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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