THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 Ex Libris 
 ISAAC FOOT
 
 Ube (Tamelot Setfes. 
 
 EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS. 
 
 POLITICAL ORATIONS.
 
 POLITICAL ORATIONS, FROM 
 WENTWORTH TO MACAULAY: 
 EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 
 BY WILLIAM CLARKE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE. 
 
 NEW YORK AND TORONTO : 
 W. J. GAGE & CO.
 
 J/V/77 
 C. + 3
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PETER WENTWORTH i 
 
 Speech in behalf of the Liberties of Parliament. House of 
 Commons, February 8, 1576. 
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL . ... . . . 14 
 
 Speech on the Dissolution of the First Protectorate Parlia- 
 ment, January 22, 1655. 
 
 LORD CHATHAM 40 
 
 Speech on the Government Policy in America. House of 
 Lords, January 20, 1775. 
 
 EDMUND BURKE 50 
 
 Speech on Moving Resolutions for Conciliation with the 
 American Colonies, March 22, 1775. 
 
 HENRY GRATTAN .... .120 
 
 Declaration of Irish Rights. Irish House of Commons, 
 April 19, 1780. 
 
 WILLIAM PITT . . ... .138 
 
 Speech on the Slave Trade. House of Commons, April 2, 
 1792.
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE 166 
 
 Speech in behalf of Thomas Paine. Court of Kings 
 Bench, December 18, 1792, 
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX 232 
 
 Speech in the Debate in Parliament on the French Overtures 
 for Peace, February 3, 1 800. 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL , . . ..281 
 
 Speech at a Meeting to Recover Catholic Rights. Dublin, 
 February 23, 1814. 
 
 LORD MACAULAY 295 
 
 Speech on Parliamentary Reform, House of Commons, 
 March 2, 1831.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE oratory of a nation is, like its art and literature, a 
 product of the national life. Every nation has its 
 own kind of oratory and its own standard of oratorical 
 excellence ; and it is perhaps as difficult adequately to 
 appreciate the oratory of another land as its prose or verse. 
 The oratory of the so-called Latin nations, e.g., appears to 
 most Englishmen to be too florid and ornate, sometimes even 
 too grandiloquent ; while English speeches seem to the 
 people of these other countries too tame and sober. The 
 noble and impressive passage in Castelar's oration on religious 
 liberty, delivered in the Spanish Cortes in 1876, in which 
 the orator, though a liberal thinker, pays his homage to the 
 art, piety, and idealism of the Catholic Church, could never 
 have been delivered in the British House of Commons, 
 whose hard common-sense would have smiled at its glowing 
 enthusiasm, and would have been half-ashamed to confess 
 the admiration which doubtless most of the members would 
 have felt. Even Mr. Bright's oratory, which has always been 
 of a sober and Quaker-like hue, and which has always been 
 severely under restraint, once called forth from Palmerston 
 an unworthy sneer at the "honourable and reverend gentle- 
 man " a tribute to the speaker's emotional power, but also 
 an admission of the rarity of that element in the House. And 
 it is, on the other hand, doubtful whether some of our chief
 
 x 1NTR OD UCTION. 
 
 speakers would have made any great impression on a French 
 or Spanish audience. Burke himself was termed the " dinner- 
 bell" of the House of Commons ; and although his speeches 
 glow with an elevated idealism more common in other 
 countries than in our own, it is not likely that he would 
 have been a great favourite with a foreign audience. While 
 in the oratory of the Latin nations there is far more 
 conscious art than in English speeches, while there is far 
 more brilliant epigram, and generally a greater imaginative 
 power, English oratory may perhaps be held to excel in its 
 firm and vigorous substance and in its deeper moral tone. 
 There is a wholeness of good tissue in the best English 
 speeches, combined with an impressive dignity of tone which 
 cannot be matched, much less surpassed. An English 
 audience insists, and always has insisted, that a speech shall 
 be in great measure of a practical character, presenting 
 arguments easily intelligible to its understanding, free from 
 superfluous rhetoric, and infused with moral feeling. These 
 three elements practical wisdom, simplicity, and morality 
 form the dominant note of English oratory. 
 
 English speaking has the defects of its qualities. Dreading 
 the ornate, it is in danger of baldness and clumsiness. It 
 is liable to be too practical, losing itself in detail and lacking 
 those icUes nitres which sustain elevation of thought and, 
 indirectly, that of style also. And sometimes by means of 
 an overdose of moral sentiment a certain quasi-Pecksniffian 
 tone suggests itself. English speakers, in dread of being 
 too imaginative, fall into platitude and dull business-like 
 routine ; and, afraid of being thought to disregard the 
 national moral sentiment, some of them become unctuous. 
 
 Carlyle expressed his satisfaction that Englishmen could 
 not speak well Oratory, he thought, was incompatible with
 
 INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 vigorous, practical action. Not to be able to do well a 
 thing that is worth doing at all, is not, however, a lack 
 of achievement to be proud of. And Carlyle himself, 
 sombrely delighted with the titanic eloquence of Danton, 
 tacitly confesses the power which great oratory has over 
 men. And it is surely incorrect to say that eloquence 
 never goes with practical power. Mirabeau and Danton 
 were pre-eminently the two practical men of the French 
 Revolution, and both were orators. Chatham, whose practical 
 genius established the English empire alike in the New 
 World and the Old, was himself an orator of almost unrivalled 
 power. If ever a practical statesman existed, it was 
 President Lincoln ; yet his brief speech on the field of 
 Gettysburg deserves to live as long as the memory of that 
 great battle survives. If any one had been asked in 1877 
 who was the first living French orator, he would have 
 replied, " Gambetta " ; and yet it ..- was also Gambetta's 
 practical sagacity which led the French Republic safely 
 through the crisis of that year. 
 
 Surely oratory, the art of persuasion through a human 
 voice, is a noble gift to be held in admiration, and one 
 which will never wholly die so long as there are men to 
 be persuaded. It is capable of great abuse, but not more 
 so than any other art ; and the very marked deficiency of 
 Englishmen (for the most part) in such an art is rather to 
 be deplored than praised. There would appear to be two 
 conditions in the absence of which oratory, other than 
 mere ornamental rhetoric, is impossible. There must be 
 first, the stir of popular life associated with free institu- 
 tions ; and there must be, second, some kind of moral 
 question at issue. Pure democracy is not necessary to 
 oratory. Indeed, the great period of English oratory is
 
 xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 almost synchronous with the very undemocratic reign of 
 George III.; while in the United States oratory attained its 
 climax during the Revolution and during the thirties and 
 forties, in our more democratic days it has greatly de- 
 clined in that country. The Athenian Republic, in which 
 ancient oratory attained its high-water mark, was not a 
 democracy at all in the modern sense of the word. The 
 great French oratory of the past has almost died out of the 
 French life of to-day, although France was never so democratic 
 as now. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that pure democracy 
 is inimical to oratory. The truth is, that our second requisite 
 is absent from the political life of to-day. That life is 
 largely divorced from elevated moral feeling; and con- 
 sequently the speaker can make no appeal to a lofty 
 standard of thought infused with emotion which will be 
 recognised by his audience. "Things are in the saddle 
 and ride mankind." It is the era of commercialism, and 
 capitalist interests dominate every legislative assembly in 
 the world. The popular speaker of our time, therefore, is 
 generally the man who can make a clear, business-like 
 statement which will express the conviction of practical men, 
 with whom the State is a mere piece of business machinery 
 existing mainly for the protection of property. No personal 
 gifts will make an orator of any man in whose mind this is 
 the prevailing thought. Cromwell had a harsh voice and a 
 halting diction ; yet his broken phrases will live longer than 
 the rounded periods of any modern Parliamentary talker. 
 For the one had some kind of genuine conviction and (to 
 him) lofty purpose, whereas the other has not 
 
 Closely allied with commercialism is the system of party- 
 government ; both indeed having grown from the same root
 
 INTRODUCTION. xiii 
 
 The thorough party-man is usually both incapable of exalted 
 oratory and impervious to its influence. Ferguson, a Scotch 
 member of Parliament who supported Pitt, is a good, though 
 perhaps exaggerated, type of this person. He said, according 
 to Crabb Robinson " I was never present at any debate I 
 could avoid, or absent from any division I could get at I 
 have heard many arguments which convinced my judgment, 
 but never one that influenced my vote. I never voted but 
 once according to my opinion, and that was the worst vote 
 I ever gave. I found that the only way to be quiet in 
 Parliament was always to vote with the Ministers, and never 
 to take a place." So long as parties are divided on some 
 real issue of vital importance to the people, as, e.g., in the 
 contest between Pitt and Fox, great oratory will be a power ; 
 but as soon as the issues on which the parties were originally 
 formed die out, mere management and wire-pulling take the 
 place of great appeals to reason and conscience, as in the 
 case of the American parties of to-day. This is coming to 
 be the condition more or less of all countries under the 
 representative system with its party machinery. A well- 
 drilled party with no ideas behind it can dispense with 
 oratory, which indeed it neither appreciates nor understands. 
 It depends on adroit management, and threatens the dis- 
 obedient follower with party ostracism. 
 
 It can scarcely be denied that all legislative bodies are falling 
 into this state, and we must not therefore expect great Parlia- 
 mentary oratory during this reign of opportunism. But we 
 need not therefore despair of the future of oratory, even 
 although the highly-finished products of the past may never be 
 reproduced. The speaking likely to move men now, and in the 
 immediate future, will be, not Parliamentary speaking, but the 
 perhaps ruder oratory of the great mass-meeting. And the
 
 xiv INTROD UCTION. 
 
 inspiring theme of such oratory will be the popular desire for a 
 better and more equitable social system than now prevails, and 
 the growing conviction that such a better society can be 
 attained by associated human effort. Every oratorical period 
 has had its motive power, its supreme passion. That of the 
 Commonwealth period was religious freedom and the estab- 
 lishment of moral worth as the governing power in the State. 
 Chatham's oratory was inspired by a certain high patriotism 
 which regarded England, from an ideal point of view, as 
 the nursing mother of popular liberty. The passionate 
 eloquence of Fox was animated by the thought of France 
 and of Europe freed from the yoke of a feudal bondage that 
 had become intolerable, and by the desire to rescue English 
 liberty from the grip of privilege and sectarian rule. Grattan 
 and O'Connell devoted their great gifts to the service of 
 their suffering country. Macaulay's eloquent periods were 
 full of the consciousness ef a liberty won the liberty of an 
 ordered civic life. And as each of the ideals which have 
 inspired great speakers have been realised, so the as yet 
 unrealised ideal which haunts the imagination of man will 
 breathe a new spirit into our modern humanity, and will 
 produce new orators as truly as it will give life and energy 
 to new poets, artists, and thinkers. 
 
 The present volume is confined entirely to political oratory. 
 While it is true that religion and literature have each called 
 forth noble utterances from great English speakers, it is 
 manifest that a volume such as this must have its limitations, 
 and it seems desirable that those themes which have 
 undoubtedly called forth the most powerful and enduring 
 specimens of our oratory should be presented. Each speech 
 deals with a great question, and is selected from a great and 
 interesting period of our political history, from the age of the
 
 INTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 Tudors to our own time. A period of three hundred years is 
 thus covered. The Tudor period marks the beginning of 
 genuine Parliamentary authority, and the conflict between 
 Parliament and King. Wentworth is selected as the leading 
 figure of this period, and, happily, his celebrated speech is on 
 record as delivered. Much of our English oratory is hopelessly 
 lost. The great speech of Sheridan, e.g. t when the case of 
 Warren Hastings was submitted to Parliament a speech 
 which produced a greater effect than any other ever spoken 
 in the House of Commons is practically lost. Nor have we 
 any proper or adequate record of the speeches of the popular 
 leaders in the Long Parliament For this reason every attempt 
 to give any fully just representation of the whole of our Parlia- 
 mentary and public oratory must be imperfect. It is enough 
 to give the best and most interesting specimens gathered from 
 three centuries of recorded time. This, it is believed, has been 
 done in the present volume, in which most of the principal 
 public questions which have agitated this country during this 
 long period are discussed by some of the most powerful orators 
 who have ever spoken the English language. 
 
 WILLIAM CLARKE.
 
 POLITICAL ORATIONS.
 
 POLITICAL ORATIONS. 
 
 PETER WENTWORTH. 
 
 Speech in behalf of the Liberties of Parliament. House of 
 Commons^ February 8, 1 576. 
 
 [THIS speech is the first and most important sign of the growing power 
 of Parliament under the Tudor sovereigns. Wentworth was a pro- 
 minent Puritan member, very determined and courageous, and in this 
 speech he boldly attacks the Crown for encroachments on the privileges 
 of the House of Commons. The House itself was frightened at the 
 tone of its member, and sequestered him, appointing a committee of the 
 privy councillors of the House to examine him. Wentworth declined 
 their authority till assured that they sat as members not as councillors. 
 After a long examination, in which he compelled them to admit the 
 truth of all he had urged, they reported to the House, who committed 
 Wentworth to the Tower. Here he was confined for a month, when 
 the Queen remitted her displeasure, the House released him, and he 
 acknowledged his fault on his knees before the Speaker. Wentworth 
 is an interesting figure as the pioneer of Pym, Eliot, and Hampden.] 
 
 V 
 MR. SPEAKER, I find in a little volume these words, in effect : 
 
 " Sweet is the name of Liberty, but the thing itself a value 
 beyond all inestimable treasure." So much the more it 
 behoveth us lest we, contenting ourselves with the sweetness of 
 the name, lose and forego the thing, being of the greatest value 
 that can come unto this noble realm. The inestimable treasure is 
 the use of it in this House. And, therefore, I do think it needful 
 to put you in remembrance that this honourable assembly are 
 assembled and come together here in this place for three 
 special causes of most weighty and great importance. The 
 first and principal is to make and abrogate such laws as may be 
 most for the preservation of our noble sovereign ; the second 
 
 613
 
 2 PETER WENTWORTH. 
 
 . . . ; the third is to make or abrogate such laws as may be 
 the chiefest surety, safe-keeping, and enrichment of this noble 
 realm of England. So that I do think that the part of the 
 faithful-hearted subject is to do his endeavour to remove all 
 stumbling-blocks out of the way that may impair or any 
 manner of way hinder these good and godly causes of this our 
 coming together. I was never of Parliament but the last, and 
 the last session, at both of which times I saw the liberty of 
 free speech, the which is the only salve to heal all the sores of 
 this Commonwealth, so much and so many ways infringed, 
 and so many abuses offered to this honourable council, as hath 
 much grieved me, even of very conscience and love to my 
 prince and State. Wherefore, to avoid the like, I do deem it 
 expedient to open the commodities that grow to the prince 
 and the whole State by free speech used in this place ; at 
 least, so much as my simple wit can gather it, the which is very 
 little in respect of that that wise heads can say therein, and 
 so it is of more force. First, all matters that concern God's 
 honour, through free speech, shall be propagated here and set 
 forward, and all things that do hinder it removed, repulsed, and 
 taken away. Next, there is nothing commodious, profitable, 01 
 any way beneficial for the prince or State but faithful and loving 
 subjects will offer it to this place. Thirdly, all things discom- 
 modious, perilous, or hurtful to the prince or State shall be pre- 
 vented, even so much as seemeth good to our merciful God 
 to put into our minds, the which no doubt shall be sufficient 
 if we do earnestly call upon Him and fear Him (for Solomon 
 saith, " The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom 
 breatheth life into her children, receiveth them that seek her, 
 and will go beside them in the way of righteousness "), so that 
 our minds shall be directed to all good, needful, and neces- 
 sary things, if we call upon God with faithful hearts. 
 Fourthly, if the envious do offer anything hurtful or perilous, 
 what inconvenience doth grow thereby ? Verily, I think 
 none ; nay, will you have me to say my simple opinion 
 thereof much good cometh thereof. How, forsooth ? Why, 
 by the darkness of the night the brightness of the sun
 
 PETER WENTWORTH. 3 
 
 showeth more excellent and clear ; and how can truth appear 
 and conquer until falsehood and all subtleties that should 
 shadow and darken it are found out? For it is offered in 
 this place as a piece of fine needlework to them that are 
 most skilful therein, for there cannot be a false stitch (God 
 aiding us) but will be found out Fifthly, this good cometh 
 thereof a wicked purpose may the easier be prevented when 
 it is known. Sixthly, an evil man can do the less harm 
 when it is known. Seventhly, sometime it happeneth that a 
 good man will in this place (for argument sake) prefer an 
 evil cause, both for that he would have a doubtful truth to 
 be opened and manifested, and also the evil prevented. So 
 that to this point I conclude, that in this House, which is 
 termed a place of free speech, there is nothing so necessary 
 for the preservation of the prince and State as free speech ; 
 and without this it is a scorn and mockery to call it a 
 Parliament House, for in truth it is none but a very school 
 of flattery and dissimulation, and so a fit place to serve the 
 devil and his angels in, and not to glorify God and benefit 
 the Commonwealth. 
 
 Now to the impediments thereof, which, by God's grace 
 and my little experience, I will utter plainly and faithfully. 
 I will use the words of Elcha " Behold, I am as the new 
 wine which has no vent, and bursteth the new vessels in 
 sunder ; therefore, I will speak that I may have a vent. I 
 will open my lips and make answer. I will regard no manner 
 of person, no man will I spare ; for if I go about to please 
 men, I know not how soon my Maker will take me away." 
 My text is vehement, which, by God's sufferance, I mean to 
 observe, hoping therewith to offend none ; for that of very 
 justice none ought to be offended for seeking to do good 
 and saying of the truth. 
 
 Amongst other, Mr. Speaker, two things do great hurt in 
 this place, of which I do mean to speak. The one is a 
 rumour which runneth about the House, and this it is 
 "Take heed what you do; the Queen liketh not such 
 matter; whoever preferreth it, she will be offended with
 
 4 PETER WENTWORTH. 
 
 him." Or the contrary " Her Majesty liketh of such matter; 
 whoever speaketh against it, she will be much offended with 
 him." The other sometimes a message is brought into the 
 House, either of commanding or inhibiting, very injurious to 
 the freedom of speech and consultation. I would to God, 
 Mr. Speaker, that these two were burned in hell I mean 
 rumours and messages, for wicked they undoubtedly are. 
 The reason is, the devil was the first author of them, from 
 whom proceedeth nothing but wickedness. Now I will set 
 down reasons to prove them wicked. For if we be in 
 hand with anything for the advancement of God's glory, 
 were it not wicked to say the Queen liketh not of it, or 
 commandeth that we shall not deal in it? Greatly were 
 these speeches to her Majesty's dishonour ; and an hard 
 opinion were it, Mr. Speaker, that these things should enter 
 into her Majesty's thought. Much more wicked were it that 
 her Majesty should like or command anything against God 
 or hurtful to herself and the State. The Lord grant that 
 this thing may be far from her Majesty's heart ! Here 
 this may be objected that, if the Queen's Majesty have 
 intelligence of anything perilous or beneficial to her 
 Majesty's person or the State, would you not have her 
 Majesty give knowledge thereof to the House, whereby her 
 peril may be prevented and her benefit provided for ? God 
 forbid ! Then were her Majesty in worse case than any of her 
 subjects. And, in the beginning of our speech, I showed it to 
 be a special cause of our assembling ; but my intent is, that 
 nothing should be done to God's dishonour, to her Majesty's 
 peril, or the peril of the State. And, therefore, I will show the 
 inconveniences that grow of these two. First, if we follow not 
 the prince's mind, Solomon saith : " The king's displeasure is 
 a messenger of death." This is a terrible thing to weak 
 nature ; for who is able to abide the fierce countenance of his 
 prince ? But if we will discharge our consciences, and be true 
 to God and prince and State, we must have due consideration 
 of the place and the occasion of our coming together, and 
 especially have regard unto the matter wherein we both shall
 
 PETER WENTWORTH. 5 
 
 serve God and our prince and State faithfully, and not dis- 
 sembling as eye-pleasers, and so justly avoid all displeasures 
 both to God and our prince ; for Solomon saith, " In the 
 way of the righteous there is life." As for any other way, it 
 is the path to death. So that, to avoid everlasting death and 
 condemnation with the high and mighty God, we ought to 
 proceed in every cause according to the matter, and not 
 according to the prince's mind. And now I will show you a 
 reason to prove it perilous always to follow the prince's mind. 
 Many a time it falleth out that a prince may favour a cause 
 perilous to himself and the whole State. What are we then 
 if we follow the prince's mind ? Are we not unfaithful unto 
 God, our prince, and State ? Yes, truly ; we are chosen of the 
 whole realm, of a special trust and confidence by them reposed 
 in us, to foresee all such inconveniences. Then I will set down 
 my opinion herein ; that is to say, he that dissembleth to her 
 Majesty's peril to be accounted as a hateful enemy, for that 
 he giveth unto her Majesty a detestable Judas's kiss ; and 
 he that contrarieth her mind to her preservation, yea, though 
 her Majesty would be much offended with him, is to be judged 
 an approved lover. For " faithful are the wounds of a lover," 
 saith Solomon ; " but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." 
 "And 'tis better," saith Antisthenes, "to fall amongst ravens 
 than amongst flatterers ; for ravens do but devour the dead 
 corpse, and flatterers the living." And it is both traitorous and 
 hellish, through flattery, to seek to devour our natural prince; 
 and that do flatterers. Therefore, let them leave it with shame 
 enough. 
 
 Now to another great matter that riseth of this grievous 
 rumour. What is it, forsooth ? Whatsoever thou art that 
 pronounceth it, thou doth pronounce thy own discredit. Why 
 so ? For that thou doth what lieth in thee to pronounce the 
 prince to be perjured, the which we neither will nor may believe. 
 For we ought not, without too manifest proof, to credit any 
 dishonour to our anointed. No ; we ought not without it to 
 think any evil of her Majesty, but rather to hold him a liar, 
 what credit soever he be of; for the Queen's Majesty is the
 
 6 PETER wENtwoRTtf. 
 
 head of the law, and must of necessity maintain the law, for 
 by the law her Majesty is made justly our queen, and by it 
 she is most chiefly maintained. Hereunto agreeth the most 
 excellent words of Bracton (De Legibus Anglice, lib. i. cap. 7), 
 who saith, " The king hath no peer nor equal in his kingdom." 
 He hath no equal, for otherwise he might lose his authority 
 of commanding, since that an equal hath no power of com- 
 mandment over an equal. The king ought not to be under 
 man, but under God, and under the law, because the law 
 maketh him a king. Let the king, therefore, attribute that 
 the law attributeth unto him, that is, dominion and power; for 
 he is not a king in whom will and not the law doth rule; and 
 therefore he ought to be under the law. I pray you mark the 
 reason why my authority saith the king ought to be under the 
 law; for, saith he, "He is God's vicegerent upon earth;" 
 that is, His lieutenant, to execute and do His will, the which is 
 law or justice, and thereunto was her Majesty sworn at her 
 coronation, as I have heard learned men in this place sundry 
 times affirm. Unto which I doubt not her Majesty will, for her 
 honour and conscience' sake, have special regard ; for free 
 speech and conscience in this place are granted by a 
 special law, as that without the which the prince and State 
 cannot be preserved or maintained. So that I would wish 
 that every man that feareth God, regardeth the prince's 
 honour, or esteemeth his own credit, to fear at all times 
 hereafter to pronounce any such horrible speeches so much 
 to the prince's dishonour, for in so doing he showeth himself 
 an open enemy to her Majesty, and so worthy to be contemned 
 of all faithful hearts. Yet there is another inconvenience 
 that riseth of this wicked rumour. The utterers thereof seem 
 to put into our heads that the Queen's Majesty both conceived 
 an evil opinion, diffidence, and mistrust in us, her faithful 
 and loving subjects ; for, if she hath not, her Majesty would 
 wish that all things dangerous to herself should be laid open 
 before us, assuring herself that loving subjects as we are would, 
 without schooling and direction, with careful mind to our 
 powers, prevent and withstand all perils that might happen unto
 
 PETER WENTWORTH. ? 
 
 her Majesty. And this opinion I doubt not but her Majesty 
 hath conceived of us ; for undoubtedly there was never prince 
 surely there were never subjects had more cause heartily to love 
 that had faithfuller hearts than her Majesty hath here, and 
 their prince for her quiet government than we have. So that 
 he that raiseth this rumour still increaseth but discredit in seek- 
 ing to sow sedition as much as lieth in him between our merci- 
 ful Queen and us her loving a,nd faithful subjects, the which, by 
 God's grace, shall never lie in his power ; let him spit out all 
 his venom, and therewithal show out his malicious heart. Yet 
 I have collected sundry reasons to prove this a hateful and 
 detestable rumour, and the utterer thereof to be a very Judas 
 to our noble Queen. Therefore, let any hereafter take heed 
 how he publish it, for as a very Judas unto her Majesty, and 
 an enemy to the whole State, we ought to accept him. 
 
 Now, the other was a message, Mr. Speaker, brought the 
 last session into the House that we should not deal in any 
 matters of religion, but first to receive from the bishops. 
 Surely this was a doleful message ; for it was as much as to 
 say, " Sirs, ye shall not deal in God's causes ; no ! ye shall 
 no wise seek to advance His glory ! " And, in recompense of 
 your unkindness, God in His wrath will look upon your doings 
 that the chief cause that ye were called together for, the which 
 is the preservation of their prince, shall have no success. If 
 some one of this House had presently made this interpretation 
 of this said message, had he not seemed to have the spirit 
 of prophecy? Yet, truly I assure you, Mr. Speaker, there 
 were divers of this House that said with grievous hearts, 
 immediately upon the message, that God of His justice could 
 not prosper the session. And let it be holden for a principle, 
 Mr. Speaker, that council that cometh not together in God's 
 name cannot prosper. For God saith, " Where two or three 
 are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst 
 amongst them." Well, God, even the great and mighty God, 
 whose name is the Lord of Hosts, great in council and infinite 
 in thought, and who is the only good Director of all Hearts, 
 was the last session shut out of doors 1 But what fell out of
 
 8 PETER WENTWORTH. 
 
 it, forsooth ? His great indignation was therefore poured upon 
 this House ; for He did put into the Queen's Majesty's heart 
 to refuse good and wholesome laws for her own preservation, 
 the which caused many faithful hearts for grief to burst out 
 with sorrowful tears, and moved all Papists, traitors to God 
 and her Majesty, who envy good Christian government, in their 
 sleeves to laugh all the whole Parliament House to scorn. 
 And shall I pass over this weighty matter so lightly ? Nay 1 
 I will discharge my conscience and duties to God, my prince, 
 and country. So certain it is, Mr. Speaker, that none is with- 
 out fault, no, not our noble Queen, sith then her Majesty hath 
 committed great fault, yea, dangerous faults to herself. 
 
 Love, even perfect love, void of dissimulation, will not suffer 
 me to hide them to her Majesty's peril, but to utter them to her 
 Majesty's safety. And these they are : It is a dangerous thing 
 in a prince unkindly to abuse his or her nobility and people ; and 
 it is a dangerous thing in a prince to oppose or bend herself 
 against her nobility and people, yea, against most loving and 
 faithful nobility and people. And how could any prince more 
 unkindly entreat, abuse, and oppose herself against her nobility 
 and people than her Majesty did the last Parliament ? Did she 
 call of purpose to prevent traitorous perils to her person, and 
 for no other cause ? Did not her Majesty send unto us two bills, 
 willing us to make choice of that we liked best for her safety, 
 and thereof to make a law, promising her Majesty's assent 
 thereunto? And did we not first choose the one, and her 
 Majesty refused it, yielding no reason ; nay, yielding great 
 reasons why she ought to have yielded to it ? Yet did we 
 nevertheless receive the other, and, agreeing to make a law 
 thereof, did not her Majesty in the end refuse all our travails ? 
 And did not we, her Majesty's faithful nobility and subjects, 
 plainly and openly decipher ourselves unto her Majesty and 
 our hateful enemies, and hath not her Majesty left us all open 
 to their revenge ? Is this a just recompense in our Christian 
 Queen for our just dealings ? The heathen do requite good for 
 good ; then how much more is it to be expected in a Christian 
 prince ? And will not this her Majesty's handling, think you,
 
 PETER WENTWORTH. g 
 
 Mr. Speaker, make cold dealing in any of her Majesty's sub- 
 jects toward her again ? I fear it will. And hath it not caused 
 many already, think you, Mr. Speaker, to seek a salve for the 
 head that they have broken ? I fear it hath ; and many more 
 will do the like, if it be not prevented in time. And hath it not 
 marvellously rejoiced and encouraged the hollow hearts of her 
 Majesty's hateful enemies and traitorous subjects ? No doubt 
 but it hath. And I beseech God that her Majesty may do all 
 things that may grieve the hearts of her enemies, and may joy 
 the hearts that unfeignedly love her Majesty; and I beseech 
 the same God to endue her Majesty with His wisdom, whereby 
 she may discern faithful advice from traitorous, sugared 
 speeches, and to send her Majesty a melting, yielding heart 
 unto sound counsel, that will may not stand for a reason; and 
 then her Majesty will stand where her enemies have fallen ; 
 for no estate will stand where the prince will not be governed 
 by advice. And I doubt not but that some of her Majesty's 
 council have dealt plainly and faithfully with her Majesty 
 herein. If any have, let it be a sure sign to her Majesty to 
 know them for approved subjects ; and whatsoever they be 
 that did persuade her Majesty so unkindly to entreat, abuse, 
 and to oppose herself against her nobility and people, or 
 commend her Majesty for so doing, let it be a sure token 
 to her Majesty to know them for sure traitors and under- 
 miners of her Majesty's life, and remove them out of her 
 Majesty's presence and favour ; for, the more cunning they are 
 the more dangerous are they unto her Majesty. But was this 
 all ? No ; for God would not vouchsafe that His Holy Spirit 
 should all that session descend upon our bishops; so that in 
 that session nothing was done to the advancement of His glory. 
 I have heard of old Parliament men that the tarnishment of the 
 Pope and Popery and the restoring of true religion had their 
 beginning from this House, and not from the bishops; and I 
 have heard that few laws for religion had their foundation from 
 them. And I do surely think before God I speak it 1 that 
 the bishops were the cause of that doleful message. And I will 
 show you what moveth me so to think. I was, amongst others,
 
 to PETER WENTWORT& 
 
 the last Parliament, sent unto the Bishop of Canterbury for the 
 Articles of Religion that then passed this House. He asked us 
 why we did put out of the book the homilies, consecrating of 
 bishops, and such like. " Surely, sir," said I, " because we 
 were so occupied with other things that we had no time to 
 examine them how they agreed with the Word of God." 
 "What!" said he, "surely you mistook the matter; you 
 will refer yourself wholly to us therein ? " " No ! by the faith 
 I bear to God," said I, " we will pass nothing until we 
 understand what it is ; for that were but to make you popes. 
 Make you popes who list," said I, "for we will make you 
 none." And sure, Mr. Speaker, the speech seemed to me 
 a pope-like speech ; and I fear lest our bishops do attribute 
 this of the Pope's canons unto themselves, "papa non potest 
 errarej" for surely, if they did not, they would reform things 
 amiss, and not to spurn against God's people for writing therein 
 as they do. But I can tell them news : they do but kick 
 against the pricks ; for undoubtedly they both have and do 
 err; for God will reveal His truth maugre the hearts of them 
 and all His enemies ; for great is the truth, and it will prevail. 
 And, to say the truth, it is an error to think that God's spirit is 
 tied only in them ; for the Heavenly Spirit saith : " First seek 
 the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, and all 
 these things (meaning temporal) shall be given you." These 
 words were not spoken to the bishops only, but to all. And 
 the writ, Mr. Speaker, that we are called up by, is chiefly 
 to deal in God's cause, so that our commission, both from 
 God and our prince, is to deal in God's causes. Therefore, the 
 accepting of such messages, and taking them in good part, 
 do highly offend God, and is the acceptation of the breach 
 of the liberties of this honourable council. For is it not all 
 one thing to say, sirs, " you shall deal in such matters only," as 
 to say " you shall not deal in such matters " ? and is as good 
 to have fools and flatterers in the House as men of wisdom, 
 grave judgment, faithful hearts, and sincere consciences ; for 
 they, being taught what they shall do, can give their consents 
 as well as others. Well, " He that hath an office," saith Saint
 
 PETER WENTWORTlt. it 
 
 Paul, " let him wait on his office," or give diligent attendance 
 on his office. It is a great and special part of our office, 
 Mr. Speaker, to maintain the freedom and consultation of 
 speech ; for by this good laws that do set forth God's glory, and 
 for the preservation of the prince and State, are made. Saint 
 Paul, in the same place, saith : " Hate that which is evil, cleave 
 unto that which is good." Then with Saint Paul I do advise 
 you all here present, yea, and heartily and earnestly desire you, 
 from the bottom of your hearts, to hate all messengers, tale- 
 carriers, or any other thing, whatsoever it be, that any way 
 infringes the liberties of this honourable council ; yea, hate 
 it or them as poisonous unto our Commonwealth, for they are 
 venomous beasts that do use it Therefore, I say unto you again 
 and again, " Hate that which is evil, and cling unto that which 
 is good." And thus, being loving and faithful-hearted, I do wish 
 to be conceived in fear of God and of love of our prince and 
 State ; for we are incorporated into this place to serve God and 
 all England, and not to be time-servers, as humour-feeders, as 
 cancers that would pierce the bone, or as flatterers that would 
 fain beguile all the world, and so worthy to be condemned both 
 of God and man ; but let us show ourselves a people endued 
 with faith, I mean a lively faith that bringeth forth good works, 
 and not as dead. And these good works I wish to break forth 
 in this sort, not only in hating the enemies before spoken 
 against, but also in openly reproving them as enemies to God, 
 our prince, and State, that do use them, for they are so. 
 Therefore, I would have none spared or forborne that shall 
 from henceforth offend herein, of what calling soever he be ; 
 for the higher place he hath the more harm he may do. 
 Therefore, if he will not eschew offences, the higher I wish him 
 hanged. I speak this in charity, Mr. Speaker ; for it is better 
 that one should be hanged than that this noble State should 
 be subverted. Well, I pray God with all my heart to turn the 
 hearts of all the enemies of our prince and State, and to forgive 
 them that wherein they have offended ; yea, and to give them 
 grace to offend therein no more. Even so, I do heartily 
 beseech God to forgive us for holding our peace when
 
 12 PETER WENTWORTIL 
 
 we have heard any inquiry offered to this honourable 
 council ; for surely it is no small offence, Mr. Speaker, 
 for we offend therein against God, our prince, and State, and 
 abuse the confidence by them reposed in us. Wherefore God, 
 for His great'mercies' sake, grant that we may from henceforth 
 show ourselves neither bastards nor dastards therein, but that 
 as rightly-begotten children we may sharply and boldly reprove 
 God's enemies, our princes, and State ; and so shall every one of 
 us discharge our duties in this our high office, wherein He hath 
 placed us, and show ourselves haters of evil and cleavers to that 
 that is good to the setting forth of God's glory and honour, and 
 to the preservation of our noble Queen and Commonwealth, for 
 these are the marks that we ought only in this place to shoot 
 at. I am thus earnest I take God to witness, for conscience' 
 sake love unto my prince and Commonwealth, and for the 
 advancement of justice ; " for justice," saith an ancient father, 
 " is the prince of all virtues," yea, the safe and faithful guard of 
 man's life, for by it empires, kingdoms, people, and cities, be 
 governed, the which, if it be taken away, the society of man 
 cannot long endure. And a king, saith Solomon, " that sitteth in 
 the throne of judgment, and looketh well about him, chaseth 
 away all evil;" in the which State and throne God, for His 
 great mercies' sake, grant that our noble Queen may be heartily 
 vigilant and watchful ; for surely there was a great fault com- 
 mitted both in the last Parliament and since also that was, as 
 faithful hearts as any were unto the prince and State received 
 most displeasure, the which is but a hard point in policy to 
 encourage the enemy, to discourage the faithful-hearted, who of 
 fervent love cannot dissemble, but follow the rule of Saint Paul, 
 who saith, " Let love be without dissimulation." 
 
 Now to another great fault I found the last Parliament, com- 
 mitted by some of this House also, the which I would desire of 
 them all might be left. I have seen right good men in other 
 causes, although I did dislike them in that doing, sit in an evil 
 matter against which they had most earnestly spoken. I mused 
 at it, and asked what it meant, for I do think it a shameful thing 
 to serve God, their prince, or country, with the tongue only
 
 PETER WENTWORTH. 13 
 
 and not with the heart and body. I was answered that it was 
 a common policy in this House to mark the best sort of the 
 same, and either to sit or arise with them. That same common 
 policy I would gladly have banished this House, and have 
 grafted in the stead thereof either to rise or sit as the matter 
 giveth cause ; " for the eyes of the Lord behold all the earth, to 
 strengthen all the hearts of them that are whole with him." 
 These be God's own words ; mark them well, I heartily beseech 
 you all ; for God will not receive half-part ; He will have the 
 whole. And again, He misliketh these two-faced gentlemen, 
 and here be many eyes that will to their great shame behold 
 their double-dealing that use it. Thus I have holden you 
 long with my rude speech, the which since it tendeth wholly 
 with pure conscience to seek the advancement of God's glory, 
 our honourable sovereign's safety, and to the sure defence 
 of this noble isle of England, and all by maintaining of the 
 liberties of this honourable council, the fountain from whence 
 all these do spring my humble and hearty suit unto you 
 all is to accept my good-will, and that this that I have here 
 spoken out of conscience and great zeal unto my prince and 
 State may not be buried in the pit of oblivion, and so no 
 good come thereof.
 
 i 4 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 Speech on the Dissolution of the First Protectorate Parliament, 
 January 22, 1655. 
 
 [THIS very characteristic speech is the only one of Cromwell's, accord- 
 ing to Carlyle, " concerning the reporting, printing, or publishing of 
 which there is any visible charge or notice taken by the Government of 
 the time." The report we have is therefore probably more correct 
 than those of Cromwell's other speeches extant. The Parliament 
 to which it was delivered was composed of four hundred representa- 
 tives, chosen according to a reformed model in 1654, and which, on the 
 occasion of the speech, had sat for five months. The Cromwellian, or 
 "court," party was powerful through the influence exerted by the army 
 over the electorate ; but there was a strong republican element, headed 
 by Bradshaw, Scott, and Haslerig, opposed to Cromwell. This latter 
 party desired to consider the whole question of the instrument of 
 Government ; and the Parliament resolved itself into a committee (by 
 a vote of 141 to 136) to debate the authority of the Protector. This 
 line of action Cromwell thought proper to resist. The Parliament, 
 however, being bent on its project of limiting the Protector's power, 
 and having specially voted it to be elective, not hereditary, Cromwell 
 went down to the House and declared it dissolved in the speech here 
 given. 
 
 The Parliament's defence is that it desired a legal settlement, based 
 on public opinion, expressed through representatives, and that it wished 
 to save the country from the curse of arbitrary military rule. According 
 to Whitelocki the Parliament resolved to keep the militia in its power, 
 and to permit the Protector's veto only on such bills as might alter 
 the instrument of Government. On the other hand, Cromwell's 
 defence is that he perceived the majority of the nation would call back
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 15 
 
 the Stuarts, unless a firm Government prevented such a step. To avert 
 that catastrophe Cromwell felt that his authority, backed up by 
 military power, must be exerted to the full, and that any questioning 
 of such authority would lead to paralysis of the de facto executive 
 power, and, consequently, to intrigue for monarchical restoration. 
 
 The speech is noted for its distinctly conservative tone, portions of 
 it being aimed at the "levellers" who were the democrats of that 
 time. But it is much more remarkable for its doctrine that the political 
 revolution which had been accomplished was no mere accident, but a 
 result of providential interposition in human affairs. In expressing this 
 conviction Cromwell showed himself a genuine Puritan. The whole 
 speech is a striking specimen of Cromwellian fervour and eloquence, 
 combined with Cromwellian determination to carry things with a high 
 hand. ] 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I perceive you are here as the House of Parlia- 
 ment, by your Speaker whom I see here, and by your faces 
 which are in a great measure known to me. 
 
 When I first met you in this room, it was to my apprehension 
 the hopefulest day that ever mine eyes saw, as to the considera- 
 tions of this world. For I did look at, as wrapt-up in you 
 together with myself, the hopes and the happiness of, though 
 not of the greatest, yet a very great " People " ; and the best 
 People in the world. And truly and unfeignedly I thought 
 it so: as a People that have the highest and clearest profes- 
 sion amongst them of the greatest glory, namely, Religion : as 
 a People that have been, like other Nations, sometimes up and 
 sometimes down in our honour in the world, but yet never so 
 low but we might measure with other Nations : and a People 
 that have had a stamp upon them from God ; God having, as it 
 were, summed-up all our former honour and glory in the things 
 that are of glory to Nations, in an Epitome, within these Ten or 
 Twelve years last past 1 So that we knew one another at home, 
 and are well known abroad. 
 
 And if I be not very much mistaken, we were arrived, as I, 
 and truly I believe as many others, did think, at a very safe 
 port ; where we might sit down and contemplate the Dispensa- 
 tions of God and our Mercies ; and might know our Mercies
 
 1 6 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 not to have been like to those of the Ancients, who did make 
 out their peace and prosperity, as they thought, by their own 
 endeavours ; who could not say, as we, That all ours were let 
 down to us from God Himself ! Whose appearances and 
 providences amongst us are not to be outmatched by any 
 Story. Truly this was our condition. And I know nothing 
 else we had to do, save as Israel was commanded in that most 
 excellent Psalm of David : " The things which we have heard 
 and known, and our fathers have told us, we will not hide them 
 from our children ; showing to the generation to come the 
 praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works 
 that He hath done. For He established a Testimony in Jacob, 
 and appointed a Law in Israel ; which He commanded our 
 fathers that they should make known to their children; that 
 the generation to come might know them, even the children 
 which should be born, who should arise and declare them to 
 their children : that they might set their hope in God, and not 
 forget the works of God, but keep His commandments."* 
 
 This I thought had been a song and a work worthy of 
 England, whereunto you might happily have invited them, 
 had you had hearts unto it. You had this opportunity fairly 
 delivered unto you. And if a history shall be written of these 
 Times and Transactions, it will be said, it will not be denied, 
 that these things that I have spoken are true ! This 
 talent was put into your hands. And I shall recur to that 
 which I said at the first : I came with very great joy and 
 contentment and comfort, the first time I met you in this place. 
 But we and these Nations are, for the present, under some 
 disappointment ! If I had proposed to have played the Orator, 
 which I never did affect, nor do, nor I hope shall, I doubt 
 not but upon easy suppositions, which I am persuaded every 
 one among you will grant, we did meet upon such hopes as 
 these. 
 
 I met you a second time here : and I confess, at that 
 meeting I had much abatement of my hopes, though not a 
 
 * Psalm Ixxviii. 3-7.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL 17 
 
 total frustration. I confess that that which damped my hopes 
 so soon was somewhat that did look like a parricide. It is 
 obvious enough unto you that the then management of affairs 
 did savour of a Not owning, too-too much savour, I say, of a 
 Not owning of the Authority that called you hither. But God 
 left us not without an expedient that gave a second possibility 
 Shall I say possibility? It seemed to me a probability 
 of recovering out of that dissatisfied condition we were all 
 then in, towards some mutuality of satisfaction. And there- 
 fore by that Recognition, suiting with the Indenture that 
 returned you hither ; to which afterwards was also added 
 your own Declaration,* conformable to, and in acceptance 
 of, that expedient : thereby, I say, you had, though with a 
 little check, another opportunity renewed unto you to have 
 made this Nation as happy as it could have been if everything 
 had smoothly run on from that first hour of your meeting. 
 And indeed, you will give me liberty of my thoughts and 
 hopes, I did think, as I have formerly found in that way 
 that I have been engaged in as a soldier, That some affronts 
 put upon us, some disasters at the first, have made way for 
 very great and happy successes ; and I did not at all despond 
 but the stop put upon you, in like manner, would have made 
 way for a blessing from God. That Interruption being, as I 
 thought, necessary to divert you from violent and destructive 
 proceedings ; to give time for better deliberations ; whereby 
 leaving the Government as you found it, you might have 
 proceeded to have made those good and wholesome Laws 
 which the People expected from you, and might have answered 
 the Grievances, and settled those other things proper to you 
 as a Parliament : for which you would have had thanks from 
 all that intrusted you. 
 
 What hath happened since that time I have not taken public 
 notice of; as declining to intrench on Parliament privileges. 
 For sure I am you will all bear me witness, That from your 
 entering into the House upon the Recognition, to this very 
 
 Commons Journals (vii. 368), I4th September 1654. 
 
 614
 
 1 8 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 day, you have had no manner of interruption or hindrance 
 of mine in proceeding to what blessed issue the heart of a 
 good man could propose to himself, to this very day none. 
 You see you have me very much locked up, as to what you 
 have transacted among yourselves, from that time to this. 
 But some things I shall take liberty to speak of to you. 
 
 As I may not take notice what you have been doing ; so 
 I think I have a very great liberty to tell you That I do not 
 know what you have been doing 1 I do not know whether 
 you have been alive or dead. I have not once heard from 
 you all this time ; I have not : and that you all know. If 
 that be a fault that I have not, surely it hath not been mine ! 
 If I have had any melancholy thoughts, and have sat down 
 by them, why might it not have been very lawful for me to 
 think that I was a Person judged unconcerned in all these 
 businesses ? I can assure you I have not so reckoned myself! 
 Nor did I reckon myself unconcerned in you. And so long 
 as any just patience could support my expectation, I would 
 have waited to the uttermost to have received from you the 
 issue of your consultations and resolutions. I have been 
 careful of your saftey, and the safety of those that you 
 represented, to whom I reckon myself a servant. 
 
 But what messages have I disturbed you withal ? What 
 injury or indignity hath been done, or offered, either to your 
 persons or to any privileges of Parliament, since you sat ? I 
 looked at myself as strictly obliged by my Oath, since your 
 recognising the Government in the authority of which you 
 were called hither and sat, To give you all possible security, 
 and to keep you from any unparliamentary interruption. 
 Think you I could not say more upon this subject, if I listed 
 to expatiate thereupon ? But because my actions plead for 
 me, I shall say no more of this. I say, I have been caring for 
 you, for your quiet sitting ; caring for your privileges, as I said 
 before, that they might not be interrupted ; have been seeking 
 of God, from the great God a blessing upon you, and a 
 blessing upon these Nations. I have been consulting if 
 possibly I might, in anything, promote, in my place, the real
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 19 
 
 good of this Parliament, of the hopefulness of which I have 
 said so much unto you. And I did think it to be my 
 business rather to see the utmost issue, and what God would 
 produce by you, than unseasonably to intermeddle with you. 
 
 But, as I said before, I have been caring for you, and for 
 the peace and quiet of these Nations : indeed I have ; and 
 that I shall a little presently manifest unto you. And it 
 leadeth me to let you know somewhat, which, I fear, I fear, 
 will be, through some interpretation, a little too justly put 
 upon you; whilst you have been employed as you have been, 
 and, in all that time expressed in the Government, in that 
 Government, I say in that Government, have brought forth 
 nothing that you yourselves say can be taken notice of without 
 infringement of your privileges.* I will tell you somewhat, 
 which, if it be not news to you, I wish you had taken very 
 serious consideration of. If it be news, I wish I had acquainted 
 you with it sooner. And yet if any man will ask me why I 
 did it not, the reason is given already : Because I did make it 
 my business to give you no interruption. 
 
 There be some trees that will not grow under the shadow of 
 other trees : There be some that choose, a man may say so 
 by way of allusion, to thrive under the shadow of other trees. 
 I will tell you what hath thriven, I will not say what you 
 have cherished, under your shadow ; that were too hard. 
 Instead of Peace and Settlement, instead of mercy and truth 
 being brought together, and righteousness and peace kissing 
 each other, by your reconciling the Honest People of these 
 Nations, and settling the woful distempers that are amongst 
 
 * An embarrassed sentence ; characteristic of his Highness. "You 
 have done nothing noticeable upon this ' Somewhat* that I am about 
 to speak of, nor, indeed, it seems upon any Somewhat, and this was 
 one you may, without much 'interpretation,' be blamed for doing 
 nothing upon." "Government" means Instrument of Government: 
 "the time expressed" therein is five Months, now, by my way of 
 calculating it, expired 1 Which may account for the embarrassed 
 iteration of the phrase, on his Highness's part. (Co/Vy&'j note.)
 
 20 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 us ; which had been glorious things and worthy of Christians 
 to have proposed, weeds and nettles, briers and thorns have 
 thriven under your shadow 1 Dissettlement and division, 
 discontent and dissatisfaction ; together with real dangers to 
 the whole, have been more multiplied within these five months 
 of your sitting, than in some years before ! Foundations have 
 also been laid for the future renewing of the Troubles of 
 these Nations by all the enemies of them abroad and at 
 home. Let not these words seem too sharp : for they are 
 true as any mathematical demonstrations are or can be. I 
 say, the enemies of the peace of these Nations abroad and at 
 home, the discontented humours throughout these Nations, 
 which products I think no man will grudge to call by that 
 name, of briers and thorns, they have nourished themselves 
 under your shadow 1 
 
 And that I may clearly be understood : They have taken 
 their opportunities from your sitting, and from the hopes 
 they had, which with easy conjecture they might take up 
 and conclude that there would be no Settlement ; and they 
 have framed their designs, preparing for the execution of 
 them accordingly. Now whether, which appertains not to 
 me to judge of, on their behalf, they had any occasion 
 ministered for this, and from whence they had it, I list 
 not to make any scrutiny or search. But I will say this : I 
 think they had it not from me. I am sure they had not 
 from me. From whence they had, is not my business now 
 to discourse : but that they had, is obvious to every man's 
 sense. What preparations they have made, to be executed 
 in such a season as they thought fit to take their opportunity 
 from : that I know, not as men know things by conjecture, 
 but by certain demonstrable knowledge. That they have 
 been for some time past furnishing themselves with arms ; 
 nothing doubting but they should have a day for it ; and 
 verily believing that, whatsoever their former disappointments 
 were, they should have more done for them by and from 
 our own divisions, than they were able to do for themselves. 
 I desire to be understood that, in all I have to say of this
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 21 
 
 subject, you will take it that I have no reservation in my 
 mind, as I have not, to mingle things of guess and 
 suspicion with things of fact: but "that" the things I am 
 telling of are fact ; things of evident demonstration. 
 
 These weeds, briers and thorns, they have been pre- 
 paring, and have brought their designs to some maturity, 
 by the advantages given to them, as aforesaid, from your 
 sittings and proceedings. But by the Waking Eye that 
 watched over that Cause that God will bless, they have 
 been, and yet are, disappointed. And having mentioned 
 that Cause, I say, that slighted Cause, let me speak a few 
 words in behalf thereof; though it may seem too long a 
 digression. Whosoever despiseth it, and will say, It is non 
 Causa pro Causd, " a Cause without a Cause," the All-search- 
 ing Eye before mentioned will find out that man ; and will 
 judge him, as one that regardeth not the works of God nor 
 the operations of His hands ! For which God hath threatened 
 that He will cast men down, and not build them up. That 
 man who, because he can dispute, will tell us he knew not 
 when the Cause began, nor where it is ; but modelleth it 
 according to his own intellect ; and submits not to the 
 Appearances of God in the World ; and therefore lifts up 
 his heel against God, and mocketh at all His providences ; 
 laughing at the observations, made up not without reason 
 and the Scriptures, and by the quickening and teaching 
 Spirit which gives life to these other ; calling such obser- 
 vations " enthusiasms " : such men, I say, no wonder if they 
 " stumble and fall backwards, and be broken and snared 
 and taken,"* by the things of which they are so wilfully 
 and maliciously ignorant ! The Scriptures say, " The Rod 
 has a voice, and He will make Himself known by the 
 judgments which He executeth." And do we not think He 
 will, and does, by the providences of mercy and kindness 
 which He hath for His People and their just liberties ; 
 
 * Isaiah xxviii. 13. A text that had made a great impression 
 upon Oliver.
 
 22 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 "whom He loves as the apple of His eye"? Doth He 
 not by them manifest Himself? And is He not thereby 
 also seen giving kingdoms for them, "giving men for them, 
 and people for their lives," as it is in Isaiah Forty-third?* 
 Is not this as fair a lecture and as clear speaking, as any- 
 thing our dark reason, left to the letter of the Scriptures, 
 can collect from them? By this voice has God spoken very 
 loud on behalf of His People, by judging their enemies in 
 the late War, and restoring them a liberty to worship, with 
 the freedom of their consciences, and freedom in estates and 
 persons when they do so. And thus we have found the 
 Cause of God by the works of God ; which are the testimony 
 of God. Upon which rock whosoever splits shall suffer ship- 
 wreck. But it is your glory, and it is mine, if I have any 
 in the world concerning the Interest of those that have an 
 interest in a better world, it is my glory that I know a 
 Cause which yet we have not lost ; but do hope we shall 
 take a little pleasure rather to lose our lives than lose ! But 
 you will excuse this long digression. 
 
 I say unto you, Whilst you have been in the midst of these 
 Transactions, that Party, that Cavalier Party, I could wish 
 some of them had thrust-in here, to have heard what I say, 
 have been designing and preparing to put this Nation in blood 
 again, with a witness. But because I am confident there are 
 none of that sort here, therefore I shall say the less to that. 
 Only this I must tell you : They have been making great 
 preparations of arms ; and I do believe it will be made evident 
 to you that they have raked-out many thousands of arms, even 
 all that this City could afford, for divers months last past. But 
 it will be said, " May we not arm ourselves for the defence of 
 our houses? Will anybody find fault for that?" Not for that. 
 But the reason for iheir doing so hath been as explicit, and 
 under as clear proof, as the fact of doing so. For which I 
 hope, by the justice of the land, some will, in the face of the 
 Nation, answer it with their lives : and then the business will 
 
 * Isaiah xliii. 3, 4.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 23 
 
 be pretty well out of doubt. Banks of money have been 
 framing, for these and other suchlike uses. Letters have been 
 issued with Privy-seals, to as great Persons as most are in the 
 Nation, for the advance of money, which " Letters " have been 
 discovered to us by the Persons themselves. Commissions for 
 Regiments of horse and foot, and command of Castles, have 
 been likewise given from Charles Stuart, since your sitting. 
 And what the general insolences of that Party have been, the 
 Honest People have been sensible of, and can very well 
 testify. 
 
 It hath not only been thus. But as in a quinsy or pleurisy, 
 where the humour fixeth in one part, give it scope, all "disease" 
 will gather to that place, to the hazarding of the whole : and it 
 is natural to do so till it destroy life in that person on whomso- 
 ever this befalls. So likewise will these diseases take accidental 
 causes of aggravation of their distemper. And this was that 
 which I did assert, That they have taken accidental causes for 
 the growing and increasing of those distempers, as much as 
 would have been in the natural body if timely remedy were not 
 applied. And indeed things were come to that pass, in 
 respect of which I shall give you a particular account, that no 
 mortal physician, if the Great Physician had not stepped in, 
 could have cured the distemper. Shall I lay this upon your 
 account, or my own ? I am sure I can lay it upon God's 
 account : That if He had not stepped in, the disease had been 
 mortal and destructive 1 
 
 And what is all this ? " What are these new diseases that 
 have gathered to this point ? " Truly I must needs still say : 
 "A company of men like briers and thorns;" and worse, if 
 worse can be. Of another sort than those before mentioned to 
 you. These also have been and yet are endeavouring to put us 
 into blood and into confusion ; more desperate and dangerous 
 confusion than England ever yet saw. And I must say, as 
 when Gideon commanded his son to fall upon Zeba and 
 Zalmunna, and slay them, they thought it more noble to die by 
 the hand of a man than of a stripling, which shows there is 
 some contentment in the hand by which a man falls : so it
 
 24 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 is some satisfaction if a Commonwealth must perish, that it 
 perish by men, and not by the hands of persons differing little 
 from beasts ! That if it must needs suffer, it should rather 
 suffer from rich men than from poor men, who, as Solomon 
 says, " when they oppress, leave nothing behind them, but are 
 as a sweeping rain." Now such as these also are grown up 
 under your shadow. But it will be asked, What have they 
 done? I hope, though they pretend "Commonwealth's 
 Interest," they have had no encouragement from you ; but 
 have, as in the former case, rather taken it than that you have 
 administered any cause unto them for so doing. "Any 
 cause" from delays, from hopes that this Parliament would 
 not settle, from Pamphlets mentioning strange Votes and 
 Resolves of yours ; which I hope did abuse you ! But thus 
 you see that, whatever the grounds were, these have been 
 the effects. And thus I have laid these things before you ; 
 and you and others will be easily able to judge how far you are 
 concerned. 
 
 " What these men have done ? " They also have laboured to 
 pervert, where they could, and as they could, the Honest- 
 meaning People of the Nation. They have laboured to engage 
 some in the Army : and I doubt not that only they, but some 
 others also, very well known to you, have helped to this work of 
 debauching and dividing the Army. They have, they have ! 
 I would be loath to say Who, Where, and How ? much more 
 loath to say they were any of your own number. But I can 
 say: Endeavours have been made to put the Army into a 
 distemper, and to feed that which is the worst humour in the 
 Army. Which though it was not as mastering humour, yet 
 these took advantage from delay of the Settlement, and the 
 practices before mentioned, and the stopping of the pay of the 
 Army, to run us into Free-quarter, and to bring us into the 
 inconveniences most to be feared and avoided. What if I am 
 able to make it appear in fact, That some amongst you have 
 run into the City of London, to persuade to Petitions and 
 Addresses to you for reversing your own Votes that you have 
 passed? Whether these practices were in favour of your
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 25 
 
 Liberties, or tended to beget hopes of Peace and Settlement 
 from you ; and whether debauching the Army in England, as 
 is before expressed, and starving it, and putting it upon Free- 
 quarter, and occasioning and necessitating the greatest part 
 thereof in Scotland to march into England, leaving the 
 remainder thereof to have their throats cut there ; and kindling 
 by the rest a fire in our own bosoms, were for the advantage of 
 affairs here, let the world judge I 
 
 This I tell you also : That the correspondence held with the 
 Interest of the Cavaliers, by that Party of men called Levellers, 
 who call themselves Commonwealth's-men, is in our hands. 
 Whose Declarations were framed to that purpose, and ready to 
 be published at the time of their projected common Rising; 
 whereof, " I say," we are possessed ; and for which we have the 
 confession of themselves now in custody; who confess also 
 they built their hopes upon the assurance they had of the 
 Parliament's not agreeing to a Settlement : whether these 
 humours have not nourished themselves under your boughs, 
 is the subject of my present discourse ; and I think I shall 
 say not amiss, if I affirm it to be so. And I must say it again, 
 That that which hath been their advantage, thus to raise 
 disturbance, hath been by the loss of those golden opportunities 
 which God had put into your hands for Settlement. Judge 
 you whether these things were thus, or not, when you first 
 sat down. I am sure things were not thus ! There was a 
 very great peace and sedateness throughout these Nations ; 
 and great expectations of a happy Settlement. Which I 
 remembered to you at the beginning in my Speech ; and 
 hoped that you would have entered on your business as you 
 found it. 
 
 There was a Government already in the possession of the 
 People, I say a Government in the possession of the People, 
 for many months. It hath now been exercised near Fifteen 
 Months : and if it were needful that I should tell you how it 
 came into their possession, and how willingly they received 
 it ; how all Law and Justice were distributed from it, in every 
 respect, as to life, liberty and estate ; how it was owned by
 
 26 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 God, as being the dispensation of His providence after Twelve 
 Years War ; and sealed and witnessed unto by the People, 
 I should but repeat what I said in my last Speech unto you 
 in this place : and therefore I forbear. When you were 
 entered upon this Government ; ravelling into it You know 
 I took no notice what you were doing If you had gone 
 upon that foot of account, To have made such good and 
 wholesome provisions for the Good of the People of these 
 Nations as were wanted ; for the settling of such matters 
 in things of Religion as would have upheld and given counten- 
 ance to a Godly Ministry, and yet as would have given a 
 just liberty to godly men of different judgments, "to" men 
 of the same faith with them that you call the Orthodox 
 Ministry in England, as it is well known the Independents 
 are, and many under the form of Baptism, who are sound in 
 the faith, and though they may perhaps be different in 
 judgment in some lesser matters, yet as true Christians both 
 looking for salvation only by faith in the blood of Christ, 
 men professing the fear of God, and having recourse to the 
 name of God as to a strong tower, I say you might have 
 had opportunity to have settled peace and quietness amongst 
 all professing Godliness ; and might have been instrumental, 
 if not to have healed the breaches, yet to have kept the Godly 
 of all judgments from running one upon another ; and by 
 keeping them from being overrun by a Common Enemy, 
 " have " rendered them and these Nations both secure, happy 
 and well satisfied. 
 
 Are these things done ; or any things towards them ? Is 
 there not yet upon the spirits of men a strange itch ? Nothing 
 will satisfy them unless they can press their finger upon their 
 brethren's consciences, to pinch them there. To do this was 
 no part of the Contest we had with the Common Adversary. 
 For " indeed " Religion was not the thing at first contested for 
 " at all : "* but God brought it to that issue at last ; and gave it 
 
 * Power of the Militia was the point upon which the actual War 
 began. A statement not false j yet truer in form than it is in essence. 
 (Carlyle.)
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 27 
 
 unto us by way of redundancy ; and at last it proved to be that 
 which was most dear to us. And wherein consisted this more 
 than In obtaining that liberty from the tyranny of the Bishops 
 to all species of Protestants to worship God according to their 
 own light and consciences ? For want of which many of our 
 brethren forsook their native countries to seek their bread 
 from strangers, and to live in howling wildernesses ; and for 
 which also many that remained here were imprisoned, and 
 otherwise abused and made the scorn of the Nation. Those 
 that were sound in the faith, how proper was it for them to 
 labour for liberty, for a just liberty, that men might not be 
 trampled upon for their consciences ! Had not they them- 
 selves laboured, but lately, under the weight of persecution ? 
 And was it fit for them to sit heavy upon others ? Is it ingenu- 
 ous to ask liberty, and not to give it ? What greater hypocrisy 
 than for those who were oppressed by the Bishops to become 
 the greatest oppressors themselves, so soon as their yoke was 
 removed ? I could wish that they who call for liberty now also 
 had not too much of that spirit, if the power were in their 
 hands ! As for profane persons, blasphemers, such as preach 
 sedition ; the contentious railers, evil-speakers, who seek by 
 evil words to corrupt good manners ; persons of loose con- 
 versation, punishment from the Civil Magistrate ought to 
 meet with these. Because, if they pretend conscience ; yet 
 walking disorderly and not according but contrary to the 
 Gospel, and even to natural lights, they are judged of all. 
 And their sins being open, make them subjects of the Magis- 
 trate's sword, who ought not to bear it in vain. The discipline 
 of the Army was such, that a man would not be suffered to 
 remain there, of whom we could take notice he was guilty of 
 such practices as these. 
 
 And therefore how happy would England have been, and you 
 and I, if the Lord had led you on to have settled upon such 
 good accounts as these are, and to have discountenanced such 
 practices as the other, and left men in disputable things free to 
 their own consciences 1 Which was well provided for by the 
 " Instrument of" Government ; and liberty left to provide
 
 28 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 against what was apparently evil Judge you, Whether the 
 contesting for things that were provided for by this Government 
 hath been profitable expense of time, for the good of these 
 Nations ! By means whereof you may see you have wholly 
 elapsed your time, and done just nothing 1 I will say this to 
 you, in behalf of the Long Parliament : That, had such an 
 expedient as this Government been proposed to them ; and 
 could they have seen the Cause of God thus provided for ; and 
 been, by debates, enlightened in the grounds 'of it,' whereby 
 the difficulties might have been cleared ' to them,' and the 
 reason of the whole enforced, and the circumstances of time 
 and persons, with the temper and disposition of the People, 
 and affairs both abroad and at home when it was undertaken 
 might have been well weighed ' by them' : I think in my 
 conscience, well as they were thought to love their seats, 
 they would have proceeded in another manner than you have 
 done ! And not have exposed things to these difficulties and 
 hazards they now are at ; nor given occasion to leave the 
 People so dissettled as they now are. Who, I dare say, in 
 the soberest and most judicious part of them, did expect, not a 
 question, but a doing of things in pursuance of the ' Instrument 
 of Government. And if I be not misinformed, very many of 
 you came up with this satisfaction ; having had time enough to 
 weigh and consider the same. 
 
 And when I say " such an expedient as this Government," 
 wherein I dare assert there is a just Liberty to the People of 
 God, and the just Rights of the People in these Nations 
 provided for, I can put the issue thereof upon the clearest 
 reason ; whatsoever any go about to suggest to the contrary. 
 But this not being the time and place of such an averment, 
 ' I forbear at present.' For satisfaction's sake herein, enough is 
 said in a Book entituled 'A State of the Case of the Common- 
 wealth} published in January 1653.* And for myself, I desire 
 
 * ' Printed by Thomas Newcomb, London, 1653-4 ; ' ' wrote with 
 great spirit of language and subtilty of argument,' says the Parlia- 
 mentary History (xx. 419).
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL 29 
 
 not to keep my place in this Government an hour longer than I 
 may preserve England in its just rights, and may protect the 
 People of God in such a just Liberty of their Consciences as I 
 have already mentioned. And therefore if this Parliament have 
 judged things to be otherwise than as I have stated them, it 
 had been huge friendliness between persons who had such a 
 reciprocation in so great concernments to the public, for them 
 to have convinced me in what particulars therein my error 
 lay 1 Of which I never yet had a word from you ! But if, 
 instead thereof, your time has been spent in setting-up some- 
 what else, upon another bottom than this stands "upon," 
 it looks as if the laying grounds for a quarrel had rather 
 been designed than to give the People settlement. If it be 
 thus, it's well your labours have not arrived to any maturity at 
 all! 
 
 This Government called you hither ; the constitution thereof 
 being limited so, a Single Person and a Parliament. And 
 this was thought most agreeable to the general sense of 
 the Nation ; having had experience enough, by trial, of other 
 conclusions ; judging this most likely to avoid the extremes 
 of Monarchy on the one hand, and of Democracy on the 
 other ; and yet not to found Dominium in Gratid " either." 
 And if so, then certainly to make the Authority more than a 
 mere notion, it was requisite that it should be as it is in this 
 " Frame of" Government ; which puts it upon a true and 
 equal balance. It has been already submitted to the judicious, 
 true and honest People of this Nation, Whether the balance 
 be not equal ? And what their judgment is, is visible by 
 submission to it ; by acting upon it ; by restraining their 
 Trustees from meddling with it. And it neither asks nor 
 needs any better ratification ? But when Trustees in Parlia- 
 ment shall, by experience, find any evil in any parts of this 
 "Frame of" Government, "a question" referred by the 
 Government itself to the consideration of the Protector and 
 Parliament, of which evil or evils Time itself will be the best 
 discoverer : how can it be reasonably imagined that a Person 
 or Persons, coming in by election, and standing under such
 
 30 OLIVER CROMWELL, 
 
 obligations, and so limited, and so necessitated by oath to 
 govern for the People's good, and to make their love, under 
 God, the best underpropping and only safe footing : how can 
 it, I say, be imagined that the present or succeeding Protectors 
 will refuse to agree to alter any such thing in the Government 
 as may be found to be for the good of the People ? Or to 
 recede from anything which he might be convinced casts the 
 balance too much to the Single Person ? And although, for 
 the present, the keeping-up and having in his power the 
 Militia seems the hardest " condition," yet if the power of the 
 Militia should be yielded up at such a time as this, when there 
 is as much need of it to keep this Cause (new most evidently 
 impugned by all Enemies), as there was to get it "for the 
 sake of this Cause " : what would become of us all I Or if 
 it should not be equally placed in him and the Parliament, 
 but yielded up at any time it determines his power either for 
 doing the good he ought, or hindering Parliaments from 
 perpetuating themselves ; from imposing what Religion they 
 please on the consciences of men, or what Government they 
 please upon the Nation. Thereby subjecting us to dissettle- 
 ment in every Parliament, and to the desperate consequences 
 thereof. And if the Nation shall happen to fall into a blessed 
 Peace, how easily and certainly will their charge be taken 
 off, and their forces be disbanded 1 And then where will the 
 danger be to have the Militia thus stated ? What if I should 
 say: If there be a disproportion, or disequality as to the power, 
 it is on the other hand ! 
 
 And if this be so, Wherein have you had cause to quarrel ? 
 What, demonstrations have you held forth to settle me to 
 your opinion ? I would you had made me so happy as to 
 have let me known your grounds ! I have made a free and 
 ingenuous confession of my faith to you. And I could have 
 wished it had been in your hearts to have agreed that some 
 friendly and cordial debates might have been toward mutual 
 conviction. Was there none amongst you to move such a 
 thing? No fitness to listen to it? No desire of a right 
 understanding ? If it be not folly in me to listen to Town-talk*
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 31 
 
 such things have been proposed ; and rejected, with stiffness 
 and severity, once and again. Was it not likely to have 
 been more advantageous to the good of this Nation ? I will 
 say this to you for myself; and to that I have my conscience 
 as a thousand witnesses, and I have my comfort and content- 
 ment in it ; and I have the witness too of divers here, who 
 I think truly would scorn to own me in a lie : That I would 
 not have been averse to any alteration, of the good of which 
 I might have been convinced. Although I could not have 
 agreed to the taking it off the foundation on which it stands ; 
 namely, the acceptance and consent of the People. 
 
 I will not presage what you have been about, or doing, 
 in all this time. Nor do I love to make conjectures. But 
 I must tell you this : That as I undertook this Government 
 in the simplicity of my heart and as before God, and to do 
 the part of an honest man, and to be true to the Interest, 
 which in my conscience " I think" is dear to many of you ; 
 though it is not always understood what God in His wisdom 
 may hide from us, as to Peace and Settlement : so I can 
 say that no particular interest, either of myself, estate, honour 
 or family, are, or have been, prevalent with me to this under- 
 taking. For if you had, upon the old Government,* offered 
 me this one, this one thing, I speak as thus advised, and 
 before God ; as having been to this day of this opinion ; and 
 this hath been my constant judgment, well known to many 
 who hear me speak : if, " I say," this one thing had been 
 inserted, this one thing, That the Government should have 
 been placed in my Family hereditary, I would have rejected 
 it 1 1 And I could have done no other according to my 
 present conscience and light. I will tell you my reason ; 
 
 * Means " the existing Instrument of Government " without modi- 
 fication of yours. 
 
 + The matter in debate, running very high at this juncture, in the 
 Parliament, was with regard to the Single Person's being hereditary. 
 Hence partly the Protector's emphasis here.
 
 32 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 though I cannot tell what God will do with me, nor with 
 you, nor with the Nation, for throwing away precious oppor- 
 tunities committed to us. 
 
 This hath been my principle; and I liked it, when this 
 Government came first to be proposed to me, That it puts 
 us off that hereditary way. Well looking that God hath 
 declared what Government He delivered to the Jews ; and 
 that He placed it upon such Persons as had been instru- 
 mental for the Conduct and Deliverance of His People. 
 And considering that Promise in Isaiah, " That God would 
 give Rulers as at the first, and Judges as at the begin- 
 ning," I did not know but that God might "now" begin, 
 and though, at present, with a most unworthy person ; yet, 
 as to the future, it might be after this manner ; and I 
 thought this might usher it in ! I am speaking as to my 
 judgment against making Government hereditary. To have 
 men chosen, for their love to God, and to Truth and 
 Justice ; and not to have it hereditary. For as it is 
 in the Ecclesiastes : "Who knoweth whether he may beget 
 a fool or a wise man?" Honest or not honest, whatever 
 they be, they must come in, on that plan ; because the 
 Government is made a patrimony 1 And this I perhaps do 
 declare with too much earnestness ; as being my own con- 
 cernment ; and know not what place it may have in your 
 hearts, and in those of the Good People in the Nation. 
 But however it be, I have comfort in this my truth and 
 plainness. 
 
 1 have thus told you my thoughts ; which truly I have 
 declared to you in the fear of God, as knowing He will not 
 be mocked ; and in the strength of God, as knowing and 
 rejoicing that I am supported in my speaking ; especially 
 when I do not form or frame things without the compass of 
 integrity and honesty ; so that my own conscience gives 
 me not the lie to what I say. And then in what I say, I can 
 rejoice. 
 
 Now to speak a word or two to you. Of that, I must profess 
 in the name of the same Lord, and wish there had been no
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 33 
 
 cause that I should have thus spoken to you ! I told you 
 that I came with joy the first time ; with some regret the 
 second ; yet now I speak with most regret of all ! I look 
 upon you as having among you many persons that I could 
 lay down my life individually for. I could, through the grace 
 of God, desire to lay down my life for you. So far am I 
 from having an unkind or unchristian heart towards you in 
 your particular capacities ! I have this indeed as a work most 
 incumbent upon me ; this of speaking these things to you. 
 I consulted what might be my duty in such a day as this ; 
 casting up all considerations. I must confess, as I told you, 
 that I did think occasionally, This Nation had suffered 
 extremely in the respects mentioned ; as also in the disappoint- 
 ment of their expectations of that justice which was due to 
 them by your sitting thus long. "Sitting thus long;" and 
 what have you brought forth ? I did not nor cannot com- 
 prehend what it is. I would be loath to call it a Fate ; that 
 were too paganish a word. But there hath been Something 
 in it that we had not in our expectations. 
 
 I did think also, for myself, That I am like to meet with 
 difficulties ; and that this Nation will not, as it is fit it should 
 not, be deluded with pretexts of Necessity in that great 
 business of raising of Money. And were it not that I can 
 make some dilemmas upon which to resolve some things of 
 my conscience, judgment and actions, I should shrink at the 
 very prospect of my encounters. Some of them are general, 
 some are more special. Supposing this Cause or this Business 
 must be carried on, it is either of God or of man. If it be 
 of man, I would I had never touched it with a finger. If I 
 had not had a hope fixed in me that this Cause and this 
 Business was of God, I would many years ago have run from 
 it. If it be of God, He will bear it up. If it be of man, it 
 will tumble ; as everything that hath been of man since the 
 world began hath done. And \vhat are all our Histories, and 
 other Traditions of Actions in former times, but God manifest- 
 ing Himself, that He hath shaken, and tumbled down and 
 trampled upon, everything that He had not planted? And 
 
 615
 
 34 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 as this is, so let the All-wise God deal with it. If this be 
 of human structure and invention, and if it be an old Plotting 
 and Contriving to bring things to this Issue, and that they 
 are not the Births of Providence, then they will tumble. But 
 if the Lord take pleasure in England, and if He will do us 
 good, He is very able to bear us up ! Let the difficulties 
 be whatsoever they will, we shall in His strength be able to 
 encounter with them. And I bless God I have been inured 
 to difficulties ; and I never found God failing when I trusted 
 in Him. I can laugh and sing, in my heart, when I speak 
 of these things to you or elsewhere. And though some may 
 think it is an hard thing To raise Money without Parliamentary 
 Authority upon this Nation ; yet I have another argument to 
 the Good People of this Nation, if they would be safe, and 
 yet have no better principle : Whether they prefer the having 
 of their will though it be their destruction, rather than comply 
 with things of Necessity? That will excuse me. But I should 
 wrong my native country to suppose this. 
 
 For I look at the People of these Nations as the blessing of 
 the Lord : and they are a People blessed by God. They have 
 been so ; and they will be so, by reason of that immortal seed 
 which hath been, and is, among them : those Regenerated 
 Ones in the land, of several judgments ; who are all the Flock 
 of Christ, and lambs of Christ. " His," though perhaps under 
 many unruly passions, and troubles of spirit ; whereby they 
 give disquiet to themselves and others : yet they are not so to 
 God; since to us He is a God of other patience ; and He will 
 own the least of Truth in the hearts of His People. And the 
 People being the blessing of God, they will not be so angry but 
 they will prefer their safety to their passions, and their real 
 security to forms, when Necessity calls for Supplies. Had they 
 not well been acquainted with this principle, they had never 
 seen this day of Gospel Liberty. 
 
 But if any man shall object, " It is an easy thing to talk of 
 Necessities when men create Necessities : would not the Lord 
 Protector make himself great and his family great ? Doth not 
 he make these Necessities ? And then he will come upon the
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 35 
 
 People with his argument of Necessity ! " This was something 
 hard indeed. But I have not yet known what it is to " make 
 Necessities," whatsoever the thoughts or judgments of men are. 
 And I say this, not only to this Assembly, but to the world, 
 That the man liveth not who can come to me and charge me 
 with having, in these great Revolutions, " made Necessities." 
 I challenge even all that fear God. And as God hath said, 
 " My glory I will not give unto another," let men take heed and 
 be twice advised how they call His Revolutions, the things of 
 God, and His working of things from one period to another, 
 how, I say, they call them Necessities of men's creation ! For 
 by so doing, they do vilify and lessen the works of God, and 
 rob Him of His glory; which He hath said He will not give 
 unto another, nor suffer to be taken from Him ! We know 
 what God did to Herod, when he was applauded and did not 
 acknowledge God. And God knoweth what He will do with 
 men, when they call His Revolutions human designs, and so 
 detract from His glory. These issues and events have not been 
 forecast ; but were sudden Providences in things : whereby 
 carnal and worldly men are enraged ; and under and at which, 
 many, and I fear some good men, have murmured and repined, 
 because disappointed of their mistaken fancies. But still all 
 these things have been the wise disposings of the Almighty; 
 though instruments have had their passions and frailties. 
 And I think it is an honour to God to acknowledge the Neces- 
 sities to have been of God's imposing, when truly they have 
 been so, as indeed they have. Let us take our sin in our 
 actions to ourselves ; it's much more safe than to judge 
 things so contingent, as if there were not a God that ruled the 
 Earth ! 
 
 We know the Lord hath poured this Nation from vessel to 
 vessel, till He poured it into your lap, when you came first 
 together. I am confident that it came so into your hands ; and 
 was not judged by you to be from counterfeited or feigned 
 Necessity, but by Divine Providence and Dispensation. And 
 this I speak with more earnestness, because I speak for God 
 and not for men. 1 would have any man to come and tell of
 
 36 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 the Transactions that have been, and of those periods of time 
 wherein God hath made these Revolutions ; and find where he 
 can fix a feigned Necessity 1 I could recite particulars, if either 
 my strength would serve me to speak, or yours to hear. If you 
 would consider* the great Hand of God in His great Dispensa- 
 tions, you would find that there is scarce a man who fell off, at 
 any period of time when God had any work to do, who can give 
 God or His work at this day a good word. 
 
 " It was," say some, " the cunning of the Lord Protector," 
 I take it to myself, " it was the craft of such a man, and his 
 plot, that hath brought it about ! " And, as they say in 
 other countries, " There are five or six cunning men in England 
 that have skill ; they do all these things." Oh, what blasphemy 
 is this 1 Because men that are without God in the world, and 
 walk not with Him, know not what it is to pray or believe, and 
 to receive returns from God, and to be spoken unto by the 
 Spirit of God, who speaks without a Written Word some- 
 times, yet according to it ! God hath spoken heretofore in 
 divers manners. Let Him speak as He pleaseth. Hath He 
 not given us liberty, nay, is it not our duty, To go to the Law 
 and the Testimony ? And there we shall find that there have 
 been impressions, in extraordinary cases, as well without the 
 Written Word as with it. And therefore there is no difference 
 in the thing thus asserted from truths generally received, 
 except we will exclude the Spirit; without whose concurrence 
 all other teachings are ineffectual. He doth speak to the 
 hearts and consciences of men ; and leadeth them to His Law 
 and Testimony, and there "also" He speaks to them: and so 
 gives them double teachings. According to that of Job : "God 
 speaketh once, yea twice ; " and to that of David : " God hath 
 spoken once, yea twice have I heard this." These men that 
 live upon their mumpsimus and sumpsimus, their Masses and 
 Service-books, their dead and carnal worship, no marvel if 
 they be strangers to God, and to the works of God, and to 
 spiritual dispensations. And because they say and believe 
 
 * " If that you would revolve " in the original.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 37 
 
 thus, must we do so too ? We, in this land, have been other- 
 wise instructed ; even by the Word, and Works, and Spirit of 
 God. 
 
 To say that men bring forth these things when God doth 
 them, judge you if God will bear this? I wish that every 
 sober heart, though he hath had temptations upon him of 
 deserting this Cause of God, yet may take heed how he 
 provokes and falls into the hands of the Living God by such 
 blasphemies as these ! According to the Tenth of the Hebrews: 
 " If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge 
 of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin." "A 
 terrible word." It was spoken to the Jews who, having pro- 
 fessed Christ, apostatised from Him. What then? Nothing 
 but a fearful " falling into the hands of the Living God ! " 
 They that shall attribute to this or that person the contrivances 
 and production of those mighty things God hath wrought in 
 the midst of us ; and " fancy " that they have not been the 
 Revolutions of Christ Himself, "upon whose shoulders the 
 government is laid," they speak against God, and they fall 
 under His hand without a Mediator. That is, if we deny the 
 Spirit of Jesus Christ the glory of all His works in the world ; 
 by which He rules kingdoms, and doth administer, and is the 
 rod of His strength, we provoke the Mediator : and He may 
 say : I will leave you to God, I will not intercede for you ; let 
 Him tear you to pieces ! I will leave thee to fall into God's 
 hands ; thou deniest me my sovereignty and power committed 
 to me ; I will not intercede nor mediate for thee ; thou fallest 
 into the hands of the Living God 1 Therefore whatsoever you 
 may judge men for, howsoever you may say, " This is cunning, 
 and politic, and subtle," take heed again, I say, how you 
 judge of His Revolutions as the product of men's inventions ! 
 I may be thought to press too much upon this theme. But I 
 pray God it may stick upon your hearts and mine. The 
 worldly-minded man knows nothing of this, but is a stranger to 
 it ; and thence his atheisms, and murmurings at instruments, 
 yea, repining at God Himself. And no wonder; considering 
 the Lord hath done such things amongst us as have not been
 
 3 8 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 known in the world these thousand years, and yet notwith- 
 standing is not owned by us ! 
 
 There is another Necessity, which you have put upon us, and 
 we have not sought. I appeal to God, Angels and Men, if 
 I shall " now " raise money according to the Article in the 
 Government, whether I am not compelled to do it ! Which 
 " Government " had power to call you hither ; and did ; and 
 instead of seasonably providing for the Army, you have 
 laboured to overthrow the Government, and the Army is now 
 upon Free-quarter ! And you would never so much as let me 
 hear a tittle from you concerning it. Where is the fault ? Has 
 it not been as if you had a purpose to put this extremity 
 upon us and the Nation ? I hope this was not in your minds. 
 I am not willing to judge so : but such is the state into which 
 we are reduced. By the designs of some in the Army who are 
 now in custody, it was designed to get as many of them as 
 possible, through discontent for want of money, the Army 
 being in a barren country, near thirty weeks behind in pay, and 
 upon other specious pretences, to march for England out of 
 Scotland ; and, in discontent, to seize their General there 
 {General Monk\ a faithful and honest man, that so another 
 [Colonel Over/on] might head the Army. And all this oppor- 
 tunity taken from your delays. Whether will this be a thing of 
 feigned Necessity ? What could it signify, but " The Army 
 are in discontent already ; and we will make them live upon 
 stones ; we will make them cast-off their governors and 
 discipline?" What can be said to this? I list not to 
 unsaddle myself, and put the fault upon your backs. Whether 
 it hath been for the good of England, whilst men have been 
 talking of this thing or the other, and pretending liberty and 
 many good words, whether it has been as it should have 
 been ? I am confident you cannot think it has. The Nation 
 will not think so. And if the worst should be made of things, 
 I know not what the Cornish men nor the Lincolnshire men 
 may think, or other Counties ; but I believe they will all think 
 they are not safe. A temporary suspension of " caring for the 
 greatest liberties and privileges " (if it were so, which is denied)
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 39 
 
 would not have been of such damage as the not providing 
 against Free-quarter hath run the Nation upon. And if it be 
 my " liberty " to walk abroad in the fields, or to take a journey, 
 yet it is not my wisdom to do so when my house is on fire ! 
 
 I have troubled you with a long Speech ; and I believe it 
 may not have the same resentment* with all that it hath with 
 some. But because that is unknown to me, I shall leave it to 
 God ; and conclude with this : That I think myself bound, as 
 in my duty to God, and to the People of these Nations for 
 their safety and good in every respect, I think it my duty to 
 tell you that it is not for the profit of these Nations, nor for 
 common and public good, for you to continue here any longer. 
 And therefore I do declare unto you, That I do dissolve this 
 Parliament.t 
 
 * Means "sense excited by it." 
 
 t Old Pamphlet : reprinted in Parliamentary History, xx. 404-431.
 
 40 LORD CHATHAM. 
 
 LORD CHATHAM. 
 
 Speech on the Government Policy in America. House of 
 Lords, January 20, 1775. 
 
 [THE rupture between England and her American Colonies was 
 foreseen by the French statesman Vergennes, who said, " They 
 (the Colonies) stand no longer in need of her protection ; she will 
 call on them to contribute toward supporting the burdens they have 
 helped to bring on her, and they will answer by striking off all 
 dependence." This rupture might, however, have been delayed and 
 its asperities softened had it not been for the attitude and policy of the 
 British Government. Against that policy some of the foremost British 
 statesmen protested, notably Lord Chatham. The speech here given 
 is comparatively brief, but it is one of Chatham's greatest efforts. 
 The occasion was the presentation by Lord Dartmouth, Colonial 
 Secretary, of papers to the House of Lords relative to the disturb- 
 ances in America. Chatham thereupon moved a resolution in these 
 terms : " That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, 
 humbly to desire and beseech his Majesty that, in order to open 
 the way towards a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in 
 America, by beginning to allay ferments and soften animosities 
 there ; and, above all, for preventing in the meantime any sudden 
 and fatal catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under the daily irri- 
 tation of an army before their eyes posted in their town : it may 
 graciously please his Majesty that immediate orders be despatched 
 to General Gage for removing his Majesty's forces from the town 
 of Boston as soon as the rigour of the season, and other circumstances 
 indispensable to the safety and accommodation of the said troops, 
 may render the same practicable." The House rejected this resolution 
 by a majority of 68 to 18, and so precipitated Lexington and Concord.
 
 LORD CHATHAM. 41 
 
 Franklin, who was agent for Pennsylvania, was present at this 
 debate, through the personal introduction of Chatham, and records his 
 delight at the great speech. Writing to Lord Stanhope, Franklin 
 said : "Dr. Franklin presents his best respects to Lord Stanhope, with 
 many thanks to his lordship and Lord Chatham for the communi- 
 cation of so authentic a copy of the motion. Dr. Franklin is rilled 
 with admiration of that truly great man. He has seen in the course 
 of his life sometimes eloquence without wisdom, and often wisdom 
 without eloquence; in the present instance he sees both united, 
 and both, as he thinks, in the highest degree possible."] 
 
 THE EARL OF CHATHAM, after strongly condemning the 
 dilatoriness of administration, etc., proceeded as follows : 
 
 But as I have not the honour of access to his Majesty, I 
 will endeavour to transmit to him, through the constitutional 
 channel of this House, my ideas of America, to rescue him 
 from the misadvice of his present ministers. I congratulate 
 your lordships that the business is at last entered upon by the 
 noble lords laying the papers before you. As I suppose your 
 lordships too well apprized of their contents, I hope I am not 
 premature in submitting to you my present motion 
 
 "That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, 
 humbly to desire and beseech his Majesty that, in order to 
 open the way towards a happy settlement of the dangerous 
 troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments and soften 
 animosities there ; and, above all, for preventing in the mean- 
 time any sudden and fatal catastrophe at Boston, now suffering 
 under the daily irritation of an army before their eyes posted 
 in their town : it may graciously please his Majesty that 
 immediate orders be despatched to General Gage for removing 
 his Majesty's forces from the town of Boston as soon as the 
 rigour of the season, and other circumstances indispensable to 
 the safety and accommodation of the said troops, may render 
 the same practicable." 
 
 I wish, my Lords, not to lose a day in this urgent, pressing 
 crisis ; an hour now lost in allaying ferments in America may 
 produce years of calamity. For my own part, I will not desert
 
 42 LORD CHATHAM. 
 
 for a moment the conduct of this weighty business from the 
 first to the last, unless nailed to my bed by the extremity of 
 sickness. I will give it unremitted attention ; I will knock at 
 the door of this sleeping and confounded ministry, and will 
 rouse them to a sense of their important danger. 
 
 When I state the importance of the Colonies to this country, 
 and the magnitude of danger hanging over this country from 
 the present plan of misadministration practised against them, 
 I desire not to be understood to argue for a reciprocity of 
 indulgence between England and America. I contend not for 
 indulgence, but justice to America ; and I shall ever contend 
 that the Americans justly owe obedience to us in a limited 
 degree they owe obedience to our ordinances of trade and 
 navigation ; but let the line be skilfully drawn between the 
 objects of those ordinances and their private, internal property; 
 let the sacredness of their property remain inviolate ; let it be 
 taxable only by their own consent, given in their provincial 
 assemblies, else it will cease to be property. As to the meta- 
 physical refinements, attempting to show that the Americans 
 are equally free from obedience and commercial restraints as 
 from taxation for revenue, as being unrepresented here, I 
 pronounce them as futile, frivolous, and groundless. 
 
 When I urge this measure of recalling the troops from 
 Boston, I urge it on this pressing principle that it is necessarily 
 preparatory to the restoration of your peace and the establish- 
 ment of your prosperity. It will then appear that you are 
 disposed to treat amicably and equitably; and to consider, 
 revise, and repeal, if it should be found necessary, as I affirm 
 it will, those violent acts and declarations which have dis- 
 seminated confusion throughout your Empire. 
 
 Resistance to your acts was necessary, as it was just ; and 
 your vain declarations of the omnipotence of Parliament, and 
 your imperious doctrines of the necessity of submission, will be 
 found equally impotent to convince, or to enslave, your fellow- 
 subjects in America, who feel that tyranny, whether ambitioned 
 by an individual part of the legislature, or the bodies who 
 comprise it, is equally intolerable to British subjects.
 
 LORD CHATHAM, 43 
 
 The means of enforcing this thraldom are found to be as 
 ridiculous and weak in practice as they are unjust in principle. 
 Indeed, I cannot but feel the most anxious sensibility for the 
 situation of General Gage and the troops under his command ; 
 thinking him, as I do, a man of humanity and understanding, 
 and entertaining, as I ever will, the highest respect, the 
 warmest love, for the British troops. Their situation is truly 
 unworthy; penned up pining in inglorious inactivity. They 
 are an army of impotence. You may call them an army of 
 safety and guard, but they are in truth an army of impotence 
 and contempt; and, to make the folly equal to the disgrace, 
 they are an army of irritation and vexation. But I find a 
 report creeping abroad, that ministers censure General Gage's 
 inactivity ; let them censure him it becomes them it becomes 
 their justice and their honour. I mean not to censure his 
 inactivity; it is a prudent and necessary inaction; but it is a 
 miserable condition, where disgrace is prudence, and where it 
 is necessary to be contemptible. This tameness, however con- 
 temptible, cannot be censured ; for the first drop of blood shed 
 in civil and unnatural war might be immedicabile pulnus. 
 
 I therefore urge and conjure your lordships immediately to 
 adopt this conciliating measure. I will pledge myself for its 
 immediately producing conciliatory effects by its being thus 
 well timed ; but if you delay till your vain hope shall be accom- 
 plished, of triumphantly dictating reconciliation, you delay for 
 ever. But admitting that this hope, which in truth is desperate, 
 should be accomplished, what do you gain by the imposition of 
 your victorious amnity ? You will be untrusted and unthanked. 
 Adopt, then, the grace while you have the opportunity of 
 reconcilement, or at least prepare the way. Allay the ferment 
 prevailing in America by removing the obnoxious hostile cause 
 obnoxious and unserviceable, for their merit can be only 
 inaction. Non dimicare et -uincere their victory can never be 
 by exertions. Their force would be most disproportionately 
 exerted against a brave, generous, and united people, with arms 
 in their hands, and courage in their hearts three millions of 
 people, the genuine descendants of a valiant and pious ancestry,
 
 44 LORD CHATHAM. 
 
 driven to those deserts by the narrow maxims of a superstitious 
 tyranny. And is the spirit of persecution never to be appeased? 
 Are the brave sons of those brave forefathers to inherit their 
 sufferings, as they have inherited their virtues? Are they to 
 sustain the infliction of the most impressive and unexampled 
 severity, beyond the accounts of history or description of 
 poetry. " Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna, castigatque^ 
 auditique" So says the wisest poet and perhaps the wisest 
 statesman and politician. But our ministers say, the Americans 
 must not be heard. They have been condemned unheard. 
 The indiscriminate hand of vengeance has lumped together 
 innocent and guilty, with all the formalities of hostility has 
 blocked up the town (Boston), and reduced to beggary and 
 famine thirty thousand inhabitants. 
 
 But his Majesty is advised that the union in America cannot 
 last. Ministers have more eyes than I, and should have more 
 ears ; but with all the information I have been able to procure, 
 I can pronounce it a union, solid, permanent, and effectual. 
 Ministers may satisfy themselves and delude the public with 
 the report of what they call commercial bodies in America. 
 They are not commercial ; they are your packers and factors ; 
 they live upon nothing for I call commission nothing. I mean 
 the ministerial authority for this American intelligence ; the 
 runners for Government, who are paid for their intelligence. 
 But these are not the men, nor this the influence, to be 
 considered in America when we estimate the firmness of 
 their union. Even to extend the question, and to take in 
 the really mercantile circle, will be totally inadequate to 
 the consideration. Trade indeed increases the wealth and 
 glory of a country ; but its real strength and stamina are 
 to be looked for among the cultivators of the land; in 
 their simplicity of life is found the simpleness of virtue the 
 integrity and courage of freedom. These true, genuine sons 
 of the earth are invincible ; and they surround and hem in 
 the mercantile bodies ; even if these bodies, which supposition 
 I totally disclaim, could be supposed disaffected to the cause 
 of liberty. Of this general spirit existing in the British nation
 
 LORD CHATHAM. 45 
 
 (for so I wish to distinguish the real and genuine Americans 
 from the pseudo-traders I have described), of this spirit of 
 independence animating the nation of America, I have the 
 most authentic information. It is not new among them ; it is, 
 and has ever been, their established principle, their confirmed 
 persuasion ; it is their nature and their doctrine. 
 
 I remember some years ago, when the repeal of the Stamp 
 Act was in agitation, conversing in a friendly confidence with 
 a person of undoubted respect and authenticity on that subject ; 
 and he assured me with a certainty which his judgment and 
 opportunity gave him, that these were the prevalent and steady 
 principles of America that you might destroy their towns, 
 and cut them off from the superfluities, perhaps the conveni- 
 ences of life ; but that they were prepared to despise your 
 power, and would not lament their loss, whilst they have 
 what, my lords ? their woods and their liberty. The name 
 of my authority, if I am called upon, will authenticate the 
 opinion irrefragably. (It was Dr. Franklin.) 
 
 If illegal violences have been, as it is said, committed in 
 America, prepare the way, open the door of possibility, for 
 acknowledgment and satisfaction ; but proceed not to such 
 coercion, such prescription ; cease your indiscriminate inflic- 
 tions ; amerce not thirty thousand ; oppress not three millions, 
 for the fault of forty or fifty individuals. Such severity of 
 injustice must for ever render incurable the wounds you have 
 already given your Colonies ; you irritate them to unappeas- 
 able rancour. What though you march from town to town, 
 and from province to province ; though you should be able to 
 secure the obedience of the country you leave behind you 
 in your progress, to grasp the dominion of eighteen hundred 
 miles of continent, populous in numbers possessing valour, 
 liberty, and resistance ? 
 
 This resistance to your arbitrary system of taxation might 
 have been foreseen ; it was obvious from the nature of things, 
 and of mankind ; and above all, from the Whiggish spirit 
 flourishing in that country. The spirit which now resists your 
 taxation in America is the same which formerly opposed
 
 46 LORD CHATHAM. 
 
 loans, benevolences, and ship-money in England ; the same 
 spirit which called all England on its legs, and by the Bill 
 of Rights vindicated the English constitution ; the same spirit 
 which established the great fundamental, essential maxim of 
 your liberties that no subject of England shall be taxed but 
 by his own consent. 
 
 This glorious spirit of Whiggism animates three millions 
 in America, who prefer poverty with liberty to gilded chains 
 and sordid affluence ; and who will die in defence of their 
 rights as men, as freemen. What shall oppose this spirit, 
 aided by the congenial flame glowing in the breasts of every 
 Whig in England, to the amount, I hope, of double the 
 American numbers? Ireland they have to a man. In that 
 country, joined as it is with the cause of colonies, and placed 
 at their head, the distinction I contend for is and must be 
 observed. This country superintends and controls their 
 trade and navigation ; but they tax themselves. And this 
 distinction between external and internal control is sacred 
 and insurmountable ; it is involved in the abstract nature of 
 things. Property is private, individual, absolute. Trade is an 
 extended and complicated consideration ; it reaches as far as 
 ships can sail or winds can blow; it is a great and various 
 machine. To regulate the numberless movements of its 
 several parts, and combine them with effect, for the good 
 of the whole, requires the superintending wisdom and energy 
 of the supreme power in the empire. But this supreme power 
 has no effect towards internal taxation, for it does not exist 
 in that relation ; there is no such thing, no such idea in this 
 constitution, as a supreme power operating upon property. 
 Let this distinction remain for ever ascertained : taxation is 
 theirs, commercial regulation is ours. As an American, I 
 would recognise to England her supreme right of regulating 
 commerce and navigation ; as an Englishman by birth and 
 principle, I recognise to the Americans their supreme 
 unalienable right to their property a right which they 
 are justified in the defence of to the last extremity. To 
 maintain this principle is the common cause of the Whigs
 
 LORD CHATHAM. 47 
 
 on the other side of the Atlantic, and on this. " 'Tis liberty 
 to liberty engaged," that they will defend themselves, their 
 families, and their country. In this great cause they are 
 immovably allied ; it is the alliance of God and nature 
 immutable, eternal, fixed as the firmament of heaven. 
 
 To such united force, what force shall be opposed ? What, 
 my lords? A few regiments in America, and seventeen or 
 eighteen thousand men at home ! The idea is too ridiculous 
 to take up a moment of your lordships' time. Nor can such a 
 rational and principled union be resisted by the tricks of office 
 or ministerial manoeuvre. Laying of papers on your table, or 
 counting numbers on a division, will not avert or postpone 
 the hour of danger ; it must arrive, my lords, unless these fatal 
 Acts are done away ; it must arrive in all its horrors, and then 
 these boastful ministers, spite of all their confidence, and all 
 their manoeuvres, shall be forced to hide their heads. They 
 shall be forced to a disgraceful abandonment of their present 
 measures and principles, which they avow but cannot defend 
 measures which they presume to attempt, but cannot hope to 
 effectuate. They cannot, my lords, they cannot stir a step j 
 they have not a move left ; they are checkmated. 
 
 But it is not repealing this Act of Parliament, it is not 
 repealing a piece of parchment, that can restore America to our 
 bosom: you must repeal her fears and her resentments ; and 
 you may then hope for her love and gratitude. But now, 
 insulted with an armed force posted at Boston, irritated with 
 an hostile array before her eyes, her concessions, if you could 
 force them, would be suspicious and insecure ; they will be irato 
 animo; they will not be the sound, honourable passions of 
 freemen, they will be dictates of fear, and extortions of force. 
 But it is more than evident that you cannot force them, united 
 as they are, to your unworthy terms of submission it is 
 impossible ; and when I hear General Gage censured for 
 inactivity, I must retort with indignation on those whose 
 intemperate measures and improvident councils have betrayed 
 him into his present situation. His situation reminds me, my 
 lords, of the answer of a French general in the civil wars of
 
 48 LORD CHATHAM. 
 
 France Monsieur Conde opposed to Monsieur Turenne. He 
 was asked how it happened that he did not take his adversary 
 prisoner, as he was often very near him : "faipeur" replied 
 Conde* very honestly, "J*at peur qrfil ne me prenne" (I'm 
 afraid he'll take me). 
 
 When your lordships look at the papers transmitted us from 
 America, when you consider their decency, firmness, and 
 wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make 
 it your own. For myself, I must declare and avow that in all 
 my reading and observation and it has been my favourite 
 study : I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired 
 the master-states of the world that for solidity of reasoning, 
 force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a 
 complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body 
 of men can stand in preference to the General Congress 
 at Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to your lordships, 
 that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to 
 establish despotism over such a mighty continental nation, 
 must be vain, must be fatal. We shall be forced ultimately 
 to retract ; let us restrain while we can, not when we must. 
 I say we must necessarily undo these violent oppressive 
 Acts ; they must be repealed you will repeal them ; I 
 pledge myself for it, that you will in the end repeal them ; I 
 stake my reputation on it : I will consent to be taken for an 
 idiot, if they are not finally repealed. Avoid, then, this 
 humiliating, disgraceful necessity. With a dignity becoming 
 your exalted situation, make the first advances to concord, to 
 peace, and happiness ; for that is your true dignity, to act with 
 prudence and justice. That you should first concede is obvious, 
 from sound and rational policy. Concession comes with better 
 grace and more salutary effect from superior power ; it recon- 
 ciles superiority of power with the feelings of men, and 
 establishes solid confidence on the foundations of affection and 
 gratitude. 
 
 So thought a wise poet and a wise man in political sagacity, 
 the friend of Maecenas, and the eulogist of Augustus to him 
 the adopted son and successor, the first Caesar, to him the
 
 LORD CHATHAM. 49 
 
 master of the world, he wisely urged this conduct of prudence 
 and dignity : " Tuque puer, tu parcej projice tela manu." 
 
 Every motive, therefore, of justice and of policy, of dignity and 
 prudence, urges you to allay the ferment in America by a 
 removal of your troops from Boston, by a repeal of your Acts 
 of Parliament, and by demonstration of amicable dispositions 
 towards your Colonies. On the other hand, every danger and 
 every hazard impend to deter you from perseverance in your 
 present ruinous measures foreign war hanging over your 
 heads by a slight and brittle thread ; France and Spain 
 watching your conduct, and waiting for the maturity of your 
 errors ; with a vigilant eye to America, and the temper of your 
 Colonies, more than to their own concerns, be they what they 
 may. 
 
 To conclude, my lords, if the ministers thus persevere in 
 misadvising and misleading the King, I will not say that they 
 can alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown; 
 but I will affirm that they will make the crown not worth 
 his wearing. I will not say that the King is betrayed; but I 
 will pronounce that the kingdom is undone. 
 
 616
 
 50 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 Speech on Moving Resolutions for Conciliation with the 
 American Colonies^ March 22, 1775. 
 
 [IN this speech Burke pleaded the cause of the American Colonies 
 against the policy of the English Government, concluding with resolu- 
 tions which set forth the equity and justice of taxation by grant, not 
 by imposition, which marked the legal competence of the Colonial 
 assemblies for the support of their Government in peace and for public 
 aids in time of war, which set forth that such legal competence had had 
 a dutiful and beneficial exercise, and that experience had shown the 
 benefit of Colonial grants and the futility of Parliamentary taxation as a 
 method of supply. Upon the first resolution, with which he concluded, 
 the previous question was put and carried by 270 to 78 votes. The 
 other resolutions were defeated either by the direct negative or the 
 previous question. This great and wise attempt to restrain the folly 
 of the English Government was made on the very eve of the strife, 
 exactly one month before the fight at Concord. 
 
 Dr. Arnold declared that every statesman should be a close and 
 unremitting student of Aristotle's Politics. A similar tribute of praise 
 might justly be paid to this great oration of Burke's. In many respects 
 it is the most important specimen of British oratory. For the deepest 
 thought, for the most practical political wisdom, for the most searching 
 exposition of the principles which should guide the action of a con- 
 stitutional statesman, it stands unrivalled. And it has, too, the singular 
 charm of a rich and noble eloquence, of apothegms and maxims which 
 stick in the mind and which possess the quality of the most enduring 
 literature. From this speech, too, all partisan elements are absent. 
 Goldsmith gently chided Burke for his strict Whiggism :
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 51 
 
 "Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, 
 And to party gave up what was meant for mankind." 
 
 But there is no party element here. It is the utterance of a philosopher 
 clothed in the language of a great man of letters. It was the solemn 
 appeal of a great and wise man to men who were small and foolish, 
 and whose neglect of its warnings brought disaster and humiliation on 
 their country.] 
 
 I HOPE, Sir, that, notwithstanding the austerity of the 
 Chair, your good-nature will incline you to some degree of 
 indulgence towards human frailty. You will not think it 
 unnatural that those who have an object depending, which 
 strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat 
 inclined to superstition. As I came into the House full of 
 anxiety about the event of my motion, I found, to my infinite 
 surprise, that the grand penal bill, by which we had passed 
 sentence on the trade and sustenance of America, is to be 
 returned to us from the other House.* I do confess, I could 
 not help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. I look 
 upon it as a sort of providential favour ; by which we are 
 put once more in possession of our deliberative capacity, 
 upon a business so very questionable in its nature, so very 
 uncertain in its issue. By the return of this bill, which 
 seemed to have taken its flight for ever, we are at this very 
 instant nearly as free to choose a plan for our American 
 government as we were on the first day of the session. If, 
 Sir, we incline to the side of conciliation, we are not at all 
 embarrassed (unless we please to make ourselves so) by any 
 
 * The Act to restrain the trade and commerce of the provinces of 
 Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, and colonies of Connecticut 
 and Rhode Island, and Providence Plantation, in North America, to 
 Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Islands in the West Indies; and 
 to prohibit such provinces and colonies from carrying on any fishery on 
 the banks of Newfoundland, and other places therein mentioned, under 
 certain conditions and limitations.
 
 52 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 incongruous mixture of coercion and restraint. We are there- 
 fore called upon, as it were by a superior warning voice, 
 again to attend to America ; to attend to the whole of it 
 together ; and to review the subject with an unusual degree 
 of care and calmness. 
 
 Surely it is an awful subject ; or there is none so on this 
 side of the grave. When I first had the honour of a seat 
 in this House, the affairs of that continent pressed them- 
 selves upon us, as the most important and most delicate 
 object of parliamentary attention. My little share in this 
 great deliberation oppressed me. I found myself a partaker 
 in a very high trust ; and having no sort of reason to rely on 
 the strength of my natural abilities for the proper execution 
 of that trust, I was obliged to take more than common pains 
 to instruct myself in everything which relates to our colonies. 
 I was not less under the necessity of forming some fixed 
 ideas concerning the general policy of the British empire. 
 Something of this sort seemed to be indispensable, in order, 
 amidst so vast a fluctuation of passions and opinions, to 
 concentre my thoughts ; to ballast my conduct ; to preserve 
 me from being blown about by every wind of fashionable 
 doctrine. I really did not think it safe, or manly, to have 
 fresh principles to seek upon every fresh mail which should 
 arrive from America. 
 
 At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect 
 concurrence with a large majority in this House. Bowing 
 under that high authority, and penetrated with the sharp- 
 ness and strength of that early impression, I have continued 
 ever since, without the least deviation, in my original senti- 
 ments. Whether this be owing to an obstinate perseverance 
 in error, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me 
 truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge. 
 
 Sir, Parliament having an enlarged view of objects, made, 
 during this interval, more frequent changes in their senti- 
 ments and their conduct, than could be justified in a particular 
 person upon the contracted scale of private information. But 
 though I do not hazard anything approaching to censure on
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 53 
 
 the motives of former parliaments to all those alterations, 
 one fact is undoubted that under them the state of America 
 has been kept in continual agitation. Everything adminis- 
 tered as remedy to the public complaint, if it did not produce, 
 was at least followed by, an heightening of the distemper ; 
 until, by a variety of experiments, that important country 
 has been brought into her present situation ; a situation 
 which I will not miscall, which I dare not name ; which 
 I scarcely know how to comprehend in the terms of any 
 description. 
 
 In this posture, Sir, things stood at the beginning of the 
 session. About that time, a worthy member* of great parlia- 
 mentary experience, who, in the year 1766, filled the chair of 
 the American committee with much ability, took me aside ; 
 and, lamenting the present aspect of our politics, told me, things 
 were come to such a pass that our former methods of proceed- 
 ing in the House would be no longer tolerated. That the 
 public tribunal (never too indulgent to a long and unsuccessful 
 opposition) would now scrutinise our conduct with unusual 
 severity. That the very vicissitudes and shiftings of ministerial 
 measures, instead of convicting their authors of inconstancy 
 and want of system, would be taken as an occasion of charging 
 us with a predetermined discontent, which nothing could satisfy; 
 whilst we accused every measure of vigour as cruel, and every 
 proposal of lenity as weak and irresolute. The public, he said, 
 would not have patience to see us play the game out with our 
 adversaries : we must produce our hand. It would be expected 
 that those who for many years had been active in such affairs 
 should show that they had formed some clear and decided idea 
 of. the principles of colony government, and were capable of 
 drawing out something like a platform of the ground which 
 might be laid for future and permanent tranquillity. 
 
 I felt the truth of what my hon. friend represented ; but I felt 
 my situation too. His application might have been made with 
 far greater propriety to many other gentlemen. No man was 
 
 * Mr. Rose Fuller.
 
 54 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 indeed ever better disposed, or worse qualified, for such an 
 undertaking than myself. Though I gave so far in to his 
 opinion, that I immediately threw my thoughts into a sort of 
 parliamentary form, I was by no means equally ready to 
 produce them. It generally argues some degree of natural 
 impotence of mind, or some want of knowledge of the world, to 
 hazard plans of government except from a seat of authority. 
 Propositions are made, not only ineffectually, but somewhat 
 disreputably, when the minds of men are not properly disposed 
 for their reception ; and for my part, I am not ambitious of 
 ridicule ; not absolutely a candidate for disgrace. 
 
 Besides, Sir, to speak the plain truth, I have in general no 
 very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government ; nor 
 of any politics in which the plan is to be wholly separated 
 from the execution. But when I saw that anger and violence 
 prevailed every day more and more, and that things were 
 hastening towards an incurable alienation of our colonies, I 
 confess my caution gave way. I felt this, as one of those 
 few moments in which decorum yields to a higher duty. 
 Public calamity is a mighty leveller ; and there are occasions 
 when any, even the slightest, chance of doing good, must 
 be laid hold on, even by the most inconsiderable person. 
 
 To restore order and repose to an empire so great and so 
 distracted as ours is, merely in the attempt, an undertaking 
 that would ennoble the flights of the highest genius, and 
 obtain pardon for the efforts of the meanest understanding. 
 Struggling a good while with these thoughts, by degrees I 
 felt myself more firm. I derived, at length, some confidence 
 from what in other circumstances usually produces timidity. 
 I grew less anxious, even from the idea of my own insig- 
 nificance. For, judging of what you are by what you ought 
 to be, I persuaded myself that you would not reject a reason- 
 able proposition because it had nothing but its reason to 
 recommend it. On the other hand, being totally destitute of 
 all shadow of influence, natural or adventitious, I was very 
 sure that, if any proposition were futile or dangerous ; if 
 it were weakly conceived, or improperly timed, there was
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 55 
 
 nothing exterior to it, of power to awe, dazzle, or delude 
 you. You will see it just as it is : and you will treat it just 
 as it deserves. 
 
 The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium 
 of war ; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of 
 intricate and endless negotiations ; not peace to arise out of 
 universal discord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the 
 empire ; not peace to depend on the juridical determination 
 of perplexing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy 
 boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace ; 
 sought in its natural course, and in its ordinary haunts. It 
 is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles 
 purely pacific. I propose, by removing the ground of the 
 difference, and by restoring the former unsuspecting confi- 
 dence of the colonies in the mother country, to give permanent 
 satisfaction to your people ; and (far from a scheme of ruling 
 by discord) to reconcile them to each other in the same act, 
 and by the bond of the very same interest which reconciles 
 them to British government. 
 
 My idea is nothing more. Refined policy ever has been the 
 parent of confusion ; and ever will be so, as long as the world 
 endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at 
 the first view, as fraud is surely detected at last, is, let me say, 
 of no mean force in the government of mankind. Genuine 
 simplicity of heart is an healing and cementing principle. My 
 plan, therefore, being formed upon the most simple grounds 
 imaginable, may disappoint some people when they hear it. It 
 has nothing to recommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. 
 There is nothing at all new and captivating in it. It has 
 nothing of the splendour of the project which has been lately 
 laid upon your table by the noble lord in the blue riband.* It 
 
 * "That when the governor, council, or assembly, or general court, 
 of any of his Majesty's provinces or colonies in America, shall propose 
 to make provision, according to the condition, circumstances, and 
 situation, of such province or colony, for contributing their proportion 
 to the common defence (such proportion to be raised under the authority
 
 5 6 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 does not propose to fill your lobby with squabbling colony 
 agents, who will require the interposition of your mace, at 
 every instant, to keep the peace amongst them. It does not 
 institute a magnificent auction of finance, where captivated 
 provinces come to general ransom by bidding against each 
 other, until you knock down the hammer, and determine a 
 proportion of payments beyond all the powers of algebra to 
 equalise and settle. 
 
 The plan which I shall presume to suggest derives, how- 
 ever, one great advantage from the proposition and registry 
 of that noble lord's project. The idea of conciliation is 
 admissible. First, the House, in accepting the resolution 
 moved by the noble lord, has admitted, notwithstanding the 
 menacing front of our address, notwithstanding our heavy 
 bill of pains and penalties that we do not think ourselves 
 precluded from all ideas of free grace and bounty. 
 
 The House has gone further : it has declared conciliation 
 admissible, previous to any submission on the part of America. 
 It has even shot a good deal beyond that mark, and has 
 admitted that the complaints of our former mode of exerting 
 the right of taxation were not wholly unfounded. That right 
 thus exerted is allowed to have had something reprehensible 
 in it ; something unwise, or something grievous ; since, in 
 the midst of our heat and resentment, we, of ourselves, have 
 
 of the general court, or general assembly, of such province or colony, 
 and disposable by parliament), and shall engage to make provision also 
 for the support of the civil government, and the administration of 
 justice, in such province or colony, it will be proper, if such proposal 
 shall be approved by his Majesty, and the two Houses of Parliament, and 
 for so long as such provision shall be made accordingly, to forbear, in 
 respect of such province or colony, to levy any duty, tax, or assessment, 
 or to impose any further duty, tax, or assessment, except such duties as 
 it may be expedient to continue to levy or impose for the regulation of 
 commerce ; the nett produce of the duties last mentioned to be carried 
 to the account of such province or colony respectively." Resolution 
 moved by Lord North in the committee ; and agreed to by the House, 
 27th February 1775.
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 57 
 
 proposed a capital alteration ; and, in order to get rid of what 
 seemed so very exceptionable, have instituted a mode that is 
 altogether new; one that is, indeed, wholly alien from all the 
 ancient methods and forms of parliament. 
 
 The principle of this proceeding is large enough for my 
 purpose. The means proposed by the noble lord for carrying 
 his ideas into execution, I think, indeed, are very indifferently 
 suited to the end ; and this I shall endeavour to show you 
 before I sit down. But, for the present, I take my ground on 
 the admitted principle. I mean to give peace. Peace implies 
 reconciliation ; and, where there has been a material dispute, 
 reconciliation does in a manner always imply concession on the 
 one part or on the other. In this state of things I make no 
 difficulty in affirming that the proposal ought to originate from 
 us. Great and acknowledged force is not impaired, either in 
 effect or in opinion, by an unwillingness to exert itself. The 
 superior power may offer peace with honour and with safety. 
 Such an offer from such a power will be attributed to 
 magnanimity. But the concessions of the weak are the con- 
 cessions of fear. When such an one is disarmed, he is wholly 
 at the mercy of his superior ; and he loses for ever that time 
 and those chances which, as they happen to all men, are the 
 strength and resources of all inferior power. 
 
 The capital leading questions on which you must this day 
 decide are these two : First, whether you ought to concede ; 
 and secondly, what your concession ought to be. On the first 
 of these questions we have gained (as I have just taken the 
 liberty of observing to you) some ground. But I am sensible 
 that a good deal more is still to be done. Indeed, Sir, to 
 enable us to determine both on the one and the other of 
 these great questions with a firm and precise judgment, I think 
 it may be necessary to consider distinctly the true nature and 
 the peculiar circumstances of the object which we have before 
 us. Because after all our struggle, whether we will or not, we 
 must govern America according to that nature, and to those 
 circumstances ; and not according to our own imaginations ; 
 nor according to abstract ideas of right; by no means according
 
 58 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 to mere general theories of government, the resort to which 
 appears to me, in our present situation, no better than arrant 
 trifling. I shall therefore endeavour, with your leave, to lay 
 before you some of the most material of these circumstances in 
 as full and as clear a manner as I am able to state them. 
 
 The first thing that we have to consider with regard to the 
 nature of the object is the number of people in the colonies. 
 I have taken for some years a good deal of pains on that point. 
 I can by no calculation justify myself in placing the number 
 below 2,000,000 of inhabitants of our own European blood 
 and colour ; besides at least 500,000 others, who form no 
 inconsiderable part of the strength and opulence of the whole. 
 This, Sir, is, I believe, about the true number. There is no 
 occasion to exaggerate, where plain truth is of so much weight 
 and importance. But whether I put the present numbers too 
 high or too low is a matter of little moment. Such is the 
 strength with which population shoots in that part of the world, 
 that state the numbers as high as we will, whilst the dispute 
 continues, the exaggeration ends. Whilst we are discussing 
 any given magnitude, they are grown to it. Whilst we spend 
 our time in deliberating on the mode of governing two millions, 
 we shall find we have millions more to manage. Your 
 children do not grow faster from infancy to manhood, than 
 they spread from families to communities, and from villages 
 to nations. 
 
 I put this consideration of the present and the growing 
 numbers in the front of our deliberation ; because, Sir, this 
 consideration will make it evident to a blunter discernment 
 than yours, that no partial, narrow, contracted, pinched, 
 occasional system will be at all suitable to such an object. 
 It will show you that it is not to be considered as one of 
 those minima which are out of the eye and consideration of 
 the law ; not a paltry excrescence of the state ; not a mean 
 dependent, who may be neglected with little damage, and 
 provoked with little danger. It will prove that some degree 
 of care and caution is required in the handling such an object ; 
 it will show that you ought not, in reason, to trifle with so
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 59 
 
 large a mass of the interests and feelings of the human race. 
 You could at no time do so without guilt ; and be assured 
 you will not be able to do it long with impunity. 
 
 But the population of this country, the great and growing 
 population, though a very important consideration, will lose 
 much of its weight, if not combined with other circumstances. 
 The commerce of your colonies is out of all proportion 
 beyond the numbers of the people. This ground of their 
 commerce indeed has been trod some days ago, and with 
 great ability, by a distinguished person* at your bar. This 
 gentleman, after thirty-five years it is so long since he first 
 appeared at the same place to plead for the commerce of 
 Great Britain has come again before you to plead the same 
 cause, without any other effect of time than that, to the fire 
 of imagination and extent of erudition, which even then 
 marked him as one of the first literary characters of his age, 
 he has added a consummate knowledge in the commercial 
 interest of his country, formed by a long course of enlight- 
 ened and discriminating experience. 
 
 Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after such a person 
 with any detail, if a great part of the members who now 
 fill the House had not the misfortune to be absent when he 
 appeared at your bar. Besides, Sir, I propose to take the 
 matter at periods of time somewhat different from his. 
 There is, if I mistake not, a point of view from whence, if 
 you will look at this subject, it is impossible that it should 
 not make an impression upon you. 
 
 I have in my hand two accounts : one a comparative state 
 of the export trade of England to its colonies, as it stood in 
 the year 1704, and as it stood in the year 1772; the other 
 a state of the export trade of this country to its colonies 
 alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the whole trade of 
 England to all parts of the world (the colonies included) in 
 the year 1704. They are from good vouchers ; the latter 
 period from the accounts on your table, the earlier from an 
 
 * Mr. Glover.
 
 60 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 original manuscript of Davenant, who first established the 
 inspector-general's office, which has been ever since his time 
 so abundant a source of parliamentary information. 
 
 The export trade to the colonies consists of three great 
 branches. The African, which, terminating almost wholly 
 in the colonies, must be put to the account of their com- 
 merce ; the West Indian ; and the North American. All 
 these are so interwoven, that the attempt to separate them 
 would tear to pieces the contexture of the whole ; and if not 
 entirely destroy, would very much depreciate the value of all 
 the parts. I therefore consider these three denominations 
 to be, what in effect they are, one trade. 
 
 The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at the 
 beginning of this century, that is, in the year 1704, stood 
 thus 
 
 Exports to North America, and the West 
 
 Indies ;:-.;, :o.{. y, ' [- : 
 To Africa 
 
 483,265 
 86,665 
 
 569,930 
 
 In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between 
 the highest and lowest of those lately laid on your table, the 
 account was as follows : 
 
 To North America, and the West Indies . 
 To Africa . . ^y : jv/J 
 
 To which if you add the export trade 
 
 from Scotland, which had in 1704 no 
 
 existence . 
 
 4,791,734 
 866,398 
 
 364,000 
 ,6,022,132 
 
 From five hundred and odd thousand, it has grown to six 
 millions. It has increased no less than twelve-fold. This is 
 the state of the colony trade, as compared with itself at these
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 61 
 
 two periods, within this century ; and this is matter for 
 meditation. But this is not all. Examine my second account. 
 See how the export trade to the colonies alone in 1772 stood 
 in the other point of view, that is, as compared to the whole 
 trade of England in 1704. 
 
 The whole export trade of England, 
 
 including that to the colonies, in 1704 ^6,509,000 
 Export to the colonies alone, in 1772 \^ 6,024,000 
 
 Difference ^48 5,000 
 
 The trade with America alone is now within less than 
 .500,000 of being equal to what this great commercial nation, 
 England, carried on at the beginning of this century with 
 the whole world ! If I had taken the largest year of those 
 on your table, it would rather have exceeded. But, it will 
 be said, is not this American trade an unnatural protuberance, 
 that has drawn the juices from the rest of the body? The 
 reverse. It is the very food that has nourished every other 
 part into its present magnitude. Our general trade has been 
 greatly augmented, and augmented more or less in almost 
 every part to which it ever extended ; but with this material 
 difference, that of the six millions which in the beginning of the 
 century constituted the whole mass of our export commerce, the 
 colony trade was but one twelfth part ; it is now (as a part of 
 sixteen millions) considerably more than a third of the whole. 
 This is the relative proportion of the importance of the colonies 
 at these two periods: and all reasoning concerning our mode of 
 treating them must have this proportion as its basis, or it is a 
 reasoning weak, rotten, and sophistical. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself to hurry over this 
 great consideration. It is good for us to be here. We stand 
 where we have an immense view of what is, and what is past. 
 Clouds, indeed, and darkness rest upon the future. Let us, 
 however, before we descend from this noble eminence, reflect 
 that this growth of our national prosperity has happened within
 
 62 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 the short period of the life of man. It has happened within 
 sixty-eight years. There are those alive whose memory might 
 touch the two extremities. For instance, my Lord Bathurst 
 might remember all the stages of the progress. He was in 
 1704 of an age at least to be made to comprehend such things. 
 He was then old enough acta parentum jam legere, et quce 
 sit poterit cognoscere virtus Suppose, Sir, that the angel of 
 this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues which 
 made him one of the most amiable, as he is one of the most 
 fortunate, men of his age, had opened to him in vision, that 
 when, in the fourth generation, the third prince of the House 
 of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne of that 
 nation which (by the happy issue of moderate and healing 
 councils) was to be made Great Britain, he should see his 
 son, Lord Chancellor of England, turn back the current of 
 hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to a higher 
 rank of peerage, whilst he enriched the family with a new 
 one If, amidst these bright and happy scenes of domestic 
 honour and prosperity, that angel should have drawn up the 
 curtain and unfolded the rising glories of his country, and 
 whilst he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial 
 grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a 
 little speck, scarce visible in the mass of the national interest, 
 a small seminal principle, rather than a formed body, and 
 should tell him, "Young man, there is America which at 
 this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories 
 of savage men and uncouth manners ; yet shall, before you 
 taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that com- 
 merce which now attracts the envy of the world. Whatever 
 England has been growing to by a progressive increase of 
 improvement, brought in by varieties of people, by succession 
 of civilising conquests and civilising settlements in a series 
 of seventeen hundred years, you shall see as much added to 
 her by America in the course of a single life ! " If this 
 state of his country had been foretold to him, would it not 
 require all the sanguine credulity of youth, and all the fervid 
 glow of enthusiasm, to make him believe it ? Fortunate man,
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 63 
 
 he has lived to see it 1 Fortunate indeed, if he lives to see 
 nothing that shall vary the prospect, and cloud the setting 
 of his day ! 
 
 Excuse me, Sir, if turning from such thoughts I resume 
 this comparative view once more. You have seen it on a 
 large scale ; look at it on a small one. I will point out to 
 your attention a particular instance of it in the single province 
 of Pennsylvania. In the year 1704 that province called for 
 ;i 1,459 in value of your commodities, native and foreign. 
 This was the whole. What did it demand in 1772 ? Why 
 nearly fifty times as much ; for in that year the export to 
 Pennsylvania was .507,909, nearly equal to the export to 
 all the colonies together in the first period. 
 
 I choose, Sir, to enter into these minute and particular 
 details ; because generalities, which in all other cases are apt 
 to heighten and raise the subject, have here a tendency to 
 sink it. When we speak of the commerce with our colonies, 
 fiction lags after truth ; invention is unfruitful, and imagination 
 cold and barren. 
 
 So far, Sir, as to the importance of the object in view of 
 its commerce, as concerned in the exports from England. If 
 I were to detail the imports, I could show how many enjoy- 
 ments they procure, which deceive the burthen of life ; how 
 many materials which invigorate the springs of national 
 industry, and extend and animate every part of our foreign 
 and domestic commerce. This would be a curious subject 
 indeed but I must prescribe bounds to myself in a matter so 
 vast and various. 
 
 I pass therefore to the colonies in another point of view, 
 their agriculture. This they have prosecuted with such a 
 spirit, that, besides feeding plentifully their own growing 
 multitude, their annual export of grain, comprehending rice, 
 has some years ago exceeded a million in value. Of their last 
 harvest, I am persuaded they will export much more. At the 
 beginning of the century some of these colonies imported 
 corn from the mother country. For some time past, the Old 
 World has been fed from the New. The scarcity which you
 
 64 EDMUND BURKE, 
 
 have felt would have been a desolating famine if this child of 
 your old age, with a true filial piety, with a Roman charity, had 
 not put the full breast of its youthful exuberance to the mouth 
 of its exhausted parent. 
 
 As to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the 
 sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened 
 at your bar. You surely thought these acquisitions of value, 
 for they seemed even to excite your envy; and yet the spirit 
 by which that enterprising employment has been exercised 
 ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and 
 admiration. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to it? 
 Pass by the other parts, and look at the manner in which 
 the people of New England have of late carried on the whale 
 fishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains 
 of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen 
 recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst we are 
 looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that they 
 have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they 
 are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent 
 of the south. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote 
 and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, 
 is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of their 
 victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more dis- 
 couraging to them than the accumulated winter of both the 
 poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the line 
 and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the 
 longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of 
 Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No 
 climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the per- 
 severance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the 
 dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried 
 this most perilous mode of hard industry to the extent to 
 which it has been pushed by this recent people ; a people who 
 are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened 
 into the bone of manhood. When I contemplate these things ; 
 when I know that the colonies in general owe little or nothing 
 to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into this
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 65 
 
 happy form by the constraints of watchful and suspicious 
 government, but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, 
 a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to 
 perfection ; when I reflect upon these effects, when I see how 
 profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power 
 sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human contriv- 
 ances melt and die away within me. My rigour relents. I 
 pardon something to the spirit of liberty. 
 
 I am sensible, Sir, that all which I have asserted in my 
 detail is admitted in the gross, but that quite a different 
 conclusion is drawn from it. America, gentlemen say, is a 
 noble object. It is an object well worth fighting for. Certainly 
 it is, if fighting a people be the best way of gaining them. 
 Gentlemen in this respect will be led to their choice of means 
 by their complexions and their habits. Those who understand 
 the military art will, of course, have some predilection for it. 
 Those who wield the thunder of the state may have more 
 confidence in the efficacy of arms. But I confess, possibly 
 for want of this knowledge, my opinion is much more in favour 
 of prudent management than of force ; considering force not 
 as an odious, but a feeble instrument, for preserving a people 
 so numerous, so active, so growing, so spirited as this, in a 
 profitable and subordinate connection with us. 
 
 First, Sir, permit me to observe, that the use of force alone is 
 but temporary. It may subdue for a moment ; but it does not 
 remove the necessity of subduing again : and a nation is not 
 governed which is perpetually to be conquered. 
 
 My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not always 
 the effect of force ; and an armament is not a victory. If you 
 do not succeed, you are without resource ; for, conciliation 
 failing, force remains ; but, force failing, no further hope of 
 reconciliation is left. Power and authority are sometimes 
 bought by kindness ; but they can never be begged as alms by 
 an impoverished and defeated violence. 
 
 A further objection to force is, that you impair the object by 
 your very endeavours to preserve it. The thing you fought 
 for is not the thing which you recover; but depreciated, 
 
 617
 
 66 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 sunk, wasted, and consumed in the contest. Nothing less 
 will content me than whole America. I do not choose to 
 consume its strength along with our own ; because in all 
 parts it is the British strength that I consume. I do not 
 choose to be caught by a foreign enemy at the end of this 
 exhausting conflict ; and still less in the midst of it. I may 
 escape ; but I can make no insurance against such an event. 
 Let me add, that I do not choose wholly to break the 
 American spirit ; because it is the spirit that has made the 
 country. 
 
 Lastly, we have no sort of experience in favour of force as an 
 instrument in the rule of our colonies. Their growth and their 
 utility has been owing to methods altogether different. Our 
 ancient indulgence has been said to be pursued to a fault. It 
 may be so. But we know, if feeling is evidence, that our 
 fault was more tolerable than our attempt to mend it ; and 
 our sin far more salutary than our penitence. 
 
 These, Sir, are my reasons for not entertaining that high 
 opinion of untried force by which many gentlemen, for whose 
 sentiments in other particulars I have great respect, seem to 
 be so greatly captivated. But there is still behind a third 
 consideration concerning this object, which serves to deter- 
 mine my opinion on the sort of policy which ought to be 
 pursued in the management of America, even more than its 
 population and its commerce, I mean its temper and character. 
 
 In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is 
 the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the 
 whole : and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, your 
 colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable, whenever 
 they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force, or 
 shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the only 
 advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is 
 stronger in the English colonies probably than in any other 
 people of the earth ; and this from a great variety of powerful 
 causes ; which, to understand the true temper of their minds, 
 and the direction which this spirit takes, it will not be amiss to 
 lay open somewhat more largely.
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 67 
 
 First, the people of the colonies are descendants of English- 
 men. England, Sir, is a nation which still I hope respects, 
 and formerly adored, her freedom. The colonists emigrated 
 from you when this part of your character was most predomi- 
 nant ; and they took this bias and direction the moment they 
 parted from your hands. They are therefore not only devoted 
 to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas, and on 
 English principles. Abstract liberty, like other mere abstrac- 
 tions, is not to be found. Liberty inheres in some sensible 
 object ; and every nation has formed to itself some favourite 
 point, which by way of eminence becomes the criterion of 
 their happiness. It happened, you know, Sir, that the great 
 contests for freedom in this country were from the earliest 
 times chiefly upon the question of taxing. Most of the contests 
 in the ancient commonwealths turned primarily on the right 
 of election of magistrates ; or on the balance among the several 
 orders of the state. The question of money was not with 
 them so immediate. But in England it was otherwise. On 
 this point of taxes the ablest pens, and most eloquent tongues, 
 have been exercised ; the greatest spirits have acted and 
 suffered. In order to give the fullest satisfaction concerning 
 the importance of this point, it was not only necessary for 
 those who in argument defended the excellence of the English 
 constitution, to insist on this privilege of granting money as 
 a dry point of fact, and to prove that the right had been 
 acknowledged in ancient parchments, and blind usages, to 
 reside in a certain body called a House of Commons. They 
 went much further : they attempted to prove, and they suc- 
 ceeded, that in theory it ought to be so, from the particular 
 nature of a House of Commons, as an immediate repre- 
 sentative of the people ; whether the old records had delivered 
 this oracle or not. They took infinite pains to inculcate, as 
 a fundamental principle, that in all monarchies the people 
 must in effect themselves, mediately or immediately, possess 
 the power of granting their own money, or no shadow of 
 liberty could subsist. The colonies draw from you, as with 
 their life-blood, these ideas and principles. Their love of
 
 68 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 liberty, as with you, -fixed and attached on this specific point 
 of taxing. Liberty might be safe, or might be endangered, 
 in twenty other particulars, without their being much pleased 
 or alarmed. Here they felt its pulse ; and as they found that 
 beat, they thought themselves sick or sound. I do not say 
 whether they were right or wrong in applying your general 
 arguments to their own case. It is not easy indeed to make 
 a monopoly of theorems and corollaries. The fact is, that 
 they did thus apply those general arguments ; and your 
 mode of governing them, whether through lenity or indo- 
 lence, through wisdom or mistake, confirmed them in the 
 imagination that they, as well as you, had an interest in 
 these common principles. 
 
 They were further confirmed in this pleasing error by the 
 form of their provincial legislative assemblies. Their govern- 
 ments are popular in a high degree; some are merely popular; 
 in all, the popular representative is the most weighty ; and 
 this share of the people in their ordinary government never 
 fails to inspire them with lofty sentiments, and with a strong 
 aversion from whatever tends to deprive them of their chief 
 importance. 
 
 If anything were wanting to this necessary operation of the 
 form of government, religion would have given it a complete 
 effect. Religion, always a principle of energy, in this new 
 people is no way worn out or impaired ; and their mode of 
 professing it is also one main cause of this free spirit. The 
 people are Protestants ; and of that kind which is the most 
 adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. 
 This is a persuasion not only favourable to liberty, but built 
 upon it. I do not think, Sir, that the reason of this averse- 
 ness in the dissenting churches, from all that looks like 
 absolute government, is so much to be sought in their 
 religious tenets as in their history. Every one knows that 
 the Roman Catholic religion is at least coeval with most of 
 the governments where it prevails ; that it has generally 
 gone hand in hand with them, and received great favour 
 and every kind of support from authority. The Church of
 
 EDMUND BURRS. 69 
 
 England too was formed from her cradle under the nursing 
 care of regular government. But the dissenting interests 
 have sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary 
 powers of the world ; and could justify that opposition only 
 on a strong claim to natural liberty. Their very existence 
 depended on the powerful and unremitted assertion of that 
 claim. All Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, 
 is a sort of dissent But the religion most prevalent in our 
 northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resist- 
 ance; it is the dissidence of dissent; and the Protestantism 
 of the Protestant religion. This religion, under a variety of 
 denominations agreeing in nothing but in the communion of 
 the spirit of liberty, is predominant in most of the northern 
 provinces ; where the Church of England, notwithstanding 
 its legal rights, is in reality no more than a sort of private 
 sect, not composing most probably the tenth of the people. 
 The colonists left England when this spirit was high, and in 
 the emigrants was the highest of all ; and even that stream 
 of foreigners, which has been constantly flowing into these 
 colonies, has, for the greatest part, been composed of dis- 
 senters from the establishments of their several countries, and 
 have brought with them a temper and character far from 
 alien to that of the people with whom they mixed. 
 
 Sir, I can perceive by their manner that some gentlemen 
 object to the latitude of this description ; because in the 
 southern colonies the Church of England forms a large body, 
 and has a regular establishment. It is certainly true. There 
 is, however, a circumstance attending these colonies which, 
 in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, and makes 
 the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than in those 
 to the northward. It is, that in Virginia and the Carolinas 
 they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the case 
 in any part of the world, those who are free are by far the 
 most proud and jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to 
 them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege. 
 Not seeing there, that freedom, as in countries where it is 
 a common blessing, and as broad and general as the air,
 
 76 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 may be united with much abject toil, with great misery, with 
 all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks, amongst them, like 
 something that is more noble and liberal. I do not mean, 
 Sir, to commend the superior morality of this sentiment, 
 which has at least as much pride as virtue in it; but I 
 cannot alter the nature of man. The fact is so ; and these 
 people of the southern colonies are much more strongly, and 
 with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty 
 than those to the northward. Such were all the ancient 
 commonwealths ; such were our Gothic ancestors ; such in 
 our days were the Poles ; and such will be all masters of slaves, 
 who are not slaves themselves. In such a people, the haughti- 
 ness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies 
 it, and renders it invincible. 
 
 Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our colonies, 
 which contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect 
 of this untractable spirit. I mean their education. In no 
 country perhaps in the world is the law so general a study. 
 The profession itself is numerous and powerful ; and in most 
 provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the 
 deputies sent to the congress were lawyers. But all who 
 read, and most do read, endeavour to obtain some smattering 
 in that science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, 
 that in no branch of his business, after tracts of popular 
 devotion, were so many books as those on the law exported 
 to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen into the 
 way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they 
 have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in 
 America as in England. General Gage marks out this dis- 
 position very particularly in a letter on your table. He states 
 that all the people in his government are lawyers, or smatterers 
 in law; and that in Boston they have been enabled, by success- 
 ful chicane, wholly to evade many parts of one of your capital 
 penal constitutions. The smartness of debate will say, that 
 this knowledge ought to teach them more clearly the rights of 
 legislature, their obligations to obedience, and the penalties 
 of rebellion. All this is mighty well. But my honourable and
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 71 
 
 learned friend* on the floor, who condescends to mark what 
 I say for animadversion, will disdain that ground. He has 
 heard, as well as I, that when great honours and great emolu- 
 ments do not win over this knowledge to the service of the 
 state, it is a formidable adversary to government. If the 
 spirit be not tamed and broken by these happy methods, it 
 is stubborn and litigious. Abeunt studia in mores. This 
 study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in 
 attack, ready in defence, full of resources. In other countries, 
 the people, more simple, and of a less mercurial cast, judge 
 of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance ; 
 here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the 
 grievance by the badness of the principle. They augur mis- 
 government at a distance; and snuff the approach of tyranny in 
 every tainted breeze. 
 
 The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the colonies is 
 hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is not merely moral, 
 but laid deep in the natural constitution of things. Three 
 thousand miles of ocean lie between you and them. No 
 contrivance can prevent the effect of this distance in weaken- 
 ing government. Seas roll, and months pass, between the 
 order and the execution ; and the want of a speedy explanation 
 of a single point is enough to defeat a whole system. You 
 have, indeed, winged ministers of vengeance, who carry your 
 bolts in their pounces to the remotest verge of the sea. But 
 there a power steps in that limits the arrogance of raging 
 passions and furious elements, and says, " So far shalt thou 
 go, and no farther." Who are you that should fret and rage, 
 and bite the chains of nature ? Nothing worse happens to 
 you than does to all nations who have extensive empire ; and 
 it happens in all the forms into which empire can be thrown. 
 In large bodies, the circulation of power must be less vigorous 
 at the extremities. Nature has said it The Turk cannot 
 govern Egypt, and Arabia, and Curdistan, as he governs 
 Thrace; nor has he the same dominion in Crimea and 
 
 * The Attorney-General.
 
 72 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 Algiers which he has at Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism 
 itself is obliged to truck and huckster. The Sultan gets such 
 obedience as he can. He governs with a loose rein, that he 
 may govern at all ; and the whole of the force and vigour 
 of his authority in his centre is derived from a prudent 
 relaxation in all his borders. Spain, in her provinces, is, 
 perhaps, not so well obeyed as you are in yours. She com- 
 plies too ; she submits ; she watches times. This is the 
 immutable condition, the eternal law, of extensive and 
 detached empire. 
 
 Then, Sir, from these six capital sources : of descent ; of 
 form of government ; of religion in the northern provinces ; 
 of manners in the southern ; of education ; of the remote- 
 ness of situation from the first mover of government ; from 
 all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty has grown up. It 
 has grown with the growth of the people in your colonies, 
 and increased with the increase of their wealth ; a spirit, 
 that unhappily meeting with an exercise of power in England, 
 which, however lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of 
 liberty, much less with theirs, has kindled this flame that is 
 ready to consume us. 
 
 I do not mean to commend either the spirit in this excess, 
 or the moral causes which produce it. Perhaps a more 
 smooth and accommodating spirit of freedom in them would 
 be more acceptable to us. Perhaps ideas of liberty might 
 be desired, more reconcilable with an arbitrary and bound- 
 less authority. Perhaps we might wish the colonists to be 
 persuaded that their liberty is more secure when held in 
 trust for them by us (as their guardians during a perpetual 
 minority) than with any part of it in their own hands. The 
 question is, not whether their spirit deserves praise or blame, 
 but what, in the name of God, shall we do with it? You 
 have before you the object, such as it is, with all its glories, 
 with all its imperfections on its head. You see the magni- 
 tude ; the importance ; the temper ; the habits ; the dis- 
 orders. By all these considerations we are strongly urged 
 to determine something concerning it. We are called upon
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 73 
 
 to fix some rule and line for our future conduct, which may 
 give a little stability to our politics, and prevent the return 
 of such unhappy deliberations as the present. Every such 
 return will bring the matter before us in a still more 
 untractable form. For, what astonishing and incredible 
 things have we not seen already ! What monsters have not 
 been generated from this unnatural contention ! Whilst every 
 principle of authority and resistance has been pushed, upon 
 both sides, as far as it would go, there is nothing so solid 
 and certain, either in reasoning or in practice, that has not 
 been shaken. Until very lately, all authority in America 
 seemed to be nothing but an emanation from yours. Even 
 the popular part of the colony constitution derived all its 
 activity, and its first vital movement, from the pleasure of 
 the crown. We thought, Sir, that the utmost which the 
 discontented colonists could do was to disturb authority ; 
 we never dreamt they could of themselves supply it ; knowing 
 in general what an operose business it is to establish a govern- 
 ment absolutely new. But having, for our purposes in this 
 contention, resolved that none but an obedient assembly 
 should sit, the humours of the people there, finding all 
 passage through the legal channel stopped, with great vio- 
 lence broke out another way. Some provinces have tried 
 their experiment, as we have tried ours ; and theirs has 
 succeeded. They have formed a government sufficient for 
 its purposes, without the bustle of a revolution, or the trouble- 
 some formality of an election. Evident necessity, and tacit 
 consent, have done the business in an instant. So well they 
 have done it, that Lord Dunmore (the account is among the 
 fragments on your table) tells you that the new institution 
 is infinitely better obeyed than the ancient government ever 
 was in its most fortunate periods. Obedience is what makes 
 government, and not the names by which it is called ; not 
 the name of governor, as formerly, or committee, as at 
 present. This new government has originated directly from 
 the people ; and was not transmitted through any of the 
 ordinary artificial media of a positive constitution. It was
 
 74 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 not a manufacture ready formed, and transmitted to them 
 in that condition from England. The evil arising from hence 
 is this : that the colonists having once found the possibility 
 of enjoying the advantages of order in the midst of a 
 struggle for liberty, such struggles will not henceforward 
 seem so terrible to the settled and sober part of mankind 
 as they had appeared before the trial. 
 
 Pursuing the same plan of punishing by the denial of the 
 exercise of government to still greater lengths, we wholly 
 abrogated the ancient government of Massachusetts. We 
 were confident that the first feeling, if not the very prospect 
 of anarchy, would instantly enforce a complete submission. 
 The experiment was tried. A new, strange, unexpected face 
 of things appeared. Anarchy is found tolerable. A vast 
 province has now subsisted, and subsisted in a considerable 
 degree of health and vigour, for near a twelvemonth, without 
 governor, without public council, without judges, without 
 executive magistrates. How long it will continue in this 
 state, or what may arise out of this unheard-of situation, how 
 can the wisest of us conjecture? Our late experience has 
 taught us that many of those fundamental principles, formerly 
 believed infallible, are either not of the importance they were 
 imagined to be ; or that we have not at all adverted to some 
 other far more important and far more powerful principles, 
 which entirely overrule those we had considered as omnipotent. 
 I am much against any further experiments, which tend to 
 put to the proof any more of these allowed opinions, which 
 contribute so much to the public tranquillity. In effect, we 
 suffer as much at home by this loosening of all ties, and this 
 concussion of all established opinions, as we do abroad. For, 
 in order to prove that the Americans have no right to their 
 liberties, we are every day endeavouring to subvert the 
 maxims which preserve the whole spirit of our own. To 
 prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged 
 to depreciate the value of freedom itself; and we never 
 seem to gain a paltry advantage over them in debate, 
 without attacking some of those principles, or deriding some
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 75 
 
 of those feelings, for which our ancestors have shed their 
 blood. 
 
 But, Sir, in wishing to put an end to pernicious experiments, 
 I do not mean to preclude the fullest inquiry. Far from it. 
 Far from deciding on a sudden or partial view, I would 
 patiently go round and round the subject, and survey it 
 minutely in every possible aspect. Sir, if I were capable of 
 engaging you to an equal attention, I would state that, as 
 far as I am capable of discerning, there are but three ways 
 of proceeding relative to this stubborn spirit which prevails 
 in your colonies and disturbs your government. These are 
 To change that spirit, as inconvenient, by removing the 
 causes. To prosecute it as criminal. Or, to comply with it 
 as necessary. I would not be guilty of an imperfect enumera- 
 tion ; I can think of but these three. Another has indeed 
 been started, that of giving up the colonies ; but it met so 
 slight a reception, that I do not think myself obliged to dwell 
 a great while upon it. It is nothing but a little sally of 
 anger, like the frowardness of pee'vish children, who, when they 
 cannot get all they would have, are resolved to take nothing. 
 
 The first of these plans, to change the spirit as incon- 
 venient, by removing the causes, I think is the most like a 
 systematic proceeding. It is radical in its principle ; but it 
 is attended with great difficulties, some of them little short, 
 as I conceive, of impossibilities. This will appear by exam- 
 ining into the plans which have been proposed. 
 
 As the growing population in the colonies is evidently one 
 cause of their resistance, it was last session mentioned in 
 both Houses, by men of weight, and received not without 
 applause, that in order to check this evil, it would be proper 
 for the crown to make no further grants of land. But to this 
 scheme there are two objections. The first, that there is 
 already so much unsettled land in private hands, as to afford 
 room for an immense future population, although the crown 
 not only withheld its grants, but annihilated its soil. If this 
 be the case, then the only effect of this avarice of desolation, 
 this hoarding of a royal wilderness, would be to raise the
 
 j6 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 value of the possessions in the hands of the great private 
 monopolists, without any adequate check to the growing and 
 alarming mischief of population. 
 
 But if you stopped your grants, what would be the con- 
 sequence? The people would occupy without grants. They 
 have already so occupied in many places. You cannot station 
 garrisons in every part of these deserts. If you drive the 
 people from one place, they will carry on their annual tillage, 
 and remove with their flocks and herds to another. Many 
 of the people in the back settlements are already little 
 attached to particular situations. Already they have topped 
 the Appalachian mountains. From thence they behold before 
 them an immense plain, one vast, rich, level meadow ; a 
 square of five hundred miles. Over this they would wander 
 without a possibility of restraint ; they would change their 
 manners with the habits of their life ; would soon forget a 
 government by which they were disowned ; would become 
 hordes of English Tartars ; and pouring down upon your 
 unfortified frontiers a fierce and irresistible cavalry, become 
 masters of your governors and your counsellors, your col- 
 lectors and comptrollers, and of all the slaves that adhered 
 to them. Such would, and, in no long time, must be, the 
 effect of attempting to forbid as a crime, and to suppress as 
 an evil, the command and blessing of Providence, " Increase 
 and multiply." Such would be the happy result of an endea- 
 vour to keep as a lair of wild beasts, that earth, which God, 
 by an express charter, has given to the children of men. 
 Far different, and surely much wiser, has been our policy 
 hitherto. Hitherto we have invited our people, by every 
 kind of bounty, to fixed establishments. We have invited 
 the husbandman to look to authority for his title. We have 
 taught him piously to believe in the mysterious virtue of 
 wax and parchment. We have thrown each tract of land, 
 as it was peopled, inio districts ; that the ruling power 
 should never be wholly out of sight. We have settled all we 
 could ; and we have carefully attended every settlement with 
 government.
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 77 
 
 Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as for the 
 reasons I have just given, I think this new project of hedging- 
 in population to be neither prudent nor practicable. 
 
 To impoverish the colonies in general, and in particular to 
 arrest the noble course of their marine enterprises, would be 
 a more easy task. I freely confess it. We have shown a 
 disposition to a system of this kind ; a disposition even to 
 continue the restraint after the offence ; looking on ourselves 
 as rivals to our colonies, and persuaded that of course we 
 must gain all that they shall lose. Much mischief we may 
 certainly do. The power inadequate to all other things is 
 often more than sufficient for this. I do not look on the 
 direct and immediate power of the colonies to resist oui 
 violence as very formidable. In this, however, I may be 
 mistaken. But when I consider that we have colonies for 
 no purpose but to be serviceable to us, it seems to my poor 
 understanding a little preposterous to make them unservice- 
 able in order to keep them obedient. It is, in truth, nothing 
 more than the old, and, as I thought, exploded problem of 
 tyranny, which proposes to beggar its subjects into sub- 
 mission. But remember when you have completed your 
 system of impoverishment that nature still proceeds in her 
 ordinary course ; that discontent will increase with misery ; 
 and that there are critical moments in the fortune of all 
 states, when they who are too weak to contribute to your 
 prosperity, may be strong enough to complete your ruin. 
 Spoliatis arma supersunt. 
 
 The temper and character which prevail in our colonies 
 are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human art. We cannot, 
 I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade 
 them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins 
 the blood of freedom circulates. The language in which they 
 would hear you tell them this tale would detect the imposi- 
 tion ; your speech would betray you. An Englishman is the 
 unfittest person on earth to argue another Englishman into 
 slavery. 
 
 I think it is nearly as little in our power to change their
 
 ;8 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 republican religion as their free descent ; or to substitute the 
 Roman Catholic as a penalty ; or the Church of England 
 as an improvement. The mode of inquisition and dragoon- 
 ing is going out of fashion in the Old World ; and I should 
 not confide much to their efficacy in the New. The education 
 of the Americans is also on the same unalterable bottom 
 with their religion. You cannot persuade them to burn their 
 books of curious science ; to banish their lawyers from their 
 courts of laws ; or to quench the lights of their assemblies, 
 by refusing to choose those persons who are best read in 
 their privileges. It would be no less impracticable to think 
 of wholly annihilating the popular assemblies in which these 
 lawyers sit. The army by which we must govern in their 
 place would be far more chargeable to us ; not quite so 
 effectual ; and perhaps, in the end, full as difficult to be kept 
 in obedience. 
 
 With regard to the high aristocratic spirit of Virginia and 
 the southern colonies, it has been proposed, I know, to reduce 
 it by declaring a general enfranchisement of their slaves. 
 This project has had its advocates and panegyrists ; yet I 
 never could argue myself into any opinion of it. Slaves are 
 often much attached to their masters. A general wild offer 
 of liberty would not always be accepted. History furnishes 
 few instances of it. It is sometimes as hard to persuade 
 slaves to be free as it is to compel freemen to be slaves; 
 and in this auspicious scheme we should have both these 
 pleasing tasks on our hands at once. But when we talk of 
 enfranchisement, do we not perceive that the American 
 master may enfranchise too ; and arm servile hands in 
 defence of freedom ? A measure to which other people have 
 had recourse more than once, and not without success, in a 
 desperate situation of their affairs. 
 
 Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, and dull as all 
 men are from slavery, must they not a little suspect the offer 
 of freedom from that very nation which has sold them to their 
 present masters? from that nation, one of whose causes of 
 quarrel with those masters is their refusal to deal any more
 
 EDMUND BURKE, 79 
 
 in that inhuman traffic? An offer of freedom from England 
 would come rather oddly, shipped to them in an African 
 vessel, which is refused an entry into the ports of Virginia or 
 Carolina, with a cargo of three Angola negroes. It would 
 be curious to see the Guinea captain attempting at the same 
 instant to publish his proclamation of liberty, and to advertise 
 his sale of slaves. 
 
 But let us suppose all these moral difficulties got over. 
 The ocean remains. You cannot pump this dry ; and as long 
 as it continues in its present bed, so long all the causes 
 which weaken authority by distance will continue. " Ye gods, 
 annihilate but space and time, and make two lovers happy ! " 
 was a pious and passionate prayer; but just as reasonable as 
 many of the serious wishes of very grave and solemn politicians. 
 
 If then, Sir, it seems almost desperate to think of any 
 alterative course, for changing the moral causes (and not 
 quite easy to remove the natural) which produce prejudices 
 irreconcilable to the late exercise of our authority; but that 
 the spirit infallibly will continue; and, continuing, will pro- 
 duce such effects as now embarrass us; the second mode 
 under consideration is, to prosecute that spirit in its overt acts 
 as criminal. 
 
 At this proposition I must pause a moment. The thing 
 seems a great deal too big for my ideas of jurisprudence. It 
 should seem to my way of conceiving such matters, that there 
 is a very wide difference in reason and policy, between the 
 mode of proceeding on their regular conduct of scattered 
 individuals, or even of bands of men, who disturb order within 
 the state, and the civil dissensions which may, from time to 
 time, on great questions, agitate the several communities which 
 compose a great empire. It looks to me to be narrow and 
 pedantic, to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this 
 great public contest. I do not know the method of drawing 
 up an indictment against a whole people. I cannot insult 
 and ridicule the feelings of millions of my fellow-creatures, 
 as Sir Edward Coke insulted one excellent individual (Sir 
 Walter Raleigh) at the bar. I hope I am not ripe to pass
 
 8o EDMUND &URKE. 
 
 sentence on the gravest public bodies, intrusted with magis- 
 tracies of great authority and dignity, and charged with the 
 safety of their fellow-citizens, upon the very same title that 
 I am. I really think, that for wise men this is not judicious; 
 for sober men, not decent; for minds tinctured with humanity, 
 not mild and merciful. 
 
 Perhaps, Sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an empire, as 
 distinguished from a single state or kingdom. But my idea 
 of it is this : that an empire is the aggregate of many states 
 under one common head; whether this head be a monarch 
 or a presiding republic. It does, in such constitutions, 
 frequently happen (and nothing but the dismal, cold, dead 
 uniformity of servitude can prevent its happening) that the 
 subordinate parts have many local privileges and immunities. 
 Between these privileges and the supreme common authority 
 the line may be extremely nice. Of course disputes, often, 
 too, very bitter disputes, and much ill-blood, will arise. But 
 though every privilege is an exemption (in the case) from 
 the ordinary exercise of the supreme authority, it is no denial 
 of it. The claim of a privilege seems lather, ex vi termini, 
 to imply a superior power. For to talk of the privileges of 
 a state, or of a person, who has no superior, is hardly any 
 better than speaking nonsense. Now, in such unfortunate 
 quarrels among the component parts of a great political union 
 of communities, I can scarcely conceive anything more com- 
 pletely imprudent than for the head of the empire to insist 
 that, if any privilege is pleaded against his will, or his acts, 
 his whole authority is denied; instantly to proclaim rebellion, to 
 beat to arms, and to put the offending provinces under the ban. 
 Will not this, Sir, very soon teach the provinces to make no 
 distinctions on their part? Will it not teach them that the 
 government against which a claim of liberty is tantamount 
 to high treason, is a government to which submission is 
 equivalent to slavery ? It may not always be quite convenient 
 to impress dependent communities with such an idea. 
 
 We are indeed, in all disputes with the colonies, by the 
 necessity of things, the judge. It is true, Sir. But I confess
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 81 
 
 that the character of judge in my own cause is a thing that 
 frightens me. Instead of filling me with pride, I am exceed- 
 ingly humbled by it. I cannot proceed with a stern, assured, 
 judicial confidence, until I find myself in something more like a 
 judicial character. I must have these hesitations as long as I 
 am compelled to recollect that, in my little reading upon such 
 contests as these, the sense of mankind has, at least, as often 
 decided against the superior as the subordinate power. Sir, let 
 me add too, that the opinion of my having some abstract right 
 in my favour would not put me much at my ease in passing 
 sentence ; unless I could be sure that there were no rights 
 which, in their exercise under certain circumstances, were not 
 the most odious of all wrongs, and the most vexatious of all 
 injustice. Sir, these considerations have great weight with me, 
 when I find things so circumstanced that I see the same party 
 at once a civil litigant against me in point of right, and a 
 culprit before me ; while I sit as a criminal judge on acts of 
 his, whose moral quality is to be decided upon the merits of 
 that very litigation. Men are every now and then put, by the 
 complexity of human affairs, into strange situations ; but justice 
 is the same, let the judge be in what situation he will. 
 
 There is, Sir, also a circumstance which convinces me that 
 this mode of criminal proceeding is not (at least in the present 
 stage of our contest) altogether expedient ; which is nothing 
 less than the conduct of those very persons who have seemed 
 to adopt that mode, by lately declaring a rebellion in Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, as they had formerly addressed to have traitors 
 brought hither, under an act of Henry the Eighth, for trial. 
 For though rebellion is declared, it is not proceeded against as 
 such ; nor have any steps been taken towards the apprehension 
 or conviction of any individual offender, either on our late or 
 our former address ; but modes of public coercion have been 
 adopted, and such as have much more resemblance to a sort 
 of qualified hostility towards an independent power than the 
 punishment of rebellious subjects. All this seems rather 
 inconsistent ; but it shows how difficult it is to apply these 
 juridical ideas to our present case. 
 
 618
 
 82 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 In this situation, let us seriously and coolly ponder. What is 
 it we have got by all our menaces, which have been many and 
 ferocious ? What advantage have we derived from the penal 
 laws we have passed, and which, for the time, have been severe 
 and numerous ? What advances have we made towards our 
 object, by the sending of a force which, by land and sea, is no 
 contemptible strength ? Has the disorder abated ? Nothing 
 less. When I see things in this situation, after such confident 
 hopes, bold promises, and active exertions, I cannot, for my 
 life, avoid a suspicion that the plan itself is not correctly 
 right. 
 
 If then the removal of the causes of this spirit of American 
 liberty be, for the greater part, or rather entirely, impracticable; 
 if the ideas of criminal process be inapplicable, or if applicable, 
 are in the highest degree inexpedient ; what way yet remains ? 
 No way is open, but the third and last to comply with the 
 American spirit as necessary; or, if you please, to submit to it 
 as a necessary evil. 
 
 If we adopt this mode ; if we mean to conciliate and con- 
 cede ; let us see of what nature the concession ought to be : 
 to ascertain the nature of our concession we must look at 
 their complaint. The colonies complain that they have not 
 the characteristic mark and seal of British freedom. They 
 complain that they are taxed in a parliament in which they are 
 not represented. If you mean to satisfy them at all, you must 
 satisfy them with regard to this complaint. If you mean to 
 please any people, you must give them the boon which they 
 ask; not what you may think better for them, but of a kind 
 totally different. Such an act may be a wise regulation, but it 
 is no concession : whereas our present theme is the mode of 
 giving satisfaction. 
 
 Sir, I think you must perceive that I am resolved this day 
 to have nothing at all to do with the question of the right of 
 taxation. Some gentlemen startle but it is true ; I put it 
 totally out of the question. It is less than nothing in my 
 consideration. I do not indeed wonder, nor will you, Sir, that 
 gentlemen of profound learning are fond of displaying it on
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 83 
 
 this profound subject. But my consideration is narrow, 
 confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the question. I 
 do not examine whether the giving away a man's money 
 be a power excepted and reserved out of the general trust of 
 government ; and how far all mankind, in all forms of polity, 
 are entitled to an exercise of that right by the charter of 
 nature. Or whether, on the contrary, a right of taxation is 
 necessarily involved in the general principle of legislation, and 
 inseparable from the ordinary supreme power. These are deep 
 questions, where great names militate against each other ; 
 where reason is perplexed ; and an appeal to authorities only 
 thickens the confusion. For high and reverend authorities lift 
 up their heads on both sides ; and there is no sure footing in 
 the middle. This point is the great Serbonian bog, betwixt 
 Damiata and Mount Casius old, where armies whole have 
 sunk. I do not intend to be overwhelmed in that bog, though 
 in such respectable company. The question with me is, not 
 whether you have a right to render your people miserable ; but 
 whether it is not your interest to make them happy. It is not 
 what a lawyer tells me I may do ; but what humanity, reason, 
 and justice tell me I ought to do. Is a politic act the worse 
 for being a generous one ? Is no concession proper but that 
 which is made from your want of right to keep what you 
 grant ? Or does it lessen the grace or dignity of relaxing in 
 the exercise of an odious claim, because you have your 
 evidence-room full of titles, and your magazines stuffed with 
 arms to enforce them ? What signify all those titles, and all 
 those arms ? Of what avail are they, when the reason of the 
 thing tells me that the assertion of my title is the loss of my 
 suit ; and that I could do nothing but wound myself by the use 
 of my own weapons ? 
 
 Such is steadfastly my opinion of the absolute necessity of 
 keeping up the concord of this empire by a unity of spirit, 
 though in a diversity of operations, that, if I were sure the 
 colonists had, at their leaving this country, sealed a regular 
 compact of servitude ; that they had solemnly abjured all the 
 rights of citizens ; that they had made a vow to renounce all
 
 84 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 ideas of liberty for them and their posterity to all generations ; 
 yet I should hold myself obliged to conform to the temper I 
 found universally prevalent in my own day, and to govern 
 two millions of men, impatient of servitude, on the principles 
 of freedom. I am not determining a point of law; I am 
 restoring tranquillity ; and the general character and situa- 
 tion of a people must determine what sort of government 
 is fitted for them. That point nothing else can or ought to 
 determine. 
 
 My idea, therefore, without considering whether we yield as 
 matter of right, or grant as matter of favour, is to admit the 
 people of our colonies into an interest in the constitution ; and, 
 by recording that admission in the journals of parliament, to 
 give them as strong anassurance as the nature of the thing 
 will admit, that we mean for ever to adhere to that solemn 
 declaration of systematic indulgence. 
 
 Some years ago, the repeal of a revenue act, upon its under- 
 stood principle, might have served to show that we intended 
 an unconditional abatement of the exercise of a taxing power. 
 Such a measure was then sufficient to remove all suspicion, 
 and to give perfect content. But unfortunate events, since that 
 time, may make something further necessary ; and not more 
 necessary for the satisfaction of the colonies, than for the 
 dignity and consistency of our own future proceedings. 
 
 I have taken a very incorrect measure of the disposition of 
 the House, if this proposal in itself would be received with 
 dislike. I think, Sir, we have few American financiers. But 
 our misfortune is, we are too acute ; we are too exquisite in 
 our conjectures of the future, for men oppressed with such 
 great and present evils. The more moderate among the 
 opposers of parliamentary concession freely confess that they 
 hope no good from taxation ; but they apprehend the colonists 
 have further views ; and if this point were conceded, they 
 would instantly attack the trade laws. These gentlemen are 
 convinced that this was the intention from the beginning ; and 
 the quarrel of the Americans with taxation was no more than 
 a cloak and cover to this design. Such has been the language
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 85 
 
 even of a gentleman* of real moderation, and of a natural 
 temper well adjusted to fair and equal government. I am, 
 however, Sir, not a little surprised at this kind of discourse 
 whenever I hear it ; and I am the more surprised, on account 
 of the arguments which I constantly find in company with it, 
 and which are often urged from the same mouths, and on the 
 same day. 
 
 For instance, when we allege that it is against reason to tax 
 a people under so many restraints in trade as the Americans, 
 the noble lordt in the blue riband shall tell you that the 
 restraints on trade are futile and useless ; of no advantage 
 to us, and of no burthen to those on whom they are imposed ; 
 that the trade to America is not secured by the acts of naviga- 
 tion, but by the natural and irresistible advantage of a com- 
 mercial preference. 
 
 Such is the merit of the trade laws in this posture of the 
 debate. But when strong internal circumstances are urged 
 against the taxes ; when the scheme is dissected ; when 
 experience and the nature of things are brought to prove, and 
 do prove, the utter impossibility of obtaining an effective 
 revenue from the colonies ; when these things are pressed, or 
 rather press themselves, so as to drive the advocates of colony 
 taxes to a clear admission of the futility of the scheme ; then, 
 Sir, the sleeping trade laws revive from their trance ; and this 
 useless taxation is to be kept sacred, not for its own sake, but 
 as a counter-guard and security of the laws of trade. 
 
 Then, Sir, you keep up revenue laws which are mischievous, 
 in order to preserve trade laws that are useless. Such is the 
 wisdom of our plan in both its members. They are separately 
 given up as of no value ; and yet one is always to be defended 
 for the sake of the other. But I cannot agree with the noble 
 lord, nor with the pamphlet from whence he seems to have 
 borrowed these ideas, concerning the inutility of the trade 
 laws. For, without idolising them, I am sure they are still, 
 in many ways, of great use to us ; and in former times they 
 
 Mr. Rice. t Lord North.
 
 86 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 have been of the greatest. They do confine, and they do 
 greatly narrow, the market for the Americans. But my perfect 
 conviction of this does not help me in the least to discern how 
 the revenue laws form any security whatsoever to the com- 
 mercial regulations ; or that these commercial regulations are 
 the true ground of the quarrel ; or that the giving way, in 
 any one instance of authority, is to lose all that may remain 
 unconceded. 
 
 One fact is clear and indisputable. The public and avowed 
 origin of this quarrel was on taxation. This quarrel has indeed 
 brought on new disputes on new questions ; but certainly the 
 least bitter, and the fewest of all, on the trade laws. To judge 
 which of the two be the real, radical cause of quarrel, we have 
 to see whether the commercial dispute did, in order of time, 
 precede the dispute on taxation ? There is not a shadow of 
 evidence for it. Next, to enable us to judge whether at this 
 moment a dislike to the trade laws be the real cause of quarrel, 
 it is absolutely necessary to put the taxes out of the question by 
 a repeal See how the Americans act in this position, and 
 then you will be able to discern correctly what is the true 
 object of the controversy, or whether any controversy at all 
 will remain. Unless you consent to remove this cause of 
 difference, it is impossible, with decency, to assert that the 
 dispute is not upon what it is avowed to be. And I would, Sir, 
 recommend to your serious consideration, whether it be prudent 
 to form a rule for punishing people, not on their own acts, but 
 on your conjectures ? Surely it is preposterous at the very best. 
 It is not justifying your anger by their misconduct ; but it is 
 converting your ill-will into their delinquency. 
 
 But the colonies will go further. Alas ! alas ! when will this 
 speculating against fact and reason end? What will quiet 
 these panic fears which we entertain of the hostile effect of a 
 conciliatory conduct? Is it true, that no case can exist in 
 which it is proper for the sovereign to accede to the desires 
 of his discontented subjects ? Is there anything peculiar in 
 this case, to make a rule for itself? Is all authority of course 
 lost, when it is not pushed to the extreme ? Is it a certain
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 87 
 
 maxim, that the fewer causes of dissatisfaction are left by 
 government, the more the subject will be inclined to resist 
 and rebel ? 
 
 All these objections being in fact no more than suspicions, 
 conjectures, divinations, formed in defiance of fact and experi- 
 ence ; they did not, Sir, discourage me from entertaining the 
 idea of a conciliatory concession, founded on the principles 
 which I have just stated. 
 
 In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeavoured to put 
 myself in that frame of mind which was the most natural and 
 the most reasonable ; and which was certainly the most 
 probable means of securing me from all error. I set out with 
 a perfect distrust of my own abilities ; a total renunciation 
 of every speculation of my own ; and with a profound reverence 
 for the wisdom of our ancestors, who have left us the inherit- 
 ance of so happy a constitution, and so flourishing an empire, 
 and what is a thousand times more valuable, the treasury of 
 the maxims and principles which formed the one and obtained 
 the other. 
 
 During the reigns of the kings of Spain of the Austrian 
 family, whenever they were at a loss in the Spanish councils, 
 it was common for their statesmen to say that they ought 
 to consult the genius of Philip the Second. The genius of 
 Philip the Second might mislead them; and the issue of their 
 affairs showed that they had not chosen the most perfect 
 standard. But, Sir, I am sure that I shall not be misled, 
 when, in a case of constitutional difficulty, I consult the genius 
 of the English constitution. Consulting at that oracle (it was 
 with all due humility and piety) I found four capital examples 
 in a similar case before me ; those of Ireland, Wales, Chester, 
 and Durham. 
 
 Ireland, before the English conquest, though never governed 
 by a despotic power, had no parliament. How far the English 
 parliament itself was at that time modelled according to 
 the present form is disputed among antiquarians. But we 
 have all the reason in the world to be assured that a form of 
 parliament, such as England then enjoyed, she instantly
 
 88 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 communicated to Ireland ; and we are equally sure that almost 
 every successive improvement in constitutional liberty, as fast 
 as it was made here, was transmitted thither. The feudal 
 baronage, and the feudal knighthood, the roots of our primi- 
 tive constitution, were early transplanted into that soil; and 
 grew and flourished there. Magna Charta, if it did not give 
 us originally the House of Commons, gave us at least a House 
 of Commons of weight and consequence. But your ancestors 
 did not churlishly sit down alone to the feast of Magna Charta. 
 Ireland was made immediately a partaker. This benefit of 
 English laws and liberties, I confess, was not at first extended 
 to all Ireland. Mark the consequence. English authority and 
 English liberties had exactly the same boundaries. Your 
 standard could never be advanced an inch before your 
 privileges. Sir John Davis shows beyond a doubt that the 
 refusal of a general communication of these rights was the 
 true cause why Ireland was five hundred years in subduing; 
 and after the vain projects of a military government, attempted 
 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was soon discovered that 
 nothing could make that country English, in civility and 
 allegiance, but your laws and your forms of legislature. It 
 was not English arms, but the English constitution, that 
 conquered Ireland. From that time, Ireland has ever had 
 a general parliament, as she had before a partial parliament. 
 You changed the people ; you altered the religion ; but you 
 never touched the form or the vital substance of free govern- 
 ment in that kingdom. You deposed kings ; you restored 
 them ; you altered the succession to theirs, as well as to your 
 own crown ; but you never altered their constitution ; the 
 principle of which was respected by usurpation ; restored with 
 the restoration of monarchy, and established, I trust, for ever, 
 by the glorious Revolution. This has made Ireland the great 
 and flourishing kingdom that it is ; and from a disgrace and 
 a burthen intolerable to this nation, has rendered her a 
 principal part of our strength and ornament. This country 
 cannot be said to have ever formally taxed her. The irregular 
 things done in the confusion of mighty troubles, and on the
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 89 
 
 hinge of great revolutions, even if all were done that is said 
 to have been done, form no example. If they have any effect 
 in argument, they make an exception to prove the rule. None 
 of your own liberties could stand a moment if the casual 
 deviations from them, at such times, were suffered to be used 
 as proofs of their nullity. By the lucrative amount of such 
 casual breaches in the constitution, judge what the stated and 
 fixed rule of supply has been in that kingdom. Your Irish 
 pensioners would starve if they had no other fund to live on 
 than taxes granted by English authority. Turn your eyes to 
 those popular grants from whence all your great supplies are 
 come ; and learn to respect that only source of public wealth 
 in the British empire. 
 
 My next example is Wales. This country was said to be 
 reduced by Henry the Third. It was said more truly to be 
 so by Edward the First. But though then conquered, it was 
 not looked upon as any part of the realm of England. Its old 
 constitution, whatever that might have been, was destroyed ; 
 and no good one was substituted in its place. The care of that 
 tract was put into the hands of lords marchers a form of 
 government of a very singular kind ; a strange heterogeneous 
 monster, something between hostility and government ; per- 
 haps it has a sort of resemblance, according to the modes 
 of those times, to that of commander-in-chief at present, to 
 whom all civil power is granted as secondary. The manners 
 of the Welsh nation followed the genius of the government ; 
 the people were ferocious, restive, savage, and uncultivated ; 
 sometimes composed, never pacified. Wales, within itself, was 
 in perpetual disorder ; and it kept the frontier of England in 
 perpetual alarm. Benefits from it to the state there were none. 
 Wales was only known to England by incursion and invasion. 
 
 Sir, during that state of things, parliament was not idle. 
 They attempted to subdue the fierce spirit of the Welsh by all 
 sorts of rigorous laws. They prohibited by statute the sending 
 all sorts of arms into Wales, as you prohibit by proclamation 
 (with something more of doubt on the legality) the sending 
 arms to America. They disarmed the Welsh by statute, as
 
 90 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 you attempted (but still with more question on the legality) to 
 disarm New England by an instruction. They made an act 
 to drag offenders from Wales into England for trial, as you 
 have done (but with more hardship) with regard to America. 
 By another act, where one of the parties was an Englishman, 
 they ordained that his trial should be always by English. They 
 made acts to restrain trade, as you do ; and they prevented the 
 Welsh from the use of fairs and markets, as you do the 
 Americans from fisheries and foreign ports. In short, when 
 the statute book was not quite so much swelled as it is now, 
 you find no less than fifteen acts of penal regulation on the 
 subject of Wales. 
 
 Here we rub our hands A fine body of precedents for the 
 authority of parliament and the use of it 1 I admit it fully ; 
 and pray add likewise to these precedents, that all the while, 
 Wales rid this kingdom like an incubus ; that it was an 
 unprofitable and oppressive burthen ; and that an Englishman 
 travelling in that country could not go six yards from the high 
 road without being murdered. 
 
 The march of the human mind is slow. Sir, it was not 
 until after two hundred years discovered that, by an eternal 
 law, Providence had decreed vexation to violence, and poverty 
 to rapine. Your ancestors did however at length open their 
 eyes to the ill husbandry of injustice. They found that the 
 tyranny of a free people could of all tyrannies the least be 
 endured ; and that laws made against a whole nation were not 
 the most effectual methods for securing its obedience. Accord- 
 ingly, in the twenty-seventh year of Henry VIII. the course 
 was entirely altered. With a preamble stating the entire and 
 perfect rights of the crown of England, it gave to the Welsh all 
 the rights and privileges of English subjects. A political order 
 was established j the military power gave way to the civil ; the 
 marches were turned into counties. But that a nation should 
 have a right to English liberties, and yet no share at all in the 
 fundamental security of these liberties the grant of their own 
 property seemed a thing so incongruous, that, eight years 
 after, that is, in the thirty-fifth of that reign, a complete and
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 91 
 
 not ill-proportioned representation by counties and boroughs 
 was bestowed upon Wales by act of parliament. From that 
 moment, as by a charm, the tumults subsided, obedience was 
 restored, peace, order, and civilisation followed in the train of 
 liberty. When the day-star of the English constitution had 
 arisen in their hearts all was harmony within and without 
 
 " Simul alba nautis 
 
 Stella refulsit, 
 
 Defiuit saxis agitatus humor ; 
 Concidunt venti, fugtiintque nubes, 
 Et minax (qubd sic valuers) ponto 
 Unda recumbit." 
 
 The very same year the county palatine of Chester received 
 the same relief from its oppressions, and the same remedy to 
 its disorders. Before this time Chester was little less distem- 
 pered than Wales. The inhabitants, without rights themselves, 
 were the fittest to destroy the rights of others ; and from 
 thence Richard II. drew the standing army of archers, with 
 which for a time he oppressed England. The people of 
 Chester applied to parliament in a petition penned as I shall 
 read to you : 
 
 " To the king our sovereign lord, in most humble wise shown 
 unto your excellent Majesty, the inhabitants of your Grace's 
 county palatine of Chester; That where the said county 
 palatine of Chester is and hath been always hitherto exempt, 
 excluded and separated out and from your high court of 
 parliament, to have any knights and burgesses within the 
 said court ; by reason whereof the said inhabitants have 
 hitherto sustained manifold disherisons, losses, and damages, 
 as well in their lands, goods, and bodies, as in the good, civil, 
 and politic governance and maintenance of the commonwealth 
 of their said country : (2) And forasmuch as the said inhabit- 
 ants have always hitherto been bound by the acts and statutes 
 made and ordained by your said Highness, and your most 
 noble progenitors, by authority of the said court, as far forth 
 as other counties, cities, and boroughs have been, that have
 
 92 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 had their knights and burgesses within your said court of 
 parliament, and yet have had neither knight ne burgess there 
 for the said county palatine ; the said inhabitants, for lack 
 thereof, have been oftentimes touched and grieved with acts 
 and statutes made within the said court, as well derogatory 
 unto the most ancient jurisdictions, liberties, and privileges of 
 your said county palatine, as prejudicial unto the common- 
 wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of your Grace's most 
 bounden subjects inhabiting within the same." 
 
 What did parliament with this audacious address? Reject 
 it as a libel ? Treat it as an affront to government ? Spurn it 
 as a derogation from the rights of legislature ? Did they toss it 
 over the table? Did they burn it by the hands of the common 
 hangman ? They took the petition of grievance, all rugged as 
 it was, without softening or temperament, unpurged of the 
 original bitterness and indignation of complaint ; they made it 
 the very preamble to their act of redress ; and consecrated its 
 principle to all ages in the sanctuary of legislation. 
 
 Here is my third example. It was attended with the success 
 of the two former. Chester, civilised as well as Wales, has 
 demonstrated that freedom, and not servitude, is the cure of 
 anarchy ; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for 
 superstition. Sir, this pattern of Chester was followed in the 
 reign of Charles II. with regard to the county palatine of 
 Durham, which is my fourth example. This county had long 
 lain out of the pale of free legislation. So scrupulously was 
 the example of Chester followed, that the style of the preamble 
 is nearly the same with that of the Chester act ; and, without 
 affecting the abstract extent of the authority of parliament, it 
 recognises the equity of not suffering any considerable district, 
 in which the British subjects may act as a body, to be taxed 
 without their own voice in the grant. 
 
 Now if the doctrines of policy contained in these preambles, 
 and the force of these examples in the acts of parliament, avail 
 anything, what can be said against applying them with regard 
 to America? Are not the people of America as much 
 Englishmen as the Welsh ? The preamble of the act of Henry
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 93 
 
 VIII. says the Welsh speak a language no way resembling 
 that of his Majesty's English subjects. Are the Americans not 
 as numerous ? If we may trust the learned and accurate Judge 
 Harrington's account of North Wales, and take that as a 
 standard to measure the rest, there is no comparison. The 
 people cannot amount to above 200,000 ; not a tenth part of 
 the number in the colonies. Is America in rebellion ? Wales 
 was hardly ever free from it. Have you attempted to govern 
 America by penal statutes ? You made fifteen for Wales. 
 But your legislative authority is perfect with regard to 
 America ; was it less perfect in Wales, Chester, and Durham ? 
 But America is virtually represented. What ! does the electric 
 force of virtual representation more easily pass over the 
 Atlantic than pervade Wales, which lies in your neighbour- 
 hood ; or than Chester and Durham, surrounded by abundance 
 of representation that is actual and palpable ? But, Sir, your 
 ancestors thought this sort of virtual representation, how- 
 ever ample, to be totally insufficient for the freedom of the 
 inhabitants of territories that are so near, and comparatively so 
 inconsiderable. How, then, can I think it insufficient for those 
 which are infinitely greater and infinitely more remote ? 
 
 You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine that I am on the point 
 of proposing to you a scheme for a representation of the 
 colonies in parliament. Perhaps I might be inclined to 
 entertain some such thought ; but a great flood stops me in 
 my course. Opposuit natura I cannot remove the eternal 
 barriers of the creation. The thing, in that mode, I do not 
 know to be possible. As I meddle with no theory, I do not 
 absolutely assert the impracticability of such a representation. 
 But I do not see my way to it ; and those who have been more 
 confident have not been more successful. However, the arm 
 of public benevolence is not shortened ; and there are often 
 several means to the same end. What nature has disjoined in 
 one way, wisdom may unite in another. When we cannot give 
 the benefit as we would wish, let us not refuse it altogether. 
 If we cannot give the principal, let us find a substitute. But 
 how? Where? What substitute ?
 
 94 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 Fortunately, I am not obliged for the ways and means of 
 this substitute to tax my own unproductive invention. I am 
 not even obliged to go to the rich treasury of the fertile 
 framers of imaginary commonwealths ; not to the Republic 
 of Plato ; not to the Utopia of More ; not to the Oceana of 
 Harrington. It is before me it is at my feet, and the rude 
 swain treads daily on it with his clouted shoon. I only wish 
 you to recognise, for the theory, the ancient constitutional 
 policy of this kingdom with regard to representation, as that 
 policy has deen declared in acts of parliament ; and, as to the 
 practice, to return to that mode which an uniform experience 
 has marked out to you as best, and in which you walked with 
 security, advantage, and honour until the year 1763. 
 
 My resolutions, therefore, mean to establish the equity and 
 justice of a taxation of America by grant, and not by imposition. 
 To mark the legal competency of the colony assemblies for the 
 support of their government in peace, and for public aids in 
 time of war. To acknowledge that this legal competency has 
 had a dtitiful and beneficial exercise; and that experience has 
 shown the benefit of their grants, and the futility of parlia- 
 mentary taxation as a method of supply. 
 
 These solid truths compose six fundamental propositions. 
 There are three more resolutions corollary to these. If you 
 admit the first set you can hardly reject the others. But if you 
 admit the first I shall be far from solicitous whether you accept 
 or refuse the last. I think these six massive pillars will be of 
 strength sufficient to support the temple of British concord. I 
 have no more doubt than I entertain of my existence, that if 
 you admitted these, you would command an immediate peace ; 
 and, with but tolerable future management, a lasting obedience 
 in America. I am not arrogant in this confident assurance. 
 The propositions are all mere matters of fact ; and if they are 
 such facts as draw irresistible conclusions even in the stating, 
 this is the power of truth, and not any management of mine. 
 
 Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you, together with such 
 observations on the motions as may tend to illustrate them 
 where they may want explanation. The first is a resolution
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 95 
 
 " That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in North 
 America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, and 
 containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, have 
 not had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any 
 knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them in the high 
 court of parliament." This is a plain matter of fact, necessary 
 to be laid down, and (excepting the description) it is laid down 
 in the language of the constitution ; it is taken nearly verbatim 
 from acts of parliament. 
 
 The second is like unto the first "That the said colonies 
 and plantations have been liable to, and bounden by, several 
 subsidies, payments, rates, and taxes, given and granted by 
 parliament, though the said colonies and plantations have not 
 their knights and burgesses in the said high court of parliament 
 of their own election, to represent the condition of their 
 country; by lack whereof they have been oftentimes touched 
 and grieved by subsidies given, granted, and assented to, in 
 the said court in a manner prejudicial to the commonwealth, 
 quietness, rest, and peace of the subjects inhabiting within the 
 same." 
 
 Is this description too hot or too cold, too strong or too 
 weak ? Does it arrogate too much to the supreme legislature ? 
 Does it lean too much to the claims of the people ? If it runs 
 into any of these errors the fault is not mine. It is the 
 language of your own ancient acts of parliament. 
 
 " Non meus hie sermo, sed qua praccpit Ofellus t 
 Rusticus, abnormis sapiens" 
 
 It is the genuine produce of the ancient, rustic, manly, home- 
 bred sense of this country. I did not dare to rub off a particle 
 of the venerable rust that rather adorns and preserves than 
 destroys the metal. It would be a profanation to touch with a 
 tool the stones which construct the sacred altar of peace. I 
 would not violate with modern polish the ingenuous and noble 
 roughness of these truly constitutional materials. Above all 
 things, I was resolved not to be guilty of tampering : the odious
 
 96 EDMUND BURKK 
 
 vice of restless and unstable minds. I put my foot in the 
 tracks of our forefathers, where I can neither wander nor 
 stumble. Determining to fix articles of peace, I was resolved 
 not to be wise beyond what was written ; I was resolved to use 
 nothing else than the form of sound words ; to let others 
 abound in their own sense, and carefully to abstain from all 
 expressions of my own. What the law has said, I say. In all 
 things else I am silent. I have no organ but for her words. 
 This, if it be not ingenious, I am sure is safe. 
 
 There are indeed words expressive of grievance in this 
 second resolution, which those who are resolved always to be 
 in the right will deny to contain matter of fact, as applied to 
 the present case ; although parliament thought them true with 
 regard to the counties of Chester and Durham. They will 
 deny that the Americans were ever "touched and grieved" 
 with the taxes. If they consider nothing in taxes but their 
 weight as pecuniary impositions, there might be some pretence 
 for this denial. But men may be sorely touched and deeply 
 grieved in their privileges, as well as in their purses. Men 
 may lose little in property by the act which takes away all their 
 freedom. When a man is robbed of a trifle on the highway, it 
 is not the twopence lost that constitutes the capital outrage. 
 This is not confined to privileges. Even ancient indulgences 
 withdrawn, without offence on the part of those who enjoyed 
 such favours, operate as grievances. But were the Americans 
 then not touched and grieved by the taxes, in some measure, 
 merely as taxes ? If so, why were they almost all either wholly 
 repealed or exceedingly reduced ? Were they not touched and 
 grieved even by the regulating duties of the sixth of George 
 II.? Else why were the duties first reduced to one-third in 
 1764, and afterwards to a third of that third in the year 1766? 
 Were they not touched and grieved by the Stamp Act ? I shall 
 say they were, until that tax is revived. Were they not touched 
 and grieved by the duties of 1767, which were likewise repealed, 
 and which Lord Hillsborough tells you (for the ministry) were 
 laid contrary to the true principle of commerce ? Is not the 
 assurance given by that noble person to the colonies of a
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 97 
 
 resolution to lay no more taxes on them, an admission that 
 taxes would touch and grieve them ? Is not the resolution of 
 the noble lord in the blue riband, now standing on your 
 journals, the strongest of all proofs that parliamentary subsidies 
 really touched and grieved them ? Else why all these changes, 
 modifications, repeals, assurances, and resolutions ? 
 
 The next proposition is "That, from the distance of the 
 said colonies, and from other circumstances, no method hath 
 hitherto been devised for procuring a representation in parlia- 
 ment for the said colonies." This is an assertion of a fact. I 
 go no further on the paper ; though, in my private judgment, 
 an useful representation is impossible ; I am sure it is not 
 desired by them ; nor ought it perhaps by us ; but I abstain 
 from opinions. 
 
 The fourth resolution is "That each of the said colonies 
 hath within itself a body, chosen in part, or in the whole, by 
 the freemen, freeholders, or other free inhabitants thereof, com- 
 monly called the General Assembly, or General Court ; with 
 powers legally to raise, levy, and assess, according to the 
 several usage of such colonies, duties and taxes towards 
 defraying all sorts of public services." 
 
 This competence in the colony assemblies is certain. It is 
 proved by the whole tenor of their acts of supply in all the 
 assemblies, in which the constant style of granting is " an aid 
 to his Majesty "; and acts granting to the crown have regularly 
 for near a century passed the public offices without dispute. 
 Those who have been pleased paradoxically to deny this right, 
 holding that none but the British parliament can grant to the 
 crown, are wished to look to what is done, not only in the 
 colonies, but in Ireland, in one uniform unbroken tenor every 
 session. Sir, I am surprised that this doctrine should come 
 from some of the law servants of the crown. I say that if the 
 crown could be responsible, his Majesty but certainly the 
 ministers, and even these law officers themselves, through 
 whose hands the acts pass biennially in Ireland, or annually in 
 the colonies, are in an habitual course of committing impeach- 
 able offences. What habitual offenders have been all presidents 
 
 619
 
 98 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 of the council, all secretaries of state, all first lords of trade, all 
 attorneys and all solicitors general ? However, they are safe, 
 as no one impeaches them ; and there is no ground of charge 
 against them, except in their own unfounded theories. 
 
 The fifth resolution is also a resolution of fact "That the 
 said general assemblies, general courts, or other bodies legally 
 qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times freely granted 
 several large subsidies and public aids for his Majesty's 
 service, according to their abilities, when required thereto by 
 letter from one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state ; 
 and that their right to grant the same, and their cheerfulness 
 and sufficiency in the said grants, have been at sundry times 
 acknowledged by parliament." To say nothing of their great 
 expenses in the Indian wars ; and not to take their exertion in 
 foreign ones, so high as the supplies in the year 1695 ; not to 
 go back to their public contributions in the year 1710; I shall 
 begin to travel only where the journals give me light ; resolving 
 to deal in nothing but fact, authenticated by parliamentary 
 record, and to build myself wholly on that solid basis. 
 
 On the 4th of April 1748* a committee of this House came 
 to the following resolution : 
 
 "Resolved, 
 
 " That it is the opinion of this committee, That it is just 
 and reasonable that the several provinces and colonies of 
 Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode 
 Island, be reimbursed the expenses they have been at in taking 
 and securing to the crown of Great Britain the island of Cape 
 Breton and its dependencies." 
 
 These expenses were immense for such colonies. They were 
 above ^200,000 sterling ; money first raised and advanced on 
 their public credit. 
 
 On the 28th of January I756t a message from the king 
 came to us, to this effect " His Majesty, being sensible of the 
 
 * Journals of the House, vol. xxv. f Ibid. vol. xxvii.
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 99 
 
 zeal and vigour with which his faithful subjects of certain 
 colonies in North America have exerted themselves in defence 
 of his Majesty's just rights and possessions, recommends it to 
 this House to take the same into their consideration, and to 
 enable his Majesty to give them such assistance as may be a 
 proper reward and encouragement" 
 
 On the 3rd of February 1756* the House came to a suitable 
 resolution, expressed in words nearly the same as those of the 
 message ; but with the further addition, that the money then 
 voted was as an encouragement to the colonies to exert them- 
 selves with vigour. It will not be necessary to go through all 
 the testimonies which your own records have given to the 
 truth of my resolutions, I will only refer you to the places in 
 the journals : 
 
 Vol. xxvii. i6th and igth May 1757. 
 
 Vol. xxviii. June 1st, 1758 April 26th and 3Oth, 1759 
 March 26th and 3 1st, and April 28th, 1760 
 January 9th and 2oth, 1761. 
 
 Vol. xxix. Jan. 22nd and 26th, 1762 March I4th and I7th, 
 1763. 
 
 Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment of parliament that 
 the colonies not only gave, but gave to satiety. This nation 
 has formally acknowledged two things : first, that the colonies 
 had gone beyond their abilities, parliament having thought it 
 necessary to reimburse them ; secondly, that they had acted 
 legally and laudably in their grants of money, and their main- 
 tenance of troops, since the compensation is expressly given as 
 reward and encouragement. Reward is not bestowed for acts 
 that are unlawful ; and encouragement is not held out to things 
 that deserve reprehension. My resolution therefore does 
 nothing more than collect into one proposition what is 
 scattered through your journals. I give you nothing but your 
 own ; and you cannot refuse in the gross what you have so 
 often acknowledged in detail. The admission of this, which 
 will be so honourable to them and to you, will, indeed, be 
 
 * Journals of the House, vol. xxvii.
 
 ioo EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 mortal to all the miserable stories by which the passions of the 
 misguided people have been engaged in an unhappy system. 
 The people heard, indeed, from the beginning of these disputes, 
 one thing continually dinned in their ears, that reason and 
 justice demanded that the Americans, who paid no taxes, 
 should be compelled to contribute. How did that fact, of their 
 paying nothing, stand when the taxing system began ? When 
 Mr. Grenville began to form his system of American revenue, 
 he stated in this House that the colonies were then in debt two 
 million six hundred thousand pounds sterling money; and was 
 of opinion they would discharge that debt in four years. On 
 this statement, those untaxed people were actually subject to 
 the payment of taxes to the amount of six hundred and fifty 
 thousand a year. In fact, however, Mr. Grenville was mis- 
 taken. The funds given for sinking the debt did not prove 
 quite so ample as both the colonies and he expected. The 
 calculation was too sanguine ; the reduction was not completed 
 till some years after, and at different times in different colonies. 
 However, the taxes after the war continued too great to bear 
 any addition, with prudence or propriety ; and when the 
 burthens imposed in consequence of former requisitions were 
 discharged, our tone became too high to resort again to 
 requisition. No colony, since that time, ever has had any 
 requisition whatsoever made to it. 
 
 We see the sense of the crown, and the sense of parlia- 
 ment, on the productive nature of a re-vemte by grant. Now 
 search the same journals for the produce of the revenue by 
 imposition Where is it? let us know the volume and the 
 page what is the gross, what is the net produce ? to what 
 service is it applied ? how have you appropriated its surplus ? 
 What, can none of the many skilful index-makers that we 
 are now employing find any trace of it ? Well, let them and 
 that rest together. But are the journals, which say nothing of 
 the revenue, as silent on the discontent ? Oh no ! a child may 
 find it. It is the melancholy burthen and blot of every page. 
 
 I think then I am, from those journals, justified in the 
 sixth and last resolution, which is "That it hath been found
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 101 
 
 by experience that the manner of granting the said supplies 
 and aids, by the said general assemblies, hath been more 
 agreeable to the said colonies, and more beneficial and con- 
 ducive to the public service, than the mode of giving and 
 granting aids in parliament, to be raised and paid in the 
 said colonies." This makes the whole of the fundamental 
 part of the plan. The conclusion is irresistible. You cannot 
 say, that you were driven by any necessity to an exercise of 
 the utmost rights of legislature. You cannot assert, that you 
 took on yourselves the task of imposing colony taxes, from 
 the want of another legal body that is competent to the 
 purpose of supplying the exigencies of the state without 
 wounding the prejudices of the people. Neither is it true 
 that the body so qualified, and having that competence, had 
 neglected the duty. 
 
 The question now, on all this accumulated matter, is ; 
 whether you will choose to abide by a profitable experience, 
 or a mischievous theory ; whether you choose to build on 
 imagination, or fact ; whether you prefer enjoyment, or hope ; 
 satisfaction in your subjects, or discontent ? 
 
 If these propositions are accepted, everything which has 
 been made to enforce a contrary system must, I take it for 
 granted, fall along with it. On that ground, I have drawn 
 the following resolution, which, when it comes to be moved, 
 will naturally be divided in a proper manner : " That it may 
 be proper to repeal an act, made in the seventh year of the 
 reign of his present Majesty, intituled, An act for granting 
 certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in 
 America ; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs 
 upon the exportation from this kingdom, of coffee and cocoa- 
 nuts of the produce of the said colonies or plantations ; for 
 discontinuing the drawbacks payable on China earthenware 
 exported to America ; and for more effectually preventing 
 the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies and 
 plantations. And that it may be proper to repeal an act, 
 made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present 
 Majesty, intituled, An act to discontinue, in such manner
 
 102 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and 
 discharging, lading or shipping, of goods, wares, and mer- 
 chandise, at the town and within the harbour of Boston, 
 in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America. 
 And that it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 
 fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 
 An act for the impartial administration of justice, in the cases 
 of persons questioned for any acts done by them, in the 
 execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and 
 tumults, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New 
 England. And that it may be proper to repeal an act, made 
 in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, 
 intituled, An act for the better regulating the government of the 
 province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England. And, also, 
 that it may be proper to explain and amend an act, made in 
 the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, 
 intituled, An act for the trial of treasons committed out of 
 the king's dominions." 
 
 I wish, Sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, because (inde- 
 pendently of the dangerous precedent of suspending the rights 
 of the subject during the king's pleasure) it was passed, as I 
 apprehend, with less regularity, and on more partial principles, 
 than it ought. The corporation of Boston was not heard before 
 it was condemned. Other towns, full as guilty as she was, 
 have not had their ports blocked up. Even the restraining 
 bill of the present session does not go to the length of the 
 Boston Port Act. The same ideas of prudence which induced 
 you not to extend equal punishment to equal guilt, even when 
 you were punishing, induced me, who mean not to chastise, 
 but to reconcile, to be satisfied with the punishment already 
 partially inflicted. 
 
 Ideas of prudence and accommodation to circumstances 
 prevent you from taking away the charters of Connecticut and 
 Rhode Island, as you have taken away that of Massachusetts 
 colony, though the crown has far less power in the two former 
 provinces than it enjoyed in the latter ; and though the abuses 
 have been full as great, and as flagrant, in the exempted as in
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 103 
 
 the punished. The same reasons of prudence and accommoda- 
 tion have weight with me in restoring the charter of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay. Besides, Sir, the act which changes the charter 
 of Massachusetts is in many particulars so exceptionable, that 
 if I did not wish absolutely to repeal, I would by all means 
 desire to alter it ; as several of its provisions tend to the sub- 
 version of all public and private justice. Such, among others, 
 is the power in the governor to change the sheriff at his 
 pleasure ; and to make a new returning officer for every special 
 cause. It is shameful to behold such a regulation standing 
 among English laws. 
 
 The act for bringing persons accused of committing murder 
 under the orders of government to England for trial is but 
 temporary. That act has calculated the probable duration of 
 our quarrel with the colonies ; and is accommodated to that 
 supposed duration. I would hasten the happy moment of 
 reconciliation ; and therefore must, on my principle, get rid of 
 that most justly obnoxious act. 
 
 The act of Henry the Eighth, for the trial of treasons, I do 
 not mean to take away, but to confine it to its proper bounds 
 and original intention ; to make it expressly for trial of treasons 
 (and the greatest treasons may be committed) in places where 
 the jurisdiction of the crown does not extend. 
 
 Having guarded the privileges of local legislature, I would 
 next secure to the colonies a fair and unbiassed judicature ; for 
 which purpose, Sir, I propose the following resolution : " That, 
 from the time when the general assembly or general court 
 of any colony or plantation in North America shall have 
 appointed by act of assembly, duly confirmed, a settled salary 
 to the offices of the chief justice and other judges of the 
 superior court, it may be proper that the said chief justice 
 and other judges of the superior courts of such colony, shall 
 hold his and their office and offices during their good behaviour; 
 and shall not be removed therefrom, but when the said removal 
 shall be adjudged by his Majesty in council, upon a hearing 
 on complaint from the general assembly, or on a complaint 
 from the governor, or council, or the house of representatives
 
 104 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 severally, or of the colony in which the said chief justice and 
 other judges have exercised the said offices." 
 
 The next resolution relates to the courts of admiralty. 
 
 It is this : " That it may be proper to regulate the courts of 
 admiralty, or vice-admiralty, authorised by the fifteenth chapter 
 of the fourth of George the Third, in such a manner as to make 
 the same more commodious to those who sue, or are sued, in 
 the said courts, and to provide for the more decent maintenance 
 of the judges in the same." 
 
 These courts I do not wish to take away ; they are in them- 
 selves proper establishments. This court is one of the capital 
 securities of the act of navigation. The extent of its jurisdic- 
 tion, indeed, has been increased ; but this is altogether as 
 proper, and is indeed on many accounts more eligible, where 
 new powers were wanted, than a court absolutely new. But 
 courts incommodiously situated, in effect, deny justice ; and a 
 court, partaking in the fruits of its own condemnation, is a 
 robber. The congress complain, and complain justly, of this 
 grievance.* 
 
 These are the three consequential propositions. I have 
 thought of two or three more ; but they come rather too near 
 detail, and to the province of executive government ; which I 
 wish parliament always to superintend, never to assume. If 
 the first six are granted, congruity will carry the latter three. 
 If not, the things that remain unrepealed will be, I hope, rather 
 unseemly encumbrances on the building, than very materially 
 detrimental to its strength and stability. 
 
 Here, Sir, I should close ; but I plainly perceive some 
 objections remain, which I ought, if possible, to remove. The 
 first will be, that in resorting to the doctrine of our ancestors, 
 as contained in the preamble to the Chester act, I prove too 
 much ; that the grievance from a want of representation, 
 
 * The Solicitor- General informed Mr. B. when the resolutions were 
 separately moved that the grievance of the judges partaking of the 
 profits of the seizure had been redressed by office ; accordingly the 
 resolution was amended.
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 105 
 
 stated in that preamble, goes to the whole of legislation as well 
 as to taxation. And that the colonies, grounding themselves 
 upon that doctrine, will apply it to all parts of legislative 
 authority. 
 
 To this objection, with all possible deference and humility, 
 and wishing as little as any man living to impair the smallest 
 particle of our supreme authority, I answer that the words are 
 the words of Parliament, and not mine j and that all false and 
 inconclusive inferences drawn from them are not mine ; for 
 I heartily disclaim any such inference. I have chosen the 
 words of an act of parliament, which Mr. Grenville, surely 
 a tolerably zealous and very judicious advocate for the 
 sovereignty of parliament, formerly moved to have read at 
 your table in confirmation of his tenets. It is true that Lord 
 Chatham considered these preambles as declaring strongly in 
 favour of his opinions. He was a no less powerful advocate 
 for the privileges of the Americans. Ought I not from hence 
 to presume that these preambles are as favourable as possible 
 to both, when properly understood ; favourable both to the 
 rights of parliament and to the privilege of the dependencies 
 of this crown? But, Sir, the object of grievance in my resolu- 
 tion I have not taken from the Chester, but from the Durham 
 act, which confines the hardship of want of representation 
 to the case of subsidies ; and which therefore falls in exactly 
 with the case of the colonies. But whether the unrepresented 
 counties were de jure, or de facto, bound, the preambles do not 
 accurately distinguish ; nor indeed was it necessary ; for, 
 whether de jure, or de facto, the legislature thought the exercise 
 of the power of taxing, as of right, or as of fact without right, 
 equally a grievance, and equally oppressive. 
 
 I do not know that the colonies have, in any general way, 
 or in any cool hour, gone much beyond the demand of 
 immunity in relation to taxes. It is not fair to judge of the 
 temper or dispositions of any man, or any set of men, when 
 they are composed and at rest, from their conduct, or their 
 expressions, in a state of disturbance and irritation. It is 
 besides a very great mistake to imagine that mankind follow
 
 io6 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 up practically any speculative principle, either of government 
 or of freedom, as far as it will go in argument and logical 
 illation. We Englishmen stop very short of the principles 
 upon which we support any given part of our constitution ; 
 or even the whole of it together. I could easily, if I had not 
 already tired you, give you very striking and convincing 
 instances of it. This is nothing but what is natural and proper. 
 All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, 
 every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise 
 and barter. We balance inconveniences ; we give and take ; 
 we remit some rights that we may enjoy others ; and we 
 choose rather to be happy citizens than subtle disputants. As 
 we must give away some natural liberty, to enjoy civil advan- 
 tages ; so we must sacrifice some civil liberties, for the advan- 
 tages to be derived from the communion and fellowship of 
 a great empire. But, in all fair dealings, the thing bought 
 must bear some proportion to the purchase paid. None will 
 barter away the immediate jewel of his soul. Though a great 
 house is apt to make slaves haughty, yet it is purchasing a part 
 of the artificial importance of a great empire too dear to pay 
 for it all essential rights, and all the intrinsic dignity of human 
 nature. None of us who would not risk his life rather than fall 
 under a government purely arbitrary. But although there are 
 some amongst us who think our constitution wants many 
 improvements, to make it a complete system of liberty ; 
 perhaps none who are of that opinion would think it right to 
 aim at such improvement, by disturbing his country, and risk- 
 ing everything that is dear to him. In every arduous enter- 
 prise, we consider what we are to lose as well as what we are 
 to gain ; and the more and better stake of liberty every people 
 possess, the less they will hazard in a vain attempt to make it 
 more. These are the cords of man. Man acts from adequate 
 motives relative to his interest ; and not on metaphysical 
 speculations. Aristotle, the great master of reasoning, 
 cautions us, and with great weight and propriety, against this 
 species of delusive geometrical accuracy in moral arguments, 
 as the most fallacious of all sophistry.
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 107 
 
 The Americans will have no interest contrary to the grandeur 
 and glory of England, when they are not oppressed by the 
 weight of it; and they will rather be inclined to respect the 
 acts of a superintending legislature, when they see them the 
 acts of that power, which is itself the security, not the rival, 
 of their secondary importance. In this assurance, my mind 
 most perfectly acquiesces: and I confess, I feel not the least 
 alarm from the discontents which are to arise from putting 
 people at their ease; nor do I apprehend the destruction 
 of this empire, from giving, by an act of free grace and 
 indulgence, to two millions of my fellow-citizens some share 
 of those rights, upon which I have always been taught to value 
 myself. 
 
 It is said, indeed, that this power of granting, vested in 
 American assemblies, would dissolve the unity of the empire, 
 which was preserved entire, although Wales and Chester and 
 Durham were added to it Truly, Mr. Speaker, I do not know 
 what this unity means; nor has it ever been heard of, that I 
 know, in the constitutional policy of this country. The very 
 idea of subordination of parts excludes this notion of simple 
 and undivided unity. England is the head; but she is not 
 the head and the members too. Ireland has ever had from 
 the beginning a separate, but not an independent, legislature, 
 which, far from distracting, promoted the union of the whole. 
 Everything was sweetly and harmoniously disposed through 
 both islands for the conservation of English dominion, and 
 the communication of English liberties. I do not see that 
 the same principles might not be carried into twenty islands, 
 and with the same good effect. This is my model with regard 
 to America, as far as the internal circumstances of the two 
 countries are the same. I know no other unity of this empire 
 than I can draw from its example during these periods, 
 when it seemed to my poor understanding more united 
 than it is now, or than it is likely to be by the present 
 methods. 
 
 But since I speak of these methods, I recollect, Mr. Speaker, 
 almost too late, that I promised, before I finished, to say
 
 io8 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 something of the proposition of the noble lord* on the floor, 
 which has been so lately received, and stands on your journals. 
 I must be deeply concerned, whenever it is my misfortune to 
 continue a difference with the majority of this House. But 
 as the reasons for that difference are my apology for thus 
 troubling you, suffer me to state them in a very few words. I 
 shall compress them into as small a body as I possibly can, 
 having already debated that matter at large when the question 
 was before the committee. 
 
 First, then, I cannot admit that proposition of a ransom 
 by auction ; because it is a mere project. It is a thing 
 new; unheard of; supported by no experience; justified by 
 no analogy; without example of our ancestors, or root in the 
 constitution. 
 
 It is neither regular parliamentary taxation, nor colony 
 grant. Experimentum in corpore vili is a good rule, which 
 will ever make me adverse to any trial of experiments on what 
 is certainly the most valuable of all subjects, the peace of this 
 empire. 
 
 Secondly, it is an experiment which must be fatal in the end 
 to our constitution. For what is it but a scheme for taxing 
 the colonies in the antechamber of the noble lord and his 
 successors ? To settle the quotas and proportions in this 
 House is clearly impossible. You, Sir, may flatter yourself 
 you shall sit a state auctioneer, with your hammer in your 
 hand, and knock down to each colony as it bids. But to 
 settle (on the plan laid down by the noble lord) the true 
 proportional payment for four or five and twenty governments, 
 according to the absolute and the relative wealth of each, and 
 according to the British proportion of wealth and burthen, 
 is a wild and chimerical notion. This new taxation must 
 therefore come in by the back-door of the constitution. Each 
 quota must be brought to this House ready formed ; you can 
 neither add nor alter. You must register it. You can do 
 nothing further. For on what grounds can you deliberate 
 
 * Lord North.
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 109 
 
 either before or after the proposition? You cannot hear the 
 counsel for all these provinces, quarrelling each on its own 
 quantity of payment, and its proportion to others. If you 
 should attempt it, the committee of provincial ways and means, 
 or by whatever other name it will delight to be called, must 
 swallow up all the time of parliament. 
 
 Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the complaint of the 
 colonies. They complain that they are taxed without their 
 consent ; you answer that you will fix the sum at which they 
 shall be taxed. That is, you give them the very grievance for 
 the remedy. You tell them indeed that you will leave the 
 mode to themselves. I really beg pardon : it gives me pain to 
 mention it ; but you must be sensible that you will not perform 
 this part of the compact. For, suppose the colonies were to lay 
 the duties, which furnished their contingent, upon the importa- 
 tion of your manufactures ; you know you would never suffer 
 such a tax to be laid. You know, too, that you would not suffer 
 many other modes of taxation. So that, when you come to 
 explain yourself, it will be found that you will neither leave to 
 themselves the quantum nor the mode ; nor indeed anything. 
 The whole is delusion from one end to the other. 
 
 Fourthly, this method of ransom by auction, unless it be 
 universally accepted, will plunge you into great and inextric- 
 able difficulties. In what year of our Lord are the proportions 
 of payments to be settled ? To say nothing of the impossibility 
 that colony agents should have general powers of taxing the 
 colonies at their discretion ; consider, I implore you, that the 
 communication by special messages, and orders between these 
 agents and their constituents on each variation of the case, 
 when the parties come to contend together, and to dispute on 
 their relative proportions, will be a matter of delay, perplexity, 
 and confusion that never can have an end. 
 
 If all the colonies do not appear at the outcry, what is the 
 condition of those assemblies, who offer by themselves or their 
 agents, to tax themselves up to your ideas of their proportion ? 
 The refractory colonies, who refuse all composition, will remain 
 taxed only to your old impositions, which, however grievous in
 
 no EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 principle, are trifling as to production. The obedient colonies 
 in this scheme are heavily taxed ; the refractory remain 
 unburthened. What will you do? Will you lay new and 
 heavier taxes by parliament on the disobedient ? Pray consider 
 in what way you can do it. You are perfectly convinced that, 
 in the way of taxing, you can do nothing but at the ports. 
 Now suppose it is Virginia that refuses to appear at your 
 auction, while Maryland and North Carolina bid handsomely 
 for their ransom, and are taxed to your quota, how will you 
 put these colonies on a par? Will you tax the tobacco of 
 Virginia? If you do, you give itsdeath-wound to your English 
 revenue at home, and to one of the very greatest articles of 
 your own foreign trade. If you tax the import of that 
 rebellious colony, what do you tax but your own manufactures, 
 for the goods of some other obedient and already well-taxed 
 colony? Who has said one word on this labyrinth of detail, 
 which bewilders you more and more as you enter into it? Who 
 has presented, who can present you with a clue, to lead you 
 out of it ? I think, Sir, it is impossible, that you should not 
 recollect that the colony bounds are so implicated in one 
 another (you know it by your other experiments in the bill 
 for prohibiting the New England fishery) that you can lay 
 no possible restraints on almost any of them which may not 
 be presently eluded, if you do not confound the innocent with 
 the guilty, and burthen those whom, upon every principle, you 
 ought to exonerate. He must be grossly ignorant of America 
 who thinks that, without falling into this confusion of all rules 
 of equity and policy, you can restrain any single colony, 
 especially Virginia and Maryland, the central and most 
 important of them all. 
 
 Let it also be considered that either in the present confusion 
 you settle a permanent contingent, which will and must be 
 trifling; and then you have no effectual revenue: or you 
 change the quota at every exigency; and then on every new 
 repartition you will have a new quarrel. 
 
 Reflect besides, that when you have fixed a quota for 
 every colony, you have not provided for prompt and punctual
 
 EDMUND BURKE. in 
 
 payment. Suppose one, two, five, ten years' arrears. You 
 cannot issue a treasury extent against the failing colony. You 
 must make new Boston Port Bills, new restraining laws, new 
 acts for dragging men to England for trial. You must send 
 out new fleets, new armies. All is to begin again. From 
 this day forward the empire is never to know an hour's tran- 
 quillity. An intestine fire will be kept alive in the bowels of 
 the colonies, which one time or other must consume this whole 
 empire. I allow indeed that the empire of Germany raises her 
 revenue and her troops by quotas and contingents; but the 
 revenue of the empire, and the army of the empire, is the worst 
 revenue and the worst army in the world. 
 
 Instead of a standing revenue, you will therefore have a 
 perpetual quarrel. Indeed, the noble lord who proposed this 
 project of a ransom by auction seemed himself to be of that 
 opinion. His project was rather designed for breaking the 
 union of the colonies, than for establishing a revenue. He 
 confessed, he apprehended that his proposal would not be to 
 their taste. I say, this scheme of disunion seems to be at the 
 bottom of the project ; for I will not suspect that the noble 
 lord meant nothing but merely to delude the nation by an airy 
 phantom which he never intended to realise. But whatever his 
 views may be, as I propose the peace and union of the colonies 
 as the very foundation of my plan, it cannot accord with one 
 whose foundation is perpetual discord. 
 
 Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain and 
 simple. The other full of perplexed and intricate mazes. This 
 is mild ; that harsh. This is found by experience effectual for 
 its purposes ; the other is a new project. This is universal ; 
 the other calculated for certain colonies only. This is 
 immediate in its conciliatory operation ; the other remote, 
 contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what becomes the dignity 
 of a ruling people ; gratuitous, unconditional, and not held out 
 as a matter of bargain and sale. I have done my duty in 
 proposing it to you. I have indeed tired you by a long 
 discourse ; but this is the misfortune of those to whose influence 
 nothing will be conceded, and who must win every inch of their
 
 ii2 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 ground by argument. You have heard me with goodness. 
 May you decide with wisdom 1 For my part, I feel my mind 
 greatly disburthened by what I have done to-day. I have 
 been the less fearful of trying your patience, because on this 
 subject I mean to spare it altogether in future. I have this 
 comfort, that in every stage of the American affairs I have 
 steadily opposed the measures that have produced the con- 
 fusion, and may bring on the destruction, of this empire. I 
 now go so far as to risk a proposal of my own. If I cannot 
 give peace to my country, I give it to my conscience. 
 
 But what (says the financier) is peace to us without money ? 
 Your plan gives us no revenue. No ! But it does For it 
 secures to the subject the power of REFUSAL ; the first of all 
 revenues. Experience is a cheat, and fact a liar, if this power 
 in the subject of proportioning his grant, or of not granting at 
 all, has not been found the richest mine of revenue ever 
 discovered by the skill or by the fortune of man. It does not 
 indeed vote you ^152,750 : 11 : 2|ths, nor any other paltry 
 limited sum. But it gives the strong box itself, the fund, the 
 bank, from whence only revenues can arise amongst a people 
 sensible of freedom : Posita luditur area. Cannot you in 
 England ; cannot you at this time of day ; cannot you, a House 
 of Commons, trust to the principle which has raised so mighty 
 a revenue, and accumulated a debt of near 140 millions in this 
 country ? Is this principle to be true in England, and false 
 everywhere else? Is it not true in Ireland? Has it not 
 hitherto been true in the colonies ? Why should you presume 
 that, in any country, a body duly constituted for any function 
 will neglect to perform its duty, and abdicate its trust ? Such a 
 presumption would go against all governments in all modes. 
 But, in truth, this dread of penury of supply, from a free 
 assembly, has no foundation in nature. For first observe, that, 
 besides the desire which all men have naturally of supporting 
 the honour of their own government, that sense of dignity, and 
 that security to property, which ever attends freedom, has a 
 tendency to increase the stock of the free community. Most 
 may be taken where most is accumulated. And what is the
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 113 
 
 soil or climate where experience has not uniformly proved that 
 the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, bursting from the 
 weight of its own rich luxuriance, has ever run with a more 
 copious stream of revenue than could be squeezed from the dry 
 husks of oppressed indigence, by the straining of all the politic 
 machinery in the world. 
 
 Next, we know that parties must ever exist in a free country. 
 We know too, that the emulations of such parties, their contra- 
 dictions, their reciprocal necessities, their hopes, and their 
 fears, must send them all in their turns to him that holds the 
 balance of the state. The parties are the gamesters ; but 
 government keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner in the 
 end. When this game is played, I really think it is more to be 
 feared that the people will be exhausted than that government 
 will not be supplied. Whereas, whatever is got by acts of 
 absolute power ill obeyed, because odious, or by contracts ill 
 kept, because constrained, will be narrow, feeble, uncertain, and 
 precarious. " Ease would retract -vows made in pain^ as violent 
 and void" 
 
 I, for one, protest against compounding our demands ; I 
 declare against compounding for a poor limited sum the 
 immense, overgrowing, eternal debt, which is due to generous 
 government from protected freedom. And so may I speed in 
 the great object I propose to you, as I think it would not only 
 be an act of injustice, but would be the worst economy in the 
 world, to compel the colonies to a sum certain, either in the 
 way of ransom, or in the way of compulsory compact. 
 
 But to clear up my ideas on this subject a revenue from 
 America transmitted hither do not delude yourselves you 
 never can receive it No, not a shilling. We have experience 
 that from remote countries it is not to be expected. If, when 
 you attempted to extract revenue from Bengal, you were 
 obliged to return in loan what you had taken in imposition ; 
 what can you expect from North America? For certainly, if 
 ever there was a country qualified to produce wealth, it is 
 India ; or an institution fit for the transmission, it is the 
 East India Company. America has none of these aptitudes. 
 
 620
 
 n 4 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 If America gives you taxable objects, on which you lay your 
 duties here, and gives you, at the same time, a surplus by a 
 foreign sale of her commodities to pay the duties on these 
 objects which you tax at home, she has performed her part to 
 the British revenue. But with regard to her own internal 
 establishments ; she may, I doubt not she will, contribute in 
 moderation. I say in moderation ; for she ought not to be 
 permitted to exhaust herself. She ought to be reserved to 
 a war ; the weight of which, with the enemies that we 
 are most likely to have, must be considerable in her quarter 
 of the globe. There she may serve you, and serve you 
 essentially. 
 
 For that service, for all service, whether of revenue, trade, 
 or empire, my trust is in her interest in the British constitution. 
 My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows 
 from common names, from kindred blood, from similar 
 privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though 
 light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the colonies 
 always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your 
 government ; they will cling and grapple to you ; and no force 
 under heaven will be of power to tear them from their 
 allegiance. But let it be once understood, that your govern- 
 ment may be one thing, and their privileges another ; that 
 these two things may exist without any mutual relation ; the 
 cement is gone ; the cohesion is loosened ; and everything 
 hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the 
 wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the 
 sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our 
 common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of England 
 worship freedom, they will turn their faces towards you. The 
 more they multiply, the more friends you will have ; the more 
 ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their 
 obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed 
 that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they 
 may have it from Prussia. But, until you become lost to all 
 feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom 
 they can have from none but you. This is the commodity of
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 115 
 
 price, of which you have the monopoly. This is the true act of 
 navigation, which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, 
 and through them secures to you the wealth of the world. 
 Deny them this participation of freedom, and you break that 
 sole bond which originally made, and must still preserve, the 
 unity of the empire. Do not entertain so weak an imagination, 
 as that your registers and your bonds, your affidavits and your 
 sufferances, your cockets and your clearances, are what form 
 the great securities of your commerce. Do not dream that 
 your letters of office, and your instructions, and your sus- 
 pending clauses, are the things that hold together the great 
 contexture of the mysterious whole. These things do not make 
 your government. Dead instruments, passive tools as they 
 are, it is the spirit of the English communion that gives all 
 their life and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the English 
 constitution which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, 
 feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even 
 down to the minutest member. 
 
 Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us here 
 in England ? Do you imagine then, that it is the land tax 
 act which raises your revenue? that it is the annual vote in 
 the committee of supply which gives you your army ? or that 
 it is the mutiny bill which inspires it with bravery and dis- 
 cipline ? No ! surely no 1 It is the love of the people ; it is 
 their attachment to their government, from the sense of the 
 deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives 
 you your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal 
 obedience without which your army would be a base rabble, 
 and your navy nothing but rotten timber. 
 
 All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical 
 to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians 
 who have no place among us ; a sort of people who think that 
 nothing exists but what is gross and material ; and who there- 
 fore, far from being qualified to be directors of the great 
 movement of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine. 
 But to men truly initiated and rightly taught, these ruling and 
 master principles, which, in the opinion of such men as I have
 
 n6 EDMUND BURKE, 
 
 mentioned, have no substantial existence, are in truth every- 
 thing, and all in all. Magnanimity in politics is not seldom 
 the truest wisdom ; and a great empire and little minds go ill 
 together. If we are conscious of our situation, and glow with 
 zeal to fill our place as becomes our station and ourselves, we 
 ought to auspicate all our public proceedings on America with 
 the old warning of the Church, Sursum corda ! We ought to 
 elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the 
 order of Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity 
 of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage 
 wilderness into a glorious empire; and have made the most 
 extensive, and the only honourable conquests, by not destroy- 
 ing, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness of 
 the human race. Let us get an American revenue as we 
 have got an American empire. English privileges have made 
 it all that it is ; English privileges alone will make it all it 
 can be. 
 
 In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now (quod felix 
 faustumque sif) lay the first stone of the temple ot peace ; and 
 I move you 
 
 " That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in 
 North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, 
 and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, 
 have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending 
 any knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them in 
 the high court of parliament." 
 
 Upon this resolution, the previous question was put, and 
 carried for the previous question, 270; against it, 78. 
 
 As the propositions were opened separately in the body of 
 the speech, the reader perhaps may wish to see the whole of 
 them together, in the form in which they were moved for. 
 
 " Moved, 
 
 "That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in 
 North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments,
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 117 
 
 and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, 
 have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending 
 any knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them in 
 the high court of parliament." 
 
 "That the said colonies and plantations have been made 
 liable to, and bounden by, several subsidies, payments, rates, 
 and taxes, given and granted by parliament ; though the said 
 colonies and plantations have not their knights and burgesses, 
 in the said high court of parliament, of their own election, to 
 represent the condition of their country ; by lack whereof, they 
 have been oftentimes touched and grieved by subsidies given, 
 granted, and assented to, in the said court, in a manner pre- 
 judicial to the commonwealth, quietness, rest, and peace, of the 
 subjects inhabiting within the satne." 
 
 " That, from the distance of the said colonies, and from 
 other circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised 
 for procuring a representation in parliament for the said 
 colonies." 
 
 " That each of the said colonies hath within itself a body, 
 chosen, in part or in the whole, by the freemen, freeholders, 
 or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly called the general 
 assembly, or general court ; with powers legally to raise, 
 levy, and assess, according to the several usage of such 
 colonies, duties and taxes towards defraying all sorts of 
 public services."* 
 
 " That the said general assemblies, general courts, or other 
 bodies legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times 
 freely granted several large subsidies and public aids for his 
 Majesty's service, according to their abilities, when required 
 thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal secretaries 
 of state; and that their right to grant the same, and their 
 
 * The first four motions and the last had the previous question put 
 on them. The others were negatived. 
 
 The words in italics were, by an amendment that was carried, left 
 out of the motion; which will appear in the journals, though it is not 
 the practice to insert such amendments in the votes.
 
 n8 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said grants, have been at 
 sundry times acknowledged by parliament." 
 
 "That it hath been found by experience that the manner 
 of granting the said supplies and aids, by the said general 
 assemblies, hath been more agreeable to the inhabitants of 
 the said colonies, and more beneficial and conducive to the 
 public service, than the mode of giving and granting aids 
 and subsidies in parliament to be raised and paid in the said 
 colonies." 
 
 " That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 
 seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 
 An act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and 
 plantations in America ; for allowing a drawback of the duties 
 of customs, upon the exportation from this kingdom, of coffee 
 and cocoa-nuts, of the produce of the said colonies or planta- 
 tions; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on China 
 earthenware exported to America; and for more effectually 
 preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said 
 colonies and plantations." 
 
 " That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the four- 
 teenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, An 
 act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are 
 therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or 
 shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town, and 
 within the harbour, of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts 
 Bay, in North America." 
 
 " That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the four 
 teenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, An 
 act for the impartial administration of justice, in cases of 
 persons questioned for any acts done by them in the execution 
 of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the 
 province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England." 
 
 " That it is proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth 
 year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, An act for 
 the better regulating the government of the province of 
 Massachusetts Bay, in New England." 
 
 " That it is proper to explain and amend an act made in the
 
 EDMUND BURKE, 119 
 
 thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry VIII., intituled, 
 An act for the trial of treasons committed out of the king's 
 dominions." 
 
 " That, from the time when the general assembly, or general 
 court, of any colony or plantation, in North America, shall 
 have appointed, by act of assembly duly confirmed, a settled 
 salary to the offices of the chief justice and judges of the 
 superior courts, it may be proper that the said chief justice 
 and other judges of the superior courts of such colony 
 shall hold his and their office and offices during their good 
 behaviour; and shall not be removed therefrom, but when 
 the said removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in council, 
 upon a hearing on complaint from the general assembly, or on 
 a complaint from the governor, or council, or the house of 
 representatives, severally, of the colony in which the said chief 
 justice and other judges have exercised the said office." 
 
 " That it may be proper to regulate the courts of admiralty, 
 or vice-admiralty, authorised by the fifteenth chapter of the 
 fourth of George III., in such a manner, as to make the same 
 more commodious to those who sue, or are sued, in the said 
 courts ; and to provide for the more decent maintenance of the 
 judges of the same."
 
 1 20 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 
 
 HENRY GRATTAN. 
 
 Declaration of Irish Rights. Irish House of Commons^ 
 April 19, 1780. 
 
 [HENRY GRATTAN was the greatest Parliamentary orator and one of 
 the greatest statesman Ireland has produced. His appearance in the 
 Irish political arena was the signal for a determined and successful 
 effort in behalf ot Irish legislative independence. Ireland's right to 
 make her own laws was first effected by an Act of the reign of Henry 
 VII., commonly known as Poynings' Law, after Sir E. Poynings, the 
 Irish Lord Deputy, before whom the Act in question was passed by a 
 Parliament held at Drogheda. This enacted that no Parliament should 
 be held in Ireland till the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council should 
 certify to the King, under the great seal of Ireland, the causes, 
 considerations, and Acts that were to pass ; that the same should be 
 affirmed by the King and Privy Council in England, and the King's 
 permission to summon a Parliament in Ireland be obtained. In the 
 reign of George I. the Irish Parliament was still further subordinated 
 by an Act which declared Ireland a dependent kingdom, and set forth 
 that the King, Lords, and Commons of England had the power to make 
 laws to bind Ireland without the consent of the Irish Parliament, and 
 that the Irish House of Lords had no appellate jurisdiction. Irish 
 nationalism was greatly stirred by such writers as Lucas, Molyneux, 
 and Swift ; by the entry of Flood and Grattan into the Irish House 
 of Commons ; by the successful revolt of the American colonies, and 
 by the formation of the volunteers, whose resolutions gave substantial 
 aid to Grattan. Thus fortified, Grattan moved in the Irish Parliament, 
 on April 19, 1780 : " That the King's most excellent Majesty, and 
 the Lords and Commons of Ireland, are the only power competent to 
 make laws to bind Ireland." It was in support of this motion that the
 
 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 1 2 1 
 
 following great oration was delivered. A Whig ministry, contain- 
 ing many of Grattan's friends, was in office at the time, and it 
 acceded generally to the Irish demands in the month of May 1782. 
 " Grattan's Parliament" was thus constituted, and it existed until 1800, 
 when it was extinguished by the Act of Union.] 
 
 SIR, I have entreated an attendance on this day, that you 
 might, in the most public manner, deny the claim of the 
 British Parliament to make law for Ireland, and with one voice 
 lift up your hands against it. 
 
 If I had lived when the 9th of William took away the 
 woollen manufacture, or when the 6th of George the First 
 declared this country to be dependent, and subject to laws 
 to be enacted by the Parliament of England, I should have 
 made a covenant with my own conscience to seize the first 
 moment of rescuing my country from the ignominy of such 
 acts of power ; or, if I had a son, I should have administered 
 to him an oath that he would consider himself a person 
 separate and set apart for the discharge of so important a 
 duty ; upon the same principle am I now come to move a 
 declaration of right, the first moment occurring, since my time, 
 in which such a declaration could be made with any chance of 
 success, and without aggravation of oppression. 
 
 Sir, it must appear to every person that, notwithstanding the 
 import of sugar and export of woollens, the people of this 
 country are not satisfied something remains ; the greater 
 work is behind ; the public heart is not well at ease. To 
 promulgate our satisfaction ; to stop the throats of millions 
 with the votes of Parliament ; to preach homilies to the 
 volunteers ; to utter invectives against the people under 
 pretence of affectionate advice, is an attempt, weak, suspicious, 
 and inflammatory. 
 
 You cannot dictate to those whose sense you are entrusted 
 to represent ; your ancestors, who sat within these walls, lost 
 to Ireland trade and liberty ; you, by the assistance of the 
 people, have recovered trade, you still owe the kingdom 
 liberty ; she calls upon you to restore it
 
 1 2 2 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 
 
 The ground of public discontent seems to be, " we have 
 gotten commerce, but not freedom " : the same power which 
 took away the export of woollens and the export of glass may 
 take them away again ; the repeal is partial, and the ground 
 of repeal is upon a principle of expediency. 
 
 Sir, expedient is a word of appropriated and tyrannical 
 import ; expedient is an ill-omened word, selected to express 
 the reservation of authority, while the exercise is mitigated; 
 expedient is the ill-omened expression of the Repeal of the 
 American stamp act. England thought it expedient to repeal 
 that law ; happy had it been for mankind, if, when she with- 
 drew the exercise, she had not reserved the right ! To that 
 reservation she owes the loss of her American empire, at the 
 expense of millions, and America the seeking of liberty through 
 a sea of bloodshed. The repeal of the woollen act, similarly 
 circumstanced, pointed against the principle of our liberty, 
 present relaxation, but tyranny in reserve, may be a subject 
 for illumination to a populace, or a pretence for apostacy to 
 a courtier, but cannot be the subject of settled satisfaction 
 to a freeborn, an intelligent, and an injured community. It is 
 therefore they consider the free trade as a trade de facto, not 
 de jure, a licence to trade under the Parliament of England, 
 not a free trade under the charters of Ireland, as a tribute 
 to her strength ; to maintain which, she must continue in a 
 state of armed preparation, dreading the approach of a general 
 peace, and attributing all she holds dear to the calamitous 
 condition of the British interest in every quarter of the globe. 
 This dissatisfaction, founded upon a consideration of the liberty 
 we have lost, is increased when they consider the opportunity 
 they are losing ; for if this nation, after the death-wound given 
 to her freedom, had fallen on her knees in anguish, and be- 
 sought the Almighty to frame an occasion in which a weak and 
 injured people might recover their rights, prayer could not have 
 asked, nor God have furnished, a moment more opportune for 
 the restoration of liberty, than this in which I have the honour 
 to address you. 
 
 England now smarts under the lesson of the American war ;
 
 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 1 23 
 
 the doctrine of Imperial legislature she feels to be pernicious ; 
 the revenues and monopolies annexed to it she has found to be 
 untenable, she lost the power to enforce it ; her enemies are 
 a host, pouring upon her from all quarters of the earth ; her 
 armies are dispersed ; the sea is not hers ; she has no minister, 
 no ally, no admiral, none in whom she long confides, and no 
 general whom she has not disgraced ; the balance of her fate 
 is in the hands of Ireland ; you are not only her last connec- 
 tion, you are the only nation in Europe that is not her enemy. 
 Besides, there does, of late, a certain damp and spurious 
 supineness overcast her arms and councils, miraculous as that 
 vigour which has lately inspirited yours ; for with you every- 
 thing is the reverse ; never was there a Parliament in Ireland 
 so possessed of the confidence of the people ; you are the 
 greatest political assembly now sitting in the world ; you are 
 at the head of an immense army ; nor do we only possess 
 an unconquerable force, but a certain unquenchable public fire, 
 which has touched all ranks of men like a visitation. 
 
 Turn to the growth and spring of your country, and behold 
 and admire it ; where do you find a nation who, upon whatever 
 concerns the rights of mankind, expresses herself with more 
 truth or force, perspicuity or justice? not the set phrase of 
 scholastic men, not the tame unreality of court addresses, not 
 the vulgar raving of a rabble, but the genuine speech of liberty, 
 and the unsophisticated oratory of a free nation. 
 
 See her military ardour, expressed not only in 40,000 men, 
 conducted by instinct as they were raised by inspiration, but 
 manifested in the zeal and promptitude of every young member 
 of the growing community. Let corruption tremble ; let the 
 enemy, foreign or domestic, tremble ; but let the friends of 
 liberty rejoice at these means of safety and this hour of 
 redemption. Yes, there does exist an enlightened sense of 
 rights, a young appetite for freedom x a solid strength, and a 
 rapid fire, which not only put a declaration of right within 
 your power, but put it out of your power to decline one. 
 Eighteen counties are at your bar ; they stand there with the 
 compact of Henry, with the charter of John, and with all the
 
 1 2 4 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 
 
 passions of the people. " Our lives are at your service, but 
 our liberties we received them from God ; we will not 
 resign them to man." Speaking to you thus, if you repulse 
 these petitioners, you abdicate the privileges of Parliament, 
 forfeit the rights of the kingdom, repudiate the instruction of 
 your constituents, bilge the sense of your country, palsy the 
 enthusiasm of the people, and reject that good which not a 
 minister, not a Lord North, not a Lord Buckinghamshire, 
 not a Lord Hillsborough, but a certain providential conjunc- 
 ture, or rather the hand of God, seems to extend to you. Nor 
 are we only prompted to this when we consider our strength; 
 we are challenged to it when we look to Great Britain. The 
 people of that country are now waiting to hear the Parliament 
 of Ireland speak on the subject of their liberty : it begins to be 
 made a question in England whether the principal persons 
 wish to be free : it was the delicacy of former parliaments 
 to be silent on the subject of commercial restrictions, lest they 
 should show a knowledge of the fact, and not a sense of the 
 violation ; you have spoken out, you have shown a knowledge 
 of the fact, and not a sense of the violation. On the contrary, 
 you have returned thanks for a partial repeal made on a 
 principle of power ; you have returned thanks as for a favour, 
 and your exultation has brought your charters as well as your 
 spirit into question, and tends to shake to her foundation your 
 title to liberty : thus you do not leave your rights where you 
 found them. You have done too much not to do more ; 
 you have gone too far not to go on ; you have brought your- 
 selves into that situation, in which you must silently abdicate 
 the rights of your country, or publicly restore them. It is very 
 true you may feed your manufacturers, and landed gentlemen 
 may get their rents, and you may export woollen, and may load 
 a vessel with baize, serges, and kerseys, and you may bring 
 back again directly from the plantations, sugar, indigo, speckle- 
 wood, beetle-root, and panellas. But liberty, the foundation of 
 trade, the charters of the land, the independency of Parliament, 
 the securing, crowning, and the consummation of everything, 
 are yet to come. Without them the work is imperfect, the
 
 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 1 25 
 
 foundation is wanting, the capital is wanting, trade is not free, 
 Ireland is a colony without the benefit of a charter, and you are 
 a provincial synod without the privileges of a parliament 
 
 I read Lord North's proposition ; I wish to be satisfied, but I 
 am controlled by a paper, I will not call it a law, it is the sixth 
 of George the First [The paper was read.] I will ask the 
 gentlemen of the long robe is this the law ? I ask them 
 whether it is not practice ? I appeal to the judges of the land, 
 whether they are not in a course of declaring that the Parlia- 
 ment of Great Britain, naming Ireland, binds her ? I appeal 
 to the magistrates of justice, whether they do not, from time 
 to time, execute certain acts of the British Parliament ? I 
 appeal to the officers of the army, whether they do not fine, 
 confine, and execute their fellow-subjects by virtue of the 
 Mutiny Act, an act of the British Parliament ; and I appeal 
 to this House whether a country so circumstanced is free. 
 Where is the freedom of trade ? where is the security of 
 property ? where is the liberty of the people ? I here, in 
 this Declamatory Act, see my country proclaimed a slave ! 
 I see every man in this house enrolled a slave ! I see the 
 judges of the realm, the oracles of the law, borne down 
 by an unauthorised foreign power, by the authority of the 
 British Parliament against the law 1 I see the magistrates 
 prostrate, and I see Parliament witness of these infringements, 
 and silent (silent or employed to preach moderation to the 
 people, whose liberties it will not restore) 1 I therefore say, 
 with the voice of 3,000,000 of people, that, notwithstanding the 
 import of sugar, beetle- wood and panellas, and the export of 
 woollens and kerseys, nothing is safe, satisfactory, or honour- 
 able, nothing except a declaration of right. What ! are you, 
 with 3,000,000 of men at your back, with charters in one hand 
 and arms in the other, afraid to say you are a free people ? 
 Are you, the greatest House of Commons that ever sat in 
 Ireland, that want but this one act to equal that English House 
 of Commons that passed the Petition of Right, or that other 
 that passed the Declaration of Right, are you afraid to tell that 
 British Parliament you are a free people ? Are the cities and
 
 1 26 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 
 
 the instructing counties, who have breathed a spirit that would 
 have done honour to old Rome when Rome did honour to 
 mankind, are they to be free by connivance ? Are the military 
 associations, those bodies whose origin, progress, and deport- 
 ment have transcended, equalled at least, anything in modern 
 or ancient story is the vast line of northern army, are they to 
 be free by connivance ? What man will settle among you ? 
 Where is the use of the Naturalisation Bill ? What man will 
 settle among you ? who will leave a land of liberty and a settled 
 government for a kingdom controlled by the Parliament of 
 another country, whose liberty is a thing by stealth, whose 
 trade a thing by permission, whose judges deny her charters, 
 whose Parliament leaves everything at random ; where the 
 chance of freedom depends upon the hope, that the jury shall 
 despise the judge stating a British act, or a rabble stop the 
 magistrate executing it, rescue your abdicated privileges, and 
 save the constitution by trampling on the government, by 
 anarchy and confusion ? 
 
 But I shall be told that these are groundless jealousies, and 
 that the principal cities, and more than one half of the counties 
 of the kingdom, are misguided men, raising those groundless 
 jealousies. Sir, let me become, on this occasion, the people's 
 advocate, and your historian ; the people of this country were 
 possessed of a code of liberty similar to that of Great Britain, 
 but lost it through the weakness of the kingdom and the 
 pusillanimity of its leaders. Having lost our liberty by the 
 usurpation of the British Parliament, no wonder we became a 
 prey to her ministers ; and they did plunder us with all the 
 hands of all the harpies, for a series of years, in every shape of 
 power, terrifying our people with the thunder of Great Britain, 
 and bribing our leaders with the rapine of Ireland. The 
 kingdom became a plantation, her Parliament, deprived of its 
 privileges, fell into contempt ; and, with the legislature, the law, 
 the spirit of liberty, with her forms, vanished. If a war broke 
 out, as in 1778, and an occasion occurred to restore liberty and 
 restrain rapine, Parliament declined the opportunity ; but, with 
 an active servility and trembling loyalty, gave and granted,
 
 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 1 2 7 
 
 without regard to the treasure we had left, or the rights we 
 had lost. If a partial separation was made upon a principle of 
 expediency, Parliament did not receive it with the tranquil 
 dignity of an august assembly, but with the alacrity of slaves. 
 
 The principal individuals, possessed of great property but no 
 independency, corrupted by their extravagance, or enslaved by 
 their following a species of English factor against an Irish 
 people, more afraid of the people of Ireland than the tyranny of 
 England, proceeded to that excess that they opposed every 
 proposition to lessen profusion, extend trade, or promote 
 liberty ; they did more, they supported a measure which, at 
 one blow, put an end to all trade ; they did more, they brought 
 you to a condition which they themselves did unanimously 
 acknowledge a state of impending ruin ; they did this, talking 
 as they are now talking, arguing against trade as they now 
 argue against liberty, threatening the people of Ireland with 
 the power of the British nation, and imploring them to rest 
 satisfied with the ruins of their trade, as they now implore them 
 to remain satisfied with the wreck of their constitution. 
 
 The people thus admonished, starving in a land of plenty, 
 the victim of two Parliaments, of one that stopped their trade, 
 the other that fed on their constitution, inhabiting a country 
 where industry was forbid, or towns swarming with begging 
 manufacturers, and being obliged to take into their own hands 
 that part of government which consists in protecting the 
 subject, had recourse to two measures, which, in their origin, 
 progress, and consequence, are the most extraordinary to be 
 found in any age or in any country viz., a commercial and a 
 military association. The consequence of these measures was 
 instant ; the enemy that hung on your shores departed, the 
 Parliament asked for a free trade, and the British nation 
 granted the trade, but withheld the freedom. The people of 
 Ireland are, therefore, not satisfied ; they ask for a constitution ; 
 they have the authority of the wisest men in this house for 
 what they now demand. What have these walls, for this last 
 century, resounded? The usurpation of the British Parlia- 
 ment, and the interference of the privy council. Have we
 
 128 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 
 
 taught the people to complain, and do we now condemn their 
 insatiability, because they desire us to remove such grievances, 
 at a time in which nothing can oppose them, except the very 
 men by whom these grievances were acknowledged ? 
 
 Sir, we may hope to dazzle with illumination, and we may 
 sicken with addresses, but the public imagination will never 
 rest, nor will her heart be well at ease never ! so long as the 
 Parliament of England exercises or claims a legislation over this 
 country : so long as this shall be the case, that very free trade, 
 otherwise a perpetual attachment, will be the cause of new 
 discontent ; it will create a pride to feel the indignity of 
 bondage ; it will furnish a strength to bite your chain, and the 
 liberty withheld will poison the good communicated. 
 
 The British minister mistakes the Irish character : had he 
 intended to make Ireland a slave, he should have kept her a 
 beggar ; there is no middle policy ; win her heart by the 
 restoration of her right, or cut off the nation's right hand ; 
 greatly emancipate, or fundamentally destroy. We may talk 
 plausibly to England, but so long as she exercises a power to 
 bind this country, so long are the nations in a state of war ; 
 the claims of the one go against the liberty of the other, and 
 the sentiments of the latter go to oppose those claims to the 
 last drop of her blood. The English opposition, therefore, are 
 right ; mere trade will not satisfy Ireland they judge of us by 
 other great nations, by the nation whose political life has been 
 a struggle for liberty ; they judge of us with a true knowledge of, 
 and just deference for, our character that a country enlightened 
 as Ireland, chartered as Ireland, armed as Ireland, and injured 
 as Ireland, will be satisfied with nothing less than liberty. 
 
 I admire that public-spirited merchant (Alderman Horan) 
 who spread consternation at the Custom-house, and, despising 
 the example which great men afforded, determined to try the 
 question, and tendered for entry what the British Parliament 
 prohibits the subject to export, some articles of silk, and 
 sought at his private risk the liberty of his country ; with him 
 I am convinced it is necessary to agitate the question of right. 
 In vain will you endeavour to keep it back, the passion is too
 
 HFNR Y GRA TTA N. 129 
 
 natural, the sentiment is too irresistible ; the question comes 
 on of its own vitality you must reinstate the laws. 
 
 There is no objection to this resolution, except fears ; I have 
 examined your fears ; I pronounce them to be frivolous. I 
 might deny that the British nation was attached to the idea of 
 binding Ireland ; I might deny that England was a tyrant at 
 heart ; and I might call to witness the odium of North and the 
 popularity of Chatham, her support of Holland, her contribu- 
 tions to Corsica, and the charters communicated to Ireland ; 
 but ministers have traduced England to debase Ireland ; and 
 politicians, like priests, represent the power they serve as 
 diabolical, to possess with superstitious fears the victim whom 
 they design to plunder. It England is a tyrant, it is you have 
 made her so : it is the slave that makes the tyrant, and then 
 murmurs at the master whom he himself has constituted. I do 
 allow, on the subject ot commerce, England was jealous in the 
 extreme, and I do say it was commercial jealousy, it was the 
 spirit of monopoly 'the woollen trade and the act of naviga- 
 tion had made her tenacious of a comprehensive legislative 
 authority), and having now ceded that monopoly, there is 
 nothing in the way of your liberty except your own corruption 
 and pusillanimity ; and nothing can prevent your being free 
 except yourselves. It is not in the disposition of England ; it 
 is not in the interest of England ; it is not in her arms. What ! 
 can 8,000,000 of Englishmen, opposed to 20,000,000 of French, 
 to 7,000,000 of Spanish, to 3,000,000 of Americans, reject the 
 alliance of 3,000,000 in Ireland ? Can 8,000,000 of British men, 
 thus outnumbered by foes, take upon their shoulders the 
 expense of an expedition to enslave you ? Will Great Britain, 
 a wise and magnanimous country, thus tutored by experience 
 and wasted by war, the French navy riding her Channel, send 
 an army to Ireland, to levy no tax, to enforce no law, to answer 
 no end whatsoever, except to spoliate the charters of Ireland, 
 and enforce a barren oppression ? What ! has England lost 
 thirteen provinces ? has she reconciled herself to this loss, and 
 will she not be reconciled to the liberty of Ireland? Take 
 notice, that the very constitution which I move you to declare, 
 
 621
 
 1 30 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 
 
 Great Britain herself offered to America : it is a very instructive 
 proceeding in the British history. In 1778 a commission went 
 out, with powers to cede to the thirteen provinces of America, 
 totally and radically, the legislative authority claimed over her 
 by the British Parliament and the Commissioners, pursuant to 
 their powers, did offer to all, or any, of the American States 
 the total surrender of the legislative authority of the British 
 Parliament. I will read you their letter to the Congress. 
 [Here the letter was read, surrendering the power as aforesaid.] 
 What ! has England offered this to the resistance of America, 
 and will she refuse it to the loyalty of Ireland ? Your fears 
 then are nothing but an habitual subjugation of mind ; that 
 subjugation of mind which made you, at first, tremble at every 
 great measure of safety ; which made the principal men 
 amongst us conceive the commercial association would be a 
 war ; that fear, which made them imagine the military associa- 
 tion had a tendency to treason, which made them think a short 
 money-bill would be a public convulsion ; and yet these 
 measures have not only proved to be useful but are held to be 
 moderate, and the Parliament that adopted them praised, not 
 for its unanimity only, but for its temper also. You now 
 wonder that you submitted for so many years to the loss of the 
 woollen trade and the deprivation of the glass trade ; raised 
 above your former abject state in commerce, you are ashamed 
 at your past pusillanimity ; so when you have summoned a 
 boldness which shall assert the liberties of your country raised 
 by the act, and reinvested, as you will be, in the glory of your 
 ancient rights and privileges, you will be surprised at your- 
 selves, who have so long submitted to their violation. Modera- 
 tion is but a relative term ; for nations, like men, are only safe 
 in proportion to the spirit they put forth, and the proud 
 contemplation with which they survey themselves. Conceive 
 yourselves a plantation, ridden by an oppressive government, 
 and everything you have done is but a fortunate frenzy : 
 conceive yourselves to be what you are, a great, a growing, and 
 a proud nation, and a declaration of right is no more than the 
 safe exercise of your indubitable authority.
 
 HENRY G RATTAN. 131 
 
 But though you do not hazard disturbance by agreeing to 
 this resolution, you do most exceedingly hazard tranquillity by 
 rejecting it. Do not imagine that the question will be over 
 when this motion shall be negatived. No ; it will recur in a 
 vast variety of shapes and diversity of places. Your con- 
 stituents have instructed you in great numbers, with a powerful 
 uniformity of sentiment, and in a style not the less awful 
 because full of respect. They will find resources in their own 
 virtue, if they have found none in yours. Public pride and 
 conscious liberty, wounded by repulse, will find ways and 
 means of vindication. You are in that situation in which every 
 man, every hour of the day, may shake the pillars of the state ; 
 every court may swarm with the question of right ; every quay 
 and wharf with prohibited goods : what shall the Judges, 
 what the Commissioners, do upon this occasion ? Shall they 
 comply with the laws of Ireland, and against the claims of 
 England, and stand firm where you have capitulated ? shall 
 they, on the other hand, not comply, and shall they persist to 
 act against the law ? will you punish them if they do so ? will 
 you proceed against them for not showing a spirit superior to 
 your own? On the other hand, will you not punish them? 
 Will you leave liberty to be trampled on by those men ? Will 
 you bring them and yourselves, all constituted orders, executive 
 power, judicial power, and parliamentary authority, into a state 
 of odium, impotence, and contempt ; transferring the task of 
 defending public right into the hands of the populace, and 
 leaving it to the judges to break the laws, and to the people to 
 assert them ? Such would be the consequence of false modera- 
 tion, of irritating timidity, of inflammatory palliatives, of the 
 weak and corrupt hope of compromising with the court, before 
 you have emancipated the country. 
 
 I have answered the only semblance of a solid reason against 
 the motion ; I will remove some lesser pretences, some minor 
 impediments ; for instance, first, that we have a resolution of 
 the same kind already on our Journals, it will be said ; but how 
 often was the great charter confirmed? not more frequently 
 than your rights have been violated. Is one solitary resolution,
 
 1 3 2 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 
 
 declaratory of your right, sufficient for a country whose history, 
 from the beginning unto the end, has been a course of 
 violation ? The fact is, every new breach is a reason for a new 
 repair ; every new infringement should be a new declaration ; 
 lest charters should be overwhelmed with precedents to their 
 prejudice, a nation's right obliterated, and the people them- 
 selves lose the memory of their own freedom. 
 
 I shall hear of ingratitude : I name the argument to despise 
 it and the men who make use of it : I know the men who use 
 it are not grateful, they are insatiate ; they are public extor- 
 tioners, who would stop the tide of public prosperity, and turn 
 it to the channel of their own emolument : I know of no species 
 of gratitude which should prevent my country from being free, 
 no gratitude which should oblige Ireland to be the slave of 
 England. In cases of robbery and usurpation, nothing is an 
 object of gratitude except the thing stolen, the charter spoliated. 
 A nation's liberty cannot, like her treasures, be meted and 
 parcelled out in gratitude ; no man can be grateful or liberal 
 of his conscience, nor woman of her honour, nor nation of her 
 liberty : there are certain unimpartable, inherent, invaluable 
 properties not to be alienated from the person, whether body 
 politic or body natural. With the same contempt do I treat 
 that charge which says that Ireland is insatiable ; saying, that 
 Ireland asks nothing but that which Great Britain has robbed 
 her of, her rights and privileges ; to say that Ireland will not 
 be satisfied with liberty, because she is not satisfied with 
 slavery, is folly. I laugh at that man who supposes that Ireland 
 will not be content with a free trade and a free constitution ; 
 and would any man advise her to be content with less ? 
 
 I shall be told that we hazard the modification of the law of 
 Poynings' and the Judges' Bill, and the Habeas Corpus Bill, 
 and the Nullum Tempus Bill ; but I ask, have you been for 
 years begging for these little things, and have not you yet been 
 able to obtain them ? and have you been contending against a 
 little body of eighty men in Privy Council assembled, con- 
 vocating themselves into the image of a parliament, and 
 ministering your high office ? and have you been contending
 
 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 133 
 
 against one man, an humble individual, to you a Leviathan 
 the English Attorney-General who advises in the case of Irish 
 bills, and exercises legislation in his own person, and makes 
 your parliamentary deliberations a blank, by altering your bills 
 or suppressing them ? and have you not yet been able to 
 conquer this little monster? Do you wish to know the reason ? 
 I will tell you : because you have not been a parliament, nor 
 your country a people. Do you wish to know the remedy ? 
 be a parliament, become a nation, and these things will follow 
 in the train of your consequence. I shall be told that titles are 
 shaken, being vested by force of English acts ; but in answer 
 to that, I observe, time may be a title, acquiescence a title, 
 forfeiture a title, but an English act of parliament certainly 
 cannot : it is an authority which, if a judge would charge, no 
 jury would find, and which all the electors in Ireland have 
 already disclaimed unequivocally, cordially, and universally. 
 Sir, this is a good argument for an act of title, but no argument 
 against a declaration of right. My friend who sits above me 
 (Mr. Yelverton) has a Bill of Confirmation ; we do not come 
 unprepared to Parliament. I am not come to shake property, 
 but to confirm property and restore freedom. The nation 
 begins to form ; we are moulding into a people ; freedom 
 asserted, property secured, and the army (a mercenary band) 
 likely to be restrained by law. Never was such a revolution 
 accomplished in so short a time, and with such public tran- 
 quillity. In what situation would those men who call them- 
 selves friends of constitution and of government have left you ? 
 They would have left you without a title, as they state it, to 
 your estates, without an assertion of your constitution, or a law 
 for your army ; and this state of unexampled private and 
 public insecurity, this anarchy raging in the kingdom for 
 eighteen months, these mock moderators would have had the 
 presumption to call peace. 
 
 I shall be told that the judges will not be swayed by the 
 resolution of this House. Sir, that the judges will not be borne 
 down by the resolutions of Parliament, not founded in law, I 
 am willing to believe ; but the resolutions of this House,
 
 1 34 HENR Y GRA TTAN. 
 
 founded in law, they will respect most exceedingly. I shall 
 always rejoice at the independent spirit of the distributors of 
 the law, but must lament that hitherto they have given no such 
 symptom. The judges of the British nation, when they adjudi- 
 cated against the laws of that country, pleaded precedent and 
 the prostration and profligacy of a long tribe of subservient 
 predecessors, and were punished. The judges of Ireland, if 
 they should be called upon, and should plead sad necessity, the 
 thraldom of the times, and, above all, the silent fears of Parlia- 
 ment, they no doubt will be excused : but when your declara- 
 tions shall have protected them from their fears ; when you 
 shall have emboldened the judges to declare the law according 
 to the charter, I make no doubt they will do their duty ; and 
 your resolution, not making a new law, but giving new life to 
 the old ones, will be secretly felt and inwardly acknowledged, 
 and there will not be a judge who will not perceive, to the 
 innermost recess of his tribunal, the truth of your charters and 
 the vigour of your justice. 
 
 The same laws, the same charters, communicate to both 
 kingdoms, Great Britain and Ireland, the same rights and 
 privileges ; and one privilege above them all is that communi- 
 cated by Magna Charta, by the 25th of Edward the Third, and 
 by a multitude of other statutes, " not to be bound by any act 
 except made with the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, and 
 freemen of the commonalty," viz., of the parliament of the realm. 
 On this right of exclusive legislation are founded the Petition of 
 Right, Bill of Right, Revolution, and Act of Settlement. The 
 King has no other title to his crown than that which you have 
 to your liberty; both are founded, the throne and your freedom, 
 upon the right vested in the subject to resist by arms, notwith- 
 standing their oaths of allegiance, any authority attempting to 
 impose acts of power as laws, whether that authority be one 
 man or a host, the second James, or the British Parliament ! 
 
 Every argument for the House of Hanover is equally an 
 argument for the liberties of Ireland : the Act of Settlement is 
 an act of rebellion, or the declaratory statute of the 6th of 
 George the First an act of usurpation j for both cannot be law.
 
 HENR Y GRA TTAN, 1 3 5 
 
 I do not refer to doubtful history, but to living record ; to 
 common charters ; to the interpretation England has put upon 
 these charters an interpretation not made by words only, but 
 crowned by arms ; to the revolution she had formed upon 
 them, to the king she has deposed, and to the king she has 
 established ; and, above all, to the oath of allegiance solemnly 
 plighted to the House of Stuart, and afterwards set aside, in the 
 instance of a grave and moral people absolved by virtue of 
 these very charters. 
 
 And as anything less than liberty is inadequate to Ireland, so 
 is it dangerous to Great Britain. We are too near the British 
 nation, we are too conversant with her history, we are too 
 much fired by her example, to be anything less than her equal; 
 anything less, we should be her bitterest enemies an enemy to 
 that power which smote us with her mace, and to that constitu- 
 tion from whose blessings we were excluded : to be ground as 
 we have been by the British nation, bound by her parliament, 
 plundered by her crown, threatened by her enemies, insulted 
 with her protection, while we returned thanks for her con- 
 descension, is a system of meanness and misery which has 
 expired in our determination, as I hope it has in her 
 magnanimity. 
 
 There is no poacy left for Great Britain but to cherish 
 the remains of her empire, and do justice to a country who 
 is determined to do justice to herself, certain that she gives 
 nothing equal to what she received from us when we gave her 
 Ireland. 
 
 With regard to this country, England must resort to the free 
 principles of government, and must forego that legislative 
 power which she has exercised to do mischief to herself ; she 
 must go back to freedom, which, as it is the foundation of her 
 constitution, so is it the main pillar of her empire ; it is not 
 merely the connection of the crown, it is a constitutional 
 annexation, an alliance of liberty, which is the true meaning 
 and mystery of the sisterhood, and will make both countries 
 one arm and one soul, replenishing from time to time, in their 
 immortal connection, the vital spirit of law and liberty from the
 
 136 HENRY GRATTAN. 
 
 lamp of each other's light ; thus combined by the ties of 
 common interest, equal trade and equal liberty, the constitution 
 of both countries may become immortal, a new and milder 
 empire may arise from the errors of the old, and the British 
 nation assume once more her natural station the head of 
 mankind. 
 
 That there are precedents against us I allow acts of power 
 I would call them, not precedent ; and I answer the English 
 pleading such precedents, as they answered their kings when 
 they urged precedents against the liberty of England : Such 
 things are the weakness of the times ; the tyranny of one side, 
 the feebleness of the other, the law of neither ; we will not be 
 bound by them ; or rather, in the words of the declaration of 
 right, "no doing judgment, proceeding, or anywise to the 
 contrary, shall be brought into precedent or example." Do not 
 then tolerate a power the power of the British Parliament 
 over this land, which has no foundation in utility or necessity, 
 or empire, or the laws of England, or the laws of Ireland, or the 
 laws of nature, or the laws of God do not suffer it to have a 
 duration in your mind. 
 
 Do not tolerate that power which blasted you for a century, 
 that power which shattered your loom, banished your manu- 
 factures, dishonoured your peerage, and stopped the growth of 
 your people ; do not, I say, be bribed by an export of woollen, 
 or an import of sugar, and permit that power which has thus 
 withered the land to remain in your country and have existence 
 in your pusillanimity. 
 
 Do not suffer the arrogance of England to imagine a 
 surviving hope in the fears of Ireland ; do not send the people 
 to their own resolves for liberty, passing by the tribunals of 
 justice and the high court of parliament ; neither imagine that, 
 by any formation of apology, you can palliate such a com- 
 mission to your hearts, still less to your children, who will sting 
 you with their curses in your grave for having interposed 
 between them and their Maker, robbing them of an immense 
 occasion, and losing an opportunity which you did not create, 
 and can never restore.
 
 HENRV G RATTAN. 137 
 
 Hereafter, when these things shall be history, your age of 
 thraldom and poverty, your sudden resurrection, commercial 
 redress, and miraculous armament, shall the historian stop at 
 liberty, and observe that here the principal men among us 
 fell into mimic trances of gratitude they were awed by a weak 
 ministry, and bribed by an empty treasury and when liberty 
 was within their grasp, and the temple opened her folding 
 doors, and the arms of the people clanged, and the zeal of the 
 nation urged and encouraged them on, that they fell down, and 
 were prostituted at the threshold. 
 
 I might, as a constituent, come to your bar and demand my 
 liberty. I do call upon you, by the laws of the land and their 
 violation, by the instruction of eighteen counties, by the arms, 
 inspiration, and providence of the present moment, tell us the 
 rule by which we shall go assert the law of Ireland declare 
 the liberty of the land. 
 
 I will not be answered by a public lie, in the shape of an 
 amendment ; neither, speaking for the subjects' freedom, am I 
 to hear of faction. I wish for nothing but to breathe, in this 
 our island, in common with my fellow-subjects, the air of 
 liberty. I have no ambition, unless it be the ambition to break 
 your chain, and contemplate your glory. I never will be 
 satisfied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link 
 of the British chain clanking to his rags ; he may be naked, he 
 shall not be in iron ; and I do see the time is at hand, the 
 spirit is gone forth, the declaration is planted ; and though 
 great men should apostatise, yet the cause will live ; and 
 though the public speaker should die, yet the immortal fire 
 shall outlast the organ which conveyed it, and the breath 
 of liberty, like the word of the holy man, will not die with 
 the prophet, but survive him. 
 
 I shall move you, " That the King's most excellent Majesty, 
 and the Lords and Commons of Ireland, are the only power 
 competent to make laws to bind Ireland."
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 Speech on the Slave Trade. House of Commons, April 2, 1792. 
 
 [THE speeches of the younger Pitt cannot be compared either with 
 those of his father, Lord Chatham, or of his great rival, Charles James 
 Fox. These latter were incomparable orators, whereas Pitt was rather 
 a graceful and dignified speaker. His nature was perhaps too cold, 
 his method too purely argumentative, to admit of any flights of oratory. 
 So much of his public life, too, was passed in executing and defending 
 repressive measures that the ardent glow of passion for freedom which 
 is the dominant note alike of Chatham and Fox, is necessarily all but 
 absent from his well-reasoned and stately harangues. Pitt, however, 
 was always in heart a reformer, and nothing is more creditable to him 
 than his sincere abhorrence of the slave trade and his attempts to 
 suppress it. This feeling was kindled by his close friendship with 
 Wilberforce, whose ardent devotion to the cause of the slave made a 
 deep impression on Pitt's mind. 
 
 On the 2nd April 1792 Wilberforce moved the following resolu- 
 tion, after no fewer than 508 petitions against the slave trade had 
 been presented to the House : " That it is the opinion of this com- 
 mittee that the trade carried on by British subjects, for the purpose 
 of obtaining slaves on the coast of Africa, ought to be abolished." 
 To this resolution, made in committee of the House, Dundas proposed 
 an amendment to insert the word "gradually" before "abolished." 
 This amendment was carried by 193 to 125 votes ; and the resolution 
 thus amended was put and carried by 230 to 85 votes. The speech 
 of Pitt's here given was delivered on Wilberforce's resolution, and in 
 structure and tone ranks among his best.] 
 
 AT this hour of the morning I am afraid, Sir, I am too much 
 exhausted to enter so fully into the subject before the com-
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 139 
 
 mittee as I could wish ; but if my bodily strength is in any 
 degree equal to the task, I feel so strongly the magnitude of 
 this question that I am extremely earnest to deliver my 
 sentiments, which I rise to do with the more satisfaction, 
 because I now look forward to the issue of this business with 
 considerable hopes of success. The debate has this day 
 taken a turn which, though it has produced a variety of new 
 suggestions, has, upon the whole, reduced this question to a 
 much narrower point than it was ever brought into before. I 
 cannot say that I quite agree with the right hon. gentleman 
 over the way (Mr. Fox) ; I am far from deploring all that 
 has been said by my two hon. friends (Mr. Dundas and the 
 Speaker) ; I rather rejoice that they have now brought this 
 subject to a fair issue that something, at least, is already 
 gained, and that the argument has taken altogether a new 
 course this night. It is true, a difference of opinion has been 
 stated, and has been urged with all the force of argument that 
 could be given to it. But give me leave to say, that this 
 difference has been urged upon principles very far removed 
 from those which were maintained by the opponents of my 
 hon. friend when he first brought forward his motion. There 
 are very few of those who have spoken this night who have 
 not declared the abolition of the slave trade to be their ultimate 
 object. The point now in dispute between us is a difference 
 merely as to the time at which the abolition ought to take 
 place. I therefore congratulate this House, the country, and 
 the world, that this great point has been gained ; that we may 
 now consider this trade as having received its condemnation ; 
 that this curse of mankind is seen by the House in its true 
 light ; that this stigma on our national character is about to be 
 removed ; and that mankind are likely to be delivered from the 
 greatest practical evil that ever afflicted the human race from 
 the severest and most extensive calamity recorded in the 
 history of the world. 
 
 In proceeding to give my reasons for concurring with my 
 hon. friend in his motion, I shall necessarily advert to those 
 topics which my right hon. friends near me have touched upon,
 
 140 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 and which they stated to be their motives for preferring a 
 gradual abolition to the more immediate and direct measure 
 now proposed. Beginning as I do, with declaring that fn this 
 respect I differ completely from my right hon. friends near me, 
 I do not, however, mean to say that I differ as to one observa- 
 tion which has been pressed rather strongly by them. If they 
 can show that by proceeding gradually we shall arrive more 
 speedily at our end than by a direct vote immediately to 
 abolish ; it they can show that our proposition has more the 
 appearance or a speedy abolition than the reality; undoubtedly 
 they will in this case make a convert of every man among us 
 who looks to this as a question not to be determined by 
 theoretical principles or enthusiastic feelings, but considers the 
 practicability of the measure aiming simply to effect his object 
 in the shortest time, and in the surest possible manner. If, 
 however, I shall be able to show that the slave trade will on 
 our plan be abolished sooner than on theirs, may I not then 
 hope that my right hon. friends will be as ready to adopt our 
 proposition as we should in the other case be willing to accede 
 to theirs ? One of my right hon. friends has slated that an Act 
 passed here for the abolition of the slave trade would not 
 secure its abolition. Now, Sir, I should be glad to know why 
 an act of the British legislature, enforced by all those sanctions 
 which we have undoubtedly the power and the right to apply, 
 is not to be effectual, at least as to every material purpose. 
 Will not the executive power have the same appointment of the 
 officers and the courts of judicature, by which all the causes 
 relating to this subject must be tried, that it has in other cases? 
 Will there not be the same system of law by which we now 
 maintain a monopoly of commerce? If the same law, Sir, be 
 applied to the prohibition of the slave trade which is applied 
 in the case of other contraband commerce, with all the same 
 means of the country to back it, I am at a loss to know why 
 the total abolition is not as likely to be effected in this way, as 
 by any project of my right hon. friends for bringing about a 
 gradual termination of it. But my observation is strongly 
 fortified by what fell from my hon. friend who spoke last. He
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 141 
 
 has told you, Sir, that if you will have patience with it for a few 
 years, the slave trade must drop of itself, from the increasing 
 dearness of the commodity imported, and the increasing 
 progress, on the other hand, of internal population. Is it true, 
 then, that the importations are so expensive and disadvan- 
 tageous already that the internal population is even now 
 becoming a cheaper resource ? I ask, then, if you leave to 
 the importer no means of importation but by smuggling, and 
 if, besides all the present disadvantages, you load him with all 
 the charges and hazards of the smuggler, by taking care that 
 the laws against smuggling are in this case rigorously enforced, 
 is there any danger of any considerable supply of fresh slaves 
 being poured into the islands through this channel ? And is 
 there any real ground of fear, because a few slaves may have 
 been smuggled in or out of the islands, that a bill will be 
 ineffectual on any such ground ? The question under these 
 circumstances will not bear a dispute. 
 
 Perhaps, however, my hon. friends may take up another 
 ground and say, "It is true your measure would shut out 
 further importations more immediately ; but we think it right, 
 on grounds of general expediency, that they should not be 
 immediately shut out." Let us come then to this question of 
 the expediency of making the abolition distant and gradual 
 rather than immediate. The argument of expediency, in my 
 opinion, will not justify the continuance of the slave trade for 
 one unnecessary hour. Supposing it to be in our power (which 
 I have shown it is) to enforce the prohibition from this present 
 time, the expediency of doing it is to me so clear that, if I went 
 on this principle alone, I should not feel a moment's hesitation. 
 What is the argument of expediency stated on the other side? 
 It is doubted whether the deaths and births in the islands 
 are as yet so nearly equal as to ensure the keeping up of a 
 sufficient stock of labourers. In answer to this, I took the 
 liberty of mentioning, in a former year, what appeared to me 
 to be the state of population at that time. My observa- 
 tions were taken from documents which we have reason to 
 judge authentic, and which carried on the face of them the
 
 142 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 conclusions I then stated : they were the clear, simple, and 
 obvious result of a careful examination which I made into this 
 subject, and any gentleman who will take the same pains may 
 arrive at the same degree of satisfaction. These calculations, 
 however, applied to a period of time that is now four or five 
 years past. The births were then, in the general view of them, 
 nearly equal to the deaths ; and, as the state of population was 
 shown by a considerable retrospect to be regularly increasing, 
 an excess of births must before this time have taken place. 
 Another observation has been made as to the disproportion of 
 the sexes. This, however, is a disparity which will gradually 
 diminish as the slave-trade diminishes, and must entirely cease 
 when the trade shall be abolished. I believe this disproportion 
 of the sexes is not now by any means considerable. But, Sir, 
 I also showed that the great mortality which turned the balance 
 so as to make the deaths appear more numerous than the 
 births, arose too from the imported Africans, who die in 
 extraordinary numbers in the seasoning. If, therefore, the 
 importation of negroes should cease, every one of the causes of 
 mortality which I have now stated would cease also. Nor can 
 I conceive any reason why the present number of labourers 
 should not maintain itself in the West Indies, except it be from 
 some artificial cause, some fault in the islands ; such as the 
 impolicy of their governors, or the cruelty of the managers and 
 officers whom they employ. I will not repeat all that I said at 
 that time, or go through island by island. It is true, there is a 
 difference in the ceded islands ; and I state them possibly to be, 
 in some respects, an excepted case. But, if we are to enter 
 into the subject of the mortality in clearing new lands, this, Sir, 
 is undoubtedly another question ; the mortality here is tenfold : 
 and this is to be considered, not as the carrying on of a trade, 
 but as the setting on foot of a slave trade for the purpose of 
 peopling the colony ; a measure which I think will not now be 
 maintained. I therefore desire gentlemen to tell me fairly, 
 whether the period they look to is not now arrived ? Whether, 
 at this hour, the West Indies may not be declared to have 
 actually attained a state in which they can maintain their
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 143 
 
 population ? And upon the answer I must necessarily receive, 
 I think I could safely rest the whole of the question. 
 
 One hon. gentleman has rather ingeniously observed that one 
 or other of these two assertions of ours must necessarily be 
 false : that either the population must be decreasing, which we 
 deny ; or if the population is increasing, that the slaves must be 
 perfectly well treated (this being the cause of such population), 
 which we deny also. That the population is rather increasing 
 than otherwise, and also that the general treatment is by no 
 means so good as it ought to be, are both points which have 
 been separately proved by different evidences ; nor are these 
 two points so entirely incompatible. The ill-treatment must be 
 very great indeed in order to diminish materially the population 
 of any race of people. That it is not so extremely great as to 
 do this, I will admit. I will even admit that this charge may 
 possibly have been sometimes exaggerated ; and I certainly 
 think that it applies less and less as we come nearer to the 
 present times. But let us see how this contradiction of ours, as 
 it is thought, really stands, and how the explanation of it will 
 completely settle our minds on the point in question. Do the 
 slaves diminish in numbers ? It can be nothing but ill-treat- 
 ment that causes the diminution. This ill-treatment the 
 abolition must and will restrain. In this case, therefore, we 
 ought to vote for the abolition. On the other hand, Do you 
 choose to say that the slaves clearly increase in numbers ? 
 Then you want no importations, and, in this case also, you may 
 safely vote for the abolition. Or, if you choose to say, as the 
 third and only other case which can be put, and which perhaps 
 is the nearest to the truth, that the population is nearly 
 stationary and the treatment neither so bad nor so good as it 
 might be ; then surely, Sir, it will not be denied that this of all 
 others is, on each of the two grounds, the proper period for 
 stopping further supplies ; for your population, which you own 
 is already stationary, will thus be made undoubtedly to increase 
 from the births ; and the good treatment of your present slaves, 
 which I am now supposing is but very moderate, will be 
 necessarily improved also by the same measure of abolition. I
 
 144 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 say, therefore, that these propositions, contradictory as they 
 may be represented, are in truth not at all inconsistent, but 
 even come in aid of each other, and lead to a conclusion that is 
 decisive. And let it be always remembered, that in this branch 
 of my argument I have only in view the well-being of the West 
 Indies, and do not now ground anything on the African part of 
 the question. 
 
 But, Sir, I may carry these observations respecting the 
 islands much further. It is within the power of the colonists 
 (and is it not then their indispensable duty ?) to apply them- 
 selves to the correction of those various abuses by which 
 population is restrained. The most important consequences 
 may be expected to attend colonial regulations for this purpose. 
 With the improvement of internal population, the condition of 
 every negro will improve also ; his liberty will advance, or at 
 least he will be approaching to a state of liberty. Nor can you 
 increase the happiness, or extend the freedom of the negro, 
 without adding in an equal degree to the safety of the islands, 
 and of all their inhabitants. Thus, Sir, in the place of slaves, 
 who naturally have an interest directly opposite to that of their 
 masters, and are therefore viewed by them with an eye of 
 constant suspicion, you will create a body of valuable citizens 
 and subjects, forming a part of the same community, having 
 a common interest with their superiors, in the security and 
 prosperity of the whole. And here let me add, that in propor- 
 tion as you increase the happiness of these unfortunate beings, 
 you will undoubtedly increase in effect the quantity of their 
 labour also. Gentlemen talk of the diminution of the labour of 
 the islands. I will venture to assert that, even if in conse- 
 quence of the abolition there were to be some decrease in the 
 number of hands, the quantity of work done, supposing the 
 condition of the slaves to improve, would by no means diminish 
 in the same proportion: perhaps would be far from diminishing 
 at all. For if you restore to this degraded race the true feelings 
 of men, if you take them out from among the order of brutes, 
 and place them on a level with the rest of the human species, 
 they will then work with that energy which is natural to men,
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 145 
 
 and their labour will be productive, in a thousand ways, above 
 what it has yet been ; as the labour of a man is always more 
 productive than that of a mere brute. 
 
 It generally happens that in every bad cause some informa- 
 tion arises out of the evidence of its defenders themselves, 
 which serves to expose in one part or other the weakness of 
 their defence. It is the characteristic of such a cause that if it 
 be at all gone into, even by its own supporters, it is liable to be 
 ruined by the contradictions in which those who maintain it are 
 for ever involved. The committee of the privy council of Great 
 Britain sent over certain queries to the West India islands, 
 with a view of elucidating the present subject ; and they 
 particularly inquired, whether the negroes had any days or 
 hours allotted to them in which they might work for them- 
 selves. The assemblies in their answers, with an air of great 
 satisfaction, state the labour of the slaves to be moderate, and 
 the West India system to be well calculated to promote the 
 domestic happiness of the slaves : they add, " that proprietors 
 are not compelled by law to allow their slaves any part of the 
 six working days of the week for themselves, but that it is the 
 general practice to allow them one afternoon in every week out 
 of crop time, which, with such hours as they choose to work on 
 Sundays, is time amply sufficient for their own purposes." 
 Now, therefore, will the negroes, or I may rather say, do the 
 negroes work for their own emolument? I beg the committee's 
 attention to this point. The assembly of Grenada proceeds to 
 state I have their own words for it "That though the negroes 
 are allowed the afternoons of only one day in every week, they 
 will do as much work in that afternoon, when employed for 
 their own benefit, as in the whole day when employed in their 
 master's service." Now, Sir, I will desire you to burn all my 
 calculations ; to disbelieve, if you please, every word I have 
 said on the present state of population ; nay, I will admit, for 
 the sake of argument, that the numbers are decreasing, and the 
 productive labour at present insufficient for the cultivation of 
 those countries : and I will then ask, whether the increase in 
 the quantity of labour which is reasonably to be expected from 
 
 622
 
 t 4 6 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 the improved condition of the slaves is not, by the admission of 
 the islands themselves, far more than sufficient to counter- 
 balance any decrease which can be rationally apprehended 
 from a defective state of their population ? Why, Sir, a negro, 
 if he works for himself, and not for a master, will do double 
 work ! This is their own account. If you will believe the 
 planters, if you will believe the legislature of the islands, the 
 productive labour of the colonies would, in case the negroes 
 worked as free labourers instead of slaves, be literally doubled. 
 Half the present labourers, on this supposition, would suffice 
 for the whole cultivation of our islands on the present scale. 
 1 therefore confidently ask the House whether, in considering 
 the whole of this question, we may not fairly look forward to an 
 improvement in the condition ot these unhappy and degraded 
 beings, not only as an event desirable on the ground of 
 humanity and political prudence, but also as a means of 
 increasing very considerably indeed (even without any increas- 
 ing population) the productive industry of the islands ? When 
 gentlemen are so nicely balancing the past and future means of 
 cultivating the plantations, let me request them to put this 
 argument into the scale ; and the more they consider it, the 
 more will they be satisfied that both the solidity ot the prin- 
 ciple which I have stated, and the fact which I have just 
 quoted in the very words 01 the colonial legislature, will bear 
 me out in every inference I have drawn. I think they will 
 perceive also, that it is the undeniable duty of this House, on 
 the grounds ot true policy, immediately to sanction and carry 
 into effect that system which ensures these important advan- 
 tages, in addition to all those other inestimable blessings which 
 follow in their train. 
 
 If, therefore, the argument of expediency, as applying to the 
 West India islands, is the test by which this question is to be 
 tried, I trust I have now established this proposition, namely, 
 that whatever tends most speedily and effectually to meliorate 
 the condition of the slaves is undoubtedly, on the ground of 
 expediency, leaving justice out of the question, the main object 
 to be pursued. That the immediate abolition of the slave trade
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 147 
 
 will most eminently have this effect, and that it is the only 
 measure from which this effect can in any considerable degree 
 be expected, are points to which I shall presently come ; but 
 before I enter upon them, let me notice one or two further 
 circumstances. We are told (and by respectable and well- 
 informed persons) that the purchase of new negroes has been 
 injurious instead of profitable to the planters themselves ; so 
 large a proportion of these unhappy wretches being found to 
 perish in the seasoning. Writers well versed in this subject 
 have even advised that, in order to remove the temptation 
 which the slave trade offers to expend large sums in this 
 injudicious way, the door of importation should be shut. This 
 very plan which we now propose, the mischief of which is 
 represented to be so great as to outweigh so many other 
 momentous considerations, has actually been recommended by 
 some of the best authorities, as a plan highly requisite to be 
 adopted, on the very principle of advantage to the island ; nay, 
 not merely on that principle of general and political advantage 
 on which I have already touched, but for the advantage of the 
 very individuals who would otherwise be most forward in 
 purchasing slaves. On the part of the West Indians it is 
 urged, " The planters are in debt : they are already distressed ; 
 if you stop the slave trade, they will be ruined." Mr. Long, the 
 celebrated historian of Jamaica, recommends the stopping of 
 importations as a receipt for enabling the plantations which 
 are embarrassed to get out of debt. Speaking of the usurious 
 terms on which money is often borrowed for the purchase of 
 fresh slaves, he advises " the laying of a duty equal to a 
 prohibition on all negroes imported for the space of four or five 
 years, except for re-exportation. Such a law," he proceeds to 
 say, " would be attended with the following good consequences. 
 It would put an immediate stop to these extortions ; it would 
 enable the planter to retrieve his affairs by preventing him from 
 running in debt, either by renting or purchasing negroes ; it 
 would render such recruits less necessary, by the redoubled 
 care he would be obliged to take of his present stock, the 
 preservation of their lives and health ; and lastly, it would raise
 
 148 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 the value of negroes in the island. A North American 
 province, by this prohibition alone for a few years, from being 
 deeply plunged in debt, has become independent, rich, and 
 flourishing." On this authority of Mr. Long I rest the 
 question whether the prohibition of further importations is that 
 rash, impolitic, and completely ruinous measure which it is so 
 confidently declared to be with respect to our West Indian 
 plantations. I do not, however, mean, in thus treating this 
 branch of the subject, absolutely to exclude the question of 
 indemnification, on the supposition of possible disadvantages 
 affecting the West Indies through the abolition of the slave 
 trade. But when gentlemen set up a claim of compensation 
 merely on those general allegations, which are all that I have 
 yet heard from them, I can only answer, let them produce 
 their case in a distinct and specific form ; and if upon any 
 practicable or reasonable grounds it shall claim consideration, 
 it will then be time enough for Parliament to decide upon it 
 
 I now come to another circumstance of great weight, con- 
 nected with this part of the question I mean the danger to 
 which the islands are exposed from those negroes who are 
 newly imported. This, Sir, is no mere speculation of ours : for 
 here again I refer you to Mr. Long. He treats particularly of 
 the dangers to be dreaded from the introduction of Coro- 
 mantine negroes an appellation under which are comprised 
 several descriptions of negroes obtained on the Gold Coast, 
 whose native country is not exactly known, and who are 
 purchased in a variety of markets, having been brought from 
 some distance inland. With a view of preventing insurrections, 
 he advises that " by laying a duty equal to a prohibition, no 
 more of these Coromantines should be bought ; " and after 
 noticing one insurrection which happened through their means, 
 he tells you of another in the following year, in which thirty- 
 three Coromantines, " most of whom had been newly imported, 
 suddenly rose, and in the space of an hour murdered and 
 wounded no less than nineteen white persons." To the 
 authority of Mr. Long I may add the recorded opinion of the 
 committee of the house of assembly of Jamaica itself, who, in
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 149 
 
 consequence of a rebellion among the slaves, were appointed to 
 inquire into the best means of preventing future insurrections. 
 The committee reported, " That the rebellion had originated 
 (like most or all others) with the Coromantines ; and they 
 proposed that a bill should be brought in for laying a higher 
 duty on the importation of these particular negroes," which was 
 intended to operate as a prohibition. But the danger is not 
 confined to the importation of Coromantines. Mr. Long, 
 carefully investigating as he does the causes of such frequent 
 insurrections, particularly at Jamaica, accounts for them from 
 the greatness of its general importations. " In two years and a 
 half," says he, " 27,000 negroes have been imported. No 
 wonder we have rebellions ! 27,000 in two years and a half ! " 
 Why, Sir, I believe that in some late years there have been as 
 many imported into the same island within trie same period. 
 Surely, when gentlemen talk so vehemently of the safety 
 of the islands, and charge us with being so indifferent to 
 it ; when they speak of the calamities of St. Domingo, and of 
 similar dangers impending over their own heads at the present 
 hour, it ill becomes them to be the persons who are crying out 
 for further importations. It ill becomes them to charge upon 
 us the crime of stirring up insurrections upon us who are only 
 adopting the very principles which Mr. Long, which in part 
 even the legislature of Jamaica itself, laid down in the time of 
 danger, with an avowed view to the prevention of any such 
 calamity. 
 
 It is no small satisfaction to me, Sir, that among the many 
 arguments for prohibiting the slave trade which crowd upon my 
 mind, the security of our West India possessions against 
 internal commotions, as well as foreign enemies, is among the 
 most prominent ; and here let me apply to my two right 
 hon. friends, and ask them whether in this part of the 
 argument they did not see reason for immediate abolition? 
 Why should you any longer import into those countries that 
 which is the very seed of insurrection and rebellion ? Why 
 should you persist in introducing those latent principles of 
 conflagration which, if they should once burst forth, may
 
 150 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 nnnihilate in a single day the industry of a hundred years ? 
 Why will you subject yourselves, with open eyes, to the 
 imminent risk of a calamity which may throw you back a 
 whole century in your profits, in your cultivation, in your 
 progress to the emancipation of your slaves ? and, disappointing 
 at once every one of those golden expectations, may retard not 
 only the accomplishment of that happy system which I have 
 attempted to describe, but may cut off even your opportunity 
 of taking any one introductory step ? Let us begin from this 
 time. Let us not commit these important interests to any 
 further hazard. Let us prosecute this great object from this 
 very hour. Let us vote that the abolition of the slave trade 
 shall be immediate, and not left to I know not what future 
 time or contingency. Will my right hon. friends answer 
 for the safety of the islands during any imaginable intervening 
 period ? Or do they think that any little advantages of the 
 kind which they state can have any weight in that scale 
 of expediency in which this great question ought undoubtedly 
 to be tried ? Thus stated, and thus alone, Sir, can it be 
 truly stated, to what does the whole of my right hon. friend's 
 arguments, on the head of expediency, amount ? It amounts 
 but to this : the colonies on the one hand would have to 
 struggle with some few difficulties and disadvantages at the 
 first, for the sake of obtaining on the other hand immediate 
 security to their leading interests ; of ensuring, Sir, even 
 their own political existence ; and for the sake also of 
 immediately commencing that system of progressive improve- 
 ment in the condition of the slaves which is necessary to raise 
 them from the state of brutes to that of rational beings, but 
 which never can begin until the introduction of these new 
 disaffected and dangerous Africans into the same gangs shall 
 have been stopped. If any argument can in the slightest 
 degree justify the severity that is now so generally practised in 
 the treatment of the slaves, it must be the introduction of these 
 Africans. It is the introduction of these Africans that renders 
 all idea of emancipation for the present so chimerical, and the 
 very mention of it so dreadful. It is the introduction of these
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 151 
 
 Africans that keeps down the condition of all plantation 
 negroes. Whatever system of treatment is deemed necessary 
 by the planters to be adopted towards these new Africans, 
 extends itself to the other slaves also. Instead, therefore, of 
 deferring the hour when you will finally put an end to importa- 
 tions, vainly purposing that the condition of your present slaves 
 should previously be mended, you must, in the very first 
 instance, stop your importations, if you hope to introduce any 
 rational or practicable plan either of gradual emancipation or 
 present general improvement. 
 
 Having now done with this question of expediency as 
 affecting the islands, I come next to a proposition advanced by 
 my right hon. friend (Mr. Dundas), which appeared to intimate 
 that on account of some patrimonial rights of the West Indians, 
 the prohibition of the slave trade might be considered as an 
 invasion on their legal inheritance. Now, in answer to this 
 proposition, I must make two or three remarks, which I think 
 my right hon. friend will find some considerable difficulty in 
 answering. First, I observe that his argument, if it be worth 
 anything, applies just as much to gradual as immediate 
 abolition. I have no doubt that at whatever period he should 
 be disposed to say the abolition should actually take place, this 
 defence will equally be set up ; for it certainly is just as good 
 an argument against an abolition seven, or seventy years 
 he -.ce, as against an abolition at this moment. It supposes we 
 have no right whatever to stop the importations, and even 
 though the disadvantage to our plantations, which some 
 gentlemen suppose to attend the measure of immediate 
 abolition, should be admitted gradually to lessen by the lapse 
 of a few years, yet in point of principle the absence of all right 
 of interference would remain the same. My right hon. friend, 
 therefore, I am sure will not press an argument not less hostile 
 to his proposition than to ours. But let us investigate the 
 foundation of this objection, and I will commence what I have 
 to say by putting a question to my right hon. friend. It is 
 chiefly on the presumed ground of our being bound by a 
 parliamentary sanction heretofore given to the African slave
 
 1 5 2 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 trade that this argument against the abolition is rested. Does, 
 then, my right hon. friend think that the slave trade has 
 received any such parliamentary sanction as must place it 
 more out of the jurisdiction of the legislature for ever after, 
 than the other branches of our national commerce ? I ask, is 
 there any one regulation of any part of our commerce which, 
 if this argument be valid, may not equally be objected to, on 
 the ground of its affecting some man's patrimony, some man's 
 property, or some man's expectations ? Let it never be 
 forgotten that the argument I am canvassing would be just as 
 strong if the possession affected were small, and the possessors 
 humble ; for on every principle of justice the property of any 
 single individual, or small number of individuals, is as sacred 
 as that of the great body of West Indians. Justice ought to 
 extend her protection with rigid impartiality to the rich and to 
 the poor, to the powerful and to the humble. If this be the 
 case, in what a situation does my right hon. friend's argument 
 place tke legislature of Great Britain ? What room is left for 
 their interference in the regulation of any part of our com- 
 merce ? It is scarcely possible to lay a duty on any one article 
 which may not, when first opposed, be said in some way to 
 affect the property of individuals, and even of some entire 
 classes of the community. If the laws respecting the slave 
 trade imply a contract for its perpetual continuance, I will 
 venture to say there does not pass a year without some act, 
 equally pledging the faith of parliament to the perpetuating 
 of some other branch of commerce. In short, I repeat my 
 observation, that no new tax can be imposed, much less can 
 any prohibitory duty be ever laid on any branch of trade, that 
 has before been regulated by parliament, if this principle be 
 once admitted. 
 
 Before I refer to the acts of parliament by which the public 
 faith is said to be pledged, let me remark also that a contract 
 for the continuance of the slave trade must, on the principles 
 which I shall presently insist on, have been void, even from the 
 beginning ; for if this trade is an outrage upon justice, and 
 only another name for fraud, robbery, and murder, will any
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 1 5 3 
 
 man urge that the legislature could possibly by any pledge 
 whatever incur the obligation of being an accessory, or I may 
 even say a principal, in the commission of such enormities, by 
 sanctioning their countenance? As well might an individual 
 think himself bound by a promise to commit an assassination. 
 I am confident gentlemen must see that our proceedings on 
 such grounds would infringe all the principles of law, and 
 subvert the very foundation of morality. Let us now see how 
 far the acts themselves show that there is this sort of parlia- 
 mentary pledge to continue the African slave trade. The act 
 of 23d Geo. II., c. 31, is that by which we are supposed to be 
 bound up by contract to sanction all those horrors now so 
 incontrovertibly proved. How surprised then, Sir, must the 
 House be to find that, by the clause of that very act, some of 
 these outrages are expressly forbidden 1 It says, " No com- 
 mander or master of a ship, trading to Africa, shall by fraud, 
 force or violence, or by any indirect practice whatsoever, take 
 on board or carry away from the coast of Africa any negro, or 
 native of the said country, or commit any violence on the 
 natives, to the prejudice of the said trade, and that every 
 person so offending shall for every such offence forfeit" When 
 it conies to the penalty, sorry am I to say that we see too 
 close a resemblance to the West India law, which inflicts the 
 payment of .30 as the punishment for murdering a negro. 
 The price of blood in Africa is ^100 ; but even this penalty is 
 enough to prove that the act at least does not sanction, much 
 less does it engage to perpetuate enormities. But, Sir, let us 
 see what was the motive for carrying on the trade at all. The 
 preamble of the act states it, " Whereas the trade to and from 
 Africa is very advantageous to Great Britain, and necessary for 
 the supplying the plantations and colonies thereunto belonging 
 with a sufficient number of negroes at reasonable rates, and for 
 that purpose the said trade should be carried on," etc. Here, 
 then, we see what the parliament had in view when it passed 
 this act ; and I have clearly shown that not one of the 
 occasions on which it grounded its proceedings now exists. I 
 may then plead, I think, the very act itself as an argument for
 
 154 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 the abolition. If it is shown that, instead of being "very 
 advantageous" to Great Britain, this trade is t>ie most 
 destructive that can well be imagined to her interests ; that it 
 is the ruin of our seamen ; that it stops the extension of our 
 manufactures : if it is proved, in the second place, that it is 
 not now necessary for the " supplying our plantations with 
 negroes" ; if it is further established that this traffic was from 
 the very beginning contrary to the first principles of justice, 
 and consequently that a pledge for its continuance, had one 
 been attempted to have been given, must have been completely 
 and absolutely void ; where then in this act of parliament is 
 the contract to be found by which Britain is bound, as she is 
 said to be, never to listen to her own true interests, and to the 
 cries of the natives of Africa ? Is it not clear that all argu- 
 ment, founded on the supposed pledged faith of parliament, 
 makes against those who employ it ? I refer you to the 
 principles which obtain in other cases. Every trade act shows 
 undoubtedly that the legislature is used to pay a tender regard 
 to all classes of the community. But if, for the sake of moral 
 duty, of national honour, or even of great political advantage, 
 it is thought right, by the authority of parliament, to alter any 
 long-established system, parliament is competent to do it. The 
 legislature will undoubtedly be careful to subject individuals to 
 as little inconvenience as possible; and if any peculiar hardship 
 should arise, that can be distinctly stated and fairly pleaded, 
 there will ever, I am sure, be a liberal feeling towards them 
 in the legislature of this country, which is the guardian of all 
 who live under its protection. On the present occasion, the 
 most powerful considerations call upon us to abolish the slave 
 trade ; and if we refuse to attend to them on the alleged ground 
 of pledged faith and contract, we shall depart as widely from 
 the practice of parliament as from the path of moral duty. 
 If, indeed, there is any case of hardship, which comes within 
 the proper cognisance of parliament, and calls for the exercise of 
 its liberality, well ! But such a case must be reserved for calm 
 consideration, as a matter distinct from the present question. 
 The result of all I have said is, that there exists no impedi-
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 1 5 5 
 
 ment, on the ground of pledged faith, or even on that of 
 national expediency, to the abolition of this trade. On the 
 contrary, all the arguments drawn from those sources plead for 
 it, and they plead much more loudly, and much more strongly 
 in every part of the question, for an immediate, than for a 
 gradual abolition. But now, Sir, I come to Africa. That is the 
 ground on which I rest, and here it is that I say my right hon. 
 friends do not carry their principles to their full extent. Why 
 ought the slave trade to be abolished ? Because it is incurable 
 injustice. How much stronger, then, is the argument for 
 immediate, than gradual abolition I By allowing it to continue 
 even for one hour, do not my right hon. friends weaken their 
 own argument of its injustice ? If on the ground of injustice 
 it ought to be abolished at last, why ought it not now ? Why 
 is injustice to be suffered to remain for a single hour? From 
 what I hear without doors, it is evident that there is a general 
 conviction entertained of its being far from just ; and from 
 that very conviction of its injustice, some men have been led, 
 I fear, to the supposition that the slave trade never could have 
 been permitted to begin, but from some strong and irresistible 
 necessity : a necessity, however, which if it was fancied to exist 
 at first, I have shown cannot be thought by any man whatever 
 to exist now. This plea of necessity has caused a sort of 
 acquiescence in the continuance of this evil. Men have been 
 led to place it among the rank of those necessary evils which 
 are supposed to be the lot of human creatures, and to be 
 permitted to fall upon some countries or individuals, rather 
 than upon others, by that Being whose ways are inscrutable to 
 us, and whose dispensations, it is conceived, we ought not to 
 look into. The origin of evil is indeed a subject beyond the 
 reach of human understandings ; and the permission of it by the 
 Supreme Being is a subject into which it belongs not to us to 
 inquire. But where the evil in question is a moral evil which a 
 man can scrutinise, and where that moral evil has its origin 
 with ourselves, let us not imagine that we can clear our 
 consciences by this general, not to say irreligious and impious, 
 way of laying aside the question. If we reflect at all on this
 
 156 WILLIAM PITT, 
 
 subject, we must see that every necessary evil supposes that 
 some other and greater evil would be incurred were it removed. 
 I therefore desire to ask, what can be that greater evil which 
 can be stated to overbalance the one in question ? I know of 
 no evil that ever has existed, nor can imagine any evil to exist, 
 worse than the tearing of seventy or eighty thousand persons 
 annually from their native land, by a combination of the most 
 civilised nations inhabiting the most enlightened part of the 
 globe, but more especially under the sanction of the laws of 
 that nation which calls herself the most free and the most 
 happy of them all. Even if these miserable beings were proved 
 guilty of every crime before you take them off, ought we to 
 take upon ourselves the office of executioners ? And even if 
 we condescend so far, still can we be justified in taking them, 
 unless we have clear proof that they are criminals ? But, if we 
 go much further, if we ourselves tempt them to sell their 
 fellow-creatures to us, we may rest assured that they will take 
 care to provide by every possible method a supply of victims 
 increasing in proportion to our demand. Can we, then, 
 hesitate in deciding whether the wars in Africa are their wars 
 or ours ? It was our arms in the river Cameroon, put into the 
 hands of the trader, that furnished him with the means of 
 pushing his trade ; and I have no more doubt that they are 
 British arms, put into the hands of Africans, which promote 
 universal war and desolation, than I can doubt their having 
 done so in that individual instance. 
 
 I have shown how great is the enormity of this evil, even on 
 the supposition that we take only convicts and prisoners of war. 
 But take the subject in the other way, and how does it stand ? 
 Think of 80,000 persons carried out of their native country by 
 we know not what means ! for crimes imputed ! for light or 
 inconsiderable faults ! for debt perhaps ! for the crime of 
 witchcraft ! or a thousand other weak and scandalous pretexts ! 
 Reflect on these 80,000 persons thus annually taken offl 
 There is something in the horror of it that surpasses all the 
 bounds of imagination. Admitting that there exists in Africa 
 something like to courts of justice ; yet what an office of
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 157 
 
 humiliation and meanness is it in us, to take upon ourselves to 
 carry into execution the iniquitous sentences of such courts, as 
 if we also were strangers to all religion, and to the first 
 principles of justice ! But that country, it is said, has been in 
 some degree civilised, and civilised by us. It is said they 
 have gained some knowledge of the principles of justice. Yes, 
 we give them enough of our intercourse to convey to them the 
 means, and to initiate them in the study of mutual destruction. 
 We give them just enough of the forms of justice to enable 
 them to add the pretext of legal trials to their other modes of 
 perpetrating the most atrocious iniquity. We give them just 
 enough of European improvements to enable them the more 
 effectually to turn Africa into a ravaged wilderness. Some 
 evidences say that the Africans are addicted to the practice of 
 gambling; that they even sell their wives and children, and 
 ultimately themselves. Are these, then, the legitimate sources 
 of slavery ? Shall we pretend that we can thus acquire an 
 honest right to exact the labour of these people ? Can we 
 pretend that we have a right to carry away to distant regions 
 men of whom we know nothing by authentic inquiry, and of 
 whom there is every reasonable presumption to think that 
 those who sell them to us have no right to do so ? But the 
 evil does not stop here. Do you think nothing of the ruin and 
 the miseries in which so many other individuals, still remaining 
 in Africa, are involved in consequence of carrying off so many 
 myriads of people ? Do you think nothing of their families left 
 behind ? of the connections broken ? of the friendships, attach- 
 ments, and relationships that are burst asunder ? Do you 
 think nothing of the miseries in consequence that are felt 
 from generation to generation ? of the privation of that happi- 
 ness which might be communicated to them by the introduction 
 of civilisation, and of mental and moral improvement ? a 
 happiness which you withhold from them so long as you 
 permit the slave trade to continue. 
 
 Thus, Sir, has the perversion of British commerce carried 
 misery instead of happiness to one whole quarter of the globe. 
 False to the very principles of trade, misguided in our policy,
 
 1 5 8 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 and unmindful of our duty, what astonishing mischief have we 
 brought upon that continent ! If, knowing the miseries we 
 have caused, we refuse to put a stop to them, how greatly 
 aggravated will be the guilt of this country ! Shall we then 
 delay rendering this justice to Africa ? I am sure the im- 
 mediate abolition of the slave trade is the first, the principal, 
 the most indispensable act of policy, of duty, and of justice, that 
 the legislature of this country has to take, if it is indeed their 
 wish to secure those important objects to which I have alluded, 
 and which we are bound to pursue by the most solemn obliga- 
 tions. There is, however, one argument set up as a universal 
 answer to every thing that can be urged on our side. The 
 slave trade system, it is supposed, has taken such deep root in 
 Africa, that it is absurd to think of its being eradicated ; and 
 the abolition of that share of trade carried on by Great Britain 
 is likely to be of very little service. You are not sure, it is 
 said, that other nations will give up the trade if you should 
 renounce it. I answer, if this trade is as criminal as it is 
 asserted to be, God forbid that we should hesitate in relinquish- 
 ing so iniquitous a traffic ; even though it should be retained 
 by other countries ! I tremble at the thought of gentlemen 
 indulging themselves in the argument which I am combating. 
 " We are friends," say they, " to humanity. We are second to 
 none of you in our zeal for the good of Africa but the French 
 will not abolish the Dutch will not abolish. We wait, there- 
 fore, on prudential principles, till they join us, or set us an 
 example." How, Sir, is this enormous evil ever to be eradicated, 
 if every nation is thus prudentially to wait till the concurrence 
 of all the world shall have been obtained ? Let me remark, 
 too, that there is no nation in Europe that has, on the one 
 hand, plunged so deeply into this guilt as Great Britain ; or 
 that is so likely, on the other, to be looked up to as an example. 
 But does not this argument apply a thousand times more 
 strongly in a contrary way? How much more justly may 
 other nations point to us, and say, "Why should we abolish 
 the slave trade when Great Britain has not abolished it? 
 Britain, free as she is, just and honourable as she is, and
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 159 
 
 deeply involved as she is in this commerce above all nations, 
 not only has not abolished, but has refused to abolish." This, 
 Sir, is the argument with which we furnish the other nations of 
 Europe, if we again refuse to put an end to the slave trade. 
 Instead, therefore, of imagining that by choosing to presume 
 on their continuing it, we shall have exempted ourselves from 
 guilt, and have transferred the whole criminality to them ; let us 
 rather reflect, that on the very principle urged against us, we shall 
 henceforth have to answer for their crimes, as well as our own. 
 
 It has also been urged, that there is something in the dis- 
 position and nature of the Africans themselves which renders 
 all prospect of civilisation on that continent extremely un- 
 promising. " It has been known," says Mr. Frazer, in his 
 evidence, " that a boy has been put to death who was refused to 
 be purchased as a slave." This single story was deemed by 
 that gentleman a sufficient proof of the barbarity of the Africans, 
 and of the inutility of abolishing the slave trade. My hon. 
 friend, however, has told you that this boy had previously run 
 away from his master three times ; that the master had to pay 
 his value, according to the custom of his country, every time he 
 was brought back; and that, partly from anger at the boy for 
 running away so frequently, and partly to prevent a repetition 
 of the same expense, he determined to put him to death. This, 
 Sir, is the signal instance that has been dwelt upon of African 
 barbarity. This African, we admit, was unenlightened, and 
 altogether barbarous : but let us now ask what would a 
 civilised and enlightened West Indian, or a body of West 
 Indians, have done in any case of a parallel nature? I will 
 quote you, Sir, a law passed in the West Indies in 1722; by 
 which law this same crime of running away is, by the legis- 
 lature of the island, punished with death, in the very first 
 instance. I hope, therefore, we shall hear no more of the 
 moral impossibility of civilising the Africans, nor have our 
 understandings again insulted by being called upon to sanction 
 the trade until other nations shall have set the example of 
 abolishing it. While we have been deliberating, one nation, 
 Denmark, not by any means remarkable for the boldness of its
 
 160 WILLIAM PITT, 
 
 councils, has determined on a gradual abolition, France, it is 
 said, will take up the trade if we relinquish it. What ! Is it 
 supposed that, in the present situation of St Domingo, an 
 island which used to take three-fourths of all the slaves required 
 by the colonies of France, she, of all countries, will think of 
 taking it up? Of the countries which remain, Portugal, Hol- 
 land, and Spain let me declare it is my opinion, that if they 
 see us renounce the trade, they will not be disposed, even on 
 principles of policy, to rush further into it. But I say more. 
 How are they to furnish the capital necessary for carrying it 
 on? If there is any aggravation of our guilt in this wretched 
 business, it is that we have stooped to be the carriers of these 
 miserable beings from Africa to the West Indies, for all the 
 other powers of Europe. And if we retire from the trade, 
 where is the fund equal to the purchase of 30,000 or 40,000 
 slaves ? a fund which, if we rate the slaves at ^40 or ,50 
 each, cannot require a capital of less than a million and a half, 
 or two millions of money. 
 
 Having detained the House so long, all that I will further 
 add shall relate to that important subject, the civilisation of 
 Africa. Grieved am I to think that there should be a single 
 person in this country who can look on the present uncivilised 
 state of that continent as a ground for continuing the slave 
 trade, as a ground not only for refusing to attempt the 
 improvement of Africa, but even for intercepting every ray 
 of light which might otherwise break in upon her. Here, as in 
 every other branch of this extensive question, the argument 
 of our adversaries pleads against them ; for surely, Sir, the 
 present deplorable state of Africa, especially when we reflect 
 that her chief calamities are to be ascribed to us, calls for our 
 generous aid, rather than justifies any despair on our part of 
 her recovery, and still less any further repetition of our injuries. 
 I will not much longer fatigue the attention of the House ; but 
 this point has impressed itself so deeply on my mind, that 
 I must trouble the committee with a few additional observa- 
 tions. Are we justified, I ask, on any one ground of theory, 
 or by any one instance to be found in the history of the world
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 161 
 
 from its very beginning to this day. in forming the supposition 
 which I am now combating ? Are we justified in supposing 
 that the particular practice which we encourage in Africa, of 
 men selling each other for slaves, is any symptom of a 
 barbarism that is incurable ? Are we justified in supposing 
 that even the practice of offering up human sacrifices proves 
 a total incapacity for civilisation ? I believe it will be found 
 that both the trade in slaves, and the still more savage 
 custom of offering up human sacrifices, obtained in former 
 periods throughout many of those nations which now, by 
 the blessings of providence, and by a long progression of 
 improvements, are advanced the farthest in civilisation. I 
 believe that, if we reflect an instant, we shall find that this 
 observation comes directly home to ourselves ; and that, on 
 the same ground on which we are now disposed to proscribe 
 Africa for ever from all possibility of improvement, we might, 
 in like manner, have been proscribed and for ever shut out from 
 all the blessings which we now enjoy. There was a time, Sir, 
 when even human sacrifices are said to have been offered in 
 this island. But I would peculiarly observe on this day, for 
 it is a case precisely in point, that the very practice of the 
 slave trade once prevailed among us. Slaves, as we may 
 read in Henry's History of Great Britain, were formerly an 
 established article of our exports. " Great numbers," he says, 
 " were exported like cattle, from the British coast, and were to 
 be seen exposed for sale in the Roman market." It does not 
 distinctly appear by what means they were procured ; but 
 there is unquestionably no small resemblance, in this particular 
 point, between the case of our ancestors and that of the present 
 wretched natives of Africa ; for the historian tells you that 
 " adultery, witchcraft, and debt were probably some of the 
 chief sources of supplying the Roman market with British 
 slaves ; that prisoners taken in war were added to the number; 
 and that there might be among them some unfortunate 
 gamesters who, after having lost all their goods, at length 
 staked themselves, their wives, and their children." Every one 
 of these sources of slavery has been stated to be at this hour 
 
 623
 
 162 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 a source of slavery in Africa. And these circumstances, Sir, 
 with a solitary instance or two of human sacrifices, furnish the 
 alleged proofs that Africa labours under a natural incapacity 
 for civilisation ; that it is enthusiasm and fanaticism to think 
 that she can ever enjoy the knowledge and the morals of 
 Europe ; that Providence never intended her to rise above 
 a state of barbarism ; that Providence has irrevocably doomed 
 her to be only a nursery for slaves, for us free and civilised 
 Europeans. Allow of this principle, as applied to Africa, and 
 I should be glad to know why it might not also have been 
 applied to ancient and uncivilised Britain. Why might not 
 some Roman senator, reasoning on the principles of some 
 hon. gentlemen, and pointing to British barbarians, have 
 predicted with equal boldness, " There is a people that will 
 never rise to civilisation ; there is a people destined never to be 
 free ; a people without the understanding necessary for the 
 attainment of useful arts ; depressed by the hand of nature 
 below the level of the human species ; and created to form 
 a supply of slaves for the rest of the world." Might not this 
 have been said in all respects as fairly and as truly of Britain 
 herself, at that period of her history, as it can now be said by 
 us of the inhabitants of Africa? We, Sir, have long since 
 emerged from barbarism; we have almost forgotten that we 
 were once barbarians ; we are now raised to a situation which 
 exhibits a striking contrast to every circumstance by which 
 a Roman might have characterised us, and by which we now 
 characterise Africa. There is, indeed, one thing wanting to 
 complete the contrast, and to clear us altogether from the 
 imputation of acting even to this hour as barbarians ; for we 
 continue to this hour a barbarous traffic in slaves ; we con- 
 tinue it even yet, in spite of all our great and undeniable 
 pretensions to civilisation. We were once as obscure among 
 the nations of the earth, as savage in our manners, as debased 
 in our morals, as degraded in our understandings, as these 
 unhappy Africans are at present. But in the lapse of a long 
 series of years, by a progression slow, and for a time almost 
 imperceptible, we have become rich in a variety of acquire-
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 163 
 
 ments, favoured above measure in the gifts of Providence, 
 unrivalled in commerce, pre-eminent in arts, foremost in the 
 pursuits of philosophy and science, and established in all the 
 blessings of civil society : we are in the possession of peace, 
 of happiness, and of liberty ; we are under the guidance of 
 a mild and beneficent religion ; and we are protected by 
 impartial laws, and the purest administration of justice ; 
 we are living under a system of government which our 
 own happy experience leads us to pronounce the best and 
 wisest which has ever yet been framed a system which 
 has become the admiration of the world. From all these 
 blessings we must for ever have been shut out, had there been 
 any truth in those principles which some gentlemen have 
 not hesitated to lay down as applicable to the case of Africa. 
 Had those principles been true, we ourselves had languished to 
 this hour in that miserable state of ignorance, brutality, and 
 degradation in which history proves our ancestors to have 
 been immersed. Had other nations adopted these principles 
 in their conduct towards us ; had other nations applied to 
 Great Britain the reasoning which some of the senators of this 
 very island now apply to Africa, ages might have passed with- 
 out our emerging from barbarism ; and we, who are enjoying 
 the blessings of a British civilisation, of British laws, and 
 British liberty, might, at this hour, have been little superior, 
 either in morals, in knowledge, or refinement, to the rude 
 inhabitants of the coast of Guinea. 
 
 If, then, we feel that this perpetual confinement in the fetters 
 of brutal ignorance would have been the greatest calamity 
 which could have befallen us ; if we view with gratitude and 
 exultation the contrast between the peculiar blessings we enjoy, 
 and the wretchedness of the ancient inhabitants of Britain ; 
 if we shudder to think of the misery which would still have 
 overwhelmed us had Great Britain continued to be the mart 
 for slaves to the more civilised nations of the world, God forbid 
 that we should any longer subject Africa to the same dreadful 
 scourge, and preclude the light of knowledge, which has 
 reached every other quarter of the globe from having access
 
 1 64 WILLIAM PITT. 
 
 to her coasts ! I trust we shall no longer continue this 
 commerce, to the destruction of every improvement on that 
 wide continent ; and shall not consider ourselves as confer- 
 ring too great a boon in restoring its inhabitants to the rank of 
 human beings. I trust we shall not think ourselves too liberal 
 if, by abolishing the slave trade, we give them the same 
 common chance of civilisation with other parts of the world, 
 and that we shall now allow to Africa the opportunity the 
 hope the prospect of attaining to the same blessings which 
 we ourselves, through the favourable dispensations of Divine 
 Providence, have been permitted, at a much more early period, 
 to enjoy. If we listen to the voice of reason and duty, and 
 pursue this night the line of conduct which they prescribe, 
 some of us may live to see a reverse of that picture from which 
 we now turn our eyes with shame and regret. We may live to 
 behold the natives of Africa engaged in the calm occupations 
 of industry, in the pursuits of a just and legitimate commerce. 
 We may behold the beams of science and philosophy breaking 
 in upon their land, which, at some happy period in still later 
 times, may blaze with full lustre ; and, joining their influence 
 to that of pure religion, may illuminate and invigorate the most 
 distant extremities of that immense continent. Then may we 
 hope that even Africa, though last of all the quarters of the 
 globe, shall enjoy at length, in the evening of her days, those 
 blessings which have descended so plentifully upon us in a much 
 earlier period of the world. Then also will Europe, participat- 
 ing in her improvement and prosperity, receive an ample 
 recompense for the tardy kindness (if kindness it can be 
 called) of no longer hindering that continent from extricating 
 herself out of the darkness which, in other more fortunate 
 regions, has been so much more speedily dispelled 
 
 " Nos primus equis oriens afflavit anhelis; 
 
 Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper." 
 
 Then, Sir, may be applied to Africa those words, originally 
 used indeed with a different view
 
 WILLIAM PITT. 165 
 
 " His demum exactis- 
 
 Devenere locos laetos, et amcena vireta 
 Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas : 
 Largior hie campos ^Ether, et limine vestit 
 Purpureo. " 
 
 It is in this view, Sir, it is as an atonement for our long and 
 cruel injustice towards Africa, that the measure proposed 
 by my hon. friend most forcibly recommends itself to my mind. 
 The great and happy change to be expected in the state of her 
 inhabitants is, of all the various and important benefits of the 
 abolition, in my estimation, incomparably the most extensive 
 and important. I shall vote, Sir, against the adjournment; 
 and I shall also oppose to the utmost every proposition which 
 in any way may tend either to prevent, or even to postpone 
 for an hour, the total abolition of the slave trade ; a measure 
 which, on all the various grounds which I have stated, we are 
 bound, by the most pressing and indispensable duty, to adopt.
 
 !66 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 Speech in behalf of Thomas Paine. Court of Kings Bench, 
 December 18, 1792. 
 
 [THE following speech of Ersklne is perhaps the noblest specimen 
 of English forensic oratory. Thomas Paine, the accused, was tried 
 before Lord Kenyon and a jury for publishing the Rights of Man, 
 an eloquent and forcible political treatise dedicated to Washington, 
 and devoted to the exposition of democratic doctrines. Few men 
 of such humble origin and with so little culture as Paine have 
 exercised greater influence. It was his Common Sense which first 
 roused the American colonists to declare themselves independent ; 
 and in the Rights of Man Paine argued in favour of democratic 
 changes in the British Constitution, to be brought about by peaceful 
 means. In the indictment he was charged with being a "wicked, 
 malicious, seditious, and ill-disposed person , and being greatly 
 disaffected to our sovereign Lord the now King, and to the happy 
 constitution and government of this kingdom." Erskine maintained 
 in his defence that " opinion is free, and that conduct alone is 
 amenable to the law;" and that, as only his client's opinion and not 
 his conduct was called in question, he ought to be acquitted. He 
 also showed from the writings of Locke, Milton, Burke, and others, 
 that all kinds of speculative opinions on the British system had 
 been expressed which were not libellous. Eloquence and reason, 
 however, could not prevail before an ignorant and prejudiced jury, 
 and under a system of repressive legislation, and Paine was found 
 guilty. But his great advocate's oration will long be read and 
 admired by all enlightened men. Curiously enough, Erskine, who 
 was such a marvellous forensic orator, failed as a Parliamentary 
 speaker.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 167 
 
 The publication having been proved, and a letter from Mr. Paine 
 acknowledging it; the letter to the Attorney-General mentioned in 
 the preface, and the passages selected in the information, having 
 been read ; Mr. Erskine, as counsel for the defendant, spoke as 
 follows : ] 
 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY, The Attorney-General, in that 
 part of his address which referred to a letter supposed to have 
 been written to him from France, exhibited signs of strong 
 sensibility and emotion. I do not, I am sure, charge him with 
 acting a part to seduce you ; on the contrary, I am persuaded, 
 from my own feelings, and from my acquaintance with my 
 friend from our childhood upwards, that HE expressed himself 
 as he felt. But, gentlemen, if he felt those painful embarrass- 
 ments, you may imagine what MINE must be : he can only feel 
 for the august character whom he represents in this place as a 
 subject for his Sovereign, too far removed by custom from the 
 intercourses which generate affections to produce any other 
 sentiments than those that flow from a relation common to us 
 all: but it will be remembered that I stand in the same 
 relation* towards another great person more deeply implicated 
 by this supposed letter; who, not restrained from the cultiva- 
 tion of personal attachments by those qualifications which must 
 always secure them, has exalted my duty to a Prince into a 
 warm and honest affection between man and man. Thus cir- 
 cumstanced, I certainly should have been glad to have had an 
 earlier opportunity of knowing correctly the contents of this 
 letter, and whether (which I positively deny) it proceeded from 
 the defendant. Coming thus suddenly upon us, I see but too 
 plainly the impression it has made upon you, who are to try the 
 cause, and I feel its weight upon myself, who am to conduct it ; 
 but this shall neither detach me from my duty, nor enervate me 
 (if I can help it) in the discharge of it. 
 
 If the Attorney-General be well founded in the commentaries 
 he has made to you upon the book which he prosecutes ; if he 
 
 * Mr. Erskine was then Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales.
 
 t6$ HENRY, LORD ERSK1NE. 
 
 be warranted by the law of England in repressing its circula- 
 tion, from the illegal and dangerous matters contained in it; if 
 that suppression be, as he avows it, and as in common sense it 
 must be, the sole object of the prosecution, the public has great 
 reason to lament that this letter should have been at all 
 brought into the service of the cause. It is no part of the 
 charge upon the record ; it had no existence for months after 
 the work wa-s composed and published ; it was not written by 
 the defendant, if written by him at all, till after he had been in 
 a manner insultingly expelled from the country by the influence 
 of Government ; it was not even written till he had become the 
 subject of another country. It cannot, therefore, by any fair 
 inference, decipher the mind of the author when he composed 
 his work ; still less can it affect the construction of the 
 language in which it is written. The introduction of this letter 
 at all is, therefore, not only a departure from the charge, but a 
 dereliction of the object of the prosecution, which is to con- 
 demn the book: since, if the condemnation of the author is to 
 be obtained, not by the work itself, but by collateral matter, not 
 even existing when it was written, nor known to its various 
 publishers throughout the kingdom, how can a verdict upon 
 such grounds condemn the work, or criminate other publishers, 
 strangers to the collateral matter on which the conviction may 
 be obtained to-day ? I maintain, therefore, upon every prin- 
 ciple of sound policy, as it affects the interests of the Crown, 
 and upon every rule of justice, as it affects the author of The 
 Rights of Man, that the letter should be wholly dismissed from 
 your consideration. 
 
 Gentlemen, the Attorney-General has thought it necessary 
 to inform you that a rumour had been spread, and had 
 reached his ears, that he only carried on the prosecution as 
 a public prosecutor, but without the concurrence of his own 
 judgment ; and, therefore, to add the just weight of his 
 private character to his public duty, and to repel what he 
 thinks a calumny, he tells you that he should have deserved 
 to have been driven from society if he had not arraigned the 
 work and the author before you. Here, too, we stand in
 
 ti&NRY, LORD ERSRINE. 169 
 
 situations very different. I have no doubt of the existence of 
 such a rumour, and of its having reached his ears, because 
 he says so ; but for the narrow circle in which any rumour, 
 personally implicating my learned friend's character, has 
 extended, I might appeal to the multitudes who surround us, 
 and ask, which of them all, except the few connected in office 
 with the Crown, ever heard of its existence ? But with regard 
 to myself, every man within hearing at this moment nay, 
 the whole people of England, have been witnesses to the 
 calumnious clamour that, by every art, has been raised and 
 kept up against me : in every place where business or pleasure 
 collect the public together, day after day my name and 
 character have been the topics of injurious reflection. And 
 for what ? Only for not having shrunk from the discharge 
 of a duty which no personal advantage recommended, and 
 which a thousand difficulties repelled. But, gentlemen, I 
 have no complaint to make, either against the printers of 
 these libels, or even against their authors : the greater part 
 of them, hurried perhaps away by honest prejudices, may 
 have believed they were serving their country by rendering 
 me the object of its suspicions and contempt ; and if there 
 had been amongst them others who have mixed in it from 
 personal malice and unkindness, I thank God I can forgive 
 them also. Little, indeed, did they know me, who thought 
 that such calumnies would influence my conduct. I will for 
 ever, at all hazards, assert the dignity, independence, and 
 integrity of the ENGLISH BAR, without which impartial 
 justice, the most valuable part of the English constitution, 
 can have no existence. From the moment that any advocate 
 can be permitted to say that he will or will not stand between 
 the Crown and the subject arraigned in the court where he 
 daily sits to practise, from that moment the liberties of 
 England are at an end. If the advocate refuses to defend, 
 from what he may think of the charge or of the defence, he 
 assumes the character of the Judge ; nay, he assumes it before 
 the hour of judgment ; and, in proportion to his rank and 
 reputation, puts the heavy influence of, perhaps, a mistaken
 
 iyo HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 opinion into the scale against the accused, in whose favour 
 the benevolent principle of English law makes all presump- 
 tions, and which commands the very Judge to be his counsel. 
 
 Gentlemen, it is now my duty to address myself without 
 digression to the defence. 
 
 The first thing which presents itself in the discussion of any 
 subject is to state distinctly, and with precision, what the 
 question is, and, where prejudice and misrepresentation have 
 been exerted, to distinguish it accurately from what it is NOT. 
 The question, then, is NOT whether the constitution of our 
 fathers under which we live, under which I present myself 
 before you, and under which alone you have any jurisdiction to 
 hear me be or be not preferable to the constitution of America 
 or France, or any other human constitution. For upon what 
 principle can a court, constituted by the authority of any 
 Government, and administering a positive system of law under 
 it, pronounce a decision against the constitution which creates 
 its authority, or the rule of action which its jurisdiction is to 
 enforce ? The common sense of the most uninformed person 
 must revolt at such an absurd supposition. 
 
 I have no difficulty, therefore, in admitting that, if by 
 accident some or all of you were alienated in opinion and 
 affection from the forms and principles of the English Govern- 
 ment, and were impressed with the value of that unmixed 
 representative constitution which this work recommends and 
 inculcates, you could not on that account acquit the defendant. 
 Nay, to speak out plainly, I freely admit that even if you were 
 avowed enemies to monarchy, and devoted to republicanism, 
 you would be nevertheless bound by your oaths, as a jury 
 sworn to administer justice according to the English law, to 
 convict the author of The Rights of Man, if it were brought 
 home to your consciences that he had exceeded those widely- 
 extended bounds which the ancient wisdom and liberal policy 
 of the English constitution have allotted to the range of a free 
 press. I freely concede this, because you have no jurisdiction 
 to judge either the author or the work by any rule but that of 
 English law, which is the source of your authority. But having
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 171 
 
 made this large concession, it follows, by a consequence so 
 inevitable as to be invulnerable to all argument or artifice, 
 that if, on the other hand, you should be impressed (which I 
 know you to be) not only with a dutiful regard, but with an 
 enthusiasm, for the whole form and substance of your own 
 Government ; and though you should think that this work, in 
 its circulation amongst classes of men unequal to political 
 researches, may tend to alienate opinion ; still you cannot, upon 
 such grounds, without a similar breach of duty, convict the 
 defendant of a libel unless he has clearly stepped beyond that 
 extended range of communication which the same ancient 
 wisdom and liberal policy of the British constitution has 
 allotted for the liberty of the press. 
 
 Gentlemen, I admit, with the Attorney-General, that in 
 every case where a court has to estimate the quality of a 
 writing, the mind and -intention of the writer must be taken 
 into the account, the dona or mala fides, as lawyers express 
 it, must be examined, for a writing may undoubtedly proceed 
 from a motive, and be directed to a purpose, not to be 
 deciphered by the mere construction of the thing written. 
 But wherever a writing is arraigned as seditious or slanderous, 
 not upon its ordinary construction in language, nor from the 
 necessary consequences of its publication, under any circum- 
 stances, and at all times, but that the criminality springs 
 from some extrinsic matter, not visible upon the page itself, 
 nor universally operative, but capable only of being connected 
 with it by evidence, so as to demonstrate the effect of the 
 publication and the design of the publisher ; such a writing, 
 not libellous PER SE, cannot be arraigned as the author's 
 work is arraigned upon the record before the court. I 
 maintain, without the hazard of contradiction, that the law 
 of England positively requires, for the security of the subject, 
 that every charge of a libel complicated with extrinsic facts 
 and circumstances, dehors the writing, must appear literally 
 upon the record by an averment of such extrinsic facts and 
 circumstances, that the defendant may know what crime he 
 is called upon to answer, and how to stand upon his defence.
 
 172 HENRY, LORD ERSRINE. 
 
 What crime is it that the defendant comes to answer for 
 to-day ? what is the notice that I, who am his counsel, have 
 from this parchment of the crime alleged against him ? I 
 come to defend his having written this book. The record 
 states nothing else : the general charge of sedition in the 
 introduction is notoriously paper and packthread ; because 
 the innuendoes cannot enlarge the sense or natural con- 
 struction of the text. The record does not state any one 
 extrinsic fact or circumstance to render the work criminal at 
 one time more than another j it states no peculiarity of time 
 or season or intention, not provable from the writing itself, 
 which is the naked charge upon record. There is nothing, 
 therefore, which gives you any jurisdiction beyond the con- 
 struction of the work itself; and you cannot be justified in 
 finding it criminal because published at this time, unless it 
 would have been a criminal publication under any circum- 
 stances, or at any other time. 
 
 The law of England, then, both in its forms and substance, 
 being the only rule by which the author or the work can be 
 justified or condemned, and the charge upon the record being 
 the naked charge of a libel, the cause resolves itself into a 
 question of the deepest importance to us all THE NATURE 
 
 AND EXTENT OF THE LIBERTY OF THE ENGLISH PRESS. 
 
 But before I enter upon it, I wish to fulfil a duty to the 
 defendant, which, if I do not deceive myself, is at this 
 moment peculiarly necessary to his impartial trial. If an 
 advocate entertains sentiments injurious to the defence he is 
 engaged in, he is not only justified, but bound in duty, to 
 conceal them ; so, on the other hand, if his own genuine 
 sentiments, or anything connected with his character or 
 situation, can add strength to his professional assistance, he 
 is bound to throw them into the scale. In addressing myself, 
 therefore, to gentlemen not only zealous for the honour of 
 English Government, but visibly indignant at any attack upon 
 its principles, and who would, perhaps, be impatient of argu- 
 ments from a suspected quarter, I give my client the benefit 
 of declaring that I am, and ever have been, attached to the
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 173 
 
 genuine principles of the British Government ; and that, 
 however the Court or you may reject the application, I 
 defend him upon principles not only consistent with its 
 permanence and security, but without the establishment of 
 which it never could have had an existence. 
 
 The proposition which I mean to maintain as the basis of 
 the liberty of the press, and without which it is an empty 
 sound, is this : that every man, not intending to mislead, but 
 seeking to enlighten others with what his own reason and 
 conscience, however erroneously, have dictated to him as 
 truth, may address himself to the universal reason of a whole 
 nation, either upon the subject of governments in general, or 
 upon that of our own particular country : that he may analyse 
 the principles of its constitution, point out its errors and 
 defects, examine and publish its corruptions, warn his fellow- 
 citizens against their ruinous consequences, and exert his 
 whole faculties in pointing out the most advantageous changes 
 in establishments which he considers to be radically defective, 
 or sliding from their object by abuse. All this every subject 
 of this country has a right to do, if he contemplates only 
 what he thinks would be for its advantage, and but seeks to 
 change the public mind by the conviction which flows from 
 reasonings dictated by conscience. 
 
 If, indeed, he writes what he does not think; if, contem- 
 plating the misery of others, he wickedly condemns what his 
 own understanding approves ; or, even admitting his real 
 disgust against the Government or its corruptions, if he 
 calumniates living magistrates, or holds out to individuals 
 that they have a right to run before the public mind in their 
 conduct; that they may oppose by contumacy or force what 
 private reason only disapproves ; that they may disobey the 
 law, because their judgment condemns it ; or resist the public 
 will, because they honestly wish to change it he is then a 
 criminal upon every principle of rational policy, as well as 
 upon the immemorial precedents of English justice ; because 
 such a person seeks to disunite individuals from their duty to 
 the whole, and excites to overt acts of misconduct in a part
 
 174 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 of the community, instead of endeavouring to change, by the 
 impulse of reason, that universal assent which, in this and in 
 every country, constitutes the law for all. 
 
 I have, therefore, no difficulty in admitting that if, upon an 
 attentive perusal of this work, it shall be found that the 
 defendant has promulgated any doctrines which excite 
 individuals to withdraw from their subjection to the law by 
 which the whole nation consents to be governed ; if his 
 book shall be found to have warranted or excited that unfor- 
 tunate criminal who appeared here yesterday to endeavour 
 to relieve himself from imprisonment by the destruction of a 
 prison, or dictated to him the language of defiance which ran 
 through the whole of his defence ; if throughout the work 
 there shall be found any syllable or letter which strikes at 
 the security of property, or which hints that anything less 
 than the whole nation can constitute the law, or that the law, 
 be it what it may, is not the inexorable rule of action for 
 every individual, I willingly yield him up to the justice of the 
 Court. 
 
 Gentlemen, I say, in the name of Thomas Paine, and in 
 his words as author of The Rights of Man, as written in the 
 very volume that is charged with seeking the destruction of 
 property 
 
 " The end of all political associations is the preservation of 
 the rights of man, which rights are liberty, property, and 
 security; that the nation is the source of all sovereignty derived 
 from it ; the right of property being secured and inviolable, no 
 one ought to be deprived of it, except in cases of evident public 
 necessity, legally ascertained, and on condition of a previous 
 just indemnity." 
 
 These are undoubtedly the rights of man the rights for 
 which all governments are established and the only rights Mr. 
 Paine contends for; but which he thinks (no matter whether 
 right or wrong) are better to be secured by a republican 
 constitution than by the forms of the English Government. 
 He instructs me to admit that, when government is once 
 constituted, no individuals, without rebellion, can withdraw
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 175 
 
 their obedience from it ; that all attempts to excite them to it 
 are highly criminal, for the most obvious reasons of policy and 
 justice ; that nothing short of the will of a WHOLE PEOPLE can 
 change or affect the rule by which a nation is to be governed ; 
 and that no private opinion, however honestly inimical to the 
 forms or substance of the law, can justify resistance to its 
 authority, while it remains in force. The author of The Rights 
 of Man not only admits the truth of all this doctrine, but he 
 consents to be convicted, and I also consent for him, unless his 
 work shall be found studiously and painfully to inculcate those 
 great principles of government which it is charged to have been 
 written to destroy. 
 
 Let me not, therefore, be suspected to be contending that it 
 is lawful to write a book pointing out defects in the English 
 Government, and exciting individuals to destroy its sanctions, 
 and to refuse obedience. But, on the other hand, I do con- 
 tend that it is lawful to address the English nation on these 
 momentous subjects; for had it not been for this inalienable 
 right (thanks be to God and our fathers for establishing it ! ), 
 how should we have had this constitution which we so loudly 
 boast of? If, in the march of the human mind, no man could 
 have gone before the establishments of the time he lived in, 
 how could our establishment, by reiterated changes, have 
 become what it is ? If no man could have awakened the public 
 mind to errors and abuses in our Government, how could it 
 have passed on from stage to stage, through reformation and 
 revolution, so as to have arrived from barbarism to such a 
 pitch of happiness and perfection, that the Attorney-General 
 considers it as profanation to touch it further, or to look for any 
 further amendment ? 
 
 In this manner power has reasoned in every age; Govern- 
 ment, in its own estimation, has been at all times a system of 
 perfection; but a free press has examined and detected its 
 errors, and the people have from time to time reformed them. 
 This freedom has alone made our Government what it is; 
 this freedom alone can preserve it; and therefore, under the 
 banners of that freedom, to-day I stand up to defend Thomas
 
 176 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 Paine. But how, alas ! shall this task be accomplished ? How 
 may I expect from you what human nature has not made 
 man for the performance of? How am I to address your 
 reasons, or ask them to pause, amidst the torrent of prejudice 
 which has hurried away the public mind on the subject you are 
 to judge. 
 
 Was any Englishman ever so brought as a criminal before an 
 English court of justice ? If I were to ask you, gentlemen of 
 the jury, what is the choicest fruit that grows upon the tree of 
 English liberty, you would answer, SECURITY UNDER THE 
 LAW. If I were to ask the whole people of England the return 
 they looked for at the hands of Government for the burdens 
 under which they bend to support it, I should still be answered, 
 SECURITY UNDER THE LAW ; or, in other words, an impartial 
 administration of justice. So sacred, therefore, has the freedom 
 of trial been ever held in England ; so anxiously does justice 
 guard against every possible bias in her path, that if the public 
 mind has been locally agitated upon any subject in judgment, 
 the forum has either been changed, or the trial postponed. The 
 circulation of any paper that brings, or can be supposed to 
 bring, prejudice, or even well-founded knowledge, within the 
 reach of a British tribunal, on the spur of an occasion, is not 
 only highly criminal, but defeats itself, by leading to put off the 
 trial which its object was to pervert. On this principle, the 
 noble and learned Judge will permit me to remind him that on 
 the trial of the Dean of St. Asaph for a libel, or rather when 
 he was brought to trial, the circulation of books by a society 
 favourable to his defence was held by his Lordship, as Chief- 
 Justice of Chester, to be a reason for not trying the cause; 
 although they contained no matter relative to the Dean, nor 
 to the object of his trial; being only extracts from ancient 
 authors of high reputation on the general rights of juries to 
 consider the innocence as well as the guilt of the accused ; yet 
 still, as the recollection of these rights was pressed forward 
 with a view to affect the proceedings, the proceedings were 
 postponed. 
 
 Is the defendant, then, to be the only exception to these
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 177 
 
 admirable provisions? Is the English law to judge him, 
 stripped of the armour with which its universal justice 
 encircles all others? Shall we, in the very act of judging 
 him for detracting from the English Government, furnish him 
 with ample matter for just reprobation, instead of detraction ? 
 Has not his cause been prejudged through a thousand 
 channels ? Has not the work before you been daily and 
 publicly reviled, and his person held up to derision and 
 reproach ? Has not the public mind been excited by crying 
 down the very phrase and idea of The Rights of Man? 
 Nay, have not associations of gentlemen I speak it with 
 regret, because I am persuaded, from what I know of some 
 of them, that they, amongst them at least, thought they were 
 serving the public yet have they not, in utter contempt and 
 ignorance of that constitution of which they declare them- 
 selves to be the guardians, published the grossest attacks 
 upon the defendant ? Have they not, even while the cause 
 has been standing here for immediate trial, published a direct 
 protest against the very work now before you ; advertising in 
 the same paper, though under the general description of 
 seditious libels, a reward on the conviction of any person 
 who should dare to sell the book itself, to which their own 
 publication was an answer ? The Attorney-General has spoken 
 of a forced circulation of this work ; but how have these 
 prejudging papers been circulated ? We all know how. They 
 have been thrown into our carriages in every street ; they 
 have met us at every turnpike ; and they lie in the areas of 
 all our houses. To complete the triumph of prejudice, that 
 high tribunal of which I have the honour to be a member 
 (my learned friends know what I say to be true) has been 
 drawn into this vortex of slander ; and some of its members 
 I must not speak of the House itself have thrown the 
 weight of their stations into the same scale. By all these 
 means I maintain that this cause has been prejudged. 
 
 It may be said that I have made no motion to put off the 
 trial for these causes, and that courts of themselves take no 
 cognisance of what passes elsewhere, without facts laid before 
 
 624
 
 178 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 them. Gentlemen, I know that I should have had equal justice 
 from the Court, if I had brought myself within the rule. But 
 when should I have been better in the present aspect of 
 things ? And I only remind you, therefore, of all these hard- 
 ships, that you may recollect that your judgment is to proceed 
 upon that alone which meets you here^ upon the evidence in 
 the cause, and not upon suggestions destructive of every 
 principle of justice. 
 
 Having disposed of these foreign prejudices, I hope you 
 will as little regard some arguments that have been offered 
 to you in court. The letter which has been so repeatedly 
 pressed upon you ought to be dismissed even from your recol- 
 lection. I have already put it out of the question, as having 
 been written long subsequent to the book, and as being a 
 libel on the King, which no part of the information charges, 
 and which may hereafter t>e prosecuted as a distinct offence. 
 I consider that letter, besides, and indeed have always heard 
 it treated, as a forgery, contrived to injure the merits of the 
 cause, and to embarrass me personally in its defence. I have 
 a right so to consider it, because it is unsupported by any- 
 thing similar at an earlier period. The defendant's whole 
 deportment, previous to the publication, has been wholly 
 unexceptionable : he properly desired to be given up as the 
 author of the book if any inquiry should take place concern- 
 ing it : and he is not affected in evidence, either directly or 
 indirectly, with any illegal or suspicious conduct ; not even 
 with having uttered an indiscreet or taunting expression, nor 
 with any one matter or thing inconsistent with the duty of 
 the best subject in England. His opinions indeed were 
 adverse to our system ; but I maintain that OPINION is free, 
 and that CONDUCT alone is amenable to the law. 
 
 You are next desired to judge of the author's mind and 
 intention by the modes and extent of the circulation of his 
 work. The FIRST part of The Rights of Man Mr. Attorney- 
 General tells you he did not prosecute, although it was in 
 circulation through the country for a year and a half together, 
 because it seems it circulated only amongst what he styles
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 179 
 
 the judicious part of the public, who possessed in their 
 capacities and experience an antidote to the poison ; but 
 that, with regard to the SECOND part now before you, its 
 circulation had been forced into every corner of society ; 
 had been printed and reprinted for cheapness even upon 
 whited-brown paper, and had crept into the very nurseries of 
 children as a wrapper for their sweetmeats. 
 
 In answer to this statement, which after all stands only 
 upon Mr. Attorney-General's own assertion, unsupported by 
 any kind of proof (no witness having proved the author's 
 personal interference with the sale), I still maintain that if 
 he had the most anxiously promoted it, the question would 
 remain exactly THE SAME: the question would still be, 
 whether at the time when Paine composed his work, and 
 promoted the most extensive purchase of it, he believed or 
 disbelieved what he had written ? and whether he contem- 
 plated the happiness or the misery of the English nation, to 
 which it is addressed ? And whichever of these intentions may 
 be evidenced to your judgments upon reading the book itself, 
 I confess I am utterly at a loss to comprehend how a writer 
 can be supposed to mean something different from what he 
 has written, by proof of an anxiety (common, I believe, to all 
 authors) that his work should be generally read. Remember, 
 I am not asking your opinions of the doctrines themselves, 
 you have given them already pretty visibly since I began to 
 address you, but I shall appeal not only to you, but to those 
 who, without our leave, will hereafter judge, and without 
 appeal, of all that we are doing to-day, whether, upon the 
 matter which I hasten to lay before you, you can refuse to 
 pronounce that from his education, from the accidents and 
 habits of his life, from the time and occasion of the publica- 
 tion, from the circumstances attending it, and from every 
 line and letter of the work itself, and from all his other 
 writings, his conscience and understanding (no matter whether 
 erroneously or not} were deeply and solemnly impressed with 
 the matters contained in his book ? that he addressed it to 
 the reason of the nation at large, and not to the passions of
 
 i8o HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 individuals ? and that, in the issue of its influence, he 
 contemplated only what appeared to him (though it may not to 
 us) to be the interest and happiness of England, and of the 
 whole human race ? In drawing the one or the other of these 
 conclusions, the book stands first in order, and it shall now 
 speak for itself. 
 
 Gentlemen, the whole of it is in evidence before you ; the 
 particular parts arraigned having only been read by my 
 consent, upon the presumption that, on retiring from the court, 
 you would carefully compare them with the context, and all 
 the parts with the WHOLE VIEWED TOGETHER. You cannot 
 indeed do justice without it. The most common letter, even 
 in the ordinary course of business, cannot be read in a cause 
 to prove an obligation for twenty shillings without THE WHOLE 
 being read, that the writer's meaning may be seen without 
 deception. But in a criminal charge, comprehending only four 
 pages and a half, out of a work containing nearly two hundred, 
 you cannot, with even the appearance of common decency, 
 pronounce a judgment without the most deliberate and cautious 
 comparison. I observe that the noble and learned Judge 
 confirms me in this observation. 
 
 If any given part of a work be legally explanatory of every 
 other part of it, the preface, & fortiori, is the most material; 
 because the preface is the author's own key to his writing: it 
 is there that he takes the reader by the hand and introduces 
 him to his subject ; it is there that the spirit and intention of 
 the whole is laid before him by way of prologue. A preface 
 is meant by the author as a clue to ignorant or careless 
 readers ; the author says by it, to every man who chooses to 
 begin where he ought, Look at my plan, attend to my dis- 
 tinctions, mark the purpose and limitations of the matter I lay 
 before you. 
 
 Let, then, the calumniators of Thomas Paine now attend to 
 his preface, where, to leave no excuse for ignorance or mis- 
 representation, he expresses himself thus : 
 
 " I have differed from some professional gentlemen on the 
 subject of prosecutions, and I since find they are falling into
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 181 
 
 my opinion, which I will here state as fully but as concisely as 
 I can. 
 
 " I will first put a case with respect to any law, and then 
 compare it with a government, or with what in England is or 
 has been called a constitution. 
 
 " It would be an act of despotism, or what in England is 
 called arbitrary power, to make a law to prohibit investigating 
 the principles, good or bad, on which such a law, or any other, 
 is founded. 
 
 " If a law be bad, it is one thing to oppose the practice of it, 
 but it is quite a different thing to expose its errors, to reason on 
 its defects, and to show cause why it should be repealed, or 
 why another ought to be substituted in its place. I have 
 always held it an opinion (making it also my practice), that it 
 is better to obey a bad law, making use at the same time of 
 every argument to show its errors and procure its repeal, than 
 forcibly to violate it ; because the precedent of breaking a bad 
 law might weaken the force, and lead to a discretionary 
 violation, of those which are good. 
 
 " The case is the same with principles and forms of govern- 
 ments, or to what are called constitutions, and the parts of 
 which they are composed. 
 
 "It is for the good of nations, and not for the emolument 
 or aggrandisement of particular individuals, that government 
 ought to be established, and that mankind are at the expense 
 of supporting it. The defects of every government and 
 constitution, both as to principle and form, must, on a parity 
 of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, 
 and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them 
 out. When those defects and the means of remedying them 
 are generally seen by a NATION, THAT NATION will reform its 
 government or its constitution in the one case as the government 
 repealed or reformed the law in the other." 
 
 Gentlemen, you must undoubtedly wish to deal with every 
 man who comes before you in judgment as you would be dealt 
 by ; and surely you will not lay it down to-day as a law to be 
 binding hereafter, even upon yourselves, that if you should
 
 1 82 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 publish any opinion concerning existing abuses in your 
 country's government, and point out to the whole public the 
 means of amendment, you are to be acquitted or convicted 
 as any twelve men may happen to agree with you in your 
 opinions. Yet this is precisely what you are asked to do to 
 another it is precisely the case before you. Mr. Paine 
 expressly says, I obey a law until it is repealed ; obedience 
 is not only my principle but my practice, since my disobedience 
 of a law, from thinking it bad, might apply to justify another 
 man in the disobedience of a good one; and thus individuals 
 would give the rule for themselves, and not society for all. 
 You will presently see that the same principle pervades the 
 whole work ; and I am the more anxious to call your atten- 
 tion to it, however repetition may tire you, because it unfolds 
 the whole principle of my argument ; for, if you find a 
 sentence in the whole book that invests any individual, or any 
 number of individuals, or any community short of the WHOLE 
 NATION, with a power of changing any part of the law or 
 constitution, I abandon the cause, YES, I freely abandon it, 
 because I will not affront the majesty of a court of justice by 
 maintaining propositions which, even upon the surface of them, 
 are false. Mr. Paine, pages 162-168, goes on thus 
 
 "When a NATION changes its opinion and habits of thinking, 
 it is no longer to be governed as before ; but it would not only 
 be wrong, but bad policy, to attempt by force what ought to 
 be accomplished by reason. Rebellion consists in forcibly 
 opposing the general will of a nation, whether by a party 
 or by a government. There ought, therefore, to be, in every 
 nation, a method of occasionally ascertaining the state of public 
 opinion with respect to government. 
 
 " There is, therefore, no power but the voluntary will of the 
 people that has a right to act in any matter respecting a 
 general reform ; and by the same right that two persons can 
 confer on such a subject, a thousand may. The object in all 
 such preliminary proceedings is to find out what the GENERAL 
 SENSE OF A NATION is, and to be governed by it. If it prefer 
 a bad or defective government to a reform, or choose to pay
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 183 
 
 ten times more taxes than there is occasion for, it has a right so 
 to do ; and, so long as the majority do not impose conditions 
 on the minority different to what they impose on themselves, 
 though there may be much error, there is no injustice ; neither 
 will the error continue long. Reason and discussion will soon 
 bring things right, however wrong they may begin. By such a 
 process no tumult is to be apprehended. The poor, in all 
 countries, are naturally both peaceable and grateful in all 
 reforms in which their interest and happiness are included. It 
 is only by neglecting and rejecting them that they become 
 tumultuous." 
 
 Gentlemen, these are the sentiments of the author of The 
 Rights of Man; and, whatever his opinions may be of the 
 defects in our Government, it never can change ours concerning 
 it, if our sentiments are just ; and a writing can never be 
 seditious, in the sense of the English law, which states that 
 the Government leans on the UNIVERSAL WILL for its support. 
 
 This universal will is the best and securest title which his 
 Majesty and his family have to the throne of these kingdoms ; 
 and in proportion to the wisdom of our institutions, the title 
 must in common sense become the stronger. So little idea 
 indeed have I of any other, that in my place in Parliament, not 
 a week ago, I considered it as the best way of expressing my 
 reverence to the constitution, as established at the Revolution, 
 to declare (I believe in the presence of the Heir-Apparent to 
 the Crown, to whom I have the greatest personal attachment), 
 that his Majesty reigned in England by choice and consent, as 
 the magistrate of the English people ; not indeed a consent and 
 choice by personal election, like a King of Poland the worst 
 of all possible constitutions ; but by the election of a family for 
 great national objects, in defiance of that hereditary right, 
 which only becomes tyranny, in the sense of Mr. Paine, when 
 it claims to inherit a nation, instead of governing by their 
 consent, and continuing for its benefit. This sentiment has the 
 advantage of Mr. Burke's high authority, who says with great 
 truth, in a " Letter to his Constituents" : "Too little depend- 
 ence cannot be had at this time of day on names and
 
 1 84 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 prejudices : the eyes of mankind are opened ; and communities 
 must be held together by a visible and solid interest." I 
 believe, gentlemen of the jury, that the Prince of Wales will 
 always render this title dear to the people. The Attorney- 
 General can only tell you what he believes of him ; I can tell 
 you what I KNOW, and what I am bound to declare, since this 
 Prince may be traduced in every part of the kingdom, without 
 its coming in question, till brought in to load a defence with 
 matter collateral to the charge. I therefore assert what the 
 Attorney-General can only hope, that whenever that Prince 
 shall come to the throne of this country (which I pray, but, by 
 the course of nature, may never happen), he will make the 
 constitution of Great Britain the foundation of all his conduct. 
 
 Having now established the author's general intention by his 
 own introduction, which is the best and fairest exposition, let 
 us next look at the occasion which gave it birth. 
 
 The Attorney-General, throughout the whole course of his 
 address to you (I knew it would be so), has avoided the most 
 distant notice or hint of any circumstance having led to the 
 appearance of the author in the political world, after a silence 
 of so many years ; he has not even pronounced, or even 
 glanced, at the name of Mr. Burke, but has left you to take it 
 for granted that the defendant volunteered this delicate and 
 momentous subject, and, without being led to it by the provo- 
 cation of political controversy, had seized a favourable moment 
 to stigmatise, from mere malice, and against his own confirmed 
 opinions, the constitution of this country. 
 
 Gentlemen, my learned friend knows too well my respect and 
 value for him to suppose that I am charging him with a wilful 
 suppression ; I know him to be incapable of it ; he knew it 
 would come from me. He will permit me, however, to lament 
 that it should have been left for me to inform you, at this late 
 period of the cause, that not only the work before you, but the 
 first part, of which it is a natural continuation, were written, 
 avowedly and upon the face of them, IN ANSWER TO MR. 
 BURKE. They were written, besides, under circumstances to 
 be explained hereafter, in the course of which explanation I
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 185 
 
 may have occasion to cite a few passages from the works of 
 that celebrated person. And I shall speak of him with the 
 highest respect ; for, with whatever contempt he may delight to 
 look down upon my humble talents, however he may disparage 
 the principles which direct my public conduct, he shall never 
 force me to forget the regard which this country owes to him 
 for the writings which he has left upon record as an inheritance 
 to our most distant posterity. After the gratitude which we 
 owe to God for the divine gifts of reason and understanding, 
 our next thanks are due to those from the fountains of whose 
 enlightened minds they are fed and fructified. But pleading, 
 as I do, the cause of freedom of opinions, I shall not give 
 offence by remarking that this great author has been thought 
 to have changed some of his ; and, if Thomas Paine had not 
 thought so, I should not now be addressing you, because the 
 book which is my subject would never have been written. 
 Who may be right and who in the wrong, in the contention of 
 doctrines, I have repeatedly disclaimed to be the question. I 
 can only say that Mr. Paine may be right THROUGHOUT, but 
 that Mr. Burke CANNOT. Mr. Paine has been UNIFORM in his 
 opinions, but Mr. Burke HAS NOT. Mr. Burke can only be 
 right in part ; but should Mr. Paine be even mistaken in the 
 whole, still I am not removed from the principle of his defence. 
 My defence has nothing to do with the rectitude of his 
 doctrines. I admit Mr. Paine to be a republican ; you shall 
 soon see what made him one. I do not seek to shade or 
 qualify his attack upon our constitution ; I put my defence on 
 no such matter. He undoubtedly means to declare it to be 
 defective in its forms, and contaminated with abuses which, in 
 'his judgment, will, one day or other, bring on the ruin of us all. 
 It is in vain to mince the matter ; this is the scope of his work. 
 But still, if it contain no attack upon the King's Majesty, nor 
 upon any other LIVING MAGISTRATE ; if it excite to no resist- 
 ance to magistracy, but, on the contrary, if it even studiously 
 inculcate obedience, then, whatever may be its defects, the 
 question continues as before, and ever must remain, an unmixed 
 question of the liberty of the press. I have therefore considered
 
 1 86 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 it as no breach of professional duty, nor injurious to the cause I 
 am defending, to express my own admiration of the real 
 principles of our constitution, a constitution which I hope may 
 never give way to any other, a constitution which has been 
 productive of many benefits, and which will produce many 
 more hereafter, if we have wisdom enough to pluck up the 
 weeds that grow in the richest soils and amongst the brightest 
 flowers. I agree with the merchants of London, in a late 
 declaration, that the English Government is equal to the 
 reformation of its own abuses ; and. as an inhabitant of the 
 city, I would have signed it, if I had known, of my own know- 
 ledge^ the facts, recited in its preamble. But abuses the 
 English constitution unquestionably has, which call loudly for 
 reformation, the existence of which has been the theme of our 
 greatest statesmen, which have too plainly formed the prin- 
 ciples of the defendant, and may have led to the very conjunc- 
 ture which produced his book. 
 
 Gentlemen, we all but too well remember the calamitous 
 situation in which our country stood but a few years ago a 
 situation which no man can look back upon without horror, nor 
 feel himselt safe from relapsing into again, while the causes 
 remain which produced it. The event I allude to you must 
 know to be the American War, and the still existing causes of 
 it, the corruptions of this Government. In those days it was 
 not thought virtue by the patriots of England to conceal the 
 existence of them from the people ; but then, as now, authority 
 condemned them as disaffected subjects, and defeated the ends 
 they sought by their promulgation. 
 
 Hear the opinion of Sir George Saville not his speculative 
 opinion concerning the structure of our Government in the 
 abstract, but his opinion of the settled abuses which prevailed 
 in his own time, and which continue at this moment. But first 
 let me remind you who Sir George Saville was. I fear we shall 
 hardly look upon his like again. How shall I describe him to 
 you ? In my own words I cannot. I was lately commended 
 by Mr. Burke in the House of Commons for strengthening 
 my own language by an appeal to Dr. Johnson. Were the
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 187 
 
 honourable gentleman present at this moment he would no 
 doubt doubly applaud my choice in resorting to his own works 
 for the description of Sir George Saville. 
 
 " His fortune is among the largest ; a fortune which, wholly 
 unencumbered as it is, without one single charge from luxury, 
 vanity, or excess, sinks under the benevolence of its dispenser. 
 This private benevolence, expanding itself into patriotism, 
 renders his whole being the estate of the public, in which he has 
 not reserved a peculium for himself of profit, diversion, or 
 relaxation. During the session, the first in and the last out of 
 the House of Commons, he passes from the senate to the 
 camp ; and seldom seeing the seat of his ancestors, he is 
 always in Parliament to serve his country, or in the field to 
 defend it." 
 
 It is impossible to ascribe to such a character any principle 
 but patriotism, when he expressed himself as follows : 
 
 " I return to you baffled and dispirited, and I am sorry that- 
 truth obliges me to add, with hardly a ray of hope of seeing any 
 change in the miserable course of public calamities. 
 
 " On this melancholy day of account, in rendering up to you 
 my trust, I deliver to you your share of a country maimed and 
 weakened ; its treasure lavished and misspent ; its honours 
 faded ; and its conduct the laughing-stock of Europe : our 
 nation in a manner without allies or friends, except such as we 
 have hired to destroy our fellow-subjects, and to ravage a 
 country in which we once claimed an invaluable share. I 
 return to you some of your principal privileges impeached and 
 mangled. And, lastly, I leave you, as I conceive, at this 
 hour and moment, fully, effectually, and absolutely under the 
 discretion and power of a military force, which is to act without 
 waiting for the authority of the civil magistrates. 
 
 " Some have been accused of exaggerating the public mis- 
 fortunes, nay, of having endeavoured to help forward the 
 mischief, that they might afterwards raise discontents. I am 
 willing to hope that neither my temper nor my situation in 
 life will be thought naturally to urge me to promote misery, 
 discord, or confusion, or to exult in the subversion of order,
 
 1 88 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 or in the ruin of property. I have no reason to contemplate 
 with pleasure the poverty of our country, the increase of our 
 debts and of our taxes, or the decay of our commerce. Trust 
 not, however, to my report : reflect, compare, and judge for 
 yourselves. 
 
 " But, under all these disheartening circumstances, I could 
 yet entertain a cheerful hope, and undertake again the com- 
 mission with alacrity, as well as zeal, if I could see any effectual 
 steps taken to remove the original cause of the mischief. ' Then 
 would there be a hope.' 
 
 " But till the purity of the constituent body, and thereby that 
 of the representative, be restored, there is NONE. 
 
 " I gladly embrace this most public opportunity of delivering 
 my sentiments, not only to all my constituents, but to those 
 likewise not my constituents, whom yet, in the large sense, I 
 represent, and am faithfully to serve. 
 
 " I look upon restoring election and representation in some 
 degree (for I expect no miracles) to their original purity, to 
 be that, without which all other efforts will be vain and 
 ridiculous. 
 
 " If something be not done, you may, indeed, retain the 
 OUTWARD FORM of your constitution, but not the POWER 
 thereof." 
 
 Such were the words of that great good man, lost with those 
 of many others of his time, and his fame, as far as power could 
 hurt it, put in the shade along with them. The consequences 
 we have all seen and felt : America, from an obedient, affec- 
 tionate colony, became an independent nation ; and two 
 millions of people, nursed in the very lap of our monarchy, 
 became the willing subjects of a republican constitution. 
 
 Gentlemen, in that great and calamitous conflict Edmund 
 Burke and Thomas Paine fought in the same field of reason 
 together, but with very different successes. Mr. Burke spoke 
 to a Parliament in England, such as Sir George Saville 
 describes it, having no ears but for sounds that flattered its 
 corruptions. Mr. Paine, on the other hand, spoke TO A 
 PEOPLE, reasoned with them, told them that they were bound
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSK2NE. 189 
 
 by no subjection to any sovereignty, further than their own 
 benefit connected them; and by these powerful arguments 
 prepared the minds of the American people for that GLORIOUS, 
 JUST, and HAPPY revolution. 
 
 Gentlemen, I have a right to distinguish it by these epithets, 
 because I aver that at this moment there is as sacred a regard 
 to property, as inviolable a security to all the rights of indi- 
 viduals, lower taxes, fewer grievances, less to deplore, and 
 more to admire, in the constitution of America, than that of 
 any other country under heaven. I wish indeed to except our 
 own, but I cannot even do that, till it shall be purged of those 
 abuses which, though they obscure and deform the surface, 
 have not as yet, thank God, destroyed the vital parts. 
 
 Why then is Mr. Paine to be calumniated and reviled, 
 because, out of a people consisting of near three millions, he 
 alone did not remain attached in opinion to a monarchy ? 
 Remember that all the blood which was shed in America, and 
 to which he was for years a melancholy and indignant witness, 
 was shed by the authority of the Crown of Great Britain, under 
 the influence of a Parliament such as Sir George Saville has 
 described it, and such as Mr. Burke himself will be called upon 
 by and by in more glowing colours to paint it. How, then, can 
 it be wondered at that Mr. Paine should return to this country 
 in his heart a republican ? Was he not equally a republican 
 when he wrote Common Sense f Yet that volume has been 
 sold without restraint or prosecution in every shop in England 
 ever since, and which nevertheless (7 appeal to the book, which 
 I have in Court, and which is in everybody's hands) contains 
 every one principle of government, and every abuse in the 
 British constitution, which is to be found in The Rights of Man. 
 Yet Mr. Burke himself saw no reason to be alarmed at that 
 publication, nor to cry down its contents, even when America, 
 which was swayed by it, was in arms against the Crown of 
 Great Britain. You shall hear his opinion of it in his Letter to 
 the Sheriffs of Bristol, pages 33 and 34. 
 
 "The Court Gazette accomplished what the abettors of 
 independence had attempted in vain. When that disingenuous
 
 IQO HENR Y, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 compilation, and strange medley of railing and flattery, was 
 adduced as a proof of the united sentiments of the people 
 of Great Britain, there was a great change throughout all 
 America. The tide of popular affection, which had still set 
 towards the parent country, began immediately to turn, and to 
 flow with great rapidity in a contrary course. Far from con- 
 cealing these wild declarations of enmity, the author of the 
 celebrated pamphlet * which prepared the minds of the people 
 for independence, insists largely on the multitude and the spirit 
 of these addresses ; and draws an argument from them which 
 (if the fact were as he supposes) must be irresistible ; for I 
 never knew a writer on the theory of government so partial 
 to authority as not to allow that the hostile mind of the rulers 
 to their people did fully justify a change of government ; nor 
 can any reason whatever be given why one people should 
 voluntarily yield any degree of pre-eminence to another, but 
 on a supposition of great affection and benevolence towards 
 them. Unfortunately, your rulers, trusting to other things, took 
 no notice of this great principle of connection." 
 
 Such were the sentiments of Mr. Burke ; but there is a time, 
 it seems, for all things. 
 
 Gentlemen, the consequences of this mighty revolution are 
 too notorious to require illustration. No audience would sit 
 to hear (what everybody has seen and felf), how the indepen- 
 dence of America notoriously produced, not by remote and 
 circuitous effect, but directly and palpably, the revolutions 
 which now agitate Europe, and which portend such mighty 
 changes over the face of the earth. Let governments take 
 warning. The revolution in France was the consequence of 
 her incurably corrupt and profligate Government. God forbid 
 that I should be thought to lean, by this declaration, upon her 
 unfortunate monarch, bending perhaps at this moment under 
 afflictions which my heart sinks within me to think of: when 
 I speak with detestation of the former politics of the French 
 court, I fasten as little of them upon that fallen and unhappy 
 
 * Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine in America.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 191 
 
 prince, as I impute to our gracious Sovereign the corruptions of 
 our own. I desire, indeed, in the distinctest manner, to be 
 understood that I mean to speak of his Majesty, not only with 
 that obedience and duty which I owe to him as a subject, but 
 with that justice which I think is due to him from all men who 
 examine his conduct either in public or private life. 
 
 Gentlemen, Mr. Paine happened to be in England when the 
 French Revolution took place ; and notwithstanding what he 
 must be supposed and allowed from his own history to have felt 
 upon such a subject, he remained wholly silent and inactive. The 
 people of this country, too, appeared to be indifferent spectators 
 of the animating scene. They saw, without visible emotion, 
 despotism destroyed, and the King of France, by his own 
 consent, become the first magistrate of a free people. Certainly, 
 at least, it produced none of those effects which are so depre- 
 cated by Government at present ; nor, most probably, ever 
 would, if it had not occurred to the celebrated person whose 
 name I must so often mention voluntarily to provoke the 
 subject a subject which, if dangerous to be discussed, HE 
 should not have led to the discussion of; for surely it is not 
 to be endured that any private man shall publish a creed for 
 a whole nation ; shall tell us that we are not to think for our- 
 selves, shall impose his own fetters upon the human mind, shall 
 dogmatise at discretion, and yet that no man shall sit down to 
 answer him without being guilty of a libel. I assert that if it 
 be a libel to mistake our constitution, to attempt the support of 
 it by means that tend to destroy it, and to choose the most 
 dangerous season for doing so, Mr. Burke is that libeller ; but 
 not therefore the object of a criminal prosecution : whilst I am 
 defending the motives of one man, I have neither right nor 
 disposition to criminate the motives of another. All I contend 
 for is a fact that cannot be controverted viz., that this officious 
 interference was the origin of Mr. Paints book. I put my 
 cause upon its being the origin of it the avowed origin as will 
 abundantly appear from the introduction and preface to both 
 parts, and from the whole body of the work; nay, from the very 
 work of Mr. Burke himself, to which both of them are answers.
 
 192 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 For the history of that celebrated work, I appeal to itself. 
 When the French Revolution had arrived at some of its early 
 stages, a few, and but a few, persons (not to be named when 
 compared with the nation) took a visible interest in these 
 mighty events an interest well worthy of Englishmen. They 
 saw a pernicious system of government which had led to 
 desolating wars, and had been for ages the scourge of Great 
 Britain, giving way to a system which seemed to promise 
 harmony and peace amongst nations. They saw this with 
 virtuous and peaceable satisfaction ; and a reverend divine,* 
 eminent for his eloquence, recollecting that the issues of life are 
 in the hands of God, saw no profaneness in mixing the subject 
 with public thanksgiving, by reminding the people of this 
 country of their own glorious deliverance in former ages. It 
 happened, also, that a society of gentlemen, France being then 
 a neutral nation, and her own monarch swearing almost daily 
 upon her altars to maintain the new constitution, thought they 
 infringed no law by sending a general congratulation. Their 
 numbers, indeed, were very inconsiderable ; so much so, that 
 Mr. Burke, with more truth than wisdom, begins his volume 
 with a sarcasm upon their insignificance : 
 
 " Until very lately he had never heard of such a club. It 
 certainly never occupied a moment of his thoughts ; nor, he 
 believed, those of any person out of their own set." 
 
 Why then make their proceedings the subject of alarm 
 throughout England ? There had been no prosecution against 
 them, nor any charge founded even upon suspicion of disaffec- 
 tion against any of their body. But Mr. Burke thought it was 
 reserved for his eloquence to whip these curs of faction to their 
 kennels. How he has succeeded, I appeal to all that has 
 happened since the introduction of his schism in the British 
 Empire, by giving to the King, whose title was questioned by 
 no man, a title which it is his Majesty's most solemn interest 
 to disclaim. 
 After having, in his first work, lashed Dr. Price in a strain of 
 
 * Dr. Price.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 193 
 
 eloquent irony for considering the monarchy to be elective, 
 which he could not but know Dr. Price, in the literal sense of 
 election, neither did nor could possibly consider it, Mr. Burke 
 published a second treatise ; in which, after reprinting many 
 passages from Mr. Paine's former work, he ridicules and denies 
 the supposed right of the people to change their governments, 
 in the following words : 
 
 " The French Revolution, say they " (speaking of the English 
 societies), " was the act of the majority of the people ; and if 
 the majority of any other people, the people of England, for 
 instance, wish to make the same change, they have the same 
 right ; just the same undoubtedly ; that is, none at all" 
 
 And then, after speaking of the subserviency of will to duty 
 (in which I agree with him), he, in a substantive sentence, 
 maintains the same doctrine, thus : 
 
 " The constitution of a country being once settled upon some 
 compact, tacit or expressed, there is no power existing of force 
 to alter it, without the breach of the covenant, or the consent of 
 all the parties. Such is the nature of a contract." 
 
 So that if reason, or even revelation itself, were now to 
 demonstrate to us; that our constitution was mischievous in its 
 effects if, to use Mr. Attorney- General's expression, we had 
 been insane for the many centuries we have supported it ; yet 
 that still, if the King had not forfeited his title to the Crown, 
 nor the Lords their privileges, the universal voice of the people 
 of England could not build up a new government upon a 
 legitimate basis. 
 
 Passing by, for the present, the absurdity of such a pro- 
 position, and supposing it could, beyond all controversy, be 
 maintained ; for Heaven's sake, let wisdom never utter it ! 
 Let policy and prudence for ever conceal it ! If you seek the 
 stability of the English Government, rather put the book of 
 Mr. Paine, which calls it bad, into every hand in the kingdom, 
 than doctrines which bid human nature rebel even against 
 that which is the best. Say to the people of England, Look 
 at your constitution, there it lies before you the work of 
 your pious fathers, handed down as a sacred deposit from 
 
 625
 
 T 9 4 HENR V, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 generation to generation, the result of wisdom and virtue, 
 and its parts cemented together with kindred blood : there 
 are, indeed, a few spots upon its surface ; but the same 
 principle which reared the structure will brush them all 
 away. You may preserve your Government you may 
 destroy it. To such an address, what would be the answer? 
 A chorus of the nation YES, WE WILL PRESERVE IT. But 
 say to the same nation, even of the very same constitution, 
 It is yours, such as it is, for better or for worse ; it is 
 strapped upon your backs, to carry it as beasts of burden, 
 you have no jurisdiction to cast it off. Let this be your 
 position, and you instantly raise up (I appeal to every man's 
 consciousness of his own nature) a spirit of uneasiness and 
 discontent. It is this spirit alone that has pointed most of 
 the passages arraigned before you. 
 
 But let the prudence of Mr. Burke's argument be what it 
 may, the argument itself is untenable. His Majesty un- 
 doubtedly was not elected to the throne. No man can be 
 supposed, in the teeth of fact, to have contended it ; but did 
 not the people of England elect King William, and break 
 the hereditary succession ? and does not his Majesty's title 
 grow out of that election ? It is one of the charges against 
 the defendant, his having denied the Parliament which called 
 the Prince of Orange to the throne to have been a legal 
 convention of the whole people ; and is not the very founda- 
 tion of that charge that it was such a legal convention, and 
 that it was intended to be so ? And if it was so, did not the 
 people then confer the Crown upon King William without any 
 regard to hereditary right ? Did they not cut off the Prince 
 of Wales, who stood directly in the line of succession, and 
 who had incurred no personal forfeiture ? Did they not give 
 their deliverer an estate in the Crown totally new and unpre- 
 cedented in the law or history of the country ? And, lastly, 
 might they not, by the same authority, have given the royal 
 inheritance to the family of a stranger? Mr. Justice Black- 
 stone, in his Commentaries, asserts in terms that they might; 
 and ascribes their choice of King William, and the subsequent
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 195 
 
 limitations of the Crown, not to want of jurisdiction, but to 
 their true origin, to prudence and discretion in not disturbing 
 a valuable institution further than public safety and necessity 
 dictated. 
 
 The English Government stands then on this public consent, 
 the true root of all governments. And I agree with Mr. 
 Burke that, while it is well administered, it is not in the 
 power of factions or libels to disturb it ; though, when 
 ministers are in fault, they are sure to set down all disturb- 
 ances to these causes. This is most iustly and eloquently 
 exemplified in his own Thoughts on the Cause of the Present 
 Discontents, pages 5 and 6 : 
 
 " Ministers contend that no adequate provocation has been 
 given for so spreading a discontent, our affairs having been 
 conducted throughout with remarkable temper and consum- 
 mate wisdom. The wicked industry of some libellers, joined 
 to the intrigues of a few disappointed politicians, have, in 
 their opinion, been able to produce this unnatural ferment in 
 the nation. 
 
 " Nothing, indeed, can be more unnatural than the present 
 convulsions of this country, if the above account be a true 
 one. I confess I shall assent to it with great reluctance, and 
 only on the compulsion of the clearest and firmest proofs ; 
 because their account resolves itself into this short but 
 discouraging proposition : ' That we have a very good 
 Ministry, but that we are a very bad people;' that we set 
 ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us; and, with a 
 malignant insanity, oppose the measures and ungratefully 
 vilify the persons of those whose sole object is our own 
 peace and prosperity. If a few puny libellers, acting under 
 a knot of factious politicians, without virtue, parts, or character 
 (for such they are constantly represented by these gentlemen), 
 are sufficient to excite this disturbance, very perverse must 
 be the disposition of that people amongst whom such a 
 disturbance can be excited by such means." 
 
 He says true ; never were serious disturbances excited by 
 such means 1
 
 196 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 But to return to the argument. Let us now see how the 
 rights of the people stand upon authorities. Let us examine 
 whether this great source of government insisted on by 
 Thomas Paine be not maintained by persons on whom my 
 friend will find it difficult to fasten the character of libellers. 
 
 I shall begin with the most modern author on the subject 
 of government whose work lies spread out before me, as it 
 often does at home for my delight and instruction in my 
 leisure hours. I have also the honour of his personal 
 acquaintance. He is a man, perhaps more than any other, 
 devoted to the real constitution of this country, as will be 
 found throughout his valuable work ; he is a person, besides, 
 of great learning, which enabled him to infuse much useful 
 knowledge into my learned friend now near me, who intro- 
 duced me to him.* I speak of Mr. Paley, Archdeacon of 
 Carlisle, and of his work entitled The Principles of Political 
 and Moral Philosophy ', in which he investigates the first prin- 
 ciples of all governments a discussion not thought dangerous 
 till lately. I hope we shall soon get rid of this ridiculous 
 panic. 
 
 Mr. Paley professes to think of governments what the 
 Christian religion was thought of by its first teachers "If it 
 be of God, it will stand;" and he puts the duty of obedience 
 to them upon free will and moral duty. After dissenting from 
 Mr. Locke as to the origin of governments in compact, he 
 says 
 
 "Wherefore, rejecting the intervention of a compact as 
 unfounded in its principle, and dangerous in the application, 
 we assign for the only ground of the subjects' obligation, 
 
 THE WILL OF GOD, AS COLLECTED FROM EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 " The steps by which the argument proceeds are few and 
 direct. ' It is the will of God that the happiness of human life 
 be promoted ; ' this is the first step, and the foundation, not 
 only of this, but of every moral conclusion. 'Civil society 
 conduces to that end ; ' this is the second proposition. ' Civil 
 
 * Lord Ellenborough, then Mr. Law.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSK1NE. 197 
 
 societies cannot be upheld unless in each the interest of the 
 whole society be binding upon every part and member of it ;' 
 this is the third step, and conducts us to the conclusion, 
 namely, ' That, so long as the interest of the whole society 
 requires it (that is, so long as the established government 
 cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency), 
 it is the will of God (which will universally determines our duty) 
 that the established government be obeyed,' and no longer. 
 
 " But who shall judge of this? We answer, l Every man for 
 himself! In contentions between the sovereign and the sub- 
 ject, the parties acknowledge no common arbitrator ; and it 
 would be absurd to commit the decision to those whose conduct 
 has provoked the question, and whose own interest, authority, 
 and fate are immediately concerned in it. The danger of error 
 and abuse is no objection to the rule of expediency, because 
 every other rule is liable to the same or greater ; and every rule 
 that can be propounded upon the subject (like all rules which 
 appeal to or bind the conscience) must, in the application, 
 depend upon private judgment It may be observed, however, 
 that it ought equally to be accounted the exercise of a man's 
 private judgment, whether he determines by reasonings and 
 conclusions of his own, or submits to be directed by the advice 
 of others, provided he be free to choose his guide." 
 
 He then proceeds in a manner rather inconsistent with the 
 principles entertained by my learned friend in his opening 
 to you 
 
 " No usage, law, or authority whatever, is so binding that 
 it need or ought to be continued when it may be changed with 
 advantage to the community. The family of the prince the 
 order of succession the prerogative of the crown the form 
 and parts of the legislature together with the respective 
 powers, office, duration, and mutual dependency of the several 
 parts, are all only so many laws, mutable, like other laws, 
 whenever expediency requires, either by the ordinary act of the 
 legislature, or, if the occasion deserve it, BY THE INTERPOSI- 
 TION OF THE PEOPLE." 
 
 No man can say that Mr. Paley intended to diffuse discou-
 
 198 HENRY, LORD ERSK1NE. 
 
 tent by this declaration. He must, therefore, be taken to think 
 with me, that freedom and affection, and the sense of advan- 
 tage, are the best and the only supports of government. On 
 the same principle he then goes on to say " These points are 
 wont to be approached with a kind of awe ; they are repre- 
 sented to the mind as principles of the constitution, settled 
 by our ancestors ; and, being settled, to be no more committed 
 to innovation or debate ; as foundations never to be stirred ; 
 as the terms and conditions of the social compact, to which 
 every citizen of the state has engaged his fidelity by virtue 
 of a promise which he cannot now recall. Such reasons have 
 no place in our system." 
 
 These are the sentiments of this excellent author; and there 
 is no part of Mr. Paine's work, from the one end of it to the 
 other, that advances any other proposition. 
 
 But the Attorney- General will say these are the grave specu- 
 lative opinions of a friend to the English Government, whereas 
 Mr. Paine is its professed enemy; what then? The principle is, 
 that every man, while he obeys the laws, is to think for himself, 
 and to communicate what he thinks. The very ends of society 
 exact this licence, and the policy of the law, in its provisions for 
 its security, has tacitly sanctioned it. The real fact is, that 
 writings against a free and well-proportioned government need 
 not be guarded against by laws. They cannot often exist, and 
 never with effect. The just and lawful principles of society are 
 rarely brought forward but when they are insulted and denied, 
 or abused in practice. Mr. Locke's Essay on Government we 
 owe to Sir Robert Filmer, as we owe Mr. Paine's to Mr. 
 Burke; indeed, between the arguments of Filmer and Burke 
 I see no essential difference, since it is not worth disputing 
 whether a king exists by divine right or by indissoluble human 
 compact, if he exists whether we will or no. If his existence 
 be without our consent, and is to continue without benefit, it 
 matters not whether his title be from God or from man. 
 
 That his title is from man, and from every generation of 
 man, without regard to the determination of former ones, hear 
 from Mr. Locke : " All men? say they (/.&, Filmer and his
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINti. 1 9 
 
 adherents), "are BORN under government^ and therefore they 
 cannot be at liberty to begin a new one. Every one is born 
 a subject to his father ; or his prince ; and is therefore under the 
 perpetual tie of subjection and allegiance. It is plain mankind 
 never owned nor considered any such natural subjection that 
 they were born in, to one or the other, that tied them, without 
 their own consents, to a subjection to them and their heirs. 
 
 " It is true that whatever engagements or promises any one 
 has made for himself, he is under the obligation of them, but 
 cannot, by any compact whatsoever, bind his children or 
 posterity ; for his son, when a man, being altogether as free as 
 the father, any act of the father can no more give away the 
 liberty of the son than it can of anybody else." 
 
 So much for Mr. Locke's opinion of the rights of man. Let 
 us now examine his ideas of the supposed danger of trusting 
 him with them. 
 
 " Perhaps it will be said that the people being ignorant, and 
 always discontented to lay the foundation of government in 
 the unsteady opinion and uncertain humour of the people is to 
 expose it to certain ruin ; and no government will be able long 
 to subsist if the people may set up a new legislature whenever 
 they take offence at the old one. To this I answer, Quite the 
 contrary ; people are not so easily got out of their old forms as 
 some are apt to suggest ; they are hardly to be prevailed with 
 to amend the acknowledged faults in the frame they have been 
 accustomed to ; and if there be any original defects, or 
 adventitious ones, introduced by time or corruption, it is not an 
 easy thing to be changed, even when all the world sees there is 
 an opportunity for it. This slowness and aversion in the people 
 to quit their old constitutions has, in the many revolutions 
 which have been seen in this kingdom in this and former ages, 
 still kept us to, or, after some interval of fruitless attempts, still 
 brought us back again, to our old legislative of kings, lords, and 
 commons ; and whatever provocations have made the crown be 
 taken from some of our princes' heads, they never carried the 
 people so far as to place it in another line." 
 
 Gentlemen, I wish I had strength to go on with all that
 
 200 HENRY, LORD ERSK1NE. 
 
 follows ; but I have read enough, not only to maintain the true 
 principles of government, but to put to shame the narrow 
 system of distrusting the people. 
 
 It may be said that Mr. Locke went great lengths in his 
 positions to beat down the contrary doctrine of divine right, 
 which was then endangering the new establishment. But that 
 cannot be objected to David Hume, who maintains the same 
 doctrine. Speaking of the Magna Charta in his History, vol. 
 ii., page 88, he says, " It must be confessed that the former 
 articles of the great charter contain such mitigations and 
 explanations of the feudal law as are reasonable and equitable ; 
 and that the latter involve all the chief outlines of a legal 
 government, and provide for the equal distribution of justice 
 and free enjoyment of property ; the great object for which 
 political society was founded by men, which the people have a 
 perpetual and unalienable right to recall; and which no time, 
 nor precedent, nor statute, nor positive institution, ought to deter 
 them from keeping ever uppermost in their thoughts and 
 attention? 
 
 These authorities are sufficient to rest on ; yet I cannot omit 
 Mr. Burke himself, who is, if possible, still more distinct on the 
 subject. Speaking not of the ancient people of England, but of 
 colonies planted almost within our memories, he says, " If there 
 be one fact in the world perfectly clear, it is this, that the 
 disposition of the people of America is wholly averse to any 
 other than a free government ; and this is indication enough to 
 any honest statesman how he ought to adapt whatever power 
 he finds in his hands to their case. If any ask me what a free 
 government is, I answer, THAT IT is WHAT THE PEOPLE 
 
 THINK SO ; AND THAT THEY, AND NOT I, ARE THE NATURAL, 
 LAWFUL, AND COMPETENT JUDGES OF THIS MATTER. If 
 
 they practically allow me a greater degree of authority over 
 them than is consistent with any correct ideas of perfect 
 freedom, I ought to thank them for so great a trust, and not to 
 endeavour to prove from thence that they have reasoned 
 amiss ; and that, having gone so far, by analogy, they must 
 hereafter have no enjoyment but by my pleasure."
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSK2NE. 201 
 
 Gentlemen, all that I have been stating hitherto has been 
 only to show that there is not that novelty in the opinions of 
 the defendant as to lead you to think he does not bond fide 
 entertain them, much less when connected with the history of 
 his life, which I therefore brought in review before you. But 
 still the great question remains unargued : Had he a right to 
 promulgate these opinions ? If he entertained them, I shall 
 argue that he had ; and although my arguments upon the 
 liberty of the press may not to-day be honoured with your or 
 the Court's approbation, I shall retire not at all disheartened, 
 consoling myself with the reflection that a season may arrive 
 for their reception. The most essential liberties of mankind 
 have been but slowly and gradually received ; and so very late 
 indeed do some of them come to maturity that, notwithstanding 
 the Attorney-General tells you that the very question I am now 
 agitating is most peculiarly for your consideration, AS A JURY, 
 under our ANCIENT constitution, yet I must remind both YOU 
 and HIM that your jurisdiction to consider and deal with it at 
 all in judgment is but A YEAR OLD. Before that late period I 
 ventured to maintain this very RIGHT OF A JURY over the 
 question of libel under the same ancient constitution (I do not 
 mean before the noble Judge now present, for the matter was 
 gone to rest in the courts long before he came to sit where he 
 does, but) before a noble and reverend magistrate of the most 
 exalted understanding, and of the most uncorrupted integrity.* 
 He treated me not with contempt, indeed, for of that his 
 nature was incapable, but he put me aside with indulgence, 
 as you do a child while it is lisping its prattle out of season ; 
 and if this cause had been tried then, instead of now, the 
 defendant must have been instantly convicted on the proof of 
 the publication, whatever you might have thought of his case. 
 Yet I have lived to see it resolved, by an almost unanimous 
 vote of the whole Parliament of England, that I had all along 
 been in the right. If this be not an awful lesson of caution 
 concerning opinions, where are such lessons to be read ? 
 
 * Earl of Mansfield.
 
 202 HNRy, LORD ERSKIN& 
 
 Gentlemen, I have insisted, at great length, upon the origin 
 of governments, and detailed the authorities which you have 
 heard upon the subject, because I consider it to be not only an 
 essential support, but the very foundation of the liberty of the 
 press. If Mr. Burke be right in His principles of government, 
 I admit that the press, in my sense of its freedom, ought not to 
 be free, nor free in any sense at all; and that all addresses to 
 the people upon the subject of government, and all speculations 
 of amendment, of what kind or nature soever, are illegal and 
 criminal, since, if the people have, without possible recall, 
 delegated all their authorities, they have no jurisdiction to act, 
 and therefore none to think or write upon such subjects ; and it 
 would be a libel to arraign government, or any of its acts, before 
 those that have no jurisdiction to correct them. But, on the 
 other hand, as it is a settled rule in the law of England that the 
 subject may always address a competent jurisdiction, no legal 
 argument can shake the freedom of the press, in my sense of 
 it, if I am supported in my doctrines concerning the great 
 unalienable right of the people, to reform or to change their 
 governments. 
 
 It is because the liberty of the press resolves itself into this 
 great issue that it has been, in every country, the last liberty 
 which subjects have been able to wrest from power. Other 
 liberties are held under governments ; but the liberty of opinion 
 keeps GOVERNMENTS THEMSELVES in due subjection to their 
 duties. This has produced the martyrdom of truth in every 
 age, and the world has been only purged from ignorance with 
 the innocent blood of those who have enlightened it. 
 
 Gentlemen, my strength and time are wasted, and I can 
 only make this melancholy history pass like a shadow before 
 you. 
 
 I shall begin with the grand type and example. 
 
 The universal God of nature, the Saviour of mankind, the 
 Fountain of all light, who came to pluck the world from eternal 
 darkness, expired upon a cross the scoff of infidel scorn ; and 
 His blessed apostles followed Him in the train of martyrs. 
 When He came in the flesh, He might have come like the
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSK2NE. 203 
 
 Mahometan prophet, as a powerful sovereign, and propagated 
 His religion with an unconquerable sword, which even now, 
 after the lapse of ages, is but slowly advancing under the 
 influence of reason over the face of the earth; but such a 
 process would have been inconsistent with His mission, which 
 was to confound the pride, and to establish the universal 
 rights of men. He came, therefore, in that lowly state which 
 is represented in the gospel, and preached His consolations 
 to the poor. 
 
 When the foundation of this religion was discovered to be 
 invulnerable and immortal, we find political power taking the 
 Church into partnership ; thus began the corruptions, both of 
 religion and civil power; and, hand in hand together, what 
 havoc have they not made in the world ? ruling by ignorance 
 and the persecution of truth; but this very persecution only 
 hastened the revival of letters and liberty. Nay, you will find 
 that in the exact proportion that knowledge and learning have 
 been beat down and fettered, they have destroyed the govern- 
 ments which bound them. The Court of Star Chamber, the 
 first restriction of the press of England, was erected previous 
 to all the great changes in the constitution. From that 
 moment, no man could legally write without an imprimatur 
 from the State; but truth and freedom found their way with 
 greater force through secret channels; and the unhappy 
 Charles, unwarned by a free press, was brought to an igno- 
 minious death. When men can freely communicate their 
 thoughts and their sufferings, real or imaginary, their passions 
 spend themselves in air, like gunpowder scattered upon the 
 surface ; but, pent up by terrors, they work unseen, burst forth 
 in a moment, and destroy everything in their course. Let 
 reason be opposed to reason, and argument to argument, and 
 every good government will be safe. 
 
 The usurper, Cromwell, pursued the same system of restraint 
 in support of his government, and the end of it speedily 
 followed. 
 
 At the restoration of Charles II. the Star Chamber Ordin- 
 ance of 1637 was worked up into an Act of Parliament, and was
 
 204 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 followed up during that reign, and the short one that followed 
 it, by the most sanguinary prosecutions. But what fact in 
 history is more notorious than that this blind and contemptible 
 policy prepared and hastened the Revolution ? At that great 
 era these cobwebs were all brushed away. The freedom of 
 the press was regenerated, and the country, ruled by its affec- 
 tions, has since enjoyed a century of tranquillity and glory. 
 Thus I have maintained by English history that, in proportion 
 as the press has been free, English government has been secure. 
 
 Gentlemen, the same important truth may be illustrated by 
 great authorities. Upon a subject of this kind resort cannot 
 be had to law cases. The ancient law of England knew 
 nothing of such libels ; they began, and should have ended, 
 with the Star Chamber. What writings are slanderous of 
 individuals must be looked for where these prosecutions are 
 recorded; but upon general subjects we must go to general 
 writers. If, indeed, I were to refer to obscure authors, I might 
 be answered that my very authorities were libels, instead of 
 justifications or examples ; but this cannot be said with effect 
 of great men, whose works are classics in our language, 
 taught in our schools, and repeatedly printed under the eye 
 of Government. 
 
 I shall begin with the poet Milton, a great authority in all 
 learning. It may be said, indeed, he was a republican, but 
 that would only prove that republicanism is not incompatible 
 with virtue. It may be said, too, that the work which I cite 
 was written against previous licensing, which is not contended 
 for to-day. But if every work were to be adjudged a libel 
 which was adverse to the wishes of Government, or to the 
 opinions of those who may compose it, the revival of a licenser 
 would be a security to the public. If I present my book to 
 a magistrate appointed by law, and he rejects it, I have only 
 to forbear from the publication. In the forbearance I am safe; 
 and he too is answerable to law for the abuse of his authority. 
 But, upon the argument of to-day, a man must print at his 
 peril, without any guide to the principles of judgment upon 
 which his work may be afterwards prosecuted and condemned.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 205 
 
 Milton's argument therefore applies, and was meant to apply, 
 to every interruption to writing, which, while they oppress the 
 individual, endanger the State. 
 
 "We have them not," says Milton, "that can be heard of, 
 from any ancient state, or polity, or church, nor by any statute 
 left us by our ancestors, elder or later, nor from the modern 
 custom of any reformed city, or church abroad ; but from the 
 most anti-christian council, and the most tyrannous inquisition 
 that ever existed. Till then, books were ever as freely admitted 
 into the world as any other birth ; the issue of the brain was no 
 more stifled than the issue of the womb, 
 
 " To the pure all things are pure ; not only meats and drinks, 
 but all kind of knowledge, whether good or evil. The know- 
 ledge cannot defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and 
 conscience be not defiled. 
 
 " Bad books serve in many respects to discover, to confute, 
 to forewarn, and to illustrate. Whereof, what better witness 
 can we expect I should produce than one of your own, now 
 sitting in Parliament, the chief of learned men reputed in this 
 land, Mr. Selden, whose volume of natural and national laws 
 proves, not only by great authorities brought together, but by 
 exquisite reasons and theorems almost mathematically demon- 
 strative, that all opinions, YEA, ERRORS, known, read, and 
 collated, are of main service and assistance toward the speedy 
 attainment of what is truest 
 
 " Opinions and understanding are not such wares as to be 
 monopolised and traded in by tickets, and statutes, and 
 standards. We must not think to make a staple commodity of 
 all the knowledge in the land to mark and license it like our 
 broadcloth and our woolpacks. 
 
 " Nor is it to the common people less than a reproach ; for if 
 we be so jealous over them that we cannot trust them with an 
 English pamphlet, what do we but censure them for a giddy, 
 vicious, and ungrounded people ; in such a sick and weak 
 estate of faith and discretion as to be able to take nothing 
 down but through the pipe of a licenser ? That this is care or 
 love of them we cannot pretend.
 
 206 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 " Those corruptions which it seeks to prevent break in faster 
 at doors which cannot be shut. To prevent men thinking and 
 acting for themselves by restraints on the press is like to the 
 exploits of that gallant man who thought to pound up the crows 
 by shutting his park gate. 
 
 " This obstructing violence meets, for the most part, with an 
 event utterly opposite to the end which it drives at. Instead of 
 suppressing books, it raises them and invests them with a 
 reputation. The punishment of wits enhances their authority, 
 saith the Viscount St. Albans, and a forbidden writing is 
 thought to be a certain spark of truth that flies up in the face of 
 them who seek to tread it out." 
 
 He then adverts to his visit to the famous Galileo, whom he 
 found and visited in the Inquisition, "for not thinking in 
 astronomy with the Franciscan and Dominican monks." And 
 what event ought more deeply to interest and affect us ? THE 
 VERY LAWS OF NATURE were to bend under the rod of a 
 licenser. This illustrious astronomer ended his life within the 
 bars of a prison, because, in seeing the phases of Venus through 
 his newly- invented telescope, he pronounced that she shone 
 with borrowed light, and from the sun as the centre of the 
 universe. This was the mighty crime, the placing the sun in 
 the centre : that sun which now inhabits it upon the foundation 
 of mathematical truth, which enables us to traverse the pathless 
 ocean, and to carry our line and rule amongst other worlds, 
 which, but for Galileo, we had never known, perhaps even to 
 the recesses of an infinite and eternal God. 
 
 Milton then, in his most eloquent address to the Parliament, 
 puts the liberty of the press on its true and most honourable 
 foundation : 
 
 " Believe it, Lords and Commons, they who counsel ye to 
 such a suppressing of books, do as good as bid you suppress 
 yourselves, and I will soon show how. 
 
 " If it be desired to know the immediate cause of all this free 
 writing and free speaking, there cannot be assigned a truer 
 than your own mild, and free, and humane government. It is 
 the liberty, Lords and Commons, which your own valorous and
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSK1NE. 207 
 
 happy counsels have purchased us ; liberty, which is the nurse 
 of all great wits. This is that which hath rarefied and 
 enlightened our spirits like the influence of heaven. This is 
 that which hath enfranchised, enlarged, and lifted up our 
 apprehensions degrees above themselves. Ye cannot make us 
 now less capable, less knowing, less eagerly pursuing the truth, 
 unless ye first make yourselves that made us so less the lovers, 
 less the founders, of our true liberty. We can grow ignorant 
 again, brutish, formal, and slavish, as ye found us ; but you 
 then must first become that which ye cannot be, oppressive, 
 arbitrary, and tyrannous, as they were from whom ye have 
 freed us. That our hearts are now more capacious, our 
 thoughts now more erected to the search and expectation 
 of greatest and exactest things, is the issue of your own virtue 
 propagated in us. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to 
 argue freely, according to conscience, above all liberties." 
 
 Gentlemen, I will yet refer you to another author, whose 
 opinion you may think more in point, as having lived in our 
 own times, and as holding the highest monarchical principles of 
 government. I speak of Mr. Hume, who, nevertheless, con- 
 siders that this liberty of the press extends not only to abstract 
 speculation, but to keep the public on their guard against all 
 the acts of their Government. 
 
 After showing the advantages of a monarchy to public 
 freedom, provided it is duly controlled and watched by the 
 popular part of the constitution, he says, " These principles 
 account for the great liberty of the press in these kingdoms, 
 beyond what is indulged in any other Government It is 
 apprehended that arbitrary power would steal in upon us 
 were we not careful to prevent its progress, and were there 
 not an easy method of conveying the alarm from one end 
 of the kingdom to the other. The spirit oj the people must 
 frequently be roused in order to curb the ambition of the 
 Court, and the dread of rousing this spirit must be employed 
 to prevent that ambition. Nothing is so effectual to this 
 purpose as the liberty of THE PRESS, by which all the learn- 
 ing, wit, and genius of the nation may be employed on the
 
 208 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 side of freedom, and every one be animated to its defence. 
 As long, therefore, as the republican part of our Govern- 
 ment can maintain itself against the monarchical, it will 
 naturally be careful to keep the press open, as of importance 
 to its own preservation" 
 
 There is another authority contemporary with the last, a 
 splendid speaker in the Upper House of Parliament, and 
 who held during most of his time high offices under the 
 King. I speak of the Earl of Chesterfield, who thus expressed 
 himself in the House of Lords : " One of the greatest 
 blessings, my Lords, we enjoy is liberty; but every good in 
 this life has its alloy of evil. Licentiousness is the alloy of 
 liberty, it is " 
 
 Lord KENYON. Doctor Johnson claims to pluck that feather 
 from Lord Chesterfield's wing. He speaks, I believe, of the 
 eye of the political body. 
 
 Mr. ERSKINE. My Lord, I am happy that it is admitted 
 to be a feather. I have heard it said that Lord Chesterfield 
 borrowed that which I was just about to state, and which his 
 Lordship has anticipated. 
 
 Lord KENYON. That very speech which did Lord Chester- 
 field so much honour is supposed to have been written by 
 Doctor Johnson. 
 
 Mr. ERSKINE. Gentlemen, I believe it was so, and I am 
 much obliged to his Lordship for giving me a far higher 
 authority for my doctrine. For though Lord Chesterfield 
 was a man of great wit, he was undoubtedly far inferior in 
 learning and, what is more to the purpose, in monarchical 
 opinion, to the celebrated writer to whom my Lord has now 
 delivered the work by his authority. Doctor Johnson then says, 
 " One of the greatest blessings we enjoy, one of the greatest 
 blessings a people, my Lords, can enjoy, is liberty ; but every 
 good in this life has its alloy of evil. Licentiousness is the 
 alloy of liberty. It is an ebullition, an excrescence ; it is a 
 speck upon the eye of the political body, but which I can never 
 touch but with a gentle, with a trembling hand, lest I destroy the 
 body, lest I injure the eye upon which it is apt to appear.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 209 
 
 " There is such a connection between licentiousness and 
 liberty, that it is not easy to correct the one without danger- 
 ously wounding the other : it is extremely hard to distinguish 
 the true limit between them : like a changeable silk, we can 
 easily see there are two different colours, but we cannot easily 
 discover where the one ends, or where the other begins." 
 
 I confess I cannot help agreeing with this learned author. 
 
 THE DANGER OF TOUCHING THE PRESS IS THE DIFFICULTY 
 
 OF MARKING ITS LIMITS. My learned friend, who has just 
 gone out of Court, has drawn no line and unfolded no principle. 
 He has not told us, if this book is condemned, what book 
 may be written. If I may not write against the existence 
 of a monarchy, and recommend a republic, may I write 
 against any part of the Government ? May I say that we 
 should be better without a House of Lords, or a House of 
 Commons, or a Court of Chancery, or any other given part 
 of our establishment? Or if, as has been hinted, a work 
 may be libellous for stating even legal matter with sarcastic 
 phrase, the difficulty becomes the greater, and the liberty of 
 the press more impossible to define. 
 
 The same author, pursuing the subject, and speaking of 
 the fall of Roman liberty, says, "But this sort of liberty 
 came soon after to be called licentiousness; for we are told 
 that Augustus, after having established his empire, restored 
 order in Rome by restraining licentiousness. God forbid we 
 should in this country have order restored or licentiousness 
 restrained, at so dear a rate as the people of Rome paid for 
 it to Augustus ! 
 
 " Let us consider, my Lords, that arbitrary power has 
 seldom or never been introduced into any country at once. 
 It must be introduced by slow degrees, and as it were step 
 by step, lest the people should see its approach. The barriers 
 and fences of the people's liberty must be plucked up one by 
 one, and some plausible pretences must be found for removing 
 or hoodwinking, one after another, those sentries who are posted 
 by the constitution of a free country for warning the people of 
 their danger. When these preparatory steps are once made, 
 
 626
 
 210 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 the people may then, indeed, with regret, see slavery and 
 arbitrary power making long strides over their land ; but 
 it will be too late to think of preventing or avoiding the 
 impending ruin. 
 
 "The stage, my Lords, and the press, are two of our out- 
 sentries : if we remove them, if we hoodwink them, if we 
 throw them in fetters, the enemy may surprise us." 
 
 Gentlemen, this subject was still more lately put in the 
 justest and most forcible light by a noble person high in the 
 magistracy, whose mind is not at all tuned to the introduction 
 of disorder by improper popular excesses : I mean Lord 
 Loughborough, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. 
 I believe I can answer for the correctness of my note, which 
 I shall follow up with the opinion of another member of the 
 Lords' House of Parliament, the present Earl Stanhope ; or 
 rather, I shall take Lord Stanhope first, as his Lordship intro- 
 duces the subject by adverting to this argument of Lord 
 Loughborough's. "If," says Lord Stanhope, "our boasted 
 liberty of the press were to consist only in the liberty to 
 write in praise of the constitution, this is a liberty enjoyed 
 under many arbitrary governments. I suppose it would not 
 be deemed quite an unpardonable offence, even by the Empress 
 of Russia, if any man were to take into his head to write 
 a panegyric upon the Russian form of government. Such 
 a liberty as that might therefore properly be termed the Russian 
 liberty of the press. But the English liberty of the press is of a 
 very different description : for, by the law of England, it is not 
 prohibited to publish speculative works upon the constitution, 
 whether they contain praise or censure? (Lord Stanhopes 
 Defence of the Libel Bill.} 
 
 You see, therefore, as far as the general principle goes, I am 
 supported by the opinion of Lord Stanhope, for otherwise the 
 noble Lord has written a libel himself, by exciting other people 
 to write whatever they may think, be it good or evil, of the 
 constitution of the country. As to the other high authority, 
 Lord Loughborough, I will read what applies to this subject 
 " Every man," said Lord Loughborough, " may publish at his
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 211 
 
 discretion his opinions concerning forms and systems of 
 government. If they be wise and enlightening, the world will 
 gain by them ; if they be weak and absurd, they will be laughed 
 at and forgotten ; and if they be bond fide, they cannot be 
 criminal, however ERRONEOUS. On the other hand, the 
 purpose and the direction may give a different turn to writings 
 whose common construction is harmless, or even meritorious. 
 Suppose men, assembled in disturbance of the peace, to pull 
 down mills or turnpikes, or to do any other mischief, and that 
 a mischievous person should disperse among them an excitation 
 to the planned mischief known to both writer and reader, To 
 your tentS) O Israel ; that publication would be criminal ; not 
 as a libel, not as an abstract writing, but as an act ; and the act 
 being the crime, it must be stated as a fact extrinsic on the 
 record; for otherwise a Court of Error could have no jurisdic- 
 tion but over the natural construction of the writing; nor 
 would the defendant have any notice of such matter at the trial, 
 without a charge on the record. To give the jury cognisance 
 of any matter beyond the construction of the writing, the 
 averment should be, in the case as I have instanced, that 
 certain persons were, as I have described, assembled ; and that 
 the publisher, intending to excite these persons so assembled, 
 wrote so and so. Here the crime is complete, and consists in 
 an overt act of wickedness evidenced by a writing? 
 
 In answer to all these authorities, the Attorney-General may 
 say that if Mr. Paine had written his observations with the 
 views of those high persons, and under other circumstances, 
 he would be protected and acquitted ; to which I can only 
 answer, that no facts or circumstances attending his work are 
 either charged or proved; that you have no jurisdiction 
 whatever but over the natural construction of the work before 
 you, and that I am therefore brought without a flaw to the 
 support of the passages which are the particular subject of 
 complaint. 
 
 Gentlemen, I am not unmindful how long I have already 
 trespassed upon your patience ; and, recollecting the nature of 
 the human mind, and how much, for a thousand reasons, I have
 
 212 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 to struggle against at this moment, I shall not be disconcerted 
 if any of you should appear anxious to retire from the pain of 
 hearing me further. It has been said in the newspapers, that 
 my vanity has forwarded my zeal in this cause ; but I might 
 appeal even to the authors of those paragraphs whether a 
 situation ever existed which vanity would have been fonder to 
 fly from the task of speaking against every known pre- 
 possession with every countenance, as it were, planted and 
 lifted up against me. But I stand at this bar to give to a 
 criminal arraigned before it the defence which the law of the 
 country entitles him to. If any of my arguments be indecent, 
 or unfit for the Court to hear, the noble Judge presides to 
 interrupt them ; if all, or any of them, are capable of an answer, 
 they will be answered ; or if they be so unfounded in your own 
 minds, who are to judge of them, as not to call for refutation, 
 your verdict in a moment will overthrow all that has been said. 
 We shall then have all discharged our duties. It is your 
 unquestionable province to judge, and mine not less unques- 
 tionably to address your judgments. 
 
 When the noble Judge and myself were counsel for Lord 
 George Gordon in 1781, it was not considered by that jury, nor 
 imputed to us by anybody, that we were contending for the 
 privileges of overawing the House of Commons, or recom- 
 mending the conflagration of this city. 7 am doing the same 
 duty now which my Lord and I then did in concert together ; 
 and, whatever may become of the cause, / expect to be heard; 
 conscious that no just obloquy can be, or will in the end be, 
 cast upon me for having done my duty in the manner I have 
 endeavoured to perform it. Sir, I shall name you presently.* 
 
 Gentlemen, I come now to observe on the passages selected 
 by the information ; and with regard to the first, I shall dispose 
 of it in a moment. 
 
 "All hereditary government is in its nature tyranny. An 
 heritable crown, or an heritable throne, or by what other 
 
 * This expression was provoked by the conduct of one of the jury, 
 which this rebuke put an end to.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 213 
 
 fanciful name such things may be called, have no other signi- 
 ficant explanation than that mankind are heritable property. 
 To inherit a government is to inherit the people as if they were 
 flocks and herds." 
 
 And is it to be endured, says the Attorney-General, that the 
 people of this country are to be told that they are driven like 
 oxen or sheep ? Certainly not. I am of opinion that a more 
 dangerous doctrine cannot be instilled into the people of 
 England. But who instils such a doctrine ? I deny that it is 
 instilled by Mr. Paine. When he maintains that hereditary 
 monarchy inherits a people like flocks and herds, it is clear 
 from the context (which is kept out of view) that he is com- 
 bating the proposition in Mr. Burke's book, which asserts that 
 the hereditary monarchy of England is fastened upon the 
 people of England by indissoluble compact. Mr. Paine, on the 
 contrary, asserts the King of England to be the magistrate of 
 the people, existing by their consent, which is utterly incom- 
 patible with their being driven like herds. His argument, 
 therefore, is this, and it retorts on his adversary : he says, 
 Such a king as you, Mr. Burke, represent the King of England 
 to be, inheriting the people by virtue of conquest, or of some 
 compact, which, having once existed, cannot be dissolved while 
 the original terms of it are kept, is an inheritance like flocks 
 and herds. But I deny that to be the King of England's 
 title. He is the magistrate of the people, and that title I respect. 
 It is to your own imaginary King of England, therefore, and not 
 to his Majesty, that your unfounded innuendoes apply. It is the 
 monarchs of Russia and Prussia, and all governments fastened 
 upon unwilling subjects by hereditary indefeasible titles, who are 
 stigmatised by Paine as inheriting the people like flocks. The 
 sentence, therefore, must either be taken in the pure abstract, 
 and then it is not only merely speculative, but the application of 
 it to our own Government fails altogether, or it must be taken 
 connected with the matter which constitutes the application, 
 and then it is Mr. BURKE'S KING OF ENGLAND, and NOT his 
 Majesty, whose title is denied. 
 
 I pass, therefore, to the next passage, which appears to be an
 
 2T 4 HENRY, LORD ERSK1NE. 
 
 extraordinary selection. It is taken at a leap from page 21 to 
 page 47, and breaks in at the words " This convention." The 
 sentence selected stands thus : " This convention met at 
 Philadelphia in May 1787, of which General Washington was 
 elected president. He was not at that time connected with 
 any of the State governments, or with Congress. He delivered 
 up his commission when the war ended, and since then had 
 lived a private citizen. 
 
 " The convention went deeply into all the subjects ; and 
 having, after a variety of debate and investigation, agreed 
 among themselves upon the several parts of a federal constitu- 
 tion, the next question was, the manner of giving it authority 
 and practice. 
 
 " For this purpose they did not, like a cabal of courtiers, send 
 for a Dutch stadtholder, or a German elector; but they referred 
 the whole matter to the sense and interest of the country." 
 
 This sentence, standing thus by itself, may appear to be a 
 mere sarcasm on King William, upon those who effected the 
 Revolution, and upon the Revolution itself, without any reason- 
 ing or deduction ; but when the context and sequel are looked 
 at and compared, it will appear to be a serious historical com- 
 parison between the Revolution effected in England in 1688 
 and the late one in America when she established her inde- 
 pendence ; and no man can doubt that his judgment on that 
 comparison was sincere. But where is the libel on the Con- 
 stitution ? For whether King William was brought over here 
 by the sincerest and justest motives of the whole people of 
 England, each man acting for himself, or from the motives and 
 through the agencies imputed by the defendant, it signifies not 
 one farthing at this time of day to the establishment itself. 
 Blackstone properly warns us not to fix our obedience or 
 affection to the Government on the motives of our ancestors, or 
 the rectitude of their proceedings, but to be satisfied with what 
 is established. This is safe reasoning, and, for my own part, I 
 should not be differently affected to the constitution of my 
 country, which my own understanding approved, whether 
 angels or demons had given it birth.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 215 
 
 Do any of you love the Reformation the less because Henry 
 the Eighth was the author of it ? or because lust and poverty, 
 not religion, were his motives? He had squandered the 
 treasures of his father, and he preferred Anne Bullen to his 
 queen : these were the causes which produced it. What then ? 
 Does that affect the purity of our reformed religion ? Does it 
 undermine its establishment, or shake the King's title, to the 
 exclusion of those who held by the religion it had abolished ? 
 Will the Attorney-General affirm that I could be convicted of a 
 libel for a whole volume of asperity against Henry the Eighth, 
 merely because he effected the Reformation ; and if not, why 
 against King William, who effected the Revolution? Where 
 is the line to be drawn? Are one, two, or three centuries to con- 
 stitute the statute of limitation ? Nay, do not our own historians 
 detail this very cabal of courtiers from the records of our own 
 country ? If you will turn to Hume's History, volume the 
 eighth, page 188, etc., etc., you will find that he states, at great 
 length, the whole detail of intrigues which paved the way for 
 the Revolution, and the interested coalition of parties which 
 gave it effect. 
 
 But what of all this, concerning the motives of parties, which 
 is recorded by Hume ? The question is, What is the thing 
 brought about? Not, HOW it was brought about. If it stands, 
 as Blackstone argues it, upon the consent of our ancestors, 
 followed up by our own, no individual can withdraw his obedi- 
 ence. If he dislikes the establishment, let him seek elsewhere 
 for another ; I am not contending for uncontrolled conduct, 
 but for freedom of opinion. 
 
 With regard to what has been stated of the Edwards and 
 Henries, and the other princes under which the author can only 
 discover " restrictions on power, but nothing of a constitution? 
 surely my friend is not in earnest when he selects that passage 
 as a libel. 
 
 Paine insists that there was no constitution under these 
 princes, and that English liberty was obtained from usurped 
 power by the struggles of the people. So SAY I. And I think 
 it for the honour and advantage of the country that it should be
 
 2i6 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 known. Was there any freedom after the original establishment 
 of the Normans by conquest ? Was not the MAGNA CHARTA 
 wrested from John by open force of arms at Runnymede? 
 Was it not again re-enacted whilst menacing arms were in 
 the hands of the people ? Were not its stipulations broken 
 through, and two-and-forty times re-enacted by Parliament, 
 upon the firm demand of the people in the following reigns ? 
 I protest it fills me with astonishment to hear these truths 
 brought in question. 
 
 I was formerly called upon, under the discipline of a college, 
 to maintain them, and was rewarded for being thought to have 
 successfully maintained that our present Constitution was by 
 no means a remnant of Saxon liberty, nor any other institution 
 of liberty, but the pure consequence of the oppression of the 
 Norman tenures, which, spreading the spirit of freedom from 
 one end of the kingdom to another, enabled our brave fathers, 
 inch by inch, not to reconquer, but for the first time to obtain 
 those privileges which are the unalienable inheritance of all 
 mankind. 
 
 But why do we speak of the Edwards and Henries, when 
 Hume himself expressly says, notwithstanding all we have 
 heard to-day of the antiquity of our Constitution, that our 
 monarchy was nearly absolute till the middle of last century. 
 It is his Essay on the Liberty of the Press, vol i., page 15 
 
 " All absolute governments, and such in a great measure was 
 England till the middle of the last century, notwithstanding the 
 numerous panegyrics on ANCIENT English liberty, must very 
 much depend on the administration." 
 
 This is Hume's opinion ; the conclusion of a grave historian 
 from all that he finds recorded as the materials for history ; and 
 shall it be said that Mr. Paine is to be punished for writing 
 to-day what was before written by another, who is now a 
 distinguished classic in the language ? All the verdicts in the 
 world will not make such injustice palatable to an impartial 
 public or to posterity. 
 
 The next passage arraigned is this (page 56): "The attention 
 qf the Government of England (for I rather choose to call it by
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 217 
 
 this name than the English Government) appears, since its 
 political connection with Germany, to have been so completely 
 engrossed and absorbed by foreign affairs, and the means of 
 raising taxes, that it seems to exist for no other purposes. 
 Domestic concerns are neglected ; and with respect to regular 
 law, there is scarcely such a thing." 
 
 That the Government of this country has, in consequence of 
 its connection with the continent, and the continental wars 
 which it has occasioned, been continually loaded with grievous 
 taxes, no man can dispute ; and I appeal to your justice 
 whether this subject has not been, for years together, the 
 constant topic of unreproved declamation and grumbling. 
 
 As to what he says with regard to there hardly existing such 
 a thing as regular law, he speaks in the abstract of the com- 
 plexity of our system ; he does not arraign the administration 
 of justice in its practice. But with regard to criticisms and 
 strictures on the general system of our Government, it has 
 been echoed over and over again by various authors, and even 
 from the pulpits, of our country. I have a seraion in court, 
 written during the American war by a person of great eloquence 
 and piety, in which he looks forward to an exemption from the 
 intolerable grievances of our old legal system in the infant 
 establishment of the New World : 
 
 " It may be in the purposes of Providence, on yon western 
 shores, to raise the bulwark of a purer reformation than ever 
 Britain patronised ; to found a less burdensome, more auspi- 
 cious, stable, and incorruptible government than ever Britain 
 has enjoyed ; and to establish there a system of law more just 
 and simple in its principles, less intricate, dubious, and dilatory 
 in its proceedings, more mild and equitable in its sanctions, 
 more easy and more certain in its execution ; wherein no man 
 can err through ignorance of what concerns him, or want 
 justice through poverty or weakness, or escape it by legal 
 artifice, or civil privileges, or interposing power ; wherein the 
 rule of conduct shall not be hidden or disguised in the language 
 of principles and customs that died with the barbarism which 
 gave them birth ; wherein hasty formulas shall not dissipate
 
 218 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 the reverence that is due to the tribunals and transactions of 
 justice ; wherein obsolete prescripts shall not pervert, nor 
 entangle, nor impede the administration of it, nor in any 
 instance expose it to derision or to disregard ; wherein mis- 
 representation shall have no share in deciding upon right and 
 truth ; and under which no man shall grow great by the wages 
 of chicanery, or thrive by the quarrels that are ruinous to his 
 employers." 
 
 This is ten times stronger than Mr. Paine ; but who ever 
 thought of prosecuting Mr. Cappe ? * 
 
 In various other instances you will find defects in our juris- 
 prudence pointed out and lamented, and not seldom by persons 
 called upon by their situations to deliver the law in the seat 
 of magistracy; therefore, the author's general observation does 
 not appear to be that species of attack upon the magistracy of 
 the country as to fall within the description of a libel. 
 
 With respect to the two Houses of Parliament, I believe I 
 shall be able to show you that the very person who introduced 
 this controversy, and who certainly is considered by those who 
 now administer the government, as a man usefully devoted to 
 maintain the constitution of the country in the present crisis, 
 has himself made remarks upon these assemblies, that upon 
 comparison you will think more severe than those which are the 
 subject of the Attorney-General's animadversion. The passage 
 in Mr. Paine runs thus 
 
 "With respect to the two Houses of which the English 
 Parliament is composed, they appear to be effectually influenced 
 into one, and, as a legislature, to have no temper of its own. 
 The minister, whoever he at any time may be, touches it as 
 with an opium wand, and it sleeps obedience. 
 
 " But if we look at the distinct abilities of the two Houses, 
 the difference will appear so great as to show the inconsistency 
 of placing power where there can be no certainty of the 
 judgment to use it. Wretched as the state of representation 
 is in England, it is manhood compared with what is called the 
 
 * A late eminent and pious minister at York.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 219 
 
 House of Lords ; and so little is this nicknamed House 
 regarded that the people scarcely inquire at any time what 
 it is doing. It appears also to be most under influence, and 
 the furthest removed from the general interest of the nation." 
 
 The conclusion of the sentence, and which was meant by 
 Paine as evidence of the previous assertion, the Attorney- 
 General has omitted in the information and in his speech ; 
 it is this : " In the debate on engaging in the Russian and 
 Turkish war, the majority in the House of Peers in favour of 
 it was upwards of ninety, when in the other House, which is 
 more than double its numbers, the majority was sixty-three." 
 
 The terms, however, in which Mr. Burke speaks of the 
 House of Lords are still more expressive : " It is something 
 more than a century .ago since we voted the House of Lords 
 useless. They have now voted themselves so, and the whole 
 hope of reformation (speaking of the House of Commons) is cast 
 upon us." This sentiment Mr. Burke not only expressed in his 
 place in Parliament, where no man can call him to an account ; 
 but it has been since repeatedly printed amongst his works. 
 Indeed his opinion of BOTH THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, 
 which I am about to read to you, was originally published as a 
 separate pamphlet, and applied to the settled habitual abuses of 
 these high assemblies. Remember, I do not use them as 
 argumenta ad hominem, or ad invidiam, against the author ; 
 for if I did, it could be no defence of Mr. Paine. But I use 
 them as high authority, the woik* having been the just 
 foundation of substantial and lasting reputation. Would to 
 God that any part of it were capable of being denied or 
 doubted ! 
 
 " Against the being of Parliament I am satisfied no designs 
 have ever been entertained since the Revolution. Every one 
 must perceive that it is strongly the interest of the Court to 
 have some second cause interposed between the ministers and 
 the people. The gentlemen of the House of Commons have an 
 
 * Mr. Burke's Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, 
 published in 1775.
 
 220 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 interest equally strong in sustaining the part of that inter- 
 mediate cause. However they may hire out the usufruct of 
 their voices, they never will part with the fee and inheritance. 
 Accordingly, those who have been of the most known devotion 
 to the will and pleasure of a Court, have at the same time been 
 most forward in asserting an high authority in the House of 
 Commons. When they knew who were to use that authority, 
 and how it was to be employed, they thought it never could be 
 carried too far. It must be always the wish of an unconstitu- 
 tional statesman, that an House of Commons who are entirely 
 dependent upon him, should have every right of the people 
 dependent upon their pleasure. FOR IT WAS DISCOVERED 
 
 THAT THE FORMS OF A FREE AND THE ENDS OF AN ARBI- 
 TRARY GOVERNMENT WERE THINGS NOT ALTOGETHER 
 INCOMPATIBLE. 
 
 " The power of the Crown, almost dead and rotten as pre- 
 rogative, has grown up anew, with much more strength and far 
 less odium, under the name of influence. An influence which 
 operates without noise and violence, which converts the very 
 antagonist into the instrument of power, which contains in 
 itself a perpetual principle of growth and renovation ; and 
 which the distresses and the prosperity of the country equally 
 tend to augment, was an admirable substitute for a prerogative 
 that, being only the offspring of antiquated prejudices, had 
 moulded in its original stamina irresistible principles of decay 
 and dissolution. The ignorance of the people is a bottom but 
 for a temporary system ; but the interest of active men in the 
 state is a foundation perpetual and infallible." 
 
 Mr. Burke, therefore, in page 66, speaking of the same Court 
 party, says : 
 
 " Parliament was indeed the great object of all these politics, 
 the end at which they aimed, as well as the INSTRUMENT by 
 which they were to operate." 
 
 And pursuing the subject in page 70, proceeds as follows : 
 
 " They who will not conform their conduct to the public 
 good, and cannot support it by the prerogative of the Crown, 
 have adopted a new plan. They have totally abandoned the
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 221 
 
 shattered and old-fashioned fortress of Prerogative, and made a 
 lodgment in the stronghold of Parliament itself. If they have 
 any evil design to which there is no ordinary legal power 
 commensurate, they bring it into Parliament There the -whole 
 is executed from the beginning to the end; and the power of 
 obtaining their object absolute; and the safety in the proceeding 
 perfect; no rules to confine, nor after-reckonings to terrify, 
 For Parliament cannot with any great propriety punish others 
 for things in which they themselves have been ACCOMPLICES. 
 Thus its control upon the executory power is lost, because it is 
 made to partake in every considerable act of government : 
 and impeachment, that great guardian of the purity of the 
 constitution, is in danger of being lost even to the idea of it." 
 
 "Until this time, the opinion of the people, through the 
 power of an Assembly, still in some sort popular, led to the 
 greatest honours and emoluments in the gift of the Crown. 
 Now the principle is reversed j and the favour of the Court 
 is the only sure way of obtaining and holding those honours 
 which ought to be IN THE DISPOSAL OF THE PEOPLE." 
 
 Mr. Burke, in page 100, observes with great truth that the 
 mischiefs he complained of did not at all arise from the 
 monarchy, but from the Parliament, and that it was the duty 
 of the people to look to it. He says, " The distempers of 
 monarchy were the great subjects of apprehension and redress 
 in the last century; in this, the distempers of Parliament" 
 
 Not the distempers of Parliament in this year or the last, but 
 in this century i.e., its settled habitual distemper. " It is not in 
 Parliament alone that the remedy for parliamentary disorders 
 can be completed ; and hardly indeed can it begin there. 
 Until a confidence in Government is re-established, the people 
 ought to be excited to a more strict and detailed attention to 
 the conduct of their representatives. Standards for judging 
 more systematically upon their conduct ought to be settled in 
 the meetings of counties and corporations, and frequent and 
 correct lists of the voters in all important questions ought to be 
 procured. 
 
 "By such means something may be done, since it may
 
 222 HENRY, LORD ERSKIXE. 
 
 appear who those are that, by an indiscriminate support of 
 all administrations, have totally banished all integrity and 
 confidence out of public proceedings ; have confounded the 
 best men with the worst ; and weakened and dissolved, 
 instead of strengthening and compacting, the general frame 
 of Government." 
 
 I wish it was possible to read the whole of this most 
 important volume but the consequences of these truths 
 contained in it were all eloquently summed up by the author 
 in his speech upon the reform of the household. 
 
 " But what I confess was uppermost with me, what I bent 
 the whole course of my mind to, was the reduction of that 
 corrupt influence which is itself the perennial spring of all 
 prodigality and disorder ; which loads us more than millions 
 of debt ; which takes away vigour from our arms, wisdom from 
 our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from 
 the most venerable parts of our constitution." 
 
 The same important truths were held out to the whole public, 
 upon a still later occasion, by the person now at the head of 
 his Majesty's councils ; and so high (as it appears) in the 
 confidence of the nation.* He, not in the abstract, like the 
 author before you, but upon the spur of the occasion, and in the 
 teeth of what had been just declared in the House of Commons, 
 came to, and acted upon, resolutions which are contained in 
 this book t resolutions pointed to the purification of a Parlia- 
 ment dangerously corrupted into the very state described by 
 Mr. Paine. Remember here, too, that I impute no censurable 
 conduct to Mr. Pitt. It was the most brilliant passage in his 
 life, and I should have thought his life a better one if he had 
 continued uniform in the support of opinions which it is said 
 he has not changed, and which certainly have had nothing to 
 change them. But at all events, I have a right to make use 
 of the authority of his splendid talents and high situation, not 
 merely to protect the defendant, but the public, by resisting 
 the precedent, that what one man may do in England with 
 
 * Mr. Pitt. t Mr. Erskine took up a book.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSK1NE. 223 
 
 approbation and glory, shall conduct another man to a pillory 
 or a prison. 
 
 The abuses pointed out by the man before you led that right 
 honourable gentleman to associate with many others of high 
 rank, under the banners of the Duke of Richmond, whose 
 name stands at the head of the list, and to pass various public 
 resolutions concerning the absolute necessity of purifying the 
 House of Commons ; and we collect the plan from a preamble 
 entered in the book : " Whereas the life, liberty, and property of 
 every man is or may be affected by the law of the land in which 
 he lives, and every man is bound to pay obedience to the same. 
 
 "And whereas, by the constitution of this kingdom, the right 
 of making laws is vested in three estates, of King, Lords, and 
 Commons, in Parliament assembled, and the consent of all the 
 three said estates, comprehending the whole community, is 
 necessary to make laws to bind the whole community. And 
 whereas the House of Commons represents all the commons 
 of the realm, and the consent of the House of Commons binds 
 the consent of all the commons of the realm, and in all cases 
 on which the legislature is competent to decide. 
 
 "And whereas no man is, or can be, actually represented 
 who hath not a vote in the election of his representative. 
 
 " And whereas it is the right of every commoner of this realm 
 (infants, persons of insane mind, and criminals incapacitated 
 by law, only excepted) to have a vote in the election of the 
 representative who is to give his consent to the making of laws 
 by which he is to be bound. 
 
 " And whereas the number of persons who are suffered to 
 vote for electing the members of the House of Commons do 
 not at this time amount to one-sixth part of the whole commons 
 of this realm, whereby far the greater part of the said commons 
 are deprived of their right to elect their representatives ; and 
 the consent of the majority of the whole community to the 
 passing of laws is given by persons whom they have not 
 delegated for such purposes; and to which the said majority 
 have not in fact consented by themselves or by their repre- 
 sentatives.
 
 224 HEttRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 " And whereas the state of election of members of the House 
 of Commons hath in process of time so grossly deviated from 
 its simple and natural principle of representation and equality, 
 that in several places the members are returned by the property 
 of one man ; that the smallest boroughs send as many members 
 as the largest counties, and that a majority of the representa- 
 tives of the whole nation are chosen by a number of votes not 
 exceeding twelve thousand." 
 
 These, with many others were published, not as abstract 
 speculative writings, but within a few days after the House of 
 Commons had declared that no such rights existed, and that no 
 alteration was necessary in the representation. It was then 
 that they met at the Thatched House and published their 
 opinions and resolutions to the country at large. Were any of 
 them prosecuted for these proceedings? Certainly not, for 
 they were legal proceedings. But I desire you, as men of 
 honour and truth, to compare all this with Mr. Paine's ex- 
 pression of the minister's touching Parliament with his opiate 
 wand, and let equal justice be done that is all I ask let all 
 be punished, or none. Do not let Mr. Paine be held out to the 
 contempt of the public upon the score of his observations on 
 Parliament, while others are enjoying all the sweets which 
 attend a supposed attachment to their country, who have not 
 only expressed the same sentiments, but have reduced their 
 opinions to practice. 
 
 But now every man is to be cried down for such opinions. I 
 observed that my learned friend significantly raised his voice 
 in naming Mr. Home Tooke, as if to connect him with Paine, 
 or Paine with him. This is exactly the same course of justice ; 
 for, after all, he said nothing of Mr. Tooke. What could he 
 have said, but that he was a man of great talents, and a sub- 
 scriber with the great names I have read in proceedings which 
 they have thought fit to desert ? 
 
 Gentlemen, let others hold their opinions, and change them 
 at their pleasure ; I shall ever maintain it to be the dearest 
 privilege of the people of Great Britain to watch over every- 
 thing that affects their happiness, either in the system of their
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 225 
 
 government or in the practice, and that for this purpose THE 
 PRESS MUST BE FREE. It has always been so, and much evil 
 has been corrected by it If Government finds itself annoyed 
 by it, let it examine its own conduct, and it will find the cause ; 
 let it amend it, and it will find remedy. 
 
 Gentlemen, I am no friend to sarcasms in the discussion of 
 grave subjects, but you must take writers according to the view 
 of the mind at the moment ; Mr. Burke, as often as anybody, 
 indulges in it. Hear his reason, in his speech on reform, 
 for not taking away the salaries from Lords who attend upon 
 the British Court "You would," said he, "have the Court 
 deserted by all the nobility of the kingdom. 
 
 " Sir, the most serious mischiefs would follow from such a 
 desertion. Kings are naturally lovers of low company; they 
 are so elevated above all the rest of mankind, that they must 
 look upon all their subjects as on a level : they are rather 
 apt to hate than to love their nobility on account of the 
 occasional resistance to their will, which will be made by their 
 virtue, their petulance, or their pride. It must indeed be 
 admitted that many of the nobility are as perfectly willing to 
 act the part of flatterers, tale-bearers, parasites, pimps, and 
 buffoons, as any of the lowest and vilest of mankind can 
 possibly be. But they are not properly qualified for this object 
 of their ambition. The want of a regular education, and 
 early habits, with some lurking remains of their dignity, will 
 never permit them to become a match for an Italian eunuch, 
 a mountebank, a fiddler, a player, or any regular practitioner 
 of that tribe. The Roman emperors, almost from the 
 beginning, threw themselves into such hands ; and the 
 mischief increased every day till its decline and its final ruin. 
 It is, therefore, of very great importance (provided the thing 
 is not overdone) to contrive such an establishment as must, 
 almost whether a prince will or not, bring into daily and hourly 
 offices about his person a great number of his first nobility ; 
 and it is rather an useful prejudice that gives them a pride in 
 such a servitude: though they are not much the better for a 
 Court, a Court will be much the better for them. I have 
 
 627
 
 226 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 therefore, not attempted to reform any of the offices of honour 
 about the King's person." 
 
 What is all this but saying that a King is an animal so 
 incurably addicted to low company as generally to bring on 
 by it the ruin of nations ; but, nevertheless, he is to be kept 
 as a necessary evil, and his propensities bridled by surrounding 
 him with a parcel of miscreants still worse, if possible, but 
 better than those he would choose for himself. This, therefore, 
 if taken by itself, would be a most abominable and libellous 
 sarcasm on kings and nobility ; but look at the whole speech, 
 and you observe a great system of regulation ; and no man, 
 I believe, ever doubted Mr. Burke's attachment to monarchy. 
 To judge, therefore, of any part of a writing, THE WHOLE MUST 
 
 BE READ. 
 
 With this same view, I will read to you the beginning of 
 Harrington's Oceana; but it is impossible to name this well- 
 known author without exposing to just contempt and ridicule 
 the ignorant or profligate misrepresentations which are 
 vomited forth upon the public, to bear down every man as 
 desperately wicked who in any age or country has counten- 
 anced a republic, for the mean purpose of prejudging this trial. 
 
 [Mr. Erskine took up a book, but laid it down again without 
 reading from it, saying something to the gentleman who 
 sat near him, in a low voice, which the reporter did not 
 hear.] 
 
 Is this the way to support the English constitution? Are 
 these the means by which Englishmen are to be taught to 
 cherish it? I say, if the man upon trial were stained with 
 blood instead of ink, if he were covered over with crimes 
 which human nature would start at the naming of, the means 
 employed against him would not be the less disgraceful. 
 
 For this notable purpose, then, Harrington, not above a week 
 ago,* was handed out to us as a low, obscure wretch, involved 
 
 * A pamphlet had been published just before, putting T. Paine and 
 Harrington on the same footing as obscure blackguards.
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKIXE. 227 
 
 in the murder of the monarch and the destruction of the 
 monarchy, and as addressing his despicable works at the 
 shrine of an usurper. Yet this very Harrington, this low 
 blackguard, was descended (you may see his pedigree at the 
 Heralds' Office for sixpence) from eight dukes, three marquises, 
 seventy earls, twenty-seven viscounts, and thirty-six barons, 
 sixteen of whom were knights of the Garter a descent which 
 I think would save a man from disgrace in any of the circles 
 of Germany. But what was he besides? A BLOOD-STAINED 
 RUFFIAN ? Oh, brutal ignorance of the history of the country ! 
 He was the most affectionate servant of Charles the First, 
 from whom he never concealed his opinions ; for it is observed 
 by Wood that the King greatly affected his company; but 
 when they happened to talk of a commonwealth, he would 
 scarcely endure it. " I know not," says Toland, " which most 
 to commend: the King, for trusting an honest man, though 
 a republican ; or Harrington, for owning his principles while 
 he served a king." 
 
 But did his opinions affect his conduct ? Let history again 
 answer. He preserved his fidelity to his unhappy prince to the 
 very last, after all his fawning courtiers had left him to his 
 enraged subjects. He stayed with him while a prisoner in 
 the Isle of Wight; came up by stealth to follow the fortunes 
 of his monarch and master; even hid himself in the boot of 
 the coach when he was conveyed to Windsor; and, ending as 
 he began, fell into his arms and fainted on the scaffold. 
 
 After Charles's death, the Oceana was written, and as if it 
 were written from justice and affection to his memory ; for it 
 breathes the same noble and spirited regard, and asserts that 
 it was not CHARLES that brought on the destruction of the 
 monarchy r , but the feeble and ill-constituted nature of monarchy 
 itself. 
 
 But the book was a flattery to Cromwell Once more and 
 finally let history decide. The Oceana was seized by the 
 Usurper as a libel, and the way it was recovered is remarkable. 
 I mention it to show that Cromwell was a wise man in himself, 
 and knew on what governments must stand for their support.
 
 228 HENRY, LORD ERSKIME. 
 
 Harrington waited on the Protector's daughter to beg for 
 his book, which her father had taken, and on entering her 
 apartment, snatched up her child and ran away. On her 
 following him with surprise and terror, he turned to her and 
 said, " I know what you feel as a mother, feel then for ME ; 
 your father has got MY child" meaning the Oceana. The 
 Oceana was afterwards restored on her petition ; Cromwell 
 answering with the sagacity of a sound politician, " Let him 
 have his book; if my government is made to stand, it has 
 nothing to fear from PAPER SHOT." He said true. No GOOD 
 government will ever be battered by paper shot. Montesquieu 
 says that " In a free nation it matters not whether individuals 
 reason well or ill ; it is sufficient that they do reason. Truth 
 arises from the collision, and from hence springs liberty, which 
 is a security from the effect of reasoning." The Attorney- 
 General has read extracts from Mr. Adams's answer to this 
 book. Let others write answers to it, like Mr. Adams; I am 
 not insisting upon the infallibility of Mr. Paine's doctrines ; 
 if they are erroneous, let them be answered, and truth will 
 spring from the collision. 
 
 Milton wisely says that a disposition in a nation to this 
 species of controversy is no proof of sedition or degeneracy, 
 but quite the reverse. [I omitted to cite the passage with the 
 others.] In speaking of this subject he rises into that inex- 
 pressibly sublime style of writing wholly peculiar to himself. 
 He was indeed no plagiary from anything human; he looked 
 up for light and expression, as he himself wonderfully describes 
 it, by devout prayer to that great Being who is the source 
 of all utterance and knowledge; and who sendeth out His 
 seraphim with the hallowed fire of His altar to touch and 
 purify the lips of whom He pleases. " When the cheerfulness 
 of the people," says this mighty poet, " is so sprightly up as 
 that it has not only wherewith to guard well its own freedom 
 and safety, but to spare and to bestow upon the solidest and 
 sublimest points of controversy and new invention, it betokens 
 us not degenerated nor drooping to a fatal decay, but casting 
 off the old and wrinkled skin of corruption, to outlive these
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 229 
 
 pangs, and wax young again, entering the glorious ways of 
 truth and prosperous virtue, destined to become great and 
 honourable in these latter ages. Methinks I see, in my mind, 
 a noble and puissant nation rousing herself, like a strong man 
 after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks : methinks I see 
 her as an eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her 
 undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam j purging and 
 unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of 
 heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous and 
 flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter 
 about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble 
 would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms." 
 
 Gentlemen, what Milton only saw in his mighty imagination. 
 I see in fact ; what he expected, but which never came to pass, 
 I see now fulfilling ; methinks I see this noble and puissant 
 nation, not degenerated and drooping to a fatal decay, but 
 casting off the wrinkled skin of corruption to put on again 
 the vigour of her youth. And it is because others as well as 
 myself see this that we have all this uproar ! France and 
 its constitution are the mere pretences. It is because Britons 
 begin to recollect the inheritance of their own constitution, 
 left them by their ancestors ; it is because they are awakened 
 to the corruptions which have fallen upon its most valu- 
 able parts, that forsooth the nation is in danger of being 
 destroyed by a single pamphlet. I have marked the course 
 of this alarm : it began with the renovation of those exertions 
 for the public which the alarmists themselves had originated 
 and deserted; and they became louder and louder when they 
 saw them avowed and supported by my admirable friend Mr. 
 Fox, the most eminently honest and enlightened statesman 
 that history brings us acquainted with : a man whom to name 
 is to honour, but whom in attempting adequately to describe, 
 I must fly to Mr. Burke, my constant refuge when eloquence 
 is necessary : a man who, to relieve the sufferings of the most 
 distant nation, "put to the hazard his ease, his security, his 
 interest, his power, even his darling popularity, for the benefit 
 of a people whom he had never seen." How much more
 
 230 HENRY, LORD ERSK2NE. 
 
 then for the inhabitants of his native country ! yet this is 
 the man who has been censured and disavowed in the manner 
 we have lately seen. 
 
 Gentlemen, I have but a few more words to trouble you 
 with : I take my leave of you with declaring that all this 
 freedom which I have been endeavouring to assert is no 
 more than the ancient freedom which belongs to our own 
 inbred constitution. I have not asked you to acquit Thomas 
 Paine upon any new lights, or upon any principle but that of 
 the law, which you are sworn to administer ; my great object 
 has been to inculcate that wisdom and policy, which are the 
 parents of the government of Great Britain, forbid this jealous 
 eye over her subjects ; and that, on the contrary, they cry 
 aloud in the language of the poet, adverted to by Lord 
 Chatham on the memorable subject of America, unfortunately 
 without effect 
 
 " Be to their faults a little blind, 
 Be to their virtues very kind, 
 Let all their thoughts be unconfined, 
 And clap your padlock on the mind." 
 
 Engage the people by their affections, convince their 
 reason, and they will be loyal from the only principle that 
 can make loyalty sincere, vigorous, or rational, a conviction 
 that it is their truest interest, and that their government is 
 for their good. Constraint is the natural parent of resistance, 
 and a pregnant proof that reason is not on the side of those 
 who use it. You must all remember Lucian's pleasant story : 
 Jupiter and a countryman were walking together, conversing 
 with great freedom and familiarity upon the subject of heaven 
 and earth. The countryman listened with attention and 
 acquiescence, while Jupiter strove only to convince him ; but 
 happening to hint a doubt, Jupiter turned hastily round and 
 threatened him with his thunder. " Ah, ah ! " says the country- 
 man, " now, Jupiter, I know that you are wrong ; you are 
 always wrong when you appeal to your thunder."
 
 HENRY, LORD ERSKINE. 231 
 
 This is the case with me I can reason with the people of 
 England, but I cannot fight against the thunder of authority. 
 
 Gentlemen, this is my defence for free opinions. With 
 regard to myself, I am, and always have been, obedient and 
 affectionate to the law to that rule of action, as long as I 
 exist, I shall ever give my voice and my conduct ; but I shall 
 ever do as I have done to-day, maintain the dignity of my 
 high profession, and perform, as I understand them, all its 
 important duties. 
 
 [Mr. Attorney-General arose immediately to reply to Mr. 
 Erskine, when Mr. Campbell (the foreman of the jury) said, 
 My Lord, I am authorised by the jury to inform the Attorney- 
 General that a reply is not necessary for them, unless the 
 Attorney-General wishes to make it, or your Lordship. Mr. 
 Attorney- General sat down, and the jury gave in their verdict, 
 GUILTY.]
 
 232 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 Speech in the Debate in Parliament on the French Overtures for 
 Peace> February 3, 1800. 
 
 [WAR between England and the French Republic was declared in 
 1793, and continued without intermission to the Peace of Amiens. 
 Towards the end of 1799 Napoleon Buonaparte, who had overthrown 
 the Government of the Directory, and had become First Consul, made 
 proposals of peace to the British Government. These proposals were 
 urged in the form of a letter addressed, contrary to diplomatic usage, 
 directly to the King of England. " Called by the wishes of the French 
 nation," wrote Napoleon, " to occupy the first station in the Republic, 
 I think it proper on entering into office to make a direct communica- 
 tion to your Majesty. The war which for eight years has ravaged the 
 four quarters of the globe, must it be eternal ? Are there no means of 
 coming to an understanding?" A royal message was transmitted to 
 Parliament respecting these overtures of peace from the French Con- 
 sular Government. At this time the Tory ministry of the younger 
 Pitt was in office, supported by that remnant of the Whigs which had 
 followed Burke in his violent opposition to the Revolution, and opposed 
 by the section of the Whigs that acknowledged the leadership of Fox. 
 A resolution substantially rejecting the overtures, and pledging the 
 House to the support of the Government, was carried by a majority 
 of 265 to 64 ; Hawkesbury and Canning being tellers for the Tory 
 majority, Sheridan and Whitbfead for the Whig minority. 
 
 The debate was one of the most important that ever took place in 
 Parliament, both Pitt and Fox making two of their greatest speeches. 
 Fox was perhaps the greatest Parliamentary debater that England ever 
 produced ; his luminous reasoning, stormy invective, and noble human 
 feeling being combined with a rare capacity for taking up all the weak 
 points of his opponent's case. According to Lord Holland, "he never
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 233 
 
 spoke better " than on this memorable occasion. Pitt's line of argu- 
 ment was that the spirit and aims of the French Revolutionary 
 movement were the same that they had been from the first that 
 France must be steadily resisted, and that the British Government was 
 acting in strict self-defence. Fox, while deploring its excesses, sym- 
 pathised in the main with the French Revolution, and he had earnestly 
 desired that France should be left to work out her destiny without 
 external interference. In this speech he defends his general conduct, 
 and strongly condemns a policy which he believed to be reactionary 
 and unjust. Throughout the whole speech we note the elements 
 ascribed to Fox by Sir Walter Scott in the introduction to the First 
 Canto of " Marmion " 
 
 " Genius high, and lore profound, 
 And wit that loved to play, not wound ; 
 And all the reasoning powers divine, 
 To penetrate, resolve, combine ; 
 And feelings keen, and fancy's glow." 
 
 The eulogy pronounced on Washington was called forth by the recent 
 death of that illustrious man.] 
 
 MR. SPEAKER, At so late an hour of the night I am sure 
 you will do me the justice to believe that I do not mean to go 
 at length into the discussion of this great question. Exhausted 
 as the attention of the House must be, and unaccustomed as I 
 have been of late to attend in my place, nothing but a deep 
 sense of my duty could have induced me to trouble you at all, 
 and particularly to request your indulgence at such an hour. 
 Sir, my hon. and learned friend has truly said that the present 
 is a new era in the war. The right hon. the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer feels the justice of the remark; for by travelling 
 back to the commencement of the war, and referring to all the 
 topics and arguments which he has so often and so successfully 
 urged to the House, and by which he has drawn them on to the 
 support of his measures, he is forced to acknowledge that, at 
 the end of a seven years' conflict, we are come but to a new 
 era in the war, at which he thinks it necessary only to press all 
 his former arguments to induce us to persevere. All the topics
 
 234 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 which have so often misled us all the reasoning which has so 
 invariably failed all the lofty predictions which have so 
 constantly been falsified by events all the hopes which have 
 amused the sanguine, and all the assurances of the distress and 
 weakness of the enemy which have satisfied the unthinking, 
 are again enumerated and advanced as arguments for our 
 continuing the war. What ! at the end of seven years of the 
 most burdensome and the most calamitous struggle that this 
 country was ever engaged in, are we again to be amused with 
 notions of finance and calculations of the exhausted resources 
 of the enemy as a ground of confidence and of hope? 
 Gracious God ! Were we not told, five years ago, that France 
 was not only on the brink, but that she was actually in the 
 gulf of bankruptcy ? Were we not told, as an unanswerable 
 argument against treating, that she could not hold out another 
 campaign that nothing but peace could save her that she 
 wanted only time to recruit her exhausted finances that to 
 grant her repose was to grant her the means of again molesting 
 this country, and that we had nothing to do but persevere for a 
 short time, in order to save ourselves for ever from the conse- 
 quences of her ambition and her Jacobinism ? What ! after 
 having gone on from year to year upon assurances like these, 
 and after having seen the repeated refutations of every predic- 
 tion, are we again to be seriously told that we have the same 
 prospect of success on the same identical grounds ? And 
 without any other argument or security, are we invited, at this 
 new era of the war, to carry it on upon principles which, if 
 adopted, may make it eternal ? If the right hon. gentleman 
 shall succeed in prevailing on Parliament and the country to 
 adopt the principles which he has advanced this night, I see 
 no possible termination to the contest. No man can see an 
 end to it ; and upon the assurances and predictions which have 
 so uniformly failed, are we called upon, not merely to refuse all 
 negotiation, but to countenance principles and views as distant 
 from wisdom and justice as they are in their nature wild and 
 impracticable. 
 
 I must lament, Sir, in common with every friend of peace,
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 235 
 
 the harsh and unconciliating language which ministers have 
 held towards the French, and which they have even made use 
 of in their answer to a respectful offer of negotiation. Such 
 language has ever been considered as extremely unwise, and 
 has ever been reprobated by diplomatic men. I remember 
 with pleasure the terms in which Lord Malmesbury at Paris, in 
 the year 1796, replied to expressions of this sort used by M. de 
 la Croix. He justly said, "that offensive and injurious insinua- 
 tions were only calculated to throw new obstacles in the way of 
 accommodation, and that it was not by revolting reproaches, 
 nor by reciprocal invective, that a sincere wish to accomplish 
 the great work of pacification could be evinced." Nothing 
 could be more proper nor more wise than this language ; and 
 such ought ever to be the tone and conduct of men entrusted 
 with the very important task of treating with an hostile nation. 
 Being a sincere friend to peace, I must say with Lord Malmes- 
 bury, that it is not by reproaches and by invective that we can 
 hope for a reconciliation ; and I am convinced in my own 
 mind that I speak the sense of this House, and of a majority 
 of the people of this country, when I lament that any un- 
 necessary recriminations should be flung out by which obstacles 
 are put in the way of pacification. I believe that it is the 
 prevailing sentiment of the people that we ought to abstain 
 from harsh and insulting language ; and in common with them 
 I must lament that both in the papers of Lord Grenville, and 
 in the speeches of this night, such licence has been given to 
 the invective and reproach. For the same reason I must 
 lament that the right hon. gentleman has thought proper to go 
 at such length, and with such severity of minute investigation, 
 into all the early circumstances of the war, which, whatever 
 they were, are nothing to the present purpose, and ought not to 
 influence the present feelings of the House. 
 
 I certainly shall not follow him into all the minute detail, 
 though I do not agree with him in many of his assertions. I 
 do not know what impression his narrative may make on other 
 gentlemen ; but I will tell him, fairly and candidly, he has not 
 convinced me. I continue to think, and until I see better
 
 236 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 grounds for changing my opinion than any that the right hon. 
 gentleman has this night produced, I shall continue to think 
 and to say, plainly and explicitly, that this country was the 
 aggressor in the war. But with regard to Austria and Prussia 
 is there a man who for one moment can dispute that they 
 were the aggressors ? It will be vain for the right hon. gentle- 
 man to enter into long and plausible reasoning against the 
 evidence of documents so clear, so decisive so frequently, so 
 thoroughly investigated. The unfortunate Louis XVI. himself, 
 as well as those who were in his confidence, have borne decisive 
 testimony to the fact that between him and the emperor there 
 was an intimate correspondence, and a perfect understanding. 
 Do I mean by this that a positive treaty was entered into for 
 the dismemberment of France ? Certainly not ; but no man 
 can read the declarations which were made at Mantua, as well 
 as at Pilnitz, as they are given by M. Bertrand de Moleville, 
 without acknowledging that there was not merely an intention, 
 but a declaration of an intention, on the part of the great 
 powers of Germany to interfere in the internal affairs of 
 France, for the purpose of regulating the government against 
 the opinion of the people. This, though not a plan for the 
 partition of France, was, in the eye of reason and common 
 sense, an aggression against France. The right hon. gentle- 
 man denies that there was such a thing as a treaty of Pilnitz. 
 Granted. But was there not a declaration which amounted to 
 an act of hostile aggression ? The two powers, the Emperor of 
 Germany and the King of Prussia, made a public declaration 
 that they were determined to employ their forces, in con- 
 junction with those of the other sovereigns of Europe, "to put 
 the King of France in a situation to establish, in perfect liberty, 
 the foundations of a monarchical government equally agreeable 
 to the rights of sovereigns and the welfare of the French." 
 Whenever the other princes should agree to co-operate with 
 them, " then, and in that case, their majesties were determined 
 to act promptly, and by mutual consent, with the forces 
 necessary to obtain the end proposed by all of them. In 
 the meantime they declared that they would give orders for
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 237 
 
 their troops to be ready for actual service." Now, I would ask 
 gentlemen to lay their hands upon their hearts, and say what 
 the fair construction of this declaration was whether it was 
 not a menace and an insult to France, since, in direct terms, it 
 declared that whenever the other powers should concur, they 
 would attack France, then at peace with them, and then 
 employed only in domestic and internal regulations ? Let us 
 suppose the case to be that of Great Britain. Will any gentle- 
 man say, if two of the great powers should make a public 
 declaration that they were determined to make an attack on 
 this kingdom as soon as circumstances should favour their in- 
 tention ; that they only waited for this occasion ; and that in the 
 meantime they would keep their forces ready for the purpose ; 
 that it would not be considered by the parliament and people 
 of this country as an hostile aggression ? And is there an 
 Englishman in existence who is such a friend to peace as to 
 say that the nation could retain its honour and dignity if it 
 should sit down under such a menace ? I know too well what 
 is due to the national character of England to believe that 
 there would be two opinions on the case, if thus put home to our 
 own feelings and understanding. We must, then, respect in 
 others the indignation which such an act would excite in 
 ourselves ; and when we see it established on the most indis- 
 putable testimony, that both at Pilnitz and at Mantua declara- 
 tions were made to this effect, it is idle to say that, as far 
 as the Emperor and the King of Prussia were concerned, they 
 were not the aggressors in the war. 
 
 "Oh! but the decree of the igth of November 1792 1 that, at 
 least," the right hon. gentleman says, "you must allow to be 
 an act of aggression, not only against England, but against all 
 the sovereigns of Europe." I am not one of those, Sir, who 
 attach much interest to the general and indiscriminate provoca- 
 tions thrown out at random, like this resolution of the igth of 
 November 1792. I do not think it necessary to the dignity of 
 any people to notice and to apply to themselves menaces flung 
 out without particular allusion, which are always unwise in the 
 power which uses them, and which it is still more unwise to
 
 238 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 treat with seriousness. But if any such idle and general 
 provocation to nations is given, either in insolence or in folly, 
 by any government, it is a clear first principle that an explana- 
 tion is the thing which a magnanimous nation, feeling itself 
 aggrieved, ought to demand ; and if an explanation be given 
 which is not satisfactory, it ought clearly and distinctly to say 
 so. There ought to be no ambiguity, no reserve, on the 
 occasion. Now we all know from documents on our table 
 that M. Chauvelin did give an explanation of this silly decree. 
 He declared in the name of his government "that it was 
 never meant that the French government should favour 
 insurrections ; that the decree was applicable only to those 
 people who, after having acquired their liberty by conquest, 
 should demand the assistance of the republic ; but that France 
 would respect, not only the independence of England, but also 
 that of her allies with whom she was not at war." This was 
 the explanation given of the offensive decree. " But this 
 explanation was not satisfactory !" Did you say so to M. 
 Chauvelin ? Did you tell him that you were not content with 
 this explanation ? And when you dismissed him afterwards, on 
 the death of the king, did you say that this explanation was 
 unsatisfactory ? No ; you did no such thing : and I contend 
 that unless you demanded further explanations, and they were 
 refused, you have no right to urge the decree of the igth of 
 November as an act of aggression. In all your conferences 
 and correspondence with M. Chauvelin did you hold out to 
 him what terms would satisfy you ? Did you give the French 
 the power or the means of settling the misunderstanding which 
 that decree, or any other of the points at issue, had created ? I 
 contend that when a nation refuses to state to another the 
 thing which would satisfy her, she shows that she is not 
 actuated by a desire to preserve peace between them : and I 
 aver that this was the case here. The Scheldt, for instance. 
 You now say that the navigation of the Scheldt was one of 
 your causes of complaint. Did you explain yourself on that 
 subject ? Did you make it one of the grounds for the dismissal 
 of M. Chauvelin. Sir, I repeat it, a nation, to justify itself in
 
 CHARLES JAAfES FOX. 239 
 
 appealing to the last solemn resort, ought to prove that it had 
 taken every possible means, consistent with dignity, to demand 
 the reparation which would be satisfactory, and if she refused 
 to explain what would be satisfactory, she did not do her duty, 
 nor exonerate herself from the charge of being the aggressor. 
 
 The right hon. gentleman has this night, for the first time, 
 produced a most important paper the instructions which were 
 given to his Majesty's minister at the court of St. Petersburg 
 about the end of the year 1792, to interest her Imperial 
 Majesty to join her efforts with those of his Britannic Majesty 
 to prevent, by their joint mediation, the evils of a general war. 
 Of this paper, and of the existence of any such document, I 
 for one was entirely ignorant ; but I have no hesitation in 
 saying that I completely approve of the instructions which 
 appear to have been given ; and I am sorry to see the right 
 hon. gentleman disposed rather to take blame to himself than 
 credit for having written it. He thinks that he shall be subject 
 to the imputation of having been rather too slow to apprehend 
 the dangers with which the French revolution was fraught, than 
 that he was forward and hasty " Quod solum excusat^ hoc 
 solum miror in ///<?." I do not agree with him on the idea of 
 censure. I by no means think that he was blameable for too 
 much confidence in the good intentions of the French. I think 
 the tenor and composition of this paper was excellent the 
 instructions conveyed in it wise ; and that it wanted but one 
 essential thing to have entitled it to general approbation 
 namely, to be acted upon. The clear nature and intent of that 
 paper I take to be, that our ministers were to solicit the court 
 of Petersburg to join with them in a declaration to the French 
 government, stating explicitly what course of conduct, with 
 respect to their foreign relations, they thought necessary to the 
 general peace and security of Europe, and what, if complied 
 with, would have induced them to mediate for that purpose 
 a proper, wise, and legitimate course of proceeding. Now I 
 ask, Sir, whether, if this paper had been communicated to 
 Paris at the end of the year 1792, instead of Petersburg, it 
 would not have been productive of most seasonable benefits to
 
 240 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 mankind ; and by informing the French in time of the means 
 by which they might have secured the mediation of Great 
 Britain, have not only avoided the rupture with this country, 
 but have also restored general peace to the continent? The 
 paper, Sir, was excellent in its intentions ; but its merit was all 
 in the composition. It was a fine theory, which ministers did 
 not think proper to carry into practice. Nay, on the contrary, 
 at the very time they were drawing up this paper they were 
 insulting M. Chauvelin in every way, until about the 23rd or 
 24th of January 1793, when they finally dismissed him, without 
 stating any one ground upon which they were willing to 
 preserve terms with the French. 
 
 " But France," it seems, " then declared war against us ; and 
 she was the aggressor, because the declaration came from her." 
 Let us look at the circumstances of this transaction on both 
 sides. Undoubtedly the declaration was made by her ; but is 
 a declaration the only thing that constitutes the commence- 
 ment of a war? Do gentlemen recollect that, in consequence 
 of a dispute about the commencement of war, respecting the 
 capture of a number of ships, an article was inserted in our 
 treaty with France, by which it was positively stipulated that in 
 future, to prevent all disputes, the act of the dismissal of a 
 minister from either of the two courts should be held and 
 considered as tantamount to a declaration of war ? I mention 
 this, Sir, because when we are idly employed in this retrospect 
 of the origin of a war which has lasted so many years, instead 
 of fixing our eyes only to the contemplation of the means of 
 putting an end to it, we seem disposed to overlook everything 
 on our own parts, and to search only for grounds of imputation 
 on the enemy. I almost think it an insult on the House to 
 detain them with this sort of examination. If, Sir, France was 
 the aggressor, as the right hon. gentleman says she was 
 throughout, why did not Prussia call upon us for the stipulated 
 number of troops, according to the article of the defensive 
 treaty of alliance subsisting between us, by which, in case 
 either of the contracting parties was attacked, they had a right 
 to demand the stipulated aid? And the same thing, again,
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 241 
 
 may be asked when we were attacked. The right hon. 
 gentleman might here accuse himself, indeed, of reserve ; 
 but it unfortunately happened that, at the time, the point was 
 too clear on which side the aggression lay. Prussia was too 
 sensible that the war could not entitle her to make the demand, 
 and that it was not a case within the scope of the defensive 
 treaty. This is evidence worth a volume of subsequent 
 reasoning ; for if, at the time when all the facts were present 
 to their minds, they could not take advantage of existing 
 treaties, and that, too, when the courts were on the most 
 friendly terms with one another, it will be manifest to every 
 thinking man that they were sensible they were not authorised 
 to make the demand. 
 
 I really, Sir, cannot think it necessary to follow the right 
 hon. gentleman into all the minute details which he has 
 thought proper to give us respecting the first aggression ; but 
 that Austria and Prussia were the aggressors not a man in any 
 country, who has ever given himself the trouble to think at all 
 on the subject, can doubt. Nothing could be more hostile 
 than their whole proceedings. Did they not declare to France 
 that it was their internal concerns, not their external proceed- 
 ings, which provoked them to confederate against her ? Look 
 back to the proclamations with which they set out. Read the 
 declarations which they made themselves to justify their 
 appeal to arms. They did not pretend to fear their ambition, 
 their conquests, their troubling their neighbours ; but they 
 accused them of new-modelling their own government. They 
 said nothing of their aggressions abroad ; they spoke only of 
 their clubs and societies at Paris. 
 
 Sir, in all this I am not justifying the French I am not 
 striving to absolve them from blame, either in their internal or 
 external policy. I think, on the contrary, that their successive 
 rulers have been as bad and as execrable, in various instances, 
 as any of the most despotic and unprincipled governments that 
 the world ever saw. I think it impossible, Sir, that it should 
 have been otherwise. It was not to be expected that the 
 French, when once engaged in foreign wars, should not 
 
 628
 
 242 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 endeavour to spread destruction around them, and to form 
 plans of aggrandisement and plunder on every side. Men 
 bred in the school of the House of Bourbon could not be 
 expected to act otherwise. They could not have lived so long 
 under their ancient masters without imbibing the restless 
 ambition, the perfidy, and the insatiable spirit of the race. 
 They have imitated the practice of their great prototype, and 
 through their whole career of mischief and of crimes have done 
 no more than servilely trace the steps of their own Louis XIV. 
 If they have overrun countries and ravaged them, they have 
 done it upon Bourbon principles. If they have ruined and 
 dethroned sovereigns, it is entirely after the Bourbon manner. 
 If they have even fraternised with the people of foreign 
 countries, and pretended to make their cause their own, they 
 have only faithfully followed the Bourbon example. They have 
 constantly had Louis, the grand monarque, in their eye. But 
 it may be said that this example was long ago, and that we 
 ought not to refer to a period so distant. True, it is a distant 
 period as applied to the man, but not so to the principle. 
 The principle was never extinct ; nor has its operation been 
 suspended in France, except, perhaps, for a short interval 
 during the administration of Cardinal Fleury ; and my com- 
 plaint against the republic of France is, not that she has 
 generated new crimes, not that she has promulgated new 
 mischief, but that she has adopted and acted upon the 
 principles which have been so fatal to Europe under the 
 practice of the House of Bourbon. It is said that wherever the 
 French have gone, they have introduced revolution ; that they 
 have sought for the means of disturbing neighbouring states, 
 and have not been content with mere conquest. What is this 
 but adopting the ingenious scheme of Louis XIV.? He was 
 not content with merely overrunning a state ; whenever he 
 came into a new territory he established what he called his 
 Chamber of Claims ; a most convenient device, by which he 
 inquired whether the conquered country or province had any 
 dormant or disputed claims, any cause of complaint, any 
 unsettled demand upon any other state or province upon
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 243 
 
 which he might wage war upon such state, thereby discover 
 again ground for new devastation, and gratify his ambition by 
 new acquisitions. What have the republicans done more 
 atrocious, more Jacobinical, than this ? Louis went to war 
 with Holland. His pretext was that Holland had not treated 
 him with sufficient respect ; a very just and proper cause for 
 war indeed ! This, Sir, leads me to an example which I think 
 seasonable, and worthy the attention of his Majesty's ministers. 
 When our Charles II., as a short exception to the policy of 
 his reign, made the triple alliance for the protection of Europe, 
 and particularly of Holland, against the ambition of Louis 
 XIV., what was the conduct of that great, virtuous, and most 
 able statesman, M. de Witt, when the confederates came to 
 deliberate on the terms upon which they should treat with the 
 French monarch ? When it was said that he had made 
 unprincipled conquests, and that he ought to be forced to 
 surrender them all, what was the language of that great and 
 wise man ? " No," said he ; "I think we ought not to look 
 back to the origin of the war so much as to the means of 
 putting an end to it If you had united in time to prevent 
 these conquests, well ; but now that he has made them, he 
 stands upon the ground of conquest, and we must agree to 
 treat with him, not with reference to the origin of the conquest, 
 but with regard to his present posture. He has those places, 
 and some of them we must be content to give up as the means 
 of peace, for conquest will always successfully set up its claims 
 to indemnification." Such was the language of this minister, 
 who was the ornament of his time ; and such, in my mind, 
 ought to be the language of statesmen with regard to the 
 French at this day. The same ought to have been said at the 
 formation of the confederacy. It was true that the French 
 had overrun Savoy ; but they had overrun it upon Bourbon 
 principles ; and having gained this and other conquests before 
 the confederacy was formed, they ought to have treated with 
 her rather for future security than for past correction. States 
 in possession, whether monarchical or republican, will claim 
 indemnity in proportion to their success ; and it will never be
 
 244 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 so much inquired by what right they gained possession as 
 by what means they can be prevented from enlarging their 
 depredations. Such is the safe practice of the world ; and 
 such ought to have been the conduct of the powers when the 
 reduction of Savoy made them coalesce. 
 
 The right hon. gentleman may know more of the secret 
 particulars of their overrunning Savoy than I do ; but cer- 
 tainly, as they have come to my knowledge, it was a most 
 Bourbon-like act. A great and justly celebrated historian, 
 whom I will not call a foreigner I mean Mr. Hume (a writer 
 certainly estimable in many particulars, but who was a childish 
 lover of princes) talks of Louis XIV. in very magnificent 
 terms ; but he says of him that, though he managed his 
 enterprises with skill and bravery, he was unfortunate in this, 
 that he never got a good and fair pretence for war. This he 
 reckons among his misfortunes ! Can we say more of the 
 republican French ? In seizing on Savoy I think they made 
 use of the words, " convenances morales et physiques? These 
 were their reasons. A most Bourbon-like phrase ! And I 
 therefore contend that as we never scrupled to treat with the 
 princes of the House of Bourbon on account of their rapacity, 
 their thirst of conquest, their violation of treaties, their perfidy, 
 and their restless spirit, so we ought not to refuse to treat 
 with their republican imitators. Ministers could not pretend 
 ignorance of the unprincipled manner in which the French had 
 seized on Savoy. The Sardinian minister complained of the 
 aggression, and yet no stir was made about it. The courts of 
 Europe stood by and saw the outrage ; and our minister saw 
 it. The right hon. gentleman will in vain, therefore, exert 
 his powers to persuade me of the interest he takes in the 
 preservation of the rights of nations, since, at the moment 
 when an interference might have been made with effect, 
 no step was taken, no remonstrance made, no mediation 
 negotiated, to stop the career of conquest. All the pretended 
 and hypocritical sensibility for the " rights of nations and for 
 social order," with which we have since been stunned, cannot 
 impose upon those who would take the trouble to look back to
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 245 
 
 the period when this sensibility ought to have roused us into 
 seasonable exertion. At that time, however, the right hon. 
 gentleman makes it his boast that he was prevented by a sense 
 of neutrality from taking any measures of precaution on the 
 subject. I do not give the right hon. gentleman much credit 
 for his spirit of neutrality on the occasion. It flowed from the 
 sense of the country at the time, the great majority of which 
 was clearly and decidedly against all interruptions being given 
 to the French in their desire of regulating their own internal 
 government. 
 
 But this neutrality, which respected only the internal rights 
 of the French, and from which the people of England would 
 never have departed but for the impolitic and hypocritical cant 
 which was set up to rouse their jealousy and alarm their fears, 
 was very different from the great principle of political prudence 
 which ought to have actuated the councils of the nation, on 
 seeing the first steps of France towards a career of external 
 conquest. My opinion is, that when the unfortunate King of 
 France offered to us, in the letter delivered by M. Chauvelin 
 and M. Talleyrand, and even entreated us to mediate between 
 him and the allied powers of Austria and Prussia, they ought to 
 have accepted the offer and exerted their influence to save 
 Europe from the consequence of a system which was then 
 beginning to manifest itself. It was, at least, a question of 
 prudence ; and as we had never refused to treat and to mediate 
 with the old princes on account of their ambition or their 
 perfidy, we ought to have been equally ready now, when the 
 same principles were acted upon by other men. I must doubt 
 the sensibility which could be so cold and so indifferent at the 
 proper moment for its activity. I fear that there was at that 
 moment the germs of ambition rising in the mind of the right 
 hon. gentleman, and that he was beginning, like others, to 
 entertain hopes that something might be obtained out of the 
 coming confusion. What but such a sentiment could have 
 prevented him from overlooking the fair occasion that was 
 offered for preventing the calamities with which Europe was 
 threatened? What but some such interested principle could
 
 246 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 have made him forego the truly honourable task by which his 
 administration would have displayed its magnanimity and its 
 power ? But for some such feeling would not this country, 
 both in wisdom and in dignity, have interfered, and in conjunc- 
 tion with the other powers have said to France, " You ask for 
 a mediation ; we will mediate with candour and sincerity, but 
 we will at the same time declare to you our apprehensions. 
 We do not trust to your assertion of a determination to avoid 
 all foreign conquest, and that you are desirous only of settling 
 your own constitution, because your language is contradicted 
 by experience and the evidence of facts. You are Frenchmen, 
 and you cannot so soon have thrown off the Bourbon principles 
 in which you were educated. You have already imitated the 
 bad practice of your princes; you have seized on Savoy without 
 a colour of right. But here we take our stand. Thus far you 
 have gone, and we cannot help it ; but you must go no farther. 
 We will tell you distinctly what we shall consider as an attack 
 on the balance and the security of Europe; and, as the con- 
 dition of our interference, we will tell you also the securities 
 that we think essential to the general repose." This ought to 
 have been the language of his Majesty's ministers when their 
 mediation was solicited ; and something of this kind they 
 evidently thought of when they sent the instructions to Peters- 
 burg which they have mentioned this night, but upon which 
 they never acted. Having not done so, I say they have no 
 claim to talk now about the violated rights of Europe, about 
 the aggression of the French, and about the origin of the war 
 in which this country was so suddenly afterwards plunged. 
 Instead of this, what did they do ? They hung back ; they 
 avoided explanation ; they gave the French no means of 
 satisfying them ; and I repeat my proposition when there is 
 a question of peace and war between two nations, that govern- 
 ment feels itself in the wrong which refuses to state with 
 clearness and precision what she would consider as a satisfac- 
 tion and a pledge of peace. 
 
 Sir, if I understand the true precepts of the Christian religion, 
 as set forth in the New Testament, I must be permitted to say
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 247 
 
 that there is no such thing as a rule or doctrine by which we 
 are directed, or can be justified, in waging a war for religion. 
 The idea is subversive of the very foundations upon which it 
 stands, which are those of peace and good-will among men. 
 Religion never was, and never can be, a justifiable cause of 
 war; but it has been too often grossly used as the pretext and 
 the apology for the most unprincipled wars. 
 
 I have already said, and I repeat it, that the conduct of the 
 French to foreign nations cannot be justified. They have given 
 great cause of offence, but certainly not to all countries alike. 
 The right hon. gentlemen opposite to me have made an indis- 
 criminate catalogue of all the countries which the French have 
 offended, and, in their eagerness to throw odium on the nation, 
 have taken no pains to investigate the sources of their several 
 quarrels. I will not detain the House by entering into the long 
 detail which has been given of their aggressions and their 
 violences ; but let me mention Sardinia as one instance which 
 has been strongly insisted upon. Did the French attack 
 Sardinia when at peace with them ? No such thing. The 
 King of Sardinia had accepted of a subsidy from Great Britain ; 
 and Sardinia was, to all intents and purposes, a belligerent 
 power. Several other instances might be mentioned ; but 
 though perhaps in the majority of instances the French may 
 be unjustifiable, is this the moment for us to dwell upon these 
 enormities to waste our time and inflame our passions by 
 recriminating upon each other ? There is no end to such a 
 war. I have somewhere read, I think in Sir Walter Raleigh's 
 History of the World, of a most bloody and fatal battle which 
 was fought by two opposite armies, in which almost all the 
 combatants on both sides were killed, "because," says the 
 historian, " though they had offensive weapons on both sides, 
 they had none for defence." So, in this war of words, if we are 
 to use only offensive weapons, if we are to indulge only in 
 invective and abuse, the contest must be eternal. If this war of 
 reproach and invective is to be countenanced, may not the 
 French with equal reason complain of the outrages and the 
 horrors committed by the powers opposed to them ? If we
 
 248 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 must not treat with the French on account of the iniquity of 
 their former transactions, ought we not to be as scrupulous 
 of connecting ourselves with other powers equally criminal ? 
 Surely, Sir, if we must be thus rigid in scrutinising the conduct 
 of an enemy, we ought to be equally careful in not committing 
 our honour and our safety with an ally who has manifested the 
 same want of respect for the rights of other nations. Surely, if 
 it is material to know the character of a power with whom you 
 are only about to treat for peace, it is more material to know 
 the character of allies, with whom you are about to enter into 
 the closest connection of friendship, and for whose exertions you 
 are about to pay. 
 
 Now, Sir, what was the conduct of your own allies to Poland? 
 Is there a single atrocity of the French in Italy, in Switzerland, 
 in Egypt if you please, more unprincipled and inhuman than 
 that of Russia, Austria, and Prussia in Poland ? What has 
 there been in the conduct of the French to foreign powers; 
 what in the violation of solemn treaties ; what in the plunder, 
 devastation, and dismemberment of unoffending countries ; 
 what in the horrors and murders perpetrated upon the subdued 
 victims of their rage in any district which they have overrun, 
 worse than the conduct of those three great powers in the 
 miserable, devoted, and trampled-on kingdom of Poland, and 
 who have been, or are, our allies in this war for religion, social 
 order, and the rights of nations ? " Oh ! but we regretted the 
 partition of Poland ! " Yes, regretted ! you regretted the 
 violence, and that is all you did. You united yourselves with 
 the actors ; you, in fact, by your acquiescence, confirmed the 
 atrocity. But they are your allies ; and though they overran 
 and divided Poland, there was nothing, perhaps, in the manner 
 of doing it which stamped it with peculiar infamy and disgrace. 
 The hero of Poland, perhaps, was merciful and mild. He was 
 "as much superior to Buonaparte in bravery, and in the 
 discipline which he maintained, as he was superior in virtue 
 and humanity ! He was animated by the purest principles of 
 Christianity, and was restrained in his career by the benevolent 
 precepts which it inculcates." Was he ? Let unfortunate
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 249 
 
 Warsaw, and the miserable inhabitants of the suburb of Praga 
 in particular, tell ! What do we understand to have been the 
 conduct of this magnanimous hero, with whom, it seems, 
 Buonaparte is not to be compared? He entered the suburb 
 of Praga, the most populous suburb of Warsaw ; and there 
 he let his soldiery loose on the miserable, unarmed, and 
 unresisting people ! Men, women, and children, nay, infants 
 at the breast, were doomed to one indiscriminate massacre ! 
 Thousands of them were inhumanly, wantonly butchered ! 
 And for what ? Because they had dared to join in a wish to 
 meliorate their own condition as a people, and to improve 
 their constitution, which had been confessed by their own 
 sovereign to be in want of amendment. And such is the hero 
 upon whom the cause of "religion and social order" is to 
 repose ! And such is the man whom we praise for his discipline 
 and his virtue, and whom we hold out as our boast and our 
 dependence, while the conduct of Buonaparte unfits him to be 
 even treated with as an enemy ! 
 
 But the behaviour of the French towards Switzerland raises 
 all the indignation of the right hon. gentleman and inflames his 
 eloquence. I admire the indignation which he expresses (and 
 I think he felt it) in speaking of this country, so dear and so 
 congenial to every man who loves the sacred name of liberty. 
 He who loves liberty, says the right hon. gentleman, thought 
 himself at home on the favoured and happy mountains of 
 Switzerland, where she seemed to have taken up her abode 
 under a sort of implied compact, among all other states, that 
 she should not be disturbed in this her chosen asylum. I 
 admire the eloquence of the right hon. gentleman in speaking 
 of this country of liberty and peace, to which every man would 
 desire, once in his life at least, to make a pilgrimage. But who, 
 let me ask him, first proposed to the Swiss people to depart 
 from the neutrality which was their chief protection and to join 
 the confederacy against the French? I aver that a noble 
 relation of mine (Lord Robert Fitzgerald), then the minister of 
 England to the Swiss Cantons, was instructed, in direct terms, 
 to propose to the Swiss, by an official note, to break from the
 
 250 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 safe line they had laid down for themselves, and to tell them 
 " in such a contest neutrality was criminal." I know that noble 
 lord too well, though I have not been in habits of intercourse 
 with him of late, from the employments in which he has been 
 engaged, to suspect that he would have presented such a paper 
 without the express instructions of his court, or that he would 
 have gone beyond those instructions. 
 
 But was it only to Switzerland that this sort of language was 
 held ? What was our language also to Tuscany and to Genoa ? 
 An hon. gentleman (Mr. Canning) has denied the authenticity 
 of a pretended letter which has been circulated and ascribed to 
 Lord Harvey. He says it is all a fable and a forgery. Be it 
 so ; but is it also a fable that Lord Harvey did speak in terms 
 to the grand duke which he considered as offensive and 
 insulting? I cannot tell, for I was not present. But was it 
 not, and is it not believed ? Is it a fable that Lord Harvey 
 went into the closet of the grand duke, laid his watch upon the 
 table, and demanded in a peremptory manner that he should, 
 within a certain number of minutes, I think I have heard within 
 a quarter of an hour, determine, aye or no, to dismiss the 
 French minister, and order him out of his dominions ; with the 
 menace that if he did not the English fleet should bombard 
 Leghorn ? Will the hon. gentleman deny this also ? I 
 certainly do not know it from my own knowledge ; but I know 
 that persons of the first credit, then at Florence, have stated 
 these facts, and that they never have been contradicted. It is 
 true that upon the grand duke's complaint of this indignity 
 Lord Harvey was recalled ; but was the principle recalled ? 
 Was the mission recalled ? Did not ministers persist in the 
 demand which Lord Harvey had made, perhaps ungraciously ? 
 Was not the grand duke forced, in consequence, to dismiss the 
 French minister ? and did they not drive him to enter into an 
 unwilling war with the republic ? It is true that he afterwards 
 made his peace ; and that, having done so, he was treated 
 severely and unjustly by the French. But what do I conclude 
 from all this but that we have no right to be scrupulous, 
 we who have violated the respect due to peaceable powers
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 25 1 
 
 ourselves in this war, which, more than any other that ever 
 afflicted human nature, has been distinguished by the greatest 
 number of disgusting and outrageous insults to the smaller 
 powers by the great. And I infer from this also that the 
 instances not being confined to the French, but having been 
 perpetrated by every one of the allies, and by England as much 
 as by the others, we have no right to refuse to treat with the 
 French on this ground. Need I speak of your conduct to 
 Genoa also ? Perhaps the note delivered by Mr. Drake was 
 also a forgery. Perhaps the blockade of the port never took 
 place. It is impossible to deny the facts, which were so glaring 
 at the time. It is a painful thing to me, Sir, to be obliged to 
 go back to these unfortunate periods of the history of this war, 
 and of the conduct of this country ; but I am forced to the task 
 by the use which has been made of the atrocities of the French 
 as an argument against negotiation. I think I have said 
 enough to prove that if the French have been guilty, we have 
 not been innocent Nothing but determined incredulity can 
 make us deaf and blind to our own acts, when we are so ready 
 to yield an assent to all the reproaches which are thrown out on 
 the enemy, and upon which reproaches we are gravely told to 
 continue the war. 
 
 " But the French," it seems, " have behaved ill everywhere. 
 They seized on Venice, which had preserved the most exact 
 neutrality, or rather," as it is hinted, " had manifested symptoms 
 of friendship to them." I agree with the right hon. gentleman, 
 it was an abominable act. I am not the apologist of, much less 
 the advocate for, their iniquities ; neither will I countenance 
 them in their pretences for the injustice. I do not think that 
 much regard is to be paid to the charges which a triumphant 
 soldiery bring on the conduct of a people whom they have 
 overrun. Pretences for outrage will never be wanting to the 
 strong when they wish to trample on the weak ; but when we 
 accuse the French of having seized upon Venice, after stipu- 
 lating for its neutrality and guaranteeing its independence, we 
 should also remember the excuse that they made for violence 
 namely, that their troops had been attacked and murdered, \
 
 252 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 say I am always incredulous about such excuses ; but I think it 
 fair to hear whatever can be alleged on the other side. We 
 cannot take one side of a story only. Candour demands that 
 we should examine the whole before we make up our minds on 
 the guilt I cannot think it quite fair to state the view of the 
 subject of one party as indisputable fact, without even mention- 
 ing what the other party has to say for itself. But, Sir, is this 
 all ? Though the perfidy of the French to the Venetians be 
 clear and palpable, was it worse in morals, in principle, and in 
 example than the conduct of Austria ? My hon. friend (Mr. 
 Whitbread) properly asked, " Is not the receiver as bad as the 
 thief?" If the French seized on the territory of Venice, did 
 not the Austrians agree to receive it ? " But this," it seems, " is 
 not the same thing." It is quite in the nature, and within the 
 rule of diplomatic morality, for Austria to receive the country 
 which was seized upon unjustly. " The emperor took it as a 
 compensation : it was his by barter : he was not answerable 
 for the guilt by which it was obtained." What is this, Sir, but 
 the false and abominable reasoning with which we have been 
 so often disgusted on the subject of the slave trade ? Just in 
 the same manner have I heard a notorious wholesale dealer 
 in this inhuman traffic justify his abominable trade. u I am not 
 guilty of the horrible crime of tearing that mother from her 
 infants; that husband from his wife; of depopulating that 
 village ; of depriving that family of their sons, the support of 
 their aged parent ! No : thank heaven ! I am not guilty of 
 this horror ; I only bought them in the fair way of trade. They 
 were brought to the market ; they had been guilty of crimes, or 
 they had been made prisoners in war ; they were accused of 
 witchcraft, of obi, or of some other sort of sorcery; and they 
 were brought to me for sale ; I gave a valuable consideration 
 for them ; but God forbid that I should have stained my soul 
 with the guilt of dragging them from their friends and 
 families ! " Such has been the precious defence of the slave 
 trade; and such is the argument set up for Austria, in this 
 instance of Venice. " I did not commit the crime of trampling 
 on the independence of Venice, I did not seize on the city ; I
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 253 
 
 gave a quid pro quo. It was a matter of barter and indemnity; 
 I gave half a million of human beings to be put under the yoke 
 of France in another district, and I had these people turned 
 over to me in return ! " This, Sir, is the defence of Austria ; 
 and under such detestable sophistry as this is the infernal 
 traffic in human flesh, whether in white or black, to be con- 
 tinued and even justified 1 At no time has that diabolical traffic 
 been carried to a greater length than during the present war ; 
 and that by England herself as well as Austria and Russia. 
 
 " But France," it seems, " has roused all the nations of 
 Europe against her ; " and the long catalogue has been read to 
 you to prove that she must have been atrocious to provoke 
 them all. Is it true, Sir, that she has roused them all ? It does 
 not say much for the address of his Majesty's ministers if this 
 be the case. What, Sir, have all your negotiations, all your 
 declamation, all your money, been squandered in vain ? Have 
 you not succeeded in stirring the indignation and engaging the 
 assistance of a single power ? But you do yourselves injustice. 
 I dare say the truth lies between you. Between their crimes 
 and your money the rage has been excited ; and full as much is 
 due to your seductions as to her atrocities. My learned friend 
 was correct, therefore, in his argument; for you cannot take 
 both sides of the case: you cannot accuse them of having 
 provoked all Europe, and at the same time claim the merit of 
 having roused them to join you. 
 
 You talk of your allies. Sir, I wish to know who your allies 
 are ? Russia is one of them, I suppose. Did France attack 
 Russia ? Has the magnanimous Paul taken the field for social 
 order and religion, on account of personal aggression ? The 
 Emperor of Russia has declared himself grand-master of Malta, 
 though his religion is as opposite to that of the knights as ours 
 is ; and he is as much considered an heretic by the Church of 
 Rome as we are. The King of Great Britain might, with as 
 much propriety, declare himself the head of the order of the 
 Chartreuse monks. Not content with taking to himself the 
 commandery of this institution of Malta, Paul has even created 
 a married man a knight, contrary to all the most sacred rules
 
 254 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 and regulations of the order. And yet this ally of ours is 
 fighting for religion ! So much for his religion : Let us see his 
 regard to social order 1 How does he show his abhorrence of 
 the principles of the French in their violation of the rights of 
 other nations ? What has been his conduct to Denmark ? He 
 says to Denmark " You have seditious clubs at Copenhagen 
 No Danish vessel shall enter the ports of Russia 1 " He holds 
 a still more despotic language to Hamburg. He threatens to 
 lay an embargo on their trade ; and he forces them to surrender 
 up men who are claimed by the French as their citizens 
 whether truly or not, I do not inquire. He threatens them with 
 his own vengeance if they refuse, and subjects them to that of 
 the French if they comply. And what has been his conduct to 
 Spain ? He first sends away the Spanish minister from 
 Petersburg, and then complains as a great insult that his 
 minister was dismissed from Madrid 1 This is one of our allies ; 
 and he has declared that the object for which he has taken 
 up arms is to replace the ancient race of the House of Bourbon 
 on the throne of France, and that he does this for the cause of 
 religion and social order ! Such is the respect for religion and 
 social order which he himself displays; and such are the 
 examples of it with which we coalesce 1 
 
 No man regrets, Sir, more than I do, the enormities that 
 France has committed ; but how do they bear upon the 
 question as it now stands ? Are we for ever to deprive our- 
 selves of the benefits of peace because France has perpetrated 
 acts of injustice ? Sir, we cannot acquit ourselves upon such 
 ground. We have negotiated. With the knowledge of these 
 acts of injustice and disorder, we have treated with them twice ; 
 yet the right hon. gentleman cannot enter into negotiation 
 with them now ; and it is worth while to attend to the reasons 
 that he gives for refusing their offer. The revolution itself is 
 no more an objection now than it was in 1796, when he did 
 negotiate ; for the government of France at that time was 
 surely as unstable as it is now. The crimes of the French, 
 the instability of their government, did not then prevent him ; 
 and why are they to prevent him now ? He negotiated with
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 255 
 
 a government as unstable, and, baffled in that negotiation, 
 he did not scruple to open another at Lisle in 1797. We have 
 heard a very curious account of these negotiations this day, 
 and, as the right hon. gentleman has emphatically told us, 
 an "honest" account of them. He says he has no scruple 
 in avowing that he apprehended danger from the success of 
 his own efforts to procure a pacification, and that he was not 
 displeased at its failure. He was sincere in his endeavours to 
 treat, but he was not disappointed when they failed. I wish to 
 understand the right hon. gentleman correctly. His declara- 
 tion on the subject, then, I take to be this that though sincere 
 in his endeavours to procure peace in 1797, yet he apprehended 
 greater danger from accomplishing his object than from the 
 continuance of war; and that he felt this apprehension from the 
 comparative views of the probable state of peace and war at that 
 time. I have no hesitation m allowing the fact that a state of 
 peace, immediately after a war of such violence, must, in some 
 respects, be a state of insecurity ; but does this not belong, in a 
 certain degree, to all wars ? And are we never to have peace, 
 because that peace may be insecure? But there was some- 
 thing, it seems, so peculiar in this war and in the character 
 and principles of the enemy, that the right hon. gentleman 
 thought a peace in 1797 would be comparatively more 
 dangerous than war. Why, then, did he treat? I beg the 
 attention of the House to this He treated, "because the 
 unequivocal sense of the people of England was declared to be 
 in favour of a negotiation." The right hon. gentleman con- 
 fesses the truth, then, that in 1797 the people were for peace. 
 I thought so at the time ; but you all recollect that, when 
 I stated it in my place, it was denied. "True," they said, 
 " you have procured petitions ; but we have petitions too : we 
 all know in what strange ways petitions may be procured, and 
 how little they deserve to be considered as the sense of the 
 people." This was their language at the time ; but now we 
 find these petitions did speak the sense of the people, and that 
 it was on this side of the House only that the sense of the 
 people was spoken. The majority spoke a contrary language.
 
 256 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 It is acknowledged, then, that the unequivocal sense of the 
 people of England may be spoken by the minority of this 
 House, and that it is not always by the test of numbers that an 
 honest decision is to be ascertained. This House decided 
 against what the right hon. gentleman knew to be the sense of 
 the country ; but he himself acted upon that sense against the 
 vote of parliament. 
 
 The negotiation in 1796 went off, as my learned friend has 
 said, upon the question of Belgium, or, as the right hon. gentle- 
 man asserts, upon a question of principle. He negotiated to 
 please the people, but it went off " on account of a monstrous 
 principle advanced by France incompatible with all negotia- 
 tion." This is now said. Did the right hon. gentleman say so 
 at the time ? Did he fairly and candidly inform the people of 
 England that they broke off the negotiation because the 
 French had urged a basis that it was totally impossible for 
 England at any time to grant? No such thing. On the 
 contrary, when the negotiation broke off, they published a 
 manifesto, " renewing, in the face of Europe, the solemn 
 declaration that whenever the enemy should be disposed to 
 enter on the work of a general pacification, in a spirit of 
 conciliation and equity, nothing should be wanting on their part 
 to contribute to the accomplishment of that great object." 
 And accordingly, in 1797, notwithstanding this incompatible 
 principle, and with all the enormities of the French on their 
 heads, they opened a new negotiation at Lisle. They do not 
 wait for any retractation of this incompatible principle ; they 
 do not wait even till overtures shall be made to them ; but they 
 solicit and renew a negotiation themselves. I do not blame 
 them for this, Sir ; I say only that it is an argument against 
 the assertion of an incompatible principle. It is a proof that 
 they did not then think as the right hon. gentleman now 
 says they thought ; but that they yielded to the sentiments 
 of the nation, who were generally inclined to peace, against 
 their own judgment ; and, from a motive which I shall come 
 to by-and-by, they had no hesitation, on account of the first 
 rupture, to renew the negotiation it was renewed at Lisle ;
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 257 
 
 and this the French broke off, after the revolution at Paris 
 on the 4th of September. What was the conduct of ministers 
 upon this occasion ? One would have thought that, with the 
 fresh insult at Lisle in their minds, with the recollection of 
 their failure the year before at Paris, if it had been true 
 that they found an incompatible principle, they would have 
 talked a warlike language, and would have announced to 
 their country and to all Europe that peace was not to be 
 obtained ; that they must throw away the scabbard and think 
 only of the means of continuing the contest. No such 
 thing. They put forth a declaration, in which they said that 
 they should look with anxious expectation for the moment 
 when the government of France should show a disposition and 
 spirit corresponding with their own; and renewing before all 
 Europe the solemn declaration that, at the very moment when 
 the brilliant victory of Lord Duncan might have justified them 
 in demanding more extravagant terms, they were willing, if 
 the calamities of war could be closed, to conclude peace on the 
 same moderate and equitable principles and terms which they 
 had before proposed. Such was their declaration upon that 
 occasion; and in the discussions which we had upon it in 
 this House ministers were explicit. They said that by that 
 negotiation there had been given to the world what might be 
 regarded as an unequivocal test of the sincerity and disposition 
 of government towards peace or against it; for those who 
 refuse discussion show that they are disinclined to pacifica- 
 tion; and it is therefore, they said, always to be considered 
 as a test that the party who refuses to negotiate is the party 
 who is disinclined to peace. This they themselves set up as 
 the test. Try them now, Sir, by that test. An offer is made 
 them. They rashly, and I think rudely, refuse it. Have they, 
 or have they not, broken their own test ? 
 
 But, they say, " we have not refused all discussion." They 
 have put a case. They have expressed a wish for the restora- 
 tion of the House of Bourbon, and have declared that to be 
 an event which would immediately remove every obstacle to 
 negotiation. Sir, as to the restoration of the House of Bourbon, 
 
 629
 
 258 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 if it shall be the wish of the people of France, I for one shall be 
 perfectly content to acquiesce. I think the people of France, as 
 well as every other people, ought to have the government which 
 they like best themselves ; and the form of that government, or 
 the persons who hold it in their hands, should never be an 
 obstacle with me to treat with the nation for peace, or to live with 
 me in amity but as an Englishman, and actuated by English 
 feelings, I surely cannot wish for the restoration of the House of 
 Bourbon to the throne of France. I hope that I am not a man 
 to bear heavily upon any unfortunate family. I feel for their 
 situation I respect their distresses but, as a friend of 
 England, I cannot wish for their restoration to the power which 
 they abused. I cannot forget that the whole history of the 
 century is little more than an account of the wars and the 
 calamities arising from the restless ambition, the intrigues, and 
 the perfidy of the House of Bourbon. 
 
 I cannot discover, in any part of the laboured defence which 
 has been set up for not accepting the offer now made by 
 France, any argument to satisfy my mind that ministers have 
 not forfeited the test which they held out as infallible in 1797. 
 An hon. gentleman thinks that Parliament should be eager 
 only to approach the throne with declarations of their readi- 
 ness to support his Majesty in the further prosecution of the 
 war, without inquiry ; and he is quite delighted with an address, 
 which he has found upon the journals, to King William, in which 
 they pledged themselves to support him in his efforts to resist 
 the ambition of Louis XIV. He thinks it quite astonishing how 
 much it is in point, and how perfectly it applies to the present 
 occasion. One would have thought, Sir, that in order to prove 
 the application, he would have shown that an offer had been 
 respectfully made by the grand monarque to King William to 
 treat, which he had peremptorily and in very irritating terms 
 refused ; and that, upon this, the House of Commons had come 
 forward, and with one voice declared their determination to 
 stand by him, with their lives and fortunes, in prosecuting the 
 just and necessary war. Not a word of all this ; and yet the 
 hon. gentleman finds it quite a parallel case, and an exact model
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 259 
 
 for the House, on this day, to pursue.. I really think, Sir, he 
 might as well have taken any other address upon the Journals, 
 upon any other topic, as this address to King William. It 
 would have been equally in point, and would have equally 
 served to show the hon. gentleman's talents for reasoning. 
 
 Sir, I cannot here overlook another instance of this hon. 
 gentleman's candid style of debating, and of his respect for 
 Parliament. He has found out, it seems, that in former periods 
 of our history, and even in periods which have been denomi- 
 nated good times, intercepted letters have been published ; and 
 he reads from the Gazette instances of such publication. 
 Really, Sir, if the hon. gentleman had pursued the profession to 
 which he turned his thoughts when younger, he would have 
 learnt that it was necessary to find cases a little more in point 
 And yet, full of his triumph on this notable discovery, he has 
 chosen to indulge himself in speaking of a most respectable and 
 .a most honourable person as any that this country knows, and 
 who is possessed of as sound an understanding as any man that 
 I have the good fortune to be acquainted with, in terms the 
 most offensive and disgusting, on account of words which he 
 may be supposed to have said in another place.* He has 
 spoken of that noble person and of his intellect in terms which, 
 were I disposed to retort, I might say show the hon. gentleman 
 to be possessed of an intellect which would justify me in passing 
 over in silence anything that comes from such a man. Sir, 
 that noble person did not speak of the mere act of publishing 
 the intercepted correspondence ; and the hon. gentleman's 
 reference to the Gazettes of former periods is, therefore, not in 
 point The noble duke complained of the manner in which 
 these intercepted letters had been published, not of the fact 
 itself of their publication ; for, in the introduction and notes 
 to those letters, the ribaldry is such that they are not screened 
 from the execration of every honourable mind even by their 
 extreme stupidity. The hon. gentleman says that he must 
 treat with indifference the intellect of a man who can ascribe 
 
 * The Duke of Bedford.
 
 260 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 the present scarcity of corn to the war. Sir, I think there is 
 nothing either absurd or unjust in such an opinion. Does not 
 the war, necessarily, by its magazines, and still more by its 
 expeditions, increase consumption? But when we learn that 
 corn is, at this very moment, sold in France for less than half 
 the price which it bears here, is it not a fair thing to suppose 
 that, but for the war and its prohibitions, a part of that grain 
 would be brought to this country, on account of the high price 
 which it would sell for, and that, consequently, our scarcity 
 would be relieved from their abundance ? I speak only upon 
 report, of course ; but I see that the price quoted in the French 
 markets is less by one half than the prices in England. 
 There was nothing, therefore, very absurd in what fell from 
 my noble friend ; and I would really advise the hon. gentleman, 
 when he speaks of persons distinguished for every virtue, to be 
 a little more guarded in his language. I see no reason why he 
 and his friends should not leave to persons in another place, 
 holding the same opinions as themselves, the task of answering 
 what may be thrown out there. Is not the phalanx sufficient ? 
 It is no great compliment to their talents, considering their 
 number, that they cannot be left to the task of answering the 
 few to whom they are opposed ; but perhaps the hon. gentle- 
 man has too little to do in this House, and is to be sent there 
 himself. In truth, I see no reason why even he might not be 
 sent, as well as some others who have been sent there. 
 
 To return to the subject of the negotiation in 1797. It is, in 
 my mind, extremely material to attend to the account which 
 the right hon. gentleman gives of his memorable negotiation of 
 1797, and of his motives for entering into it. In all questions of 
 peace and war, he says, many circumstances must necessarily 
 enter into the consideration ; and that they are not to be 
 decided upon the extremes : the determination must be made 
 upon a balance and comparison of the evils or the advantages 
 upon the one side and the other, and that one of the greatest 
 considerations is that of finance. In 1797 the right hon. 
 gentleman confesses he found himself peculiarly embarrassed 
 as to the resources for the war, if they were to be found in the
 
 CHARLES f AMES FOX. 261 
 
 old and usual way of the funding system. Now, though he 
 thought, upon his balance and comparison of considerations, 
 that the evils of war would be fewer than those of peace, yet 
 they would only be so provided that he could establish a "new 
 and solid system of finance" in the place of the old and 
 exhausted funding system ; and to accomplish this it was 
 necessary to have the unanimous approbation of the people. 
 To procure this unanimity he pretended to be a friend to 
 negotiation, though he did not wish for the success of that 
 negotiation, but hoped only that through that means he 
 should bring the people to agree to his new and solid system 
 of finance. With these views, then, what does he do ? Know- 
 ing that, contrary to his declarations in this House, the opinion 
 of the people of England was generally for peace, he enters 
 into a negotiation, in which, as the world believed at the time, 
 and even until this day, he completely failed. No such thing, 
 Sir he completely succeeded, for his object was not to gain 
 peace ; it was to gain over the people of this country to a " new 
 and a solid system of finance " that is, to the raising a great 
 part of the supplies within the year, to the triple assessment, 
 and to the tax upon income ! And how did he gain them over? 
 By pretending to be a friend of peace, which he was not ; and 
 by opening a negotiation which he secretly wished might not 
 succeed. The right hon. gentleman says that in all this he 
 was honest and sincere ; he negotiated fairly, and would have 
 obtained the peace if the French had shown a disposition 
 correspondent to his own ; but he rejoiced that their conduct 
 was such as to convince the people of England of the necessity 
 of concurring with him in the views which he had, and in 
 granting him the supply which he thought essential to their 
 posture at the time. Sir, I will not say that in all this he was 
 not honest to his own purpose, and that he has not been honest 
 in his declarations and confessions this night ; but I cannot 
 agree that he was honest to this House, or honest to the people 
 of this country. To this House it was not honest to make 
 them counteract the sense of the people, as he knew it to 
 be expressed in the petitions upon the table ; nor was it honest
 
 *6 2 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 to the country to act in a disguise, and to pursue a secret 
 purpose, unknown to them, while affecting to take the road 
 which they pointed out. I know not whether this may not 
 be honesty in the political ethics of the right hon. gentleman, 
 but I know that it would be called by a very different name in 
 the common transactions of society, and in the rules of morality 
 established in private life. I know of nothing in the history of 
 this country that it resembles, except, perhaps, one of the most 
 profligate periods the reign of Charles II., when the sale 
 of Dunkirk might probably have been justified by the same 
 pretence. Charles also declared war against France, and did 
 it to cover a negotiation by which, in his difficulties, he was to 
 gain a " solid system of finance." 
 
 But, Sir, I meet the right hon. gentleman on his own ground. 
 I say that you ought to treat on the same principle on which 
 you treated in 1797, in order to gain the cordial co-operation of 
 the people. " We want experience and the evidence of facts." 
 Can there be any evidence of facts equal to that of a frank, 
 open, and candid negotiation ? Let us see whether Buonaparte 
 will display the same temper as his predecessors. If he shall 
 do so, then you will confirm the people of England in their 
 opinion of the necessity of continuing the war, and you will 
 revive all the vigour which you roused in 1797. Or will you 
 not do this until you have a reverse of fortune ? Will you 
 never treat but when you are in a situation of distress, and 
 when you have occasion to impose on the people ? 
 
 " But," you say, " we have not refused to treat." You have 
 stated a case in which you will be ready immediately to enter 
 into a negotiation viz., the restoration of the House of Bour- 
 bon; but you deny that this is a sine qud nonj and in your 
 nonsensical language, which I do not understand, you talk of 
 " limited possibilities" which may induce you to treat without 
 the restoration of the House of Bourbon. But do you state 
 what they are ? Now, Sir, I say that if you put one case, upon 
 which you declare that you are willing to treat immediately, 
 and say that there are other possible cases which may induce 
 you to treat hereafter, without mentioning what these possible
 
 CHARLES JAMES f OX, 263 
 
 cases are, you do state a sine quA non of immediate treaty. 
 Suppose I have an estate to sell, and I say my demand is 
 ;iooo for it I will sell the estate immediately for that sum. 
 To be sure, there may be other terms upon which I may be 
 willing to part with it ; but I say nothing of them. The ^1000 
 is the only condition that I state now. Will any gentleman say 
 that I do not make the^iooo the sine qud non of the imme- 
 diate sale ? Thus, you say, the restoration of the princes is not 
 the only possible ground ; but you give no other. This is your 
 projet. Do you demand a centre projet ? Do you follow your 
 own rule ? Do you not do the thing of which you complained 
 in the enemy ? You seemed to be afraid of receiving another 
 proposition ; and by confining yourselves to this one point 
 you make it in fact, though not in terms, your sine qud non. 
 
 But the right hon. gentleman, in his speech, does what the 
 official note avoids he finds there the convenient words, 
 " experience and the evidence of facts ; " upon these he goes 
 into detail ; and, in order to convince the House that new 
 evidence is required, he goes back to all the earliest acts and 
 crimes of the revolution to all the atrocities of all the govern- 
 ments that have passed away ; and he contends that he must 
 have experience that these foul crimes are repented of, and 
 that a purer and a better system is adopted in France, by 
 which he may be sure that they shall be capable of maintaining 
 the relations of peace and amity. Sir, these are not con- 
 ciliatory words ; nor is this a practicable ground to gain experi- 
 ence. Does he think it possible that evidence of a peaceable 
 demeanour can be obtained in war ? What does he mean to 
 say to the French consul ? " Until you shall in war behave 
 yourself in a peaceable manner, I will not treat with you." Is 
 there not something extremely ridiculous in this ? In duels, 
 indeed, we have often heard of this kind of language. Two 
 gentlemen go out and fight ; when, after discharging their 
 pistols at one another, it is not an unusual thing for one of 
 them to say to the other " Now I am satisfied I see that you 
 are a man of honour, and we are friends again." There is 
 something, by-the-bye, ridiculous even in this ; but between
 
 264 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 nations it is more than ridiculous it is criminal. It is a 
 ground which no principle can justify, and which is as imprac- 
 ticable as it is impious. That two nations should be set on to 
 beat one another into friendship is too abominable even for the 
 fiction of romance ; but for a statesman seriously and gravely 
 to lay it down as a system upon which he means to act is 
 monstrous. What can we say of such a test as he means to put 
 the French government to, but that it is hopeless ? It is in 
 the nature of war to inflame animosity to exasperate, not to 
 soothe to widen, not to approximate. And so long as this is 
 to be acted upon, it is vain to hope that we can have the 
 evidence which we require. 
 
 The right hon. gentleman, however, thinks otherwise ; and 
 he points out four distinct possible cases, besides the re-estab- 
 lishment of the Bourbon family, in which he would agree to 
 treat with the French. 
 
 1. " If Buonaparte shall conduct himself so as to convince 
 him that he has abandoned the principles which were objection- 
 able in his predecessors, and that he shall be actuated by a 
 more moderate system." I ask you, Sir, if this is likely to be 
 ascertained in war ? It is the nature of war not to allay but to 
 inflame the passions ; and it is not by the invective and abuse 
 which have been thrown upon him and his government, nor by 
 the continued irritations which war is sure to give, that the 
 virtues of moderation and forbearance are to be nourished. 
 
 2. " If, contrary to the expectations of ministers, the people 
 of France shall show a disposition to acquiesce in the govern- 
 ment of Buonaparte." Does the right hon. gentleman mean to 
 say that because it is an usurpation on the part of the present 
 chief, therefore the people are not likely to acquiesce in it ? I 
 have not time, Sir, to discuss the question of this usurpation, or 
 whether it is likely to be permanent ; but I certainly have not 
 so good an opinion of the French, or of any people, as to 
 believe that it will be short-lived, merely because it was an 
 usurpation, and because it is a system of military despotism. 
 Cromwell was a usurper ; and in many points there may be 
 found a resemblance between him and the present chief consul
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 265 
 
 of France. There is no doubt but that, on several occasions of 
 his life, Cromwell's sincerity may be questioned, particularly in 
 his self-denying ordinance in his affected piety, and other 
 things ; but would it not have been insanity in France and 
 Spain to refuse to treat with him because he was a usurper ? 
 No, Sir; these are not the maxims by which governments are 
 actuated. They do not inquire so much into the means by 
 which power may have been acquired, as into the fact of where 
 the power resides. The people did acquiesce in the govern- 
 ment of Cromwell; but it may be said that the splendour of 
 his talents, the vigour of his administration, the high tone 
 with which he spoke to foreign nations, the success of his arms, 
 and the character which he gave to the English name, induced 
 the nation to acquiesce in his usurpation ; and that we must 
 not try Buonaparte by this example. Will it be said that 
 Buonaparte is not a man of great abilities ? Will it be said 
 that he has not, by his victories, thrown a splendour over even 
 the violence of the revolution, and that he does not conciliate 
 the French people by the high and lofty tone in which he 
 speaks to foreign nations ? Are not the French, then, as likely as 
 the English in the case of Cromwell to acquiesce in his govern- 
 ment ? If they should do so, the right hon. gentleman may find 
 that this possible predicament may fail him. He may find that 
 though one power may make war, it requires two to make peace. 
 He may find that Buonaparte was as insincere as himself in the 
 proposition which he made ; and in his turn he may come 
 forward and say " I have no occasion now for concealment. 
 It is true that in the beginning of the year 1800 I offered to treat, 
 not because I wished for peace, but because the people of France 
 wished for it ; and besides, my old resources being exhausted, and 
 there being no means of carrying on the war without a ' new and 
 solid system of finance,' I pretended to treat, because I wished 
 to procure the unanimous assent of the French people to this 
 new and solid system. Did you think I was in earnest ? You 
 were deceived. I now throw off the mask ; I have gained my 
 point ; and I reject your offers with scorn." Is it not a very 
 possible case that he may use this language ? Is it not within
 
 266 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 the right hon. gentleman's "knowledge of human nature"? 
 But even if this should not be the case, will not the very test 
 which you require the acquiescence of the people of France in 
 his government give him an advantage-ground in the negotia- 
 tion which he does not possess now ? Is it quite sure that 
 when he finds himself safe in his seat he will treat on the same 
 terms as now, and that you will get a better peace some time 
 hence than you might reasonably hope to obtain at this 
 moment ? Will he not have one interest less than at present ? 
 And do you not overlook a favourable occasion for a chance 
 which is extremely doubtful ? These are the considerations 
 which I would urge to his Majesty's ministers against the 
 dangerous experiment of waiting for the acquiescence of the 
 people of France. 
 
 3. " If the allies of this country shall be less successful than 
 they have every reason to expect they will be in stirring up the 
 people of France against Buonaparte, and in the further prose- 
 cution of the war." And, 
 
 4. " If the pressure of the war should be heavier upon us 
 than it would be convenient for us to continue to bear." These 
 are the other two possible emergencies in which the right hon. 
 gentleman would treat even with Buonaparte. Sir, I have 
 often blamed the right hon. gentleman for being disingenuous 
 and insincere. On the present occasion I certainly cannot 
 charge him with any such thing. He has made to-night a 
 most honest confession. He is open and candid. He tells 
 Buonaparte fairly what he has to expect. " I mean," says he, 
 " to do everything in my power to raise up the people of France 
 against you. I have engaged a number of allies, and our com- 
 bined efforts shall be used to excite insurrection and civil war 
 in France. I will strive to murder you, or to get you sent 
 away. If I succeed, well ; but if I fail, then I will treat with 
 you. My resources being exhausted, even my solid system of 
 finance having failed to supply me with the means of keeping 
 together my allies, and of feeding the discontents I have excited 
 in France, then you may expect to see me renounce my high 
 tone, my attachment to the House of Bourbon, my abhorrence
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 267 
 
 of your crimes, my alarm at your principles ; for then I shall be 
 ready to own that, on the balance and comparison of circum- 
 stances, there will be less danger in concluding a peace than in 
 the continuance of war ! " Is this a language for one state to 
 hold to another ? And what sort of peace does the right hon. 
 gentleman expect to receive in that case ? Does he think that 
 Buonaparte would grant to baffled insolence, to humiliated 
 pride, to disappointment, and to imbecility the same terms 
 which he would be ready to give now ? The right hon. gentle- 
 man cannot have forgotten what he said on another occasion 
 
 " Potuit quse plurima virtus 
 
 Esse, fuit : toto certatura est corpore regni." 
 
 He would then have to repeat his words, but with a different 
 application. He would have to say : all our efforts are vain 
 we have exhausted our strength our designs are impracticable 
 and we must sue to you for peace. 
 
 Sir, what is the question this night ? We are called upon 
 to support ministers in refusing a frank, candid, and respectful 
 offer of negotiation, and to countenance them in continuing 
 the war. Now, I would put the question in another way. 
 Suppose ministers had been inclined to adopt the line of 
 conduct which they pursued in 1796 and 1797, and that 
 to-night, instead of a question on a war-address, it had been 
 an address to his Majesty to thank him for accepting the 
 overture, and for opening a negotiation to treat for peace : I 
 ask the gentlemen opposite I appeal to the whole 558 repre- 
 sentatives of the people to lay their hands upon their hearts, 
 and to say whether they would not have cordially voted for 
 such an address ? Would they, or would they not ? Yes, Sir, 
 if the address had breathed a spirit of peace your benches 
 would have resounded with rejoicings, and with praises of a 
 measure that was likely to bring back the blessings of tran- 
 quillity. On the present occasion, then, I ask for the vote 
 of none but of those who, in the secret confession of their 
 conscience, admit, at this instant while they hear me, that 
 they would have cheerfully and heartily voted with the minister
 
 268 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 for an address directly the reverse of this. If every such 
 gentleman were to vote with me, I should be this night in 
 the greatest majority that ever I had the honour to vote with 
 in this House. 
 
 Sir, we have heard to-night a great many most acrimonious 
 invectives against Buonoparte, against the whole course of his 
 conduct, and against the unprincipled manner in which he 
 seized upon the reins of government. I will not make his 
 defence I think all this sort of invective, which is used only to 
 inflame the passions of this House and of the country, exceed- 
 ing ill-timed and very impolitic but I say I will not make his 
 defence. I am not sufficiently in possession of materials upon 
 which to form an opinion on the character and conduct of this 
 extraordinary man. Upon his arrival in France he found the 
 government in a very unsettled state, and the whole affairs of 
 the republic deranged, crippled, and involved. He thought it 
 necessary to reform the government ; and he did reform it, just 
 in the way in which a military man may be expected to carry 
 on a reform he seized on the whole authority to himself. It 
 will not be expected from me that I should either approve or 
 apologise for such an act. I am certainly not for reforming 
 governments by such expedients ; but how this House can be 
 so violently indignant at the idea of military despotism is, I 
 own, a little singular, when I see the composure with which 
 they can observe it nearer home ; nay, when I see them regard 
 it as a frame of government most peculiarly suited to the 
 exercise of free opinion on a subject the most important of any 
 that can engage the attention of a people. Was it not the 
 system that was so happily and so advantageously established 
 of late all over Ireland ; and which, even now, the government 
 may, at its pleasure, proclaim over the whole of that kingdom ? 
 Are not the persons and property of the people left in many 
 districts at this moment to the entire will of military com- 
 manders ? And is not this held out as peculiarly proper and 
 advantageous at a time when the people of Ireland are free, 
 and with unbiassed judgment, to discuss the most interesting 
 question of a legislative union ? Notwithstanding the existence
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 269 
 
 of martial law, so far do we think Ireland from being enslaved, 
 that we think it precisely the period and the circumstances 
 under which she may best declare her free opinion ! Now 
 really, Sir, I cannot think that gentlemen who talk in this way 
 about Ireland can, with a good grace, rail at military despotism 
 in France. 
 
 But, it seems, " Buonaparte has broken his oaths. He has 
 violated his oath of fidelity to the constitution of the year 3." 
 Sir, I am not one of those who think that any such oaths ought 
 ever to be exacted. They are seldom or ever of any effect ; 
 and I am not for sporting with a thing so sacred as an oath. I 
 think it would be good to lay aside all such oaths. Who ever 
 heard that, in revolutions, the oath of fidelity to the former 
 government was ever regarded ; or even when violated, that it 
 was imputed to the persons as a crime ? In times of revolution, 
 men who take up arms are called rebels if they fail, they are 
 adjudged to be traitors. But who ever heard before of their 
 being perjured? On the restoration of Charles II., those who 
 had taken up arms for the Commonwealth were stigmatised as 
 rebels and traitors, but not as men foresworn. Was the Earl of 
 Devonshire charged with being perjured on account of the 
 allegiance he had sworn to the House of Stuart, and the part he 
 took in those struggles which preceded and brought about the 
 Revolution? The violation of oaths of allegiance was never 
 imputed to the people of England, and will never be imputed 
 to any people. But who brings up the question of oaths ? He 
 who strives to make twenty-four millions of persons violate the 
 oaths they have taken to their present constitution, and who 
 desires to re-establish the House of Bourbon by such violation 
 of their vows. I put it so, Sir ; because, if the question of 
 oaths be of the least consequence, it is equal on both sides. 
 He who desires the whole people of France to perjure them- 
 selves, and who hopes for success in his project only upon their 
 doing so, surely cannot make it a charge against Buonaparte 
 that he has done the same. 
 
 " Ah ! but Buonaparte has declared it as his opinion, that the 
 two governments of Great Britain and of France cannot exist
 
 270 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 together. After the treaty of Campo Formio he sent two 
 confidential persons, Berthier and Monge, to the Directory to 
 say so in his name." Well, and what is there in this absurd 
 and puerile assertion, if it was ever made ? Has not the right 
 hon. gentleman, in this House, said the same thing ? In this, 
 at least, they resemble one another. They have both made use 
 of this assertion ; and I believe that these two illustrious 
 persons are the only two on earth who think it. But let us turn 
 the tables. We ought to put ourselves at times in the place of 
 the enemy, if we are desirous of really examining with candour 
 and fairness the dispute between us. How may they not 
 interpret the speeches of ministers and their friends in both 
 Houses of the British parliament ? If we are to be told of the 
 idle speech of Berthier and Monge, may they not also bring up 
 speeches in which it has not been merely hinted, but broadly 
 asserted, that " the two constitutions of England and France 
 could not exist together ?" May not these offences and charges 
 be reciprocated without end ? Are we ever to go on in this 
 miserable squabble about words ? Are we still, as we happen 
 to be successful on the one side or other, to bring up these 
 impotent accusations, insults, and provocations, against each 
 other; and only when we are beaten and unfortunate to think 
 of treating ? Oh ! pity the condition of man, gracious God ! 
 and save us from such a system of malevolence, in which all 
 our old and venerated prejudices are to be done away, and by 
 which we are to be taught to consider war as the natural state 
 of man, and peace but as a dangerous and difficult extremity ? 
 
 Sir, this temper must be corrected. It is a diabolical spirit, 
 and would lead to interminable war. Our history is full of 
 instances that where we have overlooked a proffered occasion 
 to treat, we have uniformly suffered by delay. At what time 
 did we ever profit by obstinately persevering in war ? We 
 accepted at Ryswick the terms we had refused five years before, 
 and the same peace which was concluded at Utrecht might 
 have been obtained at Gertruydenberg. And as to security 
 from the future machinations or ambition of the French, I ask 
 you what security you ever had or could have? Did the
 
 CHA RLES JAMES FOX. 271 
 
 different treaties made with Louis IV. serve to tie up his hands, 
 to restrain his ambition, or to stifle his restless spirit? At 
 what period could you safely repose in the honour, forbearance, 
 and moderation of the French government? Was there ever 
 an idea of refusing to treat because the peace might be after- 
 wards insecure ? The peace of 1763 was not accompanied with 
 securities ; and it was no sooner made than the French court 
 began, as usual, its intrigues. And what security did the right 
 hon. gentleman exact at the peace of 1783, in which he was 
 engaged? Were we rendered secure by that peace? The 
 right hon. gentleman knows well that soon after that peace the 
 French formed a plan, in conjunction with the Dutch, of attack- 
 ing our Indian possessions, of raising up the native powers 
 against us, and of driving us out of India ; as the French are 
 desirous of doing now only with this difference, that the 
 cabinet of France entered into this project in a moment of 
 profound peace, and when they conceived us to be lulled into 
 perfect security. After making the peace of 1783, the right 
 hon. gentleman and his friends went out, and I, among others, 
 came into office. Suppose, Sir, that we had taken up the 
 jealousy upon .which the right hon. gentleman now acts, and 
 had refused to ratify the peace which he had made. Suppose 
 that we had said " No ; France is acting a perfidious part 
 we see no security for England in this treaty they want 
 only a respite, in order to attack us again in an important 
 part of our dominions ; and we ought not to confirm the 
 treaty." I ask, would the right hon. gentleman have sup- 
 ported us in this refusal? I say that upon his reasoning he 
 ought ; but I put it fairly to him, would he have supported 
 us in refusing to ratify the treaty upon such a pretence ? He 
 certainly ought not, and I am sure he would not, but the 
 course of reasoning which he now assumes would have justified 
 his taking such a ground. On the contrary, I am persuaded 
 that he would have said " This is a refinement upon jealousy. 
 Security ! You have security, the only security that you can 
 ever expect to get. It is the present interest of France to 
 make peace. She will keep it if it be her interest : she will
 
 272 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 break it if it be her interest ; such is the state of nations ; and 
 you have nothing but your own vigilance for your security." 
 
 " It is not the interest of Buonaparte," it seems, " sincerely 
 to enter into a negotiation, or, if he should even make peace, 
 sincerely to keep it." But how are we to decide upon his 
 sincerity ? By refusing to treat with him ? Surely, if we mean 
 to discover his sincerity, we ought to hear the propositions 
 which he desires to make. " But peace would be unfriendly 
 to his system of military despotism." Sir, I hear a great deal 
 about the short-lived nature of military despotism. I wish the 
 history of the world would bear gentlemen out in this description 
 of military despotism. Was not the government erected by 
 Augustus Caesar a military despotism ? and yet it endured for 
 600 or 700 years. Military despotism, unfortunately, is too likely 
 in its nature to be permanent, and it is not true that it depends 
 on the life of the first usurper. Though half the Roman 
 emperors were murdered, yet the military despotism went on ; 
 and so it would be, I fear, in France. If Buonaparte should 
 disappear from the scene, to make room, perhaps, for a 
 Berthier, or any other general, what difference would that 
 make in the quality of French despotism or in our relation to 
 the country? We may as safely treat with a Buonaparte or 
 with any of his successors, be they who they may, as we could 
 with a Louis XVI., a Louis XVII., or a Louis XVIII. There 
 is no difference but in the name. Where the power essentially 
 resides, thither we ought to go for peace. 
 
 But, Sir, if we are to reason on the fact, I should think that 
 it is the interest of Buonaparte to make peace. A lover of 
 military glory, as that general must necessarily be, may he not 
 think that his measure of glory is full that it may be tarnished 
 by a reverse of fortune, and can hardly be increased by any 
 new laurels ? He must feel that, in the situation to which he is 
 now raised, he can no longer depend on his own fortune, his 
 own genius, and his own talents, for a continuance of his 
 success ; he must be under the necessity of employing other 
 generals, whose misconduct or incapacity might endanger his 
 power, or whose triumphs even might affect the interest which
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX, 273 
 
 he holds in the opinion of the French. Peace, then, would 
 secure to him what he has achieved, and fix the inconstancy of 
 fortune. But this will not be his only motive. He must see 
 that France also requires a respite a breathing interval to 
 recruit her wasted strength. To procure her this respite would 
 be, perhaps, the attainment of more solid glory, as well as the 
 means of acquiring more solid power, than anything which he 
 can hope to gain from arms and from the proudest triumphs. 
 May he not then be zealous to gain this fame, the only species 
 of fame, perhaps, that is worth acquiring ? Nay, granting that 
 his soul may still burn with the thirst of military exploits, is it 
 not likely that he is earnestly disposed to yield to the feelings 
 of the French people, and to consolidate his power by con- 
 sulting their interests ? I have a right to argue in this way, 
 when suppositions of his insincerity are reasoned upon on the 
 other side. Sir, these aspersions are, in truth, always idle, and 
 even mischievous. I have been too long accustomed to hear 
 imputations and calumnies thrown out upon great and honour- 
 able characters to be much influenced by them. My learned 
 friend has paid this night a most just, deserved, and honourable 
 tribute of applause to the memory of that great and unparalleled 
 character who has been so recently lost to the world. I must, 
 like him, beg leave to dwell a moment on the venerable George 
 Washington, though I know that it is impossible for me to 
 bestow anything like adequate praise on a character which 
 gave us, more than any other human being, the example of a 
 perfect man ; yet, good, great, and unexampled as General 
 Washington was, I can remember the time when he was not 
 better spoken of in this House than Buonaparte is now. The 
 right hon. gentleman who opened this debate (Mr. Dundas) may 
 remember in what terms of disdain, of virulence, and even of 
 contempt, General Washington was spoken of by gentlemen on 
 that side of the House. Does he not recollect with what marks 
 of indignation any member was stigmatised as an enemy to his 
 country who mentioned with common respect the name of 
 General Washington ? If a negotiation had then been proposed 
 to be opened with that great man, what would have been said ? 
 
 630
 
 274' CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 " Would you treat with a rebel, a traitor ! What an example 
 would you not give by such an act ! " I do not know whether 
 the right hon. gentleman may not yet possess some of his old 
 prejudices on the subject. I hope not. I hope by this time we 
 are all convinced that a republican government, like that of 
 America, may exist without danger or injury to social order or 
 to established monarchies. They have happily shown that they 
 can maintain the relations of peace and amity with other 
 states : they have shown, too, that they are alive to the feelings 
 of honour ; but they do not lose sight of plain good sense and 
 discretion. They have not refused to negotiate with the 
 French, and they have accordingly the hopes of a speedy 
 termination of every difference. We cry up their conduct, but 
 we do not imitate it. At the beginning of the struggle we were 
 told that the French were setting up a set of wild and impracti- 
 cable theories, and that we ought not to be misled by them we 
 could not grapple with theories. Now we are told that we must 
 not treat, because, out of the lottery, Buonaparte has drawn 
 such a prize as military despotism. Is military despotism a 
 theory? One would think that that is one of the practical 
 things which ministers might understand, and to which they 
 would have no particular objection. But what is our present 
 conduct founded on but a theory, and that a most wild and 
 ridiculous theory ? What are we fighting for ? Not for a 
 principle ; not for security ; not for conquest even ; but merely 
 for an experiment and a speculation, to discover whether a 
 gentleman at Paris may not turn out a better man than we now 
 take him to be. 
 
 My hon. friend (Mr. Whitbread) has been censured for an 
 opinion which he gave, and I think justly, that the change of 
 property in France since the revolution must form an almost 
 insurmountable barrier to the return of the ancient proprietors. 
 " No such thing," says the right hon. gentleman ; "nothing can 
 be more easy. Property is depreciated to such a degree, that 
 the purchasers would easily be brought to restore the estates." 
 I very much differ with him in this idea. It is the character of 
 every such convulsion as that which has ravaged France, that
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 2 7 5 
 
 an infinite and indescribable load of misery is inflicted upon 
 private families. The heart sickens at the recital of the 
 sorrows which it engenders. No revolution implied, though 
 it may have occasioned, a total change of property. The 
 restoration of the Bourbons does imply it ; and there is the 
 difference. There is no doubt but that if the noble families had 
 foreseen the duration and the extent of the evils which were 
 to fall upon their heads, they would have taken a very different 
 line of conduct. But they unfortunately flew from their 
 country. The king and his advisers sought foreign aid. A 
 confederacy was formed to restore them by military force ; and 
 as a means of resisting this combination, the estates of the 
 fugitives were confiscated and sold. However compassion 
 may deplore the case, it cannot be said that the thing is 
 unprecedented. The people have always resorted to such 
 means of defence. Now the question is, how this property 
 is to be got out of their hands ? If it be true, as I have heard, 
 that the purchasers of national and forfeited estates amount 
 to 1,500,000 persons, I see no hopes of their being forced to 
 deliver up their property ; nor do I even know that they ought. 
 I question the policy, even if the thing were practicable ; but 
 I assert that such a body of new proprietors forms an insur- 
 mountable barrier to the restoration of the ancient order of 
 things. Never was a revolution consolidated by a pledge so 
 strong. 
 
 But, as if this were not of itself sufficient, Louis XVIII. from 
 his retirement at Mittau puts forth a manifesto, in which he 
 assures the friends of his house that he is about to come back 
 with all the powers that formerly belonged to his family. He 
 does not promise to the people a constitution which may tend 
 to conciliate ; but, stating that he is to come with all the ancien 
 regime, they would naturally attach to it its proper appendages 
 of bastiles, lettres de cachet, gabelle, etc. And the noblesse, 
 for whom this proclamation was peculiarly conceived, would 
 also naturally feel that if the monarch was to be restored to all 
 his privileges, they surely were to be reinstated in their estates 
 without a compensation to the purchasers. Is this likely to
 
 276 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 make the people wish for a restoration of royalty ? I have no 
 doubt but there may be a number of Chouans in France, though 
 I am persuaded that little dependence is to be placed on their 
 efforts. There may be a number of people dispersed over 
 France, and particularly in certain provinces, who may retain a 
 degree of attachment to royalty ; and how the government will 
 contrive to compromise with that spirit I know not. I suspect, 
 however, that Buonaparte will try ; his efforts have been turned 
 to that object ; and, if we may believe report, he has succeeded 
 to a considerable degree. He will naturally call to his recol- 
 lection the precedent which the history of France itself will 
 furnish. The once formidable insurrection of the Huguenots 
 was completely stifled and the party conciliated by the policy 
 of Henry IV., who gave them such privileges and raised 
 them so high in the government as to make some persons 
 apprehend danger therefrom to the unity of the empire. Nor 
 will the French be likely to forget the revocation of the 
 edict one of the memorable acts of the House of Bourbon 
 an act which was never surpassed in atrocity, injustice, 
 and impolicy, by anything that has disgraced Jacobinism. If 
 Buonaparte shall attempt some similar arrangement to that of 
 Henry IV. with the Chouans, who will say that he is likely to 
 fail ? He will meet with no great obstacle to success from the 
 influence which our ministers have established with the chiefs, 
 or in the attachment and dependence which they have on our 
 protection ; for what has the right hon. gentleman told him, in 
 stating the contingencies in which he will treat with Buonaparte? 
 He will excite a rebellion in France he will give support to the 
 Chouans, if they can stand their ground ; but he will not 
 make common cause with them ; for unless they can depose 
 Buonaparte, send him into banishment, or execute him, he will 
 abandon the Chouans, and treat with this very man, whom he 
 describes as holding the reins and wielding the powers of 
 France for purposes of unexampled barbarity. 
 
 Sir, I wish the atrocities of which we hear so much, and 
 which I abhor as much as any man, were indeed unexampled. 
 I fear that they do not belong exclusively to the French.
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 277 
 
 When the right hon. gentleman speaks of the extraordinary 
 successes of the last campaign, he does not mention the horrors 
 by which some of those successes were accompanied. Naples, 
 for instance, has been, among others, what is called 
 "delivered"; and yet, if I am rightly informed, it has been 
 stained and polluted by murders so ferocious, and by cruelties 
 of every kind so abhorrent, that the heart shudders at the 
 recital. It has been said, not only that the miserable victims of 
 the rage and brutality of the fanatics were savagely murdered, 
 but that, in many instances, their flesh was eaten and devoured 
 by the cannibals who are the advocates and the instruments 
 of social order ! Nay, England is not totally exempt from 
 reproach, if the rumours which are circulated be true. I will 
 mention a fact to give ministers the opportunity, if it be false, 
 of wiping away the stain that it must otherwise fix on the 
 British name. It is said that a party of the republican 
 inhabitants of Naples took shelter in the fortress of the Castel 
 de Uova. They were besieged by a detachment from the royal 
 army, to whom they refused to surrender ; but demanded that 
 a British officer should be brought forward, and to him they 
 capitulated. They made terms with him under the sanction 
 of the British name. It was agreed that their persons and 
 property should be safe, and that they should be conveyed to 
 Toulon. They were accordingly put on board a vessel ; but 
 before they sailed their property was confiscated, numbers of 
 them taken out, thrown into dungeons, and some of them, 
 I understand, notwithstanding the British guarantee, actually 
 executed. 
 
 Where then, Sir, is this war, which on every side is pregnant 
 with such horrors, to be carried ? Where is it to stop ? Not 
 till you establish the House of Bourbon ! And this you cherish 
 the hope of doing, because you have had a successful campaign. 
 Why, Sir, before this you have had a successful campaign. 
 The situation of the allies, with all they have gained, is surely 
 not to be compared now to what it was when you had taken 
 Valenciennes, Quesnoy, Conde", etc., which induced some 
 gentlemen in this House to prepare themselves for a march to
 
 278 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 Paris. With all that you have gained, you surely will not say 
 that the prospect is brighter now than it was then. What have 
 you gained but the recovery of a part of what you before lost ? 
 One campaign is successful to you another to them ; and in 
 this way, animated by the vindictive passions of revenge, hatred, 
 and rancour, which are infinitely more flagitious even than 
 those of ambition and the thirst of power, you may go on for 
 ever; as, with such black incentives, I see no end to human 
 misery. And all this without an intelligible motive, all this 
 because you may gain a better peace a year or two hence ! So 
 that we are called upon to go on merely as a speculation. 
 We must keep Buonaparte for some time longer at war, as 
 a state of probation. Gracious God, Sir, is war a state of 
 probation? Is peace a rash system? Is it dangerous for 
 nations to live in amity with each other? Is your vigilance, 
 your policy, your common powers of observation, to be extin- 
 guished by putting an end to the horrors of war ? Cannot this 
 state of probation be as well undergone without adding to the 
 catalogue of human sufferings ? " But we must pause ! " 
 What ! must the bowels of Great Britain be torn out her 
 best blood be spilt her treasure wasted that you may make 
 an experiment ? Put yourselves oh ! that you would put your- 
 selves in the field of battle, and learn to judge of the sort of 
 horrors that you excite. In former wars a man might at least 
 have some feeling, some interest, that served to balance in his 
 mind the impressions which a scene of carnage and of death 
 must inflict. If a man had been present at the battle of Blen- 
 heim, for instance, and had inquired the motive of the battle, 
 there was not a soldier engaged who could not have satisfied 
 his curiosity, and even perhaps allayed his feelings they were 
 fighting to repress the uncontrolled ambition of the grand 
 monarque. But if a man were present now at a field of 
 slaughter, and were to inquire for what they were fighting 
 "Fighting!" would be the answer; "they are not fighting, 
 they are pausing." " Why is that man expiring ? Why is 
 that other writhing with agony? What means this implacable 
 fury?" The answer must be, "You are quite wrong, Sir; you
 
 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 279 
 
 deceive yourself they are not fighting do not disturb them 
 they are merely pausing ! this man is not expiring with 
 agony that man is not dead he is only pausing ! Lord help 
 you, Sir! they are not angry with one another; they have now 
 no cause of quarrel but their country thinks that there should 
 be a pause. All that you see, Sir, is nothing like fighting 
 there is no harm, nor cruelty, nor bloodshed in it whatever 
 it is nothing more than a political pause ! it is merely to try 
 an experiment to see whether Buonaparte will not behave 
 himself better than heretofore ; and in the meantime we have 
 agreed to a pause, in pure friendship ! " And is this the way, 
 Sir, that you are to show yourselves the advocates of order? 
 You take up a system calculated to uncivilise the world, to 
 destroy order, to trample on religion, to stifle in the heart, not 
 merely the generosity of noble sentiment, but the affections of 
 social nature; and in the prosecution of this system you spread 
 terror and devastation all around you. 
 
 Sir, I have done. I have told you my opinion. I think you 
 ought to have given a civil, clear, and explicit answer to the 
 overture which was fairly and handsomely made you. If you 
 were desirous that the negotiation should have included all 
 your allies, as the means of bringing about a general peace, you 
 should have told Buonaparte so ; but I believe you were afraid 
 of his agreeing to the proposal. You took that method before. 
 "Ay, but," you say, "the people were anxious for peace in 
 1797." I say they are friends to peace now ; and I am 
 confident that you will one day own it. Believe me, they 
 are friends to peace ; although, by the laws which you have 
 made restraining the expression of the sense of the people, 
 public opinion cannot now be heard as loudly and unequi- 
 vocally as heretofore. But I will not go into the internal state 
 of this country. It is too afflicting to the heart to see the 
 strides which have been made, by means of, and under the 
 miserable pretext of this war, against liberty of every kind, both 
 of speech and of writing ; and to observe in another kingdom 
 the rapid approaches to that military despotism which we affect 
 to make an argument against peace. I know, Sir, that public
 
 280 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 opinion, if it could be collected, would be for peace, as much 
 now as in 1797, and I know that it is only by public opinion 
 not by a sense of their duty not by the inclination of their 
 minds that ministers will be brought, if ever, to give us peace. 
 I conclude, Sir, with repeating what I said before ; I ask for no 
 gentleman's vote who would have reprobated the compliance of 
 ministers with the proposition of the French government ; I ask 
 for no gentleman's support to-night who would have voted 
 against ministers, if they had come down and proposed to 
 enter into a negotiation with the French ; but I have a right to 
 ask I know that, in honour, in consistency, in conscience, I 
 have a right to expect the vote of every gentleman who would 
 have voted with ministers in an address to his Majesty 
 diametrically opposite to the motion of this night.
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 281 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
 Speech at a Meeting to Recover Catholic Rights. Dublin^ 
 February 23, 1814. 
 
 [THE herculean labours of Daniel O'Connell changed the whole current 
 of Irish life. He replaced insurrection by combination, and raised the 
 Catholic of Ireland from the position of vassalage in which he had 
 previously lived. So powerful and successful were O'Connell's efforts 
 that the strong English Government was obliged to capitulate to him. 
 " It was," said Wendell Phillips in his centenary oration on O'Connell, 
 " the proudest Government in Europe, with the hero of a hundred fields 
 at its head, surrendering to ten men in an upper room. " The speech 
 here given was delivered fifteen years before the surrender of the Duke 
 of Wellington. It not only pleads with power the cause of the 
 Catholic, but it contains a very truthful picture of Europe in the year 
 of the Vienna Congress and Napoleon's abdication, and it presents a 
 just and discerning criticism of the Corn Laws (then being enacted), 
 delivered twenty-four years before the founding of the Anti-Corn 
 Law League.] 
 
 MR. O'CONNELL said that he wished to submit to the meeting 
 a resolution, calling on the different counties and cities in 
 Ireland to petition for unqualified emancipation. It was a 
 resolution which had been already and frequently adopted; 
 when we had persevered in our petitions, even at periods when 
 we despaired of success ; and it became a pleasing duty to 
 present them, now that the symptoms of the times seemed so 
 powerfully to promise an approaching relief. 
 
 Indeed, as long as truth or justice could be supposed to 
 influence man ; as long as man was admitted to be under the
 
 282 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
 control of reason ; so long must it be prudent and wise to 
 procure discussions on the sufferings and the rights of the 
 people of Ireland. Truth proclaimed the treacherous iniquity 
 which had deprived us of our chartered liberty ; truth destroyed 
 the flimsy pretext under which this iniquity is continued ; truth 
 exposed our merits and our sufferings ; whilst reason and 
 justice combined to demonstrate our right the right of every 
 human being to freedom of conscience a right without which 
 every honest man must feel that to him, individually, the 
 protection of government is a mockery, and the restriction of 
 penal law a sacrilege. 
 
 Truth, reason, and justice are our advocates ; and even in 
 England let me tell you that those powerful advocates have 
 some authority. They are, it is true, more frequently resisted 
 there than in most other countries ; but yet they have some 
 sway among the English at all times. Passion may con- 
 found and prejudice darken the English understanding ; and 
 interested passion and hired prejudice have been successfully 
 employed against us at former periods ; but the present season 
 appears singularly well calculated to aid the progress of our 
 cause, and to advance the attainment of our important objects. 
 
 I do not make the assertion lightly. I speak after deliberate 
 investigation, and from solemn conviction, my clear opinion 
 that we shall, during the present session of Parliament, obtain 
 a portion at least, if not the entire, of our emancipation. We 
 cannot fail, unless we are disturbed in our course by those who 
 graciously style themselves our friends, or are betrayed by the 
 treacherous machinations of part of our own body. 
 
 Yes, everything, except false friendship and domestic 
 treachery, forebodes success. The cause of man is in its 
 great advance. Humanity has been rescued from much of its 
 thraldom. In the states of Europe, where the iron despotism 
 of the feudal system so long classed men into two species 
 the hereditary masters and the perpetual slaves ; when rank 
 supplied the place of merit, and to be humbly born operated 
 as a perpetual exclusion ; in many parts of Europe man is 
 reassuming his natural station, and artificial distinctions have
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 283 
 
 vanished before the force of truth and the necessities of 
 governors. 
 
 France has a representative government ; and as the unjust 
 privileges of the clergy and nobility are abolished ; as she is 
 blessed with a most wise, clear, and simple code of laws ; as 
 she is almost free from debt, and emancipated from odious 
 prejudices, she is likely to prove an example and a light to the 
 world. 
 
 In Germany, the sovereigns who formerly ruled at their free 
 will and caprice are actually bribing the people to the support 
 of their thrones, by giving them the blessings of liberty. 
 It is a wise and a glorious policy. The Prince Regent has 
 emancipated his Catholic subjects of Hanover, and traced 
 for them the grand outlines of a free constitution. The other 
 states of Germany are rapidly following the example. The 
 people, no longer destined to bear the burdens only of society, 
 are called up to take their share in the management of their 
 own concerns, and in the sustentation of the public dignity 
 and happiness. In short, representative government, the only 
 rational or just government, is proclaimed by princes as a 
 boon to their people, and Germany is about to afford many an 
 example of the advantages of rational liberty. Anxious as 
 some kings appear to be in the great work of plunder and 
 robbery, others of them are now the first heralds of freedom. 
 
 It is a moment of glorious triumph to humanity ; and even 
 one instance of liberty, freely conceded, makes compensation 
 for a thousand repetitions of the ordinary crimes of military 
 monarchs. The crime is followed by its own punishment ; but 
 the great principle of the rights of man establishes itself now 
 on the broadest basis, and France and Germany now set forth 
 an example for England to imitate. 
 
 Italy, too, is in the paroxysms of the fever of independence. 
 Oh, may she have strength to go through the disease, and may 
 she rise like a giant refreshed with wine ! One thing is certain, 
 that the human mind is set afloat in Italy. The flame of 
 freedom burns ; it may be smothered for a season ; but all the 
 whiskered Croats and the fierce Pandours of Austria will not
 
 284 DANIEL CtCONNELL. 
 
 be able to extinguish the sacred fire. Spain, to be sure, chills 
 the heart and disgusts the understanding. The combined 
 Inquisition and the court press upon the mind, whilst they 
 bind the body in fetters of adamant But this despotism is, 
 thank God, as unrelentingly absurd as it is cruel, and there 
 arises a darling hope out of the very excess of the evil. The 
 Spaniards must be walking corpses they must be living ghosts, 
 and not human beings, unless a sublime reaction be in rapid 
 preparation. But let us turn to our own prospects. 
 
 The cause of liberty has made, and is making, great progress 
 in states heretofore despotic. In all the countries in Europe, 
 in which any portion of freedom prevails, the liberty of 
 conscience is complete. England alone, of all the states 
 pretending to be free, leaves shackles upon the human mind; 
 England alone, amongst free states, exhibits the absurd claim 
 of regulating belief by law, and forcing opinion by statute. 
 Is it possible to conceive that this gross, this glaring, this 
 iniquitous absurdity can continue? Is it possible, too, to con- 
 ceive that it can continue to operate, not against a small and 
 powerless sect, but against the millions, comprising the best 
 strength, the most affluent energy of the empire ? a strength 
 and an energy daily increasing, and hourly appreciating their 
 own importance. The present system, disavowed by liberalised 
 Europe, disclaimed by sound reason, abhorred by genuine 
 religion, must soon and for ever be abolished. 
 
 Let it not be said that the princes of the Continent were 
 forced by necessity to give privileges to their subjects, and that 
 England has escaped from a similar fate. I admit that the 
 necessity of procuring the support of the people was the main- 
 spring of royal patriotism on the Continent ; but I totally deny 
 that the ministers of England can dispense with a similar 
 support. The burdens of the war are permanent ; the dis- 
 tresses occasioned by the peace are pressing ; the financial 
 system tottering, and to be supported in profound peace 
 only by a war taxation. In the meantime, the resources of 
 corruption are mightily diminished. Ministerial influence is 
 necessarily diminished by one-half of the effective force of
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL, 285 
 
 indirect bribery ; full two-thirds must be disbanded. Peculation 
 and corruption must be put upon half-pay, and no allowances. 
 The ministry lose not only all those active partisans ; those 
 outrageous loyalists, who fattened on the public plunder during 
 the seasons of immense expenditure ; but those very men will 
 themselves swell the ranks of the malcontents, and probably 
 be the most violent in their opposition. They have no sweet 
 consciousness to reward them in their present privations ; and 
 therefore they are likely to exhaust the bitterness of their souls 
 on their late employers. Every cause conspires to render this 
 the period in which the ministry should have least inclination, 
 least interest, least power, to oppose the restoration of our 
 rights and liberties. 
 
 I speak not from mere theory. There exist at this moment 
 practical illustrations of the truth of my assertions. Instances 
 have occurred which demonstrate, as well the inability of the 
 ministry to resist the popular voice, as the utility of re-echoing 
 that voice, until it is heard and understood in all its strength 
 and force. The ministers had determined to continue the 
 property tax ; they announced that determination to their 
 partisans at Liverpool and in Bristol. Well, the people of 
 England met ; they petitioned ; they repeated they reiterated 
 their petitions, until the ministry felt they could no longer 
 resist ; and they ungraciously, but totally, abandoned their 
 determination ; and the property tax now expires. 
 
 Another instance is also now before us. It relates to the 
 Corn Laws. The success of the repetition of petitions in that 
 instance is the more remarkable, because such success has 
 been obtained in defiance of the first principles of political 
 economy, and in violation of the plainest rules of political 
 justice. 
 
 This is not the place to discuss the merits of the Corn Laws; 
 but I cannot avoid, as the subject lies in my way, to put upon 
 public record my conviction of the INUTILITY AS WELL AS THE 
 
 IMPROPRIETY OF THE PROPOSED MEASURE RESPECTING THOSE 
 
 LAWS. / expect that it will be believed in Ireland that I would 
 not volunteer thus an opposition of sentiment to any measure, if
 
 286 >ANIEL O'CONNELL 
 
 I was not most disinterestedly, and in my conscience, convinced 
 
 that SUCH MEASURE SVOULD NOT BE OF ANY SUBSTANTIAL OR 
 PERMANENT UTILITY TO IRELAND. 
 
 As far as I am personally concerned, my interest plainly is to 
 keep up the price of lands ; but I am quite convinced that the 
 measure in question will have an effect PERMANENTLY AND 
 FATALLY INJURIOUS TO IRELAND. The clamour respecting 
 the Corn Laws has been fomented by parsons who were afraid 
 that they would not get money enough for their tithes, and 
 absentee landlords, who apprehended a diminution of their rack 
 rents; and if you observed the names of those who have taken 
 an active part in favour of the measure, you will find amongst 
 them many, if not all, the persons who have most distinguished 
 themselves against the liberty and religion of the people. 
 There have been, I know, many good men misled, and many 
 clever men deceived, on this subject; but the great majority 
 are of the class of oppressors. 
 
 There was formed, some time ago, an association of a 
 singular nature in Dublin and the adjacent counties. Mr. 
 Luke White was, as I remember, at the head of it. It con- 
 tained some of our stoutest and most stubborn seceders ; it 
 published the causes of its institution ; it recited that, whereas 
 butcher's meat was dearer in Cork, and in Limerick, and in 
 Belfast than in Dublin, it was therefore expedient to associate, 
 in order that the people of Dublin should not eat meat too 
 cheap. Large sums were subscribed to carry the patriotic 
 design into effect, but public indignation broke up the ostensible 
 confederacy ; it was too plain and too glaring to bear public 
 inspection. The indignant sense of the people of Dublin 
 forced them to dissolve their open association ; and if the 
 present enormous increase of the price of meat in Dublin 
 beyond the rest of Ireland be the result of secret combination 
 of any individuals, there is at least this comfort, that they do 
 not presume to beard the public with the open avowal of 
 their design to increase the difficulties of the poor in procuring 
 food. 
 
 Such a scheme as that, with respect to meat in Dublin such
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 287 
 
 a scheme, precisely, is the sought -for corn law. The only 
 difference consists in the extent of the operation of both plans. 
 The corn plan is only more extensive, not more unjust in 
 principle, but it is more unreasonable in its operation, because 
 its necessary tendency must be to destroy that very market of 
 which it seeks the exclusive possession. The corn lain men 
 want, they say, to have tJte exclusive feeding of the manu- 
 facturers; but at present our manufacturers, loaded as they 
 are with taxation, are scarcely able to meet the goods of 
 foreigners in the markets of the world. The English are 
 already undersold in foreign markets ; but if to this dearness 
 produced by taxation there shall be added the dearness pro- 
 duced by dear food, is it not plain that it will be impossible to 
 enter into a competition with foreign manufacturers, who have 
 no taxes and cheap bread ? Thus the corn laws will destroy 
 our manufactures, and compel our manufacturers to emigrate, 
 in spite of penalties ; and the corn law supporters will have 
 injured themselves and destroyed others. 
 
 I beg pardon for dwelling on this subject If I were at 
 liberty to pursue it here, I would not leave it until I had 
 satisfied every dispassionate man that the proposed measure is 
 both USELESS AND UNJUST ; but this is not the place for doing 
 so, and I only beg to record at least the honest dictates of my 
 judgment on this interesting topic My argument, of the 
 efficacy of petitioning, is strengthened by the impolicy of the 
 measure in question ; because, if petitions, by their number and 
 perseverance, succeed in establishing a proposition impolitic 
 in principle, and oppressive to thousands in operation, what 
 encouragement does it not afford to us to repeat our petitions for 
 that which has justice for its basis, and policy as its support ! 
 
 The great advantages of discussion being thus apparent, the 
 efficacy of repeating, and repeating, and repeating again our 
 petitions being thus demonstrated by notorious facts, the 
 Catholics of Ireland must be sunk in criminal apathy if 
 they neglect the use of an instrument so efficacious for their 
 emancipation. 
 
 There is further encouragement at this particular crisis.
 
 288 DANIEL O> CON NELL. 
 
 Dissension has ceased in the Catholic body. Those who 
 paralysed our efforts, and gave our conduct the appearance and 
 reality of weakness, and wavering, and inconsistency, have all 
 retired. Those who were ready to place the entire of the 
 Catholic feelings and dignity, and some of the Catholic religion 
 too, under the feet of every man who pleased to call himself our 
 friend, and to prove himself our friend, by praising on every 
 occasion, and upon no occasion, the oppressors of the Catholics, 
 and by abusing the Catholics themselves ; the men who would 
 link the Catholic cause to this patron and to that, and sacrifice 
 it at one time to the minister, and at another to the opposition, 
 and make it this day the tool of one party, and the next the 
 instrument of another party; the men, in fine, who hoped to 
 traffic upon our country and our religion who would buy 
 honours, and titles, and places, and pensions, at the price of 
 the purity, and dignity, and safety of the Catholic Church in 
 Ireland; all those men have, thank God, quitted us, I hope for 
 ever. They have returned into silence and secession, or have 
 frankly or 'covertly gone over to our enemies. I regret deeply 
 and bitterly that they have carried with them some few who, 
 like my Lord Fingal, entertain no other motives than those of 
 purity and integrity, and who, like that noble lord, are merely 
 mistaken. 
 
 But I rejoice at this separation I rejoice that they have left 
 the single-hearted, and the disinterested, and the indefatigable, 
 and the independent, and the numerous, and the sincere Catho- 
 lics to work out their emancipation unclogged, unshackled, and 
 undismayed. They have bestowed on us another bounty also 
 they have proclaimed the causes of their secession they 
 have placed out of doubt the cause of the divisions. It is not 
 intemperance, for that we abandoned; it is not the introduction 
 of extraneous topics, for those we disclaimed ; it is simply and 
 purely, veto or no veto restriction or no restriction no other 
 words; it is religion and principle that have divided us; 
 thanks, many thanks to the tardy and remote candour of the 
 seceders, that has at length written in large letters the cause 
 of their secession it is the Catholic Church of Ireland /'/ is
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 289 
 
 whether that Church shall continue independent of a Protestant 
 ministry or not. We are for its independence the seceders are 
 for its dependence. 
 
 Whatever shall be the fate of our emancipation question, 
 thank God we are divided for ever from those who would wish 
 that our Church should crouch to the partisans of the Orange 
 system. Thank God, secession has displayed its cloven foot, 
 and avowed itself to be synonymous with vetoism. 
 
 Those are our present prospects ot success. First, man is 
 elevated from slavery almost everywhere, and human nature 
 has become more dignified, and, I may say, more valuable. 
 Secondly, England wants our cordial support, and knows that 
 she has only to secede to us justice in order to obtain our 
 affectionate assistance. Thirdly, this is the season of successful 
 petition, and the very fashion of the times entitles our petition 
 to succeed. Fourthly, the Catholic cause is disencumbered of 
 hollow friends and interested speculators. Add to all these the 
 native and inherent strength of the principle of religious free- 
 dom and the inert and accumulating weight of our wealth, our 
 religion, and our numbers, and where is the sluggard that shall 
 dare to doubt our approaching success ? 
 
 Besides, even our enemies must concede to us that we act 
 from principle, and from principle only. We prove our sincerity 
 when we refuse to make our emancipation a subject of traffic 
 and barter, and ask for relief only upon those grounds which, if 
 once established, would give to every other sect the right to the 
 same political immunity. All we ask is " a clear stage and no 
 favour." We think the Catholic religion the most rationally 
 consistent with the divine scheme of Christianity, and, therefore, 
 all we ask is that everybody should be left to his unbiassed 
 reason and judgment. If Protestants are equally sincere, why 
 do they call the law, and the bribe, and the place, and the 
 pension, in support of their doctrines? Why do they fortify 
 themselves behind pains, and penalties, and exclusions, and 
 forfeitures ? Ought not our opponents to feel that they degrade 
 the sanctity of their religion when they call in the profane aid 
 of temporal rewards and punishments, and that they proclaim 
 
 631
 
 2 9 o DANIEL O'CONNELL, 
 
 the superiority of our creed when they thus admit themselves 
 unable to contend against it upon terms of equality, and by the 
 weapons of reason and argument, and persevere in refusing us 
 all we ask " a clear stage and no favour." 
 
 Yes, Mr. Chairman, our enemies, in words and by actions, 
 admit and proclaim our superiority. It remains to our friends 
 alone, and to that misguided and ill-advised portion of the 
 Catholics who have shrunk into secession it remains for 
 those friends and seceders alone to undervalue our exertions, 
 and underrate our conscientious opinions. 
 
 Great and good God, in what a cruel situation are the 
 Catholics of Ireland placed ! If they have the manliness to 
 talk of their oppressors as the paltry bigots deserve if they 
 have the honesty to express, even in measured language, a 
 small portion of the sentiments of abhorrence which pecu- 
 lating bigotry ought naturally to inspire if they condemn 
 the principle which established the Inquisition in Spain and 
 Orange lodges in Ireland, they are assailed by the combined 
 clamour of those parliamentary friends and title-seeking, 
 place-hunting seceders. The war-whoop of "intemperance" 
 is sounded, and a persecution is instituted by our advocates 
 and our seceders against the Catholic who dares to be 
 honest, and fearless, and independent ! 
 
 But I tell you what they easily forgive nay, what bur 
 friends, sweet souls, would vindicate to-morrow in parliament, 
 if the subject arose there. Here it is here is the Dublin 
 Journal of the 2ist of February, printed just two days ago. 
 In the administration of Lord Whitworth, and the secretary- 
 ship of Mr. Peel, there is a government newspaper a paper 
 supported solely by the money of the people ; for its circulation 
 is little, and its private advertisements less. Here is a paper 
 continued in existence like a wounded reptile only whilst in 
 the rays of the sun, by the heat and warmth communicated 
 to it by the Irish administration. Let me read two passages 
 for you. The first calls "Popery the deadly enemy of pure 
 religion and rational liberty" Such is the temperate de- 
 scription the writer gives of the Catholic faith. With respect
 
 DANIEL O>CONNELL. 291 
 
 to purity of religion I shall not quarrel with him. I only 
 differ with him in point of taste ; but I should be glad to know 
 what this creature calls rational liberty. I suppose such as 
 existed at Lacedaemon the dominion of Spartans over Helots 
 the despotism of masters over slaves, that is his rational 
 liberty. We will readily pass so much by. But attend to 
 this : 
 
 " I will," says this moderate and temperate gentleman, " lay 
 before the reader such specimens of the POPISH SUPERSTITION as 
 will convince him that the treasonable combinations cemented 
 by oaths, and the NOCTURNAL ROBBERY AND ASSASSINATION 
 which have prevailed for many years past in Ireland, and 
 still exist in many parts of it, are produced as a necessary 
 consequence by its intolerant and sanguinary principles" 
 
 Let our seceders let our gentle friends who are shocked 
 at our intemperance, and are alive to the mild and concili- 
 ating virtues of Mr. Peel read this passage, sanctioned I 
 may almost say, certainly countenanced by those who do 
 the work of governing Ireland. Would to God we had but one 
 genuine, unsophisticated friend, one real advocate in the 
 House of Commons 1 How such a man would pour down 
 indignation on the clerks of the Castle, who pay for this 
 base and vile defamation of our religion of the religion of 
 nine-tenths of the population of Ireland 1 
 
 But perhaps I accuse falsely ; perhaps the administration 
 of Ireland are guiltless of patronising these calumnies. Look 
 at the paper and determine ; it contains nearly five columns 
 of advertisements only one from a private person and even 
 that is a notice of an anti-Popery pamphlet, by a Mr. Cousins, 
 a curate of the Established Church. Dean Swift has some- 
 where observed that the poorest of all possible rats was a 
 curate (much laughing) ; and if this rat be so, if he have as 
 usual a large family, a great appetite, and little to eat, I 
 sincerely hope that he may get what he wants a fat living. 
 Indeed, for the sake of consistency, and to keep up the suc- 
 cession of bad pamphlets, he ought to get a living. 
 
 Well, what think you are the rest of the advertisements?
 
 292 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
 First, there are three from the worthy Commissioners of Wide 
 Streets ; one dated 6th August 1813, announcing that they 
 would, the ensuing Wednesday, receive certain proposals. 
 Secondly, the Barony of Middlethird is proclaimed, as of the 
 6th of September last, for fear the inhabitants of that barony 
 should not as yet know they were proclaimed. Thirdly, the 
 proclamation against the Catholic Board, dated only the 3rd 
 day of June last, is printed lest any person should forget 
 the history of last year. Fourthly, there is proclamation 
 stating that gunpowder was not to be carried coastwise for 
 six months, and this is dated the 5th of October last. But 
 why should I detain you with the details of State procla- 
 mations, printed for no other purpose than as an excuse for 
 putting so much of the public money into the pocket of a 
 calumniator of the Catholics. The abstract of the rest is 
 that there is one other proclamation, stating that Liverpool 
 is a port fit for importation from the East Indies ; another 
 forbidding British subjects from serving in the American 
 forces during the present, that is, the past war ; and another 
 stating that although we had made peace with France, we 
 are still at war with America, and that, therefore, no marine 
 is to desert ; and to finish the climax, there is a column and 
 a half of extracts from several statutes ; all this printed at the 
 expense of Government that is, at the expense of the people. 
 
 Look now at the species of services for which so enormous 
 a sum of our money is thus wantonly lavished 1 It consists 
 simply of calumnies against the Catholic religion calumnies so 
 virulently atrocious as, in despite of the intention of the authors, 
 to render themselves ridiculous. This hireling accuses our 
 religion of being an enemy to liberty, of being an encourager of 
 treason, of instigating to robbery, and producing a system of 
 assassination. Here are libels for which no prosecution is 
 instituted. Here are libels which are considered worthy of 
 encouragement, and which are rewarded by the Irish treasury. 
 And is it for this is it to supply this waste, this abuse of public 
 money is it to pay for those false and foul calumnies, that we 
 are, in a season of universal peace, to be borne down with a war
 
 DANIEL CTCONNELL. 293 
 
 taxation ? Are we to have two or three additional millions of 
 taxes imposed upon us in peace, in order that this intestine war 
 of atrocious calumny may be carried on against the religion of 
 the people of Ireland with all the vigour of full pay and great 
 plunder. Let us, agitators, be now taunted by jobbers in 
 Parliament with our violence, our intemperance. Why, if we 
 were not rendered patient by the aid of a dignified contempt, 
 is there not matter enough to disgust and to irritate almost 
 beyond endurance ? 
 
 Thus are we treated by our friends, and our enemies, and our 
 seceders ; the first abandon, the second oppress, the third 
 betray us, and they all join in calumniating us ; in the last they 
 are all combined. See how naturally they associate ; this 
 libeller in the Dublin Journal^ who calls the Catholic religion 
 a system of assassination, actually praises in the same paper 
 some individual Catholics; he praises, by name, Quarantotti, 
 and my Lord Fingal (much laughing), and the respectable 
 party (those are his words) who join with that noble lord. 
 
 Of Lord Fingal I shall always speak with respect, because I 
 entertain the opinion that his motives are pure and honourable ; 
 but can anything, or at least ought anything, place his secession 
 in so strong a point of view to the noble lord himself as to find 
 that he and his party are praised by the very man who, in the 
 next breath, treats his religion as a system of assassination. 
 Let that party have all the enjoyment which such praises can 
 confer ; but if a spark of love for their religion or their country 
 remains with them, let them recollect that they could have 
 earned those praises only by having, in the opinion of this 
 writer, betrayed the one and degraded the other. 
 
 This writer, too, attempts to traduce Lord Donoughmore. 
 He attacks his lordship in bad English, and worse Latin, for 
 having, as he says, cried peccavi to Popish thraldom. But the 
 ignorant trader in virulence knew not how to spell that single 
 Latin word, because they do not teach Latin at the charter 
 schools. 
 
 I close with conjuring the Catholics to persevere in their 
 present course.
 
 294 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
 Let us never tolerate the slightest inroad on the discipline of 
 our ancient, our holy Church. Let us never consent that she 
 should be made the hireling of the ministry. Our forefathers 
 would have died, nay, they perished in hopeless slavery rather 
 than consent to such degradation. 
 
 Let us rest upon the barrier where they expired, or go back 
 into slavery rather than forward into irreligion and disgrace ! 
 Let us also advocate our cause on the two great principles 
 first, that of an eternal separation in spirituals between our 
 Church and the State ; secondly, that of the eternal right to 
 freedom of conscience a right which, I repeat it with pride and 
 pleasure, would exterminate the Inquisition in Spain and bury 
 in oblivion the bloody orange flag of dissension in Ireland 1
 
 LORD MA CA ULA K 295 
 
 LORD MACAULAY. 
 
 Speech on Parliamentary Reform, House of Commons, 
 March 2, 1831. 
 
 [MACAULAY said of his speaking, " My delivery is, I believe, too 
 rapid. Very able shorthand writers have sometimes complained that 
 they could not follow me, and have contented themselves with setting 
 down the substance of what I said." This speech, however, was 
 corrected by himself, and we may take it as being substantially 
 identical with what he spoke. It was delivered on the occasion of 
 Lord John Russell's motion for leave to bring in the first Reform Bill, 
 and it is one of several speeches which Macaulay devoted to that 
 theme. "Portions of the speech," said Sir Robert Peel, "were as 
 beautiful as anything I have ever heard or read;" while Sir George 
 Trevelyan tells us that " the names of Fox, Burke, and Canning were 
 during the evening in everybody's mouth." Its tone is that of pro- 
 gressive Whiggism, revealing at the same time the ardent attachment 
 to England which Macaulay felt, his intense desire to sunder no link 
 connecting the England of the day with the England of the past, and 
 yet his full conviction that the gravest abuses had been allowed to 
 grow up and to prevent that free constitutional life which he regarded 
 as having always been inherent in the English political system. 
 Macaulay's speeches closely resembled his writing. In both there is 
 the same wealth of historical and literary illustration, the same weighty 
 and healthy common sense, and the same sonorous and sometimes 
 slightly turgid eloquence. The speech given is a remarkable specimen 
 of the fulness of knowledge and perfect self-possession of a young man 
 in his thirty -first year.] 
 
 IT is a circumstance, Sir, of happy augury for the motion before 
 the House, that almost all those who have opposed it have 
 declared themselves hostile on principle to Parliamentary 
 Reform. Two members, I think, have confessed that, though 
 they disapprove of the plan now submitted to us, they are
 
 296 LORD MACAULAY. 
 
 system. Yet even those gentlemen have used, as far as I have 
 observed, no arguments which would not apply as strongly to 
 the most moderate change as to that which has been proposed 
 by his Majesty's "Government. I say, Sir, that I consider this 
 as a circumstance of happy augury. For what I feared was, 
 not the opposition of those who are averse to all Reform, but 
 the disunion of reformers. I knew that, during three months, 
 every reformer had been employed in conjecturing what the 
 plan of the Government would be. I knew that every reformer 
 had imagined in his own mind a scheme differing doubtless in 
 some points from that which my noble friend, the Paymaster of 
 the Forces, has developed. .1 felt, therefore, great apprehension 
 that one person would be dissatisfied with one part of the bill, 
 that another person would be dissatisfied with another part, 
 and that thus our whole strength would be wasted in internal 
 dissensions. That apprehension is now at an end. I have 
 seen with delight the perfect concord which prevails among all 
 who deserve the name of reformers in this House ; and I trust 
 that I may consider it as an omen of the concord which will 
 prevail among reformers throughout the country. I will not, 
 Sir, at present express any opinion as to the details of the bill ; 
 but, having during the last twenty-four hours given the most 
 diligent consideration to its general principles, I have no 
 hesitation in pronouncing it a wise, noble, and comprehensive 
 measure, skilfully framed for the healing of great distempers, 
 for the securing at once of the public liberties, and of the public 
 repose, and for the reconciling and knitting together of all the 
 orders of the State. 
 
 The hon. Baronet who has just sat down* has told us 
 that the Ministers have attempted to unite two inconsistent 
 principles in one abortive measure. Those were his very words. 
 He thinks, if I understand him rightly, that we ought either to 
 leave the representative system such as it is, or to make it 
 perfectly symmetrical. I think, Sir, that the Ministers would 
 have acted unwisely if they had taken either course. Their 
 
 * Sir John Walsh.
 
 LORD MAC A UL AY. 297 
 
 principle is plain, rational, and consistent. It is this, to admit 
 the middle class to a large and direct share in the representa- 
 tion, without any violent shock to the institutions of our country. 
 I understand those cheers ; but surely the gentlemen who utter 
 them will allow that the change which will be made in our 
 institutions by this bill is far less violent than that which, 
 according to the hon. Baronet, ought to be made if we 
 make any Reform at all. I praise the Ministers for not 
 attempting, at the present time, to make the representation 
 uniform. I praise them for not effacing the old distinction 
 between the towns and the counties, and for not assigning 
 Members to districts, according to the American practice, by 
 the Rule of Three. The Government has, in my opinion, done 
 all that was necessary for the removing of a great practical evil, 
 and no more than was necessary. 
 
 I consider this, Sir, as a practical question. I rest my 
 opinion on no general theory of government. I distrust all 
 general theories of government. I will not postively say that 
 there is any form of polity which may not, in some conceivable 
 circumstances, be the best possible. I believe that there are 
 societies in which every man may safely be admitted to vote. 
 Gentlemen may cheer, but such is my opinion. I say, Sir, that 
 there are countries in which the condition of the 'labouring 
 classes is such that they may safely be intrusted with the right 
 of electing members of the Legislature. If the labourers of 
 England were in that state in which I, from my soul, wish to 
 see them, if employment were always plentiful, wages always 
 high, food always cheap, if a large family were considered not 
 as an encumbrance but as a blessing, the principal objections 
 to Universal Suffrage would, I think, be removed. Universal 
 Suffrage exists in the United States without producing any very 
 frightful consequences ; and I do not believe that the people 
 of those States, or of any part of the world, are in any good 
 quality naturally superior to our own countrymen. But, 
 unhappily, the labouring classes in England, and in all old 
 countries, are occasionally in a state of great distress. Some 
 of the causes of this distress are, I fear, beyond the control of
 
 298 LORD MAC A UL AY. 
 
 the Government. We know what effect distress produces, 
 even on people more intelligent than the great body of the 
 labouring classes can possibly be. We know that it makes even 
 wise men irritable, unreasonable, credulous, eager for immediate 
 relief, heedless of remote consequences. There is no quackery 
 in medicine, religion, or politics which may not impose even on 
 a powerful mind, when that mind has been disordered by pain 
 or fear. It is, therefore, no reflection on the poorer class of 
 Englishmen, who are not, and who cannot in the nature of 
 things be, highly educated, to say that distress produces on 
 them its natural effects, those effects which it would produce on 
 the Americans, or on any other people, that it blinds their 
 judgment, that it inflames their passions, that it makes them 
 prone to believe those who flatter them, and to distrust those 
 who would serve them. For the sake, therefore, of the whole 
 society, for the sake of the labouring classes themselves, I hold 
 it to be clearly expedient that, in a country like this, the right 
 of suffrage should depend on a pecuniary qualification. 
 
 But, Sir, every argument which would induce me to oppose 
 Universal Suffrage induces me to support the plan which is 
 now before us. I am opposed to Universal Suffrage because I 
 think that it would produce a destructive revolution. I support 
 this plan because I am sure that it is our best security against 
 a revolution. The noble Paymaster of the Forces hinted, 
 delicately indeed and remotely, at this subject. He spoke of 
 the danger of disappointing the expectations of the nation; 
 and for this he was charged with threatening the House. 
 Sir, in the year 1817, the late Lord Londonderry proposed a 
 suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. On that occasion he 
 told the House that, unless the measures which he recom- 
 mended were adopted, the public peace could not be preserved. 
 Was he accused of threatening the House ? Again, in the 
 year 1819, he proposed the laws known by the name of the 
 Six Acts. He then told the House that, unless the executive 
 power were reinforced, all the institutions of the country 
 would be overturned by popular violence. Was he then 
 accused of threatening the House ? Will any gentleman say
 
 LORD MACAULAY. 299 
 
 that it is parliamentary and decorous to urge the danger 
 arising from popular discontent as an argument for severity; 
 but that it is unparliamentary and indecorous to urge that 
 same danger as an argument for conciliation ? I, Sir, do 
 entertain great apprehension for the fate of my country. I 
 do in my conscience believe that, unless the plan proposed, 
 or some similar plan, be speedily adopted, great and terrible 
 calamities will befall us. Entertaining this opinion, I think 
 myself bound to state it, not as a threat, but as a reason. I 
 support this bill because it will improve our institutions; but 
 I support it also because it tends to preserve them. That 
 we may exclude those whom it is necessary to exclude, we 
 must admit those whom it may be safe to admit. At present 
 we oppose the schemes of revolutionists with only one half, 
 with only one quarter of our proper force. We say, and we 
 say justly, that it is not by mere numbers, but by property 
 and intelligence, that the nation ought to be governed. Yet, 
 saying this, we exclude from all share in the government 
 great masses of property and intelligence, great numbers of 
 those who are most interested in preserving tranquillity, and 
 who know best how to preserve it. We do more. We drive 
 over to the side of revolution those whom we shut out from 
 power. Is this a time when the cause of law and order can 
 spare one of its natural allies ? 
 
 My noble friend, the Paymaster of the Forces, happily 
 described the effect which some parts of our representative 
 system would produce on the mind of a foreigner, who had 
 heard much of our freedom and greatness. If, Sir, I wished 
 to make such a foreigner clearly understand what I consider as 
 the great defects of our system, I would conduct him through 
 that immense city which lies to the north of Great Russell Street 
 and Oxford Street, a city superior in size and in population to 
 the capitals of many mighty kingdoms ; and probably superior 
 in opulence, intelligence, and general respectability to any 
 city in the world. I would conduct him through that inter- 
 minable succession of streets and squares, all consisting of 
 well-built and well-furnished houses. I would make him
 
 3 oo LORD MA CAUL AY, 
 
 observe the brilliancy of the shops, and the crowd of well- 
 appointed equipages. I would show him that magnificent 
 circle of palaces which surrounds the Regent's Park. I would 
 tell him that the rental of this district was far greater than that 
 of the whole kingdom of Scotland at the time of the Union. 
 And then I would tell him that this was an unrepresented 
 district. It is needless to give any more instances. It is 
 needless to speak of Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, 
 with no representation, or of Edinburgh and Glasgow with a 
 mock 'representation. If a property tax were now imposed 
 on the principle that no person who had less than a hundred 
 and fifty pounds a year should contribute, I should not be 
 surprised to find that one-half in number and value of the 
 contributors had no votes at all ; and it would, beyond all 
 doubt, be found that one-fiftieth part in number and value of 
 the contributors had a larger share of the representation than 
 the other forty-nine fiftieths. This is not government by 
 property. It is government by certain detached portions and 
 fragments of property, selected from the rest, and preferred to 
 the rest, on no rational principle whatever. 
 
 To say that such a system is ancient is no defence. My 
 hon. friend, the member for the University of Oxford,* 
 challenges us to.show that the Constitution was ever better 
 than it is. Sir, we are legislators, not antiquaries. The 
 question for us is, not whether the Constitution was better 
 formerly, but whether we can make it better now. In fact, 
 however, the system was not in ancient times by any means 
 so absurd as it is in our age. One noble Lordt has to-night 
 told us that the town of Aldborough, which he represents, 
 was not larger in the time of Edward the First than it is at 
 present The line of its walls, he assures us, may still be 
 traced. It is now built up to that line. He argues, therefore, 
 that as the founders of our representative institutions gave 
 members to Aldborough when it was as small as it now is, 
 those who would disfranchise it on account of its smallness 
 
 * Sir Robert Harry Inglis. t Lord Stormont.
 
 L ORD MA CA ULA K 301 
 
 have no right to say that they are recurring to the original 
 principle of our representative institutions. But does the 
 noble Lord remember the change which has taken place in 
 the country during the last five centuries ? Does he remember 
 how much England has grown in population, while Aldborough 
 has been standing still ? Does he consider, that in the time of 
 Edward the First, the kingdom did not contain two millions of 
 inhabitants ? It now contains nearly fourteen millions. A hamlet 
 of the present day would have been a town of some import- 
 ance in the time of our early Parliaments. Aldborough may be 
 absolutely as considerable a place as ever. But compared with 
 the kingdom, it is much less considerable, by the noble Lord's 
 own showing, than when it first elected burgesses. My hon. 
 friend, the member for the University of Oxford, has col- 
 lected numerous instances of the tyranny which the kings 
 and nobles anciently exercised, both over this House and over 
 the electors. It is not strange that, in times when nothing was 
 held sacred, the rights of the people, and of the representatives 
 of the people, should not have been held sacred. The pro- 
 ceedings which my hon. friend has mentioned no more prove 
 that by the ancient constitution of the realm this House ought 
 to be a tool of the king and of the aristocracy, than the 
 Benevolences and the Shipmoney prove their own legality, or 
 than those unjustifiable arrests which took place long after the 
 ratification of the great Charter and even after the Petition of 
 Right, prove that the subject was not anciently entitled to his 
 personal liberty. We talk of the wisdom of our ancestors ; and 
 in one respect at least they were wiser than we. They legislated 
 for their own times. They looked at the England which was 
 before them. They did not think it necessary to give twice as 
 many members to York as they gave to London, because York 
 had been the capital of Britain in the time of Constantius 
 Chlorus ; and they would have been amazed indeed if they 
 had foreseen that a city of more than a hundred thousand 
 inhabitants would be left without representatives in the 
 nineteenth century, merely because it stood on ground which 
 in the thirteenth century had been occupied by a few huts.
 
 302 L ORD MA CA ULA Y. 
 
 They framed a representative system, which, though not 
 without defects and irregularities, was well adapted to the 
 state of England in their time. But a great revolution took 
 place. The character of the old corporations changed. New 
 forms of property came into existence. New portions of society 
 rose into importance. There were in our rural districts rich 
 cultivators, who were not freeholders. There were in our 
 capital rich traders, who were not livery-men. Towns shrank 
 into villages. Villages swelled into cities larger than the 
 London of the Plantagenets. Unhappily while the natural 
 growth of society went on, the artificial polity continued 
 unchanged. The ancient form of the representation remained ; 
 and precisely because the form remained, the spirit departed. 
 Then came that pressure almost to bursting, the new wine in 
 the old bottles, the new society under the old institutions. It 
 is now time for us to pay a decent, a rational, a manly reverence 
 to our ancestors, not by superstitiously adhering to what they, 
 in other circumstances did, but by doing what they, in our 
 circumstances, would have done. All history is full of revolu- 
 tions, produced by causes similar to those which are now 
 operating in England. A portion of the community which had 
 been of no account expands and becomes strong. It demands 
 a place in the system, suited, not to its former weakness, but to 
 its present power. If this be granted, all is well. If this is 
 refused, then comes the struggle between the young energy of 
 one class and the ancient privileges of another. Such was the 
 struggle between the Plebeians and the Patricians of Rome. 
 Such was the struggle of the Italian allies for admission to the 
 full rights of Roman citizens. Such was the struggle of our 
 North American colonies against the mother country. Such 
 was the struggle which the Third Estate of France maintained 
 against the aristocracy of birth. Such was the struggle which 
 the Roman Catholics of Ireland maintained against the 
 aristocracy of creed. Such is the struggle which the free 
 people of colour in Jamaica are now maintaining against the 
 aristocracy of skin. Such, finally, is the struggle which the 
 middle classes in England are maintaining against an aristocracy
 
 LORD MA CA ULA Y. 303 
 
 of mere locality, against an aristocracy the principle of which 
 is to invest a hundred drunken potwallopers in one place, or 
 the owner of a ruined hovel in another, with powers which are 
 withheld from cities renowned to the farthest ends of the earth 
 for the marvels of their wealth and of their industry. 
 
 But these great cities, says my honourable friend the member 
 for the University of Oxford, are virtually, though not directly, 
 represented. Are not the wishes of Manchester, he asks, as 
 much consulted as those of any town which sends members to 
 Parliament ? Now, Sir, I do not understand how a power 
 which is salutary when exercised virtually can be noxious when 
 exercised directly. If the wishes of Manchester have as much 
 weight with us as they would have under a system which should 
 give representatives to Manchester, how can there be any 
 danger in giving representatives to Manchester? A virtual 
 representative is, I presume, a man who acts as a direct 
 representative would act ; for surely it would be absurd to say 
 that a man virtually represents the people of Manchester who 
 is in the habit of saying No, when a man directly representing 
 the people of Manchester would say Ay. The utmost that can 
 be expected from virtual representation is that it may be as 
 good as direct representation. If so, why not grant direct 
 representation to places which, as everybody allows, ought, by 
 some process or other, to be represented ? 
 
 If it be said that there is an evil in change as change, I 
 answer that there is also an evil in discontent as discontent. 
 This, indeed, is the strongest part of our case. It is said that 
 the system works well. I deny it. I deny that a system works 
 well which the people regard with aversion. We may say here 
 that it is a good system and a perfect system. But if any man 
 were to say so to any six hundred and fifty-eight respectable 
 farmers or shopkeepers, chosen by lot in any part of England, 
 he would be hooted down, and laughed to scorn. Are these the 
 feelings with which any part of the government ought to be 
 regarded ? Above all, are these the feelings with which the 
 popular branch of the legislature ought to be regarded ? It is 
 almost as essential to the utility of a House of Commons that
 
 304 L ORD MA CA ULA K 
 
 it should possess the confidence of the people, as that it should 
 deserve that confidence. Unfortunately, that which is in theory 
 the popular part of our government, is in practice the unpopular 
 part. Who wishes to dethrone the King ? Who wishes to 
 turn the Lords out of their House ? Here and there a crazy 
 radical, whom the boys in the street point at as he walks along. 
 Who wishes to alter the constitution of this House? The 
 whole people. It is natural that it should be so. The House 
 of Commons is, in the language of Mr. Burke, a check, not on 
 the people, but for the people. While that check is efficient, 
 there is no reason to fear that the King or the nobles will 
 oppress the people. But if that check requires checking, how is 
 it to be checked ? If the salt shall lose its savour, wherewith 
 shall we season it ? The distrust with which the nation regards 
 this House may be unjust. But what then ? Can you remove 
 that distrust ? That it exists cannot be denied. That it is an 
 evil cannot be denied. That it is an increasing evil cannot 
 be denied. One gentleman tells us that it has been produced 
 by the late events in France and Belgium ; another, that 
 it is the effect of seditious works which have lately been 
 published. If this feeling be of origin so recent, I have read 
 history to little purpose. Sir, this alarming discontent is not 
 the growth of a day or of a year. If there be any symptoms by 
 which it is possible to distinguish the chronic diseases of the 
 body politic from its passing inflammations, all those symptoms 
 exist in the present case. The taint has been gradually 
 becoming more extensive and more malignant, through the 
 whole lifetime of two generations. We have tried anodynes. 
 We have tried cruel operations. What are we to try now ? 
 Who flatters himself that he can turn this feeling back ? Does 
 there remain any argument which escaped the comprehensive 
 intellect of Mr. Burke, or the subtlety of Mr. Windham ? Does 
 there remain any species of coercion which was not tried by 
 Mr. Pitt and by Lord Londonderry ? We have had laws. We 
 have had blood. New treasons have been created. The 
 Press has been shackled. The Habeas Corpus Act has been 
 suspended. Public meetings have been prohibited. The event
 
 LORD MACAU LAY. 305 
 
 has proved that these expedients were mere palliatives. You 
 are at the end of your palliatives. The evil remains. It is 
 more formidable than ever. What is to be done ? 
 
 Under such circumstances, a great plan of reconciliation, 
 prepared by the ministers of the Crown, has been brought 
 before us in a manner which gives additional lustre to a noble 
 name, inseparably associated during two centuries with the 
 dearest liberties of the English people. I will not say that this 
 plan is in all its details precisely such as I might wish it to be ; 
 but it is founded on a great and a sound principle. It takes away 
 a vast power from a few. It distributes that power through the 
 great mass of the middle order. Every man, therefore, who 
 thinks as I think is bound to stand firmly by ministers who are 
 resolved to stand or fall with this measure. Were I one of them, 
 I would sooner, infinitely sooner, fall with such a measure than 
 stand by any other means that ever supported a Cabinet. 
 
 My hon. friend, the member for the University of Oxford, 
 tells us that if we pass this law England will soon be a 
 republic. The reformed House of Commons will, according 
 to him, before it has sat ten years, depose the King and 
 expel the Lords from their House. Sir, if my hon. friend 
 could prove this, he would have succeeded in bringing an 
 argument for democracy infinitely stronger than any that is 
 to be found in the works of Paine. My hon. friend's pro- 
 position is in fact this : that our monarchical and aristo- 
 cratical institutions have no hold on the public mind of 
 England ; that these institutions are regarded with aversion 
 by a majority of the middle class. This, Sir, I say, is plainly 
 deducible from his proposition ; for he tells us that the repre- 
 sentatives of the middle class will inevitably abolish royalty 
 and nobility within ten years : and there is surely no reason 
 to think that the representatives of the middle class will be 
 more inclined to a democratic revolution than their con- 
 stituents. Now, Sir, if I were convinced that the great body of 
 the middle class in England look with aversion on monarchy 
 and aristocracy, I should be forced, much against my will, to 
 come to this conclusion, that monarchical and aristocratical 
 
 632
 
 306 LORD MAC A ULA Y, 
 
 institutions are unsuited to my country. Monarchy and 
 aristocracy, valuable and useful as I think them, are still 
 valuable and useful as means, and not as ends. The end of 
 government is the happiness of the people ; and I do not 
 conceive that, in a country like this, the happiness of the people 
 can be promoted by a form of government in which the middle 
 classes place no confidence, and which exists only because the 
 middle classes have no organ by which to make their senti- 
 ments known. But, Sir, I am fully convinced that the middle 
 classes sincerely wish to uphold the Royal prerogatives and the 
 constitutional rights of the Peers. What facts does my hon. 
 friend produce in support of his opinion ? One fact only ; 
 and that a fact which has absolutely nothing to do with the 
 question. The effect of this Reform, he tells us, would be to 
 make the House of Commons all-powerful. It was all-powerful 
 once before, in the beginning of 1649. Then it cut off the head 
 of the King, and abolished the House of Peers. Therefore, if 
 it again has the supreme power, it will act in the same manner. 
 Now, Sir, it was not the House of Commons that cut off the 
 head of Charles the First ; nor was the House of Commons 
 then all-powerful. It had been greatly reduced in numbers by 
 successive expulsions. It was under the absolute dominion of 
 the army. A majority of the House was willing to take the 
 terms offered by the King. The soldiers turned out the 
 majority ; and the minority, not a sixth part of the whole 
 House, passed those votes of which my hon. friend speaks, 
 votes of which the middle classes disapproved then, and of 
 which they disapprove still. 
 
 My hon. friend, and almost all the gentlemen who have 
 taken the same side with him in this debate, have dwelt much 
 on the utility of close and rotten boroughs. It is by means 
 of such boroughs, they tell us, that the ablest men have 
 been introduced into Parliament. It is true that many dis- 
 tinguished persons have represented places of this description. 
 But, Sir, we must judge of a form of government by its general 
 tendency, not by happy accidents. Every form of government 
 has its happy accidents. Despotism has its happy accidents,
 
 L ORD MA CA ULA K 307 
 
 Yet we are not disposed to abolish all constitutional checks, to 
 place an absolute master over us, and to take our chance 
 whether he may be a Caligula or a Marcus Aurelius. In what- 
 ever way the House of Commons may be chosen, some able 
 men will be chosen in that way who would not be chosen in 
 any other way. If there were a law that the hundred tallest 
 men in England should be Members of Parliament, there would 
 probably be some able men among those who would come into 
 the House by virtue of this law. If the hundred persons whose 
 names stand first in the alphabetical list of the Court Guide 
 were made Members of Parliament, there would probably be 
 able men among them. We read in ancient history that a very 
 able king was elected by the neighing of his horse ; but we 
 shall scarcely, I think, adopt this mode of election. In one of 
 the most celebrated republics of antiquity, Athens, Senators 
 and Magistrates were chosen by lot ; and sometimes the lot 
 fell fortunately. Once, for example, Socrates was in office. A 
 cruel and unjust proposition was made by a demagogue. 
 Socrates resisted it at the hazard of his own life. There is 
 no event in Grecian history more interesting than that memor- 
 able resistance. Yet who would have officers appointed by lot 
 because the accident of the lot may have given to a great and 
 good man a power which he would probably never have 
 attained in any other way ? We must judge, as I said, by the 
 general tendency of a system. No person can doubt that a 
 House of Commons chosen freely by the middle classes will 
 contain many very able men. I do not say that precisely the 
 same able men who would find their way into the present 
 House of Commons will find their way into the reformed 
 House ; but that is not the question. No particular man is 
 necessary to the State. We may depend on it that, if we 
 provide the country with popular institutions, those institutions 
 will provide it with great men. 
 
 There is another objection, which, I think, was first raised 
 by the hon. and learned member for Newport* He tells 
 
 * Mr. Horace Twiss.
 
 308 L ORD MA CA ULA Y. 
 
 us that the elective franchise is property ; that to take it 
 away from a man who has not been judicially convicted of 
 malpractices is robbery ; that no crime is proved against the 
 voters in the close boroughs ; that no crime is even imputed 
 to them in the preamble of the bill ; and that therefore to 
 disfranchise them without compensation would be an act of 
 revolutionary tyranny. The hon. and learned gentleman has 
 compared the conduct of the present Ministers to that of 
 those odious tools of power who, towards the close of the 
 reign of Charles the Second, seized the charters of the Whig 
 Corporations. Now, there was another precedent, which I 
 wonder that he did not recollect, both because it is much more 
 nearly in point than that to which he referred, and because my 
 noble friend, the Paymaster of the Forces, had previously 
 alluded to it. If the elective franchise is property, if to dis- 
 franchise voters without a crime proved, or a compensation 
 given, be robbery, was there ever such an act of robbery as 
 the disfranchising of the Irish forty-shilling freeholders? 
 Was any pecuniary compensation given to them ? Is it 
 declared in the preamble of the bill which took away their 
 franchise that they had been convicted of any offence ? Was 
 any judicial inquiry instituted into their conduct ? Were they 
 even accused of any crime ? Or if you say that it was a 
 crime in the electors of Clare to vote for the hon. and 
 learned gentleman who now represents the county of Water- 
 ford, was a Protestant freeholder in Louth to be punished for 
 the crime of a Catholic freeholder in Clare ? If the principle 
 of the hon. and learned member for Newport be sound, the 
 franchise of the Irish peasant was property. That franchise 
 the Ministers under whom the hon. and learned member 
 held office did not scruple to take away. Will he accuse 
 those Ministers of robbery? If not, how can he bring such 
 an accusation against their successors ? 
 
 Every gentleman, I think, who has spoken from the other 
 side of the House has alluded to the opinions which some of his 
 Majesty's Ministers formerly entertained on the subject of 
 Reform. It would be officious in me, Sir, to undertake the
 
 LORD MA CA ULA Y. 309 
 
 defence of gentlemen who are so well able to defend themselves. 
 I will only say that, in my opinion, the country will not think 
 worse either of their capacity or of their patriotism because they 
 have shown that they can profit by experience, because they 
 have learned to see the folly of delaying inevitable changes. 
 There are others who ought to have learned the same lesson. I 
 say, Sir, that there are those who, I should have thought, must 
 have had enough to last them all their lives of that humiliation 
 which follows obstinate and boastful resistance to changes 
 rendered necessary by the progress of society, and by the 
 development of the human mind. Is it possible that those 
 persons can wish again to occupy a position which can neither 
 be defended nor surrendered with honour ? I well remember, 
 Sir, a certain evening in the month of May 1827. I had not 
 then the honour of a seat in this House, but I was an attentive 
 observer of its proceedings. The right hon. Baronet opposite,* 
 of whom personally I desire to speak with that high respect 
 which I feel for his talents and his character, but of whose 
 public conduct I must speak with the sincerity required by my 
 public duty, was then, as he is now, out of office. He had just 
 resigned the seals of the Home Department, because he con- 
 ceived that the recent ministerial arrangements had been too 
 favourable to the Catholic claims. He rose to ask whether 
 it was the intention of the new Cabinet to repeal the Test 
 and Corporation Acts, and to reform the Parliament. He 
 bound up, I well remember, those two questions together ; 
 and he declared that if the Ministers should either attempt 
 to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts, or bring for- 
 ward a measure of Parliamentary Reform, he should think 
 it his duty to oppose them to the utmost. Since that 
 declaration was made four years have elapsed; and what 
 is now the state of the three questions which then chiefly 
 agitated the minds of men ? What is become of the Test 
 and Corporation Acts? They are repealed. By whom? 
 By the right hon. Baronet. What has become of the 
 
 * Sir Robert Peel.
 
 310 LORD MACA ULA Y. 
 
 Catholic disabilities ? They are removed. By whom ? By the 
 right hon. Baronet. The question of Parliamentary Reform 
 is still behind. But signs, of which it is impossible to miscon- 
 ceive the import, do most clearly indicate that unless that 
 question also be speedily settled, property and order, and all 
 the institutions of this great monarchy, will be exposed to 
 fearful peril. Is it possible that gentlemen long versed in high 
 political affairs cannot read these signs ? Is it possible that 
 they can really believe that the Representative system of 
 England, such as it now is, will last to the year 1860? If not, 
 for what would they have us wait ? Would they have us wait 
 merely that we may show to all the world how little we have 
 prolited by our own recent experience ? Would they have us 
 wait that we may once again hit the exact point where we can 
 neither refuse with authority nor concede with grace? Would 
 they have us wait that the numbers of the discontented party 
 may become larger, its demands higher, its feelings more 
 acrimonious, its organisation more complete? Would they 
 have us wait till the whole tragi-comedy of 1827 has been acted 
 over again ? till they have been brought into office by a cry of 
 "No Reform," to be reformers, as they were once before brought 
 into office by a cry of "No Popery," to be emancipators? 
 Have they obliterated from their minds gladly, perhaps, 
 would some among them obliterate from their minds the 
 transactions of that year? And have they forgotten all the 
 transactions of the succeeding year ? Have they forgotten how 
 the spirit of liberty in Ireland, debarred from its natural outlet, 
 found a vent by forbidden passages ? Have they forgotten 
 how we were forced to indulge the Catholics in all the licence 
 of rebels, merely because we chose to withhold from them the 
 liberties of subjects ? Do they wait for associations more 
 formidable than that of the Corn Exchange, for contributions 
 larger than the Rent, for agitators more violent than those 
 who, three years ago, divided with the King and the Parlia- 
 ment the sovereignty of Ireland? Do they wait for that last 
 and most dreadful paroxysm of popular rage, for that last and 
 most cruel test of military fidelity? Let them wait, if their past
 
 LORD MACAULAY. 311 
 
 experience shall induce them to think that any high honour or 
 any exquisite pleasure is to be obtained by a policy like this. 
 Let them wait, if this strange and fearful infatuation be indeed 
 upon them, that they should not see with their eyes, or hear 
 with their ears, or understand with their heart. But let us know 
 our interest and our duty better. Turn where we may, within, 
 around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, 
 that you may preserve. Now, therefore, while everything at 
 home and abroad forebodes ruin to those who persist in a hope- 
 less struggle against the spirit of the age ; now, while the crash 
 of the proudest throne of the Continent is still resounding in our 
 ears ; now, while the roof of a British palace affords an igno- 
 minious shelter to the exiled heir of forty kings ; now, while 
 we see on every side ancient institutions subverted and great 
 societies dissolved ; now, while the heart of England is still 
 sound ; now, while old feelings and old associations retain a 
 power and a charm which may too soon pass away; now, in this 
 your accepted time ; now, in this your day of salvation, take 
 counsel, not of prejudice, not of party spirit, not of the igno- 
 minious pride of a fatal consistency, but of history, of reason, 
 of the ages which are past, of the signs of this most portentous 
 time. Pronounce in a manner worthy of the expectation with 
 which this great debate has been anticipated, and of the long 
 remembrance which it will leave behind. Renew the youth of 
 the State. Save property, divided against itself. Save the 
 multitude, endangered by its own ungovernable passions. Save 
 the aristocracy, endangered by its own unpopular power. Save 
 the greatest, and fairest, and most highly civilised community 
 that ever existed from calamities which may in a few days 
 sweep away all the rich heritage of so many ages of wisdom 
 and glory. The danger is terrible. The time is short. If this 
 bill should be rejected, I pray to God that none of those who 
 concur in rejecting it may ever remember their votes with 
 unavailing remorse amidst the wreck of laws, the confusion of 
 ranks, the spoliation of property,"and the dissolution of social 
 
 order. 
 
 Pi-intcd by WALTER SCOTT, Felling, Newcastle on-Tyne,
 
 EDITED BY WILLIAM SHARP. 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTICES BY VARIOUS CONTRIBUTORS. 
 
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 COUNT Jt^TOTSJVORKS, 
 
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 The following Volumes are already issued 
 
 A RUSSIAN PROPRIETOR. 
 
 THE COSSACKS. 
 
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 MY RELIGION. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
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 CHILDHOOD, BOYHOOD, YOUTH. 
 
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