpofitions, and even form them into
fprings of action. Nothing ought to be more
weighed than the nature of books recommended
by public authority. So recommended, they
foon form the character of the age. Uncertain
indeed is the efficacy, limited indeed is the ex-
tent of a virtuous inflitution. But if education
takes in vice as any part of its fyftem, there is
no doubt but that it will operate with abundant
energy, and to an extent indefinite. The ma-
giftrate, who in favour of freedom thinks him-'
felf obliged to fuffer all forts of publications, is
under a ftricter duty than any other, well to
confider
confider what fort of writers he fhall authorize ;
and fhall recommend, by the ftrongeft of all
fanftions, that is, by public honours and rewards.
He ought to be cautious how he recommends
authors of mixed or ambiguous morality. He
ought to be fearful of putting into the hands of
youth ' writers indulgent to the peculiarities of
their own complexion, left they Ihould teach the
humours of the profeflbr, rather than the prin-
ciples of the fcience. He ought, above all, to
be cautious in recommending any writer who
has carried marks of a deranged underftanding ;
for where there is no found reafon, there can
be no real virtue ; and madnefs is ever vitious
and malignant.
The National Aflembly proceeds on maxims
the very reverfe of thefe. The A (Terribly, re-
commends to its youth a ftudy of the bold expe-
rimenters in morality. Every body knows that
there is .a great difpute amongft their leaders,
which of them is the beft refemblance to Rouf-
feau. In truth, they all refemble him. His blood
they transfufe into their minds and into their man-
ners. Him they ftudy ; him they meditate -, him
they turn over in all the time they can fpare from
the laborious mifchifef'of the day, or the de-
bauches of the night. Roufleau is their canon of
3
holy writ ; in his life he is their canon of Poly elf'
tus j he is their ftandard figure of perfection. To
this man and this writer, as a pattern to authors
and to Frenchmen, the founderies of Paris are
now running for ftatues, with the kettles of
their poor and the bells of their churches. If
an author had written like a great genius on
geometry, though his practical and fpeculative
morals were vitious in the extreme, it might ap-
pear that in voting the ftatue, they honoured
only the geometrician. But Roufieau is a mo-
ralift, or he is nothing. It is impoflible, there-
fore, putting the circumftances together, to mi
take their defign in chooling the author, with
whom they have begun to recommend a courfe
of ftudiesi.
Their great problem is to find a fubftitute
for all the principles which hitherto have been
employed to regulate the human will and action.
They find difpofitions in the mind, of fudi
force and quality, as may fit men, far better than
the old morality, for the purpofes of fuch a ftate
as theirs, and may go much further in fupport-
ing their power, and deftroying their enemies.
They have therefore chofen a felfiih, flattering,
feductive, oftentatious vice, in the place of plain
duty. True humility, the bafis of the Chriftian
fyftem,
( 33 )
fyftem, is the low, but deep and firm founda-
tion of all real virtue. But this, as very pain-
ful in the practice, and little impofing in the
appearance, they have totally difcarded. Their
object is to merge all natural and all focial fen-
timent in inordinate vanity. In a fmall degree,
and converfant in little things, vanity is of little
moment. When full grown, it is the worft of
vices, and the occafional mimick of them all.
It makes the whole man falfe. It leaves no-
thing fmcere or truft-worthy about him. His
bed qualities are poifoned and perverted by it,
and operate exactly as the worft. When your
lords had many writers as immopal as the ob-
ject of their ftatue (fuch as Voltaire and others)
they chofe Roufleau j becauie in him that pecu-
liar vice which they wifhed to erect into a ruling
virtue, was by far the moft confpicuous.
We have had the great profefTor and founder
of the philojophy of 'vanity in England. As I had
good opportunities of knowing his proceedings
almcft from day to day, he left no doubt in my
mind, that he entertained no principle either to
influence his heart, or to guide his underftand-
ing, but vanity. With this vice he was pofiefTed
to a degree little fhort of madnefs. It is from
the fame deranged eccentric vanity, that this, the
D yifane
( 34 )
infane Socrates of the National Afiembly, wa*
impelled to publifh a mad Confefiion of his mad
faults, and to attempt a new fort of glory, from
bringing hardily to light the obfcure and vulgar
vices which we know may fometimes be blended
with eminent talents. He has not obferved on
the nature of vanity, who does not know
that it is omnivorous -, that it has no choice in
its food ; that it is fond to talk even of its own
faults and vices, as what will excite furprize and
draw attention, and what will pafs at worft for
opennefs and candour. It was this abufe and per-
verfion, which vanity makes even of hypocrify,
which has driven Roufieau to record a life not
ib much as chequered, or fpotted here and there,
with virtues, or even diftinguifhed by a fingle
good a&ion. It is fuch a life he choofes to
offer to the attention of mankind. It is fuch a
life, that with a wild defiance, he flings in the
face of his Creator, whom he acknowledges
only to brave. Your Affembly, knowing how
much more powerful example is found than
precept, has chofen this man (by his own ac-
count without a fingle virtue) for a model. To
him they erecY their firft : flatue. From him
they commence their feries .of .honours and dif-
tinftions. . ... .
.It is that' new- in vented virtue which your
mailers
( 35 )
mafers canonize, that led their moral hero cori-
ftantly to exhauft the ftores of his powerful
rhetoric in the exprefllon of univerfal benevo-
lence j whilft his heart was incapable of har-
bouring one fpark of common parental affection.
Benevolence to the whole Ipecies, and want of
feeling for every individual with whom die
profeflbrs come in contact, form the character of
the new philofophy. Setting up for an unfocial
independence, this their hero of vanity refufes
the juft price of common labour, as well as the
tribute which opulence owes to genius, and
which, when paid, honours the giver and the
receiver ; and then he pleads his beggary as an
excufe for his crimes. He melts with tender-
nefs for thofe only who touch him by the re-
in oteft relation, and then* without one natural
pang, carts away, as a fort of offal and excre*
ment, the fpawn of his difguftful amours, and
fends his children to the hofpital of foundlings.
The bear loves, licks, and forms her young ; but
bears are not philofophers. Vanity, however,
finds its account in reverfing the train of our na-
tural feelings. Thoufands admire the fentimental
writer ; the affectionate father 1 is hardly known
in his parifli.
Under this philofophic inftructor in the ethics
Da of
of vanify, they have attempted in France a re-
generation of the moral conftitution of man.
Statefmen, like your prefent rulers, exift by
every thing which is fpurious, fictitious, and falfe ;
by every thing which takes the man from his
houfe, and fets him on a ftage, which makes him
up an artificial creature, with painted theatric
fentiments, fit to be feen by the glare of candle-
light, and formed to be contemplated at a due
diftance. Vanity is too apt to prevail in all of
us, and in all countries. To the improvement
of Frenchmen it feems not abfolutely neceffary
that it mould be taught upon fyftem. But it is
plain that the prefent rebellion was its legitimate
offspring, and it is pioufly fed by that rebellion,
with a daily dole.
If the fyftem of infbitution, recommended by
the Aflembly, is falfe and theatric, it is becaufe
their fyftem of government is of the fame cha-
racter. To that, and to that alone, it is ftrictly
conformable. To wnderftand either, we muft
connect the morals with the politics of the le-
giflators. Your practical philofophers, fyfte-
matic in every thing, have wifely began at the
fource. As the relation between parents and
children is the firft among the elements of vul-
gar,
( 37 )
gar, natural morality *, they erect ftatues to a
wild, ferocious, low-minded, hard-hearted father,
of fine general feelings ; a lover of his kind, but
a hater of his kindred. Your mafters reject the
duties of this vulgar relation, as contrary to li-
berty; as not founded in the focial compact -,
and not binding according to the rights of men ;
becaufe the relation is not, of courfe, the refuk
of free election ; never fo on the fide of the chil-
dren, not always on the part of the parents.
The next relation which they regenerate by
their ftatues to Rouffeau, is that which is next
in fanctity to that of a father. They differ
from thofe old-falhioned thinkers, who con-
fidered pedagogues as fober and venerable cha-
racters, and allied to the parental. The mora-
lifts of the dark times, preceptorem JanEti valuers
parent is ejje loco. In this age of light, they teach
the people, that preceptors ought to be in the
place of gallants. They fyftematically corrupt
a very corruptible race, (for feme time a growing
nuifance amongft you) a fet of pert, petulant,
* Filiola' tua te deledari laetor et probari tibi ropyw
Qvo-wt/ efle r TT^O? tot nx>a : etenim, fi hsec non eft, nulla
potelt homini effe ad hominem naturae acljundio : qua fub-
lata vita; focietas tolktur. Valcte Patron [Roufleau] ct
tui condifcipuli ! [L'Ailem'olee Nationale].
Cic. Ep. ad Atticum.
D 3 litcratorsj
( 38 )
Iterators, to whom, inftead of their proper, but fe-<
vere, unoftentatious duties, they afTign the brilliant
part of men of wit and pleafure, of gay, young,
military fparks, and danglers at toilets. They
call on the rifmg generation in France, to take
a fympathy in the adventures and fortunes, and
they endeavour to engage their fenfibility on
the fide of pedagogues, who betray the moft
awful family trufts, and vitiate their female pu-
pils. They teach the people, that the de-
bauchers of virgins, almoft in the arms of their
parents, may be fafe inmates in their houfe, and
even fit guardians of the honour of thofe huf-
bands who fucceed legally to the office which
the young literators had pre-occupied, without
afking leave of law or confcience.
Thus they difpofe of all the family relations
of parents and children, hufbands and wives.
Through this fame inftru<5r.or, by whom they
corrupt the morals, they corrupt the tafte.
Tafte and elegance, though they are reckoned
only among the fmaller and fecondary morals,
yet are of no mean importance in the regulation
of life. A moral tafte is not of force to turn
vice into virtue j but it recommends virtue with
ibmething like the blandifhments of pleafure j
and it infinitely abates the evils of vice.
x Rouffeauj
( 39 )
Roufleau, a writer of great force and vivacity,
is totally deftitute of tafte in any fenfe of the
word. Your mailers, who are his fcholars, con-
ceive that all refinement has an ariftocratic cha-
racier. The laft age had exhaufted all its pow-
ers in giving a grace and noblenefs to our na-
tural appetites, and in raifing them into higher
dafs and order than feemed juftly to belong to
them. Through Roufleau, your mailers are
refolved to deftroy thefe ariftocratic prejudices.
The paflion called love, has fo general and
powerful an influence j it makes fo much of the
entertainment, and indeed fo much the occupa-
tion of that part of life which decides the cha-
racter for ever, that the mode and the principles
on which it engages the fympathy, and ftrikes
the imagination, become of the utmoft import-
ance to the morals and manners of every fociety.
Your rulers were well aware of this; and in
their fyftem of changing your manners to ac-
commodate them to their politics, they found
nothing fo convenient as Roufleau. Through
him they teach men to love after the fafliion of
philofophers , that is, they teach to men, to
Frenchmen, a love without gallantry; a love
without any thing of that fine flower of youth-
fulnefs and gentility, which places it, if not
D 4 among
( 40 )
among the virtues, among the ornaments of
life. Inftead of this paflion, naturally allied to
grace and manners, they infufe into their youth
an unfafhioned, indelicate, four, gloomy, fero-
cious medley of pedantry and lewdnefs j of me*
tfcphyfical fpeculations, blended with the coarfeft
fenfuality. Such is the general morality of the
paflions to be found in their famous philofopher,
in his famous work of philofophic gallantry, the
Nouvelk Eloife.
When the fence from the gallantry of pre-
ceptors is broken down, and your families are
no longer protected by decent pride, and falutary
domeftic prejudice, there is but one ftep to a
frightful corruption. The rulers in the National
AiTembly are in good hopes that the females of
the firft families in France may become an eafy
prey to dancing-mafters, fidlers, pattern-draw-
ers, frifeurs, and valets de chambre, and other
active citizens of that defcription, who having
the entry into your houfes, and being half-do-
mefticated by their fituation, may be Wended
with you by regular and irregular relations.
By a law, they have made thefe people your
equals. By adopting the fentiments of Roufleau,
they have made them your rivals. In this man-
ner, thefe great legiflators complete their plan
of
( 41 >
of levelling, and eftablifh their rights of men
on a fure foundation.
I am certain that the writings of Rouffeau
lead directly to this kind of fhameful evil. I
have often wondered how he comes to be fb
much more admired and followed on the conti-
tinent than he is here. Perhaps a fecret charm
in the language may have its lhare in this extra-
ordinary difference. We certainly perceive,
and to a degree we feel, in this writer, a ftyle
glowing, animated, enthufiaftic ; at the fame
time that we find it lax, diffufe, and not in the
beft tafte of compofmon j all the members of
the piece being pretty equally laboured and ex-
panded, without any due felection or fubordi-
nation of parts. He is generally too much on
the ftretch, and his manner has little variety.
We cannot reft upon any of his works, though
they contain obfervations which occafionally dif-
cover a confiderable infight into human nature.
But his doctrines, on the whole, are fo inappli-
cable to real life and manners, that we never
dream of drawing from them any rule for laws
or conduct, or for fortifying or illuftrating any
thing by a reference to his opinions. They have
with us the fate of older paradoxes,
Cum ventiim ad <ven;m cR /ex/us morefque repugnant,
Atque ipfa ulilitas jufli prope mater et a;oui.
Perhaps
Perhaps bold fpeculations are more acceptable,
becaufe more new to you than to us, who have
been long fmce fatiated with them. We con-
tinue, as in the two laft ages, to read more gene-
rally, than I believe is now done on the continent,
the authors of found antiquity. Thefe occupy
our minds. They give us another tafte and
turn ; and will not fuffer us to be more than
tranfiently amufed with paradoxical morality.
It is not that I confider this writer as wholly
deftitute of juft notions. Amongft his irregula-
rities, it muft be reckoned, that he is fometimes
moral, and moral in a very fublime ftrain. But the
general Jpirit and tendency of his works is mifchie-
vous ; and the more mifchievous for this mix-
ture : For, perfect depravity of fentiment is not
reconcileable with eloquence; and the mind
(though corruptible, not complexionally vitious)
would reject and throw off with difguft, a leffbn
of pure and unmixed evil. Thefe writers make
even virtue a pander to vice.
However, I lefs confider the author, than the
fyftem of the Afiembly in perverting morality,
through his means. This I confefs makes me
nearly defpair of any attempt upon the minds
of their followers, through reafon, honour, or
confcience. The great object of your tyrants,
( 43 )
|s to deftroy the gentlemen of France j and for
that purpofe they deftroy, to the beft of their
power, all the effect of thofe relations which
may render confiderable men powerful or even
fafe. To deftroy that order, they vitiate the
whole community. That no means may exiil
of confederating againft their tyranny, by the
falfe fympathies of this Nouvelle Eloife, they
endeavour to fubvert thofe principles of do-
meftic truft and fidelity, which form the difci-
pline of focial life. They propagate principles
by whkh every fervant may think it, if not his
duty, at leaft his privilege, to betray his mafter.
By thefe principles, every confiderable father of
a family lofes the fanctuary of his houfe. Debet
Jua cuique domus ejje perfugium tu tijfimum, fays the
law, which your legiflators have taken fo much
pains firft to decry, then to repeal. They de-
ftroy all the tranquillity and fecurity of domeftic
life ; turning the afylum of the houfe into a
gloomy prilbn, where the father of the family
muft drag out a miferable exiftence, endangered
in proportion to the apparent means of his
fafety ; where he is worfe than folitary in a croud
ofdomeftics, and more apprehenfive from his
^ervants and inmates, than from the hired blood-
thirfty
( 44 )
thirfty mob without doors, who are ready to
pull him to the lantcrne.
It is thus, and for the fame end, that they
endeavour to deftroy that tribunal cf confcience
which exifts independently of edids and decrees.
Your defpots govern by terror. They know,
that he who fears God fears nothing elfe j and
therefore they eradicate from the mind, through
their Voltaire, their Helvetius, and the reft of
that infamous gang, that only fort of fear which
generates true courage. Their object: is, that
their fellow citizens may be under the dominion
of no awe, but that of their committee of re-
fearch, and of their lanterne.
Having found the advantage of afiafllnation
in the formation of their tyranny, it is the grand
refource in which they truft for the fupport of it.
Whoever oppofes any of their proceedings, or is
fufpected of a defign to oppofe them, is to anfwer
it with his life, or the lives of his wife and chil-
dren. This infamous, cruel, and cowardly practice
of afiaflination, they have the impudence to call
merciful. They boaft that they have operated their
ufurpation rather by terror than by force ; and
that a few feafonable murders have prevented
the bloodfhed of many battles. There is no
doubt
( 45 )
doubt they will extend thefe acts of mercy when-
ever they fee an occafion. Dreadful, however,
will be the confequences of their attempt to
avoid the evils of war, by the merciful policy
of murder. Ifj by effectual punifliment of
the guilty, they do not wholly difavow that
practice, and the threat of it too, as any part of
their policy j if ever a foreign prince enters into
France, he muft enter it as into a country of
afiafiins. The mode of civilized war will not
be practifed : nor are the French who act on the
prefent fyftem entitled to expect it. They,
whole known policy it is to afiaflinate every
citizen whom they fufpect to be difcontented by
their tyranny, and to corrupt the foldiery of every
open enemy, muft look for no modified hoftility.
All war, which is not battle, will be military
execution. This will beget acts of retaliation
from you ; and every retaliation will beget a
new revenge. The hell-hounds of war, on all
fides, will be uncoupled and unmuzzled. The
new fchool of murder and barbarifm, fet up in
Paris, having destroyed (fo far as in it lies) all
the other manners and principles which have
hitherto civilized Europe, will deftroy alfo the
mode of civilized war, wliich, more than any
thing elle, has diftinguifhed the Chriftian world.
Such
( 4 )
Such is the approaching golden age, which thtf
* Virgil of your Affembly has fung to his Pollios !
In fuch a fituation of your political, your
civil, and your focial morals and manners, how
can you be hurt by the freedom of any difcuf-
fion ? Caution is for thofe who have fomething
to lofe. What I have faid to juflify myfelf in
not apprehending any ill confequence from a
free difcuffion of the abfurd confequences which
flow from the relation of the lawful King to the
ufurped conftitution, will apply to my vindica-
tion with regard to the expofure I have made of
the ftate of the army under the fame fophiftic
ufurpation. The prefent tyrants want no argu-
ments to prove, what they muft daily feel, that
no good army can exift on their principles.
They are in no want of a monitor to fuggeft
to them the policy of getting rid of the army,
as well as of the King, whenever they are in a:
condition to effect that meafure. What hopes
may be entertained of your army for the reftora-
tion of your liberties, I know not. At prefent,
yielding obedience to the pretended orders of
a King, who, they are perfectly appnfed, has
no will, and who never can ifllie a mandate^
which is not intended, in the firft operation, or
* Mirabeau's fpeech concerning univerfal peace.
ia
( 47 )
in its certain confequences, for his own deftruc-
tion, your army feems to make one of the prin-
cipal links in the chain of that fervitude of anar-
chy, by which a cruel ufurpation holds an undone
people at once in bondage and confufion.
You afk me what I think of the conduct of
General Monk. How this affects your cafe, I
cannot tell. I doubt whether you poflefs, in
France, any perfons of a capacity to ferve the
French monarchy in the fame manner in which
Monk ferved the monarchy of England. The
army which Monk commanded had been form-
ed by Cromwell to a perfection of difcipline
which perhaps has never been exceeded. That
army was befides of an excellent compofition.
The foldiers were men of extraordinary piety
after their mode, of the greateft regularity,
and even feverity of manners; brave in the
field, but modeft, quiet and orderly, in their
quarters ; men who abhorred the idea of afiaf-
finating their officers or any other perfons ; and
who (they at leaft who ferved in this ifland)
were firmly attached to thofe generals, by
whom they were well treated and ably com-
manded. Such an army, once gained, might
be depended on. I doubt much, if you could
now
( 48 )
now find a Monk, whether a Monk could find,
in France, fuch an army.
I certainly agree with you, that in all proba-
bility we owe our whole conftitution to the
reftoration of the Englifh monarchy. The ftate
of things from which Monk relieved England,
was however by no means, at that time, fo de-
plorable in any fenfe, as yours is now, and un-
der the prefent fway is likely to continue.
Cromwell had delivered England from anarchy.
His government, though military and defpotic,
had been regular and orderly. Under the
iron, and under the yoke, the foil yielded
its produce. After his death, the evils of anar-
chy were rather dreaded than felt.' Every man
was yet fafe in his houfe and in his property.
But it muft be admitted, that Monk freed this
nation from great and juft apprehenfions both of
future anarchy and of probable tyranny in fome
form or other. The king whom he gave us
was indeed the very reverfe of your benignant fo-
vereign, who in reward for his attempt to beftow
liberty on his fubjects, languifhes himfelf in pri-
fon. The perfon given to us by Monk was a
man without any fenfe of his duty as a prince ;
without any regard to the dignity of his crown j
without
( 4? )
v/ithout any love to his people ; difiblute, falfe,
venal, and destitute of any pofitive good qua-
lity whacfoever, except a pleafant temper, and
the manners of a gentleman. Yet the reftora-
tion of our monarchy, even in the perfon of fuch
a prince, was every thing to us; for without
monarchy in England, moft/rertainly we never
can enjoy either peace or liberty. It was under
this conviction that the very firft regular ftep
which we took on the Revolution of 1688, was
to fill the throne with a real king ; and even
before it could be done in due form, the chiefs
of the nation did not attempt themfelves to exer-
cife authority fo much as by interim. They in?
ftantly requefted the Prince of Orange to take
the government on hirn/elf. The throne was
not effectively vacant for an hour.
Your fundamental laws, as well as ours,
pofe a monarchy. Your zeal, Sir, in Handing
fo firmly for it as you have done, fhews not only
a facrcd refpect for your honour and fidelity,
but a well-informed attachment to the real wel-
fare and true liberties of your country. I have
cxprefled myfelf ill, if I have given you caufe to
imagine, that I prefer the conduct of thofe who
have retired from this warfare to your beha-
viour, who, with a courage and conftancy almofl
E fupernatura^
fupernatural, have ftruggled againft tyranny, and
kept the field to the laft. You fee I have cor-
rected the exceptionable part in the edition
which I now fend you. Indeed in fuch terrible
extremities as yours, it is not eafy to fay, in a
political view, what line of conduct is the moft
advifeable. In that ftate of things, I cannot
bring myfelf feverely to condemn perfons who are
wholly unable to bear fo much as the fight of
thofe men in the throne of legiflation, who are
only fit to be the objects of criminal juftice. If
fatigue, if difguft, if unfurmountable naufea,
drive them away from fuch fpectacles, ubi mife-
riarum fars non mimima erat, videre et afpici, I
cannot blame them. He muft have an heart of
adamant who could hear a fet of traitors puffed
up with unexpected and undeferved power, ob-
tained by an ignoble, unmanly, and perfidious
rebellion, treating their honeft fellow citizens as
rebels, becaufe they refufed to bind themfelves
through their confcience, againft the dictates of
confcience itfelf, and had declined to fwear an
active compliance with tjieir own ruin. How
could a man of common flefh and blood endure,
that thofe, who but the other day had fkulked
"unobferved in their antichambers, fcornfully ia-
fulting men, illuftrious in their rank, facred in
their
their function, and venerable in their character,
now in decline of life, and fwimming on the
wrecks of their fortunes, that thofe mifcreants
fhould tell fuch men fcornfully and outrageoufly,
after they had robbed them of all their property,
that it is more than enough if they are allowed
what will keep them from abfolute famine, and
that for the reft, they muft let their grey hairs
fall over the plough, to make out a fcanty fub-
fiftence with the labour of their hands ! Laft,
and worft, who could endure to hear this un-
natural, infolent, and favage defpotifm called
liberty ? If, at this diftance, fitting quietly by
my fire, I cannot read their decrees and Ipeeches
without indignation, fhall I condemn thofe who
have fled from the actual fight and hearing of all
thefe horrors ? No, no ! mankind has no title to
demand that we fhould be (laves to their guilt
and infolence j or that we fhould ferve them
in fpite of themfelves. Minds, fore with the
poignant fenfe of infulted virtue, filled with high
difdain againft the pride of triumphant bafenefs,
often have it not in their choice to fland their
ground. Their complexion (which might defy
the rack) cannot go through fuch a trial.
Something very high muft fortify men to that
proof. But when I am driven to comparifon,
E 2 furely
furely I cannot hefitate for a moment to prefer
to fuch men as are common, thofe heroes, who
in the midft of defpair perform all the ta/ks of
hope i who fubdue their feelings to their duties ;
who, in the caufe of humanity, liberty, and ho-
nour, abandon all the fatisfactions of life, and
every day incur a frelh rifque of life itfelf. Do
me the juftice to believe that I never can pre-
fer any faftidious virtue (virtue ftill) to the un-
conquered perfeverance, to the affectionate pa-
tience ' of thofe who watch day and night, by
the bed-fide of their delirious country, who,
for their love to that dear and venerable name,
bear all the difgufts, and all the buffets they re-
ceive from their frantic mother. Sir, I do look
on you as true martyrs; I regard you as foldiers
who aft far more in the fpirit of our Comman-
der in chief, and the Captain of our falvation,
than thofe who have left you; though I muft
firft bolt myfelf Very thoroughly, and know
that I could do better, before I can cenfure
them. I afTure you, Sir, that, when I confider
your unconquerable fidelity to your fovereign,
and to your country, the courage, fortitude,
magnanimity, and long-fuffering of yourfelf,
and the Abbe Maury, and of Mr. Cazales, and
of many worthy perfons of all orders, in your
Aflembly,
( 53 )
AfTembly, I forget, in the luftre of thefe great
qualities, that on your fide has been dilplayed
an eloquence fo rational, manly, and convinc-
ing, that no time or country, perhaps, has ever
excelled. But your talents difappear in my ad-
miration of your virtues.
As to Mr. Mounier and Mr. Lally, I have al-
ways wifhed to do juftice to their parts, and their
eloquence, and the general purity of their motives.
Indeed I faw very well from the beginning, the
mifchiefs which, with all thefe talents and good
intentions, they would do to their country, through
their confidence in iyftems. But their diftem-
per was an epidemic malady. They were young
and inexperienced; and when will young and
inexperienced men learn caution and diftruft of
themfclves ? And when will men, young or old,
if fuddenly raifed to far higher power than that
which abfolute kings and emperors commonly
enjoy, learn any thing like moderation? Mo-
narchs in general refped fome fettled order of
things, which they find it difficult to move from
its bafis, and to which they are obliged to con-
form, even when there are no pofitive limita-
tions to their power, Thefe gentlemen con-
ceived that they were chofen to new model the
ftate, and even the whole order of civil fociety
E 3 itfeifc
( 54 )
itfelf. No wonder that they entertained dange-
rous vifions, when the King's minifters, truftees
for the facred depofit of the monarchy, were fo
infected with the contagion of project and fyf-
tem (I can hardly think it black premeditated
treachery) that they publicly adyertifed for plans
and fchemes of government, as if they were to
provide for the rebuilding of an hofpital that had
been burned down. What was this, but to un-
chain the fury of rafh fpeculation amongft a
people, of itfelf but too apt to be guided by a
heated imagination, and a wild fpirit of adven-
ture?
The fault of Mr. Mounter and Mr. Lally
was very great; but it was very general. If
thofe gentlemen flopped when they came to the
brink of the gulph of guilt and public mifery,
that yawned before them in the abyfs of thefe
dark and bottomlefs {peculations, I forgive their
firft error 3 in that they were involved with many.
Their repentance was their own.
They who confider Mounier and Lally as de-
ferters, muft regard themfelves as murderers and
as traitors : for from what elfe than murder and
treafon did they defert ? For my part, I honour
them for not having carried miftake into crime.
If, indeed, I thought that they were not cured
( SS )
by experience j that they were not made fenfible
that thofe who would reform a ftate, ought to
afiume fome adtual conftitution of government
which is to be reformed 3 if they are not at
length fatisfied that it is become a necefiary preli-
minary to liberty in France, to commence by the
re-eftablifhment of order and property of. every
kind, through the re-eftablifhment of their mo?
narchy, of every one of the old habitual diftinc-
tions and claries of the ftate; if they do not fee that
thefe clafles are not to be confounded in order to
be afterwards revived and feparated j if they are
not convinced that the fcheme of parochial and
club governments takes up the ftate at the
wrong end, and is a low and fenfelefs contri-
vance (as making the fole conftitution of a fu-
preme power) I fhould then allow, that their
early rafhnefs ought to be remembered to the
laft moment of their lives.
You gently reprehend me, becaufe in holding
out the picture of your difaftrous fituation, I
fuggeft no plan for a remedy. Alas ! Sir, the
propofition of plans, without an attention to cir-
cumftances, is the very caufe of all your mif-
fortunes ; and never (hall you find me aggrava-
ting, by the infufion qf any fpeculations of mine,
the evils which have arifen from the fpeculatiojis
4 of
of others. Your malady, in this refpect, is a
diforder of repletion. You feem to think, that
my keeping back my poor ideas, may arife from
an indifference to the welfare of a foreign, and
fome times an hoftile nation. No, Sir, I faith-
fully allure you, my referve is owing to no fuch
cau&s. Is this letter, fwelled to a lecond book,
a mark of national andpathy, or even of na-
tional indifference ? I fhouid aft altogether
in the fpirit cf the fame caution, in a fimilar
ftate of our own domeflic affairs. If I were to
yenture any advice, in any cafe, it would be my
beft. The facred duty of an advifer (one of
the mod inviolable that exifts) would lead me,
towards a real enemy, to act as if my beft friend
were the party concerned. But I dare not rifque
a {peculation with no better view of your affairs
than at prefent I can command ; my caution is
not from difregard, but from follicitude for your
welfare. It is fuggefted folely from my dread of
becoming the author of inconfiderate counfel.
It is not, that as this ftrange feries of actions
has palfed before my eyes, I have not induced
my mind in a great variety of political (pecula-
tions concerning them. But compelled by no
fuch pontive duty as does not permit me to
evade an opinion j called upon by no ruling
power,
( 57 )
power, without authority as I am, and without
confidence, I fhould ill anlwer my own ideas of
what would become myfclf, or what would be
ferviceable to others, if I were, as a volunteer,
to obtrude any project of mine upon a nation,
to whofe circumftances I could not be fure it
might be applicable.
Permit me to fay, that if I were as confident,
as I ought to be diffident in my own Icofe, ge-
neral ideas, I never fhould venture to broach
them, if but at twenty leagues diftance from the
centre of your affairs. I mull fee with my own
eyes, I muft, in a manner, touch with my own
han Js, not only the fixed, but the momentary
circumftances, before I could venture to iuggeft
any political project whatsoever. I muft know
the power and difpofition to accept, to execute,
to perfevere. I muft fce all the aidi, and all the
obftacles. I muft lee the means of correcting
the plan, where correctives would be wanted.
I muft fee the things j I muft fee the men.
Without a concurrence and adaptation of thefe to
the difign, the very beft fpeculative projects might
become not only ufelefs, but mifchievous. Plans
muft be made for men. We cannot think of
making men, and binding nature to our defigns.
People at a diftance muft judge ill of men.
They
( 5* )
They do not always anfwer to their reputation
when you approach them. Nay, the perfpec-
tive varies, and fliews them quite otherwife than
you thought them. At a diftance, if we judge
uncertainly of men, \ve muft judge worfe of
opportunities j which continually vary their fhapes
and colours, and pafs away like clouds. The
Eaftern politicians never do any thing without
the opinion of the aftrologers on the fortunate
moment. They are in the right, if they can do
no better; for the opinion of fortune is fome-
thing towards commanding it. Statefmen of a
more judicious prefcience, look for the fortunate
moment too ; but they feek it, not in the con-
junctions and oppofitions of planets, but in the
conjunctions and oppofitions of men and things.
Thefe form their almanack.
To iiluftrate the mifchief of a wife plan, with-
out any attention to means and circumftances, it
is not neceffary to go farther than to your recent
hiftory. In the condition in which France was
found three years ago, what better fyftem could
be propofed, what lefs, even favouring of wild
theory, what fitter to provide for all the exigen-
cies, whilft it reformed all the abufes of go-
vernment, than the convention of the States
General ? I think nothing better could be ima-
5 gined.
( 59 )
gined. But I have cenfured, and do ftill pre-
fume to cenfure your Parliament of Paris, for
not having fuggefted to the King, that this pro-
per meafure was of all meafures the moil cri-
tical and arduous ; one in which the utmoft cir-
cumfpeclion, and the greateil number of pre-
cautions, were the moft abfolutely neceffary.
The very confeflion that a government wants
either amendment in its conformation, or relief
to great diflrefs, caufes it to lofe half its reputa-
tion, and as great a proportion of its ftrength
as depends upon that reputation. It was there-
fore necefifary, firft to put government out of
danger, whilft at its own defire it fuffered fuch
an operation, as a general reform at the hands of
thofe who were much more filled with a fenfe of
the difeafe, than provided with rational means of
a cure.
It may be iid, that this care, and thefe pre-
cautions, were more naturally the duty of the
King's minifters, than that of the Parliament.
They were fo ; but every man muft anfwcr in his
eftimation for the advice he gives, when he puts
the conduct of his meafure into hands who he
does not know will execute his plans according
to his ideas. Three or four minifters were not
to be trufted with the being of the French mo-
narchy,
( 60 )
narchy, of all the orders, and of all the dif-
tinctions, and all the property of the kingdom.
What muft be the prudence of thole who could
think, in the then known temper of the people
of Paris, of afTembling the Hates at a place
fituated as Verfailles ?
The Parliament of Paris did worfe than to
infpire this blind confidence into the King. For,
as if names were things, they took no notice of
(indeed they rather countenanced) the deviations
which were manifeft in the execution, from the
true antient principles of the plan which they
recommended. Thefe deviations (as guardians
of the antient laws, ufages, and conflitution of
the kingdom) the Parliament of Paris ought
not to have fuffered, without the ftrongeft re-
monftrances to the throne. It ought to have
ibunded the alarm to the whole nation, as it had
often done on things of infinitely lefs importance.
Under pretence of refufcitating the antient con-
ftitution, the Parliament faw one of the tlrongeft
adls of innovation, and the molt leading in its
confequences, carried into effecl before their
eyes ; and an innovation through the medium of
defpotifm j that is, they fuffered the King's mi-
nifters to new model the whole reprefentation of
the ^icrs Etaf, and, in a great meafure, that of the
i clergy
( 61 )
clergy too, and to deftroy the antient propor-
tions of the orders. Thefe changes, unquef-
tionably the King had no right to make; and
here the Parliaments failed in their duty, and
along with their country, have perifhed by this
failure.
What a number of faults have led to this
multitude of misfortunes, and almofb all from
this one fource, that of confidering certain ge-
neral maxims, without attending to circurn-
ftances, to times, to places, to conjunctures,
and to actors ! If we do not attend fcrupuloufly
to all thefe, the medicine of to-day becomes the
poifon of to-morrow. If any meafure was in
the abftrat better than another, it was to call
the ftates ea vtfaja/us morientibus una. Cer-
tainly it had the appearance. But fee the confe-
quences of not attending to critical moments,
of not regarding the fymptoms which difcrirni-
nate difeaies, and which diftinguifli conftitutions,
complexions, and humours.
Mox fuerat hoc ipfum exit'io; furiifque refe&i,
Ai'debant ; ipfique fuos, jam morte fub zegra,
Difcifio, nudis Janiabant denttbus artus.
Thus the potion which was given to ftrengthen
the constitution, to heal divifions, and to com-
pofe
C 6* )
pofe the minds of men, became the (burce of
debility, phrenzy, difcord, and utter diffblu-
tion.
In this, perhaps, I have anfwered, I think, an-
other of your queftions Whether the Britifh
conftitution is adapted to your circumftances ?
When I praifed the Britifh conftitution, and
wilhed it to be well ftudied, I did not mean that
its exterior form and pofitive arrangement Ihould
become a model for you, or for any people fer-
vilely to copy. I meant to recommend the
principles from which it has grown, and the po-
licy on which it has been progreflively improved
out of elements common to you and to us. I
am fure it is no vifionary theory of mine. It is
not an advice that fubjefts you to the hazard of
any experiment. I believed the antient princi-
ples to be wife in all cafes of a large empire
that would be free. I thought you pofiefied
our principles in your old forms, in as great
a perfection as we did originally. If your
ftates agreed (as I think they did) with your
circumftances, they were beft for you. As you
had a conftitution formed upon principles fimilar
to ours, my idea was, that you might have im-
proved them as we have done, conforming
them to the ftate and exigencies of the times,
and
and the condition of property in your country,
having the confervation of that property, and
the fubftantial bafis of your monarchy, as prin-
cipal objects in all your reforms.
I do not advife an Houfe of Lords to you.
Your antient courfe by reprefentatives of the
Nobleffe (in your circumftances) appears to me
rather a better inftitution. I know, that with
you, a fet of men of rank have betrayed their
conftituents, their honour, their truft, their
King, and their country, and levelled them-
felves with their footmen, that through this de-
gradation they might afterwards put themfelves
above their natural equals. Some of thefe
perfons have entertained a project, that in re-
ward of this their black perfidy and corruption,
they may be cholen to give rife to a new order,
and to eftablifh themfelves into an Houfc of
Lords. Do you think that, under the name of
a Britifh conftitution, I mean to recommend to
you fuch Lords, made of fuch kind of (luff?
I do not however include in this defcription all
of thole who are fond of this fcheme.
If you were now to form fuch an Houfe of
Peers, it would bear, in my opinion, but little
refemblance to our's in its origin, character, or
the purpofes which it might anfwer, at the fame
time
time that it would deftroy your true natural no-
bility. But if you are not in a condition to
frame an Houfe of Lords, ftill kfs are you ca-
pable, in my opinion, of framing any thing
which virtually and fubflantially could be an-
fweiable (for the purpofes of a ftable, regular
government) to our Houfe of Commons. That
Houfe is, within itfclf, a much more fubtle and
artificial combination of parts and powers, than
people are generally aware of. What knits it to
the other members of the conftitution; what fits it
to be at once the great fupport, and the great con-
troul of government ; what makes it of fuch,
admirable fervice to that monarchy which, if it
limits, it fecures and ftrengthens, would require
a long difcourfe, belonging to the leifure of a
contemplative man, not to one whofe duty it is
to join in communicating practically to the people
the bleflings of fuch a conftitution.
Your Tiers Etat was not in effect and fub-
ftance an Houfe of Commons. You flood in abfo-
lute need of fomething elfe to fupply the manifeft
defects in fuch a body as your Tiers Etat. On a fober
and difpafiionate view of your old conftitution, as
connected with all the prefent circumftances, I
was fully perfuaded, that the crown, ftanding as
things have flood (and are likely to fland, if you
arc
are t have any monarchy at ail) was and is inca-
pable, alone and by itfel of holding a juft balance
bttween the two orders, and at the fame time of
effecting the interior and exterior purpofes of a
protecting government. I, whofe leading prin-
ciple it is, in a reformation of the ftate, to make ufe
of exifting materials, am of opinion, that the re-
prefentation of the clergy, as a feparate order,
was an inftitution which touched all the orders
more nearly than any of them touched the other ;
that it was well fitted to connect them ; and to
hold a place in any wife monarchical common-
wealth. If I refer you to your original confti-
tution, and think it, as I do, fubftantially a good
one, I do not amufe you in this, more than in
other things, with any inventions of mine. A
certain intemperance of intellect is the difeafe
of the time, and the fource of all its other di.
cafes. I will keep myfelf as untainted by it as
I can. Your architects build without a foun-
dation. I would readily lend an helping hand to
any fuperftructure, when once this is effectually
fecured but firft I would fay <?o? ** g-u.
You think, Sir, and you may think rightly, upon
the firft view of the theory, that to provide for the
exigencies of an empire, fo fituated and fo related
as that of France, its King ought to be inverted
F with
( 66 )
with powers very much fuperior to thofe which
the King of England poflefies under the letter of
our conftitution. Every degree of power ne-
ceflary to the ftate, and not deftructive to the
rational and moral freedom of individuals, to
that perfonal liberty, and perfonal fecurity,
which contribute fo much to the vigour, the
profperity, the happinefs, and the dignity of a
nation every degree of power which does not
fuppofe the total abfence of all control, and all
refponfibility on the part of minifters, a King of
France, in common fenfe, ought to poflels. But
whether the exact meafure of authority, afligned
by the letter of the law to the King of Great
Britain, can anfwer to the exterior or interior
purpofes of the French monarchy, is a point
which I cannot venture to judge upon. Here,
both in the power given, and its limitations, we
have always cautioufly felt our way. The parts
of our conftitution have gradually, and almoft
infenfibly, in a long courfe of time, accommodated
themfelves to each other, and to their common,
as well as to their feparate purpofes. But this
adaptation of contending parts, as it has not been
in our's, fo it can never be in your's, or in any
country, the effecl: of a fingle inftantaneous re-
gulation, and no found heads could ever think of
doing it in that manner.
I believe,
( 67 )
I believe, Sir, that many on the continent al-
together miftake the condition of a King of Great
Britain. He is a real King, and not an execu-
tive officer. If he will not trouble himfelf with
contemptible details, nor wifh to degrade him-
felf by becoming a party in little fquabbles, I
am far from fure, that a King of Great Britain^
in whatever concerns him as a King, or indeed
as a rational man, who combines his public in-
tereft with his perfonal fatisfaction, does not poiTefs
a more real, folid, extenfive power, than the
King of France Was poffeffed of before this
miferable Revolution. The direct power of the
King of England is confiderable. His indirect,
and far more certain power, is great indeed.
He ftands in need of nothing towards dignity j
of nothing towards fplendour ; of nothing to-
wards authority ; of nothing at all towards con-
fideration abroad. When was it that a King
of England wanted wherewithal to make him
refpected, courted, or perhaps even feared in
every ftate in Europe ?
I am conftantly of opinion, that your ftates,
in three orders, on the footing on which they
flood in 1614, were capable of being brought
into a proper and harmonious combination with
royal authority. This dotiftitution by eftates,
F 1 was
( 68 )
was the natural, and only juft reprefentation of
France. It grew out of the habitual condi-
tions, relations, and reciprocal claims of men,
It grew out of the circumftances of the country,
and out of the flate of property. The wretched
fcheme of your prefent mailers, is not to
fit the conflitution to the people, but wholly to
deftroy conditions, to difiblve relations, to change
the flate of the nation, and to fubvert property,
in order to fit their country to their theory of
a conftitution.
Until you could make out? practically that
great work, a combination of oppofing forces,
" a work of labour long, and endlefs praife," the
utmoft caution ought to have been ufed in the
reduction of the royal power, which alone was
capable of holding together the comparatively
heterogeneous mafs of your ftates. But at this
day, all thefe confiderations are unfeafonable.
To what end Ihould we difcufs the limitations of
royal power ? Your king is in priibn. Why
{peculate on the meafure and flandard of liber-
ty ? I doubt much, very much indeed, whether
France is at all ripe for liberty on any flandardi
Men are qualified for civil liberty, in exact pro-
portion to their difpofition to put moral chains
upon their own appetites 3 in proportion as their
love
< 6? )
love to juflice is above their rapacity ; in pro-
portion as their foundnefs and fobriety of under-
ftanding is above their vanity and prefumption ;
in proportion as they are more difpofed to liften
to the counfels of the wife and good, in pre-
ference to the flattery of knaves. Society can-
not exift unlefs a controlling power upon wifl
and appetite be placed fomewhere, and the lefs
of it there is within, the more there muft be
without. It is ordained in the eternal con-
ilitution of things, that men of intemperate
minds cannot be free. Their paflions forge
their fetters.
This fentence the prevalent part of your
countrymen execute on themfelves. They pof-
fefled, not long fince, what was next to free-
dom, a mild paternal monarchy. They defpifed
it for its weaknefs. They were offered a well-
poifed free conftitution. It did not fuit their
talte or their temper. They carved for them-
felves j they flew out, murdered, robbed, and
rebelled. They have fucceeded, and put over
their country an infolent tyranny, made up of
cruel and inexorable mafters, and that too of a
defcription hitherto not known in the world.
The powers and policies by which they have
fucceeded, are not thofe of great ftatefmcn, or
F 3 great
great military commanders, but the practices of
incendiaries, affafiins, houfebreakers, robbers,
fpreaders of falfe news, forgers of falfe orders
from authority, and other delinquencies, of which
ordinary juftice takes cognizance. Accordingly
the fpirit of their rule is exactly correfpondent
to the means by which they obtained k. They
act more in the manner of thieves who have
got pofleflion of an houfe, than of conquerors
who have fubdued a nation.
Oppofed to thefe, in appearance, but in ap-
pearance only, is another band, who call them-
felves the moderate. Thefe, if I conceive rightly
of their conduct, are a fet of men who approve
heartily of the whole new conftitution, but wifh
to lay heavy on the mod atrocious of thofe
crimes, by which this fine conftitution of their's
has been obtained. They are a fort of people
who affect to proceed as if they thought that
men may deceive without fraud, rob without in-
juftice, and overturn every thing without vio-
lence. They are men who would ufurp the
government of their country with decency and
moderation. In fact they are nothing more or
better, than men engaged in defperate defigns,
with feeble minds. They are not honeft ; they
are only ineffectual and unfyftematic in their
9 iniquity.
( 7> )
iniquity. They are perfons who want not the
difpofitions, but the energy and vigour, that is
necefiary for great evil machinations. They
find that in fuch defigns they fall at beft into a
lecondary rank, and others take the place and
lead in ufurpation, which they are not qualified
to obtain or to hold. They envy to their com-
panions, the natural fruit of their crimes j they
join to run them down with the hue and cry of
mankind, which purfues their common offences;
and then hope to mount into their places on the
credit of the fobriety with which they fhew
themfelves difpofed to carry on what may feem
moft plaufible in the mifchievous projects they
purfue in common. But thele men naturally are
defpifed by thofe who have heads to know, and
hearts that are able to go through the neceflary
demands of bold, wicked enterprizes. They are
naturally claiTed below the latter defcription, and
will only be ufed by them as inferior inftruments.
They will be only the Fairfaxes of your Crom-
wells. If they mean honeftly, why do they not
ftrengthen the arms of honeft men, to fupport
tjieir antient, legal, wife, and free government,
given to them in the fpring of 1788, againft
rhe inventions of craft, and the theories of igno-
rance and folly ? If they do not, they muft con-
tinue
( 7* )
tintie the fcorn of both parties ; fometimes the
tool, fometimes the incumbrance of that, whofe
views they approve, whofe conduft they de-
cry. Thefe people are only made to be the
fport of tyrants. They never can obtain, or
communicate freedom.
You afk me too, whether we have a com-
mittee of refearch. No, Sir, God forbid! It is
the necefiary inftrument of tyranny and ufurpa-
tion i and therefore I do not wonder that it has
had an early eftablifhment under your prefent
Lords. We do not want it.
Excufe my length. I have been fomewhat
occupied, fmce I was honoured with your letter ;
and I fhould not have been able to anfwer it at
all, but for the holidays, which have given me
means of enjoying the leifure of the country.
I am called to duties which I am neither able
nor willing to evade. I muft loon return to
my old conflict with the corruptions and op-
preflions which have prevailed in our eaftern
dominions. I muft turn myfelf wholly from
thofe of France.
In England, we cannot work fo hard as French-
men. Frequent relaxation is neceffary to us.
You are naturally more intenfe in your applica-
tion. I did not know this part of your national
character,
( 73 )
character, until I went into France in 1773.
At prefent, this your difpofition to labour is
rather encreafed than leflened. In your ArTem-
bly you do not allow yourfelves a recefs even on
Sundays. We have two days in the week, be-
fides the feftivals; and befides five or fix months
of the fummer and autumn. This continued
unremitted effort of the members of your Af-
fembly, I take to be one among the caufes of
the mifchief they have done. They who always
labour, can have no true judgment. You never
give yourfelves time to cool. You can never
farvey, from its proper point of fight, the work
you have finifhed, before you decree its final
execution. You can never plan the future by
the paft. You never go into the country,
foberly and dilpafllonately to obferve the effect
of your meafures on their objedh. You can-
not feel diftinftly how far the people are rendered
better and improved, or more miferable and de-
praved, by what you have done. You can-
not fee with your own eyes the fufferings and
afflictions you caufe. You know them but at a
diftance, on the ftatements of thofe who always
flatter the reigning power, and who, amidft their
reprefentations of the grievances, inflame your
minds
( 74 )
minds againft thofe who are opprefied. Thefe are
amongft the effefts of unremitted labour, when
men exhauft their attention, burn out their can-
dles, and are left in the dark. Malo meorum
iiegtigentiam y quam iftorum obfcuram diligentiam.
Beaconsficld,
January 19th 1791.
I have the honor, &C.
(Signed) EDMUND BURKE.
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